From DougM - Krypton and a sudden weakness...(71 Points)

Don't you hate it when a post vanishes, and you have to redo it? Not as much as German pilots hated the weakness of the early Albatross Scout planes; a tendency to break up in mid-air..  so that's Krypton.

(Almost as much when you take a picture and spot a thousand errors in the paint job.. but enough complaints, it's time for the pictures.)

Some chap called Richtofen & some Recce also seems to have snuck in, so that makes a total of 17 x 1/144 aircraft, which are counted as 10mm vehicles @ 3 points each = 51 + 20 for Krypton for a total of 71.

It also gets me another Squirrel ..  for a total of 12

• 1/200 WW2 Japanese Aircraft
• 1/200 WW2 US Aircraft
• 1/200 WW2 British Aircraft
• 1/200 WW2 German Aircraft
• 1/144 WW1 British Aircraft
• 1/144 WW1 German Aircraft
• 28mm German Armour
• 28mm Japanese Armour
• 28mm 12th SS Panzer infantry
• 28mm Indian Mutiny Sepoys
• 28mm Dr Who
• 28mm Austrian Napoleonic

***

"A tendency to break up in mid-air" - so what? Quitters! Pilots are such a bunch of whingers, always needing everything to be perfect.

Anyway, the WW1 aircraft always bring out romantic notions of air combat (even as the reality of course was grim and deadly enough, even without your craft simply breaking apart on you). I quite enjoy the bonkers markings on the planes themselves, nods to the now-distant notions of chivalry in war. I'll throw in a few bonus points for the markings. Cheers!

GregB

From DougM: Noel's Comment and a Story - Noel's Comet 190 pts

So: many many years, ago, when I was living in Australia, I used to play DBA regularly. There was a local group in Canberra who used to get together to play one day tournaments - always in licensed premises, and part of my fun was to crack the first beer with the first game. I usually found that a winning smile would get me an early brew from the staff while everyone else was making do with takeaway coffee. And the additional challenge was playing the later games after the first few. After all, DBA is just a dice throwing contest isn't it? :)

So one day, there was this other guy there, watched me belly up to the bar, and followed suit. At the time, I was still smoking, so; although he didn't smoke, he and I got chatting out the back in breaks between games, as both of us played fast... Turns out, he had a blog, which I already followed, knew most of the Aussie players I knew, and was great company. Thomo the Lost - Ian Thomson. 

At the time, he was working in South East Asia, and was back in Australia for his mum, but from then on, whenever he visited Oz, he and his partner would come and stay at Chez Doug. The dogs loved him, and in between beer and gaming we had great fun. We would plan new forces, egg on each other to more and better painting efforts, and agree joint projects. 

We also went to the annual Cancon, and played  The one thing we never got to do was some aerial wargaming.. he wanted Khalkin Ghol, I wanted Battle of Britain, so instead we just got more megalomaniac, larger and larger pre-dreadnought fleets, more and more WW2 6mm, till I swear he had an entire Guards Armoured Division at 1:1. but still no aerial wargaming. 

We played off at Cancon, for the National DBA Title, (he kept claiming my Teutonic Knights were illegally based for the terrain, with snow, when I won..) Still no aerial wargaming.

Thomo was my Best Man when I remarried in Scotland in 2012. But no time for aerial wargaming. He kept on visiting until I moved from Australia n 2016.

And in 2021, he died in the Philippines from Covid. So too late for Aerial Wargaming. 

So these are for him. All home 3d Prints.

Fields of Kent look lovely this time of year... 'Wir fahren gegen Engeland'...

You sure we're heading in the right direction?

Uh-oh... Gruss Gott! Spitfires!

City of Edinburgh Squadron - yes, I know they weren't in Kent, but they could have been ...

And as we all know from the movies, Hurricanes take the bombers out, Spitfires go for fighter cover. This is 43 Squadron.

Run away....!!!

This was a disaster..  codes smudged, and in the wrong place!  The later versions were an improvement thankfully.

And the 'might' of the Royal Flying Corps...   F2b, Brisfits, 'Harry Tates', SE5a and Sopwith Camels

SE5a

RE8 or 'Harry Tates'

F2b

Sopwith Camels... no Snoopy I'm afraid.

