From IanW - 'Zulu Spawn' 6mm Zulu's (120 Points)

I have had these Zulu's in the paint queue for well over a year. In total I will now have painted 480 of the little bleeders and whilst the figures themselves are concerned they are fairly easy. The shields well that's a different matter all together. Indeed I wish I had the skill to do a better job but I simply do not.

Here we have seven Regiments of 36 figures and an extra 12 figures spare making a grand total of 264 figures in this batch. I still have the rifle armed figures to do but these are much easier and will be painted up in the next week or two.

The seven regiments are, Frost, Mongrels, Starters From The Umgoni River, The Howling, Forceful, Black Mamba and Savage (not shown in order, sorry).

I have used Farnsworth for shield details so they are reasonably accurate. However it's the laces that have proved the greatest difficulty. I have added eight to each shield. Any more and it seems to cluttered and any less and it's plain wrong.

As you can see from the shield shots I have had mixed results on getting the laces to line up. But at last they are finished and can be passed back to Matt for him to base up.

Each stick has 12 figures on them. Each base of four has four different poses so when based up you get a very nice dynamic look. Baccus have indeed done a great job at making these figures look the part.

I painted up four different coloured loin cloths and mixed them between the figures for more variation. Last off a wash in chestnut brown ink that really adds to the skin tone. I am REALLY happy to be putting these behind me and giving them back as I have felt really bad abut not getting them done but now I really can paint what I want when I want well almost.

So 264 x 0.5 points is 132 less 20% for not basing comes to 115.6 points, maybe I get half a pint for those ****ing shields?

Oh for those who think painting 6mm is an easy pints ride I have spent far more time on these and the Nap's per point than I get from an average 28 but I love painting the wee chappies. Oh also is it too late to get into this side challenge action for 10mm and smaller ;-) LOL


From Curt:

This post was precisely the reason you weren't invited to that side challenge Ian! ;p

Great work Mr. Willey - I'm sure your friend Matt will be delighted to have these ferocious little blighters in his collection.  I can't give you 'a half pint' for the shields (I'm fairly sure it wouldn't make it through the Post)  but I will give you a few extra points for your efforts.  :)

Your new points spread against Tamsin will give her a bit more of a challenge to overcome this weekend (though I'm sure she has something suitably impressive planned).

From Curt - 20mm Canadian WWII Infantry in Italy (62 points)

A few months ago I started up a project to collect and paint the forces which were involved in the 1943 Battle for Ortona. To most, this battle, if known at all, is regarded as nothing but a tiny sideshow within the larger Italian campaign, but for Canada it is our ‘little Stalingrad’, the battle that brought us out from the shadow of Dieppe and re-established our reputation as a battle-winning partner of the Allied 'family'.

The struggle for Ortona was known for its vicious, grinding and intense urban combat. Fighting which the Canadians earned a hard-earned reputation for effective house-clearing during those last weeks of 1943. Their opponents were tough veteran Fallshirmjaegers from the 1st Parachute Division and as such the fighting was ferocious, often with no quarter given or received. In the end the Canadians drove the German paratroopers from the town but at a fearsome cost. Almost 1,400 men from the Canadian 1st Division (the Loyal Edmonton Regiment, Seaforth Highlanders and the Three Rivers Regiment specifically in Ortona) lost their lives during this campaign.

The models you see here are 20mm castings from AB Miniatures. These figures are, in my opinion, the best models available for this period, in this scale (and arguably most 28mm ranges as well). They are quite lanky and have a wonderful sense of animation. Many of the figures do a great job in telling a story by how they're posed. For example, I love the figure of the soldier about to throw a grenade. He is leaning back, probably meant to have his back against a wall, finger-to-pin, waiting for the signal from his section to throw his Mills bomb into an enemy-held room. There is also a figure of a rifleman on his knees firing up to an upper story. You get a sense that he has just come up from a prone position to get a quick shot before dropping back to cover again. Amazing sculpting in any scale.

This is the last section of my Canadian platoon, which also has the command team and some special weapons teams. (The other two sections, and a bit more background, can be seen here and here.)

