From BrendonW - 1 x Weekly dose of painted minis (127 points)

This week I have completed 9 x warriors on horses, 7 x soldiers on feet (2 freehand shields as well). All plastic and all 28mm.

First the friends of violence meet-up group image.

Conquest Games mix and match Dark Age die hards.

FireForge Mounted Mongols.

Gripping Beast Arabs.

The warrior on foot has actually been sawn in half but fortunately the magician found him an armoured top half from the Heavy Cavalry set. Phew!

Next Perry Miniatures Wars of the Roses defenders of Beer and Bacon.

The Foot pike figure has been converted to get that pike on that angle. The plastic set has them all marching with pikes upright. The Skewbald was completed last week with the previously shown ones but he didn't have a rider ready. Actually a big jump for joy moment as these two are my last Light horsemen from 2 boxes. Wahoo! 24 Light Horse completed! Hitting goals like this is one of the great results of this motivational challenge not to mention having a red hot go at horse variations. Cheers Millsy and Cheers Curt!

Ahhh... Another lovely mixed bunch from Mr Skewbald himself!  Once again you've delivered a very tasty mix of periods and theatres Brendon and the result is wonderful. One of the real challenges of The Challenge from my perspective is maintaining output without the quality dropping off. You've done that in spades and if anything the quality has continued to improve! 

Well done once again, another richly deserved 127 points for your tally including a couple of extra for the lovely hand painted shields. Just 345 more points and you'll pass your initial target. Nice work! Cheers, Millsy.

From Barks - WW1 German support weapons (72 points)

After last week's austere post, here's a bit of a meatier effort. This is the remaining 15mm WW1 German forces from PSC's Great War, comprising three MG-08s, three 7.58cm Minenwerfers, and their crews.

I found myself whistling Blackadder whilst setting this up

Now I have completed the 'core set' of Tommies and Germans for The Great War, and will be moving on to other, lighter projects for the remainder of the Challenge. I've still got another nine artillery pieces to go, if I get bored they may yet come out!

Furthermore, this week I suffered for my art. I was intently focused on painting some fine detail when I burnt my forehead against my lamp! Eheu!

What is it with pics of people's heads this week? This is the second in as many posts! Mine is pretty ordinary but at least it wasn't sporting a rather nasty looking burn. I know you work hard at the paint desk Barks but please, safety first mate! On the plus side you've give us a relative War and Peace compared to last week's erudite background so maybe there is an upside to overheating your noggin after all... 

All that aside, these are once again a very well executed batch of support weapons and their attendant German crew. The more I look at these as you roll them out the more I find it hard not to think they're 28s given the detail you pack in. All up this batch is worth a tidy 72 points. Well done! Cheers, Millsy

From EvanH - A Thoroughly Decent Chap (5 points)

Is it Thursday already...?

I've been down with a very nasty case of lurgi, and so have been unable to maintain my usual blistering pace. I was only able to complete one figure before being struck down (O, cruel fate!).

But I'm back on deck now, and hope to be painting in double figures next week. Well, two figures technically counts as 'double figures', doesn't it...?

I spotted a post on BillA's blog a couple of months ago, detailing a fundraiser being run by Bob Murch, the creative force behind Pulp Figures. Bob had produced a special figure for Movember, the men's health charity, and made it available to anyone who donated to this excellent cause via his page.

Well, as I had already contributed to Movember on a local level by sponsoring this crime against nature and fashion...

May God forgive me for what I helped unleash upon the world...

...I felt I should throw my support behind the international effort as well, so, one donation later, this thoroughly decent and splendidly-moustached chap was winging his way to me from the frozen wastes of Canada.

Bob has dubbed this exemplar of manhood "Captain Krustache of Kashgar", but as I am a participant in a Pulp RPG campaign, I foresaw a new role for the good Captain; he would play the part of Ranulph Cloamsby, late RN, Cambridge scholar, member in good standing of the Esoteric League, nemesis of occult foes, gifted amateur middleweight boxer, and a dab hand at Ancient Chaldean inscriptions. He wears a wolfskin vest in cold climates (see last month's adventure, The Esoteric League and the Blasphemy in the Arctic - Chapter 3: Where Demons Dare!) and carries twin Webley-Fosberys, so as you can see, this figure was tailor-made for my character!

