From TeemuL: Green(ish) Squirrels in Four Acts (135 points)

I have had this flu or something for over a week now. It has prevented me to do my work or participate in my other hobbies (judo and boy scouts), but has allowed me a lot of time to paint minis. I'm not able to work 8 hours a day, but I can paint several 30-45 minutes sessions in a day, so I have managed to paint quite a lot during this week. But let's forget the flu and let's focus on the minis and squirrels. There will be things that should be green and are green, things that should not be green, but are green, things that should be green, but are not and finally a small bonus thing that should not be green and is not green - just to round up one squirrel.

We start with green things, which should be green. These are SU-76s for Operation Bagration and these are from Plastic Soldier company and are assembled as late variants. Painting these vehicles were quite easy and straigth forward, they are basically all green. I might be bit "lazy" with my historical references, but these were actually just green mean machines, so no shortcuts here.

I did some highlights and then covered them in dust and mud, there is a long way to Poland. Exhaust pipes were painted brownish orange, they oxide very easily. The markings are "authentic", my reseach told me that Soviet forces were not like Germans or other countries with strict rules for numbering, they were basically anything that commander wanted. I guess it makes it difficult for the opponent's spyes, when even the Soviets can't figure out what the numbers mean!

But I saw some photos with similar markings and went with these, at least there is an indication that they are from the same unit. P was a simple choice as a letter, since it is written in same way in Cyrillic alphabet, too. Finally I glued them on MDF bases (from Warbases) for easier storage - there is a magnetic sheet on the bottom. The bases are green, with green painted sand and green tufts, Operation Bagration took time in the summer 1944.

There are two crew members on each vehicle, but since I glued them first and painted second, I will only claim points for half the minis - the lower parts are just mess of green, blue and black paint. I chose blue overalls on them, I've seen some evidence, that these were used. There are also two heads on two of the vehicles, but really hard to count them for anything. 5 15mm vehicles for 40 points and 5 infantry for other 10 points, total of 50 points and squirrel for 15mm WW2 Soviets.

Next we have those things, that should be green, but are green! We step in to the world of "Post World War 2 Alternative History" or "Imaginations", weak minded should close their eyes and scroll down a bit. Some of you might remember my Wars of Insurgency project I started two Challenges ago (probably) and I've been adding things every now and then. A short explanation. We are in the alternative history (or universe) after WW2 and there is something happening in the old colony of Delmonteland. There is a power vacuum and several factions are eager to exploit/expand/exterminate the area. There are of course locals, there are private armies, neighbouring countries, super powers directly or indirectly, union of countries and so on. Delmontenland is especially rich in blood oranges, their juice is their primary export.

I have not created a back story of these guys yet, but they are properly dressed in green uniforms suitable for Delmonteland jungles, they seem quite professional (or at least professionally equipped) and ready to fight in the heat of the jungle. Maybe a private army of some rich local or just pawns of some super power in disguise?

I painted their clothes green, I was thinking about adding some camo effect, but liked their green so much, that I didn't want to. They remind me of my plastic army men of my childhood. I added a yellow round on their caps/helmets and yellod dots or stripes on their left arm, insignia or something. Their equipment are simple brown, I used two different tones to get some variation. Rifles are brown and metal, while submachine guns, bazookas etc are black.

I gave them my usual Delmonteland basing, sand pained green and then all kind of green things to emulate the jungle they are. Quite happy with them. You might wonder why these look familiar, but strange, of why these should not be green? Well, these are actually Perry Miniatures plastic DAK, so they should not be green! In my twisted (and open) mind I found them perfect sculpts for jungle fight, light summer uniforms, caps and sun helmets...

Wars of Insurgency rules put a lot attention to bazookas and machine guns, much more than WW2 units do. So I have ordered some bazookas from Warbases and glued three of them for these guys. The crouched position fits nicely here, they are listening orders or looking for a good view to fire. Here you can see the yellow marking quite good, too.

A close up of a mortar team, yes that tiny thing there! Two coats of green lighter green for highlight and a green wash does wonders! Here's one of the rare hard helmets in this group.

