From SeanS - Bretonnian Foot Knight Standard Bearer and Mounted Knight (16 Points)

Hi All,

I know it's small, but this is the post that almost wasn't. These two are the only ones out of a total of 26 that I started after Dec. 20th for a thing we're doing with Iannick over at the Old World Army Challenge. They required some additional assembly and I almost gave up on the whole month several times as I wasted time doing things that turned out to be totally unnecessary.

In the picture I can see where I put my thumb in wet paint on the base, I had trouble with the lighting in the room and was rushing a tad while finishing these. The banners need a little more work, but I'm not certain that they'll survive the trip back home in my luggage, so they're good enough.

Only 15 points by my count, but you eat an elephant one bite at a time.

Thanks for looking.

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Welcome back to the Challenge, Sean! 

OldHammer Bretonnians, very cool. I like the deep red you've used for these two and the raw wood lance is the business, none of this fancy barber pole malarky.

'I wasted time doing things that that turned out to be totally unnecessary.' Oh man, I'm completely with you on this one, Sean. I often feel so scattered that its amazing that I get anything done at all. With that being said you've done a great job on these two. Now, let's see the rest.

15 points, plus another for the flag and pennant. Well done Sean!

From BrettM: Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe / The Walking Dead (30 Points)

Pretty pleased on how this turned out considering it is a diorama pretty much for the walking dead game by Mantic. Got a couple cards for the game with it and only able to use Negan in the game from what I painted. However looks a lot better than I thought it would once painted up.

I'd love to say I did the tire tracks etc on the base. However it all came together was a nice big resin base. Tire tracks are a bit above my skill level as of now.

Trying to get a close up of their faces. Not easy Didn't go into much detail on the faces anyways.

All are in 28mm. Figured it would be scored at 6 figures total even though there are 7 total bodies. 2 are pretty clumped together so only 1 figure imo. 30 points to start this years challenge out with.

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Welcome back to the Challenge, Brett!

This is a pretty chilling vignette. I've not kept up with the show so I'm a little in the dark with what's going on, but obviously it's pretty bad. Figures look very good, especially the villain with that nasty barbed wire wrapped bat (yikes). I also like that you didn't go over the top with the grass on the groundwork - it has a great balance between it and the bare ground with it's well-defined tire marks. 

30 points for your debut this year, Brett. Nicely done!

From AlexK: 1st Points Drop of the Challenge (64 Points)

Hi fellow painting enthusiasts,

My name Alex and this is my first entry in my first Challenge and is a direct result of Challenge preparations. After several nights of trimming, glueing, sanding and priming I took a few hours off in front of the telly as part of a well earned break (as we all know prep is very tiring!?). As I skipped channels I came across re-runs of 'Band of Brothers', specifically episodes 6 & 7. Now as far as inspirational material goes it is pretty hard to beat and I couldn't help but paint up some U.S airborne....after a bit more prep.

The figures are from the 15mm FoW 'Open Fire!' Set and range wildly in quality from very good to absolute rubbish, but over all I'm quite happy with them. Altogether there are 24 infantry figures and 4 crewed weapons.

This was a nice little project to get me under way and the snow bases were a nice change of pace from the usual sand and dirt.

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First, welcome to the Painting Challenge, Alex!

I remember those Band of Brother episodes clearly and can understand how they could inspire you to your brushes. These paras are terrific, Alex. I like how distinct their webbing and gear is, and the snow bases have a great balance between desolate frozen ground and being snow-covered. 

64 points for your first entry to the Challenge roster. Well done, Alex!

Yet more Bolsheviks - MartinC (140 Points)

I've finished my Bolshevik infantry, for now. These are more of the Copplestone Figures and have some bad mould lines that I should have worked on more. The painting is OK but I'm still ramping up my painting. Always takes me a couple of weeks to sort out my technique after a long break - I kinda forget how to paint, and I never knew how to photograph.

Infantry

Infantry

Er....Infantry

Cavalry, no wait, Infantry

Lewis gun support

Officers and Commissars - love the megaphone

Maxim gun

The basing is simple and is supposed to represent the Steppe in Autumn - mud.

That is 26 infantry, 3 prone figures and a gun. 

Time to move on to something different.

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More Bolshie reinforcements, Urahh! 

Those two Commissars are suitably inspirational (though I suppose anybody is 'inspirational' when they have a Makarov pointed at your head) and I really like the emplaced HMG team as well. Wonderful work Martin. I really quite enjoyed this project of yours and am sorry to see it come to a close. Nonetheless, you've inspired me to get some more of my RCW done so they've moved up the list a few spots - thanks for that! :) 

149 Points for your sterling efforts. Well done, Martin!

From MilesR: Frostgrave Barbarians & Ghost Archipelago Crewmen (125 Points)

 Switching from WW2 to fantasy painting is a bit of a relief.  First up are 20 plastic crewmen figures from Northstar's new Ghost Archipelago line.  "GA" is the next version of Frostgrave which is an extremely fun game that finds a good balance between wargaming and RPG's.  These figures are meant to be rank and file troops for a players faction and will prove useful in a lot of scenarios.

