It’s time for October’s monthly Round-Up. Sadly, in a lot of ways, my hard focus on painting 15mm WWII and the fact that I barely thought about blogging or blogs for some time in that period meant that I completely blanked on the community painting challenges of the month that I usually enjoy participating in. So no Zombtober, no Orktober or anything else in 2021. I’m sure I’ll still get some of each done before too long. I still owe Wudugast 5 more Orks from last year! I guess sometimes the hobby butterfly settles for a little while…
Regardless of all that, when I look at what I managed to get painted from built (in September) to completed and ready for anything on the tabletop, I can only consider the time spent to be worthwhile. Aside from just having painted a bunch of models, I now have a very respectable, historically and theeatre-appropriate opposing force to face off against my finally-painted Afrika Korps force that I started in the early oughties and then only finished painting – and then started to upgrade recently.
So while it’s not exactly a well-rounded force at this stage, in that there’s a complete lack of Infantry, Artillery and everything else (I’m wanting on my new desert mat, which I’ll set their bases to match) – it’s still a very decent and solid armoured force. And let’s face it – as I (re)learn how to play FoW, keeping it to one kind of unit (vehicles) is just going to make it easier, then with some more games under our belts, infantry and then artillery and then air power can be added in. I’ve got a bunch of 1:100 planes stashed away in boxes from those days as well that can finally see the light, regardless of what BF’s “official” aircraft scale happens to be.
These models also give me a versatile force that can also be used for any other WWII game, so that’s a nice thing as well. Of course, I’m not finished with Commonwealth armour, so there is more to come for the 8th Army for awhile yet. Not looking forward to those Universal/Bren carriers, though!
Time for the tally now – 9 Crusaders, 6 Shermans, 4 Priests with 8 individually painted full-model crewmen, 9 Churchills and 12 Grants. I don’t count any of the 14 extra turrets as additional models, though. In total that gives me 48 models for October, which helps to make up for the lack of completion in September – but then again – in September assembled and base coated so I could spend October painting. (November has been a more normal mix since I’ve not had to spend three weeks waiting for a spray paint order to arrive!)
Adding these 48 models to the 355 I had completed at the end of August/September gives me 403 so far for 2021. And you know, two newly playable armies that I didn’t have just a few short months ago – thanks to Dave Stone, I have to say!
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Great looking force mate, you were certainly missed in the challenges, but can’t knock what you have achieved
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Chers, Dave. I’ll be trying to do something for them here on. I’ve even got some more (very) belated terrain that’ll be going up shortly…
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Awesome work… you missed the Orctober but instead dud Saharan September, Oasis October and Norrie November…
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Hahaha thanks! 😀
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That’s an impressive haul mate and so well done. 🙂
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Thank you, TIM! 🙂
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Great effort
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Cheers, GP!
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Superb mate, really great to see all that lovely armour arranged in formation – lovely stuff
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Thanks Alex. It’s nice to get that satisfaction – rare as it is!
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A very impressive line up- a great month’s work.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Thank you, Pete! 🙂
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So…many…tanks! Its really impressive seeing them all together and I commend you for sticking with this project and getting so many of these done in October.
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Thanks Kuribo! For this project, I’ve got some Honeys queued in the post schedule, then a post or two worth of odds and sods, and then I’ve still to paint the universal carriers, two separate groups of Valentines, a trio of Shermans – and then I’ll be done. For 8th Army armour at least.
There’ll still be shoring up the Afrika Korps, and then the infantry and artillery for the Brits, but completing their tanks and armour will be a happy little milestone for me.
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That makes for a damn impressive group shot!
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Cheers, Wudu. I’m looking forward to finishing this force in the next month or two. At least the armoued part of it. That’ll certainly call for an army shot!
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Wow, that sure is a lot (parking lot?) of tanks! Good work.
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Thanks AB. I’m looking forward to expanding that parking lot! 😀
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Impressive! 🙂 I can’t ever remember painting that many tanks in a year, let alone a month!
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You know how it goes, John – escalation. The Germans had all those Panzers, so the British needed more tanks,,,
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Impressive and beautiful work. As an Aussie, you really should do up some Italian M13/40’s with the Kangaroos https://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/italy/Carro_Armato_Medio_M13-40.php
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Thanks Mark!
The M13/40s have been in the back of my mind for awhile, but I can’t find any current rules for them (just 14/41s), nor (more importantly) currently available models. (I may look into 3d prints, but I want to finish these two forces first – and then there’s three more I’ve been buying the models for!)
I know BF plans to work back around to Early War after they finish Late War (which they’re all-in on right now) so they’re certainly *on* the list – just in the long term section of the list at the moment (I’ve only been able to get hold of 2 Italian tank models in total!)
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