From RhysH - Rohan and proxy Wildmen of Dunland (85 Points)

Rhys spent the last two weeks working on this entry, mostly the two Rohan heroes on their horses. This post is, firstly, the two new Rohan heroes from the recent movie, the sons of Helm Hammerhand. The second part is some Warlord Games Vikings that Rhys is going to proxy in as Wildmen of Dunland.

The brothers. I noticed that I put the foot versions next to their brother rather than their own mounted version.

These models are good representations of the new state of the art that GW brings to plastics. The detail is superb but the conversion value is pretty much limited to weapon swaps, though Zorpa Zorp did some nice work with Greenstuff on his YouTube channel so it is possible.

Rhys is going for the winter fighting around Helm's Deep on these models, hence the snow bases. 

Rhys spent a lot of time on these models. They are his only Rohan and he wanted to do them justice. I think we need to work on his washes some more. He's been using them more and I think they really make the details pop where he did.

The models are very dynamic. I have a pretty serious dislike for the old Rohan horses, caused in part by the bin full of broken ones on my shelf and partly by the static, sameness of them. Rhys really made these two pop. He used Speed Paints for the first time and really liked them on the horses.

Next up is a group of Warlord Games Vikings. We're both usually a fan of Warlord but I think they bought this set off of someone else and they, frankly, suck. I showed Rhys the Victrix set and that's the one he wanted, but these were available on Amazon for his Christmas money and Victrix was not.

These are Warlord metals. Much better than the plastics, but I think Rhys had a priming problem since we are in the hand priming season in Colorado. We lost some of the detail, especially on the face of the guy on the right.

Rhys said he really enjoyed painting these. We discussed the use of washes on the grey hair but he wanted them to be "wintery" so he left them as is.

My photography didn't really capture the work he put in on the cape, but he tried his hand at layering on this, as well as the capes of the Rohan brothers. It definitely worked better live than what I captured here.

Last up is the two handed wildmen. The less said the better.

Rhys has a bunch more of these guys but has sort of stalled out on them due to just not liking the scuplts so we'll see if he pushes through or changes gears.

And the side shot.

This entry is:

13 x 28mm foot models x 5 = 65 pts

2 x 28mm mounted models x 10 = 20 pts

Total = 85 pts

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Good work here Rhys, especially with those mounted Rohan models. I like that you're brining in more shading and highlighting into your painting. It really pays off. I definitely sympathize with you on the early GW plastic horses as I had several that broke near the hoof - VERY annoying. As to winter priming, I would recommend a cheap airbrush  (the ones with their own internal compressor in the handgrip) along with any of the Vallejo series of airbrush primer paints. They have been working well for me. Here's a link to one that has had decent reviews. I hope this helps!

- Curt & Huck

From BenitoV: M8 Greyhound (20 points)

I had the opportunity to undust the airbrush this week, coinciding with a visit to my parents' summer house where I have all my airbrushing stuff, making a quick work on this M8 Greyhound that sadly sitting on the desk for a few years now.

The M8 was an ubiquitous light armoured vehicle at the front of the  the US and British tank spearheads in the Second World War units, seeing service since 1943. They were mostly allocated to the scout units of the armoured divisions, but also served in independent formations attached to infantry divisions.

According to Wikipedia more than 8,000 units were built of different variants during and after the war. It saw service well into the 70s in different world armies, including the Spanish Foreign Legion while patrolling the former Sahara colonies.

I painted the vehicle in a dark US Army green base; and for the panelling, I mixed the base colour with  a desert/sand yellow colour. The final step was the weathering using some AK pigments (European light Earth and Truck rust).

The model is an old 28mm resin and metal Warlord reference, that was replaced a few years ago by a new plastic reference. Quality is not too bad but the upper HMG ring over the turret (soft metal) was very feeble and difficult to affix to the turret.

You may notice that I did not add any crew. Unfortunately, I thought I had some spare models US tankers in my lead pile, but not, so I'll have to print or buy and add in the future.

