From MartinC - The 5:15 from Bulawayo (120 Points)

Bing Bong. "The train arriving on platforms 2, 3, 4 and 5 is coming in sideways." Sorry but it is one of my favourite jokes.

I'm still feeling under the weather and taking afternoon naps (the medicinal benefits of a box of After 8 Mints is yet to be proved), so I'm a little behind where I would like to be. That and Zulus are boring to paint.

These are the uKhandempemvu regiment, and were painted, like the other regiments because of their interesting grey shields and not because of  historical accuracy.

The warriors are undercoated in black car primer spray, painted with Foundry African Flesh and then eyes, mouths and muscle tone filled in with African Flesh Shade. Head bands, loin cloths and leopard tails are Foundry buff leather, semi dry brushed, or I use black or Vallejo Mahogany Brown for different tails. Feathers are semi dry brushed with white or red and spears and arm bands are Foundry metal. Shields are painted to a higher standard as they are the interesting part of the figures

The bases are card (old ring binders are fab source for this) the figures are fixed in place with hot melt glue. The elephant grass is coya and is fixed in place with hot melt at the same as the figures. This is mainly around the edge but also it fill in gaps between figures.

Only 72 figures left to paint then these are done. I may paint something else next for a change.

Even after an 'After Eight' hangover the Zulu juggernaught keeps rolling on with this striking grey-shielded regiment. Once again, great work Martin. Thanks for providing your recipe on how you're doing up these units. Your approach of concentrating on the shields while keeping the figures themselves relatively simple has really paid off.  You're creating a very fine force here.

120 points to add to your impressive total - well done!

From SanderS - Serbelloni anyone? (72 Points)

Hoi,

For my second contribution I chose a unit of Austrian Cuirassiers from the 7YW. Well tell a lie really, because originally these figures started as Napoleonic Russian Cuirassiers from Zvezda. But since I do not collect Russian Napoleonics and do need some more hard hitting Austrian cavalry for my 7YW army I decided to cheat a little and swap some heads. The paint scheme is loosely based on the Serbelloni Cuirassiers and I kinda like how they turned out.

Now on to some Napoleonics.

Cheers Sander

Ah, it's great to see some tricorne-era troops being submitted to the Challenge. Lovely stuff Sander and a great conversion from their Russian origins.  I really like the rich detail on your saddle blankets and the pistol holsters - very nice.

These eight converted cavalry will give you 72 Points

From GregB - Epic 30k Death Guard, Imperial Fists and Sons of Horus (55 Points)

Epic 30k reinforcements

Well, this is a really quick entry, as I am soon to dash off to the airport for a holiday vacation! In the mad rush to prepare and pack, I of course focused on painting, finishing just a few more Epic 30k figures.  This submission includes an assortment touching on forces from three different units, continuing in the same setting and scale as my first two submissions.

Death Guard tactical marines, with Rhino APCs in the background

Death Guard "devestators" - infantry with heavy weapons, with Land Raider tanks in the background

Up first are elements of another Space Marine Legion, the XIVth, known charmingly as the "Death Guard".  While their backstory has a tint of emo-loser-teenager-sulking-in-the-basement-of-his-parent's-$500k-house to it, there is a humourless endurance about them that I find interesting.  Also, my friends Byron and Dallas like this Legion, so I wanted to have a detachment of them on hand for gaming in Epic 30k with our group.

The fellow with the back banner marks the detachment commander

The Death Guard figures are all old-school plastic GW Epic figures from the 90s. If any of you nostalgia geeks are out there, you might recognize, from the original "Space Marine" game, the elements of one tactical detachment, one devestator detachment, one rhino APC detachment and one Land Raider detachment all in this submission.

Old plastic figures from GW - monopose, but still fun

Love the old Land Raider models...these are from the early 90s

Painting the old plastic Land Raiders is a lot of fun - these models are really, really old, but still hold up well as a quite fine rendering of the original 28mm-size Land Raider model, and still look fine on the table with the newer figures.

Rapier battery from the Imperial Fists

Ready to cut down the minions of Horus

Up next are some Imperial Fists from the VIIth Legion (sorry about having more yellow, Tamsin :-).  There is a battery of tracked infantry support weapons known as "Rapiers", and a brace of four "light" (always a relative term in GW games) tanks known as "Predators".

Imperial Fist tanks - the one on the right is configured with extra anti-tank firepower

The Predator is an old-time favourite

A final, lonely element squeezed in for this submission is a Predator tank for the XVIth Legion, the Sons of Horus - mostly painted just to keep in practice, just didn't finish it in time for the last submission. 

Lonely tank for the Sons of Horus

The "Annihilator" version of the Predator tank - lots of anti-tank energy weapons on the vehicle

Overall there are 60 infantry, three crew-served guns and 11 vehicles, all in 6mm, which should net me another 55 points if I have the math correct (always a big  "if") toward my overall total, my sci-fi duel and my 30k duel.  Brushes are down for now as I try and track down my passport. Have a happy New Year everyone!

More Epic Goodness! Wonderful work Greg. I appreciate your mental profiling of the Death Guard. Thankfully, in our world, no emo teenagers are armed and armoured to this extent! I really like the bold colours of these various factions contrasted against their relatively neutral basing - it will help keep track of what-is-where on the tabletop. Speaking of your basing, the inclusion of the small tufts really do a great job conveying the arid setting. I look forward to playing a game with these sometime this winter!

