Friday, April 10, 2020

From ScottM: French AMR Tanks

For my submission this week, I've gone with a pair of 28mm World War 2 French AMR tanks from Army Group North Miniatures. I had started these two tanks before the main paint challenge back in November. Finally got around to finishing them.

The one on the left is an AMR 35 ZT1 armed with the 13.2mm HMG and the one on the right is a AMR 35 ZT3 armed with a 25mm ATG.



Keeping up with the points tally this will give me an additional 40 points for a total of 80 points.

Till next week and stay safe!

From MartijnN: QCwk3 Slightly less small matters

For my third weekly task I have.. well, some 6mm of course! Some more miniature real estate, a Belgian/ Northern French house from TimeCast and a church from Total Battle Miniatures. The church is actually from their North-American range, but I think it will also do nicely as an Eastern European building.





Next, let's turn to bigger matters. Now, I am a slow painter and the rate at which some Challengers turn out beautiful 28mm figures never ceases to amaze me. I myself am quite happy to have been able to produce all of twenty-four 10mm figures and a gun from the former Perrin range (they are still sold by Magister Militum). I bought these in 2004 without having any clear purpose in mind (hey, they were a bargain) but never got around to painting them until I discovered the excellent website on the Altar of Freedom rules: 6mmacw. I believe that fellow Challenger Miles has some involvement in the matter... Now, these have obviously been designed with 6mm figures in mind but I don't see why 10mm wouldn't work so here are a brigade of Union infantry and a Confederate artillery battery.





These are for my modest first ACW project which aims to recreate the battle of Champion Hill (AAR on 6mmacw here). This is one of the smaller scenarios in the rules so should be doable. Only 9 more brigades to do!


I used contrast paints again, The Ultramarines Blue turned out just a bit darker than my other Union infantry and the pants are a bit less skyblue, but all in all I am not unhappy. The flag is from Pendraken.

Lastly, I made a small piece of terrain: a swamp. It is on an mdf base by Warbases, just a simple affair but I find it quite effective.



Thanks for looking, easy on the Easter eggs, stay safe and wash those hands!

JTinQT - Week Two Swiss Pike Drummer

Hi All

Week Two post and just a measly single figure - my Swiss pike project will take a while at this rate. Anyway this is a Foundry drummer and painted him in the more traditional red and white colours for Swiss troops.


Also managed to paint some disorder markers for the Swiss. Will play basic impetus and a Swiss army has high strength troops - lots of strong heavy infantry, so there are just 9 bases in total. Not sure if I will have enough markers as most of the time all my bases are in disorder. These are Warlord figures and got some more unpainted so will come back to those.



Am aiming for a 24 figure new pike block but not totally starting from scratch. Will be re basing these unused third rank base figures and a command base and skirmishers to add in. This picture is more motivational for me and hopefully can finish the first base next week.Will be totally re basing as always fun to play around with the figure positioning on a base.

 
All the best Jez

From NoelW: Another mixed bag


For my second Quarantine post, I’ve managed four different offerings, as I’d hoped. However, I wanted to fill four empty cells on my spreadsheet, and I’ve only managed three, because the first really belongs in my Walminster on Sealion project and I already filled that cell last week. It’s six WW2 zombies, completing those I began in Challenge X.



Not sure who makes these. They're very simple plastic models, easy to put together but of limited variety. Their uniform is German, but I've painted it in a more "generic" colour so they could be used in several different contexts.

Next are three Treemen.


My family have several fantasy armies, though they’re rarely gamed with these days. My wife has both dwarven and elven armies, with their own lead piles, which I manage occasionally to make small inroads into. The treemen belong to the latter.

I don’t remember when she acquired these particular ambulant trees, but it must be at least ten years ago, so the chance of figuring out who manufactured them is pretty slim. She already has something like a dozen of the beasts from many manufacturers. I think these are the last of the unpainted. 



They're abut 40mm high, so I'm giving myself 8 points each for my running "score".

