From KeithS: A Mishmash Medley (262 points)

Well, unfortunately I got distracted by real life and failed to post last weekend.  Good news, though, is that means more stuff this weekend!  I'm not kidding when I say mishmash - I got all kinds of stuff this time around as I work through the old lead I have, and the continual stream I keep buying on eBay and at cons.  My wife thinks I have a problem and she is probably right, as usual.

First up, though is the completion of my 28mm Irish warband for Saga.  There are 13 of these chaps, 12 warriors and their boss.  As with previous figures, these are all from Gripping Beast.

One of the four-man groups has great axes.  It's nice to have a few guys with unusual weapons.

 Some of the chaps from behind.  The boss has the red cloak and seems to be pointing with his sword (always easy to find a boss figure - they're usually pointers!).  I gave them a bit fancier attire than the rank and file but, being Dark Age Irish, nothing too fancy.  I also used more greens than usual because, you know, Irish.

And the lads form another angle.  That's it for the Irish and my Saga painting this year!

My next batch was a group of 24 Viking types, mainly from Grenadier (I think?).  Anyway, I based this lot for use with D&D, so they get dungeon bases.  You never know when a player will sound a Horn of Valhalla and get a horde of Vikings to appear!

I liked the horn figure.  But I really liked the guy to the right. He appeared to be in the process of dying, holding his chest.  There was nothing there, though, so I drilled out his hand and glued a very small (1/72 scale) mace and painted it to look like a crossbow bolt.  Poor guy, he also appears to have dropped his axe.

A few more typical of this lot, one with a battleaxe and the standard-bearer.  Not sure what use a standard bearer would be in a dungeon, but what are ya gonna do?

Two more.  Most were in mail but a few were not.  Also, almost all of them had shields, but the majority of them were slung over their backs.  These are exceptions.

Some of the shields.  Most were plain wood and turned out nicely.  The rest got hand painting, though of those only a few were not already sculpted to have quartered colors.  And, as always, I went with squiggly dragons because that's about all I am good at free hand!

Next up this week is a mixed collection of undead.  They are 25mm from Ral Partha, relatively recent acquisitions form their last Kickstarter.  I didn't buy them -- my dad went huge into that Kickstarter and then immediately dumped a huge load of undead on me!  Alas for my woes.  The first group are three riders, two Wraiths atop Nightmares and one riding a Hell Hound.  I based these all for outdoor use, hopefully for some games of Chainmail later this year.

The Nightmares and riders from the side.  I was trying for a flame effect on the manes...turned out OK, if not terribly flamey.

These are followed by five Wraiths on foot.  Nothing too unusual here, just your average collection of undead folks hanging out.

I also did a trio of ghosts (or something).  They're pleasant folks, always reaching out for a hug.

From the back.  I tried some color variations for fun, but nothing too weird.

This last guy?  I dunno...he didn't fit in with any of my other batches I have in queue so I just threw him in with this one.  I suppose he could be an anti-paladin or evil hero.  He looks sinister enough.

That's all for this time.  Next up in queue are a bunch of wizards and witches for use with Chainmail and other non-dungeon games.  I'm tracking 37 28mm and 15 25mm figures (counting mounts) for a cool 260 points.  Hopefully I will get back to regular weekly posts.  This one is a little ridiculously long!

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Wow Keith!  What a great post, so much to like here.  That's a great horde of Vikings and lovely work on the flaming Nightmares too.  Great to have you back posting and a wonderful 262 points to the tally. (A couple of extra for conversion and shield painting.)

From BrendonW: Goblin Legion (180 points)

32 x Goblin Infantry and 2 x Goblin Cavalry, 28mm, Plastic, Games Workshop.

The addition of the Spider riding goblins gives no game bonus. It's just my way of adding to the look of the unit and help fill up the huge base. I had no intention of adding them when I started this unit but the idea popped into my head when I thought the base was looking a little sparse.  Game wise perhaps this can help with identifying a unit with a magic item perhaps. This is a Legion size unit for Kings of War. A Legion in Kings of War rules represents 60 infantry on 20mm square bases. I would rather not paint 60 Goblins for only one unit.

