From MikeW - 28mm Dutch 17th Century Cavalry and whatever I can get done in the next three days! (174 Points)

How time flies, the end of the challenge looms and I have so much to do that I did not get around to even starting! So this is likely the last post that I can make this challenge and this is really a series of items that I have been scrambling to complete over the next few days as the deadline looms.

This weekend I am on Grand parent duty and this unlikely to get time to do anything else. I'd like to take this chance to thank Teemu for his tireless efforts dealing with my posts and also to Curt & all the minions for again making this an enjoyable experience.

So here are my odds and ends and I bid all farewell until next year's challenge?

First of a group of 5 x 28mm Late 17th Century Dutch Cavalry representing Filips Emminghuysen van Eppe's Regiment of Horse, first raised in 1672 and served at the Battle of Seneffe in 1674. Apart from having an extraordinarily long name, they worn grey jackets and trousers, sky Blue cuffs and Horse furniture. I have still to get the officer completed but this is unlikely to be done by the end of the challenge!

Front on view of five troopers,
officer is still being painted at the time the challenge comes to an end!

Side view, I don't usually do casualty figures but the occasional one adds flavour to a unit

And the other side

Next I have managed to complete one of the two remaining 40K Ork Kill Koptas, again it has a scratch built rota blade set but the build and construct are much the same as last week's submission.

Second Kill Kopta completed, with one more to go...

The other side! Extra guns added on the Kopta's front bonnet.

Another view again!

Here are a couple of 15mm project that have been floundering over the last few months, first up is some long overdue American Civil War Coastal Batteries and secondly we have some Russian supplied equipment for the Spanish Civil War Republicans, in the form of tanks and artillery.

On the ACW front we have 7 x Coastal / Siege Batteries, these are in the traditional grey finish with blackened barrels (to protect them form the sea salt). Each is on a fairly elaborate chassis and typically these would be found in long term forts / emplacements. I'm also throwing in 4 x Smoothbore Field guns that I have just completed.

The completed 15mm ACW Coastal Guns

I've had these models for ages, stored in the garage waiting for me to get around to painting and basing them. A potential future game set in the Petersburg Siege lines has prompted me to actually dig them out and get them ready for use.

And four completed ACW Field Guns

These little Field Guns were found along wit the big guns above, so I decided to get them completed at the same time as well. I gave these plain wooden frames, assuming that they would be used as Confederate batteries, I believe these are 6lb Smoothbores. I now need to source crews for each gun.

Close-up on a 8" Columbiad Gun. I have tried to weather the carriage to
represent harsh sea salt air in coastal areas

Another view

This is a close-up of the 10" Columbiad Gun

Again another view

A comparison shot showing just how big these Coastal / Siege
guns were compared to regular Field Artillery

Next we have 3 x T26 tanks and 4 x Artillery pieces all supplied during the Spanish conflict to the Republican army. The equipment is all in traditional Russian Green drab but on the tanks I have added the Republican Tricolour of Nationalist Spanish Flag as these vehicles were prized by both sides.

Three completed T26 tanks, centre & left are Republican vehicles,
right is a captured tank pressed into Nationalist service

I have quite a large SCW Republican Army and a smattering of Nationalists to oppose them, as a club we were heavily into the SCW some time ago and these models were sourced then to 'beef-up' my mostly infantry based forces, they are metal models and I'm afraid I don't remember which company made them.

Another angle on the tanks

I decided to paint one in Nationalist colours, as I saw a nice picture of a Nationalist T26 online recently, I have a fourth T26 model that I'll add to the Republican ranks in due course but at present the model has a missing gun barrel and I have to source one from somewhere.

Four completed Artillery pieces all of Russian origin

Along with the 'lost' tanks, was found some generic Republican Artillery pieces, I believe these are all Russian supplied guns. again I can't remember the manufacturer's name.