 I also picked up a sprue (5 figures) of plastic Frostgrave Barbarians and they were also a lot of fun to paint up.

There you have it - 25 figures provides a 125 point boost to my tally.

Until the next time!

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Great work Miles! I've seen these advertised and they look like fun figures to paint. I like how you've painted them up to be a motley group of sea-dogs. I think I may have to pick some of these up to fill in as Renaissance corsairs - with a bit of work they'd fit the bill nicely.  

A tidy 125 points to put you back into the lead - for now. 

Well done, sir!

From LeeH : Zulu iNkobamakhosi Regiment (300 Points)

My big project this winter is a radical move away from the Ancients and WWII Desert stuff I have worked on in previous Challenges. I have been thinking, planning, reading and preparing to do the Anglo Zulu War in 6mm for some time and being a crazy madman I immediately decided to go for a low figure to man ratio; meaning I was going to be painting very large numbers of figures. My first entry for this project is therefore 12 bases of Zulu warriors of the iNkobamakhosi regiment. Each base has 48 figures and representing about 500 warriors per base so this lot is a 6000 warrior regiment.

As usual Baccus figures have excellent detail and were a pleasure to paint. I didn't find them particularly difficult to complete; the real test when working on hundreds of identical figures is that of infinite patience and the ability to 'zone out' a bit while painting. Fortunately I enjoy listening to music while painting and that helps the time shoot past.

The iNkobamakosi (aka "The Benders of the Kings") were a large unmarried regiment that fought in many of the major engagements in the Anglo Zulu War including Isandlwana, Hlobane, Khambula and Uhlundi. The shields were of various colours such as black, black with white spots, red and red with white spots so I have tried to represent this here. Accounts of the size of this regiment varies from as as low as 4000 warriors up to 8000 depending which source you look at. I have gone with a middle figure of 6000 for now, but may add to these at a later stage.

Painting 576 Zulu's in one batch was a tough effort and probably not something I'll do again in a hurry! Subsequent regiments that are planned for the Challenge are much smaller and therefore should be much more manageable. 

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Wow! 576 Zulus in one submission - that is an absolutely amazing block of work, Lee. Bravo! 

I like your large figure-count approach to this project. I think its good to reflect the mass of these Zulu regiments to help put these battles into perspective. The closeup of the figures is astonishing. I love the detail you put into their shields, headgear, ruffs, etc. Wonderful work.

This regiment will give you 288 points which I'm going to pip-up to 300 for the care and attention (and gruelling dedication) you've put into getting them done in such short order. Well done! 

From BenitoM - Legions of Kaiser Franz (40 points)

Third submission to the Challenge but the first of 28mm scale (THE scale). I started mid-year a new project of Austrian Napoleonics after reading the Thunder in the Danube trilogy in early 2017. These are the latest reinforcements of the Kaiser’s forces: a battalion command base and a line infantry base.

The fusiliers are from Perry and the command from Victrix. How both brands compare, some of you may be wondering? On the negative side they lack the Perry’s super-high level of sculpting; and among other defects, they have very marked mould lines and the heads show an ugly hole on the top of the shakos (probably from the injection point) that needs to be mended with green stuff or a drop of glue. On the positive, the boxes have two command sprues (each with a mounted colonel, an officer a pied, drum and flag bearer) and have a more variety of poses.

Overall I’m happy with the Victrix and I’ll be starting now some Landwehr battalions using the Victrix bodies that provide many different poses and variation combined with spare militia heads from the Perry boxes.


The line fusiliers just painted are the last company of 3^rd Regiment Erzherzog Carl Lower Austrian that I painted the past summer while the command base makes the first company of the 59^th Regiment Jordis Upper Austrian. For game purposes (using General d’Armee) I’m using 4 bases for standard battalions (16 minis) and 6 bases for large battalions (24 minis). Each Austrian Regiment had between 2 and 4 battalions with 1,000 men per battalion… so these means a lot of models to paint; however these numbers are on paper, and the battle order strength to be significantly lower


I’m also quite happy with my colonel paint work. Gold thread embroidment used in the riding saddle and the colonel sash is not easy to paint and many painters uses metal gold colours which is not very realistic.


Discussing the issue with some of the best painters in my club, they gave me solution that I’ve been using extensively: paint as base colour Mahogany Brown (Vallejo 846), apply a first light with Gold Brown (877) and the final third light with Golden Yellow (948). You can highlight the most prominent parts with a few small strokes of white.