This M8 in 28mm will add 20 points to my Challenge score this year. 

     

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I always enjoy your WWII work Benito, especially your efforts with vehicles. Beautiful work on this M8. Even though there may have been a few aspects that were challenging, you really did a spectacular job on the painting and weathering of this workhorse (faithful hound?). Well done!

- Curt & Huck 

   

From TeemuL: A Fistful of Skeletons [Heresy] (121 points)

One of the many sideprojects I have (I guess I don't really have any main projects:)) is this Warmaster army. I have painted couple of bases before for the previous Challenges, here's one example: Heavy Metal. In December I heard there might be other players in my area, so I decided I need to paint couple of more units to my army. I need some character at least to lead an army, but with these I have enough units for a very small army for a small battle to learn the rules. I guess. There are six bases of basic skeletons with handweapons and shields including two command bases and one base of cavalry. I have now six cavalry bases in total and some archer units from earlier painting sessions.

These are all painted with Contrast paints excluding the metal areas and freehand skulls on the shields. Basing is simple and traditional, goblin green everywhere, then some PVA glue and green sawdust and they are ready to battle on the legendary green grass graveyards of Khemri... I understand the gravestones kind of underline the fact, that these are undead from the graves, some skeletons are still emerging from underground. But why there would be battle in the graveyard? Happily this seems to be a human graveyard and all the warriors were buried with their green shields (with skull motifs) and red shafted weapons! I mean how ragtag they'd look like if they were just random unarmed people from every race in different coloured rags? No Necromancer would never accept a chaos like that!

I must say they look rather nice, grouped thightly together like this and seen from above. Quite pleasing, I'd say. And still enough details and size to actually paint them. And they can be painted in reasonable amount of time, too. Hmm... What would be an ideal "scale" for a wargamer, I guess that is a question I must ask myself (and everyone else on the internet forums). It would be much simpler, if all the miniatures would be the same size, don't you agree? :)

Here they are from the side. As you can see, they are not nicely glued to the bases... They were painted by previous owner and I stripped the paint. I tried to be clever and not remove all the basing material, believing it would make it easier to hide metal bases. Yeah, you can see. The sawdust is so light, it doesn't really cover any gaps, I need to be more careful with the next batch and add some filler to the edges. Additionally some of the strips are not in 90 degree angle, but leaning a bit forward, something I noticed too late. Or was too lazy. But I believe they look quite ok on the battlefield.

Finally a closeup of the hand painted skulls and some bony butts. Geoff has made an observation that necromancy is heresy and I will follow that idea and claim 20 bonus points for Heresy circle (which is next to the Violence circle where I were).

There are 4 cavalry models, 3 points each. And then 89 skeletons in total (I have counted two half skeletons as one full) for 1 point each. 101 points from the skeletons and 20 bonus points, 121 points!

Additionally 90 skulls on skeletons (some are too hooded to count) and 3 on banners plus 83 hand painted skulls on shields and banners.176 skulls in total.

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Oooh, Barks will be very pleased with this entry, Teemu. Wonderful work here. Tomb Kings were my first Warmaster army way back in the day and I think you've done a great job on these boney fellas. I agree, 10mm is a wonderful scale to work in and it just works so nicely for close-ranked units, giving a terrific sense of mass. Also, nice work on hand painting all those skulls on the front ranks' shields - this will please Skully McSkullface to no end. 

Well done Teemu!

- Curt & Huck

From Millsy: Back in Black... More 28mm Arabs (90 points)

G'day All,

Apparently a week off from painting black was enough and I'm back with more Arabs. This time it's another ten infantry (Gripping Beast with Fireforge Games upgrades), two cavalry (again Gripping Beast with Fireforge Games upgrades) and the last four miniatures from the Reaper Miniatures Legends of the Sands box set.

A mate pointed out if you are doing Mutatawwi'a for SAGA you are better off leaning hard into either mounted or foot troops so I added another unit to the foot collection. Simple enough to assemble, paint and base, and although they are different style minis they mix well enough with the upgrades.

