From SeanS - The rest of those 28mm scale Goblins (70pts)

Like a moth to a flame, I have run up to the deadline once again. It seems I can't help myself.

This week is the sore thumb edition as I somehow jammed my thumb by someone punching me in it. I don't think I could repeat that if I tried.

The group in all their glory

So I have mightily struggled with the bunch. My usual problem is to get them within spitting distance and then get defeated by the fiddly painting. By not having a standard uniform I created a bit of a headache for myself and found some difficulty in persevering with my color scheme.

The helmeted dudes

In the end I went with a few differing shades of grey and added a few blues and even some green to the ensemble. (Can goblins wear green, or does it clash with their coloring? I'm not a trained aesthetist.)

The Aerodynamic bunch.

 For the basing I did my usual ground work, but tried out my new GW Middenland Tufts.  They look okay, but I feel like I cheated without also adding my regular flock. In the last picture you'll see one of the older basing materials and can judge for yourself if they fit.

Dudes with shields.

While I was starting these I was completely unaware that three of the figures sported shield nubbins. Fortunately I have tons of old plastic shields.  Unfortunately, 20+ year old plastic shields can be quite brittle. The one in the middle split in half as I tried to jam it on over the shield boss. Oh the humanoidity! Somehow I managed to glue it together so you can't tell. The shield on the right is molded that way. One of these days I will press myself to do a more complex design, but the shields are hand painted. I would ask for my money back if those were decals.

So done and dusted. Here's the full unit, these 14 plus the 6 finished earlier.

From Curt:

These guys are awesome Sean! I love seeing these old school casting - all those long noses and beetle brows just kill me. I also like the bright brass colour you've used for their metalwork as it looks very, um, gobliny(?).

I think a mix of your old basing with the addition of a few judicious tufts would be spot-on. Just my two cents...

I hope you thumb heals soon!

From Richard M - 28mm Landschnechts, Italian Infantry and Command (225 Points)

You will have to excuse the poor quality of the photos - I will post better ones in a few days once I return to Sydney.  These have been taken on the iPad sitting in a hotel room in Canberra as I pack up to go to the first morning og Cancon where these new figures will make their debut.  (Postcript - not only is taking photos not so good - but posting to Blogger from an iPad is an exercise in patience).

In addition to my last post, these are fruits of my labour over the past three weeks as I added to the existing Italian troop types so I could field a Papal army in the Impetus system.

So first up are the kings of the field in those days - two pike of Landschnecht pikes.  The figures are Foundry and the pikes are - well sharp.  I have the painting list sitting beside me (on the back of the army list as it was handy at the time)- it shows a combination of 16 colours in deep, mid and highlight for their fabric alone - plus all the rest.

Next up is a unit of Italan infantry - these ones are Old Glory figures and look suitably determined.

Finally a few shots of the two units of command.  The guy with the big round red headress is Perry and the other three from the Perry Knights range.

Finally flags on all of these are from Pete's Flags who you can find on the ...bay.

So this is 34 foot and 4 mounted - so I think the total is 220. 

From Curt:

Oh wow, these lads turned out fabulous Richard! That Landschnecht pike block looks fantastic with its serried ranks of pikes, puff and slash uniforms and bravely fluttering banners. Epic stuff!

The command stands are brilliant as well - I love the guy with the feathered pizza on his head. He MUST be a high-ranking officer with that lid!

I hope you have a great time in Cancon! Let us know how it all worked out.

From ScottB - 28mm Empire of the Dead - Nosferatu Faction - Thrall with 'Big Gun' (5 Points)

A recent return to Empire of the Dead gaming, having enjoyed painting up Baskerville earlier, has had me slotting a few extra models in the main painting queue...

One such extra is this Nosferatu Faction Thrall...

I kept the colour palette dark and drab as befits his sinister background.

Thrall with Gatling/Volleygun...

The eyes were a little tricky being right up against his face-concealing scarf/mask.

