From DaveD - Bolshevik Cavalry , Maxims and Infantry (135 points)

This week's offering is yet more addition to my growing Bolshevik army. Anyone would think this was supposed to be this years project - but it wasn’t. But hey ho. It’s got them done. Most of these only needed basing this week, good job as I have been floored with the lurgy over the weekend and early part of the week.

First up 6 lancers . I made the lances from a suitable gauge piano wire cut to length and the point created with a carborundum disc attached to the mini drill . These have had a little solder work done to make sure they are attached properly in hand - no superglue failures here , in some cases it is also tacked to the stirrup .Lancers without a means for them to keep hold of the the thing grinds my gears , so I have created the strap around the lance and then around the arm using some garden twisty wire strpped of its plastic covering. This wire is flexible and strong for its thickness, its  also nice and cheap.

And now with the rest of my 1st Cavalry Army 

I feel I want to double this at some point , but not for now.

I had previously made up a single tail pennant to add to some of the lances . So I thought a horseshoe with the number inside would do nicely. 

 

I have also designed a full standard for them 

 

Again these are Copplestone Castings 

Next up is a Maxim gun for the sailors .

Some thin brass rod snipped into small pieces and added  as spent cases 

Finally a last unit of infantry in the classic budenovka hat . 

So with the sailors it gives me 6 infantry units, 3 MGs, 18 cav, 2 field guns with transport and command, commisars etc . I have some slightly out of period other vehicles, which will do service for now until I replace with something more in line with the period in due course.

It’s also proving difficult to get them all in shot now 

Points - all 28mm

6 x Cav = 60

Infantry x 13 = 65

1 gun = 10

Total 135 

Just my newly arrived Tachankas to sort . 

***

More commie bolsheviks! It's like rats...there is never just a one or two...I expect nearly every Challenger will relate to your sentiments about how these figures were not intended to be a main effort for this edition of the Challenge, but it just sort of worked out that way. Those often end up being the best projects! I have certainly loved watching it come together, and the crammed-in group shots at the end just underline what a triumph it is. 

Some fantastic work on the lances and small conversions. I would never go near soldering gear myself (for reasons of public safety) but I totally relate to having that maddening feeling of a missing little bit for the kit - in this case, the rest for the lances. It's the little things in this little hobby of ours, right?

Well done Dave!

GregB

From ChrisW: This time with heroic deep sea divers! (190 points)

 

Heroic Deep sea divers [5x 28mm 25 points]

Last week I erroneously listed some Heroic deep sea divers, but failed to post any pictures. Well the truth of the matter is that I thought I would have them done in time for posting, after all they have been sitting on my table, nearly done, going on 3 or 4 weeks now. Well it works out that I hit a wall with them and just kept putting them off. Not this week, this week I decided to 'eat the frog' as some say and deliberately tackle them, but not until Sunday. (oh well the thought was there) 

These came from recreational conflicts some years back. Some assembly was required as each figure is made up of 5 parts (more if optional attachments are used) For the most part I used the arms with hands only substituting the tool arms on a couple of them. For paints I went primarily with the new Vallejo metal paints, except one of them that was painted with an army painter speed paint metal. For colours, I confess, I went a little overboard making them stand out quite a bit, emulating the old Major Matt Mason figures from my youth. 

VSF Free State armoured vehicles.    [2x 28mm vehicles  40 points]

These miniatures are from Ironclad miniatures, I believe they are now carried by Pendraken. I am using them for my Fenian Free Stater forces on Mars. They are painted in Martian Khaki shade (so reddish/orange shade) This was done with a black primer, followed by a spray of regular khaki then highlighted with some P3 khaki and Jack bone. Over this I applied a GW orange wash. As an example of my planning, I did not think about the orange wash until I stumbled upon it in a drawer. The wash was applied with brush and sponge alternately sponging the wash off and then on again. I also added a black brown wash to bring it down a tone. Finally some highlights of a craft paint Autumn brown and some Vallejo dust to finish. For the wheels I mixed up some dirt with the craft paint and some dirt effects.

The symbol on the side is courtesy of a request to AI to generate a flag and a decal for a VSF Fenian force on Mars.

Back of Beyond Muslim troops in British service    [10x 28mm 50 points]

These are Copplestone figures that will see some service with my BoB forces. I followed an LAF post for the khaki, and Sonic Sledgehammer for the flesh (it worked out well) I tell you, there are times where I just do not want to paint historic figures what with all their straps and pouches and difficult to reach areas, it is almost enough to make me not want to paint.

