28mm 8th Army Valentine and Universal Carrier

So here's another random update of the ongoing War in the Western Desert project... some tuned-up British "armour" (and I use that term quite loosely).

Many years ago I acquired some desert armour in a trade... among the stuff I got were some Shermans (since repainted for NW Europe), a couple of early Pzkpfw IVs, a Fuman/Bandai Valentine, and a Tamiya Universal Carrier. The latter two models are pictured here.

The models were painted in base colours with a wash of some kind, and decals had been applied. I just needed to tune 'em up a bit with some more washes and sponge chipping, plus adding some stowage and a Perry tank commander to the Valentine.

I also added crew to the Carrier - these are standard Tamiya dudes with berets swapped for helmets. To complete the model I stuck a metal Bren gun in the firing port.

Insignia of 6th Armoured Division on rear fender. This will be fine for North Africa.

I kinda wished I could find a crewman for this Carrier other than "pointing guy". But oh well.

I have a Tamiya Matilda to be assembled yet, a Stuart Honey from Blitzkrieg in primer, and a Grant supposedly on the way from them too - already bought and paid for but they missed packing it in my order. That should do for British armour for the time being.

Meanwhile, back to the DAK platoon that is sooooo close to done! 

28mm 8th Army Six-Pounder AT Guns

Escalation in the Western Desert continues... I picked up these 28mm Bolt Action 6-pounders and crews from Tista Minis a couple weeks ago - they're the first Brits I've painted for the 8th Army part of the Western Desert project.

Each gun comes with three crew. The base is wood, from Michaels. It's 3" diameter and just about ideal for mounting AT guns. They come 6 in a pack for $3.49.

The crew and gun were painted in the usual way - starting with AK Interactive Light Earth and an Agrax Earthshade wash, highlighting back up to AKILE, and adding some sponge chipping for weathering.

I quite like the animation of the crew here, they're all quite busy with essential tasks. It's just too bad there's no obvious commander for the gun.

Should cause some trouble for the Panzers, what? I decided to go straight for six-pounders in the 8th Army arsenal as the German armour I've got going is on the heavier side, and two-pounders just wouldn't make much of a game.

Fortunately the desert is still holding my attention (re-reading the excellent "War Without Hate" is helping) and I have some more stuff in the pipeline, including the DAK infantry platoon and Panzer reinforcements. Stay tuned!

Getting Back to 30k

Land Raider, Armoured Proteus Variant, painted in the colours of the VI Legion Astartes - resin model from Forge World.

It had been a while since there has been 30k content moving across my painting desk, and as the dust settled on another Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, the thought had been growing in my mind that it was about time to add to the painting side of my 30k pile. When Curt's annual Challenge wraps up, I always take a short breather, but I do sort of always need to be painting something, and usually only a few days go by before I am itching to get the brushes to work on something.

Always fun to check out the not-carbon-neutral propulsion systems on The Emperor's vehicles...

At around the same time the Challenge wrapped up, GW made the formal announcement of new plastic models coming for the Horus Heresy range...well, the jolt of marketing hype pushed my brushes into action. You can see the initial results here - an "Armour Proteus" Land Raider, painted in the colours of the VI Legion Astartes, the Vylka Fenryka. 

I should note, however, that this particular tank was more of a re-paint than a new assemble/paint job. I am doing a bit of consolidation on the loyalist side of my collection, and the vehicle models that had previously been part of my small Iron Hands force are being "re-assigned", as it were, to other loyalists. I'm sure Ferrus Manus would be furious, but...well, who cares, he was beheaded anyway.

Land Raiders are iconic pieces of 30k/40k kit, and I am particularly fond of this "Armoured Proteus" variant for the vehicle, with the twin heavy bolter mount on the front. These vehicles provide combat power and transport capability - and if you play using the fan-made 8th/9th edition of the rules, they are also close to indestructible on the table.

Twin lascannon batteries on the side sponsons, classic Land Raider armament, ready for action on the gaming table.

GW's marketing has launched the steady drip of preview photos and articles that will be released bit by bit in the run-up toward the release of what appears to be a new edition of the Horus Heresy rules. Wow! There will be lots to say and vent about that as time goes along, but for now, it is good to be painting some more stuff for my 30k collection - I hope to be sharing more with all of you as the spring goes along. That's all for now - thanks for ready, and happy painting and gaming!

Challenge Submission #20 - The Final Stop of the Challenge Quadrant

 

My last submission for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XII was a gathering of Lord of the Rings figures, both Good and Evil. Some of these had been in the painting queue for several years, while others were recent purchases to add to the collection. All were painted in my usual style, starting with a coat of black primer, followed by Vallejo acrylics, and then a mix of ink washes and/or highlights until I got the look I wanted. May they be deemed worthy of the Final Challenge.

The first group is a trio of Orc Trackers that have been in the 'PENDING' box for a number of years. These appear in the Barad-dûr section of the latest version of the Armies of Middle Earth manual, but now seem to be out of production. In addition to their role as trackers, they will also be useful to depict dismounted Warg riders.

