From Benito: WWII Early War German 50mm Mortar Teams (13 Points)

Fourth Challenge entry. The Christmas break is being less productive than I initially anticipated (lots of unplanned personal commitments emerging at each moment), but nonetheless I’ve not been idle at all and have several projects in final stages of painting.

A small addition today, a couple of German 5cm mortar pairs. These are part of the core project this year (an Early War German platoon for Chain of Command); one of the pairs is integrated in the HQ section and the other is an optional support that you can add in different scenarios.

These mortars are similar to the ubiquitous British 2-inch mortar, but less versatile and less used by the Germans.

The models here presented are Warlord German Blitzkrieg box bodies and the mortars and ammunition box come from the Perry Afrika Korps plastic box. The latter are slightly smaller than the Warlord’s but you can hardly notice once assembled. I have also used an ATG rifle part of the Perry box, that I’ll show here in due time.

As I commented in my previous post, the Warlord box offers an almost infinite variation of poses and here is another example using the prone position bodies with three different alternatives.

With this entry I add 13 additional points to this year's Challenge.


Before concluding the post, someone asked in the previous post for the colour palette used with the Germans. This is as follows (all references are Vallejo):


- Trousers: base is 50/50 German Grey (995) + French Mirage Blue (900), with lights using 900 straight from the bottle.

- Tunic: German Uniform (920)

- Webbing/boots: Black (950)

- Gas Mask (container and pouch): Green (890)

- Water Bottle: Green (890), Cadmium Red (814) or Khaki (880)

I take this opportunity to wish you a very happy 2020, may the brushes (and the dice) be gentle to you all!!

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Another fabulous set of early-war Heer, Benito. I really like how the colours snap on these figures and I'll definitely be trying out your recipe when I next have to paint up a set of these. Question how do you shade/highlight the tunics and helmets?

Just so you know, I score prone figures at 50% their value due to half of them not having to be painted. It's all a part of the service to torment here at the Challenge. ;)

-Curt

From TeemuL: Trio of Theodens (20 points)

Our modest group of Middle-Aged Strategy Battle Games (https://middleagedstrategybattlegamers.home.blog/) had a painting challenge of our own, kind of a Tale of four Warlords, running from September to December. The goal was to paint a single warband in a month for Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game. That is a nice and a flexible target, since even a single hero counts as a warband. Or you could paint mounted hero with 18 followers (mounted and dismounted versions of each), big monsters or anything in between, what ever suits you. I chose Rohan as my army, since my starter box was still untouched for that part... December is the last month and the bonus goal is to paint what ever you want. I have been quite busy, so I took a modest target, but I really needed a king in my army, so I painted three.

There's the new plastic Theoden from the starter, mounted and dismounted. I chose the version with helmet on. And then my bonus goal was an old metal Theoden on foot, without the helmet or shield. Not very useful gamewise, since you can't field all three at the same time. There's still more Rohan to paint, basic warriors and riders as well as heroes, so I might present more of this next year.

These are painted almost all with just contrast paints, the base and metal parts being the exceptions. Nice and easy to paint, once I figured out the color schemes and process earlier this year.

I still haven't found the Challenge Island, nor I have painted the Entry fee, I've been too busy finishing other stuff and installing new floor to my hobbyroom and 2 bedrooms... And that project is still not done... Anyway, this should give me another 20 points.

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Great work Teemu. I like the idea your group had of focusing on an achievable target to get everyone working on the same project. Your Theodens look very good and vibrant. I especially like the yellow of the shields and the green of the horse's caparison. 

Good luck on your house renovations and come back to us soon!

-Curt

From ByronM - Imperial Storm Troopers (196 Points)

Continuing on with my Imperial faction for Star Wars: Legion, here are 4 units of Storm Troopers. 

The whole backstory for my Imperial force is they are hunting out the rebels on a desert planet, simply so that I could base them up to work with my desert based middle eastern building and Tattoine buildings that I make.

As such, I tried to go for a worn desert look similar to what you would see in the Mandelorian.  To achieve the look I painted them all with their white and black colour sections then clear coated in with a gloss clear.  I then slopped on a bunch of AK desert weathering grime (oil based), let it dry, and then used some hand-dandy GaiNotes panel liner sticks (thanks again for recommending those Greg!) and some odorless thinner to clean up all the paint that was not in the recesses. 

