All go! Analogue Painting Challenge, snakes, moving and moar Shermans.

Hi folks,

I realised that I didn't do my normal update last weekend, but as I had a recent splurge of posts quite close together, I thought I'd hold off till I had something to report.

Having finished my November Challenge, I took the rest of the month to just relax and prepare for the rush that will be December. But why the rush? Well, I decided this year to take part in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

I don't think I'll be hitting any records, but my aim is to paint 500 'points' of figures over the 3 months, and in that period I will be having 'Gunuary' in January. 500 points will be a bit of a push, given the scoring system:

15mm foot figure = 2 points
15mm mounted figure, artillery piece or crew served weapon = 4 points
15mm vehicle = 6 points

So 83.3333333 15mm vehicles will get me to target. Which equates to just under one completed model a day... I'll also probably be doing some of my 6mm:

6mm foot figure = 0.5 point 
6mm mounted figure, artillery piece or crew served weapon = 1 point 
6mm vehicle = 2 points

And possibly some 3mm... which there is no scoring system for! So 500 points will be a decent number, if I can reach it. I think Gunuary will help as I have guns, vehicles and crew figures all in my sights for my Flames of War armies. 

The challenge starts on the 20th of December, so I'm taking part in the MMM 'Winter Campaign' with a pledge to finish off my Polish Shermans before the 20th. That timetable has had to move slightly, as I'm moving house on the 17th of this month (6 days time!!!). This is a bit of a surprise change in circumstances but a fortunate event occurred and we have access to a rented house at short notice without all the usual cost. Thankfully the new accommodation has a spare room which will be a bit of a painting den for me, with a sofa bed for occasional guests. It also has a detached garage, which will allow me to get a gaming table set up!

While Amy is just please to get 'my crap' out of the living room! I have no idea how the move will effect my painting, but rest assured the excuse will be banked should I fail to make my 500 point target!

unlike most of the 'serious' entrants, I have done no prep work at all.

So far the Polish Shermans are progressing, with all 11 of the final batch painted, shaded, highlighted and with decals on (as of tonight):

In other news, whilst out and about last night I came across an actual Alien - although probably a pet one rather than an invasive one. 

This fellow was at the side of a lane in very wet and quite cold Norton (in the North East of England). As a Striped Corn Snake, this is pretty far from 'his' natural habitat of North America! While very cold, 'he' was alive. After a bit of dilly dallying I managed to get in touch with the RSPCA, who sent out one of their people to collect him and get him to a vet (I use the male pronouns but have no idea as to the sex of this snake...). While waiting I got him in a towel and into a box with a bottle of warm water until the cavalry arrived. Quite a strange turn of events for a run to the shops on a Friday night!


I also managed, the week before last, to get to the club (the Old Guard Wargames Club - meeting just outside Northallerton) and play a game of 'To the Strongest'. A good (if somewhat biased... not reflecting the true planned (not at all seat of the pants) and glorious nature of my our victory) review of the battle can be found here, on Roy's Blog. I've some pics of my own, showing my Greeks  triumphant advance against the attacking Persians!

In all honesty it was a very close game, with my somewhat reckless attack (when I was supposed to be defending) seeing us (myself and Stuart) one destroyed unit away from defeat - and Roy with a slightly healthier force. In our last turn we managed to destroy one unit and then capture Roy's camp (in a 'not at all tricksy Greek sneak attack' way) meaning we won the day (with one single one of our 'medals' remaining - having taken 5 off Roy in that turn). 

I enjoyed the rules, and the card rather than dice mechanic. I'd happily play again!

So, until next time!

Finished!: 1st troop of 24th Polish Lancers

Hi folks,

Not much more of an update than the one I posted on Friday! I managed to finish all of my Shermans for my first troop of A Squadron, the 24th Polish Lancer Regiment, 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade, 1st Polish Armoured Division...

