Tuesday, 16 January 2018

From AlexK - More 15mm goodies (64points)

Hi all,

Another week, another post. The challenge is working out perfectly, my painting production has increased dramatically. It turns out I quite like a deadline and no one is more surprised than I.

So to this week's offering. I have for you a selection of 32 x 15mm Sudanese archers from Legio Heroica which have been sat on the painting pile way too long. I'm assuming my lack of commitment will be rewarded with awful die rolls when they see battle for the first time.

As always the Legio sculpts were nice and full of character. They mix very well with my Essex figures.

Thanks for looking.




These are some awesome archers Alex. I love the way in which you have painted each one of them an individualized paintjob yet have maintained an uniform look for the unit as a whole. One can imagine wave upon wave of arrows flying from them into the enemy ranks. Well done!

From RussG - Painting desk flotsam and jetsam. (35 points)

This weekend has seen one big miniature completion already, but I did squeeze in some poor figures that have been floating around the desk for ever.

Here we have 2 ladders and 2 battering rams I have had since Warhammer 3rd edition.
The Viking is for scale purpose.


They were fixed to the bases this way so they could be placed inside a unit so as to appear as if they were being carried. The ladders also conveniently will appear as if leaning against a wall.
They came with a covered battering ram in the box set, this may appear later in the challenge.

Next up we have a dark age warrior from West Wind, 3 villagers from Midlam, and another plastic gripping beast Viking (I will finish all of them one day, I promise).


The west wind model is very nice but they are always on the big side for 28mm.


The villagers from Midlam are nice enough. I did notice that both the gents have what appears to be a beard on one half of their face only, I thought it was meant to be a pony tail on the figure with the hat, but pitchfork man has it too. As they are from a fantasy range it may be from a specific background story or something, if you know what, please enlighten me.

Thank you for looking.

 A very nice bunch of figures Russel! The siege equipment looks very well painted, but I really would like to see a picture with some figures to show us how they look in working order. I agree the West Wind figure looks far better than the Midlam figures, but the paintjob is great on all of them. 
The figures will be worth 25 points and I am going to set the siege equipment at 10 points. The total will thus be 35 points for this particular entry but you will be back later today for more!

From Kent G - 28mm Napoleonic french infantry (540 Points)



So since the beginning of the competition I've been working away on my French
while I've been doing the other submissions. This entry is the first big block of infantry
comprising of 18 stands of 6 figures each, so a total of 108 figures, they are made up of both metal and plastics Perry and Warlord Games.


These figures, plus the ones I have already submitted, mean that I've now completed five and a half of the 22 units of infantry so still quite a few to go but all of which I've done the skin all coats are complete but still a lot to paint and keep me busy. The big thing is as I grind through them to keep the quality at my normal standard.


Curt mentioned that I didn't have any light troops in my last French submission so this time I've added in some light infantry, Voltigeurs & Grenadiers 


 In this grouping there are two stands of the 10th light regiment in the middle, I'll need to do 2 more as the regiments will have 4 stands in them.






And here we are first big block of infantry
After this I'm taking a wee break from  the foot and started French cavalry instead.

 Must admit I'm really pleased to see these chaps rolling off the assembly line, 
looking at this i might need to increase my storage space again.



And Kent strikes again! What a whopper of an entry. That huge solid block of infantry does look exactly as one would imagine the assault columns of the 1813 or 1815 campaigns to look. The addition of light troops is a very good one, as one would expect if it is inspired by the Snowlord himself. They all look marvellous Kent, now I can't wait for the cavalry to come charging in!

Tuesday Time for Bedlamn!

Hoi there Challengers!

Tuesday is here again and, boy have we got some nice stuff for you to enjoy! A few of the Challenge's prodigal sons have returned with some very nice entries. Yesterday's Blood Bowl theme continues as well.

So what's on the menu?

Kent marches more French into the scene.
Alex takes us to Ancient Sudan for an archery contest.
Russel throws in a nice mix of superb scenery and  fantasy figures.
Ross gives us some fantasy in several different scales.
Martin cooks on with some more Team Yankee forces and African themed miniatures.
Brett brings the Elves onto the gory field of Blood BOOOWWWLLL!
Jezz reinforces his Teutonic order forces in a grand way.
Noel is back with a load of ECW, he has remembered the Alamo and has made a lady dissapear as well as a surprise for Curt.

So you see, another big effort of the Tuesday Crew, enjoy!





Deep Purple's Newest album Infinite umber: Time for Bedlamn

Monday, 15 January 2018

From IainW: ECW Horse and Commanders (170 points)

So here we have a unit of horse for the war of the three kingdoms, also known as the English civil war. Eight monster troopers, all Essex figures, to start with. I like them, they're a little retro, cutting edge in 1986, so almost yesterday?  They're also about the same size as warlord plastics and I have happily mixed both manufacturers in the same unit in the past.  There are also a couple of Perry heads, warlord hats, pistols and hammer added. 

They currently have the flag of William Waller. I'd like to do Cropredy Ridge one day as I've often camped there and to be honest in the past drunkenly stumbled around it (it's a music festival you sit out in the rain /sun, drinking real ale all day, with music - it's fun!)  









The horses are a bit long but they're OK.  I've got a few more units to do at some point. 

Next up are a few command stands. One Perry, one Foundry and the third a mix of Perry and Essex. 








