From ChristopherS: Return of the Green Devil Fallschirmjäger project (50pts.)

I've re-fired up my Fallschirmjäger Green Devils for Normandy project for future CoC games. I started this project along time ago for Disposable Hero's, but stopped as 28mm WWII gaming hit a lull. Then a few years later WWII 28mm gaming picked up again with Bolt Action followed by CoC, but by that time my friend Nick was already doing Fallschirmjäger so I decided instead to concentrate on my US Airborne as opposition. Well I finished most my Airborne with just a few odds and ends to do so decided to rekindle the Fallschirmjäger project. This partly is because nobody in my club has them or for Big CoC with a large FJ force, but mostly because I just really have always liked them and want to have my own force of them.

I kind of forgot what a painting challenge late war Fallschirmjäger can be! They kind of have a little of everything with different colored smocks to include the early version, later Sumpmuster and Splinter camo plus various different shades of pants helmets and gear One thing for sure they are not boring! Even using some AP does not speed up the process much because you still have to go back and add all the detail and highlights(well I do) but it does give a nice protective coating at least. While they take along time to paint the result is worth it, but might slow my production down for the challenge, but I'll still push to make my set point goal.

I painted these using Vallejo paints and some Mig pigments for the base. While I prefer Foundry for Horse and Musket periods and earlier I find for after that Vallejo works the best. Also I went with Artizan and Crusader Fallschirmjäger as I really enjoy painting those figures, but will add some Warlord here and there to help fill in holes later.

Thanks for viewing!
Miniature Company- Artizan, Crusader

MilesR: WOW - simply wow.  These are superbly painted figures and honestly make me want to throw out my brushes as I cant achieve that quality.  I am most impressed.

From TomM: Mudry's Mesa: at last a GW Chaos Dwarf release! (35 pts)

In this special challenge, one must paint up a new shiney, and this one is very, very fresh.

Bought a measly two weeks before the challenge began, and as well two weeks as such after it was announced, comes this fancy model from Games Workshop.

Hailing from their Warcry game, one I actually don`t play, I just had to get my hands on one particular model, the armator from the Iron Golems starter band.  Because this is a Dawi'Zharr sculpt!

Or Chaos Dwarf for those big hat lovers of my days, still my greatest love of any game system (and yes, in that manner that I actually have a Hashut tattoo on my arm) so when GW finally released something even vaguely connected to them, I just needed to have him and paint him up.

So now he will join my massive Legion of Hashut as a unit champion, so nothing to glorious at all is ahead for him, it is never the less a very characterfull model to have in the collection.

And netting my a nice 5 points for being a single 28mm figure, plus the location bonus...

The island core comes in sight now!

MilesR: I wonder if GW can lay claim to your arm because of the tatoo.  Probably, so I'd keep that under wraps.  Mums the word from me, unless there's a reward.  If there is a reward, then no hard feeling, it's just business.  I love the dwarf!

From AlexS:Pirate pirates off the Reidy's reef (130 pts)

Hello everybody! My name is Alex and I was very wrong a few years ago. I bought pirate miniatures from a private person over the Internet. Boys love pirates, right? But it turned out that this man sold me not a licensed product, but transfusions of official miniatures made in the basement.

This often happens, but usually with miniatures produced by the company GW, because of their high price, while the prices for chemicals for home production are much lower. But this was the first time that I bought unlicensed historical miniatures.

The low quality of these pirates did not make me want to paint them. But the event began and I read with pleasure about the atoll, where pirates and all the others who are connected with the sea live. Is it not a challenge to make pirate miniatures for this location? And I tried very hard to color them so that their low quality could not be seen. I hope I succeeded.

And having finished them, I enjoyed and relieved. Because I was able to overcome myself and do it thanks to the event. And that's great!

