From TobiasK: Technicals for Afghanistan (60 points)

For this week's entry, I painted some technicals. Technicals are a stable of today's warzones, so I needed some for my collection.

Technical SPG 9

The first technical is armed with an SPG 9 recoilless rifle.

Technical ZU-23

The second technical is armed with a ZU-23, 23 mm anti-aircraft twin-barreled autocannon. The ZU-23 itself is removable.

Technical Vehicle only

The third technical is unarmed and serves as a transport.

The ZU-23 is not glued to the vehicle, so it could also be used on the red one.

Group shot:

All models are from Empress Miniatures. It was my first try at painting windshields on vehicles. Although I am not totally happy with the result, it doesn't look too bad either.

Book keeping:

3 x 28mm vehicle = 60 pts

From Millsy:

Three very solid, reliable looking technicals you've got there Tobias. As you say, the staple of brush wars, insurrections and all manner of off the books operation in the middle of nowhere. I can't imagine engineers spend a lot of time thinking "This will go down really well with shady types" but there you go.

Windscreens are a mini painter's curse IMHO. I've painted a pile of them this week and there's no right way. I err towards the simple like you have, figuring that's better than making a pig's ear of something more complex.

PS. I'm fascinated by the poster. Clearly someone is having a poke at Toyota's marketing department and it's rather well done indeed.

60 points for your tally mate.

From TobiasK: 28mm Afghan insurgents with heavy weapons (40 points)

Hello fellow painters,

I painted two heavy weapon teams for Afghanistan this week. The miniatures are from Eureka Miniatures. Their range of modern wargaming stuff is top-notch. But without further ado, here are the pictures.

1. SPG-9 73mm Recoilless Rifle with Afghan Guerrilla crew

2. 12.7mm Dshk MG on AA mount with two Afghan crew

Group shot:

Bookkeeping:

2 x crew served weapons (28mm) = 2 x 10 = 20 points
4 x crew (28mm) = 4 x 5 = 20 points

From Millsy

Smashing work on these guys Tobias! Your colour choices are wonderful, set off by some really natural looking basing. I especially like the way you've spread the groundcover out in clumps which is very convincing indeed. You sold yourself short of the points mate neglecting the crew, so I have doubled your score to 40 points. Enjoy!

From Dave X: More bad men in 20mm (16 points)

A bit of a quiet week for me in terms of finishing figures but I am halfway through the next bonus round and painting up next Monday's submission.

This week I bring 4 more bad men from Elhiem Figures in 20mm.

These Taliban are really lovely sculpts.  Now I am not a gun person and according to the Elhiem Website there are 4 LMGs here, 1 x RPD, 2 x RPK and 1 x PKM.  Perhaps one of our American Friends can point out what is what :)

These will net me 16 points in 20mm

My Favourite paint jobs and sculpts so far from my Elhiem Taliban.
 Rather chuffed with the evil look in their eyes.

Lovely stuff, Dave. I hadn't appreciated you've been painting their eyes! A quick 16 points to you.

Barks

From DaveX: Warhammer Quest Rats and 20mm Taliban (44 Points)

This week I got around to painting some Warhammer Quest (1995) Rats that I have had primed for a few months.  I have rebased them onto 20mm Square GW Bases as they come on this horrible thick plastic pudding base.  I chopped up some left over plasticard to create a flagstone cross dungeon cross ruins sort of effect.

I decided to mix up the colours and give them some variation and I think it looks really nice. I love the look of these Old School Plastic minis.  There are 12 in total coming to 60 points.

Rats!

I used a variety of colours

Probably my favorite critter

This week I also quickly painted up another 5 Taliban giving me a handy 20 points bringing this weeks total to 80 points.  

Taliban using a suspicious package and 4 Riflemen

Very nice rats! Your basing and variety in colours is naturalistic and hides the uniformity of the sculpts perfectly. You can never have enough rats. Similarly, you can never have enough modern baddies, and the suspicious package person is sure to give drone feed operators agonies of doubt. Sadly, I'm going to downscore the rats as 15mm equivalents which will leave you with 44 points.

Barks

From DaveX: 20mm Taliban RPG Teams (16 Points)

This week I am submitting some Taliban RPG teams.  There are four models in total from Elhiem.  They are 20mm in size.

They will represent RPG teams.  I felt I rushed these just a little to get them done but they look great in among their comrades.

This will give me 16 handy points.

I really like the guy on the right

I really like the guy on the left

A tidy little entry, nicely done and very evocative. Terry Taliban just can't get enough RPGs.

Barks

Dave X - 20mm Taliban - 20 Points

This is my second Painting Challenge and I had my debut last year. I aimed for 750 points last year and smashed it coming in with over 800 points. This year I am aiming for 1000 points and am off to a very slow start but this is the busiest time of the year for me and once things get to normal I will push for my goal.

Kicking off this years AHPC I quickly painted up 5 x 20mm Taliban Infantry. These are from Elhiem Figures and I am a big fan of their 20mm Modern Range. I have already painted up a full platoon of Australians so it was fitting that they have an opposition. I have already painted a few Taliban but they are not eligible for submission in the challenge.

Taliban is such an interesting subject to paint (politics aside). After all someone needs to be the bad guy! I kind of went for some minor uniformity in the models. I am not a gun person and I believe they are armed with AK-47s.

5 x 20mm figures should net me 20 points.

I will be painting much more 20mm Modern for the challenge.

Thanks
Dave

Hi Dave!

Great to have you back for your second Challenge and to have you off and running too.

I'm not familiar with the Elhiem Figures range but they are clearly a real winner. Wonderfully dynamic poses and great proportions.

These are really well executed Dave. I like the muted palette which is suitably drab and workmanlike but at the same time your shading and highlighting really sets them off well. The basing is also top notch and really evocative of the harsh climate.

20 points to start you off this year. Well done!

Cheers,
Millsy