From BurkhardS: 28mm WWII British Infantry & German Armour (250 points)

Burkhard sends us a swath of wonderful WWII miniatures for us to enjoy.

From Burkhard:

Today I finally got around to show what I did between the second and third fortnight goals, the beginnings of my WWII British Rifle company. The Miniatures are a mix of Victory Force Miniatures [VFM], pre-Warlord Games Bolt Action [BA], Warlord Games metal [WG] and Artizan [ART]. These were painted as three batches, but I wanted to varnish and base them in one go, so it took me a while longer to post them to Curt.

Up first are the Officers. Left to right these are BA, WG, VFM and two ART. I feel that usually all lines mix quiet well (if you discount the Warlord Games minis having slimmer faces). In this case the officer is noticeably smaller, but i liked that mini too much not to paint him. All officers are from the infantry, except the one to the far right, who is painted to come from an armoured formation.

Next we have a radio operator [WG] and a NCO [VFM]. I know that one NCO is far too few for a whole rifle company. The other NCOs and three medics were painted in the summer of 2012. So there will be enough of them, they were just not painted as part of this Challenge.

While I will tackle the riflemen in another couple of batches soon, I already did the section firepower, namely the Bren teams. The one to the far right is BA, all the others are VFM. What always irritates me about the old Bolt Action British are their faces. If you look at the other work from Paul Hicks, they are so immensely detailed when it comes to the faces. I could never understand why these are so featureless. Probably part of the reason, why Warlord replaced them with new sculpts (thank god without those cartoonish faces sported by some of their other WWII ranges).

To complete the rifle companies heavy fire power, here are the PIAT teams. The first one is from BA.

Up next the first in firing pose from VFM.

And last another one in firing pose from BA. One of the few sets in the old range that had decent faces. The German Panzer in the photo was not painted as part of the Challenge and is just there for the atmosphere.

Now we have some serious firepower. While not part of the company level assets, a scenario can always require you to have a Vickers or two and looks wise, this has always been one of my favourites of WWII, So I could not do without. The first one is BA. The gunner does not look as nice as he could, but I still had it lying around and if you want two Vickers, more variety looks better on the table. The loader for this one gave me no joy. When I was doing the sand on the bases (always do that after painting and varnish) he slipped my fingers and dropped into the open can with brown paint. I pulled him out before he could go under and put him under running water,  but the damage had been done and I had to paint him once more. :-(

The other Vickers is by WG. All around a lovely set and maybe my favourite from their whole British range.

Now some of you may have spotted some shoulder flashes in the previous photos. All these men are meant to be from the 1st South Lancashires. 3rd (British) Infantry Division was an easy choice for me, since they landed on D-Day and saw action in many of the major operations of the war. So there is a lot of milage in them. The Regiments are distinguished by the bars under the flash (one in case of the 1st South Lancs) so they can easily pass as one of the other regiments on the tabletop. And I can live with patches for the wrong unit in case I want to replay something where troops from a different Division took part. The choice for the 1st South Lancs is actually a little more obscure. There are some things about the D-Day landings I absolutely want to replay and one of them is Sword Beach: Queen White (Brèche d´Hermanville) and this was their landing beach.

Anyway, here is a picture showing the unit flash. These were painted freehand on both the left and right arm of all the minis. Again this gave me some grief, since I managed to paint the colours of the triangle in reverse on both the 2nd and 3rd batch and I had to go back to these.

So to give an idea of them all, here is a group shot. 28 minis in total, unfortunately 6 of them prone.

But as some might have realized… I am still far away from my 1000 point target. Up next I want to paint a Napoleonic unit (this means slower progress still) I felt I needed something to give me some milage. Looking through my closet of unpainted tanks I found some early War German armor and tackled those. The tanks in both Züge are by New Millennium Hobbies (and yes these are 28mm not 15mm). All were repainted and enhanced with dust, rust on the exhaust and consecutive turret numbers. One is a Zug of PzKw 38 (t), the other of PzKW IV Ausführung F. Both should do nicely in any early WWII game from Poland, over France to operation Barbarossa. The good thing is, since they are all cast with closed turret hatches I did not have to worry about commander figures and was able to do these in one evening.

