From TamsinP: Doyle's Dockers (20 points)

Before returning to the barbarian horde, I thought I'd knockout a few more figures for my Pulp project. I decided that they looked like the types you might find hanging around the docks, hence "Doyle's Dockers".

For the two in shirtsleeves, I reckon they arrived in America from the old country (somewhere in Central or Eastern Europe where fashions are a bit behind the times) not too long ago and Doyle has benevolently taken them on as muscle for his various rackets.

The figures are 28mm from Eureka Miniatures (they are the Victorian Criminals pack).

For scoring:
4 x 28mm foot @ 5 = 20 points

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Great job on these Tamsin.  As always I love your work, its very smooth and clean looking.  While you used a super limited palette here, it works so well with them, they look very sharp.  Also the simple (and I assume home made from green stuff or milliput) bases are awesome.  While simple, the painting an shading on them make them look super believable.  

- ByronM

From AlanD - Nomad is an Island (141 points)

Well, that island pun is my lame attempt to make my little Huns and allies relevant to challenge Island.You're welcome.

I have been spectacularly unproductive this year, painting almost nothing since last September, but here is a small points bomblet of 6mm figures.

All the figures are from Baccus, and are destined for games of Basic Impetus and to try out some other rules like Swordpoint.

As well as some Huns, I've also finished some subject Hun infantry.

 

 In total, we have 45 cavalry and 192 infantry, so 141 points.

Next up - some Sarmatians!

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HOLY CRAP!!!  That is an amazing crowd of little soldiers and that one photo from the front with the shields is truly something to behold!  

While not crisp and clean as they would be in a larger scale (and that is not a slam against you as I think its almost impossible to paint shields crisp and clean at this scale, or at least with my eyes), the overall look and effect here is really nice and as is supposed to be the case in these small scales it is all about the sum being greater than the parts, which is certainly the case here, but that is 100% fine.

Hell, the fact that you even thought to attempt to paint shield patterns at 6mm is boggling to me, and as such I am throwing in some bonus points in appreciation of your level of madness!

Awesome work Alan, keep more units like this coming please!!!

- ByronM

From TomM: Sieg Zeon! (52 pts)

In an AHPC where I`m trying to paint up as many 6mm forces to "battle readiness', it`s time for some Science Fiction forces.

Hailing from the Brigade Models Neo-Soviet range, these vehicles will instead double as Zeon forces for my Gundam heavy force in Future War Commander.

Though for game purposes, that is actually the "Cav Open Market" book in the rulebook...

And so 2 Bison Support Tanks, 4 Rosomakha Light Tanks, 3 Molotok SP Guns, 2 Volk Assault Guns, 2 Shershen AA,4 Laska tankettes and 4 Bison MBT's,

Of course, if it's a force made to represent Gundam's, one needs to add a couple of Mobile Suits in the entry, and to that end I painted up three of these 1/400th scale gasaphon prepaint models.  Standing still about the height of 30mm, the Acguy and Zock are general aquatic production suits of the Principality of Zeon, making up the backbone of their forces for war on and in the seas.

To that end, the whole armoured company I painted up this entry consists of 21 armoured vehicles and 2 "28mm scale" infantry models, which makes 21 x 2 points and 2 x 5 points, totalling 52 points.

Sieg Zeon!

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Being a big Gundam fan, I think this is a very cool idea to mock something up to fight battles in the Gundam universe.  The models themselves look the part and are yet again from a new vendor to me, so very nice to see.

The painting is really nice here too, super neat and clean and everything works colour wise.  The vehicles especially look super cleanly done!  My favourite though is the light green mecha with the claws.  The colour choice looks perfect and looks like a Gundam/RE kit that usually has different than normal colours for Gundams.

I would love to see some pictures of all of these setup in a game at some point, as I think that would make for some interesting views.

