Tuesday, January 10, 2012

From JohnM: Napoleonic Prussian 1st Lieb Hussars (80 points)


From John we have a great unit of Prussian 'Death's Head' Hussars. Two squadrons from this regiment were present at Waterloo with the First Corps.



These are 28mm Calpe castings. John really liked the Seven Years War version of their flag and so included it with this unit (I believe it is by 'Flag Dude'). The standard is being held by a converted trooper. I think John did a really nice job on the black uniforms, which can be a bit tricky.


These lads will give John 80 points - pulling him ahead of Fran. ;)  Lovely unit, John. 

From MilesR: War of 1812 US Regular Infantry (180 points)


Miles sends in another 'man-sized' US Regular infantry battalion for his new War of 1812 project. 


Like the rest of his collection to-date, these are 28mm Knuckleduster figures. Miles has mentioned on his blog that while the figures are not as finely sculpted as what you may find with some other ranges they are very characterful and paint-up well.


I'm looking forward to a group shot in a couple months to see how this collection looks then. It will be impressive.



So that's another 36 figures under the belt, giving Miles 180 points. Just enough to pip Ray!


This will make three full units that he has completed for this project in under a month. Excellent work, Miles! To me, this is what The Challenge is all about: making significant inroads on those new, existing or languishing projects - and having a little extra fun doing it. Very cool stuff.


From ChrisP: 15mm New Zealand WWII Armour (60 points)


Chris sends in this interesting group of various New Zealand armour from World War Two. 

First up is a pair of Shermans. The one with the '17' on the hull is the squadron HQ tank, while the other serves as an artillery spotter with a suitable observer jonesing' out of the cupola.


The three above are 'Jalopy' conversions that Chris made, based from M5 'Stuarts'. 


'The Jalopy was essentially an M5 Stuart light tank, with it's turret removed. The allies found the 37mm gun woefully inadequate against enemy tanks, and given the muddy terrain they removed the turret to make the whole vehicle lighter, improving it's cross country performance. In place of the turret, a 50 calibre Browning HMG was added, offering good infantry support firepower. The Kiwis not to be totally without protection added armoured plates around the gun itself, to give the gunner some measure of protection. 

The Jalopies are converted Battlefront Stuart tanks, with plastic 50 cals spare from the Sherman tanks, gun shields from spare M113 ACAV vehicles (more BF stuff!) and crewmen from universal carriers. Then done up in the khaki/black camo scheme, with the regimental symbol (diamond) and the tank number in the same style as the Shermans.'  


Finally we have a T2 recovery tank.


'The story goes that the 4th armoured had only wheeled recovery vehicles on their Order of Battle, but the terrain in Italy demanded the need for something more capable! The 20th Armoured Regiment came upon a suspicious looking haystack in their advance in Italy, lo and behold an armoured recovery vehicle was inside, bogged down! So once the kiwis had pulled it out under sporadic mortar fire, they painted over the allied star and then it was theirs! Eventually the Americans wanted it back, but the 20th managed to keep it. Once the 20th had gotten theirs, the other armoured regiments got one through far more legitimate means!'


Great models and great little bit of history - thanks Chris!

These six tanks will give Chris a base of 48 points but I'm giving him an extra 12 points for the 'Jalopy' conversions. So, 60 points total. Nicely done.


From KentG: 15mm Fallshirmjager Company (279 points)


'Galpy the Giant' issues forth another monster submission. This time a full 'Flames of War' Fallshirmjager  company (well minus one stand, I think).


These are 15mm Battlefront castings.



Nice job on the cammo, Kent, and I particularly like the jaunty blue scarf on the officer.



These 93 models will give Kent an impressive 279 points to his already staggering total.


...and you were going back to work when precisely? :)