From JohnB: 40mm Old School Toy Soldiers - 1850s 'Great European War' (234 points)

Ok, here is a treat for you this New Years Eve. Another resident of Saskatchewan, actually a shifty import from Wisconsin, gives you a dose of Old School Toy Solder goodness. John, sculpts and casts his own soldiers (I sent one to my nephew for Christmas) which sort of puts him in a class of his own.

From John:

Here is my first entry into the Painting Challenge. 36 40mm foot and 1 mounted officer. 

These are my own 40mm sculpts and casts inspired by Holger Ericsson and Aly Morrison. They are painted in toy soldier style with simple bases and glossy finish. 

They are part of my Great European War of 1850 project. Submitted are the 3rd and 4th battalions of the Hoch und Deutschmeister Regiment (#3) and their beloved Oberst. (Has there ever been a beloved Oberst...is that even allowed in the German speaking world?) There are 36 foot and 1 mounted. 

My Russian and Austrian armies are almost complete and will be campaigning against each other this winter. 

At present I am casting Danes, Prussians, French, Bavarians and Saxons...and inspired by "Lincoln" and a reread of Shelby Foote, my first ACW infantry. I really enjoy this scale and style and period of figures...if only I could recruit some of my buddies....

While a fairly good sort for a Cheesehead, John is a bit of a whiner as we game with his stuff all the time (we even let him win once in a while).

The base points for these boys are 197, but since John does the sculpting and casting I'm going to add a point each, so 234. Not a bad debut, eh?

From JamesB: 28mm French & Indian Wars Infantry and Civilians & Seven Years War Cavalry (235 points)

Ok, someone has been a busy lad, apparently eating turkey with one hand while painting with the other. James sends in this amazing entry composing of a F&IW Indians, Civilians, Scots AND a full unit of SYW Prussian Hussars!

From James:

My next offering is more FIW stuff, we have 3 Indian Chiefs from Perry miniatures along with 6 civilians from the Redoubt miniatures. 

It made me giggle that you have the Women protecting the children one is carrying a baby while another shields a young girl, while the  single man has picked up his pet dog and legged it. 

Next I have 2 squads of 42nd Highlanders (The Black Watch) also the Officer and Sgt, these are again from Redoubt and are some of the best sculpts I have seen from them.

Lastly I have a unit of Prussian Hussars from Foundry Miniatures you will be seeing alot of these as I bought 8 units to paint up for all the variuos forces involved in the SYW.

Wow. That is an impressive amount of work - Bravo James! This reminds me of the stuff Kent was blasting out last year. Awesome. 

This group of figures will give James a very impressive 235 points.

From GregB: 28mm Downed Soviet Pilots & Mujahideen with Stinger Missile (15 points)

From Greg:

Just a small submission to try and keep the momentum up. Not many points, but these have been in my pending pile since the summer and I want to get them moved off. This is a pair or downed Russian chopper pilots, 28mm scale from Mongrel Miniatures.  They will make excellent objectives for Afghanistan games pitting the Mujahideen against the Soviet army. 

The Mogrel sculpts are fantastic to work with - their modern range is one of the best.  These pilots capture the character present in much of the range - the one fellow looks to have a separated shoulder, and both look wary of their circumstances...

Lastly, a 28mm Afghan guerilla from Eureka armed with a stinger missile.  He completes the downed Soviet helo pilots - mujahideen armed with stingers became a factor late in the USSRs ill-fated occupation of Afghanistan. 

This guy will be a nice addition to my large assortment of mujahideen from Mongrel miniatures.

Very characterful models and you've done a fabulous job with them, Greg. 

These three figures will give Greg 15 point to add to his total.

From DaveD: 28mm Napoleonic 95th Rifles (60 points)

Continuing on with the blessed Napoleonics, Dave sends us the following: 

So it's my first Napoleonics of the challenge - completed these in between work on the next entry - these lads will do for their skirmishers.

So here we have 12 Rifleman from the ubiquitous 95th. They are they Front Rank figures - some of thier best I think too. Top notch on the castings with very litle clean up required, just slap a bit of paint on em bish bosh.

A beautiful example of the 95th Rifle 'Corps'. Funny, I heard that there was these units in the Napoleonic British army that wore, wait for it, RED uniforms - I know, that's crazytalk... ;) 

Seriously, lovely work Dave. I particularly like the chaps wearing the soft foraging cap.

