Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XIV #9 - Special Themed Challenges

 In the three years in which I have participated in the painting challenge I have done quite a few of the themed challenges from the planets of the Challenge Quadrant in 2022, the movie lots of the Challenge Studio in 2023, or the book sections in the Challenge Library in 2024. They have been a good way to use up some of the oddball figures I have in my collection of unpainted minis, as well as giving me the impetus to complete projects that have long lingered in my storage boxes. During AHPC XIV I completed 19 special challenges, plus had two rides on 'Lady Sarah's book cart'.

I have already posted some of these in the earlier posts related to last year's challenge, so this post will be a summary, with pictures of those figures not already posted. 

Overdues & Returns - early WW2 German cavalry and wounded

History - early WW2 Polish 10th Motorized Brigade

New Acquisitions - early WW2 French Light Mechanized Division

Fantasy - Easterling Warriors and Command

Children's Books - Bunny Stormtrooper

Local History - Idols of Torment 

Romance - Han Solo and Leia Organa

Sci-Fi - Scotia Grendel Armoured Personnel Carriers and Tracked Vehicles 

Manga & Graphic Novels - Archive Star Wars miniatures

Lady Sarah's Book Cart - Ground Zero Games female militia troopers

Statue of a Famous Person - Free French commander General  Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque converted from a 54mm American tank crewman

 Maritime - a Royal Navy longboat converted from a plastic toy sailboat

Nature - some jungle terrain with Easter Island heads

Gift Shop - a Games Workshop Lord of the Rings figure of Gothmog that went to fellow Conscript, Dallas

DYI - some brick and wrought iron fencing for my Polish Post Office Danzig made from polystyrene, cardboard, and vintage toy parts

 

Literature - a figure of Viggo Mortensen as Captain Alatriste converted from a Games Workshop figure of Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn

 Travel - a 54mm Seven Years War Prussian musketeer associated with a visit to Sanssouci in Potsdam in 2001

Oversized Books - an 80mm Stadden figure of a British Bren gunner of 14th Army in Burma during the Second World War

Biography - in this case it was Autobiographical with a 54mm figure of a British grenadier of the 40th (Hopson's) Regiment of Foot, circa 1760 depicting me in one of my re-enactment uniforms

Rare & Antique Books - a hard plastic flat from the 1930s that belonged to my father when he was a boy, depicting a German infantryman on parade 

That concludes my retrospective of AHPC XIV. Thanks for reading. If you have any questions, or would like more information on any of these figures or terrain projects, please leave a comment, and I will do my best to reply.

 

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XIV #8 - 8th Army in North Africa

My last big project for AHPC XIV consisted of elements of the British 8th Army in North Africa. Again, I was inspired to delve into that arena by fellow Conscript, Dallas, who had recently painted up some 8th Army and DAK troops. Like the Italians that I painted earlier in the challenge, I wanted to do something a little different, so I went with earlier models of tanks, and infantry units of the 4th Indian Division. The four tanks are by Blitzkrieg Miniatures, while all the figures on foot are from Warlord Games.

I have always been interested in the early years of the North African campaign so I acquired two Vickers Mk VI light tanks, one of which is the B version, mounting .303 and .50 Vickers machine guns, while the other is the C model with co-axial 15 mm (0.59 in) and 7.92 mm (0.312 in) Besa machine guns. Of course, you have to have an Infantry Tank Mark II, better known as the Matilda. Finally I painted up a Valentine tank that I got in a trade with Dave, another member of the Conscripts. The Matilda and Valentine tanks were resin castings, while the two Vickers light tanks were 3D prints. Both methods have their pros and cons. The details are much crisper on the 3D prints, but a lot of cleanup of supports was needed around the road wheels. Keeping with the early war theme, I painted all of them using the Caunter Camouflage pattern, although that introduced a slight historical anachronism. The Caunter scheme was phased out in October 1941, but the Valentines didn't become operational in North Africa until December of that year. The method and colours used closely followed those outlined in a video by Sonic Sledgehammer.

