From DavidB: The Sith Lord Arrives! (60 points)

As some may have noted, I am a huge Star Wars Fan-atic. I do have some aged 25mm Star wars minis that really need to be stripped and repainted. I also have the X-wing game. I've only played three times and all have been against my 12 year old son. He always selects Luke and spends the whole game trying to take Vader down. My Ties just pick off the rebel scum (I mean ships) till Luke is floating in space. He wants to play again and even got me an Arc-170 (the grand-pop of the X-wing) for the game. It was because I want his ARC for action figures to go in the display case.

As he insists on playing rebels so Luke can take down his Dad (ironic that..) I doubt Ill be able to play that ship anytime soon!

I did score Imperial Assualt at Adepticon last year and other presents were all sorts of boosters for that game. Nobody wants to play till they are painted (My wife figures in there someplace!)

These are mostly from this Christmas except for my favorite villian who came with the game and R-2 D-2 and C3PO who need to get painted yet.

 

These are Alliance Rangers(aka Rebel Commandos) They are very nice sculpts, but are all the same female trooper in the same pose. the detail is outstanding and I was tempted to make one a Huron, but the High Ready pose with the rifle made painting the face rough enough as it was!

I did up the Rebel veteran from the base game as he matches them pretty well.

So much great detail on these sculpts!

I also got some Rebel Troopers who also suffer from the mimic pose. I varied the skin tones for multi ethnicity and painted one group in grey trousers and another group in tan ones. I can sort the units by color in this way and not the stickers that come with them.(does anyone use those stickers!?)

I also painted up the pilot. I gave her the orange rebel jumpsuit under her fighter jacket.

The pilot and the Rangers are very nice sculpts without that Manga/fanboy slant to them.

And finally we have my favorite villian, The Sith Lord himself. (I saw Rogue One after Christmas and began painting these once we got home) I really didn't plan on doing the funky source light effect, but I kept thinking about Vader advancing in a certain darkened corridor...

Yup, Vader is back and these poor rebels are sorely outnumbered!

Vader took a bit with multiple layers of grey over a black undercoat then washed repeatedly to add depth. I did use Nuln oil on the gloves, helmet, boots, and shoulder pads to give them a shine.

The lightsaber went from a basecoat of terracotta to red then highlighted from dark orange, light orange, then a very thin yellow. the same was applied to cloak and armor.

12 down, a few more to go till I can game it!

***

There sure has been a lot of great Star Wars entries into the Challenge this year, and you are keeping that trend going here Dave.  While all of the Rebels look very sharp, I will have to say my favourite here is Lord Vader...you've done some great work with that light sabre in particular.  I love the pose as well, moving along, ready to thin out the rebel ranks a touch...

That will be 60 points of Star Wars goodness for you!

Greg

From Byron - 28mm French Napoleonic Artillery Teams (105 points)

This is the last of my several posts today going up, the totality of which I believe will count as a points bomb, or as close as I am likely to ever get to one.  I am however breaking them up since they are groups of very different figures in different scales and themes, and in fact in painting styles.

With that, welcome to Byron's Point Bomb(?) Part 3 - Napoleonic madness...

Four years ago now, I started doing some French Napoleonic figures as a promise to Curt that I would at least try doing something historical for my first painting challenge.  It was a unit of Perry line infantry, and my first exposure to painting the madness that is Napoleonic uniforms!

Don't get me wrong, I love the Napoleonic era, the uniforms in real life, and most importantly the games it produces. I also seriously love how amazing ranked up 28mm Napoleonic figures look on the table, even when only half-assed done like mine! The effect of them all lined up is far above the sum of their parts.

However, it is a serious Love / Hate relationship, due to the fact that painting all those fiddly little details on so many figures that are all the same, drives me nuts!  Worse, since it drives me nuts I skip things, hurry past things, cheat details, etc, etc.  Which makes me more nuts as I know that I could do it better, but just can't make myself do it....  Ok, maybe I just have to face facts, I am nuts :-)

Anyway, after doing a unit of 28mm Dragoons earlier this year and dealing with my hate of horses, I figured why not self flagellate some more, and bang off some more Napoleonics!  Ever the glutton for punishment...

The figures themselves had already been purchased as I knew I would need them at some time.  They are the excellent Victrix plastic French Artillery set, which comes with two complete sets of infantry arms and heads so that you can build them as early or late period foot infantry, and both 8 and 12 pound cannon barrels.

I knew that for any game we played I probably only need 1 built, but hell, I had three so I may as well do all of them, right (see glutton for punishment comment above)?  So, I built 2 as 12 pounders and 1 as an 8 pounder.  I also decided to make them a bit more scenic than having everyone standing around them waiting to fire, so I only built one ready to fire and the other two in the process of cleaning and reloading.  While not technically correct to be mixed like that, I liked the overall look, so stuck with it.

