From SamuliS: A Gargantuan Post (30 points)

Back again with a change in topic from one ancient GW game to another! This time into the discontinued territory with additions to my Ork Waaaaaaagh for epic. Previously I've just stuck to hordes of speeding vehicles and infantry mobs when playing my Orks, but as we've been planning to play some "historical" battles from Armageddon I decided that I really need some more Gargants to build a truly big Gargant mob!

All are old GW metals with the rounder versions being the older Gargants and the boxy Gargant and Stompas being the "latest" versions. I'm going to run the Stompas as Supa Stompas for now as the metal ones look distinctively different from the original plastic Stompas that I've otherwise used and actual Supa Stompa models seem to costs about as much as a kidney when looking at ebay prices.

I've been trying to keep my paintjobs fairly simple on all Epic models that I do with just a wash and reapplying the main colours. No highlights and just using some glyphs and checkerboarding to make them pop. Works pretty well and makes these quite nice and fast to paint. And when you are pushing around 100+ different sized Orky vehicles towards the waiting Imperial lines it's the quantity that counts!

I've been adding some infantry and small vehicles on the bases of my titans and gargants to add some life around them. Also helps tie them to the rest of the force. The bases themselves are from Warbases and have a dial on them for hit point tracking to reduce the amount of dice and markers needed on the table.

The Great Gargant already had a drybrush and some panels painted on it before the challenge started so can't claim points for that. The Stompas are somewhat bigger than normal Epic vehicles so I'm marking them as 10mm vehicles for 3 points a piece and the Gargants are about the size of a Flames of War King Tiger so I'm marking them as 15mm vehicles for 8 points a pop. Then the infantry, bikes and buggy on the bases would be 4 more points by my count bringing this gargantuan entry to a whopping 29 points ;)

As an end note, if anyone has some metal Ork vehicles and guns for epic that they want to get rid of I'm always happy to help! Rest assured they will find a good home in an active WAAAAAGH that is constantly going hard at the 'umies.

WAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!! Gargants are the pure distillation of Orky know-how and attitude. I like the slightly subdued colours that help accentuate the chequer patterns, and the extra figures on the base give a sense of scale and lower-case 'c' chaos.

Have a bonus points for the hand-painted patterns to bring this up to 30 points.

Barks

From DaveX: Warhammer Skeletons and some Trees (70 points)

This week I have painted up some kitbashed Warhammer Skeletons.  They are from multiple parts from the Old/Middlehammer skeleton kits before they went all Egyptian themed.

I much prefer them this way.  There were some most annoying mold lines from the early 2000s bodys that I used.  The older ones moulded in the 1990s have less mold lines.

Anyway these were a simple paint job.  Prime, Drybrush dip, highlight!

This should net me 50 points.

I had a bunch of dirt cheap ebay trees laying around... 20 trees for only a few dollars delivered.  The problem was they shedded alot and were rather crappy!  So I used some tac glue, added some flock, and gave them a quick paint job.  I sealed the flock on the leaves with some cheap craft varnish.  I recon these should get me 20 points (or more if you are feeling generous) :)

20 Crappy Ebay trees done up to look nice!

Perfect for Afghanistan in 20mm

Perfect for Western Europe in 20mm

Even works in 28mm

So hopefully I total of a much needed 70 points or more.

An injection of 70 points is coming your way! Nice shrubbery, I appreciate the shots with different scales. Greenery is always useful.

Skellies are great fun to paint. The important decision is whether to go white or cream, and I like your choice.

Barks

From ScottM: British Regulars (90 points)

My submission this week is a group of British Regulars for the French & Indian War. These 28mm figures are from Warlord Games.

I thought this box was a bit odd, as there is a full 1/3 of the figures without firearms. Seemed rather odd having a guy with a spear and one with a halberd.

Otherwise they're very nice figs.

That should be 18 28mm figs (5 points each) = 90 points

Very nice, colourful figures with great flags and basing. I like the command group with the drummer and officer. It does seem a bit odd that there is a lack of muskets- can anyone advise?

Barks

From JohnM: Eldritch! (30 points)

I did not think I would get this small submission done until next week but I had some time this morning to finish the figures and get them photographed before I head back to The Pit at 2pm.

I ended last year's challenge with a large Mansions of Madness submission. They were a lot of fun to paint and if you will remember I jumped with both feet into the abyss that is HP Lovecraft. I still have a fair number of monsters to paint (I believe there must be almost 10 Masks of Nyarlathotep alone) but I think I am all done with the Investigators as I have 8 painted now.