It does not belong in a museum! Guardians of Antiquities [10x 28mm 50 points]

A mix of figures here some from Old Glory (the dynamic poses) and the others are from Foundry. While these had been placed on one of my pile of potential figures for this challenge, they really were not in my sights. However while looking for inspiration for Minerva I stumbled upon a You tube video by Chris Abby. It suggested some speed paint combinations for some Arabic figures. Well I saw that vid Monday morning and had them painted up by the afternoon. While I did use most of the suggested paints I did use a different flesh paint and fixed up the yellow paint job with a P3 paint.

These figures will most likely show up as opposition for the Explorers of Egypt.

Minerva's Flying Circus            [5x 28mm figures 25 points]

These are yet more figures for the Pulp Alley games that me and my mates play. They are actually Pulp Alley figures and form up a league. 

So, my camera seems to be burst! It has decided to live up to my blog name and become unfocused! So Minerva and her crew were the best pictures that I could take and I even had to resort to using the wife's phone for the last few pics.

This is it for this post. I am on vacation as of Friday and will be out of the country, so there may be no post next week, but maybe I can finish off some stuff before I go and hopefully take pictures of them! 

Points this time

• 25  points for 5x 28mm Heroic Deep sea divers (the scourge of Evil minion deep sea divers)
• 40  points for 2x 28mm Free staters  armoured vehicles
• 50  points for 10x 28mm Muslim troops in British service BoB
• 50  points for 10x 28mm Guardians of antiquities 
• 25  points for 5x 28mm Minerva's Flying Circus

190 Points Total

Squirrels

5 more squirrels for a total of 21

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

Lady Sarah

Minera's Flying Circus 

======================================

Sylvain: Reading your post is like watching an action movie, there are lots of extras, fun machines and cool heroes. What is there not to like? Thanks for explaining your painting processes, it might come handy. 190 points well deserved! Fabuleux!

From EdwardG - A small offering of films from around the studio lot! (215 points)

 Hi all, 

Finally I have managed to get these miniatures photographed and hopefully this post finished in time for a Monday posting!! Several of these minis have been painted for a few weeks now, but the slow moving post production team here has caused delays in the release schedule. Still it is expected from the sales department, that these films might do well as they are coming out in at the end of the February doldrums. 

First stop is at the place beloved of all the 10yr olds still sitting within us...High Adventure!!

High Adventure

These minis are all Copplestone 10mm minis and I'll be honest I bought these on a whim last year when ordering from a local shop. The order was just under the minimum for free postage (or at least that is the tale I told the better half, and my bank manager) and so I just had to add in a one or two small things. Those were a couple of packs of 10mm minis. It is not a scale I play in, or have/had any other minis in. But these sculpts just jumped out and I thought they would likely come in handy for this, or future, challenges :) I am happy to be proven correct! All these minis are painted with a mixture of contrast paints and normal acrylics. 

First up is my attempt at Conan the Barbarian! All ready to fight his endless list of enemies with his trusty sword, shield, and loin cloth. After all no self respecting barbarian wears armour! 

Next up are a pair of fantasy adventurers off to fight Monsters and collect loot. One an axe wielding Barbarian, the other an axe wielding Dwarf. Obviously they have found companionship over their shared love of axes! 

Finally in the world of High Adventure(!!!) we have a futuristic knight, standing on a alien world, who knows only good and how to combat the dark side. He is a converted mini, with his original sword swapped out for a small piece of brass rod. I am a little sad that my attempt at OSL has ended in an unsightly splotchy mess, but from a good gaming distance the mini doesn't look too bad. So I decided to cut my losses and get him based and posted! 

That wraps it up for the Adventure part. Hopefully the viewing audience can get their breath back in the interval. A final shot of all the main characters for this lot:

The next studio along the pathway is Historical Drama. I hope everyone is excited, as this one is drawing on an oldie but a goodie!

Historical Drama

It has been touted to the production company, that the best way to have a safe bet is to go for a re-make of a re-make. Therefore it has been decided that the minis to pull from the lead pile for this stop were to fit Robin Hood!

As everyone will know, Robin Hood is a historically accurate and totally real life character, whose jolly japes against the usurper king of England John, ended in victory and the return of the true king Richard! Hurrah!! The origin of these minis is lost in time, as I have no idea of the manufacturer of either. Both are 28mm heroic scale, so perfect for this piece.  

