From SidneyR: 28mm Great War Germans and French Casualties (85 points)

From Sidney:

I’ve been really enjoying watching the entries arrive in the Challenge, there are some super-fast quality painters out there!

Here’s a 1918-vintage polygot selection of German Stosstruppen with MP18 Bergmann sub-machine guns, a German sniper, a couple of German Mauser Tankgewehr M1918 13.2mm anti-tank rifles and part of a “ditched” crew of an A7V tank, all in 25/28mm. They’re some of the “odds and ends” I’ve had around which I just wanted to get done before the main event. Think of them as a canapé with light champagne before the French arrive proper!

I played around with a couple of things here. The green-stuff German camouflage cloak on the spotter for the double-based anti-tank rifle is improvised, but not completely unrealistic I hope. The camouflage cape on the sniper matches the terrain colours of our gaming boards and the improvised painted-on camouflage on German helmets in 1918.

The German tank crew figures are from Old Glory. This is the only manufacturer (to my knowledge) making German tank crews with their distinctive overalls. They’re OK sculpts, painted up very easily, and the officer has some super facial details. As many of the A7V tank crews transferred from other units, I’ve painted him in the uniform of a JägerSturmBataillon officer in some rather jazzy regimentals.

Et les Francais? Ah, well, I wanted to test Horizon Bleu on a couple of casualty figures first – mixing Vallejo Neutral Gray with Vallejo Mirage Blue seems to give a reasonable result, adding black and white to shade and highlight. So there are a couple of fallen Poilu on the bases as well, each scratch-built from a generic casualty figure. Let me know what you think to the colour!

So, 15 figures (if I count the casualties), and started after 20 December 2012. I’m off the mark at last, thank goodness!!

Amazing work Sidney! I've always loved your Great War stuff and these certainly don't disappoint. The over-saturated colours are fabulous and I really like the little touches like the sniper cape for the spotter, the fallen masonry and the wine bottles next to the Poilu (at least he died happy?).  These troops will give Sidney a base of 70 points  (half points for prone figures) but I'm adding another 15 for his custom groundwork, conversion and excellent vignettes.