From SebastianR: French Rifle Platoon (81 Points)

I have realised that there is no way I am going to be able to do the basing on my final submission, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to take the hit, and submit as is, a complete Flames of War French rifle platoon for early war plus the spotter (mounted and dismounted) for my previous artillery submission.

I also had to skimp on photos...

That's 37 15mm dudes, plus one motorcycle, for what that's worth.

Pay no attention to the giant spiders behind you

I made the most of some the weird poses with the command team pictured below. They look like they've suddenly started taking fire from the rear.

[Insert your own French military history joke here]

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Haha, I love your caption for the last image - too good. Great work Sebastian. I love seeing these off-the-margin forces getting some attention. Your brushwork is wonderfully clean adn I really like how that motorcycle team pops with that apple-green colour.

I put this at 81 points which will nicely scoot you across the line for your personal points target. Well done sir and thank you for participating in the madness this year. 

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From: SanderS: The Final Push- Part II (65 points / Arthur 17 points)

Hoi,

As announced here is the final entry for the Challenge, well there's always the final, final post where we show everything painted in the Challenge, but this is the last one that actually counts towards the score summary.

So what did I get up to? Well remember me telling you I would let you know what I would use the gift certificate from the Childhood Theme Round for? This isn't exactly that post but close enough. I said I was going to use the certificate for the schoolclub. Turns out that what I actually think the club needs is another game for those occasions where just a few kids turn up or for when there's too many to fit 2 HQ boards. So I went and invested in...drum-roll please... Blood Bowl! Yes sportsfans I have been eyeing this game for an age now and more specially since it's re-issue in 2016. I watched some tutorials online and caved. So I got the main box and two extra teams (Dwarfs for me and Skaven for my gaming buddy Mark, who actually owns ONE, yes 1 army and nothing more: Skaven). The FLGS manager accidentally sent me the Goblin team instead of the Skaven and when I told him he said he would sent the Skaven over and I could sent the Gobbo's back or keep them at half price. Guess what I did? So yeah I am now in possession of 4 teams for myself/ the club. I wanted to get at least one team painted and decided it would be the Orc team The Gouged Eyes. Now I was going for a paint-scheme pretty near the box art with some twists of myself.

The Miniatures are really well designed and quite hefty. The Black Orcs must be the favourites no doubt about that.

I would also like to end this Challenge as I started it with some Heroquest figures. The one ending my contribution here is the Gargoyle. I have two, one for at home and one for the club and have held off painting them for lack of inspiration of how to paint them. It was while roaming Pinterest and seeing both a Chinese demon warrior and a blue Gargoyle that inspiration struck and I came up with this scheme.

Now Arthur heard we are in the last days of the Challenge and while he has already reached his goal of 50 points, he decided to chip in some more stuff. These Studio Miniatures ensigns are to form part of the "band" he's putting together. The flags are tin foil and he has painted one up as the Dutch national flag (red-white-blue) and one as the Limburgian one (the Province we live in) the latter should have a red lion interposed over the white-yellow and blue but I have no transfers in that colour and both us are not good enough to freehand them.

He also finished this 40mm knight. Now this is actually a present for Dave for winning the camel side duel and letting the lad keep some camels for himself. It may not be the prime piece in your collection Dave, but a 6 year old spent a good 3 quarters of an hour of his precious Lego and Transformers time to paint this one up out of his own motivation ;-)

So that's it from us for now folks. The scoring is pretty straight forward: 13 figures in 28mm for me (65 points) and 2 ensigns in 28mm and a 40mm figure for Arthur is 17 points.

Cheers,

 Sander

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This is just fantastic Sander - a brilliant way to wrap-up your Challenge! I love that you used the gift certificate to help pay for your school club's first foray into Bloodbowl. You must be one of the most popular teachers amongst your students. :) Those Black Orcs are fabulously nasty looking. I really like their skintones and their beaten-up red armour. What a ferocious bunch.

Speaking of wonderful skintones, I think that Chinese demon-inspired gargoyle is pretty spectacular, though how he gets in and out of his car to go to work wearing that helmet is beyond me. :)

Arthur remains absolutely rock solid with his entries. The patriotic banner bearers are excellent and I know Dave is going to be delighted with that wonderful red-helmed knight. As you say Sander, any time where you can get a young lad away from his Lego and video games is to be considered an undisputed WIN. Lovely work Arthur. Bravo!

