From MilesR: More 15mm Napoleonics Naval Crew and British Generals (240 points)

What a surprise - more 15 mm Napoleonics!  First up are 45, 2 figure naval crew stands to man the recently completed ships.  All of the figures are from the excellent Sea Eagles line from Thoroughbred Miniatures and are wonderful figures to paint up.  Theses are "true" 15mm scale so can look a little small to 18mm AB's and Old Glory but it's not that bad and they'll look fine on the table together.

18 additional French crew stands in the form of 6 command stands and 12 general crew.  These join the 10 stands I painted a few weeks earlier.

For the British there are 27 crew stands, with 6 command stands and 21 crew stands.  You'll notice blue and red coloring on the base sides - that was done to allow players to see which stand is theirs during boarding and shore actions.  Outside of marines there wasn't a standard naval uniform so sailors kind of all look alike.

A shot with the earlier 10 stands abroad one of their ships.

Next up - 15 mounted generals - 14 British and 1 Spanish (upper right corner).  All of these figures are from AB and are superb.  To be honest, my painting skills are just not up to the level these figures deserve.  I'm afraid if the manufacture sees this post I will be banned from purchasing any more for "Brand Identity" reasons.

The size of each base denotes command level - the larger the base the higher the command.  The actual rank depends on rule set - thus this group could be 3 Brigade and 1 Division commander or 3 Division and 1 Corps.

The British High Command stand along with a lone Spanish general in the back.  The spaniard may transformed into a Portuguese general for certain scenarios.

And finally, the last command group.  All kidding aside these figures look fine using the 18 inch rule but the detail on the castings is amazing and they could be so much nicer in the hands of one any other Challenger.  Still. I'm happy with them and they'll do very nicely.

I have a handful of mounted British and French figures which I'll likely paint up as ADC's and put them on small rectangular bases.

Soon it will be time for Austrians, lots and lots of Austrians.  I hope I have enough white primer.

Let's see, this submission consists of 90 crewman and 15 mounted figures and nets to 240 points.

PeterD once again at the minion chair.  First of all Miles, can you not speak in terms in actual figures instead of elements!  It's nearly 8pm on a Saturday night and last thing I want to do is more math- yet your counting bases not bodies.

Secondly, these are great and no need to hide them from Mr Barton.  Your crews looks great en masses and I thoroughly approve of the colour coding.  I've done the same with my War of 1812 units to keep the various Regular and Militia units straight.  Kudos on the terraforming, I've really been enjoying the shots of your units in the field.

I concur on your math and will get these recorded once I figure out how to "improve" your spreadsheet.

From Paul O'G: Irish Slingers (60 points)

Back to work this week so hobby productivity has taken a bit of a dive.  However, I did get to finish a long standing project with this unit of slingers for my Irish SAGA warband, which was most satisfying.

My new Irish slingers defend their village (terrain not part of this submission)

Great figures by Footsore miniatures with nice variations to make every figure different, though I found the plain jerkins with an appropriate lack of adornment hard to paint effectively.  I have based as per the rest of the force I put together earlier this year.  This is them as a whole with their new missile unit, because everyone loves Army pics!  In SAGA terms this is 2 units of Hearth Guard, a unit of spear armed Warriors, a Warhound pack, a Sling armed missile levy, and a Warlord with both foot or mounted options, with accompanying Curaidh champions

Yes Dux, the shields are indeed all hand painted...

This submission totals 12 x 28mm figs for 60 points.

You're stuck with PeterD pinching hitting as Minion again Paul, but your Irish slingers are looking might fine to me.  I not hands-on  familiar with Footsore but there's a lot of movement in these poses, which is nice for a skirmisher group.  I particularly like the lad with the flaming red hair in the front rank.  Your war band looks great in full array - and I love seeing hand painted shields.

Tally man that's 60 points for Paul.

From Iain Great Italian wars Hinchcliffe wagon and Organ Gun (84 points)

Back in the distant day of the 1970s,pre Thatcher, before mobile phones or home computers no internet just cefax and books there were already various ranges of gendarmes and landsknechts about, minifigs,Ral Partha both 25mm and the slightly larger hinchcliffe range.
Last challenge,no the challenge before (how time flies!) I painted some hinchcliffe gendarmes and Curt was kind enough to paint one for me following our Rennaisance duel.
What we have here is a great fun little model of a wagon for the Great Italian wars,a German peasants wagon based on a contemporary woodcut from the triumph of Maximilian.

The model actually comes with the shoemaker,a chap with a wheelbarrow,three donkeys and a peddler.

