AdamC- Two and Two-Thirds Tercio (120 points)

  These are 10mm figures form Warmonger Miniatures a local company in Worcester MA that I supported via the Kickstarter they have a small line of landsknecht troops.  There are 60 Pikemen and 60 arquebusiers.

 The Front two stands each with 20 Arquebusiers are in gray and red...

 They are painted to match a unit of Pikemen I painted a few years ago.

 The second groups is 30 Pike men in brown with orange in the slashes typical of the landsknecht uniforms.

 The two sleeves of arquebusiers are in matching uniforms.

 As above.

 Rear view of the pikemen

 One of the things I love about this set is the musician is a fiefer not a drummer.

 Here we  have the last group another 30 pikemen in golden brown and with blue in the slashes

 Hear are the two sleeves of arquebusiers are show form the rear since you saw the other guys from the front.

 Rear of the pike men, the flags are hand painted.  This isn't my best work but it is only the second time I have worked in this scale and the detail on these small figures is impressive, I think they have more detail then many 15mm figures.  I think I might need to give them a wash I can't recall if I did or not with the last set or note.  Any way please check out Warmonger they have great products. Also a pack of 30 arquebusiers are available on my blog as a part of my 1000 post giveaway 

Something I didn't expect Adam, nice looking Tercios.  It's nice to see some other P&S figures on the challenge blog.  I wasn't aware of Warmonger, but will be checking them out.  I have painted 10mm, for WW2 but that was years ago.  There is a lot of detail to bring out on these Warmonger figs.  I like the plumes on the hats and the units look great with the pikes all bunched up like that.

Well done for 120 points.  I had to check the rules for the scoring since these are my first 10mms on the Challenge. 

From SimonM - 28mm "Horrorclix" Aliens (20 Points)

This rather oversized 40mm pre-painted plastic "Wizkids" model of the Alien Grid (also known as Nethead) is from the "Horrorclix" AVP Alien Verses Predator: Aliens Collector's Set. The sculpt is based upon the "alpha-Alien" which kills the predators Chopper and Celtic in the 2004 science-fiction horror film "Alien Verses Predator" and carries the distinctive head injuries caused by its being momentarily incapacitated by a net launcher.

I initially gave the vicious extra-terrestrial an undercoat of "Citadel" Abaddon Black before simply dry-brushing the model with "Vallejo" German Grey. Grid was then washed with "Citadel" Nuln Oil before I applied a second, significantly lighter dry-brush of more "Vallejo" German Grey over its more prominently raised surfaces. The Alien's mouth was painted using a combination of "Vallejo" Gunmetal Grey and "Citadel" Nuln Oil, whilst its head's carapace was given a coat of Abaddon Black. Finally I picked out its ‘bleeding’ head injury with some “Vallejo” Heavy Khaki and “Citadel” Thrakka Green. As the fresh lacerations were very fine, I tidied up my brush work by dabbing a face blusher pad with some Abaddon Black on it over the area. These helped cover up any stray areas of “Vallejo” Heavy Khaki and restrict the bright green paint to just the deepest recesses of the wound.

 

In addition to Grid I have also painted three more of the Xenomorph drones born inside the pyramid found beneath Bouvet Island. These Aliens were all painted in the same way. Although one of them, which was depicted having had their tail partially severed required its leaking acidic blood to be painted using a combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Khaki and “Citadel” Thrakka Green. 

These guys give me the creeps Simon, well done.  Once again you've added a lot of detail and texture to shiny mostly mono-colour figures.    Great stuff and 20 points.

From IanW Reaper Bones Gargoyle 10 points

Well I have painted up more Fantasy figures in the last eight odd weeks (did a few just before the challenge kicked off) and here is another for the intrepid adventures to come up against. It reminds me of the cover from my rather battered and well used Creatures and Treasures, still in use today.

It's one of the Dark Heaven Bones from Reaper and rather a good one. It cost me just £2.30 and I can only guess how much if it was made of metal.

So here is Mortar the Gargoyle sculpted by B. Ridolfi. It comes with the wings far close to each other but a bit of hot water and a bit of patience gave me a pose I was happier with.

An undercoat in grey followed by a black ink wash set the tone. I then used progressively lighter shades of grey with especial attention to the ribs in the wings. The base was washed with a lighter stone colour to make it look different to the gargoyle but not so much as to shout at you.

I then gave a fight drybrush of a few shades of green but went over again with another of grey where the green was more obvious. I wanted a look that suggested it's been there some time without over doing it. Maybe a bit light as Cath could not really see the green until pointed out.

