From TamsinP - 28mm High Elf (5 Points)

"A High Elf? Tamsin's doing fantasy? And it's not to take the mickey out of Ray? Is she feeling unwell?"


Yes, I have painted a fantasy figure and no, I'm not feeling unwell. I just fancied painting a single mini before I commence work on my next project and this one took my fancy.

The figure is apparently Aenur, an Elf from GW's Mordheim range. I won him in a prize draw on (I think) Carl's blog a couple of years ago and he's been sitting prepped and primed since then.

The layered highlights on the cloak didn't come out quite as nicely as I thought they had, but they'll do.

This figure will be a prize in a future giveaway on my blog, which is why I've gone over the base with black paint. That means either 4 or 5 points for this figure.

And that's it from me for this week folks!

This is a very nice figure, Tamsin.  I have the same one in my collection and remember enjoying working on it. It's all about the cloak, and even with your reservations I think you've done an excellent job on it. I really like the pale green you've gone with as it goes very well with the Elf theme. I also like how the cloak works with the buff boots. Great job!

From PeterD - 28mm Stradiotti (86 points)

This week I have a unit of 8 Stradiotti for my Italian Wars forces and my Renaissance Men side duel.

These are all Perry figures, mostly metal.  There are 6 riders from the pack of Westernised Stradiotti (which are metal castings) mounted on plastic horses.  (This is how they are sold, six metal riders with instructions to buy two sprues of the plastic horses for mounts. ) The other two figures (with the long coats and top hats) are metal on metal, from the Stradiot command pack.

The all metal figure are on the left of each stand.

Backside of the same figures.  I love the poses here.

Stradiotti were Balkan light cavalry, manly Albanian., and were armed with a mix of bows and light lances.  They served first with the Venetian army and famously looted Charles VIII's baggage at Fornovo, including Charles' diary detailing his amorous conquest during his time in Naples.  Charles was so impressed that the French soon hired Stradiotti as did others including Henry VIII.  I painted this unit in less vibrant colours than my Italian units but I think that the figures has lots of colour themselves.

The shield design reminds me of ones I painted for my Hellenistic armies.

Shields are hand painted based on Osprey type illustrations and the flag came off the Internet, but got trimmed down once printed.  On one horse I included a severed head, the must have fashion accessory for Balkan auxiliaries since Cyrus the Great invaded Thrace.

Other entrants have commented that they hate painting horses, but I find it a lot of fun and very rewarding.  My mother (a former Bengal Lancer) was horsey and in my younger days I spent many a weekend being the dutiful son at her dressage and other events.  This gave me the chance to note various horse colour combinations.

The Perry horses are wonderful, especially the plastic set.   A single sprue comes with enough bits for 3 horses with 6 half bodies plus 4 heads, all interchangeable.  This gives you 24 different horses in the basic set, plus more with the armoured heads that come with the Knights.  I've yet to find a losing combination and you get a sense of a unit galloping at the same speed but with different positioning of legs and heads and differing horse furniture.

I am continuing my experimentation on basing and again looking for critiques.  The ground is a mix of Acrylic Gel with Raw Sienna plus fine ballast.  I then washed the bases with Raw Umber and am quite pleased with the colour effect.  I think I've hit the right combinations of Italian dirt colours.  Foliage is a few tufts from the Evil Empire.

I am looking forward to fielding these ruffians in an Italian Wars game soon.

I really don't know what to say about your mother being a Bengal Lancer and so will take a pause and politely move on. 

Great work Peter! I really like these cavalry, especially their bright colours and the varied shields. I think these will make the gendarmes have to think a bit before they commit to their typical panzer assaults.  

As as suggestion, you may want to apply a highlight (or a thin wash) to your horses, especially the bays/sorrels. I think their musculature, especially around their hips, hocks and fetlocks would benefit with a bit more definition from shading and/or highlights. Just a thought. :)

These Stradiotti will give you a base of 80 points, but I'm adding a few more for the hand-painted shields and banner. You may think you're crushing me Douglas but I have you fixed in my sights now (ahem, riiiight).

