From EricM: The Catch Up Post Part Deux

With the legionnaire infantry complete, I was able to move on to some fun command figures this week. 

I was able to complete 5 command figures for my Caesarean Romans.  They are from a mix of manufacturers.  The mounted standard bearer is from first corps.  

The Imperator figure on the white horse is from Warlord Games.   I really enjoy the figure although his right arm in the 'hailing" position did  give me trouble when trying to glue it.   I may be re-basing him on a larger base to resist the temptation of picking him up by his arm.
Since I am complaining,  the mounted standard bearer's standard is about 2 millimeters too tall to fit in the box I have set aside for them!

The portly Legate on the right is perhaps of of my favorite figures of all time. Not only has he had a few too many door mice, he also has a bald spot.  I love it when miniatures manufactures add these type of "real" characters.    Not every roman general looked like Russell Crowe.

Finally a close up of the third Legate.
 

With the Roman leadership taken care of I decided to push on and add some Numidian light horse allies. The Numidians are a mix of Wargames Foundry, Warlord Games and Navigator.  I think they mix fairly well although the Navigator horses are not very attractive they do add character to the unit.
 

Here are some close ups.  The skin tone was a challenge and I am not completely happy with the results.   I have another 10 or so Numidian light horse to paint so I may try a different process.
 

This week I was able to complete 25 x 28mm cavalry.  

Ah gosh, another points bomb late in the day. those Numidian cavalry look great Eric, what is it about the hide shields that always makes these units look good in whatever scale? Very finely executed here. And great to see some commanders to lead your Roman legions, too. I agree, the characterful miniatures like your `old warhorse` add a welcome bit of colour when painting an army. 

For very dark skin tones, there`s a technique on the Perry miniatures website, intended for their Sudan range. It`s a bit faffy, using layered washes, but I`ve found it does give a pleasing effect.  

Twenty five cavalry, a neat 250 points: with your catch up entries you`ve smashed through 3000 points and maintained a good gap between yourself and the chasing pack.  

Phil

From EricM: The Catch Up Post (390 Points)

Since I missed posting last week and rather than posting a single massive update I decided to break this weeks posting into two more manageable updates.   The works shown here was actually completed in the prior week 

Last week I worked on finishing up the last of the Romans.   Once I got the the hang of the shields I was able to really burn through the cohorts.

The first cohort is 24 figures.  Most figures are Wargames Foundry but they are led by an outstanding centurion from Warlord Games.

 .     

 
I had to pull him out to show him off.  I really like the dynamic pose.

The second cohort is 18 figures

All the figures are Wargames Foundry

The third cohort

I believe the Centurion leading this unit is from First Corps but I may be wrong.   I really like him so I pulled him out to show him off.  

Here is the fourth and final cohort of Romans.

 

Finishing the last of the Romans was a real milestone for me. As part of the challenge I was able to complete 3 "legions" of 5 cohorts each.   Pictures of the full units will follow next week.  I am really looking forward to pulling them out.

The total for last week was 78 x 28mm foot

Good evening again Eric. These last cohorts look very fine once again, and maintaining your throughput on this project has been hugely impressive. Fifteen whole cohorts of legionaries to such a high standard, bravo! Lots of black shields for this lot, which seems unusual to me - did you choose black for a particular reason?

Seventy eight 28mm figures makes a cool 390 points. 

Phil  

From JamesonP: Three Dwarves and a Warg Walk Into a Bar (20 Points)

Or into a tabletop lightbox...

This week I return with some more Dwarves and another Warg. As the first day of Spring rapidly approaches, I fear I will not make my meager 400 point goal — darn you grown up responsibilities. That said, I have a mountain of plastic and lead, so I'll continue to chip away up to and beyond the deadline.

But, I digress...

First up are the Dwarves. The astute reader will notice that these are very to those I turned in early on. This is because they were painted a second table ata recent demo of Cubicle 7's Adventures in Middle-earth.

Next up is the Warg This bad boy is a bit more greyed and grizzled than the other I painted. I feel he's a good embodiment of the NPC he represents  — a real terror by the name of Greymuzzle Hobb.

Finally, I'm not sure if terrain counts for anything in the challenge, but I just finished up my first stone base for a palisade that I'm modeling for Saga. I think it turned out quite nice.

Next week, I'll be back with more American Indians though I also have some Vikings on the bench for my Saga: Age of the Wolf campaign, so who knows? Until next time...

Hi again Jameson! Nice little additions to your Lord of the Rings project, those dwarves look great in their light armour and travelling cloaks, in greys, blues and greens. The infamous warg 'Greymuzzle Hobb' looks suitably mean aswell. Alas, terrain does not count except in the one terrain bonus round but it is good to see what else you've been up to.  

Four miniatures, 20 points brings your tally to 130. '

Phil

From KeithS: An End and a Beginning (85 Points)

Painting was a little slow the last week, as other activities kept encroaching.  Still, I got some stuff done, and have finally made my long awaited (procrastinated?) transition out of fantasy.  But first up are these three Beholders.  The left one is Reaper, the right one might be Grenadier (not sure).  I'm not sure on the middle guy.  I've always thought of Beholders as purple, probably because I have a 30+ year old bottle of Poly S paint called Eyestalk Violet.  Needless to say, it finally got to fulfill its destiny on the rightmost two, followed up with a blue ink wash.  However, I wanted at least a little variety, so the left one was done in Burnt Umber and other brown tones.