Wow, great work Burkhard and I like the settings you've chosen for your photos.

I quite admire the extra effort you put into the Tommies' faces and their shoulder flashes are fantastic. I also quite like the Warlord Vickers with the detail of the elevation sight, though the face on the BA gunner is wonderful as well.

This group of miniatures will give Burkhard 250 points with a few extra added for the additional attention to detail. Very nice and thanks for sharing!

From KentG: 28mm Napoleonic Russian Artillery, Infantry, Casualties & EIR Roman Slingers (425 points)

Kent smashes through his points target and moves to the lead position with this impressive entry of figures.

From Kent:

Today we a have several entries.

First up are six 28mm Front Rank Russian Napoleonic horse artillery with 4 crew each.

Three are 9pdrs, three are 6pdrs. These are the beginning of a new commission.

We then have one Regiment of 24, 28mm Front Rank Russian Infantry. Sadly no flags were provided by the client.

Next is twelve warlord games casualties, I didn't like these figures they are poorly made - just not nice.

Finally sixteen 28mm warlord games Roman slingers these are very nice figures a joy to paint.

Wonderful work Kent. Again we are treated to a bewildering volume of figures paired with such great quality - amazing.

This selection of figures will give Kent a very impressive 425 points. Great stuff Kent and congratulations on achieving your Challenge target! 

It's just a hunch but I suspect we may have ourselves a very exciting race amongst the point leaders over the next few weeks...

From MichaelA: 28mm Crimean War Russian Artillery (125 points)

For those not up on my senseless banter, I've been giving Michael a little good natured stick for him attempting to slip his beautiful gypsies in as part of his Victorian side challenge. So to serve me with an appropriate gob-stopper he submits this amazing battery of Russian guns who are in the midst of pounding Victoria's 'brave 600' into glue and smoking boots.

From Michael:

Whilst I am thoroughly enjoying the variety the bonus rounds have brought to my painting table, this entry is what the painting challenge is all about for me - focus! It was a wonderful summer full of dinosaur and zombie distractions, but here we have an entry that sees me back at the heart of the Victorian era - the Crimean War. 

 

This small battery of four 6lb Field Guns each with a Russian crew of four are all 28mm from the Wargames Foundry range. I find large batches (this represents a large batch for me!) of similar miniatures difficult to work on, due mostly to my inability to focus on one thing for any length of time, but a relatively recent article in Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy magazine introduced me to the concept of faces and bases! 

Having mentally prepared myself that I didn't have to lavish as much individual detail on each miniature the whole unit seemed to come together quite quickly. The only down side was when I dug out the Light Brigade for the final photograph, I realised that I no longer liked the cavalry bases they were on; still that can be a job for after the challenge!

Absolutely gorgeous work Michael. Welcome to the ranks of the nutters who do large, homogeneous units for no other reason than the simple pleasure of it looking so darn cool (and that last shot is very, very cool).

This battery of Russian guns will give Michael 125 points, which includes a little extra for the wonderful basing and assorted artillery accoutrements. Wonderful stuff Mr. Awdry!

From TamsinP: 15mm Py-Rats (48 points)

From Tamsin:

Aaaaarrrr, me hearties! Some more bloodthirsty cut throats of the high seas to shiver your timbers!

And ain't these giant PyRats a fearsome sight?

Another fun unit for my pirate buccaneer army. These are 15mm PyRats from Rebel Minis. Lovely figures, but somewhat fragile (a few swords broke during prep). As with the skeleton crew, I've based these for use as veterans.

Apart from the bonus theme rounds, these are likely to be my last entry for a few weeks as I'll be working on the (not skeletal) human pirates with the intention of submitting them as one big batch.

How wonderfully odd Tamsin! Where do you find these figures? I particularly like the rodent waving the blunderbuss over his head while the one with the long coat and cutlass cuts quite a dash. (A cheese-tricorn here and there wouldn't go amiss with these fellows, eh?)

These hearty bilge rats will give Tamsin 48 points, just enough to nudge past 1000 points in order to claim victory in her side challenge with Ian and Burkhard.  Well done! Now just 200 more points and you'll meet your Challenge target as well.