Build-a-thon completed!

You've seen some of the drop zone commander bits I've been painting going up on the blog. Well what about the rest of the challenge, building and basing everything, making trophies for pick and Mix, and finishing my iron cross entry? Well as you can see below I've managed to get everything done for this month.

 Here are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place trophies, for Pick and Mix.

 A large collection of models that have now been built! Just need to get painting now!

And here is my Iron Cross entry, a Churchill 3" gun carrier, from home defence duties. You've seen this before, but I've added a plinth and plaque to the model for display purposes.

Next month challenge is simple, to paint up all the drop zone commander stuff I currently have, with the exception of the Hades, so 10 mechs and 4 stands of sirens.

Mech strike inbound

I finished some more Dropzone stuff last night, so here's a quick update to show it off!

Here is Jocasta Caine and 2 Apollo mechs.

 

I've also painted this Athena air superiority fighter.

Starting with the Last

Well, today's update is a bit of a retrograde step, I've done number 4 on my list of priorities for this month and painted a couple of Dropzone Commander PHR Juno A1 IFVs. This was mostly as I was away with work this week, so just took some paints with me. Work on some Apollo Mechs, an Athena fighter and Jocasta Caine are ongoing.

Also the latest's Fire for Effect podcast is up, were myself and Andy cover our latest hobby goings one, chat about the new stuff for Team Yankee and Flames of War and cover tactics for fair fights. Also we have a competition! Check it out here.

The September Challenge Results

So, it's now October, how have I done on the September Challenge? Well, let's see!

Dropzone Commander PHR army                                     Assembled and being painted*
2 Necromunda Pit Slaves                                                   Assembled, waiting for basing material
1 Necromunda Ratskin Scout*                                           Assembled, waiting for basing material
3 Necromunda Underhive Scum                                        Assembled, waiting for basing material
3 Necromunda Van Saar Juves                                           Assembled, waiting for basing material
2 Necromunda Van Saar Gangers*                                    Assembled, waiting for basing material
4 Necromunda Escher Gangers                                         Assembled, waiting for basing material
1 Necromunda Escher Juve                                               Assembled, waiting for basing material
Famo 18t Halftrack                                                           Assembled, needs a base adding
2 Panzer IV/70 (A)                                                           Assembled
4 Bofors Tractors                                                              Assembled, and base coated
2 15cwt CMP Trucks*                                                      Assembled, and base coated
19 Sd Kfz 250 (various variants)                                      Assembled, needs a base adding
8 Sd Kfz 251 (various variants)                                        Assembled, needs a base adding
Pioneer Supply Truck                                                       Assembled, and base coated
2 Sd Kfz 7                                                                        Not built
1 Sd Kfz 15 Field Car                                                      Not built
Panzer Pionier Platoon                                                    Not built
Panzer Grenadier Platoon                                                Not built
5 ISU-152                                                                        Assembled, and painted

* Some work still needs doing on the bases
** A couple of quantities have changed over the month. I have decided to put a couple of Necromunda figures back on ebay (as I may have bought a few too many for a game I rarely play at present!) and have add a couple of Flames of War trucks.

So not great, basing is the obvious let down and I hope to sort it out this month. On the plus side, I've got the ISUs completely finished which was unexpected, and other stuff is further along the painting stage than I expected. Also I got my Patio finished, which has been a major drain on my time.

With that in mind my aims for October are as follows:

1. Prepare the base for my Iron Cross Entry.
2. Finish off basing units.
3. Assemble the unbuilt units on this list.
4. Paint at least a unit of PHR (probably the IFV transports, which are acting as the tester for the army colour scheme).
5. Prepare trophy bases for the first Fire for Effect Flames of War competition, Pick and Mix to be held at the Element Games North West Gaming Centre on December 17th.

And don't forget to check out the Fire for Effect podcast competition on our Facebook page.

Bring Out The Big Guns!

Well, as part of this month challenge I had to assemble 5 ISU-152. What I didn't anticipate doing was painting them as well. However a relatively simple paint scheme and some unexpected  time on my own in a hotel room (away with work, nothing sleazy!) has meant that I've managed to get these completely finished. It looks like the Soviet army is going to grow ever larger (I've re-acquired the commission I painted earlier this year)!

Wooden Houses

Hi people,
Just a quick post from me covering some scenery I've recently done. In this case 4 MDF Houses

The first is 4ground's Cafe Gondree which is a nice kit and bigger than I thought, although still a little pricy. It does go well with my Pegasus Bridge kit though!

I also built and painted up 3 Flames of War buildings I bought at Britcon from Dave's Wargames. They're nice little kits and have come out pretty well!

Lastly I should probably cover this months challenge. As I'm away with work for most of it, I'm going to be fairly moderate, and set myself the challenge of finishing assembling all the stuff I have taken out of boxes at the moment.

Dropzone Commander PHR army
2 Necromunda Pit Slaves
2 Necromunda Ratskin Scouts
3 Necromunda Underhive Scum
3 Necromunda Van Saar Juves
3 Necromunda Van Saar Gangers
4 Necromunda Escher Gangers
1 Necromunda Escher Juve
Famo 18t Halftrack
2 Panzer IV/70 (A)
4 Bofors Tractors
19 Sd Kfz 250 (various variants)
8 Sd Kfz 251 (various variants)
Pioneer Supply Truck
2 Sd Kfz 7
1 Sd Kfz 15 Field Car
Panzer Pionier Platoon
Panzer Grenadier Platoon
5 ISU-152

Should keep me busy!

Meet the Black Widows

Well, I've managed to get the Escher gang finished. The Black Widows as they've been christened have been designed to look a bit like a punk biker gang. I was trying not to over fetish-ish them as can be a bit of an issue with some GW models. They did aquire black patent leather knee boots, but I thought that having them over jeans worked better than just stockings which was the other option from the sculpts! It was also a good excuse to play around with bottled gloss varnish as well!

The more keen eye among you may spot the odd conversion, as these are rescued models. Both the leader and the Juve were missing weapons, so have gained new weapons from what I could get hold off. The Juve gained a new stub gun which previous came from a Hasslefree dwarf, while the leader gained a Bolt Pistol and Chainsword. I was regretting selling off my 40k bits box at this point as I had to source some bits off friend to complete this! The Plasma Pistol and Sword ganger is also a conversion, but she came pre-done.

Despite this though, I'm really pleased with how they've come out.