AHPC IX: Last gasp entries! Many, Many Goblins (450 Points)

Wow, just under 3 days to go and the challenge is over!

Here's where I'm putting together all my last minute submissions in a valiant attempt to meet my 2,000 Point target, not having done one of these challenges before - I obviously over estimated the number of figures that I could get done in the time!

Raw undercoated unit on my workbench

So first of my catch-up items this week is a group of 30 GW Night Goblins that I didn't quite get finished in time, over the weekend, for Monday's submission. Having seen the pile of GW greenskin plastic I have - I thought it would be a good idea to see if I could clear this out after several years!

Final Completed Unit

These have been kicking around for years, as previously noted - I'm not hugely keen on the single figure mouldings that GW moved to for their Night Goblins and other figures, but I have so many of them it it seemed churlish not to get them done.

Unit with Shield details

Unit with Command figure details

A departure from my usual white undercoats here,these were spray painted black and then I picked out he key colours as I layered on the paint for green flesh, brown wood and metalwork etc. I decided on a bright yellow moon standard and reflected that in all the shields.

Some wash on the spear shafts and shields finished off the unit pretty well.

Calculations: 30 Figures @ 5 Points per figure = 150 Points

Coming to the end of the goblin Plastic pile!

Next was the real '2 Day Challenge' - clearing out the 60+ remaining Goblin figures, mostly Night Goblin archers and a few more spider riders, with 2 days and 17 hours left running on the Challenge clock!

My aim was to get the Night Goblin Archers done in 2 units of 30 figures, using the remaining figures to build a custom Night Goblin Spider Rider Unit. If this last unit doesn't get posted then I ran out of time!

Amazing what a tight schedule can do for you... with 15 hours to go,the Night Goblin Archer units are done.

First completed unit

Same techniques used in these two units as used in the Night Goblin Spear unit above - i.e. a black sprayed on undercoat followed by batch painting of the key colours - Green skin, light brown under robes tan coloured leather with added steel and brass work with special attention paid to the command figures.

This time I used black wash on the arrows and a sepia wash on the quivers and bow hand bindings to finish off the units.

Second completed Night Goblin Archer Unit

So the pictures show each of the units in detail and then a panoramic view of both these units together.

When deployed on the tabletop,with the spear unit between them then these 90 little guys will be a scary opposition for any army!

There are no night Goblin Spider Riders - I ran out of time, such is life!

Both units together!

Calculations: 2 Units of 30 Figures @ 5 Points per figure = 300 Points

TOTALS: 150 Points + 300 Points = 450 Points

With 14 Hours and 39 minutes to go - I'm not going to get anything else completed to any reasonable standard, so I'm calling it an end!

If the above points are credited to me, then that's 1,961 for the challenge, just 39 short of the target but not bad for the first attempt!  I shouldn't have messed around so much at the start of the challenge.

Great fun - Thanks everyone from the minions (especially Barks) to those kind enough to comment on my attempts.

Hopefully I'll get invited back next year, when I can reveal the 7th & 8th levels of my lead & plastic Inferno!

You can find me - along with the other members of the SAS Wargames Club here,where after a rest I'll ramble on about our latest games and what's on my workbench....

AHPC IX: 15mm GNW Swedes, 28mm Dalek, Bretons and Late Romans (115 Points)

By way of a change of scale, if not period, I have dug out some figures I have for an old project that was started in conjunction with a fellow club member, only for it to wither away after I had painted five or so units...

Raw GNW Swedes

15mm Great Northern War Swedes is the army in question, I stopped painting when it became apparent the other club member was not going to be painting any Russian!

Anyway here is the sixth infantry battalion, painted to represent the first battalion of Södermanland Regiment. I am basing the units to use with the popular 'Under the Lilly Banner' rules by Barry Hilton, so they are on three 4 x 3 cm bases, with 8 figures per base.

The First Battalion of each regiment is where the Grenadiers were deployed, so each wing of the unit has a couple of grenadier models to represent this, and for no real good reason I have chosen to depict the bases with patches of snow on them to give a hint of Scandinavian winter conditions.

Two musketeer wings and a central command base with pikemen attached - the Swedes kept their pike men well after many other nations dropped them. Again this was a compromise as I believe the pikemen were distributed through out the line in Swedish units but I wanted to give the overall impression of a musketeer unit with integral pike and this seemed a logical compromise.