I painted all the infantry on sticks and not on the base so that I had 360 degree access.  I was almost done them too, having ASSumed that since they were foot artillery that they would be outfitted the same as foot infantry.  Almost done, I happened to see the packaging sitting in the corner or my table and notice that WTF their facings are blue?  A quick call to the guru Curt, and sure enough, I had screwed up and had to do a whole lot of touch up work and changes.  Due to the way I paint Napoleonics working from the inside out, and the facing being reset behind the jacket, straps, collar, etc, I had to repaint all of those as I inevitably nicked something on each model as I touched things up.

However, as with every Napoleonic unit I have done so far (other than the Dragoons), while I am far from happy with them as individuals, I am OK with them once they are all assembled on the base. I now have 3 completed bases each containing 5 infantry and a cannon. 

Better than anything else though, four years into this, I now finally have a small, but usable Napoleonic force of my own, and I am actually pretty damn happy with how it looks on the tabletop (as shown below), the sum of the Napoleonic parts, far outweigh their individual parts.

Great work Byron.  While I find cavalry can be a bear at times, it is artillery that drives me the most bonkers, so sawing away at three teams in 28mm is well worth some kudos! 

The Napoleonic era (or any gaming setting, for that matter) can be intimidating, but I am often surprised at how the sci-fi stuff we do can be the same way...the blizzard of factions of different vehicles in the Horus Heresy, for example, can make the Napoleonic setting almost seem organized.  The best part is having friends who help you along, and like you, I owe a debt to Curt for that!

That complete force at the bottom looks great - we can do some Black Powder games with my Austrians now! 

Another 105 points, to complete your points bombardment for the day!

Greg

JamieM - Dark Elves and More Proof of BBC Inadequacy (140 points)

My plan to finish figures every week and not take part in the bonus rounds lasted exactly one week as I had nothing finished last week!  Still, I'm back on course this week with some more nasty Dark Elves for AoS/Warhammer/insert other fantasy ruleset.

First up are 10 Cold One Knights.  They're a great way to not paint horses, as a few bloggers in the challenge have bemoaned the experience of having to do so.  I'm sure if you look hard enough you could find some Napoleonic cavalry who rode giant lizards into battle.... right?  No?  How about Romans?  You could always just claim that all records had been destroyed....

Anyway, instead of having to do loads of research into what these should look like, I found there was almost no reference works at all on giant riding lizards.  Imagine my surprise and chagrin as I discovered that not even Sir David Attenborough has done a programme on them.... I obviously penned a letter outlining my disappointment in this fact to the BBC.

I decided that I quite liked a blue colour that I had from the GW range with a suitably theatrical name - Incubi Darkness - and research on blue lizards showed that the underbellies were often a lighter shade of the same colour, so that's what I went for.  I went for bone coloured horns for contrast.

The Knights who ride these are the nobles of Dark Elf society, so nice shiny armour for them, with red trim and shiny red shield designs.

I'm rather pleased with the colours and the lizard skin.  I kept the clashing red and blue as the rest of my Dark Elf army wears blue and there's no way the nobles would change their clothes to better match riding beasts!

In a stroke of luck genius strategic planning, the shield design on the leader as the same as one of the decals that I had, so the standard bearer gets designs for both the unit itself and the Lord in the bottom corner.

Next up, another lizard..... a ruddy big one. 

Imagine my surprise when I found out that Sir David Attenborough also hasn't done even one episode on many headed hydras in their natural habitat!  Fear not, another missive to the BBC has been sent to admonish them for this clear oversight.

I stuck to the same colour scheme as the Cold Ones as I figured perhaps they were related.  A nice bright crest was added as the natural world seems full of poisonous animals with bright colours to demonstrate how dangerous they are to scare predators away.  Perhaps some of the Australians in the blog could confirm or deny as Australia seems to have more than it's fair share of poisonous creatures!

I wouldn't fancy being one of the two handlers of this beastie....  They're some old metal Dark Elf animal handlers instead of the one that come with the kit as I wanted to be different.

I also discovered that its very hard to take a picture of a many headed large beastie whilst capturing all of it.  I went for some muted blood effects too.  I'm not normally a huge fan of these, but I got to wondering when painting it how many heads it would use to attack things, so I added some effects to one claw and two of the heads as a result of my idle musings.