It's a pretty big lump of lead and arrived without the characterful waggoner,Ian Hinds (who now manufacturers hinchcliffe figures) was excellent in sending out a replacement as he was featured in the photo on the site but did not arrive, excellent customer service. The load,children and lady in green are also part of the kit,I was reminded of the folk song"little sir Hugh" after painting her so I don't give the kids much chance if they end up anywhere that nobody can hear them scream! I do think that the design of the wagon is a little large,especially if you compare it to the Perry wagon I have previously painted, it's also a little odd that the superstructure appears to be made of branches and not joinery,having said that it seems a little churlish as there is something like 40 years between the two designs,it's also a really characterful piece.

  The organ gun is another hinchcliffe piece as is three of the crew, the fourth ,the portly chap slaking his thirst was part of an eBay purchase so I'm not that sure,maybe redoubt?

That's both the bases I've done this week, the gun and a gun I did for a previous challenge actually came with a two horse,four wheeled wagon,so I have those yet to do! Hinchcliffe,or Ian Hinds are going to have a sale in February,worth checking out,certainly for wagons and guns!
I think this adds up to 4x28mm horses,6x28mm figures and 2x 15mm for the children? The gun is a crew served weapon and the wagon is I guess a 28mm vehicle? 84 points? Some period appropriate terrain next, oh and I guess these should count towards the Rennaisance duel too.
All the best Iain

Guest Minion PeterD here stepping in as Tamsin seems to be unable to join us today.

You are taking me down memory lane here Iain - I can vaguely recall pre-Thatcher Britain having visited my Dad in Hampshire during the Winter of Discontent.  I certainly recall Ral Partha and Hinchcliffe models.  Lots of OS character in these pieces and lovely paintwork too.  It's great to see some more Italian Wars figures and nothing says early Renaissance warfare like an organ gun.

You had me working with pen and paper and poring over the scoresheet, but I agree with your tally.

From EvanH: From the Bestiary (and the Worstiary) - 20 points

Greetings, Challengers and Challenge Fans! I'm back with another couple of beasties for the week.

Let's kick things off with this charming chappie, a Reaper Bones Manticore. The Manticore is one of those monsters popular in medieval bestiaries, an example of what lurks outside the bounds of civilisation. He came with a section of ruined wall to perch on, so I'm not claiming credit for the splendid base.

The Manticore's solitary existence and evil reputation make it one of the sadder beasties in the old AD&D 1st edition Monster Manual. Curiously, it's Lawful Evil, which means it likes rules to be rigorously applied, so it's the perfect stand-in for any DM (solitary, dismal lair, rules lawyer, smells bad, wants to kill PCs... yep, check, check and check!).

The humanoid face of the Manticore, with its undershot jaw, perpetual snarl, and rows of teeth, is one of the more disquieting features of the monster.

I gave him a coat of matt varnish, but he's come out shinier than usual. I can only put this down to the extreme heat currently being experienced here in Sydney; nothing behaves as it should. I'll wait until the next cool change and give it a blast with the old Dullcote.

The base is an 80mm Warbases MDF round, with a couple of Tajima Tufts Desert Diorama Elements to put the icing on the desolate cake. As a large 28mm quadruped, he's probably OK to be scored as a cavalry figure of the same scale, so that's 10 points there.

Next up is another Reaper Bones miniature, who started life as 'The Avatar of Resilience'. I really have no idea what that means. He was basically an anthropomorphic rhino, but I decided to repurpose him as a Broo.

Broos are one of the unnaturally fecund Chaos races of Greg Stafford's Glorantha, the game world of RuneQuest. They are willing (nay, enthusiastic) carriers of disease, and are mostly goat-like in their ancestry, but they can breed with any species, and this one is intended to portray one of the more imposing results.

He stands 55mm tall, and has been converted with the addition a pair of goat horns swiped from a GW beastman skull (for that proper broo look), and a few sores, buboes, and cysts made from green stuff. I also added some extra green stuff to bulk up his gut and give it more of an overhang.

I've tried to give the eye a goatish look as well, with that creepy horizontal pupil.

I've stuck him on a 40mm Warbases round MDF base, and used some of Citadel's Agrellan Earth (one of their technical paint range) to texture it. It dries and cracks to give a lovely arid claypan effect. Tajima Tufts for the finishing touch once again.

He'll definitely be the biggest broo in the gaggle, and his size puts him into the 54mm category, so another 10 points if you'd be so kind, Mr Campbell?

That's all for my regular submissions for this week then - stay tuned!

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Byron still here for duty, and actually getting a bit concerned over our missing stewardess, I hope things are ok.

What a great pair Evan!  I miss out on the Bones kickstarters and really regret it when seeing some of the great figures from them.  That manticore is awesome looking an you have given him a very menacing look there. Your right on the comment that he is a bit shiny but you will not get any sympathies over your heat wave as it is currently a deep freeze here hitting -28 today!  I think I would deal with shiny figures over the cold any day!

