Middle Earth Terrain

 The first of my post-AHPC XV projects are some pieces of Middle Earth terrain that were prepared for the painting challenge, but put on hold when terrain was dropped from scoring status. These are two sets of hard plastic terrrain from Games Workshop - 'Ruins of Middle Earth' and 'Ruins of Osgiliath' that I acquired years ago. They have since been rolled into a single box with some deletions.

First up is the 'Ruins of Middle Earth. It consisted of two identical sprues of ruin corners, some fallen pillars, a fallen statue, a standing statue, and a campfire. The standing statue was glued to a 35mm wooden disc to make it less prone to falling over on the gaming table. The ruin corners were only a few millimeters in thickness, so I decided to beef them up a bit with a thicker layer of XPS foam cut using my Proxxon hot wire cutter. I glued the foam to the inner side of the the corners, clamped in place until the glue was dry. I then trimmed them with a handheld hot wire cutter, cut some stonework into the surface, and applied a coat of Mod Podge. Once that was dry, they were primed dark grey with a rattle can, and then dry brushed with light grey latex paint, followed by white latex paint. The wooden platform was painted using acrylics, as was the campfire and adjacent weapons and shields.

Original box art for the 'Ruins of Middle Earth' set

'Ruins of Middle Earth'

 

The second set was marketed as 'Ruins of Osgiliath' and had structures with much thicker walls, and stonework on both sides. The set I got was slightly warped. The large wall sections rocked back and forth a bit, so I evened out the bottoms using epoxy putty to prevent that from happening. I also added some walls to the section of stairs using some plastic card and epoxy putty as I didn't like the void underneath. Again the statues were glued to 35mm discs to make the base wider. Once all the glue was dry and the putty had hardened, the pieces were painted in the same manner as the first set.

Original box art for the 'Ruins of Osgiliath' set

 

'Ruins of Osgiliath' (A side)

'Ruins of Osgiliath' (B side)

Both of these sets are now out of production in this format. The thin walled sections from the first set have been dropped, and the remaining fallen pillars, statues, and campfire all rolled into one box with the Osgiliath ruins.

Thanks for stopping by.

Egyptian Su-20 Fitter-Cs for the Yom Kippur War

OK so with the recent self-escalation of the Yom Kippur War project I decided to pick up some air support for my Egyptians. The best available option (as MiG-17s are no longer available from Battlefront) are these - the Su-17 Fitter box set.

These were on sale at Meeplemart and Conscript Greg kindly picked them up for me before his recent visit back to Winnipeg. These aircraft kits are fully injection molded plastic (well except for the missiles which are resin) and are a doddle to assemble.

No Egyptian decals in the box of course so I hand painted the roundels and flag, and scribed the numbers in "Western Arabic" numerals with my technical pen.

Oh and I guess I should explain how these work for the Egyptian air force of the YKW... it's simple really, the Su-20 used by the Egyptians in-period was just the export version of the Soviet Su-17M. As far as I've been able to tell, the aircraft were identical in appearance.

I think these are pretty good-looking aircraft and they were a great deal from the Meeple-people. They'll do nicely in a YKW game. Of course I've got some Israeli aircraft done too - but they're waiting for decals to arrive and once they do, I'll get 'em posted here. Youm Sa'id!
 

AHPC XV Submission #12 - Early WW2 German Kradschützen

 My last submission for this year's AHPC consisted of two squads of German Kradschützen for a total of 28 men on 24 motorcycles or in sidecars for Bolt Action.

Kradschützen, vorwärts!

 These are all 3D prints using STL files purchased from MyMiniFactory of German motorcycle troops either as single bikes or bikes with sidecars. Of the various sources for 3D prints I have seen, I thought these did an excellent job of rendering the Mauser Kar98k rifles and the M35 helmets. Where they fall down a bit is in depicting the standard German ammo pouches, which look more like the German Army flashlight. A few figures even had them positioned where the flashlight was often hung from the Y-straps. There was one figure that had pouches for MP40 magazines (yeah!) but was still equipped with a rifle (boo!). Also the motorbikes don't quite look like either a BMW or a Zündapp, primarily in the position of the muffler.

All the bikes were mounted on popsicle sticks using PVA glue. They were then primed with Vallejo German Panzer Grey Surface Primer using an airbrush. Painting was done primarily using Vallejo acrylics (Army Painter colours indicated by AP) as follows: faces and hands - Flat Flesh; jackets - German Fieldgrey; trousers - AP Uniform Grey; canteen covers - Flat Earth; gas mask canister - Luftwaffe Camo Green; helmets - Charcoal Grey; belts, jackboots, ammo pouches, and bike tires - Black; rifle stocks - Beige Brown; rifle slings - Mahogany Brown; metal weapons parts - German Grey; motorbikes - German Panzer Grey; motorbike seats, and goggle straps - AP Leather Brown. When all was done, the figures got a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade. Once the Quick Shade was dry, the bikes were mounted on bases that are either Warlord Games cavalry bases, or larger ones cut from old plastic restaurant gift cards.

