AHPC XIV: From MikeW - 20mm WW2 Infantry, Orcs, Tau and 28mm Wild West.

  I open this weeks post with a tilt at the Local History Bonus in the Competition Library! I present a group of 16 x 20mm WW2 British Infantry, namely men of the Royal Sussex Regiment who fought in North Africa, Italy and Greece during the later stages of the war. I have spent most of my life living in Sussex, England and thus my claim to this being local history...

16 x 20mm WW2 British Infantry, North Africa / Southern Europe Theatre

Close-up of these guys from the left, the bases were painted with Brown PVA gloop and fine sand added before a few strategic tufts.

The figures have been kicking around my loft, garage and workbench for a number for years. Believe they originally came from eBay but I can't actually remember, as such I can't identify the manufacturer either. So I undercoated these guys in white and then blocked in the main colours with a series of khakis (trousers, jackets and shirts), tans (webbing etc), greens (shirts, helmets and boxes) and the like. Guns were painted in with GW 'Leadbelcher' and wood was GW 'Gore Grunter Fur'.

And from the right. The officer on extreme right has a 'Tommy Gun', as do the NCOs. This reflects the close fighting in and around Monte Casino.

I've brought the rear rank forward here to give them a better view. Second left there is a guy carrying an Ammo case, fourth left is a Bren Gunner, carrying his weapon

Flesh was GW 'Darkoath Flesh' then highlighted with Army Painter Flesh colour. I applied a wash of GW 'Agrax Earthshade' to the whole figure and then gave the dried figures a light dry brushing of light Khaki before adding in red shoulder titles and chevrons in red and green respectively.

A view of the rear rank guys from the right

I based the figures to reflect arid conditions you might expect in North Africa, Italy or Greece, in my minds eye, I was focusing on the Monte Casino battle, where the Royal Sussex served, an action that has always caught my imagination. Maybe I'll now look to find some Germans to act as defenders....

And from the left, the figures are mounted on single 20mm MDF bases. Can yo spot the guy with a broken bayonet, darn thing snapped off as I was varnishing the figures!

Close up of a few of the little guys, daylight here in UK for such photos is terrible at present, we need some sunshine and I need a better camera and photography skills!

The next item is a bit of a filler, a 28mm Wild West figure that I found with the above WW2 infantry. So I painted him up at the same time! I'll pass him and a couple other figures I have to a club colleague - to join his huge Wild West collection.

I believe that this is an old Wargames Foundry figure,
a townsfolk character armed with a pistol 

A fairly straight forward paint job on this guy, white undercoat, black boots, jacket and bowler hat. Brown trousers and flesh & hair as appropriate. I dry brushed the figure with a light khaki to give some highlighting to the brown trousers and black jacket and hat. Then a flesh wash to hands and face to add details.

What can't quite be seen in the pictures is that he is holding a cigar in his left hand

On the Tau front, I have concentrated on a large Tau mech this week, plus a handful of Warriors, a Drone and what I think is a Communications Relay or Defensive Shield Device. Again apologies to my minion but I have classed this as a terrain piece and am just claiming 1 point for it - I'm not sure if there is any other example of this item in previous challenges!

This Tau tech is a big model,
a suitable commander for my growing Tau army.

This Coldstar Battlesuit was sourced from eBay and has
three major weapons systems plus a defensive shield

Another angle on the finished model

Not sure what happened to the colour on this photo!

And a final rear view of the Coldstar Battlesuit

The rest of this week's Tau batch.

On reflection I'm pretty sure the device on the right is a Defensive Force field generator - I am working on a second one for next week. 

The center piece this week is a Commander in a Coldstar Battlesuit, I have assigned this 10 Points but this guys is bigger than the Crisis Suit techs I did the other week at the same points. Again I'll leave this to my minion to adjudicate!

The range of model sizes in my growing Tau army!
From Left: The new Coldstar Battlesuit, next the Crisis Battlesuit,
second right the Stealth Suit and extreme left a regular Tau Warrior (28mm Model).

You will see on the Commander's base there are two terrain items that I painted up , I'm claiming 1 point each for these, hope this is OK.

Two GW alien plant forms,waiting to be
added on to the Commander base !

