From BrettM: Walking Dead and 2 Witchers 90pts

 First trip on the lovely Sarah's Star Yacht 

Female figure from Mantics walking dead range

With this entry we are cruising over to Glorantha.

I finished up the last of the walking dead figures I had left.

Not too much on these paint jobs. Figures weren't that great so gave them more of a board game standard

The Zombies I painted the rim of the base Red just to tell the difference on them quickly

Next while landing at Glorantha we find a Hero that has quite a story. 

The Witcher

Painted two up as one is for a friend of mine. 

Tried to do a bit more with this paint job. Not enough highlights though imo. 

This adds up to 10 minis at 5pts each plus the bonus for Lady Sarah's Star Yacht and Glorantha for an additional 40 points. Final points on this one 90.  

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Great work Brett! I like that female doing the tactical advance with her scoped rifle. Good call on the red bases to differentiate the Zeds from the survivors - smart. Also, your two(!) Witchers are very fine. Your friend will be very pleased at getting one of those, I'm sure. 

From Millsy: Oathmark Human Infantry (125 points)

G'day All,

Well it appears that after weeks of procrastination, distraction, lost shields, more distraction and more procrastination I've finally managed to finish my latest unit of Oathmark Humans. Woot!

These chaps are dressed up in the same colour scheme as my previous submission, speed painted and based for use in a general European-analog low fantasy world. Super easy to build and paint, and they kitbash with plenty of other plastic kits for the odd head or weapon swap as desired.

In addition, I've managed to finish a small, not-so elite unit of woodsmen known as Roscoe's Rangers... ooh ra! Roscoe only has one rule - everybody is ironic.

LtoR: Jasper, Chad, Roscoe, Kelvin and Bronson.

Led by part-time barista and amateur micro-brewer Roscoe, these five out-of-work actors/writers (aka tavern staff) banded together to help fight off threats to The Kingdom. Except on lazy Sunday mornings and Tuesday evenings, when Roscoe gets a beard trim and Chad has ukulele lessons.

They nearly didn't volunteer at all until the recruiting sergeant convinced them being a ranger was like vegan, only it will be way cooler when everyone else finds out about it. Decked out in shades of avocado and kale, they want nothing more than to get back to a time when they could enjoy a late breakfast of smashed avo on gluten-free lembas bread.

And that's it for this submission. All up that makes 25 x 28mm infantry for 125 points. That should take me past my initial Challenge target. Yeah baby!

Cheers,
Millsy

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Haha! Brilliant stuff Millsy. After teasing us for a few weeks on their impending arrival, it's great to see this Oathmark unit get launched from your hobbyroom slip. Lovely work, mate. As I've mentioned before, I really like the red and black livery of these chaps. Your hipster ranger unit is hilarious. I wonder how they find the time to fight baddies, what with their calendars being filled with spin-classes, tantric meditation and SCA weddings (in fact I think those 'quivers' are really just yoga mats).

Wonderful work Millsy, and congratulations on hitting your challenge target!

From TamsinP: Cats & Dogs (21 points)

 The Adventures of Oscar: Time Traveler, Slayer of Squirrels and Very, Very Good Boy

Chapter 10

In which our hero is shocked by what he sees in the future...

Row! Well, that was a close call back there. All those pointy sticks flying at me! I wonder where I am this time? And, most importantly, will there be food? It looks like there's a house up there - time to go and scout it out, I reckon.

I think I'll take a look from behind one of those thingies.

*sniff, sniff* Hmmm definitely dogs here and *sniff* Cats! Grrrrrrr! Grrrrrrr! Grrrrrrr! *sniff* But no humans? That can't be right. Hang on - I think the door's opening. Maybe the humans stay inside? If I go round behind the next thingy, I'll be able to get a better look.

Wait, what? Those aren't humans! Those are...cats! Cats big as humans! Walking upright like humans! Wearing clothes like humans! Being adored by dogs like humans!

Nooooooooooooooo! You traitorous curs! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell! Time for me to get out of this awful place!

OK, I think I'm far enough away now to be safe. I'll try the green button again...

That's enough of this silliness. For this week, anyway.