I find this wash method is super fast and comes out way cleaner looking than any acrylic wash you could ever do, simple because you can precisely remove excess wash with the panel liner sticks (think super dense / stiff q-tips).

All of these figures are all from the core box set (well two core boxes) and painted up as a very simple Red 1, Red 2, Blue 1, Blue 2 squads.  Each commander has a colour coded shoulder pad with the appropriate white stripe(s) and then each trooper has a set of dots under their base to identify which squad they go with.

While the images give them a slightly yellow tone, that mainly comes from the light and reflecting off the bases.  For some reason even with all of Curt's photo tricks he taught me, I can't get them both white balanced and black balances, which is I suspect since these images are essentially only white and black!

These 4 squads should net me a cool 196 points as the Star Wars Legion game is a much larger scale at close to 40mm tall for most figures!  I have several more squads to finish up my force for the Imperials, so watch for more in the near future.

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Wow, that is a mess of Stormtroopers, Byron. White can often be a little tricky to pull off well, but these look brilliant and your tips will come in very helpful for those thinking of collecting a force of these. 

While these fellows are certainly a hit, when the topic of Stormtroopers comes up we often think of something like this:

Well done Byron!

-Curt

From Paul O'G: Monolith at Cook's Crevase (55 points)

Deep in the forbidden forrest, shadowy figures dance and writhe, chant and drum. 

Shadows flicker over an edifice of horror erected to Dark Gods...

To close out the hobby year, my next stop on Challenge Island is Cook's Crevase where "Entries must have a Geology Theme".  I may even be the first to visit this place, and what says Geology more than a giant, creepy stone Monolith!

Rear view - more skulls and grisly trophies!

This adds to my growing Fantasy terrain collection - the model is the current GW Herdstone model, useful for any large blasphemy or even Pulp era Cthulhu cultists (and its been way too long since I painted anything for that genre).  A relatively expensive plastic kit, it was a real delight to paint and had a myriad of details that I spent waaaay too long on for a Painting Challenge - I'm just not a speed painter at heart, and if detail is there then it needs to be painted!

Side view

I went with a darker granite colour rather than a more typical grey rock - I think it gives it a more sinister appearance.  I also tried some OSL effects from the fire, keeping the bottom half of the monolith a bit darker to make that more effective and also help the lower runestones show up better.  So while the colours looks straight forward, I thought about them in far more detail than I usually would bother!

This entry is also my opening salvo for the "Skully McSkullface" side challenge which Barks initiated, and its a skull laden good 'un too:

Fireplace: 11 - yes Barks, I even painted the ones facing the inside
Herdstone: 24, I lost one along the way :-(
Model Base: 9
Total SkullCount: 44!

Evidence for Barks - painted skulls on the reverse side of the fire before the main stone is glued in.

Details of the fire OSL - fun, but time consuming!

Points wise this fills a full 6inch terrain 'cube' for 20 points.  I'll let Curt decide what bonus points the detailing/OSL are worth, plus another 30 points for the map location.

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This is truly a great geologic find, Paul. Geez, look, at least 44 geologist gave their lives in its discovery - poor dumb b@stards. Skully McSkullface indeed! 

Good gravy, I just looked up the price for one of these things! You have sold your soul to some dark power, O'Grady. You must be stopped. We call upon the only man who can thwart you... Barks. 

Game on.

55 points. I know, it's tough love, Paul, but it's character building and you'll thank me in the end... ;P

From SanderS: Landfall at Challenge Island - Awdry's Atoll (96 Points)

Hoi There!

Finally, I have made it to Challenge Island! As I want to try and visit all locales upon this island in as straight a route as possible, I needed to decide where to go ashore. One of the challenges that had me moaning the most upon reading them, was Awdry's Awfull Atoll where we needed to do something on a CD! I have dabbled with these as bases in the past, but can't say I liked it much as a medium.

 The CD's I used for these are old History Methods we used at school.

So I really was in a bad state as to what I should use for this particular entry. That said I also got a sprue of Gaslands vehicle upgrades with Arthur at the Crisis and a whole box of cars so... You wanted a vignette Awdry? You'll get one! Here's some 20mmDark Alliance figures with a Hot Wheels car for you to peruse. I had the most fun painting the pick-up, the rust specially is something I like, I am not good at it but just like doing it.

