From PaulS: Beware the dark (155 Points)

It has now been a few weeks since the last update and my work air miles have gone up a fair chunk, so it is nice to finally be able to put a few more bits and pieces up on the blog towards the weirdest of weird war.

On the sane end of the spectrum we have a few more german infantry. Most of these are plastics from Warlord's fallschirmjager and Grenadier kits mixed up for a late war/reduced resources look. There is one metal minelayer in there too. I can't remember if he is in this group or in the Fallschirmjagers.

And a nice selection of Fallshirmjager specialists and officers to drop behind enemy lines. These are a combination of the Bolt Action plastics and metals. Much as I like the options available in the plastics, the metal figures have a lot more personality to the sculpts, even if some of the faces are wonky at times.

In the first step towards weirdness is a full squad of Black Sun infantry from Modiphius' Achtung! Cthulhu range. These lot are multipart metals with some very delicate parts. Scale wise they are mych finer than  Black coats, black helmets and black uniforms... dear god. The photo really isn't doing them justice as it is bringing some of the highlights to the surface... but I swear... never again. These may well be going on the repaint pile later and getting a different colour or another three layers of black wash :/

In addition to the Black Sun troops, we've got three Nightgaunts for Black Sun to summon and use to terrorise the poor allies. Again, these are form the Modiphius range and... once again. NEVER AGAIN! Each of these is about 7 parts. Yep, 7 parts for each of those 28mm figures. Each horn and wing is separate as well as some arms and legs... all of which are far too fragile to pin, so it is a frustrating exercise of losing bits to the floor-god, gluing bits to fingers and fingers to each other. After all that frustration, now it turns out that the paint job looks awful on camera too. What is going on this week?

The final addition to the crowd is yet another Modiphius model. This time it is one of their newer one piece resin characters, which is a much nicer sculpt. I can't for the life of me remember who it is supposed to be, or even if it is Axis or Allied. It isn't even up for sale yet, so I can't go and check :/

The last picture for this week doesn't count towards the score as it is a clearer picture of the zombies from last time around. Bits and pieces from the various Warlord plastics combined with some of Mantic's zombie parts.

This week totals to 31 28mm figures to add to the score. Lets hope that the next batch of figures is a little less frustrating and a little quicker in coming.

ByronM: Great collection of models here Paul!  I really enjoy how you mix and match parts from different kits to make some of your figures work for what you want.  All of these are great paint jobs, and I feel your pain about doing black figs, they never turn out as we would like them do they?  They look good from here though, they just lack contrast, but that is part of the point of them, right?  

Keep up the good work and I hope you get some more time around the house to paint rather than gallivanting about for work, I know how that gets old fast.  Anyway, 155 points are added to your total.

From JohnM: Now for Something Completely Different (48 Points)

It is with some hesitation as well as enormous trepidation that I post photos of my next submission. I believe that the subject matter is held very important to at least 4 of my fellow challengers, including our leader Curt and the Wednesday minion Byron. My friend Iannick as well as Greg, one of the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts, also appear to be deeply immersed in this bizarre (to me anyway) fantasy project. Not only are they all superb painters but they all appear to have a broad knowledge of something called the Horus Heresy.

So why, I ask myself, have I become involved. I had noticed, with only a passing interest, submissions from our western friends over the last few challenges of bases of colourful little figures and vehicles. They looked cool and I had a vague idea that they had something to do with Games Workshop but that was about it. In a recent visit to Iannick's for some gaming, I happened to notice some of these tiny figures in purple in his painting room. Iannick is really quiet an excellent painter, his figures are always carefully and well painted and he really does a superb job on basing. I was immediately taken with the idea of painting some myself. 

I kept quiet hoping it would pass but I could not get the idea out of my head. I then starting emailing Iannick multiple times each day and over a couple of weeks he very patiently explained Epic 30K to me. Now I have to admit, I still have no idea what the whole thing is about, I know it has something to do with a dystopian future. I know it is in the Warhammer 40K world and that it is it. I am unlikely to read any of the books, of which I understand there are several. 

But I have to say despite all this, I really enjoyed researching the army lists, putting together the OB and painting the figures. I have to say an enormous thanks to Iannick who was very patient with my questions; directing me to the source material, correcting my mistakes and instructing me in the basing of the army.

I wanted a red army, and it had to be a Loyalist faction in the Horus Heresy as Iannick's IIIrd Legion, the Emperor's Children is a Traitor faction. A quick flick through the lists and I was left with the IXth Legion, the Blood Angels. So it started, a quick trip to eBay provided me with an adequate number of figures to start things up. Further arduous research through the internet and looking at many photos of epic armies left me with a painting scheme and off I went.

