From TeemuL - All Creatures Big and Small (40 Points)

This is a strange compilation of models, which I have painted during this week. I was somewhat prepared for the Challenge, I prepared and base coated some models beforehand so I wouldn't waste time on that. Well, all the base coated are now painted as well as couple of others. One of the problems was of course the time, I would have prepared more, if I'd had time. Also, I had no idea what I would like to paint in February, when it was early December. Third, as I was just back in the painting after couple of years pause, I had no real idea how fast I could paint, nor how much time I would have for painting.

So there was I, pretty much all the prepared models painted, no big picture of what to do next and some of the busiest time outside painting. Well, first one was quite simple, the second Shoggoth for the Mansions of Madness. I tried to finish it for the Myth bonus round, but I had not enough time. So here it is, more or less a counter colored version of the first one. At least the eyes are easier to recognize as eyes, the first one had black eyes with dark green pupils. Paintwork is a little bit neater, too, I think.

It is the last of the monsters of the game, the investigators need to be painted at some point, but they are surprisingly not base coated...

Before Christmas I was buying some movement trays and bases, War-bases.co.uk was said to be a good choice. It was also mentioned, that some MDF buildings should be bought at the same time, because they were good and the more you buy the less postage per item... So I bought some of them just to see the quality. They are still unpainted, but look quite good. While I was browsing, I noticed they have some metal figurines as well. They are quite unlike everything I have ever seen before, they are not warriors, not even civilians in the middle of conflict, but wild and farm animals. And they were quite cheap (at least because they sold in small numbers, the price looks small). So I decided to buy some of them in order to see, what they are. The bloodhound looked tempting, so I bought one. And painted.

I'm not an expert, so I tried to follow the "Black and tan saddle type" color type. I think I did it rather well, at least it's recognizable.

One is not of course enough for good testing, so I bought four Mouflon Sheeps and based them as two pairs.

I thought that sheep are either white or black, but these apparently are quite brown. So I painted them brown with a trademark black line on the back.

And three pheasants to complete my test buy.

One of them is male, second one is a female and third one is baby female. It's quite tricky to paint them at this size.

They are all based on 24mm washers, Warbases say that they are 28mm, but they look rather small. One thing my fellow participants of this Challenge probably know, but it is not very easy to paint multiple models glued on the same base... I have troubles with my nerves, when I paint a horse on 28mm scale - guess how difficult it is to paint all the legs of the Mouflon Sheeps, when there are two of tiny animals, both glued on the same base?

As I said, they were a test buy. So was the test successful? Well, there were no mistakes, I got what was promised, there not much flash or anything. I think they are little bit small, but may be the base fools the eye. The details are rather soft at times, but I'm happy with them. I don't know if there are other providers for pheasants and Mouflon sheep anyway. When I buy more bases from there, I will buy some figures as well.

I tried a new (to me) basing with these animals. I thought that the basing material (I got it as an extra while I bought something else second-hand, so I don't know what it really is) would have been a little bit rougher, but it was not. The bases of the animals are clearly visible, something to remember when I work with these kind of models in the future. That makes a good question, another good question is, what I'm going to do with these? They look rather small to me, so do I need to start some army/game/system in smaller scale? I don't have any figures in any other scale than 28 (save some 1:72 German Paratroopers from Revell, which came with a tank set). They might work as objectives (or even as sentries) in some scenarios, but they would be totally out of place in the battles of Warhammer FB or 40K. May be in the Lord of the Rings...?

...Which brings me to the next (and last) entry of this week. In addition of painting couple of LotR figures during this challenge, I have played one game of LotR during this challenge! The latest play before that was some seven years ago... Now I played with Moria Goblins and beat the Dwarfs. I hope to play more, and in order to have more variety in my troops I decided to buy some Good forces and especially some special characters for them. We were (and hopefully will be) using the Warband rules, meaning that for each 12 warriors you need to have a named character or a a generic captain from the same force, so I decided to buy a captain and a standard bearer for my High Elfs. I have Elrond and Gil-Galad, but they cost lots of points and are not perhaps balanced for small games.

Here they are, they were quite fast to paint. I had one trouble, back in the days I used to paint the armor with Mithril Silver and then give it a Flesh Wash wash. Well, as noted before, I have run out of Flesh Wash years ago. I wanted them to match the old Elfs, so I needed to try something else. I tried Leadbelcher over white base coat, then Shining Gold (yes, I still have some older paints). The gold was quite quick, I was not trying to get all the recesses and that. The final touch was Reikland Fleshshade which I painted heavily over the paint. The first try was quite good.

Here are all the models I painted during this week, I hope my title makes sense now.

And the points... Well, 10 points for the Elves. All the rest are 28mm scale models as well, but larger or smaller than regular humans... I hope Curt can make some estimations of the size based on the picture. There are some Shoggoths on the Myth round, so their point value can be copied there. The animals are something new, I'm happy for any points I get from them. :)

From RobP - 28mm Mahdist Ansar & Imperial British (262 points)

My next entry has taken me completely away from my initial plan and schedule for the Challenge.