Dexter Drake and Amanda Sharpe

They are not the best detailed figures but they are fun to paint

The Dunwich Horror; Wilbur Whatley's twin brother. There is a Wizard Whatley figure in the set but I would of enjoyed painting Wilbur. 

I have gone with a monochrome paint scheme but could not resist a bit of colour on those lips.

I know this figure does not look like much but there was a good 4-5 hours of painting here, I found it quite difficult to get right and am not really pleased with the result. There are 4 layers of different light and dark paints on the figure. 

So there you have it, time to work on some winter terrain and maybe something smaller.

Iä! Iä! I recall your big Mansions of Madness entry last year, great to see it all continuing! I've got that Horror myself, and it is a big boy, so I'll go 20 points for it.

Barks

From JohnM: WWII Stuff (80 points)

Time to shift from the Eldritch atmosphere of Venice to WWII. There is no question if I have a chance to play a war game, I will almost certainly play Chain of Command if that is one of the choices. I am currently involved in 2 campaigns (Bloody Bucket set in the 1944 Ardennes and There are Too Many Rivers set in 1940 Belgium) and am just about to start a 3rd campaign the Von Luck set in 1944 Normandy.

For CoC, one needs a number of playing aids, so this week I have spent a bit of time on these. A couple of Australian CoC gamers really have great blogs which are really first rate if you are a CoC player. Check out the great tutorials on The Tactical Painter and John Bond's Wargaming Stuff.

I play the British quite a bit and anyone who plays them knows that the 2" mortar throwing smoke is a tactical necessity. I had made some smoker markers but they were falling apart so I went to work re-constructing a dozen this week.

The game defines them as 3" in diameter. I used a 3" acyrlic base and then used a glue gun to affix the polyester fill to the base. This is much more of a challenge than one would think. The bases were then given a light dusting of panzer grey primer, very thinned, using an airbrush. They were then sprayed with unscented hairspray! I think though I will try one of these fixative spray one hears about as they are still not that solid.

12"x9"x3" These block LOS completely

Next up are some covering fire markers as well as some smoke grenades markers. I really had not used these rules in my games until recently but am starting to find them quite useful. 

Same process as above but on a 5" stirring stick

Let's say 10"x2"x1". Using a CI a Leader can get a team to lay down covering fire on a piece of terrain. Troops fireing back through covering fire suffer a -1 modifier to hit that lasts until the next phase.

So these are smoke grenades, look carefully and you can see a small cannister  on the base  which is the grenade with smioke pouring out. I like how this came out.

9"x6"x3". These also cause a -1 to hit penalty but last until the end of the turn.

I have also painted a couple of bombed out houses as required when a Stuka Attack (from the 1940 Blitzkreig CoC source book). has taken place.

These are Airfix resin models that I bought 3-4 years ago, they are a little small but will work for this purpose.

7"x4"x3" in total

Finally I also needed some Early War German guns.

Both from Zvezda 1/72 range. Two guns and 6 figures.

3.7cm Pak36 ATG

7.5cm le.IG18

You will note that I have based the figures separately from the guns. I am not sure how happy I am with this but it does decrease the number of gunners required overall (I must be approaching 10 different gun with crews types on both winter and summer terrain bases) and ease play as I do not have to use some type of marker to indicate that a gunner has died. It does not look as nice however and I am still thinking about it.

Hoping to have some winter terrain for my next submission as well as some figures from an old project.

Smoke gets in your eyes... Or is it just me doing terrain calculations? Very nice work, and a trip away from cosmic horror. The issue of gun basing is a perpetual one, and I am thinking about sabot basing for larger scales.

I think that's 6x 20mm figures, 2 guns, and ~2 terrain cubes, for a satisfying 80 points.

I have heroically avoided any CoC puns, I shall leave the lowbrow humour to Ev.

Barks

From BenF: And when Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept. 15mm Macedonians...(88 pts)

Excuse the Die Hard quote in the title, but the last few weeks have been a little crazy. After initially getting a surprising amount of painting - and sleep - in, my free time has recently been swallowed up by work commitments and baby Evie, who is now 6 weeks old! Its amazing how quickly she has changed, and she's now smiling, mimicking us, and looking pretty excited when I get home from work. Now, if only she would sleep through the night. :)

Anyway, my mate Steve wanted a trial game of Basic Impetus this weekend. While I have a completed 15mm Mid Republican Roman army ready to go, I'm a sucker for punishment. I've had a 15mm Macedonian army sitting at around 90% completed for something like 18 months now. As I began basing up the force, I realised that I needed to paint up a few extra bits and pieces for the game. I must say it was great fun painting up some ancients after all the Cold War gear, and my Achaemenid Persians have jumped towards the top of the painting queue. 

