From MartinN: Fallschirmjäger and Firefly (65 pts.)

Another challenge is drawing to an untimely close and once again I come up short a few points. While I had a good start I rapidly lost steam and only were able to pick up speed again those last few days. I'm pretty certain that a lot of you know the feeling only too well. But the ride was a lot of fun and once again I enjoyed myself immensely. I wasn't as active on here as I'd have liked, but I enjoyed watching the daily stream of gorgeously painted miniatures.

First off for my last entry this year is a 20mm 3D printed Sherman Firefly by Arvernes Miniatures. Having painted two regular 75mm Shermans for my Canadians previously I felt the urgent need to add a Firefly for that little bit of extra punch. The stowage is mostly from AB Figures as is the tank commander.

This is then followed by a Squad of 20mm Fallschirmjäger, also from AB Figures. They're a mix of regular Heer figures, mainly with Zeltbahn, and Fallschirmjäger with head swaps as I was aiming for a very late war feel. So these should be more suitable for those battles following the German defeat in Normandy. A time when the Fallschirmjäger were a mere shadow of their former strength. I don't like the hype that surrounds some of the supposedly 'elite' German units and having this hodge podge of grizzled veterans and raw recruits is just my thing.

For points we have one 20mm tank clocking in at 15 points, a half figure tank commander for 2 points and 12 Fallschirmjäger of which two are prone figures for another 44 points. All this should give me 71 65 points.

A huge thank you for goes out to my good friends Sarah, Curt and Greg as well as all the other minions. 

***

Nick I am confident I speak for all Challenge participants when I tell you it has been an absolute treat to have you along for the ride once again. Your brushwork sets the bar, as ever, and combined with top-shelf photography, your entries are a real treat for all of us. I think many Challengers will relates to the ebbs and flows of interest and momentum when it comes to painting all of these miniatures - and many of us will come up short in the face of our targets (certainly I will!). 

But what a treat is has been! And you close out with some absolutely stunning brushwork. Nothing makes me bonkers like camouflage patterns of late WW2 German units, and you have made it look stupendous here, and the blend of the zeltbahns and sky-blue uniforms, of the veterans the rookies, it is all just spot-on and makes we want to get back to painting some WW2 myself!

But my favourite here is the Firefly! When it comes to WW2 tanks, I'm always struck by how dreary so many of the western allied designs were. Even the ones with cool names were disappointing to see. But NOT the Firefly! One of the best silhouettes of the war (and only improved once the IDF started cracking out I-Shermans later on) and you've done it absolute justice here. Even the weird colour pattern at the bottom of the barrel - excellent!

As for your points, the magical spreadsheet tells me this is all worth 65 points - so I'm going to listen to the spreadsheet. Great Challenge Nick, it has been a treat to "minion" your work!

GregB

From TeemuL: German halftracks (20 points)

Keeping up my tradition to post something every week, here's a small entry of two German halftracks. I was on holiday for a week and these were almost ready a week ago, just final touches today.

These are older models, part resin, part metal. Sd Kfz 250/7 (8cm) painted in rather late war scheme to match the rest of my collection. I have worked mainly on Operation Bagration, but this particular model doesn't appear in the army lists. May be I use them as objectives or something like that. I might add some identification later, if I figure out what to do with them.

My rushed finish shows quite ugly, the Reikland Fleshshade was pooled in several places.

There is a mortar and a machine gun on each.

Group shot with some earlier works

Two 15mm vehicles and 4 crew members, but only painted the upper part of them, so only 1 point each, 20 points in total.

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Hi Teemu

You may have been rushed in the painting of these half tracks, but I think they look 'the business'!

The colours look great and work well with your earlier models.

If there is one thing I know about gamers, is that painted models will always be found a use ... it may be later rather than sooner, but these half tracks will find their way to a game table!

 Curt frequently tells me that he's unearthed minis from years ago and has just the right idea/plan now ... hahah ...

20  points for you

Cheers!

Sarah 

From BenitoV: Last Jump on the Landing Zone (20 points)

It's Father's Day in Spain today and family duties (including the traditional lunch with the extended family) kept me busier than initially expected this weekend. Despite that, I've managed to paint  4 Fallschirmjager in early war uniform, and believe or not, I have finished with the a project started during the lockdown in 2020.

