From SanderS: Fred's Saga - the Plot thickens... (90 Points)

Hoi,

Before I present you with the next instalment of the saga of the Fred's, I feel I owe you guys an apology. "Real life" has played one of it's great tricks and lack of time prevents me from replying/ commenting to all of the excellent posts on this blog. I would like to take time each day to peruse all the eye-candy and comment on it but find myself in bed late almost every single night without having seen either a brush or this blog... Therefore I now am also way behind on my schedule and in fear I will never reach my target of 1500 points. If I would be painting in my usual 1:72 scale, I would have been halfway by now but painting almost entirely in 28mm is taking a lot longer... Anyway, I have been able to do a little painting in between work and family-life and here are the results of that.

Meet Fred, this is not the same Fred as last time mind you this is another one of the Fred brothers, listening to CGAG-03.

He has been sent to mid '80s Springfield, USA to rouse rebels and chaos all over. Following are citizens of that poor city who find themselves more and more in the grip of a sinister organisation that has taken hold of most of public and some private services. Arming themselves, some of the citizens have started to fight the new regime, others are willingly aiding the new management. This management is manifesting itself in the form of the CEO's of the ARBCO company a pair of identical twins in fancy suits and fast cars. Miniatures of the latter will follow eventually but the citizens are down below.

All these figures are from the plastic sets of Project Z survivors made by Warlord Games. I seriously mismanaged these figures because I thought I could make the combinations of arms and bodies that I wanted. Turns out one can only combine a certain two arms with certain bodies... Now I have some very strange "mutant-like" figures in amongst them.

I tried to make most of them regular people rather then heavily armed apocalypse survivors, but specially with the women that's hard due to the arm options you get.

There is a boy in the Male Survivors set and a girl in the Female set. I refused to give them the weapons provided in the boxes. The boy I gave a baseball bat and the girl I have provided with flowers. Here she is to finish this post.

This leaves me with 18 figures in 28mm and thus 90 points.

Gosh Sander, another Fred to join the ranks - how many Fred brothers are there? Or is it some kind of nom de guerre? 'I'm Fred'.....'No, I'm Fred!' And what will be the name of their sister? This Pulp adventure is taking a rather sinister turn, these Fred characters clearly aren't a very good influence, trying to overthrow a democratically elected government by force.  

While I see you've tried to avoid kitting out these ladies and gents with big guns - The bunch of flowers is a neat touch. A standard issue tennis racket there, a good crowbar, and some semi-automatic 'hunting' weapons, but do I spy a larger lady carrying an RPG? I'm not sure that's appropriate for an untrained civilian.

Nice work on these Warlord plastics Sander, and a respectable 90 points to your tally. Well, you're nearly a third of the way to your 1500 target!  

Phil

 

From KeithS: The Last of the Adventurers...for now (152 points)



At long last, I've pretty much run out of 25mm adventurer figures (well, at least ones that are prepped and don't suck).  This week I managed to finish off thirty of the buggers, in two batches of 15.  They are a total mix - Ral Partha, GW, Asgard, some Grenadier, Reaper, Minifigs, and who knows what else.  But, hey, that's how I roll. 

The first half of the first batch.  Nothing too exciting, though the guy on the far right - I had one of those growing up that my dad painted, so it's pretty nostalgic for me.



Group two of batch one.  Again, a mix.  A few of these I've had for decades, while others are recent acquisitions from various cons and larger batches on eBay.

 I liked how this shield turned out, and the figure is pretty nice, too (Asgard, maybe?)

This chap was a bit odd looking.  But it is his shield that caught my eye.  It has a horses head and I originally was just going to do boring old Rohirrim white on green, but then I noticed it looks a lot more like a chess piece.  Thus, I got a little inspiration and did a checkered pattern (with the horse inverted on it)

My first week was the Silent Sisters.  I needed a captain for those lovely ladies and settled on this one.  She looks a lot fancier and better armed, appropriate for their captain; of course, she is sans eyeballs.  There'll be some more related to that sub-project as the challenge goes on.

Some of the troops from the back.  The woman on the far right is the same as the Silent Sisters (Asgard/Viking Forge).  I did this one as a normal adventuress, though.

Batch two I just finished up under the wire.  Once again, a really mixed lot that's all over the map.

These two feisty ladies are from the same line as the Captain above, I think, but I did them as straightforward warriors (i.e. with their eyes intact).

From the back.  They are really simple but I like how they turned out.

These two rather rudimentary figures I decided to use for practice in painting striped pants.  I like how they turned out and will be doing that more often.

Some more from this batch.  I've painted the Ral Partha guy on the left before  But I really liked the Middle Eastern type female in the center a lot.  I need to figure out who makes that one and find some more of a similar style.  I don't know what her weapon was supposed to be (it was missing) so she got a simple spear.

A bard and a Saxon.

