From BillA - 28mm Frostgrave Warband (57 Points)

Here's the first of my Frostgrave figures, the warband known as "Terezinya's Tomb Robbers."  The Necromancer Terezinya and her apprentice John "Dig Me No Grave" Grymmlan lead the pack, supported by a band of orcs under the command of Boss Grug, a savage Barbarian with a double-bitted axe.  Also on display here are Terezinya's Familiar/Imp/Small Construct, "Lil' Anklebiter," and Lug-All, who will be played as either a Pack Mule or a Medium Construct, depending on the army list I end up using and if Terezinya can manage to cast the spell correctly.

Terezinya, Front View

Terezinya, Rear View

Terezinya and Lil' Anklebiter are Reaper Dark Heavens #02826, sculpted by Werner Klocke; I painting this figure once before, years ago, and opted for a less tarted-up color scheme this time around.  I rarely paint the eyes on figures, because my hands just aren't steady enough, but Klocke sculpts them largely and clearly enough that I decided to try, and ended up with a Necromancer giving somebody some serious side-eye.  John Grymmlan and Lug-All are Reaper Dark Heavens #02845, sculpted by Bobby Jackson; I've been wanting to pick this set up for years now and this Frostgrave warband gave me the perfect opportunity.

John Grymmlan, front view, with snazzy lighting effect

John Grymmlan, rear view

The rest of the figures are built primarily from Wargames Factory Orcs, which I bought in 2014 on a whim and had never done anything with until now.  The Wargames Factory Amazons and Persians boxed sets donated a few pieces, most notably the arms on the archers.  One of the Thugs has a Persian spear and another is carrying a short sword and scabbard from the Amazon box as well.

Bases are Renedra 25mm plastic bases, dressed with Army Painter basing grit and patches of Army Painter snow.

Lil' Anklebiter

Lug-All, Front View

Lug-All, Rear View

Boss Grug, Barbarian

Grug, Left Side

Hoodsie and One-Eye, the Archers. Front View.

Hoodsie and One-Eye, Rear View

Thugs #1, 2 and 3, Front View

Thugs #4 and 5, Front View

Thugs #1, 2 and 3, Rear View

Thugs #4 and 5, Rear View

So these twelve figures give me a leg-up on my points standing and also gives me 12 figures towards the Frostgrave Side Challenge, which I call a good start.

scale shot for Lil' Anklebiter and Lug-All

Nice work Bill! I like the lighting effect on Grymmlan and the weathered shield on Thug #3.  It would seem that poor Lug-All has been schlepping that casket around for a while due to the snow accumulation on the lid! Funny stuff.

I'll score 'Lil Anklebiter as a smaller figure so this warband will weigh-in at 57 points. 

From MilesR: A Few Napoleonic Submissions (316 Points)

 A bit of a Napoleonic / War of 1812 points bomb here.  First up is a unit of 32 Portuguese Cacadores in 28mm scale.  The figures are metal and made by Front Rank.  I've become a big fan of Front rank figures and place them next to Perry for sculpting and a bit ahead in casting quality as figure prep was a snap!

The unit being depicted if the 5th Cacadores (or Cazadores) of Campo Mayer.  The unit saw extensive service in the Peninsular and was thought very well off.  I'd like to say I picked the specific regiment for a reason other then my wife liked the red facings on the collars and cuffs - she felt that along with the green plumes it was very "Christmas-Like".  Any time she shows the even remotest interest in my hobby I need to run with it.

 The last proper Napoleonic unit I paints was 36 Frenchies for last years challenge so it was good to get back int the groove.

 I find painting Nap's difficult but rewarding when done.  I've got another Portuguese infantry regiment to paint  and may throw in a British one just for fun.

 Next up are 24 crew figures in 28mm for the naval aspects of the upcoming Historicon game.  These figures were purchased from Brigade Games and I'm not sure if they are the casters or not.  They're lovely figures and, like the Front Rank ones, had almost no flashing to remove during prep.

Since naval uniform regulations in the age were, shall we say "loosely applied", I've painted most of these figures in a generic way.

In this batch there are two gun crews of 4 figures each.  I tried to make the bases look like ship decks but pretty much failed.

 The ship commanders and and handful of Royal marines - one of the figures only has one arm!

 Generic (and somewhat motley) crewman.

 Lastly, since I finished a gunboat for the Americans, the Brits needed one too, so I painted up and rigged an 1806 Hamilton gunboats.  This design saw lots of service along both the Spanish and American coasts.  They were easy to build and could be effectively manned by a very small crew.  This kit also comes from Laser Dream Works and was really easy to build.  I may have some bigger ships to add down the line...

I'm trying a minimalist style of rigging to see how it works with game play.  The flags are on order and will arrive any day (hopefully).

 The gunboats in action!

 The Hamilton (I'll add a new name later)

And it's US opponent.  My those 32 pound carronades do look menacing....

Wow, I do love a Napoleonic points bomb. These look great Miles and I love the picture of the two gunboats mixing it up in brisk close action. With these small craft it would seem that whoever got the first carronade shot off had a good chance of winning!

As a suggestion, if you want your crews to have a more integrated look with the gunboat decks, you may want to clip off their existing metal bases and glue them to thin steel (coloured as the decks), or to clear plastic bases, like PaulS does, which will largely disappear next to the decking.