This completes most of what I want to get done for the Dark Elves and so my attention should now probably turn to 30k...... and it might do if I hadn't got into conversation with a couple of Canadians who shall remain nameless (let's call them Ireg and Gannick to protect their anonymity) who heartily recommended Epic to me.  One failure of willpower on my part later and I had procured this on eBay.

Sadly not 30k at all but very, very tempting to get started on as discussions with gaming friends showed that a couple of them were keen.  The Challenge really can be dangerous for anyone with little ability to resist shiny new things!

***

Great submission Jamie! I am amazed the BBC had so little information on the relevant lizards here, but then history has generally ignored the vital contribution of the 45th Cold Blood Lizard Lancers during WW2...a tragic oversight...

These look marvellous. Excellent lizard shading, and they look the business for the Dark Elves - ready to ride over and consume some hapless victims, then trot off for a glass of cabernet at the Dark Elf equivalent of Davos.  And that Hydra! Wow! Who is "lucky" enough to be the handler?

So I make that out to be 10 cavalry, one big monster hydra and a pair of handlers/immediate victims - let's call that a large "vehicle", so we'll score the whole thing at 140 points...

It is unfortunate your planning has been re-routed by Ireg and Gannick, as those two are a pair well-known hucksters. But remember that in this hobby, it is only the weak who refuse to dive into new eras, scales or settings, while the strong ones are the ones who immediately head over to Ebay and make a purchase because they saw something they liked...I'm looking forward to seeing some Epic stuff from you! 

Greg

From DavidB: Scifi Marines (50 points)

These fellows - and lady with honking huge gun- are IMEF Marines from Reaper. I've long wanted Sgt Stone and a few others, but Reaper metal, orders, and the limited number of models available (like 4) models all kept me off. Then the whole Reaper Bones thing happened and they got really cheap and poses staring popping up everywhere! I wanted to kick the tires on the Bones and with 10 individual sculpts, it seemed a good idea.

These things swallow paint! I have no idea where it goes, but it took forever to get them basecoated. It was like they were washing themselves off overnight! Once I got the basecoat on, everything else went really quick. Washes and highlights were not an issue. They may be soft in some areas, but they are pretty solid in detail where it counts. I may get some more, but not till I forget the hassle!

A chaingunner, medic, Sgt Stone, and the flame thrower trooper called Torch Mchue or some such.

Sarah Blizter is the squads sniper. I honestly got her to pump the squad to 10. She suffers from anime and fanboy-itis. I prefer the more believable.

They do look pretty good bunched up. They will be excellent for Star Army, Deadzone, Necromundia, good solid scifi skirmish troops....maybe a bug hunt!

We can't forget James Proudstar. He actually had the feathers and totems modeled on, Im going to get the metal Sgt Stone and James to paint for fun.

The marines came modeled on little scenic bases of mesh plates and sidewalks/deck plates. I painted them grey(repeatedly), sketched some industrial markings, washed them, and tried out the new GW 'dry' paint Rust. I experimented a lot wth them once inital plans went south! 

***

Looks like we are in for some Bromley Bombardment in the points department today.  Well done Dave, great to see some stuff rolling in.  Sounds like there was some frustration here, but these troops look the business when they are all together. I have had similar experiences with figures that appear to "swallow" paint, or shrug off primer.  Some of the top-notch painters and hobbyists here in the Challenge may have advice on that, but for my part, I just pile on the primer until the figure surrenders...stupid laws of physics...there is probably a better way...

Well done Dave, 50 points for this lot.  Excellent work, and we look forward to seeing more! 

Greg

From ByronM - 35mm Arena Rex Beasts (45 points)

I have several posts today going up, the totality of which I believe will count up as a points bomb, or as close as I am likely to ever get to one.  I am however breaking them up since they are groups of very different figures in different scales and themes, and in fact in painting styles.

With that, welcome to Byron's Point Bomb(?) Part 2 - Large scale madness....

NOTE: Sorry for the long post on this one, I just really like how they came out, and since that is rare for me, I wanted to go through some of the process.

My friend Steve picked up a new game a little while back, and after seeing the quality of the figs I just had to get some to paint up.  That game is Arena Rex, a 35mm skirmish Fantasy Gladiator game. The figures are just stunning up close, the detail is amazing.  The only down side, the price is stunning as well!

The rules are available for free though, and I tried a game with some proxy figured with Steve before I ordered my own.  It is one of those rare games that looks super simplistic at first glance, but has an amazing amount of depth hidden in it.  It has strategy, tactics, resource management, and more all rolled up in to what seems at first glance a simplistic smash-up gladiator game.

