From LeeH - 6mm Numidian Cavalry (32 Points)

The end of the painting Challenge is bearing down upon us like an express train and the panic is starting to well up...despite the fact that I have done the math and am confident that I will hit my target of 500 points. I have been very happy with my progress throughout the event and my painting output has been significantly higher than it would have been without the imperative of the competition. My latest submission is very likely my last Punic War entry and nicely rounds off my Carthaginian army (for the time being at least).

The Numidian Light Cavalry have often been described as the best of their type in the ancient world at that time. Certainly they played a significant part in the victories of Hannibal and, ironically, in his eventual defeat at Zama. The Numidian horseman rode bareback and controlled his mount with a rope around the horses neck rather than with a Bit as did regular cavalry. Despite this the Numidian's were famed for their horsemanship and ability to harass their enemies with fast movement and manoeuvre. Riders didn't wear armour and generally were only protected by small round leather shields. They were armed with javelins but some also carried swords for personal defence.

I have painted these in fairly plain colours but have given them an assortment of hand painted animal hide shields.

These four bases contain thirty two 6mm cavalry which should earn me 32 points, and drags me even closer to my target. 

Your micro-scale work has been such a treat this season Lee, and these follows do not disappoint. I really like the hide shields and the staggered formation elegantly reinforces their irregular status. Great work!

The final Theme Round, 'Risk Taker' is now up in the Theme Gallery.

I'm going to keep this brief as we've had a long day on the road, but I wanted to get this up as soon as possible for you to enjoy.

I'm delighted to announce that our final theme round, 'Risk Taker' is now available for viewing on the Theme page. We have a wonderful assortment of entries for your viewing (and reading) pleasure, so  please get a refreshment and delight in our final theme entries of the Challenge.

Unfortunately, my time has been taken up with life and work so sadly I couldn't get an entry ready for this round. Nonetheless, to celebrate the theme and to set the tone, I've headed this announcement with my first entry of the season: the great Roman 'risk taker', Julius Caesar as he is about to cross the Rubicon.

After your visit, please take the time to vote for your favourite entries. The voting can be done on the right sidebar or by following this link. Voting will close Saturday at 11:45 pm.

Thanks you and Enjoy!

From TamsinP - 15mm Crusties Cavalry (16 points)

Another teensy-weensy entry for today - just four more Crusties; this time not armoured but mounted. As before, the figures are from GZG.

The shells of the Crusties were done by painting a base colour (Middlestone, Iraqi Sand, Medium Grey or Tan Earth) followed by a sepia wash. Their crustacean mounts had a basecoat of Khaki for the the fleshy parts, the upper shell is Hull Red spotted with Saddle Brown, the shell on the legs and arms are Saddle brown dotted with Hull Red; the whole bug was then washed with sepia. To finish, the whole was given a coat of satin varnish, apart from the sting which got a coat of gloss varnish.

Some close-ups:

For points, four 15mm cavalry = 16 points.

These alien cavalry figures are very, very cool Tamsin. I really like the mottled brown of the mounts' shell carapace set against the vibrant colours of the riders' saddles and their weaponry. The basing, like your previous infantry in this series, is excellent as well. It reminds me of a beach where the tidal wash has just receded. Lovely work.

'Tribute' to Greg - 40K Scribe/Archivist

This 'Tribute' figure is for my great friend Greg - our hockey-loving, plastic-hating, crayon-snapping though highly entertaining Friday adjudicator.

To be honest, I'm usually okay with plastics, and not so wild about hockey (that is actually a Stanley Cup sized understatement), but Greg and I do share a deep affection of the original 40K 'Rogue Trader' universe of the late 80s and early 90s. To us (and I imagine many like us, who were teenagers at that time), there was something deeply compelling about the creepily dystopian vision created by Rick Priestly and backed-up by the wonderfully disturbing art of John Blanche. 

At this time 40K was still a fresh and largely undiscovered genre. Games Workshop was basically led by hippies, and had not yet become the Kafkaesque corporate nightmare which now weirdly mimics the fictional dark Imperium it created. In those early days very little of the 40K universe was explained; so much being shrouded in shadow, mystery and completely open to conjecture. This, in turn, created a fevered playground of creativity, which allowed players to fill in the blanks with our own imaginations, where we were actually encouraged to use surrogate figures, bodged vehicles and sometimes devising our own rules. Of course, the reviled point-driven tournament system killed all this, but for a brief time there was an amazingly fun, dark universe called 40K... 

Anyway, I blather. Suffice it to say that many of us have grown perversely nostalgic and guardedly paternalistic about the 'early' Imperium of Man and its host of foes. 

With this in mind I am happy to present this figure of an Imperial Scribe to Greg. Some may know that I work in the archival profession and so I thought It apropos that Greg receive from me a phlegmatic, self-important civil servant to add to his impressive 40K collection. I figure that somebody has to keep these rivet-headed, gene-tweaked Space Marines in conformity with the infallible Imperial creed and its catechism of organizational perfection - so he's the man to do it.