The Figures

The Cats

These are the "Merchant Kitties" from Bad Squiddo Games. I bought them at Salute last November.

The Dogs

These are the other three from the pack from The Assault Group that I used for the Oscar figures.

For Scoring

3 x 28mm foot @ 5 = 15 points

3 x 15mm foot @ 2 = 6 points

Total = 21 points

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Okay, I think you've traumatized poor Oscar with this horrific vision of the future. The poor doggo will probably need therapy after this adventure, or at least a few scrumptious treats to keep his mind off of these dark, heretical visions. :)

Great work on these cat-people Tamsin. I particularly like the Yoga-Cat sitting on her cushion, proselytizing to the trio of mutts that their continued subservience to their feline overlords leads to healthy minds and bodies.  I dunno, even after having reached this evolved state I hope these cats are still good at climbing trees...

- Curt

From Millsy: More Gaslands (75 points)

G'day All,

Another lot of Gaslands cars completed this week. These are different from previous efforts in that I selected cars where the existing paintwork had stripes, patterns or logos that I wanted to keep but blend into the finished article. The only change to the original designs apart from weathering was to carefully scrape off any Hot Wheels logos.

The decision to preserve the original paint jobs presented a number of challenges unfortunately, as it made them really hard to weather and overpaint, even after multiple coats of matt varnish. Paint just didn't want to stick! In the end it took longer and was fiddlier to get these finished than if I had primed and repainted. Lesson learned for next time I guess.

Anyway, I'm happy enough with the outcome, with the weathering and minor damage taking the original paintwork to the next level when paired with repainted wheels, metalwork and other bits. The bit I am most happy with is that they are all deliberately unaligned to any sponsor, so can be used to top up where an extra car is needed, or band together as a generic team of their own.

5 x 20mm cars = 75 points.

Hope you like them!

Cheers,
Millsy

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More fabulous vehicles for Gaslands' deathraces, and what a cacophony of colour! I'm sorry to hear that you had issues with the paint on these, but I guess we shouldn't be too surprised considering how they design these guys to survive vigorous play with kids. This all aside they look terrific (it's amazing how some bolted on ordinance will improve a vehicle's looks) and can see that they will fill a valuable role in future games in your wastelands. 

Well done Millsy!

From KerryT: P is for Plastic Fantastic (280 points and a Squirrel bomb )

Morning afternoon and evening all

Plastic figures have made such a difference to the hobby haven't they - for me they've changed an influenced my hobby in two ways.

Firstly the availability of plastic figures is what got me moving from 15mm figures and to those 28s that in my younger days  I felt were unaffordable. I've always hankered after the massive table groaning under the weight of those massed 28mm Napoleonics , the siren calls of those pictures leaping out of the pages of Miniature Wargames in the 80s by the likes of Peter Gilder could more easily be answered.

What can you get for 75 pence now!

 About 10 years ago I remember wrestling with the thought that "look you've got more than 10,000 15mm Napoleonic figures, why on earth do you want Napoleonics in 28mm? Their affordability won the argument though I have restricted myself the French, Russians and Polish

The second thing is that its done is allow me to go big when I got mesmerised by the "oh look shiny" spell. This happened a few years ago and I remember being one of those early punters through the door at Salute a few years ago (fair play I had come all the way from NZ - in those days it was possible to travel easily and we would time visits home to see family to coincide with a major show like Salute or Partizan)

I remember hurrying to the then Musketeer Miniatures trade stand and buying from their 28mm Caliphate range because I had been previously dazzled by the "oh look shiny" effect. Since then you can credit Artizan Designs  with having the same effect. Somewhere along the line I've got a bit lost and I think I'm collecting for both Crusades and Spain with El Cid but it matters not! Consequently I have decent sized armies for both sides now but you know what I wanted was more... or Moors!

This is the infantry in 2012, which meant Salute must have been 2011!

