From StuartL - Altar of the Snow Lord (Revisited) - 30 Points

Hello all,

The final few hours are ticking down towards the end of the challenge, time for a couple of last minute posts. When the Snow Lord set me that challenge to paint up something for my Far East WW2 project, I had a couple of options that I was weighing up. In the end, I chose a unit of Naga Head-hunters, but I kept the other option to one side with the aim of coming back to it if I had time. Luckily, I did!

One of the most overlooked contributions to the Allied war effort came from the British colonies in East and West Africa. During the early stages of the war, African troops in the 11th African Division played a small role in the conflict in  Africa, but only fought one action before being disbanded as the war shifted to the North coast of Africa. As manpower became more of an issue during the war, the British high command decided to form 3 Divisions from the East and West African colonies. These became the 11th East African, and the 81st & 82nd West African Divisions. Despite having three fresh divisions to deploy, the British were hesitant to deploy them in Europe. Instead they were sent to India to bolster the 14th Army fighting against the Japanese. Part of the rational for the deployment was that the Africans should be well suited for jungle fighting as there are jungles in Africa. This is the equivalent of saying that the Swiss should be natural sailors as Europe has a coastline. A lot of the troops deployed to India and Burma had never seen a jungle before they entered basic training. As it transpired, the Africans did make excellent soldiers in the battle against the Japanese, and the Japanese rated them as one of the best units in the British forces they encountered. 

As part of 81st Division's artillery units, the 1st Light Anti-Aircraft/Anti-Tank Regiment, West African Artillery deployed a battery of Bofors anti-aircraft guns to cover the Division from the few Japanese aircraft in the theatre. Generally speaking, the jungle was a poor place for towed artillery pieces and vehicles, plus the tree canopy generally prevented airstrikes, so I can't imagine that these would have seen a lot of action compared to the infantry.

The 81st Division's regular troops were all Africans, but all of the officers and most of the NCO's were of European descent, often being settlers and colonists. Major problems arose within the Division as a lot of them couldn't speak the language of the African troops very well. Mind you, many of the troops spoke different languages and couldn't communicate with each other very well either. General Slim, commanding 14th Army thought that the excessive numbers of European officers was an extravagant waste, most of the Indian units under his command had only about 1/8th the number of white men serving in their battalions compared to the African divisions.

The divisional insignia of the 81st West African was a Black Tarantula on a yellow background. I am sadly unable to get anything close to that on a 28mm mini, so had to settle for a black spot on a yellow square on the shoulders. The spider is supposed to be Anansi, a character from West African folk lore.

The model is from Warlord Games and was originally sold as part of their Australian set for the pacific. The rolled up sleeves and gunner with his jacket off seemed like a good fit for the tropical heat of Burma. I do have a small West African force for Bolt Action to paint up, but alas I didn't have time in this challenge, maybe in Challenge XII.

With the minutes counting down, I'd better tally up my score. 4x28mm minis, plus a 28mm artillery piece should add 30 points to my overall score. As I have already covered the WW2 Far East theme, there are no squirrels for me here. I have already claimed the bonus points for the Altar, so nothing extra to add to my score beyond the minis.

One more post from me before the end I hope. 

From JamesM (Part 1): More guns, more firepower! German 15mm Quad Flak (42 points)

Hi Folks,

Last weeks rushed entry consisted of yet another battery of German Flak. Another load of Luftwaffe troops from III Flak Corps, care of Normandy 1944. The guns are quad mounted 2cm Flak38 AA guns, which were introduced in an effort to increase the hitting power of the 2cm gun. Each 'gun' had a theoretical rate of fire of 1800 rounds per minute, with each gun firing. Although I think this was effectively far lower in combat, normally around 800 rounds a minute.

These are Battlefront models (code GE535) and are 15mm in scale. I messed up slightly as I gave the limbers for these guns to the 3.7cm Flak I painted the other week... Again, I went with the large bases as the medium sized one shown on the web site just looks too cramped!

I'm sure you'll be pleased to know these will be my last 'light' German AA models - unless I decide to dig out the self propelled stuff...

Just to prove to Ray there are crew figures...

In keeping with the earlier Luftwaffe manned guns, I've gone with a similar style of camo on the gun shield and Luftwaffe blue trousers on the gunners. I only had 2 camo jacketed crew to paint for these guns, but I was much happier with how they turned out this time. Frustratingly, one of the plastic bases is somehow warped, but not much I can do about that now!

A week late as I didn't submit last week till later on the day, and it was not posted.

So these are 3 x 15mm guns and 6 standing 15mm gunners and 9 sitting gunners - for a total of 15 gunners for 30 points and the guns are another 12. A total of 42 points!

From Ray

Wonderful brushwork once again James, apologies for not getting these chaps out last Wednesday, but I was tucked up in bed, snoring my head off when you set the copy draft up. 
Anyhoos....I'm loving learning all these facts about German Luftwaffe artillery, that pre Challenge I never knew even existed! Love the camo work on the guns and of course the blue trousers. 
I definitely think you made the right decision on the larger bases. Sometimes Battlefront bases just aren't man enough for the job and you wouldn't have been able to add other scenery bits and bobs like the flowers. Top job James!
These like you said will earn you 42 points!

