From PeteF: North American Farmhouse (12 Points)

One of the projects I'm working on is Cowpens/Wetzel's Mill so the troops need some North American scenery to fight around. This is Sarissa's North American Farmhouse with Stone Chimney. It measures about 4"x4"x3". My maths is a little shakey but if you balanced it on one corner it could fill a 6" cube (20 points!). Alternatively it's worth 7 points based on volume and rounding up.

I had trouble getting the effect I wanted with the roof - and might need to ink or wash all the edges of the shingles to make them stand out a bit more. The north side got some light moss.

There could be a monster in here - maybe a Blair Witch. Or a redcoat.

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'The Blair Witch Redcoat House'. I like it. 

Great job on your debut entry, Pete! The raw look of the shingles and clapboard siding really gives the house that American Frontier look. I also like the stone effect of the chimney. 4x4x3? Really? It looks larger than that. Let's be generous and go with 12 points then.

Welcome to the Challenge, Pete! 

From KentG: The Commander and Chief (5 Points)

I thought if I was going to try and paint a new French army I should start with Napoleon himself. He's a 28mm Battlefront miniature that I picked up with the rest of the army a couple of months back.

 I really like this miniature, I have him on horseback as well, but that's for later.

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Ahh, now we're onto one of the classics. Napoleonics: 'The Beautiful Game'. 

Such lovely, clean work, Kent.  I really like his face and the detail you've put on the map. Is that Quatre Bras you have painted there? Wonderful work and I look forward to the next few hundred figures coming up for this project.

5 points for you to prime the guns. Welcome back to the Painting Challenge, Kent! 

Side Duels and Challenges Roster Updated

Hi All,

Another update to the Side Duels and Challenges Roster has been made.
The Fantasy Challenge (SD6) is now officially a thing.

DaveD and SanderS, you haven't provided me with any rules or prizes as yet for your One Hump or Two Camel Challenge. You may care to do so, lest I decide to start making stuff up on your behalf :-)

Cheers,
Millsy the Duels Wallah

From PaulS: Opening Salvo Launched (100 Points)

I wanted to get these up earlier today, but learning how a new phone works and syncs has taken a lot of time... hopefully Miles is still working on his first bomb so I can hold onto first place for at least 5 minutes ;)

Last year I never quite got around to finishing my Commandos, so the first task this year is to finish off those. First up are 20 more infantry for a score of 100. Three of these are Modipius' commandos armed with some sort of mythos busting laser... the rest of the group are bulk standard Warlord plastics. The majority of these are carrying rifles, but hidden in there is a light mortar team as well.

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That is some mighty fine and fast painting, Paul. These lads will drive you to the front of the points standings - an impressive start to your Challenge gambit. 

I've always wanted to try these Modiphius commandos for my pulp collection, but have been turned off by the small stature of their human-sized monsters. Nonetheless, these look quite good next to the Warlord models, so maybe I might give them a go. 

Enjoy your lead while you have it. I have a feeling that the Big Brushes are about to make themselves known soon. 

From ByronM: Death Guard and Tohaa (30 Points)

I had really planned on finishing these yesterday, but ran out of time as I had a game of Infinity booked last night with a friend. The painting process was pretty slow on these due to the large number of washes involved.

First up is a Nurgle Death Guard rhino for my 40k force.  The rhino started out as a used kit from a friend that no longer wanted it, so it was already painted for Khorne.  That didn't matter a whole lot as anything being used for Nurgle needs about a metric tonne of green stuff before its ready anyway.

Here are some photos of the green stuff work done after ripping off the doors.

I was trying to make this match an older piece so that it fits with the army I painted probably 5-6 years ago, so it has no fancy chipping solution or grime solutions added as I started doing that all after painting this army.  The base colours were all done with an airbrush and went super fast.  I think it was less than 20 minutes to get the green and all the shading done, then the slow part started.

What took so long with the rhino was the fact that all of the pustule areas are just painted bone white and then layered with sepia, green, red, yellow, and blue washes in various areas to build up the sick looking colour shades.  Each layer had to sit and dry before the next, making it a slow process.

Next up are two Infinity figures from the Tohaa faction, affectionately known as the Artichoke heads, and I think you can see why.   These two are Sukeul Commandos, and I have been needing at least one of them for a long while. 

The one with the rifle is yielding a K1 rifle, which has a special type of ammo that can hurt anything 60% of the time.  No matter if it is a weak base trooper or a mighty TAG (Dreadnought) it is always a 60% chance to hurt them, which is damn strong since a normal rifle in the game has a less than 20% chance to hurt a TAG.  Since to many players have been fielding TAGs lately, I needed something to help out against them in my force.

I took her to my game last night, and off course, basic rifle troops did more damage to the enemy TAG than she did..... figures, right?

Both the Rhino and the Tohaa were fun little starter pieces for the challenge, but now its onto some of the larger projects.

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Welcome back to the Challenge, Byron!

To put the following comments in perspective, I'll state from the start that Byron and I are old friends, so he'll know where I'm coming from when I say that within the 40K universe I'm really not a big fan of Nurgle stuff. The whole green-stuff-on-vehicles-and-paint-it-green trope has always left me a bit underwhelmed. A bit of a 30-year copout really.

