From AndrewG: 'Red' Kelly's Gang (20 points)

“Cattle rustlers and horse thieves… the whole lot of ‘em!”

As I continue working through the small pile of Old West miniatures I bought many years ago, I have been able to put together two gangs in addition to the lawmen I showed last time. Up next in this series is a bunch I've labeled Red Kelly’s Gang. I had previously painted the rascal with the red necktie as a test model for the look I wanted, so I’m not including him in my points claim here. The remaining four gents however were completed during competition time to round out this crew.

If memory serves these are all dismounted versions of metal Foundry figures sculpted by Copplestone for their Old West Cowboys range. I wanted them to easily represent either side of the law, so while I’ve styled them as potential train robbers I could probably also just as easily use them as Pinkertons or other hired law enforcement deputies. I have a stagecoach that I’m currently working on that will be a likely target for them in an upcoming game, so they needed to pass for potential raiders (or protectors) of the mail and the fort commander’s lock box.

As far as figures go these are a relatively quick painting job. I have a good palette of browns at hand that either lean towards red or yellow in their tone – thus the majority of the colours are a mix of Vallejo and Army Painter browns - saddle, leather, oak, and bootstrap for example. A bit of Vallejo mahogany tends to be my go-to for weapon stocks, otherwise it’s just the usual washes and highlighting to bring them together. A splash of colour just to give the figures character, but not too much. Last a bit of blue and grey in the cloths and bandanas tie all the figures together, giving them a subtle uniformity for the gaming table.

Again, the bases are simple 2mm thick rounds, and were done with basing paste, grit from the driveway, and Vallejo or Tajima tufts. Vallejo flat earth was used to finish the rims. Two coats of varnish to seal them, and they’re ready to chase down the stagecoach or take on the Sheriff in any town!

Claiming 4x 28mm = 20 points.

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Some great looking desperadoes here, Andrew! As you say, a little spot of colour here and there does wonders for these fabulous figures from Copplestone. Terrific brushwork!

- Curt

From MartinC: The Hobby (515 points)

I've had a productive week and managed to paint quite a lot of things, so straight into it.

1st up we have a Little Moscow Grenadier battalion for my Napoleonic Russians

This was going to be my last Naps for a while, but I've done loads of stuff and so Naps may be back sooner than planned

Next up is my trip to the children's section of the library. For any Brits who grew up in the 1970s and also many Europeans Subbuteo was the game of choice. It was a table football game where you flicked the players around a baise pitch, trying to score. Subbuteo is actually latin for Hobby, the inventor wasn't allowed to call it the hobby, so called it Subbuteo. It was forgotten about except for the odd popular culture reference. 

So for Christmas my Brother in Law got a subbuteo set and I was tasked with painting up 2 teams for us to use.

This is the Barnsley Team from 1997 - the only time they made the Premier Division for a brief 1 season stay

The Subbuteo players are 20mm soft plastic and very dated sculpts - check out the 1970s hair cuts, I'm remembering Kevin Keegan and Malcolm MacDonald.

They needed suitably glorious opponents, so this is the 1996 Port Vale team, easily the greatest team in all world football. We finished 8th in the 2nd tier of English Football,  our second best season in 140 years (English Football league titles are weird - Premier, Championship, 1st division and then 2nd division).

They will provide strong opposition to Barnsley

Both teams need team coaches to get them to matches

I started the Challenge with a large post of the army of Fu Manchu. However they are a bit weak on their own and need some support from a local Chinese Warlord

Pulp Miniatures Chinese Warlord set. He needs a cool name but I'm stuck on Egg Shen (bonus points for getting the cultural reference)

He already has an infantry platoon but now brings 2 HMGs to the party

These are Copplestone and lovely

And 2 heavy mortars. Again Copplestone and one of the crew is eating noodles

Next, told you I'd been busy, are 3 Drawfen monoliths (think these are from CP models)

Just a simple paint job so only a couple of points each, the seated guy in the middle is about 28mm scale. However they will qualify for the Fantasy section.

