Finished: 3mm Dreadnought Stalker and AHPC 8 Prep

Hi folks,

Apologies for the lack of content of late, I've been focusing on prepping for the upcoming Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge as well as trying to finish off my first Dreadnought Stalker for my 3mm Sci Fi army.

First up, the prep. I'd already done some prep on my 15mm German arty, but needed to finish off the rest. I've not got quite a bundle of this stuff to do - which will be my Gunuary project as well. I'm hoping that the guns themselves will be quick to paint, but am not looking forward to all those gun crew!

I've also been prepping some more 3mm Sci Fi stuff as well as my 6mm Team Yankee British force. We're hoping to get some games of this (myself, Dave and Martin) in the new year. Dave has a load of Russkie stuff done, so I want to get some of my Brits painted up.

Linked to the 6mm stuff, I won a competition for a £20 voucher from Butlers Printed Models this week. Just a random draw for completing some wargames magazine quiz, but that has gone towards getting some of the BPM 1/285th printed British models.

The model I've finished is my first Dreadnought Stalker for my 3mm army. In the DiD universe these machines are operated by the Cybershadows, who are a breakaway faction of the Novans.

I've painted mine up to be a Reaver Titan proxy for my Ultramarine proxy infantry. I've not gotten a name for it yet, but the model is roughly painted up in Legio Praesagius colours.

I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out. I used decals I had from the 40k Primus Marine decal packs I had bought online. I'm waiting for some other bits from Vanguard to see if I can add some banners and stuff, as well as some other decals which might help add some Ad Mech elements. This is one of the early prototype Dreadnought Stalkers, so has a fixed head. I understand the newer ones have variations in leg pose and head options. The models also come with a huge range of weapon loadouts. I've kept mine in keeping with the Legio - lots of precision weapons and anti titan loadouts.

Looking forward to getting some of Vanguards scout stalkers, and hopefully one of their newer style stalkers - a variation on the Dreadnought Stalker seen here.

AHPC + Gunuary Roundup!

Hi Folks,

Apologies for the lack of blog post in the last week or so, with the challenge coming to an end I threw myself into painting as much as I could before time ran out!

I've really enjoyed my first bash at this competition, and I think I've set a decent bar to try and beat should I enter next time (I'm currently planning on it, but it's 9 months away!). I aimed for a challenging 500 points, achieved 682. As mentioned elsewhere the scoring is done on the size of the model, with 15mm infantry counting as 2 points, guns/crew served weapons as 4 points and vehicles as 6 points. The bigger the model, the more the points!

Out of 100 entrants (94 of which made it to the end), I placed 45th - with the aim to finish in the top 50! So yeah, I'm really pleased. But to put it into perspective, the people at the top of the table painted 4,125 and 4,051 points worth of stuff - total machines!

I'm also happy that I aimed to maintain my normal levels of quality and I feel I achieved that. In fact, in a couple of areas I think I improved. Having to paint a 28mm Lion was a new experience for me and I learnt quite a bit - oddly, it was probably the thing that most challenged me but that I learnt the most from. I also like the look of my 10mm ACW - again, something new for me!

Anyway, starting with the stuff that's not been posted here. First up is Cecil the Lion, painted as my contribution towards a group entry fee. Basing is not done as he will be shipped off to another zoo down south for this to be applied.

Without waxing too lyrical about this model, it was really interesting to paint from reference pictures of animals, and to challenge my concept of 'what does a Lion look like?'. I found that my first thought was something from the Lion King, and that I had to make a decision early on whether to go for something 'realistic' or something people would more easily recognise! New techniques for me included actually picking the colours myself rather than using a guide, blending the mane and painting facial details.

Of course, half way through I started seeing him as a big dopey Lionador rather than a fierce Lion, but I think he still came out OK. All he wants is to lick your face. With his teeth!

Next up is a unit of 10mm Pendraken ACW. I tried to go more rag tag with these guys, but came back in the end to something a little more uniform. I've still got a few more of these guys to do, as this was all I could base up in time for the challenge ending. I learnt a lesson there about batch painting by pose, and how it's not a great idea to tight time scales. If I hadn't had a sudden bout of common sense, I would have based all the painted stuff I had and been left with the rest of the units made up of only 2 or 3 poses. Thankfully I realised in time!

Most recently, at the very end of the Challenge, I rattled out the remainder of my current US Team Yankee 3mm models. Some batteries of M109 SP Arty, some M106 SP Mortars and some M113 Vulcan Air Defence tracks. Along side there were 3 'rifle platoon' bases and 3 'Dragon Team' section bases - to make up 3 platoons of US Mech Infantry. These were added to the helicopters I had painted earlier in the challenge. The Heli's were 3mm Tumbling Dice models, while the vehicles and infantry are Oddzial Osmy models.

Everything else I think you'll have seen!

Not bad for 3 months work! I wish I could say that the lead mountain has been significantly altered - but currently I'm like a man with trowel standing at the foot of the Alps! Still, one trowel full at a time... At least the amount of outstanding artillery has been reduced, thanks to the Gunuary focus!

For the next little while I am planning on finishing off the ACW figures and working on some other projects. In the planning stage are smoke and destroyed vehicle markers, minefields, some 4Ground buildings and Decals. All of which I have put off doing for various reasons. As ever, all input in appreciated!

Oh, and I also won an army deal from Battlefront! So some Grants and Crusaders will be joining the lead mountain at some point soon (hopefully!).

