Here are my submissions for the 16th Analogue Hobbies Painting Contest. Most of my entries have been for my Badab War Tyrant's Guard army project. Enjoy!
| Command Squad |
| Armsmen |
| Legion Auxilia |
| Turrets to swap out my steel legion chimeras |
| 2 Leman Russ and a Thunderer tank. |
My sixth submission for AHPC XV is a group of reinforcements for the early
war French Division Légère Mécanique that I painted last year. To add
to the tanks and motorized troops, I have added a small platoon of a
headquarters and two sections on motorcycles. The figures are a mix of
metal minis from Crusader Miniatures and 3D prints using STL files purchased from MyMiniFactory for a total of 24 foot and 23 'mounted' figures. I really liked the Crusader motorcyclist, which will be a good match for the dragons
porté I painted. The 3D prints also go well with the metal minis, but I
have two minor criticisms regarding the files: (1) 'slung weapons' have
no slings, and (2) most of the carbines have the bolts on the wrong
side.
In the case of the dismounted motorcyclists, I cleaned up the figures and glued them onto 1" fender washers. I then added some fine sand to the base with PVA glue. In the case of the 3D figures, these were printed by a friend of mine who has done a number of projects for me in the past. He did most of the cleanup prior to delivery, but I went over them again to remove any missed supports and make a few repairs. These were glued to popsicle sticks with PVA glue to give me something to handle while priming and painting. I made bases for all of them using the plastic from old restaurant gift cards. I can get three bases from one card. I did all the ground work on these bases separately and glued the motorcycles on once all the painting was complete.
All the figures were primed with Vallejo USA Olive Drab Surface Primer using an airbrush. The bodies of the motorcycles were left that base colour. I then painted the rest primarily with Vallejo acrylics (unless indicated otherwise) as follows: faces and hands - Flat Flesh; uniform - Green Grey; boots - Chocolate Brown; belt, pistol holster, and ammo pouches - Leather Brown; leather pad on helmet, chin strap, gauntlets, and motorbike seat - Army Painter Leather Brown; canteen cover - English Uniform; gas mask bag - German Camo Beige; saddle bags - German Camo Orange Ochre; goggle frames, engine and muffler - Army Painter Plate Mail Metal; helmet - Olive Grey; goggles strap, scarf, and jacket buttons - Tan Earth; goggle lenses - Army Painter Runic Cobalt; rifle stocks - Beige Brown; motorcycle tires - Black; pistols and metal on weapons - German Grey; highlights on SMG and LMG - Gungrey. Once completed, everything got the ol' "Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade" treatment. When that was dry, the motorcycles were removed from the popsicle sticks and glued to their bases with Super Glue. Here are the final results.
French motorcycle platoon mounted and dismounted View from the right View from the left No. 1 Section dismounted Platoon Headquarters dismounted
No. 2 Section dismounted No. 1 Section on their bikes No. 2 Section on their bikes
| No. 2 Section on their bikes (flip side) |
| My one attempt to hand-paint a licence plate |
| French motorcycle troops halted while the officer consults his map |
The last figure for this post is an officer that came from the box of Wargames Atlantic French Infantry that I painted at the beginning of the challenge. Rather than paint him in Horizon Blue, I have done him in colours appropriate for May 1940.
My first project for the latest painting challenge was a platoon of 34 Wargames Atlantic French Infantry of the period 1916 onward. It continues my love-hate relationship with multipart plastic miniatures. The box contains five identical sprues of seven figures each, with lots of arm and head options. In fact you get a choice of five different sets of heads. There are also additional sprues with sets of equipment and weapons to make the figures into early WW2 French infantry. On the down side is that each sprue has an officer figure, so five in total. Plus all the little pieces are very fiddly.
I decided to assemble my platoon using the set of heads with Adrian helmets not wearing gas masks. I intended to use one of the officer figures with my WW2 French, and gave him a fancy kepi. (He will appear in a later post.) Of the remaining four officer figures, one was assembled as an officer with a pistol. I also gave him a map case left over from the Warlord Games Bolt Action Blitzkrieg German Infantry box. while the other three were converted into 'sergeants' by giving them a rifle and various pouches left over from the Warlord Games Winter Soviet Infantry box. Once everything was assembled I painted them following a useful video from Sonic Sledgehammer, with a few modifications.
A platoon of the 701st Infantry ready to attack 'The Anthill' Platoon Headquarters
| First Section |
| Second Section |
| Third Section |
| Officer and conversion to Sergeant |
Thanks for stopping by.