Finished Battalion

Flags were downloaded form the internet (A superb GNW resource TACTICUS.NU who have a page of flags for wargamers to use free of charge!), printed and stuck on using pva glue.

It has been rightly pointed out that most campaigning happened in the spring and summer months and thus no snow. However, I have never done an army with snow on the bases before and I wanted to experiment!

Another view from the unit's left flank

Figures in this case were undercoated white, yellow facings painted on then the blue coats - followed by appropriate details until the models completed. Figures were given a cat of Army Painter Dark Tone dip and when dry glued to base for terrain to be added. Matt Varnish spray then applied when eth weather gave me a break! (Its raining a lot in the UK - surprise - and that does not mix well with matt varnish spray).

Calculations: 24 x 15mm Infantry Figures @ 2 Points ea. = 48 Points

Unpainted Dalek

Next another test piece for a possible 'Dr Who' game scenario at the club, sometime in the future (or maybe the past! Who knows with Timelord games!).

We're looking for a source for relatively cheap Daleks, to use with 28mm UNIT forces, for skirmish games. This plastic Dalek is free from a magazine cover, easily obtainable on eBay and is apparently from about 2010, representing 'New Paradigm' era Daleks.

And the painted version

I must admit not being a huge Dr Who fan, I liked Christopher Ecklestone and David Tennant in the role, when the series was rebooted and took a passing interest but have not had the inclination to get back into it in a big way.

Anyway this red Dalek was glued to a UK 2p coin, painted red and then detail added, black and silver, I gave it a sepia wash and then later gave it a coat of Army Painter Dark Dip.

Base - what can be seen, is meant to represent concrete flooring.

Calculations: 1 x 28mm Figure @ 5 Points ea. = 5 Points

Raw Bretons, ready to undercoat.

Next a return to 28mm Bretons, to support the Normans at the Battle of Hastings! this batch is a group of 10 figures, one a casualty marker. Figures are conversions of the Gripping Beast Dark age Warriors set, with kite shields and Norman type heads added, to represent largely unarmoured spear men.

Finished Bretons

I had to stop on the last batch due to running out of shields and heads, I've been able to find extra of each to do this last batch or this particular plastic pile!

Casualty Marker and four Bretons

Another Five Bretons

Figures painted as per previous post, white undercoat, muted colours etc and using paper shield designs.

Calculations: 9 x 28mm Figure @ 5 Points ea. = 45 Points

                        1 x prone 28mm figure @ 3 Points ea = 3 Points

                        Total = 48 Points

Unpainted Late Romans

Painted versions

Next two Gripping Beast Late Romans, an officer and a Standard

Bearer.

Thee are to go with a unit I already have painted, painted in the usual manner with the figures based upon UK 2p pieces.

Calculations: 2 x 28mm Figure @ 5 Points ea. = 10 Points

AHPC IX: More Goblins and 28mm 17th Century Musketeers (260 Points)

Never mind Goblins being at the 7th Level of Dante's Inferno! It's more like Pandora's Box here...

The Goblin infested 7th Level of 

Dante's Inferno!!! Note the completed 

40 figure Goblin unit mentioned 

last week

All the old unpainted (some undercoated) goblin figures that I have in the 'Plastic Mountain' are literally kept in a green A4 storage box, having opened it to paint the Goblins last week - low and behold a unit of Spider Ricers and Wolf riders have forced their way out onto the workbench for painting.

Sadly there are similar boxes of Orc and Empire figures all awaiting a paint job...

So these are my first to batches this week. 10 x Forest Goblin Spider Riders were purchased when they first came out but never painted, I guess I didn't really overly like the figures at the time - GW had just moved away form the multi-part kits that allowed figure builds with real variety of poses,instead they moved to manufacturing  'fixed pose' figures, I wasn't (and I guess am still not) a great fan.

But time has mellowed me and I was actually taken by the detail on the bases and thought why not give them ago!

First group of 5 Spider Riders

I decided to base coat the spiders a deep red and then dry brush over with a brighter red on the main body and legs. Then transition the legs from red to brown to a bone type colour to make these really stand out.

The whole spider was then washed in Sepia Ink to blend the colours together.

The Goblins were painted up in a pretty standard manner, I decided the feathers would all be white with black tips in a nod to Native American decorations and these were offset by red items - as if they had come off the spiders them selves.