He is wielding an enormous Steampunk/VSF gun, that looks something like a ManPacked Gatling gun, or may be a Volleygun. Either way it can lay down some serious fire-power to assist and support the close combat orientated Nosferatu faction.

And if the action still gets a little too close to home for him...

... and big sword.

...he has a rather nicely slung sword and scabbard across his back...Drop the big gun, draw the sword, and we're in business!

I've got a similar big gun in the pipeline for my Gents faction, and am busy getting paint here there and everywhere on differing models... I've been dotting about a bit and not actually getting many completed... Must try harder!


From Curt:

That's a very cool figure Scott. I like the muted tones and the detailing on the sword/harness looks ace. 

I always wonder about the ammunition for these multi-barrelled BFGs - I would assume they would go through shells like nobody's business. Hmm, perhaps he forgot the ammo belt back in the coffin next to his eyeliner and foundation makeup? Well, good thing he brought a sword otherwise the boss would have a real fang to pick with him... ;)

I look forward to seeing the Gents faction!

From SebG - The Ancients are Coming (80 Points)

Finally, my first proper entry in this Challenge. I've been slowly but surely painting and I finally show you some stuff. They're all 15mm based for Art de la Guerre.

First, some Eastern bowmen from Essex I received at Christmas. They are fairly generic so that I can use them in many different armies.

Next, one unit of Greek cavalry. Once again, lots of potential uses. You'll notice one of the horse lost a bit of paint. Sadly, when I took them to take a picture, they fell on the floor. No real damage apart from that. Damn! First casualty!

And finally some Xyston hoplites. I had started them in November in a red palette, since I wanted to create a guard unit. But I wasn't convinced. Then I remembered something Tamsin had said about a dolphin shield I had made previously. I had my idea! These guards would be considered as the "black guard" devoted to a tyrant who's real objective might be really sinister. Therefore, I started all over again: Cleaned up, primed in black this time, and I opted for Lovecraftian designs on each one of them, apart from the dolphins, but then, if you know your Lovecraft mythos ;) Anyway, all the shields have been handpainted, as carefully as possible.

So, all in all, I guess I get something like 68 points, plus maybe some extras for the shields?


From Curt:

Seb! I know you submitted an entry to the 'Victoria' theme but it's great to have you with us on the main page. 

The archers and cavalry (owch!) are great but I admit I had to give a double-take with these hoplites with their hand-painted shields. They look like 28s!!  Wow, amazing stuff Seb! This year we've been treated with several entries of people doing fantastic freehand work and this is another fine example. Bonus points duly awarded!

From SteH - Some more of those blasted Orcs! (20 Points)

That's right I've managed to repair a few more of those damn GW Orcs that I mentioned earlier. I have to say, and I'm probably repeating myself but they are not GW's greatest hour and I find myself not wanting to paint them. And this is the crux of my problem as I enjoy the game, imagery and genre in general but some of the models are a bind. And yet every now and they do some that  are a joy to  paint (Beanomir, Borosean.... you get the drift) so I guess I'll persevere. I am looking forward to the Gondor Rangers that are next in the paint queue so hopefully that'll replenish my mojo!

Anyway here's 4 of Mordors worst, true reprobates if ever I saw some. These will probably get an outing against ScottB's Rohan, Gondor or something suitably scary and in true Orc style run for the hills, but that's part of the fun.

Now I'm off back to the paint table to continue working on my comedic and hot bonus rounds, paint a ton more Uruk Hai and try desperately not to veer off plan and paint some 15mm WW2 tanks.

From Curt:

Well, they may have caused you a bother but they came off wonderfully Ste. Did you use inks? I quite like the shading. My favourite is the nasty one with the axe!

Well done!

From Millsy - 28mm Imagi-nation Grenadiers (117 points)

My final submission of the week is the 1st Novi Byelgorod Grenadiers of Velikye Byelgorodniya, an elite unit from my mate Evan's army in our imagi-nations project, Die Krieg des Zobelshuts. Velikye Byelgorodniya is an 18thC Russian analogue and the uniforms follow the Russian style of the period (up to a point anyways).