The two Spider dudes are actually the first of more to come as the Army will get it's own Cavalry unit or two. Actually that will be my goal for the next submission.

Originally in the incomplete Night Goblins on Spiders project way, way back when I was making them for Warhammer I painted them black with Red stripes. For this project they are Brown with almost White stripes. Here in Australia we have many poisonous spiders and I am more fearful of a bite from a White Tail than a Red Back. Go Google what happens....I dare you.  These evil Goblin spiders look nothing like real White Tails.....but they have a White stripe or two :). 

Some of you may have noticed that these formerly hard shell spiders now have hairy bodies. I achieved this by gluing the same green flock as the base on them then spray with primer to help seal it on. Some of the spider sculpts have a skull pattern and that just did not appeal to me so flocking them takes care of that.

There is enough gaps on this base that I hope to fill with more Goblins but I want to keep the unit construction going so I will see how far I can stretch my collection.

Cheers from Brendon

Minion bit here... :)

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You've really hit your stride with these Goblins Brendon, another awesome stand Sir!  I love the colour palette that you are using and the introduction of the spider cavalry is just inspired.  Ingenious idea to give them that hairy body look too, although I have to confess that I have not been brave enough to go and Google spider bites yet - far too early in the morning for all that.  Absolutely splendid work and a smashing 180 points to the tally.

From PeteF: We Stand Together - or "Oh Yes, I said some words" (6 points)

Project 4 is Game of Thrones conversions. This week I finished a treacherous Frey bannerman.

Frey soldier - usually late for battle

His head is from the Frostgrave soldiers sprue - where one of the heads has the Frey signature rubbish looking cap thingy - and his body is from Gripping Beast's Dark Ages Warriors. The shield also came from Frostgrave Soldiers. Since he is a Frey he has no neck, and possibly no spine. If you are not familiar with the show - the Freys are lilly-livered bad guys who get the upper hand through deceit. Their castle is The Twins with a keep each side of a big river, joined by a bridge.

The shield was handpainted - I'm wondering if these would look better if I printed them onto transfer paper (something I'm thinking of using for Project 8 - Samurai).

For guidance I got hold of Painting War: Dark Ages - I love the Painting War magazines/books for their ideas on colours (you can never have too many pots of paint, although now it's so difficult to find the right one I've accidentally bought some duplicates) and techniques. I tried layering/glazing for the tunic using the monk's habit recipe from the book. I have a way to go before getting Alberto Mateos level results!

Opponents say this is the most common view of a Frey - although not this close 

Only one figure this week - partly due to the musician project and partly due to burnout from last week's highlanders.

1 x 28mm foot. 5 points. Gripping Beast and North Star.

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Well done Pete, at least you managed to get something painted and posted, I failed again this week.  Lovely conversion and just look at that freehand painting on the shield.  5 points for the miniature and another 1 point for the skill! 

From ByronM - Surprise Surprise.... more greeks (95 points)

Sorry if the weekly repetition is getting a bit boring by this point everyone but look at it this way, at least we are roughly half way through, so you only have 6 more weeks of weekly Greek units to survive through. 

First up this week is a command stand made up of a couple of awesome figures from Gorgon Studios sculpted by Steve Saleh.  I love these figures, they just ooze character.  I had never heard of Steve before I accidentally found these figures and the snow lord then mentioned that Steve was one of his favourite sculptors and that I could find more of his work over at Foundries site.  I have to admit that I rarely follow sculptors (other than really liking Mike McVeys work), but that is more to do with being a computer geek and having issues with names more than anything.  Tell me your IP address or MAC address in hex and I can remember it forever, tell me your name and it's wiped from memory 20 seconds later. ANYWAY..... back to the point....

These figures are roughly the same size as the crappy Warlord Spartans, but are much beefier, partly due to being clad in their traditional cloaks but more than that they are just bulkier in general.  They look bigger next to the other figures but not enough that I don't feel ok using them. 