Now for more Orcs! This week I have completed a regiment of 18 x Orc Archers, including a musician and a standard bearer. I have shared the recipe for these guys in earlier posts in this year's challenge and these are no different.

A completed group of 18 x Arra Boyz!

From a Skulls Duel point of view these have 6 Skulls to add to the ongoing tally!

As usual I have split the batch into smaller 'bite' sizes!

Five more Orcs...

I set batch painting process of most of my models, leaving character or commander figures to be done separately, usually with a little more detail.

A case in point, I spent a little more time on the standard bearer,
with this hand painted Orc Rag....

Other than that these are all pretty standard fare.

Finally a cheeky Late 17th Century dismounted Dragoon. Truth be told  I started painting this guy for my Local History topic, the Royal Sussex being known as the "Old Oranges' due to their facing colours.

Close-up of the Dragoon figure

Trouble was, that I didn't realise that this was a Dragoon figure until I began getting painting process and was preparing to paint his trousers, socks and shoes. Imagine my surprise when I realised he was wearing riding boots! My eyes aren't what they used to be...

In my defence, I wasn't wearing my glasses when I digged out this figure to paint. In the past I have converted spare Dragoon figures into regular infantry men, however, this is not appropriate with half painted figures.... 

Anyway, a white undercoat, base colours applied and use of washes and highlights gave this somewhat pleasing result that will join some other Donnybrook compatible figures!

Next week I'm doing the last of my outstanding Orcs but after that there is only a few more Swamp Goblin Herders and more of their Frogs! Of course there are more Orcs on order from eBay! Also a small batch of Bretonnian Archers and some Lizardmen to come.

POINTS

On the Workbench: 28mm Wild West and Warlord Epic Scots Pikemen

Well I haven't had much time for painting th elast few weeks so I thought I'd just give a quick update on what I have been dabbling at!

First off, four 28mm Wild West figures that have been kicking around the workbench for some years, I'll be handing these over to Mikey N. later today for his collection.

Left a lawman with pistol and rifle, right a member of the public armed with a shotgun

Left another towns person with a rifle and right a cattleman with a rifle.

Finally a block of Scots Covenanter Pikemen, in Warlord Games Epic scale.

I rather like these little guys, grey clad Covenantor Scots.

Hopefully some more updates in eth next couple weeks....

Mixed Batch of Figures - Dark Age Cavalry, Polish Renaissance, Wild West, WW2 & ECW, all 28mm

Well its been quite some time since my last post - real life havng caught up with me, organising & celebrating my Dad's 90th Birthday, helping my son and his family move house (still ongoing) and keeping on top of a busy work schedule and helping run a local sports club!

Anyway here is a bunch of stuff that I have got painted and completed over the last few weeks but not havd time to 'show and tell'. Overall not my greatest work but at least I've got things moving again....

All the Dark Ages Cavalry in one line!

First up are 11 x 28mm Dark Age cavalry, these are being presented as Norman allied cavalry or even as mounted Anglo-Saxon warriors - I have tred to keep the iconography neutral (as far as possibe) to give that flexibility.

Norman Allied Leader, Conquest GAmes figure on a Wargames Atlantic Horse.

The reverse view, showing shield

The group contains a leader plus a standard bearer, as well as nine other fgures armed with a variety of hand weapons ranging form swords, axes, javelins and spears. There is also a guy with a lance nad pennant.

Two more Conquest Games figures on Wargames Atlantic horses.
Both have been given kite shields and wear leather armour. The standard is generic.

And onther view of the two figures

The leader is on a round, 40mm base, as per the rest of my collection, there are actually three plastic figures, all left over Conquest Games Normans, seated on Warlord Atlantic Horses, the other figures are all metal and from a batch of Dark Age Cavalry I sourced form eBay at a reasonable price.

First three of the metal eBay batch

The metal figures have been suplmented with platic shields and a variety of metal and plastic weapons. The eagled eyed amongst you will see that I have base two figures together of a single base - a departure from my usual approach but a neccessity resulting from a very weak end to the javelein in the hands of the figure on the left - basing them together willl hopefully protect it a bit from my (and other's) sausage fingers!

These guys are all unarmoured and have a variety of weapons as well as kite & round shields.

