From MichaelA - “Damn funny. Like a train... in the distance.” (40 Points)

*stops as the sound of thousands of Zulu warriors marching toward the mission can be heard*

Well maybe not thousands, but eight at least! Not wanting to let Martin Cooke get too far out in front, I have promoted these fine fellows to the head of the painting queue as my first entry in this year’s challenge and an opening salvo in our side duel ‘The Cetshwayo Challenge'.

These, then, are from the Warlord Games/Empress Miniatures Unmarried Zulu Warriors box, consisting of 32 self assembly hard plastic miniatures. The purists will undoubtedly bemoan the historical inaccuracy of these chaps wearing their full ceremonial regalia in the heat of battle, but I have to confess that I rather like them.  I have painted these with black shields and a white spot in the lower half to represent the Indluyengwe (Leopard’s Den) Regiment that fought at Rorke’s Drift.  Plenty of options to vary the poses, these dynamic warriors should see me open my account with a steady 40 points for the challenge proper, whilst contributing 32 to my tally in the side duel.

Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas and a productive New Year! 

Beautiful work Michael, just magnificent. I too like the full ceremonial regalia of these Leopard's Den chaps, the purists be damned. :) Is each of your submissions going to feature a unique regiment, or is this one the start of what will be a larger unit? Either way I look forward to seeing the rest of your 'Cetshwayo Challenge'.

...and a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and the saintly Mrs. Awdry.

 

From SanderS - Somewhere Warm... (64 Points)

Dear ladies and Gentlemen,

As my very first post of this year I present you about 16 of my old Revell 8th Army soldiers in 1:72 plastic. Ok 2 of them are actually HäT figures but hey who's checking, right? Anyway these figures are some of my oldest miniatures, I bought them aged 15 in our local toy store. There are some figures from 2 different Revell 8th Army boxes to whit the Scottish Infantry set and some of the Australian Infantry set.

Let's have a look at them shall we?

Some figures in fairly relaxed poses, well one isn't actually relaxed, but for him the war is over.

Some action poses.

Sitting poses with support weapons. The brengunner on the right is a Revell figure the other 2 are HäT figures.

The shooting figures and officer

Now 16 foot figures in roughly 20mm scale should be worth about 64 points. So that's a nice start for now. 

Cheers Sander

Nice work Sander! It's great to see some of these venerable plastics get a bit of the spotlight. Some of the poses are typical to early plastics and quite 'unique'. The running chap looks like he's going to pull a hamstring, and what is the fellow in the first image on the far right up to? It looks like he's either shaving or about the top himself (or maybe both?).

I quite like the arid basing you've created for these and those buildings are just brilliant (love the rug over the doorway). 

These lads will give you 64 points - well done Sander!

 

From SeanS - 20mm Goblin Warriors (40 points)

Now that I've remembered the titling convention of the challenge. Here are some 20mm Goblins. 10 of 'em.

The last of the Caeser plastic set I had primed and based. You may remember their compatriots from last challenge.

The paint of choice for my goblin flesh was being a tad problematic, so these weren't as satisfying to paint as I'd hoped.

Hopefully you can make them out in the pictures, I was a little rushed as were getting ready to head down to the in-laws.

Hopefully I can get some 28mm going soon, but I do have quite bit of 20mm left.

Best of luck on your painting today.

These are some great looking goblins Sean! They have that classic eighties D&D look about them (those ears are awesome). I particularly like the chaps with the oversized stone hammers - they look like they'd fall over if they swung them over their heads!

These 10 dungeon denizens will give you 40 points - Great work!

From AdamC - Wraith and Golem (12 Points)

Two More Frostgrave figures.

 First up is the Frost Wraith one of the stretch goals from the Thaw of the Lich Lord  "Nickstarter". I often find representation of incorporeal undead a challenge after all most classic descriptions are fuzzy on details and even the more solid ones (the Ring Wraiths of Tolkien come to mind) are more about how it "felt" to view them than what they looked like.  I went black and black/gray here for a shading effect and then did the "face" in a yellow green I have been using for other ghostly figures (probably the ghost busters influence).

The model had a lot "holes" in its "cloak" or "Shroud" so I made those yellow green as well I'm trying to suggest the ghostly light is "leaking" out through the holes in what ever is cloaking the figure. 

