From ByronM: 15mm 30 Years War Swedish Pikemen (30 points)

A quick little post today to at least put something up.  While I have been having fun with theme week entries, my general painting output has really been low this year as real life and work have intervened, leaving me just not feeling it as much as most years.  Hopefully that will change when I am off in a week and can take some time so sit and paint and hopefully get in the groove and meet my goal for the year.

Anyway onto the post for today, here is a small unit of 30 years war Swedish Pikemen. 

As mentioned in a previous post, even though I am doing these to play 'By Fire and Sword' with, I am changing the basing a bit to fit my own aesthetic ideas.  So the bases are 10mm wider than their normal and 10mm deeper as well.  They require only 3 figures per base, but I felt that 3 musketeers looked too cramped, and felt that only 3 pikemen didn't look right.  So, I am basing with 3 musketeers per base still which allows it to look like they had some room, but I am doing 5-7 pikemen per base to make them look more like a block.

Again I have tried to imitate Greg's style, but am still disappointed a bit with the result.  I keep trying to use subtle shade differences, and I know I have to go with harsher differences, it's just against my normal style, so am struggling with it.  The figures turned out ok, there is nothing "wrong" with them, they are just no where near what I know is possible, and what Greg gets from his 15mm figs.

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Your reservations aside, I think these look terrific Byron. Though I think 15mm figures often lend themselves to a more high-contrast approach, I think your work here is excellent. I especially like your larger basing scheme though I must admit that, personally, I'd cram more figures per base, but that's just me. Question: Are you adding banners to these units later? These lads need some Swedish colours or at least some IKEA cargo totes. :)

- Curt

From DaveD - WTF is this - Necromunda- 10 points

Once again, something different for this challenge - very different. Back many moons ago about the only Games Workshop games I played were Necromunda and Space hulk. With the re release of Necromunda I thought I would revive my old Van Saar gang. I still had some old skool lead in the mountain , snd bought a pack of the new plastic ones..

they are armed with things that go bang or buzz as far as i can work out..

The bases are done to a fashion as I still need to work out an overall terrain strategy , so I may revisit when they are all done to get some consistency. I have a pile of cool MDF stuff to build up for a table later in the year .

Its been a hectic few weeks , so this just moves the scoreboard a little at least. I  am hoping to get back to some better productivity as we run into the final third -Right now where did i put my camels ...

Necromunda was such a great game back then, and I really like your rivival of your force here with some new figures.

I really like that transparent shield too, did that come with it, or is it after market? Either way, great work on these Dave!  Keep it up and you may get corrupted to the dark side of the hobby and paint more GW figures!!!

From JamieM: Corsairs, Necrons and yet more Ur-Ghuls (231 points)

It's been a couple of weeks without posting, but I have been rather busy.... just for one reason or another I haven't gotten around to posting, so it's a bit of a points grenade chucked over the sandbags for me today.

First up, Dark Elf Corsairs, or Scourge Privateers, depending on which version of the GW IP you favour.....

These chaps are destined to join a unit of twenty that I've had for yonks, to make them a (hopefully) scary unit of 40, so no banner for this lot as I've already got one.

The fluff is that they sail the grim seas of the Old World....errr.... whatever realm of the fairly random story GW have invented for the new Age of Sigmar ruleset.  Mine are unashamedly on square bases to keep them in line with the other 20 I mentioned above.

GW once again annoy PETA by having more pelts (Scales? Skin?) from what must have been a scary sea creature and not just the Trout they caught down the local fishing haunt.

To lead these chaps are two Privateer captains.  Golden Mask is the old metal model (and a lovely one he is too) and his somewhat oversculpted first mate who has a sword as a peg leg, a haircut to make any 80's New Romantics band green with envy and a massive jawbone around his neck (seriously GW?!?!?) is the newer plastic version.

They share the same fetish for scaly cloaks and probably say "Arrrrrr" and "me Jim Lad" and seek out pieces of eight wherever they be found.......

