From Adamc- 10mm Arquebusiers (30 Points)

 30 more Arquebusiers Landsknecht troops.  I split the two men strips up so I could give these stands a more ragged appearance.

 First up is the green and black reminiscent of Jager units of latter days.

 Not as colorful as the others but still the yellow feathers give them a little dash.

 The Wasp Company in yellow and black as I have called it.

 The brightest and unit in the group and my favorite of the bunch.

 Blue and Pink the final company of Arquebusiers I figure these troops will work as skirmishers screening the Tercios or covering the rough ground on the flanks.

Thats 30 10mm troops for another 30 points assuming I got them in under the wire.

You did indeed get them in under the wire Adam.  I figured that I hadn't seen the last of you today.  These Warmonger figures look very nice and I like the way that you've based them.  The Blue and Pink unit is my favourite.

From SimonM - 28mm "Frostgrave" Medium Construct (5 Points)

This 28mm metal model of a Medium Construct is made by “North Star Military Figures” and can be bought together with a Small Construct as code FGV303 from their “Frostgrave” range. As I originally planned on painting the artificially created object all the same colour I initially undercoated my 'wood golem' with “Vallejo” Heavy Brown. However I then changed my mind and applied some Heavy Sienna to some of the animated creature's limbs, and washed all of these areas with “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade.

I actually tried to let the ink pool in certain places on the model in order to try and give the impression of the wood being somewhat rotten on account of Felstad's chilly damp climate and frequent snowy weather causing the construct to become wet and somewhat slimy. As a result, believing this would make the miniature look too dry, I decided against lightly brushing the figure with more "Vallejo" Heavy Brown and Heavy Sienna in order to bring out the sculpt's detail.

What a goofy looking figure Simon.  Well done on the wood tones and wet rot effects.  Will we get to see the Big and Little Constructs too?   They sound rather like the three Billy Goats Gruff.

I have realized that I have not mentioned you lead in the Pulp Side duel.  I don't think this figure counts (I leave that to you, Curt and Byron to work out), but the Aliens might well.    At start of play, you have a 105 to 70 lead over Curt. Given the Snowlord's tendency to bounce from period to period, you never know when he'll drop a bomb in that direction.

Other than last minute submissions (Adam?), this should be the end of our scheulded programming for the day.  Tamsin, I've left a half bottle of Pinot Grigio in the fridge for your shift.

From IanW Baccus Light Cavalry 47 Points

When I started painting these figures I not unreasonably thought they would be a quick paint, after all my Ancients in 6mm really get a quick going over, a splash of ink and on to the next unit. Well that works when they are uniform, not so well when they are all different colours!

First up five units of Saka horse archers, each of these are on a 60x60 base but unlike most of my Ancient units each base is really light on figures with only seven to a base.

Each unit is formed in a cantabrian circle, something that normally is shown on the wargames table as a rectangle. I now have seven of these units, probably more than I will ever need so Lee will probably be getting a couple of these for his other Ancient army. 

I used a total of twenty six different colours for the clothes across the five bases as well as eight different horse colours. This supplies a wealth of different colours and goes against the main rule I am painting these armies too. That being some form of colour connection but I am ok with that. These will be mostly used for my Persian army that I am just starting off, the last few weeks of the challenge will be seeing more of this army.

Next up are two bases (60x40) light cavalry with javelin. The bases are not as deep as the Saka as I reason they would not need the space to skirmish in as the Saka. Again being a skirmish unit they lack numbers. When I start the Persian infantry and cavalry units you will see a different story.

These are all Baccus and as such are very nice figures with little clean up work. These also painted up really quickly unlike their friends.

So these come in at 47 figures in total for 47 points. Nothing like the bombs that arrived on Saturday but it does add a fair amount of units to my armies.

Hordes of light cavalry from the Steppes, I just love these Ian.  The detail that you have put in making these bases into little dioramas is stunning.  The Saka are particularly lovely in their circles.  And I have just noticed that you have painted blazes and stars on your horses foreheads, you madman you!  

That's another 47 points to your lead in the 6mm side duel.  You may need these as I suspect a points bomb from Tamsin is due.

From MilesR: Yet more 15mm Flames of War WW2 Stuff (93 points)

Some more 15mm WW2.  First up are two batteries of Japanese artillery - 150mm guns on the left and 75mm guns on the right.  The miniatures are from Battlefront and were released a few years ago.

 I'm actually very excited about the upcoming release of the new Pacific War books and will try to add some related armies to the tail end of this Challenge.  I've got a few odds and ends plus some non Battlefront 15mm Pacific stuff so should have enough to field relatively complete armies.

 Sadly, I'll probably end up painting the same tanks (Chi_Ha's) in two different scales (28 and 15mm).  I can fully justify the "need" to have the same tank in multiple scales - that's not the sign I have a problem is it?

 Also on the painting table were 5 Panzer III's (late war versions).  These are also Battlefront miniatures and had been primed to be painted for the 3rd or 4th challenge and then lost in the mess of my storage closet.

 These are painted up for the Italian theater and were a nice change of pace.  The camo is a simple form of dry bushing in a stippling manner but comes out nicely.

