[Thursday] From BenitoM: I'm Back! One more entry before bowing out 45 points

After a full one-month hiatus out of the Challenge due to a combination of work load and different family obligations, I finally made an extra effort last weekend to get at least one more entry in the competition before the 21^st March deadline.

Not a great output in quantity but I hope you’ll appreciate the love I put in painting these two contributions. First some additional Austrian Napoleonic grenadiers which together with those presented last month represent 2/3 of the unit.

The models are a mix of 28mm Victrix and Perry, both bodies and heads. 

And this is a view of how the unit is progressing with the command stands painted before.

The second model is another support option for my main project this year, the British Airborne platoon for Chain of Command: a Sherman Firefly, another very popular and fine product of British ingenuity and a fierce opponent to the usual array of German kittens that many players display on a gaming table.

The model is a beautiful Rubicon plastic kit, not too difficult neither to assemble (although note that the same box offers up to five tank variants, so you should take some care of the pieces you use … and glue!) nor to paint.

I’m quite happy with the amount of stowage used (not too much, not too few) as well as the work made with the airbrush and the weathering pigments. The model belongs to the 11^th Armoured Division and display the markings of the A squadron (red triangle) in the Senior tank regiment (number 51 in red square).

This model is also my second entry for the What A Tanker competition, together with the Cromwell shown in January. 

I think this entry is worth 42 points: 20 points for the Grenadiers, 20 for the tank and 2 for the commander model. Honestly, I see unlikely that I’ll reach my objective (750 points) for this year but I have scored much better than in any previous edition of the Challenge… and above all I had a hell of a good time painting and enjoying the rest of the participants masterworks.   

Looking forward to next week, I´d like to focus my attention and painting effort on the Curtgeld, for which I had an idea that hopefully should be able to unveil in a week from now.

Gorgeous Grenadiers! Lovely work on your white clad Austrians(one of the highlights of the last challenge for me) The Firefly is terrifically finished, your WW2 project has been consistantly superb. 20 points for the Grenadiers,20 for the tank and 5 points for commander and all the excellent stowage!

All the best Iain 

Thursday From MartinN: T-26 28 points

When Rubicon released their plastic T-26 late last year I kew I had to get me one of these iconic tanks. As with others of their kits I was rather impressed by both the quality and detail these guys have managed to put into this kit. Once I had chosen which of the ten possible variants I wanted to make the assembly was straightforward. It also came as a pleasant surprise that there were more than enough parts to build another turret to go with the tank.

The soviet made T-26 tank is based on the British Vickers 6-Ton tank. With 23 different versions in serial production it was to become the mainstay of the soviet army with about 11.000 of all marks produced till 1941. It saw service not only in the Red Army but also in the Wehrmacht, the Finnish Army, with Romania, Bulgaria, Afghanistan and in the Spanish Civil War.

During the Spanish Civil War it was the most numerous tank in the theatre as well as the best one, easily outclassing the outdated Spanish tanks of WW1 origin as well as the German Panzer I's and the Italian CV33 or L3/33 tankette. 281 T-26's M36 were supplied by the Soviet Union to the Spanish Republic. It was captured in large numbers by the Rebels and was highly regarded by their new owners. In fact a not inconsiderable prize money was to be paid to each soldier (or group of soldiers) who managed to capture one of these vehicles intact. Especially the Moroccan Regulares seemed to be quite adept in this game.

The second turret I built was the M38RT conical version with horseshoe antenna. The two headlights above the main gun give it a quite sinister appearance in my opinion. Should I come round to build me an early Soviet Force for Operation Barbarossa this beauty will come in handy no doubt.

Radio equipment was quite scarce in the red army and thus only the tanks of platoon commanders if any at all were equipped with radios. Communication within the platoon was through hand or flag signals. Arguably not the most effective way of communication especially once the bullets started flying. Thus any tanks captured by the Germans were to be refitted with radio equipment before they were sent to their new formations.

