A mixed bag of AWI, WW2 & Late Romans - 12th and last Painting Challenge Entry

So now as this years painting challenge came to a close it's back to normal business. But first here's my last entry to the challenge for you:

Death of King Arthur - 11th Painting Challenge Entry

As the "4th Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge" is coming to a close it's the last time for me to urge you to pop over on Curt's blog to vote for your favourite entry in the last "Fortnight Bonus Themed Round". This round is called "Last Stand" and you'll see there are some pretty stunning interpretations of of the topic.

 

 This was maybe the only themed bonus round I knew what to submit for from the beginning. Originally I had intended this set for use on a scenic base for Impetus but as I had it lying untouched on my desk for what felt like ages the "Last stand" themed round gave me the excuse I needed to finally paint it. The set is called "Death of Arthur" and is from Westwind Miniatures nice 28mm Arthurian range.

As Comitatus didn't show up with their Gripping Beast and Musketeer stuff at Tactica (Yes, I'm still a little pissed off) I had to cancel my plan for doing an Impetus sized (and styled) base for lack of miniatures. Instead I decided to go for a larger round base and maybe use it later as some kind of rally point or opportunity marker. For the standard I originally planed to use a more stylish one. It was attached to the pole already, weathered and battle worn but due to some nasty incident including glue and me being all fingers and thumbs I had to switch to this one.

Thanks for viewing and I hope you enjoyed!

Last orders from High Command - 10th Painting Challenge Entry

The latest Fortnight Theme Bonus Round of Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge was entitled "Favourite Characters" Many participants not only submitted stunningly awesome painted figures but also told interesting stories about why it's their favourite character. The poll is still open so feel free to pop over and nominate your most favourites of all these fabulous entries.

Finding a suitable set of figures for this themed bonus round proofed to be quite a challenge for me. I simply had no idea what figures to use as 'character' is quite open to interpretation.

Step by step: Splinter pattern camouflage

A few people have asked me to do a quick tutorial about my approach to WWII splinter pattern or officially "Buntfarbenmuster 31".

Late Roman Cavalry & Archers - 9th Painting Challenge Entry

One of my goals for the challenge was to paint up the Late Roman figures I have in my lead pile. As the end of the challenge grows closer I'm slowly running out of time for this. So here are two heavy cavalry and two archers from Musketeer Miniatures.

Frankish Casualties - 8th Painting Challenge Entry

Due to lack of enthusiasm I didn't paint as much as I should for the challenge. I hope this gets better now as I attended to TACTICA in Hamburg this weekend and came home with literally thousands of new ideas.
Meanwhile I can show you my newest submission to Curt's "Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge". This time the fortnight thematic bonus round was all about casualties.The poll is still open so make sure you pop over and nominate your most favourite amongst some really stunning entries. Meanwhile here's my entry for you to enjoy:

TACTICA Hamburg 2014

After a weekend full of hobby goodness at TACTICA in Hamburg I'm back at home. For all of you not beeing familiar with TACTICA it's the biggest wargames convention here in Germany. With its 1602 visitors it's maybe not as big as SALUTE in London or CRISIS in Antwerp but the atmosphere is fantastic.
Plenty of fantastic gaming tables and figures as well as lots of dealers. Unfortunately this year Comitatus didn't show up so I couldn't buy all the Gripping Beast and Musketeer stuff I had in my mind for expanding my Frankish and Late Roman armies. I of course found some other ways to spend my hard earned cash and bought loads of goodness from Wargames Foundry and quite some terrain pieces from Stronghold Terrain and a great Roman Temple in 28mm from Lasermodellbau.

This year also saw me on the gaming tables having lots of fun. Both games were based on the very enjoyable Triumph & Tragedy rules. The first game was hosted by Jan (aka Lt. Hazel) of "At the Mountains of Lead" fame and his friends. Me and my dear friend Chris (aka Axebreaker) pitted Jans masterfully painted Romans and Goths against each other. As always I fielded the might of Rome. My mission was to bring a cart full of riches into safety while Chris had to stop me. As always I lost the game in the end but it was big fun and we both had a great time. Therefore many thanks to Jan and friends.

The other game took place on sunday morning and I had the pleasure to play with Björn the author of T&T. In remembrance of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the great war he hosted virtually two games. The one was a game set in the very first days when the Germans attacked France.  Beautifully painted Germans were crossing the borders and were greeted by colorful French using their Hotchkiss LMG's to maximum advantage. The table in my opinion was great and really captured the feel of the early war of movement.
For his other game (the one I played) he turned on the wheels of time to a point when trench warfare had all the western front in his grip. Again the figures were painted absolutely to my liking and the trench tiles really made me think to start working on my own again. I played the Germans while Björn took command of the not so contemptible little (british) army. My objective was to break into his trenches and search for goods of value in two hidden dugouts. Exceptionally I won the game when my troops almost wiped out all his troops and by sheer look found the barrels full of valuable oil in the very first dugout they entered.

I took quite some pics and wasn't able to decide which ones to show here so I hope you don't mind to click through them all.

The WW1 trench warfare game I played

Dark Age Franks - 7th Painting Challenge Entry

At the moment there's not much going on here painting wise due to some busy days at work. So I was happy to get these four minis for the "Hero or Heroic Group" fortnight thematic bonus round of Curt's Painting Challenge done. The poll is still open so make sure you pop over and nominate your most favourite amongst some really stunning entries. Meanwhile here's my entry for you to enjoy:

 

Continuing my journey into the Dark Ages I painted the leaders for my Franks. I intended them to represent Childeric and his entourage. Note: What follows is only my interpretation of some rather inaccurate bits and pieces of history and myth.

Again a mixed bag of WW1 & WW2 - 6th Painting Challenge Entry & Vehicle Bonus Round

The third fortnight theme bonus round  of Curt's Painting Challenge is all about Vehicles. The poll is open since sunday so make sure to head over and vote for your favourite entries among a whole bunch of outstanding interpretations of the 'Vehicle' theme.

For my submission I went for a Daimler Mk1 armoured car for my Red Devils paratrooper force in beeing. Originally I intended to do a Churchill AVRE tank but decided it wouldn't fit my plans for the force.

A mixed bag of WW1 & WW2 - 5th Painting Challenge Entry

This time I'm back to historicals again:

As I finally decided to let my Great War games take place on the eastern front I ordered a pack of White Russian Officers from the Copplestone Russian Civil War range.These were intended as a test what colours to use and if they fit the bill. After all I'm rather pleased with the outcome and probably will stick to the range for further reinforcements.