From JohnM: 20mm WWII Finnish Infantry (66 points)

From John:

Well this will make my last submission for this year's challenge. This finishes my platoon from Finland for the 3 month Winter War, 1939-40. I have added 17 new figures. I now have two Senior Leaders, the Vanrikki with his pistol and the Kersantti with his rifle as well as 4 Junior Leaders, the Alikersantti with their 4 sections; two comprised of LMG and rifle teams and two comprised of SMG and rifle teams. The final photo shows their organisation with previously painted supports. I really did not expect to get this platoon done so soon, so I am quite pleased.

I am quite relieved to put down the painting brush and get back to gaming and terrain construction. I have come up just shy of my 1500 point projection, but so it goes. It has been a very busy 3 months for me personally and it was hard to get in painting time. I would have like to have got more Napoleonics done.

Anyway thanks again to Curt, another great contest. I wonder if you will do it again! There have been really fantastic figures to be seen. I see Andrew is closing in on 4000 points which requires a special mention, and I have enjoyed everyone's entries. Some amazing painters out there. 

Great work John! I know you had a slow start this year but you came on like a lion and almost made your target.

These Finnish troops will give John 66 points. Well done. Now, go back to your terrain building and let's see some fun AARs from your blog!

From JohnM: 20mm Vickers Armstrong Light Tank & Finnish Support Weapon Teams (84 points)

From John:

Winter War Finns Support Weapons

One of the aspects of 'Chain of Command' that I really enjoy is selecting support options for the basic platoon, lot of fun and offers a lot of flexibility. I was lucky with the Warmodelling (Fantassin), in that they really have put together a rather complete force. I generally try to select something from each list. List One is usually pretty straight forward and includes things like giving a Molotov to each section, or providing entrenchments for one team.

From List Three I have put together a 25mm Hotchkiss AT Gun with 5 crew and a Junior leader, as well as five man Maxim MMG and Boyes AT rifle teams. The 25 mm gun is from SHQ. I think it is a little undersized, especially the gun barrel.

From List Four, we have a Vickers Armstrong Mk B. This model is also from SHQ miniatures. I enjoyed painting the Finnish flag on the turret. 

Finally from List Five, I have done a 8cm mortar. This is of course off table in Chain of Command with just the FO on the table.

I have already made some comments about  these miniatures, I understand that Eureka also has some Winter War Finns in 20 mm, this line is certainly not as complete as the Warmodelling range. The trees are from Gale Force Nine are 1/100 scale rather then 1/76 scale but they will do. GF9 certainly has lots of nice accessories for winter wargaming and I am sure I will buy some more.

I've always liked the SHQ range and these models don't disappoint, especially with the fine work you've put into them John. 

I have these tree sets from GF9 and like them as well. Remember John, there is no real 'scale' when it comes to trees...

These Fins will give John 84 points. Great work.

From JohnM: 28mm AWI British Infantry (55 points)

From John:

British Infantry for French Indian War

These 11 figures bring up my British colonial force for Muskets and Tomahawks to over 400 points. Like my previous FIW miniatures these are from Conquest Miniatures, also sold by Warlord Games. Again very nice figures, well proportioned and almost anatomic in nature. A bit more flash than usual and only 3 different sculpts, unlike the other figures they sell, which are all different. Rank and file, I suppose.

They were primed white and painted completely with Citadel paints and washes. I am quite happy how they came out.

Well we are to the end of the contest and I think I am going to be just shy of my 1500 point goal. I thought I might have a chance as I have one more submission that is almost done and I was cunningly planning another to just push me over the top, but I just figured out that the contest ends tomorrow night, not Thursday night. Very tricky..........when I saw the deadline date I presumed the contest was over the end of the day on the 20th March, I just realized that it finishes 1 minute into the 20th if I have it right. Should never presume anything, but anyway I was getting tired and if I can get this last submission off I will be happy!

Yes, I think I may have sucker-punched a few people with the deadline... Sorry for that John!

Oh, these are very tasty. I quite like the bright yellow facings and turnbacks - quite natty me thinks! 

These  lads will give John 55 points. Nice!

From JohnM: 20mm WWII German Panzer Grenadiers & Gestapo Officer (44 points)

From John:

I am playing a solo game of CoC now, I just wanted to get my new British Paratroopers on the table, as well as getting a better sense of some of the vehicle rules. So essentially it is an Attack on an Objective scenario and one of the supports that the Germans selected was a squad of Panzer Grenadiers in a SdKfz 251/1.

Well I had the half track done but as I was playing the game I realized I did not have any PzG figures available in case the troops decided to leave their halftrack! Could not have that of course, so went to my reserve box and found 10 PSC 1/72 figures that would do. 