Since this has already been quite a long post I think, I will stop now and just present you with my first line detachment with it's three supports. I will discuss how I painted and based the figures when I present my second detachment. If I have done my calculations correctly, I believe this first grouping is 975 points of a planned 3000+ point core force.

Legion Tactical Detachment

Rhino Transports

I went with a red/brass colour scheme

Eight Tactical Squads, I found these particularly tough to paint and to base. 

First Support: Legion Dreadnought Talon Squadron

If I have it right, these are dead or severely wounded Space Marines who get put in Mechs!

Second Support: Legion Vindicator Squadron

Third Support: Legion Sicaran Battle Squadron

I really enjoyed painting these.

Well, I have to reiterate that this is a fun project and quite a change from painting 28mm figures. I know my efforts are a poor comparison to those of Byron, Curt, Greg and Iannicks' beautiful creations, but I am hoping they will serve me well on the battlefield. More to come......

I should also say that I have used the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts basing standard for Epic 30k with the hope (and I am sure Iannick will second this) that our western friends will come to Montreal sometime in the future for an Epic Encounter.

I believe their point value for the challenge is 24 (vehicles), 4 (mechs), 20 (figures) for a total of 48 points. It was a lot of work.

ByronM: I would not short sell your stuff John, they look excellent, especially for a colour like Red that is hard to work with! There is nothing wrong with them at all!   Your colours and brush work are excellent. 

I think the only thing that could be done to improve is a little harsh edge highlight and chipping.  However at this scale its hard to pull off, but it is one thing that Greg does to his that really make them pop.  I believe he learned the technique to do it from Tacobat (another blogger that obsesses over this stuff and is an amazing painter).  If you wanted to punch them up, I would try that.  Honestly though, they look very good as they stand now, so they do not "need" it, I would be thrilled to play against these any time.

Wednesday Minion reporting in...

Hello everyone, Your Wednesday minion is in and reporting for duty.

Well, it looked like today was going to be a slow day, as there was only two messages from the Wednesday crew about entries, so I wasn't really worried about getting started early today.  However, when I checked today there are at least 5 entries so far to go live!  Hurray and thank you guys!


So, let's get on with it and get to a bunch of great looking posts, including (but not limited too):

• Some Chaos Warriors
• Strange Wars Figures
• Some Epic 30k madness
• Strange French vehicles
• Oh, and of course some more Halflings

Hope you all enjoy the day and the coming posts!  Oh, and of course....

From Sean M: Slaves to Darkness: Part 1, plus other stuff (60 points)

Inspiration is a fickle thing.

Part of my impetus to compete in the contest was to give me the gumption to clear away the backlog from the painting drawers. You know, those Plano cabinets you've been filling with those cherished finds that "I'll get around to someday!" Well, today's submission (hur, hur, you'll get it later) is a chance to clear our the odds and sods that I've been collecting for decades to make an GW OldHammer style Chaos Warband.

So, every warband needs a boss, so let's start with a Champion of Slaanesh. This guy/gal(?) started life as a MidHammer Chaos Champion I got from a bits box at Campaign Outfitters, I believe. It was just a torso/legs, so a sort thru the bitz box was needed to add some limbs, and a head. Although, heads were optional back in the OldHammer days.

So, as the model indicates, this Champion has 26-35 Crab-Like Claws, 36-50 Hermaphordite and 66-73 Chaos Familiar. The left arm and cloak are off of a NewHammer Chaos Warrior, the right off of a Chaos Squat and the head from a 4th ed High Elf. Purple will be the colour to tie all of this together.

Alan and Paul: Nice to see a second entry today where a Challenger was able to dust off some figures that had been needing some pigmenty love for decades. This is a scary looking bunch that just screams Dragon Rampant to me. The purple is a good scheme, and kudos for the conversion work. I count ten figures on foot and one mounted, giving you 60 points. Let me know if I have miscounted anything!

From BrendonW - Mongols and Knights (90 points)

4 x Perry Knights and 5 x FireForge Mongol Cavalry all 28mm.

Two of these Knights have had the heroic princely treatment with gold features to make them targets on the table top. They must have more money than the other Knights perhaps.

Four of these Mongols have armoured torsos from a Gripping Beast Arab box.

That's all for this week. Cheers and happy painting all the way from Darwin, Australia.

