From BillA - Balor, Fire Demon/Major Demon (30 Points)

With this entry, I will be concluding my participation in this year's Painting Challenge - I just know I'm not getting anything else done before the deadline of Sunday, but I feel like I've saved one of the best pieces for last.  A few weeks back I posted some Frostgrave warbands, and I noted for the second group that a Major Demon was still forthcoming - well, here he is!

This is Reaper's "Balor, Fire Demon," painted to match my Minor Demon as well as to fit my personal idea of what a Balrog from the Lord of the Rings should look like, as a creature of fire and smoke.  Although truth be told, I came up with his color scheme first, and painted my Minor Demon to match *him*!

I had a bit of a long road with him - I bought him originally from my new Friendly Local Gaming Store, only to get him home and discover his right foot was missing.  A quick email to Reaper got me a replacement figure a few days later, so I still have most of a copy of this fellow in my bits box.

The whip in his right hand was reposed to make it a little more dynamic.  I was going to paint an electrical effect on his sword, but there were so many incised runes and the blood channel that I didn't think lightning bolts painted on would look good.

He's also a BIG boy - his base is just shy of 3 inches across, and hoof to flaming mane he stands almost four inches tall.  Other than Reaper's Bones Cthulhu, I've never painted a figure this big or bigger before.

So that's it for me this year - thank you all for your kind comments on my posts, and to you Curt for letting me participate.  Let's all meet back here in December and do it again, sound good?

Oh, he's a baad, baad boy, to be sure - and a big lad as well!  Great work, Bill. I love the flame effects you've given him for his wings, whip and molten base - brilliant work. I also see that you've handily broken past your points target so a hearty congratulations for that!

It was wonderful having you with us Bill - I enjoyed your entries, enthusiasm and sense of humour. I hope we can do it all again soon!

From GillesW - My Last Submission: THE BIG WEDGE! (43 Points)

Hi Everyone,

Here is the last submission of thefrenchjester of the 6th Challenge!

I'm fan of Fish and Marillion hence the title of this post and what you'll see below

A big wedge of byzantine kataphraktoï for my thematic project, the figures are from Essex Miniatures and Alain Touller Figurines byzantine ranges,  as usual I have changed the lead spears for plastic ones, I also added bow cases on the rear rankers.

Here are two more subordinates for my Basileus

When I did the shields on the standard bearers and added some highlights here and there on the banners, I painted a sun on the plain shield of the Basileus base and changed his flag (one tail wasn't complete).

The base below don't count for this batch, it's just there for eye view.

A pic of the full command and that's all for now

Alas, one more time I had the eyes bigger than my stomach and I missed the goal of 1515 points, I'll do better next time coach Curt!

Thanks to all for this 6th challenge, full of nice submissions, entertaining stories, new ideas and advice and of course for your kind comments on my posts, a special thank to Greg (my Friday Minion) who lightened, rectified, corrected, improved,etc... all my messages "un grand merci à toi Greg!";- )

Be seeing you ;-)

What a wonderful way to exit the stage, Gilles. The kataphractoi and these command stands are just gorgeous - real stunners. I love the vibrant colours you've maintained throughout the Challenge for your shields, clothing and banners - your figures have been a treat for the eyes and I'm delighted that you joined us again this year. Here's looking to your return for our seventh edition! 

Form ClintB - 28mm Biker (10 Points)

Here is a 28mm West wind Biker. I do have a stock of these to complete sooner or later so expect regular visitors to my blog to get mighty bored over the coming year. Having painted the WW1 motor bikes I have decided that I do not like painting motor bikes!

Anyway I do need to get some bikers done for upcoming zombie games so I though I would bash this one out in my spare moments before the Challenge ends.

Nice one Clint! I love his hair and tats. The green flames on the bike is an ace touch. Classy. :)

From BrendonW - Big Red Dragon (30 Points)

1 x Mantic Plastic Dragon (28mm scale) by Mantic.

This gigantic dude came with a bunch of Mantic Dungeon Saga kickstarter stuff. Made of a flexible plastic perhaps more associated with actual toys than wargame miniatures. It came mostly assembled except for the wings and wing with arm. I probably would have made a different colour for the belly scales if it didn't come already firmly attached to the base. I thought only briefly about what colour to paint before I decided well he can work for my Red and Black forces in Kings of War games. Once I decided on a Red Dragon I thought well he can be....well...really red and mostly red. Being mostly assembled means a lot of brush access issues as well.

I spent a lot of time on the horn details and I am considering giving that part a gloss varnish. Very satisfied with how they look in the end. I should gloss a few layers on the eyes as well.

If you are a clever inner glow painter there is plenty of depth in the chest area to perhaps get that brewing up a flame or lightning blast thing happening. These photos don't actually show up some of the highlights on the red all that good.

Some Red and Black Knights alongside to help give a sense of scale to this beast, the biggest Dragon I have ever owned. His base is 75 x 75mm. The body scales tend to look a little soft as far as sculpted detail is concerned but his overall impact is really good. The tail is perhaps shorter and wider and bulkier than what most gamers would expect as well. However it's a muscled up hulk of a Dragon. Now to come up with a name. Perhaps Karangor. 

This is highly likely my last submission for this glorious challenge. It's been a blast everyone and thanks to Curt and Millsy (Thursday crew boss). CHEERS!

