From ScottM: Early War Armour (140 points)

My submission this week is composed of a group of 28mm early World War 2 tanks. The first batch are four Panzer 38T from Warlord Games.

And the last group is three French H39 tanks from Mad Bob Miniatures.

That should be it for my early war submissions for this year's paint challenge. Time to move onto other periods.

So that should be 7 tanks at 20 points a piece = 140 points.

Lovely stuff and well worth 140 points. I'm not really familiar with the H39, more commonly seeing the S35 and B1 bis. I'm sure there will be an epic clash between them and the blitzing 38Ts!

Congratulations on knocking over this part of your challenge! I've tagged you in the What a tanker! section as well.

Barks

From SamuliS: Big Guys (30 points)

I'm back with another small entry for the Chaos Pact. Not much going on painting wise lately and I'm actually writing this entry from a hotel room as well! Just managed to take pictures before the trip when I finished them last week, but didn't have the time to do more than upload them ready for some better time to actually write up the blog post.

It's been a busy few weeks with a lot of business travel that will also continue through the next week as well. Still it's not all doom and gloom as I did manage to sneak some hobby stuff into the schedule by staying the weekend in Hamburg and visiting Tactica after having meetings close by on the previous weeks! An amazing show with plenty to see. The level of tables and miniatures on show was extremely good and it was definitely worth staying here for the weekend instead of making a short trip back home before more travel.

Then on to the entry itself! This time the three big positionals that really define the Chaos Pact team. Outside of the amazing skill access of the Marauders the big draw of the team is the ability to take up to three varied big guys or just a couple of them to suit your play style best! I'll probably be running just the Minotaur and the Ogre, but better paint them all to allow for variety.

I wanted to go a bit more unusual route for the minotaur instead of sticking to the dark browns that seem to be the most popular colour choices on them. I figured white would add some nice contrast to the team and make him pop (and become an even clearer target) on the field. He's actually more of a very light cream colour instead of white, but taking photos which actually show the colour proved to be a massive pain.

Then it's time for more silence from me again. Next week will be fully spent on travel so no painting time until the last few days of the month. I'm really lagging behind my target, but I'll have to try think of something fast to paint to make up the lost painting time ;)

Absolutely gorgeous work on those flesh tones! I really like the pale minotaur, it was the dark troll that I found unconventional. The pink is a dramatic and well-executed colour. May I recommend taking all three Big Guys, as it is such an imposing front line that will unnerve most opponents!

I'm scoring these as 54mm, giving you 30 points.

Barks

From JohnM: Carnevale Rashaar (37 points)

Two submissions in 2 weeks, I am on a roll!

Here is the second faction, I recieved from the Carnevale Kickstarter. These are the Rashaar, a ancient and subterranean race that inhabit the canals of Venice. These, like the Strigoi, are the antagonists in the game. I actually enjoyed painting them as I was able to try some new techniques. The Stats for these characters can be found here.

The Magi-Rashaar

One of the leaders of the Cult

Human Slaves of the Cult

I snapped the feet off the woman slave, so I changed the base slightly to make it look as is she was rising from the canals of Venice. Not sure how successful, I have been.

The Raadru with 2 lesser Ugdru

I tried the Zenithal Priming technique. I used an airbrush to prime black, overspraying with gray and then white. This was followed by Citadel Glazes and Washes. I liked how it worked. 

Barks asked in the comments in my last post, what I was planing to do in respect to the Venice Terrain. The kickstarter came with mutiple mdf piers and buildings. I was hoping to get to it for this Challenge, but I do not believe I will have the time. TTCombat does a nice series of videos explaining this. It does look like a great project, but I need someone to mitre cut the 3x3' base and have just not got around to it.

I am hoping to get another faction done for next Monday but we will have to see.

Thanks for the explanation of the scenery! It will look good. I'm glad to see you've been able to persist with this project. I appreciate the 'save' of the broken slave figure- nicely done! The zenithal priming has really paid off for those monsters, they have an eldritch luminescence.

