From TeemuL - More Old Skool Goblins (20 Points)

Four more goblin arrers, again with similar paintjob and with unique hats/hoods. That's seven in total and I still have two more, which I just bought, but even nine is maybe too little for a valid unit. Like Curt noted in the previous post, they are not aiming at the enemy, they are diagonally based. But that just means that they are taking care of the wind.

Bright yellow one looks quite good, the yellow triangles over black trim on red hood is quite striking as well.

And then the two with check patterns, I don't think I can get more classic than that, can I? I never managed to get them right in the 1980s and decided to give a try now. The red hood was first one, it was not so good, but I got it better second time on the black hood. It is not perfect by any means, but looks good at least from certain angle.

Four 28mm models gives me another 20 points. Like I said, I still have two unpainted more, I'll try to paint them during this challenge, but I need to paint something else for a while.

From Curt:

They're taking account for the wind? Riiight, of course... :)

Teemu, this project of your gets better and better! I love the black and white cheque pattern - can't get more late 80s than that! Wonderful.

From SteH - The Hobby Butterfly Strikes Back! (150 points)

The holiday period always seems to push something to the backburner and in my case it was blogging. Luckily my very understanding other half has hobbies of her own so I do get the opportunity to paint once the kids are in bed (whilst she explores the wonderful world of crochet, cross stitch, painting or cake decorating!). Anyway this entry is a bit of a cornucopia of submissions, I am definitely in the hobby butterfly camp and do not expect to change for the duration. And so here are my random submissions completed through the festive celebrations:

Lord of the Rings – 8x Orcs
Some more of my budget second hand Orc’s, these are the ones that required repairs, mainly on weapons and such. Very simple paint scheme’s and my usual Vallejo sepia wash to give them a suitably grubby look. I think I’ve only got another 15 to go now!







Lord of the Rings – 6x Warg Riders
If I was more organised these would have made it into the Rider and Mount bonus round however I was too busy stuffing my face with the aforementioned cake decorating output. Much like the Orcs above these little devils were second hand and required a little repair prior to base coating and repainting. They’re painted in the same style as above although for some insane reason I used an old GW Black Ink on the Wargs which has given them a bit of shiny look (obviously they’ve recently been playing in a pond, like all happy doggies do!). I’ll see if it dies down once I get my dull coat spray. I have to say I’m not a big fan of these models, maybe it’s just that I haven’t found a colour scheme/style that I like




5x PSC 15mm M4A1 Shermans
They’ve been in the painting queue for some time and deserved a little attention. I really like Will’s stuff (apart from the weird German infantry, which he has now redone) and have quite a large stash of tanks in 15mm to get completed. And so here we have five M4A1, two with 75mm guns and three with the rather excellent 76mm gun. Now where did I put those good WW2 rules?





Naismith Sung Chinese 15mm

This is a weird one, I’ve had these sitting about for ages and suddenly got the urge to paint them just after Christmas day. So while my kids tried to destroy their wooden train track I set to painting them up with no other plan than to enjoy myself. What came out of it is a vague plan to collect an Empire of Tsuranuanni army, these figures being part of the Minwanabi force! I’m not sure whether I’ll actually do it however I did enjoy painting them and they’ve turned out pretty well so we’ll see. I’ve just got to figure out what to use for the Kingdom forces and the Cho-Ja? Anyone know any good 15mm Ant models?

So after all that I reckon this little lot is worth 148pts (ish). Not quite the points bomb that others manage to achieve but a tidy little effort nonetheless. However I shall let the ultimate arbiter (Curt) decide the final tally!

From Curt:

Wow, that is a wonderful spread of genres, periods and scales Ste! All of these miniatures look great - Lord of the Rings goodness, wonderfully weather-beaten Shermans, but I think I have to say the Sung Chinese are my favourites. I always find their whacky artillery to be fascinating and I like the ad-hoc reinforcing around the canon (I think they may want to be further away when this thing goes off...). Wonderful stuff.

Great Job Ste!

From SimonM - "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" - Federated Security Guard Commander and Squad (25 Points)

This Federated Security Guard Commander with Balaclava is by "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" and is from their excellent Federated Security Starter Set. Like the rest of their models in this (video-like) boxed set he's a ‘dead-ringer’ for the despicable black jump-suit wearing minions of the Terran Federation from the BBC science fiction television series “Blake’s Seven”. The figure was initially given a double undercoat of “Citadel” Abaddon Black before being rather roughly dry-brushed with “Vallejo” Heavy Charcoal. In my opinion this is an excellent paint to use when highlighting black, though I do find it still needs a few washes of “Citadel” Shade Nuln Oil just to tone down its contrast a little. Once dry I picked out his belt buckle and key chains with Mithril Silver and his Federation carbine rifle with Boltgun Metal. All of these areas were then washed with more Nuln oil.

In addition to my commander I also painted up four more Security Guards. Originally I had swapped two of the models' heads with those from a Balaclava head sprue "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" also sell, as I'd hope to create a couple of non-commissioned officers. But I found the heads to be slightly too large for my liking and as a result they seemed to actually make the miniatures marginally taller than those wearing the helmets; something which irked me to the point where I swapped the heads back.

