From EdwardG: A quick bit of steel (80 points)

 Hej hej! 

I know two posts in a week is rather greedy, but I was blessed with an all day senior management meeting today! I had to step in for my boss last minute this morning, which I meant had to dial in but only actually present in for 15min! Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, I quietly turned off my camera and grabbed these minis I had prepared on the table. 

These are again for Saga Age of Chivalry. They're a mercenary unit of heavily armoured knights which can come in very handy when facing an opponent who favours shooty type of troops. 

They're made straight from the Perry plastic set. I admit they were sprayed silver to speed up the painting process. I'm sure I could have given them a far fancier decoration, but time didn't allow and I'm happy with them as they are.  

Points:

8 x 28mm Mounted figures = 80pts

As these chaps were an unexpected boon, I'm not sure if I'll have another post before the challenge end. I hope to be lucky! 

TTFN!

Ed

Nothing wrong with a devious plan well executed... Even spray cans are allowed if they get you your toys on the table in a way you are satisfied with, and your knights in shiny armour look very okay to me! I'm sure they will be a useful addition to your Saga force, and for now they will indeed net you 80 points.

Martijn

From Martijn: Final Saga Saracens and Blackbeard (Greed)(105 points)

This week, I have painted up the final unit of mounted Saracen warriors from the Gripping Beast Starter. I know that there are many out there who can paint the complete starter set in a day or less. and far better too, but I am very happy to have actually completed this small project!

Once again, they are really nice figures and enjoyed painting them. Even though they are cavalry ;-).

I mainly used contrast paints again, and Geek Gamers' base ready for the basing.

So here is the complete warband:

For this week's theme, I had to find something suitable for Greed. Looking through my backlog I found this Lovecraft pirate figure. I painted him up as Blackbeard, the famous pirate captain. I gave him a uniform coat he pinched off some unfortunate victim. I think he is very fitting for the Greed theme.

So, that leaves us with:

8 x 28mm mounted @10 = 80

1x 28mm foot @5= 5

Greed location bonus = 20

Grand total 105

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Hello Martijn

Lovely post!

I particularly like your greedy pirate … Blackbeard looks very charismatic, deadly and proud of his captured spoils 

The Saracen’s are also well done, I really enjoy their colourful robes and the dynamic poses of the figures and the entire war band  looks deadly.

- Sarah

From MartijnN: More Saracens, entering Hell, and some pointless buildings (Limbo, Gluttony, Lust)(159 points)

I have worked some more on my Saracen starter for Saga. Gripping Beast metals again. First up is the warlord, a really nice figure:

Being utterly unimaginative, I painted him up per the box art. Next, I painted a small unit of four bowmen hearthguard:

That leaves me with just one unit of mounted bowmen warriors to paint. Should be possible ;-)

Then, it seems time to finally enter the Circles of Hell. Or else I might never reach my target!

First, Limbo. These 6mm French Napoleonic figures from Baccus have sat on my painting desk for ages. They are not difficult to paint, but that's maybe why I keep putting it off. Anyway, they are my perfect entry into Limbo:

They are based for Blücher, the Sam Mustafa ruleset for big battle Napoleonics.

Next circle is Gluttony. I painted this serving girl carrying a large tray laden with food and drink. A great meal for a glutton!

She is a 3D printed figure designed by Iain Lovecraft.

Cher was famously "born in the wagon of a travelling show, my mother would dance for the money they throw". Next up are two gipsy dancers, again 3D printed figures by Iain Lovecraft. I think these seductive ladies are a good entry for Lust.

Finally, another figure that languished on my painting desk for a long time. Alas, it is not very fitting for the next Circle, but I decided to paint him up anyway. Once again a 3D printed Iain Lovecraft figure.

He does hide a nasty surprise behind his back. Perhaps he is a Witcher?

Finally, not for points, some 15mm ACW buildings. I have had these for at least 25 years, so it was about time to paint them. Yes, I know, it is a perfect waste of valuable Challenge painting time, but I wanted to try out a recipe for painting wood by Stuart from the Miniature Realms YouTube Channel.

I need to keep working on this technique, which wet blends grey, green and brown speedpaints, for I would like a more greyish look. Still, I think they look okay.

Anyway, that's it for this week. Scores:

5 28mm mounted @10 = 50

4 28mm foot @5 = 20

58 6mm @0.5 = 29

Limbo, Gluttony, Lust = 60

For a total of 159 points. And a 6mm squirrel.

All of which should enable me to still reach my target by the end of the Challenge...

It you stayed with me to this point, thanks for looking and keep up the good work!

Martijn

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Hello!

Great paint job on the Iain Lovecraft figures! And well done on passing through Limbo, Glutoony and Lust/

I'm very much looking forward to seeing you catch and beat your Challenge target  :)

- Sarah

From EdwardG - More SAGA minis (170 points)

 Hej hej all!

Yikes!!! A whole month, I didn't realise I'd been silent for so long. It's been a very busy/ sickly February sadly. The whole family caught the flu and work decided we should do our yearly target setting in Feb and not June as we normally do. Crazy times. 

But I'm happy to say, while I've been silent, I've not been idle. 

I have gotten caught up in the 28mm bug, despite my plan for this challenge. I had thought to paint the Swiss and then switch to my 6mm projects. But those have stayed in the tin and instead I've built more minis for SAGA and large scale DBA. I'm still basing the DBA troops, so they'll have to wait for next week. But here are the SAGA minis.

