From JohnM: 20mm WWII Finnish Infantry (66 points)

From John:

Well this will make my last submission for this year's challenge. This finishes my platoon from Finland for the 3 month Winter War, 1939-40. I have added 17 new figures. I now have two Senior Leaders, the Vanrikki with his pistol and the Kersantti with his rifle as well as 4 Junior Leaders, the Alikersantti with their 4 sections; two comprised of LMG and rifle teams and two comprised of SMG and rifle teams. The final photo shows their organisation with previously painted supports. I really did not expect to get this platoon done so soon, so I am quite pleased.

I am quite relieved to put down the painting brush and get back to gaming and terrain construction. I have come up just shy of my 1500 point projection, but so it goes. It has been a very busy 3 months for me personally and it was hard to get in painting time. I would have like to have got more Napoleonics done.

Anyway thanks again to Curt, another great contest. I wonder if you will do it again! There have been really fantastic figures to be seen. I see Andrew is closing in on 4000 points which requires a special mention, and I have enjoyed everyone's entries. Some amazing painters out there. 

Great work John! I know you had a slow start this year but you came on like a lion and almost made your target.

These Finnish troops will give John 66 points. Well done. Now, go back to your terrain building and let's see some fun AARs from your blog!

From JohnM: 20mm Vickers Armstrong Light Tank & Finnish Support Weapon Teams (84 points)

From John:

Winter War Finns Support Weapons

One of the aspects of 'Chain of Command' that I really enjoy is selecting support options for the basic platoon, lot of fun and offers a lot of flexibility. I was lucky with the Warmodelling (Fantassin), in that they really have put together a rather complete force. I generally try to select something from each list. List One is usually pretty straight forward and includes things like giving a Molotov to each section, or providing entrenchments for one team.

From List Three I have put together a 25mm Hotchkiss AT Gun with 5 crew and a Junior leader, as well as five man Maxim MMG and Boyes AT rifle teams. The 25 mm gun is from SHQ. I think it is a little undersized, especially the gun barrel.

From List Four, we have a Vickers Armstrong Mk B. This model is also from SHQ miniatures. I enjoyed painting the Finnish flag on the turret. 

Finally from List Five, I have done a 8cm mortar. This is of course off table in Chain of Command with just the FO on the table.

I have already made some comments about  these miniatures, I understand that Eureka also has some Winter War Finns in 20 mm, this line is certainly not as complete as the Warmodelling range. The trees are from Gale Force Nine are 1/100 scale rather then 1/76 scale but they will do. GF9 certainly has lots of nice accessories for winter wargaming and I am sure I will buy some more.

I've always liked the SHQ range and these models don't disappoint, especially with the fine work you've put into them John. 

I have these tree sets from GF9 and like them as well. Remember John, there is no real 'scale' when it comes to trees...

These Fins will give John 84 points. Great work.

From SamuliS: 28mm WWII Finnish Infantry (88 points)

From Samuli:

These are the last additions to my Winter War Finnish infantry at least until the next wave of Kickstarter goodies(?) arrives. I'm pretty glad that they are all done now as I really started to get fed up with many of the sculpts. At least the tanks etc. are looking good in the photos so maybe there are some nice minis coming up too.

I had some issues with the snow material that I used previously as it started to sink quite a bit after a week or so leaving the bases looking a bit weird. This time I tried just using the snow flock on PVA glue with even worse results. Looks good immediately after applying, but now that they've dried completely most of the flock has turned grey. So now I have pretty much 43 bases to redo after I've found some recipe for snow that actually works.

Once again the sculpt quality varies way too much for my tastes. There were a few that I hadn't painted before like the NCO with the scarf that was actually quite nice. Then "Running Man" makes another appearance as does some LMG gunner who looks like his face was carved with a blunt axe.

I know some of these models come as a bit of a disappointment but the results you've achieved are excellent. Too bad about the deteriorating snow effect (it must be that Spring is just around the corner!) - I hope you find an effective replacement that doesn't cause too much of a headache.

These winter Finns will give Samuli 88 points. Well done!

From SamuliS: 28mm Winter War Finnish Ski Troops (25 points)

From Samuli:

Back to Winter War project again with 5 Finnish ski troops representing a Kaukopartio or Long Range Patrol squad. I originally wanted to paint these for the hero themed fortnight challenge, but only got the minis two days before the deadline thanks to Royal Mail/Fail taking their time with my package :)

The long range patrol teams that Finland employed are quite a personal subject for me as my grandfather served as a sergeant in one of the teams and later on I ended up serving my own military service as a platoon leader in reconnaissance too. The Kaukopartio troops have quite a legendary reputation in Finland as they are some of the highest decorated units to serve in the Finnish army and they carried out some awe inspiring missions during the war. Details of their operations are still a bit sketchy as most of the material was destroyed after a peace had been negotiated with Soviet Union.