This next figure is one of the "Bones" line from Reaper  they call it a "Crystal Golem" its one of the figures that comes in a translucent colored plastic in this case blue.  I was going for an Ice Golem look here so I hit the figure with a black wash then a layer of glue gray followed by highlighting in jewel tone blue. The face suggest the Easter Island statures just a bit if you ask me.

I was trying to create the impression of a creature made of ice from the deptsh of a glacier, ice that is long frozen, ice with depth and life. To that end I tried not to completely cover the original translucent material so you can at point almost look into the figure. I am not sure I succeeded in creating exactly the look I wanted but even if I didn't he still looks cool.

The top down view as the crystal "spikes" on his back are best appreciated from this angle. This should give me another 10 points as both of these are 25/28mm figures.  Let me take this opportunity to with all a Merry Christmas as I will probably not get a chance to post again before the holiday.

And Merry Christmas to you, Adam! 

Two great figures here. I especially like the ice blue effect you achieved with the Crystal Golem - very 'cool' indeed!

The Golem looks to be at least 40mm so I'll score him as such. 12 points for the pair - well done!

From PhilH - SCW Nationalist Officers (15 Points)

Each Challenge, I try to get an entry in before the Christmas festivities, and family scheduling has been accommodating this year. I've had loads of painting time in fact, but haven't been able to capitalize fully because I had a few bits to finish off from before the Challenge. 

First off my painting desk is this trio of Nationalist officers for my Spanish Civil War project. First, a figure of unknown provenance in a Germanic uniform, that I did in the khaki of the Condor Legion. Not someone who would usually grace a platoon level action in Chain of Command, though perhaps he might stray too close to the front while surveying the abilities of the Nationalist forces or the effects of experimental tactics by the Condor Legion. The uniform isn't strictly right, I think, as the tunic should be open necked and worn with a shirt and tie. But never mind. As a corpulent fellow, I couldn't resist giving him the flushed look of a man who loves his Riesling and Rioja. 

Next, a Nationalist officer who was actually was the show freebie from Partizan this year, meant to represent the actor and producer Sir Donald Wolfit in 'Lawrence of Arabia'. Sculpted by Bill Thornhill. This seemed my best use for him, as he looks a bit like he is giving a facist salute.

Finally, a third hurried through in a day to try to match Juan's swift pace, a Carlist Requete officer from Empress Miniatures. Yup, I'm still chugging through my Carlist forces! 

And as a group:

And that's my first broadside in the clash with Juan's Armada, while also scoring for the Pulp side-challenge and taking the lead against Ian - though this latter is almost certain to be a fleeting lead, knowing the rate he can paint!

Wishing all administrators, challengers and observers a very Merry Christmas, I hope you all have a happy festive season.

I find it poignant that your first entry has a Spanish theme - it is proper fitting for your opening volley with our Iberian friend Juan.  I must say that Condo Legion officer is brilliant. I love the touch of Mencia you've put in his cheeks and on his nose.  I have so many projects on the go right now, but I have to admit when I saw these, I wanted to pull out some unloved SCW metal for some attention. I must remain strong!

Phil, this trio of Nationalists will give you 15 points in your duel with Juan.

From PaulS - Flee the Graveyard! (51 Points)

Following on from the skeletons and zombies earlier in the week, this time around we have some armoured warriors, some archers and the nastiest undead trolls.

The Mantic undead trolls are massive beasts (those bases are 40mm) caught in a constant state of regeneration and death by necromantic magics. You don't want to mess with these...

The skeleton horde grows further with three swordsmen. The one good thing about the plastic is that a bit of hot water will allow for some tweaks to pose. For these three I just adjusted the arm position so they vary a bit. 

Finally are three archers. Possibly my least favourite models in the Dungeon Saga undead range. Despite being reposed a few times, they keep on bending back into slightly wonky poses, but I suppose they are gangly skeletons... so it works.

So this is another 6 models towards the DS side challenge, and 9 towards the Frostgrave challenge. I'm not sure how many points the trolls are worth. Up to you Curt ;)

Nothing says Christmas like a shambling passel of undead. Once again you've done wonderful work Paul. Those trolls doing their calisthenics look very nasty indeed - I'll score them as 40mm figures.

This desiccated bunch will come in at 51 Points.