From ChrisW - 15mm Martian Tripods (Klendathu, Sarah's Yacht, Coruscant) (512 points)

This weeks journey was a long time coming. The Martian cavalry has been worked on, on and off, since the start of this challenge. I had hoped to have them done for last week but ran out of time. I then ignored them for most of the last few days before I finally bit the bullet and got on with it. Even then it was a near run thing. You see, my big problem is finishing tasks. First off I am a major procrastinator, I always find reasons not to work on tasks. Tied in with that is my squirreliness that sees me jump from project to project. If I do not finish a task within a rather short window it will remain unfinished, shelved and ignored. 

Since the start of this challenge I have started, and thankfully completed and/or neared completion a number of projects. My posting are a reflection of this chaotic output. 

As to the amount of stuff that I have done so far it is quite a shock to me and I doubt that I can maintain this output throughout the challenge, though I am keen to see how far I can get. For all of last year, according to my records, I painted 246 items, and of that a scant 29 items during the winter months. They were a mix of figures, vehicles and scenery. So far thanks to the challenge, counting this weeks posting, I have painted 134 items!

First stop is Klendathu the home of failed invasions, in this case a Martian invasion. So I was able to paint up 3 scout tripods, an assault tripod, and the grand daddy of tripods, the dread Overseer! Now, a note on these models, they are kind of odd looking, at least to me. The forearms remind me of a T Rex, while the legs often look like they are practicing ballet moves!

 

On the other hand the big Overseer model looks beefy and mean, it stands like it is ready to kick butt. However the model is, how should I say this politely, crap not very good. It is full of mold lines that I did not entirely remove, parts do not fit well together, and detail is scant. In game terms it is a mighty vessel of destruction, and can hold it own against the American landship but the model at best is so so. 

I have had this for a few years and just never got around to building it. The biggest surprise to me was that even after all those years by some fluke I managed to not lose any parts! I felt foe certain that I would have misplaced the 6 fingers, but not only had I put them in a baggy for safe keeping, I actually put the bag with the rest of my AQMF figures. I have a real annoying tendency to open up boxes of models and then proceed to misplace, lose parts. No matter how often this happens, I never seem to learn.

 

Picking up men & bashing 'em against trees

This thing is 9 1/2 inches tall, and the legs are 9 1/2 inches apart. Technically 15/18mm game, but really big! Here it is picking on something it's own size.

From AQMF Martians we travel via Sarah's yacht and the Great Abyssal to my VSF Martians this time on the planet Corsucant  where two  mighty monarchies, whose high upreared and abutting fronts the perilous narrow (ether) ocean parts asunder!

 

Imagine if you will Queen Victoria on a royal progress visiting her colonial holdings on Mars, confronted by a princess of Mars and her amassed cavalry. Queen Victoria's secret service, along with the grenadier guards must stave off disaster and protect the queen.

 The horde of Martian cavalry arrayed against them.

 Oh and an armoured car just because...It is a Canadian armoured car from WWI that has somehow found service with the White Russian forces It should have 3 crew but there was a problem, so only the driver is present.

The points this week

• 300 points for 30 x 28mm Martian cavalry
• 50 points for 10 x 28mm Grenadier guards
• 25 points for 5 x 28mm Personalities Queen Victoria, Flashman, Agent Carter, Princess, attendant
  
• 32 points for 4 x 15/18mm Tripods
• 20 for 1 Really big tripod 
• 40 points for 2 Planets visited
• 20 points for Sarah's yacht (courtesy of Queen Victoria)
  
• 20 points for 1 x 28mm Armoured car
• 5 points for 1 x 28mm Armoured car crew
  

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

512 points in total

So, that was my best output to date, I do not believe I will achieve that again during this challenge, but it might be possible if I turn my attention to the 150 some odd back of beyond cavalry. However I currently feel a pull in another direction(s)...

I feel I may have miscalculated how many points to aim for. To be fair when I reviewed my output last year throughout the winter months and roughly estimating the point value of said output, the total would have been between 425-500 points, so setting a target of 1000 points seemed reasonable. I also factored in my tendency to lose interest in a project, my natural procrastination, and the distraction caused by running RPGs on Roll20.  

