From DavidL - 28mm Samurai Skirmish (55 points)

Continuing in a skirmish vein from my last entry, here's a war band (or buntai as the game calls it) for Ronin, Osprey's samurai skirmish game.

This was my first time painting 28mm samurai (I've done 10mm samurai in the past) and I'm now firmly convinced that this particular genre compares very closely to Napoleonics in terms of fiddly painting detail and potential for eye-catching, colorful "uniforms." On the one hand, I love how everything turned out; on the other, I can't begin to imagine painting a whole army of these guys! Lots of detailed brushwork was called for.

I have another buntai in the painting queue, a band of Ikko-Ikki - fanatical peasants out to destroy the system. Rather than painting up a bunch of generic samurai and peasants, and being unable to resist my history-geek tendencies, I've placed both forces in a historical context: the Ikko-Ikki uprising in Mikawa Province during the autumn of 1563 that culminated in the Battle of Azukizaka in January of the following year. That battle was one of the first victories of a young lord named Matsudaira Motoyasu - later known as Tokugawa Ieyasu, unifier of Japan.

The buntai I've assembled here is modeled around the spark that caused the uprising: "Fighting broke out in 1563 when Suganuma Sada, a Matsudaira retainer, entered the Jōgū-ji temple in Okazaki, and confiscated its rice to feed his own men."

Thus, I've chosen to paint up Suganuma Sada and his hungry escort.

Unlike Napoleonics, there is a fair bit of room to get creative with choosing colors and so forth, especially for minor figures like Sada. His outfit is a riot of colors, but I think they hang together nicely. It helps when you have an excellent figure to work with, as with this Kingsford figure.

Although I'm usually averse to doing elaborate, diorama-style basing, I couldn't resist throwing in a Perry casualty figure as I had some extra real estate on the base. (I painted the casualty with a Takeda clan mon, as they were also early foes of the future Tokugawa.) The mon on Sada's back is a decal transfer from Veni Vidi Vici and was, mercifully, quite easy to work with.

I hit the "lacquered" bits of armor with some gloss varnish to provide a bit of a shine.

As was often the case, different temples in the region aligned themselves with either the Ikko-Ikki or the local lord. Here is a warrior-monk (sohei) ally of Matsudaira's from the temple of Daiju-ji.

That blade means business!

For the ashigaru (infantrymen), I mostly pulled from the Ronin starter set put out by Artizan, but I supplemented with an excellent banner bearer from Perry Miniatures. The banner pattern is based on one used by Tokugawa over the course of his career.

For the sashimono (back banners) of the infantry, I wanted to put on the Matsudaira family crest, but it's so intricate I knew there was no way I'd be able to free-hand it like I did the Takeda mon. I was unable to find an easily-acquired set of Tokugawa transfers, so I set out to make my own with some decal paper.

The experiment was mostly a success. The ink ran slightly when I sprayed the fixative, giving the crest a slight reddish outline...but I kind of like how it turned out, actually. Chalk this one up to "happy accidents."

Not counting the casualty figure on the base, there are seven infantry figures and one mounted figure, which totals 45 points. I'll leave it up to Curt whether there are any points in the Takeda casualty as well.

The long holiday weekend promises some excellent painting opportunities, so hopefully I'll be back next week with the Ikko-Ikki!

From Curt:
Ahh, this takes me back to our '47 Ronin' theme from the 3rd Challenge - good memories. These are absolutely gorgeous David! I love the monk's orange robes, and Sada is brilliant in his lacquered armour, but I'm particularly taken by his standard bearer who is holding the stabilizing cords - a wonderful model and very evocative of the period.  

I'm going to give extra points for the mon and the casualty figure so 55 points total. Well done David!

From DavidB - Cadian 7th Cavalry Red Platoon (195 Points)

Everybody has a wargaming albatross, or perhaps I'm alone in this regard, but with a lot of comments on lead/plastic mountains of neglect... I'm betting there are more than a few forces like my Cadian 7th Cav.

Above is how the vast majority of all the troops I have been buying, building, collecting, primering, and occassionally painting since 1987. The only troops ever completed were my ratling snipers and a unit of 5 roughriders. the rough riders are a bit worse for the wear and are awaiting repair and repaint. The ratlings have been dropped as they really just never did too well and the Cadian 7th is more about infantry and tanks.

They have a lot of tanks as nobody in the 7th walks.

They are my tin boy army and my regular opponent hates to see them after fighting my Crimson Fists, Eldar, or Dark Eldar forces which are mostly completed. for nearly 40 years these guys are still not painted!

