From MilesR: 1/6000 WWII Imperial Japanese Fleet at Coral Sea (63 points)

From Miles:

A bit of a nautical theme for my next submission - the business half of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Coral Sea fleet in 1/6000 scale. The miniatures are from Hallmark Miniatures. Initially I had some misgivings about trying to paint these mini’s but I actually found it to be fun. My goal for this project is to build out the entire Japanese and Allied fleets for the Battle of the Coral Sea, which I plan to refight using the Victory at Sea ruleset. I was pleasantly surprise by the level of detail the 1/6000 scale minis had, but keeping track of the various ship types will require the labels be attached along the sides.

The first photo shows the portion of the fleet that’s completed as of today: 5 Carriers, 8 Cruisers and 16 Destroyers. I have 3 Cruisers and 12 Destroyers yet to be finished. To provide some scale reference, the largest Carrier models are a little less than 1.5 inches long!

The second photo shows 4 Myoko class Cruisers and 8 Fubuki class Destroyers. The Myoko class Cruiser was one of the first Japanese capital ships to have extensive anti torpedo armor plating. The Fubuki class Destroyer were initially laid down in 1928 and some of the most heavily armed Destroyers of the war. Unfortunately, the heavy armaments made the class a bit structurally unsound, which could be a bit of a drawback when the other side hits you with a heavy shell.

The third photo shows the heart of the fleet - 5 Carriers, from top to bottom the Sokaku, Shoho, Ryuho, Zuiho, and last but not least the Zuikaku. The 5 ships carried over 300 aircraft with superbly trained aircrews. During the preparation of these models I either painstakingly painted the flight decks and aircraft or downloaded some flight deck images and painstakingly cut them out to fit the model. Either one was really a bit hard but I like the results. (Hint, go with option 2). The fourth photo is a US Dauntless Dive Bombers point of view. If I wasn’t so lazy, I’d but a dive bombers cross hairs on the Shoho as she was sunk during the Battle of the Coral Sea.

The 5th photo is of 4 Furutaka class Cruisers and 8 Hatsuharu/Shiratsuyu class Destroyers. The Furutaka Cruisers where light on gunnery weight with only 6 8 inch guns vs 10 for the Myoko class but they still had plenty of Long Lance Torpedos, which proved to be the most effective anti ship weapon in the Japanese arsenal. The destroyers where brimming with Long Lance Torpedos and made for very deadly opponents.

The last photo is a top down view of the whole fleet. Banzai!

Wow, an aircraft carrier at an inch and a half long - that is pretty darn cool (and wee).  These are really nice castings for such a small scale. I particularly like how the carrier decks turned out - very nice. Miles, how big is the sea mat that you have on the table? At first, I thought it was quite large and then I saw the playing cards and thermos mug on the side which made me shake my head!

This half of the Japanese Coral Sea Fleet will give Miles 63 points. I hope we get to see the last half of the IJN plus the American fleet before the Challenge concludes.

From TimB: 28mm Cold War Soviets (25 points)

From Tim:

Just a quick one... I decided to take a quick break from the brightly coloured and annoyingly detailed samurai to knock off a few easy minis that arrived in the mail this week.

These are Atomic Cafe 1957 Soviets (I think Brigade Games makes them...? I picked them up from the North Star january sale - along with a few other Atomic Cafe 1957 packs they were blowing out). 

They look like they may have been sculpted by the same sculptor that did the Mongrel Cold War Soviets - of which I have a few - so these will fit in nicely with that.

Back to the Samurai in a bit, but I'll probably be taking a break for a week to get some terrain built.

Ah, this is a nice little diversion from your feudal Japanese project. Great work Tim!  I really like these early Cold War period models with their jodhpurs and high boots - very evocative of the time.

These five '57 Soviets will give Tim 25 points. 

From MichaelF: 28mm & 15mm WWII American Paratroopers (33 points)

RobP's current activity with the Challenge has paid its dividends and so we are treated to these marvellous figures from his good pal Michael.

From Michael:

Well, this challenge is not the best for me so far. Way too many distractions but I hope during the second part I will have some more painting time... 

For my second entry another couple of figures I had to paint to finish a unit I started before the challenge. They are Offensive miniatures I bought at Salute last year. I already painted a platoon a few years back but I really liked this figures and it would give me something different than the usual Artizan WWII figs. They are highly detailed quality figs but that also means they take up a lot more time than the bulkier figures.

The 15mm are a test to see if this scale will work for skirmish games. They have passed the test and I will be joining a couple of friends friends with a 15mm skirmish force for Chain of Command.

Although these Battlefront figures are nice I won't be painting them any time soon as I prefer doing regular infantry as opposed to the elite guys.

Absolutely gorgeous work Michael. Those paratroopers are off the hook. Beautiful colour blending and the screaming eagle insignia is clearly discern. I particularly like the medic and the .30 cal gunner with the tawny moustache who is creeping ahead, slowly letting out a breath under the tension. Brilliant.

Your 15mm paratroopers are also very nice. Our group games WWII in 15mm for Chain of Command as well so you're not alone. The scale of the smaller figures seem to really fit the ranges of these skirmish rules. That being said we also like (and use) 28mm figures for the sheer detail and spectacle of the tabletop. Apples and oranges, eh.

These very fine American paratroopers, in two scales, will give Michael 33 points.

From BenD: 15mm WWII American Tanks, SP Guns, Jeeps, Halftracks & Patton(!) (118 points)

From Ben:

Hello All

A little change of pace from my current Soviet Drive (Don't worry I'll be back to that in the next few days). Just before Xmas I sold all my FOW US to fund my Soviet army as I had big plans but small pockets. Well one of the guys who bought my tanks wanted me to round out the army, after a little time to finish my Soviets for Corrivalry I started the US APCs.

First up I did 6 Priest Artillery and 2 OP Shermans, these are all Battlefront models and were great fun to paint. The modeled on Stowage (always a favourite of mine) really adds a lot of character to the unit. Although the crew were a paint to stick in...

Next up was 3 Half Tracks from the Plastic Soldier Company. These guys were a little fiddly to put together but I'm happy with the end result.

And Finally Patton and a Jeep recon unit. Patton is a lovely model with real character and a great model to paint. The jeeps were also fun but having now put together 20 or so of the battlefront jeeps I find them a right pain to do. 

In case your wondering the the .50 cals are missing by request of Mike as he's planning on magnetizing them.

Really beautiful vehicles Ben. The Priests are fabulous, but my favourite has to be Patton's armoured car with its 4-star pennants and the man himself reviewing the troops, making sure 'the other poor dumb bastards die for their country.' Classic.

These fine American vehicles (and their crews) will give Ben 118 points. Well done!