That's where these Gripping Beast Plastic Arabs come in- this is the second advantage of Plastic figures - it allows you to beef out what you have and make the big game possible because you have Moors ( ok no Moor puns I promise! - oops)

Its funny painting plastics isn't it - the first mistake I made a few years ago was to undercoat them in my usual way - Matt Black Humbrol enamel  thinned with turpentine and sloshed with a large brush. They got a little bit warm and I noticed they were beginning to melt and the faces ended up looking a bit funny

Since that early mistake  I've used Vallejo black primer but it doesn't flow over plastic figures as easily as metal and I've also noticed that when you start to paint plastics the initial coat of paint doesn't seem to adhere easily and washes don't seem to flow into the crevasses so I have had to adapt my painting technique just a little. On the plus side I have noticed that once the paint has finally adhered it doesn't seem so easy to rub off as with metal figures

So here is my 10th P unit - P is for Plastic, leaving me with just P for Posh and P for Pagan to follow.

So here we are a unit of plastic Gripping Beast Arabs to beef out my Islamic/Moorish army. The box contains 40 figures and my initial intention was to paint the lot but as my units are usually 24 figures strong, made up of 6 figures on 4 bases I realised I wouldn't be able to complete 2 units as I'd be eight figures short.

The figures are nice enough but not as nice as Artizan's Moors, shield transfers by LBSM.

They certainly will bulk an army out though

Gale Force 9 arid grass seems to have changed from 2012

Moor figures running away!

I'm reasonably happy with these, they were quick to pain and will beef out the army, but they could do with a few banners - I think I'll get 2 command groups from the Groping Beast metal range which when complete will give 2 x 24 figure units. The other thing I need to do when the challenge is over is make a desert kind of basecloth that I can use for Moors, Crusades and Pony Wars

The figures are fairly simple, there little detail that needs to be painted and so I completed the unit earlier in the week than I had expected. So rather than be satisfied and continue on with the next P unit (Probably Pagans = Vikings) I had an idea....

The Squirrel Bomb...

My main aim with the challenge so far has been to reduce the lead pile and churn out game sized units  but as I'm not lagging too far behind in the Squirrel challenge at the moment I've taken a side track, trawled through my leadpile (in this case plastic pile) and selected 6 figures each from several ranges languishing in boxes and painted them up. Yes this will give me  a few extra Squirrels but the resulting impetus might mean I will actually tackle them in earnest once the challenge has ended 

So here they are

First up a the command stand from some Perry Napoleonic Russian infantry

I know Jaeger did not carry standards but this is superseded by the first law of wargaming that all units should have big flags - GMB Design in this case. This is from a spare box of Perry plastic, I have another 20 figures to paint to make them up to a 32 figure unit

Next up some Perry Billmen, this must have been the first box of plastics I ever bought and these have languished for an age though the Pikemen were painted ages ago

GW LOTR Harradrim

I just love these figures

I have quite a few painted black but they've never made it onto the wargames table

Next are some Rangers in the same Range

There are still a good few left to paint, others from the box made an appearance in a Lead Adventure Forum Lead Painters League Challenge in April 2012. Picture below

and finally some Orcs, again left overs from those used from the same box in the above  picture

So in conclusion I'd have to say that Plastic really is fantastic though I do prefer the heft of metal figures. I've also really enjoyed the past few nights delving into storage boxes and digging things out from the past and with the relatively quick time it took to knock off 6 from each set I now feel less daunted about finishing the remainder with the aim of getting them on the table in the months to come

So if my calculations are correct

 

24 Arabs @ 5 points = 120

8 Russian Napoleonic infantry = 40

6 Billmen, Harradrim, Rangers and Orcs @ 30 points each

Hopefully that's also 6 squirrels 

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Wow, Kerry, you've given us a very nice variety pack here. I'm much the same as you in finding that plastic figures play a big role in making mass unit armies more attainable. Their cost is an undisputed benefit, and their overall quality has improved by leaps and bounds. This all being said, I still have a soft spot for good old metal figures, warts and all. There is something inexplicable that just makes them 'better' to me. They still have a crispness and weight that appeals to my lizard brain - also, they seem to be a bit more resilient to tabletop mishaps than plastic or resin. Anyway, all this aside, I think your new units of (deep breath) Moors, Jaegers, Harradrim, Rangers and Orcs are terrific. I especially like the Moors and fully endorse that ALL units be allowed big, honkin' banners. Well done!

- Curt