From JohnS: A Bit of This and That (38 points)

I spent a lot of my hobby time over the last few weeks preparing and running our club's first local game convention. Despite a busy schedule, I managed to sneak in a bit of painting. No giant point bombs today, but at least I polished off a few more figures.

I added machine guns and a new matte black finish to this 20mm scale car for Gaslands. I intended to paint it in some sort of garish silver or purple, but it simply called out to be painted black in homage to the 1989 Batmobile. It's hit the table a few times and has proven especially deadly!

Luke Skywalker has been fighting in my Monday night Star Wars Legion battles for months in a simple brown primer coat. I rushed a quick paint job on him, good enough for tabletop play and maybe a few points for the challenge.

Finally I finished up my collection of Astropolis krogloggs. The intricate sculpts and detail warrant additional painting time which I've enjoyed, but certainly slowed my progress in the challenge.

That's it for this week! Four 28mm figures and a 20mm vehicle.

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Next up on the runway we have a passle of folks in a sand palate.  The Batmobile is exquisite and Luke is more than just a quick points steal (a very fashionable and understated light saber there), but, once again, it's your krogloggs who're the showstoppers.

The extra detail may have slowed you, but it is worth it. They're spectacular.

The judges award 15 points to Batman, 5 to Luke, and eighteen to the Kroglogg, for a grand total of 38!

From AdamC: 4 Squirels . . . I mean Yeti (28 Points)

More figures form Bones III Kickstarter and a Gripping beast Roman provided for scale

There is great texture on the Fur.  did a base coat of grey, Wash in back and then dry brushed in White.  Then I went back and picked out the bare skin in Vallejo German Dark Grey.  I picked this because polar bears have black skin. (it seemed to fit) I also did the wide open mouths in red with white for teeth (these might need another coating of wash).

The poses are very dramatic.. almost too dramatic. Still since these Yeti have been declared French I guess too dramatic is appropriate.

Here we have the tribal war leader with his stone axe.  He has a necklace or flint spear points presumably taken tribesmen or other yeti he has defeated in battle.

That Staff/Axe is quite something with not one but two stone blades.

Another veteran yeti warrior this one carries a sabre tooth cat scull as an ornament or amour on one shoulder

This rearing back pose is probably the one of the bunch I like least... though if you put an explosion of some sort in front of him he would probably look great....hum..).  Based these guys quickly with some simple snow flock.  I may dress them out some more latter.  As the first photo shows these guy are pretty big so I'll call them 40mm figures for 28 Point.  I should also get another point it Squirrel duel.

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And now, direct from Kathmandu, AdamC gives you the House of Yeti. 

I'd say the posing isn't so much French as Shatnerian. The group shot shows them at their best. Almost some kind of way over the top extreme 80s hair metal band.

28 points from the judges!

From EricM: The British Are Coming! (256 points)

Continuing with my Napoleonic focus I have switched to the British.  In the last couple weeks I have been able to complete 2-24 figure units of Peninsular British.  The plan is to use these for Too Fat Lardies Sharp Practice game.  My hope its to break them in at a game we are putting on at Cold Wars in 3 weeks.  Wow, 3 weeks, how did that happen?

The first unit I worked on were comprised of Perry Miniatures.  I chose the campaign dress option.I love the tattered and bedraggled look of the sculpts. Lots of patches and torn clothes.  My personal favorite is the guy with a boot that is split and his toes are showing through. The Perry brothers do some amazing work. 

Here's a look at the whole group

I painted the flags as the 27th foot the Inniskillings.  I thought the tattered look would be fitting for them.

Next is a closer view of the color party

The grenadiers

The lights

And a close up of the colors

The second unit I painted was comprised of figures from Front Rank. I really like these figures the slightly exaggerated features seem to really assist in painting. They are very well fed compared to Perry's, I wouldn't mix the two in the same unit. I think they will be fine on the same table.

Here is the full group

Close ups of the grenadiers and lights

And last the color party

I have really enjoyed this project. I am way behind schedule, I haven't even primed the cavalry. This painting challenge will mark my lowest output since starting four years ago.  I am prepared at this point to admit I will fall well short of my 1500 point goal.  I just hope Curt doesn't drum me out.

