From DavidB - More Catachans....also Ray and Fran! (160 points)

I unfortunately missed last week, but my civilian job had me on overtime. With the cold temps, flu stricken co-workers, and my 12 hr shifts...well I did get to paint a little! I have seen everyone's posts even if i didn't leave a comment. But I was able to briefly forget about the snow and cold in my downtime of viewing the scads of World War, Nappies, medieval, Scifi, and fantasy works on view! ;)

Which brings me to this entry. My first time going to war in the 80's was a total disconnect from home. Cars, movies, family, people..huge changes on my return. My last deployment to Afghanistan was really different than the ones before. When not on mission, we had Internet, current movies, pizza, hamburgers, face book, email, ...home was a lot closer. Hour shift left the time with my kids and wife scant on Skype as we were in total opposite time zones, but after that little moment all I had was gym, movies, and the Internet till the next mission.

I missed gaming and painting and having battle with my friends, so I began to search war gaming on the Internet. I found Ray's blog and his great looking minis and flags...of course I also found our favourite Irishman Fran. Those two were constantly at it and turning out all sorts of minis. It reminded me of my friends back home. I started my own blog when I got home and probably would have left it after my initial posts, but Fran and Ray kept showing up and commenting which kept me at the brushes. Resilience is having something constructive to do as well as support of friends and family.

Fran to the left and Ray to the right. Fran favours a grimy camouflage scheme while Ray prefers

the more "uniform" look.

" What are we here for, Lurker?"

"ORKS, you iggit!"

"Orks don't exist"

"Then what did you just chop up?"

"A tree."

The Catachan Pattern Variant uses the chain blade and heavy flamers. Heavy flamers use promethium, but I suspect that the Badger and Lurker have swapped that fuel for Dettol. If you have no idea what that is, read Fran's blog!

Three plastic mortar teams for a heavy slot, I'd like to get another three.

I mixed up the bits from the infantry and used extra bits to jazz up the real estate on the bases

Three snipers for an elite choice, they get to stay hidden till used.

These are the metal ones, I think they are still available but in resin now.

A whole unit of "tread fethers" the missile ,er, rocket launcher teams are not allowed as a heavy weapon choice unless placed in a platoon squad, and they haven't been slotted in either platoon as I like the heavy flamer more.

These were an eBay purchase and came assembled as they are shown.

Twelve remnants from the force organisation. They can be used for all sorts of stuff including remnant squads, I can even make another elite assault team from this bunch also.

The command squad. This is GW's way of apologising for the plastic infantry. Every special weapon including sniper rifle and heavy flamer is included in the kit. Every bit in the kit is really good too.

The grass snakes medic and the plastic heavy flamer that is even better that the metal ones! The Doc is about to give someone a pick-me-up. Drink water and change your socks are the only words anybody has ever heard him say... 

The commo trooper has a huge radio set for the commander to talk over everybody!

A scarred Mohawk head and this wonderful kinda relaxed pose- I hid the skull he is standing on in static grass. His scarred face had angular features like mine, so I gave him some proper war paint and reddened his weapon arm with red ink.

Lots of detail on the plastics including the medical emblem on doc's backpack. The carbine with doc was added on. Although he has a bone saw and knife, I thought he needed a rifle and the stock-folding lasgun seemed a good fit.

Another shot of the First Nation hidden in the force! ;)

I haven't gotten Col Stracken, but here is Sly Marbo. We all know the riff he is taken from!

Probably one of my favourite special character sculpts too.

And here is the entire Catachan Deathworld Veteran force- The Grass Snakes. I have no more Catachans in the house other than the Orlock gang I plan to repaint. They get their first outing this Monday in the jungle against orcs. I'm on vacation now....well after military drill this weekend.

12 Catachans

3 mortar teams

3 tread-fethers

3 snipers

4 command squad troops

1 special character

and of course...

The Lurker and Badger....hmmm,

Doesn't quite have the same ring as The Falcon and the Snowman does it?!?