They're a mix of plastic Perry minis and Claymore miniatures (I think!). All painted to be reasonably generic for any faction. The ones that are un-based, are painted for a friend who will be basing them to match his other minis. They'll only be delivered after the challenge, so i hope it's OK to post them here in their current state. Their colour scheme is inspired by some minis by Capt. Blood on the LAF. 

Points totals:

34 x 28mm foot figures = 34 x 5pts (-12 points) = 170 158 pts

Keep up the amazing painting! And see you all sooner than 4 weeks! 

Best, 

Ed

P.s. people were very kind in wishing me luck in the SAGA competition. I can report that the Swiss are more paper than tiger, at least in my ham-fisted hands. I lost all 3 games, vs a French and two Scottish warbands. I'm certain better players can do well with them, and I am really looking forward to getting them on the table again to trial a few different permutations. Here are some photos of the Swiss in action.

Good to see you back to the fray, Edward! These saga minis look great, and I like how you gave each unit different colours to distinguish them. It's always very good to have some versatile troop types at hand to be employed in whichever role or nationality you need them! I am sorry to hear that your Swiss did not acquit themselves too well in the tournament, but at least they made it safely through airport security and back, and as long as you had fun playing losing is not too bad, surely. Judging from the photos it was a great event, so let's take an optimistic view and say that there is room for improvement!  As for your unbased figures, in se it is okay to post them, but I am afraid that the Challenge Rules dictate that they cannot count at full value. Traditionally, unbased 28mm figures have had a point deducted if unbased, so I'll shave off 12 points to still leave you with a healthy total of 158. Well done!

Martijn

From MartijnN: More ASOIAF and more Arabs (140 points)

 We're in the middle of the Challenge Doldrums, and somehow I seem to have been stuck there for some time. However, I have not been completely idle and I finally managed to finish some units. 

First up are some more Gripping Beast metal Arabs for Saga. These are four hearthguard heavy cavalry. I'm not too fond of painting horses, so it was perhaps not a brilliant idea to choose a warband that consists mostly of horsemen, but I think these came out okay. I tried to use some varied (speedpaint) colours, and went easy on the Agrax Earthshade for a change. 

They are nice figures, with quite some detail on them, and painted up nicely. Only 13 more horses to go!

Next, I have been working further on the A Song Of Ice And Fire Starter set. I painted a unit of Stark outriders. They have a fairly Anglo-Saxon feel, and I tried to achieve some uniformity while keeping them as varied as possible.

I am actually pleasantly surprised by the quality of the figures. They are made from a sturdy hard plastic and have a considerable level of detail. The poses and the proportions look very natural to me, and arrayed on their movement trays they look fairly impressive.

Finally, I painted another Stark infantry unit, the Umber Berserkers. They look pretty cool with their two axes and the fur coats draped across their shoulders. They were fun to paint, and took less time than I feared.

Now, let's just hope I'll actually like the game... If not, I can always play Saga with them ;-)

Anyway, there we have it.

8 x 28mm cavalry @ 10 = 80

12x 28mm infantry @ 5 = 60

For a total of 140 points. One month to go, I might yet make it to my total!

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Hello Martijn!

Glad you are finding your way out of the mid-challenge doldrums ... February has been a tough month for a lot of folks!

I do like your Arabs .. I like that all four cavalry figures have a bit of yellow - really ties them together as a unit. I have never painted a horse but I do think yours are nicely done with good colour variation.

The Stark Clan look awesomely fierce and ready to do battle. Interesting sidenote, I read an interview with the costume designer for Game of Thrones and she said that when trying to figure out out to dress the Starks, they decided to dye/distress/age Ikea fur rugs to use for cloaks!

140 points to you and Im cheering you on to meet your total goal! 

Cheers

- Sarah

Sarah 

From Millsy: Back in Black... More 28mm Arabs (90 points)

G'day All,

Apparently a week off from painting black was enough and I'm back with more Arabs. This time it's another ten infantry (Gripping Beast with Fireforge Games upgrades), two cavalry (again Gripping Beast with Fireforge Games upgrades) and the last four miniatures from the Reaper Miniatures Legends of the Sands box set.

A mate pointed out if you are doing Mutatawwi'a for SAGA you are better off leaning hard into either mounted or foot troops so I added another unit to the foot collection. Simple enough to assemble, paint and base, and although they are different style minis they mix well enough with the upgrades.

The two mounted miniatures upgrade one of my earlier units to five miniatures, plus add a mounted warlord for SAGA that'll do nicely until I either buy something fancier or just stop caring this isn't a fancier figure and forget all about it.

Finally, there's four more cracking character Reaper sculpts... two rather flexible ladies (I mean they are limber, NOT from a morals POV!), a wizardy vizier type and his lovely apprentice. The latter two will also do very nicely for Frostgrave which is a nice unexpected bonus.

Points wise...

• 14 x 28mm infantry = 70 points
• 2  x 28mm cavalry = 20 points

Total: 90 points

Next up, yet more Kruleboyz. Thanks for looking!

Artist: Adani & Wolf

Album: The Irresistible Dust on the Floor

Artist: Overcoats

Album: The Fight

Artist: The Mission UK

Album: Carved in Sand

Cheers,

Millsy

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Wonderful work on these black-clad Mutatawwi'a. The little punch of colour really adds the chef's kiss to these guys, especially the shields on the mounted fellas. Your stuff really makes me want to get back to my Siege of Malta project. Inspiring stuff! I also really like your 'local colour' with the Reaper models. The vizier and the red-robed dancer are my personal faves. Well done Mr. Mills!

- Curt & Huck