From StefanK: Finally Curtgeld... and Thalia (55 Points)

Traditionally my final post of the challenge contains the Curtgeld. So here we go:

Here we have three figures the first of which is Thalia. She is a Zombicide: Black Plague survivor and I guess that any resemblance with Red Sonja is purely occasional:

Anyway I acquired this special kickstarter exclusive figure a while ago with the idea in mind to build a barbarian themed survivor party. Unfortunately we haven't played too much Black Plague since but Thalia remained a figure I wanted to paint anyway.

After our ACW project was done (for the moment...) I thought she might fit into this challenge to give Lady Sarah another female figure to choose from.

As usual for CMon figures Thalia was of great detail and good casting quality. That board game plastic isn't easy to clean but fortunately the figure didn't have too much flashing. As usual I used a choice of Wargames Foundry and Vallejo paints.

On the first picture Thalia is accompanied by the to Uruks I want to give Curt as his well deserved entry fee:

They are from the oldish Games Workshop game but nevertheless nice and characterful figures that show some evil warriors on their way to Amon Hen to hunt down the Fellowship of the Ring.

Since I sold all my LotR figures years ago I asked a friend to have a look at his spares and luckily he discovered these two fellows and supplied them gladly.

Again I used mostly Vallejo paints to bring them to live and I hope you - especially Curt - like my humble work. It was pretty fiddly to work out the skin colour for those Isengard breeds but finally I decided to use a scheme I employed for African skin a while ago.

Finally I based them on 30mm bases and applied a badge displaying the donor and the occasion those figures were given.

Well, that's it then. More or less. My final words shall not be about figures and painting. In fact I want to address our busy and tireless host and his loyal minions:

Many thanks to all of you for making this challenge possible again!

It was a great pleasure to follow all the fine entries and it was an honour to be a humble part of it!

Now spring is coming and summer will follow. But in autumn at the latest I'll keep my eyes open for the roll call for the Xth painting challenge which I'm yearning for already.

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Absolutely brilliant work Stefan. The Not-Red Sonja is terrific and I'm sure she is a brutal character to run in 'Black Plague' (a great game btw - one we actually liked more than Zombiecide). As to the Curtgeld, I can only give my deepest thanks - these two Uruks are wonderful and will have a place of honour amongst the growing warband. Of course the painting is up to your regular high standards, but I also want to give you the big thumbs-up on the bespoke labels - now, that's class! :)

Thanks again Stefan!

- Curt

From StefanK: The penultimate post - Cry God for England, Harry and Saint George! (12 Points)

So it's the final days of the challenge and two entries to go for me. Here's one that is very near and dear to me:

King Henry V

of England

Actually this figure has been lying on my lead pile for ages. I've bought it a while ago when I saw that wonderful sculpt by Alan Perry but I didn't find the time to paint it. But since Henry V by Kenneth Branagh is one of my - if not just my - favourite movie I always regretted not paying attention to it.

Now after our ACW project came to a temporary end I took the time to splash some paint onto Harry. The figure is part of Perry Miniatures' AO01 set from their Agincourt range. He's a mounted 28mm figures of two parts: Horse and Harry. Since I didn't like the original horse delivered with my set I changed it to a more 'royal' breed with nicer horse tack.

Focussing on the single miniature was pure joy again. The sculpt is tremendously detailed and Alan even managed to work out an indication of Harry's coat of arms. Thus it was difficult but at least possible to paint his surcoat properly. I hope you like my humble piece of work.

Last but not least let me deliver the two scenes I watched / listened to over and over while painting this figure:

That's it for now. Tomorrow I'll have my final entry ready with the 'Curtgeld' and two other figures, Until then ...

...cry...

God for England, Harry and Saint George !!

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Wow, terrific work Stefan! I love the attention to detail you lavished on Henry, especially on his armour, harness and especially his coat of arms. That there is some pretty fine brushwork my friend. Bravo!

I think in light of the extra effort on the niggling details Henry is up for 12 points. Well done Stefan.

- Curt

From StefanK: ACW Union Troops (255 points)

Main part of my winter efforts were troops for our presentation game at Tactica in Hamburg in February. Namely ACW Union troops. Somehow I didn't manage to post the units step by step so I'll present them all in one go now.

Infantry

For our game we needed several units of Union infantry. So I promised my friend Holger to deliver two 24 men units respectively four units of 12 figures. One of the units was painted before the Painting Challenge started but the other was to enter and leave the painting table around Christmas. Here it is:

The unit is made of 24 figures from the Perry Miniatures plastic boxes. Here obviously mainly skirmishing poses from box ACW120. Of course it's a bunch of work to clean and assemble all those parts but they deliver a wonderful variety of combinations to create unique units.

