From TamsinP - 2nd Moscowskiy and Apsheronskiy Musketeer Regiments (74 Points)

Well, folks, for my eighth entry, some more Russians. You'll be pleased to hear that I've only got four more regiments to bore you with paint up to complete my initial army. I'm hoping to fully paint the next two before I return to work on Wednesday (I took a few extra days off). Going back to work will, of course, slow my painting down somewhat, but if I'm really lucky I might just complete the final two in time for my posting slot next Saturday - stick that in your pipe and smoke it Ian! *grin*

But enough of the banter; on with the post.

I present to you the 2nd Moscowskiy and the Apsheronskiy regiments of musketeers. As before, the figures are 15mm from Essex Miniatures.

2nd Moscowskiy Regiment

The 2nd Moscowskiy regiment fought in the battles of Gross-Jagersdorf, Paltzig and Kunersdorf. They also took part in the 1760 capture of Berlin.

Apsheronskiy Regiment

The Apsheronskiy regiment fought in the battles of Gross-Jagersdorf and Kunersdorf. It was after the latter that they gained the distinction of wearing blood-red gaiters instead of the usual black. This was a result of the regiment holding its position against all Prussian attacks. They took heavy casualties and were described as standing "knee deep in blood".

Close-Up of the Command Stands

I make that 36 figures = 72 points and hopefully +2 points for the freehand flags. which will give me a nice lead over Ian for a few days until he gets to post.

From Curt:Beautiful stuff Tamsin. I don't know if its the colours, the period or what, but I still think this Seven Year War foray is some of your best work yet.  Your bush control is very steady and neat, particularly on the officers and drums. Wonderful. 

Let's see if we can see the last four units for your next submission on Saturday. No pressure...  ;)

From TeemuL - 28mm Ork & Goblin Arrers (35 Points)

First a photo of my "mobile painting station." My painting can be a little old school, but my painting station is old school. Couple of sheets of newspaper on kitchen table and here we are. Yes, the space is quite limited home at the moment and after getting back to hobby couple of months ago there has not been better place for my painting. Anyway, this keeps my WIP projects in control, there is only limited amount of space available in the box. The other box has my paints, brushes and other tools while the other box has the WIP miniatures. When there's visitors or the table is needed for boardgaming, the boxes are moved away. Luckily I am allowed to have them on the table overnight, so it is easier to have short painting sessions on the evenings.

But enough of that, here's more old Orc Arrers. Four again, these were faster to paint, because I had some routine. I also skipped the Mephisto Red undercoat and used Evil Sunz Scarlet straight over the white undercoat on the clothes. Seems to be solid enough. I also painted the teeth with little bit differently compared to earlier ones, they are less white and more yellow.

The pictures are bit dark again, the snow has melted, the sun is not shining, it's raining and storming, but they ended up ok.

Then something else, 3 goblin arrers. I believe these are from the WHFB 4th Edition Starter. I have not painted these miniatures earlier, so there was nothing to paint-match them. However, I wanted them to match the Orcs, so they could be happily fight in the same army. I wanted them to look more unique, they have more individuality than Orcs, so each has a different "hat" or what ever that hoodlike thing is called. The color choices are pretty much same as for the Orcs, but I gave a Dark Green Ink wash on the skin and then heavily drybrushed with Goblin Green. They are little bit darker and small details are easier to notice. Evil Sunz Scarlet is not working as well on these smaller areas than on the larger Orks, the brightness is lacking a bit. I think the next ones need the Mephisto Red under the Scarlet.

After taking the pictures from Orcs, I managed to drop my camera on the floor and it won't start... It served me well for seven or so years. Photos are saved, so no worries there. Luckily my better half has enough of cameras (and one of them is easy enough to use), so I managed to take these photos with different camera. I need to play around with the settings a little bit, I just noticed that these are quite a bit larger than the previous ones. I need to take some camera lessons, but she is now busy with Revell 1/24 Ford Mustang 64½ -model kit I gave her as Christmas gift some years ago. That saved the rainy day. :)

That's all for now, seven 28mm models should give me 35 points and get me above the 100 point mark!

From Curt:Great work Teemu! I love seeing these venerable Goblin archers with their kooky hats. It's made even better that you're painting them up in the old school fashion, even with the red bows! I remember it always made me crazy that so many of the early edition models only fit diagonally on their bases so when they were ranked-up they were never aiming directly ahead. It still makes me twitch a bit when I look these...

Again, great job Teemu! 