From GregB - The Raven Guard Arrive (50 points)

Raven Guard tactical squad for 30k

Here we have a squad of ten Space Marines for GW's Horus Heresy setting.  These Marines are from the XIX Legion, known as the "Raven Guard".  The models are 28mm, new multi-part plastics from GW's "Betrayal at Calth" box set, but the embossed logo shoulder pads are from Forge World. The Marines are wearing Mark IV power armour.

To date I have been painting the followers of Horus in 28mm - believers in "Horus for Hope" :) These are the first "good guys" I have painted for this setting and this scale.  Dallas has been carrying the Loyalist side in our gaming group, with a beautiful collection of Marines from the Blood Angels.  And, of course, the setting is very malleable, so you can even have the Sons of Horus or World Eaters fighting amongst themselves, representing the early stages of the fighting as Horus and his followers removed the loyalists from their own ranks on the world of Istvaan III.

Trooper and comms trooper

Another view - I like the comms unit a lot - nice accessory

I'm a certified 30k nut, and I thought it would be fun to do some Loyalist troops as well. The Raven Guard were loyalists in the Horus Heresy wars,  but they get kind of a raw deal in the story - their Legion (along with the Salamanders, who Jamie has been doing an incredible job painting, and another Legion, the Iron Hands) get caught in a battle known as the "drop site massacre", slaughtered in a trap set by Horus and his followers on the world of Istvaan V.

Vexillary

Legion Sergeant - I love the comb on these figures...kinda whacky...

At first, this kind of deterred me.  After all, "Who wants to play drop site massacre? That should be fun!"  But as I read into their background, they seemed kind of neat, or at least, not a pack of tools like the Ultramarines.  They have a cool symbol (Ravens - scary!). The roman numeral - XIX - has a nice look. And while the Legion took huge losses in the drop site incident, several thousand troops survived. I can imagine they would be pretty pissed about what happened, and keen to keep on fighting, making for some good potential scenarios.  One final bonus, the name "Raven Guard" opens the possibility of Edgar Allan Poe references - cool!

Ready for deployment to Istvaan...what could go wrong?

While most references have the Raven Guard in black armour, I thought I would do them in a very dark grey instead, with a black shoulder plate and a stark, white Legion symbol.  I got this idea from the Forge World guys - they painted up one of the Raven Guard dreadnoughts on their web site in this way. I'm pleased with how it turned out, and I like it a whole lot more than trying to paint so much black!

The plastics from the Betrayal at Calth box set are well done, providing the basis for a solid starting force of these fellows.  I hope to add quite a few more before this Painting Challenge is concluded.  Ten 28mm troops will get me 50 points for my sci-fi and Horus Heresy side duels...not enough, but starting to catch up! 

These are completely awesome Greg. I love the minimalist slate grey aesthetic you've gone with on these guys and those embossed Forge World shoulder pads really make them pop. I'm a big fan of the whole '30K Betrayal/Heresy' lore as well and have to admit that I'm a little jealous that I've missed the boat on this surge of building/painting. But who knows, maybe I can catch up later with an ancillary force. In the meantime, I will vicariously enjoy excellent figureslike these here. Well done Greg!

From PhilH: Painting Progress Glacial (15 points)

Hobby time took a nose dive in recent weeks, you may have noticed I failed to hit the last theme round or last week's weekly entry. Reason being some extensive 1:1 scale terraining happening at my house. Tearing out inbuilt wardrobes, reskimming and redecorating a bedroom has ballooned into work on a second bedroom and the hall, stairs and landing. At current pace, I doubt it'll be done before another month is out. 

So this is what the bedroom looked like the other week:

The DIY has reduced my hobby time drastically, and drained my energy to hit the small brushes. So the last fortnight I've only managed to finish two minis for the Spanish Civil War project. 

