From TuomasL: The Horrors, the Horrors! (200 points)

Yay, first batch complete, lots of little monsters.

This is the start of my Chaos Daemon force with two main goals in mind. First I want a new army for playing 40k and I've been wanting to do Tzeentch for a long time. 

Second main thing is to learn to use my airbrush for more than priming and base coating. On these little fellows I practised painting fire with brimstone horrors and doing basic shading and more fire with the blue horrors.

First batch is basic Tzeentch daemons troops, namely 20 brimstone horrors and 20 blue horrors.

Onwards to more horror(s)! 

Welcome back Tuomas and which such a fun post too! If this entry is not in Challenge theme I do not know what is. I recently tried to do some fire-effect on some figures too and am in awe of the result of your labours! The flamers look downright brilliant and the blue horrors are superb too. It does make me want to know more about the plans for this new army of yours! Will there be a great Daemon Prince as your general? What other monsters will it include? Go on, get back to your brushes and bring us more to goggle at! 

From RusselG: Starter (30 points).

I have signed up again and taken a different approach this year.

Previously, I have aimed to complete certain projects en-masse, so this time I am picking up whatever I find that has been lying around for years or longer in the hope of eventually getting paint on everything on lead mountain.

So, to start of here are a few random 28mm figures

From left to right, 3 plastic Vikings from gripping beast, nice figures that will fill out the raiding party. A random metal figure, initially bought for my musings with the Ice and Fire GoT as a Jamie Lannister stand in, he looks more like Paul Hollywood of "bake off" fame with paint on him. A Gripping Beast? man at arms, a gift from Ross, a fellow blogger, and lastly another random that came in a box of other stuff, he looks slightly Arabic which is useless to me at the moment so has been painted as a dark ages trader.

A nice little start for 30 points.

Thank you for stopping by.

Welcome to the Tuesday crew and indeed the Challenge Russel! A lovely bunch of figures you've shown us today. I can relate to your idea of painting up those figures that have been "in cue" for quite some time, in order to clear them away from the unpainted pile. That way eventually you will be able to get cracking on the bigger projects without all the loose ends nagging at your conscience right? The Jamie Lannister stand-in and the Dark Ages trader are my favourites in this lot they really look the part. Are you going to continue with Game of Thrones? Would be great to see more of these lovely chaps and chapesses turn up on the Challenge pages! 

From PhillK: The Littlefolk Cometh (15 points)

Hello boys and girls,

I'd just like to say that I am very happy to once again be part of the Painting Challenge. The submissions so far have been tremendous in both quality and quantity and I hope to be able to contribute in some small way.

I thought I would finally submit something to this illustrious blog and, after starting about three different things, finally got something finished that I was happy with, and now will have some points on the board.

I present to you the first three gents for my Littlefolk army - eventually a confederation of Halflings, Gnomes, and Dwarves that I will be building over this Challenge and the next year, and probably forever. The force will be used largely for Dragon Rampant, but I intend it to reach a size and scale fit for Kings of War and other mass battle games, you know, eventually.

These miniatures are Shortlings from Slave2Gaming and are both absolutely wonderful sculpts and a joy to paint. I cannot recommend them enough to anyone looking to add some little lads to their table top arsenal.

That's all for now. Thank you for having a look at my first Shortlings and my first submission for Challenge VIII. I look forward to seeing all the wonderful things everyone here will produce over the next few months. Good luck to everyone.

Cheers,

Phill

3 x 28mm Shortlings from Slave2Gaming

Welcome back Phill, glad to have you with us!  What a lovely trio you've brought us today. I can all but see them fighting the Big Battle for the Shire against Sharky's gang. The colours are well chosen and the bases are very nicely done with them leaves added. Note to self: get some of those leaves for one's own bases. Might I ask what unit profile in Dragon Rampant you will give them? Light-, Heavy- or Hairy Foot? It will be great to see what other units you will add to this rather special army, can't wait!

From MartinC: PC Davros and Randomness Unbound (225pts)

I've had the week off and painting has taken place. Not at my previous frenetic pace but nice and steady. I've been painting what ever took my fancy, so this is about as random as submissions get.
I've also sorted out my camera and you can actually see the figures now.
1st up are some units for 6mm Team Yankee - we are planning a test game next Saturday and needed to complete some units - these are all Heroics and Ros figures that were bought as a joint 2nd hand purchase by me and JamesM at the Battleground show. They have been rebased and repainted. White flowers = unit commander and red flowers = section commander

6 Chieftan Tanks

3 Swingfire and 1 Abbot SPG

Armoured Infantry Platoon - 4 APC, 1 regimental commander in Spartan, 4 infantry sections, 3 Carl Gustav AT and a Mortar

From the sublime to the ridiculous and a 28mm Numidian Elephant. This is from the North Star Death in the Dark Continent Range and was very cheap. The riders are modified horsemen doing the splits, the elephant didn't look big enough for a howdah

For those that know me my collection  evolves around me buying bargains and I bought these American - Spanish war infantry in a sale from Northstar ( I do like Northstar) I think they are really cool

Upon near completion I realised that they have WW1 water bottles but not being a button counter they will be fine.

