'East' from ClintB: Ferdinand

Well not what I was expecting to paint at all. I was supposed to be painting some WW1 German East Africa troops. Clearly this has not happened. As such I have had to reach into my reserve projects bin and paint something different

Ferdinand.

Was the secret weapon for the Battle of Kursk. However it was not fully thought out and there were problems.

In September 1943, all surviving Ferdinands were recalled to be modified based on battle experience gained in the Battle of Kursk. During October and November 1943, 48 of the 50 surviving vehicles were modified by addition of a ball-mounted MG 34 in the hull front for anti-infantry ability, a commander's cupola (modified from the standard StuG III cupola) for improved vision, and the application of Zimmerit paste. The original vehicles had no athing to stop infantry at all...well maybe some bad language from the crew.The frontal armor was thickened and the tracks widened, increasing the weight from 65 to 70 t. The improved vehicles were called Elefant; this became the official name by Hitler's orders of May 1, 1944. Possibly as a stopgap before the Elefant modifications were available for the original Ferdinand vehicles, the rarely seen Krummlauf curved barrel upgrade for the Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle was allegedly meant to allow crews of Ferdinands to defend their vehicle without exposing themselves.Three Bergepanzer Tiger or Bergetiger armoured recovery vehicles were built in Autumn 1943 from Tiger prototypes, and one battle-damaged Ferdinand not suitable for the Elefant modification was converted into a Rammpanzer Tiger or Rammtiger, an experimental breakthrough vehicle.

But this has no MG so is a Ferdinand. Only 98 were ever built and 2 were captured and thus survived the war. One by the Russians at Kursk (Battle of) currently in the Moscow Tank Museum. The other one (an elephant) was captured by the Americans at Anzio in Italy. This one is currently at the Bovington Tank museum on Loan .

The model is a Zvesda 1/100th scale plastic Kit and I bought it for the sum of £2.75 while I d not see myself putting this beast on the table very often It will help bolster my German PBI force which is mostly Infantry based. So one German heavy very rarely is a far more realistic force than many WW2 Players strive for.

'East' from DavidB: Future Yakuza

I almost popped this as a regular entry as an epiphany struck me as I was completeing these that East is kinda subjective with this one. Japan is definetly considered East, but if in Australia it is kinda Northwest with an emphasis on North! ;) Still as European/Anglo East vs West may seem to a philosopy major, my first thought was Samurai!  Always run with your first thought, if you are wrong then you make it right!

Up first is the VIP. With the hair pins she kinda has an Asian Haut Couture vibe going on. The VIP is an objective in the Recon game.

While the other worker models seem to be reacting to a firefight, she has a self assured look of a CEO finding the antics of subordinates a bit underwhelming.

This is the fellow that kept me from finding a samurai to paint. I really like this model and it is a very fine sculpt. He is the alternate Daimyo from the kickstarter.

He appears as a random threat to the raiding MERC team. Apparently INTEL was lacking on the VIP's hobbies or a Daimyo was running some excerises when the team hit!

Keizai Waza i a Megacorp based in the Pacific from Japan through Australia. They have a very nice robotic feel with their armor and seem ready to transform into a brightly colored sportscar in any moment.

Kinda hard to blend in orange armor, but the sniper model still hits the sweet spot.

The spy model is a more lightly armored lady, but she is fast and locked doors and panels are no obstacles for her.

She has no range weapons, but she is very fast.

The smaller specialist is a booster that supports the others in their tasks. She has more armor than the spy, but as the monkeywrench next to her shows; she is definetly less girthy!

Lots of fine detail on them.

The breecher and the heavy hybrid add a lot of firepower to the team. The breecher has a great action pose too.

I used the blue to show the suits power, like Ironman the movie!

The breecher is my second favorite model of the faction.

The pathfinder and the Daimyo are 2/3 of the best weapon Keiza Waza has.I'll have to score the spotter to complete the team. since the plastic models have paper thin rifles, Ill get the metal set where the rifles a more hefty

the weapon is that tactical nuke on the Daimyo's back. you need all three functioning in perfect order with the enemy team or objective in range. It's not Hiroshima, but wicked in a decent area and hard to pull off.

Here is the Team ready to roll.

and here they are protecting the VIP with the cool Daimyo on point!

'East' from DaveD: Soviet T64 Tanks

Here is the start of the my Soviet tank forces for my WARPAC armies. The T64 is sometimes forgotten about compared to the T62, and T72 .The T-64 would only be used by the Soviet Army and never exported. 

The tank equipped elite and regular formations in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, the T-64A model being first deployed with East Germany's Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. Production was well over 6000 units , and it went on to be used in development into the T80. Its going to be the mainstay of my forces as they roll from East Germany into the decadent West!

So a first platoon of 5 GHQ models - 10 base points.

'East' from EdwinK: East End Gangsters

For the EAST Bonus Round I thought I would submit some proper East End villains.  So here are Wing Fen, the Limehouse Scholar, and some of his 'students'.

My original intention was to try to base them with some Victorian paving stones or cobbles, but I didn't really have the time, so instead I went with my usual 'Home Counties gravel quarry' (in this case doubling as the famous yellow mud of the Yangtze).

Dr Wing is from Ironclad Miniatures' series of VSF Characters, whereas the muscle are from Foundry's Victorian range.

It's almost two years since my wife asked me to paint a Tong for her, so in many ways this is my Sarah's choice!