 Thus concludes my painting challenge projects. Thanks for stopping by.

IDF Magach-6s and M113 Zeldas for the Yom Kippur War

 

**Repost from the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge Blog, just because I want to keep track of this project on our own blog. If you've seen it already please click "back"**

Well I have GregB to thank once again for further hobby escalation... several years ago, encouraged by Mr. B, I built up a small force of Egyptians for the Yom Kippur War. Greg had Israelis and we had a few good games, including a game at PrairieCon that made it into the pages of Wargames Illustrated, no less! But sadly Greg now lives in Toronto with his IDF and it occurred to me I should maybe paint an Opfor to face my Egyptians, so here we are!

I was able to get a box of Israeli Magach-6s (aka US M60 Pattons with some choice modifications) from Meeplemart in Toronto. The Battlefront site recommended that the smoke dischargers be eliminated from the turret fronts as the Magach-6 didn't have 'em. That was pretty easy.

I don't have a ton of spare 15mm stowage so the turrets just got a couple jerrycans glued on. I have a bunch of resin stowage coming from abroad to stick onto the BF Israeli M113s I'm building next.

Painting was straightforward - AK Green-Grey washed with Agrax Earthshade for that lived-in look, tracks Mechanicus Standard Grey washed Nuln Oil, and some sponge chipping with Vallejo German Camo Black-Brown. A light dusty drybrush of Rakarth Flesh around the wheels and lower hull and it's done. Decals are Battlefront of course. 

Bone-dome helmets needed a little carving to look right for '73 as the supplied crew have more modern headgear with bulges for the headsets. Uniform and helmet were painted Vallejo Khaki. Groundwork is Steel Legion Drab, drybrushed Khaki, with static grass and tufts to suit.  

Continuing the new "Israelis in '73" project, here is a box of Battlefront M113s. These are literally the stock M113s the BF sell for every other army, with some Israeli crew and a set of Israeli decals stuck in the box. Now I'm not complaining, these are super little models, but they do need some work to be Israeli Zeldas - and I did some of that work, but not all of it.

The defining feature of the Israeli M113 in period had to be the gypsy-caravan look with tons of stowage. Battlefront used to sell specific "Israeli stowage" packs but these aren't available anywhere in their current sales chaos. I also couldn't find any on eBay or the other usual places. So I had to order some 15mm stowage from Redog. Pretty good stuff but took a long time to get here. 

I stuck a LOT of stowage on these vehicles but did not build the racks that the Israelis equipped these vehicles with. I figured this was OK given the small scale.

HOWEVER... what I didn't do was scratch-build the special exhaust pipes that the Israelis equipped their M113s with. You'd see it in the picture here - they extended from the exhaust on the right top of the vehicle, and down the side. Try as I might I haven't been able to determine the exact rationale for the modification. I presume that the exhaust mod was done to address the problem of the exhaust being right in front of the "family hatch" on the top - but Conscript Hugh had extensive experience riding in M113s in the '80s and didn't recall any excessive exhaust coming into the troop compartment. Maybe in the Middle East the heat combined with exhaust presented a particular problem. Anyway the special BF stowage kits came with modded exhausts and I would have loved to have those bits. Oh well. 

For crew I used the dudes supplied in the box. You get four guys with MGs firing from the hatch, two guys yelling, and a couple sets of crews for more modern M113 weapons, AT missiles or something - not relevant for 1973. It was kinda tricky to get these figures settled in the hatch, but I ended up putting a blob of greenstuff on the vehicle floor and sticking the models' feet into that.

I think the models look pretty cool with crew hanging out of the hatch.

I did build one without any crew though. For this one I cut up some spare MGs and stuck them to the vehicle deck.

The BF decal set is great, and includes a bunch of the Israeli vehicle ID tags, one of which is seen just above the chevron.

I really like these models. Now I have to get to the IDF infantry which I ordered from Khurasan. I picked them up from Pembina last week along with some relevant reading material - "Fire & Steel" (a history of the IDF's 7th Armoured Brigade) and "Israeli Tank Battles - Yom Kippur to Lebanon" both by Samuel M. Katz. I've got the first platoon of IDF infantry based and primed and they should go up fast. They'd better, because I'm hoping to run a YKW game at PrairieCon at the end of May. Shalom!

AHPC XV Submission #11 - More Polish 10th Motorized Brigade

 For my penultimate submission for this year's challenge I painted up some more troops for my 10th Polish Motorized Brigade, also known as 'The Black Brigade'. 