Barks

From Mike W: 28mm Roman, Fantasy and 17th Century figures (115 Points)

For this second post of the week, I am concentrating on a number of other figures I have been working on, separate to my efforts on the Saxon Infantry Regiment previously posted. As ever, somewhat a mash-up of periods...

First off a group of 12 x 28mm Roman Legionaries that have been kicking around in my 'lead mountain' for several years, I bought these on a whim but can't remember now, where they came from. Remember thinking that they would look cool painted-up but  have never had time or inclination to paint these once I got them home!

The raw figures with first steel, red & flesh layers added

I'm afraid that I have forgotten who the manufacture was for these figures, but having painted these, I was right! They do look cool!

Roan Legion Cohort of 12 x 28mm figures

Due to the large amount of metal work on these figures I undercoated them black and then dry-brushed on a suitable steel colour,I wanted the figures to have a strong presence on the wargame's table so used a lot of red for tunics, shields and helmet plumes.

Officer and shield detail

The rest was simple - flesh and leather with a few details picked out in brass. I gave the chap's skin a flesh wash to add tone and the sprayed with matte varnish before basing.

It's my personal view that for most ancient armies, the key to a spectacular army, is getting the shields right, in the case of Romans  these have to be uniform and that is something I struggle to do! For these figures I used the original paper shields that I think came with the first Warlord Games plastic box set. I attached to the painted shield with PVA glue and then varnished with Army Painter matte varnish to seal them in place, job done!

Calculations; 12 x 28mm Infantry Figures @ 5 Points ea. = 60 Points.

Unpainted figure

Next up, is an old plastic Games Workshop fantasy figure,believe this came in a small boxed set of magicians, this guy is a Egyptian type Necromancer - if I remember correctly!

Completed!

I glued it to a 2 pence piece and undercoated with white paint and  layered on the colours in my usual way. I initially did his under robe in a crimson colour, but then decided I didn't like it and want to go for a classic ochre and jade blue look and feel. I think I have some old Games Workshop skeletons  up in the loft or out in the garage in those colours, this chap can join them.

Anyway, I used a thick mix of ochre paint to block out the crimson that I'd previously used and then dry brushed with Citadel Bone paint, I also highlighted his flesh with the same bone colour to make him look less healthy!

The snake on the staff was deliberately painted in bright colours, to contract the figure and the base was left largely sand, with a couple of dry grass tufts to show a more arid environment.

Calculations; 1 x 28mm Infantry Figures @ 5 Points ea. = 5 Points.

Raw figures, prior to undercoat

Next are 4 x 28mm 17th Century mounted officers, believe that three of these are a Front Rank and one a Riever Castings piece, I base these on 40mm round MDF bases and as usual undercoated with white.

I like painting up officers and commanders of this period as it offers a little scope to give these little fellows a slightly different take on the uniforms of the period.

Firstly - I have to say my main area of interest is the Franco-Dutch Wars in the 1670s, so pushing out to Siege of Vienna is a bit of  a stretch for these figures. Additionally a couple of these figures are actually Marlburian from the early 1700s. As such I often change the tricorns on these figures to more relaxed floppy hats of the earlier period.

However, I decided to go with tricorns on three of these figures as there is no real hard evidence as to when the fashion for pushing up three sides of the slouch hats started. I did change one figure to have a highland bonnet after cutting off it's original hat.

The figures were painted a variety of colours, the Scots officer in Government Red,whilst the other three were deliberately kept more generic to allow deployment in any army of the period.

The results are as below...

Reiver Castings Officer	Converted Scots Officer
Another Front Rank Officer	Probably my favourite of the group!

Calculations; 4 x 28mm Mounted Figures @ 10 Points ea. = 40 Points.

Rear side view of Caisson

Front side view of Caisson

Next is a second Ottoman artillery limber and horse, this time painted in a base red with metal fittings. I include two photos to give a better look at the fancy caisson / limber, once gain liberated form an old Games Workshop Galloper Gun set.