Well, another huge deployment of the dreaded Death World forces, and another avalanche of points burying me in a side duel...so...many...Catachans....David, you are a machine! There is a lot to choose from in this submission - including Ray and Fran, who I'm sure will chime in with some comments (helpful or otherwise) below, but my favourite has to be that Mohawk carrying the standard in the command group.  Great paint work all around, but he certainly stands out.  

I wish you and this lot the best as they venture into the jungles against the Orks next week! It can be a rough go with newly painted figures, but I expect they will honour the spirit of their "home" - the death world of Catachan! Another 160 points David, well done. 

From GillesW - The time tunnel! (84 points)

Hi everyone! Once more I have a pick and mix of figures that will take us through a "time tunnel"!

Up first is a mortar team for my USMC, a 81mm with crew. The guy who is running with the ammo box is a conversion of the medic of Warlord Games metal figure. I cut off the arms to put aside the  stretcher for another conversion. I have replaced the head, arms and backpack with plastic parts and took the ammo box from a different metal figure.

I'll certainly add some plastic parts like tools, sandbags ( no offense ) and small arms on the mortar base for fun.

I have based the mortar separately to re use it with GI's on western front or with a French expeditionnary force in Indochina.

Ouch! the close ups are very close ;-)
Moving along, some polish guns and gunners for my Field of Glory Napoleonic 1813 campaign from Essex Miniatures range.

And to finish the post, some 15mm Cretan archers from Xyston Miniatures.

If I continue to recruit all the Cretans I can find on my numerous ancient projects, there will be no more Cretans in Crete. Stay tuned , next week  some different stuff should appear from nowhere...

Merci Gilles - un autre voyage incroyable! Another incredible range of figures in your submission, from the sands of the Pacific in WW2 to the sands of Crete in the time before Christ! Very well done.  It's always a pleasure to see the wide assortment and variety of figures you are cranking out through the Challenge - well done.  The conversion work on the USMC fellow is very well done.  And, personally, I think your plan to put every resident of Crete under arms is a sound approach...

84 points pour vous Gilles! A la prochaine!

From SamuliS: Chainsaw Wizard (5 points)

As I'm badly lagging behind my target pace I really need to start my sprint to the finish line. So in a mad rush in the evening I managed another entry for this week. Only one mini, but at least it's something!

The minis is one of the Citadel Limited Edition minis sculpted by Aly Morrison and released in 1987 if my google-fu is on point. So reaching the 30 years crisis like I am. Then it's time to wait for the midlife crisis I think... I've had a nasty habit of getting bored in hotel lobby bars on business trips and browsing eBay to pass time between drinks. One end result has been an ever growing collection of more or less random old Citadel sculpts involving multiple toilet scenes, weird santas etc. I've been shamefully lazy in getting them painted up considering they are mostly just single minis so could easily be done in a few hours to provide a bit of change between other projects.

The Chainsaw Wizard is one of the more random sculpts there is and has a counterpart in the Machine gun wizard. Too bad that one is usually pretty outrageously priced so I've yet to add that to the collection.

I had actually intended to paint this for the Nostalgia round, but never really got around to getting it further than basecoat. Slowly but surely it got some paint on whenever I had a suitable shade on the pallet for another project and would paint this bad boy at the same time. Finally today I decided it was time to finalize the paint job so the last couple of details were painted on before giving him a quick brown wash followed by a few highlight layers to bring out details once again. I figured his chainsaw should be bloody from going through all the non-magic-users in the way so added some Blood for the Blood God paint from GW (absolutely the best named paint in the industry by the way).

So that's all for today, work will resume tomorrow with yet more Saxons and some more Oldhammer minis, this time of a more Grim Dark variety. Now I'm gonna go for a quick nap before waking up at ungodly hours to watch Valtteri Filppula and the rest of Tampa crush Pittsburgh.

