From IanW - SYW Prussian Infantry (72 Points)

Three quick entries from me with this one and it's back to my SYW Prussians, this time infantry. I am basing my army on the invasion of Saxony, the opening moves of the Seven Years War.  

These are Lancashire Games figures and Cadogan Hobbies flags which can be found on e-bay and are both low cost and covers most available armies that fought during the SYW and surrounding periods.

The 23rd Regiment, Forcade de Biaix sporting the standard Prussian uniform right down to the white britches and red facings. These are not my favourite of the Lancashire Games musket poses but still paint up fairly quickly. Much better (and faster) is the marching pose but I am happy to have different posed figures in my army as it makes for a more interesting look.

Different regiments have a few different quirks about them, for instance this regiment has black flag staffs whilst the next has a brown one. The flag supplier does a colonels flag and a regimental colour. I have used the regimental in both these cases but would have preferred two regimental colours so I would be able to field two battalions a regiment as the colonels battalion would carry two standards.

The 17th regiment von Manteuffer has a more striking colour which was the main reason I choose this one to do. The other difference from the norm is the white cuffs and facings, I would imagine on campaign it must have been a right pain to keep them clean!

Cadogan Hobbies flags are bought by nationality and arm, so I bought the Prussian Infantry and Prussian Cavalry sets as well as each of the French for The Boy. Some of which will be seen in the challenge. Just to give you an idea, that's 72 infantry regiments worth for the Prussians (144 flags in total) for £6.75 for the lot including postage within the UK!!!

They are paper flags and whilst not 100% sharp remain good looking. I always add folds to show wind acting on them and paint the edges to hide the join and these reward such attention with a good looking flag.

Next up will be 6mm ECW, both for King and Parliament.

Nice to see some more 15mm Seven Years War stuff from you Ian. I'm a big fan of the period and appreciate someone who dives right into the history, uniforms and flags.

I'm considering some Lancashire Games minis for a future project and seeing your stuff is helping convince me this might be the way to go. 

I don't know how you paint these so quickly whilst keeping the quality level right up there. I suspect it has something to do with all the practice at the smaller scales!

72 points for you mate and a healthy addition to your side duel tally to boot.

Cheers,
Millsy

From VictorK - There is a world... (30 Points)

Hello there from (not so) snowy Saint-Petersburg, Russia!

This is my first try in participating in Challange. I've heard of it from one of the fellow bloggers, AlexS, the way he described this activity was really encouraging to take part.

Having set a fairly reasonable amount of points (500), I thought I would paint mostly my antique 15mm romans, but things went their way (as they always do).

We're playing lots of pen-and-paper RPGs with my friends, one of them is lasting for more than year of real time. Recently we decided to start using miniatures for combat. The setting is Sci-Fi, the year 2500, humanity is spreading, corporations and governments are taking almost the same part in controlling the universe. Story of the party is taking place on Frontier - the youngest colonized worlds on the border of humanity.

This miniatures (except one) are for one of corporations - "Serenity" (It's impossible not to use this name in Sci-Fi, if you know about "Firefly"), which was one of the opponents for the party. Sorry for the quality of photos. Miniatures used are Corvus Belli's Infinity - Nomads faction, they look quite "advanced".

4 figures from the left are regular "security specialists", "operators" and "combatants" of corporation. Next to them is the powerhouse of the Frontier - power armor.

The last figure is one of the party members (me). Former pilot in "Serenity", Roxanne de Leon left the corporation to save her brother, who made some anti-corporate things. Now she is the captain of the pirate spaceship, owner of the private military company ("daughter" of "Serenity") and she is eager to explore the world.

The last word would be about bases. We decided to use transparent bases with some etching to give it a "Sci-fi" flavour.

Next miniatures to paint would be some Roxanne's crew members - pirates, even more corporates and some regular street bandits (which are no match for space pirates, Yaaarrr!)

I wish good luck to all of you, and a happy New Year!

Hello Victor and welcome to the Challenge! It's great to have you with us for the first time. It's not snowing here in Sydney, Australia either but it's 40C so I think you're likely to see snow before I do.

I'm a huge fan of Firefly / Serenity and I'm really impressed by your take on the setting and how you've translated that to your paintwork. I've not seen any of the Corvus Belli Infinity miniatures before but I like what I see here and you've done them justice with the brush.

So that's 30 points to kick off your tally mate. Well done!

Cheers,
Millsy

From AaronH - Eight RPG characters (40 Points)

This next entry is eight RPG characters. These are mostly Bones but there's a couple of other manufacturers and one custom sculpt in here.