The miniatures are the wonderful Front Rank SYW Russians. Honestly, I've never seen a Front Rank miniature I didn't love and these are no exception. Along with Artizan and Copplestone they are my favourites in the historical 28mm space.

The "grenadiers" themselves are something of a mistake. I meant to buy a bunch of ordinary grenadiers but accidentally bought all officer figures as they are also musket armed. Once I'd got over the WTF?!?!? moment I experienced upon opening the parcel it occurred to me this would make a rather good looking unit with all those gorgets and other officer wibblies. What I hadn't counted on was the effort required to paint an entire unit of the buggers... :-)

The flags are home brew efforts using some images I pinched off the net. Both are Evan's design. Firstly the national colour:

And then the regimental colour.

The officer's mount was painted pre-Challenge for some reason (I have no idea why!) so that's a total of 115 points in miniatures plus whatever a couple of flags and all those officers (still scratching my head how I managed that) are worth...



From Curt:

To be honest I've never really understood the whole Imagi-Nation thing, but these figures are wonderful. Millsy, it kills me that you ordered nothing but officers (this is something I would totally do)! Actually there is precedent for all officer regiments found during the Russian Civil War so you're not that far off. The flags are great (hat's off to Evan) and I love the banner cords on the standards - very posh to be sure.

I'll give you extra points for the banners but I'm afraid you're out of luck on the officer gambit, sorry. 

BUT this entry sees you push past your 2K points target AND regain 1st place position from Dave. Congratulations Millsy - well done indeed!!

From PeterB - 6mm Russian Horse Artillery (41 points)

I really struggled to get these figures finished, I think I've reached saturation point with artillery and tried to rush the basing. As is normally the case when I try to rush things, it turned into a complete disaster which I tried to rescue and then had to start again from scratch.  If it wasn't for the competition and the weekly deadline day I don't think I would have managed to complete these.

In the end, I decided to paint up some skirmish infantry and casualties to add some character to the wider bases I've decided to use for horse artillery.   Each base represents a battery of six cannons, I'll probably add some howitzers later in the year as batteries were sometime deployed with 4 of these as well.  I think I've got enough artillery for the time being though.

Including the 7 skirmishers and 5 casualties I think this nets me 41 points.

The dragoons will be finished shortly, they took longer than expected as I wanted to experiment with colours on the horses until I got a result I was happy with.  These will be ready for next week along with the cossacks and hopefully the hussars.

I missed a couple of questions on my last post so I've answered them here, sorry Anne:

1) How much eye strain you suffer after painting - none really, I find 6mm Napoleonic figure easier to paint than 28mm as I don't worry about all the details like piping, buttons, lace, etc.  It's really about painting units rather than individual figures which makes it so much easier.

2) Looking at all those tufts and thinking about how small they must be I'm wondering what size you buy them in. Also are your rocks made from a medium ballast?  The tufts are Silflor 2mm in a variety of colours, they also do a range of moss tufts which are even shorter so I might try some of these with 6mm figures as well.  The rocks are small and medium ballast - I created a mix for my 28mm figures that has about 6 or 7 different types and sizes of stones, so I use this and just pick out the smaller ones.



From Curt:

Wow, the Russian artillery park grows yet again, General Kutaisov would be proud! 

Amazing work and bravo for tenaciously keeping with this. As mentioned before, your groundwork is excellent and it's interesting to read what you've used to achieve it. 

Loving the guns but I look forward to seeing your upcoming cavalry!

From RobH - The Opening Salvo - 1/2400 WWI German Predreadnoughts, Battleships and Destroyers (35 Points)

Well, my first entry is a bit later in the competition than I had expected it to be, but I ended up being distracted and rushing from project to project as so moved by the muses.

One of the side duels is a 250-point navalesque challenge. This has proved to be an excellent inducement to expand a WWI/WWII naval collection. I have in the lead pile dozens of metal and resin warships from Viking Forge, GHQ and now WTJ, and despite a lot of Naval Thunder games, there has been zero motivation to paint.