Their missions ranged from small intelligence gathering patrols behind to lines to strikes at Soviet supply depots and rear echelon troops with nearly battalion sized forces, with the longest missions lasting over three months hundreds of kilometers behind enemy lines. Such was the effect of their missions that one of the most famous commanders, Lauri Törni, even had a 3 million mark (roughly 600,000 dollars at the time) bounty put on his head by the Soviets. The same Törni actually fought under three nations serving in the Finnish army, the Nordic battalion of the Waffen-SS and finally being killed in Vietnam while serving in the US Army as a Major in Green Berets.

The minis are from Warlord this time. The quality difference between the Baker Co stuff and Warlord is just massive. These guys have far more realistic proportions and better facial features than anything from Baker Company. There are still some issues like the massive amounts of flash. And I only had one rifle in the whole blister that was completely intact with the rest of them missing the front sight and the end of the barrel.

You've done just a wonderful job on these miniatures Samuli. I particularly like how you've dirtied up the knees, elbows and edging of their trousers and parkas. I have to agree with you in that these castings seem significantly nicer to the Baker Company sculpts we've seen to date. 

Also, this Lauri Torni fellow seems to be a very impressive, if not controversial, character. An ex-Waffen SS member in the Green Berets? That is an interesting (if not shocking) tidbit indeed. I definitely need to do some reading on this fellow.

These five Kaukopartio will give Samuli 25 points.

From JohnM: 20mm Winter War Fins ( 88 points)

From John:

It is with a bit of reluctance that I offer these figures up, Samuli and MichaelF have already submitted some beautifully done 28mm Winter War figures. I am not as good a painter as these two guys and the Winter figures in 20 mm are a bit limited; in fact limited to Fantassin/Warmodelling as far as I could sort out. I had already heard that these figures were a bit smaller then the PSC, AB and TQD Castings that I already have in my WWII armies. The figures though once obtained were about the same height as what I have and really they have quite a complete range. Like Samuli and Michael, I am building a force for Chain of Command and really the Warmodelling range had pretty well everything I needed to build a force with a good range of supports. 

So on to the figures, well they are pretty good sculpts but horrible casts. I really like all the poses and the bodies are well proportioned. The rifles may be a little big but are well detailed and fun to paint. The face are a little rough, do Finns really have very sharp noses! The boot were a little understated as well, but otherwise they were fine. The casting though is awfully especially with bits on the faces which is almost impossible to remove, I find it always difficult in the first run through with new figures to remove flash, as I am never sure where it is until I start to paint details. I have a second shipment coming to complete the force so I think it will go a little better the second time.

I enjoyed painting them, I found an excellent you tube video from BF which was quite helpful. Essentially two grays and a highlight of white. Webbing and straps were Vallejo Violet Green, I like the variety of hats, maybe I should of done the fir hats with a black wash rather then a brown, but I did want some variance from the gray spectrum of colour. Blue cap badges for the troops and red for the leaders.  In the first photo after the group shot we see a 3 man LMG team as well as the two senior leaders. In CoC the Finns have two different types of rifle section, with two of each to make up a platoon. The LMG section has 10 men and the SMG section has 6 men. You can substitute in a soldier with a Molotov as a level 1 support. We also have some figures throwing grenades. I did enjoy doing the bases and am looking forward to doing up some terrain.

I have purposely avoided close ups, these figures are just a little too roughly cast for this. After my last submission (paratroops), I get a sense at 20 mm it makes the figures look much worse then they actually do on the table and just distracts from the submission. I hope I am forgiven for making this point. Overall I am really pleased how these figures look on the table, I just now have to decide what figures I will use for the Russians and eventually some Germans. I have wanted to do winter in wargaming for a long time.

I'm struck by the amount of winter-themed entries we're having this year. Excuse the pun but I think it's pretty darned cool. Mwa, mwa, mwaaa... Hmm, I wonder what else I could get done that has  snow in it...

Great work John! 20mm is such a great scale (especially for vehicles) but it can be a bit tricky for both sculptors and painters. I find I either spend too much time on them (treating them like 28mm) or too little (streamlining them as if they were 15mm). Nonetheless, I really like the cool grey tones you've used for these fellows and the snow basing in nice and minimalist.

These Finns will give John 88 points.

From SamuliS: 28mm Winter War Finnish Infantry (50 points)

From Samuli:

Another bunch of Winter War Finnish troops. An automatic rifle squad and the platoon HQ team. I took some inspiration from Michael and decided muddy my guys up too. 

Not much to say about the minis or the paint job. There are actually a few sort of good sculpts in this bunch, like the officer in his leather jacket. 

I simplified the paint job a bit to speed up the whole process by removing the deepest shadow color and the final highlight of pure white.

Nice and fast to do. So maybe there is some hope of clearing the painting table of these guys soon. At least until the next Kickstarter batch arrives.

Ah, yes the dirty uniforms really set these guys off nicely, well done. Also, your streamlined process hasn't affected your quality a bit - lovely work here.

This squad of Fins will give Samuli 50 points. Nice job!

MichaelF: 28mm Winter War Finnish (108 points)

MichaelF sends his first mainstream entry with these two fine squads of 'Winter War' Fins. 