Alan and Paul: Nice work, Brendon! I love the flexibility that plastic figures provide, and swapping over armoured bodies to give the Mongols more variety is a great idea. Great basework, as well. I'm interested in what your project(s) with these figures will be?

From GregB: 28mm Crusaders (54 points)

28mm Crusading troops from Perry Miniatures

The Crusades have always fascinated me, and the notion of gaming the period has captivated me for a long time. But I have avoided diving into the period for a variety of reasons over the years - the more I studied, it felt like the less I knew, and I wasn't sure where or how to get started figure wise, and the hesitation was enough to keep me avoiding it.  Some cool submissions in this edition of Painting Challenge (like Stephen S's Hospitallers), however, finally inspired me and decided to jump in.  After pondering some different scales and rules, I figured the quickest route to getting a game in would be a skirmish game.  With that in mind I thought I would start with SAGA.  For figures, I opted for the wonderful 28mm sculpts from the Perry twins.

These figures represent the beginnings of a four-point Crusader warband for SAGA. There are eight warriors and one knight (the test model).  These figures arrived on Friday night and I was pretty keen to get started so I spent that night and the next day preparing and priming the figures, with paint beginning on Sunday.  For the foot troops I used some flattened steel spears I had lying around, while the Knight retains the cast pewter lance which came with him.  I love the steel spears, and I can see why folks go for them...

While SAGA is a skirmish game, I based the figures on squares/rectangles so they could slot into movement trays to take part in games of "Hail Caesar" that I hope to do sometime well down the road.  That will be a long time away, but a guy can daydream, right? :)

Some fun freehand painting on the shields - tried to do some very simple mono-coloured ones to match some more complex ones as well

Painting fellows wearing chain mail is relatively straightforward, but as I had been contemplating this project one major stumbling block in my mind has always been the shields - specifically the patterns on them.  I hoped to work around that using decals from LBMS, but my order is nowhere to be seen yet in the mail, and I was so fired up by the surprising success of the Winnipeg Jets over the weekend I didn't want to wait to get started, so I just did the best I could by panting freehand.  It turned out OK.  I have still have no idea what the story is with the patterns on the shields, but for now, I'm trying to "fake it till I make it."

Take that Iannick! The Winnipeg Jets inspired with a surprise road victory in Montreal on Sunday...

I find preparing the Perry castings can be a chore, but as Curt has often said to me it's worth it in the end, as these were a real joy to paint and I absolutely love the sculpts.  It's always a great feeling when a new project offers such a nice jolt.

The spears are flattened steel - this is the first time I have used them, and I see why people prefer them...

While these figures are meant to take part in games set in the Crusades, I suspect they might do for a variety of different settings where Normans were involved, from battles in Italy and Sicily to service as mercenaries for a later Byzantine force, among a few options.

The star of any Crusading setting - a Knight! Can't wait to finish more of these fellows.

A big "thank you" to fellow Challengers for their inspiration, and in particular to MartinN and Peter for suggesting rules, source materials and answering a number of dumb questions!

This submission has eight 28mm foot figures and one mounted 28mm figure, which should get me about 50 points. This assortment represents about one third of the Crusader Warband...hopefully I can finish the balance during this Challenge, and perhaps make a start on their Saracen opponents as well.  The Hobby Gods will it!

Alan and Paul: Every great journey begins with a single step. I look forward to seeing this force grow into a SAGA warband, and then perhaps a retinue for Lion Rampant, then on sabot bases for Basic Impetus, before reaching the epic scale of Deus Vult, Hail Caesar or Sword and Spear. God Wills It! The great thing about painting figures for the First Crusade is that you can use them as a Norman warband as well. I think you have done a great job on these, from the basing on up. Special mention goes to the handpainted shields, which those who know me know I have strong opinions about. Indeed, I have been known to rant. LBM decals are beautiful, don't get me wrong, but the true test of a hero is whether he or she eschews such things and with grim determination seizes the paintbrush and makes something truly individual. I salute you, sir, and give you an extra 4 points for your efforts.

From AnthonyO - US Airborne, French Dragon Portees and even more Hinds (225 points)

This has been an exciting week for me as I have finished the Russians for Team Yankee with these last six Hinds, added to my Early War 28mm French with some brand new miniatures and I started a new force of 28mm US Airborne.

1:100 Russian Hinds - Battlefront - Team Yankee - 60 Points

These are the last six Hinds that I will ever do, big call I know but after doing ten all now up I have had enough. The rotor assembly is very painful and brittle and caused many a grey hair to form and fingers to be stuck together during construction. Other then that they are great kits to paint and look very menacing on the table.

