From AnneO - Steve, Man or Myth? (8 Points)

This was to be my entry for the Myth Theme Bonus Round.  Although I finished painting him a full week before the deadline, I forgot to photograph him. In retrospect, that may have been a good thing as this is quite silly.

Meet Steve, a creature of Myth

Steve is a strong,handsome man with a sensitive side. He's as handy with a Hoover as he is with a Glock.  He enjoys long walks on the beach as much as he enjoys gathering intel in field.

Trained in rapid response techniques, Steve can answer question like "Does this dress make me look fat?" or "Who is your leader?" with ease under extreme pressure. Not only will Steve listen to an enemy combatant talk under torture, he will listen to a woman talk about her feelings for hours.

Does this mythological creature really exist?  I don't know, but if you come across him, will you give him my number?

Steve is from Hasslefree Miniatures, stands at 25mm and was sculpted by Kev White.  Curt will only give him five points, but if this thing was being run by a woman, Steve here would be worth a whole lot more than that. 

From Curt:

Excellent work Anne.

Ah yes, the eternal question: Is 5 points really enough to please a woman?   Anne, just to complete the fantasy I'll nuge Steve up to more <ahem> robust 8 points.   ;-> 

From AdamC - 15mm WWII Foreign Legion Sappers (40 Points)

The Sappers of the Légion étrangère, no this isn't an error I painted two platoons of these but I figures one would do as well as two for an the bonus theme. (sorry if I have confused anyone).

As mention in my Hot Themed entry the beard is a Sappers special distinction.  The fellow who is pointing is actual left over form another set but got a kepi head swap.

Here you can see the cork under sand I used to simulate old structures or rocky out cropping . Saddly the base work doesn't look as clear in the photos as I would like.

These guys will be a great addition to my early war Free French and Vichy forces for flames of war and could even do in pinch for inter war or World War I troops in the Middle East and North Africa.

There are a total of 20 figures here for 40 points. 

From ClintB - 28mm WW2 25lbers (70 Points)

These have been languishing at the bottom of the lead mountain for about 10 years. For some figures 10 years or more waiting in the paint queue is not all that long. (I do have older figures waiting). As one of my aims for this years challenge was to get some old things finished off, which may be why you have seen me unable to stick to a single project.

Due to the time delay I was only able to find 1 Limber so they are going to be short of ammunition for a while. And also I have long since given up trying to do 28mm WW2 so with regret this depleted battery is eBay bound.

These are West Wind Productions from the Berlin or Bust range and are still available should anyone want to get some. I had lost a couple of pieces other than the limber like the to parts that attach the base plate to the carriage but some small self tapping screws a hack saw and a file managed to fix that problem and unless you look closely you can hardly tell. I know suspect you are trying to look closely you cheeky moo you! So I am cunningly not taking any obvious pictures of my make do and mend!

So to sum up.

• 8 crew in WW2 British army uniforms with Royal Artillery badges.
• 2 25lbers artillery pieces
• 1 Limber (Cassion) Yes there should be two but I lost 1! (So only 1 painted)

AlanD - 15mm German Tanks and Trucks for Battle Group: Barbarossa (59 Points)

I managed to get some 15mm vehicles finished this week for Battle Group Barbarossa. First up are six Panzer IIIs of the 11th Panzer Division, made from the lovely PSC kits. I actually finished painting these in week 2 of the Challenge, but have been waiting since December for the decals to arrive from Dom's Decals. I'm not complaining - I think the poor chap had a rough December. They finally dropped in my letterbox on Friday, so here they are. I had been considering deploying these minus decals last week in my duel with Tamsin, but fortunately they weren't needed.

The 11th Panzer Division seem to have used two-digit solid turret numbers, so I painted these on freehand. The tank with a single 1 (1K on the rear of the turret)is the company commander. The air recognition flags are just bits of paper soaked in water and PVA then stuck to the turrets and hand painted. This works pretty well, still allowing the contours underneath to show through.

I had a lot of fun loading up the tanks with stowage, including scratch building racks on three of them. Stowage items are a mix of greenstuff tarpaulins, some Skytrex oil drums, and various plastic bits from PSC kits.

Here also is my contribution for the dullest entry of the Challenge. Four Opel Blitz trucks from Zvezda. Yup, not much more to say.

From BurkhardS - Warzone Resurrection Imperial Blood Berets and Brotherhood Valkyries (50 Points)

First of all apologies for not posting these last Monday, when they have been finished for over a week now. I had to get these ten minis done for a tournament in Hamburg on the 31st (Saturday) and essentially I finished the bases on Friday morning. After driving well over 700 clicks that day and playing three matches, I needed Sunday to relax so they had to skip last weeks deadline.

Anyway... what do we have here? Up first are five Imperial Blood Berets. There are ten more of them (they are on my painting table right now), but with the deadline, I had to concentrate on the five I needed for the tournament. Blood Berets are part of Imperials large Special Forces contingent and are named for the color of their berets. And this is where I made the first change. Usually their berets should be blood red, but I wanted them rather maroon to look more like British Paras (although they have no parachute skill). Also they are usually depicted fighting in the Venusian Jungle and therefore in green fatigues, green vests and armour painted in a camo of medium and dark green with light green dividers. Honestly, this was far too much green for my taste and I wanted more contrast. Plus my troops are not fighting on Venus (at least all the time), but are part of an expeditionary force that has to be at home on a number of planets and more importantly Astroids in the Outer Astroid Belt of the Solar System. 

