From Curt - 28mm Napoleonic British Foot Artillery Officers (20 Points)

Spastically true to form, I currently have around eight projects on the go, each in a bewildering state of completion/evolution/devolution. Nonetheless, not one to deny yet another diversion, I discovered when planning for our Boxing Day Napoleonic game, that I was in 'desperate' need of another British command stand to boss around the rankers. Of course I realized this the night before the game.  Not to be deterred, I decided that, sleep be damned, I would get it done in time for the tabletop the next day. (Yes, this sleep deprivation thing is becoming a common refrain it seems...)

Well, to make a long story short, I did manage to coax these figures to a point were they could be presented with only a trace of chagrin. But as these things often work out, Peter arrived for the game, beaming like a Bishop, with one of his British command stands in tow, and I thought it would be rather churlish not to use his for the game. Yes, one has to be somewhat sanguine about these things. I reflected that while my figures did not make it to the miniature battlefield, I still got the satisfaction of completing a few new models for the collection (albeit in a self-induced flap). So all is good and right in the world. 

Anyway, I'm prattling, so let's move along. What we have here is a Napoleonic command stand featuring a pair of British foot artillery officers in their 1815 uniform. Being a naturally licentious race, the English officers are seen here gawping at some comely Belgian milk-maid, presumably captured in a Vermeer-like haze in the middle distance, near some boring berg called Waterloo. That, or they may be ranging in their guns at a distant French battalion, but that's not nearly as interesting.

These 28mm figures are from the Perry metal range and were quite nice to work with. Like the rest of my Napoleonic collection I've affixed them to a metal base as I like the low profile they provide. I had a milestone marker knocking around and thew it on the base for visual interest (yes, riveting, I know). Otherwise the basework is my regular trope of texture gel, gravel, flock and tufts.

The last couple of shots are of the officers with one of my foot artillery bases (painted ages ago when the earth was still cooling). Sorry, to my everlasting shame I had no Belgian milkmaids at hand, something which sorely needs to be corrected. 

20 points for me!  Woo! Kyle? Miles? Keep your eyes on the road, I'm just getting warmed up here... ;P

From JohnM - Holmes and Watson and an Imam! (15 Points)

These are the last of figures, I had prepped for last years Challenge. First up we have Holmes and Watson. The Holmes figure is pretty traditional but the Watson figure has a lot of strange equipment. Something to do with the Empire of the Dead ruleset, I presume, as the the figures are from Westwind.

Next up we have an Imam from Gripping Beast, I must of bought this for my SAGA Musselman warband. I like SAGA, but it has been difficult to get off the ground here in Boston. If I remember correctly my friend Nico in Montreal put together a Frankish warband, but we have had little opportunity to get together over the last year.

Well that clears the table for what I have prepared for this year's challenge. This includes some 18mm AB Napoleonics, 20mm Japanese and USMC forces for Chain of Command, a somewhat unusual warband for SAGA (can anyone guess) and maybe some Frostgrave figures (not really sure about the game yet, but I like the figures).

Nice looking 'dregs' John! As you say, Holmes looks great but Watson seems a bit bogged-down with a bewildering assortment of accouterments. I guess being Holmes' 'caddy' comes with the job.

I've always liked the elegant simplicity of that Imam figure and you've done a nice job on him.

These three figures will give you 15 points. Good work, now you can get out of the blocks with your new stuff!

From ClintB - 1/300 Arab Tanks (Kuteybh Debabh) (28 Points)

Nope, no NOT "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."Maybe before the end ofte challenge though! Today 14 T55 tanks in Egyptian and United Arab Republic Livery. 2 Tanks as Battalion HQ and 2 Companies each of 6 Tanks. (at least to start with).

The T55 was by no means the best tank of the 6 day war but it was so much better then many of the other Arab tanks many of which were of WW2 vintage mostly in the form of  Soviet JS 3's and T34/85's. (or even Syrian Panzer IV's, which I will not be painting anytime soon.)

There is more to add to the Battalion, and Infantry and Antitank companies will follow at some juncture, probably with an Artillery Battalion a scout company and an Air defense company.