Second group of 5 Spider Rides

Goblin skin was washed green and the other parts washed with Nuln Oil to give that grubby appearance I think they should have.

The bases I covered in sand and electrostatic grass as usual - but I took care to keep as much of the additional detail as possible on them, tiny red spiders, skulls and tree stumps etc.


Calculation - 10 x 28mm  mounted figures @ 10 points ea = 100 Points

Next up were 8 x Goblin Wolf Riders. I have a silly number of these units already - maybe that's why these guys never got painted before now, that and they seem to have taken a bit of a battering in the Green Box' over the years so I have had to add replacement tails for a number of the wolves.....

... some of these are not the original wolves tails in the kits so I have substituted other animal tails! In the rough and tumble of battle - I'm sure a few wolves would have lost their tails!

8 x Goblin Wolf Riders

Goblins themselves again painted in my usual manner, however, with the wolves I undercoat these black, then dry-brush dark grey and then light grey and then very lightly dry-brush white, details such as mouth, teeth, tongue and other armour etc are picked out, all before a wash of watered down black ink.

I try and give some uniformity to a unit by keeping shields similar, these were all painted on the frame and then super-glued on when dry, before giving the figures a series of washed to tome all together.

Bases done in my usual manner.

Calculation - 8 x 28mm  mounted figures @ 10 points ea = 80 Points

NCO /Musketeer stand,

awaiting matt varnish

Next are the 16 musketeers to go with the command and pike stands from Robel's Saxon Infantry Regiment,that I completed last week. These are split in to 2 eight man wings, I group them 4 to a base,with one base having an NCO.

Musketeer stand,

wet weather preventing Matt 

varnish spray

The painting technique is again as previously described,the hard part here being the number of buttons and apostles that need to be painted in. That said - I have got reasonably good at doing the apostles, its the buttons that kill me! Up to 20 buttons a figure,you can't help but get 'over-flow' onto surrounding coat colors and this just means going back over every figure to fix such errors...

Finished Musketeer stands, Robel's Saxon Infantry Regiment, 4 figures per stand, 4 stands.

I took above photos whilst waiting for the weather to improve and allow me to use the Army Painter Matt Varnish Spray, hopefully I can add one of the finished unit as a whole over the weekend prior to the deadline time..

... and here they are! A break in the weather and a couple hours of sunshine!

Robel's Regiment, I opted for green pikes and matching 

apostles to help tie the look and feel of the unit together.

Parading in front of the Benkendorf Regiment that I got completed a couple weeks ago, these guys will be the core of a Saxon brigade that I can use in any siege of Vienna Game. I usually have brigades of 3 or 4 regiments so the next Saxon unit will likely be the last and I might do it in grey coats - giving a nod to the records suggesting this was a transitional time for uniforms.

Calculation - 16 x 28mm  mounted figures @ 5 points ea = 80 Points

TOTALS =100+ 80 +80 = 240 Point

AHPC IX: More 28mm 17th Century Saxons, Old School Fantasy and more (130 Points)

One of the cool things about this challenge is that it has encouraged me to delve deep into the backlog of figures, vehicles and other stuff that make up my own 'Lead Mountain'. On inspection - I'd probably liken it to the 9 levels of Dante's Inferno !   Not so much a Lead Mountain but a pit of lead and plastic with a smattering of resin and some MDF floaters on top!

Raw, constructed but unpainted figures

Anyway, somewhere down at level 7 (That of Mindless Violence) I found some very old Games Workshop multi-pose Goblins. If memory serves me well these were the latest offering for Warhammer back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In my opinion the best Goblin figures that came out of Games Workshop - with so many options to model and add character to the figures...

So here are a group of 10 such Greenskins, rescued form the pit! Along side these were a unit of 30 odd nearly finished Goblins - these won't feature here - as they only needed basing and a wash of ink to finish. A long ago abandoned project, that I'll now finally complete,thanks to the challenge. I also found dozens of unpainted Night Goblins and an unpainted Wolf Rider and a Forest Goblin Spider Rider unit  - these may feature in next week's post!

So these figures were painted in pretty much my usual way, I wanted to paint these figures to match the existing unit I'd just rediscovered, the rest of  the unit is basically in black, grey and various brown shades. So I undercoated white but the painted all areas that would have armour, black, so that steel metallic paint could be dry-brushed on.