 

The LMG team is a 3D printed model (in one piece) from Eskice Miniatures. The individula model with the ammo box is from the plastic Warlord range.

I have to say that Eskice's FJs are not the best designed models from this manufacturer (unlike for example the German motorbikes). The uniform is not exactly historical (the jumping boots for example look more American than German) and some of the gear elements were not used by the Fallschirmjager in 1940-41 

In any case I liked this model in particular because of the animated poses and sense of action. 

 

 

This is my last contribution to the XIII Challenge. A total of 4 28mm models @5 points each = 20 points. 

 

I'm really happy with my participation in the Challenge this year. both from my own contributions but also enjoying the very talented paint works of mots of the challengers.  I hope to see you around again next December.

____________________________________

A wonderful last entry, Benito. As you say, the gun crew may be a bit ahistorical, but the pose and setting are excellent, and your excellent brushwork goes a long way to forgive these small sins. Well done, Happy Father's Day and see you next winter!

- Curt

From BenitoV: More German Motorbikes (20 points)

As a continuation with the topic of my submission of last week, I bring for this Tuesday more German Early War goodies, in the form of a motorbike with sidecar, to be used as the LMG support for my motorized unit.

 

I have a second model in store but I could not finish basing the model in time. Actually the support unit was supposed to be a total of three of these bikes with sidecars ... but it seems that I forgot to print the third file and unfortunately I have the printer in my family's vacation house (closed until Spring).

 

As with the motorbikes presented last week, this is a Eskice model. Nice detail and very dynamic poses as usual, although the face sculpting is slightly cartoonie.

 

So small addition to my Challenge score this week: after requesting clarification from the minion-in-charge, I was told this model will be worth 20 points, as it comprises two vehicles with two riders (each 10 points)  

That's a nice looking motorcycle combo, Benito. It's a shame you missed printing the third file and can't access your 3D printer at the moment.

Tamsin

From Nick: 20mm German 8.8cm Flak 36/37 (36 points)

Fielding an 8.8cm Flak 36/37 in a skirmish game is probably akin' to overkill, but it's such an iconic piece, I simply had to get me one. Figures are 20mm AB as ever, while the Flak gun is from Zvezda. I had thought about creating a larger vignette style base, but as the gun comes without carriage I decided otherwise. But given the AB figures would let themselves well for a diorama due to their posing I might yet do one.

Wanted to try out a new recipe for Reed Green summer Drillich uniforms, but it turned out way too greenish. Still I couldn't be bothered to correct it. For the moment at least. Given the Wehrmacht used any kind of captured stock and dyes often varied from batch to batch anyway I think I'll get away with it... even if maybe just ;-)

I'm not completely sold on the shrubbery, thus it's not glued in place yet. 

As the gun was already started before the challenge I'll only claim 36 points for 9 20mm scale crew.

Lovely work, and a bit of variation in uniform tones adds realism and 'campaign cred'. It is skirmish overkill, but makes a great scenario centrepiece and objective. I would like to see you turn this into a vignette... I'm always a bit leery of vegetation and camo netting that would hinder the operation of a vehicle or gun, myself. (Unless it is backed up by a photo.)

Barks

From FrederickC: Early-WW2 Germans (155 points)

 

My second submission for this year's painting challenge is a selection of early war units appropriate for a German Panzer Division. They include a squad of Kradschützen (motorcycle troops), a Sd.Kfz. 222 light armoured reconnaissance vehicle, and a platoon of Panzerkampfwagen I Ausf B light tanks.

The Kradschützen are a mix of Black Tree Design and Bolt Action miniatures for a total of nine figures on five motorcycles, with two where the passenger is riding in a sidecar, and two where the passenger is riding pillion. I picked up the two Black Tree Design motorcycles a number of years ago at an estate sale, and the assembly looked rather daunting with the bike, the handle bars, and the riders all being separate pieces. I wanted to flesh them out a bit, and ordered two motorcycles from Warlord Games where the passenger was riding in a side car. One more motorcycle was ordered a few years later, again from Warlord Games, but this time with the passenger riding pillion. If I thought Black Tree Design bikes were daunting, the ones from Warlord Games consisted of 10 separate pieces, and didn't come with assembly instructions. I was able to find those online, but to get everything to fit correctly was really tricky, especially since the handle bar and the driver's arms came as a single piece.

