Shifting Sands 2016 Build

Shifting Sands is next month in Phoenix, AZ and I still need to finish a few items. It's an Early War event and I'm going to try out the StuG A platoon and an 8.8cm FlaK 18.  The FlaK gun will be towed by an armored SdKfz 7 that I'll need to do some major scratch building to complete. I've got about three weeks to finish 5 vehicles, a gun, and maybe some motorcycles and trucks.

6MMRPC Final Report

First, the glamour shots of all of the minis I finished during the challenge:

Flames of War Germans

28mm miniatures for D&D

Custom ships for X-Wing Miniatures

Saving Private Ryan Diorama

Six months ago I jumped at the opportunity to join the Six Month Mountain Reduction Painting Challenge, thinking that it would be a great way to force myself to paint what I already have and save some money too.  I managed to stick with the financial rules of the challenge, spending my first Joker at the Historicon swap meet, my earned Joker (for finishing my Historicon army) on a small batch of unpainted Gebirgsjäger from a friend, and my final Joker on a trio of tanks during Battlefront's 33% off Sale last month.  I'm also happy to report that I was successful with some of my goals.  My initial list of planned projects, and their status:

    Partial - Assemble and paint a Great War British army for a commission. (Flames of War)
    Yes - Assemble and paint units to finish my Early War German army for Historicon. (Flames of War)
    Yes - Assemble and paint two entries for the Iron Cross Competition at Historicon. (Flames of War)
    Nope - Start a 1945 Late War German Volksgrendier army. (Flames of War)
    Yes - Paint some minis for my Dungeons and Dragons campaign. (D & D)
    Partial - Paint some samurai minis just because. (Kensei)
    Yes - Paint some custom ships for homebrew X-Wing Miniatures. (X-Wing)

Not too bad, considering the total burn-out I experienced after Historicon.  I achieved four of my goals, started work on two others, and only totally failed at one.

This is what I accomplished in the first three months:
     - Assembled about a platoon of infantry and three tanks for the Great War British. (FoW)
     - Finished four platoons plus more that I needed for my Historicon army. (FoW)
     - Finished two entries for the Iron Cross Competition and won! (FoW)
     - Painted four ships and a terrain piece for X-Wing. (X-Wing)
     - Started building a scale model of a Kawasaki Ki-45. (1/72)

This is what I worked on in the last three:
     - Finished a 7.5cm LG40 platoon for my Fallschirmjäger army. (FoW)
     - Basecoated, filtered, and washed three tanks and fifteen guns for the Great War British. (FoW)
     - Basecoated four Japanese tanks for a commission. (FoW)
     - Painted and based six D&D miniatures, assembled and started fourteen others. (D&D)
     - Painted several small batches of 28mm scenery items. (D&D)
     - Painted and washed the Kawasaki Ki-45, before losing the decals. (1/72)

I started and left unfinished about as many projects as I finished, which goes to show my scattered approach this year.  New games, new techniques, and new scales to try and combat painting fatigue.  

Thanks again to all of those who participated, you inspired me to keep posting every week, even if it was a day or two late a few times.  Special thanks to Dai, who introduced me to this event last year.  I look forward to the next, and I think I'll be continuing the not-buying-anything- until-you-finish-a-project aspect for the forseeable future.

6MMRPC Week Twenty-Six: 7.5cm LG40 Platoon

In the final week of the painting challenge I delved into the unfinished-projects area of my display case and found a few things to knock out in the limited hours I had last week.  I just started a new job in retail and between the Thanksgiving holiday and the insanity that is the American holiday shopping season my hobby time was extremely limited.  All of my Great War projects are on hold until I can purchase rare decals, and my Ki-45 is also on hold until I find it's decals...

The 7.5cm LG40 recoilless gun was almost exclusively issued to Fallschirmjäger units and provides a cheap platoon for Flames of War FJ lists.  I started these a few years ago when I built my Cassino FJs but changed my list, putting these on hold indefinitely.  Everything was done except for the guns themselves, so I used AK Interactive's Wash for Dark Yellow along the lines, cleaned off the excess, and glued them onto the already finished bases before a quick coat of Testors Matte Varnish.  Only took about three years to complete an hour's work!

I love these little guns in game, now I can finally use them!

Tiny little recoilless guns.

I also put some finishing touches on some vehicles I painted up for Shifting Sands about a year ago, I hate bases on tanks but Forged in Battle was the only manufacturer that made the Panther F or the sWS version of the Panzerwerfer 42.  Links to previous posts:
http://flamesofnerd.blogspot.com/2015/01/panther-f-schmalturm.html
http://flamesofnerd.blogspot.com/2015/01/panzerwerfer-42-auf-sws-battery.html

A quick paint and wash of the base, plus some tufts from CGR for these '1946' Panther Fs.

Same here to finish off these alternate style Panzerwerfers.

 I spent my second and final Joker on a few items from the Battlefront 33% off sale, purchasing a pair of Sturmtigers, some BMW motorcycles, and a Sd Kfz 253 for my Shifting Sands list for 2016.  I made it all the way to the final week having only spent one, and that was at a 'con.

BMWs were backordered, hopefully they arrive by January.

I had a blast with this challenge and I think I'm going to keep to the 'don't buy anything new' thing for awhile.  The vehicles weren't on my list of unfinished projects, but I do get to blast two guns from the Mountain!