From GregB: 15mm WWII Soviet Heavy Artillery (56 points)

From Greg:

The WW2 15mm submissions continue as a I purge my "pending pile" for this scale and period.  Of course, the pile just grows again afterward...but whatever.

Earlier I had submitted a pile of Soviet WW2 infantry and included an artillery "staff team" as part of the submission.  Well, here is the gun battery that came with them.  I think the inclusion of heavy artillery pieces right on the table is one of the many, many terrible elements of the "Flames of War" "game".  But this was a Christmas present from my brother, and I always feel like it is good painting karma to finish off figures that non-gamer family members get for you as gifts.  They don't care about my gaming hang ups - and why should they? - they are thrilled they managed to find figures that are roughly in the orbit of my interest, and I am touched when they try :) 

Besides, if anyone is going to use 122mm and 152mm towed guns in a tactical situation, it would be the Soviets.  And there are times in Spearhead games when the heavy divisional guns are represented on the table, so it is not a total wash.

The box set gives you enough trails and guns to make four 122mm or 152mm howitzers.  I think the "Flames of War" intent is that you would do all guns in the same calibre, but I mixed it up - three 122mm howitzers and one 152mm howitzer.   I did one gun with the barrel levelled off, imagining the crew ready to engage over open sights against a German spearhead that has come unexpectedly upon the battery. 

Whatever I think of their rules, I must once again give Battlefront compliments for literally giving you everything you might need - a command team, a staff team, an observer team and four guns with crew.  The staff team has a nice designer resin base, and so do each of the guns, which have all sorts of little extras sculpted on to them - ammo crates, shell casings, bits of scenery - it is a very nice effect. I wish I had done a little better placing the crew figures in their spots on the bases - often the round tabs on the crew do not completely fill the hole, and the seam really stood out once I started painting.  I tried to cover these over with ground work where I could, but the smarter move would have been to cover the seams with liquitex gel before I primed them. Next time. 

My WW2 Soviets now have some pretty serious firepower to stop and/or stomp the German invaders/defenders on the table. 

The pictures include the whole battery as Battlefront imagines it, but only the guns and crews count for this submission - the staff team was submitted earlier, and the command team and observer team were painted prior to the challenge. 

Beautiful work Greg. I completely sympathize with your hang-up of FoW insisting on having heavy artillery on the table - it just looks and plays so wrong. Nonetheless, these are marvellous models and you've done them great credit with your painting.

This fine collection of Soviet guns will give Greg 56 points. 

From Millsy: 28mm Napoleonic KGL Infantry (55 points)

From Millsy:

My next submission is 11 x 28mm King’s German Legion infantry from the Napoleonic Wars. These are Brigade Games miniatures and will be used for skirmish games. Once again these are a commission for a friend and finishes off my efforts in 28mm Napoleonics for now. I’ve never much liked the stovepipe shako, preferring the Belgic style but these have come out well enough.

The background is a painted scene given to me by my mother-in-law as a birthday gift. Its designed specifically for use as a background when taking photos of miniatures. I’m still getting the hang of the lighting with my new setup so to my mind these are not the best pics but they’ll have to do for now at least.

Great work on these KGL lads and what a thoughtful gift from you mother-in-law.  It looks to be a watercolour, did she paint it herself?

These eleven KGL will give Millsy 55 points. Well done!

From TimG: 1/72 scale Spitfire Mk IX (15 points)

From Tim:

The latest product of my Winter Aircraft Project is this rather disreputable looking Airfix Spitfire Mk.IX. It's original owner had fairly slapped on the paint and there was an large and unexplained hole in the engine cowling (very accurate flak perhaps?). 

After dealing with the damage I applied a basic paint scheme. Even the canopy had to be painted as there was a fair bit of glue on it. Decals were sourced from ther decal box and are (for a change) not the usual JE-J supplied with the kit.

The end result might not look great, but it'll do for gaming purposes and it is rather better than the Mk.IX which was the first kit I built (unsupervised!) as a 6 year old in the early 1970s...