From VincentC - The Witch-King on Horse (10 points)

Keeping with a theme I'm continuing to paint ringwraiths, though I do also have a very different character that I'm half way through for next week. After feeling terrible over Christmas I'm trying to just keep things ticking over whilst I get some hobby impetus back, I also got a bit of a surprise over Christmas which may put a little dent in my free time however I'm still going to push for my 500 points!

Curt asked me what I had left to paint to achieve my goal, which is to have a painted set of models required for the Fellowship of the Ring journeybook, and the list is as follows;

Haldir (unarmoured)
Gildor
Mounted Arwen
Tom Bombadil
Goldberry

Mounted Ringwraiths (2 more remaining)
Ringwraiths on foot (6 more remaining)
Wild Wargs (12 remaining)
Warg Chieftain
Goblin Captain x2
Cave Troll
Balrog
Barrow Wights x4
Tentacles x6
Lurtz
Uruk Hai Captain
Uruk Hai Scouts x10

So that should give you a pretty good idea of what you'll be seeing from my posts over the next couple of months. If by any chance I get that little lot done I'll be working on my Numenor army.

From Curt:Great work Vincent! As with the previous wraiths you've submitted I really like the shading on the Witch King's cloak - it's very nicely blended and subtle. By your list it looks like you have your work cut out for you over the next few months and I certainly look forward to seeing them emerge from your hobby desk. 

Well done! 

From SimonM - "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" - Federated Security (25 Points)

These five 28mm Federated Security models are by “Crooked Dice Design Game Studio” and are ‘dead-ringers’ for the dastardly black-clad henchmen of the Federation from the BBC science fiction television series “Blake’s Seven”. Three of the miniatures, which are slightly thinner than ‘heroic 28mm’ scale and are somewhat sedentary, have been sculpted by “Crooked Dice” regular Ian Mountain. Whilst the more dynamically posed and slightly thicker-set Federation goons are by Martin Buck. All of the models came with separate heads.

Each figure was initially given a double undercoat of “Citadel” Abaddon Black before they were all rather roughly dry-brushed with “Vallejo” Heavy Charcoal. This is a new paint to me, although I have owned it for quite a while as it came as part of a larger set of dropper bottles, so I wasn’t entirely sure what effect it would actually have on the models. Needless to say I’ll be using it in the future to highlight all of my predominantly black coloured figures as it really brought out the detail of each model’s sculpting. However I did feel the need to tone down its contrast to the undercoat somewhat so I applied the first of three eventual washes of the “Citadel” Shade Nuln Oil over each miniature.

Once dry I painted each helmet’s green trim with a combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Khakhi and “Citadel” Thrakka Green, and all of the figures’ visors with “Vallejo” Heavy Red. Finally their belt buckles and Federation rifles were painted with “Citadel” Boltgun Metal and their key chains with “Mithril Silver”. All of these areas, except the helmet trim, were then given two coats of Nuln Oil to tie them all together.

From Curt:Very cool! These fellows have that armed minion look down pat. I really like the addition of the green trim - it brings some visual interest to otherwise very dark figures.  My curiosity is piqued regarding your experience with the Vallejo 'Heavy Charcoal'. I'll have to nab a bottle and give it a whirl as I'm always on the lookout for alternate ways to shade dark tones.  

Great work Simon.

From RobP - First Entry and Happy New Year !! 20mm AB Germans and STUG´s (208 Points)

First Entry and Happy New Year to all Brush Addicts !!

Well there it is then... I finally got around getting some pics made and put my first entry for this years Challenge... Given the hectics at work at year end I am quit pleased with the achievement of getting some painting done at this time in the Challenge.. The last few years it took me until half of January to get something finished..

After annoying the other Dutchmen in the Challenge for over two years to get into 20mm this year they finally gave in... You probably did see already Jakes GI´s and those of MikeF will certainly follow in short time (no hint or push here Mike...).

Because we wanted to play our year end game using Battlegroup Normandy I had to start painting some germans very quickly since the boys had already started.. So at the start of the challenge my goal was clear.. 20mm AB Germans...

Initially I started out getting my colour schemes sorted out.. I had to make sure I did not treat these minis as the 28´s I normally do and loose myself into detail etc... After a few test figure I had it sorted and the production line was operational.. I have decided to use a bit lighter colours than I would normally do for better appearance on the table.. I leave it to you lot to decide if I succeeded or not..

So the first up is a battery of STUG´s.. These are PSC models and took only 5 minutes to assemble. Very easy and provided me with some much needed armoured firepower.