Thanks to Mr. Reidy and Curt for giving me the opportunity to paint these miniatures. In addition, I made thematic markers for the game. After all, pirates are looking for Aztec gold, is not it?

points:
28mm gun x 2 = 20pts
28mm inf x 15 = 75 pts
28mm markers x 8 = 5 pts
bonus points - 30 pts

total 130 pts

MilesR: These are wonderfully painted pirates even if they are of questionable lineage.  To be honest, you've put me in a bit of a moral quandary on how to handle this post.  Thank goodness I am a financial services professional and trained how to handle delicate ethical issues such as this in order to maximize profit.  

Please approach the bench and hear my judgment.  It is not open to appeal.  For the charge of submitting game markers you are awarded 5 points as they are terrain like in nature and seem to fill 25% of the sacred terrain cube.  For submitting pirated figures you are assessed a fee of 5 points.  For realizing that the denizens of Reidy's Reef have a certain level of morale flexibility and accept all (paying) visitors your are awarded 5 additional bonus points.  Court is adjourned.

From StuartL - Challenge Island Safari Journal 55 Points

Ahoy fellow C.I.S.T.ers! After a narrow escape from some 'orrible Ogres last time, we borrowed a boat from over at Douglas' Shallows and we spent the rest of the day looking for somewhere safe to land. Mudry's Mesa seemed like a good spot, so we set a course for the mesa and a stop along the Path of the New Shiny.
Getting out of the fishing boat, we set up camp for a spot of lunch, only to find that another group of tourists was also paying a visit to the mesa, so we invited them to join us. While they seemed quite heavily armed for tourists, they were fairly friendly and were eager to sit and chat with us.

Honestly, I think they were on some sort of religious pilgrimage as they kept talking about spreading the word of Father something or other. It was difficult to hear exactly what they were talking about as some of our party seemed to have come down with something, or were maybe just sea-sick from the boat.

As we were eating lunch, one of our group very rudely dissolved into a horrid green and brown sludge, which quite put most of us off our meal, and caused several bouts of nausea. Our guests were far too polite though and quite merrily chatted away with us as if it were a common thing for them. After a while they packed up their gear and said their farewells. A very merry bunch I must say, even if they were a little scruffy.
Anyway, I think I need to go have a lie down for a bit as I'm feeling a little feverish myself. Probably some tropical bug I picked up from a mosquito bite.

----------

The goal for Mudry's Mesa was a set of models purchased due to someone else's submission last year. Well for me, it was these Death Guard marines from GW. TeemuL (Here) and PaulS (Here) both did a great job with their minis last time around. Shortly after that I was at my local hobby store which had a large selection of Death Guard available. Sadly my willpower has never been that good and I wound up walking out of the store with rather a lot of new plastic.
The models are all unique sculpts and have soooo much detail on them. I could have spent twice as long painting the models and I still would have found more to do. The models were first painted in medium grey and then given a couple of drybrushes with lighter shades. After that I watered down some green ink and washed it on, which has added a lot of shading to the figures. After that I used a fairly dull palette of colours for the armour and equipment, with the exception of the tentacles which got a bright coat of Citadel Tentacle Pink and then a gloss varnish to give them a moist appearance. After all the paint was dry, I used some Tamiya weathering powder to add some soot and grime effects to the exhausts and random patches of armour.

As for scoring, I guess 25 points for 5x 28mm minis, plus 30 for the location on the map for a total of 55 points?

MilesR: Love the infected space marines - really nice painting.  55 points for you!  Don' beat yourself up for making an impulse purchase.  I think it would have been very rude to the store clerk if you didn't buy something.  Good manners are nothing to be ashamed of!

From MattK: Titanicus for Burch's Bluff and Some Odds and Ends (70 Points)

To continue my journey inward onto the island I've headed in the direction of Burch's Bluff. I was sort of wracking my brain a bit on this one to be honest. I was debating what I wanted to enter for this spot and originally I was going to work on the forgeworld Rogal Dorn kit I purchased for my Imperial Fists but was a little intimidated to start on it. Then I thought maybe work on my Epic stuff or a Contemptor Dreadnought when I realized I had built this when they were released and never actually put any paint on them. A bit of Army Painter Gun Metal primer and a couple hours later and here we are.

