From MartinN: A hump for DaveD (12 Points)

At Crisis in November I had the chance to not only meet our honourable host Curt, but also had the pleasure to make the acquaintance of co-challenger, fine fellow and all-round gentleman Dave D. The state of the hobby was discussed, a few beers were had and all in all it was a wonderful time out.

From left to right: DaveD, RobP (behind), ChristopherS, JakeK, Jerry Miller and his wife Christine, myself , Curt and MikeF

Soon after Crisis I received a surprise parcel from Britain, sent by Dave, containing a few treasures from his collection (he himself referring to a ominous mountain of lead), of which I'm hoping to get at least a few done during the challenge.

Of course I had to come up with something to say thank you for such a generous deed. Remembering his soft spot for anything 'camel' I had a rummage through my treasure box and came up with something I thought appropriate.

So, here's my "thank you" to you Dave, a Centurion of the dromedarii:

The dromedarii or "camel riders" were auxiliary troops, reportedly first raised by emperor Trajan to help protect the eastern borders, especially against the Parthians and later Sassanids. We have to assume they were lightly armoured cavalry, probably mostly used for patrolling the dessert.

According to our sources the Parthians made use of cataphract camels, there's no evidence for their use by the Romans though. But as the Romans were never shy to at least try a new way of waging war before dismissing it, I thought it plausible that there could have been a unit at some point.

Evidence or not, It definitely makes for an interesting conversion.

The camel (or to be precise dromedary) was provided by A&A Miniatures and the shield decal is from LBM Studios, whilethe cataphract rider is from Aventine Miniatures. All three are companies I can't recommend highly enough.

It took me some work to make the rider fit properly, but nothing that couldn't be adressed with a sharp knife and some green stuff.

When it came to painting I was aiming for a eastern influenced, thus rather colourful look. In the end I think he might turned out a little too colourful maybe.

Still I hope Dave has some use for the figure. He'll wing his way to the island as soon as the holidays here in Germany are over.

Points wise I think this first entry is worth 10 points.

And now to our new "thing" the Challenge Tunes. A word of caution is necessary though. My taste (my wife denies it could actually be described as such) is rather rough, mostly German Punk and Hardcore as well as some of the harder Punk and Oi! stuff from the states and the island. So probably nothing for the faint hearted ;-)

Artist: Krawallbrüder
Song: Gott mit uns

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The first entry of the season from one of our most gifted brush-jockeys, Nick.

That is a beautiful piece Mr. N. and I know Dave will be delighted to add it to his growing collection of cam, er, dromedaries - lucky man. I really like the white and blue armour along with the matching barber pole lance. The polka-dot saddlecloth is an excellent touch as well. Stunning stuff. I think a few extra points are warranted for this 'hump conversion'. :)

I'm not even going to try to find that tune to listen to - it would only sully my high opinion of you, Nick. ;P

Again, lovely work.

From TomM: 10mm New Model Army Dragoons

On this most jolly of days, I had the benefit of being able to paint the whole afternoon and get a third entry done for the Challenge.

Not that I`m a painting maniac, those small scales tend to paint quicker then large models, but the GF is knocked out from last nights foodfest, and the fact she is a night shift nurse... so I`ll have the coming night all by myself as well with Gettysburg and the Dr Who special on the tele, and my brushes to keep me company.

But I get lost in chitchat... this entry is upping the scale a bit, as I went from 6mm of my previous entries to 10mm this time.  Around July I supported a Kickstarter from Lancer Miniatures, for a force of 10mm English Civil War models.  It got funded with a nice margin, and when it arrived I decided to put it to the side (like, about all my Kickstarters actually) just for this challenge.

You know, in case I would ran out of miniatures... *cough*

The first unit I painted as such for the army are these Dragoons, 4 to a base and 16 in total.  I am going to make the whole force for the New Model Army, yet decided on a fairly generic Parliament flag in order to not restrict the Dragoons to a specific battle or scenario.

It are rather lovely little sculpts in my opinion, and they are a great joy to paint.  I`m taking the Challenge as a way to get some forces either rounded out (my epic for example), or to start and perhaps even finish other project, like these little guys.

