From DaveD: 15mm Luftwaffe & Soviet Aircraft (270 points)

Dave sends in this veritable aerial götterdämmerung, making me have to resort the points roster once again, damn his eyes...

From Dave:

So this time something a little different from me. I have just completed the Red Airforce & the Luftwaffe in 15mm Command Decision miniatures for my friend Gerry. 

Gerry has megalomania and very large gaming table of over 400 square feet (yep that right you can see his madness here) which means he needs lots of kit to fill it and shoot at things with .  

So here we have early Red Airforce - 23 planes and the Luftwaffe - 22 planes.

Made a change to have the airbrush out, but oh dealing with all those waterslide transfers, glad thats out of the way !

So how is your aircraft recognition out there lads?!

WTF! Wow! That is an amazing amount of work Dave and they look fabulous. I really like those ME109s and the Focke Wulfs.

These 45(!) aircraft will give Dave a hefty 270 points. This will propel him into the top 10 and will in-turn bump Fran from the lead group. Ooh, the tragedy! The drama! The suspence!  I  can only pace and bite my fingernails awaiting the next entry...

From FranL: 28mm ACW Infantry, Dismounted Cavalry, Officers and Camp Scene (375 points)

Perry Miniatures ACW 28th Massachusetts Regiment, 4th Irish Brigade

I was curious when we'd hear from The Angry Lurker and lo and behold here he is with his first volley - and a crashing one it is!

From Fran:

Finally got around to some painting....

A mixture of plastic and metal ACW union figures from the Perry miniatures boys. Not happy with the plastic stuff (the detail is a little iffy but the metal stuff is okay with a few exceptions). Still got some more to do including cavalry, ambulance wagons, more casualties, wagons, forges and figures. More for scenery than anything else but then I'm weird and there's Confederates to do as well!

Perry Miniatures Union Casualties

Massachusetts 28th Regiment

Perry Miniatures Camp Set and followers

9pdr artillery piece with crew from Perry Miniatures with a Dixon limber

Dismounted Perry Cavalry

Mounted Union Officers 

This is a cracking first entry Fran! Beautiful work here - that camp set is brilliant.

This batch of Bluebellies will give Fran a very impressive 375 points, which will bump Ray from the top 10 standings. Oh my, well played Old Boy, well played indeed (golf clap).

The Great War in Greyscale - Belgian Infantry & Carabiniers (37 points)

My Belgian WWI collection to date, with the new additions.

My Great War project has largely taken the back seat with my recent interest in the Spanish Civil War. Nonetheless these models were on my desk, dolefully staring me in the face, so I decided to crack open the monochrome paint to complete this small group of 1914 Belgian infantry. 

These will add to my small existing collection of Belgian figures. This group is composed of four infantrymen in shakos and three carabiniers wearing their distinctive Tyrollean hats.  The infantrymen are Great War Miniatures sculpts whereas the carabiniers are from Brigade Models. I've been lobbying the good folks at Brigade to provide some period bicycles as many of these troops cycled to the battlelines. There are some great photographs showing stacks of bikes near the front or carabiniers having them jauntily slung over their backs.

I found reacquainting myself with this project was a bit of a challenge as the greyscale effect requires me to reorient my way painting. I'm very happy I kept detailed notes key-coding the various shades of grey or I'd be hooped! Nonetheless I quickly got back into the swing of things and had a great afternoon (and evening) listening to an audiobook and painting these up.

I also went over a few of my existing command models to add the 'Sin City' chiaroscuro effect I had mentioned at the beginning of this project. Here is a Belgian grenadier NCO now with a flash of colour (in this case the red band on his forage cap) to identify him as a leader on the tabletop (Sidney's great hex idea also reinforces this). 

The casualty figure below is of a Belgian infantryman (Brigade Models). In the same vein as the NCO above I decided to make the blood as vibrant as possible - wanting to make the effect almost jarring. In fact I want all of the casualty figures be glaring and grotesque in order to support my overall vision of the mood of the project. These bases will get increasingly unsettling as this progresses.

I thought I'd provide a few group shots of the Belgian collection to date.

I need two or three more sections of infantry and a machine gun team to finish this force but it's slowly coming along.

These seven figures plus the casualty will give me 37 points.

From TimG: 20mm WWII Trucks (24 points)

From Tim:

More 20mm Sovs now. The Katyusha on Studebaker chassis is a Russian plastic kit. It was a truly horrible thing to build. I wish I could remember the maker so I could warn you against it! The launcher rails are the best bits but even they needed a deal of straightening so they'd fit and then bracing with steel wire. The cab? Let's not go there. If the outsize red star distracts the viewer from the model's shortcomings that's no bad thing!

The ammo carrier is a good old Airfix Opel - now under new management!

It's too bad that the kit was such a bear to assemble but you did a great job and it looks very good!

These two trucks will give Tim 24 points.

From GregB: 28mm Modern Soviets in MOPP Gear (20 points)

Greg, having just recovered from his Primer Rage, sends in this this group of 28mm Soviet infantry in chemical suits.

From Greg:

A small submission today as I clear the baffles of some more long-pending modern bits.  These are 28mm Soviets in MOPP gear from Eureka with special weapons - two RPGs, one PK MG and one dude with a flamethrower.  These Soviet MOPP dudes are a favourite collection of mine, and we know them informally as the "Chemical Commies".  A soldier wearing MOPP gear is a particularly terrifying sight in my view, and the Soviet MOPP outfit looks spookiest of all. It was the release of these figures several years ago that sparked our bonkers entry into modern 28mm gaming, a period of collection escalation still unmatched in recent times of the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts. I think Dallas and I originally thought it would be fun if we got a squad of MOPP guys to fight some Zombies - before we knew it I had the better part of a motor rifle company on the table, with Dallas matching me by fielding the Bundeswehr!

On the Fawcett gaming tables the Chemical Commies have repeatedly fought NATO troops in diverse western Europe locales, as well Zombies, insurgents and other ne'er do wells.  They have even served as mercenaries in the pay of Big Pharma during Dallas' "World War Z" games. These special weapons will give my Chemical Commies a nice firepower boost. 

There was an extra challenge that came with these in the form of bad primer.  About a year ago I had problems with Krylon. Well, I was out of primer, and I thought "well, it's been a year, so what could be wrong? Let's give it a chance."  Wrong decision - terrible, flaky texture finish.  I scraped off what I could, and went and purchased my usual Chaos Black spray paint to cover the figures.  Overall, it's OK, but the flamethrower guy in particular is still pretty rough. Some Sudan-era British cavalry was not so lucky - two models ruined beyond recovery.  So fuck you Krylon, and the horse you rode in on. 

On to some British Sudan cavalry that survived the Krylon, and then to 28mm Napolenic Austrians...

So it is written so shall it be done. Considering the volume of supplies Greg goes through in a typical year this might well mean a drop of a few points in Krylons trade volume.

Theses four spooky Russians will give Greg 20 points. Nice job!