BUT with this being said, what Byron treats us to is a fine example of it being done very, very well. Instead of a haphazard mess of mis-shapen blobs of putty, he provides us with clearly defined tentacles, corrosion and buboes. His painting is not muddy and ill-defined, but vibrant and nuanced. I even like the addition of the 'after market exhaust', which I think is a fairly subtle touch (I'm positive they've spec'ed this Rhino to meet California emission standards). All in all, a model which fairly much dismisses most of my prejudices .

The Artichoke Head Twins are pretty darn cool. I like their lime green dreadlocky hair as well as the glowing effect Byron did on the K1 energy weapons. A 60% chance of hurting anything on the board seems pretty potent, so I suspect it will be only a matter of time before they start paying back on their initial investment. 

I'm going to give a few extra points for the mods to the Rhino and call it 30 points for the lot. Excellent work Byron!

From TeemuL: SCW from the Last Challenge (15 Points)

These three warriors were primed for the 7th Challenge, but they just didn't made the deadline and were untouched for the whole year. So it was about the time to give them some painting.

They are Spanish Civil War Republican Militia members from the Empress Miniatures. They all have blue overalls and mixed clothing. I kept the palette simple, just painting different areas on different miniatures with different colors. Or different areas with the same colors. Or same colors on different areas. Well, you'll get the point.

My favorite of these three is the one with bare head. Somehow he brings to my mind some young chap from the old western movies - guy with the rifle trying to proof he is a man, when his father, bigger brothers and all the girls from the village are watching.

The guy on the knee has glasses, I was quite scared how they would turn out, but they look nice. I added some Middenheim tuft on the bases to give something green to the dry Spanish ground.

In the future I'm trying to paint and post some Odds and Ends like last year, but as I am also a gamer, different needs might arise. So keep your eyes open for some Astra Militarum for Warhammer 40000 and mixed Chaos for Age of Sigmar. You'll probably get some Oldhammer as well, some Odds from here and there and most likely at least one post a week. I'm trying to participate all the Bonus Rounds as well and kick some butts on my first ever side duel!

3 25mm models and 15 points!

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Welcome back to the Challenge Teemu!

This is a great looking trio of Republicans, wearing their iconic blue workers' trousers and red bandannas. I also like the sparce, arid groundwork for the bases - evocative of the Spanish countryside. Empress has done such a great job on this range and you've really done them proud here, Teemu. Well done!

From LeeH : Jingle Bells! (5 Points)

Its Christmaaaassss! Which means the Challenge has started and for a change I'm hitting the ground running with no illness to scupper my opening week plans. My first entry is in keeping with the season (and the monstrous theme) and is just a fun way to kick off my assault on my highest target to date.

This 28mm Wargames Foundry model is full of character but when I first considered painting him I had the distinct impression this Orc Santa was looking at the floor rather than the viewer. I decided to make a slightly built up base for him that elevated the front of the figure slightly and improved the composition of the final model. Building the base and priming the model before the the challenge started saved me a lot of time and meant I could crack on with painting straight away for a quick opening entry. The finishing touch was a layer of crisp snow, care of some Tamiya Diorama Texture Paint, which goes on like a paste but dries rock hard so its quite durable and really looks 'snow like'!

This has been a fun way to kick off my Challenge and has kept me sane while starting on my first batch of 6mm Zulus!

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What an excellent opening entry Lee! I find his delicate, fur-trimmed red gloves contrasted against his huge (and festive) green ork arms hilarious. Your idea of re-positioning the figure so he's looking out, rather than down is an excellent call - it suites the figure so much better, I think. Thank you very much for a bit of Season's Cheer!

Now, back to your Zulus, Lee. I'm counting on seeing a full Impi from you sometime early in the New Year. :)

From AlexS: Bronze Fangs Clan (60 Points)

Hello everybody! My name is Alex, I'm from Russia. I take part in this wonderful event for the third time. The first day is always very inspiring. First I wanted to paint 100 miniatures for the first day, but that I will not surprise anyone. So I decided to do something special, interesting for readers and participants. Therefore, I present to you the clan "Bronze Fangs". This is a clan of ghouls, which will suit any fantasy-related gaming system. They are painted with the help of an airbrush.

But there is nothing new and interesting in the painting of fantasy miniatures. So I decided to show my simple idea of using cheap, but interesting Chinese products from the store with cheap prices. This bear cost me about half a pound. Then I took some material for modeling and a goblin model.

 And now I am the model of this model. It seems to me that it turned out unexpectedly and interestingly - especially the part of the muzzle, where the meat and skin were peeling off and the bone of the skull uncovered (oh, that's what it's white there!)

But I thought and decided that simply conversion would not surprise readers and participants. Then I again went to the Chinese goods store and bought a piggy bank in the form of a skull. I added a few stairs from the images and got here such an object. What is this observation tower? Arbor for rest? I do not know.

Then I painted this object and added details. By the size it turned out approximately 6"x6"x5"

Then I put ghouls on this object and was pleased. In my first post I did everything, which coincides with the thought of the organizer, our Snow Lord, - there is a monster and a terrain. I hope you will remain as satisfied as I am. :)

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First, welcome back to the Challenge, Alex! It's great to one of our most prolific painters hit the ground running with this wonderfully creative opening entry.

While the monstrous bear and the ghouls are excellent, I must say that the giant skull totem is truly inspired. I especially like the rickety scaffolding, giant mushrooms and bronze teeth. It has a very 1930s pulp adventure feel about it. Wonderful work!

The five ghouls, giant bear ghoul rider and the skull totem will give you 60 points (with a few bonus points added for the scratchbuilding and size of the bear). A terrific opening entry Alex!