Not the greatest picture, central guy is the one with a weak javelin
so I glued hime to a shared base with another figure, t tryand give it potection

These figures have been given a mix of kite and round shields, to give a feel of Norman influence on the more well off warriors but a reliance on older kit by the less fortunate.

A clearer view of the shared double base and the offending javelin

These guys will make an apperance at Stamford Bridge!

Final two figures

And final view!

Next we have two Polish Officers to be used in my Vienna 1673 games, they were again sourced from eBay at a bargain proce and you can never have enough Poles on the tabletop.

The two Polish leaders

I refrained from adding wings to these guys, prefering the to be able to be used as more regular cavalry, one is unarmoured and brandishing a pretty mean looking mace, whlist the other is armoured but is checking a scratch built map.  The map being used to cover an unfortunate cut into the horse's neck line.

And another view

Next up is a test figure from the Wargames Atlantic Panzer Lehr sprue that came free on the front of September's MinatureWargames magazine. I'm pretty pleased how he has turned out and I'm going to build a few more figures to join him.

Warlord Games Panzer Lehr figure, changing magazines on his MP40

Next are two venerable Warlord Games ECW pikemen, I have a bunch of these fully armoured fellows and I plan to build these into a small unit as and when I get time. I chose a light blue uiform for them but will likely try other colour conbinations for the remaining guys.

Two fully aroured and uniformed pikemen, ready to repel cavalry!

The reverse view

Lastly we have four Wild West townsfolk from Wargames Foundry, these have been lanquising in my loft, garage and/or workbech for far too many years and I felt it was time to finally get them done. I'll hand them over to join Mike N's vast 25/28mm Wild West collection as soon as I get a chance to go to a club night again!

Some fairly well armed Wild West townsfolk

Three Winchesters and a Shotgun, heavy firepower if they are able to aim straight!

That's it for now - hopefully not such a long wait for the next post!

Friday Night Games - Pony Wars

At the SAS Wargames Club we are lucky enough that Mike N. has a wonderful 15mm Pony Wars set-up that we are able to breakout and use every so often.

Action around the church and a settler's farm

I first stumbled across Pony Wars as a display game back in the 1970s, if I remember correctly at Farnborough Air Show, where it was being played by an enthusiastic group in a marquee by the original games designers (sorry I forget their names). Being a great Wild West fan, I was mesmerised  ignoring the aeroplanes and watching the game for as long as I could.

"Its too quiet, I don't like it Sir!" - more hostiles arriving

Anyway, this game was graciously hosted by Mike N. with Nigel, Phil  Rupert & Mike W. commanding the various Cavalry Troops in this scenario entitled 'Soldier Blue'.

Mike W's re-enforcement troop retiring towards the Fort,
note the empty saddles due to casualties taken

As per the film  the Cavalry has to destroy a village as well and ensure various settlers were protected in the Fort, whilst ever increasing numbers of hostiles appeared.

For those in the know, smoke signals aren't good!
But arguably not as bad as the drums!

At one stage, after the beating of drums  a group of 200 hostiles appeared, right next to a gun runner's wagon resulting in an instant upgrade to 50 of them to carbine armed status ...

Overview of much of the table, the Fort is to the right of the Church,
the Hostile's village is off picture to the left. Rupert's attack column can be clearly seen.

Nevertheless, Rupert's column reached the village and did its dastardly work, whilst Phil and Nigel collected in most of the settlers. Phil then setup a strong point in the Fort whilst Nigel's troop was chased across the table-top by various hostile groups.

Close-up of the lovely figures

Mike W's troop were re-enforcements that had arrived turn one at the end of the table, chased by a group of hostiles. They initially approached the village but were caught on high group by the pursuing Indians  whom they fought off.

Regrouping, the troop then headed for the Fort but ran across several hostiles groups, which they dodged before holding out in a church outside the Fort.

Early in the game, hostiles attack the cavalry re-enforcements,
who have reached high ground and formed a defensive position,
in the background can be seen the hostile village.

Thee firefights later they emerged  largely unscathed as Rupert work was done and the Cavalry's work was done....

Finally a close-up of Mike N's one of magnificent Buttes!
Ooh Err!