The whole atoll

 Rocks made by using plastercast moulds from a railroad scenery line (Noch?)

The vehicle is left separate in order to be used racing across the Badlands.

I would also like to show you my Challenge Island Entry Fee figures. As I was checking the lead pile to see what to paint during this Challenge, I stumbled along these two ACW miniatures from Foundry. Now idea whatsoever how I got hold of them but since I am not doing ACW in 28mm at this time, I thought someone else would enjoy them.

They seem a bit glossy but that's because I took the pictures before using the "Anti-shine" on them. I intentionally did not flock them thinking the receivers might want to do that themselves in order to tie them in with existing armies.

If my maths doesn't fail me the following should be the amount added to the total.

4x 20mm = 16
1x 20mm vehicle = 15
2 x 28mm = 10
1x 30 from Awdry's Atoll
1x 25 from the Entrance fee
equals 96 points!

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Haha, I like your idea of actually making an atoll for Awdry's Atoll, Sander. This being said, I'm not sure how the half-ton works in this story. Maybe it's been stranded by the incoming tide? Part of some abandoned cargo? Or, yes, a cleverly disguised high-speed powerboat (James Bond on a post-Brexit budget). No matter, it looks great and suitably weatherbeaten  - a suitable jalopy for Challenge Island. 

Your tabulations are correct and you're now ready to strike inland! Well done Sander.

-Curt

From JohnM: Further Adventures in 3D Printing (60 Points)

For the last 3-4 months, I have been immersed in the world of 3D Printing. I started with terrain to learn the skills needed to utilize this technology but over the last month I have been experimenting with printing vehicles on a FDM printer. It is quite a challenge and I will accept that a Resin techonology is probably the way to go here. However, I still believe that for wargaming, FDM vehicle prints are a good option. I recently had a game an EW CoC game and my opponent was playing the Belgians and decided he wanted to take some French tanks as supports. Well I have no French tanks as I do not have a French force (yet) so we had to use some substitutes. Not an ideal choice and this is actually a little more difficult as vehicles are hard to find for some of the more minor nations (no offence to the those nations of course).

But in the 3D Print world this is not the case, and with a bit of googling I found several different STL files for French tanks. The tricky bit is how to print these STL files, as it is not a case of just hitting print. Problems include what type of supports to use, how do you orient the vehicle on the build plate ( I have tried flat on the side vertical as well as on a tilt all with different degrees of success). My prints have improved but I am still not even close but I am hoping you will agree they are ok for wargaming. Enough blather, time to move on to photos.

BC

There are 3x his in the bin!

EW German AFV's, the PzIV ausf c was a particulary hard find, need some decals and then they will be sprayed with mat.

decorative vehicles

For the AHPCX 

Char B1 bis, sort of lost control of the dirt!

I am not a big fan of the black lining between the camo

Somua S35

Have to find some French decals

Hotchkiss H35 and 39

 

As you can see the striations on the models are quite a challenge and although these were all painted with an airbrush there was some runoff and spidering. Now if I could just figure out this secret island stuff!

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I did not realise you are also in the thrall of 3D printing, John. It's nice to have another in the fold. 

Even without the national markings these look very good. I like the camo and weathering you did on them. Did you get them off Thingiverse or were they private purchases? 

As to supports, you should check and see if Chitubox works with your machine. Byron turned me onto it and I found it to be a great slicer and support generator. 

60 points it is. Well done, John.

From PeterA: FAA British Paras (96 points)

After a short break for the festivities, I hope you are ready to resume your Safari around Challenge Island. Today we will be reaching the second stage on The Path of History - Millsy's Millpond - which is famed for its fascinating collection of antiquities thought lost in time. If you look carefully, you should be able to see a small collection of FAA British Paratroopers, although their Denison smock camouflage can make them a trifle difficult to spot.

These figures were apparently released into the wild sometime in the early 1990s as part of the SALUTE programme (long before it relocated to Excel in London). These are particularly rare as they are from the original native British stock; alas they have now been all but superseeded by their American cousins since FAA relocated across the pond. Nevertheless, we are confident that this group of 14 is actually part of a larger group that will push numbers up above 30 - perhaps, if we are particularly fortunate, more will be spotted before the end of the Safari in March.

Now, if you have all finished taking pictures, we will be moving on to our next port of call - Benito's Brook!