Two bases carry the colours. One the Union flag and one the regimental flag. They are by top-notch flag maker GMB Designs who delivers some of the best flags on the market. I decided to split the colours to have them truely in the centre of the unit when fielding all six bases. When using two 12 men units then each of them keeps one flag. To my mind that looks better than having two flags in a smallish unit of three bases.

The whole unit is based with for figures per 40mm x 40mm base. Somehow that took root as our standard basing for Blackpowder games.

Artillery

Every infantry brigade need a certain amount of artillery support. Thus I prepared three guns and four crew men per piece.

Two of the guns were based properly and with its crew properly attached to the base. The figures and guns are again by Perry Miniatures and come from their excellent plastic box. It contains enough parts to build three guns, three limbers and 18 crew. It is also versatile enough to produce either Union or Confederate artillery.

With the describtion from the leavlet it's possible to build figures according to the ACW artillery drill which I did more or less.

The third battery is kind of unfinished. The gun itself is painted as the other pieces are but the crew is kind of substitute. All four figures are completely painted but actually they are the remaining crewmen of the first two guns. They are meant to operate the limbers but in this time of dearth they were ordered to handle the third gun. Thus they haven't been based yet...

Command Vignettes

Those reliable Yanks needed some commanding officers of course. For our game I had the honour and pleasure to deliver a brigade commander and a divisional commander. The first one was made from the plastic sprue that the Perrys deliver when ordering Blackpowder 2 from them:

Actually I wanted to give him a standard bearer aside but then I noticed that this plastic figure is significantly smaller then the metal cavalry figures. Thus he had to stay on his own and I mounted him on a rund 40mm base. Nevertheless it's a wonderful frame. It has enough parts to build a Union or Confederate officer and has a large variety of options. Additionally it's compatible with the plastic boxes delivering even more options. For this very special incarnation of a Union colonel I used the plastic figure as a base, assembled another head and made shoulder straps and collar from greenstuff. Actually the figure comes with seperate plastic shoulder straps but I cut them when I tried to loosen them from the sprue so I had to sculpt new ones.

However our division needed a commander so I made another base representing this honourable officer:

Here we have three mounted soldiers. All by Perry Miniatures as well: One mounted general, a standard bearer and a trumpeter. The officer comes from one of the mounted generals sets while the soldiers are actually cavalrymen in sack coates. From my humble point suitable enough for an escort.

This time the flag isn't by GMB. It's rather a product of yours truely himself because he forgot to order the correct standard and didn't realise it until it was too late. Thus there was no other way then printing the flag by himself. Anyway I'm rather satisfied with the result.

Summary

Well that's it. In addition to the priorly painted unit all the stuff I brought to Tactica and main project this winter:

• 24 men unit of infantry. Flags by GMB only glued to shape and edges repainted. Whole unit based on 40mm x 40mm bases with four figures per base.
• 3 artillery pieces and 12 crewmen. Two guns with crew based on scenic bases, one gun and four crewmen unbased.
• 1 mounted brigade commander. Based on 40mm round base. Multi-part plastic figure with converted head. Collar and rank insignia resculpted with greenstuff.
• 3 men divisional command vignette. Three mounted figures. Standard self-made. Based on an oval base of 100mm x 50mm

Having finished those in time really made me happy and maybe kind of proud. Although my club fellows brought more figures by far, it was the largest amount of figures I provided to a presentation game until now. We'll set up ACW for another small convention in Germany again and I'm looking forward to seeing my Yanks on the field again. In Hamburg they earned their stripes and helped to win the day twice.

Tamsin:

Top notch work on these blue-bellies Stefan. Those command vignettes are definitely the biz.

I make that 250 points for the infantry, artillery crew, guns and mounted figures; another 3 points for the flags and then 2 more just so your score ends in a 5!

From StefanK: Rebel Troopers for Imperial Assault (15 points)

As some might have noticed, some friends and I have been playing Imperial Assault for a while. For a certain amount of time I had the idea to follow the releases to bring the whole Star Wars universe to live but luckily for my wallet Fantasy Flight Games (and in Germany Heildeberger / Asmodée) were too fast for a slow painter and volatile hobby fellow like me. Thus my efforts ended with those sets which are represented in the Imperial Assault app meaning the first wave at the moment.