The T-26 was almost obsolete as early as the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Still it soldiered on and even in 1944 some units of the Leningrad front were still equipped with T26's. The last recorded combat action it saw as late as August 1945 during the fighting against the Japanese in Manchuria.

My only gripe with this kit would be the M36 turret missing the rear turret hatch which afaik all Spanish models featured. Still as mentioned above it's an awesome kit and well worth the money. At the moment I'm thinking about getting me another one... or two.

Despite the kit coming with a big sheet of decals, also containing some suitable for the SCW, the Rebel insignia on the M33 turret were painted by hand and honestly I'm quite chuffed how they turned out. So 20 points for the tank and maybe another five for the additional turret?

As this is my last submission before the "free for all" week I want to thank Iain for having been an excellent minion. I haven't managed to submit that much, but still I'm proud to have been part of Team Thursday.

Awesome T26, it's one of my favourite tanks of the interwar period,it's not a tankette, it's a proper tank! I've got a Rubicon T34/85 to build ,to be honest I've been put off by all the bits! You've done a fantastic job on this Soviet/ Nationalist tank , so 20 for the tank, 5 for the turret and 3 for the handpainted insignia, 28 points, you might not have submitted much but it has all been of excellent standard!

All the best Iain 

It's the final Thursday!

ItsI the final countdown ! As Europe famously sang( Shh I mentioned Europe but I think I got away with it!)
  Six days left of the challenge,it's wizzed past and I've had a delightful time as Thursday minion.
 I am  desperately painting figures and building terrain I have no chance of finishing in the next six days but still fun!
I would like to thank Curt for granting me editing rights and for putting on the challenge which is the highlight of my hobby year and of course to all those who have posted on Thursdays and who have all been a pleasure to deal with.
We have a nice range of posts today and good luck to everyone getting stuff painted in the coming week!

All the best Iain

From SimonM: "Black Tree Design" Aggedor (5 Points)

This 28mm metal miniature of "the protector of the Peladonian king and the guardian of all of Peladon" is manufactured by “Black Tree Design", and can be bought as Code DW329 Aggedor from the company's "Doctor Who" miniatures range. Described as 'a large, powerful creature, like a bear with the head of a boar, the alien was played by actor Nick Hobbs in both the January 1972 BBC Television story "The Curse Of Peladon", as well as the March 1974 adventure, "The Monster of Peladon".

The "sacred symbol of Peladon" was initially primed with two coats of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, washed with copious amounts of "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade and dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna. I then applied some "Citadel" Abaddon Black to the royal beast's paws, snout and forehead, before 'dotting' his tiny pig-like eyes with a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Red and "Citadel" Bloodletter.

Later I 'picked out' Aggedor's numerous teeth, his tusks, claws and horn with "Vallejo" White, before generously shading them using some additional Strong Tone Quickshade by "The Army Painter". The mammal's base was gritted with sand, undercoated "Citadel" Abaddon Black, and then dry-brushed in Doombull Brown and Rakarth Flesh. As a final step the circular stand was washed with "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade, protected with a coat of PVA glue, and covered in static grass.

He's flatlining! Charge the paddles! Clear!

I feel sorry for the BBC in the 70s, clearly going on a shoestring SFX budget and having to come up with monster after monster. A furry beast like this one reacts well to drybrushing.

I think we've saved our patient with everyone's efforts today. Best wishes for your recovery, Ev!

Nurse Barks

From SimonM: "Black Tree Design" Sharaz Jek Androids (25 Points)

These five 28mm metal androids are produced by “Black Tree Design", and can be purchased as Code DW518 Sharaz Jek Android from the company's "Doctor Who" miniatures range. Designed by Sharaz Jek to help take control of the spectrox refinery on Androzani Minor, these robots were eventually all destroyed by General Chellak and his federal troops in the March 1984 BBC Television story "The Caves Of Androzani".

