The 'Fellowship' Theme Results are In!

Hi Everyone!

The votes are in for our final them round, 'Fellowship'! For our last hurrah we were treated to all manner of parties, friends and companions. Thanks to all the participants for their wonderful entries.

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First up, for our Honorary Mentions, we have:

Ken's 'My Name is Inigo Montoya'

Dave's 'Downed Luftwaffe Aircrew'

Barks' 'Nine Adventurers'

Michael's 'Hoth Fellowship'

Tamsin's 'Once in Every Lifetime'

Great work you people! 

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In Third position, for 25 bonus points, we have:

StephenS' bumblingly funny 'Guards! Guards!'

In Second place for 50 bonus points:

Nick's elegantly poignant 'Last Rites'.

And, in First Place, for 75 bonus points and a gift certificate from Diplomatist Books, we have Stefan's whacky-yet-so-stunning 'The Unicorn Club'.

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Congratulations and a big THANK YOU to all our participants for making this theme round a great success. Wonderful work folks!

If you're interested in seeing the voting results, they can be found here.

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Now, it's the final push to the green fields beyond (and Spring!), so give your brushes a flourish, open your paint pots and let's cross the finish line in style!

Cheers!

Curt

From Curt: NATO Scuba Assault Team (40 Points)

I thought I'd squeak in another small entry before I make the announcements for the 'Fellowship' theme round.

Here is a contemporary scuba assault team with their fast attack boat all ready to take down targets like a hijacked freighter, a terrorist controlled oil platform, or perhaps even a suspicious water skier.

This set is from Eureka Miniatures. I thought it would nicely compliment the German special forces frogmen I did a few years ago.

I kept the three kneeling poses on their stock bases so they would still fit in the assault boat. The other three's bases were trimmed so I could put them on clear acrylic like some of my other skirmish figures.

As you can imagine these were pretty simple to knock out: black with increasing highlights of P3 Gravedigger Denim for the scuba suits and gear. Then black again with a VMC Blue Grey highlight for their weapons and metal bits. I find the trick to blending dark tones is to use a few thin coats of Liquitex Statin Varnish (which has an added bonus of providing a nice slick look to the wetsuits). I quite like the effect and may try this with some other figures (I think it would look pretty bang-on for Sisters or Imperial Sardaukar troopers from Dune).

The six figures will give me 30 points and I figure the assault boat is worth no more than 10.

Thanks a bunch for dropping in. I'll catch up with you in a few hours when we round-up the results of the voting for our 'Fellowship' round.

Curt

From GrantH: Commandos with Firefly support! (130 Points)

For my second post of the challenge, I have a small update of 22 Inter-allied Commandos with a Canadian Sherman Firefly in support! During World War II, the "butcher and bolt" tactics of commando units was the initial allied response to the need for striking out at fascist supply lines, installations and units across the European and North African front. 

Commando raids in Norway were so effective that German High Command moved a quarter of a million men in order to try and deter raids against the various factories and refineries that their war machine depended on. The Commandos I have painted are all outfitted in their iconic green berets, but some have their helmets strapped to their webbing and baggage for a little bit of character. Additionally they have been all based with sand, as I figure these lads would likely be doing some kind of amphibious landing somewhere. It was also the first time I decided to use the waterslide decal transfers and I am pretty pleased with how it came out.

The Sherman Firefly VC that accompanies them is arguably one of the most iconic Commonwealth tanks of the war. Armed with a formidable 17 pounder anti-tank gun, the firefly was capable of punching through the thick armor of most German tanks, quickly making it a favourite target for German defenders. The firefly I have painted is a Canadian one for the earlier days of the Normandy campaign, and as such lacks the iconic wavy camouflage that was used to try obscure the length of the gun. In total I believe this troop is worth 130 points.

The full troop of commandos.

The Firefly

All of these minis come from the warlord games range and were lots of fun to finish. I will likely need to wait till the next thaw in the weather before I can prime and paint my early war Polish, but hopefully that will be soon. Hopefully I can get at least one more post before then!

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Fabulous work Grant! These commando figures look terrific and that Firefly is truly a formidable beast with its huge honkin' 17 pounder making itself very well known. As you say, getting the appropriate decals is key with these vehicles and I love seeing the stylised Canadian maple leaf on the side of the turret. Good one.

This group will give you 130 points for your tally. I hope we see another entry from you before the Challenge concludes on the 20th.

From MilesR: 28mm Perry ACW (335 Points)

I suspect you all are getting somewhat tired of hearing from me.  With that understanding I shall start this post with good news - this is my last post for today.

This post features a return to a favorite topic of mine for Challenge submissions - the American Civil War in 28mm scale.  These figures are a bit of a rush job as I need them next weekend for my "Sink the Tennessee" games I'm running at Cold Wars.  The figures are all from the Perry Brothers, hallowed by thine names.

