From PaulS - I feel like I could take on... (30 Points)

This is a bit of a last minute entry this week, after the massive upload of WotR figures earlier, but I couldn't resist trying to squeeze them in as well.

Shadows of Brimstone comes with 6 tentacles in each box and, as I got both boxes, this week I present the first six... carefully themed after one of my favourite games ever. Take a guess ;)

And as there are only so many ways you can take photos of tentacles, here are a couple of shots of them savaging some mythos explorers from last year's entries to the Painting Challenge. These last two also give you some sense of scale on these things.

Thankfully what you can't seein the photos are some of the overly soft details around the edges, where the poor sprue layout caused some of the suckers to merge into weird blobby messes and for others to become MASSIVE lumps that are easy to mistake for rocks... Like plenty of other people, I took a scalpel to these and tried to clean them up as best I could, but there's only so much you can do to rescue the suckers without cutting them off completely and making new ones... which is probably what I'll do to tentacles 13-24 when they arrive later in the year.

They aren't on bases as they come with them built in and I didn't really see the point in adding clear bases to something that could already stand up!

They may be tall, but they are simple to paint... so these should add another 30 points to the slowly growing total.


From Curt:

Ooh, sweet! I definitely want some of these tentacle, they're totally awesome! The purple skin with green suckers give that wonderfully whacky mythos look about them. Brilliant models for Pulp adventures like 'Strange Aeons'... Great job!

From PhilH - 15mm WWII US Support Elements (54 Points)

As well as my other small offering this week, I've finished further support elements for my 15mm US Chain of Command force. I'll happily admit that I've not nailed painting 15mm miniatures - I find myself using 28mm techniques and coming out with results that seem...'ok'. I also sidestepped from Battlefront to Peter Pig, which has thrown up some scale oddities - notably inconsistent heads/helmet sizes, even within the PP range.

Well, enough gripes, without further ado, there is a 57mm anti-tank gun and 50.cal...

...a few more infantry stands...

...and engineer mine clearance team and flamethrower teams. the singly-based chap should be a medic, but I've just noticed I forgot to add some markings, in my enthusiasm to finish and photograph.

And a group shot:

From Curt:

These are some lovely 15s to be sure Phil - I particularly impressed with your groundwork. I agree, the transition from painting 28mm to 15 can be a bit jarring, especially for a painter such as yourself who uses a lot of layering and blending. I've seen the Peter Pig range and have been generally impressed - I would expect their variation in poses and good casting quality probably overshadows any slips in scaling?

From PaulS - 28mm WotR: The Woodvilles Ride to War (242 Points)

It took a while and a series of disasters to get around to finishing my first major entry into the Painting Challenge this year, but finally, they are here! Hopefully the next set of figures will encounter a lot less in the way of problems!

This is the start of a small Lion Rampant force made up of parts from all four of the Perry plastics kits. Each figure is based on small 20mm circles that fit into movement trays if I ever decide to go up a level to Hail Caesar (or something else).

The force is painted up in the bright green livery of Richard Woodville, first Lord Rivers and step-father to Edward IV. He started off on the Lancastrian side and eventually changed his mind when things started looking... bad. He married off his daughter off to Edward and eventually rose to the rank of Constable of England, before being executed by Warwick in 1469. The main livery marking is a magpie.

First up we have 11 archers, with their officer. You can probably just about make out that the archers have hand painted livery icons on front and back. These were supposed to be some really nice transfers, but some problems with their size meant it ended up being a lot easier to just paint them instead. They aren't all the same by any means, but I like that

11 bills, with their officer. Again, some of these have the magpie icons on their uniforms. You can see the officer has the magpie on his leg, just to tie him into the unit a bit.

12 unmounted Men at Arms, with one extra standard. As these are all based individually, the standard can be used in this unit, or as part of a command stand for larger games. The banner is a piece of brass cut into shape by CitadelSix, which allows for very stiff, dynamic banners. To make sure that the banner didn't snap the plastic pole, I had to drill that out and replace it with a brass spear, which looks much much better. One day I may get around to making standards for all the other units as well, but for now...