The figures were first primed with two coats of "Citadel" Abaddon Black, before being generously dry-brushed with "Vallejo" Heavy Charcoal and washed with "Citadel" Nuln Oil. I then 'picked out' their automatic weapons using a combination of "Citadel" Ironbreaker and Nuln Oil, before applying a double layer of watered-down "Vallejo" White over their heads.

Finally, I washed their heads with some "Vallejo" Pale Grey and later dry-brushed them with (more) White so as to ensure their cyclopean eye was highlighted. At one point I had actually gone to the extent of painting a pilot piece's eye with a dab of "Citadel" Ironbreaker, but quickly felt it didn't look right, and went back to my original plan of the all-white head as they appeared in Robert Holmes' transmitted story.

Are you even a real doctor? Who did you say you were? Don't answer a question with a question!

Man those are freaky. I quite like both the cyclops and plain versions.

Nurse Barks

From SimonM: "Wizkids" Ultron-13 (5 Points)

This 28mm tall plastic “Wizkids” model of Ultron-13 is miniature number 216 from the "Marvel" Armour Wars "Heroclix" range, and depicts the robotic super-villain when he fought the West Coast Avengers at the end of 1990. "The first Marvel Comics character to wield the fictional metal alloy adamantium" Ultron made his first appearance in the July 1968 issue of "The Avengers".

Having removed the figure from its 'clicky-base', the Avengers' arch-nemesis was super-glued on to a 25mm circular stand, and undercoated using a layer of "Citadel" Abaddon Black in order to mask its decidedly substandard pre-paint job. He was then treated to a lick of Ironbreaker before being thoroughly shaded in Nuln Oil.

Following on from this I dry-brushed Ultron-13 with (more) "Citadel" Ironbreaker, and subsequently 'picked out' his small internal nuclear furnace using a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Red and the "Citadel" glaze Bloodletter. As a final touch, I tried to tidy up the area around the homicidal robot's mouth and eyes with a thin line of "Citadel" Ironbreaker.

The healing steel! Make a bold incision and throw Ev's diseased organs in the bucket!

Second sexiest robot butt ever (after Bender)? Change my mind!

Nurse Barks

From SimonM: "Age Of Sigmar" Bloodletters (15 Points)

These three 28mm plastic multi-part models have been assembled from sprues found inside the "Start Collecting!" Daemons Of Khorne set produced by “Games Workshop”, and were all based upon "Citadel" 32mm round bases so as to fit in with the rest of my Blades of Khorne "Age Of Sigmar" warhost. Armed with their formidable-looking Hellblades, all of the "finely detailed plastic" have been assembled using the instructions found within their box; albeit I did eventually need to buy an additional slithering forked tongue after I dropped one whilst super-gluing a figure together and simply couldn't find where it had gone...

Having finished building the models, each of the Blood God’s Slaughter-kin was given a double undercoat of “Vallejo” Heavy Red, extravagantly washed with "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade and dry-brushed with (more) “Vallejo” Heavy Red. Following on from this basic stage I then turned my attention to their “jagged” hand-weapons and primed them all with "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna before applying a double-layer of Gold over them.

These bright metallic swords were subsequently dulled down using "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade and had their keen edges 'highlighted' with a thorough dry-brush of (more) "Vallejo" Gold. This process allowed me to then ‘tidy up’ any frustrating splashes of “Vallejo” Gold I had inadvertently deposited on their horns, hands, hooves, spines and sword hilts with a little “Citadel” Abaddon Black.

In addition I used this opportunity to gently blend these blackened areas in with the rest of the Bloodletters' red coloured limbs and head. To finish the daemons off, I carefully picked out their sharp teeth using a combination of “Vallejo” White and “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade, and ‘spotted’ their eyes with a few dabs of “Vallejo” Heavy Ochre. Finally, I gave their tongues a base-coat of “Vallejo” Heavy Ochre and later drenched them in “Citadel” Reikland Fleshshade.

A bold treatment, Doctor Simon. Some bloodletting will surely make Ev feel better by balancing his sanguine humour.

That's a bloody great blood colour you've given these figures.  I've got pots of VJ Heavy Red and AP Strong Tone and will note this combo down for future use.