From Michael:

Winter War Finnish.

For this years challenge I took the opportunity to get some unfinished work done. Inspired by the fun we have playing Chain of Command I started with these Finnish rifleman from the Baker Company Kickstarter.

I did about half a platoon a few years back using Brigade games and  Battle Honors figures so I was overly excited when this Baker Kickstarter arrived on the scene. Eager to get my platoon to strength I backed for a finnish platoon deal and hoped for the best. Especially when Baker company announced it would catch up to modern standards since their current range was outdated and not compatible to the current standard of miniatures. Unfortunately it didn't turn out exactly how I wished for.

Now while I'm typing this Samuli just posted his Finnish Rifleman and I fully agree with his opinion on the figures. Baker has been a victim of success and he started sculpting, producing and shipping thousands and thousands of figures like a madman. And yes, I do appreciate the energy and enthusiasm he puts into it but I feel he just forgot his first goal as I have understood it: Get Baker Company on the map again with fine quality modern figures.

So it became a rush job and you notice it immediately.  Flash everywhere, some weird faces and a couple of odd figures. A detailed inspection does not make you much happier. 

But…

I decided to paint up a few and see how they turned out. I took them to my friends here for a final test (they are waiting for their Russians now) if I would continue with them. Well, obviously we found them good enough to give them a paint and have a few games. I was lucky I painted the other half of the platoon in a heavy mud look so I could throw all sorts of brown on those as well which helps camouflaging things.

In the end I'm happy how they turned out and I look forward receiving the extras for this kickstarter because for 60£ you get a lot, and I mean a lot, of extras. Only that, and all the hardware you will get makes the Kickstarter worthwhile to me. I just hope Baker learned from this journey and sorts thing out when he starts his next Kickstarter. We know he can sculpt well because there are good quality figures with these as well.

Great work Michael. Like Samuli I think you've done a wonderful job on these figures. As you say it's too bad that the success of the Kickstarter may have inadvertently affected the quality of the final product (at least for the 'stretch-goal' figures). I think many Kickstarter developers need to build-in realistic timelines to take into account the potential escalation of their the projects otherwise they risk having to deliver products that do not meet their original quality standards.

These Finnish riflemen will give Michael 108 points. Great work Michael and make sure to tell Jake and Rob that they're dropping in your rear view mirror.

From SteveM: 15mm WWII Finnish Infantry & German Halftracks and ME 262 (89 points)

Steve cracks on with another mixed entry of 15mm WWII models.

From Steve:

Have a variety for you.

Battlefront miniatures 15mm Finnish machine gun platoon in winter bases.  And lots more Finns where these came from to fight the Soviet hordes....

Battlefront 15mm Sd Kfz 251/21 (Triple 15mm) platoon of three. The Panzer Brigades enjoyed top priority for the latest equipment Germany could offer. Perhaps more importantly, due to their relatively small size, German industry was able to meet all of the required vehicle numbers to fill out the organisation. This meant that a Panzer Brigade going into combat would be armed to the teeth with exceptional medium tanks, the latest tank-hunters, and a wide variety of specially modified half-tracks.

As the war has progressed, the threat faced by the armoured infantry has changed too. With the Allied Jabo, fighter bombers, becoming a serious problem, the Sd Kfz 251 has changed to meet the challenge. The Sd Kfz 251/21 mounts a triple-barrelled MG151/15 machine-gun on a fully-traversable anti-aircraft mount. This gives the anti-aircraft platoons of the new panzer brigades unprecedented firepower.

Battlefront 15mm Sk kfz-251 16d flamme. It would be interesting to find out what the survival rate of the torch crew was for the half tracks. The Sd.Kfz 251/16 Ausf D was fitted with two 1.4cm Flammenwerfer flame-throwers on each side.... On either side of the fighting compartment, two fuel tanks were mounted inside the rear compartment each with 700 litres of fuel.

Battlefront 15mm ME 262 A2a Sturmvogel. The Sturmvogel was armed with two 3mm cannons and a pair of 250kg bombs. With a speed of 870km/h it could outrun any Allied fighter making it impossible to catch. Stuka bomber pilots needed to relearn how to drop bombs at these higher speeds.

Very nice Steve. Did you use an airbrush on the vehicles and the 262? Very smooth work - I really like the mottled green on the Messerschmitt.

This entry will give Steve 89 points to add to his total.

From SteveM: 15mm WWII Finnish Infantry (201 points)

From Steve:

The forces is comprised of a HQ with an Lehti anti-tank gun and two Jalkavaki platoons. These are based in a basic snow field. These guys were the main force of the Finnish army and help to fight off the Soviets in WWII.

Platoon 1 and 2 can be told apart by the position of the commander in the formation in the images.

Great stuff Steve. They look suitably cold and remind me of the weather outside here (-26 C / -39 with wind chill...).

These will give Steve 201 points which will rocket him 20 places in the points standing (and I know there is more to come). Nice work!