With much patience, I was successful in getting everything together so that it all looked right, although the drivers still don't seem to be sitting properly on the seat. The instruction for the bikes with side cars showed stowage satchels attached to the sidecar, but none came with the kits. I did get enough for a single bike in the kit with the passenger riding pillion. These got moved over to the sidecars, one to each, and the second stowage bin coming from my bits box along with a gas mask canister. Three of the bikes were mounted on long bases that came from Warlord Games, while the bikes with sidecars were mounted on bases cut from old plastic gift cards. Everything was primed in black and then painted with Vallejo or AK Interactive acrylics. They are now ready to take the field as part of the 8th Panzer Division.

 

The  Sd.Kfz. 222 light armoured car was another acquisition from the above mentioned estate sale. It was a multi-part metal casting which I think is an old Battle Honors kit. The scale looks closer to 1/48 than 1/56, and although the body is hollow, it still weighs in at 266g (almost 9.5oz). In fact, it is so heavy that the axles that came with the model were unable to support the weight without bending. I had to pull the wheels off again and replace the axles with lengths of florist wire that were much stiffer.

The fit of the pieces was pretty wonky, and I had to fill a number of gaps with epoxy putty. The rear fenders were a single piece that were difficult enough to fit to the chassis, but the front fenders were even worse. They came as two separate pieces, and the fit to the chassis just didn't work as all the angles were slightly off. Eventually I gave up and fashioned the front fenders out of a single piece of thin plastic card. Once all the fenders were in place, I made some headlights out of the heads of pushpins that I have filed flat on one side. Finally I added the shovel and the rolled tarp from my  bits box. The commander that came with the model was wearing an Einheitsmütze, which is more mid to late war, so I replaced him with a figure from a Bandai tank kit. The vehicle was painted in a similar fashion to the Kradschützen, and then some AK Splattereffects Dry Mud was applied. It will make a useful addition to my early war Germans.

 

Lastly I have a platoon of three 1/56 resin Panzerkampfwagen I Ausf B light tanks from Warlord Games that I purchased as part of a bulk order along with DallasE. I liked how he mounted his on bases to make them a bit more compatible with 1/48 and 1/50 scale vehicles, so I did likewise. Assembly was pretty straight forward with the tracks, etc, fitting well to the chassis. I used magnets to attach the turrets, countersinking them into the chassis and the turret itself. The only flaw was that two of the exhaust pipes were not well cast, so I carved the partly formed bits away, and rebuilt the exhaust with some copper wire and the insulating sleeve. These were then painted using the same technique as for the armoured car. They were then mounted on the bases that had already been prepared with most of the sand, paint, and flocking before gluing the vehicles in place. The red vehicle numbers and German crosses on the tanks are appropriate for the France 1940 campaign.

 The points being claimed are as follows:

10 x 28mm figures @ 5 points each = 50 points 

(I am counting the tank and armoured car commanders as half a figure each)

5 x 28mm 'mount' @ 5 points each = 25 points

(I am counting the motorcycles as a mount rather than a vehicle)

4 x 28mm vehicles @ 20 points each = 80 points

Lots of early German mechanized goodies here Frederick.  I quite like the motorcycle troops, they have a nice Wild Bunch vibe to them.  I think that you are correct on the scoring of the bikes, but no doubt someone (Tamsin?) will correct us if we are wrong.

From FrederickC: Early Panzerkampfwagen VI 'Tiger I' [Death Star] (40 points)

This is my first submission for the Challenge XII Quadrant, and I will be starting at the Death Star with a Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausführung H, also called the Tiger I, of the 502nd Heavy Panzer Battalion. The battalion was the first unit to receive and field the Tiger I in August 1942, and it was one of the most successful German heavy tank battalions, claiming the destruction of 1,400 tanks and 2,000 guns.

