From Mike W - More Zombicide Invader, Skaven plus other stuff (175 Points)

 Following on from my first post, I can now present some more Zombicide Invader figures, this time I'll start with some Survivors, in this case a group of five humans and a friendly alien.

In white we have two soldiers in power armour, on the left a nobleman in his own power armour suit, whlist to the right we have a green  insectoid aliean and a young civilian human woman.

Close-up of the nobleman in red body armour, a balistic pistol in his right hand and a chainsword in his left hand.

Close-up detail of the chainsword and attached 'cutter' at his left elbow. He wears a fur lined red cape.

First photo of one of the mining stations, soldiers, who provide local security for the facility. in th egame each survivor character has their own stat card and background lore, this is a guy called 'Inshish Vak'.

Slightly different view, you can see his balistic carbine, breathing apperatus and bionic eye

This is Lt. Jee-Hye, a South Korean officer in the Galactic Armed Forces.

This guy is armed with a balistic pistol and a 'stun stick', basically an electrified club, used in hand combat

This alien is 'Ix-Nix-Zik', armed with a sword and a balistic pistol, this insectoid is a friendly at the mining station.

Allyson, is a civilian worker at the mining station, arned with a balistic pistol and carrying her small pet furry  in her backpack!

Next we travel to ancient Egypt for a short interlude!

Here we have the first of a few undead cat swarms, that I will be using with my Undead Egyptians Army.

You can see that there are four distinct creatures on the base, I'm only claiming points for the combined casting!

Other side view of the Cat Swarm....

Next we have a group of Warhammer Skaven, this is an army that I have been toying with for some time now and I finally took the plunge to paint-up some of these horrible little ratmen.

Two units of 10 x 28mm Skaven, on left areth enewer models and to right are the slightly larger classic models.

Close-up on the newer figures, all carrying spears and shields, unit includes a musician, standard bearer and a leader.

View of the classic Skaven unit, armed with hand weapons and a shield. Note the skull hanging form the banner, see points claims below!

These little guys were fun to paint, the group has a mix of old school models and the relatively new models released by GW in the last couple years. All were undercoated in a cream colour and then Army Painter Flesh tone was used to add definition to all feet, hands, tails and hads before highlighting with regular flesh coloured paint.

First of a couple more views of the Classic figures, as I expand this army I'll mix and match newer and older figures within units.

Second shot of Classic figures, albeit with a standard painted to tie in to the newer ethos!

All fur was painted with GW Gore Grunta Fur contrast paint. Steel was painted using GW Lead Belcha and leatherwork was added using GW Snakebite Leather contrast paint. All was then given a light watered down black ink wash to add with definition before varnishing.

Lastly a shot o fthe newer unit, I have about 20 more of these little guys ready to go, but I might be tempted to do some Orcs first!

I deliberated long and hard on how best to base these guys, my usual fine sand and electrostatic grass combo for figures in the Warhammer world seems so tame for ethese putrid guys, so instad I opted for a dark brown muddy appearance with a smattering of grass and debris. What I was really going for was for them to look like they'd just crawled out of the naerst sewer, not sure I have achieved this!  Worst case I may change it! 

Now back to some more Zombicide Invader Xenos, with eight new guys to add to the growing horde. This goup includes 5 more Drones / Workers, 2 new Tanks and a huge Abomination that will hopefully only make occational appearances...

The eight new figures.

I'll not repeat the painting process in thi spost as I went into this last week, the Drone and Tanks were painted in exactly the same manner as before. It's worth noting the size of teh Abomination, this figure stands 40mm tall toe to head, but it is about 60mm across! Hence I have taken the liberty of claiming for a 40mm figure in this case.

Two new Tank figures, both in same pose. For future figures I'm going to have to immerse them in boiling water to reposition some of the limbs & tenticles to add more variety!

Five new Drones. Four of these are in the same pose,
so again additional figures will get the boiling water treatment!

Painting the Abominationwas a joy to do, basically the same approach as the other figures except that its on a bigger scale! Lots of lovely detail to pick put. This figure seems to have some kind of loincloth cvered in paterned disks, I interpreted this as a brown cloth with broze coloured disks.

Having made that choise it answered a couple of doubts I'd had when doing the TAnk figures previuously, in that they also seem to have loin cloths with a smattering of disks on them. THus these new to Tanks have been similarly painted - I will need to go back to the already painted figures from last week where I left these areas grey...

The monsterous Abomination! I interpreted the three large domes on his body
as huge puss filled boils - sorry if you are eating whist reading this!

The back view, lots of tenticles and claws

Final view, overall I'm pleasewd with this guy

Size comparison of the three Xenos types painted so far.
The Drone / Worker is a regular 28mm figure.

I'm waiting for some more Xenos to be delivered, I enjoyed painting these so much - I have to get more. Also looking t invest in a second hand copy of the game to get all the playing aids....

