From: SebastianR - Dogs! (35 points)

So here are those dogs I promised. Look its been a busy time ok?

Turns out I'm better at identifying dog breeds than I thought.

This, I believe is an Irish Wolfhound.

It might be worth noting that some of these were sold to me as 30mm. I thought there wouldn't be much of difference but I was wrong. I had to clip bases back to the minimum to get these to fit on 25mm bases. Even so this one seemed rather oversized and *one google search later* bloody hell those things are big!

I'm well aware of the internet's penchant of paring particularly large animals with particularly small women, but even by those standards these dogs are massive. 

Speaking of massive dogs, the next breed is a Baskerville hound. That's a real thing right?

It was giant and ornery so it looked like it deserved to be a giant black predator hunting fictional detectives across the moors of Victorian England.

It's original colour scheme was so black that none of the highlighting showed up on the photo... or at distance for that matter... so I added some less subtle highlighting to compensate. I'm not entirely sure it's an improvement. Have I mentioned that I hate painting animals? Actually, any large smooth surface, flesh in particular.

I am, however, happy with the outcome on this wee guy.

I'm note sure what breed it is (but I'm sure you can enlighten me ad nauseum in the comments). It looks like some cross between a chihuahua and a miniature German Shepherd.

I've never tried blending, and I'm not sure if that's what I've done here, but I think I got the colours to blend really well.

Here's group shot of them all

That's 7 28mmish dogs for a total of 35pts if I am correct.

I was hoping to get a wastelander done to play with them but he'll have to wait for another time.

Instead - as a bonus for you - I finally chose a flock style for my early war French, so here's my BFG entry with some nice happy basing (why yes I did bloodily rip off was inspired by JamesM!)

Nil-pwa

 

 Who let the dogs out? WHO WHO WHO?! Well Sebastian obviously! Great to see you make up on your promise and show us these lovely doggies. Personally I think you've nailed the breeds down very well so I will not comment on those. I share your aversion of painting animals. I never seem to get the texture right, you did exceedingly well with yours though! I can see this pack roaming the Post-Apocalypse landscape or ranging through Fellstad or something like that. 35 points will be added to your doghouse this evening.

From: BrettM - Walking Dead Expansions, Part 1

Finally got around to painting the extras from the Walking Dead miniatures game I got from the kick starter Mantic did.

This is about 1/3 of the minis from 3 expansions that they had with the kickstarter.

 Only know I think one character out of all these that I painted. Haven't kept up with the show and never did read the comics. Would be nice to one day though.
 

 I jumped on this kickstarter when they launched it due to my love of walking dead at the time and well of course Zombie things. Have still yet to even try the game out.

The guy in the middle is Glen from the show and comics.

The guy in the middle on this pic is Tyreese? I think?? Had to get something out to boost him up for the camera. Good looking mini when seen in person. Didn't take to much time on these guys. Just base coats and some army painter washes. I think they turned out pretty well though. Seeing how they are just board game type minis. I have 15 of them at 28mm for a total points of 75

Now Brett, don't sell yourself short "just base coats and army painter washes" they really look good to me! Sometimes we need figures done quick to get them on the table and yes that means putting less detail on them than we would like, but from these I would not be able to see you do so, I like them a lot. I am more a Van Helsing (both movie and series) guy rather than Walking Dead but it's iconic status will not have escaped anyone out there. Are you planning to do a game soon? Will you brief us as to your findings on playing it and perhaps some shots with these guys in action?

Anyway, yes 75 points will be added to your Z-kill ratio this evening ;-)

From: MartinC - The Tale of the Numidian Warriors and the Massive Beaver (255 points)

These Numdians fought today,  lost badly.  Not their fault, I blame the General. I bought them in the Northstar Christmas sale (75p each - Bargain)

I was playing the Republican Romans using KoW and they get a single throw pilum so I needed some markers - no idea how many points 1/2 each sounds OK

My 2nd elephant, Northstar safari collection. I cast the bodies and legs from a Numidian cavalryman

This Numidian Cavalryman

Finally the massive Beaver

Mr Lee 40mm Beaver.Very cool fig,not as good as the Gorilla King but a good fig

Tale of the tape

40 28mm infantry = 200pts

1x 28mm elephant= 30pts

1x28mm cavalry = 10

8xmarkers = 4pts?

1x40mm beaver = 7

Total 251pts

Martin, those Numidians are very good indeed! They really look the part, with very nice shields and great basing to finish them of in grand style. That beaver is a lot of fun and I like the details like the gnawed on logs on the base. I will not be called a miser and will award you 1 point each for the markers, novel idea by the way ;-) all in all a very nice entry for today.

From: GrahameH - Second Entry - More Bits of the 21st Panzer Division (514 points)

Just finishing the last few parts of the 21st Panzer Div.

 

These are the transports for my German Infantry Battalion featured in my first entry. They are supposed to be P 107, but no one seems to make them in 15mm. So I have tried to convert some French half-tracks by QRF. Not great but they will do. 

Two 15mm SdKfz 7 (Battlefront)

 

U304(f) 2cm Flak (Battlefront)

Captured Somua S-35 (Skytrek)

A bit more for my German Cavalry Battalion (15mm)

A SdKfz 253 (StuG) not part of the Battlion but I had some grey paint left over and a SdKfz 221  (Both Battlefront)

Krupp Kfz 70 Truck (Battlefront)

15cm IG33 auf Panzer 1 (Battlefront) again not part of the Battalion buti did mange to use the Grey paint up. 

