Painting Challenge report #1

A late start this year in the Annual Painting Challenge, Christmas holidays have been particularly busy with different family and friends gatherings.  In any case, my first post is already live (published on December 31st) and will eventually be the initial  part of a series dedicated to 2WW recce vehicles.

This is a German "Luchs" (or Lynx in Englsih) an evolution of the Panzer II that saw action from mid '43 in the recon units of the German divisions both in the Eastern and Western front. The production was limited to a total of 100 units (according to Wikipedia), which made sense cutting when Germany went into a defensive stance and shifter efforts to the large "cats".

This is a resin 3D printed model from the French company Eskice; this model in particular has a good design but the truth is that the brand is pretty irregular in the quality of their designs (the German Fallschirmjager for example are terrible) 

It was painted in a 2-colour (dark yellow + green) cammo scheme with a faded touch.

 

The model scored for the "New Acquisitions" section of this year's Challenge bonus pool (developed around the sections of a Public Library) and merited a total of 40 points (or 10% of my 400 points Challenge target in 2024).

Have a great 2024! 

Painting Challenge Report: The Last Salvo

On midnight Sunday, the 13th edition of the Painting Challenge closed. The two days over the last weekend were declared "free fire zone", in other words, challengers could post freely at any time. Because coinciding with Father's Day in Spain on Sunday, family engagements and celebrations limited my availability to paint.

Nonetheless I could finished painting both, an LMG team for my Early War German Fallschirmjager project and an individual ammo carrier model.

The LMG is 3D printed model sold by Eskice Miniatures and it comes in one block (including the tree trunk). Eskice designs are somewhat irregular, and as commented in previous posts, the German paratroopers are probably among the lowest quality in the range: uniforms are not 100% historical  (the jumping boots for example, they look more American than German), the gear pieces are inaccurate (they never jumped with the gas mask canisters or the trench tools) or created out of the designer's imagination.

In any case, I like this specific piece due to the poses and sense of action, and that's why I decided to print and paint.

At the conclusion of the Challenge, my accumulated points scoring reached 709 points, which exceeds by 9 points my 700 points goal. Very happy with the output this year, I think it's the first time in eight editions that I have hit the target.

It's been a great edition this year, lots of high quality submissions and I encourage my readers to take a look to the Challenge's blog and get some inspiration for your own painting projects. I hope to participate again next December, but I'm planning now to take a more or less long break from the brushes, and focus my hobby time in playing both boardgames  and miniature games.

 

Painting Challenge Report # 11

This week my paint work slowed drmatically for many different reasons, and I could only finish one motorbike with sidecar model for my motorized early war German unit.

My initial plan was to have the three Eskice models painted this week, but it was derailed because I procrastinated for too lomng and also because I forgot to print the third model (unfortunately, the printer is stored in my parents summer house, that will remain shut down until Spring)

 

I could only add 20 points to the scoring this week. The accumulated figure now is 654 points. I have  exactly two week to hit the 700 points target mark. Except for some unexpected event, I hope to reach it in time. 

Painting Challenge Report #10

As commented last week, I'm taking a few weeks of the Challenge now to break away from my core Saga projects and capture some bonus points from the Challenge Studios, painting some minis on the side. Last week it was all fantasy and the Lord of the Rings, this week is Second World War.

I have an old German early war project for Chain of Command half finished. It was initially planned for the 2019 Challenge but other projects stepped in the way (ah! the wargame butterfly inside of me). Having in 2022 jumped into the 3D printing activity, the project was rekindled last summer after printing a set of German motorbike riders from Eskice Miniatures.

These are going to work as a motorized infantry squad support unit or as part of a recon group. I still have pending a couple of motorbikes with sidecars that will provide the LMG tgeams to the squads. 

 

Painting filed grey and panzaerr grey is not very exciting but it is fast; and despite being very dull colours, I'm noy unhappy with the final results.

 

After this week submission, my accumulated scoring has reached 634 points or 91% of my 700 points target. With a little bit of effort I may reach the finish line next week, let's now pray that any unexpected professional o personal committments don't come in the way.