Anyway, The figures that I got done here are not gladiators themselves, but some of the beasts that the gladiators may have to face.  Or, in my case they are the beasts that one of my gladiators can take as pets or minions to control. While I don't have him finished yet, I just can not hold back displaying these as I am very very rarely happy with my own painting, but I am thrilled with how these came out.  Best of all they were done almost entirely with airbrush making them far faster than you would expect them to be. 

Basing

Seeing as all of the beasts will see use in an arena, and that I picture that arena with a sand based floor I wanted to do something sand based.  However, not wanting something as mundane as simple flat sand, I decided to try some cracked earth effects in parts of the base.  I picture this as areas where the arena got wet from blood, thrown beverages from hecklers, or hell where a horse or bull took a leak, and now the sand and mud has dried and cracked.  I also added just a few tufts of dead grass to the base to add a bit more interest.  Again, probably not seen in a lot of arenas, but if you picture a weekend circus and then time passing before the next big event it is possible that some small tufts find a way to grow. especially around the dried cracked mud that has extra nutrients added.  That's my story anyway, I don't care if you buy it, I can live with it.

Scorpion - Sereqet

 

First of the three beasts is a giant scorpion.  The model comes as a mount for one of the gladiators in my Ludus, but I decided to built it as just the scorpion itself.  That likely means I will end up with a second one sometime down the road to build it as a mount, but that is later.  I wanted something that was semi-natural so started searching, but most scorpions are either black or tan, then I stumbled across one that has red pincers and barb set against a black carapace, and was sold.

Mine has a lot more red than the real ones do, but I decided I wanted that colour to make it easier to see what it was, and rather than try to shade a mainly black beast that may end up looking more grey than black due to the surface area.  I painted it black and then worked in 6-7 layers of red glaze to build up the red areas in as smooth a blend from the black as I could manage.  I then airbrushed in some dark grey highlights long the top of the carapace, and cleaned up some of the spikes that had been hit with some red.  The only parts that were done with a brush were the gold insert on the top and the eyes.

Bull - El Diablo

Next up is the mighty bull "El Diablo", so named because Diablo is one of my favourite video games, and because I decided to base his skin on a chestnut horse scheme and then add a bit more red to it.  Again, almost everything was done with an airbrush, starting with a black base and then adding in white zenithal pre-shading and highlights.  I then went through the paints I used for chestnut horses a few weeks back, but thinning them to glaze consistency and working up from the black with about 3-4 layers of each of Black Red, Hull Red, Cavalry Brown, and then a single super thin glaze of Crimson Red.  Each layer so thin that the white highlight areas still show through.

Once all that was done, I went back and added a bit of shadow back from the bottom still with airbrush, and then went on to some lighter pinkish browns to paint the scars, and then some black inks under them to accentuate them.  I then did the horns and hooves pale bone and layered on first sepia and then devlan mud washes until they got to the level I wanted.

Rhino - Acerbus

Lastly, the mighty rhino.  I don't know what it is about rhino's but I have always loved them, and once I saw this model I had to have it.  Again almost everything was airbrushed on.  I started black and once again laid in all the pre-shade and zenithal highlights with white.  I then added several thin glazes of basalt grey and then neutral grey.  I then went in with a few layers of thin brown and blue glazes to build up some depth of colour and interest, then went back over those with a few more thin glazes of neutral grey and light grey.  I kept everything super thin and hitting it at an angle, so didn't really have to go back to get any of the texture to show up, the black still showed in all the cracks.

Once that was all done it was onto the horn and hooves.  Here once again I broke from reality, as most rhino horns are the same colour as the hide, and I really wanted the horns to stand out a bit to add some contrast, so went with a bone colour.  I used the same method as on the bull to deal with the horns.  I then painted in the eyes and was done.

Between the pose and the paint job I managed on this rhino (and some of the blues and browns just do not show in the photos), he is one of my all time favourite figures!  I was so tempted to use him for the Eastern challenge this weekend, since he is an Eastern Black Rhino, but in the end I ended up wanting to keep these three together in one post instead. Oh well....

Oh, and one last photo just to show how truly big these Arena Rex models are, here is the rhino charging down some British WW1 soldier who happened into his path!

Wow Byron, every time I think I might break down and get an airbrush, I read about how they are used and I am reminded why I stick with brushes...

But you can't argue with results, and these creatures look fantastic - really, really nice. A Gladiator riding a scorpion! Now THAT is an arena game that would be fun to check out.  These are indeed huge models, and I really like that final photo of the poor WW1 infantryman staring down the Rhino...not sure the Enfield bullet will get the job done there...but that sinister scorpion is my favourite of the bunch.

45 points of airbrush-magic points for you, Byron - excellent work!

Greg

From PhilH: Makes the Cut! (18 points)

My first entry for this AHPC VII, and I'm adding a bit more to my Spanish Civil War collection.