British armour in the desert

Valentine and Matilda (front)

Valentine and Matilda (back)

Vickers Light Tanks Mk VIC and Mk VIB (front)

Vickers Light Tanks Mk VIC and Mk VIB (back)

 Next up is the 8th Army Carrier Patrol from Warlord Games, to which I added a third Universal Carrier that I had in one of my storage boxes. The Carrier Patrol box comes with four metal figures wearing shorts to ride in the back, and some heads with helmets without the later war scrim, and two 8th Army infantry sprues to make 12 figures on foot. I decided to assemble them as members of the 4th Battalion, 16th Punjab Regiment of the 7th Indian Infantry Brigade, and swapped out a few heads for the carrier crew to give them Punjabi turbans. The carriers were painted in the same manner as the tanks, while I used another Sonic Sledgehammer video for the infantry, with a few minor modifications. All the figures were primed with Vallejo Desert Yellow, and I used the Cork Brown option suggested for the skin colour. I also used Army Painter Strong Tone Quickshade instead of the special mixture shown in the video.

Carrier patrol of the 4th Bn 16th Punjab Regiment

3 Univeral carriers in Caunter scheme camo (front)

3 Univeral carriers in Caunter scheme camo (back)

In a similar fashion to my Italian force, I bought a Warlord Games 8th Army Support Group boxed set consisting a Headquarters, a Vickers medium machine gun team, and a 3" medium mortar team. The Headquarters group has some nice sculpts depicting a senior officer smoking his pipe and having a cuppa, a medic with a stretcher, a company havildar-major (sergeant-major) carrying a Thompson with a drum magazine, and a radioman feeding a monkey some bisquit. 

8th Army Support Group

Next is the mainstay of my infantry, a 36-man platoon of the 2nd (Royal) Battalion, 11th Sikh Regiment of the 7th Indian Infantry Brigade. It consists of a headquarters with a British officer with Enfield revolver and whistle, a havildar (sergeant) with a Thompson, a Boyes anti-tank rifle team, and a 2" mortar team, and three 10-man sections each with a Thompson-armed naik (corporal), a Bren gun team, and seven sepoys armed with SMLE No. 1 Mk III* rifles. The miniatures are from the Warlords Brtish 8th Army infantry box, to which I added an additional sprue of 6 figures. I have a love-hate relationship with multi-part figures. I like the ability to customize the miniatures, but I find assembly is sometimes frustrating due to the fiddly small parts (not helped by have a finger in a splint), and not all arms fit well on all torsos. I also found that the arm options were a bit lacking, and a few figures were assembled after cutting off whatever the soldier was carrying in that hand to just leave a closed fist. I opted to make rectangular bases out of plastic card for all the prone weapons teams, rather than mount the figures individually. They were painted using the same method as the Punjabis.

Platoon of the 2nd Bn 11th Sikh Regiment

Boyes A/T rifle, officer, havildar, 2" mortar

No. 1 Section

No. 2 Section

No. 3 Section

I have a few more bits and bobs to add to my Indian troops that I hope to complete during the upcoming painting challenge. Stay tuned for further developments.

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XIV #7 - WW2 North Africa Italians

Another of the larger submissions I did for last year's painting challenge was a force of the Regio Esercito or Royal Italian Army in North Africa consisting of a mix of Perry and Warlord Games miniatures, tanks and assault guns from Blitzkrieg Miniatures, an armoured car from Tamiya, and five 'toy soldier' trucks. While the North African campaign has always interested me, I didn't think I could justify painting up more Germans and Brits since I already had a sizeable force of each of those for Northwest Europe. Then fellow Conscript, Dallas E, painted up some DAK and 8th Army, which was the tipping point. However, not wanting to just duplicate armies he had, I opted for Italians. I now have a force of a 43 man platoon of four sections and a platoon headquarters, a company headquarters, two machine gun teams, two mortar teams, an anti-tank gun, two tanks, two assault guns, an armoured car, and five trucks.

First up are the tanks and armoured cars. The armoured car is a 1/48 scale Tamiya kit, and the rest are from Blitzkrieg Miniatures. The M13/40 is a resin casting, while the rest of the tracked vehicles are 3D prints. The latter are much crisper in terms of the detail compared to the resin casting, but they had a lot of supports to clean away, especially around the road wheels. After all the vehicles had been assembled, they were primed with Army Painter Desert Yellow from a rattle can. They were then painted with various sand coloured acrylics and given a wash of Citadel Seraphim Sepia. Tracks were painted using Vallejo German Camo Black Brown, followed by a dry brush of Gun Metal. Finally everything got liberal washes of Vallejo Wash FX Desert Dust.