Lineup.  "Did you see which one of these did it?"  The left guy has a bunch of eyes in its body, in addition to the stalks - kind of weird.  Sadly, these will be the last monsters and almost the last fantasy figures I do for the challenge (I have a Curtgeld dude finally picked out and will slip that in before the end, one that will fit with my fantasy/adventurer work this year).

So, finally, I started my Scottish army for use with Saga.  These are 28mm figures from Gripping Beast and I think they're great.  The figures are nicely sculpted, easy to paint, and look pretty good.  I have 41 total to paint and decided to use these dozen archers as my test subjects.  There are four not-quite-identical poses.

The big effort on the Scots, of course, was tartans.  I did a little research on dark age tartans but could not find much in the way of depictions.  I went with the idea that they'd be basic colors and not insanely elaborate.  Seems reasonable to me.  I also did a lot of stripes and other decorations, including tattoos.  Being lowly archers, I didn't want to overdue the number with elaborate tartans - I'll plus up the proportion of fancy duds for the more elite guys.

I played with some cross hatching and other designs.  For the bases, I did NOT put brush on yet like I usually would.  I have a friend hitting Cold Wars in a week and asked him to get me some heather I could put on the bases instead of the bushes I typically use.  I think that will make these guys a bit more dramatic and unique.

Three more designs.  These were the first ones I tried, thus the first tartans I've ever painted.  The left one is a bit dark but I really like it.  The center one was supposed to be simple.  I'm not sure what happened - I guess I did the grid way to close together as it was supposed to be a fairly open look!

Some other styles.  As I said, these were experiments and practice for the elite guys that I'll be starting this weekend. Oh, and of course a few had to be soulless gingers.

Next up will be the remaining Scots and my Curtgeld figure.  That might still leave me enough time for some other small things before the end, though I'm not sure what I'll do!

Oooh, an end and a new project! I did wonder whether you might run out of fantasy miscellany for us Keith. Still, what a way to finish but with a few floating eye-blobs with teeth. Really nice painting on the Saga Scots, this has the makings of a great project. I hope you've a lots of pots of 'tartan paint' to choose from! Really nice work on the tartans here, so looking forward to see what the higher-ranked warriors are decked out in!

I'll score two of the Beholders as 28mm and the other as 40mm, which with the Scots comes to 77 points, and I'll round out to 85 in respect of the sheer amount of work that the tartans take (I know, I've been there). 

Phil

From SanderS: Last of the 80's Pulp! (130 Points)

Hoi,

You guys will be glad to see the last of my 80's Pulp contributions for this Challenge I am sure ;-) Well I still had some figures based and coated so I thought I'd include them and I was also inspired by Iannick in his entry for our side duel, where he painted his excellent blue H.I.S.S. tank. In my possession were still 4 of these unpainted so I gave them all a lick of paint.

Let's start with the figures, first up are some Joes. The figure below will be the figure I will sent Iannick if he manages to win the side duel. It's a personal favourite called Breaker, the first Joe Comms-expert. I think I realised early on when watching the cartoon series that I would never be the physically strong Joes like Duke, Gung Ho, Roadblock and the likes, so I more closely identified with the likes of Breaker, Mainframe and Dial Tone. These comms experts got their fare share of fighting but it was in gathering and analysing information that they excelled.

Next up is Lifeline the second medic of the Joe team. This same figure could also be used to create the first medic "Doc" but his uniform is less of a challenge to paint so I went with Lifeline and I am mighty pleased with the freehand lettering on his trousers.

This Hasslefree figure was a perfect match for Bazooka, the explosives and tankbusting expert. I liked him because he was wearing real life combat trousers and helmet but also an American sports shirt, so he was military but also personalised.

The two divers shown below are from the excellent Crooked Dice range and the black and grey one depicts the Joe diver Torpedo, the orange one I painted up to be a Joe character in scuba gear. The orange scheme I got from an episode of the Sunbow cartoon.

Last is one of the more Iconic badguys: Destro, master of M.A.R.S. industries and main arms-provider for Cobra.

He brings along a quartet of HISS tanks, the black and blue ones are regular line unit tanks, the red one belongs to the Crimson Guard.

This is a Cobra Moccasin a watercraft designed to patrol the swamps surrounding Cobra Island. It's a 3d printed vehicle and really cool.

Last are some Joe vehicles: the Wolverine a SPG which is a 3d print. Just like this gun called the Whirlwind which is mainly meant as an AA or FLAK platform, is a 3d print.

Pointswise I have 6 figures giving me 30 points 6 vehicles should amount to 90 points and 1 artillery piece is another 10 points so that makes for a total of 130 points.
That is the 80's pulp collection I wanted to paint for this Challenge finished. I have more but that will have to wait for next year.


Hah, I love how you see Iannick's HISS tank and raise him another three! And soem more vehicles!  I hadn't realised G I Joe has such a rich collection of vehicles, but it has been a looong time since childhood when I last watched any.  Your and Iannick's G.I. Joe projects have really brightened up my challenge. I really like your Joes in this entry, particularly Lifeline and Bazooka, great choices of sculpts and really finely painted.

Another 130 points for you Sander, which puts you over the 1000 mark, and within striking distance of your target.

Phil