These dozen Greenjackets will give Dave 60 points.  

From SylvainR: 1:2400 WWII Kriegsmarine Cruisers (22 points)

Sylvain, the 'Lion of Hillsdale' sends us some more microscale German ships for us to marvel at.

From Sylvain:

Here is my new batch of German ships. There are 11 cruiser size ships.

First, 6 light cruisers.

Top: Emden (first German modern light cruiser, totally undergunned), Nurnberg and Leipzig.

Bottom: Köln, Königsberg and Karlsruhe (the "K" class)

3 heavy cruisers.

Top: Blücher on her way to invade Oslo and impress the fortress garrison with her 8" guns and Admiral Hipper, with her signature camouflage.

Bottom: Prinz Eugen in one of her many attire. She's like a princess with so many

dresses. I chose the camouflage of early 1941, similar to how the Bismarck was painted on her last voyage.

Note now colourful the ships are with their turrets featuring air recognition colours.

They almost rival the Italians.

Now, Top: The Altmark, cruising under the sun with the Graf Spee in the background (previously painted).

Bottom: the Scheswig-Holstein, a pre-dreadnought battleship known for firing the very first shots of WW2.

Next up: German capital ships.

Lovely work Sylvain (though likening the Prinz Eugen to a 'princess' made me tilt my head a bit) . These eleven will give you 22 points. Well done!

From CarsonG: 15mm Napoleonic Austrian Infantry and Artillery (58 points)

I want to extend a big welcome to our new Challenger, Carson, for a couple reasons. First, he's a Saskatchewan boy like myself which means he's both very hardy and a bit 'touched'. Second, this entry marks his first foray into historical gaming after a very long (and very successful) career in the Warhammer Fantasy tournament circuit. Welcome to 'The Beautiful Game' Carson! Now, we just have to get him converted to the 'Proper Scale', right Dave... ;)

From Carson:

My first of many Regiments for Napoleonics to complete. Still waiting for the flag to show up in the post, but I couldn't wait any longer.

#1 Kaiser Grenadier Regiment (seen at beginning of post) with an attached Battery, Under Kollowrath's command at the Battle of Austerlitz.

Very nice work Carson. Are these Old Glory castings? Anyway, once you have a few more battalions under your belt we'll have to get these lads out with Dallas' French for a proper bash-up.

The Kaiser's Own and their attached artillery will give Carson 58 points. Again, welcome to the Challenge!

From ChrisP: 15mm WWII American Armour & 28mm Viet Cong (78 points)

Chris has just moved between cities in New Zealand and so is catching up on his painting with this entry of some 15mm U.S. armour and a squad of Viet Cong.

From Chris:

So, some more painting. I have just moved house, moved cities so painting time has been at a premium! Apparently painting is not a "good use of time", nor is it "helping unpack". Which is problematic!  

But I had these 90% finished before we moved, so I have managed to finish them up while the mrs has been in the shower, or getting ready (a suprisingly large amount of time). 

Anyway, first up we have an M4A1 Sherman armed with a 76mm gun. A Battlefront model, nothing special about it really. I have been pretty sparse with stars/markings- I know they were common but I personally am not a huge fan of the look.

Next is 4 M18 Hellcat Tank Destroyers, again from Battlefront. Designed specifically for the job of hunting tanks, these babies are light, fast and pack a good punch with their 76mm guns. I have liked the Hellcat for some time now, I might have to acquire another unit of them so that I can run a Hellcat company at some stage! 

Then, we are back into 28mm with some Viet Cong from Eureka Miniatures. These are a motley bunch, with a wide variety of equipment, especially armament! Some are equipped with the lovely No 3 Enfield, others with an AK derivative, one even with a captured M16!

The models are pretty good- I love how much detail Eureka put into their figures, but every once and a while they get faces absolutely wrong. There is also a few too many mould lines to clear up for my tastes.

The biggest issue is that they only sell these 10! Which means I have to go looking to other manufacturers for other VC miniatures.

Excellent work Chris. Those tank destroyers look like their 28mm scale! Issues aside I particularly like those Eureka VC - hopefully they expand the range soon.

This collection will give Chris 78 points.