A miniature painting challenge created to provide a safe, supportive place for hobbyists to keep in touch during this time of social-distancing and isolation.
Ok, it's not painted models, but I spent last weekend developing the map for my fictional campaign...
It's based on a treasure trove of very real survey maps at 1:250,000 scale of the Sudan tucked away on the Library of Congress website. If you're into this period and unaware of these, head over there now to take a look. There are hundreds of maps covering all of Egypt and the Sudan. Most have three versions filed in different years with the oldest being 1911.
Now I return to my last post on Challenge X, where I posted my first ever Napoleonics. I have now finished the whole Italeri box of 20mm Prussian Cavalry. From Italeri web site:
"On October 16th, 1813, general Yorck led his Prussian Dragoons in a desperate charge against the positions defended by Marshal Marmont's French troops during the assault of Mockern, a village near Leipzig. It's one of the main phases of the famous “battle of the nations” that radically changed the alliances and boundaries in Napoleonic Europe. The Prussian light horsemen are represented with their headgear protected by oilcloth, as customarily worn during military campaigns"
Most of the horses are running, some walking. I didn't mix them on the bases, and it might not look nice, if mixed in a unit.
I painted them by paying attention to the painting guide on the box, black boots and hat, grey trousers and bright blue jacket with white gloves, belts etc. I have no idea if they are historically accurate or not or do they represent some real unit or not. The flag has yellow borders and something blue on the white field.
I started the basing, but after finishing the three small bases I run out of the stuff and had to change to different one for the big base.
There are five different types of horses and riders (plus command), so I used three different colors on horses to create some variety.
Close up of the small flag and horn blower
I have a bit mixed feeling on these. They are superbly quick and easy to paint compared to current GW range for example and they are very cheap (17 mounted figures for less than 10 euros). But I still might want even smaller miniatures to create even bigger forces and battles. So even though these are painted to tabletop level, they might end up spending rest of their lives in cabinet. Anyway, I guess I'll buy some more Prussian Cavalry in this scale in the future, just to create a bigger force (and have separate units for walking and running horses).
One of the horses charged very fast and dropped a rider. Or did he took a bullet? Vacuum cleaning might be related to disappearance as well...
12 mounted 20mm is 96 points, but since one of the riders is missing, the total is 92 points. These are Fresh miniatures bought this year and they Reinforce (and complete, for now) my Prussian "army", which I started at the end of Challenge X.
Well I said it before and I will say it again: I am going to try to finish the Challenge Island Tour from the last Challenge and to do this I need to take a Balloon ride to Douglas' Shallows.
If you want to know what I am jabbering on about, follow this LINK to Curt's explanation of the business. As I need to enter a female figure to appease the Goddess of Airtravel, in the only air-service still operating now, I just had to paint Princess Leia. The figure is horrible and I wasn't able to get her face as well as I'd like but I am happy with the overall appearance of both her and Luke Skywalker and Heinrich Solo.
My client wants all his figures fitted out for Tatooine and thus I had to find a different camo scheme for Han's Endor coat, well that turned out to be a German WW2 like Wüste-tarnung, hence the "Heinrich" Solo.
They are facing off against what must be my favourite Imperial troops: the new and shiny Shore Troopers.
The Shore Troopers have squad markings on their right upper sleeve/ armour. I have painted my clients Scout squad as Shore troopers already and they have all red upper-arm pads, so I now wanted to use something else this on these to differentiate. At first I used red over yellow bands. In walks Arthur (my eldest son) and goes: Dad, are there Germans in Star Wars as well? Because the sleeve directly beneath the coloured markings was near black and so a German flag was showing on the right arm. Well that was quickly turned into light green.
The terrain is made with my very own 3D printer (Ender 3 pro) using a free STL from Thingiverse. I tried out the kitchen towel-whiteglu-water mixture thing to get the tarpaulins, they add that nice extra bit of colour and mystery to the scenery: who put them over the parts? Why? And will they come back for the parts?
Anyway 10 figures in 40mm should net me 70 points. Even though these figures will leave my home soon for their original owner I am very happy with how they turned out.
A lot has been going on over here! I have been painting like mad, but not finishing that much. The Star Wars Legion commission is into the last dregs of Empire soldiery and the Rebel Scum is peeping around the corner.
Martijn, the FLGS owner I have painted the Crisis Protocol set for, has also asked me to paint the figures accompanying the Warlord Games La Haye Sainte set, while we await their Stalingrad set for which he wants me to paint the figures as well... Oh dear...
Well anyway here are some SW Legion Stormtrooper Specialists:
I made a long rather high high (for table top terrain) which you can see pictured here for an upcoming game that I will be hosting on zoom.
OK, I may have started these hills over 1 year ago and then lost them in the mess of my shop. They were re-discovered this week during a clean up. How were these topographical treasures discovered? By the crunching sound one of them made as I stepped on it
There are two sections that can be fitted together to form one long hill. I repaired the area I damaged by adding a cliff face of carved EPS foam "rocks"
The basic ground texture is a mix of pre-mixed colored tile grout and PVA glue. It dries rock hard and is very durable.
Texture for exposed ground comes from another type of tile grout that is not premixed. I sperinkle it on add some small rocks and the then lightly spry water. Presto-Change-O you've got a nice gravel like texture.
The rocks are then primed in a 50.50 mis of black craft paint and matt medium - this stiffens the foam and makes sure I have on pink spots peaking through
The final step is to add ground foam - I sue three different kinds, all from scenic express (a US company)
Starting tho take shape
Leave them to dry for 24 hours and them vacuum off the ground foam that doesn't set and you've for 43 inches of hills.
Because these were started before the quarantine challenge, the points total was adjusted downward - I am awarding myself 2.7 Quatloos for this effort.
It's like a time machine, going back to Challenge IX when the Italian Wars Project was in full swing and I was firing out a unit of these a week.
So here web have another unit of 6 28mm Wargames Foundry Men at Arms done up in a red Papal theme with two flags from Pete's to finish the look.
I seem to recall these were 62 points worth so my imaginary Quarantine Challenge total is now 563, very respectable.
Next up is most likely to be some more Kingdom of Jerusalem Foot Sgts but I opened up my next paint project to the vote on Twitter so with a couple of hours to go it could still change. Hope you are all keeping safe 👍
