From DaveD - Cops and the Ice Maiden (25 Points)

A top up for today, more Bob Murch Pulp.

And another from the femme fatale range

From Curt:So far, this has been a very good Challenge for Bob Murch and his wonderful range of models. I love the coppers in this entry with their Irish blue double-breasted long coats. 

The femme fatale is very fetching as well. With her red-fingernailed hands holding the glass of champagne, you can almost hear her breathily say, 'Happy New Years, Darling...'. 

...and just enough points to put a finger in Millsy's eye and take the lead... 

A fine day out Mr. Docherty!

AdamC - Dark Age Warriors (36 points)

 Now we have 6 more 28mm Dark Age raiders that should be good for another 30 points

Not much to say about these that hasn't been said in other posts I did this group as all spear-men so I could theoretically use them as skirmishers.

The most ambitious of my hand painted shields in this batch a bird of pray or maybe a raven as was popular among the Vikings

 For the rest I went with much simpler designs

 Runes always make good shield decorations

 More geometric lines and shapes

 Runes again this time without any pater behind them

Finally the spiral lines this ones a favorite approach for me as it looks cool but its fairly easy to do.

From Curt:Nice work Adam! No one can have too many Dark Age raiders, well, except for villagers, priests, farmers, young women... Okay forget that. Nice shields thought (the raven one my personal favourite)!

AaronH - 28mm WWII GIs (65 Points)

This next entry is for my U.S. Army for Chain of Command.  I painted the first two infantry squads and command in the 4th Annual Analogue Painting Challenge, and have done nothing else with them since.  This entry is two .30 MG teams of three men each and a 60mm Mortar team, also with three.  The last three models are a forward observation team (FO).  All of the models are metals from Warlord.  We are having a snow storm today so the lighting for the pictures was a little bit funky.

Three weapons team and a FO team.

These models were a pleasure to paint.  Nice sculpts with good detail and character. Some of them have removable heads so it was easy to give a little bit of variety to the sculpts, especially since the two MG teams are identical.

One tripod mounted .30 MG for support in Chain of Command.

The mortar team are also good sculpts though it would have been nice to have one dropping a bomb down the tube.

60mm mortar for a little extra boom.

The FO team is three models.  One looking at his watch, one checking a map and a radio man.  I toyed with the idea of adding an aerial to the radio but I don't think it will survive first contact with the enemy.  Again, these are all very nice sculpts which were fun to paint.

FO team.  The barrel of the carbine on the right is also broken off.

These models really do have very nice detail.  Some of Warlord's metals (EIR Auxiliary cav) are really bad.  These were great.  I like how each member of the crew is accoutered a little bit differently.

I'll have to superglue that basing sand down.  This seems to be happening a lot this winter.

I'm disappointed that the light is wonky since it's hard to see the paint job on these guys well.

At least the shoes show up well.  

I just realized that I forgot to paint on their shoulder patches.

Great detail on these models.

If the light improves I'll try to get more pictures.  If not, well, them's the breaks sometimes.

From Curt: 

This is a great bunch of Yanks Aaron! I know Warlord can be a little hit and miss with its quality but these look to be excellent models and you've done just a cracking job with them. I really like the mortar team but my favourite has to be the FO timing the incoming artillery rounds. 

Great work!

From AnneO - Pulp Gangster Trio (15 Points)

As some of you may know I had a Secret Santa who sent me some Pulp figures by Bob Murch. I received the Hired Guns, the Jazz Quartet and a Native American which is to become part of a new line from Bob.

These figures are unlike anything I have ever painted before and I was not sure if my usual style of painting would work on them. Therefor I chose to paint only three of the Gangsters just to be certain Having to strip the paint from three figures is preferable to stripping paint from five figures.

I sculpted the brick base inserts using Super Sculpey.

I chose to use dark tones on each figure in order to unify them as a group.  Individually they are...

Curt "The Iceman" Calzone

Clint "The Viper" Calamari 

Simon "The Butcher" Spumoni, the Gangs ruthless leader

Sorry about the bent gun Simon, but these things happen.

Painting these figures was the most fun I've had since the Challenge began. They have such style, charm and character they were an absolute joy to work with. The Jazz Quartet will be finished during the Challenge, but I am going to take a lot of time with those as they matter a great deal to me. 

The three figures combined are worth 15 Pulp points, allowing me to remain dead last behind Simon and Curt. 

From Curt:Ah, lovely work Anne. I don't really mind being named after an Italian sandwich but I do take umbrage being led by a guy who walks around with a bent Thompson. ;) 

I really like the cool grey tones you've used and the unifying red accents with the hatbands and ties. Stupendo bellissimo! 