Therefore I had a set of three rebel troopers lying around and somehow I felt it was time to splash some paint on them. Rather soon we want to continue with our campaign and we might need those allies to fight the fierde forces of the Galactic Empire.

 

The set contains of three troopers in the well-known uniform featured in the iconic opening sequence of episode IV. They are all nice and clean casts although all three figures are identical.

Colourwise I left the greyish 1970s schene a bit and went for the more colourful blue and khaki scheme wich the computer game Star Wars: Battlefront delivered.

After all those models were truly fun to paint. The details all crisp and clear, the facial expression easy to follow and a simple uniform which allowed a quick painting style.

As usual I used Vallejo paints for most parts of the figures and the Wargames Foundry skin coulours for face and hands.

Only the bases are bit of a problem. Imperial Assault may be set in various surroundings from the wooded areas of Endor to the dark and grimy hangars of an outer rim space port. Therefore I didn't find a good solution for shaped bases and left them greyish. So I applied some dark grey and added a series of lighter splashes.

 

Nevertheless I'm still pondering about changing to clear acrylic bases but I haven't brought myself to re-basing my whole Imperial Assault collection yet.

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Guest minion Byron still here, Wow, what an awesome entry this is.  

I love Star Wars which is a good start, but I love great paint jobs even more!  I really love the colours, the hard highlights and the smooth look of these. It is a style that many of the great painters in this challenge have.  It is also one that even though I can paint well enough, I just can not emulate and am jealous of your ability here.

Great work and keep it up, I want to see more!  I also wouldn't mind seeing a tutorial on how you do your faces as they are top notch and something I always struggle with.

15 well earned points!

From StefanK: E-Boats ahead! (32 points)

Ahoi again,

lately I presented a some Vosper MTBs for Cruel Seas and of course they need some enemies to fight with. Although a friend of mine started to collect some German navy boats I had a couple of E-boats lying around from the starter box. So why not paint them to have some stuff for both sides ready...

The starter set comes with two sprues with two E-boats each. One S-38 design and one better armed S-100 version. Firstly I painted the S-38 boats in a standard greyish colour scheme. Somehow I wasn't in the mood for fancy camouflage. We had a game scheduled two days later so time was precious.

The boats are armed with a 20mm gun forewards and a 37mm gun sternwards. Pretty heavy compared to the British Vospers which are employing a 20mm gun only (besides some machine guns which have the German boats as well).  In addition the boats are faster than their British opponents. But more expensive in points as well.

The later S-100 version has a armoured bridge section and is better armed since it comes with an additionol twin 20mm gun midships. In addition it has the option to mount either the 37mm gun or a quad 20mm gun sternwards. But here Warlord really blundered. The E-boat sprue comes with only one 37mm gun which you tually need to equip the S-38 boat with. But then there's no 37mm for the S-100. Looks like somehow hasn't thought really deeply while designing that sprue...

Nevertheless those boats are as nice models as the Vospers are. As you see I painted the S-100s with a darker deck based on a picture I found in an Osprey book.

Torpedos los!

Cheers

Stefan

From guest grognard DaveD 

Lovely job on these Stefan - you weathering making them really gritty - I suspect someone from warlord always chose the quad 20 - well with 6 dice you would! - as an option and never thought that they might need two 37mm on the sprue - there are a few basics they dropped the ball with in this release I think.

From StefanK: Cruel Seas - Armed Trawler (23 points)

The fleet boxes for Cruel Seas really provide a nice selection of models. The Royal Navy for example come with the mandarory Vospers, some Fairmile MTB and an Armed Trawler. After rushing through the Vospers and E-boats I took the trawler as a more special model and painted it during the last days:

It's a large ship (though 'large' in 1/300) that comes in resin with metal parts. Overall the parts fit very well. Only the masts needed some deeper holes to fit in the hull proberly. A really nice add-on is the metal crew. They come in strips of three seamen but can be cut into single crewmembers or pairs easily. Since there were more then enough seamen for the trawler I transfered two of them to one of my Vospers to man the bridge appropriately.

The flag is again from the generic Royal Navy flag sheet by Warlord Games. But this time I used the Red Ensign instead of the White Ensign. Although I know that the Red Ensign is appropriate for British merchantmen I didn't check it on historial material. I just followed Warlord Games example...

Anyway, the ship comes with two 3" guns and appears properly armed to scare some E-boats. The guns are nice metal pieces as well and have crew figures on them. Very nice little bits. I'd wish to see them available individually to have them available for the plastic boats. Making the guns available individually would - by the way - solve the problem with the missing 37mm gun in the German E-boat sprue...

