From SanderS: On to Benito's Brook with some Belgians! (40 pts)

Hoi,

The criterium of a famous or heroic last stand was an easy one since I had gotten the Crisis special figures this year that really matched the description. I'll let the guys from TSOA themselves explain who these two brave men were:

Lieutenant Lippens and Sergeant De Bruyne where stationed in the centre of slavetrade, Kasongo, ruled by Sultan Sefu to end the trade. But unfortunatly, Sefu resisted this and led an attack on the forces of the Belgians.  Both where captured, but a deal was struck for their release.  Lippens was in bad health, and while De Bruyne could have escaped at his expense, he refused to do this and stayed at the side of his comrade.

Eleven days later, the Belgian forces invaded the Arab zone, and over 3000 people fell in the bloodbath.  Out of revenge, Lippens and De Bruyne where executed in a gruesome fashion.

The models this year represent Lippens and De Bruyne taking a stand, with Lippens lying on the floor barely able to stand due to his bad health at the time.

Once again cleanly cast, these models are in scale 28mm, and lend themselves excellent to any games in the Darkest Africa period, as they where made in their stripped down clothing from their time of capture, instead of their formal military uniforms they are honoured in with a statue in Blankenberge.

So I couldn't find any decent painting clues and played it safe with blue trousers and white shirts. I have no idea what I could use them for but they are a nice enough looking vignette to be on display in the cabinet.

Two 28mm figures with the bonus from the Brook get's me another 40 points. On to Millsy's Millpond!

***
Wow Sander, some great brushwork here, and a grim tale behind these fellows - yikes! I think you have done a fine job, not only on the figures, but the groundwork too is just excellent, and fits in well with the setting.  

That will be another 40 points for you, sir! Well done. 

GregB

From JohnM: Elven Hearthguard (40 Points)

 

Still plugging away at the painting. One of my goals during the challenge was to complete a Lords of the Wild warband using elves from my LOTR collection for SAGA AoM. Next up are 2 Hearthguard units. These were half painted by my son many years ago, they were airbrushed with Tamiya flat black and re-painted and based to match the the current war band. I thought about stripping the metal casts but decided against it, so they are a little less defined than the plastic sculpts which just had been previously primed. I am happy enough with them. I have 11 more figures to go but I somehow another think that this will not get done for the Challenge.

 

 

 

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Great work John on some classic figures! While SAGA's various iterations tend to leave me only with a headache, I can only assume it will be fun to play with such neat figures available.  These LOTR ones are just marvelous, and you have done some fine work here. And I always love a story where figures started elsewhere make it over the "painting finish line" - I find those figures always seem to provide the best "performance" on the table, like the dice somehow respond to them. 

GregB

From AlexS: A Varied Set Of Different Miniatures (115 Points)

Hello everybody! My name is Alex, I am from Russia and today I will not show you terrain from clay and branches. Today is another set of different miniatures.

Firstly, a sultry oriental woman. She was especially pleased to paint, looking at the snow falling all day long over the fire.

Secondly, two pirates whom I collected from various spare parts which each wargamer stores in a large box.

Thirdly, some more African warriors. Leader, musician, great shaman and shaman squad. Yes, it looks a bit like a comic book, but why not?

Finally, a squad of Saracens or Moors for games according to the rules of the SAGA. Yes, today there are many shades of black, you are right.

General view. It is said that the event ends. I hope to have time to do something else. And if not, then I was very happy with all of you.

 ***
Alex, it is always a treat when I have the opportunity to "minion" one of your outstanding entries.  As always, there is great variety and fantastic, subtle commentary. 

I agree that painting a figure while the fire burns and the snow falls can be amazing...but we're all a little tired of the snow falling here - we got three more centimetres last night! Spring can come any time now...

I am using my powers to add five extra points, because I so loved the idea of figures assembled out of spare bits. Perfect pirates indeed. That will 115 points for you sir!