After receiving my copy of Blood on the Nile and painting up a Victorian officer I submitted earlier my focus has gone completely/ My painting desk is littered with things to paint for the Challenge that I've started on but have not finished... The good thing however is that it gives me choice in what to pick up next when I get bored or stuck with  something..

Anyway, this entry is about Colonials. I assembled and painted a unit of 37 Perry plastic Ansars to bulk out my Mahdist forces for a game that will probably never happen... With only some riflemen and cavalry to go the total force will be around 150 figures. I think a reasonable force for a good game.. I did not manage to get the bases finished since the tufts I ordered are not in yet (...). Flags are

from the Flag Dude.

The second part of the entry is a unit of Imperial British. These figures I bought along with teh mounted officer I entered in the Victorian theme round and these actually started my move back to the Sudan.

Figures are from the Studio Miniatures Empire range (actually listed as NWF) and I will use these in the Sudan. Again very nice characterful figures, no flash or mouldlines to be seen and they paint up very easily.

This entry will put me over the line for achieving my initial goal for the challenge... and beat my fellow Dutchmen to the 501 mark...

I can now spend the rest of the challenge on Curt's entry figure and some odds and ends that are still littering my painting table.. I'll have a cigar and start thinking about what's next..

From Curt:

What an excellent entry Rob - Bravo!!  Those Ansars look to be a suitably ferocious lot.

Like you, I think it's best to run with what has you enthused at the time. I find that if I paint what has my interest my painting is bit better, as it doesn't seem as forced, and the figures seem to come off the table faster as well.  Just kids at heart, eh?

Congratulations on breaking your points target and for taking the victory amongst your fellow Dutch Water-Bicyclists (who, I must say, were cracking along at a brisk pace as well). Nicely done!

After you've finished your cigar drop me a note to let me know what you'd like to aim for your final points target. I think that after your hard-earned victory you need to wrap up with a flourish!

From SamuliS - 15mm Flames of War Objective Marker

Another quick entry for me today! Stellar speed considering that I've had weeks between all the previous updates and now two for the same day :) Not exactly a miniature, but not terrain either. I'll leave it to Curt to judge the level of my crimes with this entry.

I have a Flames of War tournament this week and decided that plastic objective markers won't do. I already had one resin marker ready that I did for the first fortnight challenge last year, but somehow never really got around to painting this one. Well with the tournament coming it gave me a great excuse to paint it up.

The objective marker itself is from Kerr & King and it's actually a couple of millimeters too large even though it's meant for FoW. Still the scene here in Finland is pretty relaxed so I don't think it'll matter too much. Quality isn't top notch, with some small potholes here and there, but still far from the Games Workshop Failcast offerings.

This was a really nice side project to get my motivation up. Only a couple of hours from clean up until finished product so it was nice to see something finished for a change :) I airbrushed it dark brown and added colour by drybrushing different areas. I tried to do most drybrushes with a few different shades and varying coverage areas to give some variation to the tone especially on the brick wall. After drybrushing I washed the interior of the supply dump and then added some chipping using a sponge.

Hopefully the elegant objective markers will see me victorious during the tournament :) Though with most of the Finnish ETC team taking part and other experienced players there I guess I'll be happy if I end up in the top two thirds of the lineup :)

From Curt:

Lovely work on this marker Samuli. I did not realize that Kerr & King offered these - I'll have to check them out as I always admire the character they can pack into these small 15mm vignettes. 

Unfortunately I still class them as terrain for the Challenge so I'm afraid they're not eligible for scoring (similar my own ammo dumps and fuel depots from my LRDG submission). Nonetheless, I wanted everyone to enjoy the work so thanks for sending it along Samuli!

From ScottB - Skarloc - Captain of Wood Elves - Regiment of Renown - Warhammer, 28mm (5 Points)

Something a little out of left field here... as part of my ongoing sell off, of stuff I am no longer playing, I have a painted set of Skarloc's Wood Elf Archers, a Regiment of Renown set for Warhammer , from the late 80's...

The only problem was... I had lost the Skarloc figure from the set!

I had vague memories of using him at a one off RPG D&D session at a mates house back in the UK, over 10 years ago now. So the chances of tracking that figure down now are history...

Thus I scoured Ebay, found a model, bought it, and painted it up... just to sell it, to complete the set. I think this is the first time I have bought something with the specific intention of selling it on once painted...

So without further ado here is Skarloc:

The most Bad Ass Wood Elf Captain there ever was!

And classic 80's GW Warhammer styling!

He'll be hitting Ebay shortly with the rest of the painted unit, with those figures which I painted all those years ago now...

So if anyone's interested - drop me a line (Shameless plug!)

From SanderS - Fireman Sam (32 points)

Dear Ladies and Gents,

As a part of my ever expanding Victoriana Project, my latest contribution is a Victorian Fire Engine. This nice little piece is a West Wind Productions model for their Empire of the Death line. Upon researching the colours of this vehicle, I stumbled upon the museum of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade in London. They actually have some of these and this model is very close to the original. It's a horse driven vehicle, as you can plainly see, but it has a steam-powered pump.