This impressive entry will give Miles 316 points to add to his burgeoning total - Well done Sir!

From JohnM - 18 mm Napoleonics (48 Points)

As many of you know, I have recently put up my 28mm Napoleonic collection for sale. I had put a lot of work into the collection over the last 10 years, but two issues kept on coming up.....storage and playability. After a lot of thought and some preliminary feelers, I put all but my Anglo-Portuguese and the Brunswickers up for sale. It has been pretty successful, with just 14 units of French Infantry left to go, and I have made enough to replace the 28 mm armies with three Divisions each of French and Anglo-Portuguese as well as a Spanish brigade with money to spare. This includes several cavalry units as well as artillery and command. The new army will be all AB miniatures, based on metal stands of 6 bases per unit and are presently being painted in southern Europe and Asia. I have already accumulated a dozen units and more are on the way. A proportion of the funds are also been directed at a secret project that I will reveal soon, but the madness of a wargamer with funds to blow, knows no bounds.

I am not a slouch though, so I have decided to paint up several bases of artillery which I hope to complete by the end of the challenge. To get some practice, I have over the last couple of weeks painted up a British unit that I present here. Half of the figures were painted before the start of the challenge but I can claim the points for 12 figures.

1/77th Regiment, the East Middlesex, Campbell's Bde, III Division, Badajoz 1812

The terrain if anyone is interested is from Crescent Root's 15mm collection, It is MDF that has been painted  with a textured paint and it is quite nice. I bought it for my 20mm WWII gaming, it is a little small for this but useable. The collection includes a mat, bases for the houses and additional destroyed top stories.

I must say that the 18mm figures are quite challenging to paint and I am happy that I have just a few to do. I am still looking for a flag vendor, the Flagdude has unfortunately become unresponsive again, but I will remain hopeful as really he has the best flags.

Great work John. I find the AB 18s often take as much work as 28s due to their fantastic detail. You've done them proud here.

It was a brave move to sell your 28mm collection in favor of 15s (or, I guess, 18mm), nevertheless I can understand completely. 'Big Battalion' 28s, and their attendant terrain, demand both a large amount of storage and play space to really enjoy. This is why I often do my favorite periods in two scales: 28mm for skirmish/small action scenarios, and 15 (or smaller) to play larger actions.

I'm going to count ABs as 20mm for scoring so these will net you 48 points. Well done John.

AlanD - 28mm Gladiators (66 Points)

I have been playing a bit of Jugula recently, and since the theme of the challenge suits gladiators so well I thought it would be a good excuse to paint up a few more figures for the arena.

The figures are all from Crusader Miniatures, and are an absolute joy to paint, packed with character, beautifully detailed and historically accurate. As always, shields are hand painted.

For the entertainment of the crowd we have:

A couple of trainers (lanistae) with a saggitarius (archer) and veles (javelineer),...



...two hoplomachi and a scissor (sporting the blade thingy to help him cut his way out of the net of the retiarius)...



...three secutores...



...and a couple of Thraces (Thracians), armed with the distinctive curved sword.



Of all the figures, this secutor is definitely my favourite. He exudes menace.



Twelve 28mm figures should give me a base score of 60 points, and get me into triple figures. Picturi vos salutamus!






 

Wonderful work Alan!

I especially like your attention to detail on the shields - the Secutor is great but my personal favorites are the scorpion and the saint(?). 

These 12 will give you a base of 60 but I'm adding a few more points for the freehand shield painting. Brilliant work.

From BenitoM - 28mm Fallschirmjäger LMG Teams (45 Points)

Almost a week since the Challenge launch day, but finally I finished my first batch of models of the German Fallschirmjäger Platoon project for Chain of Command.

These are the LMG teams (2 per section) a total of 12 models and I bag my first points in the Challenge. I'm already working on the rifle teams now, the NCOs and officers later and finally a bunch of support assets.

All models are Warlord (from the older metal range, that I generally prefer to the new plastics) in 28mm. I plan to use these figures for the 44-45 period. They are painted with a mix of camouflage smocks (water- pattern and splinter) and Luftwaffe blue coats. 

My preference is to paint faded camouflage patterns. For that reason I tend to use quite diluted paint and mark the pattern in the form of shadows rather than solid painted lines, and to finish the model with one or two heavy washes of Vallejo Brown Chocolate.

Note that there are some good free painting guides available in Internet (the Artizan Models website is a good resource), but I strongly recommend the Osprey book of the Modelling series written by Jaume Ortiz and Daniel Alfonsea if you plan to paint and collect a Fallscirmjäger unit.

Beautiful work Benito! I like both the mixed pattern and muted tones of your camo. I know there are several of us who agree with you in preferring the older Bolt Action metals to the plastics as they are such good sculpts (and many of them have become rare as unicorns now). I look forward to seeing the rest of the platoon debut itself here over the coming weeks!

 45 points for your first volley (note: I give 1/2 points for prone figures). Welcome to the Challenge Benito!

And with Benito's entry over 1/3 of this year's Challengers have submitted an entry, which is great for our first week out of the gates. Keep up the good work folks!