Romans (15mm Essex 48 figures)

At last I decided to finish of my Early Roman Army,  so I ordered some figures from Essex. The Legionaries were fine but it seems they have change the Auxiliary javelin figures. The new ones are  much smaller than the ones I have and don't mix very well (I suppose I could but the size is very noticeable - so no i can't) Therefore finishing the Romans is on hold again until some old Essex Auxiliary come up on Ebay. :(

15mm Essex Ancient British (93 Figures)

Going through my lead mounting I found I had these, and as I had no auxiliary to paint I painted these instead.

Finally - Khurasan (15mm Late 16th Cent) Landsknecht (80 Figures)

These are for my French Wars of Religion armies. Two units (one smaller than the other but reinforcements are on order)

Hopefully I will finish off the German Cavalry Battalion by the next post and maybe the Numidian army. Which probably means I won't, and will paint something entirely different. I know, just can't help being a wargames butterfly.

Oh wow Grahame, you must be the absolute king of 15mm! I just cannot believe those Landsknecht are really 15mm, they are so well painted, I would have believed them to be  28mm without a doubt. The conversions on the German halftracks worked out wonderfully well and that Somua is an absolute gem. What a treat Grahame, do get cracking on those German riders and Numidians, can't wait. If my math is correct, you are down for 515 points. 

From: AlexK - Kings and Camels (50 points)

Hi all,

This week I give you one of those posts that should be titled "when did I buy these!?" posts. I'm sure we've all been in the position of uncovering boxes that have long been forgotten about and that contain unidentified packets of figures. This is how I came to paint this week's subject matter of some 15mm Essex camelry and a Legio Heroica mounted commander.

The figures are lovely to paint, the Essex camels almost paint themselves and the Legio figures are full of character. The banner is homemade using tomato puree tube foil (lots of tomato based dinners have also be consumed over the last week).

Thanks for looking.

Very nice Alex, Dave D should be watching out for you, you'll be overtaking him as CamelCing in no time. I really like the natural and subdued colours you use and these fit together well. The command base ties in well but is, at the same time, clearly recognisable; all in all a great job. As per Minions discretion I will award you 2 more points for the home-made banner and thus you will be gaining 50 points tonight.

From NoelW: 28mm ECW, Zulus, some boxes and a Russian (408 Points, perhaps)

Well, I seem to have banished the ‘flu bug, but instead I’m suffering the Annual Painting Challenge Bug which, it seems, is highly contagious and quite virulent. I’m enjoying the business of painting for points so much that I’m spending every spare minute painting figures or terrain, and I’ve a long list of figures I want to have a go at before March 20^th. As I’ve already exceeded my initial target of 500 points, and now just passed 1000, I think I’ll revise the target up to 2000, and maybe even see if I could hit the hugely ambitious 2500. After all, who needs sleep?

I’ve done well towards that total this week, with, I think, a submission of just over 400 points. Admittedly, these are not the most beautiful figures in the world, but that’s not the point for me with these armies – I want to get them on the tabletop as quickly as possible, and that means compromises in painting style.

Firstly, though, a figure that’s a little better quality than the rest. This is another EMP figure, painted for Wargames Emporium’s display. It’s a Russian officer from the Boxer rebellion. I couldn’t find a perfect source for the uniform, so took a uniform from the Russo-Japanese war instead. I do have quite a decent library of uniform information, but it’s pretty feeble after 1890 (mainly because my only interest after this date is WW2) and I've found it quite hard to locate decent uniform info on the Boxer rebellions online, strangely enough.

Next are more figures for the continuing ECW saga: 18 cavalry this time. There are 6 “lobsters”, the early war cuirassiers who may, in fact, never have taken the field, but who make a cool variation on the tabletop. The remainder are the usual lobster pots and soft hats. All Warlord figures, I’ve a sort of love-hate relationship with them. They’re cheap (and can be even cheaper, with shopping around) which means a reasonable army can be built quite quickly, but they style is sometimes a little awkward, and the apparent variation you think you might be getting with plastic figures turns out to be quite limited in practice. For the infantry, there are three pike poses and four musket poses, and attempting variation upon them largely results in unrealistic poses. I may have a go at converting a few figures later on, simply to add a little more variety to the setup.

Next, 42 zulus. This is pretty much the remainder of my unpainted Zulus. I wanted to get them done before buying the new Perry figures, which I’m certain I’ll be doing as soon as possible, perhaps even at Vapnartak in the coming weekend. Again, I’ve taken the simplest possible approach to painting them: block painting, Warlord’s dark shade, then a little highlighting of key areas. In the mass, I think they look fine. Close up, I keep thinking “I should just touch that bit up, just highlight that feather). 

There's a couple of close up photos to show how reasonable a basic painting approach can be (though you can also see the downsides, too!)

Finally, a little terrain: the mealie bag and ammo box defences of Rorke’s Drift for the Zulus to hurl themselves against. These are nice models to paint up, mainly through washes and dry brushing and I’m quite pleased with the final result. 

Not sure how to score it, though: there’s the wagon piece, plus 8 strips of about 5.5 inches long with a cross section of about 1.5” square. A stack of  the 8 strips would thus fill roughly half a six inch cube, so perhaps 10 points? Plus the wagon at, maybe 3? Making 13?

Pointswise: 1 x 28mm Russian = 5 pts + 18 28mm cav @ 10 pts = 180 pts + 42 zulus @ 5 pts =  210 pts, plus terrain at 13 pts: Total: 408 pts

Noel, you have done a sterling job yet again! That bug is one I would like to get, because I am not as productive as you have been this week. What's not to like about your entry? There's a beautiful Russian officer: that blue is really well done, ECW cavalry which is always nice specially when you're a Rupert and your Zulu's are ace too, even if there are no thousands off 'em sar! The terrain does remain a conundrum every time, but let's be honest 408 is an ugly number. I'll let you have an extra 2 points for the wagon and give you 410 points.