'East' from EvanH: Samurai Mouseling

After my last major stuff-up with Bonus Rounds, I wasn't going to get caught out this time! Here is my submission for the theme 'East'. On time, please note, Mr Campbell!

As usual, when I was considering the theme of the Round, I tried to find a new angle from which to approach it. Unfortunately, there was nothing in the lead pile which caught my fancy, at least until I happened upon a couple of blisters of Reaper Bones Mouselings. They're ostensibly part of Reaper's 25mm Fantasy range, but they're actually much smaller, typically topping out around 18mm.

These cute little figs portray anthropomorphic mice dressed up as various fantasy or storybook types, from assassins and thieves to kings and druids. And one contained a Sorcerer and a Samurai, this last being the ideal fig for a quick entry in the 'East' Round.

Here he is, waiting by a roadside stone lantern - who or what is he waiting for?

I could have just stuck him on a base with some static grass, but I wanted to splash out a little for the Bonus round. I sculpted the lantern from Green Stuff to give the vignette a bit of an old timey feudal period look. Let's be charitable and call it 'rustic'. As well as the usual drybrushed grey stone effect, I also added a green wash to some areas to simulate moss growing on the stonework.

Cobblestone textured paper was added to the 40mm plastic base for the road, while the roadside was built up with Vallejo White Pumice. Tufts are by Tajima1.

He's a very cute little guy - I'll probably paint up a few more of them for the grandkids just as soon as they're old enough not to stick them straight in their mouths!

I added a mon to the back of his livery to give the model a bit of interest value from all angles. Not quite as perfect as I would have liked, but good enough.

That's all for now - stay tuned!

Ev

'East' from GrahameH: Soviet M3 Stuarts

GrahameH  Fortnight Bonus - East

Or rather EASTern Front (not sure that couts but worth a try)

Three plastic Soviet M3 Stuarts (I do need to start learning how to take photos!!!)

'East' from GregB: Mounted Samurai Warrior

For my submission to the "East" theme category, I decided to look into my pile of regretted purchased (which, regrettably, is kind of large).  Prime among that sorry segment of the hoard are a few packages of Samurai stuff from the Perry's mind-blowing 28mm range of Samurai metals.  I thought a Samurai, fabled warrior of Japan, would make a fitting submission for the "East" theme.

These figures have been sitting around my basement for years. At the time I ordered them, I had thoughts of maybe doing Lord-of-the-Rings-rules-style skirmishes.   Samurai are amazing, and those games would be a lot of fun.  Unique as well, as nobody in our group does this period or setting.

But I did not find Samurai easy to paint, and they were even harder to research, so I have ignored the figures and they sit unpainted and unassembled in my pile of shame.  I painted one figure years ago in a prior Challenge (veterans of the Challenge may recall the year of the '47 Ronin' for the Curtgeld) and I never wanted to paint another one.  But part of the fun of the AHPC is to try and push your boundaries a bit, so I thought I would try again.  This theme submission was the perfect chance to experiment a bit.

This Samurai was not much easier to paint...the sculpting is amazing, I love the Perry's work, but the bottom line is that I was just not too sure what I was doing...so I squinted a lot at some photos on line, and gave it my best shot. At one point I wanted to just throw the damn thing into the nearby Red River, but I'm glad now that he is finished that I ignored my inner-juvenile frustrations.  He looks pretty scary on the horse, ready cut someone down to size.  Damn, it would be fun to game this stuff.

This was an interesting diversion - but who knows, maybe I can at least finish the other two Samurai from the package as part of this Challenge? We'll see..

'East' from IannickM: Rhino Miyamoto, Samurai of the Cinnamon Clan

Every year, I find a way to paint one of Dark Sword's amazing Anthropomorphic Animals, usually in a Bonus Round challenge. It started with Sir Kermit the Frog Paladin many moons ago for the "Hero" bonus round, then a Frog Jester for the "Comedy" round, a Frog Prince and Princess for last year's "Amour" theme (which won the round) and Kitty Bonny, Cat pirate! As someone who's attached to traditions, I obviously couldn't let this year challenge go by without a nice Anthropomorphic Animal...So I made my choice pretty quickly for this bonus round. It was especially easy as the figure I was thinking of using was a free figure sent by Dark Sword as part of an order (Yes, they usually give you a random figure, another reason to love the small outfit). The only difficult part was finding him in my lead pile, as it had been stored during last year's house move! 

So no frog this year, as we go into the house pet category, with the exotic and oh so vicious North American Guinea Pig! So I present to you Rhino Miyamoto, Samurai of the Cinnamon Clan. 

I must say the armour was a bit of pain to paint, but in the end it's well worth it. I'm especially happy the black came out well, even in photography.

The black armour was painted black and then delicately and lightly drybrushed with grey; I wanted to pick the details but still wanted it to look very black and not grey. The yellow is my traditionnal Ochre/yellow recipe, and the yellow details on the armour were picked up manually (that was the painful part). 

I had to google to find out what Guinea Pigs eyes looks like, and I think I've a good job replicating their big black shiny eyes. 

And there you have it, one more critter in the display cabinet! These guys are Laurie's favourites so they have a place of honour in the living room cabinet! 

And as for his name, well his last name is pretty obvious I'd think, but his first name is a wink to the most famous guinea pig of them, and a favourite of mine...