-ByronM

From DarrellH - Battle of Shrewsbury 1096; Curved Norman Outer Wall III (20 Points)

Yes, the excitement is now tangible as I present to you a section of a Curved Norman Motte and Bailey Outer Wall! I know! It's so exciting! :>)

Seriously though, I've actually had great fun painting up these resins thus far and have some village type buildings ready cleaned and undercoated ready for some action with the brush.

I'm going to start working on the terrain tiles that I have ordered from Panel Systems which I will talk about a little in a future post. To start with I am just going to go for a tile that is very plain; the theory being to build up your skills slowly. Not to jump in feet first as I have been known to do. These will make a nice surface in which to position the buildings on for photography as opposed to my workbench which is kind of, well, a work bench.....

And of course, the now ubiquitous attention to detail!

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If there is one thing I like better than well painted miniatures, it is well painted terrain!  Great job here Darrell, this is really great looking!  The base work is great as are the walls themselves, super clean looking work here.  And yes, that shield is a really nice added touch, and hand painted patters to boot!

I for one can not wait to see some pictures of your completed terrain project here!

- ByronM

From Curt: The Great Siege of Malta: Azab Militia and Supporting Archers (70 Points)

Continuing along with my Great Siege of Malta project, here are some Azab infantry supported by  a few North African archers.

The Azabs, or 'the bachelors', were a volunteer militia made up of young men from the across the Ottoman provinces. They would have been armed with a motley assortment of weapons, basically whatever they carried along to battle. Sources conflict if there were Azabs in Malta during the Great Siege, but either way I thought they'd stand-in nicely as dismounted Sipahis who did make up a significant portion of the Ottoman contingent.

The interestingly shaped shields they carry are of Hungarian origin. I've taken a little artistic license with the decorative designs as I understand it was not uncommon for them to feature mythological beasts and wing motifs.

I used the decals left over from one of my Adeptus Titanicus kits as they seem to fit the bill nicely. 

Regrettably, I only have a few Azabs to show here as I could not for the life of me discover the rest of the castings from my 'lead reserve' (apparently, my archival skills don't extend to the mess of my hobby room). I ended up ordering another batch from TAG to make up the loss, but fearing that the figures would not arrive before the Challenge concludes, I thought I'd just run with these lads, augmented with a few more North African archers to help fill in the ranks. 

These Azabs are from The Assault Group.

Similar to my other units, I made up the flag standard's finial with a blob of greenstuff, some plastic tubing and a bit of cut card for the crescent.

This unit features another custom sabot tray Byron knocked out for me. This is the smaller of the melee troop sized tray - the next step up will accomodate another 6-8 figures and the largest will be that much larger again.

Archers from Footsore Miniatures.

I'm having a lot of fun with mixing and matching colours for these irregular Ottoman troops. The Citadel Contrast paints have come in particularly handy for providing some variety in the robes and turbans.

As to points, we should have 70 points for fourteen 28mm models. 

Thanks for dropping in to take a look, much appreciated!

Curt

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Wow, I love these Curt!  While each figure is fairly simple with just a few colours, the fact that they are all bright and colourful, all different, and many in colours that just do not get used a lot on many wargame figures, makes this entry look fabulous!

The emblems for the shields are a nice pick as well and a good repurpose of some GW product for use in a better game (even though I don't know what rule set you are going to use for this, I can with 90% certainty say it will be better than any current GW rule set).  

While I do not really care for the idea of the contrast paints and having to give up control of what the result will look like, I am changing my opinion on that, thanks to yourself and several other painters showing such nice results this year with them.

- ByronM

From JamesM: 15mm Rebel Colonists (For Lady Sarah's Balloon) - 14 points

Hi folks,

Definitely needing to re-focus my priorities, but I'm almost at the end of the treasure hunt!

Today's sacrifice to the great balloon in the sky consists of two female 15mm GZG armed colonists.

Given their rebel tendencies, I figures something sparkling from my homeland would be be appropriate.

I tried to go with quite bright, non military colours for these gals. Both are armed with some rather interesting looking rifles. I've really appreciated having an easy way of painting darker skin tones, which Mr Docherty had put me onto. As such, I've been trying to make my humans a little more diverse.