The character that they give is amazing, they have so much facial detail, hair detail and just look the part.  I have already ordered a bunch more of his work from Foundry so watch for it later this challenge.  Also, due to these being better looking figures and holding my interest more, I spent a lot more time working on them.  I believe the flesh and the reds are much cleaner and have more depth on these due to that time spent.

After working on such great sculpts, it was back to the mediocrity that is the Warlord (Immortal) Greeks.  I painted up another unit as Spartans to match the command stand, but spent less time on them than the characters, again just basic "get'er done" level painting.  Once again though, despite shortcuts, I think they look OK ranked up on the table, so all is good.

 I did screw up on this unit though, I had meant this to be a third unit with a distinctly different colour on the shield.  So I grabbed my decal sheet, saw that white and black was missing so red must be the next colour to put on, right?  I put all the red ones on, then went to take pictures and noticed the other unit sitting on the shelf in the other room with red already.  Damn it!  Worse, no black unit done.  So, can you guess whats coming next week?

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I don't know about everyone else Byron, but I am really enjoying the Greeks!  I love that Command Stand, fabulous work with such a great depth of colour on the cloaks.  Can't wait to see this lot altogether at the end of the challenge, it promises to be quite a spectacle.  95 more points to that tally Sir.

From TeemuL: Nurgle Chaos Warriors (25 points)

It was supposed to be more this week, some Khorne and etc, but since this week was cut short due to an annual "Weekend in the middle of the nowhere with friends and beer" boardgame event, I only managed to have these 5 jolly fellows done and something for the bonus round.

These 5 are classic plastic Chaos Warriors from early 90s I think. They are supposed to have shields as well, but since I didn't have enough of them, I'm waiting for a friend of mine to copy more of them to me (using some molding and casting magic).

They are very simple paint jobs, I wanted to make them look clean compared to the modern casts. They are green though, so you know they are Nurgle even without extra tentacles, wounds, guts, flies etc. The one with the yellow helmet is the unit champion. I plan to convert a musician and standard bearer later along with the reinforcements.

5 times 5 is 25 points.

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What a classic Old School start to the Saturday Showcase Teemu, great job Sir.  Sounds like you have had a great week too, beer and boardgames - what's not to like?  Another 25 points to your tally Sir.

What a week!

Well what a week, no really what week!  There I was minding my own business, looking forward to another spell at the brushes on Saturday morning when we hear that we are going to be inspected!  It doesn’t matter how well prepared you think you are, these things are never fun and just the mere mention of inspection can send shivers down the the most senior of teachers.  Still we have survived and, by all accounts, made a good fist of it so hopefully that means we will be left alone for a couple of years – we shall see!  So what with all the excitement with the day job and the builders knocking chunks out of ‘Awdry Towers’ it has not been the calmest of weeks.

Fortunately it's not all about me and once again I am delighted to share some more splendid examples of brushmanship.  Of course today is also the deadline for the third bonus round, 'Musician' so let’s see some more outstanding entries please.

 On with the Saturday Showcase!

From BenF: Bagging the Hun 1/300 Aircraft and 1/1200 Ships (108 Points)

Well, it's been an eventful few weeks for me, with a trip to the Snowy Mountains taking up a decent chunk of my painting time before heading back to work this Monday just gone. The trip was great, getting to spend some time with friends and climbing to the top of the tallest mountain in Australia felt like an achievement, even if it's no monster by international standards. While the 14km round trip was rather challenging, the fact that it is largely paved should tell you that i'm no Sir Edmund Hilary! :)

As far as painting goes, i've managed to get a bit completed, though i've not managed a blog update until now. As Bag the Hun 2 is continuing to go great guns at the club, this submission is firmly centred on this project.