To close off some Finnish Folk Metal to describe your average corporate meeting. Hard to concentrate on the subject at hand when everyone is droning on about meaningless things and all you can think about is pillaging and killing like every good nordic man should ;) A sword might be a handy addition during negotiations with tough customers though... Might have to think about that. Figuring out where to hang it from on a suit might prove a bit tricky, but I guess it's worth a try.

I can totally relate to the combination of idle time on travels, liquor and eBay...I've scored some awesome figures that way! And many others that I really do mean to get to one day...anyway, this figure is hilarious, and the brushwork is excellent.  Well done - very cool to see a funny, and kinda random old GW figure like this. 

Also, Valtteri Filppula is top shelf - and anyone obliterating the Pittsburgh Penguins is doing God's work...just saying...

And five more points for the pile!  Now back to watching the Winnipeg Jets serve as cannon fodder for Eric Staal and the Carolina Hurricanes...some nice Finnish Folk Metal will take my mind off things...

From JamieM - Bearers of the Word (100 points)

When the plan for the AHPC was released, I knew the end of January and the start of February would be tough given my work schedule...... And it's been brutal, with no posts for the last two weeks. My last big meeting was today though, so damned if I'm going to make it three weeks with no posts!

As it is (technically, just, still) Friday here, I can post this. I came home, sat in front of the TV with my painting tray and finished the last couple of hours I needed to do on these chaps. Phew.

The Wordbearers continue to grow, with the second rank and file troop finished. Twenty jump pack troops with a sarge. I wanted to make the Wordbearers a fast attacking close combat army to differentiate them from my salamander army.

Those with a pedantic HH bent will note that whilst the marks of armour are those used in the Horus Heresy (marks IV and VI), these are actually the 40k jump packs and not the 30k ones sold by Forge World. My reasoning/excuse is that my cardboard box of discarded marines included 11 jump pack troops. And my mate had 8 spare jump packs. And the leader could have an unusual one to help mark him out. So I could either pay for a very expensive Forge World unit, or convert the armour to the correct marks and use the jump packs for free. Sometimes gamers can be thrifty, so I'm working on the basis these are the earliest, trial versions of the new jump packs, given to the Wordbearers as they expanded their ranks, ready to start their insurrection.

Anyway, slightly guilty self justification apart, these have the same religious nutter writing as my other Wordbearers, all done with decals and copious amounts of work to blend the decals in. So remind me not to do anything like this when I'm busy at work as it was VERY time consuming.

I am jolly pleased with them though and with them being done I've finished the main rank and file and can move onto some of the more unusual units for the army..... And as these chaps consort with daemons, they have some properly odd units!

Twenty figures at 5 points each nets me a nice round 100. It's nice to be back!

Well Jamie, I'm really worried that you are not focusing on your work.  And while I would LOVE to give you 100 points for this submission, the lack of proper Horus Heresy back packs, and the fact that you are killing me in the Horus Heresy side duel, means I'll have to actually dock you 200 points.  Lorgar would understand...

Ah, just kidding. Well done Jamie! Great to see some more adherents to the sinister, spooky Wordbearers and it must feel great to have this starting to round out into a proper force for the table.  I would love to have these fellows join up with my Sons of Horus to stomp some dupes of the so-called Emperor!

100 points Jamie - well done!    

From SamuliS: 15mm US Halftracks (114 points)

And the second half of my 15mm US entries is finally ready! 10 halftracks with 5 M3 Halftracks to carry the previous rifle platoon to battle, 2 M2 halftracks to act as command vehicles for artillery and 3 M4 81mm mortar carriers for close support. 10 vehicles and 22 complete crewmen and 10 drivers. Not sure what crewmembers were worth in points so I'll let Greg figure it out ;)

In the previous entry I complained about the absolute s**t quality of the plastic infantry, but in comparison to them these new plastic M3 halftracks are actually quite nice. Sharp detail and they go together very well. The only really downside is that they are identical and there's no real stowage or anything on the sprues to personalize them. The resin halftracks are BF's usual quality and paint up rather nicely.

