From MartinC The end of another challenge (222.5pts)

So here we are, my final post of this year's challenge.  It's been a weird one for me. My 1st as a retired man and I have painted less than usual. How did I ever find the time. Although I've painted a lot of 10mm, which is not points heavy. It has been fun and I've started and finished a project, finished other one and done some bits and pieces.

If you look hard in the grass you can see 5 crocodiles,  to disrupt river crossings 

Wagons, limbers and field ambulances 

The column commanders,  Chelmsford,  Pearson, Durnford and Wood

Buffalo Border Guard

3 companies of dismounted mounted infantry

90th foot

6 companies of 99th foot

The full menagerie 

Number 4 column

Number 3 column 

Number 2 column

Number 1 column

The logistics 

All of them

Not quite finished yet. I have a 10mm Jacobite army that I'm using for an imagination campaign. Had a few figures to paint to make imaginary units

First up are the rangers and gamekeepers of the Queens Royal deer Park. This illustrious unit of light infantry was once a great force but has fallen on hard times recently. There are known as the Queen's Park Rangers or QPR

Lastly the night watch, lead by Captain Vanessa. These are only armed with halberds and are really for ceremonial purposes 

Final scores on the doors

10mm foot = 143

10mm cav = 21

10mm vehicles = 36

10mm crocs = 2.5

Total = 222.5

----------

Being somewhat of an aficionado of the Zulu War myself (albeit in 15mm) I like a good Flying column and logistics train. The whole project look fabulous and I'm glad you had time to take pics of the lot, including camp and bell tents.  

And good luck Captain Vanessa - I suspect you're going to need some shortly around all those dodgy folk lurking in the park!

Congrats on finishing up another Challenge Martin!

- Paul

From RichardM - A 'few' more Mahdists (560 points)

While I have done some Mahdists through the challenge, there was nowhere near enough for a game - or indeed had I really made a serious dent in the nearly 2,000 that I have in the box.

So you're going to get a 'shed' (or perhaps small desert oasis) load of them in today's post.  

While there are quite a few, I continue to find the painting really enjoyable and relaxing.  What is not enjoyable or relaxing - is the basing of that many figures / bases.  I have been looking at 2/3rds of these for three days and resisting all urges to finish them off having glued them down.  Having the distraction of the others to complete painting was an easy out for me to avoid the basing effort.  I suspect many of us are the same when it comes to basing.

So this week we have 56 bases with 10 figures to a base of Mahdist troops.  These are the last of these types that I bought and with the others already painted (220 figures) gives me 780 of these fellas [I was pretty sure I ordered for 800 so maybe I have another pack hiding somewhere :) ]   I still have an equivalent number of the Mahdist forces wearing the jibbah that I need to paint.

With no way of differentiating between the units, I have based them around coloured flags.  So starting with what I understand are the Hadendowah or fuzzy-wuzzys, we have the white flags and the dark green flags.

Then I have the Nile River Arabs with their red and blue flags 

And one together with the other Hadendowah - in the back row - that I had painted earlier in the challenge - that is all 780 of them.

All the Mahdists that are left are the white robed Beja warriors with the colour patches.  But there are a lot still to do.

I am hoping to get another post in before the challenge closes on Thursday - I have some more mounted sitting on the desk in various stages of painting - hopefully.

On the chance that that I may not get the extra post in on time, it is timely now to recognise the challenge itself.  I have had a lot of fun and sense of achievement in this Challenge. I did participate last year but never really got into a rhythm.  One thing that definitely helped me this year was the weekly catchups for us southerners (on the globe).  A really nice group of men discussing the usual rubbish (and sometimes something very useful) that wargamers tend to talk about when they get together.  Thanks gentlemen.  Especial thanks to Millsy for his role as Minion, his encouragement, as well as being organiser of the weekly call.  And of course to Curt for the whole challenge.  I also want to thank all who have commented on the posts along the way - I have really appreciated it.

Points are pretty easy for this one - 560 10mm foot figures = 560 points.

----------

BOOM goes the dynamite as Richard drops a final week points bomb! 

Nothing quite like a big horde in smaller scales to get the wargaming juices flowing - fabulous! And it probably took just as much time to base as it did to paint the little buggers. The little splashed of colour really life the whole forec though, and as a result it looks wonderfully dynamic. Great job!

- Paul

From BruceR, WW2 Italians why not? 28mm Empress (50 pts)

I finished what I had for my BEF and looked around and found some desert Italians. I have a rather large set of DAK and Free French. The French have a number of indigenous troops and I figured I would expand into Italians. 

