From BrianB - The Long Goodbye (20 Points)

For my last entry into the Challenge I wanted to submit my entry fee. When I first read that the theme would be an antihero for the figure I immediately thought of a Film Noir hard boiled detective. Luckily I knew the perfect figure from the Reaper line. And what better way than to paint him up in grey scale just like the movies.

I had to break out all of my greys and off greys in my paint box but in the end I think he turned out pretty well for my first figure painted in a monochrome palette.

Since this is the very end I would like to say thanks to everyone who participated and who took the time to look at and comment on my posts. I had a lot of fun throughout and enjoyed everyone's many submissions. Also thank you very much to Curt for running the whole event. I really can't imagine the amount of work involved and thanks for having me.

I'm going to finish out with a picture of all of my submissions. In the span of the Challenge I easily passed the number of figures I painted in the entire previous year. I hope to see all of you again in next years Challenge!

From Curt:

Fantastic! Some of my favourite films are French crime noir so this is just awesome. I think you've done a brilliant job on him Brian. Of course the glowing cigarette is a stroke of genius. Thanks so much!

AND I love that final pic of your Challenge efforts. That's just terrific (and seeing your pennyfarthing in the back makes my smile even wider).

Until next time Brian!

From BrianB - Martian Tripod (15 Points)

You can't have All Quiet on the Martian Front without the Martian Tripods. After working up my test color scheme earlier in the Challenge I finally got around to painting one up.

The plastic kit went together really well, although I had to hunt around for an assembly guide first to make sure I put together the central part of the body. The paint job went on pretty quickly and was done mostly with drybrushing with the largest brush I have. I again tried for a greenish blue metal for the main body and brass details. I think it actually works even better on the larger tripod. Unfortunately I just noticed that I forgot to put a coat of gloss varnish on the eye after I varnished him, so he's going to have to go back into the shop tonight for a touch up.

What I like the most about this model is that it simply towers over the regular troops. While the All Quiet line is big for 15mm being closer to 20mm the tripod stands about 7" tall. I guess in scale that would be about 50 feet tall. The Tommies down below look more than a little outmatched!

From Curt:

Wonderful work Brian! I really like your smooth work on the metallics, especially the green/blue hue the brass details. The posing is great as well, with one of the legs up, poised for a purposeful stride ahead - very dynamic. 

I agree with you that the choice to do this range in 15mm was brilliant as it allows the vehicles to be truly monstrous without being prohibitively expensive, taking up too much table space or being difficult to store. 

My only real criticism to the walkers' design is thier 'face'. I had mentioned this last year when Miles showed us a early release of the models. To me the face looks incredibly dorky: either it gives the impression of a melodramatic Eye of Sauron or it looks like this one, something akin to a clown's nose. I think the upper carapace would look so much better turned around, with a smooth featureless face facing forward - much more chilling I think. Saying this, I guess I should put my money where my mouth is and pick up a kit to try it out...

Nonetheless, with my hangups regarding Martian design esthetic aside, this is a great model. Well don Brian!

From BrianB - All Quiet British Infantry (28 Points)

These are 7 All Quiet on the Martian Front British Expeditionary Force Infantry. A bit of a mouthful. I actually completed the full 10 man unit but I had started painting 3 of them before the Challenge started so they have been left out.

Like all of the All Quiet figures they are big, hefty 18mm figs. The British in the game are a bit more advanced at Martian fighting having the benefit of recovering technology from the previous invasion. They are therefore equipped with body armor and some snazzy gas helmets as well as one trooper with a coil gun which I gather is basically a rail gun.

In order to differentiate them from my regular British I painted their helmets and body armor in a light grey. I also based them all individually for skirmish games since I only have the one squad. If I want to use them on the All Quiet bases I guess I'll have to figure out some kind of sabot base system for them.

Aside from the regular rifleman there is also a squad leader/officer and a Coil Gunner. The officer is in a rather awkward pose half way between just getting shot in the chest and heroically leading his troops forward. Or perhaps he's looking back over his shoulder to make sure someone is actually following him into the Martian heat gun blasts. The Coil gunner on the other hand is my favorite of the group and I would have loved to have a whole unit of him instead.

From BrianB - Troll Forged Alien Assimilation Grubs (20 Points)

I recently received my rewards for a Kickstarter I pledged for a couple of years ago. These are the grubs from the alien assimilation host made by Troll Forged Miniatures. The grubs are the smallest of the miniatures in the set and infect humans, I believe by crawling inside them, and then grow up into the more insectile adult aliens. The main reason I pledged for this one are these little fellas and I got a big fistful plus an assortment of the other aliens that I'll hopefully get some paint on later.

I decided to paint them up in a pale grey with some purple and pink tones inspired by the Clark Ashton Smith story The Coming of the White Worm.

These are scaled at 28mm but smaller than man sized. I'm thinking I could use them both as giant worm creatures with my 15 mm stuff and bigger than average ones with my 28s. I took a picture with both to see the size difference.