Until now.

The obligatory painting table shot - you can see many possible weapons of mass distraction, most of which are not Challenge eligible

First out of the painting gate were three WTJ German predreadnoughts and four Viking Forge German destroyers. My WWI collection is currently geared toward Jutland or earlier battles. As such, I have an excuse to paint up to eight German predreadnoughts for the High Seas Fleet's II. Geschwader, commanded by Vice Admiral Scheer in 1914 and 1915. Known as "Fünf-Minuten-Schiffe" due to how long their crews expected them to survive against modern British battleships, II. Geschwader was retained in the Hochseeflotte until after Jutland to make up numbers, long after their British counterparts of the 3rd Battle Squadron were retired to the Nore.

Six of the eight battleships in line ahead.

 1st Division:

• Battleship SMS Preussen (Flagship)
• Battleship SMS Hessen
• Battleship SMS Lothringen
• Battleship SMS Deutschland 

2nd Division:

• Battleship SMS Hannover (2nd Flag, Commodore Mauve)
• Battleship SMS Pommern
• Battleship SMS Schleswig-Holstein
• Battleship SMS Schlesien

SMS Preussen leads the squadron. You can get an idea of the level of detail on the rapid-prototyped plastic WTJ line.

The first three are Braunschweig-class battleships, and the remaining are the Deutschland-class. The main difference between the two are that the Braunschweigs have four of their 6.7" guns mounted in single turrets at the corners of the superstructure, while Deutschlands have all their 6.7" secondary/main armament (which was which was very much in doubt before the Russo-Japanese war, when these ships were deisgned) in casemates. Currently, the only manufacturers of Braunschweigs are either WTJ, or Panzerschiffe. Panzerschiffe models are very very bare bones, while the WTJs looked to offer a lot more detail. Thus, they were a bit of an experiment. 

At first, the only assembly needed was to add flower-wire for the fore and main masts. Unfortunately, the rapid-prototyped 3d plastic that WTJ uses can be very very brittle, and the guns of Lothringen's forward turret snapped off when she was 99.9% painted. Flower wire quickly replaced them, but there was much swearing and gnashing of teeth until the drill-pit in the pin vice took hold.

More portside detail of the WTJ ships - if you click to enlarge the image, you can see there's no guns on the midships casemates, and no real deck plating - WTJ's concession to lack of detail. In no way a deal breaker.

The other four of the original starting batch are G101-class destroyers. These four ships were originally built for Argentina, seized by Germany at the beginning of the war, and brigaded with 6 of the the B97-class to form the II. Torpedoboots Flottille. G101 and G102 were in the 3. halbsflottille, and G103 and G104 were in the 4. halbsflottille. Viking Forge is the only manufacturer to make the G101 class, and it's the only German destroyer they have in their lineup so far. So they were the only choice, and what I had available.

The G101 class

I made no modifications to the models. I'd planned to add flower-wire pole masts, but there wasn't sufficient space in the area between the foremast and forward funnel to add a mast, while the detail on the to of the superstructure was such that I'd have needed to file down the entire forward structure to add the requisite mast. Detail was pretty minimal - guns barely project above the deck, TT are very small, and everything else is rudimentary. As such, they're better than Panzerschiffe, but not comparable to GHQ. I have some WTJ DDs on the way, since they are rapidly filling the niche pre-war designs. Right now I have eight of their M class variants on the way for two British destroyer divisions.

I think the lack of enjoyment in painting the G101s is what distracted me. Midway through painting this (and loads of other stuff, I have minimal painting discipli . . . ooh, shiny!), I started putting together the second wave of naval entries. I had picked up scads of GHQ models through ebay, and the remaining battleships I had to (mostly) finish II. Geschwader - three Deutschlands.

