AHPC Lumberjills

Another pair of Lumberjills from Bad Squiddo.  Lovely sculpts in 28mm they were a joy to pose and paint and very realistically done.  This is a three part casting, with the two lumberjills and the the log each being separate.  The hand of one Jill is cast on the saw and fits nicely into a socket on her arm so easily that even I couldn't mess it up. 

This set, like many of the figures in the range. is based on a wartime photo as shown below.  It's an obviously posed phot for propaganda purposes but the overall effect is good.  

 Points wise that's two 28mm figures for 10 points plus I believe 20 points for the Sorceress plus a teleportation back to the Aquifer please.

Painting Challenge WW2 Naval Ships

 

One half of Force K - HMS Aurora and HMS Penelope

This year I've been re-starting my WW2 Naval Plans that I put on the back burner about 6 years ago.  Next off of the work bench we have two British Cruisers and three Italian destroyers/torpedo boats.

By late 1941, the Royal Navy was running short on ships but had temporarily managed to get ahead in the Mediterranean.  By early 1942 the RN was thoroughly knocked for 6 and on the defensive everywhere, especially in the Med.   But for a short period, Force K composed of the small cruisers Aurora and Penelope and two destroyers ran the table against the Italians.

I've had fun researching camouflage patterns.  The cruisers of Force K used a rather natty two tone grey pattern with light upper works and dark hulls.

Inter-war naval treaties limited each Navy to a set tonnage of cruisers. For most Navies this emanate building as many big cruisers as possible within your cap, but for the RN and its Imperial responsibilities the number of cruisers was just as important.  The 4 Arethusa class cruisers were small with only room for 6 6" guns but did sterling service and were hard worked.  

HMS Aurora may have been the best shooting ship in the RN.  Penelope  was nicknamed  first HMS Pepperpot after a heavy bombing left her a lot of splinter holes, and then HMS Pocurpine after the holes were plugged with timbers that extended outside of her hull.

The cruisier models are both GHQ and I'd forgotten how fiddly these could be.

I also have three Italian escorts the Soldati class Alpino, the Freccia class Fulmine and the Spica class torpedo boat Calliope.  The first two are GHQ and the Calliope is CinC.

This ships will count towards my total in the Naval Side Duel as I inch along incrementally.  They will also give me a squirrel point in the Squirrel challenge once I amass a full 25 points for the WW2 project (currently I sit at 20 points).

Back again, Peter? So soon?

Those ships are rather spiffing. I'll go along with your suggested points (I'm sure they are based on scoring from previous Challenge years), so that's another 10 points for you.

Tamsin

AHPC Entry The Mimic

 

The blurb for the Pit and the Pendulum says "Something Terrifying" and in my own world I am constantly beset by vicious attack furniture.  As I quietly go about (ok noisily go about as I seem incapable of doing anything quietly) my daily business I run in constant danger of being impaled or bludgeon by seemingly innocent tables, chairs, door knobs, walls, bookcases, cabinets...the list of horrors goes on for ever.  You are not paranoid if the furniture is really out to get me...I swear it's got nothing to do with my own gross motor skills or level of distraction.

I am pretty sure that this is a Reaper Bones Mimic in 28mm.  It has a distinct Harry Potter or Muppet feel and was a lot of fun to paint.  It's also the first time I've ever painted a tongue on a mini.  Assuming that this meets the Terrifying criteria enough this nets me another 5 points for the mini and 20 for the Chamber.

*knock, knock*

"Ahhh, come in Victim #7, errmm, Peter."

Oh, yes, the mimic. I definitely think that counts as terrifying.

25 points it is.

Tamsin

Hidden Dangers

Another AHPC entry

 

Smaller English men-of-war carefully sail through shoal waters.

Having ben transported to the Hall of Traps, we need to take out our lead line and test the depths.  For a sailor hidden dangers means shoals and reef and that's what I have for the Hall of Traps.

The Anglo Dutch Wars were fought in the Thames Estuary and along the Dutch coast, waters with many shoals and sand bars and some serious tides.  Tactics and maneuvers were often limited or controlled by these features.  The Dutch ships had an advantage s their ships had shallower draught and could sail where the English could not.  

Admiralty Chart of the Thames Estuary.  For lubbers, yellow is land, white is deep water, blue is shallow water and green areas dry out at low tide. 

On the third day of the Three Days Battle, the English lost one of their biggest ships the 92 gun Prince Royal when she ran aground on Galloper Sand on a falling tide.  In normal times they would just wait for the tide to turn and float her off, but on this occasion she was acting as the rear guard for an English fleet in full retreat and had to surrender to the Dutch.  The Dutch got her off the sand but her rudder was damaged and they doubted they could sail her and so burnt her.

Prince Royal surrenders.