These are Empress miniatures and are likely actually for the interwar years. I’ll likely use them to battle my French.  Hard to resist the pith style helmet. The Empress figures are excellent, some flash on faces, which can be hard to deal with and not maim the figure in the process.  Basic riflemen and an NCO in a hand signal pose.  Some have googles with one rifleman trying to kneel and fire while wearing them .

Pretty basic paint work.  Uniform, helmet,webbing, rifle, and boots. Washed, highlighted and based  

The group

The loaders machine gunner is in the next batch. 

NCO giving hand signals to the section. 

Fun figures to paint and play with.   I hope to have a few more different models done and the other 10 of these Italians  

Points. 

10 28mm @ 5. =  50 points. 

Race to the finish. 

Bruce

-----------

Nice 'eye-ties' Bruce. I quite like the colonial/early war Italians too. Classy chaps with a refined palette and appreciation of fine art. Not like those brutish black shirted chaps who are best kept at arms length.

You've done a great job on these lovely sculpts despite the limited colours (yet not complained about it like some we know eh Millsy?) - simple or not its very effective.  Best of luck squeaking a few more before the Challenge closes!

- Paul

From Millsy: Star Wars Legion Tusken Raiders (60 points)

G'day All,

Brown is the new black apparently. Having spent a fair chunk of the early Challenge up to my ears in black paint I've now spent the last six weeks or so painting mostly muted colours, including a lot of browns. So many browns. This post is 90% brown. To quote Eric Olthwaite... "Even the black bits are brown!" I stopped counting at eight different browns and that's without the highlights.

I encourage you to play the following whilst viewing my efforts for a fully immersive experience. Feel free to join in. I did.

Tusken Raiders aka Sand People are an iconic part of the Star Wars universe, featuring heavily in A New Hope and appearing on and off elsewhere. They made up a large chunk of the early episodes of The Book of Boba Fett too. I love the creepy buggers and think they are amongst the most interesting and believable races/cultures in the Star Wars universe.

These are more 3D prints as there's no official miniatures. Again, WHY NOT? They're beautifully detailed although on the fragile side given how slim / true scale their weapons are.

Painting them up was great fun but did present a challenge to maintain the drab look without making them uninteresting. The bandaged heads with all the gribblies took by far the longest and apart from maybe Napoleonic minis I can't think of anything equally detailed and more complex.

The bantha is a beast (literally) and really has a solid presence about it. In games it'll be fun, very hard to take down but also slow as a wet week. Kind of like a WWI tank sporting horns and a mohair coat. I'm treating it as a vehicle when considering the ROI given the size.

Point-o-matic...

• 7 x 28mm infantry = 35 points
• 1 x 28mm vehicle (?) + driver = 15 points

Total =  50 points

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Millsy

-----------

This post is nuthin' but a bunch of "Bantha poodoo!" :-)

What a fab submission mate- Who doesnt love the Sand People? So misunterstood...

With all that Brown done you'll be ready to paint a bunch of North African DAK and 8th Army next surely? Great job though, its really hard to get good contrasts when operating at a limited end of the palette but you've nailed it. I think its your use of texture, both sculpted and implied, that really bring these to life. 

Great job Millsy - I assess this as a fulsome 60 point submission. 

Now you need to put this sign on one of your buildings now! :-)

- Paul

From Ross M: 28mm Skeleton Archers (60 points)

 These figures were not meant to be a part of this challenge or anything at present however, plans are made to be changed and changed they were. 

There is a mixture of old and new in this so starting with the new, well nearly all of the new at eleven Oathmark skeleton based as a regiment for Kings of War. There is a twelfth figure on another base that will be here shortly. 

When I say new, I should say newly painted as the figures have been in the pile of shame for several years now. The colour scheme was painted to match the previously painted figures as best as possible and there is one of the rear right hand group that does just that. 

Here are both groups together, with the newly painted to the right of screen as viewed and the previously painted to the left. Same figures, paints, painting methods and varnishing; the difference between left and right has been a different primer. The newly painted were primed with grey car primer the previously painted skeletons had been primed with Army Painter Skeleton Bone....just goes to show how a little change can make a difference.

Basing these has been interesting and very similar to basing Impetus armies about a decade or so ago. The multi-figure base allows more use of flocks, tufts and foliage to create a theme on the basing and as a result across the army. 

