AHPC X, From GrahameH - Bromley’s Butte - Recon & some bits (290 Points)

The next stop for me on the island challenge is Bromley’s Butte. For this I decided to paint a squad of  10 x 28mm scouts conducting a recon and some surveillance. Unfortunately, being very professional at what they do (apart from hiding behind a lone tree) it is hard to see them, but I am sure you will take my word for it. So I think that is 50 pts. 😇

Camouflaged so they can’t been seen - 10 x 28mm Scout Squad

Just in case you didn’t believe me I painted something more visible, three 15mm WW2 SAS jeeps from Battlefront. These were quiet fun to paint but not as easy as the 10 figures in the picture above. 6 x 2 for the crew and 3 x 4 for the jeeps. That’s errr 24pts plus 30 pts for the island challenge, 54pts

15mm SAS Jeeps from Battlefront

I had a few Lombards left over so I have have painted them as German Cavalry for my Carolingian Frank army. I say army, but these are the only units I have painted.  All Essex (love Essex Miniatures) 15mm. 72pts

15mm Essex Lombard Figures painted as Other Dark Age German Cavalry

I also finished off the last of my Lombard army ( apart from the camp) by painting the final two bow units. I had a couple of figures left over so these will be “Heroes” for To the Strongest Rules” and the extra points 😋. 36 figures and 2 mounted 80pts

More 15mm Essex Lombard archers and a couple of 15mm cavalry

Also finished were the last of my Eastern Cavalry again with a few “Heroes” 84 pts

The last of my 15mm Legio Heroica Mongol Miniatures

That brings my total for this entry, not including the hidden 28mm Scout Squad, to 290 pts.
All 15mm
3 SAS Jeeps = 54pts
18 German Cavalry = 72
36 archers = 72
2 cavalry = 8
21 Mongol 84

Next. Something to do with Mountains????

AHPC X - From Grahame H, Walkers for Frans Fjord (70 points)

I have probably left starting the island challenge a bit late, but that should make completing it more of a challenge.

Having gone through my mountain of unpainted shame (and it is a mountain rather than a pile) I found these two Walkers. I have no idea where or when I purchased them. Equally I don’t know who made them, but if it wasn’t for the challenge they made have never even been painted.

Now that I have done I’m thinking I should buy some more Sci-fi stuff. When will it ever end????

Anyhow the figures.

Points

Well I know that is 30 pts for exploring Frans Fjord
Not sure about the walkers themselves . They measure about 3.5” so is 20 pts each too much?

Makes a total of 70pts

AHPC X - From MikeW - 33 x Classic Warhammer Empire Stirland Halbardiers, Spearmen & Musketeers (167 Points)

In Challenge IX, I tackled my Warhammer Green-skin plastic mountain, it seemed logical that this time around I would shift focus to address the Empire troops that I've have lying around in various bags and boxes for too many years!

Contents of an Empire bag emptied on my workbench...

.. three knights will be the subject of a later post

When I say 'Classic' Warhammer Empire, I am of course, in this case, talking about the original Empire troops, Spearmen and Musketeers that came with what I think was the 3rd Edition Boxed Set in the early 1990s.

At the time, I was taken by the Landsknecht visual references and enjoyed the whole 'warring states' environment set-up in the Empire world. I plumped for the Stirland forces for two reasons - their ongoing fight against the Undead and their colour scheme - Green and Yellow - this matched the colours of my local football club and Manchester United's original club colours way back when!

Officer and Standard Bearer, need to sort out a musician and another

standard bearer to get things just right for this regiment.

So these particular models I got from eBay as a job lot some years back but I never got round to doing anything with them. I'd painted up a Regiment of Stirland Spearmen about 10 years ago and these models were obtained to boost their numbers.

What I hadn't realised is that they had been converted to Halbardiers by their former enterprising owner, so they didn't didn't in with the existing spearmen models - so I stopped that project...

... fast forward and I have them out of their bag, fixed a few halbards back on their poles and started painting.

16 Halbardier Figures and one guy with a spear - can you see him?

White undercoat, followed by random, halves or quarters in yellow, followed by green, with a few white leggings and blue or lack hats where required. Most of the musketeers have a leather jack and all the halbardiers have armour.