Red platoon has a command squad with a native scout (Vet Sgt) and three squads of troops, the Rogue Trader first squad then two of the Cadian pewter squads (maybe lead?) The plastic bobble heads are on their third paint and have been changed up so often that I had to use some of the newer Cadian parts to complete broken ones. Some of them at one time had gray uniforms (ala Johnny Reb) and sported jump packs and dual laspistols!

They are now all decked out nicely and suitably organized. When traveling in Chimeras they only take special weapons as the heavy stuff is move or fire. My Chimeras are many and have all sorts of weapon systems that  make heavy weapon teams  redundant, unless they are advancing without them or holding a position. That is why two squads have extra troops so I can swap out the rocket launcher and heavy bolter.

These are the fellows that I painted all day on the first Sunday of the challenge. I got a touch OCD with them and before I knew it I was also painting up a squad from Blue Platoon and Blue Command squad, a squad from Black Platoon, a portion of a heavy weapon team, a veteran squad, and a host of necromundia figures that I'm using for scouts. I think I had over a hundred mins on my table and was getting lost as to who went where. I took a break painted the 15mm trucks and 'Bow'. I also began work on another mini as I decided that Red Platoon would go first. This also cleared my table so I can get back to the 15mm newbies that I really want to get cracking on!

Storm troopers, Vets, Tanks, two more LARGER platoons, and tanks, I did mention tanks, right?! All are still on my docket of to be finished this winter!

Here is a parting shot of the Cadian 7th Col. Stuart, a red platoon trooper and a Sgt from the Veteran squad.

Col Stuart was never finished and the Ratlings are the 80's version of my painting talent. 

(note to Curt the 10 man veteran squad were completed last year and only included to show my regular opponent that I do have more than 10 troops painted now!) 

From Curt:
A nice points bomb to be sure! I love seeing an army that has languished from the 80s get done during the Challenge - that's just awesome. Your blue and red uniform colours look great and reminds me of GregB's IG force (from last year's Challenge I believe). I know he'll appreciate your fine efforts here. It's also wonderful to see some of GW's old Rogue Trader models in this force.  The poses are sometimes a bit whacky but they have a charm all of their own. I look forward to seeing your Storm Troopers, vets and tanks in the coming months!

Great work David!

From JamesR - Rohan Royal Guard, Bohemian Archers and a Haircut (35 points)

Curt, I imagine these are worth the standard 35.

Hello, unlike many of you, I am sticking to Curt's LotR theme.  That said there's only three this time. They are Rohan Royal Guard models, which I honestly don't remember from the movies.

I tried to keep them fairly drab and miserable looking.

I have a solution for when your wife "organizes" your hobby supplies and your flock is not in the pile of junk you thought it was.  Wait till she falls asleep and put some quiet scissors to work.

Yes, that is her hair on their bases.  I figure hair grows 1/2 inch a month; I'll have an unlimited flock supply until she ages and all my grass turns blue.

These are some  Old Glory Bohemian Archers (DIF-25) from one of their better ranges, "Vlad "The Impaler" & Turkish Frontier range.  I believe you get at least five or six poses in the 30 man bag.  There is something funny with one of the poses as you'll see below.

 Here they are turning their backs on you.

Here they are on a castle wall.

This particular model has an odd condition.

Elephantiasis or severe gout, look how big his left leg looks from the side.

Till next time, when I hope to have a "mounted" entry and then some Battle Honors Ancients javelinmen.

love,
Baconfat

From Curt:Clipped hair for flock!? Now, that's definitely a new one (the blue comment killed me btw). I'll try to keep an eye out for toenail twigs and dandruff snow (eww!). 

Seriously, these Rohan Royal Guard look very good, especially the brass helmet detail. The Old Glory models are excellent as well, though I guess you have to take your lumps (literally) with those economical bags of figures.  Great work!

From IanW - Two Essex 15mm Dominate Roman Legions (96 Points)

I started a new project in last years Challenge. The unit to the rear being the submission and I had done nothing since, quite a fail given the number of figures prepped.

So the plan is to work deep into the ranks this year and I started with the two other full Legions I am able to paint up.I am short by half a legion for a fourth so probably pick these up next year at some point. I did not really enjoy painting these as they seemed to be really drab. Who who would have thought painting the shields all black would lift them?

These look that much better in my mind but even so I am toying with the idea of selling the army once finished and putting it towards a holiday as it's been a few years since we got away for a good break.