I've been working on some VBCW figures from the Warlord Operation Sealion collection and these include a Navy section

These are nice interesting figures with too many Molotov cocktails

All invasions need an advance guard of spies and my are German paratroopers dressed as nuns. These are great figures

Finally to keep law and order is the eponymous PC Davros. No matter how you paint his face he looks just like Davros

The tale of the tape is

14 x 6mm vehicles = 28pts

24 x 6mm infantry = 12pts

31 x 28mm infantry = 155pts

1 x 28mm elephant = No clue

I've also completed my model of Cornwallis and sent photos to Millsy to do with as he sees fit. Don't forget to vote

Gosh Martin you have taken us on a mighty fine journey through Military History with this post indeed! The ranks of Cold War armour look really intimidating and that Numidian tank is an awesome piece as well! As an aside, I too am very charmed by North Star and their produce/ service! The nuns and Davros (the likeness really is scary) must be the top of the 28mm foot figures you've painted but I like those sailors a lot too! In short a whopping great entry for today. Now as to the points, I've checked the precedents and Elephants in 28mm scale usually go for 30 points so that's what you'll be getting too. That would make your total 225 points.

From SebastianR: Rats! (10 points)

Hello everybody! With the holiday period now a sweet memory I have finally got round to some painting!

I must confess that I have been a long time admirer of the Challenge, but this is the first year I have joined, having missed the boat last year. It may have been something of a mistake as the things that delayed my first submission are going to continue to get in the way of painting. Nevertheless, I refuse to let this defeat me, nor will I let my first stab at this challenge sink into the no-submission abyss.

So with that out of the way, here's my first submission, some rats!

Look I'm working up to the big stuff alright?

So these little fellas are going to be providing XP to level one adventurers in both post apocalyptic wastelands and tavern cellars. I've never really seen what threat rats pose to a humans* (other than via the medium of disease obvs) in fact, I think they're rather cute, but I get that they're a staple, and these guys can double up as dire rats or those brain rats from Planescape: Torment that gain access to more powerful spells the more of them there are.

Look at his widdle paws!

The figures aren't great, they have a prominent mould line bisecting some of them that gives some of them a weird "sideways Trump hair flick"** if viewed from one side.

Another simple paintjob to go after BATMAN! I decided to go with an urban basing to make them fit in both dungeons and the blasted ruins of radioactive cities.

He just wants to hug... your face off!

For scoring purposes, they are 28mm rats, but are about the size a dog in 15mm. I leave it up to our much put upon Tuesday minion to score them. I'm hoping that dog sized miniatures in a given scale still get full points for that scale as my next submission will probably be... well... actual dogs.

With 15mm French soldiers for scale

*But of course D&D is a system where - rules as written - the average housecat will, on average, win a fight with the average peasant...

**Insert your own political joke here 

Since I am really bad at political jokes I'll just stick to the rats okay? ;-) Well they did bring up some associations for me indeed! Are you familiar with Terry Pratchett Sebastian? In one of his books: "The Amazing Maurice and his educated Rodents" rats play the main part. These rats, rather than the more generic swarms you can get from many regular figure ranges, have a lot of character and thus reminded me of that book. I think this is due to the fact there are more than one pose among them.
As to the points, I'm going to score them as 15mm infantry and thus they will net you another 10 points to the board.  

From Alex: 15mm Spearmen (16pts)

Hi,

It's rather a small post this week sadly, but it's something at least and a step closer to my target.

Today I have some of Essex miniatures 15mm Arab militia Spearmen, the figures are rather plain but they're also super clean and very easy to paint. I found 15mm figures with too much detail to be a bit of a chore to paint in all honesty, I'd rather save that for my 28mm minis.

These are part of an on going generic middle eastern crusader period army. I like the idea of choosing a specific army to recreate, but it limits the scope for opponents at the club unfortunately so I need to cover a few options in one army. The majority of my challenge will be to paint up more for this project as you'll see over the coming weeks.

 A nice group of Arab spearmen Alex! The shields are nicely done and although you say you did no fine detailing on them, the figures could have gone through for 28mm's if you ask me. So that brings us to the counting of points and yes 8 little 15mm soldiers bring you 16 points for the total. I cannot wait to see the rest of this army, perhaps a group-shot for all us Challenge Denizens perhaps? Anyway great stuff Alex!

From NoelW: ECW and Boxers (168 points)

Two different sets of figures this time.