All this to say that I am not going to sit back and 'celebrate' reaching my goal. Rather I will assume my actual target is 3000 points and see if I can achieve that!

"The chances of anything coming from Mars, are a million to one they said..."

Those tripods look great, Chris, and the cavalry look fab en masse. I was a bit confused about how you were claiming for Lady Sarah's Star Yacht until I realised that the post was very much in draft state -  the "missing" items that were causing my confusion have now been added.

I'm scoring the big tripod as a 28mm vehicle, so that gives you 512 points.

Tamsin

From SteveB: First Week (45 Points)

I finally joined the challenge this year. I've been wanting to join for the last few but never got around to it.

My goal is to get some of the model that have been collecting dust on my shelf done. This also include some half finished projects( I know they don't count, but gives me an incentive to get done).

First day I managed to get 3 tripods from 'All quiet on the Martian Front' done. Not sure how to score these I think they are 20 mm so about 12pts each (36pts total).

These were very fun to paint. Got to try out some candied red to add some color. Tried some OSL red ( not happy with). Also got to use some Vallejo air metals, ( very nice, smooth coverage).

The last couple of days I managed to get lot done on some guard vehicles, just putting the finishing touches on them, should have them done by Monday or tuesday as well some progress on my Necromunda gang.

For the rest of the challenge I have my shaven blood bowl team I would like to do, as well a lot of batman miniature game figs to do.

Best of luck to everyone.

______________________________

Great work Steve and welcome aboard! 

Those Tripods look terrific. I particularly like the airbrushed steel, and the red crest you put on them is quite sharp. Design-wise, I've always thought their Tripods look like ballet dancers walking 'en pointe' and their heads look like they should be the other way around - but that's just me. 

I quite like how those how those Chimeras are coming along but your 'shaven blood bowl' sounds painful. :p

45 points for you!

From BrianB - Martian Tripod (15 Points)

You can't have All Quiet on the Martian Front without the Martian Tripods. After working up my test color scheme earlier in the Challenge I finally got around to painting one up.

The plastic kit went together really well, although I had to hunt around for an assembly guide first to make sure I put together the central part of the body. The paint job went on pretty quickly and was done mostly with drybrushing with the largest brush I have. I again tried for a greenish blue metal for the main body and brass details. I think it actually works even better on the larger tripod. Unfortunately I just noticed that I forgot to put a coat of gloss varnish on the eye after I varnished him, so he's going to have to go back into the shop tonight for a touch up.

What I like the most about this model is that it simply towers over the regular troops. While the All Quiet line is big for 15mm being closer to 20mm the tripod stands about 7" tall. I guess in scale that would be about 50 feet tall. The Tommies down below look more than a little outmatched!

From Curt:

Wonderful work Brian! I really like your smooth work on the metallics, especially the green/blue hue the brass details. The posing is great as well, with one of the legs up, poised for a purposeful stride ahead - very dynamic. 

I agree with you that the choice to do this range in 15mm was brilliant as it allows the vehicles to be truly monstrous without being prohibitively expensive, taking up too much table space or being difficult to store. 

My only real criticism to the walkers' design is thier 'face'. I had mentioned this last year when Miles showed us a early release of the models. To me the face looks incredibly dorky: either it gives the impression of a melodramatic Eye of Sauron or it looks like this one, something akin to a clown's nose. I think the upper carapace would look so much better turned around, with a smooth featureless face facing forward - much more chilling I think. Saying this, I guess I should put my money where my mouth is and pick up a kit to try it out...

Nonetheless, with my hangups regarding Martian design esthetic aside, this is a great model. Well don Brian!

From BrianB - All Quiet British Infantry (28 Points)

These are 7 All Quiet on the Martian Front British Expeditionary Force Infantry. A bit of a mouthful. I actually completed the full 10 man unit but I had started painting 3 of them before the Challenge started so they have been left out.

Like all of the All Quiet figures they are big, hefty 18mm figs. The British in the game are a bit more advanced at Martian fighting having the benefit of recovering technology from the previous invasion. They are therefore equipped with body armor and some snazzy gas helmets as well as one trooper with a coil gun which I gather is basically a rail gun.