As usual I used mostly my trustworthy Vallejo paints. Starting with a basecoat of Uniform Grey spray primer (by Armypainter) I applied VMC 70.924 Russian Uniform WWII. It's a rather light greyish green because I wanted to try a different colour scheme on the trawler. On some Warlord Games pictures their trawler looks slightly greenish so I chose this colour. Anyway the result looks even greener then desired but I'm happy with it anyway. After the colour was dry I applied some of the AK washes to get some shadows. Then drybrushing with VMC 70.821 German Camoflage Beige and VMC 70.884 Stone Grey. Finally some more AK washing for weathering especially on the lower parts of the hull.

That's it for now. I hope you like it.

Cheers

Stefan

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Beautiful work, Stefan. Right now I'm desperate for tankers and trawlers for Cruel Seas, so I'm looking on very enviously of your fine example here. I really like how crisp and clean your brushwork is, especially with the crewmen alongside the ship's rails and bridge - they , along with the subtle weathering, does such a great job of bringing the whole model to life. 

As to points, I'm going to put this trawler in the same realm as a 28mm vehicle, so 20 points, with a few extra added for the crew. Again, lovely stuff, Stefan. 

From StefanK: Vospers and eels (72 points)

Ahoi Jack Tars and Landlubbers,

Finally my first entry for this year's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge:

Vospers and eels

Shortly before Christmas Warlord released their new WWII naval skirmish game Cruel Seas. Frankly for a long time their wasn't a release that I was so much looking forward to. Anyway my pre-order didn't arrive in time and more than two weeks of desperate waiting overshadowed my December. Anyway shortly before Christmas the starter set arrived and I couldn't resist painting enough boats for the first couple of scenarios. So here we go with the Vospers first.

Actually the basic games comes with six Vospers but until now I've painted only four of them. They are all in 1/300 (6mm) scale but very detailed. Due to the thick plastic they appear a bit bulky but nevertheless really nice models.

As usual I used Vallejo Model Colors to paint the ships. Mostly different shades of grey for obvious reasons. Afterwards I used a combination of washes from Citadel and AK to apply some weathering and give the boats slightly different shadings.

On one of the boats I mounted a couple of crew. They are 1/300 metal figures which Warlord delivers with the British resin boats from the fleet box. They fit on the plastic boats very nicely too and are a simple conversion. Only the paint to the small gap in the breastwork of the bridge. I'd use some green stuff to conceal that on the next batch of boats.

The flags are from the starter box as well. Really nice pieces though too small to call it a pleasure to assemble them. To conceal the white line of paper I painted the outlines to have Saint George's cross run around the whole flag.

Since Cruel Seas is all about torpedo boats it makes some sense to have a couple of torpedoes ready. With the starter set and the Royal Navy fleet box came two sprues with 16 torpedo markers each. Thus I took some time to paint them all in one process of piecework.

That's for now. Shortly there'll appear some German E-boats as well as an armed trawler for the Brits. My entry for the water bonus round is ready as well but let's keep this under the water surface for now.  ;-)

Cheers

Stefan



Ahoy Stefan and welcome back!

Some absolutely smashing nautical modelling you have here my friend. It's becoming harder and harder for me to resist Cruel Seas and it's just this kind of entry that is causing me grief.

I am really impressed with your paintwork and weathering efforts on these. They have a really grimy and weather beaten look to them and you've brought the details out superbly. Painting the torpedoes must have been a bit tiresome but it't attention to detail and keeping the small stuff up to the same level of quality that really makes a table sing to my mind.

4 x 1/300 vehicles
4 x flags
32 x torpedoes
plus flags

I've paid a point each for the torpedoes so that makes a total of 72 points for these including flags and crew, though I am happy for Curt to revise that (which has duly happened thanks Paul). Well done mate!

Cheers,
Millsy

Special Guest Post: From StefanK - Dr. John H. Watson 'A Study in Scarlet'

L to R: Curt, Christopher, Nick, Stefan and Sid.

In late 2017 I had the great pleasure to meet Curt, the diligent host of the Painting Challenge, in person in Antwerp at the 'Crisis' wargaming show. He was there with a couple of other honourable members of this challenge and I was lucky enough to spent a most enjoyable our with those fellows have a pint of Leffe and a really good chat. During this Curt and I discussed the upcoming painting challenge and I had to renew my unpleasant decision to skip the challenge this time. Anyway he asked me whether I’d like to contribute a guest entry out of the valuation and I agreed happily. So with no more ado to a well known physician. Maybe the best known doctor in British literature…

Let me quote his very own words to describe him:

“In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army. Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as Assistant Surgeon. The regiment was stationed in India at the time, and before I could join it, the second Afghan war had broken out. […] I followed, however, with many other officers who were in the same situation as myself, and succeeded in reaching Khandahar in safety, where I found my regiment, and at once entered upon my new duties. […] II was removed from my brigade and attached to the Berkshires, with whom I served at the fatal battle of Maiwand. There I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery.”