And that's it for this week.  I do have more adventurers, but they are either not prepped or are really crummy figures that are almost not worth painting (though I sort of am employing the "no figure left behind" principal in my work - the challenge is wonderful for motivation).  I decided to hold off on my 28mm Scots as I'm considering shield decals (blasphemy?  maybe, but then again maybe I will just hand paint them).  I also have scads of demons screaming to be painted, plus some other monsters, 300 figures from Ral Partha's last Kickstarter in boxes, and who knows what else.

As an aside, I finally started using some of my adventurers in actual play.  Here's my AD&D game of Keep on the Borderlands last weekend, complete with figures for the party (and a bunch of dead Hobgoblins, which I painted a few weeks back).



Ah, it wouldn't be Friday without a big Keith mixed bag of DnD-style fantasy minis. My favourite this week is definitely  the very jolly Middle East-style lady warrior, with her dainty spear. And the red Ral Partha wizard, with the cute dragon familiar on his shoulder. I'm a bit concerned at how skinny those other ladies are: once you factor in the plate, and necessary undergarments and padding, do they even have a waist in there? Nice work on stripy pants - perfect if you've any pirates to do in the future - but those sculpts are pretty rough: boy am I glad the hobby has moved on to this new 'Golden Age'.

This might be the last of you adventurers, but if you're still pondering the Scots, it sounds like we'll have more fantasy minis from you next week? Looking forward to it 

And that's a big AD&D group you have there, bet you have fun keeping all them in line. 

Phil 

From SteveB: Dystopian Wars (45 Points)

So continuing the Dystopian wars theme. I managed some more Covenant of Antarctica stuff done.
 
This time I'm am working on some air power. These models are from the aerial battle group, I am still working on the fighters and tiny flyers.

The bad boy is the Epicurus class sky fortress. I magnetized the top turret for ease of transport.

And what good is a sky fortress without some support. So three Icarus medium flyers provide that.

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I am quickly running out of steam. The last Month and a bit I have painted more than I have in the last 2 years. Now to keep plugging away toward the finish line.

With just under 100pts to my goal, I think I might slow down a bit and work on some individual figs for a bit.

____________________________________

Oh man, Steve, the fact that you're running out of steam means that the Challenge is doing its magic. I'm delighted that you've painted more in the past 7 weeks than you have in the past two years. Mission accomplished. :)

These Dystopian Wars flyers are very cool, like antarctic kinda cool. The green energy blooms are a great touch, as is the blue 'glow' for the portholes and viewports. 

I look forward to seeing you pip over the line with some individual figures. Until next week!

From MartinN: Balbus the Disfigured - Early Roman command stand (18 Points)

Finally I've made it! My first scheduled Friday-submission!

Well, life is rather busy around here with me being away on in-company training for much of the time as well as taking over new responsibilities in my job. Normally I would have planned to have more time for painting this challenge, but alas it was not to be. I'm rather sure most of you know such real live issues only to well so I stop blathering and will come straight to business.

I've always been fascinated by anything Roman. As a kid I loved to dress up as Roman centurion for carnival and birthday parties. Most of my friends preferred the more traditional cowboy or Native-American costumes though. This love continues to the present day and albeit not dressing up as Roman anymore I still read and watch anything vaguely related. So it's certainly of little surprise that I jump at any chance to paint up a few nice miniatures for this period.

The miniatures for this little command stand come from the excellent Aventine range of Early Republican Romans as well as Etruscans. The casualty though is from Armorum & Aquila miniatures and while a little rough in detail, still a very nice and atmospheric sculpt. The decals used are from the more than commendable Little Big Men Studios. What's a little odd about the commanders sculpt though is he's sporting six fingers on his left hand. It took me a while to figure out why I felt there was something odd with this miniature.

I had these cuties sitting in my lead pile for what felt like ages. Initially I had planned to paint them up for use with Impetus, but I prefer using 15's for games with largish formations. To this end I'll probably use these with SAGA or any other skirmish game. I think I'll call him (the commander) Balbus (latin for Stammering One). No idea when I'll come around to paint up some retinue for him though.

I want them to represent Romans from the early Republic, so arund about the time when they freed themselves from Etruscan rule and started to subjugate their immediate neighbours. While in Greece at that time large battles were fought with the well known Phalanxes fighting it out, battles in Italy still were fought at a somewhat smaller scale. Often these battles were nothing more than small skirmishes or kettle raids.

Three standing miniatures and a prone casualty should net me a whopping 17.5 points.

Welcome to the Friday Crew proper Martin! This command stand is stunning, even by the very high standards you've set with past entries. Colourful without being riotous, in your distinctive style, and the composition and basing are sublime. But six-fingered Balbus, now that is a mystery. 

I sympathise entirely on the life limiting hobby time, just look at my tally. Still, there's always the next Challenge, or the one after where we can hope to make better progress. 
17.5 points is not mathematically pleasing: I'm going to exercise my minion rights and call it 18. Let's just hope I've not overstretched my remit so much that judicial intervention is necessary. 