Late Breaking..   those Spitfires have something to worry about... 

So that's my Noel's Comet, for Thomo. All the WW2 British are entirely hand painted markings, the WW2 Heinkels are balkankreuze decals as are the Yellow S and the recognition panels on White 1. The WW2 stuff is 1/200, and the WW1 stuff is 1/144.

I guess all these count for 3 points, each, but with all the markings, it feels like a lot of effort for 3 points!  *FROM 

7 Heinkels, 12 x Me 109, 10 Spitfires, and 9 Hurricanes = 38 x 3 = 114 points

16 x RFC x 3 = 48 points

Noel's Comet planet bonus = 20

Oh and Squirrel points..  lets see

1/200 WW2 Japanese Aircraft

1/200 WW2 British Aircraft

1/200 WW2 German Aircraft

1/144 WW1 British Aircraft

not quite enough for WW1 German Aircraft

28mm German Armour

28mm 12th SS Panzer infantry

28mm Indian Mutiny Sepoys

28mm Dr Who

28mm Austrian Napoleonics

So 9 Squirrel points only...  :(    but let's see what next week brings...

From DaveD . Having lost a great friend this year with who i  always ended up planning madness over the many years this hits the spot. So its good to see your tribute . Indeed i recognise the challemge per points efforts on these so I have topped you up 

From SteveM: 1/144 UAR United Arab Republic MiG-17 group (88 Points)

 

This post is for a group of UAR (United Arab Republic) MiG-17.  They are from Battlefront for use with the Arab-Israeli miniatures game and made out of resin.

The Jordanians in a previous post appear to need some help so starting a large UAR air force.

 

 

Squirrel Point Running Tally: 5

1. 28mm Squirrel Battalion

2. 15mm Jordanian Army Mechanized Company

3. 15mm ww1 German Stoss Platoon

4. 15mm ww2 Soviet Storm Group plus Mortars 

5. 1/144 UAR MiG-17 group <-- New this post

 

Challenge Points:

15mm vehicle @ 8 points * 11 qty = 88 points

Total points: 88 points

 

Welcome back! And the first of four posts this week, no less! Nice MiG group to support your Jordanians.

Tamsin

From MikeW - 11 x 1/144 (10mm) Arab-Israeli Tanks (33 Points)

Arab-Israeli AFVS, waiting a pint job!

Rummaging around in my workbench drawers I came across another bundle of 1/144 (10mm) tanks earmarked for the Arab-Israeli Wars collection, this time the majority were for the Egyptian Army, you may remember earlier in this Challenge, I was able to do 5 Israeli Super Shermans <here>.

In this batch  have just two Israeli Tanks - their Recon AMX-13 Tanks, acquired from the French, the only country in the 1950s that would openly sell military vehicles to Isreal. It had a unique design in that the engine runs the length of the tank on the right side, with the driver on the left.

Top / Down Views of Israeli AMX-13s

It features an uncommon two-part FL-10 oscillating turret, where the gun is fixed to the turret and the entire upper turret changes elevation. The turret its-self is set to the rear of the vehicle and holds the commander and gunner.

The weakness of the design was that the main gun was serviced by pre-loaded 12 round auto-feeders, when ammunition was expended the vehicle had to retreat to cover to allow the auto-feeders to be restocked by the crew form outside the vehicle!

Side shots of the AMX-13s

By 1967, Israel had acquired about 400 AMX-13s and formed three AMX-13 battalions, all of which fought actively on all fronts during the Six-Day War.

Despite its limitations, these vehicles were used as front line battle tanks, as and when needs required.

The remainder of the post is made up from Egyptian tanks and AFVs, in their distinctive sand yellow paint schemes.

First there are three T34/85 Tanks, even by standards of the time an ancient relic, used by the Egyptians in an Infantry Support role, but often forced into armour v armour actions due to the speed of movement in the wars of the 1960s & 1970s.

3 x T34/85 Infantry Support Tanks

Also adding support to the Egyptian infantry units are the equally venerable SU-85 and SU-100, the SU-100 being identifiable by the 'pulpit' cupola on the right side of the fighting compartment of the vehicle. These vehicles tended to be in emplacements, to defend fortified positions occupied by their infantry comrades. I have one of each in this post.

