From AlanD - Inter-War Armoured Cars for Under Construction (120 Points)

I've had a break from painting turnips this week with a group of inter-war armoured cars.

It seems like I only seem to work on my inter-war projects during the Painting Challenge, so I'm claiming these for the Under Construction bonus. I was looking back over past Challenges, and saw that I first started painting things for the German Revolution back in 2016. I added some more bits last year, and here we are again.

This beast, a Garford-Putilov, will join the Freikorps I painted in 2016.

A year or so ago I also painted a bunch of Poles for the Polish-Soviet War of 1920, and the next two armoured cars will give them a bit of punch. The diminutive Ford with its colourful camouflage was a Polish design, hastily thrown together in 1920. The Austin-Putilov is based on a well-known photo of a Red Army vehicle that was captured in May 1920. The Poles retained the original Bolshevik vehicle name, cheekily adding their own with the date of capture.

Finally, here are a couple of vehicles for the Red Army in 1920. I don't have any other figures for that particular army yet, but I'm sure that can be remedied at some point! The hal-track is an Austin Kegresse, and it's joined by a Izhorsky-Fiat. I've deliberately left it without markings so I can use it for a few different armies.

I was trying to remember who made these models. The Polish Ford and Austin-Putilov are from Company B. I think the others are from Brigade Games, but I could well be wrong.  Hope you like them! five vehicles plus the Under Construction bonus should give me 120 points for the week. Thank you Tamsin!

That's a great set of armoured cars, Alan. Good to see you return to your inter-war stuff.

Tamsin

From AlanD: Back to the German Revolution (70 points)

Over the past few years, I keep coming back to the German Revolution as a period and gaming project that particularly interests me. In my last submission in AHPC XI, I painted up some revolutionary sailors, and here we are again finishing off a few bits and bobs that I didn't get finished last year.

First up are some more revolutionary sailors, manning a nice model of a MG08. As with all the figures here, I removed their 'puddle' bases so that I could stick them directly onto cobblestone bases, a process that involved a file, knife, harsh language and sometimes blood.

Inspired by watching Babylon Berlin, I've added some Berlin Sicherheitspolizei cops (SiPos) this year. Although they came to be called the 'Green' police, due to the green uniforms they wore, my understanding is that they wore blue during the early post-WWI period, including during the 1919 Spartacist Uprising. I haven't been able to get a clear answer to when their uniforms changed, so if anybody happens to know, I'd appreciate being enlightened! The armed cops here, as well as the sailors, are from the lovely range of figures by Tsuba Miniatures, available here in Australia from Elite Miniatures. Directing the SiPos is the Inspektor, a hard-bitten veteran of the worst the streets of Berlin has to offer. He's a Copplestone figure I had lying around.

Of course, the elephant in the room is the Schupo Sonderwagen, seen lurking in the pics above. What a beast! Built by Daimler, this was one of the main armoured cars used by the Sicherheitspolizei in the early 1920s, although one example survived all the way up to 1945, its wreck featuring in some well-known photographs taken outside the Reichskanzlei after the Battle of Berlin. I do love these inter-war armoured cars.

Points:

7 x figures and one prone - 37.5

1 x crew-served weapon - 10

1 x vehicle - 20

Total - 67.5 points please Barks!

The Inspektor really looks the part, but the Sonderwagen is a little treat. I, too, love these period ACs. I'm going to round you up to 70 points in sympathy with your struggle against puddle bases.

Barks

AlanD - Matrosen, vorwarts! (100 points)

I find myself unexpectedly having to move house in a couple of weeks, so this will probably be my final entry for AHPC XI. Back in AHPC VII in December 2016 I got right into painting some German Revolutionaries for 1918-1920. I've been getting very interested again in the inter-wars period recently, so bought a lovely bunch of revolutionary sailors from Tsuba Miniatures. I love Tsuba's range for the German Revolution, sculpted by Paul Hicks. They are a pleasure to paint, and available in Australia from Elite Miniatures.

These Matrosen (sailors) are from the Volksmarinedivision, the best unit supporting the Revolution in Berlin in 1918-19. I spent an evening trying to figure out what colour to paint the cockades on their caps. You'd expect them to tear off the Imperial cockades, and some photos seem to show plain caps, but they definitely have cockades in others, so what colour were they? Maybe they changed them to red? That's what I went with, but next time I might just cut the cockades off entirely.

Next I have some police from the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) to paint, and I'm likey to paint another awesome 1920s armoured car or two...then there are more Dacians, a bunch of Hellenistic Greeks to support Pompey's men in a Roman civil war, and loads of 6mm Austrians. I won't be running out of projects any time soon.

20 sailors gives me a nice round 100 points to finish on. Thank you minions for all your hard work this year, Curt for making this wonderful festival of paint possible, and to each of you who take part in such a great spirit of shared nerdiness. See you next year, when I aim to crack my 10,000 career points.

AlanD - Interwar Transport (25 points)

 I've had this nice Daimler truck from 1st Corps lying around in bits for a couple of years, so took a break from painting Dacians to get it ready for some tabletop mayhem.

