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!