So here he is, all painted up and ready to battle the forces of evil;

"Righty-ho chaps, so which way to these Mountains of Madness then?"

He's staked vampires, punched demons (yes, PUNCHED DEMONS), and shot his way through legions of tentacled horrors, all the time wearing his prized university scarf.

So that's an impressive five points! Watch out, Alex, Martin, Miles & co...

What's next? Well, I'd like to claw my way back to 60th place some time soon, so stay tuned...!

Hmmm.... You do a good turn and raise a few quid for charity and look what happens! I'm going to be the big man and let that one go through to the keeper Ev, despite the fact my inspiration for the tash Boonie would never have let that happen without a fight.

So what about this whole figure you've knocked out then? Pretty darn nice if I'm honest. The scarf is particularly good I must say and I do look rather good in those jodhpurs. 5 glorious points for you sir and I won't even deduct anything for the commentary on my charity mo. Cheers, Millsy.

Workin' for the Man

It's one of those weeks, you know the ones, we all have them. Well, we minions do anyway. 2 steps forward, 3 steps back. What's all this down to? Yep, that's right, workin' for THE MAN...

So without further ado I invite you to enjoy the Antipodean stylings of messers EvanH, Barks, The Kiwi and quite possibly a few more.

Apologies to Dave for gazzumping his Wednesday arvo (at least for you Northern folks) but if these don't get done now they ain't likely to got done at all and that would be most unfortunate. And a gentleman simply would not accept that! And nor would I... :-)

Cheers,
Millsy

EricMc -French Casualties and Chauchat Gunners (35 Points)

The majority of my offering this week are French casualty figures.  I chose to give the casualty figures the basic paint job rather than add a wound.  I felt a little uncomfortable modeling wounds, I want to keep the game as light and fun as possible in what will be a pretty bleak setting.

I realized that I had left the French under-supported so I added four Chauchat gunners.  

My full offering for the week.  Its a bit diminished from previous weeks.  As I mentioned last week my son and I are working on a game for the upcoming conventions Cold Wars so most of my time was spent working on terrain boards.

Here's an early look at the new "great time sink"

 

A further helping today of Horizon Blue - although a mite grimmer this time..you really must give us a shot of everything so far.

From KyleC - American vs German (10 pts )

Ok... so last week I had a paint bomb.. this week well I don't.. mostly due to being told I have to move out, so that process is taking priority.. but I did paint 2 new models yet to be released to help bring me some sanity!

These chaps are from a soon to be announced little company calls Stoessi's Heroes! A US Commander and a German Grunt are the first 2 models, and I was lucky enough to snag then pre-release!

First up is the US Commander. Considering that I just finished ( almost ) my USMC force, this was a perfect addition to my force ( and one that got to see some action at the club last night! ). He has a neutral stance, which to be fair as a commander is not uncommon. He has his trusty rifle, sack, shovel pouch, but also a stoggie lit and ready take out the enemies!

Thankfully Thomas is doing the boxart for this as mine is more table top than showcase, but it does do the business required for the piece I believe! I also hope to obtain a few more once the official first batch of casts are completed, and paint some up for the guys at the club.

Basing was done simple enough. Gravel, sand, and some pieces of slat. I will toss on some static grass clumps at some point, but for now he is fine.

The German grunt however was a lot more interesting and difficult to paint up! Especially considering all the choices for camo that exist for it!

I will say now, I paint more for fun than I do for historical accuracy. I am not sure if any of this works, and actually once the model is away from the bright table lights, the colors all fade together ( almost like he is in camo! ).

He sticks out quite a bit from the base work, and the green/brown/black camo pattern on top of the blue probably is not smart. But in the end I had fun painting him up, and I think he looks good as a one off ( or until I want to start my trip to the insane asylum and paint up an entire company of these guys in this pattern.. ).

I do have a German army in the works at some point, but they are more Afrika Troops than Normandy/Berlin troops.. so he still won't really fit in. But I can always use him as some daft single troop choice I am sure.