GregB

Ready Adamc: Fran’s Fjord; The Snow Lord's Own and HMS Unicorn (68 Points)

So as you may recall from past challenges I have an Imagi-nation called the Grand Duchy of D’Argent and their traditional foe the Draconian Empire.  I like to give wargamer friends regiments in the service of the Draconian Empire.    
       

Given the task for the location I decided to honor our fearless organizer with a regiment of his own.

The Figurers are Essex Miniatures I went with blue and white in honor of our leaders snow capped peak and blue monster manifestation.

The Flag is purely out of my head but inspired by some French and German flags of the period.

HMS Unicorn is the last of my initial purchase for Black Seas.  I decided to do a Royal Navy frigate because I wanted one to add an extra dynamic to a convention game I am working on.

A convention that will probably be cancelled out of an abundance or caution to use the fashionable phrase (figures crossed this will blow over by May).
 

I went with buff instead of yellow for the stripe along the gun ports.  I added a bit of gold-leaf showing our frigate captain was lucking in prize money or has private means.
 

I’m very pleased with how the ship came out. OK points.  Fran’s Fjord give 30 points, the ten 15mm figures provide 20 and HMS Unicorn will provide me with another 18.  That give me 68 more points for pile.

HMS Unicorn will now take me along the coast to Saunders Sand Dunes (if that’s allowed).

***

Fine work here Adam.  I'm sure I join many Challengers in expressing sheer horror at the idea of the Snow Lord having his own Regiment of Foot to unleash upon unwary travellers, but I have no doubt the Lord himself will be thrilled!

And it has been a lot of fun watching your "Black Seas" project(s) come together so nicely.  This is another great-looking ship...I wish I could offer more intelligent commentary, but I'm the age-of-sail gamer who says things like "I'll take the one with the cannons!" so I'm not much help there.  But damn, it looks cool! 

In terms of your Challenge Island routing proposal...I'll leave that to higher powers, but it may be that one requires a balloon ride to make the trip you propose...

That will be another 68 points for you.  Here's hoping your event goes ahead...

GregB

From StephenS: Seven Samurai gather at Benito's Brook (65 points)

As soon as I read the description for Benito's Brook, I knew exactly what I was going to do - a vignette based on one of my favourite films, The Magnificent Seven (1960 version). How better to represent a brave feat of arms against almost impossible odds? However, I couldn't find any figures I really liked. So then I decided that actually, what I had really wanted to do all along was pay homage to the film that inspired The Magnificent Seven - Akira Kurosawa's 1954 Seven Samurai.

Luckily, Footsore Miniatures and Games produce a very lovely set called 'Seven Ronin', which bear a striking resemblance to the seven masterless samurai of the film.

I had high hopes of getting a proper vignette together, and even put together some MDF terrain from Sarrisa Precision to go with it. Alas, newborn babies and painting challenges mix like oil and water, and time has escaped me.

Instead, seven 28 mm metal figures on their own, ready to defend a village from a horde of bandits despite the impossible odds. That should be 35 points for the miniatures and 30 points for the location.

See, just like the real thing!

Sayonara,

Samurai Steve

***

Greg work Stephen, this is very cool.  Samurai are one of those subjects I sometimes trick myself into thinking I can manage, and I then recoil after finishing a single figure, much less a group of them! Well done, these look great.  I think we can all understand that the priorities of life in 1-to-1 scale must come before the hobby, and that can slow progress, but some fantastic work here will get you 65 points toward your total. 

Well done!

GregB

From TomM: Snow Lord's Peak: Harad Battle Company (70 Points)

While I'm still far off from painting my two Mumakil for the forces of Harad, I did complete the Battle Company for the arabian inspired nation of Middle Earth.  And all thanks to the mighty Snow Lord, who as a finale challenge gave me the mission to paint a unit for my Lord of the Rings collection.

Armed with poison, these guys are actually a rather deadly force to face, but their lack of any decent armour also means you don't want the enemy catching up on you.

