From MartinN - More 28mm Greyscale Viet Minh (31 points)

I'm still recovering from a nasty flu which knocked me out for over a week. While being quite pleased with my progress over the Challenge so far I find it always rather hard to get the juices flowing again once I hit the proverbial wall.

By now I'm feeling pretty comfortable with greyscale so I painted up the last of my Viet Minh to get back on track again.

As Curt already has pointed out my interpretation of greyscale probably has more of a heavily desaturated look than true black/ white approach. But as I'm still looking for a way to make the opposing forces look slightly different to each other I might still try a 'proper' greyscale on the French paratroopers.

By now most of you will probably be aware of me being a big fan of Mr. Hicks' work. The only thing I'm almost always struggling with is the faces. He has a certain way in how he sculpts faces which makes his work instantly recognizable but that doesn't really fit my painting style. I still get the faces done up to a standard I'm happy with but it's almost always a chore.

As I already said at the top these six guys are the last of my Viet Minh force so far. Unfortunately Redstar Miniatures don't supply the Viet Minh with separate heads whereas the French come with an abundance of different head options. So as long as they don't add more poses to this range I'll probably have to make head swaps if I want to expand the force.

So all in all todays submission should give me another 30 points. In combination with my 'Hot' themed entry this should see me exceed my 750 points target.


From Curt:

I'm just loving this project Nick. Greyscale is one thing but I have to say that I still prefer your desaturated approach to these figures - I think they  look terrific (especially with the corresponding groundwork - brilliant).  

In regards to the absence of head options with the Viet Minh I have to agree with you, I wish they had the extra sprues that the French figures have. Nonetheless, from what I understand from chatting with the RedStar fellows is that they have big plans for this range, so we should be seeing dedicated sapper teams, anti-aircraft crews, gunners, etc. This is pretty exciting stuff for those of us who are into this period. Now it's just a matter of getting enough of Paul Hicks' time to get the work done!

I'm giving you an extra point for the mortar as I very well know how much of a swine it is to put together with the crewman also holding it.

Great job Nick!