For the Robin mini, this actually arrived in the box of things from my Grandfather's estate when he passed away a few years ago. It seems that he had played with and collected some toy soldiers a long time ago. I was therefore really happy to be able to put paint on this mini, and it will forever be a nice reminder of a wonderful man, who I never knew I shared a hobby with! 

In addition, as Robin is never alone, I also found a Friar Tuck mini to go along with him. I will admit, this is one of the more martial Friar Tucks I have seen. But I think the character change will suit the cleric fine. 

The final release for the schedule today, is coming from the next stop along the studio lot journey. We are off to the Ancient Orient, with a Chinese epic!

World Cinema

On the Sunday that I am writing this post, I was originally planning to be playing DBA with this army! It is our 6mthly DBA day event here in Hamburg. Sadly, a mixture of an ill wife, and a lingering cold on my side means that this time I am having to sit it out on the sidelines with the half time oranges. 

But, I am able to write this post, so that is a wonderful sliver lining! 

This is an army built from Essex 15mm minis. It is based on the DBA I/42c army list. Which has the wonderful title of "Other Chinese 700BC-480BC". It is an army that is based around the end of the Chou empire and the start of the Warring States period. Sadly, the Essex mini distributer here in EU (at least the one I use) did not have all of the correct minis in stock in December. So these minis are a slight mixture of Chinese periods. Still I hope that this can be forgiven and the button counters out there won't post too many mean comments! 

All of the minis have been painted with a mix of contrast paints and normal acrylics. I find it is the easiest way to get a quick result! 

As Essex minis come in packs of 8, and the numbers needed for a DBA army are reasonably small, I did end up with several minis spare. I therefore have taken the heretical decision to add extra minis to the bases where they fitted. The prime example is my 3Pk elements (supposed to have 3minis on as the name suggests) where I have place 5 minis on each of the four bases!! It means these bases are probably not technically competition legal...but they look a lot cooler and who cares anyway. As long as the opponent can tell which is which I don't for sure!

The army is a fast moving mixture of heavy chariots, dagger-axe wielding hordes, handpicked swordsmen, and then archer levies. I have also painted the camp element, and the camp guards to go with them (again more 'spare' minis!). To top off this Chinese epic, I have the mini that is based to represent my army on the campaign map which is used for the DBA day event! 

That concludes my backlog of releases. Only remaining task is to work out how many points everything has scored!

4 x 10mm foot miniatures = 4pts

High Adventure location bonus = 20pts

2 x 28mm foot miniatures = 10pts

Historical Drama location bonus = 20pts

4 x 15mm vehicles = 32pts

13 x chariot riders (15mm foot) = 26pts

38 x 15mm foot miniatures = 76pts

Terrain points for the tent = 40mm x 40mm x 15mm = 1.57in x 1.57in x 0.59in = 1.45in^3 = 0.0067 cubes = 0.134pts

World Cinema location bonus = 20pts

Total = 208.134pts!!

Which added to the previous entries should put me just over my target, with just under 1month to go!! I hope to be able to get at least one more submission done and in before the end :D 

Also a final thank you for all of the kind and wonderfully supportive comments on the previous posts. Sadly my normal method of keeping up to date on the Challenge (my phone on the underground on the commute to/from work) does not allow me to post comments or replies to comments. I have no idea why, but it doesn't want to allow me to do it. Very annoying as I would like to be able to respond and also add my own comments to the amazing works of art from you wonderful people! I hope you all have a great Monday, and a brilliant rest of the Challenge! 

Cheers!
Ed

A real set of treats here Ed.  First up I absolutely love those 10mm fantasy figures.  I thought they were 28mms but just photographed from too far away.  I am really tempted by the Copplestone 10mm range but must be strong.  Good work on the Robin Hood and Monk too.  I am not getting into a religious discussion with that Friar any time soon.

I know nothing about ancient Chinese Warfare except that I know that the armies look really cool.  Heavy Chariots and heavy chopping weapons- YES!  I am fully on board with mixing figures from different eras, at this scale you'd need a PhD in the appropriate era to know the difference.  I also agree with the denser figure count.  DBA elements may have a nominal 28mm figure count but they look way better with more figures as long as you keep the proportions between Pikes and Psiloi elements.  Really like the dude with bodyguard out front of his tent.

Much as I admire your dedication to precision calculations on terrain volume, I am applying a minion's minimum of 5 points on the tent and then rounding you up to 215 for the parasols etc on the chariots.  Congrats on breaching your Challenge target and looking forward to more.