My Analogue Painting Challenge VII

This years Analogue Painting Challenge has come to a conclusion and I have to say its been an absolute blast. My painting output has been consistently high throughout the event and I have shaved a significant portion off the summit of my lead mountain! I'm never going to be a contender for the top ten but I'm very happy with my final points tally which not only smashed my target but also topped my personal best for any of the challenges so far. I've set the bar high for next year!

So, in true Geek fashion I have had analysed the points distribution and come to a startlingly unsurprising conclusion...

Most of my points came from 6mm submissions!
Who'd have guessed it!

...and last but not least photo's of my completed entries.

A lot of miniatures and one BigLee.

A terrible first entry but I was feeling horribly ill at the time....

Greek and Epirote Pike Phalanxes

Bonus Round - WWI MkIV Tanks

Macadonian War Elephants

Greek Slingers

Pyrrhus of Epirus

Asorted Generals and Heroes to lead my Epirote Army

Two Phalanxes of Hoplites

Thessalian Heavy Cavalry

A Roman Farmstead

Greek Heavy and Light Cavalry

Tarrantine Light Cavalry

Successor Elephants and Greek Bowmen

The Completed Pyrrhic Army

Bonus Round - Sherman Firefly

Fart the Jester

Italian Ariete Tank Company

British Cruiser Company

A9 Cruiser Tanks

Rolls Royce Armoured Cars

2pdr Portees

Mk IV Light Tanks

Bonus Round & Curtgeld - Inglorious Rejects

Valentine II Tanks

Marmon Herrington Armoured Cars

25pdr Battery

LRDG Patrol - Chevy Trucks

SAS Jeep Squadron

Selenite Warriors

The 7th Analogue Painting Challenge has been a fantastic event from beginning to end. The standard of entries has been exceptionally high and a vast quantity of lead (and plastic) has been painted. On a personal level I have had my best Challenge so far, not only hitting my target but smashing it to smithereens. Everything I set out to paint got painted and a lot more was added as the weeks ticked by and I realised how good my progress was. I've set the bar high for myself next year, I just hope I can live up to it!

Selenite Warriors

Apart from the Theme rounds I have almost exclusively focused on historical 6mm figures. But the madness of the Challenge has infected my grey matter and I'll be finishing with something completely different. I have always had a love of Victorian and pulp sci-fi and the works of H.G.Wells, Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs amongst others so it was almost inevitable that at some point I would buy something from this genre. So here are ten Selenite Warriors from Ironclad Miniatures. The Selenites feature in one of my all time favourite movies, the 1964 classic First Men in the Moon.

These models gave me a chance to use some of my weirder metallic paints that never normally see the light of day. I chose a metallic blue for the staff weapons and mixed a combination of the same blue with green ink and a dash of silver to create the iridescent green for the eyes.

Initially I bought four of these but when Ray expressed disgust at my choice of something non-historical I went back and bought some more! The figures are quite tall standing about 34mm foot to composite eye and about 36mm overall. I will definitely be buying more from this range (I can hear Ray screaming in the distance) simply because they were such fun to paint.

This would be my last entry to the painting challenge. I have almost literally run out of models to paint. My lead mountain has been reduced to little more than a few scraps... its actually a rather pathetically sad sight. I must start the big restock in readiness for next years Challenge!

SAS Squadron

Following on from the LRDG Patrol I posted earlier here is a full squadron of SAS jeeps. The Special Air Service's first parachute drop behind enemy lines was an unmitigated disaster. Many of those that were not captured were picked up by the LRDG and David Stirling was so impressed with these hard bitten desert troops that he teamed up with Ralpf Bagnolds LRDG for a series of joint operations. The LRDG became in effect a taxi service for the SAS, carrying small teams out to ops, dropping them off and then picking them up on the way home.

Later the SAS acquired their own vehicles and quickly settled on the jeep as its favoured transport. Bristling with machine guns and loaded with supplies small squadrons would penetrate deep into the desert far behind enemy lines to strike at airfields, supply dumps and transport columns.