AHPC Entry - 15mm Matadors

Hi folks,

Last weeks Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge entry from me was a final (for now) batch of wheeled vehicles. Having picked up the V4 FoW rules upgrade yesterday, I'm pleased to see that for Late War the transports are still available for units.

This batch consists of 8 x AEC Matador trucks - tractor units for my 5.5" guns. With the completion of these models, I'm finally finished with Gunuary..

For these models, I decided to go with a slightly different paint scheme than those used on Battlefronts website and most other painters collections. I've had enough of the 'mickey mouse' camo scheme, so went with a paint scheme I had seen on some re-enactors sites.

Again, I haven't yet finished all the decals - although printer paper and ink arrived this week.

I didn't manage to paint all I wanted for Gunuary - I still have 8 Quad tractors and 6 Morris AA tractors to paint at some point - however I'm done with trucks for now!

I should have pictures shortly of the whole Gunuary/AHPC effort! My target for the challenge had been to get 500 points. With these models, I have reached 556. I'm not sure if I will get much more done before the final entry deadline on Thursday - although I do have my 'Kurt geld' (entry fee) model to finish. I'm really pleased to have attained my target, as I started several weeks after the start date due to the house move, and 500 points seemed pretty unachievable!

AHPC Entry - Moar Trucks!

Hi folks,

I'd like to be able to tell you I finished with the whole truck thing... sadly, this is not the case. However - barring one entry to the AHPC for next week, I am done with trucks for now.

Last week I managed to finish off the remaining artillery unit vehicles I had been working on, with another batch of mini dioramas.

For my Polish Sextons, I have two vehicles. A 'working party' has been detailed to change a tyre. One of them is proceeding with the job while his mates bunk off to try and find a local to trade some cigarettes for some 'vino' or 'oh effs'.

The full set up, everything painted since January for this unit:

Then we have the vehicles for my medium battery, the 79th (The Scottish Horse) Medium Regiment , Royal Artillery. I've not quite finished these totally, as no one makes the correct decals. Currently waiting on some printer ink and decal paper to arrive in order to try and make my own. Wish me luck!

The theme for these bases was 'moving day'. Whether the unit is arriving and unpacking, or unpacking before departure, I'll leave up to you - but I wanted to try and show that even through periods of the campaign were quite static, there was always some movement going on. The typical army 'hurry up and wait'.

For there I have the two trucks with some chaps carrying bits. We have a box and wire reel being carried on one base, while on the other the figure getting directions is carrying a backpack in his left hand. Maybe these are the signals guys getting ready to 'wire in' the command post.

Meanwhile, as a suitable replacement for a truck, I have used a large staff car (actually, a 4WD Heavy Utility vehicle) - after all, a Medium Regiments CO can't be getting shuttled around in a 15cwt truck, can he? An officer and sentry watch the goings on (the 'wait' part of the 'hurry up and wait').

And again, the full unit painted since January. 

The full unit with the guns I painted last Gunuary:

Speaking of Gunuary - I have not forgotten about it! It just seems to have stretched on a little bit. However, with the publishing of my challenge entry next week, I'll call it quits. It's been quite productive (as has the challenge in general, I have achieved my goal of 500 points) and I will repeat next year. I didn't get everything I wanted to do done - there are still 8 Quads and 6 Morris AA Tractors to paint. To be fair, the guns were all painted in the correct month, it was all the support gubbins that overshot!

But it's time to move onto something else, and the 10mm ACW project needs some progress made.

Anyone know how to paint Confederates?

AHPC 3rd Entry - Gunuary still lives!

Hi folks,

This week I've been chipping away at my remaining Gunuary projects, with two elements coming to fruition in a short time. As I type, I'm waiting for a coat of varnish to dry in order to try and get an entry in for tomorrows 'themed' round entry.

For Thursday, I managed to finish off the command, staff and OP teams I required as part of the Gunuary goal of filling out all the missing teams in my various artillery units. As such, I finished off different teams for a few different units:

2 Pulk Artylerii Motorwej, 1st Polish Armoured Brigade:

1 x Staff team
2 x Command teams
1 x Jeep

79th Medium Regiment (The Scottish Horse), 4 AGRA - I'm missing decals for this unit at the moment, so the AOS markings on the vehicles are not correct currently, and there is no formation badge):

1 x Staff team
3 x Command teams
2 x OP teams
1 x Jeep
2 x OP Universal Carriers

128th Field Regiment, 51st Highland Division:

1 x Jeep
1 x OP Universal Carrier

I've grouped the units by type for the pics, rather than by unit. One thing I really need to do is get some sort of unit marking system for my bases, so I know which teams go with which units. Not such a big deal at the moment, but with my attempts to paint unit patches onto the soldiers arms, it will become relevant.

Staff teams (the one with the motorbike is for the 79th Medium Regiment):

OP teams:

Command teams:

Jeeps:

UC OP Carriers:

So this little lot bagged be 96 points. I'm pretty happy with them, barring the fact some of the faces are rubbish and some of the sculpted faces are poor (a couple of miscasts). Decals need to be fixed for the Medium Regiment vehicles and some of the aerial holes on models needs a little work to close them up a bit (the drill bit was slightly too large). I've also got some of the detail on the back of the jeeps to fix! Funny the things you notice looking at the pics!

Anyway, I'll check if the varnish is dry on the next lot, and plow on!