Next are 12 British infantry from the Cape Wars. They are Perry Miniatures.


The figures in this range are largely in campaign dress, and I’m always in two minds about campaign figures. Generally I prefer full dress, even when it's essentially unhistorical, as I like my toys to be attractive models, as far as I can make them. It’s usually hard to make campaign dress appealing, and uniforms tend to look alike. I actually bought into this range because I like the look of the Xhosa, rather than their British and Boer opponents. So I finished the Xhosa months ago, but the Brits have been a few figures now and then.



My fourth offering is part if another project that chugs along a few figures at a time. This is the Peninsular War. Napoleonics are my central passion, particularly Waterloo. But it was the Perrys’ Spanish figures that persuaded me to focus on the Iberian peninsular. These are beautiful units, and I want them all – which, again, would be pretty unhistorical if fielded as one army, but that’s basically what I plan to do. However, like most Napoleonics, they take a lot of work to produce worthwhile results so, again, I only paint a few figures occasionally. I want to be able to field lots of pretty units without impossible amounts of work, and my table is only 4 feet deep, so my Spanish battalions are only 12 figures.


I’ve used the same approach with another lovely Perrys' range, their Napoleon in Egypt range, though it looks like their battalions will be expanding to 16 figures to look more convincing!



This battalion is from Espana’s Division. Carlos d’Espana fought in several of the major encounters in Spain, though I’ve not been able to work out exactly which ones these figures would be most suitable for. Anyone know?

Summary of my Quarantine so far:

Project
New Task
‘Points’
Old Task
‘Points’
Agincourt




AWI




Black Seas (1/700th)




British in Egypt: 1801




Cape Wars
12 infantry
60


Carthaginians




Crusades
Command group
20


ECW




French in Egypt: 1801




Frostgrave/fantasy
3 Treemen
24
Frankie
5
Italian Wars




Lord of the Rings




Minden (15mm)




Ottoman




Peninsular War


12 Spanish
60
Republican Romans




Sikh/Afghan Wars




1860s British IF




1880s, the Sudan




Walmington/Sealion


3 Civvies
6 zombies
15
30
Waterloo




WW2 Desert




Zulu War
NNI
30


TOTAL

134

110

From BenitoM: Boudicca Queen of the Iceni

My second chariot model of my Briton Army for Infamy! Infamy! is Boudicca Queen of the Iceni, and will double as commanding leader of the army too.


Boudicca led the revolt againts the Romans  in 60/61 BC, putting to fire St Albans, London and Colchester until finally defeated by Gaius Suetonius Paulinus in the Battle of Watling Street.


This is a Wargames Foundry superbly sculpted metal model from its Briton range in 28mm. Both the driver and the Boudicca mini are very detailed and easy to paint, a real joy.


Next, I'm planning to finish the thrid chariot of the unit and then move to the foot warriors.


Iain W Pict skirmish archers for Dux Bellorum 28mm (70 points)

Here are some Pict archers for Dux Bellorum ,again almost finished at the end of the challenge, finally done now.  They're a skirmish option in Dux Bellorum, so they'll be in units of four,I  need to come up with a couple more figures, well three more as a spare Pict leader has snucked in as he was finished, he might well get press ganged into a Welsh army in the future.
The figures are primarily Black tree design with additional unknown Ebay types to make up the numbers.




14 x 28mm figures gives me 70 points to add to my previous score of 105, total 175 so far. 
I've got some more Dux Bellorum lined up together with various other periods and I really need to get some Romans done! Next up probably wont be hairy psychopaths from the Celtic fringe,probably!
All the best Iain 

From TimG - 1/32 WW2 Brits

Lowering the alarmingly high standards of paintwork on this blog is this batch of WW2 Brits for North Africa. These chaps are a mix of Airfix, Matchbox and Timpo plastic figures. They’re daubed to my usual ‘toy soldier’ style so it’s best not to look too closely at the photos!