From IannickM : Zrazoig and Fang (12 pts)

A small entry today in terms of figures, but a big one in terms of power (and points) for the Oldhammer Forest Goblin army I've been working on in the last two months.

I present to you Zrazoig, the almighty Shaman, and his trusted sacred spider, Fang the hairy.

The figure was released in 1991 by Marauder Miniatures, now long gone. Formed in 1988, and announced in WD106, Marauder's miniatures were cast and distributed by Citadel alongside the normal Citadel ranges, although at one time they were using the Wargames Foundry facilities. They were reabsorbed back into the main Citadel ranges in 1993, about the same time that the 4th edition of Warhammer was launched. Not surprisingly, the orc and gobbo ranges matches perfectly with the 4th edition goblins.

Another figure from the heydays of the late 80s and early 90s, it oozes charm. It was also incredibly easy to assemble, being basically a three piece figure (spider head, rest of the body and then the shaman). He's going to be the main magic user in my Forest Goblin army. Once again I found a way to incorporate yellow and orange to tie it with the rest of my army. Most of the spider symbols on my goblins are orange, so I figured it would make sense the sacred spiders from that Forest would be at least partially orange!

I thought it would be cool to show a pic of the progress I've made on this project since I started the project in November. The archers were painted just before this Challenge started. 

There's lots of goblin infantry in the pipeline, and I have high hopes of submitting many more between now and March 20th!

So that's one mounted figure; 5pts for the Shaman and, I'm not sure, maybe 7pts for the spider, considering it's larger than a horse and it's sitting on a 40mm base? Which would make 12pts.

Welcome to Thursday posts Iannick!  You're my last post of the day and what a belter to end on.  That old school army is coming along the treat and this nice bright fellow looks like he could scare the Elves out of Loren should he weave his spells as he wants to (after a mushroom or two no doubt?).  The hair is brilliant and I think he epitomises the fun side of goblins.  I'm looking forward to the rest of the gobboes and I'm a reasonable merciless overseer minion..... so shall we say the first unit of 50 by next Thursday? ;)

From GregB: More Cold War Armour (62 points)

More Bundeswehr armour in 15mm to reinforce the NATO lines!

I got such a jolt from painting 15mm Cold War armour - a subject my paint brushes have not touched for close to a year or more - that I just kept right on going through the week!  Once I started to tackle my unpainted collection of Bundeswehr armour in 1/100 scale from Battlefront, I felt more and more that I didn't want to stop until I got through almost all of the lot I had accumulated over the prior 18 months. And so, here is yet more Bundeswehr armour in 15mm.  The models are nearly all from Battlefront, with one exception, which you will see more on below.

As before, these are painted in my best approximation of the West German three-colour camouflage scheme.  Templates were used to apply the paint to these vehicles in depots, and so I tried my best to have the camouflage pattern on each vehicle to be generally similar. Let's take a look at some of the different AFVs in this batch.

Luchs wheeled armoured recon vehicles - 1/100 models from Battlefront

Up first are the Spähpanzer Luchs, 8-wheeled armoured recon vehicles.  As you can imagine, they are engineered for speed, moving rapidly about to track the various movements of their Warsaw Pact opponents.

Certainly looks like a sporty ride...

In the event of a tussle with the enemy they carry a turret-mounted 20mm cannon to help out in lighter encounters, and deal with opposing recon elements they might encounter.  They are lightly armoured, however (as you might expect) and so will not last long against any direct fire from enemy tanks or missiles.

Well-executed mixed resin and metal kits from Battlefront

Many rules try to give players reasons to use recon-themed elements like this in their games, and "Team Yankee" is no exception, but I find the games we really like to play are ones where a battle develops, and given that the players have a birds' eye view of the forces on the table, it is very hard to make recon elements as important to wargamers as they are to actual commanders in the real battlefield. In a real conflict, vehicles like the Luchs would be providing essential information to panzer and panzer grenadier commanders.  On a wargame table, you hope they knock out something useful before they are hit by a 125mm tank round fired in anger by Soviet players who were unable to successfully target anything larger on the NATO side...

Despite these issues, I like how cool these models look, and it's fun to try and put together different kinds of forces to give some variety to the gaming scenarios we can put on.

A zug of Leopard 1 tanks - models from Battlefront

Up next we have some West German MBTs – these Leopard 1s.  By the time of the (thankfully) fictional battles envisioned by the game “Team Yankee”, the Leopard 1s had moved out of main frontline service, replaced by the heavier Leopard 2s, and into a heavy-support role for the scouting elements of the panzer and panzer grenadier formations. 

Love the look of these German tanks! The Leopard 1 is another classic Cold War vehicle

The kits from Battlefront are a treat to work with - phew!