My destination for this journey is to Burch's Bluff, my final location before onward travel to see the Big Man.

2 x 15mm infantry: 4 points
Bubbly bonus: 10 points

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These two figures look really nice James, and are once again from a company I have never seen anything from before (at least that I remember).  The bright colours work here and show of the figures quite nicely.  

Sarah's balloon has certainly been busy this challenge, at this rate maybe she should have laid claim to the figures being painted for it, she would have quite the collection already!

- ByronM

From DaveD - 20th Maine , Little Round Top , Benito’s Brook (102 points)

Another swift hop and jump along the trail takes me to Benito’s Brook . The site for acts of derring do.  Earlier in the challenge I was working on my 10mm ACW and I had a unit in firing , loading poses and decided I would use this for the 20th Maine. They would of course be defending the Little Round Top position at Gettysburg . As I had painted the unit I thought I might as well build the terrain piece too. So queue some hot wire action later an approximation of it has been created.

"Late in the afternoon of July 2, 1863, on a boulder-strewn hillside in southern Pennsylvania, Union Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain dashed headlong into history, leading his 20th Maine Regiment in perhaps the most famous counterattack of the Civil War. The regiment’s sudden, desperate bayonet charge blunted the Confederate assault on Little Round Top and has been credited with saving Major General George Gordon Meade’s Army of the Potomac, winning the Battle of Gettysburg and setting the South on a long, irreversible path to defeat."

 The trees have pins inserted so the can be removed /moved as desired . I will add another set at some point - when my usual supplier of these has them back in stock - they are on order.

 Sandtex bitter chocolate undercoat on 4 x 12 mm XPS layers , with cork bits added for rocks . And an evening with carpet glue & the flocking machine - which wasn't at all messy !

Points:-
Benito’s Brook = 30 points
20th Maine = 52 figures , 52 points
Little Round Top . It’s 24x12x2 = 576 inches cubed , so call it 20 points

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Very nice Dave, they look good, but I would have loved for a closer view as its a little hard to see details here (even with my old man glasses on).  From the front bases though they look really nice and cleanly painted for this small scale, and the basing and flags add a lot to the figures here as well.

The terrain piece looks perfect, but I have to question painting it with chocolate.... will it last long?  I am sure it will see lots of action as a key point to assault and defend in many games to come.

-ByronM

PeterA: Royal Marines at Reidy's Reef (64 points)

Progress has been slooow but last week I managed to get a bit more done. Sarah's Balloon has kindly taken me Reidy's Reef, where the challenge is to produce something with a nautical theme. Initially I had no idea of what to do but inspiration struck when flicking through 'Red Star, White Lights', a wargaming scenario booklet set in a Cold War gone hot setting. I had got hold of this as part of a project I started during last year's Challenge, set during a late-Cold War invasion of Norway (inspired by the TV series 'Occupied'). One of the scenarios has a small group of troops from the Royal Marines' Mountain & Arctic Warfare Cadre attacking a Soviet ammo dump. Perfect - this would be another unit for my Norway project and, being Marines, are suitably nautical for Reidy's Reef. It also allowed me to indulge in some nostalgia watching some old episodes of the BBC documentary 'Behind the Lines' (about a selection course for the M&AW Cadre) on YouTube - what's not to like about seeing big, hairy men running around in sub-zero temperatures in a pair of budgie-smugglers?

Anyway, on with the miniatures. These are all 20mm Liberation Miniatures and are from their range for the Falklands War, so have got kit like M16s, L4A4 LMG (aka Bren gun) and CAR 15 carbines - perfect for late-80s Cold War. They have been painted in a similar fashion to my figures from last year - mostly white snow suits with the odd DPM item for a bit of interest.

First up is the team leader, with obligatory moustache (very authentic - check out Behind the Lines!).

