From TeemuL: More Brits in Peninsula (20 points)

Okey, nothing special here, just four more Brits to fight in the Peninsula War. This post almost didn't made it, I was too busy to paint two days in a row and they I got a flu. Paracematol doesn't do wonders, but it helps a bit and combined with proper timing I was able finish this lot and claim 20 points. More importantly, I was able to keep my streak alive (posting something everyweek since AHPC VI or something).

These are the same Victrix minis I painted last month, again gathering everything from the bottom of the box, so all kinds of poses, heads and arms combined to a 4 man stand. I could try to say, that I aimed for a campainged look of seasoned veterans, but really it is just what I had.

The story behind is that I bought two partially used boxes of these and was just able to create two 24 man units - but it meant I couldn't assemble them as I wanted, but what I had. There are random number of drummers, standard bearers and commanders in both units, but I can live it that  - the unit is not 24 strong in the real history either. :)

Still troubled by the flu, so no long posts and basically there is nothing new. Something different next time and more Napoleonics in the near future. So 20 points please.

 Well Teemu, that's one nice little entry indeed great work on the dynamic posing! Sad to hear you are still suffering from the flu, get well soon we want to see more of those excellent Napoleonics!

 Cheers Sander  

From SylvainR: Tray 02 - 6mm Comet and Churchill Tanks (78 points)

 

 This week, I offer my last tray of late WW2 Canadian/British elements. 

 

First, some Comet tanks. These represented the final development in the series of cruiser tanks. I've put some blurbs of paints in the front and back of the tanks to mimic the unit's insignias and weight limitation warnings. When you keep the miniatures at arm's length, the normal distance on the table, you can't even see them :-). 

 

A side view of the Comet. The squadron triangle on the turret is about 1 millimeter wide. It's amazing what the camera on an i-phone can do nowadays. I remember struggling with taking good photos not so long ago.

 

Next, a squadron of Churchill Mk. II and III modified for the Dieppe raid. A few years ago, Challenger DallasE painted amazingly detailed Churchill tanks for Dieppe which greatly impressed me. My models are nowhere as clean as his, but I'm still happy with the final result.

 

I added the typical exhaust pipes on the rear deck by drilling micro holes in which I inserted bent needles.

 

Again, blurbs of paints suggest tank names and serial numbers. I could have sourced tiny decals for this project, but I just wanted to get them done. Now I just need to find a casino for scenery and I'll be ready to play Dieppe!

 

Finally, a squadron of Churchill AVRE. These will help the Royal Engineers get the "work" done on D-Day.

 

With these units done, I have finally completed my late WW2 Canadian/British army with a total of 11 trays. I worked on this project mostly from June to September of last year, basing already painted miniatures, touching up some others while putting aside the unpainted models for the Challenge.  

I displayed some of the miniatures that were painted at the time in the officer's mess of the Regina Armoury on November 11th, Remembrance Day in Canada. It was an homage to the 1st Canadian Division who fought mostly in Italy and I was showcasing the military organization of infantry regiments, showing also some support vehicles, etc. It was well received. Note the magnifying glass at the disposal of aging eyes. A Canadian veteran (not from WW2) took a look, immediately pointed at the weapon company and said: "This is me!" He then explained he was on a mortar team during his service. We then compared for a few minutes the effectiveness of the 2", 3" and 4.2" mortars. It was great to connect with the veterans. 

Please, allow me one more photo to show you the little dioramas I made for the battalion HQs. The Canadian commanders are identified by little flags while the British commanders have none, so I can make the troops either Canadian or British. When naming commanders, I like to honor people I know. Challengers might be able to identify Mudry, Ewen, Burch and Violago. And maybe Rheault? :-)

 

Here is the updated to-do list of my WW2-6mm project, something I started in 2021 after a friend of mine decided to retire from wargaming and gave me his collection, a treasure he accumulated over 40 years. His miniatures were in serious need of TLC and I decided to give them a new life by putting everything on bases (ha ha, silly younger me). I remember back then naively ordering 500 bases from Warbases, fearing that it would be too much and that I would be stuck with surplus for the rest of my life... As of today, I have finished well over 4,000 elements, and I have not yet started working on US and Soviet armies. At the core of each army I have completed so far is an infantry battalion. I now have 9 such battalions, which is the equivalent of an infantry division where each tiny 6mm figurine represents a soldier in real life. A division... My insanity is factual... 

