Entry #2 to the 9th Lead Painters' League - 1812 Retreat: French and Germans

For my past week's entry to the LPL I decided to add a few more figures to my 1812 Retreat collection. Here is a group of French along with a few of their unfortunate German allies.

Westphalian Hussar, elite company.

French Carabiniere.

French voltigeur.

Wurttemberg infantryman.

...and a French line infantryman.


These five castings are all from the fabulous range of 28mm figures depicting the French retreat from Moscow from Perry Miniatures. Highly recommended.

As for this week's entry, I have a group of very old school 1970s era orcs and goblins from Ral Partha that I excavated from the Lead Shed. If you have the time please drop by the Lead Painters' League to see all the submissions from the participants of the League.

Have a great week folks!

Entry #3 to the 8th Lead Painters' League: 15mm Late War German Panzergrenadiers & StuG

Here is my third entry to this year's Lead Painters' League, a section of late war Panzergrenadiers, all festooned in winter camo, StG 44s and riding a hastily whitewashed StuG III.

For some reason I've always been impressed when seeing photos of infantry riding tanks. It always looks so incredibly hardcore seeing infantry precariously perched upon multi-ton armoured fighting vehicles, heading off into battle. (Cripes, I get skittish when city road equipment rumbles by my yard when I'm mowing the lawn...)

These 15mm figures and the assault gun are from Battlefront. Very nice models all around. The StuG was a breeze to put together and I quite liked grenadiers as well. They were cleverly posed so that you could easily place them in a variety of positions so no two groups would look alike.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that these guys got the nod from League voters, especially as they were fairly monochromatic and in a relatively small scale. I was delighted by the positive response.

I should have my 4th entry posted here soon as that round is concluding in the next day. It's a bit different but members of the 'Wild Bunch' will see my homage to our recent Painting Challenge.

Thanks for dropping in for a visit!

Announcing the Seventh, and Final, Theme Bonus Round: 'Last Stand' & Curt's 'The Eagle of the 18th'

We've made it! Here we finally are at the end of the seven bonus rounds and, wow, I must say its been quite a ride. I think I can safely say that the bonus rounds have been regarded a great success amongst both participants and visitors of the Challenge. Each round has seen dazzling entries where it is quite obvious that a lot of thought and effort has gone into their creation. This round, 'Last Stand' is no different and you will find numerous submissions that will make your eyes widen and mouth slacken in amazement. 

I wish to take this opportunity to thank all the Challengers for indulging me in this diversion off the Challenge's beaten path. It was a bit of work to administrate, but your enthusiasm and support made it a delight. I also want to thank our sponsors for their prize support for each of the bonus rounds. It has been wonderful to be able to award 'a little something' for each theme. Thank you one and all!

Please remember to leave a comment and vote for your favourite entries (you can vote for as many as you like).

For myself, I kept my submission fairly simple, deciding to return to where I'd started in this year's Challenge: the 1812 French retreat from Russia.

In reading about the French retreat from Russia I came across several references to Napoleon's order to his Grande Armee to burn their Eagles so as to deny them to the enemy.  

The colonel of the 18th Line ignored the order to destroy or even hide his regiment's Eagle. He, like many of his fellow regimental commanders, probably felt that his unit's Eagle would either come out of Russia with his remaining men or it would fall with them. 

This Eagle bearer figure seen here is part of the wonderful Perry range of 1812 Retreat miniatures. I present him as a line grenadier (I've taken to calling him Sgt. Bigeard) who is readying himself for perhaps his last defence of the regiment's Eagle. By the look of his bloody sword and bearskin at his feet he has already fought off at lease one assault. He is cold and exhausted, but he calmly prepares to do what needs to be done.* 

On the 18th of November, outside the town of Krasnoi, the Eagle of the 18th fell under the lances of the Russian Guard Uhlans.  Today the 18th's Eagle can be seen on display in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

*In our recent games 'Sgt. Bigeard' has been a rather ferocious opponent, swinging his standard like a makeshift polearm, savagely defending his Eagle from both cossack and peasant alike. It's always nice when gameplay falls in line with your imagination of a figure you've worked on. As we all know, it usually goes tragically (and often comically) wrong...

