From MilesR: 28mm WWII Japanese Infantry (30 points)

Just as last year, Miles chips in with one of the first submissions for the Challenge (good lad). Today we see a detachment of six WWII Japanese infantry.

From Miles: 

Well it's the 20th and the sporting world now turns it's eyes to the 3rd Annual Painting Challenge! I added up the individual score level targets and it's roughly 42,675 (I may be off a bit as I just did it in my head - I'm a numbers geek) - that represents 8,535 painted 28mm infantry figures and 910 per ronin!

Ok, Enough with me proving that I'm a multidimensional geek.

Here's my first entry, 6 28mm WWII Japanese infantry from Battle Honors. Think of them as second cousins to your Samurai.

Excellent work Miles (and those are some frightening numbers)! This group will give you 30 points to start your climb on the roster. (Well, I was in first place for at least a few hours...) ;)

The First Cut - Lord Asano, Daimyo of the 47 Ronin - The 3rd Annual Painting Challenge Begins (oh, and 5 points...)

Well, I thought it only proper that since I'm the host of the Painting Challenge I should try to open with the first submission. Similar to last year I burned a bit of midnight oil and powered through this figure to get it done quickly (literally powered, with a hair dryer - the texture gel was still quite soft when I took these photos).

This is a Perry casting from their excellent 28mm samurai range. 

I quite like the dynamic yet mannered pose of this sculpt. When I first saw it I knew I wanted to use it to depict Lord Asano, the tragic feudal lord (daimyo) of the 47 Ronin, at the moment when he lost his temper, striking out at Kira Yoshinaka who had bated him. This action , in turn, sparked the legend of the 47 Ronin as Asano was forced to commit ritual suicide (seppuku)  for this breach of discipline.

I made an attempt to replicate the Asano clan crest on the back of his kimono. My hand is not as steady as it used to be so I hope I haven't made a complete hash of it. Otherwise I kept the paint scheme fairly minimalist.

This figure will give me 5 points (and the crowd goes wild).

Alright everyone, let the fun begin!

It Truly Is The End Times: Sylvain Attacked - 6mm Battle of Corunna

The French advancing down the ridge towards the British lines near Corunna.

As many of you know, according to a bunch of ancient Mayan guys (whose claim to fame seems to be designing the heaviest desktop calendar in history and their unquenchable appetite for human hearts) we're apparently mere hours away from snuffing it. I have to say that I've been a little skeptical of this prediction for a variety of reasons, a few being: it's not even the end of the tax year, the NHL is still in lockout, George R.R. Martin has not finished the Game of Thrones series... and we've not even started the Painting Challenge!

But my conviction regarding the safety of the human race was severely shaken the other week when during a game an omen appeared before my very eyes. The unthinkable happened. 

Sylvain attacked.

For those who do not know Sylvain you have to realize that this man is the master of caution, moderation and consideration. To his credit he is as tenacious as a tick when on the defensive - notoriously difficult to dislodge and fights like a outraged French waiter when pressed. But he is not the poster child for the 'Attaque a Outrance'. 

The table at the beginning of the game, before deployment.

But that night the world wobbled on its axis as Sylvain ordered the 'attaque'. As background I put on a 'Fast Play Grande Armee' game which focused on the British rearguard on the outskirts of Corunna, 1809. Stacy took the British and Peter and Sylvain commanded the French. It was a fairly close-run affair for the majority of the game but then, all in one turn, the French were either pushed back in combat or where falling back from bad command rolls. 

My storm-swept craft paper 'River del Burgo'

Ships ferrying the British off the Spanish mainland.

The seemingly solid British line.

The British still occupy the villages, push back the French and the battle hangs in the balance.

At this point Peter lost his bottle and wanted to throw in the towel (to his credit most of us were nodding in agreement at this point), but Sylvain quietly chirped-in, saying, 'No, we have a fresh reserve.  We will attack.' The room went silent and in the back of my mind I was wondering when I had last called my mother and if we had any prayer beads in the house.

British reinforcements arrive in an attempt to stem the tide.

So Sylvain duely launched his attack, the dice were cast and just like the Seventh Seal, Stacy's British broke and a fatal hole was punched in their lines. We called it at that point as it was late and some of us were thinking we needed to get home to arrange our private affairs.

Sylvain's French (top right) break through the British lines!

So, forget the black holes, alien landing sites and rogue asteroids. Sylvain has determined our fate. If you have anything on your bucket list you want to get sorted before the 21st you best get to it...

A Christmas Gift for Max - 40mm French Fusilier, La Sarre Infantrie Regiment

My general dislike of children is legend to those who know me. The muted loathing I have of the little creatures is only exceeded by the dread certainty of what they'll become: teenagers (shudder). Not that I can claim innocence by any means. Quite the contrary; I'm sure I was a perfectly horrific child, even though my mother swears that angels tipped their halos in deference to me - I suspect otherwise. (Mothers are blessedly and  wonderfully myopic when it comes to memories of their own children.)

