From RossM: The Last Gasp (154 points)

This is the final submission from myself in this year's Analogue Painting Challenge. Another week would have seen another dozen or so 28mm miniatures gracing these fair pages; however the sands of time have ran out.

This entry comprises of three elements all from different scales and genres including 15mm Sci-Fi, 20mm WW2 and 28mm Fantasy.

So the Sci-fi first, there is a total of 54 15mm figures here.  Below are Ground Zero Games New Israeli Marines at slightly less than half strength. These figures will bolster another half company as needed and will also double as assault troopers.

Next up are 27 Drop-ship Troopers from Critical Mass Games ARC Infantry range. These are still 15mm figures - probably closer to 18mm and as a result are slightly larger than the GZG figures above.  This won't matter too much on the gaming table as the two types of troops will be deployed separately to start with.

The CMG figures have a different style to their sculpts but are no less detail, in-fact they probably have more detail the GZG figures. Time allowing there would have been a full platoons worth of Augment troopers from this range, sadly they only saw undercoating. Keep an eye out on the blog for them though!

Lastly from the 15mm Sci-Fi are four stands of GZG New Israeli Marines that are going to used for tank-hunters. Not much else to say about these guys really as they are what they are.

Next we turn to 20mm WW2 Armour and in this case three German Panthers from Frontline Wargames.  These models whilst basic are great to paint and will see a variety of use in both skirmish and larger scale games in the coming years.

The zimmerit picks up the dry-brushing particularly well on these models and really lifts the finish of the painting. Opted for a basic camouflage pattern on these as the first attempt led to a complete re-paint, it just didn't look right at all.

Lastly, I turn to the start of it all, Oldhammer itself and a tribute to the first edition of the said game purchased some thirty plus years ago! Harry the Hammer or Uthmog Elvenblade as a Champion of Chaos for the Chaos Warrior Warband for Songs of Blades and Heroes. A true anti-hero in nature and an iconic figure from the mid-eighties.

Below shows another Chaos Warrior as shown in the Citadel Compendium Two - the first miniature catalogue I purchased back in the day. The other members of this motley-crew will be painted throughout the remainder of this year.

This concludes my entry for this years challenge and regarding points should deliver:

The Challenge has been great fun and the standard has raised again: applause to everyone who challenged, painted, photographed and blogged their hobby over the last three months, you have all earned it! Its been a blast again and maybe next year I'll complete this 15mm Sci-Fi army :)

Cheers for now!


From Curt:

Wow! That is an impressive last gasp Ross! Great work here and congratulations on hitting your Challenge points target. All of these are excellent but my nostalgic heart goes out to the Oldhammer models. Now, those take me back a bit. I think Harry the Hammer (inspired from the cover of the 1st edition rules) is worth a pretty penny on the open market now. Lovely to see both of these done up style.

Thanks for joining the fun this year Ross. You've been in quite a few Challenges now and it would seem very odd not to have you listed in the roster. Take care and see you next time out.