Finally we have a unit of six mounted Men at Arms. The model that was originally entered into the Mounted challenge was dismantled a bit after that photo shoot as I realised I'd put the wrong rider on the horse! For the challenge, this only counts as 5 mounted troops though. The banner and pole in this unit are also brass, from the same supplier. Thankfully in this case, the transfers went on without too much distortion. There was a bit of touching up around the edges where you see the white and green checks.

Here's a couple of group shots to show the whole force together.

In total there are 37 28mm infantry and 5 mounted knights... plus whatever Curt deems fit for the banners. So somewhere in the region of 235 points


From Curt:

Cripes, these are nice Paul. You've done a brilliant job on their livery (an excellent green btw) and all that work with the banners really has paid off (which you will also see in the points). That CitadelSix product looks excellent - I'm definitely going to give them a go, thanks for the tip! 

...and my resolve to resist this period continues its downward spiral...

Well done Paul!

From Millsy - Yet More Blumin' Savage Orcs (225 points)

You'll be please to know this is close to the last of the Savage Orcs, so those who are starting to feel ill at the sight of little green men will get some respite. :-)

First up we have my fourth units of Savage Boyz with hand weapons, in this instance "Da Deff Kaps" after their icky yellow face-paint. They were to be "Da Blak Deff" but black face-paint over green skin looks awful and my test minis convinced me to go with Curt's favourite yellow.

In total I now have 96 infantry with hand weapons which is more than enough to see off most things. They are tough, resilient and completely unpredictable. Half the time I play them I'm merely there to move the miniatures around while they merrily go about their business completely uncaring of my wants or desires.

All that infantry left me in need of a change so I threw the first of two units of Boar Boyz onto the painting table. These chaps are "Da Purpul Porkas" and hopefully will do the business for me on the table top.

I had enough shields for these by scavenging left-overs from my skellies and I rather like the designs as they seem suitably savage, The motifs match up with the skullz and severed heads that adorn pretty much everything including the leader's cloak. That's also covered in feathers, rocks and other crap and has been nicknamed his "cloak of many dead things".

There's a design flaw in the early model boars where the tails are shockingly fragile and I had to make 5 up from wire, curled about and then glued in place. I then broke the leader's tail when finishing the painting so I had to glue that back on for the photos.

Cue bad language pour moi which then elicited the usual "Are you sure you enjoy this?" from Mrs Millsy. It'll have to be replaced and I might as well do the other two at the same time as it will inevitably happen again.

I've only got enough boars for half the remaining unit at present so if anyone has another four they have no use for I'm happy to trade or buy them from you.

I also managed to squeeze in a few Flames of War German trucks this week as I had promised my mate Evan I'd finish off any outstanding stuff from an army he bought. The paint job is pretty basic by my standards but it matches the rest of the force which is the key thing. The Kubelwagen with the roof down became known in our group as "Das Kubelwagen der Schande" after the original owner constantly appeared with only one unpainted item in the whole force.

And lastly, here's a pic of the usual type of chaos which goes on during painting. I have so many projects on the go at any one time that I use the lids from icecream containers to move them about. Empty tea cups are also a typical adornment. The wooden blocks are a major tool in enabling me to paint quickly, giving me a good grip on the mini and preventing touching the paint work, plus a solid base when not in hand.

So that's 24 x infantry and 8 x mounted figs in 28mm for a total of 200 points. Throw in another 24 for the 4 x 15mm vehicles plus whatever Curt deems a pigtail or three and some swearing to be worth and I'm back in pole position...

PS. I just did a quick bit of math and my total so far for the Challenge is 464 miniatures and vehicles.

From Curt:

464 minis! Holly smokes, that is A-Mazing!! The hobby industry needs to give me some sort of promotional kick-back for the hobby frenzy the Challenge creates. You know, something like a Ducati. No? Okay, how about a bicycle? Roller skates? A free coffee mug full of paint water..?

This is an awesome entry Millsy. Even though the yellow is fabulous (again, my favourite colour) I have to say that the bright purply shields are completely ace, love 'em. 