The Battle Company consists of 8 models, and all can be made from a sprue of the Harad set, as they are 4 bowmen and 4 spearmen that make the force.  Harad is also one of the few which has a 50% instead of 33% bow limit in it's forces, and this company makes for a nice core to expand the force on in the future.

And as such, I think I successfully managed the task given by the Snow Lord, and score as such another nice 70 points to the total (8x5 points for the figures, and 30 for the location), and pulling myself nice and clear over my goal... though my personal best will remain far out of reach this year.

But for now, they will be all I'm painting up for them as I go through the other lists of companies to finish first...

And so my trip around Challenge Island comes to an end, with just one final entry in the pipeline now for this year... 

_______________________________

Great work on these Haradrim, Tom! I've always liked the direction Peter Jackson went with the forces of Harad. The design of their clothing, makeup and weapons had the perfect blend Eastern mystery and epic high fantasy and your painting here does them proud. Also, congratulations on breaching your points target for this year - we need ever pip we can get to meet our team goal. Maybe we can see one of your Mumakil before the event closes - it is a 'challenge' after all. ;)

As to your prize, I'm happy to award you with Ray's excellent 'Dulce et decorum est' vignette of an exhausted WWI British Tommy.

Thanks, Tom, for taking on the challenge of Snow Lord's Peak!

-Curt

From MartinN: WW2 Canadian Infantry and German KSK (55 Points)

Being ordered to stay at home for the day till the company has decided on how we field-service technicians are best and safest to proceed with our jobs in face of the virus I've taken the chance to take pictures of finished stuff. These lads have been sitting on my desk for a few days now as I haven't had found the time to finish the basing. 

In comparison to my usual basing I went for a more basic approach but I have to confess I rather like it. I wanted some WW2 Canadians for quite some time now and stumbling over a good deal over on the Lead Adventure Forum I decided it was high time I gave it a shot. Being Canadians these fine chaps are intended for service in Sicily, Italy and France/ The Low Countries, maybe even the Reich itself.

When it comes to Canadians in WW2 most gamers seem to go for generic British and use them as stand ins. If they're modeling Canadians anyway that is. A rather sensible approach really as organization and equipment was largely the same. I on the other hand, being somewhat Canadio-phil (I don't think that's a word, is it?) wanted to do it just the other way round.

The Canadian Battle Dress was generally markedly greener than its British counter part and didn't undergo the 1940 changes to the so called P40 "austerity pattern" and thus was highly coveted by other Commonwealth troops as well. That said Canadian Battle Dress like that of other nations varied greatly in both fit and colour due to different producers. Re-supply issues also meant that Canadian soldiers also often wore Battle Dress produced in other Commonwealth nations. A good primer for those interested in the Canadian Battle Dress can be found here --> www.canadiansoldiers.com

Figures used are by Crusader Miniatures and are your typical ill-proportioned wargaming miniatures. That said they're fun to paint as there's not too much small detail on the figures. In the long run I plan on expanding the force using Artizan Miniatures which should fit quite in.

Also recently completed were two German KSK (Kommando Spezialkräfte or special forces command) soldiers made by Lead Adventure Miniatures. I decided to go for Multicam instead of the more common German Flecktarn or the less often seen but more modern Multitarn.
Figures painted up nicely and I hope these are the start of a bigger foray into modern wargaming in 28mm... now I only need to decide on the theatre.

Eight Canadians and two German KSK should add another 50 points to my total. Now off to do some chores in the garden and hopefully to get on with the figures for the "Snowlords Peak Challenge".

***

Wow, Nick...as is so often the case, we peruse your fine brush work and can only up with words like "wow".  These are all just fantastic.  As a Canadian, naturally I'm biased - some tremendous work there - but your KSK guys in their camo patterns are true brush-bending mind-melters.  Just fantastic stuff.  I'm awarding five extra points because painting modern camouflage hurts your sanity. 

