Blood, Guts, & Glory Painting Challenge: The American Forces To celebrate the release of Blood, Guts, & Glory the members of the Battlefront Studio decided to hold a 24-hour painting challenge themed around the forces available in the new book. However, some people decided to take advantage of the opportunity to either complete other painting projects that had been haunting them for some time or to get ahead start on future projects Battlefront had planned. In this series of articles we share with you the experiences that took place during these 24-hours. Learn more about Blood, Guts, & Glory here... Learn more about the Germans forces in the 24-hour painting challenge here...

Sean Goodison Task Force A from Turning Tide I chose to work on my Task Force A from Turning Tide, hoping that by the end of the challenge I would have all my M18s and Priests ready for the table. I've been excited to field them ever since working on the book in 2010 and since I had all the components lying around, I decided the 24 hour challenge would be the perfect opportunity to get some serious work done on them. Learn more about the M18 Tank Destroyer here...

Unlike most of the other participants I haven't assembled and undercoated my models in preparation for the challenge; in fact they're all still sealed away in their blisters. However, I am confident that I will be able to overtake my rivals and finish my 14 vehicles with ease. This is mostly due to the fact that my painting standards are nowhere near as high as theirs. Left: The M18 'Hellcat'.

I'm no stranger to all-nighters and I have no doubt that there will be some interesting moments throughout the challenge as people's minds and bodies begin to crack. But isn't that all part of the fun? ~ Sean. Right: The M7 Priest.

Victor Pesch US Tank Company from Blood, Guts, & Glory While working on Blood, Guts, & Glory, I started realising how cool the Sherman tank really is. I hadn't considered doing an American force before, but just couldn't resist the Easy Eight! My list is: US Tank Company (Confident Veteran) Company HQ 1x M4A3E8 Easy Eight - 150 points. Learn more about the M4A3E8 Easy Eight here...

WARRIOR Lt. Col. Abrams in Thunderbolt VII - 260 points. COMBAT PLATOONS Tank Platoon 1x M4A3E8 Easy Eight, 1x M4A3 Sherman (late), 1x M4A3 Sherman - 340 points. Tank Platoon 1x M4A3E8 Easy Eight, 1x M4A3 Sherman (late), 1x M4A3 Sherman - 340 points.

Tank Platoon 1x M4A3E8 Easy Eight, 1x M4A3 Sherman (late), 1x M4A3 Sherman - 340 points. DIVISIONAL SUPPORT Corps Tank Destroyer Platoon (Confident Trained) 4x M18 Hellcats - 315 points. Total Points - 1745 points. For a 1500 point game I'd just take out Abrams.

I haven't painted American armour before, but I'll keep the techniques fairly basic and make use of the US Armor spray can, so I shouldn't have too much trouble. My aim was to get all the Shermans finished up to the point of decals of and weathering; if I find time and my eyes haven't failed me, I'll start on the decals. After base coating I'll move the Tank Destroyers to the side so as to maximize my chances of getting the others finished. I'll be starting the day with everything assembled minus the new stowage and .50 cals. These will be easier to add later after decals.  Right: Victor's secret weapon, the Sherman Drab (CWP220) spray can. Learn more about the US Armour spray can here...

I'm pretty confident I'll be able to last the distance, but as my eyes tire and I move onto details like tools and decals I may start to become a little surly. I'll have to undercoat on the day which I'm worried will seriously cut into my time, but I'm up for the challenge! Left: Abrams and a M18 get a coat of US Armour. ~ Victor.

Mark Hazell US Tank Company from Blood, Guts, & Glory I chose the US Tank Company out of Blood, Guts, & Glory since I tend to only paint German armies for myself.  I thought with the introduction of the cool new M4A3E8 Easy Eight and the M4A3E2 Jumbo that it was a good chance to paint an army without any camouflage markings. Learn more about the M4A3E2 Jumbo here...

I really wasn’t 100% certain of how much I could get done in the 24 hour period, I had a really good idea of what I could get done by the halfway point but even the most accomplished painters start to get tired and slow down. Therefore, I decided to create an all tank-based force that was low in numbers and worked on the principle that if I did finish early I could always add in something else later in the evening. Left: The M4A3E2 Jumbo.

In my younger days I participated in many 24 hour painting challenges. In my early 20s this was easy, now in my late 30s I’m not sure the prospect of 24 hours without sleep is quite as appealing as it was years ago but I’m going to give it my best shot.   ~ Mark. Right: The M4A3E2 Easy Eight.

Casey Davies US Tank Company from Blood, Guts, & Glory I’ve been waiting a very long time to do a US Tank Company, so like everyone else I’m going to jump on the American bandwagon now that Blood, Guts, & Glory has come out. The thing I like most about the list is the variety of tanks it can have. I came up with the following Confident Trained list that I thought I could manage to get painted in 24 hours: Left: A salt-masked M4A3 (76mm).

US Tank Company (Confident Trained) Company HQ 2x M4 Sherman: 130 points. upgraded to 1 M4A3E8 Easy Eight: +55 points. upgraded to 1 M4A3E2 Jumbo: +50 points. Combat Platoon 4x M4 Sherman: 255 points. upgraded to 1 M4A3E2 Jumbo: +50 points. upgraded to 1 M4A3 Sherman (late): +15 points. upgraded to 2 M4A3 (76mm): +90 points. Combat Platoon 4x M4 Sherman: 255 points upgraded to 1 M4A3E2 Jumbo: +50 points. upgraded to 1 M4A3 Sherman (late): +15 points. upgraded to 2 M4A3E8 Easy Eight +110 points .

Combat Platoon 5x M4 Sherman: 320 points upgrade 1 to M4A3 (76mm): +45 points. upgrade 3 M4A3 Sherman (late): +45points. upgrade 1 to M4A3 (105mm): -5 points. Total Points: 1480 points. 1750 Point List The list can be expanded out to 1745 points by adding an Armoured Mortar Platoon for 85 points and an Armoured Rifle Platoon for 180 points. Now, I’ve never done anything like this before, so I’m not sure how achievable it is.  Just to make it difficult, since I’ve got some very late equipment in the form of the Easy Eights I’m going to paint them in whitewash using a salt masking technique, which I’ve never done before.

In preparation for the challenge I painted up a sample M36 Jackson to get a feel for the technique, which I was quite happy with. For the actual Painting challenge I’m not going to worry about the infantry, as I’m going to wait till we get the winter infantry first. I’m not sure how well I’m going to survive the challenge as the last time I did anything like this was 8 years ago when I was pulling all-nighters for university assignments. ~ Casey.

Below: More salt-masking.

Blake Coster Projects Unknown I did a lot of painting for Blood, Guts, & Glory; probably close to fifty German and American vehicles in all; so I didn’t really feel like painting any more Shermans or Panthers for this 24 hour painting challenge. So like the painting challenge held at FlamesCon last year, I decided to use the time to start work on the models needed for the next Flames Of War book project. Below: So many unpainted tanks...

Like Sean, none of my vehicles were assembled so I would have to partake in a five to six hour assembly challenge before I could even think about picking up a paint brush. After my experiences at FlamesCon, my goals were not actually to get anything finished per se, but to complete the bulk of the painting so that at the end of the 24 hours I’d just have to paint the details on the eighteen vehicles (tracks, tools, stowage, crew figures etc.) I needed to get done. Unlike FlamesCon however, I planned to stop if I got too tired, instead of soldiering on. I discovered that my standard of painting slipped considerably when I was fatigued, to the point where I had to go back and re-do some parts of the models I painted for Blood, Guts, & Glory. I don’t want that to happen twice! ~ Blake.