Just some pictures, which hopefully show off my approach with these guys. I've tried to keep the stowage fairly tidy and uniform, as well as the use of track links on the front of the tank (other than the single tank with sandbags).

These are all 'rescued' open fire plastic Sherman V's, with a bit of TLC applied to hide gaps in the hulls, etc.

Oddly enough, while in Edinburgh at the weekend I came across this chap:

This Statue in Edinburgh of a Polish soldier and Wojtec the bear commemorates the Scottish connection with the Free Polish forces and Polish people. The inscription, touchingly, reads:

"In memory of the

Polish men and women 

who fought 

'For Your Freedom 

and Ours'"

Sherman progress and some games

Hi folks,

This week has been spent doing a couple of things. First up, I set up a Facebook account for my blog. You can click the link on the right in order to follow me there, where I am trying to give a few more regular updates, etc.

I also continued to work on my 144 RAC Sherman I's and some of my Polish Sherman V's.

I mixed some 'Magic Wash' up. Seems to be working ok, but needs to be mixed with ink before adding to the mini's as I've not got the shade right yet.

And lastly, I played 2 games! One was even Flames of War! The other was a 6mm battle between York and Lancaster (?) during some English civil war or other. This game was the first at a club being set up by Yorkie, over and 'Little Legions' in a village hall about 45 mins from me. It was the inaugural meeting tonight and we managed to get 6 of us there for a multi player game. Some lovely mini's, good banter and a pretty quick playing game. Here's some pics:

All set up, we were on the left - no idea which army we were! Each player had two 'battles'. The hill to our North split our forces a little.

The enemy line! Some great looking units.

Our battle line - the hill that split our forces can be seen in the distance.

Some progress in the first few turns, with my battle heading forwards and getting some lucky shots in, causing one enemy unit to fall back. on the other flank the close combat had already started! A wood meant that only one part of that battle could engage at first. Thankfully they held their own!

Aftermath of the battle in the north - one enemy and one friendly unit lost, with another enemy unit shaken. My own force carefully deployed just out of initiative charge range...

Getting ready for the big clash!

Exchanging arrow fire - Thankfully Yorkie's dice were poor and he was just out of charge range.

The results of my own charge. By this point my allies had almost cleared the board, with only one other enemy unit still active. The two to my front were charged, with one combat resulting in a draw and the other resulting in a smashes enemy unit after a turn or so.

The rest our forces preparing to tackle the single remaining enemy unit (thats being pointed at). Bottom right my chaps smashed the shattered and disordered enemy unit, swept round the hill and took out the guns and lined up to charge the other enemy unit (locked in combat with my unit) in the rear. Thankfully a very close tie resulted in morale checks for both our engaged units - I passed, he did not and his unit routed. Victory!

On Wednesday I was invited round to Yorkies house for a quick game of Flames of War. I picked two 1000pt infantry lists and we used my figures (although his own are stunning). I only took one picture of the game, but it resulted in a Highland victory.

Magic Wash wise, the concotion looks like this:

But I feel it needs to be even darker. It's not so dark as it looks when poured out to be painted on. Some drops of Army Painter Strong Tone wash in the mix sorted it out ready to go onto my bunkers and Shermans:

German MG bunkers, resins casts. I've since put the static grass on them so they should be finished this weekend.

This was them after a wash of the Magic Wash mixture and a drybrush of Russian Uniform. More highlighting still required!

On top of all this, last weekend I got all my Polish Shermans primed using the Team Yankee Soviet Armour spray. The Sherman I's were hand primed and painted. I have to say this spray was (or seems) very close to Vallejo Russian Uniform, although I did quickly hand paint a coat of Russian Uniform onto them as well. One full tin and a bit of another used to cover all the Polish Shermans:

(less the 4 on the painting table)

So yeah, constructive week, I seem to be making good progress and the club should hopefully be running every two weeks. It is a 45 min drive but that's not too bad - may be quicker once the roadworks are gone! Fingers crossed this leads to some more gaming.