Terry Jones

The first is a Gnome ranger from Reaper, I believe. Terry Jones is quite the straight man, delivering witting one liners as he romps through a dungeon.

There's a lot going on with this little guy.

Next up is the Ranger Arbach. He's the quiet, deadly sort. He's also a repaint. I finished him up last year but when I went to dull coat him it turned out I was holding a can of white primer instead.

Arbach the Ranger

This is a GW Ranger of the north. A very nice sculpt and hard to find these days.

Rear shot.

Arbach is the killer of the group, proficient both at range and in melee. He's been forced to tank due to the absence of more armored types.

Givney the goblin assassin.

This one is Givney. He's an NPC; a lowly goblin the party spared and who has turned into an absolute killing machine. As the DM I am ready for the little guy to die off since he keeps spoiling my big fights. He just won't die.

Givney is from Rebel Miniatures. They have a nice, small, run of goblin characters.

Next up is Anderman the Paladin. He's the one who spared Givney and has shown an alarming willingness to take the goblin's word for things.

Bones.

The paladin is a Bones sculpt. The detail is hit or miss and the faces are almost always way too soft.

Next up is Peter the Tiefling rogue. Peter has secrets but does trust Arbach. He's quite adept in the dungeon and is very good at finding traps.

I'm not sure where this model is from. The player ordered it and I painted it for him. The pose is very dramatic, to be sure. This is a very slim model, much more fine boned than the others.

Next up is Kizmet the Drow warlock. She also has secrets but they may be a bit more harmful to the party than Peter's. They've already gotten the party locked up once.

This is another Bone model. I've done a bit of conversion on her. She as originally a Sci/Fi character with a coin and a pistol.

Next up is a Bones model that was heavily modified by the player. This is Tak an-Sik, a tiefling cleric. He's in a constant state of battle with his shield, which is also his holy symbol.

Tak has mixed luck with weapons and often ends up grappling with opponents since he is less likely to hurt his friends that way.

Last, and by all means least, is Algor Ithim, the gnomish warlock. Algor is terribly charismatic and universally disliked by his party. He natters on constantly about his scientific theories and drives everyone nuts. He's managed to come through in the clutch a couple of times but he also has secrets.

This is another Bones model. The detail is better than most on him.

So that's the lot for now. There's more on the table and they should be coming off soon. I tend to keep random models around for when I have some extra paint. RPG characters are perfect for that since they don't require uniformity and pretty much any extra will fit somewhere.

A very cool collection of characters Aaron! You clearly put a lot of effort into the background for your games, matching personalities to miniatures which as a player must make things even more fun. 

It's clear from the first couple of images that you have an eye for a characterful paint job. The remaining images are a bit hard to get more than a feel for your paintwork - perhaps next time can you zoom in a bit more so we can really appreciate your efforts?

40 characterful points for your tally mate. Looking forward to seeing more!

Cheers,
Millsy

From AdamC - Warlord Clubmen AKA Bess's Boys (25 Points)

As I mentioned before Christmas (hope you all had a happy holiday, what ever holiday you celebrate) Bess has some back up on the way if you don't behave and they have arrived!

First up is her husband Bill the butcher a sturdy fellow ready to see off trouble with a meaty fist. If that doesn't work he also carries a sturdy cudgel.  Frankly his blood spattered apron would probably have me heading in the other direction on its own.

Bill isn't exactly snappiest dresser... a longer shirt might be a good idea Bill!

I liked the fact that the figure is a "few pounds" overweight as so many of us are.

 Next we have Red with his sturdy axe calling yet more towns folks to Bess' aid.

Clearly a study workman his red jacket is quite nice perhaps a bit above his class in quality but red dye couldn't have been that expensive if the British could put their whole army in it.

The half gaiters on his feet came out particularly well and I like his patched breaches.

Next up is one of the village farmers with a pitchfork as an improvised weapon.

At least it gives him a decent reach advantage of some good for nothing dandy with a sword... against a pike man he's probably in trouble.

This is the simplest outfit and I wish warlord made more like him in different poses.

Another workman he but his family has an old Bill hanging around that he has picked up to help him see off trouble.

Yes he is making that most English of gestures to welcome the newcomers to town.

Again he has some great patching and repair details on his breaches and jacket  but they just don't com out well in these pictures you will have to take my word on it.

My favourite piece from this set the young lad perhaps Bess' son?  He's got some raged clothing and the socks that have fallen down around the ankles remind me of a friends son at Revolutionary War(AWI) reenactments.