Nurse Barks

From MikeF: Imperial Militia Grenadiers (50 points)

With the challenge winding down, the pressure's on to finish a few more units to reach my modest goal of 500pts. Whether I achieve that or not, I'm still happy with the progress I've made. The challenge has also pushed me to paint some things that would otherwise be gathering dust.

One of my projects for the challenge has been my 30k Imperial Militia the "Inferallti Hussars". I managed to complete my first unit of grenadiers wearing the Crimson and White carapace armor described in the book Praetorian of Dorn. The figures are from Anvil and the backpacks are from a discontinued line of Mantic Games Corporate Rangers.  Here's 10 figs for 50 points.

Yes, Doctor Mike. I shall apply a topical ointment of 30K and rub it into Ev's affected parts.

Nice work on these unique figures. I like the rich crimson tones and they are nicely set off by the clean basing.

Nurse Barks

From TeemuL: More Morr (35 points)

More Plague Marines for my growing Guards of Morr army. This time the miniatures are basically from the Dark Imperium starter set, but most of them have been converted more or less. The starter minis are kind of fixed, I mean you can only build them in one way. But I also had one "real" box of Plague Marines, which had lots of different options, so I had quite a lot of bitz available. It didn't look that easy to begin with, but I managed to chop and glue the different parts together and now I have quite a lot of special weapons to spread to my different units. Some of them were rather easy, just swapping hands (or swapping the backpack of Champion), some were more difficult, but easier than I first thought. The guy with a plasma gun is the only one who hasn't got any conversions, I run out of bitz at that point.

Painting itself was the same fast and messy (or artistic) style I have used on my warriors of Nurgle, nothing special or new there.

Close-up of the guys in the back row

That's 7 more 28mm miniatures, so 35 points, please.

But of course, Doctor! Nurgle's blessings have been bestowed upon Ev- it's the only explanation for the constellation of symptoms he's been exhibiting!

I'd like to try my hand at some Nurgly goodness some day. I like the conversions and this classic colour scheme.

Nurse Barks

From StuartL: Wild Blonde Bares All (30 points)

For my third and final post this week, I have a Celtic chariot all done and dusted. The model is from Warlord Games and features a couple of ancient Brits ready to kick those Romans back to the continent. This will be joining my small force of Britons for Hail Caesar.

The chariot itself was a simple enough paint job being mainly wood and wicker. The horses were likewise fairly simple, so I tired to spend a bit of extra time on the crew. The driver got some fancy leggings and both he and the naked lunatic behind him got woad warpaint and some lime-washed blonde locks.

After painting, I applied a mix of flock and static grass. Once the glue had set I knocked off the excess and took some photos. When I went to resize the photos, I noticed that there was still some loose flock on the model, so I went over it with a brush and retook the pictures. Unfortunately, some flock is still clinging to the sides of the model and deadlines are looming, so I apologise for that.

And a gratuitous (NSFW) shot to finish the post with. The shield is hand painted as I couldn't find the transfers for it. Should they ever turn up, I'll probably redo it.

So, to close off this weeks posts, I believe that chariots are scored based on their component parts. I will leave it to my omniscient minion to determine the exact values, using secret formulae passed down from the ancient druids themselves, but at a rough guess:
2x horses = 10 points?
2x crew = 10 points?
1x chariot = 10 points?
And 1 more squirrel as well.

With only 1 week to go, I still have a load of minis to finish off. See you all at the finish line.

On the woad again... Oh dear, I seem to have caught Ev's pun disease. Thirty cc's of points and that lovely shield should see me right. I do feel that the chariot needs a bumper sticker- suggestions taken!

Nurse Barks

From StuartL: These Girls Want To Meet Brainy Men (47.5 points)

My second post this week is a set of zombies for Warlord Games' Project Z game. All of the models are from Warlord's own range, which I believe the acquired from Wargames Factory a while ago. A friend of mine needed them painting up and I volunteered to help out.