That's quite enough pirating, so it's off to the 41st Millenium for the next lot..... fist up, 10 Immortals with Gauss Blasters.

I deliberately chose a nice, classic and simple scheme for my Necrons in the hopes it'd get an army on the tabletop in good time.  It's pretty much worked as the dudes posted today are almost all of what I have left to paint for this army.

These are the old metal bodies with the new plastic arms grafted on as the new weapons are soooooo superior to the old ones.  One of the things I really do like about GW's plastic kits is the way you normally get two or three weapon or unit options in each box and so there are some brilliant spare weapons/heads/other bits hanging around.  I took advantage of this with these as the boxes I bought made new Immortals with the other weapon option and had the spare weapons for these chaps.

A couple of close ups.....

And some leaders for them too.  I tried to get a very different and vibrant colour for the cloth as this'll make sure my enemy can find and eliminate them nice and quickly should they wish to.

Another shot with more royal red/purple tattered robes on show.

This last one is a bit of a beast.... Whenever I go to Warhammer world (about once or twice a year) I like to try to treat myself.  As Forgeworld shipping prices are eye watering, I sometimes give in to temptation and get myself something from their shop.  This was the result of one such trip....

This loveable fellow is a Canoptek Tomb Sentinel and comes in lots and lots of little pieces - each segment of the body is separate, as is each leg, feelers, etc. so you can imagine that it was quite good "fun" to build!

Having managed to not throw is across the room in frustration a number of times, I did like the articulation that you can get into it (and I only made two build mistakes which I spotted afterwards and thankfully neither ruined the model!)

This is a close up of his cheerful little face and a top down view of his shiny top

He's a bit of a big chap (scale pic with a lord below) and I think he hangs around the Necron tomb worlds, welcoming intruders with a big zap to the face.  In game it appears he can burrow up from the ground wherever he likes, so there's that to look forward to.

The last of my Necrons are these three snakey looking things, known as Wraiths.

Lovely fun models to put together and quite the feat of plastic engineering by GW

Lots of nice details to pick out and they scoot rather quickly across the battlefield ahead of their rather slower moving infantry friends who are a little slower.

And last, but not least, four more Ur-Ghuls from the Blackstone Fortress boxed set.  I so enjoyed painting the first four that I did that I decided I wanted some more to base up for my Drukhari/Dark Eldar army for 40k and so a quick order on ebay, some paint slapped around and hey presto!

The blood puddles on a couple of the bases were absolutely planned all along and are most definitely not a bodge job after I got too impatient and didn't let the basing dry before trying to finish it......

Anyway, a big old submission and I make it 38 x 28mm infantry (190 points), 3 x 40mm infantry (21 points) and perhaps 15-20 points for the big chap given he's about vehicle sized? A total of 231 if my maths works.  These all count towards my "Evil Empire" GW painting duel too and it'll time for something very different next post.....

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What a great looking and eclectic mix of figures here! 

I like the Dark Elves as well, and will never change to GW's new proprietary names (invented purely so they could legally restrict / control their use and to confuse / annoy us old timers), I have never been a big fan of the models BUT if Peta has issues with them they may just become my favourite models of all time!!!

The Necrons look great with the basic necron paint scheme, while as you say it is basic it is also super effective and there is no reason to mess with a classic look!

My favourite though has to be the necron centipede creature.  It reminds me I have 3 of them sitting in the pile-o-shame from probably 6+ years ago!   Yours looks awesome and is the piece here that draws my attention.

- Byron

From Barks: Pinkstone Fortress (27 points)

These are supposed to be Black Legionnaires, but since I already had three pink marines my entire Blackstone set was painted to match. They're very nice figures, differing only in the head but looking quite distinct.

Obsidius Mallex is the Big Bad for BSF. He's got vaguely organic power cables snaking all over him, which I painted the same green as my Negavolt Cultists.

These are the first marines for which I painted the backpacks separately- recommended! Space Marine backpacks are like horse furniture or AFV road wheels- necessary but painful to paint.