An additional 40 points (6 foot x 5 + 1 mounted x 10) for both my overall Challenge and the Black Powder Duel scorings.


As this is likely to be my last post of the year, let me wish you a very happy and prosperous 2018, health and success both on the personal and professional fronts. Personally 2017 has been a very bad year with a serious health scare at home and I don’t see the moment to say farewell to it.

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Lovely work on these, Benito. I always like seeing Napoleonics in this scale as it better showcases their uniforms and equipment detail. After having used both Perry and Victrix plastics I have to say I prefer the Perry stuff better as it's less fiddly to put together and their parts seem to be more robust (I'm already having issues with the Victrix bayonets breaking from being too thin). That being said, you are right, the Victrix models allow one do more customisation and using both kits is a real boon to creativity.

Your officer figure is beautiful and I really like your work on the horse's face - lovely stuff. I'm going to try that gold braid recipe to see how it works out. Thanks for the tip!

Happy New Year, Benito! 2017 was a bit of a bear so let's hope 2018 treats us all better.

    

From JohnM: More Terrain, I'm Afraid

I suspect terrain pieces are a little more boring than figures, but I had quite a bit sitting around so I am happy to get a lot of it painted.

My gaming area is quite a mess, mostly because of the amount of terrain I have accumulated over the years. I am working to thin it out now and this means tossing stuff I will never use and get things painted that I might use. I saw some nice rolling bins at the Container Store the other day that will do well for terrain storage but the stuff is a little pricey so I want to make sure I utilize it to the maximum.

First up are some resin hedges that bought in a Kickstarter a couple of years ago from a company called Small Terrain, which unfortunately went bottoms up. A shame really as their pieces were quite nice. As you can see I bought quite a bit, roughly 18' I believe. Over the last couple of days I painted up the 8" pieces, I still have a number of 4" pieces to paint as well as some 6" corners.

They were primed black; the greenery was then heavily drybrushed with Thalo Green, then Sap Green 1:1 mixed with white followed by a light drybrush of Cadium Yellow. The dirt was heavily dry brushed with Raw Umber, then Raw Sienna followed by Titanium White. The rocks were then picked out with black, and successive lighter greys. As you can guess from the names I use Artist Acrylic Pastes, a little expensive maybe but great for this type of work.

As you can see they are 25mm high as you can just see these 28mm Alban Miniatures.

Maybe a little high for 1/72 but will do as hedges, not really tall enough for bocage .

We have a 140" here, almost 12'

I have done a lot of searching around for stone walls for my 1/72 WWII games and I found that for the price Italeri hard plastics are the best value and quality. Here we have 1 sprue, I have 8 sprues to paint. They very easily form corners and each sprue has a gate and nice end pieces. They are quite stable on gaming mats and do not tip over like some other wall I have used. 

Each Sprue has about 3' of walls

I think about 20mm high

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Great work John. Though it's taking a little work to figure out the inclusion of terrain seems to be striking a cord with a lot of people and I'm delighted that you're getting to work on some things that you'd normally not during the winter.

Those hedges look very nice and quite robust. As you say, it's a shame that the business went under as I think there'd be a few interested in picking some of these up. The tip on the Italeri is excellent, I didn't realize they sold walls separately. I'm going to have to check that our for my own 20mm collection. 

John tells me that this haul would fill over three 6x6 cubes so lets call it 60 points for the lot. 

A tidy return on your investment, John!

From MichaelA: Sadako & Well (Ring) (15 Points)

I trust that you have all had a good Christmas and allow me to wish you a very happy New Year!  With the news that terrain would now garner points, I had hoped to snag a couple of easy wins with some plastic and resin scenery - I wonder how many Renedra barns we will see this winter?  I know I have one primed and ready to go!  That said as soon as I saw Curt's stunning, opening entry, I was so inspired that I had to try something a little different.

This then is my homage to the Ring, a 1998 Japanese, psychological, horror film directed by Hideo Nakata.  A wonderfully odd piece of celluloid that revolves around a cursed videotape that kills the viewer seven days after watching it.  Without wanting to give too much away a young girl, Sadako is killed and her body disposed of in a well; her grisly return forming part of the cursed tape.

The build started with a Fenris Games well, but thinking that I might want to use it in my 'Witchfinder' games, I added some little extras in the form of a rope and bucket, some mushrooms and even the remains of some luckless soul, perhaps Sadako herself?

I have subsequently 'filled' the well with some epoxy resin, which helps to convey a much needed feeling of depth to the piece.  As for Sadako, this was another of my Studio Miniatures horror characters and was relatively simple to paint on account of her damp, matted hair covering her face.  So hopefully my first points on the board and with a suitably monstrous theme to boot, let's see how many more times I get distracted before the challenge is over! 

Artist: Beyoncé

Title: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)

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Ahh, it's great to see you back with us Michael. Welcome to the Challenge.