Points claimed: 

39x 6mm vehicles at 2 point each = 78 points

Total = 78 points

Thanks for reading! 

On Comet, on Churchill, on,,,oh wrong Comets.  Love to see the Comets in play instead of the all too prevalent Shermans Sylvain.  Your painting at this fine scale is amazing, and I don't want to think about adding the exhaust pipes to those Churchills.  And everything is wonderfully based to your normal standard.  Thanks for sharing your photos from the local Remembrance Day event, great stories there.

And no need to worry, none of us doubt your sanity..Peter

 

From TeemuL: Peninsular British (80 points)

Earlier in the Challenge I painted the last base of my Highlanders and promised more. There was a small problem, I noticed I didn't have any bases for the next units. So I ordered more and received them, thank you Warbases - it was surprisingly easy this time, getting a package from UK to EU. Anyway, there was another issue. I had bought two boxes of Victrix British Peninsular Infantry from a marketplace, but both of them were little used, so not all the minis were there. One box was Center Companis, another Flank Companies. And when I did the calculations, I had exactly 72 soldiers, which means exactly three units of 24. Because I wanted to some unity in units, I had to assemble all the 72 minis to know which kind of poses I actually had and what kinds of hands etc, how many commanders and so on. Quite a task when someone should focus on actually painting minis during the challenge, not assembling a horde of minis.

But in the end it worked out, I had three units to paint, some of them had more commanders or flags than others, but that doesn't worry me too much, the units were not 24 strong in the real life anyway. Here I present the first four bases of the new unit of my retirement project, Napoleonic Peninsular Wars.

These are mostly assembled from Centre Companies box. Luckily those boxes were quite identical, one had curved swords and the other had straight swords being the main difference. Based on the information on the box, I decided to use blue details, which means they can be Foot Guards, 1st Royal Scots, Kings German Legion or 4th Kings Own and possibly several others, too. Since I already painted some Highlanders, let's say these are 1st Royal Scots. After more research I may need to change my mind...

These are a combination of Contrast and traditional paints, clothes and backpacks are mainly Contrast paints, others painted in traditionals with a odd wash here and there. I was looking forward to have white pants, but decided to try light grey in the end, using watered down Basilicanum Grey Contrast paint. I'd say there are ok for a game, but not for a historical diorama. Luckily I'm aiming for the first.

Let's see if I can make some progress in the Heaven this week, but if not, this is still a nice 80 points for, coming from 16 28mm plastic minis.

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Hi Teemu

Wow! That’s a lot of minis to organize and assemble!

As a retirement project I don’t think you can go wrong with Napoleonics … beautiful uniforms, large & small scale battles and once you’ve completed armies in one scale you can replicate in yet another smaller scale (looking at you Mr Snowlord … haha)

Well done Teemu and another 80points to your scoreboard

-Sarah

From Mike W - 28mm High Elves & British Sudan Infantry (130 Points)

So this week has not been as productive as I'd hoped, with real life commitments getting in the way.

However I did finish 2 batches of figures and I have quite few 'in progress' on the workbench - more 28mm Arthurian Cavalry, some ECW types as well as some AWI figures and a bunch of Warlord Epic 15mm Carthaginians...

21 x Highland Miniatures, Aegean (High) Elves

Another view of the unit

And another....

But this week's main event are 21 x 28mm High Elves, which are 3D Prints from Highland Miniatures. They were a joy to paint and as such I have tried to align their colour palette withe the classic Games Worksop figures I completed earlier in this Challenge.

The command team, I love their long flowing hair, caught in the wind.

Group of four elves, in a variety of clothes
but all with the same colours to bond them together in a unit

I was originally going to leave their waist sashes white but these did not scan well, I then tought of doing them in turquoise blue but that would clash with the rest of their outfts so in the end I settled on yellow sashes.

Four more elves, in a variety of positions.
The figures come fully moulded with a set of inter-changeable heads to allow added variety

Another group, bases are 25mm MDF squares

Final two Elves

And a close-up on the standard bearer,
symbol was taken form an online illustration.

The other batch of figures that I completed were 5 x British 'Post Office Riflemen' from the 1885 Sudan Campaign. 

Five Riflemen in Sudan

These 28mm figures are old Wargames Factory guys, they are a bit crude, sculpt wise,  compared to more modern plastics but I fancied doing them due to an obscure family connection to this little known unit. 