The venerable Egyptian SU-85 

and it's big brother the SU-100, note pulpit cupola...

Next are three BMP-1s, these were available to Egypt for teh 1973 Yom Kippur War - where the BMP-1 was tested in combat for the first time on 8 October 1973. Egypt had received its first batch of 80 brand new IFVs in July and August 1973. A second batch of 150 vehicles was delivered between August and September. The Egyptian army used BMP-1s in mechanized infantry battalions of tank and mechanized infantry divisions (32–40 BMP-1s per battalion).

3 x Eygptian BMP-1s, ready for 1973, Yom Kippur Scenarios

Another view of the BMP-1 models

These three vehicles are my first specifically for the 1973 war, all of the rest of the collection are usable on both the 1967 & 1973 wars.

Finally we have an instance of an Egyptian Sherman M4/FL10 , whilst it is well known that Israel used Shermans and developed their own unique brand of Super Sherman and Isherman vehicles, Egypt was also a user of Shermans...

The unique Egyptian Sherman

Egypt, used about 150 of these tanks in combat during its 1956, 1967 and 1973 wars with Israel, and they developed their own unique variation with a French M4/FL10  75mm gun turret, taken from the AMX-13 vehicles it had captured in earlier wars, or sourced from elsewhere.

and another view...

And so the final vehicle in this group is an example of this mash-up!

POINTS
11 x 10mm Tanks @ 3 points Each = 33 Points

Excellent job on these venerable tanks, it is an interesting period that we are thinking about in 3mm

From ByronM - 1/144 Bandai X-Wing - Mudry's Mesa (36 Points)

For today's painting challenge entry I will be visiting my own map space, Mudry's Mesa.  The rules for my space are that the model has to be bought after the challenge was announced, or was purchased due to someone else's submission last year. 

This figure was purchased on a whim while doing some last minute Christmas shopping for my sons at my favourite local Gundam store (miHobbies) here in Winnipeg.  I saw that they had a pile of the Bandai Star Wars kits, and they were very reasonably priced.  Since I have loved putting together several Bandai Gundam kits over the last year (much to my wife's annoyance "where are you going to put those..."), so thought, why not try one of their Star Wars kits as well.

I could not help but add a space background to at least one image,
as I think this looks almost good enough to use to create a stop motion movie from!

The kit comes with both a 1/72 and a 1/144 X-wing in the box for a pretty reasonable price, or you can buy just the 1/144th separately.  I picked up the dual pack and got to work over the holidays.

The 1/144th scale kit is super simple to build having maybe 20 parts, but oh boy does it have detail! Oh, and the wings move! The 1/72 scale kit in the box seems to have probably 100 parts and even more amazing detail... hopefully I will get it done sometime later in this challenge.

After assembly, I did a quick pin wash with black oil paint and then cleaned it up with my handy Gaia notes finish master swabs. 

I then painted up the rest of the model and added some of the decals, and was done!  Super fast and simple, but I believe it looks almost perfect as is so didn't really do much else to it.

Unfortunately, I now really want to get a pile of these models and do a game with them, rather than the smaller Fantasy flight versions.  Heck, I may even just want to jump right to the 1/72 scale versions that they do, as those could look amazing mounted on tripods zipping around a gymnasium at a convention playing x-wing using a huge scale!  I know, I am kinda crazy....

Oh, and for scale here is one picture with a standard 28mm figure.  

I am not really sure on what it is worth points wise, so will leave that to my fellow minions to decide on.  Since it is for a map space (my own), I do know it gets a bonus 30 points for that.

***

There was a time when I would have been so excited to see some Star Wars content! After all, is there any cooler fighter out there than the X-Wing? In any scale, a game where I get to zip around in an X-Wing and paste TIE fighters should be pure gold, so I salute your insane plan Byron - we could cover the gymnasium floor with space mats...just saying...

Alas, the appalling combination of Disney's Korporate Klowns and the various directors, marketing buffoons et al have so thoroughly and completely mucked up and wh***d out this once beloved franchise, I find myself trying to find the Nissan logo on the X-Wing model in your submission.  Here in Canada we see Star Wars now being used to assure us that Bell Internet is "hyperspace fast".  And did you know the Force is actually Bell's 4G network? F*ck off. 