Essex have replaced these figures with more historically correct figures wearing mail, these look to have leather armour which was the main switch off. Next up for this army will be bow and slingers so most of my posts will be between Ancient and Dark Ages.

So forty-eight 15mm figures will get me 96 points not quite the bomb a few have dropped on us but not bad.

From Curt:  

Lovely work Ian! These look very fine indeed. I really like the blue and red shields and the unit in the tan tunic - very sharp. Remind me, what system are you going to use these for? 

From EdwinK - 28mm Daleks (50 Points)

Well, it's been a time coming, but here is my first 'proper' submission to the Challenge (I did submit my Stalin lookee-likee to the Cold round).

These, I sure most will recognise as Daleks.  They are 28mm figs from Black Tree Designs Dr Who range - a patrol of six, a Special Weapons Dalek, two destroyed Daleks, and Davros: making a total of ten.

I had read that the casting of the Daleks didn't live up to BTD's usual standards, and sadly this was true.  I shall go into more detail about this on my own blog!  It's a shame really.  If there was a ready supply of better-cast reasonably-priced Daleks, I'd be happy painting hundreds of the buggers in their different permutations.

The Special Weapons Dalek is a particularly bad sculpt (I'm going to blame the sculpt rather than casting here).  However, in The Canon SWDs are supposed to be particularly bonkers Daleks and consequently grimy and run-down (because, y'know, normal Daleks care about their appearance and keep trim!).  This, I think, allows me to get away with some wonkiness.

I've spoken elsewhere about my colour choices (basically those of my childhood introduction to the beasties).  To compensate for settling on the most boring Dalek livery of all time, I've given them a Supreme Dalek, resplendent in gold and black, as leader.  And I could leave Davros out, could I?

For the destroyed Daleks I've again gone for the classic look (the squidgy bits of modern Daleks appear to be pink rather than green).  Having said that, I haven't replicated the dyed Fairy Liquid that I associate with wounded Daleks...

I had something of a disaster with the bases (the glue attaching them to the Jenga sticks proving stronger than the plastic), so as a consequence some will have to be re-done.

From Curt:

I have to make an embarrassing admission:  I've never really watched any 'Dr. Who'. You see, when I was a kid living waaay up in the North we only had two TV channels and neither carried the program (they barely carried anything except Hinterlands Whos Who and Hockey Night In Canada). By the time I had a TV in my apartment in my 20s I thought the series as rather, well, quaint and dorky and so instead stuck to watching re-runs of 'Space 1999'  (Barbara Bain was sooo hot...) .

So suffice it to say that my cultural savvy regarding Daleks is pretty limited. So when I saw these I thought, 'Hmm, I'll check Daleks out on Wikipedia so I can get a frame of reference.'   

Holy smokes! I had no idea...

The wiki page goes on and on and with an incredible amount of detail regarding the history, legends and lore of these creatures - it's amazing. It almost makes me want to watch the series, well, sort of.

Anyway, from my position of ignorance these look pretty darn cool. Of course I particularly like the Supreme Dalek with its bling carapace, and Davros looks suitably nefarious fiddling with his dials, knobs and buttons.  Can I ask what the various pointy things are supposed to do? Are they different types of beam weapons? And what about the bumpy bits? (Cringes, awaiting the scorn of Brit-TV Nerds around the world...)

A wonderful entry Edwin!  I thank you for an hour well-spent reading about Kaleds and the stair controversy. :)

From DavidB - 'Bow' 28mm Superhero (5 Points)

For my 2nd submission to the Challenge, I'll present my first Super of the year. His name is Bow and he is my go to stealth, combat, sniper for my super team. he name may be a bit bland, but Hawkeye, Green Arrow, and other monikers were already taken while Shaft seemed to be a little.....

He is a Crossover miniatures Super and is of white metal. Crossover has a wonderful selection of figures and uses separate heads to increase customization and personalizing of your heroes. They have a growing lines of slick looking minions that will be presented shortly in this challenge. For the curious, the heads are special ordered if of minion variety, but bosses and heroes/villains come with three heads and most are easily attached to any crossover mini and work well with GW and other figures. The women are very nicely done and scaled really well.

I wandered into Super gaming because my kids are still resisting historical and are only into fantasy and scifi for the painting. They like supers and zombies and usually both together. I was lucky enough to participate in two Crossover kickstarters and the majority of my hero collection came from them. It helps that Rusti is a very nice guy and supersystem was readily available for one of his kickstarters with samples made of the new heroes and villains.