I will be using the Flames of War rules as while they are not the best rules for the period (I Prefer "Challenger II" as my favoured rule set,) they do allow for games to be played easily with little fuss and at the club that is all to the good.

But in this project nothing with more tentacles than it should have. For now though just T55's. I may start a T34/85 or a JS3 company to fight along side, But that is the future and anything could distract me easily!

I should Thank "Big Lee" for leading me into this after I followed his WW2 western Desert 6mm exploits! So thanks Lee.

Now I had best start the Nostalgia entry. And put the little tanks away for a while.

Thanks for looking. All the best Clint





Those are some good lookin' tracks Clint. I especially like the engineering versions spec'ed for minesweeping and bulldozing - very cool. Too bad you can't use your 'Challenger II' rules, but I understand wanting to keep things simple with a mixed crowd.

These 14 Arab AFVs will give you 28 points. 

From PaulS - As One Necromancer Said to the Other... (32 Points)

Unless someone else starts painting any DS models, we may need to call this side challenge dead... though the Necromancers could always resurrect it again if necessary.

On the right we have Mortibris, the necromancer from Dungeon Saga. As a model he's a bit bland and lacks a lot of crisp detail, so some exaggerated highlighting and shadows were needed in some places. Accompanying him is the necromancer from Zombicide: Black Plague (hereafter called Lord Black). Lord Black and his apprentice, Mortibris, will lead one of the Frostgrave warbands.

You can see from the scale here that Zombicide characters are a bit bigger than normal, but this is exaggerated by Mortibris, like all the heroes in DS, being tiny. Just wait until I get to the halfling character :/

One of Mortibris' lead henchmen is this undead troll shaman. Model wise it has loads of detail that paints up really easily. I did, however, make the mistake of going for green robes along with the putrescent flesh colour, so it isn't as clear. I can't think of anything currently listed in Frostgrave for this one sadly.

Lastly we have some tormented spirits. I decided to do these as dark, glowing shapes rather than white ghosts to show their trapped, tormented and evil nature. These can be wraiths or spectres in Frostgrave.

So this should be another 37 points as the troll is another big'un. 5 of these figures will count towards the Frostgrave challenge unless someone can think of a use for the zombie troll shaman ;)

Niiice! More Frostgrave goodness. Such great colours here.  Lovin' the shackled spectre with the ball and chain. In the right light it looks like me after seeing my credit card balance after Christmas...

Wonderful stuff Paul!

(Gee whiz, Willickers, I guess I should be updating the Duel Roster sometime soon...)

From AdamC - Three Cultists and How I Do Winter Bases (15 Points)

Hope every one had a good holiday with lots of shiny new miniatures under the tree or lots of useful items the will free up money to spend on miniatures (which is just as good). 

Over the weekend I finished three Frostgrave Cultists from the box I got with the Nickstarter. Cultists are the super villain cannon fodder of the Frostgrave world complete with sill costumes.  I've gotten a lot of question about how I am doing winter bases so here it is.

First I paint the base (I use a 1" stainless steel washer) with a mix of white glue (Modge Podge) and a brown paint.

Then I cover them with sand (any gritty material should work) and let them dry, at least 30 minutes

 after its dry enough to work with put on another layer of glue and paint (no specific ratio just "enough")

Then I add the snow flock, I use Army Painters snow flock.

 Then let them dry 30 minutes to an hour and shake the excess back into the tub...

I then use plain white glue to add an additional layer of snow flock if needed...

I add tufts of grass at the same time so they look like they are poking out of the snow and not sitting on top of it.

Cultist one has a big mace and a mask worthy of a Mexican wrestle.  He's certainly an intimidating presence.

One of the odd things about cultists in Frosgrave is they collect bones and this fellow sees fit to haul someone’s femur around with him.

 Cultists Number two has a cone head mask, my initial approach was to do the mask in a shade of white but the seemed too much like a KKK mask so I revised my approach.

Some snow caught the tail of his coat a happy accident.

This is a very dynamic figure show charging into battle.  The sword and bucker combination suggested a more well off cultists so I gave him some fancier clothing.

