Sunday, November 24, 2013

Planning for the Challenge Part Quatre

Curt must have special powers - no sooner does he announce that the theme of this year's challenge is Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch" than it pops onto to AMC yesterday.  So three hours of desperately needed prep time was consumed by watching the flick.  What a feel-good, happy ending to that one!  It's a great movie and a very worthy theme for the challenge.

Now it's time to start planning for the event, what I'll paint, when and (new to this year) which of the "Fortnight Theme Bonus Rounds" to participate in.  There are 6 and each concurs a 50 bonus points for participating so they'll be a big source of getting me over the 1,500 point I set.

Scoring is based on painted figures.  Most of my stuff will be 28mm which scores at 5 points per infantry, 10 for cavalry/artillery, and 15 for vehicles.  I'll also do a good bit in 15mm which tallys in at 2 for infantry, 4 for cavalry/artillery and 6 for vehicles.

Sadly, I have enough figures in the old lead/plastic file to make my quota this year but I'm still figuring out what to do.

I will likely combine the challenge with pulling off a convention game at Cold Wars - just to increase the pressure a bit - there's nothing that motivates painting more than the threat of public humiliation via a poorly received convention game!  I think a big ACW Battle using the Longstreet rule set is in the "cards".  I'll need to complete another 5-10 or so confederate and union regiments to be ready.

So whats on the prep table?

ACW:
120, 28mm Confederate Infantry (Perry plastics) - need to be assembled and primed
18, 28mm Dismounted Confederate Cavalry (Perry Metals)
12, 28mm Dismounted Union Cavalry (Perry Metals)
4, Batteries of ACW Artillery (Perry Metals, 1 gun / 4 crew each)

Flames of War:
15, 15mm T34s (PSC plastic kits) - I need to decide if these will be WW2 Soviets or Arab/Israeli War Egyptians
4, 15mm Marder III's (Battlefront)
An uncountable horde of Soviet Infantry (PSC plastics)
8, 15mm German Halftracks (250's / Battlefront)
5, 15mm Stuarts (PSC plastic kit)

Bolt Action (28mm WW2):
38, 28mm German Afrikakorps (Perry plastics)
1, 28mm German Panzer III/J (Blitzkrieg Models)
1, 28mm Marder II (Blitzkrieg Models)
1, 28mm Honey Tank (Blitzkrieg Models)
1, 28mm Grant Tank (Blitzkrieg Models)

All Quiet on the Martian Front:
- While technically not in the lead pile these will arrive in January and it's a whole bunch of stuff coming.

Let's see what I can get prepared by 12/15/13 at 12:01am CST!





6 comments:

Paul O'G said...

Some great stuff there - looking forward to seeing those with some pigment applied!

Phyllion said...

That's quite a lot of minis!

Sean said...

Impressive list, good luck. I was a little annoyed by AMC as I didn't notice the movie was on until it was 2/3 over. And they aren't re-airing it any time soon.

Curt said...

My powers are vast and terrible, or so say my two dogs. My wife, on the other hand, laughs in constant, loving derision...

Yes, it's a movie that warms the cockles of one's heart - if it hasn't already been blown out by slo-motion automatic weapons fire. ;) I love the climax with the group each taking their turn on the Browning - epic.

Looking forward to your upcoming submissions, Miles!

BigLee said...

Thats a big list... had my Challenge mini's out at the weekend and its a much much smalle pile (and I still think I'll struggle to get them all painted).

jmilesr said...

Lee - there's usually a big difference between the amount of miniatures I set out to paint and those that I do paint.

The former always is bigger than the latter!

We'll see how the Challenge progresses

Thanks
Miles