Last job was to paint the eyes and teeth though I left the claws without extra highlights as I wanted the stone look to be all over (except the teeth and eyes).

Unfortunately the base was a little uneven on the bottom and sanding had not worked so in the end it got glued to a 2p coin. From base to highest wing tip it measures around 65mm but head to toe it's around the height of a 28mm figure so another 5 points to my total.

What a great bit of nostalgia Ian, I love this guy.  I think ewe all have a love-hate relationship with the Reaper Bones line, but Mortar turned out well.    Good catch on the wing re-positioning - I'll remember that for future Bones figures.  The paint job really brings this figure to life (or semi-life, whatever the case with Gargoyles).  I too use coins for basing single figures, they are often cheaper than the cost of a similarly sized washer.  It's less of a legal issue in Canada now that the open was discontinued but it still doesn't feel right.

Numismatics issues aside (that's two visits to the OED today), it's a great post and I'll award points as a cavalry figure due to bulk. 

For Monday - From PatG 8 28mm Mounted Martian Askaris (80 points)

After some issues last week with glue failure and primer not sticking, I finally have 8 mounted Martian askaris (or is that askarii?).  Editor's note the OED lists the plural as Askari (like fish) or Askaris.

These were a last minute purchase arriving after the competition started.  They mark a couple of bitter sweet moments. At 80 points, they bring my total to 620, well above my target of 500. More importantly, they mark the end of the figures and painting side of my Space 1889 project. Well - almost there is another unit in the queue but they are a re-paint and of course there are always bits and pieces that can be added to project, but after this unit, anything else is an indulgence.

Thanks to everyone in the challenge for the directly or indirectly pushing me across this particular finish line.  While work is about to get very busy, I'll be seeing if I can push my total a bit higher before the Challenge wraps up.

Pat I am continuing to love the old school Rafm wonders that you keep rolling out.  I am rather disappointed that you've almost run out of figures to paint, but pleased for you on hitting your two goals.  Do you wish to formally up your target, or just keep it as is and see where you end up?  

From MilesR: FOW FJ Pak40's and an Elephant (60 points) For Monday

 All I got completed this weekend are some odds 'n ends for the 15mm FOW armies.  Specifically a Pak40 Fallschirmjager AT unit and an Elephant.  All of the mini's are metals and resin from Battlefront.

 I managed to start and finish these guys this morning.  The PAK 40 is a good all around AT asset in the game.

 The giant Elephant isn't really points effective but it's big, mean and a whole lot of fun to play with.

I haven't played a lot of Flames of War lately but am getting excited about the game again with the impending publication of the Pacific books.

This submission consists of 19 crewman/command figures (38pts), 4 guns (16 pts) and a single vehicle (6 pts) and yields me a grand total of 60 pointeroonies.

I haven't been totally lazy as I've finished the L'amour challenge and made good progress on the Nautical project.

Sadly, work is getting in the way for the next two weeks with a business trip to Europe next week and then my firms annual meeting in the Turks the following one.  British Airways still refuses to let me paint in long flights - very disappointing.

Well Miles 60 "pointeroonies" (were you in Joisey recently?) may be a slow week for you but it's a good week for me!  That's a hefty amount of anti-tank hardware you've got going there.  You seem to be pachyderm obsessed these days given your choice of armour.    Nice work on the vehicle camo and the basing for the gun teams.  As for the Heffalump AFV, if it's about the points cost you're doing it all wrong!

Good luck in your travels!

From AnneO'L-Hasslefree Moderns (25 points)

Rather than paint for points or for prizes in bonus rounds, I chose to use this years Challenge as an opportunity to push myself as a painter.  With that in mind, I set three specific goals for myself.  Expand the scope of genres I work in by painting historical miniatures (more is to come), paint teams and make a serious effort to improve my work on skin tones.

Today's figures represent my first attempt at trying new techniques to produce more realistic skin tones.  This first exercise involved using colours such as red, purple, pink, blue and lavender along with the Reaper Tanned Skin Triad to produce different effects. I will briefly discuss what colours I used on each figure and why I chose those colours.  All paints used are from Reaper.

Figures are from Hasslefree Miniatures, are 28mm and are sculpted by Kev White.

I wanted a very warm skin tone for this figure.  In order to achieve that I mixed different colours with Tanned Skin Shadow and glazed down from the base colour, Tanned Skin.  For most of her face I used Crimson Red. However, to produce the darker tones where the hair obscures the face, I used Burgundy Wine, which has a strong purple tone.  For the deeper recess on her arms I used Burgandy Wine, then worked up to Crimson Red and finally up to a pink using Old Western Rose.  This allowed me to produce different gradients within the shadows.  This is most noticeable on the back of the miniature I think.