This last photo is an example of how you can tell stories with miniatures, which are assembled in hurry and in bad lightning. Quite cleverly the set comes with bare heads, you can glue cap, hard helmet or sun helmet on them, to get a lot of variation. The guy on the right is most likely scared like in cartoons or shot through his cap. The guy on the left is probably just scared... These are 28mm minis, 10 standing, 2 prone, so 55 points in total - that mortar is not a crew served weapon! Also "Post WW2 Alternative History Squirrel" (I would like to see some squirrel sculpts of these...)

Okay, on we go. Next we have things that should be green, but are not. From history to alternative history to pure fantasy! I have long had a dream of metal Imperial Guard (Astra Militarum) army in WH40K - the vehicles will be an exception, of course. It is difficult to choose which minis you want, because you want them all. So some years ago I started my project and decided to include all the different minis with a background story. These are not really a fighting force, but a promotional unit used for propaganda, rising morale and boosting up drafting. Think about a huge LARP, where there are spectators watching how the brave soldiers of the Imperium beat the Chaos and Xenos threats (which of course don't exists) with fixed bayonets! If you can imagine this, then good for you. So far I have been painting Mordians, Cadians, Valhallans and some vehicles, but now it is time for Catachans - you know the guys in green with red bandada?

But of course these aren't green, they are a wild tricolor of red, yellow and blue with black weapons! I have painted all my Imperial Guard minis with this uniform, so they will all look good together. Someone might ask why choose such a striking uniform, even in the grim dark world of WH40K. Just think about the backstory and you will figure it out. But I explain it anyway. These are not real warriors in the warzones, these are basically actors in a play and specatators want to see the actors, right? It would be boring, if all the good guys are camouflaged in the terrain, would it?

In general I have decided to paint yellow jackets, red pants and blue helmets, but it went a bit tricky with these half naked guys, but I guess I managed it. Following my strong contrasts I have picked up details like water bottles or pouches in contrasting colours. And I have painted these with Citadel Contrast colours, quite clever!

What do we actually have here? We have an autocannon team and a mortar team with a sergeant. I have followed my inconstant choice of bases and the heavy weapons are now on 40mm round bases with one crewman and the other is on 25mm base. In the past I have sometimes put them all on the same base or all on separate bases - despite my dream I'm not likely ever play WH40K with these, so the base sizes won't really matter - on the other hand, some of the bases are most likely the correct size!

I'm not sure, but I believe there are Perry sculpts, because this is the only skull in the unit! Looks quite messy in the photo, but is slightly better in real life. That will be 25 points for the warriors, 1 skull and "Warhammer 40K Imperium" squirrel.

This has been a long post, but there is little left. I wanted to round this post with final and boring section, a thing that should not be (I hear Galadried in my head everytime I write this stuff) green and is not green. We stay in the WH40K universe and add to my earlier post from December.

Here is a Chaos Space Marine of the Magma Hounds chapter. Magma Hounds is not created by me, I found it on internet while searching for Renegade Chapters, because I didn't want to invent my own. I wanted a Renegade Chapter, not one devoted to Chaos God or Gods, a bit different and one with no special rules. I painted a group of these for Kill Team (when the current ruleset was in first version) and even played with them. In December I painted that old Dreadnought in these same colours and I realized that "Warhammer 40K Chaos" squirrel is just 5 points away, so I dug up an old metal body and glued some hands and backpack. Not necessarily the Codex look, but these are renegades, so anything goes.

His pose looks a bit strange, at least from some angles, but I guess it would not be too hard to figure our (or build) a diorama, where he would be spot on. Note also the skull on the gun.

So the colours are gold and purple, they work together very nice. And they look even better together, when both are covered in purple wash like I have done here. Purple gives a nice tone to bright gold and naturally ties the two colours together. Very simple. Note the skull on the backpack.

Here's a comparison photo with the new guy and his older friend. Apparently I went mad back then and put those minis on larger bases, but this new one is on the original 25mm base. This one Chaos Space Marine will give me 5 more points, 5 skulls (gun, backpack, both knees and belt) and completes the "Warhammer 40K Chaos" squirrel.