The two mounted miniatures upgrade one of my earlier units to five miniatures, plus add a mounted warlord for SAGA that'll do nicely until I either buy something fancier or just stop caring this isn't a fancier figure and forget all about it.

Finally, there's four more cracking character Reaper sculpts... two rather flexible ladies (I mean they are limber, NOT from a morals POV!), a wizardy vizier type and his lovely apprentice. The latter two will also do very nicely for Frostgrave which is a nice unexpected bonus.

Points wise...

• 14 x 28mm infantry = 70 points
• 2  x 28mm cavalry = 20 points

Total: 90 points

Next up, yet more Kruleboyz. Thanks for looking!

Artist: Adani & Wolf

Album: The Irresistible Dust on the Floor

Artist: Overcoats

Album: The Fight

Artist: The Mission UK

Album: Carved in Sand

Cheers,

Millsy

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Wonderful work on these black-clad Mutatawwi'a. The little punch of colour really adds the chef's kiss to these guys, especially the shields on the mounted fellas. Your stuff really makes me want to get back to my Siege of Malta project. Inspiring stuff! I also really like your 'local colour' with the Reaper models. The vizier and the red-robed dancer are my personal faves. Well done Mr. Mills!

- Curt & Huck

From SanderS: Saxons and Stompy Robots! (330 points)

Hoi,

Last week I missed my posting window because I was busy painting up this lot! We'll start off with some more Big Stompy Robots for the Side Duel okay? As I really love Battletech I have quite a few different factions. One of those is my FedCom Aragon Borderers regiment. The colour scheme for these involves a lot of blue and to make it a bit more interesting I included some white panels. 

Next up are some of my 1:72 plastics. These are early Napoleonic Saxons in their spiffing white uniforms. I painted up a brigade as that's pretty much all the Saxon infantry I have to compliment my early war Prussian army. 

Points wise this is rather a nice amount for the leaderboard: there's the 8 mechs at 5 points each counting up to 40 points. The 3 regiments of 24 figures each in 20mm/ 1:72 is 288 points unless I am mistaken, which makes the total a whopping 328 points this week. Pretty much the closest I will be getting to a points bomb this Challenge I guess. Off to painting contributions for the circles of Hell now!

Cheers everyone!

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Holy smokes, this is quite the bomb, Sander! I always enjoy your Battletech entries as they are so wonderfully clean and colourful. I really like the saturated blue you've used and I think your choice of a few white contrasting armoured panels is spot-on. They look terrific. The same goes for your Napoleonic  Saxons. Very spiffing and tidy work here. I love the early war uniforms with the bicorne - everything is better with a bicorne, I say. The only thing better is a czapska, but I digress.

328 points? Lets round it up to 330 to include the brave banners (and because it rolls off the tongue better).

- Curt & Huck

From MartijnN: Württembergers, Saracens and Lannisters (140 points)

I have been far less productive than I would have liked this Challenge. However, I have not been completely idle. I finally had the opportunity to finish some models and, equally importantly, take some photographs.

First up are some Saracen infantry. These are from a Saga Warband set from Gripping Beast. They are metal, and the only infantry unit in the warband. I have had these for ages, and finally prepped them for this Challenge.

They came out okay, although they will not win any prizes. I used Quickshade Darktone on them, and as a result they are a bit... well, dark. But they will do. I will probably give them another coat of varnish when the weather improves, because the matt varnish I used (AK ultra matt) is very matt indeed (duh), and for these troops I am not too fond of that. Most of the shields are LBM transfers, but I didn't have enough of those so I painted some by hand. I am sure you won't be able to tell the difference. The rest of the warband are all cavalry, I will try to finish some of those before the end of the Challenge.

