From MartinC - They've Got a Good Bass section But No Top Tenors (120 Points)

Nearly finished. These are the uDuDuDu regiment (obviously the bass section).

I only have 28 left to do. I had to bin 20 because they were just too poor to use. I'll melt them down and turn them into Pathans or the such like.

The last 28 will be based individually to give me some variety of use.

Wonderful work! I like the black shields with the brown and white contrasting accents. The light must be at the end of the tunnel Martin - keep up the steam!

From AlexS - Mechanicum 30k & Venetian Foot Knights and Venetian Standard Bearer (209 Points)

My next work on miniatures. 

Firstly - the robots of the universe, the Horus Heresy, Mechanicum. I tried them Metallic paint using an airbrush. The effect was not like I wanted to, but on the table looks okay. I do not know how much to charge for them points, but I think my supervisor decides. They are about 40mm in size, but are designed for gaming system in 28mm (or rather, 32mm in 28mm favorite GW heroic size)

Then - once my army unit in Venice and the standard-bearer in the same army. I'm not very happy with how to get the squad, but very satisfied with his work on the standard-bearer. Yet work on the individual model brings more joy and get better. This unit (30 miniatures) as required to be displayed on the table of dismounted knights (Lancia spezzata) and heavy infantry to the Venetian two-handed weapon.

I must continue to work on, this is made easier as it is very cold and I don't feel like going outside. :)

Great work Alex! I really like the diverse models on display here. I've always enjoyed the design of those Mechanicum models and yours makes me want to give them a go. I also am enjoying seeing your Renaissance project come together (in leaps and bounds, no less). That mounted standard bearer is very nice indeed. Well done!

From PeterD - Renaissance Clergy (30 points)

With final exams and Christmas out of the way, I've finally been able to put paintbrush to figure for this year's Challenge.  First up for me is this set of 4 clergy for my 'Renaissance Men' Duel with Curt, using metal figures from the Perry's.  These are lovely figures with lots of character and detail, two mounted and two figures on foot.  The mounted figures are one piece castings. Interestingly while the priest gets a fine piece of horseflesh, the Cardinal gets a lowly mule to ride, albeit a very well dressed mule.

I had to do a bit of online research re costumes here, and hope I got things right.  I could have delved deeper into Catholic regalia but feared I might be drawn to the Darkside (mandatory snarky Anglican comment now out of the way).  Renaissance art is a great source of reference material, as were these guys.

I bet you didn't see that coming did you?

English parents have been scaring their kids to sleep with images like this since 1588!

YouPaint wise, the challenge was the rather unicolour clothing.  I wanted it to look like lush fabric with deep folds and went with multiple washes over a base coat, followed up by highlighting on the ridges.    For instance, the black robes have a base coat of Paynes Grey (actually a deep indigo blue, almost black), washed with Carbon Black.  The reds are scarlet washes first with Deep Red, then with Burnt Umber and the highlighted in scarlet.  I use Liquidtex acrylics, I am sure that there are GW paints named for bodily functions in similar hues.  I suggest that Arterial Bloodspray, Bloody Booger and Troll Poop should do the trick.

I expect that my army commanders will be happy to see the back of this lot!

Period images show the hood with and without the white fur lining, so I added it to the mounted figure.  It gave the Cardinal on foot too much of a Santa Claus look so I removed it.

You can't do Renaissance Italy without conniving Churchmen, and these four should come in handy for scenarios as messengers, objects for kidnapping, unwelcome "assistance" etc.

Very nice work Peter! Your reds are suitably sumptuous and I quite like the luxurious tack on the mule. These fellows look ready to harangue, cajole and/or excommunicate any Condottieri captains within earshot. 

The first volley in our 'Renaissance Men' duel goes to you my friend. I really must get a wiggle on...

From AaronH - 28mm Imperial Guardsmen from GW (105 points)

My next entry in the Challenge is 21 Imperial Guardsmen from GW. These are 28mm models, mostly plastic. I can't stand the 40k rules. I bought an army of these guys before I realized that though. They've sat, assembled and undercoated for years.

A friend and I are planning a campaign for 2016. We'll see if it gets off the ground, but if it does, these will be the core of my ground forces. We'll be using the Chain of Command rules for the ground combat. To start we'll play them out of the box. Once we have a handle on them we'll mod them for Sci-Fi, things like hacking, ECM, teleportation. They are candidates.

The full group

This batch is one squad of ten men and eleven odds and ends.

Rear shot

The rifle squad is a Sgt, a Vox-Caster and eight riflemen. I haven't added any support weapons into a squad yet, but I have the options and will sub them in as appropriate.

The rifle squad

These men are veterans of the Malvee militia, returning home after several years fighting off-world. They have arrived just in time to defend their home from invasion.

A hard bitten Sgt.

The odds and ends are a dismounted armor officer, Vox-caster, missile team, melta gunner, plasma gunner, two grenadiers, two flamers and a Corpsman. The bases are done in my standard desert pattern.