Again another view

Following on from the SCW I now switch (almost seamlessly) back to Warhammer 40K and a test Space Marine figure. Last post Iain picked up on a throw away remark that I made about wanting to raise a new 'blue' Space Marine Force but that I was reluctant to commit to Ultra Marines. I just happened to have a marine figure ready build, so I undercoated it in white and decided to use Speed paints to see what type of quick paint job I could do!

So here it is, a Crimson Fist Space Marine with a Heavy Plasma gun, I used Army Painter 'Magic Blue' for the armour with 'Slaughter Red' for the fists. I painted the gun and it's umbilical cord silver and then used 'Graveyard Grey' over the silver to give a rich metallic shading.

The chest eagle was painted with 'Sand Golem' and the various cables were painted in black, or red as I felt appropriate.

The plasma rings on the gun were painted by covering with white paint then putting down a yellow coat alont the spine of the rings before applying a watered down coat of light green paint.

Now 40K purists will note that the figure does not have the correct iconography for a Crimson Fist, but as this is a test figure, I'm not too bothered. That said I'll no doubt be damned as a heretic and sent to some Penal Colony for the rest of my years,...

Next, I managed to finish the Commanding Officer that I had partially painted (and then got distracted from) for the Dutch Regiment Slangenburg - that I posted for this challenge back on the 9th Feb. Fredrik Johan van Baer, Heer van Slangenburg wears a heavily decorated scarlet coat, a cuirass and is mounted upon a sturdy brown horse as he waves his feathered hat!

Fredrik Johan van Baer, Heer van Slangenburg

Another view

The figure is a Front Rank one from their Late 17th Century range and it paints-up really very nicely, in my opinion.

My only regret is not having time to complete a 40k Ork Gargantuan! Well, a McFarlane model substitute for a Gargantuan!

Imagine the size of the finished Ork given the epic scale of his gun next to a regular Ork!

POINTS

5 x 28mm 17th Century Dutch Horse @ 10 Pts Ea     50 Points

1 x 40K Ork Kill Kopta @ 20 Pts                   20 Points

1 x 40K Ork Pilot @ 5 Pts                          5 Points

11 x 15mm ACW Artillery Pieces @ 4 Pts ea         44 Points

4 x 15mm SCW Artillery Pieces @ 4Pts ea           16 Points

3 x 15mm T26 Tanks @ 8Pts ea                      24 Points

1 x Crimson Fist Space Marine                      5 Points

1 x 28mm 17th Century Dutch Officer               10 Points

TOTAL                                            174 Points 

That is a nice mix of models for a final entry, well done. I will overlook your obvious heresy with the space marine as it is just a 'test' model. The Inquisition will be keeping a close eye on all future projects though. Great work on all of these projects. 

-StuartL

From PhilH: Loyal to the Republic at Istvaan V (45 Points)

Landing at Istvann V: loyalists or betrayers, with a Spanish Civil War Project on the go? Perfect, I have a couple of dozen People's Militia prepped, based and ready to sling paint onto, so I fished out a handful and got to work.

Along with baffling politics and endless factions and theIR TLAs, the SCW has extrordinary tales of ordinary workers seizing and collectivising their companies and demanding the government distribute arms for them to defend hard-won rights and freedoms from ultraconservative traditionalism erring on fascism. While inexperienced, barely-trained, hurridly organised and lacking much semblence of military discipline, they managed to throw back Franco's battle-hardened Army of Africa and modern allies through their bravery and sheer will to resist.

These join the other motley defenders of the Republic in my collection. They're the start of a platoon of members of the anarcho syndicalist CNT-FAI union, wearing blue workers' overalls with red and blackcaps and neckerchiefs.

They're from the unmatched Empress Miniatures range, I think with a couple of headswaps as I had some duplicate packs. I'm going to need to paint quite a fewmore of these up. Five 28mm figures and the planet bonus is 45 Points, thanks Milady Tamsin. This also represents my first squirrel. Squirrel! Still lagging behind on my side duel with Challenge newcomer JohnE though.