I have a hankering to play some games based around the Russo-Polish War of 1920, the Russian Civil War and the German Revolution, so this truck is likely to have multiple owners.

As a result, as much as I want to paint slogans on it, I made a flagstaff and Polish and Communist flags from foil from a bourgeois wine bottle that can be swapped around. I also plan to add an Imperial German flag so the Freikorps can use the truck as well.

I had fun making this, and it will look pretty imposing on the table. I believe 20 points for the truck and 5 for the driver are in order.

From Paul O'G: Freikorps Panzerauto and Russian log houses (60 points)

First up is this Austin Armoured Car Mk 2 fitted with two turreted maxim guns. A number of these British made machines were purchased by the Russian Army prior to WW1.  After the war they were used widely during the Russian Civil War but many captured on the Eastern Front by the Germans were pressed into service with the Friekorps. I drew quite a bit of inspiration from the period pics, including the skull and crossbones totems which seem to have been prolific.

The model is from 1st Corps' WW1 vehicle range.  Resin body with metal fittings.  Curiously, there were no fixing points for the turrets to the chassis. Rather than glue them in place I magnetised them which helps with storage as well as being able to train them in action.

Alan gave me this kit as a Christmas present...last year...so its good to finally get it completed! Thanks for lending me the thematic background for the pics too mate.

Next up are two 15mm Russian log houses.  These resin buildings by Mk IV Miniatures are beautifully detailed and very crisply cast.

They were a delight to paint and have already seen action in hiding Red Army from Alan's Panzer reece units in games of Battlegroup Barbarossa.  I have another 3 of these in the painting pile and cant wait to get to them.

So in total this week it is one 28mm vehicle, one 28mm figure and 2 terrain pieces (which each fit one cube blocks) for a total of 60 points.

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This is such a great submission, Paul.  Beautifully painted and nicely photographed.  The Austin Armoured car is just one of those vehicles which just screams '1919' at the  top of its slightly enfeebled, and exhaust-fume laden, mouth.  Although I remember that they saw extensive service in the First World War and through the inter-War years, you've placed the car in it's iconic setting - pressed into use in the service of the Freikorps in Weimar Berlin.  Outstanding!

I love the period photograph you've created.  It's really atmospheric and all adds to the theme.  Well done indeed.

The Mk IV Minatures' log houses look the business as well.  I love resin models which are easy to prepare and paint, straight out of the packaging.  These look super painted up.

Awesome work, Paul, and a well-earned 60 points!

From AlanD - Freikorps 1918-1920 (145 Points)

Following on from my Spartacists for the German Revolution, here are 29 Freikorps figures to ruthlessly suppress them. Figures are from Great War Miniatures, and I thoroughly enjoyed painting them. The details on some figures aren't really right for Berlin in 1918-1920 (there shouldn't be any gas masks, for a start), but the figures with grenade bags and entrenching tools really look the biz. And I did carve the gas mask containers off some of the figures before cutting my thumb and giving up.



Just for the eye candy, I have included a wonderfully ugly Ehrhardt EV/4 armoured car, but this was painted before the Challenge.



So that's 29 figures and 145 points, and about 1/6 of the way to my absurdly optimistic target. 

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Fabulous work Dux! The late war Germans form Great War Miniatures look great in this role. You did a great job freehanding the ghoulish skull and crossbones on their coal scuttle helmets. Sorry to hear about your thumb, but it was in service of your muse so hopefully it heals up well. Love the Ehrhardt! If anyone else wants one of these I suggest you go over to Alf at Barrage Miniatures - he has a wonderful casting of this brute.

Historically footnote: In a perverse way it's too bad the German revolutionaries didn't have better success in whittling down the Freikorps before they were stamped out. Several members of the Freikorps (Röhm, Himmler and Höß to name a few) became some of the most heinous personalities of the soon-to-emerge Nazi party.

From AlanD: German Revolution, 1918 (225 points)

To the barricades!
 

For my first submission this year, here are a bunch of Spartacist revolutionaries from Berlin in 1918-1919. The figures are all from Tsuba Miniatures, available through Empress Miniatures, and are sculpted by Paul Hicks. I would probably write more about them, but I am currently sitting just out of the rain outside my brother's house so I can connect to his email, as my internet at home has completely died, just in time for the Challenge.

43 figures and a heavy MG by my calculations should net me 225 points. Rote Fahne voran!

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I must say I'm a bit envious of this post as I have a load of German Revolution figures awaiting paint and Alan had handily beat me to the punch - and in what a terrific way. Absolutely fabulous work Alan.  These figures just shout character. I love the flagstone bases with the political posters and the card buildings really set the scene. Will there be Friekorps to face them and perhaps an armoured car or two clearing the streets? I very much look forward to seeing this project develop (once you get your internet connection sorted out).

If you want further inspiration please check out Jonathan Rabb's 'Rosa: A Novel'. It's a detective novel set during the 1918 revolution. It centers around the death of Rosa Luxemburg and a series of related murders. Very good read.

 

225 Points for your first assault on the roster. Great work.