Built on the chassis developed for the L6/40, the Semovente 47/32 was an easy-to-produce tank hunter built as a stopgap measure to combat enemy armour. Mounting the excellent Elefantino anti-tank gun in an open-topped chassis gave the Italian forces some much-needed mobility in their anti-tank assets. The tank hunter initially fared well in the western desert, but lack of an armoured crew compartment became a glaring drawback in the system's design.

 After witnessing the success of the German StuG in Europe, the Italians decided a tank of comparable design was needed. By 1942, the Semovente 75/18 was fighting for the Italians in North Africa, where it would distinguish itself as one of the nation's best tank designs. The 75/18 had a relatively modern gun, thicker armour than any of the M-series tanks, and it proved quite successful in service, capable of destroying all but the heaviest Allied armoured vehicles.

 Italy's AB41 was the most-produced armoured car of the Italian armed forces. The Autoblindo 41 was produced by Fiat-Ansldo and saw service in several theatres, most notably in Africa. It was armed with a 20 mm Breda 35 autocannon and a coaxial 8 mm machine gun in a turret similar to the one fitted to the Fiat L6/40, and another hull mounted rear-facing 8 mm machine gun. It also featured two driving positions, allowing the vehicle to travel effectively in either direction.

The Carro Armato M13/40 was designed to replace the M11/39 in the Royal Italian Army at the start of the Second World War. It was the primary tank used by the Italians it their armoured divisions. The design was influenced by the British Vickers 6-Ton and was based on the modified chassis of the earlier M11/39. Its 47mm gun was superior to the British 2-pdr, but easily outmatched with the introduction of heavier tank guns such as the 6-pdr and US 75mm.

 The L6/40 was a light tank used by the Italian army from 1940 through the Second World War. It was designed by Ansaldo as an export product, and was adopted by the Italian Army when officials learned of the design and expressed interest. It was the main tank employed by the Italian forces fighting on the Eastern Front alongside the L6/40-based Semovente 47/32 self-propelled gun. L6/40s were also used in the North African campaign. Its main armament was the 20 mm Breda 35 autocannon.

 

Next up are five trucks to transport my troops through the desert. These were part of a joint purchase with Dallas E, who found a source of these 'cheap' plastic trucks on line. In the end, they didn't turn out to be as cheap as expected/hoped. These were available from Walmart for a while, but can now be found on AliExpress. They are generic 'army trucks' that have a bit of a 'Chevrolet 30cwt' vibe to them. I didn't paint any national markings on them as I thought they could be used for either side in North Africa. They were painted with the same method I used for the armoured vehicles.

 Finally we come to the troops. These are primarily Perry Miniatures Italians with sun helmets, plus a Italian Support Group boxed set consisting of a headquarters, machine gun team, and mortar team from Warlord Games. When I ordered the Perry Miniatures I was having some trouble with their website when I wanted to order multiples of the same figure pack. It kept increasing the number of packs of the previous choice. I thought I have corrected everything, but when the shipment arrived, instead of three packs of riflemen and one command pack, I got the reverse. (D'0h!). In addition, the Warlords support group all had steel helmets on, and I wanted all my troops in sun helmets. Dallas E had some left over helmets from his Perry DAK figures, and I had extra arms, pouches, and rifles left over from my Warlord Soviets and Blitzkrieg Germans. A bit of slicing, dicing, and gluing converted extra officers and NCOs to riflemen, and all but three officers to sun helmets. For painting I followed Sonic Sledgehammer's method for desert Italians, with some variation here and there on the order of painting, and the choice of colours. I used a lot of Citadel Seraphim Sepia wash on this project.