Anyway, there is an exception to every rule and the point is proven here in my nephew Max. Truth be told I've not spent a lot of time with Max (he and his parents live across the country from us), but in the time we've hung out he demonstrated to be a thoroughgoingly nice little chap: smart, clean, well behaved and yet suitably precocious.

A face even I can't deny.

Max is now 6 years old and I thought it high time he be introduced to the wonderful world of toy soldiers. We have to be clear now: This is not the plastic rubbish that passes for toy soldiers today, but the proper you-could-get-quite-ill-if-you-chewed-on-this toy soldiers made from nasty toxin-saturated, slag-heap lead. So with this in mind I turned to the great Old School models sculpted and cast by my friend John Bertolini.

Below is a figure from his 40mm Horse & Musket range (apologies for the slightly blurry shots - it was late). The sculpts are semi-round (or 'demi-ronde' for those anorak-wearing pedants out there) and have been purposefully designed to be generic in their uniform and kit. This way they can be easily adapted to fit pretty much any army of the period. I decided to paint this fellow as a fusilier of the La Sarre Infantrie regiment which saw hard service on Montcalm's right wing at the First Battle of Quebec (Plains of Abraham) in 1759. 

If he likes this fellow I'll follow up in the New Year with another eleven so he has a battalion. Just as insurance I'm also sending along a good stout Dwarf, as I suspect he'll have seen 'The Hobbit' by the 25th...

Max's birthday is in July so my thinking is that I'll keep sending him toy soldiers like this twice a year until he discovers cars, girls and becomes one of those vile teenagers that I shake my fist at. 

Pin Markers and 28mm Early-War WWII Fallshirmjägers

A mix of impact hits and an explosion marker.

I've had a few games of 'Bolt Action' now and I was wondering of how I could better reflect the status of multiple 'pins' on a unit than what we've been doing. We had been exclusively using small steel wool explosion markers (what we call 'crumps' - Thanks KevinH!) to denote pins. These look great as singles, or for artillery strikes and heavy direct-fire hits, but always seemed a little overkill when used in groups since I reason that most incoming fire would be small arms and not necessarily explosive in nature. 

This looks good...

...but this seems a bit over-the-top for indicating pinned status.

Anyway, with this in the back of my mind I was rummaging through my markers the other night during a game and I came across some 'splash' markers that I had made up year's ago for naval gaming. I thought, 'Hey, with a little change of colour these things would look similar to the bullet impacts that you see in the movies'. 

Naval 'splash' markers for tracking hits.

Here are some movie still from Saving Private Ryan. Note the impact hits of the sniper's shots. This is what I'm wanting to mimic.

The making of these markers are a fairly simple affair involving a bit of plasticard, a few different lengths of #4 flat-head screws (I used 3/8", 1/2" and 3/4") and 'resin sand' acrylic gel artist medium. 

I cut thin rectangular bases from the plasticard approximately 10mm wide and of varying lengths, depending on how many impact strikes I want to place. I then glue the flat-head screws to the bases in a slightly staggered formation to give it a more natural look. I sometimes place a variety of screw lengths to mix it up or do groupings of the same size.

I then coat the screws with the 'resin sand' gel. This works quite well as the gel adheres nicely to the ridges of the screws. I often apply a second touch-up of the gel to build-up irregularities, simulating the dust and debris kicked out from the bullet strike.

After the gel has cured (which only takes a few hours) I then prime the bases black and drybrush them up from a brown base tone. I try to use a base tone that is similar to the majority of my skirmish bases so they better blend in. 

The 'impact strikes' are drybrushed from the brown base-tone right up to a bright white so they stand out on the game surface. You can do a fairly large batch of these in a night, probably enough to cover your needs.

I'll probably use a mix of 'crumps' and impact hits in future games (like the first image in this post). The crumps will signify multiple hits (perhaps 5?) and the impact markers will be for singles.

The figures you see here are 28mm Fallshirmjägers from Wargames Foundry's WWII range. These were sculpted by the Perry twins in the late 90s and I still think they are some of the nicest WWII figures in production. I painted their uniforms in early-war colours and did up the groundwork to reflect the arid terrain on Crete (I reasoned that it will also work for the later Italian campaigns).

A very chunky MG34 which I oddly quite like the look of.

I wanted to make the officer a complete rock-star hero so I painted a shedload of awards and decorations on his tunic. He's a basically a walking Christmas Tree with blonde hair, blue eyes and an attitude. (In fact if you look close you can see he has the pale yellow 'Kreta' campaign ribbon on his left sleeve even before he dropped on the island - High Command was obviously anticipating great things from him...)

The Dude Abides...

A FJ squad advancing under heavy fire.

Next I'm returning to an old small-scale project...