Here's 2 of the Cerastus Knights for Titanicus. These were quick paint jobs but I'm pretty happy with them.

While I was trying to decide what to paint I worked on a couple other odds and ends for the other projects on my list. First up the new Saruman to go with War in Rohan.

This one was an absolute blast to paint. I had recently painted the old finecast one and was pretty proud of the paint job until an accident involving a bottle of Vallejo Warlord Purple took him and his white cloak out of commission so it was nice to get another Saruman Finished. Sidenote, if the paint doesn't come right out, don't keep squeezing.

Finally I painted some Anvil Industries Bomb Rats for my Cawdor. It's funny, my plan for the Necromunda stuff started at "paint the Cawdor cus theyre neat, who cares about the game" and now its "Matt, why do you own all of the models for a game you still haven't tried." I'm gonna roll with the the energy though. A couple people have asked whats next and the answer is Goliath. For now though, rats

These are simple little paint jobs. Unfortunately they didn't come with bases originally but that's nothing a trip to Thingiverse couldn't fix. I have some of the official models from Forgeworld on order but I can't imagine how many of these I'll end up needing.

So here's where I'm at for the island now

Next stop is "any figure bought AFTER the Challenge was announced (very shiny and new)." which shouldn't be a problem for someone with 0 impulse control.

For today,
15 points for the Cerastus Knights
30 Points for Burchs Bluff
15 Points for Saruman Mounted and on Foot
10 points for the Palantir and the Rats

Thanks

MilesR: Minions get cranky when they're asked to think (it's not one of our strong suits) but I'll forgive you (this time) because of the quality of the submissions.  For the Cerastus Knights, I'm going to count them as 28mm infantry BUT award 5 additional bonus point because they look big).  I'll count the Palantir as a figure and the tiny rats will be combined onto another.  That should net you a tidy 70 points

From MartinC - The Might and Glory of Port Vale - O'Grady's Gulch

As I sit here and type my entry for Challenge Island I am listening to Manchester City vs Port Vale in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. For those of you not familiar with football (FOOTBALL not bloody soccer cos you play it with your feet) such as Americans, Canadians, Scots, the FA cup is the oldest domestic cup competition (first played for in 1871) and pits amateur teams against the professional giants such as Liverpool, Manchester City etc, with over 700 teams entering to play against the elite. It is famous for passion and upsets. Port Vale, the mighty Port Vale are the 78th best team in England, Manchester City are 3rd. Anything better than a 6-0 defeat will be a moral victory
When I started editing the photos the match started, I am now a few sentences in and we are losing 1-0.
On to the painting. I've had a productive day.

1st up some early WW2 French transport for my 28mm Bolt Action French army, they will fight their 1st battle in 2 weeks.

This is a Laffy S20 transport and can hold a section. It is a cross between a truck and a prime mover. Nice model from Warlord

Next up is this cute little artillery tractor is a chenilette and is armoured but carries no weapons, there is a rifle inthe stowage but don't think that counts

The trailer is unattached so i can swap it round.

Still 1-0, but not sure how

Next up back to my Japanese project.

This palanquin is from AW minis and was an easy built. It decked out the bearers and palanquin in matching livery. This will be used to bring in nobles and tax collectors to the village.

STOP THE PRESS. WE'VE BLOODY SCORED 1-1

meanwhile back at the palanquin

The village is a thriving hub and can employ more than 1 musician. This is Hayate (which means "sudden, sound of wind". Could well be the Japanese for fart.

AW Mini

 Then it's the last of the villagers, not sure who made these

All good oriental scenarios have warrior monks, so mine does as well. 

I have a similar number painted up differently and maybe there is opportunity for rivalry

2-1 - the joy of supporting Port Vale is short lived

Couple of bandit types

Finally my submission for O'Grady's Gulch. DaveD of this parish gave me a bag of colonial British troops that he didn't want, they were mainly Foundry and would work nicely for Zulu war or similar. In them was a vignette of a wounded soldier being helped by a comrade. It was a nice sculpt but looked wrong. A bit of research and it is a Foundry Indian Mutiny figure. So I decided to give it him back as it will work for his Sudan collection, especially if I paint it up in Khaki.