Then there are two 4-man sections:

Finally a couple of shots of the whole unit:

So I am slowly making my way around Challenge Island on Safari, but hopefully I will be able to finish off a few things that will see me tick off a few more locations. Progress so far:

So 8x20mm figures = 32 + another 2 for the prone GPMG gunner, plus the 30 points for the location, makes for a total of 64 points and gets me just over half-way to my target. I don't want to head on to Burch's Bluff just yet, so I think I shall be summoning the good Lady Sarah's aerial services shortly!

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I don't know about the rest of you, but I could have gone without seeing that first picture or the attached reference to "budgie smugglers".... cringe....  Then again as the guy that keeps posting creepy Kingdom Death monsters, I don't know that I really have any valid right to complain about cringe worthy subject matter....

Onto the actual figures....  The figures themselves look good and have lots of cool little details to add interest.  I like how you have added mixed bits of camo and other colours in here to break up the white and add contrast and interest to what could otherwise be a pretty damn boring colour scheme (straight white).

-ByronM

From TamsinP: Franonian Security Droids at Fran's Fjord (58 points)

In the control room of the Franonian Occupation Force HQ, Colonel O'Leary looked at the screens and surveyed Rayonia, or rather what remained of the city. "How were we to know that President "Badger" Rousell had substituted cheap, sub-code materials in place of the proper stuff (presumably funneling the cost difference into his Cayman Island accounts) when the new capital was built?" she asked herself again. One short barrage from the Franonian Artillery Regiment had just about leveled the city, parts of which were still burning a fortnight after the event. There was so much soot in the air, meaning the air filters had to be changed every two hours rather than every two weeks and there was no way of keeping vehicles and equipment as clean as they should be.

Out of the corner of her eye she glimpsed a sight that had come to irritate her immensely on one of the monitors - another demonstration by the capital's residents. No weapons in sight, and the Rayonian costume of black-and-white striped Speedos meant they couldn't exactly conceal anything there; the worry was always what they might be carrying underneath those ridiculous floppy hats.

"Captain Piper - Security Droids, Protocol Gamma" she ordered briskly.

"Aye, Ma'am!" came the reply. "Still no trace of that slanderous hooligan?"

"Sadly, no. If I ever get hold of that fool, he's fecked!"

Returning her attention to the screens, the Colonel watched as the Security Droids deployed to intercept the column of marchers...



Mark 1A Security Droids

Mark 1B and Mark 2A Security Droids

After the Mark 1A and Mark 2A droids had entered service it was determined that both models required more firepower to be useful. A new, larger turret with heavier weapons was developed and fitted to bother walker chassis types, creating the Mark 1B and Mark 2B models.


Mark 2B Security Droids

The figures are actually 2mm mecha by Germy from Ground Zero Games, but are the size of a large-ish 15mm foot figure. I bought two packs each of the large and medium mecha at the SELWG show last year but decided to swap turrets between two small and two large to create some variants.

They ended up looking a lot grimier than intended because Vallejo black wash doesn't work as well for panel lining as Army Painter Dark Tone (even when thinned 1:2 with airbrush flow improver).


And so, I continue to adventure on Challenge Island, crossing off another location as I go:

For scoring:
14 x 15mm foot @ 2 = 28 points
Fran's Fjord = 30 points

Total = 58 points

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We are spoiled with great entries today, thank you Tamsin (and everyone else today)!  These little robots are really cool looking, one of the best parts of the challenge for me is getting to see all these crazy different models that I just don't see anywhere else.  There are so many different and cool little producers out there that most of us never even hear about, let alone get to see their work, so it is nice  to see some showcased here each winter.

The colour choices are top notch as usual Tamsin, and regardless of your exploits with thinned Vallejo black, I think the colours still pop and look great.  As a tip for washing with Vallejo's, I find I have to thin them at least 5 or 6 to 1 to get a wash out of them, and use water, alcohol, and airbrush thinner to make my washes with them, just in case you ever want to try again.   I love that orange though, it really works!

- ByronM