This lot will give you 55 points to add to your tally. Well done and enjoy your vacation!

From Curt - 28mm Napoleonic British Foot Artillery Officers (20 Points)

Spastically true to form, I currently have around eight projects on the go, each in a bewildering state of completion/evolution/devolution. Nonetheless, not one to deny yet another diversion, I discovered when planning for our Boxing Day Napoleonic game, that I was in 'desperate' need of another British command stand to boss around the rankers. Of course I realized this the night before the game.  Not to be deterred, I decided that, sleep be damned, I would get it done in time for the tabletop the next day. (Yes, this sleep deprivation thing is becoming a common refrain it seems...)

Well, to make a long story short, I did manage to coax these figures to a point were they could be presented with only a trace of chagrin. But as these things often work out, Peter arrived for the game, beaming like a Bishop, with one of his British command stands in tow, and I thought it would be rather churlish not to use his for the game. Yes, one has to be somewhat sanguine about these things. I reflected that while my figures did not make it to the miniature battlefield, I still got the satisfaction of completing a few new models for the collection (albeit in a self-induced flap). So all is good and right in the world. 

Anyway, I'm prattling, so let's move along. What we have here is a Napoleonic command stand featuring a pair of British foot artillery officers in their 1815 uniform. Being a naturally licentious race, the English officers are seen here gawping at some comely Belgian milk-maid, presumably captured in a Vermeer-like haze in the middle distance, near some boring berg called Waterloo. That, or they may be ranging in their guns at a distant French battalion, but that's not nearly as interesting.

These 28mm figures are from the Perry metal range and were quite nice to work with. Like the rest of my Napoleonic collection I've affixed them to a metal base as I like the low profile they provide. I had a milestone marker knocking around and thew it on the base for visual interest (yes, riveting, I know). Otherwise the basework is my regular trope of texture gel, gravel, flock and tufts.

The last couple of shots are of the officers with one of my foot artillery bases (painted ages ago when the earth was still cooling). Sorry, to my everlasting shame I had no Belgian milkmaids at hand, something which sorely needs to be corrected. 

20 points for me!  Woo! Kyle? Miles? Keep your eyes on the road, I'm just getting warmed up here... ;P

From JohnM - Holmes and Watson and an Imam! (15 Points)

These are the last of figures, I had prepped for last years Challenge. First up we have Holmes and Watson. The Holmes figure is pretty traditional but the Watson figure has a lot of strange equipment. Something to do with the Empire of the Dead ruleset, I presume, as the the figures are from Westwind.

Next up we have an Imam from Gripping Beast, I must of bought this for my SAGA Musselman warband. I like SAGA, but it has been difficult to get off the ground here in Boston. If I remember correctly my friend Nico in Montreal put together a Frankish warband, but we have had little opportunity to get together over the last year.

Well that clears the table for what I have prepared for this year's challenge. This includes some 18mm AB Napoleonics, 20mm Japanese and USMC forces for Chain of Command, a somewhat unusual warband for SAGA (can anyone guess) and maybe some Frostgrave figures (not really sure about the game yet, but I like the figures).

Nice looking 'dregs' John! As you say, Holmes looks great but Watson seems a bit bogged-down with a bewildering assortment of accouterments. I guess being Holmes' 'caddy' comes with the job.

I've always liked the elegant simplicity of that Imam figure and you've done a nice job on him.

These three figures will give you 15 points. Good work, now you can get out of the blocks with your new stuff!

From ClintB - 1/300 Arab Tanks (Kuteybh Debabh) (28 Points)

Nope, no NOT "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."Maybe before the end ofte challenge though! Today 14 T55 tanks in Egyptian and United Arab Republic Livery. 2 Tanks as Battalion HQ and 2 Companies each of 6 Tanks. (at least to start with).

The T55 was by no means the best tank of the 6 day war but it was so much better then many of the other Arab tanks many of which were of WW2 vintage mostly in the form of  Soviet JS 3's and T34/85's. (or even Syrian Panzer IV's, which I will not be painting anytime soon.)

There is more to add to the Battalion, and Infantry and Antitank companies will follow at some juncture, probably with an Artillery Battalion a scout company and an Air defense company.


I will be using the Flames of War rules as while they are not the best rules for the period (I Prefer "Challenger II" as my favoured rule set,) they do allow for games to be played easily with little fuss and at the club that is all to the good.

But in this project nothing with more tentacles than it should have. For now though just T55's. I may start a T34/85 or a JS3 company to fight along side, But that is the future and anything could distract me easily!

I should Thank "Big Lee" for leading me into this after I followed his WW2 western Desert 6mm exploits! So thanks Lee.

Now I had best start the Nostalgia entry. And put the little tanks away for a while.

Thanks for looking. All the best Clint





Those are some good lookin' tracks Clint. I especially like the engineering versions spec'ed for minesweeping and bulldozing - very cool. Too bad you can't use your 'Challenger II' rules, but I understand wanting to keep things simple with a mixed crowd.

These 14 Arab AFVs will give you 28 points.