Think it's come out really well

He'd better like it or no more bonus points on Thursdays for him

Scores on the doors

15.5 x 28mm infantry = 77.5

1 palanquin - about same size as a gun  = 10

2 French vehicles = 40

Island Location Bonus = 30

Total = 157.5

We made it to half time 2-1 down but we have scored. It's all gravy now

MilesR: A world spanning entry.  My head is spinning a bit with the variety and quality of your painting.  Your point-o-logical divinations seem correct to me - I think this post may put you into the lead - for now.  :)

From SebastianR: Off The Beaches (40 points)

The verdant coastal region gave way quickly to a dry and dusty plain. During my travels it became rapidly apparent that the islands biomes made little geographic sense and appeared to run on dream logic.

The land here was pockmarked with what appeared to be crashed spaceships and odd mechanical mega-fauna roamed the land, belching flame and generally causing a nuisance.

I fell into the company of an itinerant gunslinger who had harnessed the advanced technological bounty of this land and had made it his mission to destroy powerful and dangerous entities he referred to as the Iron Gods.

Our trail led us through a series of great rocks that had been hard enough to survive whatever natural or unnatural forces had weathered the plain. Eventually we came to a great mesa which I scaled so I could take readings with the phlebotimiser and wonder at the islands interior laid out below me. The phlebotimiser packed in within five minutes.

***

So technically I purchased this miniature with beer, but it was after the challenge was announced and beer is a currency so here we are.

Heroforge is really too expensive to justify buying anything from, especially once you factor in import duty which I'm told can be extortionate. Turns out, however, that I have a friend with a 3D printer, and it also turns out that expressing skepticism about the quality of consumer 3D printers in front of a certain type of 3D printer owner will trigger a kind of a defensive response that may lead you to getting some prints done as proof, for the cost of a pint or so.

This is Atticus von Hotzmann, my Techslinger from our ongoing Iron Gods Pathfinder campaign. Yes, he is a fantasy RPG character, despite the noticeably non-fantasy weaponry. I tried  my best to balance the design to meet the Conan meets Mad Max a e s t h e t i c (sic) of Numeria region of Golarion, but in all honesty I think I went too far into sci-fi - flintlock pistol notwithstanding. My original design had a renaissance-ish style helmet on and my fellow players mocked it (quite cruelly IMO) by singing the Whalers on the Moon song from Futurama.

I'm not entirely pleased with the colour I picked for the Proximity Helmet he's wearing, but I wanted something that stood out against his other gear. I might repaint it later.

There are two different prints as I couldn't choose between them, that's fine as Atticus is now packing a figurative golf bag full of ranged weapons.

***

Points: 30 for the challenge and 10 for 2 28mm foot miniatures.

MilesR: Sebastian - two fine figures in this submission and there is nothing wrong with mixing in figures with advanced weaponry into classic RPGs.  Of course I run a convention game entitled "DAK and Dragons" so may be biased.  I am amazed at the growing quality of 3d and resin printed figures/terrain and think we're probably 5 years away from that being one of the major ways we all increase of lead or PLA piles.  40 points for you!

From DaveD - Sander’s Sand Dunes - Biker “Red” - 65 points

This entry is my challenge entry figure ,( no specific participant destination)  and also an entry for Sanders Sand Dunes . It’s a 28mm Crooked Dice figure , that was bought just because I liked the look  of it .

I wanted the bike shiny! , so gave it some Satin varnish ..

Sander’s Sand Dune - 30 points

Mounted 28mm - 10 points

Entry fee - 25 points 

Cheers D

MilesR: well, well Mr Dave what a splendid biker.  You can always tell the character of a biker gang member by how he or she keeps their motorcycle and this is surely a gentleman of high esteem.