First Group of 5 Figures

Skin was painted a medium green and then when all the other colours blocked in I gave the skin a green wash to add highlights and the rest of the figure a Nun Oil wash to make them look suitably grubby, as I'd imagine a Goblin to be!

I like to paint the detail in the mouth area of my Games Workshop Greenskins, they usually have large open mouths, bristling with teeth - so deep red wash in the mouth and dry-brush the teeth white. I know Goblin dentistry isn't likely to be good enough to guarantee white teeth, but from an artistic point of view it helps attract the eye!

Second Group of 5 Figures

Shields were painted separately and added with superglue after the basic painting job completed.

Figures based as normal with sand and electrostatic grass....

Looks like other submissions have scored GW Goblins as 28mm figures, so here goes...

Calculations: 10 x 28mm foot figure @ 5 Points ea = 50 Points

Raw Figure

Finished Figure - front

Next up is a 28mm plastic Viking, the body is an old Wargames Factory item (now available from Warlord Games) the arms and shield from a Gripping Beast figure. All constructed and glue to a UK 2 pence piece for my Saga Viking Army.

Finished Figure - back

Not much to add on the panting front - all done as per usual and described in previous posts.

Calculations: 1 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 Points ea = 5 Points

12 figures Saxon Pike and Command Block

To avoid delays I split my 28mm Saxon Infantry regiment into 2 groups. First the Pike block and
command stand and second the musketeers. Well this worked well and I got the first group finished and was able to do quite some work on the more complex musketeer group.

The pike block is made up of 8 figures, whilst the command stand is of 4 figures. All except the drummer boy are from the North Star 1672 range, the drummer is from the Warfare Miniatures range, which are slightly smaller that the 1672 figures when placed next to each other. This worked well as I wanted to give the impression of a smaller, scrawny youth banging the drum for this regiment.

Robel's regiment had dark green facings and pewter buttons in 1700, so I have back dated this to the Siege of Austria period. As previously noted this is a liberty but there is very little documentation of what was actually worn in this period, when uniforms were still only just becoming established. It is possible the Saxons actually wore grey coats at this time but converted over to red coats by 1700.

And Again from the Right!

However, I again opted for Saxon Red for the coats and I also decided to have the weapon shafts painted green for this regiment as well, indicating that they had just come out of garrison duty to take to the field. After the first engagements,weapon shafts would get broken and replaced with shafts hewn from locally source trees by carpenters following the camp.

These guys have opted to discard their armour, maybe on the long march from Saxony to Vienna,again this was a transitional period where armour was being phased out,along with the whole concept of the pikeman as bayonets were stating to be introduced.

Once again the figures painted and based as has previously been described and the flags are from Warfare Miniatures. Hopefully the Musketeers will be ready to show and tell next week.

Front on view

Calculations: 12 x 28mm foot figure @ 5 Points ea = 60 Points

Unpainted figures,fixed to 2 Pence pieces!

Next item on the workbench this week were three Games Workshop plastic Adventurers,I recently completed another figure from this boxed set - a Necromancer type figure that I painted to match an Egyptian Undead Army I once started to collect but never finished.

these three figures represent what I assume is a Dwarf Trollslayer(??) some kind of Barbarian Shamen and a more classical Wizzard.

Troll Slayer, from front

and the rear view

The trollslayer is mostly fresh and hair, I gave him a tanned look with flesh ink for shading. Blonde to Yellow hair and that was about it.

Thinking of adding an intricate patterned shield - but not found anything suitable yet, I'll need to find the right part form somewhere

Barbarian Shamen

Rear view of animal skin cloak

The Barbarian is all animal furs (Bear) plus earthy materials and rawhide belts and straps, dark hair and bone staff head. I dry-brushed the bear fur lightly with white paint and then applied several brown washes to tone and blend together. I used buff colour to do he underside of the fur - where on show as well as all the rawhide straps etc.

I used Bone coloured paint - well for the bones! and then washed with sepia ink and dry brushed white.

Wizzard, looks better 

from the front...

.. than from the back!

Finally the wizzard has a dark blue robe with red, orange and yellow flame edging and this guy is be old with seriously grey hair.