My 3 year old son is totally hooked on Fireman Sam and all things connected to firemen, so the driver was named Sam pretty quick. He's also made me promise him, to visit said museum the next time we visit London.

I would like some more firemen to fill out the engine's benches but that's for the future, now I'm off painting some more regular troops.

Cheers Sander

From RossM - Assorted 20mm WWII German AFV ( 60 points)

Here is my second entry to this year's Painting Challenge, which this time features AFV's from both Britannia Miniatures and Frontline Wargaming.

First up is a comparison shot between two very different vehicles; the Sturmtiger and the Hetzer. Both models are produced by Britannia Miniatures and this really is an example of scale creep. 

In reality the Hetzer is actually longer than the Sturmtiger (according to Wiki so it must be true) and yet the models just don't fit in the scale category as the Sturmtiger is just short of 20mm longer. Not to worry as they won't appear on the table at the same time however, the Sturmtiger is truer to the scale of most of the German infantry I have. Could the Hetzer be a 15mm reject masquerading as a 20mm model? Hope not as its was sold as a 1/76 kit. Any way enough rambling and on to the rest of the pictures.

A great model to paint that really gives you the feel of this assault weapon. A limited number of parts meant it was easy to prep and get on the painting table the rest - hopefully - speaks for itself

Now the Hetzer which only required the guns to be glued in place, so quick prep again and very easy to paint.

Here I opted for a bolder camouflage than has been used for other types of AFV from this range. It works fairly well and should suit some scenario based gaming well in the future.

Next up are two models from Frontline Wargaming, the SdKfz 234/3 75mm Close Support Armoured car and the SdKfz 234/4 PAK 40 on the right as you view it.

These models came with more parts and the gun shield on the PAK 40 version broke are a tumble to the floor. The repair job was botched and the shield is now somewhat skewed on one side.

No problems with scale on these two models as there are few differences between the chassis that can be seen.

Next, a Sd Kfz 11 (3 tonnes) transporter. A clean and easy model to assemble that will see a variety of use in Disposable Heroes.

Lastly a couple of pictures of the desk/folding table where most of this happens.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and feel free to comment. Hopefully, the points will be as I have indicated and there will be more from this period and others to follow very shortly.

Cheers for now.

From SamuliS - 28mm French Middle Guard at Waterloo (243 points)

Another larger entry. This time the Middle Guard Grenadiers at Waterloo consisting of 3 Battalions and represented by 16 men each. I actually finished them last week, but being the clever boy that I am I forgot to take pictures in time...Well better late than never so here they are :)

They are all Victrix plastics. Not the best quality miniatures with a lot of soft detail and bayonets that snap very easily. Still they were extremely cheap coming at about 30cnt per miniature from a sale so that does compensate quite a bit for all the shortcomings. The flags come from GMB designs.

On most my Napoleonics I like to keep the paint job simple as there are hundreds of these little buggers to paint if you really want a proper large battle. These were basecoated blue with an airbrush and then block painted with the main colours. To add some variety I tried painting the backpacks in different colours and then added some extra detail by highlighting the skin parts as that's what people tend to look at first and it does seem to help give a better overall impression. All this was followed with a wash to add some shading. Finally some mud on the clothing to look like they've been trudging through the rain soaked field at Waterloo and to make the paint job look better than it really is :) Distraction is always the great asset when trying to make a quick paint job look better and mud is a great quick way to add something extra that most people don't seem to bother with.

I'm quite badly behind schedule and haven't been able to paint as much as I want, but I do have a "good" excuse as I've lately fullfilled a male dream as a wild red head has made it's way into my life. Probably not the beast that Gentlemens' magazines seem to promote though as this redhead goes on four legs, is very hairy and is actually a guy. Curt should be pleased to hear that we've settled on a Canadian breed with the Novascotian Duck Tolling Retriever and both the parents are imported dogs from Canada, so our family is now one third Canadian :) In the future he'll be accompanying me when hunting ducks and grouse and will hopefully bring some much needed skill to the hunt when I can only provide luck (albeit very bad luck at that) and wildly exaggerated success stories. In the meanwhile he'll continue what every Toller does best, and that is coming up with new ways to trick their unfortunate owner. Damages have so far been limited to a single shirt, but that is definately bound to change in the future as he is continuously figuring out new ways to delight us with his tricks. He already did manage to open one low cabinet containing prepped minis, but luckily I spotted the looming disaster in time and saved my minis from a horrible fate and the little dog from massive stomach ache and a trip to the Vet.

25cm 'Realistic' scale dog

From Curt:

This post is wonderful on all accounts! Your Middle Guardsmen are very nice. I've put together my fair share of Victrix plastics and can attest to both their ease of conversion but also how fragile some of their parts can be (especially the bayonets). As you say a bit of strategically placed dirt and mud seems to strangely elevate many figures.

Your new puppy is awesome! I love his face and white paws. Sarah and I spent conducted the necessary 'awwws' and had fun checking out the breed online. What is the little fella's name? I have no doubt he will propagate Canada's good reputation in your fine household (shirts, shoes and nummy figures notwithstanding). :)