GregB 

From BillA - "I say, Jeeves!" (10 Points)

Been digging through my closet of shame and found a box of Pulp Figures I'd primed a year or so ago; I'd won a free pack through a trivia contest Bob Murch had had on his Facebook page, redeemable with my next order, so I ordered enough of the "Personality" sets to get two free packs, and one of them was "Upper Crust Swells." Among the tuxedoed fellows and society matrons was a stiff-backed valet and an enthusiastic young man with a loopy grin and an umbrella in hand.

I immediately recognized them as the long-suffering valet Jeeves and his charge, Bertram Wilberforce Wooster, from P.G. Wodehouse's classic series of comic novels and, of course, the ITV show starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry.

Please forgive the unusual backdrop - trying to take their picture against my usual backdrop kept resulting in them being ridiculously washed out.  We cleaned our kitchen this weekend though, and on a whim I took a picture of them with the side of our refrigerator behind them.  It left the details a bit more visible.  That's two more 28mm figures, for another 10 points.

***

"Upper Crust Swells" - love that title. Great work Bill - another 10 points for you!

GregB

From LeeH: Ogg make FIRE! (27 Points)

A few weeks ago I received a very nice parcel in the post. All parcels are actually nice but this particular one was very nice because I didn't buy it, it was sent to me as a present. Inside were five perfectly cast Neanderthals sent to me by Alex from Russia. He was a member of my Tuesday crew when I was a minion in last years Challenge and I think this was a reward for the odd bonus point I might have put in his direction back then! 😉

These are 28mm, cast in white metal and other than a little bit of filing to be done on the base completely free of any caste lines or flash. The sculpture is fairly basic but actually, they painted up really well. I'm not really sure where I'm going to use them, but I did promise Alex I'd try and get them painted by the end of the Challenge, so here they are.

Actually come to think of it I could probably use these some pulp role-playing games that I have. Have an excellent little RPG we called Hollow Earth Expedition which is a proper 'land of the lost' type setting, and these guys would fit in their perfectly.

Pointwise these are relatively simple. 5x28mm figures and the fire which I suppose should be a couple of points. If my math is correct these should take me to my target! Wo-hoo! Now I really, really, really need to get on with my Snow Lords Challenge!!!

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Great work Lee.  Alex is indeed a fine fellow of the hobby - I have my own set of these figures, waiting for the attention of my brushes.  It's great to see some of the products from Russia's leading producer of prehistoric metal figures painted up for the Challenge :) 

Two points for the fire seems about right to me - so 27 points it is! Well done Lee - and a big thank you to Alex! 

GregB

From PaulSS: More Rebel Troopers (34 Points)

I picked up the Rebel Troopers upgrade expansion pack last week and have been adding these to the forces.

It's a great pack containing four more alien Rebel troopers that can be built as standard rebels or heavy/special weapon upgrades.

I did the Ithlorian and the Gran as standard troopers with A-280 blaster rifles.

The Ishi Tib mutant (with dark red rather than green skin) is a Rebel Captain while the Theelin is armed with a DLT-20A long-ranged blaster rifle.

To me, Vaporators really do evoke the Star Wars universe and I was chuffed to find that the Priority Supplies Battlefield Expansion contained four of them.

These were painted in the same scheme as the barricades that I've already don and seem to blend in nicely.

Victoria has been cracking on with her Imperials, and although they will not cont to my own Painting Challenge total I did want to share a few pictures of her work here.

She is overyly critical of them, but, I think that for somebody who does not paint miniatures she has done a great job. I did the basic assembly for her and did the bases so they match mine, apart from that all the work is Victoria's I gave advice when asked, we have been married long enough for me to know not to give it if not asked ;)

So far she has, Darth Vader:

Three units of Stormtroopers:

A pair of Z-74 Speeder bikes.

We played our first game today, I've put up a report on Scrivsland.

So for my total, the four 40mm infantry and a couple of Vaporators should add 34 points to my score.

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Nice work Paul, great to see people enjoying the "Legion" figure range. 

GregB