I hope to have a few buildings and my Curtgeld in the next week (honest its not a bribe)
My total for the week (ok really 2 weeks) was 48 28mm infantry.

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Our next entry comes to Curt's Catwalk by way of Savile Row.

Red has been a popular color for minatures this season, but EricM brings a paint grenade's worth to the runway. Adding in the handpainted flags, and we have a potent, very not French, entry.

The judges give them a round 240 points for the infantry, and another 16 for the handpainted flags, for a total of 256 points!

From DavidB: Deathwatch part 2 (89 points)

I've just about caught up at work and training there, which is just in time for another military weekend next week. I'm still plagued by WIFI at work and military installations not liking "game" in websites nor blogger. I've been enjoying the email summary, but it's not the same when I can't comment on the wicked cool stuff I have been seeing this year! I'll be home till Sunday, so I'll try to get caught up AND get some more stuff painted. I did wrap-up the Deathwatch, so I have that going on..

My Guard will soon have Dysl stampeding after the sentinels. With a Plasma cannon, assault cannon or twin linked Las Cannons he should pack some power and survivability to the squadron.

I haven't painted a dreadnought in some time with the last being a metal chunk. GW really made a nice kit for the plastic one with scads of upgrades which is very welcome over the metal ones of the past.

He'll be very versatile.

I dug out Artemis for some squirrel points, he will need an assist to count which is coming up soonish?

It was nice to have a smaller version for gaming included in the start collecting box. Artemis has become a Captain since the Inquisitor days and has lost his right forearm someplace. Still it is pretty cool to have another version of him and I hope others make the crossover too(I'm looking for the Eisenharn model at the upcoming Adepticon)

I actually painted these two together in the queue and easily kept the same pallet, but the big guy got additional colours.

Covenant, Devlin, and Stone are still not quite ready, but I had to pop them in for a in progress shot for a real true scale marine. Artemis is massive! His bolter is almost bigger than Slick D!

This squad is the last bunch from the Overkill game. Each marine is the epitome of his individual chapter. If any 40k fan wants a nice Deathwatch squad, this one is definitely stacked in character.

An Ultramarine, Ironhand, Spacewolf, Dark Angel, and Iron Fist. Each really nails the flavor of their chapter.

The Blood Raven Librarian and Chaplain Cassius(a young Cassius who still has an intact face)

They also really do their Chapters proud.

Blood Ravens are new to GW and a port from the Dawn of War game.

The final squad is from the start collecting box and was built before I was given Overkill.

I changed them up a bit into an old school Dark Angel, and altered the color on the Ultramarine for a new chapter. The Crimson Fist, Long Fang Spacewolf, and Iron Snake were planned.

A servo skull and teleport homer. Nice for objectives and table dressing, I'll use the teleport homer to summon the Salamander terminator and the Dreadnought...they'll make a wicked fire- team! ;)

The whole crew together!

Ram Jam,- Black Betty

AC/DC- Back in Black

1 dreadnought-10pts

13 marines-65pts

2 props-4pts

1 'uge marine- 10pts

89 points to the evil empire challenge!

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And now we have more snazzy folks strutting down the catwalk. 

Though it's clear how Artemis lost an arm. He didn't listen to Edna:

Another 89 points for the Evil Empire!

From GregB: 28mm Austrian Grenzers for the Seven Years War (40 points)

"This way, lads!" Austrian Grenzers for the Seven Years War - 28mm figures from Front Rank.

And now something...well, not completely different, but just...a bit different, a slight adjustment to the control dials of historical periods.  These are Austrian Grenzers from the Seven Years War. The castings are 28mm metal figures from Front Rank.

Lovely reds and greens...the Christmas skirmishers!

The Seven Years War is another one of those long-simmering-but-never-boiling gaming interests of mine.  I do love gaming the Austrian side in just about any conflict, and my real heart-and-soul Austrian interests have been found in the Napoleonic wars. I have a small-but-healthy collection of Napoleonic Austrians, and have played some wonderful games with Curt and the crew over the years.  Curt was the one who pointed me in the direction of the Austrians when I we first got to know each other and I was just getting interested in Napoleonic gaming.  Of course I was hooked, and this has just increased over time. I love Austrians!

