It's Giant

La Gleize,

There it is in full view just around the corner from the village church with its purple overgrown walls the biggest operational tank the Germans could run:



Its HUUUUGGGGHEE !!
Since I have been in La Gleize before (30 years ago) I must have gotten an impression of it.But somehow memory on the size of the Königstiger has failed me.

Somethings stirring in the East

Don't know.
Heard the phrase before but can't rellay place it.
Nevertheless my rebasing project is starting to come alive.
After finishing the Roman figures in recent weeks I started to think that WAB or one of its branching ofss, is just not my thing.
It keeps "reminding"me of skirmishes (individual basing and removal) while with these kind of armies you want BATTLES ! (at least I want)

So after some messaging with a distant mate of mine (distant in kilometres and not in . well you know what I mean) I have decided on (Basic) Impetus.
It so happens that I had some nice 3mm MDF leftovers lying about and a favor to collect from a colleague who kindly used his powertools (AAAHHHH) to cut the plates down into 8x8 (cm) bases.

During the same time I decided to alter my basing method to a more rough material approach instead of the painted method and blantly "borrowed" Steve's concept of basing. Also since I dont have the possiblity of playing on a large table the 8cm width provides enough space to give the impression of a battleline and diorama basing but still makes it possible to play with a reasonable amount of points on a smaller table.

Here's some first images of the idea:

Epic Fail

Is what you can call my painting effort.
Targeting 2500 points was always going to be tough but I did not realize that real life would be getting in the way this much.

Today I can add the following final points since tomorrow won't be able to post or finish anything new:

14 Roman Cav @ 10 = 140
Added tot the 666 so far I have reach an embarassing 806 painted points since the "challenge" started in december.

It did give me something though.

Discovered that painting from a grey undercoat does actually suit me better (both in vision, result and money (given that matt grey primer is infinitely cheaper than black or white GW spray)

Finally realised that painting 2 coats and 3 on skin is more than enough to finish a good painted mini to be used on the table.

It gave me a benchmark number for the real painting challenge I am definitely going to enter next year.

And last but not least it made me realise that 20mil is not my favorite subjectmatter and 28mm definitely is.

Till next years painting challenge..... of course I will post some pictures of the finished goods very shortly

Hurrah some more points

Step by step points are dripping in.

Last days finished the following:
3 x 20mil T34/76 @ 12 = 36 points

1 x 28mm Roman Ballista crew @5 = 5
18 x Auxiliaries @5 = 90
16 x Roman Archer @5 = 80
18 x Legioniairs @5 = 90
24 x Legionairs (senior Cohort) @5 = 120

A nice sum of 385 points to be added to the 281 points I had gathered thusfar makes for 666 points.

Small step pointwise... but a leap into whats coming

Last weekend I made some real progress on the painting table.
Not only did I finish three 20mil tanks, I also finished 2 Roman Ballistae and crew plus another 3 figures.

Now since I promised myself only to add points when stuff was completely finished I will not count the T34's since they need a coat of varnish.

So last weekend only clocked a net 55 points
7 foot figures @ 5 points each = 35
2 arty pieces @ 10 points each =20

Added to the last score of 226 points makes a running total of 281 points...still not impressed
However I also was able to paint a whopping amount of Romans to an almost conclusion.
One unit only needs some LBM shields and a final dusting of Testor's, while three others are ready for their share of protection from the mist and it seems that number 4 is also in time for this weeks varnish session (guessing friday).

So if all goes well this weekend I will be able to add a nice amount of points.