Figures were shaded with Army Painter dip and then finished with matt varnish before the bases were worked on, in my usual manner.

The central Halbardier Block with Command Figures

To meet my OCD cravings on unit organisation, the regiments are supposed to be a central block of halbardiers, spearmen etc - including command, flanked by two wings of musketeers, archers or crossbowmen.

The 14 Musketeers, in a variety of Green and Yellow

The observant of you out there may notice there is not quite enough figures to achieve this in this batch - but when combined with some more figures I have found then the optimal 8 musketeers per wing can be achieved! Hopefully subject of a future post here.

The completed Regiment of 30 figures plus 3 spares for an existing Regiment

Which reminds me the flag was taken from the internet, each regiment should have two flags (in my world), one the Stirland State flag as shown here and the second a Colonel's flag, typically green and yellow with a family or town crest.

POINTS
2 x 28mm Command Figures@ 5 Points each = 10 Points
14 x 28mm Musketeers @ 5 Points each = 70 Points
17 x 28mm Halbardiers @ 5 Points each = 85 Points
TOTAL POINTS 10 + 70 + 85 = 165 Points

AHPC X - From MikeW - 17th Century Landing Craft! (40 Points)

Having meandered around Challenge Island, I found my-self at Douglas' Shallows and needing to do something faintly nautical...

... being a land lubber that posed a bit of a problem - until I realised that one of the Scenarios that I have been hoping to put on as a game at the SAS Wargames Club  was a 17th Century Amphibious Landing - and I need some suitable barges to offload the invading forces.

As an aside - the SAS in the club name does not refer to the famous British Special Ops Regiment, rather it originally stood for Sussex Association of Simulators and later Southern Association of Simulators, in more recent times it has stood for Sussex and Surrey!

Thus reflecting English counties our members are from... we also have a member who lives in Somerset, but as that begins with a 'S' as well he's still allowed in!

Back to Douglas' Shallows, next I had to source an appropriate number of barges, I did briefly consider scratch building them but after a browse on eBay I found a set of barges from AnyScaleModels.com that would do just nicely and they were really good value for money.

5 x 28mm Landing Barges

The models duly arrived and I proceeded to undercoat the resin models with a Grey Primer spray, once dry I painted the outside of the boats / barges brown and then highlighted and applied washes to give a natural wooden feel, before varnishing.

The inside of the boats were painted grey, then again highlighted and washed to give the models a more 3D visual when on the table top.

Close-up view of Barge - which could equally be used as a ferry

The resin models were well cast and had very little flash that needed to be cleaned-up, in a couple spots near the water line I left some of the flash in place and painted this blue with white highlights to give a hint of water.

Another view, highlighting grey interior

As to the scenario I plan to use, it is based on one by Barry Hilton and is the Battle of Camaret Bay, 18th June 1694, when a British and Allied force landed outside Brest, France only to find their mission compromised and they were thrown back into the sea....

And finally in action, transporting a regiment of

English Foot, spread across two barges!

Not sure on how to score the Barges, they are approx 14.5cm (6") x 5cm (2") so have assumed that they are equivalent to a 28mm mounted figure so 10 Points each. Treating them as 28mm vehicles @ 20 Points each, seems a little over generous...

POINTS
5 x 28mm Barges @ 5 Points each = 50 Points
Douglas' Shallows Bonus  30 Points
Total Points 50 + 30 = 80 Points

Boer War Game

John staged an initial game on Jan 31st, followed by a two week game running from Feb 7th - 14th. The following photos are from the second two week game, some are action shots taken  during the game and some show the positions of each side at the end of the first week as the table had to be broken down between sessions as Mike N. was hosting a family meal over the weekend!

British Horse Artillery arriving on table, part of Rupert's command

Wider shot of Rupert's Artillery

Manchester Regiment plus Royal Engineers, under Steve's command
marching to the mining town on the British left flack, which is held by three Boer units.

The Mining Town, held by entrenched Boer Commandos.

Maxim Machine Gun, de-training to join march on the Mining Town

British Irregular Light Horse from Mike W's command,
having just been given a bloody nose when approaching the Mining Town

Final Position, Week One, one Boer Commando cleared out of the Mining Town
British Lancers and Native Horse, under Mike W's command, 
attempt to outflank the position.