The Leopard 1 tanks are fast (you know, for tanks), and with a well-designed 105mm main gun, can certainly dish out severe punishment to Warsaw Pact tanks.  Plus, they just LOOK so cool – the main battle tank answer to a fine-looking German sports car! But their armour cannot be counted on to absorb the 125mm return fire of the Soviet side, so the commanders and crews of these vehicles need to keep moving and be very careful when and how they engage the enemy.

So often NATO players are content to see their small number of scary tanks blast away, but they will need to be a little more clever when using vehicles like the Leopard 1. 

A 15mm Leopard 1 from the Plastic Soldier Company - an excellent kit! Note, however, the crew are still from Battlefront, just to maintain consistency with the other West German vehicles

One of these models – to be used as a command vehicle - is from the new 15mm Leopard 1 box offered by the fine folks at Plastic Soldier Company.  There was a hiccup with the initial release of these models as the first wave of kits did not include a hatch for the driver (oops!) but they sorted all of that out in short order, and I can readily recommend you purchase them if this tank is something that interests you!

The other three are mixed resin and metal kits from Battlefront.  I’m pleased to say the quality here was very good!

Also, the Leopard 1 was still used as a frontline main tank by several other NATO allies, including Canada! Something I hope to have more about in later Challenge submissions…

Two more modern-day "big cats" - Leopard 2s on the prowl for Warsaw Pact targets

A commander popped out of the hatch to help make it easier to find the command tank on the table

And finally here are two more of the Leopard 2s…Battlefront sells these in packs of five models, so I thought I would finish these to join the other three I had painted for last week.  As before, these are very, very fine plastic models from Battlefront…my only quibble is the very vulnerable connection for the cupola MG…hopefully they will last for a while…

Ready for gaming action in "Team Yankee"!

So that is another 10 vehicles in 15mm, which should hopefully net me another 60 points toward my goal.  That’s all for now – see you again next week!

Good Lord man, you spent all last week painting the SAME camo on squadrons of vehicles and then decided that the appropriate course of action this week was to do MORE of the same?!?!?  If I weren't also a wargamer and painter myself, I may question your sanity.... but as I am both of those things I instead admire and salute your work sir!

These vehicles are ace with your signature detailed bases to boot.  Seeing the Leopards 1 & 2 together is great as you can really see how much more advanced and with a flatter profile the 2 is.  The 1 looks almost WW2 in comparison......

Totally with you on the recce too, wargames really can't get over the importance of this stuff and does often end up just as lightly armed vehicles that brew up super quickly.

Cracking painting all round and I'm awarding an extra 2 points to represent the 2 weeks you've spent squinting at 15mm vehicles to get the camo the same on them ;)

From RossM: 15mm Undead and Retro 28mm Chaos Warriors (42 pts)

Here are the pictures for my first entry to this year's Challenge.

My personal theme for the challenge this year was previous years and the first pictures here go back to 2015's challenge when I submitted a range of retro Citadel Warriors of Chaos with pre-slotta bases - the good old days. 

For both figures have opted for a limited pallet and feel that the finish works well.  The contrasting black and yellow on the left figure is going to attract a lot of attention on the table top.

Both figures have aged well considering they are thirty plus years old and there was no visible signs on any decay. The visor on Goldie was a bit worn but other than that all good.

These retro figures will see use in Songs of Blades and Heroes and Open Combat in the coming months; well hopefully. 

Next is a return to last year's challenge and the Hordes of the Things Undead army in 15mm. 

The figures are from Alternative Armies 15mm range and do exactly what it says on the tin. 

Shown here with their Lord and master - who is not included in this years challenge and never quite made last years. 

Hope that you enjoyed these and please comment

Cheers for now
Ross

Welcome to the challenge Ross!  You've got under the barbed wire fence with a few days to spare, so it's excellent to have you with us.

I only used a couple of pre-slotta figures in my time and that was for D&D and these two fit right in that theme.  I agree that they've held up very well indeed despite their age and your muted palette works very well on them.

I do like those skellies, very effective at this scale at looking horde like.  42 points as you say and you're off and running!

From DavidB - Waaaargh!!!!!!! pt 3 (470 points)

Apologies in advance as this is an epic post on work I've completed in the past couple weeks.

I completed the mob of Evil Sunz and the Nobz Mob for these speed freaks. Since Evil Sunz believe "da red uns go fasta" they like red, yellow, and have most of the Mekaniac ( mechanics who are maniac) they are a clan that loves to drive fast and hot rod the vehicles.

The Boyz mob of 10 are all rogue trader plastic and metal. The metal models had evil Sunz medals and buckles

A power claw nob leads two mekaniaks another boss and a pain boy( medics who like to experiment especially  in brain surgery) 

The old Nobz bike finally done

I have no more bases, but the nob will be pinned and get a base for foot missions.