A previous posting of mine explains how I painted the Security Guards, which can be found here: http://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/from-simonm-crooked-dice-game-design.html

From Curt:

Great work Simon! They look to be a suitably nefarious and oily crowd to be sure, and a great addition to your existing Federated Security force. I really like the leader with his evil, evil moustache. As they say, 'Guns don't kill people. People with moustache kill people...'

So, Simon, how many points do you have logged for our 'Pulp Duel' right now? I have a sense I need to step on the gas a bit... ;)

From TeemuL - Blood Bowl Ogre (7 Points)

I don't think I have seen any Blood Bowl figures in the challenge yet. Well, this is not an official Blood Bowl figure either, but it will count as Ogre in my human team. Originally he is a Grenadier War Troll from 1988 without weapons. You can take a look at his friends here: Link to eBay

It took me while find out who he is, he was part of huge pile of lead and plastic I bought over a year ago (most of the classic orcs and goblins are from that same pile, too) and has only "Grenadier 1987" on his base. I was looking for a proper stand-in for ogre for my team and happened to find him there. Looks ogre enough for me. Looks Blood Bowl enough for me. I like looks of his eyes.

My team colors are white and blue, just like the colors of Reikland Reavers in the 3rd edition starter, which I copied to my own team. Hence he is wearing a blue loincloth and whitish rags around his arms. He also liked the yellow plumes of the blitzers and decided to dye his hair in the same style.

I was thinking about to sculpt him a little badge, to write his number, but then I decided not to mess around with this old and beautiful figure. Human teams allow only one ogre, so it should not be impossible to separate him from this team mates. I just put him on a base (30mm washer) to give him a proper base and better balance.

At the moment he is not actually part of the team yet, because there's not enough gold coins in the treasure. But as soon as the next season starts and I get the first income from the gate, he will join the team. That's why his team mates have not named him yet, he is only known as the number six. Is he a man or free, that's another story.

Here he is posing with future team members. Blends in quite nicely, I'd say. Shows also little of his size.

I think that there were no 28mm miniatures in the 1987, so he is most likely a 25mm guy. There's no monster category in the rules either so I leave it to Curt... 5 points at least?

From Curt:

Okay, I'm going to age myself here, but does anyone else out there think that this guy looks like Sweetums from The Muppets? Or is it Mickey Rourke from 'The Wrestler'...? Then again his facial expression also reminds me of Stalone yelling out, 'Adrian!' in 'Rocky'.

Whatever the cultural reference, he's a wonderful figure, Teemu, a real classic from the 80s. You did a great job on his flesh tone and I really like how you painted his dirty boxing wraps. Nice work!

From TamsinP - The Four Musketeers (150 Points)

No, not these guys...

Or these...

***hands Anne a fan***

Or even these...

***sets Anne's air con to full blast***

And sadly not even these:

*Just replaced the original vid with this one!

(showing my age)

No, for my ninth entry, I present you with a bit of a points bomb in the form of the last four musketeer regiments for my (initial) Seven Years War Russian army. It was a stretch to get all four done by this week, but I was spurred on by:

a) Curt's challenge to get them all done for this week; and

b) the desire to regain my lead over Alan and Ian

I wasn't sure that I'd manage it, but I have done so and put myself over half-way to my target in just over 5 weeks. I would consider slowing down, but I've still got my side-bet with Alan to win, and he has the advantage of bonus points from the theme rounds (which I'm skipping this year)...

As before, all figures are 15mm from Essex Miniatures and the flags have been hand-painted after the impressionist school.

Arkhangelovskiy Regiment

This regiment fought at Gross-Jagersdorf, Paltzig and Kunersdorf.


Astrakhanskiy Regiment

This regiment fought at Paltzig


Chernigovskiy Regiment

This regiment fought at Gross-Jagersdorf, Zorndorf, Paltzig and Kunersdorf and took part in the siege of Colsberg.


Novgoridskiy Regiment

This regiment fought at Gross-Jagersdorf, Zorndorf, Paltzig and Kunersdorf and took part in the siege of Colsberg.


The Flags

Now that I've finished painting all of my starter army, I thought it would be good to show some pics of all the regiments assembled.


The Whole Army:

The Cavalry and Artillery (as seen previously):

Slobodskiy Hussars; 3rd Cuirassiers (f); Sankt-Petersburgskiy Horse Grenadiers (r); Kievskiy Cuirassiers (f); Tverskiy Dragoons (r); Zelity Hussars

The Infantry:

Chernigovskiy; Novgorodskiy; Apsheronskiy; 1st Grenadiers; 2nd Grenadiers; 2nd Moscowskiy; Astrakshanskiy; Arkhangelovskiy

They will be getting their debut run-out on the 22nd in my first game of King of the Battlefield. I'm hoping my opponent will be so dazzled by and admiring of the paintwork, that he will not want to attack them in case they disappear off the table!



From Curt:

Haha! I just KNEW that if I baited you to complete these units for weekend you'd rise to the challenge. You m'dear, are one competitive paint jockey - well done Tamsin! 

These regiments are wonderful additions to your existing force, and again, your work on conveying the essential elements of these otherwise complex banners is excellent. 

I'm giving you a couple extra points for the effort and for getting this starting force completed. Again, a great effort and a wonderful army for your match on the 22nd. Best of luck Tamsin!