Why painting challenges rock

Seems like my Soviet units are like buses - wait for one forever, and then two arrive pretty much at the same time.

Blame the Guild forum for this. They (like many others) run a series of painting challenges. In addition to an annual challenge, in which you pledge to produce quarterly results in a chosen theme, there are shorter, focused painting challenges on themes set by the forum admin. At the end of each challenge, forum members vote for the winners. Small prizes are awarded to the winners, and all those who entered get recognition of their efforts in the form of "campaign medals" that get displayed on their forum profile.

I have really started to enjoy entering these challenges - as it encourages a more "completionist" (is that a word?) approach and discourages my ADHD hobby tendency. Once I enter or pledge to a challenge, I seem to make more of an effort to get the project done.  Yes, its a bit strange that I hold myself accountable to a bunch of strangers in a remote corner of the web, but I see it more about making a commitment to myself to get something done.

Also, because I know my hobby time is limited, I forces me to think very carefully before each challenge as to what is achievable, and not to over-commit. Fewer over-ambitious projects get started, and therefore fewer get abandoned put aside as my interest wanes. And with that comes a true appreciation of the scale of the lead (and resin) pile that has accumulated in my hobby room. With a more conscious awareness of how much I can paint, I have become more careful and more selective with my purchases - fewer impulse buys of miniatures that are doomed to stay unpainted.

Now, there is no way I am ever in contention for any of the prizes  - the standard of painting by the prizewinners is way beyond my skills. I count myself lucky to get a vote or two each round. But that doesnt mean that its a process only for better painters - there is a good spread of skill levels and all entries get positive feedback and encouragment. Why the Guild rather than other sites that run challenges? I guess its because it has a good overlap with my current interests - the entries are predominantly of WW2 miniatures, but entries outside of that interest are treated with the same respect. It also has a good sense of community, and is independent of any wargames company. (There are multiple sponsors - mostly individuals, but also a range of manufacturers.)

This year my annual challenge pledge is the continuation of the deliberately broad Africa/Italy/Balkans WW2 in 28mm project: at this stage mostly my South Africans in Italy, and their opponents, but I can see by the end of the year a potential to shift to the East African campaign.

The shorter-term themed challenges I hope to use to chip away at the lead pile, and get units painted that otherwise would linger beyond my interest in them.

The downside I guess is that because of time limitations, I have found myself taking shortcuts with builds: in some cases small details that I would have normally corrected were allowed to stand. Not sure if this is all bad. Maybe it will cure me of my tendency to get bogged down in the details.

Red Army 120mm Mortar Team

Produced for the most recent speed painting challenge on The Guild forum.

The figures were selected from the Bolt Action Soviet Forward Observer blister and the 120mm Mortar Team (since I purchased this, Warlord have apparently added another figure to the mortar blister).

If it wasnt for this being a speed build, I think I would have made different decisions:

• I was very unhappy with the scale difference of the rifles on the various figures - and I think I would normally have dremeled off the sidearms and replaced them with consistently-scaled rifles. I have noticed this before with the Bolt Action Soviets - there seem to be vast differences in scale and style of sculpts between blisters.
• The mortar ammo and ammo cases were all over the place, scale-wise, and I think I should have scratch-built replacements.
• The spotter with the map has 5 fingers AND a thumb on his left hand - I didnt notice this until I washed in some ink, and then I was a way down the road with the painting, and decided I couldnt afford the time to correct it.

There were times – early in process – that I considered abandoning the entire project – even on the nicer sculpts (from the spotter blister) there was a lot of flash and mould slip, and the mortar crew proper were nasty-looking castings. Not ideal entries for a competitive build! I hope that with the repackaging of the mortar team they took the opportunity to remaster and correct these issues.

In the end I wont be too unhappy with them on the table (especially as more often than not I will only be using the spotter team, assuming the weapon is off-table), but I normally try to approach things with less of a wargaming attitude and more of a scale modellers attitude.

Figures from the Warlord Games Soviet 120mm Mortar Team blister (since repackaged to 4 figures).

Figures from the Warlord Games Soviet FOO blister.

Monks for Saga

Furious friars. Miffed monks. Piqued padres. Call them what you like, here is my next unit for games of Saga. Standing in for levies, with a few special rules to offend their opponents, they can be used in any warband that is not Viking-based.

The pack of twelve from Gripping Beast includes only four poses, so I swapped out most of their weapons with agricultural implements to create a better impression of variety. A couple of figures also got shields ("…Brother Thomas, ever the pragmatist, was of the firm opinion that when fighting Vikings one needed more that the shield of faith and the sword of spirit." He was supported in this stance by Brother Winston the Englishman, who argued that 'one should first fight Vikings on the beaches, and then in the fields, and then in the hills, if any of us are left'. " )

These used the same speed-painting style I used for the rest of my Saga figures: prime; block and detail; Army Painter dip; and a simple single-stage highlight to finish.