What a wonderfully evocative (and seriously creepy) vignette. I loved 'The Ring', even though it scared the bejezzus out of me. The film has a great aesthetic which I think you've done an admirable job conveying here. I particularly like the little details you've added like the mushrooms and the rope and pale next to the well. You need to come back with another shot of it with the addition of the epoxy resin water - I'd like to see the effect of that with the human remains just below the surface. 

An excellent opening to your Challenge this year. Now, get ready for your minion duties next week - I think you'll be busy. :)

AND with Michael's entry we now have half of the participants with points on the roster. Great work people!! Let's keep the steam up.

From GregB - Prussian Jagers in 28mm for the Franco-Prussian War (75 points)

28mm Prussian Jagers for the Franco-Prussian War from Helion

Well, no big surprise for my third submission - more 28mm Franco-Prussian War stuff! This time it is two squads (I think?) of Prussian Jagers for the Franco-Prussian War.  These are 28mm castings purchased via Eagles of Empire, but the castings are actually the Helion range, and are being sold by Eagles of Empire through some manner of partnership arrangement with the good people of North Star Miniatures.

One squad of Jagers - I used tufts of blue flowers to help with quick ID on the table

Where the Eagles of Empire castings have certain unique characteristics - thin bodies, skinny weapons and necks, and are rather tall - these Helion castings are much more classic and robust "heroic" 28mm wargaming miniatures.  They were a real treat to paint, and unlike some of my Eagles of Empire figures, I'm not convinced the rifles will all snap off at some point.

Senior officer on a hex-shaped base - this is a system used by Curt to help with quick table identification, one I have copied repeatedly...

There is one senior officer (on a hex-shaped base) and two squads of seven figures, each led by an NCO on a square-shaped base.

The Jagers add a splash of colour and dash to the otherwise dour appearance of the Imperial Prussian Army in the 1870 period.  They are also devoid of the goofy pointy-helmets, clad in shakos that are more reminiscent (to me) of the earlier Napoleonic era.  Generally speaking, each Prussian corps had one battalion of Jagers attached to perform the various and sundry "light" infantry tasks that somehow rendered them to be considered as "elite".  While Jagers were a smaller proportion of the overall infantry contingent of the Prussian army in 1870-71, for skirmish purposes I'm pretty sure they would be a common sight, so I wanted to include some in my Prussian forces for skirmish games in that setting.

The "red-flowered" squad

I was confused by the different colour references I found for these troops - whether the buttons and cipher etc were gold or brass, whether the facings were red or white, and what shade the green was supposed to be...I think it varied depending on whether they were in a "guard" unit or not.  I wanted my lads to be a regular joes, and so hopefully found colours that matched the regular battalions.

A view showing the mess kit, and of course, the ubiquitous long coats tied around the bodies of the troops...

As for the shade of green, well, sometimes you have to go with what paints you happen to have on hand...so to the surprise of nobody, this shade of green rather closely matches that seen on the armour plates of my 16th Legion forces for 30k sci-fi gaming *cough*.  Oh well...something something historical records whatever...

There are fifteen 28mm figures here, which I think should give my a 75-point shot in the arm - and an opening to a weekend of Franco-Prussian points bombing! 

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Brilliant work Greg. I have to say I like these sculpts better than the 'stock' Eagles to Empire' stuff. As you say, they have a more robust, rounded look to them. 

I'm not sure on the correct green myself, but these look wonderful with their shades and highlights. I also really like the sharp brushwork on their short shakos, especially with the unit badge and cords. 

Looking forward to seeing the next unit in this project!

From DebD: Reaper: Jolie, Female Scribe

Hello! This is my first year participating in the painting challenge, although I have watched others participate for years. For my first post, I thought something winter-y would be nice, so I picked Jolie from my Reaper stash. Since it took me 8 days to post, I am realizing that I will have to pick up the pace.

Scale: 28mm

Mfg: Reaper Miniatures

Product: 02835: Jolie, Female Scribe

Material: Metal

Jolie is likely to turn unsuspecting visitors to icicles...

Writing small words on the book was easier than i suspected.

The base was made from Sculpy clay and a Green Stuff World roller. Making bases with these rollers is very fun!

The accessories in the back could have more detail. Something to work on for next time.

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First off Deborah, welcome to the Painting Challenge.

This is a superbly painted figure. I really like your choice of colours and your brush control for her facial features is terrific (the eyes are amazing). I also like your bespoke base, especially the ring of frost around Jolie - a very nice effect (I say 'nice' when it is currently -44 C here with the wind chill). 

I'm going to mark this one down for 'Sarah's Choice' as I'm sure she'll be very impressed with it. 

7 points for your debut on the roster, which includes a few more for your customizations. Lovely work and again, welcome to the Challenge Deborah.