In total 135 points, 6 skulls and 4 squirrels (7 in total)! It was a long post, next time something else and something shorter!

 

Now Teemu please do not apologize for making a long post. We all like to see and read posts like these that show us what our compatriots in the Challenge are up to! Now let's start with saying that I do hope you get rid of that pesky blessing of faher Nurgle soon, get away you foul flu! With that out of the way, I really enjoy your "alternative historical project" a lot, but the GW Catachans are the cream of the crop for me, I also really appreciate your backstory for them which enables you to get so many brilliant figures in one project. 

 

Cheers Sander 

From StuartL - For the Duels!!! A Final Post - 550 Points

Hello again.

I know that there are still a few hours left to go before the final whistle, but I'm going to say that I'm done. I have nothing that I can get finished between now and the deadline, so this lot will have to be it.

By the kick off for the challenge, I had signed myself up for no less than 3 different side-duels, (though luckily two of them pretty much went hand in hand). To round things off for the challenge, I have been beavering away at entries for all three duels to end on a hat-trick.

First of all, the Squirrel side duel. The aim was to paint up at least 25 points of any given theme to get 1 Squirrel point. However, each theme had to be unique to score the points. For those gamers with a very narrow focus (how do you do it), this might be a difficult duel to enter, but I have dozens of different projects all stashed away awaiting paint.

For the North West Frontier and the 2nd Anglo-Afghan War, some Afghans. I painted up some Afghan Regulars and British troops in previous challenges, but I have loads of these tribesmen and warriors still to do. The figures are all from Artizan Designs. 

This group of Arabians will be joining a small group of their fellows for games of Saga, Age of Crusades. I usually like to paint these models in different colours, but was pressed for time. The next batch (post challenge) will have different coloured robes. The minis are from Gripping Beast.

The second duel I entered was the Skullz Duel. As the name implies, you get points from painting Skulls. Some minis may have a skull on the base, or on their uniform, but the majority of historical miniatures don't really go in for the bare cranium look very much. Luckily one particular range of minis has a massive skull fixation and they are also the focus of my third duel, the Games Workshop Minis duel. From the get go, my aim in this challenge was going to be to focus squarely on painting up some GW figures. When Curt announced the Squirrel Duel, it kind of distracted me, but I've still managed to get some paint onto some GW minis along the way.

Here we have 90 Catachan Jungle Fighters of the Imperial Guard. I have been painting them in batches for some time now. I am soooo tired of painting green uniforms. I have had the bulk of these minis for going on 20 years now and I am glad that they are finally done.

I do have some heavy weapons teams, but even with the extension of the deadline, they just aren't going to get done in time. The more eagle-eyed among you may have noticed the chap with the spot-light in the bottom corner of the picture. Back in 4th edition 40K, there was an option to pit small kill-teams against each other. One player would be the attacker and one the defender and both sides would get some extra options like trip-wires or search lights, so I decided to model one up.

I think it was Barks, the originator of the Skullz duel who said that it is scenery that pulls out the big numbers, and that got me thinking. I must have some terrain with skulls on it somewhere....

This is one of the old kits from GW's Cities of Death range. There are skulls all over it. There are skulls on the floors, there are skulls on the interior walls, on the doors and oh boy are there skulls on the exterior.

It would seem that one of the ways 40K architects deal with alien/mutant/daemonic hordes swooping in and murdering everyone on a planet, is to scoop up the remains of the murdered populace and use them as building materials for the next set of cities/targets.

As you can see, they didn't skimp on the skulls here. I think the designer of this kit may have had some issues to resolve.

So points wise we have:

5 Afghans at 5 points each gives me 25 points to my total and 1 Squirrel.

5 Arabs at 5 points each gives me 25 points to my total and 1 Squirrel.

90 Imperial Guard at 5 points a model comes to 450 points for both the GW duel and the total. Most of them have skulls on the sides of their rifles and other accessories, for a total of 99 Skullz.