A weapon of mass distraction indeed

So was a 1/2400 Nassau-class dreadnought. The Nassaus were Germany's first dreadnought design, and relatively simple to paint. While the Deutschlands remain unmodified and were just glued together, I did a bit of work on Posen. As we all know, a lot of the metal used for masts, flagpoles and the like is very very flimsy. GHQ was no exception. I cut away the fore and mainmasts, smoothed out the stumps, and then added replacements made of 24-gauge flower wire. 

I am ready for my close-up, Mr. Campbell!

Painting was pretty simple. I followed the following schematic for my Germans:

For squirrel gray, I used Vallejo 870 (medium sea grey) for squirrel grey, and Model Master Acrylic lichtgrau for silver grey. Wooden decks on German warships were supposedly darker than their British counterparts (not being holystoned to keep the crews busy), so I used Panzer Aces 310 old wood. Germans used a linoleum-equivalent where they needed traction but couldn't afford weight, especially on the decks of destroyers. I'd seen conflicting reports that it was either lighter or darker than the cortiscene the British used, so I went with Vallejo 70814 burnt cadmium red based on drawings at Distant_Guns: Jutland. Boats were Vallejo 70820 offwhite; turret tops and masts were Apple Barrel Craft black. German recognition signs were painted on the aftermost funnel upon leaving harbor, and then painted over again upon reaching port. For the Jutland operation, aftermost funnels were painted red, which I have used Game Color bloody red for. Over it all, to bring out the detail, was a 2:1 mix of Vallejo black ink and Vallejo thinner. The bases are Tamiya sea blue, with Vallejo off-white used to make the wakes and highlight.

You can see the red on the after funnel

As the above shows, large black belching clouds of coal smoke are essential for WWI. I racked my brain for a while trying to figure out how to properly simulate it. I finally decided on using cotton from cotton balls. I pulled some pieces off the ball, and glued it to the relevant stack(s) with Locktite superglue. Once that dried, the cotton was painted with the same watered down glue I used for basing. Then, coal or mixed coal/oil smoke got painted black. Oil only smoke was washed with Game Color 73.202 Pale Grey wash to give it a grey tinge. Painting cotton is NOT by any means easy, but I think you will agree the effect is worth it.

You know the drill - click to zoom in and practice your aerial recognition training. Which is WTJ, and which is GHQ

All eleven ships in one shot

Overall, I am rather pleased with how they came out. That's 1 dreadnought (Posen), 6 pre-dreadnoughts (Preussen, Hessen, Lothringen, Hannover, Pommern and Schlesien) and 4 destroyers (G101, G102, G103 and G104) in total, putting me on the board for both the Challenge as a whole and the naval sub-challenge for Curt's admiration with some number of points to be adjudicated by Curt at posting.

My brave Fünf-Minuten-Schiffe have also made their first sortie to the gaming table. As with many a newly (and well) painted miniature, their combat debut was not stellar. While they lasted more than five minutes, they were sadly unable to withstand the fire of their better armed but less nattily attired British foes. Posen was forced to turn out of line after severe flooding inflicted by a British R-class, while II. Geschwader was outgunned by British dreadnoughts, superdreadnoughts and one brave battlecruiser and battered into near sinking condition when the Germans turned away and headed for port. 

If only Tiger had failed her cordite check when Pommern destroyed a forward turret . . .

The obligatory gratuitous stern-shot: Posen sailing off into the sunset.

From Curt

First Rob, welcome back to the Challenge! It's great to have you along for the madness.

Okay! Wow, these are fabulous Rob!  I'm a bit of a sucker for this period so I'm always keen to see others' approach to painting the ships. Your paintwork is incredibly tidy and I really like how you've based your ships, especially with the additions of the running wake and smoke from the stacks - very evocative!

I also really enjoyed reading your background to the models and project - very interesting stuff and your enthusiasm for the period is infectious.

For points I'm going to give 3 for each of the larger ships and 2 for the destroyers (which is similar to what I've done in previous years for this scale). So that makes a base of 29 points but I'm going to add another 6 for the great basework. 

Now I want to dig up my old copy of Massie's 'Castles of Steel'...