Bow was kept muted in color and I resisted making him too shiny. I also plan to use him with my commando team in the zombie gaming. His colors are muted green and brown which were coincidentally the colors I was using on my Cadian armor and packs.

I did give him yellow optics for a touch of heroic flair. Red would have been a better choice but as he is a hero yellow seemed to be a better fit.

The crossover minis are hit or miss in the sculpting quality as Bow does seem a bit too stiff for my tastes. still as a design and poses go, most are pretty blank slates which are intended for creative painting of heroic spandex! looking at the lineup, It would be very easy to whip up a Legion of Superheroes or most any other pulp/comic hero you can find. besides Reaper, my kids really like the Crossover miniatures.

From Curt:Great work David. I really like the green tones you went with for 'Bow'. The bright yellow optics are ace  and so is the detail on his compound bow. I think it's wonderful that you're gaming with your kids. Maybe in a few years they might get the historical bug - either way, enjoy the fun!

From GregB - 20mm German WW2 Infantry Support Weapons (26 Points)

20mm German support weapons, NCO and radio man

For my next entry I am back on to 20mm WWII (a figure size I am totally falling in love with).  These figures are metal castings from Warmodelling Miniatures. I came across these when looking for command models to round out some holes in Plastic Soldier Company's 1/72 German Infantry set (namely, a lack of senior offices) and so I ordered a command group, an MG team and light mortar team.

3-man MG team...I think it is an MG-42...

There is a senior NCO on a hex-shaped base, a radio operator, an MG team (I think it is an MG42, but I'm not sure - more on that further into the post) and a light mortar team. The uniforms are mostly pre-war, although the MG team seems to have gaiters, so perhaps more 1943 than 1941.

An early war touch - light mortar team

I found the Warmodelling stuff to be a mixed bag - I think the sculpts are top notch, but the quality of the casting itself is really hit and miss. The MG mount was a terrible casting, to the point where I cannot even tell what type of MG it is actually supposed to be (I think it is MG42 because the barrel seemed more rectangular than round).  The tripod was also a mess.

NCO with MP-40 and radio operator

These were very nice sculpts

Warmodelling seems to have a wide variety of sculpts, but the experience of the poor casting quality will have me moving along to other figure manufacturers - I'm going to try some stuff from SHQ next.

3 man MG team - the sculpt on the weapon and the tripod was very poor; the rifle on the extra crewman was also mangled

The kit on the backs of the crew castings was much nicer

There are seven 20mm castings and two (very small) crew-served 20mm weapons. These fellows will join the growing pile of 20mm WWII stuff, and I look forward to adding more as the challenge continues!

From Curt:
I'm really enjoying your love-in with 20mm WWII Greg. Like your previous entries, these are wonderful. I can see what you're saying about the cast quality of these as I had to peer close to determine whether the MG was a 34 or 42. I can heartily recommend SHQ and FAA (and of course AB) as I have had good experience with all of them. I look forward to seeing more from you after Christmas (and I think you need to re-evaluate for your next points target)!

From ClintB - 20mm SAS Gunner and Zombies (40 Points)

And for my third and final entry this week here are some 20mm figures. 10 in all one WWII Britannia SAS with a Vickers K machine gun. and 9 horde Zombies from the Zombies game.

The single 20mm Britannia SAS figure is the last until about April next year of the LRDG I intend to paint in this challenge simply because I do not own any more. He was an impulse buy as I had never seen a figure using a Vickers K machinegun when not part of a vehicles crew. It might just be enough to deal with a Zombie Horde. All the figure in this post are 20mm but he is a little shorter than the ZEDS.

These are the soft plastic zombies from the "Zombie !!" board game. Which is why they are all the same pose. Given that I Have had 100 of these to do (about 25 still left to do) it has been essential that I paint these very quickly and hence messily! Then loads of blood over the top for that just feasted glow! They really are not well painted and I could if I choose do a much better job but at this stage I just want them done and when all of them are on the table coming towards you, you just do not pick out details at all, just the mass effect. I do intend to use these in my next play-by-blog game unfortunately all the places are full and I am not taking any more players at this stage. And yes they are deliberately on desert bases!

From Curt:

Those are some pretty gross zombies Clint, ewww! I have the 'Zombie' game and the figures are quite soft. How did you prep them for painting?  White glue emulsion? The Vickers K gunner will be a nice add to your desert collection. As you say, you often don't see dismounted SAS figures using the K - very cool (or hot, hot, hot in the case of this fellow's hands). Good job.