1 Building which is roughly 8" by 10" by 7", or 560 cubic inches. That is roughly 2.5 terrain cubes rounded down, or 50 Points for both the GW duel and the total. The building contains a mind-boggling 772 Skullz. The two panels in close up above have about 65 each on the side that you can see. 

For a grand total of 550 Points, 2 Squirrels, 871 Skullz and 500 GW points. A hat trick and a points bomb to boot. 

My FINAL duels totals.

GW Points - 1766

Skullz - 1363

Squirrels - 20

I'm going for a long lie down.

From DavidB - More Catachans....also Ray and Fran! (160 points)

I unfortunately missed last week, but my civilian job had me on overtime. With the cold temps, flu stricken co-workers, and my 12 hr shifts...well I did get to paint a little! I have seen everyone's posts even if i didn't leave a comment. But I was able to briefly forget about the snow and cold in my downtime of viewing the scads of World War, Nappies, medieval, Scifi, and fantasy works on view! ;)

Which brings me to this entry. My first time going to war in the 80's was a total disconnect from home. Cars, movies, family, people..huge changes on my return. My last deployment to Afghanistan was really different than the ones before. When not on mission, we had Internet, current movies, pizza, hamburgers, face book, email, ...home was a lot closer. Hour shift left the time with my kids and wife scant on Skype as we were in total opposite time zones, but after that little moment all I had was gym, movies, and the Internet till the next mission.

I missed gaming and painting and having battle with my friends, so I began to search war gaming on the Internet. I found Ray's blog and his great looking minis and flags...of course I also found our favourite Irishman Fran. Those two were constantly at it and turning out all sorts of minis. It reminded me of my friends back home. I started my own blog when I got home and probably would have left it after my initial posts, but Fran and Ray kept showing up and commenting which kept me at the brushes. Resilience is having something constructive to do as well as support of friends and family.

Fran to the left and Ray to the right. Fran favours a grimy camouflage scheme while Ray prefers

the more "uniform" look.

" What are we here for, Lurker?"

"ORKS, you iggit!"

"Orks don't exist"

"Then what did you just chop up?"

"A tree."

The Catachan Pattern Variant uses the chain blade and heavy flamers. Heavy flamers use promethium, but I suspect that the Badger and Lurker have swapped that fuel for Dettol. If you have no idea what that is, read Fran's blog!

Three plastic mortar teams for a heavy slot, I'd like to get another three.

I mixed up the bits from the infantry and used extra bits to jazz up the real estate on the bases

Three snipers for an elite choice, they get to stay hidden till used.

These are the metal ones, I think they are still available but in resin now.

A whole unit of "tread fethers" the missile ,er, rocket launcher teams are not allowed as a heavy weapon choice unless placed in a platoon squad, and they haven't been slotted in either platoon as I like the heavy flamer more.

These were an eBay purchase and came assembled as they are shown.

Twelve remnants from the force organisation. They can be used for all sorts of stuff including remnant squads, I can even make another elite assault team from this bunch also.

The command squad. This is GW's way of apologising for the plastic infantry. Every special weapon including sniper rifle and heavy flamer is included in the kit. Every bit in the kit is really good too.

The grass snakes medic and the plastic heavy flamer that is even better that the metal ones! The Doc is about to give someone a pick-me-up. Drink water and change your socks are the only words anybody has ever heard him say... 

The commo trooper has a huge radio set for the commander to talk over everybody!

A scarred Mohawk head and this wonderful kinda relaxed pose- I hid the skull he is standing on in static grass. His scarred face had angular features like mine, so I gave him some proper war paint and reddened his weapon arm with red ink.

Lots of detail on the plastics including the medical emblem on doc's backpack. The carbine with doc was added on. Although he has a bone saw and knife, I thought he needed a rifle and the stock-folding lasgun seemed a good fit.

Another shot of the First Nation hidden in the force! ;)

I haven't gotten Col Stracken, but here is Sly Marbo. We all know the riff he is taken from!

Probably one of my favourite special character sculpts too.

And here is the entire Catachan Deathworld Veteran force- The Grass Snakes. I have no more Catachans in the house other than the Orlock gang I plan to repaint. They get their first outing this Monday in the jungle against orcs. I'm on vacation now....well after military drill this weekend.