10th Polish Motorized Brigade

Ten of the figures are from a box of Warlord Games Polish Infantry Squad in Greatcoats that I bought last July at Historicon. After I got back home I decided I would rather have a fourth squad of Black Brigade motorized troops and did a bit of conversion work, carving away the gas mask bag and replacing it with a German style canister, and swapping out the heads that came with Polish helmets for spare German ones. The M35 helmet doesn't have quite the same profile as the M16 helmet, so I added 'ventilation horns' characteristic of the earlier helmet. 

The remaining 24 figures are 3D prints using an STL from MyMiniFactory of Polish motorcycle troops wearing the black leather coats that gave the formation the nickname of 'The Black Brigade'. I am generally pleased with the look of the prints, but again there are a few niggling errors - the bayonet looks more like a belt knife, being rather small and mounted too high, the profile of the helmet is off at the back, rising much like a Soviet helmet, and two of the figures have 'carrying straps to nowhere', running over the shoulder, but with nothing suspended from them like a haversack or gas mask canister.

All the figures were mounted on 25mm round bases, and some fine sand was added using PVA glue. They were then primed with Vallejo Black Surface Primer using an airbrush. Painting was done using Vallejo acrylics as follows: faces and hands - Flat Flesh; greatcoats and trousers - Green Brown; haversacks and equipment straps - Green Grey; gas mask canister - Luftwaffe Camo Green; helmets - Brown Violet; belts and ammo pouches - Flat Earth; rifle stocks - Beige Brown; rifle slings - Mahogany Brown; leather coats and metal weapons parts - German Grey; jackboots - Black, bayonets - Gungrey. When all was done, the figures got a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade.

Polish motorized infantry squad (front)

Polish motorized infantry squad (side)

Polish motorized infantry squad (back)

Closeup of conversion work (gas mask canister)

Closeup of conversion work (ventilation horns added to helmet)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 1 (front)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 1 (rear)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 2 (front)

Polish motorcycle infantry Squad 2 (side)

 Since getting these troops painted, I acquired another STL from the same designer for motorcycles with sidecars and the field car similar to the Kromlech miniatures I painted up last year, but I haven't got them printed yet. A project for AHPC XVI?

Thanks for stopping by.

AHPC Submission #20 - Legions Imperialis Infantry Assortment

Space Marines and Solar Auxilia for "Legions Imperialis" 

This was my last submission for AHPC XV - a small assortment of Legions Imperialis infantry. These are 6mm plastic figures from GW, for their rebooted game of "Epic", which allows players to recreate the battles of the Horus Heresy in grand scale! The green chaps comprise an Assault Detachment and a Terminator Detachment for the XVI Legion Astartes, the Sons of Horus. The little blue fellows are a Solar Auxilia detachment - unlike my 28mm Space Bavarians, I've no particular notion for them yet...their anonymity provides flexibility for scenario purposes - they can fight for whichever side might work for the game that night. 

Legion Astartes

Cataphractii Terminators in 6mm...still scary-looking, even at small size.

Let's start with the Sons of Horus, although there is not a ton to say...Assault Marines and Terminator Marines are grouped into smaller, supporting detachments of four stands. I thought it would be best to at least get one of each type done for my Sons of Horus. 

Even in 6mm, the Cataphractii-plated Terminators exude an ominous "f*ck around and find out" vibe. I do have to hand it to GW - even if they completely f*cked up the launch and rollout of this game, the sculpting and quality of the models is very high. 

Assault Marines ready to hop into action (sigh, lame...but...whatever...I'm tired)

The Assault Marines, with their jump packs...it is the same, I am impressed with the tiny details, even if many are beyond my brush skills. If you are a fan of the Horus Heresy setting, you will love the models (not too sure about the rules on the other hand, but that is for another blog post). 

Solar Auxilia

Ready to stand...either for, or against, The Emperor...flexibility is key...

I find the force-assembly rules of for the new Legions Imperialis rules to be a touch Byzantine, and definitely prone to causing headaches, but if I understood correctly, this batch of models would be able to represent a pretty basic detachment (sans vehicle or transport support) for the Solar Auxilia. What you see here comprises the entirety of a single sprue, save for the Sentinels, which I never got around to painting in time for this post.

Love all the crazy command figures!

Again, the figure design is great. If you are a nerd like me, you will find much to love on these tiny figures, from the assorted whacky command and support types, to the vexillary...so many (literally) small details done up nicely. 

Velatari in the foreground - with axes, natch. Regular lasrifle troops at the rear.

It's BBQ time! Mind the gap there lads...

The Auxilia count on support from Velatari...units with fancier weapons. In this case, we have chaps with power axes because of course, and fellows carrying heavy flamers because even more of course. Will a flamethrower solve that problem? Yes? Then let's send ten of them, shall we? Do tell the lads to be careful with their formation...

Charonite Ogryns all set to break things, or people, or both!