There was a lot of work done on my nautical submission for next week - lets just say it's a lot more involved than I anticipated.

Anyway todays submission should net me 93 points:

23 artillery crewman and command: 46points
4 guns:16points
5 tanks: 30 points
1/2 crewman: 1 point
Total: 93

Painted the same army in two different scales, so far I have (mostly) avoided that one.  "Found" figures in a primed state from previous challenges.  yep, been there done that and got the T-shirt.  Sounds like you are well and truly assimilated Miles, my condolances.    Anyway on to the submission, which is great.  Those are some seriously big guns and look every bit the part, even if they should be in a another room instead of on the table (FOW beef there).  Those tanks looks every bit the business too.  I agree with your totals and look forward to your being a salty dog on Nautical Theme day.

From EdwinK - 258mm Dr Who Ice Warriors (35 points)

Carrying on with my series of classic 'Doctor Who' aliens, I come to these chaps - 

Ice Warriors

For the uninitiated, they are an ancient race of  reptilian humanoids who ruled Mars until it became uninhabitable.  At various times they've been shown trying to transform Earth or other planets to their own requirements, as 'obvious baddies' who turn out to be much maligned or, in a double-bluff as goodies turning out to be baddies.

As their name suggests, they are a militaristic race, with their own complex hierarchies and a sense of bushido (useful in the typical trope - "Hey the green, scaly aliens are more honorable than the humans!")

So, these are seven 28mm figures from Black Tree Design.  The beauty of the old Dr Who aliens is they are never terribly complex paint-jobs.  If the BBC can spray-paint bubble-wrap green, who am I to aspire to much more?

I do have a couple of the officer-class, but they will have to wait for another time.

Another post that's brought a smile to my face Edwin.  I don't recall the original Ice Warrior story line, but I seem to recall that they reappeared in a recent reboot form.  Regardless both BTD and you have brilliantly captured cheap cheesy 1970s sci-fi looniness.  I do like the red eyes and well done on the bases.

AdamC- Monster, Thug and Ice Toads (25 points)

 The last monster for the Monster Hunt game I'm not sure what this guy is supposed to be it some sort of dragon kin. It vaguely reminds me Draconians form the Dragonlance Chronicles but if so its too big  I didn't see the nose ring until I took the picture I will have to touch it

 The sword is a backup to the mace head and chain making me think he wants prisoners... perhaps to eat?

 I put him next to this is a kit bashed thug 28mm for scale purposes

 He has a body and head form Wargames Factory and hands from the Frosgrave cultist kit, as is his axe

 The Bag on the belt is also form the frostgrave set.

 He's intended as Thug the most basic type of Melee soldier in Frosgrave a hand weapon but no shield or other armor.

 Finally two Ice Toads form Reaper... OK technically they look more like frogs but the will work for Ice Toads..  OK technically Ice Toads  aren't intelligent and these guys are but that just makes them cooler and more dangerous

I based these on the look of tropical poison arrow frogs since I thought it would look cool.  So we have three 25mm figures for 15 points and the monster for what ever Peter judges is correct.

Well done again Adam.  Your Frostgrave board must be getting quite crowded by now.  I suggest a multiplayer WrestleMania cage match!  I like the Amphibians best, they do look like Amazonian poison dart frogs, and I like the Olmec style shield one of them is carrying.  I will treat the big guy as a cavalry figure making this a 25 point submission to your ongoing Frostgrave duel.  Looks like you still maintain a slim lead, but I will note that you and PaulS have between you posted over 1000 points in this one category.

From AnneO'L-Hasslefree Moderns Dark Skin (20 points)

Finally I have completed the last two miniatures of the five figure Hasslefree Moderns team.  I like to think of them as hired assassins.

At the end of the post, I will include a walk through on how I approached a darker black skin tone.

Figures are 28mm and were sculpted by Kev White.

These figures are worth 10 points.  I have included a group shot to show the five figure team together.

To aid in the discussion about skin tones, I have included a close up shot of the females face.

All paints used were from Reaper Miniatures.  

I photographed the paints as some people do not use Reaper and may be able to find comparable colours by their favourite manufacturer.  From left to right are:  Nightshade Purple, Dark Skin Shadow, Dark Skin Base, Dark Skin Highlight, Green Ochre and Twighlight Purple.

Normally I would use Dark Skin Base as my base colour. This time however, I used Dark Skin Shadows as my base and worked into the shadows by adding increasing amounts of the Nightshade Purple until I was using pure Nightshade Purple in the deepest shadows.  

I then applied thin glazes of Dark Skin Base and worked up to Dark Skin Highlights to create two mid tones.  From there I added increasing amounts of Green Ochre to the Dark Skin Highlight until I reached the highest highlight.  For this I used pure Green Ochre.  All layers were applied as thin glazes.  Although this is time consuming, it does allow for smooth transitions as one works up such a steep gradient.  

Finally I added three thin glazes of the Twighlight Purple.  That final glazing step unifies the layers and helps to provide depth of colour.

I want to take a moment to discuss the difference between painting Caucasian skin and Black skin.  The basic principals are different with a black skin as the gradient from shadow to highlight is very steep.

