Friday Workbench 30 November

This week has mostly been spent prepping, sorting and getting on with household jobs that I had kept putting off.I have been doing a bit of painting alongside everything else though.

This week I have got these painted:

They're a bit too small for Gaslands/Car Wars (although they could be used at a pinch) but would work well for 15mm.

I've also started work on these (they just need highlighting):

On the prep side, earlier this week I got this beast assembled:

That's 30" of shipping goodness from TT Combat.

Today I've started putting together knights and cavalry for my War of the Roses army:

That's the horses done today, tomorrow I'll start work on the riders. And then I'll have to work out what infantry the force needs made up, so that I can plan any purchases.


I'm hoping for a couple of dry, non-windy days in the coming week so that I can spray prime a bunch of MDF kits (including that ship).

AHPC IX - Fellowship

It's that time of year that many of us look forward to. Or dread. Whatever.

Yes, Snowlord Curt of the Canadian Campbells has announced this year's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. There may still be some places available if you wish to take part.

I have, of course, taken up my reserved spot. Somewhat foolishly, I opted for a target of 3000 points, which will be a fair stretch to achieve. Particularly if I end up painting lots of 28mm figures for my WW2 New Guinea project to the same standard as I have started out...

I decided to do a quick count-up of what I have in stock, ready to go. It comes to about 2000 points of prepped-and-primed figures. I probably have another 4-500 points of figures prepped but not primed, and a lot of plastics which haven't been assembled. I should have enough for the 3000 points, but will need to do a bit of a sort out in my hobby room if I'm going to have space to have everything primed before the Challenge starts.

There are also some planned purchases, mostly for the New Guinea project. Plus some terrain. All in all, it looks as though I have no excuse for not hitting 3000 points this year.

However, you probably want to know what I do have lined up for this year:

28mm

WW2 New Guinea Project - 1942 Aussies (in KD uniforms), M3 Stuart tanks, and possibly some Japanese to oppose them. I might also make some jungle terrain up.
Purchases needed - some more M3 Stuarts, some more 8th Army figures, the Japanese.

Strontium Dog - I've got a good bunch of figures prepped and primed and some terrain (mostly) made up but needing to be primed.
This project will fit in nicely with one of the bonus rounds ("Mercenaries").

Pulp/Salutesville - I have a lot of figures primed and some more prepped but not primed. Some terrain as well.

Miscellaneous - I've got quite a few figures primed for various small projects. There's a small group of figures in this section that will work for the final bonus round ("Fellowship").


15mm

SYW Russians - I have 4 regiments of infantry (plus spare figures) and 18 Cossacks primed. I don't have any plans to add to them at the moment.

Mongols - plenty of cavalry and some infantry plus baggage elements primed.

SciFi - I have a load of GZG's Kra'Vak figures and vehicles prepped.


6mm

ACW - mounted and dismounted cavalry plus some artillery for both sides primed. There are also various baggage elements and some terrain prepped but not primed.

SYW - I have a lot prepped. I was going to do these as ImagiNations for Honours of War, but I'm having a rethink on that right now.


Other project which might see the light of day:

28mm Wars of the Roses - I have a goodly pile of plastics for this project to add to the longbowmen I painted a few years ago.

28mm Fantasy - a wold army for Dragon Rampant. I have a bunch of wolves prepped, but need to order some more and bases for them to go on. I'll be multi-basing the wolves on 75x50mm bases which offers the opportunity to make them dioramic.


The next few weeks will see me busy getting ready for the Challenge, with lots of prep and priming plus some terrain making. Also thinking about what to do for the other three bonus rounds - "Reconnaissance", "Sport" and "Water Feature" - and making any necessary purchases.

Saturday Workbench 24 November

I've been taking things fairly easy for the last couple of days, taking time out for reading and some gaming, rather than painting. I've still managed to get some things done though.

For starters, the tank commanders for "Ace" and "Demon". These are from Warlord, and as you can see I did head-swap one with a Chindit head.

