From BenitoM - More British Oldies (72 points)

My second entry for the Challenge is a new bunch of British Napoleonic infantry for General d'Armee using my venerable Airfix minis (which as I explained in the first entry belong to the collection built in the early 70s).

Another 8 bases making two "standard" battalions including a battalion commander on horse. Unfortunately, as the song goes "the weather outside is frightful" these days and I've not been able to finish basing and varnish, as this is messy and I'm under orders form the High Command to do it ONLY outdoors.

Time now to conclude a 28mm Austrian unit that I expect to release here tomorrow or on Saturday.

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Cracking work Benito! The Old Skool Airfix love continues with another regiment of plastic nostalgia. I like that you're including a mounted officer with your regiment. It's not only classy, but it gives something for the French artillery to aim at - very sporting.

These lads will give you 72 points. Yeeah, I know, you were expecting a bit more, but I had to deduct 25% for them not having their basework completed. Sorry bud. You're going to need to renegotiate with Stavka for basing rights. I suggest opening with flowers, a movie and chocolates, then go from there. :)

From TomM: Alpine Gnome Crossbowmen and Gold Mage (55 Points)

My last entry for the year 2017 to this venerable challenge, I decided on a regiment of another Kickstarter that went relatively below the radar: Alpine Gnomes by OS (Old School) Miniature Company.

These dimunutive fellas, suited for 32mm games like Warhammer of 9th Age, are excellent replacements for Halflings.

You know, those guys that haven`t reappeared since the End Times, as the Moot disappeared probably between breakfast and second breakfast from the Warhammer world, and they are a still awaiting lunchies before returning.  So ruleswise, they are a Crossbow regiment now in my Empire army.

I grabbed the "army deal" from the Kickstarter, so I have a heap of other characters, a troupe of villagers and some regiments to go for them still, so that will make a nice small compartment of my total force, which I aim to get to 4000 points by august for a Big Battle Event at TSA.

The models themselves are lovely to paint, nice and clean sculpts and the alpine hats give them a nice touch.  But I struggle with the bases.  Lasercut MDF was`t "a thing" when I went on a more then a half decade long hobby sabbatical, and when I returned to the fold past may, it seemed to be everywhere.  I still haven`t figured out a (non spraycan or airbrush) way to "prepare" them for example, so sorry that they look rather simple.

The lava-esque colourscheme on the other hand is to be totally "fitting in" with the rest of my Empre force (it`s on my own blog if you want to see it, under the The Armies tab) as I located my army to the Realm of Fire when Age of Sigmar was picked up by yours truly half a year ago.

I wish you all the best for 2018, and may all your (hobby) dreams come true!

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Haha, these are very charming little guys, Tom. Your painting has really done a great job in highlighting their character (the wizard cracks me up). I actually quite like the bases - they have an almost anime look about them. 

55 points for you, sir! Happy New Year!

JamieM - Some Superheroes (26 Points)

I feel like something of a laggard with so many great posts having already been put up on the challenge blog!  It's great to see so many people working away with the brushes to get things done.

As this is my fourth time of taking the Challenge, I thought I'd actually take my own advice for once and go for a small submission to start and get some points on the board.  So here they are, four superheroes:

I'm intending to use them for "Pulp City", a rather fun little superheroes game with it's own characters that I haven't played nearly enough.

This first chap will be "Father Oak", a Powerhouse in the terminology of the game who is a hero and aligned to the "Nature" faction in the game.  The figure is from Black Scorpion from the Bloodbowl/Fantasy football range and is brilliantly detailed.

He was originally going to be brown with green leaves, but the colour scheme sort of took on a life of it's own whilst I was painting and he ended up a little more green/grey in the trunk so I thought perhaps a red leaf would work better.

These next three are spandex clad superheroes, from the Reaper Bones Chronoscope range, which sadly appears to have been discontinued now they're all about slightly wobbly plastic instead.  So for once it's a good thing that I bought them a while ago to sit in the lead mountain "Just in case they're discontinued"!  Having now succeeded once with that excuse, I shall feel justified in using it going forward more often..... I believe a couple were sculpted by Patrick Keith of Bombshell miniatures fame - I do like his work having previously showcased some of his Counterblast figures and I hope to paint more of his sculpts during the challenge.

I've no real plans for which hero each will be, I just gave them a classic two tone scheme each and based them on street bases that I carve myself from plasticard and stick to lipped bases.  They may end up as heroes or villains, as every good comic book story needs generous helpings of both.

I went a little more extreme on the highlights than I normally do, but the joy of painting only a few figures instead of a regiment of forty allowed me to take my time a little more.

I've always liked superheroes (who hasn't?) and working in a comic shop during my holidays during University was without doubt one of the best jobs I ever had.  Spandex clad superheroes are the classics in my eyes and these three will be joining my other figures and will be taking to the streets of Pulp city hopefully very soon!

Without further ado, it's three 28mm figures and a slightly larger chap who is 50mm to his eyes, so I'll leave the scoring to our esteemed host.