Good work Tim. Its nice to see these old birds getting spruced up and put back into service.

This Spitfire will give Tim 15 points to add to his tally.

From IanH: Banditos, French Napoleonics and Cloning Tanks (100 points)

The Hawkins Brothers are out in force today. Ian matches pace with Phil with this excellent and ecclectic submission.

From Ian:

First up I've some Mexican Banditos, these are a mix of old Black Scorpion Metals left over from a Wild West project a couple of years back and some brand new Blackwater Gulch miniatures from their kickstarter that ran last year. They were a blast to paint, I tried to stay true to my previous paint job whilst throwing in some brighter colours such as the mustard yellow shirts and Turquoise Corset on the lass.

Next I've a couple of bits of scenery, some cloning tanks (see begining of post) from Westwind Productions. I needed to get these done for some Weird WW2 Gaming in a couple of weeks so I had to slot them in as they're one of the objectives. They've got miniatures inside them so I'm sure that counts ;-)

Finally I've some more Napoleonic French, A Mounted Infantry Colonel and another 8pd Cannon with Crew, these are all from Perry Miniatures as are most of my non-plastic French forces. 

Looking at whats coming up I may have overstocked up a little so it's going to have to be nose to the grindstone for a week or so to plow through a load more miniatures.

Lovely work Ian. I'll always have a soft spot for Napoleonics, but those cloning tanks are the bomb - what a hoot! I gotta get a set for my 'Strange Aeons' games...

This group will give Ian 100 points. Great job! Now, back to the paint-desk and put your shoulder to the wheel...

From PhilH: 28mm Colonials & Pulp Adventure (40 points)

From Phil:

Entry number...five? This is a much-delayed and small entry, a result of finally getting around to watching Danish jumper-drama 'The Killing'. Although quite excellent, it eats into my painting time as it is subtitled, so requires my full attention. There are twenty episodes in the first season, so this will continue for some weeks! This last week I also spent making up some terrain, woods and rough ground. I used 4Ground's laser cut tree bases and while quite small, they are really quite nifty.

Anyway, onto the entry. Here's a firing line of King's Royal Rifle Corps for my dalliance with Colonial Sudan. I think I'm in a 'grey phase' at the moment, it certainly seems to be a feature of most of my entries at the moment. Had issues with these, I ended up re-doing the grey as it didn't match my first batch. It still isn't right but is closer, the chap on. The left of the second photo was part of batch one. Perry sculpts - what else?

Next up, the first of the Blackwater Gulch characters, this one 'The Norwegian', apparently. Heaven knows what use I'll find for him other than BWG, perhaps a slightly unbalanced hitman with a penchant for antique firearms and bullwhips in a Pulp game? The flash of white amoung very black hair is inspired by a chap I know.

And finally a daring female adventurer for Pulp, ready to take on the world. A cracking Artizan sculpt. The blue comes out very pale in the photos, the last image is closest the the actual colour, I dropped the blinds to take that one. 

I recently enjoyed a game of Operation Squad, so expect more WWII soon! I'm even eyeing up some light vehicles...

Awesome work Phil! The lass is particularly fine (great colours) but the pistolier has that unhinged je ne sais quoi. He distinctly reminds me of the 'The Swede' in the series 'Hell on Wheels' (excellent TV btw).

These nine figures will give Phil 40 points. Well done.

From GregB: 15mm WWII German Mortar Platoon (27 points)

From Greg:

Some support for the infantry platoons with three German mortar teams and two command teams. These are all Battlefront castings. 

Each Battlefront platoon pack comes with all sorts of command figures - the Flames of War game seems to assign multiple command stands to every infantry element. So these command stands are surplus from the recent painting efforts, and they will make good command elements for Spearhead games. 

The mortars will come in handy against all those Russians from my earlier submission :-)

Very nice unit Greg! It's great to see some 'garden variety' Heer infantry and you've really nailed the feldgrau shade on these lads' uniform. Well done.

This platoon of mortars will give Greg 27 points.