First off, some allied Greek hoplites. Alexander did use some allied Greek hoplites from the Corinthian League, though more Greeks fought with the Persians than with the army of Macedon. I did a speedy paint job on these, and tried to make it fit in with the remainder of my army which was painted for me by Dan Dunbar back when he was taking on commission work. I went back over the metallics after varnishing to give them that sheen, and this together with the stunning Little Big Men Studios shield transfers make them 'pop' on the tabletop. I did have a bit of a struggle getting the decals to conform to the rounded hoplon shields. I found that using my wife's hair dryer on hot setting melted them onto the shields without any creases or crinkles. The figures are all from Forged in Battle.

Next are the foot commanders. Forged in Battle always includes a few extra figures in their packs, which has allowed me to paint up these commanders. While these commanders are relatively generic, I painted these up with specific personalities in mind.

First, Craterus, commander of the phalanx and Issus and rearguard at Hydaspes, as well as several independent commands. Craterus is based as a commander of the elite hypaspistoi, the foot guards of Alexander's army. Craterus has already won his first battle, commanding the Macedonians today in their triumphant debut against Steve's Romans.

Next, Parmenion, the grizzled veteran who had been the chief advisor to Alexander's father Philip. Parmenion is a tragic character. He was brave, capable, and loyal to a fault, a fact which did not save him from assassination after his son, Philotas, was executed for treason. Alexander himself gave the orders, believing it too dangerous to let Parmenion live after the execution of his son. Parmenion is ready to command the phalanx of the army, steady and dependable, if not very glamorous - just like Parmenion.

Finally, Cleitus the Black. Cleitus saved Alexander's life at the Granicus, and was promoted for his actions. It didn't do him much good in the long run, as Alexander threw a javelin at him in a drunken fury, killing yet another loyal off-sider. Cleitus is painted with a 'black' theme, and could double as a commander for the allied hoplite contingent.

Now, the glamour boys of the Macedonian army. Firstly, Hephaestion, Alexander's closest friend and commander of the Hetairoi, or Companion Cavalry. Hephaestion is painted up silver armour, suitably flashy for this high ranking favourite.

Finally, it's the man himself, Alexandros III Megalos, better known as Alexander the Great. One of the titans of military history, this sculpt captures the brilliant and mercurial king very well. I spent a bit of extra time on Alex and his companions, and i'm quite happy with how the leopard skin came out. 

That's it for this entry. By my count it is:

33 x 15mm foot = 66 points

5 x 15mm mounted = 20 points

I've got a few Star Wars Legion figures and some extras on the painting table, and after that I might paint up a few Achaemenid Persian cavalry figures. Not sure if i'll make that before the competition wraps up though.

Yippee ki-yay indeed! Another gorgeous entry, Ben. I really like that iconic purple. I appreciate the tip for getting the transfers to stick around the convex shields. I'll award a few extra points for the handpainted leopard spots, and for the Evie update.

Barks

From Mike W: More 28mm 17th Century Saxons, Old School Fantasy and more (130 Points)

One of the cool things about this challenge is that it has encouraged me to delve deep into the backlog of figures, vehicles and other stuff that make up my own 'Lead Mountain'. On inspection - I'd probably liken it to the 9 levels of Dante's Inferno !   Not so much a Lead Mountain but a pit of lead and plastic with a smattering of resin and some MDF floaters on top!

Raw, constructed but unpainted figures

Anyway, somewhere down at level 7 (That of Mindless Violence) I found some very old Games Workshop multi-pose Goblins. If memory serves me well these were the latest offering for Warhammer back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In my opinion the best Goblin figures that came out of Games Workshop - with so many options to model and add character to the figures...

So here are a group of 10 such Greenskins, rescued form the pit! Along side these were a unit of 30 odd nearly finished Goblins - these won't feature here - as they only needed basing and a wash of ink to finish. A long ago abandoned project, that I'll now finally complete,thanks to the challenge. I also found dozens of unpainted Night Goblins and an unpainted Wolf Rider and a Forest Goblin Spider Rider unit  - these may feature in next week's post!

So these figures were painted in pretty much my usual way, I wanted to paint these figures to match the existing unit I'd just rediscovered, the rest of  the unit is basically in black, grey and various brown shades. So I undercoated white but the painted all areas that would have armour, black, so that steel metallic paint could be dry-brushed on.

First Group of 5 Figures

Skin was painted a medium green and then when all the other colours blocked in I gave the skin a green wash to add highlights and the rest of the figure a Nun Oil wash to make them look suitably grubby, as I'd imagine a Goblin to be!