The PzGren's are well equipped and have two LMG teams. They need to be as in the last photo you can see through the smoke an approaching section of elite British Paratroopers. I must say I like painting small units of figures, you can put the time in but I have to say the collar flashes were a challenge.

I have also included a Gestapo Officer from SHQ Miniatures. I am not sure why he has a monkey on his shoulder. But the figure itself certainly gives off a bloodless psychopathic look. I am hoping to put together some rules for him, somewhat similar to the Commissar rules in the Soviet list.

Great work John! After painting a kabillion 28mm Napoleonics these small, discrete units must come as a breath of fresh air to you. I really like the 'combat photos' of the new lads in action (though I have a sense it's going to end badly for them). 

The less said about the Gestapo officer with the taxidermic hedgehog on his shoulder the better...

These eleven figures will give John 44 points. Good luck in your solo game John, may the best man win!

From JohnM: 20mm WWII British Paratroops (106 Points)

From John:

British Airborne Platoon:

Here we have 27 more 20mm figures from TQD, they complete my Paratrooper Platoon for Chain of Command. I also added one support element a 5 man Vickers MG team. I am happy to have the project done and am quite pleased with the figures, they are very nice castings.

In order to get enough riflemen I had to use their Polish paratroopers, but as far as I can see they are indistinguishable. I took Curt's advice and used Agrax Earthshade to blend the dennison smock's three different colours for a somewhat smoother transition. The two snipers are from the PSC late war infantry box. 

The last photo details the whole platoon and includes figures previously submitted. 

From left to right you can see the command group with the Lieutenant and Platoon Sergeant as well as a 2" Mortar team, a Piat team and a Sniper. Behind them is the 5 man Vicker's MG team (List 4). Next we have sections 1 & 2, with Section Sergeant as well as a 3 man Bren team and a 6 man rifle team (one man is armed with a Sten). Section 3 is a little different with a Section Sergeant as well as two Bren teams with 4 men, one armed with a Sten. This Section also has an attached Sniper. They have a Platoon Force rating of 8+ and 6 Command Dice. I will look forward in putting them up against some Panzergrenadiers.

Wonderful work John. It's great to have watched this whole reinforced platoon come together over the Challenge. I think your Denison camo came out great. Also, I wonder if those TDQ are the same as the old SHQ line? They look very similar to me (I like those crouching poses and its wonderful to see plucky Major Frost in there with his hunting horn). 

This group of British Paras will give John 106 points. Lovely work!

From JohnM: 20mm WWII British Engineers & Challenge Desperado (56 points)

From John:

These very nice 20 mm British engineers are from SHQ miniatures, I had understood that these 20 mm figures were smaller then most, but then fit in nicely with the rest of my 20 mm figures from PSC, AB, CPModels, TQD miniatures and Warmodelling (list gets longer and longer).

Some duplicates, but overall nice clean sculpts. Some mine sweepers, flamethrowers, dynamiters are all represented. 

I really like the guy with the dynamite. First attempt at camouflage in the helmets. I still have not decided if these are British or Canadian troops, so no shoulder flashes yet.

Each year, Curt requests that we send in a painted figure that fits with the theme of that year's challenge. He has successfully build up nice armies of skirmishers, I thought he was particularly clever last year to get us to all paint Samurai! This year it is Cowboys; well I have no cowboys, so last weekend when I was at the Hobby Bunker for my fortnightly game of Chain of Command I had a look around. And although I doubt this chappie is a Sam Peckinpah character, I thought he might be cowboy enough.

I believe this easily recognised figure from the Wild West is a Reaper Miniatures figure in their heroic 30mm range. Anyway I do not believe he will go astray in a game of Deadman's Hand.

A couple of years ago Curt was very kind and sent me something I was desperate to get my hands on, I wonder if he remembers. Anyway, a small portion of it is being sent back with this figure!

Great figures here John. I have quite a few SHQ myself and while sometimes fragile they have very good character and detail. Like you John, I quite like the engineer with the dynamite and the detonation cord. Great sculpt.

Also thanks very much for the Challenge Desperado. Great figure! I quite like his green hat, red whiskers and yellow buff leggings. And I must say that his Tentacle Pink scarf is to die for. ;)

These engineers and the dashing rifleman will give John 56 points. Well done and thanks again John!

From JohnM: 20mm Winter War Fins ( 88 points)

From John:

It is with a bit of reluctance that I offer these figures up, Samuli and MichaelF have already submitted some beautifully done 28mm Winter War figures. I am not as good a painter as these two guys and the Winter figures in 20 mm are a bit limited; in fact limited to Fantassin/Warmodelling as far as I could sort out. I had already heard that these figures were a bit smaller then the PSC, AB and TQD Castings that I already have in my WWII armies. The figures though once obtained were about the same height as what I have and really they have quite a complete range. Like Samuli and Michael, I am building a force for Chain of Command and really the Warmodelling range had pretty well everything I needed to build a force with a good range of supports. 