28mm Crusader Miniatures French Dragon Portes - 50 Points

I am very excited about these miniatures which have only just come out from Crusader Miniatures. As a French fanatic for Bolt Action I have an extensive collection of forces from the Battle of France through to the Desert fighting in North Africa so any chance to add to them with new miniatures and I will jump at it. I am still doing research into the application of the units in the French Army however I understand them to be motorcycle troops who formed part of the Regular French standing Army and were well trained and equipped. They would dismount to fight as shown here and currently I am not aware of any motorcycle mounted available however I am hopeful Crusader will follow up this release with those.

The miniatures are beautiful, well sculpted and cast and with enough variety to kit out a Bolt Action reinforced platoon without to much replication. Expect more of these as the challenge progresses.

28mm Artizan Miniatures US Airborne - 90 Points

Ok so last week I made the mistake of watching Band of Brothers again whilst painting my Dragon Portes. I failed the morale check and all of a sudden I had the entire Artizan collection of Airborne on my paint desk. I just can't explain how nice these miniatures are I quickly decided that they are going to be my showcase army of 2017. Again expect more of these as the challenge winds down.

For this week I have painted 12 infantry troops and 3 artillery crewman along with an Airborne 57mm Anti-Tank gun.

Finally a little Easter Egg if you have made it this far is my share of the Curtgeld, a 28mm Landsknecht member of a looting party. My share is done and is to be shipped off to the other members of the crew so they can put the full party together.

Alan and Paul: 'Failed my morale check..' - hah! Love it! It has been a real treat seeing your entries each week, and these are my favourite of the challenge so far. The Hinds are great, but I am blown away by the French, and particularly by the US Paras. I really admire the way that you manage to get so much depth of tone into figures that could easily end up looking pretty drab. Just lovely stuff! I look forward to basing up the Landsknecht along with the efforts of the other Odinians.

As for the points, the six Hinds get you 60 points, the 26 x 28mm figures earn you 130 points, with 10 for the gun and 20 extra for the Curtgeld. That's 220 points, but I'm adding another five in recognition of just what a great job you have done with the US Airborne.

From ChrisH - Tuesday's Mixed Bag (107 points)

I may just get there, well that is the hope. A mere 700 points this year and I still think I have bitten off more than I can chew. Work just got a whole lot busier as my Boss if off on paternity leave with his wife's first born and I have stepped into his shoes. Alas I spend my nights without a brush in hand. But to stay sane I get to lick the point into shape and splash the occasional colour on some old toys. In this case some Gripping Beast Dark age minis to go with my growing horde for SAGA and some really old Metal Magic Sci-fi troopers. Points wise 21 X 28mm at 5 each (based this time hehehe) I hope to net 105.

 Enough for the intro now onto the miniatures.

More Modern miniatures than those below. Infinity Nomads both painted just before CanCon 2017 but I only used the one on the right. He actually did rather well but seemed to take a bullet in every game.

Back shot, needs more work, oh well no time.

10+ year old gripping beat shield wall to add to my collection

Metal Magic (from Germany) Sci-Fi troopers, they were meant to be Japanese? I think but I have no paperwork to remember them by. These are the same company that made the brilliant Asterix miniatures. Oh how I want those figures. But they are out of my price range on evil-bay.

Purchased 15+ years ago and painted up for the new Osprey Black ops rules set I picked up in January.

Command for the section. What I like about these is the deep detail on all the figures. They take a wash rather well and even finger nails are present. I would love to know who the sculptor was and what they are up to now.

Section part a, of course there are more details to add, the webbing and packs need a khaki and the guns could do with further highlight. The "hacker"/medic/coms operator? in the middle has some great little button controllers that scream out for reds and yellows but no time.

Section part b, I tried a really simple desert style to practice on as I have some of the Empress Miniatures Australians that were bought in the Kickstarter they did around 2? years ago. The brown is a bit bright and the "blobs" a bit big for modern camo but I hope to refine it. Thanks for looking.

Alan and Paul: Well you have certainly managed to get an eclectic bunch finished this week, and a very respectable output given the selfishness of your boss in having a baby during the Challenge. Keep on plugging away there! I'm very taken with the Metal Magic troopers in particular. Never heard of this company, but they look great with your paintjob, and it must be very satisfying getting some paint on them after all this time. I've added a couple of extra points for the hand painted shields.