The first command stand I might use as Waller for Cropredy or maybe Montrose, although I would have to start another 17th century army for that! The next command stand is Oliver Cromwell - a nice figure and companion piece to last week' Charles the First. The final command stand is a portly Perry officer and at the moment the flag is Fairfax's but it just slips on and off. I was disappointed I couldn't find a house I liked in either Fairfax or Cromwell road when I was looking locally, so I shall need to do "Black Tom" at some point too I guess. 

Finally three battalia commanders for my Covenanters  The Covenantor army is pretty much complete but I've had Essex and Wallenstein commanding so these are replacements. 








Nice Perry sculpts with a little light conversion on a couple of them, the one with the burgonet would make a nice Swedish officer. I've been meaning to move onto the Thirty Years War anyway! Sixteen mounted figures and one dismounted gives me a total of 165 points towards my total and towards the Renaissance Duel. 

All the best, Iain.

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These are great, Iain - and a perfect complement to last week's Royal submission.  I can see the troopers gracing the field in any of the Civil Wars, accompanied by the various commanders.  Once again the Foundry and Perry figures are serving you very well, and I can see some very nice conversations there to make the units splendidly unique.

And, gosh, how much better it must be to have a Covenantor unit led by a Covenantor officer!  I can imagine much relief in the Grassmarket once the correct Officer is appointed, instead of the Earl of Essex or Count Wallenstein.  Your fine Covenantor officers will, I'm sure, be up to the task of leading your ranks of hodden grey to victory in any refight of 'Bloody Dunbar' (or is that tempting fate?).

Awesome work, Sir, and 170 points (adding a few for the various conversions, additions and flags) to boost your points total on the long march towards Victory and our Renaissance Duel!

From KyleC - Poxwalker invasion! (200 pts)


Spent some time on these this weekend in-between watching Anime with my son, playing Sims4 on the PS4 with my son, doing homework with my son, and generally hanging out with him trying to find ways to reduce his computer time ( only thing he likes to spend time on these days ).

So when he was sleeping, or eating, or playing RoBlox for a bit, I got a bit of painting done. Received these on the Friday from a Facebook sales ad, and got straight to work on them that evening.


Are they my best work.. no.. but are they good enough to put on the field in 3 squads of 20 ( as I have 20 done already! )... oh yeah.. And will my regular opponents be happy to see them placed on the field of battle to go up against? No probably not :D ... and less so since they don't know about them yet ;)


I had to paint the cloth different colors just to be able to know which unit is which. Since I run them in 20s anyways, figured that batched of 20 colors will be enough. I have here the Blue and Green squads... and the Orange one ( which is the best for these models ) are no longer waiting for reinforcements.


Would love to say that these were fun to paint up.. but I can't :D They were a bit of a slog to get through, more so over the weekend. But they make the other units that much more sweeter to work on! Especially with some Age of Sigmar rearing its head recently! Which no doubt will reinforce these forces at some point ;)

40 models in total.. at 5 pts a piece.. brings me up 200 pts.. I might just make my 1000 pt target before this Challenge is over!  Maybe ;)

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Oh, I like these Kyle.  There's something slightly creepy, and surreal about them.  One might even say there's "something of the Warp" about these Poxwalkers, as they stagger through the galaxy seeking new flesh to rend and victims to bludgeon.

Colour-coding the squads is a great idea to keep track of these hordes as they stagger across the battlefield, and I love the deep shading on the models, contrasting with their rotting grey-green flesh.  Most unnerving, I'd say.  I can imagine that an endeavour of this sort does take a heap of time, so well done fitting it in between bouts of family life and homework.  (Question to self: why didn't mapping the Imperial defences of Cadia get examined in Geography homework?  I'd have done better in that subject had such things been on the syllabus.  Ah well.....)

They're going to add a stonking 200 points of Nurgle-inspired horror to your steadily amassing total, Kyle.  Well done, Sir, and keep up the horrifying work.  The Ordo Sepulturum are watching....

From BenitoM: Austrian Napoleonics Vienna Volunteers Battalion (20 pts)

A very busy week at home and at the office and I could only display my painting tray on Friday evening. For this reason this week's contribution to the Challenge is rather small an additional company for my Vienna Volunteers militia battalion.


Despite that I still maintain my goal of present 1 submission per week, even if it's as modest as this one.  As in the previous submission, these are Victrix plastic minis with some militia spare heads from my Perry boxes.

And this is how the battalion is looking by now.


One more company and the first battalion will be concluded (with General d'Armee, I'm using 4 companies per "standard" or regular sized battalion = 16 models).

So it's 4 models in 28mm x 5 points = 20 points.
Hopefully next week I'll come back with a better output.

Have a great week all participants 

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Great work, Benito!!  The Vienna Volunteers are coming along really very nicely indeed.  As we saw in your last submission, they are a perfect balance to the overwhelming white uniforms of so many other Austrian units, and will look terrific on the tabletop.

Your goal of one submission each week is a fantastic one.  I was emailing Curt the other night about the same thing.  It's all about trying to get a momentum, and into the swing of weekly submissions.  Climbing a lead mountain, or paddling with the flow of the Challenge, is all about that rhythm - and, by goodness, you certainly have both momentum and rhythm a-plenty, as well as great quality!

(Of course, all these helpful encouragements have been derived by me through watching OTHER people paint in previous Challenges, and not by me looking in the mirror!)

Also, on a personal note, I love the colours of your bases.  Is there a secret Anibal Invictus recipe for that you might share with the other Challengers and me?  I'd love to have a go at replicating those colours.

And, yes, these fine volunteers will add a very worthy, and thoroughly well deserved (and consistent) 20 points to your total for Challenge VIII.  Well done indeed, Sir!