From ChrisW: Final post - A Cornucopia of miniatures (530 points)

A busy final week

So, first off, I really feel like I have to explain my painting process (such as it is) Any given week I typically slack off a lot before I frantically start flailing about to try and get some stuff finished. By Monday morning I wake up with a plan of what I can/must get done by Tuesday (posting date of Wednesday) However without fail I will suddenly start a brand new painting project on Monday morning rather than finish off the almost done stuff. The end result is that throughout the challenge I have started and stopped a number of projects, so that by the end of the challenge I have a lot of almost done miniatures. This is by way of explaining why my output seems kind of large this week. It also is not to say that all of this years challenge projects have been done. (more on that in my challenge end post)

The smaller groups of figures have been on the cusp of being done for quite a few weeks.

Now, armed with a new camera off we go!

VSF Prussian unicycle lancers [10x 28mm 'mounted' troops    [60 points]

&

VSF Prussian Armoured Penny Farthing [1x 28mm weapon      10 points]

I did not think I would get these done in time. When you are nearing the end of the challenge and you need a lot of points, these are not the figures you should choose. They are from Eureka miniatures, as is the armoured penny farthing bike. I have 4 penny farthing models, but could only locate this single model. The plan is to paint up each of the models based on the colours of some WWI German planes.

While the troops are 'mounted' they hardly count as fully mounted, so I gave them an extra point for the stick they are sitting on.

All Quiet on the Martian Front American tanks [25x 15mm vehicles 200 points]

These are the last major grouping of tanks that needed to be painted. I already have 18 of these tanks in the more traditional green colour and I decided to branch out to a different colour.

MK III tanks plus command (13)

MK IV tanks

There is 1 Command tank,  3 Mk 2 tanks, 12 Mk3 tanks, 6 Mk IV, and 3 hybrid Mg support tanks. The 3 support tanks will be assigned to some heavy armoured infantry companies. The remaining tanks will form a secondary company.

Except for the MG tanks, all the tanks were primed/base coated with English uniform rattle can. Then craft Khaki paints and light brown colours were used as an overbrush and drybrush, with the tanks ultimately having a wash applied to them , then more dry brushing and some weathering.

MG tanks (3)

Mk IV tanks (6)

MG tanks & Mk II tanks in front

BoB vehicles   [6x 28mm vehicles 120 points]

So, 2 Medium C tanks a ex French tank and 3 armoured cars. The two Medium C tanks will see service with my White Russian forces while the French Schneider tank is destined for a Chinese Warlord army. The German Ehrhardt AC will go to my Freikorps troops (once I paint them) Then the desert for one armoured car and somewhere in Russia (side to be determined) for the last armoured car.

Medium C tanks in White Russian service (2)

The two medium C tanks were not fun to build. Each of them are only 3 parts (plus some metal bits) but the two side parts are the same double sided part. This must make it easier to produce and ship, no mis packaging two left side parts. However it means that there is not any clear connection point when building it, no slot in one part to the other.

Chinese tanks

All of them have been well and truly dirtied up and one is especially rusty.

 

BoB Tugboat           [1x 28mm vehicle         20 points]

So, another Empress miniatures miniature. I just felt I needed one but I am not certain why. I may use it in some pulp game or maybe BoB. A total of 6 pieces make this a rather easy assembly. I left off the mast. There is no hole for it (yes I could drill one) but its main problem is it is very tall (yeah I could cut it down) I have visions of it getting tipped over in game play. But it would look neat on it, so maybe I will add it.

It is rather larger than some vehicle, but I scored it as a 20 point vehicle but a 25 point vehicle score would be another squirrel, just saying😉

So, while I confess it is painted yellow, it really does not look this yellow in person. It has a more of a dirty yellow, light yellow look to it. I can tell, because the bumpers are painted off white not yellow.

VSF static defenses and turrets. [3 defenses (10 each) 2 turrets (5 each) 40 points]

These are from Oshiro part of his VSF range. I have painted them for service on Mars (what else) but the redness of the base is not so intense that I could not use them on Earth. It took a while to paint these as I, at first, wanted to emulate the pics on Oshiro's site. But the pale grey/white did not work with the reddish bricks. So I went with shades of grey/green (3 in all)  

Witch Hunter general and troops    [8x 28mm foot, 1x mounted 50 points]

Foundry ECW officers, a Warlord shot and a Warmonger Witch Finder General make up this collection. Again, I still have not read the rules, but these are slated for Devilry Afoot as another faction/group. 