First up 18 dismounted Union Calvary troopers.  These are metals that come in those lovely black boxes.

Next up are 24 Union infantry figures - painted up to be Union Marines with the white pants and webbing.  These are from the Perry Plastics range of which I have assembled and painted a rather large number of figures over the past few years.  It's not in level of Dave D's colonials but pretty darn close.

A finally 25 civilian "mob" figures that are Perry metal casts and themed along the lines of the movie Gangs of New York.  If you look closely you might even see a "Bill the Butcher" figure.  I really enjoyed painting these figures and hope the Perry's add more to the sub-line

Well that's it - 67 figures nets a nice sum of 335 points to add to my tiny tally for the day.



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Great work Miles! You must have a tremendous collection of ACW figures accrued over the past few years of the Challenge. I really like the Gang of New York civilian types - I think I may have to pay the Perry's a visit after seeing these.

This entry places you just behind Noel in the points standings. Wow, talk about leaping up the roster! Sandbags duly dropped. ;P Well done Miles and have a great time at Cold Wars next weekend.

Curt

From DaveD: Sudan, NSW infantry and Water Carriers (200 points)

Its time to get a bit dusty and revisit the Sudan after all these other distractions. I have another mega game booked in for early May and I have a few new things to complete for it over the next few weeks.

The New South Wales Infantry Battalion deployed to the Sudan along with a battery of 9lb guns - the first foreign deployment for a force made up of Australian units - from the colony of New South Wales. There was a deployment of a levy of 400 men to NZ in 1850 for the Land Wars in British units . Australia didn’t become fully federated until 1901, so it was still 6 separate colonies... hence these are from NSW!- there you learnt something didn’t ya!. Anyway this  helped make the Sudan a real imperial effort with troops from around the empire taking part. This unit will accompany the artillery battery completed a few challenges ago.

Infantry are Perry Plastics 

Next up are some water carrier carts to accompany the columns (makes good scenario targets too) - the ration of water for the troops was 2 gallons a day - i may need some more!

These are repurposed Empress AZW items .with some Perry and Connoissuer Sudan bits added..

all 28mm
24 inf = 120 points
4 animals =20 points
4 crew = 20
2 vehicles = 30 points
Total 190 points

My finish line is in sight... just another 119 points to go to get me over the wire - and its on my desk at the moment ...

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Ahhh! We finally get another update on Dave's Sudan collection. It wouldn't feel like a proper Challenge without some fine examples Imperial masculinity stomping around in the far, far reaches of the world. Water carts and New South Wales infantry?!  Very cool. Now, to placate the Canadians, you need to get some Red River boatmen who helped navigate the Nile for the Gordon Relief Expedition (or, have you already done these?!).

200 points for you Mr. Docherty (28mm vehicles are 20 each, so a bit higher than you estimated). I look forward to seeing your target-achieved entry in the coming days.

Curt

From IainW: Great Italian Wars 28mm mounted crossbowmen (88 Points)

The big aim of this challenge ( apart from a big push on terrain) was to paint up some light cavalry units for the Great Italian Wars, so I have painted command bases, pike blocks, artillery and wagons, none of which I really need (I now have 3'0" of artillery pieces for the Italian wars lined up side by side!). So finally I have a unit of mounted crossbowmen finished! Most of these are Hinchcliffe figures with Perry head swaps, which I think works pretty well, the change of heads help because they are all in the same pose, still I quite like them, which is good as I have two more units primed up! There is also an unknown ebay purchased mounted crossbow man, the flag bearer is an old glory spare and the slightly anachronistic Henry VIII type chap (who I am using as the unit proprietor as it were) is a Hinchcliffe one piece moulding.

The colour scheme is inspired by Simon Miller's recent Italian army over on his Big Bat Cave blog. We seem to be going through a phase of warlord Pike and Shotte games (ECW campaign at the moment) and I'd like to have a go with the Italian wars, but we will no doubt go back to To the Strongest as we really enjoyed that ruleset too.

I hope to add some more troops in the last phase of the challenge, this should take me past 500, halfway to my rather optimistic total and so half of what I achieved last time out (who knew painting renaissance figures takes longer than WWII Soviets?!), still I'm happy with what I have painted with eleven days to go, so eight X 28mm mounted figures is 80 points?

All the best Iain

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Lovely work Iain. The Hinchcliffe figures and head swaps provide a wonderful, distinct unit. I also like the deeper Warmaster-like basing you've done for them (are all your cavalry mounted like this, or just the lighter detachments?).

3' of artillery pieces, eh? Really? Shouldn't this be 91.44 cm, Mr. Oh-We-Use-Metric-in-the-UK? ;P

Another 88 points for your Challenge tally (including a few extra for the conversion work). I look forward to seeing your final entries for this year's outing. 

Curt