A mounted Carabinero - a head swap with a cavalryman to give him the distinctive cap. Rather than a full unit, I just got a pair of these sculpts, basically I couldn't resist. I figured a mounted Carabinero was a good place to start, to patrol Spain's rugged frontiers. In Chain of Command, you can take units as mounted, though they usually just benefit in the pre-game patrol phase then dismount to fight. So I'll just use this mini to represent when a team or section was mounted, or potentially for specific scenarios.

One day, maybe I'll add a unit of Carlist cavalrymen. That would look ace I reckon. 

Also a single infantryman, I think this is a foreign legion sculpt with a head swap to a helmet. Painted as a generic infantryman to match my Requetes or an Army conscript in a non-regulation shirt.

I have promised myself that when the DIY is done, I can reward myself with a chunky order from Empress to refill the lead mound on this project - I'm slowly coming to the last of everything I bought - a sign of a project I'm satisfied with, as that's almost unheard of for me! 

15 points for my tally, taking me to 90 in Juan and I's side duel. So, unless Juan pops in with a big entry, it looks like we are still waiting for victory to be claimed in our little challenge?!

 Oh, SCW cavalry! Very nice Phil. I really like that mod and its attendant purpose in CoC. I need one of these. Its doubtful if I can pull of anything as elegant as yours here but I'll have to give it a go.  I also really like this infantryman (jodhpurs are so cool) though it looks like his posh blanket has been freshly laundered by his mum. ;o)

15 points to your tally and your are nosing in on the finish line! We'll be on the edge of our seats next week, for sure!

From TamsinP - 28mm Howl's It Going? (28 Points)

Another entry from me for this weekend (probably my last, but you never know...)

As what should have been a very quick and simple batch of figures to paint, I of course decided to overcomplicate things (alternating grey and brown dry-brushes interspersed with black, sepia and flesh-shade washes), make a bit of a mess of it all and have to spend quite a while recovering the paint jobs In other words, these took at least twice as long as they should have done.

Some close-ups:

And posing with an Aztec (for size comparison):

The two larger wolves are from Wargames Foundry, the four smaller ones are from Warbases. These will be part of my collection of beasties wandering Mexicagrave.

I'm not sure how Curt will want to score these. The two Foundry wolves are about the size of a 28mm foot figure; the Warbases ones are a bit smaller, maybe 20mm foot?

Great stuff Tamsin. I think many of us can sympathize with being caught-up in the time-suck of doing what was at first an easy figure, which ends up being incredibly time consuming. That all being said, your work paid off as these are very nice wolves, I really like the one howling and the other that's at a full run.

From BenitoM - Concluding the Fallschirmjager Platoon and First Support Unit (52 Points)

You may have noticed that I've been absent a few weeks. This being due to a family issue that also affected my painting output. I managed nonetheless to conclude the core platoon of my German paratroopers project for Chain of Command, with the last two riflemen (in winter gear) and the  HQ section (see below). 

Also, following many suggestions from the other participants in my last entry to the Challenge, I decided to rebase the section painted in winter garments, putting some snow on it. I went to my local show and found a convenient Tupper of 4Ground frozen static grass, to which I added some baking soda to simulate the snow on the bases.

Finally and with the help of my wargaming pal and airbrush Jedi-master Alejandro, I can also present today the first of my platoon supports: a nice little Hetzer.

 
This is the Warlord 28mm resin model. We went for a camouflage pattern commonly seen in late 44/early 45, and  I think first employed in the Ardennes offensive. The distinctive feature are the small round marks painted over the main camouflage lines. I like to play Chain of Command with these small AFVs rather than the big cats, more challenging and clearly more fun.

This photo is a 1:1 scale model :-) in the museum of Bastogne, taken last November. Look at the relative size in realtion to my friend Alfredo and notice how small this tank is!