 

 

Next up are the three Orc Captains, Gorbag, Grishnákh, and Shagrat (holding Frodo's mithril shirt). Like the Orc Trackers, they have also been in the 'PENDING' box for a while. These appear in the army lists in the Mordor section.

 

Gorbag, Grishnákh, and Shagrat

Shagrat, Grishnákh, and Gorbag

The last of the Evil characters is an Orc Shaman, who also appears in the Barad-dûr section of the latest version of the Middle Earth army lists. He looks pretty badass with his collection of skulls. This is another metal figure that I have had for a while. A plastic version of the figure is available from Games Workshop as a boxed set which includes one mounted on a Warg.

 

The first group for the Good side are three leaders of the Ithilien Rangers - Faramir, Captain of Gondor, Madril, Captain of Ithilien, and Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien. These are a very recent purchase and came as a blister containing all three figures. They will be ready to command the company of Rangers that I painted last April.

 

Faramir, Madril, and Damrod

Damrod, Madril, and Faramir

 The last offering is Éowyn (as Dernhelm) and Meriadoc, Squire of Rohan. While I had already painted metal miniatures of Éowyn, I was so impressed by the newer plastic set of figures that another participant had submitted for the Challenge, I just had to buy a box for myself. I especially liked the way Merry can be placed in front of Éowyn, or removed as the scenario requires. Not having any contrast paints in my arsenal, I used my usual technique of starting with a black primer, followed by Vallejo acrylics, with highlights and washes as needed to get the final result. Since the metal miniatures I had depicted Éowyn without a helmet, I went with the 'helmet on' version with the plastic set.

 

Éowyn with Merry

Éowyn with Merry

Éowyn without Merry

Éowyn without Merry

Éowyn and Merry on foot

Merry and Éowyn on foot

New plastic and old metal mounted Éowyn

Old metal and new plastic Éowyn on foot

 

This concluded my first year of participation in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Congratulations to all my fellow Conscripts who took part. I am looking for next year's challenge, but more importantly, gaming with all our collective newly painted minis. Thanks for reading.

New Project - WW2 Western Desert, Perry Afrika Korps

I posted these models on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge Blog about two weeks ago, but also wanted to post them here as kind of a record of my new project - the war in the Western Desert. First up is a 10-man section of Perry Miniatures DAK infantry.

The models are from the Perrys' plastic box, of course. I usually shun multi-part plastic models like a social disease, mainly because of the time and fiddliness in assembling the models. However the Perry stuff is only moderately time-consuming and fiddly... they come with head, torso and legs as one piece, and you stick on arms and weapon (usually as one piece), field gear (also one piece), and headgear. That's it, unless you need to assemble a machine gunner or NCO, then you need to also stick on a tool pouch or MP40 ammo pouches. So not a ton of work, and they're way more cost-effective than metal or even the Warlord/Bolt Action DAK box.

You can pick headgear from three variants - the early sun helmet, the steel helmet, or the iconic "Afrika" peaked soft cap. It's a good idea to trim a bit off the top of the model's head (ouch) before sticking on the cap, just to help it sit down a little lower over the eyes.

Once the dudes are assembled, it's time to paint 'em... I stocked up on shades of khaki for these guys. The trousers are all painted GW Zandri Dust with an Agrax Earthshade wash and re-highlight with Zamesi, and the jackets and caps are a variety of shades, including Vallejo Khaki and Yellow-Green, GW Rakarth Flesh, AK Deck Tan, etc... the webbing and helmets are Zandri Dust and breadbags are GW XV-88. Rifle stocks are GW Mournfang Brown highlighted with Skrag Brown, as are the wool covers on the waterbottles. 

Most of the poses are pretty good. In a few cases I had to do some greenstuff work around the joins between the arms and torso, but most were good.

The one-piece field gear is good too, there's a water bottle, breadbag, gas mask canister, entrenching tool and bayonet all attached. The tropical boots are cool too - I painted them with GW Doombull Brown and Vallejo German Uniform as seen here. The bases are made with a new technique - I glop on the Golden Coarse Pumice Gel as usual, but then sprinkle some fine sand on while it's still wet, to give a bit more sandy texture in fitting with the desert theme. After the models are primed and painted, I finish the bases with Steel Legion Drab/Zandri Dust/Rakarth Flesh. 

With this bunch done I've fully succumbed to temptation to start a new WW2 period. The DAK and Eighth Army will join my 28mm NW Europe British/Canadians, British Commandos, BEF/Home Guard, US paratroopers, US winter infantry, winter Finns, Soviets, German Heer, German Waffen-SS, German Fallschirmjagers, and early-war French in the cabinets. 

And since these dudes were painted I've finished another "unit" - a Perry 88mm Flak gun with eight crew. Blog post to come soon on that. Plus some tanks arrived from Blitzkrieg yesterday, as well as a couple of 6-pounder guns from Bolt Action today, so I'm set for painting for awhile yet.