12 Catachans

3 mortar teams

3 tread-fethers

3 snipers

4 command squad troops

1 special character

and of course...

The Lurker and Badger....hmmm,

Doesn't quite have the same ring as The Falcon and the Snowman does it?!?

Well, another huge deployment of the dreaded Death World forces, and another avalanche of points burying me in a side duel...so...many...Catachans....David, you are a machine! There is a lot to choose from in this submission - including Ray and Fran, who I'm sure will chime in with some comments (helpful or otherwise) below, but my favourite has to be that Mohawk carrying the standard in the command group.  Great paint work all around, but he certainly stands out.  

I wish you and this lot the best as they venture into the jungles against the Orks next week! It can be a rough go with newly painted figures, but I expect they will honour the spirit of their "home" - the death world of Catachan! Another 160 points David, well done. 

From DavidB - Catachan GrassSnakes, 1st Platoon (205 Points)

Finished the 3rd troop selection for the Catachan Grass Snakes. I only have a few more bits and pieces to paint for them now. Probably one of the perverse joys I get from 40k is playing imperial guard where a command squad and two or more squads of 10 troops takes one slot of troops on the force org. Granted the lasguns are just a touch more lethal than a flashlight; yet, these 41 troops occupy a slot of 10 marines. Being numerous and Deathworld Vets, they are not going to be easy to shift either! ;)

Above is 2nd squad 1st platoon, a standard vet Sgt leads a squad with a heavy flamer, flamer, and com-link. Due too my predictably unpredictable photography, 1st squad which has a similar load out save for a chain sword wielding Sgt has been lost to the camera gods.

3rd platoon has a standard vet Sgt, flamer, com-link, and a tread-fether.  I refuse to call it a missile launcher as it has the word MISS in it! Rocket launcher could work as a title, but Dan Abbnet's "tread-fether" has more charm.

4th squad has yet another bog standard vet Sgt, a flamer, and another tread-fether. They do not have a com-link....yet. I do have several in my box of reclamation that I can paint up and attach to some troops. I may wait till later as I really should see just how many points I have collected for this force.

Above are just a few of the more characterful models I made using bits from the command squad and weapon squad sprues. The lasgun camouflaged in leafy fronds, the kneeling legs, guardsman head with the flying bandanna, and the backpack all came from those sprues. I like the pairing of the head with the running legs as he has better movement. I also like the silhouette breaking lasgun and backpack as they really help bring stealthy jungle fighter theme to the force. The kneeling Commo troop has a catachan long tooth"knife" on his back in addition to the radio. He was going to be Commo for the Catachan Devils squad, but apparently, they are far too tough to be allowed radios. Still, according to fluff it is a "just" a knife, 3-4foot long with a hollow core filled with mercury to help with the downswing. Knife fighting via Catachan rules! :)

I just have the heavy choices, another fast attack choice, the command squad, and some extra Catachans to paint yet. Being Deathworld Vets, the squads do not have to be at full strength since they operate for long periods without supply. The extra troops will let me adjust the platoon strength to represent below strength squads.

41 Catachan troops...the photo shy PL and 1st squad did make it in the above picture!

We had several frozen days of sub zero since last posting and I was dong a lot of work outside for my job. A coworker who I saved from going outside bought me the above books from a Goodwill Store for a dollar apiece. I'm now going to have a nice gourmet coffee, put on some warm socks, and enjoy a bit of reading before I dive back in the jungle!

Is Catachan blindness a thing from the 40k rule books? I've seen so many of these little buggers in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge I think I'm experiencing symptoms!  Great work on all of these guys - the size of this force continues to expand in leaps and bounds. It's a good thing that you appreciate the "quality of quantity" aspect of playing the Imperial Guardsmen in the 40k rules, as goodness knows they die by the boatload on every turn.  I have never tried the "death world vets" angle, however, and that certainly sounds cool.

And clearly I need to hit the Goodwill store fore books! What an awesome score! Well done David - we look forward to more next week.  That will be another 205 points for you today...