I'd be delighted if you had time to produce some more of the excellent Aventine Romans in this challenge, please?  

Phil

From GrahameH: Still Finishing Armies (320 Points)

A bit slow over the last 2 weeks due to work, but  I have managed to painted up the last of my mounted Battlefront 15mm Cossacks for Rapid Fire WW2. I just have the support weapons to do and that will be two full battalions of Cossacks, both as mounted and dismounted. However, I am now waiting for Battlefront to supply replacements for the wagon drivers. For some reason they supplied normal drivers rather than cossacks - Oh well.

42 15mm Mounted and 6 Dismounted Cossacks

Next Up are some 16th Cent, Spanish (15mm Essex)

Almost finished this army just another Pike block for this Tercio and some Cavalry. Here is the first Pike Block (36 Figures) and 2 small sword and shield units (24 Figures).

Hopefully the Cossack Support weapons will get done at the weekend (if work & Battlefront allow)

Crikey Grahame, that's quite a lot of army finishing for a decent points bomb. Those Cossacks look fantastic en masse: the punchy blue trousers really lifting the drab jackets. do I see that you've painted stripes down the trousers and detailing on the hats and markings on the horses on every single one? That's dedication to your art. The Spanish pike look  menacing too, but that's an era I know little about. 

Sixty-six 15mm infantry and 42 cavalry is a nice 300 points, but I'll ruin the pleasing round number by adding twenty bonus points for the flags on the pike block and the detailing on the Cossacks. 

Hoping you get your Cossack replacements through soon, so you can finish that army off for definite.

Phil

From IanW: SYW French Infantry (74 Points)

I started the week with plenty of time to get these finished but I knew it would run close as I was at York for the wargames show on Sunday. Little did I know I would not touch a brush for two days as I suffered rather from the stairs at the show.

My computer has also died so can not give the usual run down on the regiments as I have yet to look for my usual site on Cath's computer.

First up Regiment 6, La Marine and first of the light grey coated regiments I will be doing for The Boy. I went with Vallejo Sky Blue which I inked and then brought back up with a mix of Sky Blue and White as I found the sky blue to be a little darker than I wanted.

This and the next battalion are the last of the none turnback figures I have for the French so the next few battalions will be those with turnbacks then I will have to buy more figures for his other regiments. I bought him one grenadier battalion and two heavy cavalry at York so these may figure before the challenge finishes.

The Boy choose this regiment for the flag and who can blame him? The light blue cuffs and waistcoats seal the deal for me. This is Regiment 16 Dauphin, adding a spot of panache to his collection of flags. Having well over 100 he can really add some interesting standards to his force once he has enough basic units.

I really like the detail and pose of the Lancashire Games officer, though I do need to find some suitable alternative command figures that will fit in as I want to be able to have them looking a bit different.

So that's another two battalions for The Boy's growing army. On the walk home from school we discussed what he wanted painting next (expecting cavalry) for him to say more infantry. Not that these will be next up as I have a fancy for a couple of Prussian battalions next.

All four battalions painted over the last three weeks, if I was to keep at these I could get a sizeable army done fairly quickly but I like to jump around a little so I don't get bored of what I paint. It has been a bit of a production line kind of few weeks but I have strangely enjoyed it.

So two battalions each of 18 figures for 72 points. Not enough to match Tamsin but we still have over a month to go so I may just catch her LOL.

Great, more SYW, and this project is starting to look great in their massed lines. And what a flag on the Dauphine regiment! Very jazzy, a fine choice by your lad.  

Positive thoughts on the side duel Ian: you can chase down the Queen of Points Bombs, surely? You just need to get three of these entries in for each one of hers, and ease off  on those Prussians! ;-) 

Phil

From KenR: 15mm SYW British Artillery (44 Points)

The first of two mini entries (posted second, oops - ED) for me this week is this battery of three guns for my SYW British Army.

The figures are 15mm Minifigs which I purchased last year when I bought all the Command Packs for my Saxon Infantry. Classic old school 15s.

At 2pts a figure and 4 for each of the guns I make that 36 points for both my Grand Total and my SYW Side Duel.

Unfortunately the Side Duel has not gone well for The Yarkshire Gamer, after a slight case of overboming from Tamsin and Ian I am rapidly losing touch with the leaders, I have a couple of units of British Cavalry on the go at the moment but they will be a while whilst I switch production to SCW for an upcoming refight of Jarama, I think the towel has gone in !

Great guns Ken! What's the caliber on these, do you think? It's unfortunate you're drifting behind in your side duel despite chipping away at this project, but these will make a fine addition to your force, supporting the infantry you've entered in the Challenge so far.  

I count sixteen minis and three guns, for a total of 44 points

Great to hear we'll be getting some more SCW in the challenge too - what scale are you working in? 

Phil