Okay, in more detail, we have:

The Command Team, made up of the CO accompanied by his radioman, his senior sergeant waving the boys forward and a corporal charging forward with Sten SMG at the ready (the presence of the Stens are a bit anachronistic as the Canadians typically hated them and exchanged them for Thompsons at every  opportunity). The base shapes is what I use for all my skirmish gaming. Hexes for officers, squares for NCOs, rounds for troopers, octagons for special weapons, oblongs for weapon teams.

Next is an artillery Forward Observer with his radioman. At Ortona the Fallshirmjaegers specifically targeted radio operators and the brigade went through a murderous amount of them.

Here are the dogface infantry. Nothing too sexy, just the trusty SMLE rifle, loads of ammunition and a bunch of grenades. As I mentioned previously there is some brilliant animation here, specifically with the man with the grenade and the kneeling rifleman. 

Finally, here is an assortment of heavy weapon teams. 

First up a set of PIAT teams. One pair legging it and the other deployed prone for firing. The Candadians reportedly loved the PIAT and even used the weapon for 'mouseholing' during their house-to-house fighting (something that seems suicidally dangerous to me, but I suppose when the situation demands...). 

The next duo is a 2" mortar team. They used these to try to mask movement as men dashed across streets. 

Concluding the special weapons is this Bren gun team. I like the third man hollering back telling others from the section to bring up some more ammunition.

Another debut in this post are three MDF buildings, the designs of which I had commissioned from Byron at SG2 Creations (who, I must add, is also one of our generous prize sponsors). The need for region-specific buildings came about when I noticed that there were not many retailers who were providing buildings for the Italian campaign in 20mm. Byron and I poured over period photographs of the buildings at Ortona and have come up with a base ‘recipe’ to represent the narrow multi-story structures that were typical to the town. 

MDF buildings are great but one thing that they have a hard time at conveying is the wonderful bodged randomness of older architecture. We all know that any pre-20th century building is a conceit to straight walls and level floors. As such I decided to roughen up the flat, perfect face of these buildings by giving them a rough skim coat of Liquitex gel medium. Once dry, I drybrushed them in khaki and tan to give them that quasi-Mediterranean look.

While the stucco is a bit dour, Ortona was (and still is) a vibrant seaside resort town and so I thought I’d paint the shutters and doors in somewhat brighter, more festive colours. I used thinned-down ink to give them bit of a sun-bleached, care-worn look. (I have to apologize for the roofs as I haven't figured out how I want to replicate the tile. In the meantime I've just painted them a reddish terracotta so they don't look so 'MDF-ish'.)

These three buildings seen here are separate structures so they can be swapped around, but I’m also having Byron make up some 3 and 4-unit row house sections that will have common walls but irregular roofs and facades. We’re also doing a bunch of wrecked structures (as, sadly, most of Ortona was destroyed) that will use these structures as a basic template. It should provide for a tabletop that is thematically closer to the actual location. I have a couple ideas for special one-off buildings that were notable during the campaign but I’ll post on that when things get more clear on how they're coming along.

Of course, if you're looking for an excellent and economical set of Italian Campaign buildings you now know Byron is the man to talk to. :)

Okaaay, the scoring. Hmm, I make that eleven standing/kneeling figures and nine prone so, that comes to... (sticks tongue out and counts on his fingers and toes...) 

62 points!

Thanks for visiting folks!

From AlanD - 6mm English Civil War Pike and Shotte (36 Points)

I don't have a lot to show for the past week. I've actually been painting for about 8 hours every day, but I've been working on some amazingly realistic 1:1 scale terrain in the shape of our lounge room, so I don't think that counts. What I thought would be about half a day of prep work turned into four and a half days, thanks to the crappy 1920s paint that meant I had to strip the entire ceiling. Next time I'll just sell a limb and pay someone to do it.

I did manage to get these little chaps finished though. While my mate Paul of the Man Cave is away overseas for 18 months I promised to paint him a 6mm ECW Royalist Army so my Parliamentarians had someone to massacre. These are the first two regiments - so Paul, I'm on my way.