First off, the first of my Fleet Air Arm aircraft. I've always found the FAA fascinating. Besides the carriers, the fact that they had to struggle with aircraft and equipment which was not up to the standards of that used by the RAF, let alone the Luftwaffe. While i've got Sea Gladiators, Sea Hurricanes, Martlets, Skuas, Albacores and even a Roc in the painting queue, i've started off my FAA force with a flight of Fairey Fulmars. The Fulmar was designed to fit in with the RNs view that carrier based aircraft must have a pilot and telegraphist/air gunner. While hardly as sleek as the Spitfire, I do like the no-nonsense lines of the Fulmars. These are marked up for the 806th Naval Air Squadron, based on the HMS Illustrious during it's time in the Med protecting the Malta Convoys during 1941. The models are Heroics and Ros, declas are from Dom's Decals. This lot has already served in a game, tangling with a dozen Savoia SM.79 bombers over the Med, so I've included a photo I took from the game of Sub/Lt. H. 'Slippers' Duncan bagging an 'Eyetie'.

Continuing with the naval theme, here are some 1/1200 and 1/1250 scale ships to be defended or attacked in BTH2 games, depending on the scenario. I've based these using artists impasto gel, and find that the scale works perfectly for BTH2. This was my first attempt with Naval figures, and i'm pretty happy with the way they've turned out. The scale difference looks 'right' with fighters and bombers swirling in the air above the ships. Below is a Type IXC U-Boat, the U-805 and a Räumboote, or R-Boat minesweeping motor launch, the R-401. Both are Neptun from eBay which i've repainted.

Below is the HMS Hotspur, an H-Class destroyer. This is a decent size, coming in at just under 10cm. The Hotspur is another Neptun repaint. I've got a couple of Bogue class escort carriers and an HMS Illustrious on the way from eBayland. The Escorts are around 14cm, and the Lusty is over 20, i'm looking forward to painting them up.

Next, a pair of Merchantment. I wanted to keep these relatively generic so that I can use them for Allied or Axis convoys. These are Len Deighton sculpts from eBay which I've repainted. I do plan on getting some larger merchantmen as targets for FW200 Condors and Sunderlands over the North Atlantic and North Sea.

Next up, we're back over dry land with an Avro Anson. The Anson was used as for reconnaissance, light bombing, and as a utility aircraft. This one is marked up from No.326 Squadron in 1940. This model is H&R also. Decals are from Dom's.

Next, we have two schwarms of Messerschmitt Bf 109E-4s. I had two of these painted up previously, and together with these lots that is a complete staffel. They're marked up from Jagdgeschwader 2 'Richtofen', and one of the aircraft is painted up as that of Luftwaffe experten (or top ace) Helmut Wick. The engine cowling has a small blue triangle with an approximation of the yellow sword and 'Horrido' written on the original. The mottled sides of Wick's aircraft was also noteably darker than other aircraft of JG2, so I've tried to give this effect. These aircraft are all from Scotia, declas from Doms.

Next, some British Anti Air bases in the form of two 3.7" AA Guns and a command base with an Austin Tilly and a Bedford MWC tanker. While these will work for BTH2, they can also serve with my Blitzkrieg Commander forces. All equipment is from H&R, decals are i-96 and Dom's.

Finally, here's a picture of me at the top of Mt. Kosciusko, I'm on the left wearing the blue shirt.

Next up, i'm working on some more aircraft, Blenheims, Fairey Battles and Heinkel He-111s along with some FAA odds and sods.

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What a brilliant post, Ben! 

It strikes particularly close to home as Sarah and I holidayed in Malta this autumn. We both had a great time taking in the newly renovated National War Museum at St. Elmo which had an entire wing dedicated to the WWII siege of the island. It was amazing and I heartily recommend it to anyone who loves a good museum.

Anyway, back to your fabulous entry. Your Fulmars, Messerschmitts and Anson are terrific. I especially like the work you spent on the canopies and the decals as they really finish the models off nicely. The 1:1200 ships are real lumps of goodness as well (love the basing). I've not seen a U-Boat in this scale before and it really is impressive. I agree with you on the great use of scale distortion, in having 1:300 scale aircraft over 1:1200 ships - the forced perspective is a brilliant touch.

Finally, that's a great picture of you and your friends atop Mt. Kosciusko - it looks to have been a fine day out.

I'm counting the 1:1200 ships with their nautical basework as 28mm vehicles so this will plunk you in at 108 points. Well done Ben!

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