I really have to get some of this Super Sculpy stuff as the bases you're making are wonderful. I currently do mine out of miliput or liquitex, both of which are kinda crappy to work with. 

Wonderful stuff Anne and welcome to the Pulp scoreboard!

From AaronH - More 28mm Celts (141 Points)

Another entry of Celts.  This starts off with ten more infantry.  This gives me 31 infantry so far, which sounds great until I realize I need a couple of hundred of these guys to complete the army.

Ten more Warlord plastic Celts.

These are the last of my sabot based Celt infantry for the Challenge.  I have more but they got a lick of paint pre-challenge so will have to wait.  I do have a bunch of Celts that will go on unit bases so those might get a look if I finish up everything else in the plan.

More Celts.  This one has a looted Roman helmet.

These are the last of the stickers.  I'm glad to see the back of those.

I would be OK with a few more shirts but at least the detail on these is good.

The next part of this entry is nine Celt medium cavalry.  The three command models are Warlord while the rest of the unit are Wargames Factory.

Nine Celt medium Cavalry.

The Warlord minis (in front above) are nice sculpts, though they have a GW amount of severed heads on them.  They are much nicer than the EIR Roman auxiliary cav I painted for last year's challenge.

Wargames Factory Celt cav.

The Wargames Factory sculpts are oddly posed and have very soft detail.  They are cheap fillers but I think they need at least two ranks of better models in front of them.  So, very much like their infantry.

The Chieftain had a nice big cloak so I did some free hand on it.  Nothing too fancy, but something to make him stand out.

The freehand on the cloak is just some repeating geometric patterns.  Not very Celtic but enough to make the cloak look more fancy than the rest of the troops.

The entire unit from the rear.

These were fairly quick to paint, though, counter intuitively, the Wargames Factory sculpts took longer because I was trying to compensate for the lack of detail with better painting.

I like the standard bearer throwing his javelin.

The standard bearer is the ancient equivalent of models firing rockets in Flames of War.  The light was all artificial since I'd lost the light by the time I had these guys done.  I'll do a group shot for the last unit and I'll make sure it's taken in proper daylight.

The Chieftain and standard bearer.

These models will give me some much needed striking power for this army.  I should only need three or four more units of these.  Sigh.

From Curt:
Brilliant work Aaron. Again, I like how vibrant your paint style is. Many who do barbarian armies use 'the dip' to move through them faster, which I completely understand, but with no subsequent highlighting I find it often mutes and muddies the overall effect of their armies. Your's have a nice 'snap' to the colour. The only thing I would suggest is perhaps picking a couple more colours for your horses to break up the look of the force. Otherwise they look great. 

Well done! 

From BenG: Württemberg Jäger zu Pferd and Welsh Warlord (70 Points)

Happy New Year, everyone!

For my second entry, I have a mix of scales and periods.

The first is 20mm HaT Württemberg Jäger-Regiment zu Pferd Nr. 3 Herzog Louis.

No conversions here, besides adding a little plume to the officer's helmet made from rolled tissue paper and PVA glue. The bugler and the figure holding the carbine are the same figure but with separate arms attached. HaT has started providing optional arms for certain figures, which certainly provides more bang for your buck. Also, you aren't left with multiple buglers from the one pack you're never going to use!

The second entry is a 28mm Gripping Beast Welsh Warlord from the SAGA 4pt Welsh Warband pack I got for Christmas!

I'm not overly happy with the results after varnishing him. The varnish is getting a little thick and I feel I ruined the cape, even though I tried to salvage it with a bit of dry brushing. Still, not the result I was hoping for.

I'm happy with the free hand shield, though. Sticking with his Romanesque leather muscled cuirass, officer's belt and Spangenhelm, I gave him a Roman style Christian motif for the shield. Also, as the Welsh warlord is allowed thrown missile weapons, I gave him a javelin and a hand axe. The pose is a curious one, but I felt he was winding up to throw his javelin under-arm like a plumbata. He had no sword or scabbard, so I glued on a spare plastic one from my Anglo-Saxons.

Now I've got the SAGA rules and expansion pack, I'll be painting more Anglo-Saxons to give them the numbers they're allowed, as well as continuing with the rest of the Welsh warband.

From Curt:Great work Ben. I always enjoy the mods you do on your Napoleonics and this entry is no different - the tissue paper plume on the officer is a nice, subtle touch.

I really like the freehand shield on your Welsh warlord - a fine bit of brushwork there. The addition of the scabbarded sword was a good decision as the figure would seem somehow odd without it (especially for a warlord).

Well done!