But none of my grouchyness has anything to do with the quality of the submission here! The X-Wing model looks fantastic, and your efforts with the oil paints and swab serve only to enhance it.  One hopes it can make the kill shot on a space station full of marketing f*cks while they are signing a naming rights agreement...

Points? Well, I think this should count this as a couple of 10mm vehicles (I think 1/144scale  is not too far from 10mm). So that should give you 36 points.  Well done Byron - I look forward to the 1/72 version :)

GregB

From ByronM - Gundam in 1/144 scale (15 Points)

Hey everyone,  I am just posting this to show off a cool model I built, I wasn't going to post it at all, but a couple people suggested I show it off even though it gets no points, as it is likely that some others on here would be interested in it.  It also goes to explain a lack of production lately, as even with the wife getting in on building this kit with me, it took roughly 20 hours to build.

It's also a great thing to show off model / kit wise as what is possible in a kit and leaves me wondering why other companies kits (looking at you Games Workshop!) cost so much! Like we need another reason to despise their pricing structure...

I have always loved Gundam (anime robots) and always meant to build a model kit of one at some point. So I picked one up to do on vacation a few weeks (a cabin in the woods in a prairie winter , so we spent the time inside drinking wine, listening to music, playing games, and painting figs with friends) and OMG!

This is a Bandai RG (Real Grade) 1/144 Gundam kit of the Sazabi.  live joints! Meaning you clip the part from the sprue and it them is movable without any assembly!  To me from an engineering perspective was just amazing!  The wife laughed like crazy about me talking about how cool with was that you cut a part out of a sprue and it had 9 joints that you could immediately mend and move.  I got called a complete geek several times while building the kit.

What?  The part comes out of the sprue and can move???

Yup!  It holds the various skirt pieces in place!  Amazing!

The kit was $50, has 17 sprues of plastic, including 2 that are very cool... 1 is 4 different colours of plastic on one sprue!! The other is only 2 colours BUT are different materials that form

That's a lot of plastic for $50!

HOWEVER, even the wife (who generally dislikes miniatures) thought it was extremely cool and helped clip parts, file and sand, and even applied all the decals on it (lots of super tiny silver foil decals in hidden spaces that open up). 

Even better the kit is made so that it essentially makes an action figure that is completely moveable and transformable, right down to weapons, hands, opening panels and more!! Every single part moves on the kit, heck each foot has 7 points of movement!   Better even than that it it comes in about 9 different colours (including 3 shades of red and 3 of grey/black) and you essentially clip the parts, clean them, use a marker to do the panel lines, and then snap them together and you are done!!!

Each of those little missile pods come out of the backpack and open up with 4 wings!

That‘s right no painting required (they do each part in the right colour) and no glue either it‘s all press fit!  Hence me not expecting any points for this kit.  All I had to do was paint in the panel lines with a pigment pen, then clear coat it when done.

So, 200+ parts, movable, snap together, 100+ decals.... $50!

How much would something like this be from GW??? $200? $300? The single sprue ork vehicle I just got was $55.....

If Bandai can do this level of tech in a kit that likely sells 1/10th or 1/50th or even 1/1000th of the numbers that a GW kit sells and they can do it for less than 1/4 what GW would sell it for....... sigh.... This kit is at least 4x as good as a Riptide, about the same size (at about 7" tall), and 1/2 the cost.....

If anyone is looking for a cool and challenging model kit to build, I strongly suggest looking at a Bandai Gundam figure!  It was a lot of fun to build, and being a 1/144 this is a simple one for movable parts, the 1/100 and 1/60 get even more parts and details!  I have already gotten a 1/100 to play around with.

______________________________

Whoah! Now, I know virtually nothing about the impenetrably obtuse Gundam universe, BUT that bad boy one very cool big, stompy robot. 

As you say Byron, it's completely bewildering that Bandai can produce a kit of this quality and relatively low-cost and we still manage to get rogered senseless by GW's pricing structure. It's astounding.

Even thought it comes pre-coloured, I'm going to award 15 points for the complex build and extra detailing.

Thanks for showing this guy to us Byron!

- Curt