Red Army Assault Engineers

Its been a very long time since I added any models to my Soviet force. This is despite having a comprehensive collection of late war Red Army figures in the lead pile. Every time I made a decision as to what to paint next, the Soviets got pushed down the list.

Two things combined to get these lads on to the painting table. First, another whole army of Soviets - an early war force thanks to the Baker Company Winter War Kickstarter - are due to arrive soon, and I felt I needed to make a start on what I already had. Second, earlier in the year I had rashly entered a painting challenge over on The Guild board - and when the first theme for the year was announced as  "Armour", these figures got the nod.

The figures are from Warlord games, and were the usual Warlord quality: characterful sculpts with a few small casting flaws here and there, but overall a pleasure to paint.

Its got me thinking as to whats next for my Soviet force. This unit need some transport, and it wont do to give them a softskin... White Scout car or two? M5 halftracks? Whatever it is it will be bristling with .30 and .50 Brownings...

Scots for Saga

Every now and then I give myself a break from painting World War 2 miniatures. It rests my eyes a bit, allows me to paint with a different palette, and I like to chose figures that either dont need any research (scifi, fantasy etc) or are from an era that I know so little about that I dont bother with research. It allows me to paint "instinctively" and experiment with new techniques.

Here are the fruits of such a break - a 6 point Saga warband painted using a much faster technique than I am used to - block, detail, army painter dip and then a basic highlight on each colour. The figures are from Gripping Beast, and I must say they were a pleasure to paint - clear, uncluttered detail and clean castings. Shield and banner decals are from Little Big Men Studios.

Before these pix were taking this warband got two severe maulings - the first from a Viking warband (the traditional first game mauling that any freshly painted wargame army gets) and the second the same evening from one of the family cats: I had left the tray of figures on a table in the entrance hall after getting back from the game, and felix domesticus had decided to investigate. Most of the force was on the floor by the time I intervened.

Some figures required repairs to weapons and shields, and small touchups....

Natal Mounted Rifles M5 Halftrack

This is another Natal Mounted Rifles vehicle that I have recently completed: an M5 halftrack. Rivet counters should avert their eyes, because this is a highly speculative representation.

Firstly, I am not 100% sure that the NMR used halftracks in Italy. The M5s are mentioned in a August 1944 operations report as being the most suitable vehicle for the NMR infantry platoons, but it is not clear whether the author was suggesting they be used in the future , or reporting on their previous use.

Secondly, I am not at all sure that the NMR M5s (if the regiment indeed used them) were painted in the Light Mud/Blue Black pattern. No photograph of which I am aware shows South African halftracks in anything other that Olive Drab or SCC 15. Its not clear exactly when the SA 6th Armoured Division received its first halftracks, but one source suggests that it was as late as May 1944. This is shortly before the issue of  "Allied Armies in Italy Routine Order 150" which detailed the repainting of all vehicles to a overall dark green or olive drab equivalent. So while it is possible this pattern was used for a short time, it is unlikely.

Despite the lack of solid evidence, I wanted to finish the vehicle in this way to maintain coherence with the rest of my force, which is currently exclusively in Light Mud/Blue Black pattern. I know I need to add a number of Olive Drab vehicles to my force shortly, to represent the Division later in the war, but frankly I am not looking forward to that - to me those vehicles will lose their distinct "Italian Campaign" identity and look like too many other  late war Allied forces in Europe.

This is the resin kit from Warlord Games, with baggage from Warlord and Die Waffenkammer.

 

Partisans and civilians

I have added a cadre to my partisan forces. I was hoping to make them generic enough to be used in various theatres, but I feel they ended up a bit b'twixt and b'tween - a little bland, and not evocative of any classic partisan force.

Maybe its the result of the figures coming from such diverse sources - there are Westwind Volksturm, Artizan Maquis, and even Empress SCW republicans represented in the handful of figures. If anything the figures with Beretta's place them in Northern Italy, but the urban fighters suggest Krakow or Warsaw.

Saboteur squad.

Some of these figures underwent simple conversion - the prone figure originally features a DP machinegun, and a swapped that out with a plastic Bolt Action MG34, the Westwind Volksturm weapons were replaced with Bolt Action equivalents (to help conformity of scale) and one of the Beretta-equipped Empress figures got a headswap.

The civilians - these figures are from Westwind – were an absolute pleasure to paint. Each sculpt is characterful, and I found myself inventing a backstory for each one as I painted them: "rumour around the town has it that brave little Primo, son of the fascist mayor, has been defying his father and running errands for the local partisans..."

How can you tell who is a collaborator and who is a patriot? Who is a fascist and who is a communist? Who can you trust?

Valentino, who worked for the local butcher, was often seen on his bike making deliveries around the village. Strange, since the Tedesci had helped themselves to all the livestock in the village, and the butcher seldom had stock...

I am not sure if the civilian figures will ever make it on to a table - but I really wanted to paint them anyway. Maybe they could be objective markers for a game featuring a partisan force...