On to the next batch of models... before the time draught hits and my turn-out will invariably suffer from it ;-)

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Yes, I tell Lady Sarah that the bursting 'Lead Shed' in the yard is a contingency if I ever run out of miniatures in the house... The 'arched eyebrow held in frank disbelief' is a frequent feminine facial expression in our household...

Great work, Tom! I saw this Kickstarter when it came out and was sorely tempted. Your brushwork has kept them in good stead. I especially like their buff coats and the steel of their lobster helms. Do the upcoming pikemen have empty hands for brass/steel rod, or do they have cast-on pikes? I ask as I have a hangup about 'bendy' pikes. The old 12mm stuff from Musketeer Miniatures that I inherited have cast-on pikes which makes me crazy, having to clip them out, drill out the hands and then replace with brass. Anyway, first world problems, eh.

32 points to add to your total, Tom. Well done!

From PeteF: Ghar Battle Suit - Result of Butt Purchase (10 Points)

Earlier this year I was tracking 28mm starter armies on EBay and one morning woke up to an e-mail saying that my Ghar Starter army was on its way from Noble Knight Games. I had somehow butt purchased this rather than one of the Black Powder armies that I'd been tracking. What with shipping and everything I decided to keep the Ghar, thinking they'd be fun to paint. This is my first attempt - I decided to give it to my boy for Christmas and used his soccer shirt for inspiration.

The Ghar in Battle suits look angry - as do the ones out of battle suits (might get some of these done later in the Challenge). They remind me of a cross between the unstoppable robot in Hardware and the bad guys in Terminator. 

I ended up adding to my Beyond The Gates of Antares  Ghar and getting the rules thanks to being unable to resist some bargains on E-Bay. In the Antares rules these guys are a lot easier to kill than Terminators (or the aforementioned unrelenting killer droid). This is the view of the rear and side. There are these energy dot areas that I've tried to make look shiny. 

I might be asking for an airbrush for my birthday as I think that might help give future Ghar a smoother parade ground appearance. This one ended up more in campaign dress. I think my next Ghar are going to be either metallic (a bit rusty?) or Star Wars Imperial.

For the base I used some moss harvested from my yard - painted blue for whatever planet the Ghar are conquering and stuck with tiny sponge flowers.

Antares figures are 28mm but a Ghar battle suit stands 40mm high - so 7pts?

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Cool looking mini Pete! I have no idea of the term 'butt purchase' and am afraid of Googling it with company around - something for later. :0)

Your lifting of the colour scheme from your soccer jersey was inspired - it looks great in a sci-fi setting. I also like your alien groundwork, with its blue foliage. Obviously the Ghar are bringing the Smurf home planet into Imperial Compliance. Little, uppity blue gits, serves them right. ;) 

Let's call him the equivalent of a 28mm cavalry figure, so 10 points for you. Nice one, Pete!

From AlexS: "Animal planet" and some ghouls (245 Points)

Hello everybody! My name is Alex and I'm an paint-holic. Before beginning to paint 100500 zuluses soldiers of the Napoleonic era, I decided to finish the project, which was prepared for a year. For a whole year I carefully steal took away animal figurines from my children. So I painted them.

In my opinion, these figures will decorate the table during the games. They can stand among the trees in the forest or stand in the river or other kinds of terrain. It seems to me that this will make the gaming table more interesting. But they can be full participants in the battles. Someone wants to fight the crocodiles?

The following my figures are ghouls for the clan of "bronze fangs". I experimented with the airbrush and tried to make them both different and simultaneously in the same color scheme. It seems to me, at me it turned out.

In addition, I decided to do for this clan "big brother" - a bronze golem. I think it will be interesting for the game and for the general appearance of the clan.

Well, the general view of my work:

I think that now I can take a break in the experiments and start painting as usual - quickly and a lot.

15 animal  - 75 pts
33 ghouls - 165 pts
1 golem - 5 pts
total 245 pts

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Great work Alex! Your 'Bronze Fang' clan grows by leaps and bounds. It's very good of your children to volunteer their toys to you to 'improve' (I quite like the hippo) - at least they get to play with them after your finished your experiments! 

245 points for you, well done!