Love the animation of that officer...he looks ready to jump right into action...

Ah, the lovely long hair, tied with a black ribbon...

Following this into the Seven Years War seems(ed) like a natural step. The Austrians were a major participant in the wars, still wore cool white uniforms and had very cool-looking units. But I haven't yet dived in...I have done all of the preliminary things that help one get set up for a new period - like amassing a considerable amount of supporting info on the uniforms etc.  But I haven't yet tackled the painting part of it...in fact, my Austrian Seven Years War collection in 28mm so far amounts to a single unit! But hey...you know...you have to start somewhere, right?

Another view showing the kit, canteen, blanket roll and sword.

Anyway, I found these Grenzers while rummaging around in my pile of shame last week.  Inhabitants of the "grenz" - the border areas between the Austrian and Ottoman Empires - the Grenzers were fierce fighters and fine light infantry/skirmish troops, a nice dash of violent flexibility for a military establishment which was otherwise quite hidebound.

These poor figures have been sitting in there, primed, since 2013. That's six years ago! Yikes! I saw them and I thought it would be fun to just knock them off.  After all, the Grenzers wore some pretty fun colours in the Seven Years War period. Why not crack open the paints and enjoy! I flipped through some handy Osprey colour references, and came across the Carlstadt Liccaner Grenz. Red! Cool! Off we went! 

Ready for some skirmishing...

The figures are from Front Rank. I have not painted a lot of Front Rank figures, but wow, I really like them.  They are hefty, "well-fed" and have a certain character to the sculpting and posing that I just love.  And they are so fun to paint!  These guys were a treat.

These are based individually so as to represent a skirmishing formation for rules such as "Black Powder".  Grenzers always seem to be skirmishing, so I thought this approach most appropriate.

These eight different 28mm figures should get me another 40 points - my goal is getting even closer! And wow, this is now, technically speaking, a second unit for my Austrian Seven Years War collection...hey - progress is progress, right?

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Grenzers have always been among my favorite units. They add a splash of color to the forces of the Empress-Queen in any period, but especially during the WAS and SYW. Give those vile Prussians of Freddy-the-Not-So-Great a right royal thrashing!

Though, given the French subsidies to the Austrians make these pseudo-French, we won't hold that against Greg.

40 points of sartorial elegance, sir!

Duels Data Desideratum

Challengers - we are 2/3 of the way through and things are hotting up on the duels tally. 

I am compiling an update now and request those involved to email your updates to the usual address by Sunday night.  I intend to do another update with 2 weeks to go and then declare the final numbers once the Snowlord declares "Brushes Down"! 

thanks for your assistance in collating the Big Data :-)

Wallah 9 Actual

From PeteF: Lee's Legion - Purple Warriors (90 points)

One of the things I've grown to like about painting Revolutionary War (AWI to any limeys out there) miniatures is the uncertainty over uniforms. Information is scattered and scanty - in some cases the attire of an entire unit is based on what a single deserter was wearing, in others it is mere conjecture.

The leading artist of AWI uniforms is Don Troiani and he has Lee's Legion foot soldiers in purple.

The consensus seems to be that this is what they wore in the Northern campaign and that when they moved to the southern theater they were uniformed in green jackets (identical to their enemies in the British Legion) with light brown breeches. Some sources have the cavalry element in buff jackets - which is what I went with and others indicate that later they wore standard continental blue with red facings.

Since I needed one unit of 6 sharpshooting veterans and one unit of newer recruits I put the veterans in purple and other unit in green. Some might think they look a little leisure- suity but these purple warriors will give the redcoats a headache.

The minis are from Perry - very nice animation and poses.  Great sculpts - dodgy casting. I'll be going back to Perry for most, if not all of my remaining AWI needs.

They are based on 20mm rounds, magnetized so that they can easily be used for different rules sets - although it looks like their fighting will mostly be governed by Rebels & Patriots.

18 foot for 90 points.

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And we now switch to the mobile minionizing device. First up is a snazzy entry from PeteF, showcasing a mix of purple and green.

My own take on the Don Troiani painting is that Lee's Kegion wore pink, since it looks a lot like the pinks in the US Army's pinks and greens. But Pete has done a smashing job on the purple.

90 points incoming!