The model is a 1/48 scale Bandai kit that I picked up on eBay when I first started doing 25-28mm World War Two gaming. Apparently this is a big 'can of worms' among participants in the painting challenge, but back then there were very few vehicles available in 1/56 scale, so most of our group members gravitated to either 1/48 plastic kits or 1/50 diecast models.

The Death Star connection is the 'Of Questionable Design', specifically that the Tiger I is considered to be over-engineered, using expensive materials and labour-intensive production methods. In the early period it was prone to certain types of track failures and breakdowns and was in general limited in range by its high fuel consumption. It was expensive to maintain, but generally mechanically reliable. However, it was difficult to transport and vulnerable to immobilisation when mud, ice, and snow froze between its overlapping and interleaved Schachtellaufwerk-pattern road wheels, often jamming them solid.

The validity of the problem of the overlapping road wheels was proven when the kit arrived from the seller. It was obviously a second hand kit as it had already been started, but what the original owner had done was glue both the inner and outer road wheels on all the odd numbered axles before realizing their mistake. I contacted the seller about the problem, who refunded my money without wanting me to send the kit back. It languished for many years in my pile of unfinished projects until I thought that a repair was possible. I used a fine saw blade to cut off all the outer wheels from the odd numbered axles. Now all the inner wheels could glued onto the even numbered axles. I drilled holes into the axles and the back of the wheels I had removed with a pin vice to take a short piece of florist wire to provide strength to the joint when I glued them back in place with a little bit of epoxy putty to fill the slight gap. Once all that was done, the rest of the kit was assembled as per the instructions.

Prior to this, I had already acquired a Solido 1/50 diecast Tiger I in grey. It is visible in the background of the pics below, but not part of the submission. Other than a bit of tweaking, new decals, and adding a muzzle break, the Solido model is as I bought it. Since it was already painted in Panzer grey, I wanted to use the same paint scheme with the Bandai model to make them part of the same unit. After priming it with black, I used AK Interactive acrylic 704 Dunkelgrau, and then drybrushed the raised areas and corners with a lighter grey. Special parts like the tools and tow cables were painted appropriate colours, and a few parts got either a black or a dark brown wash. Once the tracks were on, I hit the lower areas with AK Splattereffects Dry Mud. 

 

The points being claimed are as follows:

1 x 28mm vehicle @ 20 points

Quadrant Challenge 'Death Star' - 'Of Questionable Design' - 20 Points

Great work on the Tiger Frederick.  I was amused how your issues with the partly made kit mirrored the real life issue with this beast.  Nice weathering over the grey pain work.  I love the results people get from their WW2 vehicles but am warded off by terms such as "kit assembly", "decals" and "weathering".

A minor editing point - Curt prefers that we use Helvetica font for our posts.

You are quite right that there is some debate over the "correct" vehicle scale for 28mm war-games.  There are actually three factions "1/56 or die", "1/48 or die" and "whatever, they're just toy tanks".  Being of the third school I'll leave the field of battle to the other two factions.

From BenitoM: Taking a Smoke - The Guardroom (25 points)

Moving from the Gallery of Ancestors, I stepped into The Guardroom. Having finished in the office early this Friday, I had the opportunity to make a quick paint work to this 2WW German model that fits nicely in the room's theme

I have had this model for ages, but I cannot recall when I bought it or even the manufacturer. So, if anyone around can identify the brand, I will really appreciate. The model is interesting in two ways: it wears the Zeltbahn cammo poncho/tent (and I do not know a lot of models wearing this characteristic uniform piece) and he is smoking a cigarette while on guard duty, providing the model some character.

The model is a metal 28mm figure and will make a nice addition to my games attached to some headquarters building or check point position.

With this entry I add another 25 points ( 1 x 28mm @5 points + room bouns 20p) to my Challenge scoring this year and I gets very close now to my 500 points target. We still have one month to go, so I expect to comfortably reach and likely exceed the target (and it will be the first time since I've been participating in the Challenge)

From Dallas: Bolt Action 88mm AT Gun Crew (30 points)

 

My Bandai/Fuman 1/48 88mm Flak 18/36 plastic kit was one of those models that sat on my shelf for literally years. I'd opened the box, looked at all the tiny parts on the sprues, and closed it back up again. It was only due to the encouragement of fellow Conscript Frederick (who'd built and painted his own identical model) that I took up the challenge of this one. However, it was done before the Challenge began so I can't claim credit - but if you're interested you can check it out on the Fawcett blog here.

