From AlexD - Thousand Sons Space Marines (25 Points)

Hey everyone, back again with some more Thousand Sons to add to my growing roster!

Since my previous submission was heavily kit bashed (thanks for the new term, by the way!) I decided to switch gears this week and paint up a unit of unmodified, out-of-the-box Thousand Sons. For this entry I wanted to focus on keeping my lines nice and sharp, preserving the graphic, cell-shaded look but cleaning up some of the sloppy edges. After my previous submission I came to the sobering realization that miniatures look a lot different in close-up photos than they do on the table. ;)

The only bit of converting I did was on the Aspiring Champion.  His head was taken from a boxed set of Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard.  I thought the expressionless helm had a nice creepy vibe that fit well with my army’s overall aesthetic.  In a way it reminds me a bit of Mordred’s helm from Excalibur.

Anyway, that’s it for this week.  Till next time!

ByronM: Excellent work!  Yes you can really tell the difference from last weeks, these are cleaner and smoother looking.  I think they lost a bit of the cell shading due to it, but kept a fair bit, and you can see you put more effort into these, they look amazing. I like these even more than last weeks entry, this project will turn out a stunning army when all done.  

You are an evil man though, I have always wanted to do a Thousand Sons army, and have always been able to suppress doing it, I may not be able to resist the call of Chaos by the end of your project though. They are really top notch!

From ScottM: French Senegalese Tirailleurs Infantry (50 points)

This is my first submission to the painting challenge and I've started off with a modest offering. This is a squad of World War 2 French Senegalese Tirailleurs infantry. These figures are all metal and are from Warlord Games.

Please excuse the quality of pictures as I have yet to master that ability. These figures will be added to my growing French army that will be used for Bolt Action and Chain of Command. There will be more French coming as my pile is a fair size and for some reason keeps getting bigger.

ByronM: They look good from what I can see, and I know you said you had some issues with the photos (I know I always do too), but please try to make sure you include at least one zoomed in image of a few guys so that we can all get a close look at them. The ground work looks really good and I can see that the straps and everything are painted, but with no good closeup image it's hard to offer any real commentary on what could be really well done figures, but I just cant tell for sure.

From JasperO: The 24th will advance! (50 Points)

The last few years, my main project has been the American War of Independence in the south. Yep, that says years, because I paint at glacial speed, and manage to get distracted by a variety of half-baked ideas along the way. So progress tends to be pretty slow. I'd already planned and prepped some AWI figures for the Challenge, but events interfered with my initial choice.

You see, I'm involved with the organisation of PolderCon, a play (nearly) - only event here in the Netherlands. Just before the start of the Challenge, one game host had to cancel, and I offered to replace him with a Black Powder table. PolderCon this year is themed, for 'rear-guard actions', and I knew just the scenario from the wonderful Rebellion book. The Battle of Hubbardton it would be, but that took place during the Saratoga campaign in 1777 - not the American south. And yes, I am that kind of 'peculiar' that, when the uniforms are visibly different, I want the correct ones. So, until February 12th, my Painting Challenge will be dedicated to that battle.

The first bases for that project have now come off the painting table. When I made the switch in projects, it was only days before we would depart on our Christmas vacation, but luckily I had sufficient numbers of the correct Perry miniatures laying about (how do these things happen? ;-) ). The required two bases for two companies of the 24th of Foot are now complete - all Perry figures. The command base will have to wait till after PolderCon, when I'll have to make the agonizing decision whether to be (probably) entirely historical and not use any flags, or whether I'll ignore that and add those in anyway. 10 figures, so that should be 50 points towards 400...

ByronM: Another late comer to the challenge, looking to avoid the cull this weekend, and another most excellent entry!  I love the dramatic posing of the figures and the really nice and clean paint job on these.  I seriously hope we get to see more like this from you Jasper!  

From KyleC - Truppen, Zeihen Aus! (450 Points)

So the English Civil War models are kicking my butt right now for motivation to get them finished. As always, instead of finishing them off, I start in on something new. In this case 86 German Infantry/Weapon teams!

Started in on them on Saturday, and after a long afternoon of base coating, I was able to finish them off in details and washes on Sunday.

I tried some new techniques on them for getting them all started up as well..

As we prep to move ( again! ) I have had to make the hard choice of not keeping my gaming table that we had built in Turkey and brought with us. So with it in pieces, I had some new planks available to line the troops up on for priming purposes!

2.5 meters worth of priming boards for the spray cans to tackle out in the garage. Which were then brought inside to be dealt with via he airbrush to get the base colors down on them.

I had started one plank in a grey tones, and the other in a more subtle blue tones. Just to give some variety to the units.

All lined up post priming and airbrush step and ready to get some of the other base colors applied. I did not want to airbrush the bases ( which would have been easier ) as I wanted them to have a bit of variety within them. Takes more time, but comes out looking nicer to me.

Moving along at a decent clip. Watching some war and cowboy movies on netflix while going through the details.