Two riflemen in close-up

Two little guys shooting - I'll refrain from saying that
'the postman always shoots twice!'
Oops! I didn't!

Close-up of the final figure - although rough and ready,
by today's standards,  the sculpt does the job

It turns out that my Great Grandfather was a Post Office worker in 1885 and we'd always been told he was a Rifleman. He would have been 19 years old at the time of their second Sudanese campaign in 1885.  However, I have not been able to find any records of his service - so we are now thinking that this was a bit of a rather over-embellished story!

POINTS

21 x 28mm Elves @5 Pts                  105 Points

5 x 28mm British Infantry @ 5 Pts     25 Points

TOTAL                                              130 Points

I always like Wargames Foundry, even though the sculpts may show their age a bit. These are very good too, and I like your paint job. A pity that you couldn't find anything about your ancestor, but perhaps in the future you will be able to confirm his heroic history! Those Highland Miniatures Elves look great also, in their somewhat traditional but rather splendid colour scheme. They are great designs, and the fully painted unit looks marvellous. 130 points it is.

Martijn

From DallasE: Bolt Action AEC Armoured Car (20 points)

Hey gang. Not much for this week but I did start and finish a resin armoured car. This is some super old stock from Warlord Games that I picked up from a local pal. It's an AEC MKIII.

At first I thought I might reasonably be able to paint it up for North Africa, but they really only used the MKI with a Valentine turret, but some reportedly armed with a Crusader turret mount a 6-pounder AT gun. But this MKIII replaced the MKII's 6-pounder with a QF 75mm AT gun. Yikes!

I painted this one as a MKIII fielded by the 1st King's Dragoon Guards in Normandy.  The vehicle was painted Castellan Green, washed Agrax Earthshade, and panel highlighted Castellan again. I freehanded the insignia.

I used some serial number decals I had in the bits box with a freehand "F". The stars on the hull sides are freehand. I stuck on some stowage from ValueGear as well.

I did find one star decal in the box though!

This is a pretty good model, resin body and turret with metal gun barrel and wheels. I don't think you can buy it anymore though! It'll fit into my late-war Brit force pretty well I think.

Points: 20 for a 28mm vehicle.

See you next time with some trucks!
 

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Nice job Dallas - I do love those older resin Warlord models. I've got two of their resin Churchills and they have some very satisfying heft to them! (anyone got a third spare to complete my Troop?) Your hand painted marking really complete the look - nice work!

- Paul

From SteveM: 15mm TY Soviets and FoW British (296 points)

 Two eras of tanks today. Enjoy.

Team Yankee Soviets

The Team Yankee Soviets were part of a group of three types of tanks that I got second hand when the challenge started. Two of the tanks types are in this post. I suppose they were someone else's Limbo pile so I won't count it as mine. These had been assembled and primed but some needed minor repair work.  A few of the turret mounted machine guns will remain broken for now and I will leave that to a future mini project.

A future challenge post might contain the third group that are plain T-64. There was one turret that was glued and I am in the process of fixing it.

First up today is a group of cold war era Soviet T-72. Painted in "green", with some oil paint weathering.

 

Soviet T-64BV:

The second group is of cold war era T-64BV. Painted in "green", with some oil paint weathering.

 

 

Mfg: Battlefront Miniatures

Scale: 15mm

Material: plastic

subtotal 21 (8 + 12) x 15mm vehicle @ 8 points = 168 points

Flames of War British

These were next in the queue to paint. They might have been part of a boxed set that contained infantry but if so, they won't be painted any time soon as some other cool projects are in the queue. There is an assortment of Cromwell, Sherman, Stuart, Tank Destroyer, and Churchill flamethrowers.

 

Again painted in "green". There is some ghosting on a few of the decals due to not enough gloss varnish prior to putting them on as there was too much water mixed in.

 

Mfg: Battlefront Miniatures

Scale: 15mm

Material: plastic

 subtotal: 16 x 15mm vehicle @ 8 points = 128 points

Challenge Points:

Total = 296 points

 

Sylvain: Your tanks look gorgeous. Even though they are plain green, you were able to pick out the details and make them look that they were on the battlefield a few moments ago. I like how you painted the rubber parts of the tracks on your Sheman Firefly. This kind of attention to details really increases the realism of your paint job. This is your first entry of the Challenge and you did it with a bang, giving us a point bomb! 296 points for you!