Yeah, I remember those freakin' faulty boar tails, for sure. I don't think I have a single one of those old school hogs in my cabinet that doesn't have its original rump ornament snapped off. I'll have to check 'Shed A' to see if I have any of those blighters left. If I gots one I'll sends it.

Love the pic of your hobby space. The ice cream lid organizer idea is genius - especially the square-shaped lids, very space-saving and efficient (twitches in an OCD spasm of delight).

From PeterT (?) - 'Hudson May Be Right...' (10 Points)

You know how it is. A New Year begins, with bags of good intentions, like finishing the 15mm PSC Russians that you started, and not being distracted by shiny things, or being side-tracked into a new project. And then this VERY shiny post appears. And it reminds you of this OTHER shiny post. And after that, well resistance was useless. So my entry for this week is one-and-a-half Genestealer/Aliens, inspired by Clint and Tamsin and their great work - thanks guys!

Empress Modern Brit standing in for Colonial Marines: 'Game over, man, game over'

The models are from GW's re-release of Space Hulk. Great game, but like Clint, I do prefer the older style of models i.e. ones that aren't doing their circus balancing act, so the Genestealers have languished unpainted since the game came out. But that changed after the above posts. I rapidly gave up on the idea of carving them off their integral bases and re-mounting them, so they are free-standing.

I settled on a blue and black paint scheme, with claws, eyes and teeth picked out using GW's range of Shades and Glazes (predominantly either Cassandora Yellow or Bloodletter Red over a white basecoat). After a liberal wash of green ink over the body, they got a heavy dose of gloss varnish to give them that shiny/slimy Alien look from the movies.

I like this model as it reminds me of the scene in Aliens where Vasquez gets trapped by Aliens punching their way up through the floor of the duct she is in.

So, a small submission this week, but hopefully to be followed by bigger things next week. Off now to try and find come Colonial Marines' models (What was that about no new projects?). As a first timer on the Challenge, it has been truly inspirational to see so many great and varied entries and it has really fired up my enthusiasm. So a big thank you from me to all the participants - it is a real privilege. And a massive thanks to Curt for organising it all so well!

From MichaelF - 20mm WWII US Infantry (256 points)

OK, time to join the fun!

As you may have seen in posts from the other Dutch contenders this challenge starts with some 20mm WW2.

I’ve been painting like crazy to get a lot of these finished for our Christmas game and I was delighted that the day before the game I had a basic platoon and some terrain ready for battle. Terrain? still don’t know how it happened but at one point I promised to do some terrain, probably thinking I would do it before the challenge started. Did not happen off course so a lost a lot of points there.

Not sure BTW how RobP managed to get his done in time, but I could swear when I visited him the night before the game the 3 Stugs he just posted and appeared on my right flank the day after where nowhere near finished (in the box even). Anyway, It must be one of our highlights every year. Six guys sweating and staring at deadlines but in the end everyone delivers and a new period or scale is born.

So here we go. Figures by AB with a few from Kelly’s heroes.

It’s not the full platoon, I painted the first squad before the competition started.

Squad 1

Squad 2

I just post squad 3 for completeness, these were painted before the competition so no points

HQ from Kelly's heroes

More HQ

Medic & Flamethrower from Kelly's Heroes

Mortars

Machine Guns

Extra's for CoC games

Observer & Bazooka team, sniper

57mm ATG

You need lots of jeeps

but this is the same one

and a muddy truck (Sgt Mess) to park in one of the farms

And a few scenic shots for those who are bored of the white background

From Curt:
First, welcome aboard Michael! It's great to have the third member of the Dutch team join in the fun. 

Oh wow, these are just great Michael! I always have enjoyed your paint style as it's always so smooth and precise. I also like how weather-worn these GIs look and your basing of them is terrific as well. It's funny though, if I had to choose just one element from this submission I'd have to say I'd go with the muddy civilian truck. You can almost smell the manure and straw in the flatbed - it's wonderfully characterful!

Those scenic shots are pretty choice as well. But then again,  I remember from gaming with you guys last spring that you always put on a very nice table. Bravo and again, it's great to have you with us!