I followed my usual US vehicle painting recipe with an olive drab basecoat followed by dark yellow modulation via airbrush and a yellowish drybrush. Details were picked out before applying decals and some chipping. And to tie the whole effect together I apply a generous amount of enamel washes and let them dry for a few hours before wiping the excess off. Finally some mud on the tracks and wheels and they are all done. Quite a nice and quick way to paint up single tone vehicles. The crewmen took far longer than the 10 vehicles themselves. In hindsight I probably should have gone a bit more bright with the modulation as the washes bring the effect down very much in the end. But it's always hard to judge midway through. I was actually a bit afraid that the effect was too stark before I was finished with the wash...

Last weeks Flames of War tournament went rather well also! Third place with only one point behind the winner and being dropped from second place due to the other player winning all of his matches and me winning only four out of five. Super fun weekend that actually got me really psyched about painting more Flames of War stuff again. I was already vowing not to paint anymore Flames of War after these, but now I'm actually starting to think about starting a new army... Though this time with the main emphasis being on aiming for the painting competitions in tournaments. We'll see how it goes. In the meanwhile it's back to the painting desk. A new Saxon battalion is underway as is a whole Epic Armageddon army, Zombicide miniatures and some Oldhammer. Hopefully now there'll always be something that I fancy painting on my desk :) Though finishing anything might take quite a while!

Great work Samuli, and congratulations on your success in the Flames of War tournament.  I could sense from your prior posts what a slog it has been to get through all of the olive drab, so it must be a great feeling to have this project down & out (for now, at least).  Well done!

I have to admit my eyes roll back into my head when I see someone talking about "modulation", but whatever it is, the effect here is excellent, and a focus on the painting aspects of any Flames of Wat competition is certainly logical given your skill and talent, although the work you have been sharing with us is certainly more than up to snuff as far as I'm concerned!

Your sentiments on the 15mm stuff from the Plastic Soldier Company matches mine - incredible vehicles, and very poor infantry.  But it all works in the end (and compliments to PSC for making such a comprehensive effort to provide great WW2 figures in different scales). 

This solid entry nets you 114 points - well done Samuli!

From SeanR - A Knight of a Different Colour (5 points)

So it's been a little while, but I've got my latest entry completed.

This is a Lord-Celestant model from Games Workshop's Warhammer Age of Sigmar range of Stormcast Eternals, with a shield from another model replacing his hammer. He's basically a space marine in a fantasy-style setting, and every time he dies an angel gets its wings he gets resurrected and forgets stuff.

I'm proud of my work on him, it's the neatest base coating and highlighting I've done so far and the gold has a few layers with a hint of purple, and some purple as a spot colour on the belt and some straps.

I mainly chose him as an excuse to try out some turquiose colour (mainly GW's Sotek Green) - it gives that fantasy, bubble gum feel to the model that's a contrast to some futuristic and historical models I'm working on.

Unfortunately my photography has let the work down - I need to do some reading on other things to try so I can level up that skill. Does anyone have any good articles, or tips to suggest?

Dramatic foot on rock with shadow in background pose. Good for knights and politicians everywhere.

He's on a 40mm base, and is a bit larger than your average 28mm human-sized model. I'm not sure on the points for this guy - 5ish?

Well Sean, you have really done some great paint work with this fellow.  I have to admit the whole "Age of Sigmar" thing doesn't work for me, but your pride in the outcome here is justified.  This guy looks ready to smash stuff and people to bits in a very righteous and dramatic fashion.  The colours look great, and the effects are excellent. He has come down from the stars to smite in style!

I struggle with hobby photography as well, so can't really offer any useful tips, but a number of the Challengers are pro photo takers, not least of all Curt, so I'm sure they will chime in with some info.   The lighting is the trickiest part for me, but there are some great apps out there which can help with that once you have the photo to work with.  Others will have much better advice, I expect!

Points-wise, bulky as he is, he still fits in the 28mm range, so he will add five points for your score.  Great work - is there a larger Sigmar force brewing behind this fellow, or is he the last one?