In order to differentiate them from my regular British I painted their helmets and body armor in a light grey. I also based them all individually for skirmish games since I only have the one squad. If I want to use them on the All Quiet bases I guess I'll have to figure out some kind of sabot base system for them.

Aside from the regular rifleman there is also a squad leader/officer and a Coil Gunner. The officer is in a rather awkward pose half way between just getting shot in the chest and heroically leading his troops forward. Or perhaps he's looking back over his shoulder to make sure someone is actually following him into the Martian heat gun blasts. The Coil gunner on the other hand is my favorite of the group and I would have loved to have a whole unit of him instead.

From MilesR: 6mm United Arab Republic Tank Regiment and some All Quiet on the Martian Front (263 Points)

I'm back - my apologies for letting work get in the way of painting.  First up is a United Arab Republic Tank Regiment for use in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.  I really like the "Fate of a Nation" Six Day War rules supplement for Flames of War but wanted to build out my force using 6mm minis to save cost.  Plus I think FOW plays just a bit better with 6mm mini's.

All of the miniatures are from GHQ and the vehicles are superb - some have more detail than 15mm models I have.  The infantry?, well more on that later.

 First up a Recon platoon with 10 PT-76's and small attached mechanized infantry platoon.

 An fully kitted out mechanized infantry company.  I found the GHQ infantry figures very difficult to paint and they are very delicate.  I am glad I tackled the Arab infantry first as it's the largest formation.   At least it's over with

 The main striking force - 20 T-55's

 10 T-62's - another venerable Soviet tank.  They really were't used in the Six Day war but this force will also be used for some '73 scenarios.

 15 t34/85's - think rolling cannon fodder!

Next up in 6mm will be the Israeli's!

 I also managed to finish up some All Quiet on the Martian Front figures - sorry for the awful pictures

 A unit of 12 Zombie troopers, equipped with "slicers"

 A platoon of US Naval troops - these will disembark from the Land Ironclad.

We've got a bit of snow here in Maryland and I had some visitors - a pair of foxes foraging for food.  They have a den about 100 yards into the woods and having them around really keeps the mice population down.

From MilesR - DAK Support and... (139 Points)

 Some mobile artillery support for my growing DAK army in 28mm - a SIG 33 Self-Propelled Gun.  The vehicle model is resin and is produced by Blitzkrieg Miniatures and the two crewman are Perry metals.  The full name for the vehicle is a 15cm sIG 33 auf Fahrgestell Panzerkampwagen II (Sf) - kind of just rolls of the tongue doesn't it?

 The SIG 33 II, was the second version of the Bison and carried a 150mm gun on a Panzer II chassis.  Well it's really a "stretch" Pamzer II as the chassis had to be lengthened 60cm and a sixth road wheel added to allow the crew to service the gun.

Only 12 were built in 1941 and all were sent to North Africa where they served throughout the campaign until lost in Tunisia.

 Like all Blitzkrieg models, the resin casting is superb and assembly consisted simply of glueing the gun in place.  The only trouble I had with the model (and this is a new issue for me with Blitzkrieg is that the mold release agent was extremely difficult to get off the model - I was it at least four times before I could get a primer coating to stick with out beading up - very strange.

 This big gun should net me 20 points - 15 for the vehicle and 5 for the two half crewman.

 Next up is some more traditional artillery support in the form of a captured Soviet M1938 122mm Howitzer.  The model is a 3D print from Trenchworx and is superb - my meager painting skills do not do it justice.  3D prints are fantastic for hard to get items and I recommend the team at Trenchworx.

 I suspect many of you are blurting out what the heck is a Soviet gun doing in a DAK army.  Well my logic is a bit on the hazy side but here goes.  During the opening months of the Russian campaign the Germans captured massive numbers of Soviet guns - so many that they reconfigured several munitions plants to manufacture ammunition to match the Soviet calibers.  The captured guns saw service on just about every front and a few may have made it to Africa - and maybe is close enough for me.

 Game-wise, the 122mm sits in between Bolt Action's medium howitzer (105mm) and heavy of (150mm) which allows me to proxy either without too much trouble - two guns for the price of one.