The leather armor had some great tooling on it and I wanted a color that would draw the eye so you would see it hence the purple. I may have over done the wash on the light blue/grey tunic but I imagine being a cultist is a fairly dirty job.

This should be another 15 Points, I hope Curt that you don't mind the little how two at the beginning it just seemed like the simplest way to address the inquiries I have been getting on the subject.

Great work Adam and thanks for providing your take on doing snow bases. I particularly like the chap with the mace who single handily proves that not all cultists have to wear last year's ridiculous pointy hats. Yes, he's a trendsetter and I'm sure the envy of all his cowled, raving, lunatic friends (thought that one in turquoise is quite smashing). 

15 Points! Well done my man.

From AaronH - 28mm Celts from Warlord Games (70 points)

My second entry of the Challenge is 12 Celt warriors from Warlord Game. These are 28mm miniatures. The three heroes are metal, the rest from their Celtic Warriors box set.

Twelve Celts, angry and dirty.

The metal models are nice, though the face on the right hand guy is a little rough. The three models in this set have a lot of character, and are all different enough to keep them interesting. These three will be champions for individual units in Hail Caesar or heroes in Lord of the Rings Ancients.

These three have some big cloaks which are nice for free hand or designs if your skills flow in that direction. Mine clearly do not. Still, they needed something so I did a little bit. It looks fine from table top distances and these are gaming pieces.

Patterned cloaks.

I hand painted the shields for all of these. The shields are a mixture of Warlord, Wargames Factory and Black Tree Designs. Again, not great up close but fine at table top distances. I'm finding that my camera is better than my eyes.

The next guy has always struck me as more of a champion than a chieftain. He looks like the guy you send out to challenge the other side's biggest dude, and then kills him messily.

Head hunter.

The plastics are very versatile and easy to work with. They can be built in a bunch of different ways. The guys who are leaning really far forward don't match quite right on the back of the legs, but otherwise are very dynamic.

These two models use the same body but different legs and heads.

This is a different body and head, but the same legs as the top model.

These twelve models will join the Celt army that I started last year. With the exception of some skirmishers, these are the last of the sabot based miniatures. I built them when I was still playing a lot of Lord of the Rings. I had not shifted my paradigm to unit bases yet.

Lord of the Rings Ancients?!  I haven't heard of such a thing, but really, how sensible as they're a great set of rules. You've done a lovely job on these figures Aaron, especially the freehand work on the shields. To that end I've topped you up to 70 points for this mob, great work. 

From ClintB - Albitine Flag bearers (46 Points)

 Well here are some 28mm Very British Civil War (VBCW) Albitine Flag bearers. 6 Banner carriers and 2 extra officer types.

One thing we cottoned on to in our club is that unless the uniforms were distinctly different Just changing the guy carry any unit flags then the troops could be used for several different factions.

As a Result these are all Albertine Faction which support the monarchy in a VBCW. Consequently  these may be swapped out if a different faction is being played. Yes Okay we are cheapskates I admit it.

As these figures are painted for my Friend Matt I cannot tell you where they all originate. My job is just to slap paint on them.

Clearly It is a very windy and blustery day as all the flags are flapping in different directions, but once on the table top no one will notice of care enough to make a derisive comment. Flags do seem to make a difference in VBCW as they add a lot of pageantry and heraldry to the otherwise dull camo figures. It all makes the table top looks better and that can only be a good thing!

The flag staffs are sharp pointy and do stick in flesh! I know this from experience, but this time out no blood was spilt despite  a few finger jambs!


Two extra officers are also included for 8 figures in all. But they do not carry finger stabbers erhm... I mean flag poles. All the Flags are by Peter Barfield. All I had to do was cut them out and stick them on and while it does take some minutes  the 6 were probably cut and fixed in under 40 minutes. So no Complaints as nothing was badly impaled!


The last picture contains them all together along with an extra figure which I was attempting to colour match. The fact that he does not leap out make it seem that colour and tone will pass at least on a dark and heavily overcast day. I will check again in bright sunlight (should we get any) just to make sure.