These models are by GHQ and like all their stuff are exceptionally detailed for this scale. The only downside to such detailing is the absolutely minuscule machine guns that have to be glued into position. Superglue will do the job but only if used liberally and in conjunction with an accelerator to get an instant bond. Fine tipped tweezers and infinite patience are also useful!

I opted to paint these in a plain sand colour. Some black and white photo's hint at a camouflage scheme on some vehicles but it is very hard to discern and I don't think it was in common usage. Most of these vehicles are covered in stowage items anyway so very little of the jeep itself can be seen. The vehicles are modeled with a driver and I painted them in typical SAS desert headdress.

Twenty jeeps and crew for 50 points and I think this may well be my last desert/6mm entry to this challenge. I'm not quite completely done yet, but I think my final entry later this week will be a little different to anything I have presented before. Lets just say that if you like your miniatures purely 'historical' you may want to look away...

LRDG Patrol

More 6mm goodies this week, this time moving away from Operation Compass and back to a project I have worked on before. I have painted LRDG vehicles before but last time I went all colourful, using a camouflage pattern of pale blue and salmon pink. It sounds garish (and it is) but its also a pretty effective disruption pattern for dawn and dusk raids. This time I have gone a little more traditional and chosen a simple desert sand colour for the trucks. This was probably the most common colour scheme with only occasional patrols being painted differently, and maybe only then for particular missions.

From early 1942 standard vehicle of choice for the LRDG was the Chevrolet 30 cwt truck. These were commercial vehicles stripped down and converted for use deep behind enemy lines. The Chevy was a tough vehicle but was also a relatively easy one to repair and maintain in the field. It was only two wheel drive but its extra low ratio gears and 6 cylinder engine (which used less fuel) made it ideal for use by LRDG. Amazingly one original Chevy was found largely intact in the Egyptian desert in 1980 and is now displayed at the Imperial War Museum in London.

Each vehicle would typically carry a crew of two or three including a driver, gunner and commander. These models, while highly detailed in every other respect, only include a driver so I converted several infantry figures and mounted them in the rear of the trucks to represent other crew.

While I was rummaging through my model box I also found a couple of Morris 15cwt Trucks and decided I could add these to this LRDG patrol as supply vehicles. It would have been a crime to leave such gorgeously detailed models in the box so I had to add them to this patrol. The LRDG used all sorts of vehicles, especially in the early days when most of their equipment was 'borrowed' from other commonwealth units.

Divisional Support

This week I have three British units that would have seen service in the early to mid war period of the North African campaign. These will be used as divisional support for my A9 Cruiser company I finished last week. First up is a squadron of Valentine II Infantry tanks. These models are by GHQ and as such have an incredible level of detail. They really are a beauty to behold. The Mk I version of this tank was in service throughout Operation Compass but the rushed production and design ment this version was plagued with problems. The next incarnation of the Valentine was the Mk II although this came a little late to feature in Operation Compass is did see service later in 1941. 

Next some Marmon Herrington Armoured Cars. The original vehicles were developed in South Africa using a Ford 3 Ton Truck Chassis and a four wheel drive train kit produced my Marmon Herringinton in Canada. At the outset of war these some of these vehicles saw service with the British in North Africa and when the Mk II version (with a shorter wheelbase and improved armament) became available these were also used. These models are also by GHQ and again the details are incredible, even down to riveted armour.

Next I have a battery of 25pdr guns with Morris Tractors to pull them. The 25pdr is one of those iconic weapons that was so good that its service life extended far beyond the second world war and was still being used by the British Army into the 1980's. When I started work on these models I had run out of the right bases and in desperation put them on 40x60mm bases instead (normally the tractor would be mounted on a separate base from the gun and its crew).

In case anyone is wondering, I didn't paint these units in the Caunter camouflage pattern I used for my Cruiser company for two reasons. Firstly these are Divisional support units, in other words they come from other regiments and therefore wouldn't necessarily adopted the same scheme as the others. Secondly these are all units that have a bit of longevity in game terms. Valentines, Marmon Herrington's and 25pdrs can be found on the North African battlefield well into the Mid War period and long after the A9's of my cruiser company would have been retired from service. I therefore didn't want to tie them down to the early war period by given them a camo design that was being phased out by mid to late 41.