However, even though the gun was finished, to use it on the table you need a crew! Warlord Games came through (after a fashion) with an excellent 6-man crew set for the Flak 18. I say "after a fashion" because of the standard Warlord shipping faff... basically, although I'd ordered the models on 18 December, they didn't get into the post until well after New Year's... "we moved facilities, COVID-19 has disrupted the supply chain, there was another lockdown, etc...", but somehow they'd managed in the meantime to find the time to put together, promote on social media, and post out a bunch of their "mystery boxes" (unsaleable junk boxes?), which was annoying... but I didn't bother ordering one of those as I already have a laser pointer I bought at the Dollar Store, ta very much :-)

Anyway, the crew eventually arrived and paint was slathered upon them. I think they look quite good crewing the gun. The models came with separate heads so I used the ones that made the crew most flexible in terms of period.

Here are the lads lined up. I have to say the heads fit really well and the poses are quite good. All in all a great purchase for seven quid.

So that's the 88mm Flak ready for action, now we just need to find a game...

Stay safe all!

From MartinN: Wehrmacht staff car, Civilian cars - 60 points

One thing I really love about 3D printing is the possibility to get my grubby mittens on stuff otherwise not commercially available in 28mm. And I can scale it to my own visual preference as well...

These three vehicles were part of a Kickstarter and actually the main reason I jumped in. Civilian or better civilian cars in army service are pretty hard to come by, even in 1/48 let alone 1/56. And if so they're pretty expensive too. Rubicon Models do a Citroen Traction Avant 11CV which admittedly looks a lot nicer than these models but seems to be sold out most of the time... of course not since I backed this Kickstarter though.

Anyway, for gaming models/ terrain pieces these are just perfect and are definitely a lot cheaper than their commercial counterpart. And as I said, you can scale the files to your liking and that's just what I did. Ever since having had a mate put a 1/48 Opel Blitz on the gaming table which towered over both terrain and figures I came to loath all the 1/48 is the "perfect" scale bogus and thought this just the right opportunity to proof my point.

My first test piece was this Mercedes V170 printed to match 1/56 exactly. But admittedly when painted and compared with my figures it looked a little too tiny for my liking. I couldn't really figure how two figures could actually squeeze in the front next to each other. So looks as if I might have been wrong after all...

This BMW 326 was scaled to 1/48 and initially was the one I liked the look of the most. But when checking sources online I realised it was much too high(by about two heads), even if it'd fit quite well width wise with the bulkier wargaming figures.

With both extremes tested I thought I might try something in between and printed this Citroen 11CV in 1/52. Now comparing all three I think this is the one I like the most as it sits nicely in between 1/56 which is actually too narrow for wargaming figures and 1/48 which is too tall.

So what did I take away from this? Well, obviously there's no such thing as the perfect scale for 28mm wargaming figures. As ever it comes down to personal choice. The one prefers his models to actually look as if the figures could actually squeeze in there, while the next (like me) doesn't like it when his toys are too high and too long. If we were totally consistent we would have to field vehicles which were roughly 1/48 in width while just 1/56 in length/ height... and that'd be a rather ungainly sight I bet. Maybe I should still try to print one such abomination, just for reference purposes though.

So, with yet another pet peeve out of the way (there are obviously quite some references to Y-webbing as of late ;-) ) I claim 60 points for three 28mm sized vehicles.

DaveD - Ok then.. scale, scale,scale.. is 28mm a scale or a size description - discuss... - this can indeed go on endlessly in this hobby - but i do think your visual "test" is a great one. I agree the 1/52nd looks best. you have done as usual a great job on bringing them to life. 

I do hoped you have loosened that Y webbing though..the chafing may get rough if the rivets take a while to count ;-)

right with that i am packing in my shift as i have a stoopid silly start time in the morning - so i will leave you to tender mercies of the Thursday rockmeister MartinC. I suspect you will be threatened with a test.