So 2 models, of 28mm size. giving me a grand total of 10 pts! Some may say that I have lost the wind in my sails for painting, and honestly they might be right. But it is not from painting, but from external forces ( flu, moving, realtors in UK, .. ) and I hope that once moved ( beginning of March ) I can really hunker down and get some more pieces finished up! I still have 8 models sitting on my desk primed and ready for some paint.. so maybe this weekend before a friend comes for the week I will get some of them finished up!

Enjoy hump day!

MMMmm. now they are interesting, very tempting. A really nice job on these too Kyle.Having fun painting has to be the best way to do it. External forces catch us all at some point, they will pass.. and i am sure we will see another Kyle Pointbombe!

From MarticC --For the Legion Boys (131 Pts)

My Republican Roman army continues at a pace. I'm really loving painting these. It helps that the figures are great, a mix of Crusader and Aventine. The colours are bold and I love painting the shields.
First up is another unit of  Hastai in simple grey tunics with hand pained shields

Every legion needs commanders. This one has 3.

First up a grizzled old commander with his loyal slave, a comfy campaign chair and some nice soft boots for his aching feet.

Next up a professional looking guy with a lictor to confirm his authority

Finally a fresh paced political appointment, again with a lictor. There is a raven in the tree.

That is 21 foot and 1 mounted figure plus 16 hand painted shields - 131 points I think

 More Roman shinyness from Martin as he powers his way along at the top of the table. Really like the simplicity of the white shields, and the grey clothing - it really works.

From SeanS - "Psycho Sam" Oldhammer 2015 figure (5 points)

I'm drafting this early in case I somehow fail to finish and photograph any other figures.

"Psycho Sam" is a figure that was commissioned for the Oldhammer 2015 events that happened, coincidentally, last year.

The color scheme I chose is a riff off of the Plexus Ranger uniform from the Howard Chaykin comic American Flagg. The idea is he will be a leader/member of a group of cop types that "enforce" the laws of Borborygmus Prime.

I deviated from my normal process in that I did not slather the figure in my grunge wash. In fact the only wash on him was a darker blue on his pants. If I had thought about it I would have layered up from that color, but I forgot I had it.

The other thing is my sort of NMM on his gun. I wanted to differentiate it from the black leather so I used Charcoal with Zinc highlights on the edges. I need to work out a little better how to spot gloss varnish the metallics, his facial piercings and ear rings look like I might have accidentally hit them with the matte varnish. They're supposed to be gold.

I used the same flash photo set up, I spent a bit of time dialing in Shutter Speed, Aperture and Flash strength to get it. I'm still not sure if it isn't a little under exposed. I left it without any post processing this time, other than cropping and resizing for the blog.

I intend to use him for Rogue Trader games, but if he's not Sci-Fi enough to count in the duel, that's fine by me.

May your brushes keep their points.

Now thats way to cool Sean. A really colourful piece too. Yes i agree a bit of spot gloss would help things pop - i use an old enamel gloss paint - its reasonably thick and does not run , just apply with a brush reserved for enamels. 

EricMc- Back From the Brink---The last of the French (130 points)

I am sorry I dropped the ball last with the last post. I had a mishap with Fallout 4.  After a family intervention, I am 4 days clean and back to my normal obsessions.

After kicking the Fallout habit,  I am finishing the last of the living french.   I have a few casualty figures left to paint but after that I am on to the Senegalese .

This week I finished off 2 more units of Chasseur for the Bois des Caures game which is coming soon (April I think)

In addition to the Chasseur I finished off 2-37mm trench guns and crew.

Unfortunately, my production is going to start slowing down.  My son convinced me that we need to run a game together at Cold Wars. I cant say no to that invitation.  So in addition to painting we well be building terrain boards for skirmish game set between the trenches at Verdun.  My hope it this will hook him, like his introduction to Fallout hooked me!

26-28mm Figures 

You really do have these nailed Eric.. They look a fearsome bunch alright...Now just remember step away from the digital hobbies! Lets hope gaming with these really hook in your son to the joys of Analogue..

Wednesday - Midweek Minion

Its time for that mid-week feeling once more. The Wednesday crew have posts stacked up , for your entertainment once more..

Time for a bit of mid week in flight entertaintment.

I am about to hop in the car as i have a few meetings today - and I hope it was not made on Wednesday!