Heia Safari!

Painting Challenge Submission 18 - Jyn Erso's Team from "Rogue One"

Ready to take a chance, until all of the chances are spent...

For my final submission to the 12th Edition of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, I went with a selection of 32mm figures for the game "Star Wars: Legion". The figures are a mix of "Fantasy Flight Games" miniatures and 3D prints sourced via Etsy.

I caved in to temptation and started "Star Wars: Legion" last year. The rules are so baroque and overly complicated that I find them to be barely playable - but the miniatures are generally great, and since there are a lot of other rules options with which to use these figures, I have been diving more and more into it. The range of figures from Fantasy Flight (or Atomic Mass, or Private Equity Tools, or whatever they are called these days) is fairly complete, and includes a number of character figures from the "Rogue One" movie.Even better, there is an amazing and talented community of 3D-print file designers out there filling in the gaps - and in this submission we find both kinds of figures.

Nearly all of the "Star Wars" films made under the Disney banner have been very poor. The three sequel films in particular were a tour-de-force in appalling film making, ranging from "very bad film with lazy writing that somehow makes the prequels tolerable in comparison" to "human excrement rendered as a digital HD experience". But there is one exception amid the Disney film wreckage - "Rogue One". It's awesome, just a great film, and certainly my favourite film of the whole Star Wars bunch. As DaveV introduced me to the 3D-printed-figure world for "Star Wars: Legion", I immediately ordered some characters inspired by "Rogue One".

So we have Bodhi Rook, the "brave defector" - this is a 3D printed figure.

Bodhi Rook, ready to help engineer a landing in a captured Imperial shuttle.

We have Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus, the displaced guardians of the Jedi temple. These are also 3D printed figures.

I love the pose on this sculpt - amazing to see what the 3D printing folks can do these days...

Love that weapon!

We have a team of Rebel Pathfinders - these are from the box set of the same name from Fantasy Flight Games. These are lovely sculpts, but the plastic-resin used in the manufacturing is bendy and crappy. Once you get the paint on them, they are not too bad, but I have ordered some additional Pathfinders from a 3D print supplier to expand this force later on.

Love that door-gunner character...only downside is that it makes the Pathfinder box very bespoke...hard to add variety when all of the figures are so specific. But lovely sculpts.

The Pathfinder team, ready for action!

And last, but not least, we have the amazing Jyn Erso, the young rebel who sets aside bitterness, cynicism and sadness to challenge the evil of the Galactic Empire head-on. This figure is from Fantasy Flight Games. I'm hoping Jyn will be an acceptable figure for a ride on Sarah's Star Yacht!

The sculpting is nice...Jyn is ready to break a knee to make her points...

Prior to the Challenge, I had painted Cassian Andor and the sincere-yet-tactless droid K-2S0 - both figures from Fantasy Flight Games. They won't count for points here, but it seemed wrong to leave them out of the group photo...

Ten people, ready to fight like a hundred...

Cassian and K2 lurking in the back of the group photo...

This was my final submission to AHPC XII. Thanks to everyone who took the time to leave a comment, and congratulations to all participants, particularly my fellow Fawcett Avenue Conscripts, who have made huge progress against their unpainted figure piles. All the best to everyone!

Challenge Submission #19 - Yet Another Shambling Horde of Zombies

This was my last batch of zombies done for the Painting Challenge. It is a mix of 36 Wargames Factory Zombie Vixens, and 24 Zombicide Box of Zombies Set 1 Walk of the Dead. 

Horde #2 out for a shamble

The Zombie Vixens come as 3 identical sprues of 12 figures of which 10 are standing, one is missing its lower legs, and the last is missing everything below the diaphragm. All the figures have separate heads and some choice of arms, so it is possible to do a fair bit of 'mix and match', although some combinations fit together better than others. The bases also come as a separate piece, but only enough for the standing figures. I had a half dozen wooden discs of the right diameter in the bits box to put the half figures on, so it all worked out in the end. The figures are finely sculpted with a variety of open wounds, with some showing exposed bones and/or skulls, all looking appropriately gruesome.

The Zombicide set consists of three figures each of eight different poses which are described as 'walkers', 'runners', or 'fatties'. They come as one piece, including the base, so no assembly required. The latter two types will add some variety to the usual slow moving undead, being faster or tougher respectively.

Once the Zombie Vixens were assembled both sets were primed flat grey using a rattle can, and then painted with Vallejo acrylics, followed by a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quickshade. I deliberately left the bases plain so they would look like concrete, rather than adding sand or flocking. As with my earlier Challenge submissions, the Quickshade leaves everything rather glossy, so I will hit these with some clear matt spray once it is warm enough to do it outside.

 

I am looking forward to getting these on the table with the Conscripts house rules for Zombies (with a bit of tweaking to accommodate the 'runners' and 'fatties'). Thanks for reading.