These 72 figures are also the first shots in my side challenge with Curt and Tamsin for the highest number of challenge points from 10mm or smaller figures. 36 points please, Curt!

From Curt:

I was wondering when you'd roll out with the small-scale stuff (and here I was thinking I might get a leg up on you). Lovely work Dux, Paul is a very lucky fellow to have such a great force being painted for him while he's larking about abroad (AND the proper side no less). What rules will you be using for these guys Alan?

Nonetheless, I do have a few things up my sleeve as a response...

From DaveD - Pulp Cops, The Band & Wanda Midnight (45 Points)

SnowLord's Note: I'm going to be busy travelling for meetings tomorrow so I'm going to post some of Monday's entries early. This way you all have some eye candy to peruse over during your Monday coffee... 

Ok here we have the remainder of the "Serenity City P.D" . These are a set of Copplestone Minatures which were gifted to me by my Secret Santa (an idea originally devised by our very own Ian Willey and organised by Cath) this year - good choice Santa.

The tough beat cops

The brothers Fran and Ray O'Shee (ok maybe he ain't so tough), Pat McKay, and Dan O'Donald (from one of my GxGrandparent who was a beat cop - often found in ale houses from his disciplinary record!)

So here is the parade -ready for duty - "Lets be careful out there"

I have also completed the Jazz Band set from Bob Murch Pulp Miniatues

 Complete with front woman

add in another of the Bob Murch "Femme Fatale" set . This time it is "Wanda Midnight" all round good time girl..

So here is a shot of the the "employees" at Long Sally's

So 9 figures altogether - I need a stock up!!


From Curt:

Ah, a wonderful Pulp entry Dave! The coppers and Wanda are wonderful but,  for me, the prize goes to the Jazz Band, especially that shot of them with their lovely front woman at the mike. Brilliant stuff.

(Monday) Clint B: Lucifer as Antihero (22 Points)

In 1667 John Milton wrote an epic poem titled "Paradise Lost" in open verse. It follows 2 story arcs, in the first It has Satan referred to as "Lucifer" in the poem, while in the second arc the story of Adam and Eve is dealt with. For many Lucifer would be considered a despicable villain yet in Milton's Poem he has all the traits of an anti-hero. He is suave, erudite, charismatic and charming. He is the most beautiful of all the angels and is Gods light bearer. But he is cast into hell by God because he leads a band of angels to rebel against God who he believes has favoured men above the angels.

Not going to go into it all but he is clearly listed as an anti hero here (LINK). Feel free to argue amongst your selves if you disagree with him being an anti-hero but he will be in the post to Curt as you read this. Muhahahaha! (evil Satanic laugh).

I must admit I was stumped by the anti-hero category but as one of my favourite artists (Gustav Dore) helped illustrate Paradise Lost it was a short step to paying homage to him by completing a figure.

This figure is by West Wind Productions from their "Lucifer's War" range. It is supposedly Gabriel but as I liked it better than any of the devils they produced I can change all the colours to represent a fallen angel. As such I have given it a red cloak as well as red hair and black crow like wings to give it more of an evil feeling.

If I had settled on blond hair and white dove wings it would have looked more angelic than I wanted. But I did not want the figure to look too much like a devil or demon. Instead I wanted to stay a little closer to the epic poem and have an angel which had been cast from Gods Heaven. As such I went for bird wings as opposed to bat wings.

The base is just a flint from my garden and some cork chips painted to look like all the same type of rock. I must admit it really was great fun to base this figure as the normal slota base has the figure leaning forward at an angle I considered ODD! The figure is just a bit bigger than 28mm but my basing makes it feel huge, which it is not.

So there you Go Curt expect this wrapped boxed and sent to you soon.

From Curt:

Wow, this is a wonderful figure Clint, thank you so much. I really like what you've done with the overall composition of the vignette, especially in regards to its basing and colour choice - great job.

