Wednesday, 25 March 2026

The Day the Old Man Music Died - Challenge XVI Wrap-Up from Dallas


So that's another Painting Challenge in the books. You can see the production from me in the photo above. I never get as much done as I want/hope to, but I did meet my (admittedly modest) target.


ALSO - I'm heading to the UK for Salute next month, and want to extend an invitation to other Challenge participants to meet up at (or after) the show on 11 April. If you're interested please send me an email at dgewen (at) hotmail.com. Thanks!


The main project I wanted to start in this Challenge is Little Bighorn. I got 10 Plains warriors (from Foundry) and almost a dozen dismounted US Seventh Cavalry (also mostly from Foundry) painted, but as with all painting plans, I quickly got distracted...
  

...by painting a Chaos Blood Bowl team...


...and more significantly, by starting a Khorne Berzerkers army for 40K! Here are some of the said Berzerkers.


And here are two big hunks of metal - a Chaos Lord on Juggernaut and a Dreadnought. I really enjoyed painting these.


Lastly for the force, I painted five Bloodletters to bring the unit up to Khorne's "magic number," eight.


Here's a downed Imperial pilot and grave marker from the late, lamented chaostemple.cz.


An Imperial Commissar from Victoria Miniatures with a converted Ork Kommando, and a Predator for my Sisters of Battle army.

A couple of rovers for the Lunar game.

A dug-in Panther tank for Bolt Action, from Warlord Games.

Here I am!

And lastly, it wouldn't be a Challenge post from me without some old man music...
Pukka Orchestra - Listen to the Radio

Lately I've been listening to a lot of Canadian New Wave from the 1980s and this is one of the best. The song was written by Tom Robinson and Peter Gabriel and recorded by Robinson... but I think this Pukka Orchestra version from 1984 is superior. The band was formed in Toronto in 1979, and the name came from founding member Tony Duggan-Smith's "extremely English" grandfather who had been the harbourmaster of Calcutta... when Tony told him he was playing music for a living, he was told "that's all very nice Tony, but don't bother with any mediocre bands, get yourself into a pukka orchestra." The band performed regularly in Toronto's Queen West club scene, released a couple albums, and won a CASBY award for "most promising group." Unfortunately they had some significant setbacks in the late '80s when their label (Solid Gold) went bankrupt and vocalist/guitarist Graeme Williamson fell ill in Scotland and had to have a kidney transplant! But this song is a great piece of music from the New Wave of the '80s.

So thanks to my Monday crew, the other Minions, and of course Mr Curt and Lady Sarah for all their work in the Challenge... see you at the afterparty!



Dallas