Being an archivist I am ashamed to say I have absolutely no provenance backing up this figure other than knowing it's a GW figure and it's at least 12 years old. Nonetheless, it's a great model and think it's as iconic to the 40K universe at the Space Marines themselves.  

Greg likes to portray himself as a meat-and-potatoes painter (which many will smile at when you look at his amazing brushwork), and so he often smirks at 'fancy' paint techniques like non-metallic metals, zenithal highlighting, and modulated shading. Accordingly, I broke from my regular trope of 'kabuki style' painting and tried my hand at gradated blending, multi-hued glazes and I even went so far as painting the freakin' eyes! Well, I'm happy to report that I've been cured of any of further pretensions of artisanal skills and skip gleefully back to Greg's camp of curmudgeonly brush Luddites! :)

 

I hope you like him Greg! Again, thanks so much for helping out this year - I couldn't have done it without you.

Curt

From MartinN - 15mm Cold War Gone Hot (39 Points)

Not being someone known for his resilience when it comes to new shiny toys, the moment I saw the new Team Yankee stuff on the web, I knew I'd to get my hands on it at some point. Surprisingly, I managed to hold on until Tactica, but by then my resolve finally crumbled and I virtually threw my  cash at the fine people selling my newest object of desire.

As Bundeswehr will only be released later this year I first went for a soviet mechanised platoon. As addiction dictates and getting a bit carried away by my excitement, I forgot to buy their means of transport but instead acquired a whole company worth of T-72's. I'll probably never actually be able to field these in a single game. Only later was I to realise my 'little' mistake but at that time all available BMP's and other means of dapper transport for these fellows were already gone. No big deal though, as I need another squad to round out the platoon anyway. Looking at the platoon commander below I don't think it hurts these guys too much to be degraded to footsloggers for the time being. Seems like catering with the red army wasn't that bad after all.

Not being a big fan of the Flames of War rules I instead decided to go with the 'Cold War Gone Hot' supplement for Force on Force. Having enjoyed some games pitching regular versus irregular troops I'm rather curious to see how the game system copes with regular forces fighting it out against each other.

Both platoons comprise of a NCO with Ak-74, one guy with the infamous RPG 7, two with RPK light machine gun and three other fellows sporting AK 74's of whom one is also carrying a RPG-18 disposable anti-tank rocket launcher.

The figures are quite nice and painted up rather well, but the casting quality is a bit of a disappointment. Some miniatures suffered from huge amounts of flash and mould lines while others were disfigured by misaligned moulds. For the price Battlefront are asking for I'd expect a better quality control. For the next figures I'd maybe give Khurasan a try, if only shipping and customs weren't that disproportionate from the states.

I'm no expert on soviet armour but the plastic T-72 clearly is an improvement on the Shermans that came with the first FoW Open Fire starter set. Not quite happy with the colour (it's too green if you get my meaning) but our very own GregB already sent me his recipe for painting soviet armour. Thanks mate!

The box comes complete with decals and a set of plastic tank commanders which are quite nice.

16 foot figures, one tank and a half figure in 15mm should net me another 39 points. That's 574 points for the challenge and 499 points for the side duel.

As I pointed out in a previous post I'm away with work for the week ahead and probably won't get any more painting done in the meantime. So all that's left for me to do is to admit defeat to my good friend ChrisS. Well done Chris. I tip my hat to you Sir! Just let me know what figure you want me to paint for you.

As this will be my last post for this years challenge I've included the, by now, obligatory group shot. Even considering the missing Winter GI's and Halftrack, which are by now safe in g'old Great Britain, I'm definitely not disappointed by what I achieved during the last few weeks. Especially considering the limited time during the first month.

Now I feel it's time for a few last parting words. First of all I want to thank our beloved Mr. Snowman Snowlord for organising the challenge once again. As always it was a pleasure to be part of this hobby spectacle par excellence. My admiration also goes to Mrs. Sarah for enduring all this year after year on end. Of course we won't forget our trusty minions who, despite me being under direct administration of THE man himself, I dare to say made a fantastic job. I always enjoyed your good humoured comments. And last but not least my heart felt thanks to all my fellow participants for some excellent weeks. It was a pleasure!

Thus ends your spectacular Saturday hat-trick Nick! Stonking stuff Nick!

Greg, Byron and I were just playing with his excellent 'Team Yankee' collection the other night (LOVE those Hinds) and Greg had mentioned that you were jumping in on the bandwagon, so I'm delighted to see your stuff here this week. Again, your 15mm infantry is so excellent that they look like 28s - it's just amazing. The T72 is excellent as well and I particularly like the commander and the HMG done up in a very convincing NMM.

Finally, thank you for your kind words of thanks to me and the crew of the Challenge. It's very much appreciated but our work has been aided by the enthusiasm and good-will of you along with all of the Challenge participants.