From KevH: 15mm WWII Afrika Korps Armour & 28mm ECW (114 points)

Kev debuts with this very nice collection composing of 28mm ECW musketeers and a 15mm DAK force.

From Kev:

Here are my first entries into the challenge. Now I have finally got going after the Christmas break.

The first are 6 x 28mm ECW musketeers. Redoubt bodies I think  with Bicorne heads. These are unbased as they are a commission to be based by the owner.

The rest are my Christmas present from my lovely Charlie. These are 15mm FoW. 12 x Tanks and 2 x Aircraft The Tanks are all Plastic Soldier Co.

The Aircraft are Zvezda. I have a very large 20mm WW2 collection for Rapid Fire that I play at home in my games room, but we play FoW at my local club.

I decided to do a small panzer force to allow me to play at the club without always having to borrow miniatures. Hence a Chrissy pressy from my Mrs and now all done and ready to go.

Two evenings of painting, the quickest paint job ever, haha. But they look ok, I just need to learn the rules now.

Great work Kev. Those Zvezda aircraft look excellent and I love those old Redoubt ECW sculpts. 

This collection of figures will give Kev a very tidy 114 points for his start up the Challenge roster. Welcome aboard Kev!

From SebG: Thirty Years War French Turenne Regiment (41 points)

From Seb:

For my 4th entry, I decided to stick with the Thirty Years War, and I've just finished another infantry regiment of 20 minis: Turenne infantry. You just have to love this black flag ;) 

Anyway, to paint them faster, I primed them in grey, simply because grey was very common in the French army. As usual, the minis are from Old Glory.

Lovely work Seb! I've always like the look of 'swinefeathers' (and not a word you can easily slip into everyday conversation!).

This regiment will give Seb a base of 39 points (prone models get half points) but I'm going to add a couple for the nice flags, so 41 total. 

From PeterD: 1:2400 British Naval & 1:1250 Aircraft (39 points)

Peter apparently shares the same writing style as myself in believing 'why use 10 words when 10,000 will do' ...

From Peter:

HMS Renown c1917.  These were part of the grab bag that I acquired from Sylvain.  Although CinC lists these as WW2 models, they in fact represent the Renown and Repulse as built in 1916-7!  Even in WW1 these two went into dock for upgrades so often that they were dubbed HMS Refit and Repair.  The fact that they were armoured on the same level as the I class battlecruisers that had blown up at Jutland didn't help their reputations either!  Between the wars they became very different ships - in fact they were far more valuable fleet units when 20 years old then when they were brand new.   The CinC casting is a complete failure for WW2 but works very well for WW1.  In fact I think they are the only 1:2400 models of these ships for WW1.

HMS Renown

In response to the air fleets launched from HMS Eagle, I've finished some elements from the Italian opposition.  Here we have a formation of 6 SM79 Sparvieros accompanied by two Macchi C200 Saetta.

The SM79 was likely the best Italian aircraft of WW2.  Originally designed as a passenger aircraft, it served in the Spanish Civil War, WW2 and into the 50s.  It was used as a medium bomber and as a torpedo bomber and was especially effective as a TB.  The MC200 Saetta was a fighter than was able to take on the British Hurricanes and P40s and served ever where that the Italians did in WW2.

These are all Cap Aero 1:1250 models mounted on florists wire (visible beneath one of the SM79s in the lower photo).  While the wire looks clunky in unpainted form, I find that you can acheive a disappearing act by painting it blue to match the bases. 

In these photos we see the Regia Aeronautica in action with elements of the RN's Mediterranean fleet (both of WW1 vintage but heavily modified for WW2).   We have HMS Warspite (a ship that should need no introduction) and the C class AA cruiser HMS Cairo.  The ships are of course GHQ 1:2400 models.

HMS Warspite

Finally we have two elements of the Regia Marina at sea, in the form of the Battleship RM Guilio Cesare and the cruiser RM Luigi Cadorna.  These two have been shadowed by two FAA Walruses (single bases) who have vectored in a flight of RAF Beaufort  torpedo bombers (reported piloted by Lts "Brutus" Smith and "Cassius" Jones). The ships are GHQ and the planes CAP Aero.