Shoal markers seemed to be a good idea for my Anglo-Dutch Was project, so I banged these four together fro spare pdf bases, paint and some traction sand for the front walk.  I have no idea on the points value but it can't be much.  Treating them as terrain gives me 4 pieces which are 2" by 1" in area and maybe 1/4" deep for a wapping 2 cubic inch in volume, or 0.925% of a Standard Terrain Unit 6" Cube.  I'll leave that to the Snowlord's discretion but whatever points it nets me will go towards my Naval Side Duel.

Lumberjill in 28mm

Last year you may remember that I had a bunch of Bad Squiddo Games Women of WW2 that I used to transport myself about Challenge Island.  Well I'll be racking up the frequent flyer miles this year using the same range as I got into Annie's Kickstarter.  The figures arrived in the Spring and they were saved for the Challenge.  They are all wonderful.

First up is a Lumberjill with an axe, and I love this figure.  This is a girl that would be a lot of fun to hang to with.  But a fella better not do her wrong.  The Women's Lumber Corps or Lumberjills was part of the Land Army, see the link here for the history.  I had a lot of fun researching this figure and there is some great social history available on the Corps.

This is an Alan Marsh sculpt and he has absolutely nailed it.  I was a little unsure of the shorteralls, appearing at first more in line with a Vargas or Elvgren pinup than for chopping wood.  However, photos confirm this was what they wore in the field, at least some of the time.

Axes, shorts, big grins, seriously bad hair days.

In just about any picture that I can find of the Lumberjills, they are smiling.  It must have been back breaking work, but likely a heck of an improvement over factory work.  One one thing Jerry wasn’t bombing you and for another you got to be outside in the fresh air.

So here’s my first submission for the Trio of Sorceress, I hope that she meets with approval.  If so that should be 25 points and a trip to the Hall of Traps please.  I also need to ask if I can use another female figure on the same level without the extra 20 points, just like the balloon rides last year?

Ships in Grey Scale

Next up is for a theme chamber based on painting in Greyscale...

Ships ahead - are they Ours or Theirs?

Sailing on from the aquifer, we sense shadowy shapes in the Chamber of Darkness but it's difficult to tell if they are friend or foe.

After a 6 year hiatus I have set getting my WW2 Naval project back in business as a goal for 2021.  I do my games in the Med theatre and have narrowed my focus to late 1941- early 1942 looking at historical squadrons and the actions that they fought.  Many of these actions were fought at night with identification (or lack of) playing a key role.

These four tokens were painted to represent potential sightings which have not been firmly identified.  My own experiences (Warning - Old Fart Moment Ahead) of night time Channel crossings with my dad showed me that recognizing shapes, sizes, directions and speed is very difficult.   I figured this would be a good opportunity to meet the greyscale challenge.  

The ships are 4 CinC 1:2400 scale destroyers which were deemed surplus to my needs.  There are 3 supposed British "L" class destroyers which turned out not to have the right feature plus a Spica class TB.  I will relay the full L class saga another times, but for now will note that I am odd and get persnickety abut fielding the correct destroyers.

These were quick to paint up but I am pretty pleased with the end result.

These were painted using mostly Paynes' Grey with Carbon Black shading and Titanium White mixed in to get lighter shades.   Paynes' Grey is actually a very dark blue, but I'm hoping the name will let me slide it through.  Tables include a radar blip image and Capital Greek letters for identification.  I spelled out the letter names for benefit of gamers who speak neither Greek nor Mathematics.

Points wise that 4 1/2400 ships @ 2 points plus 20 for the chamber = 28 points.  A whopping 8 of these go towards my death by a thousand paper cuts total in the Naval Side Duel.

Initial post from the Challenge

I am going back through my post on the Challenge blog from this year.

 

Lupo and Cassiopia

First post from me this year and I think the first entry in the Naval Side Duel.  I have two Italian Spica Class torpedo boats (equivalent to a Destroyer Escort in USN speak) from WW2.  The models are in 1/2400 scale and are by CinC, now sold by Legions IV Hire slightly to our east in Winnipeg.  They are sailing up the Aquifer to get me not our dungeon's first level.

Lupo had the reputation of the luckiest ship in the Navy. 

A series of Naval Treaties limited nations' ship building in most categories, but placed no limits on torpedo boats under 1000 tons displacement.  The Germans built the Elbing class that gavee Allied Light Forces a headache in the Channel, the French built the almost useless Melpomene class and the Italians built these very successful and hard worked ships.  They carried three 4" guns, a light torpedo armament pus AA and ASW weapons.  They carried out the bulk of the escort work on the Convoys to North Africa.  Most importantly for the Regina Marina they were much more economical on fuel than larger ships, with oil reserves being the biggest factor restricting operations as the war dragged on.

There were 30 in the class, plus two sold to Sweden, and more in two similar classes.  Many of them put up impressive battle records. After the Italian Armistace many were taken over by the Kriegsmarine while others served with honour alongside the allies.  

These are the first pictures taken in my new light box picked up over the summer.

In the past 1/2400 scale ships have been worth 2 points a piece, meaning that I've got to put out a lot of hulls to keep pace with my opponents in the duel.  Add in the 20 points for the location and it's 24 points for the entry.