In summary, today I add seven 28mm models (3 in snow uniform and 4 of the HQ section) plus the tank resulting in new 50 points to my Challenge score. Hopefully I will return to normal and will try to catch up some of the lost time, as I’m clearly derailed now to  achieve my 500 points target.

Currently I'm working in more support assets, next in the pipeline being an assault team, plus a heavy machine gun and a mortar stands.  

Beautiful work Benito! I really liked your previous winter figures, but I must say they are definitely improved with the addition of your new basework. The Hetzer is one of my favourite WWII AFVs and this example you show us here is brilliant. (I also like gaming with smaller armour as they were more prevalent and are often prove to be more fun on the table.) I love the ambush pattern camo and the commander is a great touch (I'm adding a few points for him in your total). 

Well done Benito, I hope things settle down for you in the coming weeks.

From SidneyR - The Scene in the Grote Markt, 1688 (45 Points)

Have you ever had a hobby plan which became diverted? Ah, yes ... I thought you might have had that feeling! Well, among painting up my themed submissions for the Challenge, I had hoped to be finishing some of the French forces for Flanders 1688. It's good to have a plan, but sometimes its hard to keep to it.

I've had some of these figures for years. A Citadel poacher from the 1990s with a head swap with a Foundry ECW gunner.  A Foundry housekeeper.  And a couple of serving maids which I picked up on Ebay in the early 2000s. I had a feeling that they would come in useful, one day. 

And here they are, handing out refreshments for some of the Flemish civic militia from 1688 as they march to the field of battle outside their town. I'm not quite sure what the poacher is doing, although he does seem to be carrying off one of the chickens which was happily roaming in the Grote Markt (again). He's also seem to have purloined a couple of (very nicely sculpted) fish. 

I've enjoyed carrying some of themes over from the previous two submissions - and there's a couple here.  Chickens (yes, again) and the pelican civic motif on the drum, which is being used as an improvised card table.  

I should really be painting regiments of French cavalry of course, or finishing my "Defensive Terrain" submission. I should really stick to what I planned to do in future. No more silly vignettes. I promise. Until the next one.

Eight figures (two chickens), 28mm - 40 points of vignettes!

Stunning work once again Sidney. I've always had a soft spot for these 'scene dressing' vignettes. They often have no purpose in a game but they end up making he game somehow complete. Again, I admire the cobblestone basing (I definitely need to pick some of that up) and I'm particularly taken by the scene of the girl selling drinks to soldiers passing by. Wonderful stuff. 

These vignettes will give you a base of  40 points but I'm adding a bit more for the little extras that help along the narrative. Well done Sid!

From TamsinP - 6mm Reb Firepower (22 points)

For my 11th entry I've added some firepower for my 6mm Confederate army, mostly because I knew they'd be a quick paint.

Now, the observant among you will have spotted that one of the bases is missing something.

Hint - something big, made of metal and wood.

Yup, one of the guns went missing from the tray it was it. I'm sure it will turn up eventually.

I actually painted (but didn't submit) the guns during last year's Challenge, so I'm not counting them for points in this submission.

Some close-up pics:

As before, the figures are 6mm from Baccus. For points, only the 44 crew figures count, so it should be 22 points.

Edit: I found the missing gun! It was hiding underneath some bags of flag sheets in the drawer they were originally in - it must have fallen off the sheet of mounting card I had everything on when I moved them into a different drawer, then got buried.

Here it is on the base:

And here's a pic of all 11 bases with guns, just to prove that I did find it!

*phew!*

Great guns Tamsin!! What, well, great guns these are! Very clean brushwork and I like seeing all the little red kepis amongst the grey and butternut. I'm happy you found the other artillery piece as those four fellows were looking a little hapless standing on the four corners of their base. I suppose you could have modeled a tiny hackey sak suspended between them to give them something to do.  :)

Another 22 points for you but, wait, I see another Ms.P entry on the horizon...