From BenG - Welsh Hearthguard (25 Points)

My attention to this year's Challenge has been limited by lack of time at home. I've been too busy with the family during our summer break, having fun in the sun at the beach most recently!

My Welsh Warlord needed a band of loyal retainers, so these were the next on the painting table. They would have been finished a long time ago, except I had some trouble with the shield designs, especially with the axe-wielding chap. I had drawn a great Celtic wild boar on the shield with a fine-liner style pen, but when I varnished the shield, the ink just smeared all over the place! My blood pressure soared and a few expletives were uttered and after a cooling down period I settled on a trefoil pattern instead, which isn't really up to scratch, but I thought I'd quit while I was ahead :-(

On the other hand, I'm quite pleased with the other shield designs, the tartan patterns on the cloaks, and while the colours are a little plain, I'm pleased with how the knot design turned out on the banner.

From BrianB - Troll Forged Alien Assimilation Grubs (20 Points)

I recently received my rewards for a Kickstarter I pledged for a couple of years ago. These are the grubs from the alien assimilation host made by Troll Forged Miniatures. The grubs are the smallest of the miniatures in the set and infect humans, I believe by crawling inside them, and then grow up into the more insectile adult aliens. The main reason I pledged for this one are these little fellas and I got a big fistful plus an assortment of the other aliens that I'll hopefully get some paint on later.

I decided to paint them up in a pale grey with some purple and pink tones inspired by the Clark Ashton Smith story The Coming of the White Worm.

These are scaled at 28mm but smaller than man sized. I'm thinking I could use them both as giant worm creatures with my 15 mm stuff and bigger than average ones with my 28s. I took a picture with both to see the size difference.

From BurkhardS - Warzone Resurrection Imperial Hurricane Walkers (50 Points)

So as promised last week, I am finally going to keep up with new entries for the competition.

And continuing with my Imperial forces for Warzone Resurrection, here are two of their light walkers known as Hurricane Walkers. Now the Walkers themselves (minus the Gun Nests were done last weekend, but the bases and Gun Nests (and the Minotaurus from yesterdays theme round) took another week. The main time drain was the water on the one base which took ages to cast, followed by the gun nests. The later essentially contain there full models, but cast as one, which makes the details somewhat hard and time-consuming to paint. But here are the models.

Now I bought myself two models of these. That is... I did so even though I knew that in all likelihood I would only ever get to play one at any time. Under the OOB my group seems to prefer I am allowed only one light vehicles and these walkers always operate in units of one. But I wanted to see where I could actually take these models so I bought two. Usually those models come with a huge biohazard symbol on they right shoulder, but I felt this was over the top (even though they are fitted with poison gas cannons) and scratched that off. At first I had wanted to paint some freehand there, but I had to find that my skills with freehand have not gotten any better, so they will probably receive some custom decals in the future. But right now I still wanted to paint those areas and with something that could serve as a background for the decals later so I went with Tartan patterns. Since my unit is modeled on a SciFi version of the Black Watch, I picked wo patterns that can be associated with the unit. One got a Government pattern (the units pattern) and the other gor a Stuart pattern (like is was worn by the pipers during for example the Napoleonic Wars).

So up first is "Stuart" which is being depicted at a full charge to wards the enemy lines, dragging some barbed wire defenses through the mud. As one might see, the standard armament is a huge rotary HMG in one arm and a gas cannon in the other. On the back here you see the Radiative Dome. 

Personally I find the Radioactive quite redundant in game terms. It has a huge range (large enough to effect virtually the whole table in most games) and it does not distinguish between friend or foe. To make matters worse, the Hurricane Walker is not allowed to do anything else the turn it uses the dome, wasting all those other nice weapons. But the model comes with the Dome as the standard load out, so I had them and wanted to paint them.

Is there another option? Yes, there is! The Gun Nest. Essentially it is a place for the infantry to ride on the Walkers back, adding their own firepower to its arsenal. And while the range is not as good as that of the main gun, they add a hefty amount of firepower.

I magnetized both the Domes and Nests, so they can be switched around. The parts are actually a good fit, sone I could have done without, but I did not want anything to go flying, if I ever forgot, so better safe than sorry!

And before we move on... here is a detail shot of it dragging the barbed wire along.