So I went with black fatigues and olive vests. I always loved this color combo since I first watched Space: Above and Beyond, so I decided to use it here. With the armour I went for a brown / green camo with tan dividers. I felt this provided more contrast and was more at home in a umber of settings!

The other troops I needed for the tournament were some Brotherhood Valkyries. Now Imperial will only see its full release at Salute this year, so right now, the troops available are only a nucleus and they lack troops that can parachute anywhere. Luckily Imperial is allowed to take a few Brotherhood troops as support and amongst the choices are Valkyries, Brotherhoods parachute troops. Now one thing I noticed with many of the Brotherhood minis is, that they have more or less of a medieval look. So I wanted to give them a look like they are wearing medieval armour. This was only re-enforced, when I looked at the detail on the minis and found that the nay place (including joints) that does not seem to be covered by armour seems to be their buttocks. I guess the sculptor was male! ;-) They are described as very pure in their believes and I wanted to depict this with very shiny armour. I still had some Vallejo Airbrush Chrome paint that I had bought for a project I scrapped before I even started it so I gave that a try for the armour (including the buttocks). And I liked the final results a lot and did not want to ruin it with strong contrasts, so the joints and seams were only shaded a little bit. The effect did not last when I put on the matt varnish in the end, but now they have taken on a look of burned magnesium that I actually like a lot, too, so I have refrained from giving the armour a coat of gloss varnish. Otherwise they got dark weapons with chrome tips washed in blue, to show that they are electrified. The capes were done in red / white (red / gold for the squad leader) to keep with the medieval theme and blue translucent visors on their helmets and that was it.

So this is it for this week. Last week was taken up by painting the next theme round entry and a visit to my better halves family, but there will be more next week.

Oh and before anyone asks... these and the Imperial troops shown in recent weeks did well in Hamburg, earning me the 4th place overall. 

AdamC - M20s, Mortar Jeep, Snipers, and bailed out markers. (39 points)

 So this one could get a little confusing because there isn't an over arching theme other than World War II.  Above I have two M20 armoured cars for the security section of my Tank Destroyer Platoon.
 

 I added the guy hitching a ride and the stowage form various sources both from battle front and Musket miniatures.

More stowage the tools a pick axe and sledge hammer are from a Musket miniature kit with some really awesome bits and pieces for dressing out your building or vehicles.

The Jeep is done up for the Cavalry Recon platoon which has a mortar platoon.  In some lists I can add equip the mortar jeep with a "hull MG"

I kit bashed the mortar and the hull MG form my bits box flames of war lets you fire the mortar from the jeep but this didn't happen in real life so have it done broken down for transport.  I also added a radio left over from the Long Toms

Three Vehicles with five passenger for a total of 23 points.

Next up I have two Canadian tankers that will serve a bailed out makers for the tanks I posted earlier in the challenge.

 The uniforms are very simple I'm not sure when or where I got these (or if they are even commonwealth tankers)

But the look good with their tanks though I hope I don't see them too often.  They should be good for another 4 points.

 These are German snipers and observers I got with the "Konig" sniper set a number of years ago I painted up "Konig" but never painted the others until now.

The First pair is hiding in a hedge row or bush waiting on allied forces to approach.

The next pair is dug in a trench I am very pleased with how the trench came out they will look great with fortified company when I play it.

 The rear shot kept coming out fuzzy despite several attempts. This was the best limage.

 Finally there are the men hiding out behind this stone wall or rock formation. They will work well with my German Mountain troops.

 This shot shows the back of the troops and their gear better then the other shots.  So that's six more infantry for another 12 points.  Not exactly a point bomb but the 39 points combined with other entries for the week I have a nice new pile of painted figures.

From TamsinP - 28mm WotR Retinue Archers (300 Points)

Not longbowmen - archers. That's what they were called back then, after all.

So, here I am with my 14th entry to this year's Challenge. If I hadn't graciously conceded defeat last weekend in my race with Alan to 1500 points, these would have been the second blow of the Dux-Hammer to knock him clean out of the park. Oh well, c'est la vie!

The figures are the very nice Perry plastics. Whilst others have been painting these up for Lion Rampant, in my case these will be forming part of a large-ish army for FoG:AM. I could still use them for Lion Rampant, but would need to record casualties on the way to base removal. The FoG lists allow 32 bases of retinue archers, so I can still add another 12 if my megalomania so takes me. Hmmm, that means buying 2 more packs at some point...

But on with the retinues. The Lords commanding them are entirely fictional before anyone asks!


Edward Kneale, Earl Anderida

The observant among you will have noted that half of them have white flowers in the front and red blossoms in the rear; the other half have them reversed. That is to allow me to use them as either Lancastrian (hurrah!) or Yorkist (boo! hiss!) - I do expect some outrageous comments about that! - according to my whims.


Charles Kneale, Baron Broadstone

Piers Rose, Earl Chelwood

So, in summary, sixty 28mm foot figures should give me 300 points.

As that leaves me 198 points over my original target with nearly 6 weeks left to go, I suppose I'd better set a new one. After the past 2-3 weeks of craziness, I rather fancy slowing down a bit. I guess, 2500 is a reasonable target - achievable, but it will be a stretch.


From Curt:

I couldn't resist stepping in. Fabulous work Tamsin! Your questionable taste in 'roses' aside, you really pulled out the stops on this entry as they look just marvelous. 

And well done on crashing past your original Challenge target. I'll mark you down for 2500 points for your concluding gambit.