 

Good to see you return to the Spanish Civil War with these five lovelies! Another 45 points for you, young man!

Tamsin

From PhilH: All Out of Chambers, Keeping the Peace with the Guardia Civil (55 Points)

Finally, an entry originally meant for the Guardroom, but I used a different option instead. Adding to my Spanish Civil War forces, a squad of Guardia Civil, one of three paramilitary forces of the Spanish Republic. Established in the mid 19th Century in the style of the French Gendarmerie, they are the oldest law enforcement organisation in Spain.

Guardia Civil are useful for gaming the SCW, as their loyalties split pretty much 50/50 between the Republic and Rebels: they can be a handy support option for either side. They made important contributions, but weren't always trusted by the Republic's other soldiers, in part because of their previous role in putting down civil unrest by the workers (many now serving in the milita or Republican Army). As the SCW is a conflist with fine headwear, they maintain this tradition with their natty black patent leather tricorns.

As many members threw in their lot with the Nationalist cause they survived into the Francoist era to the modern day, and absorbed the members and duties of the Carabineros (Frontier Guards). Three officers

Eight Rankers

They're from Empress Miniatures. Eleven 28mm models, for 55 Points thanks!

From PhilH: Obsolete at the Armoury (50 Points)

Rattling through these Chambers now. The Armoury, a miniature that's armoured. Well barely, say I: how's about an obsolete WWI-vintage tank, thrown desperately into the fray in the Spanish Civil War? As I mentioned in my recent entry about the tizano improvised armour, in the inter-war Period, Spain was slow to adapt to new forms of warfare. Cutting investment in the armed forces, at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1936, Spain's armoured forces totalled a handful of obsolete tanks, primarily a couple of squadrons of Renault FT and Schneider CA1. Domestic development and production of tanks was sorely lacking. Hence, the most common armoured vehicles of the Civil War were hurriedly provided by larger powers keen to swing the conflict in their favour: German Pz1, Italian tankettes and Soviet T-26.

I wanted to reflect the bonkers variety of armoured vehicles that were used in my collection, so have a fair stash of them to paint. While innovative for 1917, the FT is so delightfully obsolete, dorky and useless, I'll have to get it to the table soon.

I used this sheet from FC Modeltips for the camo pattern. Interestingly, other versions of the pattern working from black and white photos concluded green-on-green, but I much preferred the green/brown. This 1:56 resin model in is from Blitzkrieg miniatures, with nice touches of a vision port that can be open with driver visible and both the cast turret with Hotchkiss MG, and the Berliet design riveted turet, with 37mm gun. Spain's models were MG-armed, though later shipments were recieved from Poland and France, dumping obsolete hardware on the depserate Republic, so plausibly they could have had the 37mm: Steven J Zaloga's Spanish Civil War Tanks by Osprey makes no mention, but Chain of Command Espana has an entry for it.

Then finally for reasons, I had a second MG turret, so I painted that one to be a captured vehicle, with Nationalist Spain flag design around the turret, and St Andrews cross aerial recognition marking on the cupola.

This was varnished with AK interactive ultra matte, so has a suuuper matte finish. I wouldn't use it on infantry, but it seems passable on tanks. Pleased with how the exhaust rusting came out, so have another shot of it:

One 28mm armoured vehicle for 20, plus two spare turrets say 5 points a piece and the Chamber bonus. 50 points please, Wednesday Minion!