Combat Robots  [5x 28mm     25points]

I do not remember where I got these (maybe Alternative armies) I thought I had more of them but if I do all I could find were five of them. I seem to have a thing for robots, usually pulp robots but these are more Sci-fi in nature., so, I am not certain what use I will get out of them though I do have some  other Sci-fi stuff.

Old school Epic Knights [ 14x 5 points (28mm equivalent) 70 points]

Yet another blast from the past. So, here are twelve Imperial knights and 14 Eldar. These figures just cry out for contrast/speed paints. I especially like the contrast effect on the Eldar figures. I wanted the Imperium figures to be a bit more solid for their colours with the Eldar being more ethereal.

Fantastic battles characters  [7x 28mm figures  35 points]

So, a mix of figures these are to be used in fantastic battles. There are two Goblin thieves, an Orc mage and four Undead characters.

The two thieves and the Orc mage came from Warmonger miniatures. I had a tough time finding a good thief character, but stumbled upon these a while back. The Orc mage comes with a feather back thing, and once I find it again I shall paint it up.

Two of the undead characters are quite tall and fragile. There had been a large sword being wielded by the figure on the left, but it fell off pretty soon after purchasing the miniature. My attempts to fix failed, so now he just clenches his fist in anger. 

Solitaire (y) figure. [1x 28mm figure 5 points]

Points this time

•  200 points for 25x AQMF tanks [15mm]
•  120  points for 6 armoured vehicles [28mm]
•    20  points for 1 tugboat [28mm]
•    70 points for 14x Old School Epic knights [28mm size figures] 
•    50 points for Devilry Afoot Witch Finder general (mounted) + 8 foot troops [28mm]
•    35 points for 7 Fantastic battles characters [28mm] 
•    40 30 points for VSF turrets & static defenses
•      5 points for Solitaire figure

 Points Total 540

So that is that. I have reached my target, but it was a near run thing. Discounting the one theme post, I achieved my target on painted miniatures! But at a cost. This week was a frantic one, painting until 12:30 AM on Wednesday night. I would have been painting right up to the last minute but I have a convention to attend.

Thanks to my minion and to Curt for another fun challenge! 

Squirrels

8 more squirrels for a total of 36

1. Gladiators
2. Epic Orcs
3. Epic Imperial
4. Warlord Chinese
5. Red Russians RCW Back of Beyond
6. Alien Invaders
7. Pulp US Marines
8. Urban Cultists
9. Egyptian cultists
10. VSF Japanese armoured vehicles
11. Tripods
12. Bugs!
13. Evil minion deep sea divers
14. Puritans
15. Explorers of Egypt
16. Jungle explorers
17. Heroic deep sea divers
18. Muslim troops for the British
19. Free stater Armoured cars
20. Guardians of Antiquities
21. Minerva's Flying Circus
22. British cavalry and rocket launcher
23. BoB terrain (terrain post)
24. Epic Chaos Warlord Titans
25. Pillage Viking shield maidens
26. VSF Martian Hill Martians
27. Plague Apothecaries
28. Witches fair and foul
29. AQMF American tanks
30. BoB White Russian Medium C tanks
31. Witch Hunter General and troops
32. 28mm combat robots
33. Old school Epic Eldar knights
34. VSF Static defenses
35. VSF Prussian unicycle troops
36. Fantastic battles characters

Big stompy robots of death 

+14

Lady Sarah

Solitaire

****

Well...what can one say? That is quite a lot of stuff. I salute your devotion to the "Squirrel Duel" aspect of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. 

This was a little tricky to count up, but following some expert consultation on terrain points, I will actually rate your terrain bits at 30 points. I'm not sure the old time Epic Knights would sit to my eye as 28mm figures, but they are close enough I love to see OOP kit getting some paint, so I'll let that ride. 

By my count, that comes up to 530 points which is...quite a lot of points! If nothing else, Mars looks set to fall..or to conquer Earth?

Hope you have enjoyed your Challenge Chris!

GregB