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.

Napoleonic Cossack Cavalry and Sledge Gun (75 points)

Whoa, what a week. Am I ever pooped. I was really hoping to get this submission in by the end of last weekend but the 'Poll Bot Attack' hit the blog below the waterline and I was in damage control for much of Sunday and Monday. Then the workweek kicked off at a furious pace and I also needed to catch up on other folks' entries. Nonetheless, I now I have a bit of a breather before the Hero round so I'm thought I best sneak these in while I can.

Anyway, enough whining, right? Continuing with my 1812 Retreat diversion, I thought I'd get some more Cossacks done as I'd like to put on a small skirmish game with this stuff next month. So here are 4 mounted Cossacks, a light gun mounted on a snow sledge and a Cossack commander.

The cavalry are all Perry Miniatures, a mixture of Don and Ataman Cossacks. Later I plan to add some Moscow Opolchenie (militia) riders for a bit of variation to the mix (not to mention I love their whacky hats).

I've decided to give these Cossacks relatively uniform saddle blankets and lances to better tie them together as a unit. As per my usual MO I've mounted the officer on a hex base so players can better identify him on the tabletop. (Junior leaders will be on rectangular bases.) I ultimately want around 30 of these fellows (three 'troops' I 'spose) so this is going to be a bit of a slog as I'm complete crap at painting cavalry at any real speed. Nonetheless, when they get done they should look the business careening around the tabletop, creating mischief for the French.

Also included is a sledge-gun manned by a trio of Cossacks. This is a very nice little set from Kawe's Westfalia Miniatures. I kept it pretty grungy looking and dirtied up the muzzle with expended powder to give it that rough campaign look. I can easily envision many interesting scenarios with this as the focus.

I've also added a few pics which include the other three Cossacks that debuted with the French sledges. I thought I'd include them here, rolling out with their buddies, to give me some encouragement to get the next batch done.

This group of Cossacks will give me 75 points to add to my tally. 

With a bit of luck I might get one more submission in before the onslaught of the Hero round.

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 SamuliS: 28mm Winter War Finnish Riflemen (50 points)

Samuli sends in this great unit of riflemen portraying his own nation's history, 'The Winter War'.

From Samuli:

For my next entry I have a squad of Finnish Riflemen from the Baker Company Kickstarter. Just in time for the first snows to finally grace the ground here after months of misery caused by continuous rain and darkness.

These are some of the minis from the highly successful Baker Company Kickstarter that ended up exceeding the expectations of everyone. It's nice to have someone make minis of Finns, too bad that the quality isn't always up to nowadays standards. It seems that Baker Company was bit of a victim of their own success as they have had to sculpt massive amounts of new minis to fill all the stretch goal unlocks etc. 

And boy does it show on the minis as there are just massive quality differences between them with some having good proportions and having nicely sculpted faces etc. and then some with ridiculously thick or thin arms and legs and faces that are more in the likeness of an ape than a human :) Also some equipment like most of the shoes doesn't look like anything used in the war. And don't get me even started about the huge amount of flash that the castings had...

Not much to paint as most of the minis are covered with a snow suit so I tried to put some extra effort on that. Starting out from Khaki I tried to achieve a slightly dirtier look on it. 5 layers of highlights later it may have ended a bit too light, but I guess they present a unit at the start of the war then!

The snow is a combination of Noch snow paste and snow flock. A new material for me as I was actually supposed to buy another kind of snow flock from them, but only realized at home that they do numerous different ones and I managed to pick the wrong type. Too lazy to go back to the shop I decided to give it a try. It ended up looking quite a lot like fresh snow on a really cold day so I guess it achieved it's goal well enough.

I was part of this Kickstarter as well but I bailed when I decided to go with 15mm for this period and started seeing their later sculpts (which, as you say, seemed rather uninspired). Nonetheless they look very nice under your hand, Samuli, and makes me rethink my decision not to have stuck it out. Oh well...

These ten riflemen will give Samuli 50 points. Well done!