So on to the figures, well they are pretty good sculpts but horrible casts. I really like all the poses and the bodies are well proportioned. The rifles may be a little big but are well detailed and fun to paint. The face are a little rough, do Finns really have very sharp noses! The boot were a little understated as well, but otherwise they were fine. The casting though is awfully especially with bits on the faces which is almost impossible to remove, I find it always difficult in the first run through with new figures to remove flash, as I am never sure where it is until I start to paint details. I have a second shipment coming to complete the force so I think it will go a little better the second time.

I enjoyed painting them, I found an excellent you tube video from BF which was quite helpful. Essentially two grays and a highlight of white. Webbing and straps were Vallejo Violet Green, I like the variety of hats, maybe I should of done the fir hats with a black wash rather then a brown, but I did want some variance from the gray spectrum of colour. Blue cap badges for the troops and red for the leaders.  In the first photo after the group shot we see a 3 man LMG team as well as the two senior leaders. In CoC the Finns have two different types of rifle section, with two of each to make up a platoon. The LMG section has 10 men and the SMG section has 6 men. You can substitute in a soldier with a Molotov as a level 1 support. We also have some figures throwing grenades. I did enjoy doing the bases and am looking forward to doing up some terrain.

I have purposely avoided close ups, these figures are just a little too roughly cast for this. After my last submission (paratroops), I get a sense at 20 mm it makes the figures look much worse then they actually do on the table and just distracts from the submission. I hope I am forgiven for making this point. Overall I am really pleased how these figures look on the table, I just now have to decide what figures I will use for the Russians and eventually some Germans. I have wanted to do winter in wargaming for a long time.

I'm struck by the amount of winter-themed entries we're having this year. Excuse the pun but I think it's pretty darned cool. Mwa, mwa, mwaaa... Hmm, I wonder what else I could get done that has  snow in it...

Great work John! 20mm is such a great scale (especially for vehicles) but it can be a bit tricky for both sculptors and painters. I find I either spend too much time on them (treating them like 28mm) or too little (streamlining them as if they were 15mm). Nonetheless, I really like the cool grey tones you've used for these fellows and the snow basing in nice and minimalist.

These Finns will give John 88 points.

From JohnM: 20mm WWII British Paratroopers (48 points)

From John:

British Paratroopers:

These 20 mm figures were a bit of a challenge. I have never painted personal camouflage in the past, and the dennison smock that the these paratroopers took me 3 goes before I had it right. I am sure they could be done better but for war gaming they look OK. I will get better on my next go with them. 

The figures are from TQD castings, and really they are quite nice. Beautifully proportioned, with lots of neat stuff, my only complaint are that they are on slotta bases. I had to hack off the slots for the Senior Leaders as I base them on nickels, rather then pennies, but I used the supplied bases for the men. 

The faces are just great, although I think I have to work on the mustache on the chief. 

I have ordered more figures as I have decided that I will do a whole platoon for Chain of Command. 

The proportions are a bit wrong for a paratroop section as I was short of rifles, but that will be corrected when new supplies arrive. We have two senior leaders, a Piat Team, a Bren team, a 2" mortar team as well as troops with rifles and SMG's. It is funny how all the little imperfections are missed until you photograph figures, but I have always found it a challenge to go back and fix things.

Great work John! You've done a very nice job with the dennison camo. I have found giving the camo a light was of Agrax Earthshade really helps to tie the various colours together. Try it out on a test figure and see what you think. 

Are some of these fellows using captured weapons? The LMG team looks like they're firing a MG-34 and the leader a MP40?

Slotta bases on 20mm? That's just cruel. I really wish manufacturers would drop the use of slottas as they're just so restrictive. Not everyone wants to be proscribed to a certain design of base. Makes me crazy.

These paras will give John 48 points. Nice job!

From JohnM: 28mm Napoleonic French Light Infantry Battalion (135 points)

John finishes his last unit of French light infantry for his very impressive Napoleonic collection.

From John:

3e/13e Légére

This unit is a bit of a milestone, the final unit of French Légére I shall be painting. My French Napoleonic forces are near completion and this is my 10th battalion of légére, joining 4 battalions of the 1éme, 3 battalions of the 2éme and the other 2 battalions of the 13éme. Three battalions of ligne and 3 battalions of garde left to do, but another day maybe. That will bring me up to 28 battalions of French infantry, a robust force I believe. 