Next, the final company of my Württemberg infantry regiment for Sharp Practice. I have put off painting these for a long time, and I am glad they are done. Actually, they are rather a joy to paint. I mostly used contrast paints, like on their comrades done earlier. They are Piano Wargames miniatures that I 3d printed myself, and they are lovely sculpts. I think I have overcured them though, for they are rather brittle. And of course, when I took one of the NCOs off off the painting handle when it was completely finished, I broke off the bayonet...  It went flying through the room and for the life of me I could not find it. By now, it will have vanished into the vacuum cleaner I presume. I may try to replace it with another bayonet, but that is a very fiddly process. At least it broke off rather cleanly, so with a little imagination he is now simply carrying his musket without the bayonet. But a frustrating experience it was!

Finally, I have a regiment of Lannister Guardsmen from the A Song of Ice and Fire starter set. These are rather nice figures. I kept the uniforms "traditional", with lots of red and gold. I spent a little more time on these, using coloured washes and some drybrushing and minor highlighting over mostly contrast paints again, and I am fairly happy with these. 

I have prepared more ASOIAF figures, most of the remainder of the starter set, so I hope to get some of those done as well. We'll see how it goes.

So there we are. Scoring is simple:

28x 28mm foot @5 = 140 points

And 3 squirrels, if I remember to fill out the form!

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Martijn you may have been taking your time but you've done a fabulous job on all three of these sets. Your Saracens look the business (and who doesn't love good old metal minis) - I especially appreciate your freehand work on the shields. I'm often lazy and resort to decals so I applaud your great job! The Wurttembergers are very fine as well and I'm sure a welcome addition to your Sharpe Practice force. The fellow who is sans bayonette is simply a little slow in getting his extracted from his rusted scabbard, nothing to note here, carry on! :) Finally, those nasty Lannisters look wonderfully ostentatious in their red and gold livery. The extra time you put into them really has paid off I think. Very well done my friend!

- Curt & Huck

From Millsy: Kruleboyz Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (45 points)

G'day All,

Phew! 11 hours and some change to paint one bloke and his dog. Seems excessive when you say it like that but once you see the thing it starts to make some sense...

This is the final unit required to complete my age of Sigmar Kruleboyz Spearhead and very pleased I am indeed to have him painted and based. Fiendishly detailed and chock full of hard to reach nooks and crannies, he really tested my patience, brush technique and desire to have him painted to a matching (or higher) standard than his minions.

Anyway, I'll let the pictures do the talking in this instance. Enjoy!

Points-wise this is a hard one. I've gone with the "it is what it is" option as a single mounted 40mm figure and will let Sarah decide if it merits anything beyond that...

• 1 x 40mm cavalry = 15 points
• 1 x Third Circle: Gluttony (as in I am one for punishment!) = 20 points

Total = 35 points

Artist: John 00 Fleming

Album: Essential Mix 2010-02-12

Artist: Matt Darey & Scott Bond

Album: Gatecrasher Sydney & Melbourne 2000-05-13

Artist: Paul Oakenfold

Album: Live from Creamfields, Liverpool UK 1999

Cheers,
Millsy

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In full disclosure, I absolutely despise 'Age of Sigmar', but I absolutely love this. 

Beautiful work Millsy. In looking at all the detail crammed into this pair I can only imagine the time and patience in doing it justice which you've done in flying colours. I particularly like the barding and armour of the two, especially the bone yelllow sections. Lovely brushwork that.

'Who's a good boy?! Get him a treat, will ya.'  I'm going to use my substitute minion powers expansively and give you another 10 points for this. Excellent work Millsy!

- Curt & Huck

Sarah's Substitution Sunday

Yes, I know I'm a pale substitute, but unfortunately Sarah is suffering with the lurgy so Huckleberry and mea are gonna help out today. 

With these two in charge what could possibly go wrong?

Okay! Today we have:

- Two posts from Millsy: one a reinforcement to his Oathmark Arab force and a Kruelboy and his pup;

- Sander has some stompy robots and Saxons;

- Martijn performs a hat trick with Wurttemburgers, Saracens and Lannisters;

- Teemu treats us to a passel of skellies;

and Benito has a Greyhound ready to run.

Who knows, we may have some more rolling in over the day so stay tuned! 

Woof! Woof!

- Curt (and Huck) Actual, Out