RM Guilio Cesare and RM Luigi Cadorna

The Cesare was a WW1 design that was upgraded (ok considerably rebuilt) in the 30s.  She served at the Battle of Calabria, where she set a record of sorts thanks to the long range hit that HMS Warspite scored on her.  She also sortied numerous times to intercept British convoys, notably the First Battle of Sirte.  After the war she was transferred to the USSR and served as the Novorossiysk before being sunk by ex-German mines, Italian frogmen or random gamma rays from Mars.  She had two sister, the Leonardo Da Vinci (sunk in WW1 by unstable ammo) and the Conte di Cavour (sunk at Taranto by FAA Swordfish).

The Luigi Cadorna was part of the second group of Condottieri cruisers.  She served in the Spanish Civil War and WW2 and was present at Calabria.  Being considered too weakly protected for fleet work she was assigned a range of more dangerous tasks!  These included minelaying and serving as a fast fuel and ammo transport.  She also took part in attempts to intercept RN convoys.  She served in the RM until the early 50s.  A sister the Armando Diaz was sunk by a RN submarine on the Libyan transport run.

(Falls sleeping from chair.) Right!  Oh, are we done? ;p  Seriously, great job on these Peter. I don't know if you need to rework any future flight stands with a pin vise etc. as these look brilliant to me. It's interesting how the difference in scale between the ships and aircraft really makes no difference in the overall aesthetic.

This group of ships and aircraft will give Peter 39 points. Nice work.

From JohnM: 28mm Napoleonic Brunswick Hussars & Uhlans (160 points)

John sends us another addition to his Napoleonic Brunswick collection, this time its the light cavalry: Hussars and Uhlans.

From John:

So here we have the Brunswick cavalry at Waterloo. This unit represents 3 squadrons of Hussars and a squadron of Uhlans (I actually should have one more squadron of Hussars......happy to trade 2 Uhlans (and money of course) for 4 Hussars). I represent each squadron with 4 figures. 

I am not sure if they saw action or not, but certainly they are going to look good on the gaming table. These were primed white, airbrushed with black ink and then heavily dry brushed with Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue. A final light dry brush Vallejo London Grey was used to bring out pelises, fur and straps. I believe I will go with this method for the rest of my Brunswickers. 

This is the largest cavalry unit I have painted with 16 figures, previously my max was 12. These are Perry figures and were quite nice to paint. I do like the horses, but they were a little fragile though, I believe I snapped off at least an half dozen legs. I should have another unit to submit in the next day or two, they will not be black!

John, these look fabulous. I really like the method you've come up with to do your 'black' - I'm definitely going to give that a try.

These sixteen horsemen will give John 160 points.

From SylvainR: 1:2400 WWII Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Tirpitz & Graf Zeppelin (12 points)

From Sylvain: 

I've just finished the last four units of my Kriegsmarine project:

Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Tirpitz and Graf Zeppelin. Above, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau are sporting the colors of their most famous sortie: Operation Berlin. The ship on the right is from CinC while the left one was made by GHQ. CinC's details, like the guns, are more to scale, but they are much fragile. I prefer the exaggerated details on the GHQ units. I also think the planes and the lifeboats add "life" to the model, details neglected on CinC units.

Tirpitz is escorted by the Bismarck in the foreground and the Graf Zeppelin in the background.

Lower image, Graf Zeppelin is escorting a U-boat. Since this aircraft carrier was never commissioned, I chose to paint it in the same pattern as the Bismarck, a pattern also featured on many other Kriegsmarine units. Apparently, Graf Zeppelin's primary mission was to serve as a spotting platform for U-boats. The planned complement of aircrafts included 20 spotter planes out of a capacity of 43 airplanes. It will be fun to see what kind of trouble these ships could have caused to the royal Navy if they would have operated together.

Next up, another enemy of the Royal Navy: la Marine française!!!

Excellent work Sylvain. I really like the Graf Zeppelin in the 'Razzle Dazzle' paint scheme. 

These four ships will give Sylvain 12 points. I look forward to seeing the upcoming French Fleet!