This battalion has a bit of an unusual provenance, I bought these Front Rank figures from a very well known rules writer 3 or 4 months ago and they languished on the table. If I remember correctly he had purchased them without realizing that they were pre-Bardin. They were a bit odd as they had been primed with AP Blue primer, I was curious about this as the uniform of the légére of course is all blue, so it should make them a little easier to paint. There was some difficulties though as the primer does not have much bite and my style of painting requires a primer which has some adhesion. I found that if I drybrushed them with GW Enchanted Blue and then washed them with GW Asmuren Blue wash they looked pretty good. I like a nice bright blue on my French, while going with a greyer blue on my Prussians.

A great Flagdude standard decorates the force and I include a photo of the whole regiment. Quite a varied regiment as you can see, this is the only battalion where the carabiniers are wearing bearskins, but at the same time my other two battalions have their voltigeurs sporting colpacks. Anyway Front Rank has great looking pre 1812 French and I am quite happy I have finally completed this regiment.

Wow, lovely work John. I know its always nice getting a Napoleonic unit done as they typically take a bit of time to grind through. I've always liked the pre-Bardin uniform with its longer tails, smart waistcoat and huge plumes. Excellent stuff.

This, the 3rd battalion of the 13th, will give John 135 points. Great job!

From JohnM: 20mm WWII German Pioneers (28 points)

From John:

WW II German Pioneers

My previous submission had a section of Pioneers in Kubelwagons and a Panzerknacker team in a captured universal carrier. Since Chain of Command is a skirmish game,  some ambulatory figures were needed. I had to search around, the fact that AB figures have disappeared off the market because of a copyright squabble has made it a little difficult. Needed were figures that could represent mine laying teams, demolition teams, flamethrower teams, wire cutting teams as well as the tank hunters and a leader. All the Pioneer teams in Chain of Command are 3 figures except for the Panzerknackers who have 4 figures (2 tank hunters and a LMG team). You can also field a Pioneer Squad of 6 figures and a Junior Leader. 

So I needed a variety of figures. After some searching I came across CP Models, at first I felt that they looked a little odd, they are the absolutely the opposite of the short grunting figures that a lot of 20 mm manufacturers produce. Britannia figures are a good example of this. PSC and AB miniatures are somewhere in between while the CP Models and TDQ Castings (sold on the same website) are quite slender, but fortunately almost the same height. I now quite like these figures, look at the photos of the single figures, do they not portray the weariness of war! My upcoming British Paratroopers, Commandos, and Engineers are all from TDQ castings which are very similar to CP Models.

Anyway I should say that 3 of these models were done before the challenge started, so I can only claim 7, a small submission. But the good news is that the French Légére are almost done.

Great work John. These CP models are very nice and do show a weariness in their posture which is refreshing (though the one fellow above looks like he's clog dancing...) I managed to get a bunch of AB models before they became scarce and they are pretty amazing. I hope they become available again soon so you can try some out.

These German pioneers will give John 28 points. Well done John and I look forward to seeing your upcoming French Legere.

From JohnM: 20mm WWII German Late War Vehicles (126 points)

John has been quite taken by the Chain of Command rules and so has been busy building models and terrain for a future D-Day campaign using the system.

From John

German WWII Late War Vehicles

This will be the first of what I am hoping will be a total of 2-3 WWII German Vehicle submissions, I am putting together a 1944 Normandy campaign for Chain of Command. Several vehicles were needed for the Germans, so I have been busy painting away. They were all primed with with BF Late War German Armour and then airbrushed with brown and red for camouflage. I quite like how this came out, I am not a big fan of the paisley patterned camouflage you often see.

First up is a SdKfz 251/1 from Plastic Soldier Company. I really can say nothing negative about this model. Lots of options, in the box, I had already painted the command version Sd.Kfz 251/10 and just bought a box of the specialized versions with flamethrowers and other nice things. PanzerGrenadiers are tough nuts in CoC and this is my first squad.

Next up is a Sd.Kfz 10/4 with a 2 cm FlaK 30. This model is from SHQ miniatures, as are the rest of the models in this submission. Metal, nice and hefty but a bit of work to assemble.

We then have a MC reconnaissance team with a mounted LMG. I took this from the PSC box, did a bit of drilling a stuck it on. I could not meet the challenge of mounting the vehicle number on the front rim, so they have been placed on the rear of the side car.

Next is a pioneer squad in 2 Kubelwagons, I may stick on some more pioneer type stuff, we will see.

The Tank Hunters are in a captured Universal Carrier, in the German nomenclature a Panzerjager Bren 731e. Pretty cool, I thought.

Last up is Kfz 81, specialized to fire and tow a 2 cm AI Gun. well more to come soon. All the vehicles have vehicle numbers, they were very fiddly to put on.

Very nice work John. I checked out your upcoming Normandy mini-campaign and it looks very interesting. I'm eager to see how it all unfolds.

These German vehicles will give John 126 points. Well done!