I think it's particularly apropos to have a challenging interpretation of the antihero theme especially after the events in Paris this week. This figure reminds me of Arturo Perez-Revertes' 'The Club Dumas' where Lucifer plays a very complex (and strangely sympathetic) role in the story, contesting our views of sin, forgiveness and regret.  

Again, thanks very much Clint!

From SeanS - Six, count em, Six 28mm Goblin Stickas (30pts)

Well here are those oldschool goblin archers, Stickas in the old 3rd edition armies book.

These guys are the plastic ones.

 It occurred to me as I was writing this that these boys, albeit in 28mm scale, are only 20mm tall. I'm sure Curt, in his wisdom, will value them accordingly.

I had meant to submit these last Friday, and actually got them all the way short of varnish and flocking, but just couldn't muster up the energy after flying back home.

Readjusting to our schedules left me in a hobby torpor, so I only just got back to work on the rest of the unit yesterday. As I was planning a fun filled day of weight lifting and chiropractic adjustment, I realized that I had better get these six lads submitted today if I didn't want another goose egg in the points department. For me calling things done is always difficult, but always motivating as well.

The view one is most likely to see in a game.

In my conception of Warhammer 3rd edition (Oldhammer for me) Goblins are the Beau Brummels of Greenskin society. Back in the heady days of the late 80's and early 90's one was allowed a certain freedom with color that seems to have gone by the wayside today.

Since my, still unfinished, Goblin wolf riders were yellow and purple check I thought I'd go with red and black for these guys. For them I decided that they were allowed personal freedom in design, as long as they used the troop colors.

For the "Black" I used Delta Ceramcoat Charcoal. It's my new favorite almost black. When I got home I dug out my Americana Gloss varnish for the helmets and daggers and used the liquitex matt for the rest. The liquitex is finally drying matt-ish and doesn't work as well on armor as it used to. I must have finally mixed it up enough. The Bolt Gun Metal was being fussy and came out very black for this bunch. On the ones in the background it came out of the dropper bottle a lot more silver. I need to put those stainless steel BB's in the bottle to help mix and keep some of the paints from gushing out of the dropper. Or at least that's how that's supposed to work.

Where the magic happens.

 So, since this has been a thing the last week or so, here is my painting desk. This is what it looked like upon returning home, evidence of the late night mad dash to fill as many dropper bottles as  I could for my mobile painting station.

I would show you the rest of the loft, but I think the neat freaks of the group wuld fell compelled to fly out here and organize it for me. It's that bad right now. Just imagine an entire room that looks like the desk. I say I'm a borderline hoarder, but sometimes I wonder when intervention will happen.

Have paint, will travel.

And last, I just wanted to show you what I took with me on vacation to paint. There was one more container of the same size that had the Mother Crushers and Mounts & Riders in it. I checked it in with my luggage and it made it there and back again with no trouble, although the TSA did open my bag up on the way to CA.

TTFN!

From Curt:

These are very cool little guys Sean. Funny, I don't remember these chaps from 3rd Edition, but then again I don't remember much from those years so I shouldn't be surprised... 

I quite like your mobile paint kit! I have something similar for when we travel for which my wife lives in fear of us being searched and me spilling 40-odd paints and a bunch of toy soldiers on the floor at the airport. 

Great work!

From SimonM - The Tomb Of The Cybermen (45 Points)

All of these 28mm metal models are based upon the Cybermen from the British Science Fiction television series “Doctor Who”; more specifically from the four-part serial "The Tomb Of The Cybermen", which opened Season Five back in September 1967 when Patrick Troughton was the (second) Doctor. They're made by “Black Tree Design” and "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio".

These eight Cybermen miniatures are all code DW207 Tomb Cyberman by "Black Tree Design". Whovian officionardos though will naturally recognise it as the Mark II Cyberman, which first appeared in the 1967 adventure “The Moonbase”. However it is far more widely recognised as the Timelord’s foe from the aforementioned story “Tomb Of The Cybermen”, which was broadcast later that year.