Thanks for all your help this Challenge Sander, you did a terrific job with the Tuesday crew, and Arthur you exceeded your points target many times over, making a few of us blush with your productivity. Well done to you both and I hope to see this Dynamic Duo next December when the call goes out. :)

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From KeithS: Non-human Missile Troops (98 points)

A week of work travel, followed by a very fun week at Garycon in Lake Geneva WI, really cut into my painting time at the end.  However, I did eke out two last projects to cap things off.  First up is a trio of Bakshi-style Orc archers from Heritage I picked up on eBay a few weeks ago.  I've painted plenty of these ones before, but one can never have too many.

I painted them the same as previous chaps so they'd blend in seamlessly back at the Orc Hovel.  They even got the same orange wyvern design for their shields.

They're old and perhaps not the most stylish of figures, but I still have a great fondness for them.  In fact, I'd say they're probably my favorite monster.

These are followed up with a force of 16 Dwarf crossbow (14 pictured here).  They're by Ral Partha and quite nice.  They are intended to be heavy archers for use with a larger Dwarf army the next time I get a chance to play Chainmail.

For no particular reason, I decided they'd get painted as Zouaves, which makes them perhaps a bit brighter colored than the average Dwarf.  But, what the heck.

The detail is nice on them and RP definitely did a good job with them.

 Another angle.

When I started to actually paint them, I quickly realized that two of them were not like the others.  They're still Ral Partha, and very similar, but there are some differences.

 The helms are far more pointed than the other group, and their other kit is a little bit different, as well

They're also excellent figures.  I think I'll just call them platoon leaders or some such, as they might be a touch fancier than the rest of the lot.

So, that wraps up this Challenge for me.  It's been a pleasure and great motivator, as always.  Thanks to Curt and Minion Michael for a great time!


I count 19 25mm chaps for a total of 95 points.

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p.s.  While at Garycon last weekend, I played two outstanding miniatures games run by the inestimable Kevin Cabai.  The first was "Beren and Luthien: Escape from Angband" from The Silmarillion. I played on the side of Morgoth and had command of two large Orcish regiments. Also on our side was a force of Trolls, wolfriders, and Carcaroth the great wolf of Angband.  Our goal was to find the Silmaril stolen by Beren and Luthien, and defeat the forces of King Thingol and his Dwarf allies.

It was quite the spectacle.  Sadly, my Orcs were crushed by Elves and Dwarves quite handily. However, Carcaroth managed to slay Beren and Luthien, among others.  And, worse, it turns out that player had his own, personal secret victory conditions which he met.  He ended up with a total victory, while the forces of Angband were annihilated. A bloody mess, made worse by the fact my brother was playing the wolf!

 The other game was Orc's Drift, a fantasy riff on the cinematic version of the battle from the movie Zulu.  I was on the British side, in command of the Boer Ardendorf and a section of riflemen.  24 British figure against 200 Orcs.

Dropping Orcs at range with a Martini-Henry seems fun, but they just keep coming!

We had multiple lines of defense, which we certainly needed!

At the end, we were overrun.  But, unlike the movie, when we fell back into our final redoubt, the Orcs managed to kill a third of the remaining Brits in one fell swoop, and we were at last destroyed.  Sad, but I did get a Victoria Cross (posthumous) for the gallantry of Ardendorf at the end.

Good times!

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From Curt: 
Awesome Old School work Keith! These venerable Heritage castings are terrific and completely remind me of Ralph Bakshi's '78 rotoscoped Orcs. I also really like the hand-painted wyvern shield device you've given them - very cool. Same goes for the Ral Partha Dwarves, very much of a time and style, whimsical and perhaps a bit naive.

Those games at Garycon looked brilliant, especially the 'Escape from Angband' scenario. Mr Cabai was definitely tapping into some hardcore JRRT nostalgia with that game.

98 points, including a few more for the shields, for your last post this year. It's been great having you with us again this edition and I hope to see you name on the roster next time we roll out.
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from RayR - The Cardinals Guard & a Wagon 55 points

This is most probably my last post of the Challenge, I don't think I'll get my last figures finished.

So here we have 8 x Redoubt Enterprises Cardinals Guard to fight my previous entry the 

Four Musketeers.