The models were, honestly, a pain in the behind to paint. The connection points between the arms and the shoulders is incredibly small. Several times during the painting process a limb would go flying across the room or drop onto the floor, resulting in a lot of time spent scrabbling to find it.

I'm not altogether certain why, but a lot of the figures seem to be only partially clothed. Perhaps the zombie outbreak happened at a strippers convention? Regardless, they are all fairly gruesome with scratches, gouges and missing body parts aplenty.  

I'm not sure how my friend has based their other Project Z minis, so I just gave them a simple texture and a coat of grey for now. I haven't tried Project Z yet, but I think the zombies are more of an environmental hazard than the focus of the game, so for mindless walking dead, they should do the job.

So, for the final score, I estimate it as:
9.5x 28mm figures = 47.5 points and an extra point for my Squirrel collection.

My god, Doctor! Do you think this is how Ev became ill? Surely he wouldn't have- you know- with one of these zombies?

It is a mystery to me how many female zombies are, as you say, infected at stripper conventions. Regardless, zombies are always fun to paint and you can never have too many.

Nurse Barks

From StuartL: A Teeny Tiny Group of Marines (37.5 points)

With the final days of the challenge drawing nearer, it is time to start getting stuff finished off and posted. My usual habit when painting is to put things to one side if I get bored working on them, so I have a few half finished batches of models to post up. For my first post of today, I have a bunch of models from Games Workshop's old Epic range.

First of all, a set of 30 tactical marines, a command stand and 4 Rhino APCs. These are all painted up in the colours of the Salamanders chapter. All of the infantry and the vehicles are from the first edition of the Epic game, or Space Marine as it was unimaginatively called back in the day. The exceptions are the command figure right at the front of the shot and the middle figure on the third base from the left. These models came out later.

Next, a unit of 4 Contemptor pattern dreadnoughts. These are from the same set as the command figure above. Trying to paint the details on 6mm minis, including the flame patterns on the shoulder and knees was a challenge. The chapter logo on the shoulder was almost impossible. When viewed up close, they bear more resemblance to the Emperor's Finger-painting Legion.

These are Whirlwind artillery vehicles. Each carries a payload of Crayola Mk.III missiles. 😀 Honestly, I had spare red and yellow paint on the pallet and decided not to waste it. These models come from one of the later editions of the game, which was released at a point where I was taking a break from gaming. I acquired these years later through ebay.

Are these marines really small, or just far away? Painting 6mm is not something that I usually do, but it was fun to give it a shot. I'm quite happy with how these turned out and I have a load more of them stashed away in my hobby room somewhere.

So, to help my diligent and devoted minion along with the scoring.
35x 6mm infantry = 17.5 points
4x 6mm walkers = 4 points
7x 6mm vehicles = 14 points
Total = 35.5 points, plus one more for my Squirrel tally.

Brilliant suggestion, Doctor Stuart! If we shrink these figures down to 6mm then we can inject them into Ev like in Fantastic Voyage.

6mm requires a good balance of shade and highlight to get a pleasing effect on the tabletop, and you've nailed it here. I'm very impressed by the chapter logos on these Salamanders- have some bonus points!

Nurse Barks

From TomM: For the White City! (90 points)

As my first entries in the challenge were all about the orcs besieging the White City, I thought it reasonable to also include the defenders in this years challenge.

And so the Men of Minas Tirith found their way in my paintline...

Armed in full plate and wearing black clothing, I must admit these where probably the fastest to paint up so far.  And with two characters alongside who also have a predominantly solo colour scheme...

The warriors come equipped with their possible combinations totalling 12 of the plastic warriors, joined by a captain and a standard bearer.

A bit more of a heavy punch comes from the accompanying cavalry force, totalling 2 more models.

So that yields 90 points due to 14 infantry and 2 cavalry models.

Good thinking, Doctor Tom! A Fellowship-themed dose of Gondorian troops will suit Ev nicely! They should smack any orc-ish symptoms right out of him!

Nurse Barks