In doing the challenge these last few weeks and having to take photos of the figures has definitely improved my photography skills. As these skills have improved I am noticing more and more defects in my painting of figures,as the evidence gets clearer and clearer in the photos!

Another driver to do better in the future and get too self satisfied with my work....

Calculations: 3 x 28mm foot figure @ 5 Points ea = 15 Points

TOTALS = 50 + 5 +60 + 15 = 130 points

World War III

East / West Highway with
Urban and Factory Areas

Friday saw the start of the Battle of Hanover Gap, 11th August 1985, as a Soviet Combat Team, consisting of 3 Armoured Companies and a supporting Mechanised Infantry Company attacked   defending West German Armoured and Panzer Grenadier Platoons.

Leopard 2s defending treeline,
 both knocked out

The game was put on using 20mm models and figures from Mike W's collection and used a combination of Tanks! The Modern Era and Team Yankee rules to give a Tanks!++ rule set.

Terrain was provided by Mike N. and his Urban flats and factory units looked great on the table.The highway was downloaded and printed from the internet.

The game opened with a surprise, the Soviets elected not to do a pre-planned artillery bombardment and instead steal a march on the NATO troops who were waiting for the attack in 'cloaked' mode - i.e. without Radar, electronics or engines running to minimise the ability of Soviet spotters finding them.

Attacking T72s, counters indicate
Speed (white), Optics Damage (Blue).
Bailed Out (Yellow), Engine Damage (Purple)

Nigel commanded a company of 8 x T72s of the Soviet right, Mike N a T-72 company in the centre and Steve took the left flank with a third T-&2 company.

Phil was overal Soviet commander and took the Mechanised Infantry Company riding 6 x BMP-1s.

As the Soviet tank companies surged onto the table'2 eastern edge, a West German Recce Platoon of 2 x Fuch Armoured Cars and a Leopard 1 tank raced back to their own lines from the eastern table edge. The Recce Platoon was accompanied by a lone, stray British Chieftan tank, that had become detached form it's parent unit and stumbled across the German positions.

Needless to say the massed guns of the pursuing Soviet tank companies punished the the Recce company, knocking out a Fuch, the Leopard 1 and the Chieftain within a couple of turns.

Meanwhile both sides kept their artillery batteries in Anti-Artillery overwatch mode, daring the other side to unleash a salvo and invite targeted reprisals.

Knocked-out Marders
in Urban areas

On the right Nigel's tank company advanced, punishing Rupert's defending Leopard 2 platoon, knocking out 2 of the three vehicles and wrecking the engine on the third by the end of the first evening.

On the NATO right, Dave's Leopdard 2 tank platoon fared little better, 2 knocked out and one left active, however, the ever cautious Steve had halted his tank company at the tree line. In the center John commanded the two Panzer Grenadier companies and took control of the urban areas without significant loss of life - albeit that two of the transport Marders were lost.

Mike N's tank company rushes
the Urban areas.

Right at the end of the first evening the Soviets unleashed their artillery, with a two battery bombardment, although due to poor dice rolls, damage was relatively light. NATO batteries opened up in anti-artillery mode and wiped out a Soviet Rocket battery, but then in turn Soviet retribution was swift and 3 of 6 Abbots in two batteries were knocked out.

 Start of week two and Mike N, pushes his central Soviet tank company forwards, with Phil tucking in the Mechanised Infantry company behind the tanks in an effort to reach the Urban area objectives.

The NATO forces were up against it - with infantry holding the center and relying on a single Leopard 2 on each flank to hold back the 'Red Tide'.

They did however receive some key reinforcements, two British Challenger 1 tanks and two Gepard AA Vehicles.

Between the remaining Leopards and the Challengers the NATO players were able to blunt the central Soviet tank thrust, as that stalled the BMP mounted Infantry company wet off road, inadvertently exposing their flank to the enemy and paid with the immediate loss of two vehicles. This was followed up by an artillery strike on the exposed company.

Battle of Hanover Gap, 11th Aug 1985

Morale tests at the end of the turn went against the Soviets - Nigel who had been rotating and managing damaged vehicle successfully for both evening ran out of luck as more vehicles  went out of service and on the left Steve's tank company also failed a morale test and refused to advance after 50% losses.

To cap it all both central companies also failed tests, Mike N's tanks refused to advance and the battered infantry withdrew.

Soviet objectives could not be met - NATO declared a victory!