The Xenos Horde so far

---

Skull Points 1 Points

28mm Skaven Banner

Squirrel Points 3 Points

28mm Skaven, Zombicide Characters, Zombicide Xenos *

* I made he mistake of posting 'Squirrels' as the keyword in my last post instead of 'Squirrel', so they didn't coumt! Luckily I have some more Daleks to do as well, so I can recover from that error!

POINTS

7 x 28mm Zombicide Xenos @ 5 Points ea                                                 35 Points

1 x 40mm Zombicide Xenos @ x Points ea                                                    7 Points

5 x 28mm Zombicide Characters @ 5 Points ea                                          25 Points (on 25 not50! Nice try)

1 x 28mm Egyptian Undead Cat Swarm @ 5 Points ea                                 5 Points

20 x 28mm Skaven @ 5 Points ea                                                              100 Points

TOTAL                                                                                                        175 Points

From DaveD . Well there is an eclectic mix of items indeed . Lots of variations here indeed . I do like the big old abomination , so let’s call that one a 10 , so 175 it is .

From PeteB - BMC ACW Confederate Infantry - 54 mm - 30 Points

I'm pleased I could finish some figures this week. I had to rush with the theme figures but also with these. These are figures I bought in a second hand shop and I found them a nice addition for my Confederate troups. Okay you can see that someone played with these figures, and I'm happy about that, but for painting them that wasn't that nice. I tried to make them look good the best I could. And here you see the result.

Here with some others in a small charge!

I hope you like them and thanks for watching!

Points: 3 x 54 mm foot figures = 30 Points

From DaveD. Hi Peter a warm welcome  to the Sunday crew for a Saturday holdover . Oh nice to see you back with some big old boys . Classic toy soldiers time .memories of battling on the dining room carpet - it was usefully a green shade , 30 points it is .

From TimP: Another 28mm modern figure (7 points) and an apology!

First of all...

in my rush to submit on my first day I seriously underestimated the level of care and attention that people put into their postings. Without even reviewing other's postings I dashed off the briefest and most lack-lustre post to submit my first miniature. For that, I apologise, I hope I haven't blotted my copy book too badly.... 

I am now aiming to match the enthusiasm and hard work put in by other Challengers and of course, the hard work put in by Curt and all the minions. I know it's not a competition - it's a challenge against your own target - but the quality of others work and the environment of positive encouragement is really great to see.

So... Take 2.

This is my first Challenge and I'm already hooked. Checking out all the amazing submissions has really helped lift the pall of ennui that had fallen over my hobby, particularly the painting side. I had bought and undercoated quite a bit over the last year (though must admit I had been favouring board gaming over miniatures gaming for a variety of reasons - ease of access, mostly).

However, I still hankered after "getting some miniatures on the table" - I am, primarily a miniatures gamer at heart. Though reviewing my list of games from 2025* apart from a couple of games of Zombicide and Dead Man's Hand the only miniature gaming I had done was playing a few participation games at wargames shows around the country** - everything else was board games. Need to change that.

*I maintain a list based on a New Years Resolution from a few years back to play at least 52 games in a year. I found I wasn't getting anywhere near that - one game a week, surely not too much to aspire to. I have since joined Norwich Aftermath Gaming Club which meet weekly and have 4 all-day sessions a year, so hopefully that should give me a baseline of 56 games per year.

**I do my best to attend most of the shows in reasonable driving distance from Norfolk and even managed to get up to Claymore in Edinburgh as I was holidaying there near that time - a great show and one I might plan to visit again this year.

And talking of keeping track - a quiet afternoon at work allowed me to create a tracking spreadsheet for the Challenge. Based on solely 28mm figures or if i venture into my 15mm WWI pile of shame opportunity it tracks what I need to hit the target in time.

Hopefully this will help, rather than hinder!

Threat Level: Emergency Response - SOCO figure 28mm

The figure is a 3D printed Forensics Officer from Pandyman Entertainment - who publish the rules Threat Level: Emergency Response as well as their WWI game Trench Offensive. I need to do a few touch-ups around the evidence markers (which only just noticed while processing the photos).

Process

White undercoat (GW White Scar rattle can. Then I started with giving the whole figure a wash with Army Painter Blue Tone to get into all the creases and crevices of the overalls. While they are white, i wanted to get a blue tinge in as these often have pale blue seams. I then sponged up with Vallejo Dead White and plastered it on quite thick to actually get some texture to the overall. Finished off with some brushwork on the inaccessible chest and underarms.

Then rewashed the disposable slippers with the Blue Tone, which i think gives a really good colour approximation of those items.

Gloves were Vallejo X Color 00.000 Ultramarine which again really matches the colour of disposable gloves.

Camera body was a midgrey GW??? and Vallejo X Color 00.000 Sand Brown for the strap.
Basing is a 25mm x 3mm plywood disc (the Threat Level figs come unbased) coated on top with GW Technical Astrogranite which is consistent across the range for this game.

I wanted something to give the base a bit of a lift, so decided to have a go at making some evidence tags as seen in most police shows. I filed a 3.2mm square styrene rod off roughly to create a triangular prism. 
Cut it to length (caught two and only pinged one into space while cutting). Colour is Vallejo 00.000 Fluro Yellow and the numbers cut from the decal sheet of an Esci 1:72 M48 from the decal pile.