Up next is "Government". I wanted him to stand in a huge shell crater with one foot, which was supposed to be somewhat submerged in muddy waters. This gave me some problems, since this was the largest body of water I ever did with Vallejos Still Water. I wanted to lowest layers to look a bit milky , but overdid it a bit, so one can not see through them anymore (which also hides a Bauhaus helmet in the water). The other problems were, that the water somehow drew the masking tape I used as a boundary in, creating a somewhat wavy boundary. And last but not lest, the lower layers had crept up the masking tape preventing the viewer from looking into the water from the side. So I eventually painted the edge over in black. So not quite the effect I wanted, but it can not be helped now.

Otherwise he features the same load out as "Stuart" with both optional Radioactive Dome and Guns Nest.

A word on the paint job here. I wanted these to have a WWI feel and look slightly worn. My first idea was to paint them in a dark brown or dark green, but that would have prevented me from doing chipped paint. So I looked further or rather to WWII. There is a Grant tank at Covington Which features a sand base with green camo edged in white. That is what I went for in the end. Although I went for a light green, to make the camo sublime. After the chipping, they both got two coats of filters to bend it all together. All in all I am very happy with the final looks.

So now I am going to leave you with two group shots in either load out.

From DaveD - 28mm Sudan, Naval Brigade Infantry, and Royal Irish Fusiliers (198 Points)

This weeks progress see the perennial favourites of the Naval Brigade receive the first of their Infantry section reinforcements, wounded markers , the Petty Officers , and the commanders. All by Perry Miniatures. This time these were well cast taking up little time to prepare (I need to source another 5 lots of these). Also really nice to paint. 10 foot, 1 mounted , 2 prone casualties. The way things have going across this years Challenge  there should have been a "boys in blue" theme!

One of the small units for the campaign are Princess Victorias' Royal Irish Fusiliers. These were diverted from service further east and wore the India Service kit . At a mere 18 figures strong they are somewhat understrength compared to some of the larger units. Again these are Perry as per the York and Lancs. Real simple and easy to paint.

Next we have various casualties and the M.O. - 3 foot and 3 prone.

 

Also a few other singleton figures , one officer, and 3 natives for a bit of extra flavour on the table. These are Connoisseur Miniatures

So total :- 1 Mounted, 35 foot , 5 prone wounded - all 28mm.

This entry should take me to my challenge target of 2250, which was to see me really get to grips with completing the bulk of Imperial Sudan forces. It has done its job. The lead pile has been well and truly depleted. There is only one unit of the Imperial forces left in the lead pile the 10th Hussars, and a handfull of skirmishers.  I have some more Mahdists to do in March, and the Sudan lead mountain will be no more - until a major stock up! - Hmm Steamers, the Camel Corps and the Cameron Highlanders -with red coats are on the wish list.

Things will be at a more leisurely pace in February as I have a few other time hungry commitments coming up - I will set a total target of 2850 for the end of the challenge.

From Curt:

Sorry, I had to step in on this one.

Congratulations, Dave, on hitting your points target!! A herculean effort to be sure (my mind swims at the amount of figures you churned out these past 7 weeks). I'm always delighted when I hear that the Challenge has made a significant dent in someone's lead reserves - that's what it's all about. Your new target of 2850 is registered and now there is only that little matter of your 2500 'MillsGone Mind Bleach' duel with Millsy... :)

From BrendonW - Presenting King of Beers and Friends (90 Points)

Perry Miniatures 28mm plastics from the War of the Roses sets. 14 on foot and 2 mounted dudes. Not as much completed this week as last week but managed to build a few figures and enough to run out of 25mm bases. Should be re supplied soon through the mail and I have enough to paint for now. Also some of the week was used for completing a Myth bonus them entry. Should be plenty of amazing visions there.

This week I had a crack at painting black armour. I painted them panzer gray then a black wash then highlight again with the panzer grey. Only one cool King like figure is in the foot Knight box. A shame because it so cool and the head would be good to stick on one of the mounted plastic knights.

AlanD - 15mm German Half Tracks for Battle Group Kursk (50 Points)

As any casual visitors to my blog know, I am a huge fan of the Battle Group rules. Here is some transport for a platoon of Panzergrenadiers in Battle Group Kursk. The vehicles and figures are from PSC, with the exception of the PaK 36 on the platoon commander's vehicle, which is from Battlefront's box of plastic SdkFz 251Ds.

Camo is applied by brush, with lots of thinners and my favourite buff paint to make it look faded and as soft-edged as possible without an airbrush.

As far as points are concerned, the vehicles should give me 24 points. Each half track has a driver and co-driver, whose backs only are visible (8 figures), and there are 13 other figures which are painted pretty thoroughly. Let Curt decide!