I must confess to this figure being one of my all-time favourites, despite its rather static pose, but some of the features on the sculpt are a little soft. All of the Cybermen were first undercoated with “Citadel” Abaddon Black and then given a layer of Boltgun Metal. Once dry each was washed with the Shade Nuln Oil. The models were then dry-brushed with more Boltgun Metal before receiving a light dry-brush of Mithril Silver. Finally, as these were really 'Moonbase' Cybermen, I picked out their chest and shoulder piping with Abaddon Black and washed around these areas with more Nuln Oil to blend them in.

This Cyber Controller figure is code DW217 by "Black Tree Design". The model does suffer from being slightly smaller in size than his fellow cybermen. Something which is greatly at variance with his television presence as the Cybermen's leader should be somewhat taller than his silver minions. But there’s a nice lot of detail on him to be brought out through dry-brushing. In fact too much detail, as the Cyber Controller does not actually have a chest device in "The Tomb Of The Cybermen".

The model was painted in exactly the same way as the Cybermen, except his (slightly skewed) command dome was finished off with a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Red and "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson.

These Cybermats are all the Robo Rodent model by "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio". I've previously painted five of the small 28mm models before, but felt an additional five would allow me to 'table' a serious cyber-swarm of them. The models were also painted the same way as my Cybermen, with the exception of their eyes. As I wanted these models to mix with my previous Cybermats, I painted all of their eyes first with "Vallejo" White and then dabbed a spot of "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson" in each pupil. This had the effect of giving the robo rodents nice deep pink eyes which lighten as less Shade billows out to the area's edge.

 Finally there's the 160mm tall Cyber- +++ Delete Delete +++ But you'll have to go over to the Victorian Themed Bonus Round to see all about that.

From TeemuL - Empire Militia (15 Points)

No Bonus Theme round entry for me this time, so let's make a third regular entry for this week. It was a long day and lots of small gaps of free time, so I was able to finish these three today, too. They are Empire Militia from Games Workshop. The first picture is bit dark, sun has set and it's snowing again, but I managed to fix my old camera last week with the help from Google.

So, why I painted this lot? While I was painting the last goblins and the ogre, I realized, I was running out of primed figures. I decided to take a shortcut and paint these three, because the previous owner had primed them white. Rest 20 or so primed black and some are already painted and some are not assembled yet. Well, while I was fixing the spray job, I realized that the mold lines where still there... So I needed to clean them and then paint white again. What a shortcut. As I said, these were already assembled and I must say that the fellow holding the sword close to his chest was quite painful to paint... I don't think I'll be taking more shortcuts very soon.

I have couple of these fellows already and they are painted red and white like in the box, so I gave these guys a similar treatment. The straps are not as neat as I hoped for, but these are rank-and-file and easily killed... I wonder why these guys have identical legs, when the box has possibilities for four? Why did he paint these pants white and others black? One of the mysteries, I will never solve.

These are not my best paint jobs, but I still painted the eyes and the fellow in the middle of the last picture has mustache and all. That's something I learned from this challenge, mustache can't be ignored. Even though the eyes have little lunatic look on them, they are not that bad - I have painted worse. Little craziness fits these irregular troops.

Those old diagonally based warriors might be hard to rank nicely, but think about these guys. You can assemble them in million different ways and glue the legs where ever on the base you want. This means, that location on the unit must be known while assembling and then kept same for the rest of the one's life. Very easy, when you buy already assembled figures and try to insert them into your existing unit...

Three 28mm figures give me another 15 points and my point total for this week is higher than for last week!

The Third Theme Round: 'Victorian' is Now Up!

The third theme round, ‘Victorian’, is now upfor your viewing pleasure. For his fortnight’s theme we have 33 entries ranging from Victorian Steampunk to steely-eyed, cleft-chinned heroes of the Empire. 

For myself, I’ve submitted on of my favourite Victorian antiheroes: The Artful Dodger.  

With that and before you leave to look at the theme gallery,  I’ll leave you with an irrepressible song from the film 'Oliver!' that can’t help but leave you smiling, tapping your foot and feeling for your wallet.