I hope everyone has had a good Christmas and is enjoying the festive season. For my next entry we have 14 FAA WWII British Paras in 20mm. These were bought at a SALUTE show sometime in the early 1990s (I have no idea which one, possibly pre-EXCEL, but who knows?). They were bought along with a first edition of the Rapid Fire WW2 wargames rules, but have then languished in a plastic bag at the bottom of the lead pile ever since, as other shiny things competed for my attention. But the siren call of WWII (my first wargaming period - thanks Airfix) pulled me back and I have slowly been getting together forces for Operation Market-Garden. I dug these out and got some Battlefield paras to supplement numbers; to be honest the latter are much crisper castings and I have focused on getting them done first. So finally, with the incentive of the Challenge and after only 25-ish years, I have got around to painting (some!) of them. 

So 56 points plus the 30 for the task plus 10 for the backstory should net me 96 points, and two stages in the Challenge Island Safari Tour completed.

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These look terrific, Peter. I have a soft spot for 20mm WWII as, like you, I was introduced to it during the late 80s / early 90s with Rapid Fire. (Does anyone still play those rules? I have an urge to dig them out and give them a go again). I think you've done a great job on the Denison camo and I like the early autumnal look of your bases, apropos for Market-Garden.

As to points, we typically give half points for prone figures, but I'll pop it back up for the mortar. 96 points it is!

-Curt 

From JamieM: Maelee and Vivienne Gale, space junk salvagers (60 points)

Oh how the old hands laughed on the docking bay of Space Port Theta Gamma 512.  These two girls were saying they were going to salvage space junk and turn a profit?  In a pink spaceship?  Who did they think they were?  Mind you, the laughter soon stopped once they saw what these two managed to bring in on seemingly every run......

Maelee had always had a knack for fixing up mechanical objects.  Fixing up other people's junk and selling it on was how she earned enough credits to get off the dead end world of Augustus XVII, joining the crew of a cargo hauler.  Meeting Vivienne on board changed both of their lives as Vivienne had also long dreamed of making her own way in the galaxy.

Jumping ship at one of the tedious stops on the ship route was made easier when they purchased a near derelict shuttle at a ridiculously low price from some locals in a bar.  Maelee's skills proved invaluable to getting the shuttle space-worthy again and who cares that some previous owner had thought pink was a good colour choice?  The two now make good credits from salvaging the space junk floating around Theta Gamma 512.

The space port had previously been strategically vital to navigating the lynchpin Newberry system and as such had been the site of 4 space battles in the previous 50 years.  'Course, the opening of the Newberry bypass shunt had significantly diminished the value of the place, so there were good credits to be made investigating all of the junk floating around the space from all of those battles now things had quietened down.

Vivienne uses her jetpack to investigate whilst they're out and hauls in likely looking finds.  The pair of them then use the well worn (but perfectly serviceable) tools they have to take the most valuable parts back to port.  They've even removed the seats to fit more treasure in.

Anyway, this submission is intended to pay for my trip on Sarah's Balloon and consists of two Bombshell Miniatures figures and an MDF shuttle recently released by Blotz in the UK, who are purveyors of some fine MDF scenery and vehicles.

Maelee the Mechanic is a KS exclusive from the very first Bombshell KS who I managed to pick up as part of a decent sized KS lot someone was selling on eBay for a very reasonable price a few years ago.  Vivienne was also part of the KS.  The idea for this submission came when I saw the MDF shuttle, which is designed by one of my regular gaming buddies who has genuine talent for this sort of stuff!  The tool rack was added as a whim late on to give them something to work with using a ttcombat set of shelves and some spare bits from GW figures.

Points wise I think it's 20 for the vehicle, 10 for the two 28mm figures and 30 for the use of the balloon for the first time?

I'm hoping the balloon will fly low enough over Burch's Bluff for me to dive out and land softly enough to not break too many of my brushes......

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Maelee and Vivienne are fabulous, Jamie, and I really enjoyed reading their back-story. I would totally play in an RPG with this as its setting!  

I really like the figures from Bombshell but have never tried painting any. I think I may need to get some after seeing your work here.  I particularly like the spunky blu-haired lass with the yellow space suit - such great brushwork here. The shuttle is also a brilliant piece of kit - it has a very Rocket Robin Hood sort of aesthetic about it, which takes me back to my childhood.

Great work and happy landings at Burch's Bluff!

-Curt