Painting Challenge Wrap-Up, Part 3 of 3 - 20mm Odds & Ends

20mm WW2 Soviets from Elhiem

For my final entry to the Painting Challenge I just tried to finish clearing off the painting desk with some leftover bits from the projects that got me up and moving in the first place - 20mm.  I started painting some miniatures in this scale last fall, and finished quite a few more of them during the Challenge and I have been really enjoying working in this scale.

Up first are some 20mm WW2 Soviets.  These are spare riflemen from a pack of Elhiem figures.  As always, the sculpting can be a bit uneven, but the proportions are somehow still great, even compelling.  The tricks of the sculptor...fascinating!

More defenders of the Rodina

Ready to battle the fascist invaders

Up next is a more modern set - this is supposed to be a TV news team.  Once again, these are Elhiem figures.  I like having media figures as a "gaming garnish" on modern tables, but I find these sculpts are perhaps too ultramodern - I know cameras are smaller these days, but I still think most TV news people have shoulder mounted cameras.  Maybe that is just here in Canada...

"Reporting live from  20mm game..."

I tried to write "PRESS" on their helmets...that didn't really work...

One more Elhiem tidbit - this is a downed pilot.  It is supposed to be from a modern range, but could work in WW2 in a pinch.  Downed pilots always make for great objectives in skirmish games, as the ground pounders resentfully put their lives on the line to bail out some pampered flyboy...

Long walk back to base...

Great objective for games

And one more vehicle! During the challenge I painted a few T-34s for my WW2 Soviets, so I thought I would finish at least one Panzer for the Germans.  This is a 1/72 scale model kit from Plastic Soldier Company.  I can't say enough about how much I enjoy their 1/72 scale vehicle models - they are excellent.

1/72 Mark IV from Plastic Soldier Company

I HATE modeling the schurzen plates...as you can see at the back of the turret, I can never get them to sit quite right...

This is a late model Panzer IV, sporting the long 75mm gun and the schurzen plates, which from a hobby perspective make me !@#!@#!@ing bannanas as I hate painting them, then glueing them, etc.  But full credit to PSC - they make the process pretty easy/idiot proof, even for an idiot like me...

Very basic paint job

Ready for action in the eastern front

So that concludes another Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.  In total I netted 1233 points of painting.  I easily exceeded my (low) initial target of 300 points, but in the end I did not achieve my (much more ambitious) revised target of 1500 points.  I finished in 18th place (just pipped by Byron - damn you!), which gives you an idea of just how much painting was going on out there around the world during the Challenge.  Byron and Kevin participated as well, with several excellent entries.  I encourage folks to go check out all of the entries (set aside some time - it will take a while!).  We'll see if Curt does another Challenge next year.

Another Pico Panzerkompanie

Really small panzers on a really small parade...

My intermittent fiddling with 3mm scale WW2 models continues. Earlier this week I finished off a small group of late-model German Panzer IVs.  The figures are Oddzial Osmy, available from the excellent folks at Pico Armor.  They are based on 20mm square bases from Litko. The round base is meant to signal a command unit.

Love the stuff from Oddzial Osmy

I painted these while waiting for the basing goop to dry on my next batch of 15mm WW2 stuff.  They paint up very fast (as you can imagine) and I am continually blown away by the sculpting quality on these very small figures.  But I do find it is better to use a very loud colour to amp the contrast on the very small figures.  The yellow colour I have used here to represent the "dunklegelb" would look traffic-cone yellow on a larger model. 

Kinda blurry, but the casting detail on these tiny Mark IV-Hs is mental

Depending on the game these figures could either represent a somewhat understrength Panzer company (and were there any other kind at the point in the war where these were in action?) at 1-to-1 or a really strong battalion using Spearhead rules (where each stand is meant to represent an entire platoon - this number of platoons in action for a single Panzer battalion would not be common).

Now they just need infantry...and half tracks...and guns...and...well, on and on....

I have started to experiment with Oddzial Osmy WW2 infantry to see if I can make them look OK.  I am also trying out some other odds and ends, like the smaller armoured vehicles, recon armoured cars and Marder anti-tank guns and such. We'll see how it turns out...