Final Entries for the Painting Challenge IX - Part I

The AHPC is obviously now over, but I didn't update the blog with these final entries, so here they are.

My seventh entry was a some WW2 German stuff in 20mm, which got me another Squirrel point as well.

These are some 20mm AB Germans - absolutely gorgeous miniatures! These were painted wearing SS camo, mostly the Autumn Oakleaf pattern, with a few in the Spring version for variety. I had initially balked at the thought of doing these patterns but a guide in the Christmas 2015 Too Fat Lardies Special was incredibly useful, breaking it down into easily followed steps. First up, a PAK40.

Next we have a section NCO with MP40 and four infantry (the one armed with a captured Sten gun is by Battlefield/Blitz Miniatures), plus the three man LMG team. As they are mostly wearing the Autumn camo, I used some 'Autumn' clump foliage on their bases.

Lastly, a tripod MG42 team, this time painted as straight Wehrmacht. I have yet to find a recipe for German Field Grey that I really like; these are the ones that I am happiest with so far.

My eighth entry was a biggie - all the Russian armour from the previous two posts plus a King Tiger in 15mm and these Russian infantry, also in 15mm. The infantry are all Battlefront castings and are based for winter games. These are organised as per the Battlegroup rules - 4x8-man squads. I tried to differentiate between the squads by using different basing - some use old GW snow flock and others the more recent GW textured paint. The latter looks much better and so the flock is being retired. I also painted one squad in lighter greatcoats, partly to differentiate them and partly because, well, because erratic Soviet logistics.  

The infantry platoon of four 8-man sections.

8-man scout section, mostly armed with SMGs.

The HQ element - the flag is a bit of artistic licence, and gave me an opportunity to have a break from painting brown greatcoats!

Battlefront castings can be somewhat hit and miss, but generally these are pretty good.

Finally, the Zvezda 15mm Tiger II. I wanted this to feature in games set in a winter setting like the Bulge or Hungary at the start of 1945. I imagined that the crew had hastily over-painted the camo with some whitewash in an effort to camouflage the beast. So, once I painted on the camo I lightly sprayed it with white so that the camo just showed through in places. An AK wash brought out the detail, and then some GW Valhallan Blizzard was added to simulate snow clinging to the hull.

More WW2 Russian armour

These were done as part of my efforts to get forces ready to play some games set in Hungary 1945 using hte Battlegroup supplement Operation Spring Awakening. Having done some T34s, I moved on to a variety of SPGs plus the some heavy JSII tanks. They are all Zvezda kits from PSC.

These were all done in a similar fashion to the T34s - Vallejo Yellow Green base coat, AK wash and then AK pigments.

First up are the JSIIs, both with very crude white air recognition bands on the turrets. Like the T34s in the previus post, these are re-painted from their original dark green.

Next are a couple of SU100s. These Zvezda kits went together nice and quickly - they are probably the best and easiist fitting Zvezda kits I have done so far (although to be fair, once I had messed up the first SU76, the other two were much better/easier).

Three SU76s next. Although very cheap (especially when bought in the PSC sale, they don't com ewith any crew figures, unlike the PSC kits. I will probably get some crew figs from Skytrex at some point, but for now these are done). I perhaps went a bit heavy with thet weathering as they are much darker than the others - obviously they have done much more hard campaigning!

And finally, a big beast - the SU152. I love the look of this and am looking forward to seeing it take on the German heavies.

All of these, along with the T34s, were entered into the AHPC.