Last of the Fallschirmjager

The title of the post does not make reference to Fenimore Copper's famous Mohicans book in a IIWW environment,  but to what I have been up to recently in my wargaming activity.

Some of you may remember that I joined for the first time Curt Campbell's Painting Challenge, an annual friendly contest among international bloggers lasting three months. Coinciding with the end of the winter, today the Challenge finished. And despite not achieving my targets (500 points), I do have achieved something quite unusual in the annals of our hobby: to complete a full a painting project!!

Believe or not, I have painted ALL the models (minis and vehcicles) of my Fallschirmjager platoon for Chain of Command; not a single blister, figure or vehicle has been remains in my lead pile... not even the remains of the flash!!!  The last model (a FJ private in winter gear) was completed only a few hours ago.

My gaming buddies however claim that I am the shame of our hobby and that I should not be proud of this, on the contrary it's a stain in my wargaming credentials  XD

Anyway. I have painted the full platoon with supports plus an extra section in winter gear that i expect to deploy in some Ardennes enviroment game later in the year (my gaming buddies stored a large number of supplies in the form of American and German in winter uniform of the last Warlord series).

Here is the full platoon displayed...

... and the winter section.

These are some close ups of the HQ section...

... the, anti-armour,  flamethrower engineer and sniper teams...

... a combat engineer team  ready to close assault..

... the HMG support...

... a large 81 mm mortar...

... and recoilless gun L40

 I completed two support Stugs (with the help of two airbrush fencing masters in my club)...

 

... as well as a nice little Hetzer, to provide close support to my troops

I painted the majority of the figures in splinter and Luftwaffe camouflage uniforms, to be used in the 43-45 period, and with a variety of gear and trouser colours (blue, field grey and camouflage).  My preference was for faded colours, and for that reason I diluted the colours when applying to the minis and then washed heavily with chocolate brown.

In case you are interested, the models are a combination of Warlord (only metal, I did not like the plastics) and Artizan. Although the latter are somewhat bulkier than the former, the truth is that they mix pretty well when displayed on the gaming table.

Finally, One of the distinctive features of the challenge is the supply of a small memento to our organiser Curt, in the form of a 28mm model aligned with the theme or topic chosen each year; this not just simply a toll to participate in the contest, but Curt will generously donate a sum of money to a local charity for every model submitted by the participants.

The theme this year is a "risk-taker, a gambler or daredevil"... I did not exactly understand what he was looking to, as a risk-taker or gambler looked to me different species. Anyway, after consulting with Curt to clarify the issue, I decided to think about characters related to the projects I was planning to use in the contest. But who could fit in that role?.

And suddenly I saw the light: what better choice that very same Oberst Steiner (Michael Caine) in The Eagle has Landed; the true (albeit fictional) daredevil and risk-taker, who jumped behind the enemy lines (England) to kill Prime Minister Churchill in a suicidal attempt to reverse the course of a lost war and was willing to sacrifice himself to save his men.

Participating in the Challnege has been really fun and truly helps to have one focused on a patinting project. If nothing goes wrong at the end of 2016, I will participate in next year's event too. I must thank Curt and the legion of people helping him ("the minions") for their effort and time invested in taking the Challenge to a very successful conclusion.

The Painting Challenge and the testing of some new rules for the Crusades period in the club have  taken of my available hobby time, and this is the reason why the blog have been neglected for some moths now.  Once the contest is finished, I plan to resume activity and post more frequently.

Attention is likely to divide between The Crusades games and Napoleonics, as the publication of the new version of Shap Practice is inminent. In fact, I already have on my painting table some nice French Voltigeurs from Perry ready to be painted.