Final Position, Week One, Two Boer Commandos remain in the Mining Town.
These troops under Nigel's command and troops were apparently Germans, not Boers!

Final Position, Week One, Steve's flanking march by
Manchesters and Royal Engineers

Final Position, Week One, Rupert's relief force of Cavalry and remaining
two Artillery Batteries - having lost one already to Boer Artillery fire.

Final Position, Week One, Boer positions on the right flank of 'The Neck',
under Mike N's command. Note two Boer Guns now revealed

Final Position, Week One, Boer Camp at the Centre of 'The Neck', under Mike N's command

Final Position, Week One, Boer Positions, under Dave's command,  on the left flank of 'The Neck'

AHPC X - MikeW - 11 x 1/144 (10mm) Arab-Israeli Tanks (33 Points)

Arab-Israeli AFVS, waiting a pint job!

Rummaging around in my workbench drawers I came across another bundle of 1/144 (10mm) tanks earmarked for the Arab-Israeli Wars collection, this time the majority were for the Egyptian Army, you may remember earlier in this Challenge, I was able to do 5 Israeli Super Shermans <here>.

In this batch  have just two Israeli Tanks - their Recon AMX-13 Tanks, acquired from the French, the only country in the 1950s that would openly sell military vehicles to Isreal. It had a unique design in that the engine runs the length of the tank on the right side, with the driver on the left.

Top / Down Views of Israeli AMX-13s

It features an uncommon two-part FL-10 oscillating turret, where the gun is fixed to the turret and the entire upper turret changes elevation. The turret its-self is set to the rear of the vehicle and holds the commander and gunner.

The weakness of the design was that the main gun was serviced by pre-loaded 12 round auto-feeders, when ammunition was expended the vehicle had to retreat to cover to allow the auto-feeders to be restocked by the crew form outside the vehicle!

Side shots of the AMX-13s

By 1967, Israel had acquired about 400 AMX-13s and formed three AMX-13 battalions, all of which fought actively on all fronts during the Six-Day War.

Despite its limitations, these vehicles were used as front line battle tanks, as and when needs required.

The remainder of the post is made up from Egyptian tanks and AFVs, in their distinctive sand yellow paint schemes.

First there are three T34/85 Tanks, even by standards of the time an ancient relic, used by the Egyptians in an Infantry Support role, but often forced into armour v armour actions due to the speed of movement in the wars of the 1960s & 1970s.

3 x T34/85 Infantry Support Tanks

Also adding support to the Egyptian infantry units are the equally venerable SU-85 and SU-100, the SU-100 being identifiable by the 'pulpit' cupola on the right side of the fighting compartment of the vehicle. These vehicles tended to be in emplacements, to defend fortified positions occupied by their infantry comrades. I have one of each in this post.

The venerable Egyptian SU-85 

and it's big brother the SU-100, note pulpit cupola...

Next are three BMP-1s, these were available to Egypt for teh 1973 Yom Kippur War - where the BMP-1 was tested in combat for the first time on 8 October 1973. Egypt had received its first batch of 80 brand new IFVs in July and August 1973. A second batch of 150 vehicles was delivered between August and September. The Egyptian army used BMP-1s in mechanized infantry battalions of tank and mechanized infantry divisions (32–40 BMP-1s per battalion).

3 x Eygptian BMP-1s, ready for 1973, Yom Kippur Scenarios

Another view of the BMP-1 models

These three vehicles are my first specifically for the 1973 war, all of the rest of the collection are usable on both the 1967 & 1973 wars.

Finally we have an instance of an Egyptian Sherman M4/FL10 , whilst it is well known that Israel used Shermans and developed their own unique brand of Super Sherman and Isherman vehicles, Egypt was also a user of Shermans...

The unique Egyptian Sherman

Egypt, used about 150 of these tanks in combat during its 1956, 1967 and 1973 wars with Israel, and they developed their own unique variation with a French M4/FL10  75mm gun turret, taken from the AMX-13 vehicles it had captured in earlier wars, or sourced from elsewhere.

and another view...

And so the final vehicle in this group is an example of this mash-up!

POINTS
11 x 10mm Tanks @ 3 points Each = 33 Points