From ByronM - Covered Wagons (10 points)

I thought I would get more scatter terrain done last night but did not, so here is my finally measly finished items for the event.  I am running a "What a Cowboy" game at a convention in a few weeks and needed some more scatter terrain to hide behind.  So I went to thingiverse and found some free covered wagon files and scaled them to the correct size and slapped some paint on them.

They are super basic, I airbrushed the covering with 2 shades of a linen/canvas type colour for some shading, and then painted everything else brown, inked it, placed a few quick highlights and called it done.  While bigger than figures, I am just going to claim 5 points each due to their simplicity, unless whomever posts it feels that is too much, in which case feel free to change it.

 

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These look great, Byron, and super handy for Wild West games for sure. Now you just need a Gatling Gun in the back of one for Josey to use. 

Well done and thanks again for being our Terrain Minion this year - it was very much appreciated!

- Curt

From MartinN: Fallschirmjäger and Firefly (65 pts.)

Another challenge is drawing to an untimely close and once again I come up short a few points. While I had a good start I rapidly lost steam and only were able to pick up speed again those last few days. I'm pretty certain that a lot of you know the feeling only too well. But the ride was a lot of fun and once again I enjoyed myself immensely. I wasn't as active on here as I'd have liked, but I enjoyed watching the daily stream of gorgeously painted miniatures.

First off for my last entry this year is a 20mm 3D printed Sherman Firefly by Arvernes Miniatures. Having painted two regular 75mm Shermans for my Canadians previously I felt the urgent need to add a Firefly for that little bit of extra punch. The stowage is mostly from AB Figures as is the tank commander.

This is then followed by a Squad of 20mm Fallschirmjäger, also from AB Figures. They're a mix of regular Heer figures, mainly with Zeltbahn, and Fallschirmjäger with head swaps as I was aiming for a very late war feel. So these should be more suitable for those battles following the German defeat in Normandy. A time when the Fallschirmjäger were a mere shadow of their former strength. I don't like the hype that surrounds some of the supposedly 'elite' German units and having this hodge podge of grizzled veterans and raw recruits is just my thing.

For points we have one 20mm tank clocking in at 15 points, a half figure tank commander for 2 points and 12 Fallschirmjäger of which two are prone figures for another 44 points. All this should give me 71 65 points.

A huge thank you for goes out to my good friends Sarah, Curt and Greg as well as all the other minions. 

***

Nick I am confident I speak for all Challenge participants when I tell you it has been an absolute treat to have you along for the ride once again. Your brushwork sets the bar, as ever, and combined with top-shelf photography, your entries are a real treat for all of us. I think many Challengers will relates to the ebbs and flows of interest and momentum when it comes to painting all of these miniatures - and many of us will come up short in the face of our targets (certainly I will!). 

But what a treat is has been! And you close out with some absolutely stunning brushwork. Nothing makes me bonkers like camouflage patterns of late WW2 German units, and you have made it look stupendous here, and the blend of the zeltbahns and sky-blue uniforms, of the veterans the rookies, it is all just spot-on and makes we want to get back to painting some WW2 myself!

But my favourite here is the Firefly! When it comes to WW2 tanks, I'm always struck by how dreary so many of the western allied designs were. Even the ones with cool names were disappointing to see. But NOT the Firefly! One of the best silhouettes of the war (and only improved once the IDF started cracking out I-Shermans later on) and you've done it absolute justice here. Even the weird colour pattern at the bottom of the barrel - excellent!

As for your points, the magical spreadsheet tells me this is all worth 65 points - so I'm going to listen to the spreadsheet. Great Challenge Nick, it has been a treat to "minion" your work!

GregB

From Curt - Sci-Fi Rogues (25 Points)

Hi All!

I stutter-steped with these guys at the beginning of the Challenge, and they've been waiting on their paint holders, half done, balefully staring at me, willing me to pick them up to get them across the line. So, I finally relented, and here they are, done.

These rogues can fit in for a multitude of sci-fi skirmish games (Five Parsecs from Home, Kill Sample Process, Galactic Heroes, etc.). A cast of characters from Sci-Fi Central Casting.

This yellow-spotted green alien dude is from Knucklebone Miniatures. 

The sculpt is great (love the re-breather and chunky blaster), but I found that my initial colour blocking really sucked. Nonetheless, the vibe finally hit and after a few washes, blends and highlights he staggered into his own. I quite like him now. 