Odds and sods

The officer can be identified as an armor officer by his lack of armor. His sword is a chain sword that I filed down to be a power sword. Several of these models are metal.

No armor, not infantry

The metals are very sharp, very nice poses. They are less bulky than the plastics which are, frankly, not GW's best work. The plastic Cadians are all badly proportioned and some of the sculpts are very soft in places. The metals suffer from none of these problems.

Plasma gunner. I elected to go with the traditional blue plasma chamber.

You can see the difference between the gunner above and the grenadier below.

Grenadier. Not as well proportioned. The faces have great character though.

These men are from the 1st Battalion, 5th Malvee Infantry. The V is for the 5th. The single dot represents the 1st Bn. This is horrible OPSEC but it's fiction and I wanted to give these guys a little bit of color.

Armored officer attached the 1/5 MMI Regt

These models are solid and unremarkable; which is appropriate I guess. I now have two squads, since I finished up another nine models while I worked on these. They don't count as I started them years ago. I'll be finishing up enough models to start playing during the Challenge. These are a nice filler unit. Easy to paint a bunch of them and a change of pace from the more complex historical models that will be most of my Challenge fare.

Great work Aaron! I quite like the desert colour scheme you've chosen for their uniforms, especially the judicious highlight of their green shoulder armour. Nice.

I agree with your assessment of many GW plastics. They were often over-scaled and soft in detail, while the quality of the metals you could usually bank on. That being said, you've done a wonderful job on both here. Bravo!

From KyleC - US Armor division rolling in! (210 Points)

Oh Rah! Armor section rolling in now... Started in on them on Saturday, and finished them on Sunday.

Most of it was waiting for the oil to dry before the photos, so the above photo is from last night.

While I had them all out, I grabbed all the infantry out as well, and did a family photo of this first week's painting work!

So set by set.. starting with some Chaffees.. though they are poorly done recasts that I thought were real casts that I got off eBay in the beginning. Added up some stowage to the lot as well.. and at some point I can dust them up and weather them most than just the little black oil wash it received already.

Next up is the M8, M20 pack... nothing extra thrown on here..

2 M3 Halftracks ready to bring some Marines closer to the fight.. Extras stowage here as well, and the barrels of the HMGs were cut off and replaced with brass rods.

2 M16s here, ready to cause some serious damage to the opposition. Again the barrels are replaced with brass rods as they were far too flimsy overall to survive long in plastic.

Triple Sherman offensive... all complete with stowage and rope connectors. Plus the wood sidings to repel the magnetic mines..

Now this was the first test Sherman that I painted up.. I do not like the coloring as much as the others though. Not enough green tinge to it in comparison to the rest. It was the resin version, and so the wood slats were molded on, but the other stowage was added to it..

And the color variations between them.. I need to do more color variations to the green ones like I did to the other ones.. but that is for another day. Again when I am get to the point of working on the dust as well.. and maybe some markings ( American Stars? )...

And the final shot of them all once more after the matte varnish had settled a bit this morning..

So all in total.. 13 vehicles for the US forces which should be about 195 points at 15 pts per 28mm vehicles, and someone to take on my Japanese at some point as well.. as shown below when I did a quick set up of them at some point this year..

So there are a few more vehicles to get some paint and such soon enough.. the only part of my Japanese that are not finished really.. But that is for another day.. for now, we have some more batch painting to get prepped ;)

Awesome work Kyle!  That is a very impressive passel of American armour. To be honest, I think I may like the more subdued green of your test model the best, but that's just me. Nevertheless, the oil does tone down the more vibrant green and brings out the details nicely.

The base of this submission is 195 points <gulp> BUT I'm going to top you up a bit due to the extra stowage and mods you've done to some of the vehicles. Lovely stuff.

 

MarkH - 15mm WWII German Tanks (30 Points)

Hi Guys

Busy painting week this week but not a lot got finished. There is lots of stuff on the table including 4x 24 man Confederate ACW units (which may be done by next week). Several other 15mm Flames of War units and 21x 28mm Samurai Bandits. (I seem to have the dreaded finishing disease at the moment...)

So this weeks submission is 5x 15mm Tanks

3 Jadpanthers and 2 Panther G's

I've done them with a bit of wear and tear and used filters and streaking effects similar to last weeks submission with the Panzer III in 28mm. The effect isn't quite as good in 15mm but they stand out well on the table top.

Left and right side of Jadpanther 212.

Left and right side of Jadpanther 213.

Left and right side of Jadpanther 214.

I used a mixture of Tamiya and Vallejo Paints and Ak interactive enamel washes.

Left and right side of Panther 420.

Left and right side of Panther 421.

No idea what a 15mm large tank is worth in points but at least i finished something.  

Mark

:)

'Interactive enamel washes'? What is this heretical sorcery? I'm barely interactive when I'm at my hobby desk and certainly don't like the idea of being upstaged by my paint. Seriously though, these are beautiful looking tanks Mark - the camo looks brilliant and so does the weathering.

These five will give you 30 points, but your description of your painting queue sounds very impressive and I sense an impending points bomb on the horizon.  Now, back to work!