This can be illustrated by looking at these paint samples.  At the top is the darkest and lightest colours for a dark Black skin and the bottom is for a warm Caucasian skin.  A fundamental difference between Dark skin and Caucasian skin is where the contrast occurs.

In Caucasian skin all the contrast occurs when going from mid tone to shadow. The transition from mid tone to highlight is subtle and is to be kept very soft.  The opposite applies to Dark Skin.  In Dark Skin, all the contrast occurs when going from the mid tone to the highlight.  The transition from mid tone to shadow is less exaggerated.  This is due to the differences in the reflection of light in the respective skin colours.

Those principals can easily be seen when looking at photographs.  Notice the depth of shadow in Cillian Murphy's face and subtle transition from mid tone to highlight.  However, when looking at Omar Epps, we see the opposite is true.  While there is little difference between mid tone and shadow, there is a great deal of contrast between the mid tone and the highlights.  

I realise this is quite wordy, but I hope that it is of help to some people when they are painting character figures.   

Anne you have done it again.  These are amazing paint jobs and bring the figures to life brilliantly.  the first figures looks like she came off the set of the Mod Squad and I wouldn't want to mess with either of them!  And don't apologise for being wordy, this is gold to the res too us.  I could later on all day, but I'll let the figures and the readers speak for themselves.  Oh and I figure one of your figures is worth at least two of mine and have awarded points accordingly! 

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

This rather large 40mm pre-painted plastic "Wizkids" model of an Alien is from the "Horrorclix" AVP Alien Verses Predator: Aliens Collector's Set. The sculpt is based upon the extra-terrestrials which attacked Charles Bishop's doomed expedition to Antarctica in the 2004 science-fiction horror film "Alien Verses Predator".

The miniature originally came complete with a hapless scientist as part of a small vignette. But as I initially planned on just using the Alien I removed it from the model's 'clicky base' and set about trying to work out whether I could also detach the "serpent" as well. After a bit of head-scratching it became evident that the creature would be hard to place upon an essentially flat-surfaced stand without it's pose looking especially odd. So I eventually decided to leave the monster attached to his ornately carved Inca-inspired stone column and simply superglue the assemble onto a thin-lipped circular 40mm bases in order for me to use it as an Alien spawn marker.

Having decided how I was going to use the model on the tabletop I gave the vicious monster an undercoat of "Citadel" Abaddon Black and subsequently dry-brushed the model with "Vallejo" German Grey. Once I was satisfied I had 'highlighted' all of the Alien's well-sculpted detail I washed the figure with "Citadel" Nuln Oil and then applied a second, significantly lighter dry-brush of "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 painted the Alien's stone column using a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Brown and “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade. This piece of scenery was then dry-brushed with more "Vallejo" Heavy Brown.

In addition to my Alien spawn marker I have also painted three more of the Xenomorph drones which Weyland and his team encountered deep beneath Bouvet Island. These Aliens were all painted in the same way.

Another creepy group of aliens Simon.  Once again I like the work you have put into these decidedly monochromatic beasties.  I also really like your basework and I think that the Faux-Incan stele works really well and give beasty #1 some great movement.  He (she?)  looks about to swing out and pounce on someone.

From IanW 6mm Italian Guard Conscripts Adler 36 points

Keeping with 6mm for another week but for this post lets change supplier to Adler. I received these figures this week and thought I had better get some of them painted up straight away. This almost finishes my Italian Guard troops for Project Russia 1812, just a couple of squadrons of Honour Guards to do,

Two battalions each of 29 figures each, whilst I don't have any skirmish figures that would go with these I did manage to order an extra strip of figures for each unit! Also the command strip comes with five figures so I added these as file closers.

These are some of the brightest looking of the Italian Guard units, not only are their coats full green but they sport a rather large light green plume too. Makes the white cross belts pop. 

Adler are certainly the better looking figures, the motion that Mr Locke gets in his figures is better than many a 15mm sculptor can provide. To achieve this the figures tend to have parts that are a bit flimsy and very thin leading to the odd sword, bayonet or horse tail to be lost. Our basing takes this into account with the bigger bases saving the need to handle figures. Not that it saves all the breaks.

The figures are actually French Young Guard and fit the bill perfectly for the Italians as the uniform was near enough the same, especially in 6mm.

The detail Leon gets in his figures is exceptional, look at the faces he manages to sculpt, the man is amazing. As you also see from the close up the brush work is not quite as fine as it seems from a distance. Mind you using the 2 foot rule you really can't see much beyond the colours anyway.

So two 29 figure units grab me a 29 point advance in my mini war that is the 6mm challenge.

Wow Ian you have done it again.  Once again I had to check to be sure that these weren't larger figures.  Shako cords and plates, cuff and collars, cross belts all in 6mm.  And facial details!  And those flags.  May I comment that only you would worry over using French Young Guard figures for Italian Guard in 6mm?  I'd be happy bodging it in 28mm!    More grist for the 6mm side duel mill.  I will count 29 for the base figures plus 2 for the flags plus 5 for the basing and wonderfulness!  For a total of 36 points.