Calculations; 1 x 28mm Horse @ 5 Points ea. = 5 Points.
                        1 x 28mm Limber @ 5 Points ea. = 5 Points.
                        TOTAL 10 Points

TOTAL Points - 60 + 40 + 10 +5 =115 Points

A wonderfully varied entry- dare I suggest this is your red period? The Romans look superb, and I'm impressed at your paper shields- I hadn't realised that was a thing. I struggle to do red over a dark undercoat, you must share your secrets.

I think that is a Light Wizard- I never painted mine but cannibalised it for other projects. I like the cream and blue scheme, I think a crimson tunic would have been a hard sell.

The mounted officers are great, and so is the limber!

Barks

From Mike W: 28mm 17th Century Saxon Infantry (140 Points)

Finally I got them done! A day late for submission last week but nonetheless they are completed - I forgot just how many buttons there are on each figure (20!), not to mention the 12 apostles on each of the 15 musketeers...

Raw figures from the 28th January!

The figures are form North Star's excellent 1672 range, originally Copplestone figures, and I have a mountain of these lead figures still waiting to be painted up. I decided that they would be painted to represent a regiment of Saxon infantry, dispatched to Vienna n 1683 with the Saxon / Polish & allied relief force, who were to attempt to lift the Ottoman siege of that city.

Although the figures are arguably a little 'early' fashion wise for the Siege of Vienna, the beauty of this period is that no-one is really 100% sure exactly what as worn by the fighting units. A combination of national uniforms being in their infancy and the rigours of campaign would have created many different looks within the armies, plus the fact that offices were generally able to dress themselves according to their whim, rather than uniform regulations, created some very colourful units in the field.

The finished Regiment, 28 figures. 4 x Command, 8 x Pike,15 x Musketeers & 1 x NCA

This Saxon unit is loosely based upon the Benkendorf Regiment that was raised in 1675, I have chosen to depict the unit in classic Saxon Red, although there area few references to some regiments at this early time dressed in grey. I have also used the known later facing colour of 'Isabel', a popular shade of the times. Again no-one is 100% sure exactly what this colour was but best guesses being a dark straw or ochre colour. Pants were leather, buttons were brass.

Left Musketeer Wing

Right Musketeer Wing

I used my regular method for painting these figures, with a lot of touching-up to cover the errors when laying down base coats of red, leather, 'Isabel' and white...


I like my Pike & Shot units to be big, with two wings of eight musketeers, a command base of four, including two standards and then a pike block of eight, around the command base.

Command & Pike Block

You may note that there is a mix of armoured and unarmoured pikemen,with armoured chaps in the front ranks and unarmoured colleagues to the rear, as per the period. Actually the role of the pike was being phased out at this time, but they did not finally leave the battlefield until the early 1700s.

Figures are based four figures o a 40mm x 40mm base, pikemen - two to a 40mm x 20mm base to allow positioning around the command base. Sometimes I also split the command base into two 40mm  20mm bases to allow flexibility in swapping standard bearers between units - many armies of the period having very similar uniforms and thus allowing the units to be multi-purposed in different games.

Flags are from Warfare Minatures and are purposely slightly over scale to add even more colour to the period! 



Calculations: 28 x 28mm figures @ 5 points ea = 140 Points

That's a lovely pike & shot unit. I like the thought you've put into the positioning of the armoured and unarmoured figures, and the oversize flag complements their red coats perfectly.

Barks

Monday doom

For your consideration today we have some Venetian horrors, blitzing panzers, C17 loveliness, Romans, and some football players I'd love to watch.

Last weekend I got some gaming in, including my first attempt at Doom of the Eldar from 1993! It didn't end well for our heroes... I don't usually blame my dice rolling, but even the tyranids were feeling sheepish as I whiffed roll after roll on the Combat Results Table...

The craftworld braces for the first of the endless waves.

Barks