The beastman is another great sculpt (From Imitation of Life). He looks a very capable and no-nonsense kind of fella. Very much the veteran mercenary. 

If I were to do him again, I'd snap off one of his horns midway to give him a more hard-bitten, down-on-his-luck look. 

'Don' and 'Sancho' were must haves for me when I first saw them. Thes are prints from Imitation of Life as well. 

The Quixote figure has this terrific disheveled-but-oddly-regal beard, like much of the art depicting him. I thought I'd make his armour a multicoloured hodgepodge to reflect his somewhat hapless background. I made his visor rose-tinted, which I think is suitable for this particular romantic knight.

I added a power-feed to his rifle as it seemed the thing to do.

As to poor Sancho, I especially like his lugubrious face, seen here faithfully schlepping Quixote's kit without complaint, his BAR rifle as the ready to support his slightly crazed master when needed. 

His pasta strainer helmet and oxygen tank cracks me up.

The gunslinger, also a 3d print from Imitation of Life, is a bit soft in some of his detail, but I think his pose is spot-on.

I think of him as a young desperado, constantly getting into scrapes, eager to make his mark. 

So there you are, five more rogues ready for high-jinx and adventure in the far-off starlanes. 

These should give me 25 points and a squirrel for my tally.

Thanks for dropping by!

- Curt

Fantastic looking models as always Mr Curt. The sheer variety of these is great and they will will doubtless come in very handy in various Rogue-Trader-like roleplaying-adjacent miniatures games. The details on these models crack me up too - loving that colander helmet on Sancho as well. It's amazing how far 3D printing has come isn't it!

Twenty-five for your tally.

Dallas

From StuartL: Arabssss (50 Points)

    Hi all, well, we are coming to the end of the challenge, and I still have a small way to go to reach my target. Work has been incredibly busy this year, but I have managed to do a bit of painting here and there.

    Today, I have two small groups of models to post. First of all, some Arabs for Saga.

    These are a mix of plastic and metal miniatures. The plastic figures are from Gripping Beast, but I can't remember where the metal figures came from as I tend to order from a variety of makers when doing historical projects.

    

    The figures were all easy to paint up with just base coats, washes and highlights. 

    The next set of figures are some 3D printed Snake Folk.

    These models are from Artisan Guild on MyMini Factory. They were fun to paint and I have a bunch more of them in my to-do pile. I have no idea what I will use them for, but the models are cool even if I don't have a plan yet.

    So, that gives me 10x 28mm minis for a total of 50 Points, plus two extra Squirrels for my tally. (Apologies to all Squirrel Duelists, I haven't had time to do another update, so we'll have to wait for the Challenge to finish to see the final totals.)

    Hopefully I can get some more minis done before the end of the Challenge.

    My ongoing duels information:

Skulls - 239 (+0)
BSRoD - 17 (+0)
Squirrels - 18 (+2) - D&D Animals, 30K Militia, Plague Clowns, Afghans, Robots, Anglo-Saxons, Medieval Polish, Clan Smoke Jaguar, 81st West Africans, Undead, 10mm FPW French, Daemons of Khorne, Modern Vehicles, Turnip28, Space Wolves, Free French, Arabs, Snake Folks

From Millsy:

I recongnise those Arabs. I painted a whole pile of them last Challenge and that was just my most recent batch. You've done a sterling job on them Stuart and they look a lot better than the "serviceable" description I would normally apply.

Your Snake Folk are definitely cool. I'm 100% in agreement you don't need to have a specific use for something just to buy and paint them. It's one of the joys of a hobby, just do it because it makes you happy. My problem is that then leads to ideas on HOW I could use them, then needing MORE, and then... I'm willing to bet you suffer from a little of that too :-P

Great stuff and another 50 points banked. Nice one.

Cheers,

Millsy

From MartinN: 20mm StuG III and Opel Blitz (62 points)

This submission has been simmering for a while, but I had a hard time getting started on the weathering.  I quite like the look of the vehicles once finished, but getting there is always a little tedious in my opinion. I'd rather paint some foot sloggers instead. Anyway, here's the latest reinforcements for my German motor pool.