I really like the muted WW1 tones on the paint job and the weathering is really great Phil! I'll grant you 2points for each spare turret (they just aren't the equivalent of a whole 28mm figure with basing) for a total of 44 points

Cap'n Wednesday
 

From PhilH: Improvising at the Golem's Haunt (40 Points)

The Golem's Haunt: "something re-animated, stitched-together, bolted-together, re-created from steel, clay, earth, etc." I don't have any golems to hand, but what I did have though, was the reasonably successful result of a dabble in trying to print vehicles using my FDM 3D printer. The Spanish Civil War is not as well served as WWII for .stl files, but there are a couple for improvised armoured trucks suitable for 28mm gaming. Spain's armed forces were poorly funded before the outbreak of the Civil War, and had little interest in developing armoured vehicles and tactics. They did have a dozen or so French FT-17 tanks (more on those soon...), modern for World War 1 and that performed acceptably during the Rif War in Morocco, a couple of Scnheider CA1 and the indigenous Bilbao armoured car used by the security forces. But the workers of Spain's industrial regions, rising to counter the Nationalist coup, hasily built all sorts of madcap improvised armour, bolting dubious quality steel plates to trucks and tractors.

These vehicles were probably of little or no military value, moving painfully slowly on overburdened engines. But they doubtless cheered the militias who built them, who could put their skills to use to strive for their Anarchist utiopia.

This .stl file is by the prolific Deweycatproductions on wargaming3D. It's based on a real vehicle, and I've replicated what I could make out of the markings. I left off the meant for the front vision port and added the support struts with brass wire, giving it a ramshackle, amost post-apocalyptic road warrior look. It's also the first model off the printer to see any paint, huzzah! A quick google image search later, and I found more information (in Spanish) on this vehicle on this blog http://donostiando.blogspot.com/ . An excerpt on this vehicle: In the image, from a film on the entrance of the rebellious troops in Tolosa, you can see a "tiznado", in whose body, full of painted with the red and black flags of anarcho-syndicalism and initials like FAI-CNT, AIT or UHP [3], there is an inscription that stands out above the others: "Rojo-Trincherpe". Therefore, it follows that it was manufactured in one of the workshops in the Pasaia neighborhood.

Pasaia is a coastal town east of Bilbao and San Sebastian, so this vehicle would have served with the militias on the northern front. With a couple of mine for scale:

One 28mm vehicle, plus the Chamber bonus adds a tidy 40 points.

From PhilH: Armour Inspired by MartinN at Mudry’s Mesa (83 Points)

As soon as I saw the task for Mudry’s Mesa, I knew what I’d enter: in Challenge IX, MartinN entered a stunning T-26 tank for his gorgeous Spanish Civil War Nationalist force. He made the Rubicon kit sound excellent, so I ordered a pair.

Martin’s work on vehicles is peerless among the challengers, so I took the opportunity to learn a few new techniques and (mostly) follow his method, that was detailed in the second Setting the Scene book.

I didn’t have any fancy modulations, or an airbrush, so the base colours were all hand painted, which was time consuming. I consciously chose a darker, less vibrant green to Martin’s entry, and also wanted them to look a little cleaner like a fresh delivery by boat from Russia.

Republican tanks also  offered less scope for colourful markings, just some numbers by decal, freehand hammer and sickle and political slogans. I did add some baggage and a tank commander nonchalantly reviewing the battlefield, taken from a Perry metal set.

I’m pleased with how the exhausts came out, less rusted up, so I made up my own method.

Trial and error of new techniques, and waiting on new supplies meant these took me weeks to get finished, but I managed to do so for both tanks to make a debut last weekend.

There are a few things I’d do differently, but it was a learning process and they’re waaay better than the few vehicles that I’ve painted previously.

The kit comes with enough parts to make the 1938 pattern turret, so I built those as well, in case I should ever game the Eastern Front.

So deepest thanks to Moiterei for both the inspiration and guidance. I had such a blast I’ve a third tank on order to do as a captured Nationalist vehicle.

Two vehicles is 40, plus the extra turrets lets say another 10 and tank commander for 2. Then the location bonus for 30, makes a tidy 82 plus any Minion discretion for the freehand work.



You've certainly done a great job on these for brush-painting Phil. A fine pair of light tanks for your Republicans. I'm scoring the commander as 3 points (half-a-figure, rounded up).

TamsinP