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Welcome back to the Challenge Jamie! Mr. Morton will be gracing us by being our Thursday minion once we get our eye in for January.

You've done beautiful work on these, Jamie. Father Oak is a superb. I really like the aged grey you've gone with for him and the red leaves are a great counterpoint. 

Oddly enough, I'm one of the rare few that never really took to spandex superheroes, but I readily admit these are pretty darn spectacular. I love the vibrant colours you've use for them, especially the one in yellow and green - wow, you could see her coming a mile away. I also like the bespoke concrete/flagstone bases that you made - very apropos for Pulp City.

I'm assuming Father Oak is around 54mm so lets say 26 points including another for the bases.

From KeithS: Welsh Archers (120 points)

My #1 priority this challenge is to finish up a force of Welsh and one of Irish in 28mm for use in Saga.  I decided on the Welsh first mainly because I have more of them than the Irish, and I am usually good about doing the harder tasks first.  With these ones, I got two (TWO!) starter armies from my Dad this past year, so there's quite a pile of them coming.  Up first, two dozen archers.

All of these and the chaps to follow are from Gripping Beast.  I'm generally pretty happy with their stuff...much better than the Saxons and Vikings I did from Wargames Factory for the challenge a few years back. 

Here's the obligatory family photo with all 24.  I think I managed to make them all a little different (though all got dark hair, being Welshies and all).  The one thing I'd like would be a little more variety in poses, but overall I'm fine with what I got.

 

Here's a closer up shot of a few of the lads.  Seeing as how the archers are the budget units for Saga, I avoided doing any clothing too fancy - I mean, for goodness sakes, none of them has shoes even!  I gave one guy (center) a fully checked tunic, but the rest just got basic or slightly fancier stripes.

I kept the color palette pretty simple, too -- standard Dark Age colors without anything too fancy.

From the back.  Again, simple and rather humble archers who probably only joined up for some food and maybe the hope of someday getting shoes.

I have another glob already in the works, this time of spearmen.  Hopefully I can get them done in the next few days, though Christmas and post-Christmas activities have eroded a lot of free time.  At least I got all the weapons and shields painted today (and those shields are a bear...).

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Great looking archers Keith! I like the patterns and edging you painted on their cloaks and jerkins - you have to give them something to take pride in. I also like your choice of natural muted tones - I often go too vibrant in my efforts and then have to desperately wash them to tone them down. 

I know I've said this in a previous Challenge, but that curtain wall terrain piece is ace. Remind me, is it from Vatican Enterprises? Nonetheless, you may need to kindly whisper to the fellows in the last photo that shooting at a stone wall is not going to get them anywhere at all. Nonetheless, let's hope their hard service sees them with shoes, or at least a few socks to share among themselves. 

120 points for you, Keith, well done! Now, bring on those Men of Harlech spearmen. :)

From KyleC: Randoms (35 Points)

Random Wednesday post of randomness...

I say this as I have been working building up my 2 Chaos Knight/Titans ( dunno what they would be in the end! )... and in between the drying of the putties I have been painting some randoms.

First up is the 2nd Deamon Prince ( the 1st being completed previously ). I think the purple really shines on this and I am really happy with how it came out in the end.

He now sits in with the rest of the army as a whole in the above photo.. so happy with how it looks and more so with how it plays up!

But speaking of randoms, I also have painted up the 2 new pieces from www.mrleesminis.com that will be released in January. Mini-busts that will be supplied with magnets to make them sit nicely on the fridges and painting lamps of many a painter world wide :D

The Beaver Lumberjack Skull and the old bearded man. Both sculpted by a good friend of mine out of Ukraine and a lot of fun to paint up. Quick pieces that stand about 30 and 40 mm each. I suspect I will need to paint more of them and try out new things like OSL or something.

Last piece painted is this quirky little pumpkin from another good friend of mine, this time from Greece. I was painting this up alongside my wife while she tried her hand at hers. Worked on it to give her some moral support as she was painting so that I could show her some steps as and when she asked.

And the 2 pieces I am working on building up and looking forward to painting very soon!

Monsters in their own rights... and taking their time and then some to get done right before I even think about painting them up!

Enjoy!

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Ooh, what a wonderfully varied and fun post! Absolutely lovey stuff, Kyle. Your Daemon Prince is marvellously icky, I especially like his purple guts and nasty rusted blade - his gasmask covered head is particularly chilling. 

Your two fridge magnets/busts are excellent as well. The skin tone on the bearded fellow is superb and that pumpkin is just plain demented (I love his ripening green topknot/stem. Excellent stuff. 

Finally, the sneak peak shots of your upcoming Chaos knights are very tantalizing. It's plain that there is some serious conversion work going on - I look forward to seeing these two done and stomping onto the blog to be viewed in all their horrific glory. 

As to points, I'm going to call the Daemon Prince similar to a dreadnought, while the busts and pumpkin being equal to 28mm models.   So, with a bit added for the conversion work, we'll call it 35 points. Thanks for treating us to your 'randoms'!