As there is little skin showing on this figure, the technique was simple and straightforward.  I wanted a warm tone that was consistent with the overall palette.  This was achieved by glazing down into the shadows using Tanned Skin Shadow mixed with Burgundy Wine.  The resultant purple tone would contrast well with the red of his beret without compromising the warmth I was looking for.

In keeping with the cooler palette of his clothing, I wanted to produce a cool skin tone with this figure.  In order to do that, I mixed Winter Blue with the Tanned Skin Shadow and glazed down from the base colour, Tanned Skin.  As the highlights on the top of his head were quite high, I decided to finish with a pale lavender glaze to tone them down a bit.

Oftentimes there is some confusion when talking about glazes and washes.  When I am referring to a glaze I am using paint that I have thinned down with water to the point of being translucent, with very little pigment noticeable on the brush.  When doing this, one must use many, many layers before the colour is noticeable. However, as the paint is translucent rather than opaque one gains the advantage of producing interesting gradients and a multitude of colours. This is a watercolour technique. Also unlike a wash, the paint is not applied to the entire surface, rather it is targeted solely to the areas where one wants to produce a colour shift.   

There are two more figures as part of this group of Moderns.  Both are being done in a deep ebony skin tone.  I have completed the work on the skin tones and am now working on their clothing.  As the technique for producing such a deep ebony is more complex, I will post those figures on another day.  

These figures are worth 15 points and put me over my 100 point target.  

First of all Anne, congrats on hitting your target.  I understand that you will hang time on the benchmark but may have some more figs to add over the back half of the challenge.

Now that my administrative duties are over with let me just say "WOW".  Once again you have produced a triumph!  Wonderful paint jobs and I appreciated the tutorial on flesh tones.  Since you've rendered me almost speechless I'll just let the figures tell the story.  But I have doled out some more of my limited supply of bonus points your way once again. 

From EdwinK - 'Dr Who' Critters (25 points)

Not the points bomb I was hoping for, but a sweep-up of a few misc 'Dr Who' figures I had lying around.

First up, three Black Tree Design Yetis.

A quite simple paint-job, with dry-brushing in various shades of brown.  With the bases, I wanted to represent their origins in the wild Snowdonian Tibetan valleys.  Not being able to find any rhododendron leaves to scale, I instead went for bleak tufts and heather.  I'm not sure it works.

The 'proper' colour scheme

Secondly, a stray Cyberman who escaped the bunch I submitted for the Nostalgia Round.  He too is from BTD.

And finally one of the ever-popular Weeping Angels.  This was one of a bag of mixed figures I picked up in a charity shop.  I think they were freebies with Doctor Who Monthly.  The Angels were an odd soft plastic which didn't take paint particularly well.

Welcome back to posting Edwin, it's been a few weeks.  What a lovely bunch of critters.   The "Yetis" have captured that cheesy early 70s B&W TV fearing wonderfully.  They look like shambling hayricks, which based on the photo is absolutely perfect!  Great looking cyberman, love the details on his chest plate.  And I like the way the Weeping Angels turned out, plastic issues aside.  The original Weeping Angles episode with David Tennant may be my all time favourite Dr Who episode  ("the angles have my phone box").

From DavidL - A Bit of Brazilians (30 points)

Outside the Painting Challenge, my biggest project last year was putting together a platoon for games of Bolt Action. I went a bit off the beaten path with my choice of force, in that I modeled my platoon on the Força Expedicionária Brasileira (FEB), or Brazilian Expeditionary Force, which fought in Italy during the latter months of the war.

I wrote about my collection in greater detail here, but in brief the FEB was mostly U.S. kit but with Springfield rifles instead of Garands (and an according difference in tactical doctrine). Part of the draw for modeling this force was the fact that the army was racially integrated, so it presented an opportunity to paint up models that look at once familiar yet subtly different, but I'll be honest: what really sold me was their divisional insignia--a snake smoking a pipe!

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

I got to have a game with my boys from Brazil a couple months ago, and noted that my squads needed some beefing up, both in numbers and firepower. So here are six more recruits (including two BAR gunners) set to join the FEB's ranks in time for my next game.

One thing I didn't have in that game (nor in the pictures taken for the above-linked post) were sleeve insignia. The kind folks at Fighting Pirannha Graphics (and what an appropriate name that was!) took care of that for me, and I am now the proud owner of two sheets of FEB sleeve insignia decals...