I stumbled over this introduction a couple of years ago and somehow I kept it in the back of my mind. Last year then when I started with the preparation of my Northwest Frontier project it pushed forward and I was not able to resist the the seduction to bring this noble fellow to the battlefield. You recognized him, didn’t you? It’s Dr John H. Watson, the loyal friend, assistant and chronicler of the famous consulting detective Sherlock Holmes. The lines gives above are part of his own introduction at the beginning of “A Study in Scarlet”.

Since I’ve already added a detachment of the 66th Regiment of Foot (the unlucky Berkshire regiment) it was a no-brainer that I had to add the honourable doctor as well as soon as I discovered that the hospital set from Perry Miniatures Sudan Range could be useful for the 2nd Anglo-Afghan War as well. Obviously the vignette shows him treating a wounded comrade before receiving a bullet himself. After consulting a couple of reference books and an interesting conversation with sculptor Micheal Perry who is very studied regarding the mentioned conflict I realized that the only real hindrance might be the helmets and the characteristic puggree. Luckily in the NWF plastic set there is an officer’s head with a cap bearing a 66 (for the 66th Regiment) which I put on Watson’s body after removing the given pit helmet. Although the neck looks a bit strange I’m rather satisfied with my humble conversion work.

After this piece of work painting the figures was kind of business as usual. I employed mostly Vallejo Model colours as well as the splendid set of skin colours Wargames Foundry is offering. Finally I added a coat of matt varnish and a couple of grass tufts and a couple of pieces of clump foliage

Well that’s it then. I hope you like this humble piece of work and the story behind it. It was a great pleasure and honour to me to be able to present it as a guest entry here amongst this outstanding collection of pieces of art. Although I didn’t take part I followed this year’s challenge again with greatest pleasure and was fascinated again which power our hobby is able to unfold. It’s truly beyond comparison how much eye candy you participants produced during the last three months. Kudos, Ladies and Gentlemen!

Best regards

Stefan

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From Curt:

Stefan, it was terrific chatting with you in Antwerp and I'm delighted that you took up the offer of submitting a guest post here as a small consolation for your noted absence this season.

Your Watson vignette is brilliant. It's a wonderfully creative and unique glimpse to the background of one of English literature's most beloved characters. The shading on the uniforms, the varied skintones and the subtle use of a head-swap for the good Doctor has been masterfully handled. Bravo Stefan!

I hope that your busy schedule (and that of your hockey powerhouse daughter) will allow you to join us for next year's edition. In fact I'm going to hold you to it. :)

Thanks for sharing some of your recent work with us Stefan.

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From StefanK: The final rush with T-72 ready to rush for the Fulda gap.

Actually I thought that the boat would be my final entry for this painting challenge but then I regonised that only 30 points were missing to fulfill 500 points goal. Luckily I've been working on a couple of 15mm T-72 tanks during last week. I inserted a night shift yesterday and a final rush this afternoon. So here we go:

All ten T-72 tanks.

The models are plastic kits from Battlefront's Team Yankee range. They are pretty easy builds but nicely models on the table anyway. As usual I primed them and gave them a thin coat of the Sovjet greenish base colour.

Numbers one to four...

Then some ink (Armypainter 'Strong Tone') and a couple of different layers of drybrushing. After all I wanted a 'quick and dirty' technique because I'm afraid the the Sovjets will obtain much more reinforcements than my German Bundeswehr in which I but some more work for the three colour camouflage sheme.

... numbers five to eight...

After all I'm pretty satisfied with the result. I haven't applied decals yet because I'm not sure for which country to field them. I'm undecided between Red Army and East German Volksarmee though...

... and finally numbers nine and ten.

However that's my final entry for this year painting challenge then. It was great to join the bunch and I enjoyed the many tremendous entries a lot. Many thanks to all participants and especially to Curt for taking the efforts of organising the gathering again!


Tamsin: What a superb rush to the finish line Stefan! Congrats on reaching (indeed, exceeding) your target. That's another 60 points in the bag for these great little tanks :)