I also painted the stowage racks (and stowage) for the tanks:

And repainted the unit insignia on "Demon" to show it as 2/1st Armoured Brigade Reconnaissance Squadron.

As there was a "Devil" in 6 troop, I thought that "Demon" should be in that troop.

So, here are the three Matildas with stowage racks and commanders:

While I was priming the stowage and commanders, I also primed the M3 Stuart from Blitzkrieg Miniatures:

During the week, I realised that I needed to order some more MDF bases from Warbases. While I was doing that, I decided to order some of their 28mm SF terrain. I assembled them last night while watching TV:

Today I bought a cheap 4-pack of 330ml fizzy drinks from Poundland (the taste is not brilliant, but not disgusting). I just need to drink them all to complete the pieces:

I do need to get some 2mm MDF to make bases for larger terrain to go on. That calls for a trip to 4D Modelshop during the week I think.

Finished: 15mm Panzers

I wasn't expecting to post this until tomorrow, but they're already finished. That was as much of a surprise for me as for you guys and gals.

Panzer IIIs

 Ausf E

Ausf F

 Ausf G

Panzer IVs

Ausf F

Ausf F2/G

Ausf H

I also got some bases made up for all the tanks to go on. That's more for storage and safe transport than for aesthetic reasons:



I'm sure I'll end up adding some other tanks in the future.

Finished: 28mm WW2 Aussie Matildas

Well, they're done. apart from adding commanders and stowage. But as they still need to be painted (after possibly doing head swaps on commanders to give them slouch hats) that is fine for now.

Matilda II Close Support

Mounting a 3" howitzer instead of a 2-pounder, this will be great for supporting infantry assaulting entrenched/bunkered Japanese forces.


Matilda II Frog

The "Frog" variant of the Matilda was a flamethrower tank, also useful for taking on Japanese troops in bunkers or caves.

Both have been painted up as 1st Armoured Regiment. "Ace" was an actual name used for one of the tanks in 1 Troop of A Squadron, but I don't know if it was ever a close-support variant. Although the various "specials" (flamethrowers, bridging, dozers, "hedgehogs") were mostly assigned to the 2/1st Armoured Brigade Reconnaissance Squadron, it seems that some "Frogs" were assigned to individual armoured regiments. As there was no evidence of them being assigned out to the squadrons, I've painted "Demon" with RHQ/HQ Squadron markings and made up the name and hull number.

Edit to update: Strewth, sport! Well, would you believe it - "Ace" was a CS variant (troop commander's tank). On the other hand, it does seem that the "Frog" tanks with 1st Armoured were attached to them from the 2/1st Armoured Brigade Reconnaissance Squadron, so I might have to go back and repaint the markings on that one....


You may have been wondering about the extra fuel barrel. That was for the original Matilda I painted a few weeks back. Here it is glued in place:

I'll need to do a bit of touching up on the paintjob to blend it in.


I've also been doing some work on the Panzer IIIs and IVs today. They've all been primed and I've airbrushed the base colours. I still need to do the camouflage on the ones for mid/late war, and then do all the detail painting. That should keep me busy for the next couple of days.

Finished: 15mm T34s

Well, apart from decals. I'll probably do those at some point during the week. The new Revolution CR arrived yesterday (the Br will be another week or so), which meant that I was able to get the Klear and matte varnishing done today.

As T34/76:

As T34/85:

These have come out a bit darker than the one I painted a few weeks ago. That's down to a change of paints - I used Russian Green instead of Armour Green for these. I've also left them "cleaner" (less rust and scratching).


Now that I have a good airbrush again, I'll probably work on the Matilda tanks tomorrow, getting at least the green laid down.

I've been doing some prep work over the last couple of days and all the shinies you saw in Thursday's post are done. I've also assembled the M3 Stuart:

The heft of the resin kit is much more satisfying than the plastic of the Warlord version.

Oh, and the plastic 8th Army figures are no longer running/standing/kneeling/laying around like headless chickens:

And that's not all I've been up to. I've got a few other little things on the go, but you'll have to wait to see those!