I also painted up an infantry platoon and some support to beat off the doughboys; in total three ten-man sections and a six-man command group plus an artillery observer, a panzerschreckteam and a HMG team.. In total 43 figures.. These will put my first entry at about 208 points in total...

Here are some pics of the platoon and some sections

From Curt:Welcome aboard Rob! It's great to have you with us again this year. These Germans look very fine indeed. Those AB castings are superb and always seem to challenge painters to bring out their best for them, which you certainly have. I particularly like the officer in his softcap, holding the map - I think you've done a great job on his muted camo. 

Now, where is the last member of the Dutch Waterbicycle Detachment...? :) 

From TamsinP - Blame It On The Bellboy (10 Points)

Another small entry. This time some 1920s civilians for my Mob Wars project.

"Uncle" Arthur Williamson

Arthur is the head doorman at L'Hotel Vosay, in the French quarter of Salutesville.

He started working for the hotel as a young lad, back when Salutesville was a small frontier outpost.

Prohibition hasn't affect Arthur too badly as he's been able to obtain a prescription for weekly quart of rye whiskey from his doctor for his rheumatism. He keeps a small dose in a pocket flask in case his joints flare up. Which they do, usually every half hour or so.

The job of a head doorman does mean that Arthur knows who to know and who to go to, which is always helpful when guests at the hotel have special requests. He has many contacts inside Postie's mob. The tips he gets for referrals help to cover the higher cost of his prescription.

After 50 years of work, Arthur looks forward to retirement with his "landlady", Mrs Sarissa.


Francisco "Frankie" Sarissa

Young Frankie knows that "Uncle" Arthur isn't really his uncle, just a very good friend of his mother who has lived with them since about a year before Frankie was born. There are only two bedrooms in their apartment, and it wouldn't be right for Frankie to share a room with his mother. Luckily "Uncle" Arthur is rather old and prefers to sleep in his easy chair in the lounge.

Arthur got Frankie a job at the Vosay as soon as he was old enough. Aged 16 now, Frankie is the senior of the hotel's boys and is proud of the gold shoulder tabs on his jacket.

Frankie is very ambitious. One day he hopes to be head doorman at the hotel, just like Arthur.

However, he will need to overcome his tendency for making mistakes and having silly ideas.


The figures are 28mm from Blue Moon. I've painted these up to help me recover from painting the mitres and flags of those grenadiers!

I may paint up some more 1920s civilians to give me a break between batches of Russian musketeers.

Two 28mm foot figures is 10 points.

From Curt:Two great figures with wonderful backstories, excellent! I love Frankie's ardent stepping out pose, with his pillbox hat strapped-down tight and then there's Arthur surreptitiously reaching for his 'medicinal' pocket flask...  I think you need to go back and give Arthur a touch of rouge on the tip of his nose. :) Your Mob Wars project is fleshing out very nicely Tamsin.

Reminder: Sunday Night is the Close for Voting for the Rider(s) & Mount(s) Theme Round

Hi All!

Just a quick reminder that midnight Sunday (Regina CST) is the close of voting for the 'Rider(s) & Mount(s)' theme round so make sure you've cast your votes for your favourite entries.

For fun I've run a report showing the current top 12 positions. As you can see by the chart below it's a very tight race!

From SanderS - 20mm Napoleonic Prussian Artillery (80 Points)

Dear Ladies and Gents,

Here is part two of my 1:72 Challenge with Ben; some Prussian Artillery stands for the 1806 campaign. These are rather special to me since the gun (howitzer) mounted on the base with the officer on it, was made together with my son, who was only 2 years old at the time. I was putting together the gun while he sat on my lap. The bases had been standing unpainted in my showcase, while other projects took my fancy, the Challenge was the best excuse to get them done so here they are. The miniatures are HäT figures and the bases are from Renedra.

The battery:

Some close ups of one of the guns. This is actually also the first time I have used a scenic special effect on a mini. This is a small plasma bolt from the Armour Cast scenics range which I painted as a cannonball leaving the barrel.

From Curt:Excellent work Sander! It's so refreshing to see 1806 Prussians. It seems that hardly anyone wants to collect them when they weren't complete rock stars, even though their uniforms and composition are very interesting (bicornes are awesome). I also really like the cannonball effect you achieved with the Armorcast add-on. Very cool. 

So, 8 points for each gun plus 4 for each crewman equals 80 points total. You must be coming very close to hitting your 200 point objective with your 1:72 duel with Ben. Well done!