British Intelligence Officer

The Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is still going strong, so here's my fifth submission for those of you who don't follow our progress there:

Another chamber that took some heavy head scratching. I mean, like many of you I do have a few Fantasy figures flying about the place which would have fit the bill. But I'm not a Fantasy gamer and only once in a blue moon actually fancy the idea of painting anything Fantasy. Thus I was on the verge of skipping this chamber...

But when reading the line "...recreated from steel, clay, earth..." for what felt like the umpteenth time it was that inspiration finally struck. With some leeway for interpretation one could argue that the masters for our miniatures are made from something very similar to clay. In fact Green Stuff, Grey Stuff, Bees Putty and what not are the modern equivalent of the clay our ancestors used to model many a masterpiece for reproduction:

Picture taken by me in the National Archeological Museum Athens in 2018

And to top things off I actually had a master sculpt in my stash. It was shortly before Christmas that through fierce negotiation with the man himself (my favourite sculptor Paul Hicks that is) I managed to get hold of a sculpt he wasn't satisfied with as it was too big as to fit properly with some 1/72 figures he had planned to use alongside it. Made from Grey Stuff and about 23mm from foot to eye:

When put alongside the few AB 20mm miniatures in my collection he's a little bigger but well within the norm. He's simply a rather big fellow but the proportions fit perfectly. When compared with your average 28mm figure he's both too small and too slim to fit in with anything.

Now it took some more head scratching as I couldn't make up my mind as to what to do with this unique piece. And actually I haven't quite decided yet. Thus I simply painted the tab the figure was sculpted onto to look like the wooden floor of a building. So for the time being he'll have pride of place in the cabinet till I can finally decide on his further assignment. I do have an idea already but it'd include getting back into scale modelling after more than 20 years. A prospect I find a little disturbing as of yet...

Points wise this submission is 20 points for the chamber plus another 4 points for a single 20mm figure = 24 points

Para Support Choices

The Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is in full swing, so here's my fourth submission for those of you who don't follow our progress there:

As we step into the chamber, portentously named Pit of the Pendulum, we stop dead in our tracks. "What's that? That's no bloody pendulum!" we mutter to ourselves as from out of the dark comes a trio of men in camouflage smocks. Their faces, half hidden beneath their helmets, curiously distorted by the dim flicker of a flame not bigger than a candle. It's only when they stop just a few feet away that we realize with horror it's no candle but the pilot flame of a flame thrower...

British Paras

As some of you fine folk may know I'm eagerly (ah, well more like glacial-ish) painting away on a 28mm Para force for gaming Operation Market Garden since... ahem... since AHPC VI, so 2014 actually. Now I bet that wouldn't strike even the slowest painter amongst us as particular ambitioned, or indeed eager, and rightly so. Having painted a playable SS force as opponents over the course of that (wretched) last year I decided I better get my finger out and finish those Paras.

Schaeffer's last Chancers - Reunited at last

Having painted Scope for my last entry for AHPC XI I thought I might just as well crack on and finish the remaining five Chancers. So after almost five years they're finally reunited.

9th SS Hohenstaufen - Jagdpanzer IV L/48

 It's only a couple of days, well more like a couple of hours till the Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is about to start. It's the 11th iteration of this bout of hobby madness and I'm pleased to report I've been... ahem... volunteered to act as a minion by our esteemed Snow-Overlord Curt.

After a somewhat challenging year I'm rather looking forward to indulge myself in the fun and banter the Painting Challenge provides aplenty year after year. 

My hobby output was rather sparse throughout the year as I frankly didn't have the best of years, neither job wise nor privately. I'm pretty certain that most of you out there will have had similar experiences so instead of dwelling too much on what has been a f***er of a year, let us just look forward to a -hopefully- better 2021.

9th SS "Hohenstaufen" - Support Squad

I'm still happily beavering away on my SS force for Arnhem. The core three squads are done, so here's a fourth squad as a support choice. In order to differentiate these from the core squads I gave them camouflage equipment in the autumnal version of the Oak Leaf camouflage pattern. A small tutorial is to follow soonish... once I find my bloody phone.

9. SS "Hohenstaufen" - Sd.Kfz. 251/3 Ausf. D

Todays offering is probably a little unusual in that it would have little use in a wargame except for maybe a mission specific objective or the like. But as I'm a big fan of such things, especially when they're almost little vignettes in themselves, I got me one of those clever upgrade sprues from Rubicon Models to convert a standard Halftrack into a mittlerer Kommandopanzerfagen communications vehicle.

2° Squadra del Fanteria Italiana & R35 tank

I've already finished the second squadra for my Italian force for CoC quite some time ago. Yet it was only today when I finished a Renault R35 tank to go with them that I felt like taking some photos.

Panzervernichtungstrupp

Following a (not so) recent discussion over on the TooFatLardies forum I felt the urgent need for a full Panzervernichtungstrupp/ Tank Hunter Squad. The miniatures on offer didn't really float my boat, so I reverted back to scratch building using different bits from Warlord Games range of plastic WWII miniatures and metal Panzerschrecks from Heer46.

9. SS-Panzer-Division "Hohenstaufen"

Over the last couple of months I took a break from blogging as frankly I found it too much of a time sink. Real life meant the hobby in general was put on a back burner. So much so that I barely could muster the energy to do at least some painting. I'm still not back to my normal glacial output but at least I found the motivation to take some pictures of figures finished a few months ago already. So I'll start with what will be the core of my 9th SS "Hohenstaufen" (or any other SS unit involved in the fighting around Arnhem really) force for the eagerly expected but somewhat elusive future Operation Market Garden supplement for Chain of Command. Looks like this will be the first time ever I have a playable force ready even before the book is released.