First of a 3D printed StuG III Ausf. F/8 from Night Sky Miniatures with an AB Figures commander. While I was a bit of an early adopter when it comes to resin printing, I never got comfortable with the process. It's smelly, dirty and needs a lot of effort to get right. In short I can stand it even less than weathering the final product. And probably that's the only reason I'm not drowning in unpainted prints and I'd call that a clear bonus. I turn on the bloody machine once or twice a year and that has to suffice.

Anyway, there are certainly upsides to the technology. For one there's lots of niche stuff out there that'd be hard to get commercially and I can scale to any scale I like. So while the file was scaled to fit 28mm originally it was quickly converted to go with my 20mm collection. Especially helpful as I feel that there's less 1/72 stuff available than it used to and if it's available it's just as expensive as 28mm.

Next is a trio of 20mm PSC German trucks. The vehicles are a little too basic for my liking, but went together easily. For a little more variety I printed a box body to go with one of them. Can't remember the sculptor though, I'm afraid.

So, 4 vehicles in 20mm as well as a half figure should give me another 62 points towards my total.

Still quite some way to go to 300pts, so we'll see how much I can squeeze in over those last few weeks.

***

Always such incredible work Nick! I am out of superlatives on the painting, beyond just noting that it meets your usual incredible standard of brushwork and weathering. I love the foliage on the vehicles, speaking very much to the whole "let's hope they think it's just some bushes moving along" amid skies full of Allied fighter-bombers. 

I also love the off-colour look of the barrel on the StuG's 75mm gun. I often don't think of how often barrels on guns like that need to be replaced, and the presence of a barrel which doesn't match the rest of the paint speaks to the under-pressure nature of the German forces late in the war. 

62 brilliant points for you!

GregB

From PaulSS: More Barons' War rolls off the production line - 115pts

This week Victoria and I have had a weeks vacation in Cornwall, but I took the paints with me so that I could continue adding to the collection.

All the entries this week are 3D prints from Medbury Miniatures and Reconquer Designs.

 

I picked up from Medbury a set of Knights at rest and Knights at prayer, this command stand features a mounted and foot knight at rest with a knight at prayer doing homage to his lord.

As usual for Medbury, beautiful figures with loads of character.

Of the remaining two figures from these sets, I used the Knight at rest on foot to make a lower level character and the other praying knight just on a standard base to fit in a unit where needed or use as 'dressing'

The crested helm and additional plate on the second knight puts him rather later than the 1264-1265 period of the rest of the collection and he may never get used, but still a nice piece.

From Reconquer Designs is this set of fleeing villagers, five figures, two carrying children, a pack horse and a hand cart.

These are very nice although I think that the detail is probably a bit to fine for gaming, I already broke one of the shafts on the hand cart.

The last couple of sets are the remaining 32mm prints that I spoke about in my earlier post when I painted the 28mm versions of them. I was not going to paint these, but as they represent the last unpainted Medievals that I have I thought it would be rude not to.

Another set of tanners, I did not do a big single vignette like last time, with some of them done on individual bases this time around.

Lastly a Spanish shepherd with three mastiffs to guard the sheep.

So, that's the Barons' War project done for now, every figure painted! I plan to not buy anything else until the new Wargames Atlantic releases come out in the form of those command stands.

It seems a stretch to claim the hand card as a 28mm vehicle, but if we roll into that 20pts the dogs, children, tanning equipment and such like then one 28mm vehicle, one 28mm mounted, 16 28mm foot and a pack horse will tally 115pts

From DaveD . Finished Paul , Finished well that’s wonderful and while on your holiday too. That’s dedication .I will  run with that points suggestion .

From PaulSS: Medieval Crossbowmen - 60pts

 

This week, I've been working on more additions to the Baron's War collection. 

These are the rather lovely Medbury Miniatures 3D prints sold in the UK by Garrison Miniatures on eBay.

The detail is exquisite and the prints are lovely, with just a single mis-print in these 12, but you'd hardly notice!

I am getting gambeson fatigue though, all twelve of these have them and the next entry that I'm working on also has loads of them!

The chap on the right in the above pictures is the aforementioned mis-print, it's hard to tell but he has no left forearm at all!

Twelve 28mm figures is another 60pts to my total, as mentioned more gambeson wearing entries next week!

From DaveD. Great perseverance on this project Paul . Nice to see a little other colours on these too that brighten the look .bit of a rum do with the misprints ,I assume that’s off set a bit with availability and price . 60 it is .