I really like the second figure as well, even though I have never heard of the Broo.  I can see a bit of the goat reference but only due to the horns, the bulk, central horn and heard structure all made me think Rhino and not goat.  I think he is really nice though and love that you tied the goat theme back in with the eye, which really does look like a goat eye.

Nice work and some well earned points.

From StefanK: Rebel Troopers for Imperial Assault (15 points)

As some might have noticed, some friends and I have been playing Imperial Assault for a while. For a certain amount of time I had the idea to follow the releases to bring the whole Star Wars universe to live but luckily for my wallet Fantasy Flight Games (and in Germany Heildeberger / Asmodée) were too fast for a slow painter and volatile hobby fellow like me. Thus my efforts ended with those sets which are represented in the Imperial Assault app meaning the first wave at the moment.

Therefore I had a set of three rebel troopers lying around and somehow I felt it was time to splash some paint on them. Rather soon we want to continue with our campaign and we might need those allies to fight the fierde forces of the Galactic Empire.

 

The set contains of three troopers in the well-known uniform featured in the iconic opening sequence of episode IV. They are all nice and clean casts although all three figures are identical.

Colourwise I left the greyish 1970s schene a bit and went for the more colourful blue and khaki scheme wich the computer game Star Wars: Battlefront delivered.

After all those models were truly fun to paint. The details all crisp and clear, the facial expression easy to follow and a simple uniform which allowed a quick painting style.

As usual I used Vallejo paints for most parts of the figures and the Wargames Foundry skin coulours for face and hands.

Only the bases are bit of a problem. Imperial Assault may be set in various surroundings from the wooded areas of Endor to the dark and grimy hangars of an outer rim space port. Therefore I didn't find a good solution for shaped bases and left them greyish. So I applied some dark grey and added a series of lighter splashes.

 

Nevertheless I'm still pondering about changing to clear acrylic bases but I haven't brought myself to re-basing my whole Imperial Assault collection yet.

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Guest minion Byron still here, Wow, what an awesome entry this is.  

I love Star Wars which is a good start, but I love great paint jobs even more!  I really love the colours, the hard highlights and the smooth look of these. It is a style that many of the great painters in this challenge have.  It is also one that even though I can paint well enough, I just can not emulate and am jealous of your ability here.

Great work and keep it up, I want to see more!  I also wouldn't mind seeing a tutorial on how you do your faces as they are top notch and something I always struggle with.

15 well earned points!

From Barks- Blackstone minions (40 points)

One of my main projects for this Challenge is to get through Blackstone Fortress. It's a bit of a slog because the figures are very detailed and I can't bring myself to do a quick paintjob. Anyway, here are my first bad guys:

Ur-ghuls are some sort of eyeless predator, with four nostrils. They were pleasantly quick to paint up with some washes. I don't know if they were being very clever with the name or not...

The Spindle Drones are part of the protection of the Blackstone Fortress, almost like an immune system. I'm wondering if GW will release more related figures in future- I'd be surprised if they didn't. They remind me of the excellent Portal turrets.

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We appear to still be waiting for the stewardess to proceed with liftoff, so your captain Byron is still here filling in, an glad to do so with the amazing posts lined up so far for today!

These are stunning models and paint jobs on them Barks! I had not seen this release before, but will have to check it out.

You have done an amazing job on those Ur-ghuls and and love the subtle shading on them with the blues and purples.  Your painting style is so smooth and flowing, they look great.

Even better though is your job on those spindle drones, which reminded me instantly of the Portal turrets as well.  Your white and shading here is spot on and oh so clean, your making us all jealous!

Great work, and I can not wait to see the rest of the game painted up!

From DaveD - 9th Airforce P47S & blast markers (34 points)

Another bit of progress for my 15mm Normandy 44 project. This time the introduction of air power for my US forces. - well JamesM needs something for his  Flak Korps  to shoot at other than Shermans

JamesMs lads need to get used to this view of the Jabo's - dakka,dakka , dakka...

These are P47 Thunderbolts made by Battlefront - two of which were fine. One of them had lot of problems with bent wings. Even with the persuasive powers of hot water and the  hair dryer the resin won't fully comply. I have made contact re getting a replacement - but for now its doing flying duties - it can be turned into a terrain piece when its been replaced.

I need to get hold of some of the taller flights stands as these are hedge hopping at the moment!

I had a mare with the supplied decals as they they were incredibly brittle and just fell apart - even with at the application of decal solutions etc - in the end I popped down to Pendraken Miniatures HQ (8 miles away) and picked up some from the I94 range they sell - they worked just fine!

hand painted invasion stripes - a fun job! I also want to add some propellor spinners - however I will wait until I have some more aircraft sorted (there are some on the way ) and order them up in a job lot. 

despite the hassles - I think these have come out pretty good - need more!

I have added a thinned satin varnish to the main panels which gives a very slight shine to the bare metal look . 