The bigger things are Charonite Ogryns. The back story is too long for here, but just imagine "ogres + combat drugs + power claws" and you pretty much have it. These are ugly models (no matter the scale), and I found them particularly difficult and frustrating to try and paint in this scale. But here they are...

 

So that was it for me with regard Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XV (which ended back in March, but, you know, content!). Thanks for reading - watch for more painting and, hopefully, more gaming in this space through the summer of 2025!

AHPC XV Submission #10 - Reinforcements for the 4th Indian Division

 

During last year's painting challenge I painted up several units of the 4th Indian Division in North Africa. However I felt that they needed some additional troops. For my tenth submission I  added another six-man section of the 4th Battalion, 16th Punjab Regiment, two Sikh Vickers machine gun teams, two Sikh 3" mortar teams, two Sikh two-man forward observer teams, and four Indian Pattern wheeled armoured carriers, each with a three-man crew inside. The final figure is a bit of a conundrum - an Italian NCO lost somewhere in the desert.

The section of Punjabis are from an 8th Army multipart sprue by Warlord Games. All the Sikhs and the armoured carriers are 3D prints using STL files from MyMiniFactory. Some of those figures were also multipart. While I liked the general animation and sculpting of the 3D prints, the designer got a number of the small details wrong such as buckles were there shouldn't be any, and missing buckles where they should be. Also the Bren guns are a little stubby, and the 'Lee-Enfields' look more like a Mauser than the SMLE used in North Africa. These complaints are just my OCD for historical accuracy kicking in, but most people probably won't notice when the figures are deployed on the tabletop. 

All the single figures were assembled and mounted on 25mm bases, and some fine sand was added using PVA glue. In the case of the support weapons and their crews, and the crews of the carriers, they were glued onto a popsicle stick with a small dab of PVA glue to give me something to handle while priming and painting. In the case of the carriers, only the wheels were separate pieces, and these were glued on after painting, but before any washes were applied.

All the figures and vehicle were primed with Vallejo Desert Tan Surface Primer using an airbrush, expect the wheels which were primed with Vallejo Black Surface Primer. This made painting the tires so much easier than trying to do it with a paintbrush. The soldiers' uniforms were left the base colour of Desert Tan. I then painted the rest primarily with Vallejo acrylics as follows: faces, arms and legs - Cork Brown; webbing - Iraqi Sand; canteen covers and ground sheets - US Field Drab; rifle stocks - Beige Brown; boots, beards, bayonet scabbards, and metal weapons parts - German Grey; socks - Khaki; gas mask bag - Tan Yellow; turbans - Dark Sand; machine gun water jackets and tripods - Camo Olive Green; mortar tubes - Tan Yellow, bayonets - Gungrey. Once completed, everything got the ol' "Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade" treatment. When that was dry, the support weapons and crews were glued to their bases using Super Glue. Here's the final result.

Reinforcements for the 4th Indian Division

Section of the 4th Battalion, 16th Punjab Regiment

Sikh Vickers machine gun teams (front)

Sikh Vickers machine gun teams (rear)

Sikh 3" mortar teams (front)

Sikh 3" mortar teams (rear)

Sikh Forward Observer teams

 

 One of the more interesting items in this submission are the four Armoured Carrier, Wheeled, Indian Pattern (ACV-IP), known also as the Indian Pattern Carrier or other similar names. It was an armoured car produced in India during the Second World War based on the Canadian Military Pattern truck chassis. It was typically armed with a Boys anti-tank rifle and a Bren light machine gun. Those produced by Tata Locomotives were called "Tatanagars" after the location of the works. A total of 4,655 were produced, and used by Indian units in the Far East and Mediterranean and Middle East theatres, typically in the divisional reconnaissance regiments. My friend who did the printing for me only produced five storage bins for the back of the vehicles, so I filled in the space on three of them with various tarps and fuel cans I had in my bits box. I also had to do some trimming off the back corner of the seats of the driver and anti-tank gunner in order to get them into their slot inside the vehicle without breaking something. These were painted using the Caunter camouflage scheme similar to the vehicles I did last year. The Vallejo colours used, going from lightest to darkest, are Ivory, Stone Grey, and German Field Grey. The vehicles then got a wash consisting of a mixture of 3 parts Citadel Seraphim Sepia, 3 parts Citadel Agrax Earthshade, and 4 parts water. When that was dry, they got a liberal application of Vallejo Wash FX Desert Dust.

IWM photo of an Indian Pattern carrier with Caunter camo dated April 1942

 

 

The last figure in this submission is one I was gifted by fellow Fawcett Avenue Conscript, DallasE. It is an old Battle Honours mini he acquired two decades ago from either Bartertown or eBay with the purchase of a mixed bag of what was advertised as British 8th Army and German DAK. When I got him, he was still shiny metal. He was painted using a method similar to the Indian troops, and will now join my North Africa Italians from last year's challenge.

 Thanks for stopping by.