I like to paint the detail in the mouth area of my Games Workshop Greenskins, they usually have large open mouths, bristling with teeth - so deep red wash in the mouth and dry-brush the teeth white. I know Goblin dentistry isn't likely to be good enough to guarantee white teeth, but from an artistic point of view it helps attract the eye!

Second Group of 5 Figures

Shields were painted separately and added with superglue after the basic painting job completed.

Figures based as normal with sand and electrostatic grass....

Looks like other submissions have scored GW Goblins as 28mm figures, so here goes...

Calculations: 10 x 28mm foot figure @ 5 Points ea = 50 Points

Raw Figure

Finished Figure - front

Next up is a 28mm plastic Viking, the body is an old Wargames Factory item (now available from Warlord Games) the arms and shield from a Gripping Beast figure. All constructed and glue to a UK 2 pence piece for my Saga Viking Army.

Finished Figure - back

Not much to add on the panting front - all done as per usual and described in previous posts.

Calculations: 1 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 Points ea = 5 Points

12 figures Saxon Pike and Command Block

To avoid delays I split my 28mm Saxon Infantry regiment into 2 groups. First the Pike block and
command stand and second the musketeers. Well this worked well and I got the first group finished and was able to do quite some work on the more complex musketeer group.

The pike block is made up of 8 figures, whilst the command stand is of 4 figures. All except the drummer boy are from the North Star 1672 range, the drummer is from the Warfare Miniatures range, which are slightly smaller that the 1672 figures when placed next to each other. This worked well as I wanted to give the impression of a smaller, scrawny youth banging the drum for this regiment.

Robel's regiment had dark green facings and pewter buttons in 1700, so I have back dated this to the Siege of Austria period. As previously noted this is a liberty but there is very little documentation of what was actually worn in this period, when uniforms were still only just becoming established. It is possible the Saxons actually wore grey coats at this time but converted over to red coats by 1700.

And Again from the Right!

However, I again opted for Saxon Red for the coats and I also decided to have the weapon shafts painted green for this regiment as well, indicating that they had just come out of garrison duty to take to the field. After the first engagements,weapon shafts would get broken and replaced with shafts hewn from locally source trees by carpenters following the camp.

These guys have opted to discard their armour, maybe on the long march from Saxony to Vienna,again this was a transitional period where armour was being phased out,along with the whole concept of the pikeman as bayonets were stating to be introduced.

Once again the figures painted and based as has previously been described and the flags are from Warfare Miniatures. Hopefully the Musketeers will be ready to show and tell next week.

Front on view

Calculations: 12 x 28mm foot figure @ 5 Points ea = 60 Points

Unpainted figures,fixed to 2 Pence pieces!

Next item on the workbench this week were three Games Workshop plastic Adventurers,I recently completed another figure from this boxed set - a Necromancer type figure that I painted to match an Egyptian Undead Army I once started to collect but never finished.

these three figures represent what I assume is a Dwarf Trollslayer(??) some kind of Barbarian Shamen and a more classical Wizzard.

Troll Slayer, from front

and the rear view

The trollslayer is mostly fresh and hair, I gave him a tanned look with flesh ink for shading. Blonde to Yellow hair and that was about it.

Thinking of adding an intricate patterned shield - but not found anything suitable yet, I'll need to find the right part form somewhere

Rear view of animal skin cloak

Barbarian Shamen

The Barbarian is all animal furs (Bear) plus earthy materials and rawhide belts and straps, dark hair and bone staff head. I dry-brushed the bear fur lightly with white paint and then applied several brown washes to tone and blend together. I used buff colour to do he underside of the fur - where on show as well as all the rawhide straps etc.

I used Bone coloured paint - well for the bones! and then washed with sepia ink and dry brushed white.

Wizzard, looks better
from the front...

... than from the back!

Finally the wizzard has a dark blue robe with red, orange and yellow flame edging and this guy is be old with seriously grey hair.

In doing the challenge these last few weeks and having to take photos of the figures has definitely improved my photography skills. As these skills have improved I am noticing more and more defects in my painting of figures,as the evidence gets clearer and clearer in the photos!

Another driver to do better in the future and get too self satisfied with my work....

Calculations: 3 x 28mm foot figure @ 5 Points ea = 15 Points

TOTALS = 50 + 5 +60 + 15 = 130 points

Another wonderfully varied entry, Mike! It is a bit of a trip down memory lane for me, as I had those plastic GW wizards with 3rd edition Talisman in the mid 90s, when I was starting to paint. The less said, the better! I like the goblins- one can never have too many- and I'm taken by the rich green pike shafts on your Saxons.

Barks