So that's six 28mm infantry for 30 points. A small ding in my total, but a good way to get back in the swing after losing January to work obligations. Next week, hopefully, a modest points bomb...

I love it when the Challenge teaches me stuff.  I kinda knew that Brazil joined the allies late in WW2, but hadn't realized that they had fought in Italy.  Nor I had I realized that there were figs available for this army.  This is a very cool looking non-traditional WW2 group.   Great paint job on these boys David, and I like your bases.  

Curt, can I get an Archivist check on this group?  First group of Brazilians?  First Latin American WW2? 

From IanW Gripping Beast Vikings (40 points)

My main entry for this week is eight Viking figures from Gripping Beast, though two of them are rather old ones. Six of the shields are off Blacktree Miniatures which are a lot better than the original shields. My son has also been painting up some of the Vikings as he builds his second SAGA army. I am hoping to get him back into painting them over his half term break.

They are all spearmen and the eight will count as a point in my army. All have been given a fairly basic paint job made better with a ink wash. If they have been a better class of troops I would have spent more time on them.

A better view of their clothes. The two on the end are actually different colours of yellow but look the same on the pics.

All eight actually have different coloured tunics and most hoses are also painted up the once. The shields actually only have two with the same colour across the eight, different shades of red, blue etc. allow this.

The figures have enough detail to make them interesting but not so much to slow the painting down. I really enjoyed the speed these guys got painted up.

The mix of poses make the unit look nice and irregular. I now have more points than I will probably use. Now we just need to get a few games in. The Boy, Lee and me now have enough figures done to get in a rather big game, just need to get round to playing it again.

So eight hairy hard guys must mean a quick and easy 40 points. The shields are hand painted but nothing special as the more fancy ones have groves in the shield to follow so no real skill required.

Your basic paint job certainly does the job here Ian.  This is a solid unit of arrow fodder.  If this is you mailing in your painting, I'd like to see you at full throttle in 28mm.  The basing is very well done on these figs.  Will we get a chance to see the full Saga collections at any time soon?

From SimonM - 28mm "Frostgrave" Snow Leopard, Ice Toad & Stone Construct (15 Points)

This 28mm metal model of a Snow Leopard is made by “North Star Military Figures” and can be bought together with an Ice Toad as code FGV301 from their “Frostgrave” range. As I originally planned to paint the “big cat” with the black and cream rosettes depicted on the blister’s packaging illustration artwork I initially undercoated the “dangerous hunter” with some “Vallejo” White and washed it with the transparent acrylic Pale Grey. I then dry-brushed the animal with more White before trying my hand at its markings.

Disappointingly I found my skill with the fine brush somewhat lacking, and after a couple of failed attempts elected to simply give my Snow Leopard a slightly discoloured fur coat by dabbing some watered-down “Citadel” Rakarth Flesh over the top of it using a face blusher pad. This rather simple painting technique allowed the Base paint to blend in with the “Vicious” beast’s undercoat and leave its underbelly and inner legs an untouched white.

 

This 28mm metal model of an Ice Toad is made by “North Star Military Figures” and can be bought together with a Snow Leopard as code FGV301 from their “Frostgrave” range. The model was given an undercoat of “Vallejo” White before being heavily washed with Pale Grey. The back of the “ponderous amphibian” was then dabbed with more White using a face blusher pad. Finally its sharp pointed teeth were painted using a combination of White and “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade.

 

This 28mm metal model of a Stone Construct is made by “North Star Military Figures” and can be bought together with a Flesh Golem as code FGV306 from their “Frostgrave” range. The model was given an undercoat of “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey before being heavily washed with “Citadel” Nuln Oil. To bring out the sculpt’s detail the “artificially created object” was then dry-brushed with more “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey and treated to some intermittent washes of “Citadel” Reikland Fleshshade and “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade. These areas were then given (yet) another dry-brush with “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey.

These are a fine trio of Frostgrave Beasties Simon.  My favourite is the big cat, who has some attitude in his strut.  I feel your pain on struggling with the markings, but the end result has worked well.  Do I understand that you raided someone's makeup kit looking for tools?   I have been known to DIY a stippling brush by cutting back the bristles on an old paintbrush.  The ice toad is a new creature to me, but it looks like it needs a visit at the orthodontist.  Your multilayer approach works well on both the toad and the construct.

 Well done on these Simon.

It Came from Monday's Minion

You won't want to miss any of the thrilling adventures in this week's instalment!

Plus we have a bonus video featuring what is in IMHO the best sci-fi show on TV.  Say it with me "Piiiiiigs in Spaaaace"