It is very likely that I will be doing more VBCW figures for Matt before to long.

Thanks for looking and more on the Challenge soon.

Nice work Clint! I think the use of flags in 20th century gaming is wonderfully anachronistic, hearkening back to an age of heroes - I really like the look of them.  What rules do you use for VBCW?

These Albitinians(?!) and their brave banners will give Clint 46 points. Well done and God Save the King!

From BenitoM - Oberst Steiner (20 Points)

One of the distinctive features of the challenge is the supply of a small memento to our organiser Curt, in the form of a 28mm model aligned with the theme or topic chosen each year; this not just simply a toll to participate in the contest, but Curt will generously donate a sum of money to a local charity for every model submitted by the participants.

The theme this year is a "risk-taker, a gambler or daredevil"... I did not exactly understand what he was looking to, as a risk-taker or gambler looked to me different species. Anyway, after consulting with Curt to clarify the issue, I decided to think about characters related to the projects I was planning to use in the contest. But who could fit in that role?.

And suddenly I saw the light: what better choice that very same Oberst Steiner (Michael Caine) in The Eagle has Landed; the true (albeit fictional) daredevil and risk-taker, who jumped behind the enemy lines (England) to kill Prime Minister Churchill in a suicidal attempt to reverse the course of a lost war and was willing to sacrifice himself to save his men.

The model is a Warlord reference and I have painted as he is featured in the film: German Lustwaffe blue officer hat, black leather fly jackect, British paratrooper trousers and jumping boots (you may remember than in the film, the commando unit arrived to England disguised as Polish paratroopers under British service),  Sten Gun and the Cross of Iron in the neck.

A joy to paint, of course I acquired two models, one for Curt and the other to lead my Fallschirmjager unit on the table.

Brilliant! Steiner is an excellent example of a 'risk-taker'. 'The Eagle has Landed' is one of my all-time favorite war movies. Warlord provided a fabulous casting of Steiner and you've done a cracking job on him Benito. I wonder if they'll ever produce any of the other characters from the film. A Devlin, Col. Pitts or Molly would be great (Ahh, Jenny Agutter was lovely in that film..., well, she is pretty much lovely in anything she's done actually... <ahem>).

Benito will get 20 points for Oberst Steiner and a great big Thank You from me!

From KyleC - Even MOAR American reinforcements... (145 Points)

A call through to HQ brings us some more units, this time of the special weapon variety..

For Christmas I was lucky enough to receive some more models here to paint up for this army :)

2 blisters of Special weapons ( a sniper, bazooka, flamethrower, plus loaders each ), HQ blister ( Lieutenant, 2 Medics, Comms and a dying dude...)

These were all painted pretty straightforwardly though in the end..

The above 4 models however were conversions made from the Warlords Italian Wars Hunting Party..

Taking the dogs, and converting them up with USMC plastics from Warlords. The crouched one was kept mostly intact there for both conversions. I snipped the heads off, shaved down the puffy sleeves, and side sword. Then added a ton of baggage to the model, a new head, and some paint.

The standing up dog, I clipped off the figure at the knee. Shaved it down, and then found some standing plastics that could be fit to the italian leg and foot. In the end I think they turned out well enough, even if they took a while to get converted and ready for paint :)

And the last set of models are the pack mules ready to help bring some AT guns to the wilderness of the pacific islands.

The models were stock for the mules, but the figures to stand with them I wanted them to tell more of a story. So the guy with the gun had his right arm converted to make it so that he can hold his gun up on his shoulder. The other one I wanted him to look like he was trying to negotiate with the mule to get him to move faster. Again some re-jigging of the right arm there to make it fit above the mule.

So another 25 models ready for the field, and 6 animals to assist them with :)

Now for some tanks... first Sherman in the works... lots of trial and errors to happen here I believe..

Expect some finished photos soon ;) And more reinforcements are in the post as we speak ;)

Great conversion work Kyle! I really like how these turned out. I also enjoy it when people take the time to do up non-combatant figures like your pack mules. They add a nice bit of set-dressing to a tabletop. Well done.

I'll give you some bonus points for the conversions so 145 points total. Nice!