Hope that you like these and that I'll be able to sneak a post in before the end of the week. In terms of points I make this to be:

12 x 28mm infantry at 5 each = 60 points

12 skulls at 1 each = 12 points

Total for this entry being 72 points

Thanks for looking and if I am unable to post for the 20th, its been great being part of this in 2024/25. 

Cheers for now.

-------

The best plans are those that incorporate agility to shift with our ever changing whims Ross! And I'm thrilled that these bony lads made the cut. They really come together well en mass and the purple wildflowers on the basing give a great splash of colour to bring them together. Good stuff!

60 points for the figs (skulls don't get extra points that I'm tracking, sorry)

- Paul

From GregB - Bavarian Solar Auxilia for 30k (65 points)

Solar Auxilia ready to take their place in the battle line! These are 28mm multi-part plastic figures from GW.

In GW's "Horus Heresy" setting, the terrifying Space Marine Legions are supported in their military conquest efforts by (naturally) some Auxiliaries - known as the "Solar Auxilia". These human soldiers are more "normal" - they are not genetically modified super-soldiers like the Space Marines, but are nonetheless well-trained, well-armed and well-equipped, ready to support the Space Marines on the flanks, or stand in their stead the best they can when the Space Marines cannot be present. These are multi-part plastic figures from GW's "Age of Darkness" figure range.

Fix bayonets!

While the "lore" of the Space Marine Legions contains many well-established notions, the concepts for their auxiliaries are way more wide-open. Each Legion is known for specific Auxiliary cohorts to support them, but really you can go crazy just making up your own stuff, which is fun. I have painted Solar Auxilia in earlier editions of the Painting Challenge, back when the figure range was limited to resin sculpts from the Forge World studio, but I wanted to do something a little different with these newer plastics...something different...why not some Space Bavarians???

Close of up some of the basic troops.

The "void armour" has the look of an undersea dive suit...I just love it. 

Lots of grenades and other bits to be found...and I also love the whacky bellows-type air/atmosphere system on the back...just awesome sculpts.

Challenge Participant Nick (MartinN) is always wowing us with his stunning brushwork, particularly when he tackles a Roman subject. Since the factions of GW's "Age of Darkness" ape the format and nomenclature of the Roman Legions of old, I hoped Nick might get a kick out of seeing these far-distant-future auxiliaries with their battle plate bearing Bavarian clue colours. 

Auxiliary with Vox Interlock (aka radio thing)

Bonkers vexillary, just to make everything whacky!

The new plastic Solar Auxilia range is...well, more than anything, I'm still shocked that GW went ahead with it! I was sure the Solar Auxilia would remain a fringe faction, trapped in Forge World's resign ghetto. How wrong I was! A substantial portion of the Solar Auxilia range is now available in plastic, which is great - even if GW continues to make baffling decisions, such as releasing the utterly pointless Arvus Lighter in plastic even as we await for other, more basic vehicles and figures to be available...

Love the officer sculpt! Such whacky character.

Why is that grenade yellow? I'm sure it's all about...safety...yes...safety....

GW also managed to trip over its own feet when it comes to the instructions for these figures...there are errors in the instructions, while some components on the plastic sprues are missing a number...working through these models for the first time can be a real pain in the @ss, with heavy resort to searches of online forums to see explanations from other hobbyists...as GW itself almost never admits it f*cked up, much less corrects it...

"Stand to!"

But hey, even I'm trying to keep the glass half-full, and I am loving all of the plastic Solar Auxilia models! In fact, I had "planned" to paint a lot more during AHPC XV. These Lasrifle sections can have as many as 20 soldiers...but my painting pace has been pretty slow during this edition of the Challenge, and unfortunately I won't be able to finish all 20 of the troops (or any of their supporting vehicles or commanders - oh well). But here are 13 of them...maybe a "lucky number" to kick off this collection, with the hopes of adding to them in future Challenge editions :) 

The under-strength lasrifle section so far...

For scoring purposes, we have 13 different 28mm foot figures...good enough for 65 points! I'm hoping to be able to get maybe one more submission...fingers crossed...but thanks for reading. And thanks to Nick for the inspiration! Watch for the ranks of this terrifying Bavarian Solar Auxiliary Cohort to grow in the future...

--------------

Loving the Auxilia in their unmistakable cornflower blue Greg! They will look great next to your boys in Red from the XV Legio.  The contrasting colours you've used (and yellow grenades) really make them pop!  I've been thinking about getting some of these lads to go with my Word Bearers but haven't pulled that trigger yet.  Good luck with this Dirty Dozen plus one on the tabletop!

As for the Arvus Lighter - nobody can understand that particular choice...

- Paul