From NoelW: Encounter at Reidy's Reef 96 points

Heading for the coast, we expect, of course, to see a golden beach and vistas of blue ocean. We’re disappointed. Instead we find ourselves trudging through a soggy Sargasso of bulrushes and seaweed. The water is grey as the inside of a whale, strewn with spiny rocks and greasy boulders against which reluctant waves rub with all the enthusiasm of bored teenagers.

Clearly this was once a major harbour, but not any more. Still standing are a pair of jettys collapsed like pensioners who’ve just missed the ferry.

Here’s an artist’s impression of the scene:

And clearly someone thought it well worth defending. There are various dilapidated towers and fortifications pretending now to be tourist attractions. It’s not clear why this reedy reef every needed protection but it’s obviously now well past its best.

Struggling through the reeds we see there’s even an ancient wreck, barely able to keep its head above water. Could this perhaps be the fabled SS Reidy?

On the distant horizon we spy a host of pale sails. It looks like a squadron of gunboats:

escorting a pair of brigs:

But there’s little chance that any of these distant vessels will spot us here. It seems unlikely any ship worthy of the name could navigate these rocks in any case.

We wade out into the reeds, in case some skiff, jolly boat, mildy amused boat, raft or seaworthy plank is hidden there. No luck, just an old rope hanging off the jetty. It seems we’ve come to the end of our tether.

Then, just as we’re wondering where to turn next, there’s a bloodcurdling scream somewhere in the reeds nearby. It could be a seabird, if said seabird had a penchant for Death Metal. Or it might be a maiden in dire need – but we’re all so busy paddling none of us really have the time or inclination for an unscheduled rescue. Or perhaps it’s some undead predator, a ghostly remnant of this once productive bay, now scouring the waterline for blood to bathe in and skin to lick the salt from.

There’s a second scream, curdling quite a bit more blood than the first. Not to be outdone, we decide we can scream too. And, it turns out, we can also wave violently and splash frantically in order to disguise any possible hint of panic. And if one of those distant brigs happens to see us, and sail here to investigate, it would be discourteous not to scramble aboard.

But now there’s something plunging through the reeds behind us, whimpering and snuffling, and screaming like Ozzy Ozbourne with a tax bill.

We decide this is a propitious time to learn to swim. How hard can it be?

---

The submission consists of Warlord's Black Seas 1/700^th ships and 1/600^th and 1/700^th coastal constructions, a mix of pieces from Brigade Models and Hagen Miniatures. (The rocks and cliffs are not to be scored, being here merely as supporting actors).

I’m not sure how to score most of this. Here’s my guesses:

3 bases of gunboats: Curt scored three identical bases in an earlier post as 36 points.

2 Brigs: each is a little bigger than a 15mm armoured car (but also has sails and rigging), and is a little over twice the size of a lugger Curt previously awarded 5 points for, so perhaps around 10 points each?

3 forts, 3 towers, 2 jettys, 1 wreck: One fort is 3" square, one 2.5"x3", the other about 2" squarish, but none are more than 1.5" high. These obviously aren’t going to fill much of a 6” cube. I reckon they can squeeze into an volume about 6”x3”x1” which would be worth around a massive 2 points. I did a quick survey of past entries for precedent on 6mm terrain, but couldn’t find anything helpful, so it’s entirely what you think is reasonable.

Plus 30 points for Reidy’s Reef.

MilesR: Strangely, this is my favorite spot on Challenge Island but I must object to some of your descriptions - it is clearly stated in our marketing materials that the boulders have an oily hue and are not, sir, "greasy".  Also our Seagulls are HUGE fans of Metallica.  In fact they constitute the #2 most ardent fan club for that band (#1 is reported to a group of pensioners in Iowa, because there's nothing else to do in that locale).  The gulls rendition of Sandman at dusk is breathtaking.  

Perhaps I've gotten off track.  Your point-a-logical calculations seem right to me but I'll increase the terrain score from 2 to 10, because the power of being a minion has gone to my head and I like the terrain.  This results in a total of 86 points  (ok its really 96) for you sir, despite your slanderous depiction of my latest time share real estate ventures