I'm not sure bout his wearing a helmet especially one that fits him so well but I didn't want to screw up an other wise excellent figure by trying to modify it (it is cast on the figure).

The object he is throwing is supposed to be a rock but I painted it back with a little metallic paint mixed in and then glued a back string to it.  Add a dab of red paint and you have a truly frightening but lovable lad throwing a grenade at the intruders. (Hopefully he has a good arm.) 

A group shot of the whole crew (minus Beth).  These from the Warlord Clubmen set there are two more figures Bess and another fellow who is still on the painting table.  As a group their are 5 x 25mm figures so that should give me 25 points.

A very fierce looking crew indeed Adam and not a mob to be taken lightly despite their lack of training and equipment. I agree 100% with your estimation of Bill and his blood-soaked apron being enough to put enemies to flight long before fists and cudgels are required.

25 points for you sir. Very much looking forward to seeing the rest of these!

Cheers,
Millsy

From GregB: More 30k Legion Marines (50 points)

Feel the love...more lads from the 12th Legion

My second submission is yet more Space Marines from Games Workshop's "Horus Heresy" setting.  As with my first submission, these are 30k Marines from the 12th Legion, the cute, cuddly and progressive chaps known as the "World Eaters". Whether your world is run by a deeply flawed totalitarian or exists as a fluffy, enlightened sunny-ways democracy, the World Eaters will appear in orbit and render the whole thing down to particles without pausing too long to consider "why". In this, they were ideal tools for the Emperor's so-called "Great Crusade", and even more useful to the Warmaster Horus when he launched his rebellion.

Terminator squad from the World Eaters

Wrecking everything in sight is a lot of work, even in the far future. The troops assembled here should make an important contribution to those efforts thanks to their heavy armour and/or absurdly large guns.

The unit Sergeant has a fancy sword, and the thing up top is supposed to be a grenade launcher, but perhaps is some kind of future go-pro system so Angron can have a record of any carnage these chaps are involved with

I need to find a way to make these power swords look fancier, but he'll do

The first part of this submissions contains a five-man unit of Terminators, Space Marines wearing even heavier armour than their regular foot-slogging buddies.  Teleporting to the battlefield to face down and BBQ opponents which give even regular Space Marines a moment of pause, the Terminator Marines with their big guns, power fists and bulky armour enjoy choice assignments in their Legion duties.

I quite like the double-drum ammo clips on the so-called "combi bolters"  and the chap pointing looks like he means business...

If you carried a big flame-thrower like this fellow, and your job is wrecking sh!t, why you would be on top of the world, so I did this fellow up to look like he's giving a fist bump - "fire FTW!"

While the deeply flawed rules mechanics of GW's 40k rules system make these figures real losers on the table, from the collecting and fun point of view, these are great models and entertaining troops to the deploy into games.  The models are plastics figures from GW's "Betrayal at Calth" box set/game, the model set that keeps on giving...

Heavy support squad with Plasma Cannons

The other part of this submission is a five-man unit of heavy support Space Marines.  The 30k setting has a vast buffet of devastating weapons to choose from, and the Space Marine Legions are well-fed in this respect.  These particular weapons are plasma cannons, heavy energy weapons useful for obliterating any opponents that might appear. And where the Terminators are not nearly as useful on the tabletop as their back story might imply, these chaps exceed the hype, wiping out entire groups of absurd loyalists with relative ease.  Your so-called "Emperor" can't save you now...

The 30k setting is about overkill - why shoot just one big science fiction gun at something, when you could shoot five of them at something?

These models are Mark IV armoured Space Marine models from Forge World, purchased years ago.  In the spirit of the Challenge, I thought it would be good to get to a long lost projects of years past such as this bunch, at least in the early stages...

Forge World decal sheet came in handy with these models

So in all this has ten 28mm infantry models, good for another 50 points towards my overall total and my 30k side duel.  

Up next? I'm hoping to keep in the same setting, but switch scales.  And also, thanks to Jamie, I am trying to figure out some character or vehicle for this force to be named or otherwise known as "Charmington" - so stay tuned for more on that...

More gritty and battle scarred troopers eh Greg? I love the way you paint these and really must try a similar look for something of my own at some point. This must be quite a sizeable force now and I'd really like to see a shot of everything together at some point.

50 points for your tally sir!

PS. Was "your world is run by a deeply flawed totalitarian or exists as a fluffy, enlightened sunny-ways democracy" a reference to recent political events in the US or is that just me?

Cheers,
Millsy