I've made a really poor start to this year's Challenge, and if I'm honest I'm not sure I'll make as dramatic an improvement as I'd like from here on. One of the reasons has been the safe and happy arrival of my wife and I's firstborn daughter earlier this month. The parents among us will understand that the arrival of little ones can have something of an impact on both time and energy for hobbies. But all is going well, and that's what is important. The start of the Challenge was a whirlwind of preparations, on top of hosting Christmas for the first time, so I didn't get a quick fire entry in, and just found snatches of time to work on these.

My Challenge entries were actually supposed to be taking a new direction this year, a new project I've been saving for it. But a bad can of primer put a catastrophic halt to that, and I've had to strip them all back to bare metal and start over. Pretty frustrating, and a further sap on available painting time to sort it out and start re-prepping them. But these hints happen. Hopefully I'll get back on course and at least some of them ready towards the end of this Challenge - there's a very fitting theme round later in the Challenge.

Anyway, onto the entry. Three Carlist Requetes: a standard bearer with a very colourful flag from Flags of War, and a Chaucat light machine gun team. The berets have been head-swapped to give them he obligatory jaunty berets. 

And, I believe these are the final three Carlist Requetes for my collection. I count a total of 29 Requetes riflemen, leaders, and support weapons. These have been trundling steadily off the workbench since Spring 2015 if I remember rightly. Crikey, two years to get them all done, and it's not even a full-strength platoon!

Three 28mm miniatures for me. Empress Miniatures sculpts with head swaps for berets. And, I believe their points will count for the little SCW side duel..?

Phil

***
Sorry to hear of your issues with a bad can of primer - I'm sure a lot of folks in the Challenge will be able to relate to that.  I still refuse to touch any product made by Krylon after my own bad experience years ago.  

We are thrilled to get a submission from you.  It's always a treat to see the results of your incredible brushwork, featuring lovely smooth highlights and subtle shading. Looks marvelous, and your submissions are one of the treats I look forward to to in the Challenge every year. 

Most important, congratulations from all of us on the new arrival to your family! 

That's 15 points for you, but let's make it 18 for the berets and the banner...

Greg   

From PaulOG: 6 pdr Gun and more Woodland Indians (60 points)

I’ve done it again! I got suckered into enjoying every bit of detail and going to town on the basing. Not good from a productivity basis, but I’m pleased with how they have turned out.  My submissions this week fit into projects you’ve already seen begin in previous posts, which is very satisfying.

Anti Tank Gun

First up is a Brit 6 pdr Anti Tank gun to add to my Para force, and I can use one of the jeeps I posted last week to tow it around the table.  It doesn’t have the best AT effect (the heavier 17pr was far more successful and famously fitted to the Sherman Firefly and Achilles - the up gunned M10 Tank destroyer) but is more mobile to give my Paras some much needed anti armour capability.

As a former Artillery Officer (Army Reserve) I happily went to town with the basing, carving out wheel hollows in the mdf base and burying the trail spades into the dirt…and then lost most of the effect by excitedly adding all the tufts and shrubbery :-) Overall though I’m pleased with the dioramic style effect and hope it helps them on the tabletop! Figs and gun by Warlord.

Woodland Indians 2

Next are another half dozen Mohawk warriors to take the field with my FiW Brits.  Added to my previous Woodland Indians in week 2, these round out a unit of an even dozen for use with Sharpe Practice 2.

Looking forward to having them scalp some of Alan's pesky coureur de bois in their inaugural table top game next week! Figs by Warlord which mix well with my Northstar sculpts.  I like the mix they have of traditional weapons, not just all Muskets and Tomahawks - you know, that would be a great name for a game...

And for my last entry I present my latest 1:1 scale project - "Odin", whom we got last week, aged 6 weeks. Adorable as he is, he does take away from my hobby time...but in the best way possible!

-------

Wonderful submission Paul.  Your description of all of the things you did for the AT gun to increase the realism is impressive, but grinding tracks into an MDF base? Wow, that is commitment...

Whatever the impact on your focus on detail has on your productivity, the results are worth it! The gun is excellent, not to mention the paras and their complicated camo! And the Mohawk warriors, with the excellent face paint, really look fantastic. That is a period I would love to get into, and this submission is inspiring further interest, no doubt it will in others as well. 

That will be 55 points, but I will use my outrageous minion powers to round it up to 60 for the torture to get the little things done on the gun, the fantastic face paint on the warriors, and the excellent picture of Odin! When my hound Joey curls up at my feet while I'm painting, I just find the figures turn out better...even if I have to stop painting for a while to hang out with him!

Greg