AHPCV Week 3 Reports and a DAK Army

 With the third week of the challenge conclude progress is a bit "ahead of plan".  With a total points level of 777 vs a plan goal of 609.  With real world work stuff piling up and at least 3 trips to the UK for business in the next few months, I need to crack on if I'm going to meet the goal.

I should point out my total includes 80 points for the "Cold Fortnight Submission".

 The latest challenge entry was a large one (320 points) and is a 28mm DAK army to be used for either Bolt Action or Chain of Command.  I managed to paint the entire group over a three day period - which is a blistering pace for me!

 38 infantry figures from the Perry plastic Box set.  These are superb figures and nicely balance figure pose options with ease of assembly.  There are 22 riflemen, 8 troops with SMG's, 4 light machine gunners, a 50mm mortar team, a radio operator and on officer.

The force's recon element consists of a 3 vehicle 8-Rad unit.  These are all from Warlord and are Resin hulls with metal detail parts.  To be honest, the casting quality was very poor and the hulls required a good bit of work to make paint-ready. The commander is a customized plastic figure from Warlord's first plastic german infantry set.

 The main punch of the force comes in the form of a platoon of three Panzer IIIJ's.  These are the new Rubicon plastic kits and I highly recommend them.  Lots of detail and one can build serval different version of the Panzer III.  The only complaint is that some of the deck details (tools, cables) are molded on but are very faint and a bit hard to paint.  Those details are probably true-scale but require care to bring out.

Overall, I'd rate these a 9.5 or of 10 with Rubicon now replacing Blitzkrieg as my number one source for WW2 tanks.

Like the 8-Rad's the unit's commander if a converted figure from Warlord's first German infantry set.

 Some additional scout elements in the form of two motorcycles with side cars and med machine guns.  These are metal kits from Warlord and are really nice.

Lastly, one other positive from the Rubicon kits is their large decal sheets.  I was able to do all 8 vehicles with the decals from one sheet plus a few extra crosses from a second and still have a lot left over.  One of my biggest gripes about 28mm kits is that manufactures such as Warlord, Blitzkrieg, Company B don't include decals - it's akin to a "hidden charge" as one needs to source decals separately.

The Rubicon kits have a slight cost advantage over their resin counter parts but if you factor in the decals its a significant discount.

I'll be adding some support options to the DAK force over the next few weeks (some artillery, a mortar, a heavy Machine gun and even a Pak 38 AT gun).  There are even rumors that the force may receive a Tiger!

This force will likely see the tabletop at the 2015 Cold Wars BA tournament.