In the end I now have most of my regular German forces painted up and ready for the Third Reich. Which should be interesting or more interesting when I get some of the new armour finished up for them that have been languishing around the office for far too long!

En-mass they are quite a sight I think.. although basic it is the horde looking of them that makes the appearance work here.

Though not fully evident, here is a close up of the 2 tones used. Blue on the left, and grey on the right. Some are more evident than others, but as a mix within a unit it will help to give that not all supplies were equal or of the same quality.

Still have 3 weapon teams assembled but not painted up, and I do believe some more bikers are in the wings these days, but those are for the DAK forces more so than for the Germans fighting in Europe.

Oh and I also got 4 prone models for my US army finished as well..

Though I don't think the AT gun, nor the LMG here will help too much against the troops above!

90 models in total finished.. 7 of which are prone ( not that they take less time or anything ).

Now back to finishing the ECW and starting up the Orcs for Blood Bowl!

ByronM: Now that is what I call a points bomb!  450 points of mainly Germans all in one go!   The prone US troopers look good, but I really like the Germans in all their numbers.  I like how you did different base coat colours as well as while the difference is subtle you can see it.  It is something I often do, and something you can extend on by doing a shaded base coat (or more technically called zenithal priming) by spraying a much lighter basecoat down on the models from the top, then going on to painting, it adds all the shadows in for you before you even get to painting.  

As you say the Germans are for tabletop, but they are a great tabletop standard and have the right looking shade of blue-grey so should really stand out on any tabletop.  Better yet, all the webbing and weapons and everything else looks very cleanly done.  Excellent work for a points bomb!

From John M: Some Revenants (60 Points)

The threats of being booted out of the VII Annual Painting Challenge have finally forced me back to the painting table. I even cancelled a SAGA game last week to get me going. Just too much to do and too little time. A staffing crisis at work, my wife's business, a kitchen renovation and the hockey season have all conspired to keep me away from the table. No pre-contest priming or planning even took place. But I really could not let that happen, I have competed in all seven challenges, so here we are.

First up, are some nice 28 mm figures from Gripping Beast for their SAGA Revenant warband. I have already completed the Warlord and one unit of levy and here is a second. I plan to paint a 4 point unit, painting 72 revenants would be a bit much I think, so I had settled on 48 in four units of 12. The Revenant warband is entirely made up of levy and utilizes a novel system of Dread Markers and Gravepits to activate the units. I am hoping they will be able to confound Adam's Norse-Gaels, who I find to be a bit of a challenge, if you get my meaning.

They are all white primed, and then washed with the two greenish washes from Citadel. First the Biel-Tan Green and then the Camoshade, I then follow with painting the details on the figures which I then wash with the specific coloured washes for each base colour. Once done the flesh is washed with Earthshade. I then do some highlighting and then varnish and base the figure. It is a little laborious but I believe they came to OK. They are quite nice figures with at least 24 different poses. Anyway here they go.

A couple of comments; I ran out of AP Polyurethane and although I have not used it to shade figures in quite some time, it is a great gloss varnish (I do not shake it). I used Gloss-Cote from Testors and really it is just not that good. I waited for 3 days to apply the Dull-Cote and I can already see that there has been some rubbing off of colour. And second, I just wish Apple would stop screwing with iPhoto, as you can see I found it almost impossible to adjust the white balance in after photo editing. It used to be a piece of cake. I am probably doing something wrong but I can not seem to get it right!

Well I am relieved to get on the board, I doubt if I will ever get to 400 points, but here is 60.

ByronM: Another last minute poster just avoiding the cull!  Welcome John to the challenge, it is good to have you on board once again.  Isn't it horrible when real life has the nerve to interfere with hobby time? 

Your figures look great, and the green washes you used almost give them an unearthly glow.  I like the effect a lot for something like this.  There is something great to be said for simple paint schemes that pull off a great look like this.  Good luck against the Norse-gaels with them.

From IannickM : Halflings, part II (25 Points)

More StoneHaven Halflings this week, as I'm keeping up with my goals of painting 5 per week. The little buggers are a ton of fun to paint, and since each one is very different it keeps me from being bored of painting the same thing.

And so this week we have a gardener, a lorekeeper, a ranger, a ratcatcher and a skelly.

From left to right : Ranger, Gardener, Ratcatcher, Skelly and Lorekeeper

I exceptionally went with a different base style for the skeleton as the nice and happy goblin green didn't seem to fit very well with him. I love that figure, and the smoking pipe is a nice touch. As the first Halfling batch,  I used green and brown when possible while still going all over the place in terms of colours, to keep their individuality.

ByronM: More amazing little Halflings from Iannick this week.  Super clean painting and great colour choices make these figures really stand out, great work.  Making the skeleton's base different is a cool little touch as well as it make him stand out even more, which is probably important as in real life I am not sure you would catch that he is a skeleton at first glance.  25 well earned points, and keep the little ones coming.

From TeemuL: A prisoner, a wizard and couple of bad guys (20 points)

Living happily outside of the Monday bombing, here's my latest offering of my odds and ends. This is not probably that mixed as last week, but there's some variance.