From JamesM: Battlefront German 2cm AA (56 points)

Hi folks,

Continuing with my Gunuary theme, this week I've some more German AA guns. There may be a theme here throughout the challenge!

These chaps are the lighter brethren of the 3.7cm guns I completed last week, being the single barrelled 2cm Flak 38. Quite a common light AA weapon used by the Germans, who tended to try to use AA cover to make up for the lack of fighter aircraft. Somewhere around 2000 allied aircraft were lost during the Normany fighting, the vast majority of them to Flak.

I've 4 of these guns, forming a light AA battery. Unlike the 3.7cm's these crews are painted up in standard Heer (German Army) uniforms. I even made an attempt at the red waffenfarbe (the edging to the shoulder boards, which denotes arm of service), with red being for artillery and AA crews.

After I had made the decision to stick with the larger style bases for these as well, I decided to keep the guns plain rather than go for a camo effect. In exchange I tried to apply some foliage, in the form of tree branches applied to the front of the guns and over some of the limbers.

The Germans tended to use these lighter guns as 'point defence' AA protection around particular important locations. However, at a push they could be used in a ground role if the enemy got too close.

I'm also playing with my new lightbox, so apologies if the pics are a little bright. The lights do seem to have washed out what little detail I have done on some of the faces.

To go along with these, I also painted some command figures:

These three stands will act as command stands for various units, if I use the version 3 FoW rules (unlikely, as I like the v4 rules and tend to make up my own army's to suit whatever historical scenario's anyway). But I have the figures so may as well paint them. Mixing up the positioning and basing helps to hide the fact each stand has the same 3 figures. Unfortunately, I don't think any of the SMG barrels made it to the end of the process - they were a real weak point on these figures.

Total of 21 x 15mm crew figures = 44 points
4 x guns = 12 points

Total = 56 points

From Ray

Wonderful brushwork once again James, I do like the addition of all the clump foliage, it does indeed add to the camouflage effect of the bases. I would never have noticed until you'd said that the command bases all have the same figures in them, great positioning ol' chap.
\I think you may well need a little more practice with your new lightbox, its a shame because the brightness has knocked out some of your luvverly paintwork.
These badboys will as you suggested earn you a devilish 56 points!

From JamesM : 15mm Battlefront German Luftwaffe 3.7cm AA (44 points)

Hi Folks,

My first entry for this years challenge, despite having started earlier than I did last year (and actually having prepped!). In fact, I think the prep I did actually held me back as the sheer number of models on the shelf acted as a bit of a demotivator. In the end I decided just to focus on one unit at a time, and not worry about the newly excavated cliff of the lead mountain I had built for myself. It's always much easier when the lead mountain is out of sight...

Anyway, as the challenge falls over my own 'Gunuary' project, for this challenge I will mostly be painting 15mm WW2 German guns. I've Nebelwerfers, 88's, artillery, AA and more 88's in the queue.

I'm breaking my duck with a unit of three 3.7cm Flak43 models from Battlefront (product code GE548). These guns should have been painted with SS crews, but I decided to go with Luftwaffe crews. Mainly because my overall project is to have FoW forces representing all the various elements that took part in Operation Totalize (7-8th August 1944 - Normandy). III Flak Corps were present in the area of the battle, so I've a plan for a load of 'reluctant trained' Luftwaffe 88's supported by poor quality security platoons and lighter AA batteries. I had also painted my 2nd and 3rd RAF Typhoon's earlier this year, so my Germans need some AA cover!

Initially, the Germans had planned to have lighter AA guns provide AA support, mainly their 2cm guns in single, double and quad mounts. However, as the war progressed they realised they needed heavier 'medium' guns. The Flak43 used the same ammo as the 3.7cm Anti-Tank gun the German army used, but had a higher rate of fire (around 250 RPM). In many ways, this weapon would be similar to the 40mm Bofors gun.

Gun barrels have been angled to indicate fire at either a distant aircraft or perhaps a slightly closer ground target.

I've gone with my usual basing style, which helps fit everything in together. I also, after some indecision, eventually went with a camo painted gun shield, although with my usual edge highlighting style over the top. Some branches of vegetation 'camo' my be added at a later date, along with some spent casings (although I think these guns had a method for catching the ejected casings, to be re-used) but for now I'm calling them done!

Despite my switch to 4th Edition Flames of War, I'm also still painting up command stands - mainly because they come as part of the pack! I also went with large bases, despite some inconsistencies in the FoW website about whether these guns should be on medium or large bases. The large bases allow for the limber.

Just to prove there is a gunner in the gun!

Total for this lot is 3 x 15mm scale AA guns and limbers plus 15 (there is a chap sitting on the gun, although you can only see the helmet in these pics!) 15mm figures all from Battlefront.

From Ray

Wow! These look terrific James! The painting is crisp and clean and I love the added camo effect. I for one hadn't a clue about Luftwaffe personnel manning artillery during the war, and they sure look cool in their blue trousers.
The basing is certainly up to your usual standard and really adds to the whole effect of the end product. Nice one!

I've given you an extra 2 points each for the limbers James, which I think is only fair, giving you a total of 44 points! 

I still can't see the helmeted figure?