Pleased with the outcome.
I thought just one was a bit stingy, so added another to give more context

I'm also doing Dry January, so the beer is alcohol free - which helps the painting accuracy.

Had hoped to have some WWI 15mm vehicles, but they have taken a little longer than planned to prep and assemble. Maybe next week…

From DaveD. Top marks this week Tim, good to hear you are hooked and are now showing off your skills as well . A target to get games in for the year sounds good . Hopefully you get along to the Battleground show near me this year too. That’s an interesting figure alright if pretty niche . Your idea for evidence markers is top notch and of course yes adding more is even better . They look pretty fiddly to me so it’s 7 points to you . 

From MattT: Trench Pilgrims, 55 points

For my first post of the challenge I have completed some Trench Pilgrims for Trench Crusade. I had a lot of fun kit bashing these in the summer. So much so that I have made way more than I will ever need for the game. The silly helmets and some other bits are 3D printed, the majority of the body's are from Wargames Atlantic WW1 French Infantry sprue and some odd bits and bobs from other sprues. 

They have been sat on my painting desk for several months now and the challenge has given me the impetus to get them painted. I bought a horizon blue paint especially for them, but I've given them several washes to give them that grimy look and based them on a reddish brown base to represent the hellscape they are fighting on.

Couple of sergeant's and bell ringer.

 

Rank and file troops.

Specialist's, machine gunner, sniper and flamethrower.

I still have some more troops as well as characters and a couple of the big boys yet to paint for future posts.

10 x 28mm figures = 50 points

From DaveD . Welcome along Matt . One of the benefits of doing this is getting those paint table lurkers out of way . I love the French Horizon blue connection with the figure build . The basing certainly does look like that horrible mud we associate with the trenches . Great start and 5 extra minions award points for the whole look . 55 pts it is 

From LeeH: Winter War Soviet BA10 Armoured Car & T26 tank (44 pts)

This week, I present a couple of armoured vehicles for my Winter War Soviets, both finished with a rough, field-applied whitewash over the standard Soviet green. This was very much a leap of faith for me. After assembly, I got the models fully painted, decaled, and weathered to the point where they looked “done”… and then deliberately smeared white paint all over them like a vandal.

There are plenty of established whitewash techniques out there, but I ended up bodging together my own. I mixed white acrylic paint, distilled water, and airbrush flow improver in roughly equal parts. The flow improver is the unsung hero here: it reduces surface tension and stops the paint from pooling or beading. What you get is a milky glaze that needs two or three coats, depending on how heavy you want the finish. I hand-brushed it panel by panel, deliberately avoiding raised edges and high-wear areas like hatches and crew access points. The aim was that hurried, uneven, already-wearing-off look you see in historical photos. 

The BA-10 armoured car was developed in 1938 and produced until 1941, making it the most numerous Soviet heavy armoured car of the pre-war period, with over 3,300 built. This is the earlier BA-10 variant, descended from the BA-3 and BA-6, using the GAZ-AAA chassis and sporting improved armour up to 15mm on the front and turret. It was meant to be replaced by the BA-11 in 1941, which would have had a diesel engine and a more advanced armour layout, but the war rather rudely intervened. The BA-10 soldiered on in Red Army service until 1945, and a number were captured and pressed into Finnish service during the Winter War (at least 24 that are known of).

The T-26light infantry tank needs little introduction. Developed from the British Vickers 6-Ton, it became one of the most prolific tank designs of the interwar years. More than 11,000 were built across an eye-watering 50-plus variants, including flamethrowers, engineering vehicles, self-propelled guns, artillery tractors, and armoured carriers. Early versions had twin turrets with machine guns in each, but this is the 1939 single-turret model with the 45mm main gun, a coaxial machine gun, and an additional rear turret MG. By 1939, its armour was already starting to look thin against modern anti-tank weapons, but sheer numbers kept it relevant and deadly through the Winter War. Once again, captured vehicles were hastily repainted and used by the Finns to defend their homeland right through to the end of WWII. 

Both models are from Rubicon, and they were a pleasure to build. The BA-10 can be assembled with or without the over-tire tracks, while the T-26 kit gives you enough parts to build one of several variants on the same chassis. The instructions for each kit are very clear, but as with any plastic kit, patience is the key to success. I enjoyed making these so much that I have now bought a couple of GAZ-AA trucks from Rubicon to carry my infantry in. Gotta give Ray’s Finns something to shoot at during his Motti attacks after all.

Scoring: 2x28mm Vehicles @ 20pts each = 40 points

From DaveD . Ooh nice lead in for the first challenger post of the day . Lee grabs the winter theme and runs with it . Speed and firepower just what you need to chase of the odd pesky Finn with a can opener. Great work on these two Lee . I share the angst of finishing a paint job , then adding another over the top. So wrong yet so very right for these two . I am making this an extra 4pts for the extra work and cracking outcome. 44 pts it is .