Warlord HQ group of two officers, a medic and a radioman

Support Weapons

Perry 47/32 Elefantino anti-tank gun

Perry and Warlords Breda 5C 6.5mm medium machine guns

Perry and Warlords 81/14 Model 35 medium mortars

 

Last up is a 43 man platoon consisting of a 3-man headquarters, and four 10-man sections each with a section commander equipped with a Beretta 9mm submachine gun, a two-man team with a Breda 30 6.5mm light machine gun, and seven riflemen with either a Carcano M1891/28 or Carcano M1938 carbine. Some of the riflemen that were converted from officer figures are carrying either Moisin-Nagant carbines or Mauser rifles that were left over from my boxes of Warlord Games Soviet Winter Infantry or German Blitzkrieg Infantry. (See if you can pick out all the conversions in the rifle sections.) 

Italian infantry platoon of four sections and a headquarters

Platoon HQ. The man on the right originally had a Beretta SMG

No. 1 Section

No. 2 Section

No. 3 Section

No. 4 Section

These troops are still waiting for their combat initiation on the table top. Hopefully they can get an opportunity to face off against Dallas's 8th Army blokes this winter.

 

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XIV #6 - Star Wars & Science Fiction

 As part of last year's painting challenge I completed an assortment of retro Star Wars miniatures that were sculpted by Nevile Stocken of Archive Miniatures within weeks of the first Star Wars movie hitting the theatres. Alas, Stocken couldn't get a licensing agreement, and the line was modified to become 'Star Rovers' with enough changes made to circumvent copyright. These were a gift from a friend who got them from the estate of a mutual friend who had passed away. A total of sixteen figures consisting of Obi-wan Kenobi, Greedo, R2-D2, a Tusken raider, four Jawas, and eight Stormtroopers. With the exception of the Jawas, the figures stand 32-34mm tall. Obi-wan's light saber, and the gaffi stick of the Tusken raider  had broken off at some point. I rebuilt them using lengths of florist wire.

I was initially going to build the structure in the background as a Gondorian tower for Minas Tirith, but the materials I had weren't giving off the right vibe. I decided to add another building to my Tatooine collection instead. It stands 8" tall and the base is 8" on a side.

Somewhere in Mos Eisley

 

Stormtroopers

Tusken, Kenobi, Jawas, Greedo, and R2-D2

More Stormtroopers

 

 The last of the Stocken figures is a Bunny Stormtrooper, one of a variety of modifications to the original sculpts made to avoid copyright infringement. It could easily be converted back to a normal Stormtrooper by snipping off the ears, tail, rabbit teeth and toes. Unfortunately there was only one of these in the bag of minis my friend gave me.

In addition to the Archive miniatures, I also painted up two old-school 25mm Star Wars miniatures of Han Solo and Leia Organa from West End Games. They were painted with Vallejo acrylics, with a wash of Citadel Reikland Fleshshade on the skin areas. In the background is a plastic model kit released by MPC for 'The Return of the Jedi' which is approximately 1/78 scale. A bit small for the figures, but it works well on the game table.

 

Keeping with the Science Fiction genre are two female troopers from the Eurasian Solar Union by Ground Zero Games. I picked these up off eBay years ago with plans to add them to the mix of various manufactures that I painted up as my planetary militia. I had done a few of these for a previous challenge, and I used the same colour scheme using Vallejo acrylics and Citadel washes.

Lastly I painted up five resin cast vehicles from Scotia Grendel, consisting of two of their tracked Sci-Fi APCs and three of their wheeled A.T.A.C. APCs. I had purchased these at least fifteen years ago when I was still running an after-school wargames club, and I needed more vehicles for the large number of students who attended. In the end, I never found time to paint them and, after I retired, there was little incentive until now. Once again, the Painting Challenge has provided the necessary motivation to paint up items that have resided in a storage box for over a decade. 

The wolf's head on the back of the tracked APC is actually detail that is cast on the model in slight relief. I painted them white on both vehicles. 

A group shot of all five vehicles

6-wheeled APC, right side and front

6-wheeled APC, back and left side

Tracked APC, front and left side

Tracked APC, right side and back

 All of the figures and vehicles in this post were done for various themed challenges associated with the Challenge Library - Children's Books, Manga and Graphic Novels, Romance,  Science-Fiction, and Lady Sarah's Library Cart. It will be interesting to see what themed tasks will be presented in this year's 'Divine Comedy'.