I wasn’t able to get into the official Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge this year, but I’m going to give it a go.
This year my goal will be about 300-400 points following the guidelines given in the link above.
Here’s my plan:
~350 points targetThe initial list of minis:40mm1 earth elemental 71 werewolf 725mm4 WWII German grenadiers 202 Union Generals Mounted 303 Confederate Generals Mounted 308 Confederate Cavalry 801 Union Cannon 4 Crew 1016 Confederate Infantry 8016 Union Infantry 8015mm1 German half track 86 German grenadiers 12
Of course I’ve immediately deviated from the plan. Last week I picked up an inexpensive copy of the Cruel Seas starter set. It represents the small ship actions that took place in WWII and has an interesting but easy set of rules and just as easy to paint miniatures.
The set comes with a painting guide for the 6 Royal Navy and 4 Kriegsmarine ships. This is great because it took some of the guesswork out of choosing colours. I didn’t have all the colours indicated in the guide but I used online paint conversion websites to match colours. I think it worked out pretty well.
My first entry for the painting challenge are these 3 Vosper II MTBs in 6mm.
I used 3 different grey paints for the hull and superstructure: Citadel (GW) Mechanicum Standard Grey, Army painter (AP) Ash Grey, and AP Uniform Grey. A wash of GW Nuln Oil and a highlight of Ash Grey are necessary to define the boundaries between different parts of each ship. I then picked out the details such as the guns, ropes, and life preservers in whatever AP paints I had to hand. The windows are GW Talasar Blue of GW Corax White. The contrast paint gives it an effect I’ve found difficult to free hand.
Prior to the 21st I completed the 3 Vosper I MTBs. These ones do not count towards the challenge. Here they are altogether.
Next in the queue are 4 e-boats and all the torpedo markers from the start set.
I numbered each figure so that I know what colours I used. Unfortunately I have since lost the page amongst my other gaming supplies. I'll post it once I find it.
I changed my "order of operations" when painting these teams. I added the drywall compound before finishing the figures. The reason I did this was to make cleaning up errant compound easier and to reduce the "touch up" time.
In all cases a touch up of the original jacket colour was needed. 
Here are the Tetrarchs, washed with soapy water and assembled in a dry run (no glue).
I originally was going to paint the tanks using the same method as the jeeps and universal carrier, but I just found that they were painted with a black and green camouflage scheme. Some picture research will be required. I am looking for the book "Airborne Armour" by Keith Flint, who is supposed to be the authority on these tanks.
The commander was also fiddly to put together. He barely fits into the turret (the mini is a bit small) and the hatch needs to be notched at the bottom for it to fit on the turret. In the end I used hatch and the commander to prop eachother up (like two drunks!). A better solution would be to build up the turret opening with a bit of plastic card. I did finally get the tanks assembled and primed using Orkhide Shade.
The grenadiers had setup evenly across the board and advanced across a broad front in the first turn. Meanwhile the paratroops deployed in a refused flank (east/right side), with the artillery (howitzers and mortars) behind a hill in the south and advanced in to the cover of the wheat fields. Shooting in the first turn was light, resulting in the loss of a single gun from the howitzer platoon. 
On the second turn the heavy machine gun platoon moved to support the grenadiers on the west flank while the second grenadier platoon broke cover and rapidly advanced on the lightly held eastern objective. The paratroops jostled for a better position to assault next turn under cover of a smoke bombardment from the howitzers. The recce and antitank platoons moved to the eastern flank and fired on the advancing grenadiers, destroying the platoon. The airborne mortar platoon was hit by fire from the heavy anti-aircraft gun (one of the dreaded 88s!) on the hill and two German antitank guns firing HE (high explosive).
The grenadiers and heavy machine guns dug foxholes in the beginning of turn three instead of firing through the smoke bombardment. The German anti-tank guns fired and destroyed the remaining mortars. The British Airborne broke through the cover of the wheat fields, both platoons pouring fire on the grenadiers dug in around the tree line, but failing to cause casualties. Since the howitzer's smoke bombardment was off target this turn Airlanding Platoon 1 carried on their assault on the German anti-tank guns instead of the grenadiers, finishing them off quickly and consolidating on the objective.
With the British on the objective the Grenadiers had to assault. The heavy machine gun platoon fired on Airlanding platoon 2 pinning them in the wheat field. Fire from the grenadiers and the Flak 36 was shrugged off by the paratroops on the objective, but the assault was very effective. Airlanding platoon 1 was reduced to two fighting teams. These two teams rallied and fought on, throwing back the counter assault and holding the objective at the start of turn 5, winning the game. We called it a draw, however, because the platoon had only two stands and considering how "green" we were it could have gone either way.
In addition to the compound, the 
The mortar platoon is looking a little bland. I'll try using a brown citadel wash (these paints are the "bees knees" for shading) to darken the face and clothing and give a bit more definition to the figures.