Of course there is more than one machine for this bunch

This venerable machine was actually still in a gesso undercoat. I never painted it as both machine and orcs are freakishly small even in comparison to the rogue trader orcs, but it is now a cart ready for battle

A second generation biker. This one will not remain in deployment zone shooting. Red is the color for racing!

A second generation scorcher with a grot assistant. I liked the 1st version with an ork peering out of the turret, but it was tiny like the buggy. I like this one and the heavy look.

(Forgot a close up of the two trax, one was painted in the 80s while the large one is still drying)

I plopped in the battle wagon (painted many years ago) as it is very old and part of the Gorkas from Gorkamorka. A fun necromunda-type game with orks and vehicles. It had some problems, but was still fun.

Gorkas worship Gork who is cunningly brutal while Morkas worship Mork who is brutally cunning.

Gorkas being close to Goff got the Goff color scheme of black and red.

They were the only models primed black in this bunch too. My wife bought me all the Gorkamorka stuff our first Christmas together and now it is half painted. ( diggas, muties, and gobbo gangs yet to do)

This truck has a wrecking ball multi crossbow,  shoota, and ram

My favorite ork biker with lots of weapons

A rokkit buggy. I like the gunner sculpt. He is peering down a rocket tube for aiming

Another truck with extra armor, spotlight and reinforced ram.

Besides taking forever to buy vehicles for your gang, the ork models had funky bases to better fit in the trucks. Those bases don't help the models to stand at all. The Gorka nob pictured is the size of the current warriors, so the game's orks were weedy. Some hated these smaller orcs. I like them because they bridge the size from rogue trader to the current monster orcs.

These are the Morkas  ( purple trukk and orcs inside were also painted long ago)

I was going to make the Morkas Bad Moons, but decided it would be more flavorful to be Bad Moon funded Blood Axe boyz.

The boss Bad Moon with a bad moon painted in the 90's

The new custom trukk in Blood axe military colors next to the trukk painted in the 90s

Any model can fire the vehicle mounted guns, but this Morka is slowly squeezing off a round from his own shoota.

A harpoon Trax with gunner

This trukk was a conversion from campaign now painted. It and the driver ( toothless Mcgee) may not even show due to injuries. They are fast and Morkas dive from this fast mover.

They also use the boarding ramp from the spear truck.

This is the newest trukk and I picked it up cheap assembled and primed white from adepticon last year. It was a pain to paint and it was hard to hit all the white!

I painted it purple for an improved Bad Moon trukk as all the teeth seemed to be a good relation to how fast Bad Moons grow teef. Teef is curency for orks and Bad Moons are very wealthy.

I love the detail on it. And I had fun layering the easy to reach parts and adding fun damage and scratches and spills

Too many hobnailed, steel toe boots stomping up and down the ramps!

They marked up the deck too!

Did I say the detail is nice? 15 bucks for a used model.

I had to paint everywhere because of the white...And Clint will appreciate the extra step!

The boarding ramp from the Big Truck makes it an even better Gorkamorka ride!

What I painted minus the mini wartrax, battle wagon, small trukk, Gorka boss and a few Bad Moon Morka boyz.

So this horde is

35 ork infantry- 175 points

3 bikes with 4 orks- 35 points

4 wartrax with 6 orks and one grot- 90 points

6 buggies with 11 orks-145 points

1 big purple truck and 2 orks- 25 points

470 points with more to come.

By Jove, it's a bona fide, genuine, honest to goodness, straight up BROMLEY BOMB!!!!!!  Clear the area!  Women and children first!

Welcome to Thursday David!  When I saw your name on my list of cats to be herded I was hoping to see some old school GW goodness...... but I couldn't have expected this points explosion!

And what a subject - classic orks... This, my good man, is right in my wheelhouse and I have no idea where to start!  I lost track of the number of generations of Orks in this lot.  Those rogue trader chaps at the top are the business, with the Nob being carried on the back of the bike making me laugh.  That tiny first gen warbuggy is a blast from the past as I remember staring at one all made up in a glass case in my local games emporium back in the day when I didn't have enough money to buy it... That new pinky-purple truck is absolutely amazing - it's the ride that's been most "pimped" out of a variety of pimped out rides the like of which is rarely seen.

The sheer scale of fitting so many seemingly disparate parts together is only attempted by the bravest/craziest of Ork warbosses and you absolutely qualify my friend!

I'm going to go crazy and award you another 15 points on top of the 470 because this is an absolutely lunatic submission, pulled off with such aplomb...... and kickin' it Old Skool is the shizzle.