Wowza! What a glorious beast!! I love the purist, all-red approach to him and the detailing on his horns, teeth and eyes are just spectacular. Great job Brendon! For scoring I'll count him as two 28mm vehicles (frankly he looks like he's ready to eat that many). 

It was wonderful to have you along with us again this year Mr. Kiwi, and a pleasure to have your talents highlighting the Challenge. Until next time. 

From MartinC - Mojo Refound - Figures Painted (110 points)

After nearly 2 weeks of no painting I re-found my mojo at the Albanich show last weekend. Specifically when I purchased these 1900 British Marines by Studio Miniatures. They are fab figures, beautifully sculpted and my idea of colonial marines. I'm really chuffed with the paint job in real life, in the photo they, as always, look really flat. I really like the colour of the tunics

I also finished this unit of Zulu war British, 24th Foot, should be enough to fight all the Zulus I painted

I have also beaten my target, which is nice.

'Reunited and it feels so goood.

Reunited 'cause we understood... '

(Peaches & Herbs, 1978) 

Ahh, nothing brings a tear to my eye quicker than seeing a man re-united with his Painting Mojo.

It's great to see the Brits getting some reinforcements to face that impressive horde of Zulus you painted earlier in the Challenge, Martin. Well done young man and congratulations on hitting your 3200 point target! 

From Barks - 15mm WWI British Artillery (12 Points)

Okay, the last push begins! I've got another couple of posts up my sleeve, lets see if we can crack them out before the Challenge ends!

Here's my British artillery piece to oppose its German counterpart. A nice 15mm kit from PSC, based on a medium FoW base. I've gone with my 'new' muddier basing scheme here, and will redo the rest of my Brits sometime after the Challenge closes.

Lovely work Barks. I really like the subtle weathering you've achieved and the groundwork is just perfect for conveying that grim Great War sensibility. Well done.

From MarkO - Victrix Middle Guard (480 Points)

More Napoleonics, 96 Victrix Middle Guard, painted as Middle Guard this time. Flags from GMB.

Fusilier Grenadiers.

Fusilier Chasseurs.

Might be time to squeeze out another entry will see how I go!

We know this is a brigade of French Grenadiers as this is one BIG grenadoe of bluuuue. Cripes, what a stonking entry Mark! Not only is your painting impressive, but I can't imagine the time you spent gluing all these freakin' Pierre's together. Wow. This entry vaults you nicely within the top 10 in the points roster. Great job!

From FRANL-15mm Modern Kurdish Peshmerga from... (76 Points)

...Khurasan Miniatures.

Peshmerga are the military forces of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. Peshmerga means "one who confronts death" or "one who faces death"

They will be getting armour and vehicles mostly from the Iraq War 2003, so mostly Russian with some American as well!

30 fighters with support weapons including a Sagger, DshK HMG, mortar and a M40 recoiless rifle!

You are firing on all cylinders now Fran! Cracking work. I like that we always get a nice current affairs factoid with your entries - it helps place things within a context. That recoiless rifle is quite frightening and again, your basework for these fellows is excellent. Well done!

From KeithS - My Final Hurrah (22 points)

For my finale, I have a small offering I managed to knock out in the last couple of days.  Up first, a Fire Giant which I picked up at Gary Con last week.  Gary Con is a smallish gaming convention held in Lake Geneva Wisconsin every year to honor Gary Gygax.  Run by his kids, its a great little con that mixes D&D and other RPGs, as well as plenty of miniatures gaming.  Anyhow, they had a limited release Fire Giant mini made by Ral Partha that seemed appropriate to pick up.  He's a wee 'un for a Giant, at a mere 45mm tall, but I rather liked the sculpt.

From the back.  I more or less painted it based on the program from the con, which featured him on the cover.

Not sure if this constitutes a good hair day, or a bad one.

Jarl Maltevich?  Sounds close to John Malkovitch to me!

My very last painting for the challenge was, appropriately enough, an experiment.  After painting a lot of old lead, I went on a buying spree on eBay for old stuff recently. Among the piles I bought with hardly any discretion were a lot of skeletons.  I have not painted any in decades, so I decided to do a little research online and then paint three identical figures in different ways to see how they turned out; I read so many differing ways to do it I really thought I ought to see for myself.  Well, here they are.  I like all three!  I'll be hard pressed to settle on a specific method for the rest!  In addition to sheer bulk painting, this challenge was great at getting me to push some boundaries and do some experimenting!

They're from Ral Partha.  I have about 40 more from various lots I picked up.  I'm basing them for dungeons.  And, as further experimentation, I used wood filler instead of milliput or spackle.  It's probably the cheapest, is almost as strong as milliput when dry, but is slightly harder to shape as neatly as the others.  A trade off, but it'll do for now.

They'll make good bannermen for the force of skeleton warriors I'm about to unleash on the world!

Thanks to Curt, Dave and everyone else who made this challenge possible.  I got a LOT more out of it than I expected, and really got a shove forward on painting some stuff that's been lingering in storage for decades.  Looking forward to next year!

Great work Keith! That GaryCon sounds like a wonderful weekend in the 'way-back' machine. It's very cool that they used Ral Partha for the con's figure as he definitely has that Old School look about him. I also like your experiment with your trio of skellies. I think I like the older bones on the one on the left, the aged armour from the center and the somewhat brighter banner back on the left. That being said they are all very creepy fellow - in the best possible way! 

It's been a pleasure Keith and I hope you'll join us next December for Challenge VII.