From BrianB - Dagon and Deep Ones (25 points)

These are the rest of the Khurasan Deep Ones to go with the three that I submitted earlier in the Challenge. There were actually nine more as the it was a pack of twelve not the ten that I had convinced myself. I painted them up pretty much the same as the first with some changes in the green to give them some variety.

To go along with them I also painted up a 28mm Reaper Bones Tiik Champion figure to use as a giant monster fish-man or as a stand in for Dagon, the Deep Ones deity in many of the Mythos stories. Part of the reason I decided to use 15mm figures for my Cthulhu/ VSF collection is that it allows me to use 28mm scaled figures as giant monsters. I thought this Reaper figure would look great with them with his armored head and body reminiscent of a Dunkleosteus.

Since most of my giant monsters are influenced by my misspent youth endlessly re-watching Godzilla movies I tend to paint them to match. In this case I kept close to the colors of the rest of the Deep Ones with the addition of some contrast from the armor plates. I also tried to add some watery glistening across parts of their bases with some gloss varnish , although I'm not sure how well it comes across in the photos.

Cthulhu Fhtagn!


From Curt

Oh wow, these are great! I like your approach of using 15mm as a base scale and going with 28mm for the beasties. Trouble is there is sooo much stuff out in 28mm that I don't think I could keep my resolve to a smaller scale - I tip my hat to you!

That Father Dagon is just brilliant. I love the way you've painted him, especially with the purple and yellow accents. I have to pick one of those up for my collection.

Finally, I like how you photographed this entry. The town setting definitely has that 'Innsmouth Look'. :)

Ok, nine 15mm figures is 18 points, and I'll put Father Dagon at 7 points, who looks to be around 40mm, so 25 points total.

Wonderful work!

From BrianB - 15mm Civilians and Martian (17 Points)

My next submission is two parts that are only kinda related. The first half are five armed civilians from Khurasan miniatures. These are actually from a modern zombie set that also came with a giant zombie wolf and some hikers. They might be designed for moderns but I thought they would work for Victorians too. Except for the hikers in their puffy jackets.

I tried to paint them in tones to emphasize the 19th century look. For the one female figure I extended her dress to a more decent length and added an apron with some putty. I wasn't really sure about the coat so defaulted to a canvas slicker. The other one I had trouble with was the gent in the sweater. I tried for a tartan pattern but it ended up looking like an ugly Christmas sweater.

For the second half I tried out a test paint for my Martians from All Quiet on the Martian Front. This is one of the metal drone miniatures. I considered both going with all black or chrome but didn't really think I could pull off either one. I decided to try for a more Steampunk look with brass and a metallic greenish blue. I'm going to have to try it out on one of the full size walkers next.

Five 15 mm foot is 10 points and I guess the Martian is closest to a 15 mm vehicle for 6 more. So that will be 16 points to my tally.

From Curt:

Very cool. I like how you repurposed these modern miniatures for your Victorian Sci-Fi game just by a clever use of putty and using a 'victorian' earth-tone colour pallet (the 'ugly Christmas sweater' comment made me laugh). That's gotta be worth a point.

I also really like that metallic green-blue you achieved on the walker - it looks very sharp especially contrasted with the brass accents.

Great work!

From BrianB - 15mm Deep Ones (6 Points)

I've been working on a collection of Mythos creatures in 15mm so when I came across these Deep Ones from Khurasan miniatures they were quickly added to the pile. These three were primed and ready to go at the start hopefully I'll get to the other seven later in the Challenge.

I kept the painting straightforward with a basic green with purple accents on the fins. I've always liked Khurasan's sculpts and these are good examples. Nice clean details that are easy and quick to paint and poses that are animated and full of life.

Three 15mm spawn of Dagon should net me 6 points.

From Curt:

Ah, it's great to see some Cthulhu stuff roll out for the Challenge. Wonderful work Brian. I didn't know that Khurasan did these in 15mm - very, very cool.  I particularly like the figure who is positioned forward on his (her?) right fist and I also think your choice of using purple tones on their dorsal ridge is a good one - it provides a great contrast to their green scaly bits. I look forward to seeing the other seven!

From BrianB - Dreadball Orx Team (46 Points)

This is my first official entry although I did submit something for the cold round as well. I started off with an Orx Dreadball team as part of my personal goal of trying to get 4 teams painted for the holidays. I kinda feel like I really should of started with some LotR figures however seeing all of the excellent recent entries from Tolkien's world.

I wanted the team to look like their gear was well worn and beaten up but I'm not real sure how well it came across. I also kept away from the the typical green skin as I wanted them to look more Sci-Fi and less fantasy in space. Other than that, five of them have had some conversion work done on them to change up their poses. I've never been very fond of having 4 out of 8 figures looking exactly the same and out of the box there are only three poses. This way they are a little more unique as a team. This 8 man team should be 40 points.

From Curt:

Welcome to the Rumble Brian! These bruisers look wonderful and are obviously raring for a match. I particularly like how you've weathered-up their equipment and chose not to give them the typical Greenskin green skintone. 

I'm going to give you a few extra points as a couple of these lads look rather huge in relation to their squadmates (40mm perhaps?), so 46 points total. Great work!