These are excellent multipart figures. I bought some odds and sods at a show a few years ago and then my daughter bought me some figures for Christmas.

What's great about these is, as they're multipart you can chop and change body's, legs and heads

and come up with different poses.

Check out the 3rd and 5th figure, they're the same body, with different head and legs!!

Lastly I wanted a few wagons to use as barricades or scenery pieces. 

Unfortunately I only finished this one. Its a Col Bill's ECW period wagon

and can be bought for only £5.50. Its made out of MDF and was very easy to put together.

Just for scale, one of the Guards standing next to the wagon, its quite a large piece!!

So for the points.......
8 x 28mm figures - 40 points
1 x Wagon - 15 points for a total of 55 points!!


Well done, Ray! Dumas and the Three Musketeers was a favorite book from my youth. I read and reread the one copy from the church library constantly. I have really enjoyed your Donnybrook entries and it is grand to see you've added the epitome of that game this season. The musketeers, now the cardinals guards....we just need some not Errol Flynns to complete!
The guards are excellent in their crimson tabards and stir the memories of the old Oliver Reed films when you seen the scarlet in wonderful Technicolor! I like the additional work you did with them in the converting and the wagon is also well done and is grand stage for swashbuckling too!
you say 55, but I think 60 is a better number. Give Fran a kick from the old Indian and the deal is sealed! ;)

From JezzT: Final Post - Anglo Dane & Renaissance Base Camp (50 points)

Dear All

Just squeezing in a final post. Firstly I have 6 Gripping Beast Anglo Dane - will use these as Saga reinforcements or for Basic Impetus on a sabot base.

Next I have two figures from The Assault Group Italian renaissance range  - these are painted and based to be part of a base camp set for Impetus games. For the base camp I wanted some terrain that could be a base camp on its own but also add to another town base camp creating a bigger town option. This is what I came up with ... just using the old Warhammer town set. I had some pieces already so added in a bell tower and "pimped up" a base to fit.

So that is 8 foot figures - 40 points to add on. Not included base camp as is just a cut out and stick together really.

Not quite made my target but really enjoyed being part again. Thanks Curt and everyone!

Cheers Jez

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From Curt: 
Great looking Danes, Jez. Besides, who's going to criticize guys toting big two-handed axes. I also like your two Renaissance chaps (nice flagstone bases), but what really tripped my trigger was seeing that old Warhammer Fantasy card terrain set. Now, that takes me back to the good ole days of the 'Shadows Over Bogenhafen' campaign. What classics. This town base looks excellent (again, the flagstones really tie it all together) and I'm sure will be the envy of your fellow Impetus opponents.

I'm going to give you another 10 points for the town for nothing else but the pure nostalgia of it (besides, sticking stuff together and making a base is still work). Well done Jezz and thanks for participating in this year's event - hope to see you out for the next one.
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From TomM: The Cold Turkey of the End (16 Points)

The last models that I will be entering in the 8th Challenge, and what better conclusion then painting up 6mm pink forces, just as I started out with on this journey.

The first part of the entry this week are this set of Steeds of Slaanesh mounted marines, to provide some fast moving cavalry for use in Future War Commander.

To provide some more heavy support for the force (mind you, I play them in Future War Commander, not the Epic 40k game system), a lovely Hell Knight has been painted up and give some bigger targets to pick, distracting the opponent from the actual game winners, the infantry.

The final part of the entry is a building that I found years ago on a BnB for a measly 25 eurocent, I have no clue at all what range it is from or such, but that will be my HQ 'location' marker in certain scenarios as such.

I`m sorry Curt for the bit of extra work, but I have NO idea how to count points on these.  The cavalry is simple, 12 x1, but the Knight (it`s the size of a regular space marine in 28mm, does that mean 5 points, or does he class as a 6mm vehicle?) and the bunker are beyond me.... so I`ll see what I end up with when the entry is published xD

And that's it, thanks to the organisers of the challenge for this great event, and hopefully I'll be back in next year!

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From Curt:
It's great that you returned to finish 'in the pink' with this entry Tom. It's always a treat to see Epic models getting done-up and it's not too often you see Slaaneshi stuff, so this is wonderful to have posted. 

I'm going to mark the Knight as a 6mm vehicle and give you a few extra points for the bunker. 

Well done and I hope to see you out with us for the next edition!

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