Finally, the two Rogue Psykers. They're fine sculpts, but it was a slog to get them done.

Skull-o-meter™: 17

That is all the pink you're going to see from me this Challenge! I'm greatly relieved to say that BSF is now behind me, and I can move on to other things.

Pinkstone Fortress: Skull-o-meter™55

I'm claiming the big fella as 40mm and thus 27 points for all five.

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Great looking models here Barks, and I am very partial to the Slaanesh pink used on them.  Super clean looking paint jobs on them.  I didn't pick up the Fortress box set but with everyone's awesome looking posts coming from figures in it, you all may have twisted my rubber arm! Keep up the good work!

From MichaelA - Any old iron? Any old iron? (75 Points)

Any, any, any old iron?

A rare post from me this morning, in fact I am painfully aware that I have not been as prolific as in previous years. That said, I have been beavering away and have a number of Star Wars related projects all starting to come to fruition and hopefully in time to share before the end of the Challenge! So on that note, and without any further ado, let me present my latest efforts. 

I have a hankering for a Tatooine themed board for Star Wars: Legion and nothing says Tatooine more than Jawas and Droids.  I had already painted several of these wasteland natives courtesy of Imperial Assault, but have added to these with some Wizards of the Coast pre-painted Star Wars Miniatures and some new 3D printed sculpts from Skull Forge Studios.  All were primed, including the pre-painted ones, which on reflection seemed a waste of time, and based to match the existing models in my collection.  

The 3D sculpts were lovely, but a little smaller than I imagined so I decided to raise them a tad with a an additional washer.  Then, following a painting tutorial from Sorastro, set about polishing off half a dozen of the little scrap metal merchants, before turning my attention to their stock and trade.  I seem to have amassed quite an assortment of Droids from various benefactors and manufactures over the years.  They have sat idle for far too long whilst I pondered over colours and designations.  Now, with time against me, I decided to stop prevaricating and get on with it!

With decisions made and research completed, I was pleasantly surprised and how quickly I managed to get through them.  Having decided that these droids were going to have found themselves abandoned on 'such a desolate place', they were given a fair amount of rust and weathering, which had the added advantage of concealing a multitude of mistakes.

With regards to points we have 16 x 28mm scaled miniatures. That said I am happy to concede that two of the droids, ASP-7 and the A4-Series Lab Droid were only really rebased, washed and weathered so perhaps only worth 5 points for the pair? Hopefully adding 75 points to my meagre tally.

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Ahh, any day with an M.Awdry submission is a great day (and the same goes for any post being able to fit in the word 'prevaricating'). Wonderful work Michael! Maybe it was their funny speach and mysterious, shrouded faces, but ever since I was a wee sprout seeing the first Star Wars movie I've always had a soft spot for the Jawas.  I think your choice to repaint and rebase the WoC models was a good one, as now they look like a cohesive group. I also like that you included small bits of droid parts and various scrap to their bases - very evocative. The variety of droids a fabulous treat as well. I especially like the colour and weathering on the green GNK droid. Lovely work Michael. 

75 point for your tally Mr. Awdry - Well done! Next, to keep in theme, we need to see some Tusken Raiders from you. ;)

Away for the Weekend. Mush! Mush!

Hi All,

Lady Sarah and I have taken an extended weekend away from wintery Regina to visit friends and family in frozen Winnipeg. As I write this we are busy eating, drinking and gaming ourselves to sated bliss. Yesterday GregB put on his first  game using his beautiful Franco-Prussian War collection (which was absolutely stunning, I might add), and we just finished a raucous 'Cruel Seas' engagement set in the Mediterranean which was terrific fun. While the conversation (and libations) were flowing I took advantage of my addled friends and convinced both Greg and Byron to take on some minioning today, so we may be treated to some banter from those two fine fellows. In the meantime we'll open the day with something Star Wars related from our friend MichaelA.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Curt