 It's a fairly simple paint job but looks good.  The kit comes in 8 parts which are printed in a semi transparent material (not sure what it is).  The un assembled kit can be seen in the second-to-last picture of this post - next to the upper left corner of my cutting mat.

 Next up is an 18mm scale US Monitor tank from All Quiet on the Martian Front.  While not as imposing as the Land Ironclad, it's still a big beast (it's 5 inches long) - think of her as the steam tank equivalent of a Tiger as the model is the same size as a 28mm Tiger tank.

 I helped play test the rules and this was my favorite US unit.  In the dozen or so play test games I participated in as a US player, the Monitor tank wreaked havoc on the Martian foes but never once survived the game - maybe you can love something too much?

 The body and turret are resin casts and the guns,  locomotive arms and commanders hatch are metal.

It's a fun kit to paint up.

 Last night I was able to finish up a few more submissions - all 18mm mini's from All Quiet on the Martian Front.  My lead pile increased materially with the arrival of Waves I and II from the kickstarter.

 A unit of US Heavy Infantry.  These guys where asbestos lined armored suits and are armed with elephant guns.  They're slow but damn hard to dig out of a defensive position.

 The Elephant gun doesn't pose a huge threat to a Tripod but it's more than enough to take down some of the lighter Martian stuff - such as Drones.

 A unit of 3 Martian Drones and some fleeing  civilians which are referred to in the game as "Human Prey".

 The Drones are good scouts and can scramble over rough terrain.  The mount a small heat ray and a light reaper arm for close combat.

 The "Human Prey" are used as objective markers for some scenarios - the Human player needs to cover their escape off the board while the Martian player is, umm, looking to use them as part of their organic farming program.....

 Lastly, a Slaver Tripod.  While smaller than the normal tripod (4 vs 5.5 inches) it's a very important unit as it allows the Martian player to deploy drones and human zombie troops.

 During games the Human side will try to take this unit out as fast as possible because if the Slaver goes down all of the drones and zombies go down also.

 I spent most of last Saturday cleaning up my hobby workshop and storage closet.  I'm a little chagrinned about how much stuff I forgotten I had and how much crap the gaming hobby accumulates.  One of my great fears is the realization that it is only a very fine line that separates a gamer from a hoarder.  All of us run the risk of showing up on one of those horrible TV reality shows about hoarders - beware, you've been warned.

The first picture shows my work space.  On the lower left are a stack of storage trays that have primed miniatures and scratch building supplies. I keep all my basing materials under the workbench and larger scenery items in the plastic tub in the lower right.  You can see my trusty apron draped across my chair.  That's right, I wear an apron and it's saved many a shirt from painting mishaps.

A close up of the bench top.  I tend to keep paints that are in use for a project to the left and all my tools to right (I'm right handed).

Lastly, I had some visitors outside my office while writing up this post.  You can see four of the deer in the picture but there where another 5 of 6 out of the shot.  During the winter they come out of the woods to forage and our shrubbery appears to be the salad bar of choice these days.

My painting production will be somewhat limited over the next two weeks as I'll be in the UK next week and my robotics team has a couple of competitions over the new few weekends.

I hope everyone is off to a happy and productive New Year.







From Curt:
What a wonderful post Miles. There's something for everyone, historical, sci-fi, hobby-desk porn and even the local animatronic wildlife! 

That sIG 33 is a very cool looking vehicle and I like the esoteric addition of a Soviet artillery piece to a Deutsche Afrika Korps force - an interesting bit of history that.

I'm really trying to ignore this 'All's Quiet on the Martian Front' stuff but I'm becoming slowly worn down by seeing all of these cool figures and vehicles. Any game that has a 'human prey' troop classification has my vote. I'm not sure I can hold out for the next two months...

An apron? An APRON!? What a brilliant idea! I can't tell you how many shirts and trousers I've ruined while working at the hobby desk. I do have some grubby jeans and shirts that I often change into but an apron would be so much better AND I would look like a mad scientist when emerging from the confines of the 'nerd centre'! SOLD!

Good one Miles and you even seize first place in the points standings, if only for a few hours...

Bon voyage!