First we have here a Man from Future, Crooked Dice miniature, who might just be Number Six. Or Number One? I don't know, but I just want information!

A really nice model, like the rest of the Crooked Dice minis, this was very clean and easy to paint. I chose the hand with no gun and mimicked the colors of the display model. In many ways this is one of the best painted miniatures I have done, although the pale lines on the coat are bit messy.

The black coat is highlighted towards blue instead of grey and the brown pants are highlighted to yellow. As this is a single miniature and one from the TV show I really liked, I paid some extra attention to the details. What else, yes, instead of white eyes, I chose the Ushbati Bone and it seems to work very well. The white eyes are not popping out. The basing is quite simple, I have made all my old WH40K and other scifi/modern bases like that, because it is easy, fast, neutral to fit various boards, looks rather nice, but don't steal the focus. The recipe: Glue sand on the black painted base, let dry. Reikland Fleshshade straight from the bottle all over the sand, let dry. Highlight rather heavily with some light grey and tidy up the edges with black.

Next we have a character who pretty much has all the information, or at least soon will have. Gandalf the Grey from the Games Workshop box Breaking of the Fellowship. This is my only model from this box, others I have sold, given away or painted as entry fees for Challenge VI. I bought this from a sale assuming I will get the box, where Boromir is dying, but I got this instead. I got the other box later on from somewhere else.

Anyway, back to the model. Quite soon I noticed, that I have started with too light grey (I don't have anything darker at the moment) and it would be hard to make a difference between the clothing and hair/beard. I used the same grey on both, but then highlighted the clothes with Ushbati Bone and hair parts with heavy white. The end result is quite nice, the grey gown doesn't look brand new anymore, it looks like it has been worn several days and nights around the Mines of Moria. Here I painted the eyes white again, the model is lighter anyway, so it might be a good choice. I also painted his clothes under the gown white, like a small hint of the future.

Then we have two bad guys, these are Games Workshop Chaos Marauders on round bases, because they are for my Age of Sigmar -army. There is an escalation league starting at the local store and I decided to join with my old chaos miniatures, which I have never painted. You get points for winning, but also for painting the minis and basing them on round bases, so I'm going to take every extra point available.

These two are kind of test models, the next eight will probably paint up faster, once I know all the colors and details on the models. I paid some extra attention to skulls and especially to the horns, but otherwise the painting is quite basic and fast. Basically the base color and drybrush or wash.

That is four 28mm models for 20 points.

ByronM: A varied entry Teemu.  I like #6 as that was such a different show back then (at least from my fading memory of it), and you have done a wonderful job on him including the piping around the jacket and the eyes (not enough people paint eyes and to me most models look unfinished without them).  Gandalf looks quite good as well, but I will pass on a trick someone else (sorry can't remember who) told me earlier this challenge for white cloth.... start beige or tan instead of grey.  I have tried it since  and it really helps it show up more natural looking.  Now, maybe not appropriate for  Gandalf the grey, but then again, maybe?  Just something to keep in mind on future whites (like your tip on the eyes not being pure white). 

From GuyB - Getting Started (33 Points)

With deadlines looming both in the analogue Painting Challenge and real life with the magazine, I thought I'd better post something to stay in the race!

Here's the start of my Beyond the Gates of Antares Algoryn force. Three test pieces at 12.5 points total (drones must count as half or less, right?).

However, my main project is painting a Republican Roman army for 217BC, our new project this year. I have a whole production line going, but here's my first finished base of Republican Romans. 20 points. More to come.

That's it for now!
Cheers,
Guy

ByronM: Excellent work Guy!  You actually make those Gates of Antares figures look good! I generally find them a little 2 dimensional, but those look quite nice all painted up.  Better yet are your Romans!  Wow, super clean lines and smooth shading.  I hope to see more like those in the future!  

I am going with your points as listed, so a 32.5 (33 Ed.) point start, and more importantly, you avoid this weekends cull.  Which given your talent is a great thing as I can't wait to see more.

Wednesday Evening Blues

Ok, so it's the morning and not evening, but this is one of the only good songs (meaning NOT pop or country) I could find about Wednesday:

And it kinda fits me this week as this damn cough drags on, and all day feels like evening since I'm tired, and getting less sleep than our insomniac host Curt!

But anyway, on with the show!

We have several great posts showing up today including several first postings by challenge participants that are looking to avoid the cull that happens this weekend.  Best of all it looks like the wait was worth it as the submissions are top notch.

Unlike last week, there are a pile of entries queuing up to go live, and following my normal attempt to allow everyone some time at the top of the blog they will be spaced out throughout the day and show up at the top of the hour when they go live.

With that, I leave you with the obligatory camel shot....

Oh, and one last thing...  For anyone who has not read it yet, check our Milles's funny as hell numerical analysis of the challenge so far, I know it brought some joy into my day when I read it earlier this week: Milles: Week 4 Stats update.

Oh, and one more last thing.... Keep those paint brushes working everyone we are only 4 weeks into the challenge, no time to slack off yet!