I couldn't pass up the chance to make up some blast markers from battery operated flashing tea lights - I got a box of 24 from china for a relative pittance. The casings of the lights were painted black , then I hot glued on some cushion filler and teased it into shape - a couple of sprays of grey and black and they are good to go. They are large markers for 15mm but for bombs I think they will be fine, They will also of course do duty in other games and genres. I have been looking at cutting the light casing down to make smaller markers and this is perfectly do-able so perhaps later in the challenge I  will get them done. In terms of size they take up about 1/2 a 6 inch cube box.

we do like a good KABOOM!

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Guest minion Byron here again, wow these are great looking planes Dave!  I am not much of a plane buff, but when I first looked at these they remind me of the US T-28 Trojan, maybe simply because of the low wing layout.  I wonder if the T-28 was derived from this earlier design.

The paint job is tremendous especially the hand painted stripes!  Steady hands there and a stunning result.  

I also really like the blast markers, very simple and easy to do but oh so effective.

Great work and I really hope to see more in the future.

From LeeH - British Sherman III's in Normandy & some Hedges (40 Points)

So this week I'm departing from 6mm ancients to fast forward in time to WWII and a trio of 15mm tanks. These are M4A2 Sherman tanks by Peter Pig but they could also be used as M4A3's with the larger 76mm Gun. I have painted these in British service where they were known as the Sherman III. I'll be using these to play What a Tanker! and will be teaming up with the Sherman VC (the Firefly) that I painted in Challenge Eight in a series of games I have planned for the summer. They will be facing off against a series of increasingly dangerous scenarios, culminating in a battle with a lurking King Tiger. 

I've painted these lend-lease tanks as belonging to the 8th Armoured Brigade as this unit was issued with Sherman III's and Sherman VC's for the Battle of Normandy.

As with my earlier Dingo Scout car I used a Vallejo textured paint to muddy up the tracks and lower hulls of these tanks. This stuff hardens quickly and can then be varnished along with the rest of the model. These models came 'factory new' so didn't have any stowage items on them. I wanted to be able to tell one model from the next so I found a load of appropriately scaled stowage items in my bitz box and added them. And of course I have added the wireless aerials. 

I also have a small bit of terrain to include this week. I wasn't planning on doing this as all, but once the itch started I just had to scratch! I bought the hedges to make Boccage but when they arrived they were much too small. So I decided to base them up as they were so they can be used as low hedges (each is about 6" long and stands a shade under an inch tall and (with the base) an inch wide). I do have some larger bushes that may be turned into boccage later in the challenge if I find the time...or if the need to make terrain overcomes me again! This lot is about 10 foot of hedgerow. 

So this submission consists of three 15mm Tanks, half a crewman (!) and a little over half a 6" cube of terrain ( 6"x 6"x 4" tall). 

Now I really ought to get on with the bonus round figures you can see in the background of the last photo... cos that's what I planned to do before the hedges turned up!

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Well it appears that stewardess Tamsin is still sleeping off last nights festivities, so Captain Byron is here stepping in to get a few of Saturdays entries cleared up before she makes her appearance.

These are a really nice set of tanks for a really great game.  I love your attention to detail on all the little bits of stowage on the tanks and the weathering.  The added antennas are a really nice touch as well.  

The hedges look awesome and it's great that you were able to change them up and salvage them for use despite being smaller than you wanted.  They look great here and will certainly impress on the table top.  

This Saturday's Special Guest Minion is...

...our lovely Challenge Air stewardess, Ms. TamsinP!!

Take it away, Tamsin.

Tamsin?

Tamsin?!

(sigh) Ms.P, please wake up and get yourself a coffee, we're about to take off...

Right. While our wonderful paint attendant gets herself sorted for the day I just wanted to remind everyone that the 'Challenge Cut of Doom' will soon be upon us.

This means that our last remaining 0-point stragglers are on their last call to have something (anything!) entered by January 21st or they will be cut. Yes, this grim deadline is only a few days away, BUT Miles our statsamagician has pleaded with me that the loss of those potential points-earners will put his beloved stats projections in mortal peril. So, with this in mind, I will relent and allow a stay of execution for just a few days. So, to all those currently burdened by 'the number that shall not be uttered', you have until midnight next Saturday to enter a submission and retain your position amongst this august group of hobbyists.

May your brushes be fleet and true.

Also, while I'm here hectoring, please remember to submit your 'Sport' entries for tomorrow's Theme Round, if you haven't already done so already. By what I've seen so far it's going to be another great round.

Okay, it seems that Tamsin is looking a little more steady on her feet, so we'll soon move on to Saturday's long list of eye candy. In the meantime I will busy myself with sorting the theme round, melting ice for my brushwater and getting my own entry finished.

Have a great weekend everyone!