Firstly, the beginnings of my ECW armies. For this period, I need to get lots of figures done in a comparatively short time, so the quality has to be middling - not my best, but good enough to get on the table. However, for general figures, personalities etc, I'm going to up the quality where I can. Sometimes I can't resist adding that one extra detail or highlight. Looking at these, the hoi poloi are a bit disappointing, and I may be forced back into a bit of touching up when I'm closer to finishing the whole ECW setup, but I think they're decent enough for the time being.

This first of my ECW are a unit of twelve infantry, six cavalry, and one general. There should be six more musketeers on their way, but they seem to have lost themselves somewhere in the muddy lanes of Yorkshire. (My target is for Marston Moor, sometime in the summer of this year).

I picked the general up in a miscellany of medievals, strangely. No idea of manufacturer, but I really like his flamboyant outfit, so painted him in line with some of the more extravagant costumes in the film "Cromwell". I can't imagine anyone actually going to war dressed like this.

I thought I might use him for Rupert, but he's not right for the role, really. (I imagine Rupert as mounted on a silver charger, waving a wild sword and shouting incoherent exhortations). However, he does seem the sort to follow Rupert's example of taking pets onto the field of slaughter, so he has an enthusiastic follower. Not sure of a name yet. Any suggestions?

My second set of figures are Austro-Hungarian sailors from the Boxer Rebellion. In Sheffield, we're lucky enough to have a wargames shop: Wargames Emporium, and they have their own range of games and figures: EMP games. They've some unusual and some weird and wonderful figures, including a Boxer Rebellion range. This is not a period I know much about, but they've asked me to paint a few samples for display. Chunky in style, they're easy to paint. It's not my job to advertise them, but they're worth checking out if you're interested in unusual figures.

So that's a total of 21 foot @ 5 points =105, six cavalry @10 points = 60 and a dog at, maybe 2 points? Total: 167.

What a great bunch of figures Noel! I really cannot choose between the ECW troops and the Russian Sailors. Oh if you point a gun at my head and force me to choose I'd probably go for the ECW figures because they include a dog and I do like dogs! Tell you what since I get to decide, I'll give you 3 points for the dog instead of 2, that sound okay? Apart from the excellent painting, you've done the bases up a treat as well!

Kent G 15mm Fallschirmjager & French Napoleonic 4 horse Limber (points 214)

The first entry is another give-away for my YouTube channel, I put it out there for people to send me the figures they no longer wanted to paint, as long as it wasn't  complete rubbish and these

Fallschirmjager promptly turned up in my letterbox along with some more figures that will be in my next post. They are the early Battlefront figures which I must admit I like far more than their new stuff.

Quite enjoyed the paint and once again gives me a break from French which seem to be taking a heck of a lot longer than I thought

Next up is a Napoleonic French 4 horse gun and limber team, that I didn't even know I had 

found it while looking for other figures, this is the second time I've painted this set and it was just as enjoyable as it was the first. I did make a mistake and undercoated it with the wrong primer which kept coming off so it will need a couple of layers of gloss coats to seal it then matt it back down again

not to sure on the points for this so have put 40 for the limber and

84 x 15mm inf = 168 points  plus 6 for the tank

Wow Kent, what a totally cool submission indeed! Those Fallschirmjäger really look the part and the panzer is also awesome, but I must say the limber is my favourite of the lot. There really seems to be a sense of movement in the figures and your prime painting really enhances that. I concur with your estimate of the points so that's another 214 points in the bag for you Kent!

From EricM: First Step into WW II (150 points)

This week I am moving into uncharted territory for me.   I know World War II is one of the most popular periods to war game but I have really never been pulled in. Well now that's going to change.
I decided to kick things off with some Germans. They fight just about everyone and they all wear gray... right?   Well no, in the last week or so I have discovered there is a bewildering array of  troops and uniforms.

This week I was able to complete 30-28mm mid-late war Germans.   I believe the figures are Artisan, but I am not positive.

Here is the group photo.   Below I have broken out the squads.

This squad has a mix of camo smocks .  Based on my research they would most likely be SS or possibly Panzer Grenadier.  Please correct me if I am wrong.

I really enjoyed painting these figures.  There were a few small issues in the sculpts where the body proportions seem off a bit.   For next week I will be painting more Germans and possibly moving on to my US troops. 

If anyone has a suggestion for a website with good uniform information please let me know. 

30-28mm figures should be 150 points

What a grand first entry into WW2 Eric! Those Germans look the part for sure! Have you got a certain rule-set for these in mind? Possibly Americans up next? Have you got any specific battle or campaign planned? D-Day, Normandy or Battle of the Bulge? As far as painting references go both Battlefront and Warlord have loads of articles on their site. I know the WW2 Buffs (which I am decidedly not!) will have better sites for you but as a starter these are not that far off!