I'm now finished with the 1st part of the library and need to travel to the Rotunda on Sarah's library cart.

This is a Palantine Enforcer from Necromunda. A Chirstmas present from JamesM of this parish. She is a 3D resin sculpt and very nice she is. I went for pale skin, she is underground, but not sure if it has worked as I wanted, and may touch her up.

All my Palantines have this pale blue trim - think it works well with the black

So in the Rotunda I get to visit the Sci Fi section and meet the Palantine District Commisioner, with his law book. Again from JamesM. Cap is blue lined, but you can't see it.

All good police forces need police dogs and these 3 robo-dogs are great, again JamesM. They are 3 lads, 20mm at shoulder. Should terrify any perps.

My history with Necromunda is, at best, terrible. the phrase "couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo" is about right. 

And finally, I have been building a small(ish) Finnish force for Team Yankee (not a fan of modern tank warfare, so I went for something different). These mortar sections will complete the force.

120mm mortars

81mm mortars

Scores on the Doors (hold tight this could take a while)

Russians

22 x 28mm infantry = 110pts

1x 28mm Mtd officer = 10pts

2x flags                         = 2pts

Subbuteo

22x 20mm footballers = 88pts

Children's books          = 20pts

Chinese 

17 x 28mm soldiers and crews = 65pts

4 x crew served weapons = 40pts

1x flag                               = 1pts

Dwarfen Monoliths

3x 2pts                            = 6pts

Fantasy books                 = 20pts

Necromunda 

1 female enforcer            = 5pts

Sarah's trolley                  = 20pts

1 male enforcer                =5pts

3 dogs                                =15pts

Sc Fi section                     = 20 pts  

Finns

21 mortar crew                = 42

6 crewed weapons             = 24

I'll also need a new points target, so 2000pts it is. Curt was right, I may be a carpet bagger.

TeemuL: I guess I spent the same amount of time to insert all the points to the spread sheet that I spent reading this entry. You really are picking up some steam, Martin, and crashed your points target in about a month. No wonder with this kind of post, that your math is bit off. You have miscalculated your Chinese and the spread sheet gives you nice 515 points with some bonuses included. I could give you some minus points for not including the Library map, though... Your route seems reasonable, so I won't cause any troubles here.

The Naps look great, but those old Subbuteo players steal the show. I encountered this game in 2005 or so and we played a short league with couple of friends. I managed to buy similar set you have, but I haven't thought about painting them. English league system is quite misleading, but if Luton Town can play in the Premier league, I have no doubt Port Vale will be there, too, someday.

From Curt: Czech Legion Rifle Squad (55 Points)

While my last entry was focused on the German coastal forces of WWII, this time I give to you a squad of hard-bitten veteran infantry from the Czech Legion. These hard nuts fought their own private war along the breadth of the Siberian Railway during the end of the WWI and well into the Russian Civil War. These are the same chaps who, riding on a series of armoured trains, captured the Imperial gold reserve, soundly defeated every Red force put against them and inadvertently caused the Bolsheviks to panic and execute the interred Romanovs.  The Czech Legion was ultimately evacuated out of Vladivostok in 1920 and formed the core of the new Czechloslovakian national army in the interwar years.

The rank and file are from Mark Copplestone, one of my favourite sculptors in the market. (Why, oh why can't he be more prolific. His stuff is absolute gold.) They have great heft, possess wonderful character, and have such clean lines which are a joy to paint. I did them up in a mish-mash of coloured greatcoats. The only cohesive thing about them is the red and white Czech colours on the fabric top of their fur caps. 

I can't remember where I sourced the leader from. Maybe Artizan? Tsuba? Beats me. All I know is that he looks hard as nails striding purposefully ahead, all grim faced, brandishing his artillery Luger sporting the all-but-useless-but-oh-so-cool wooden stock.

These fellas will give me 55 points to add to my total and another notch to my Squirrel tally. Yes indeedee, I'm on a roll folks!

Happy Holidays and a Wonderful New Year everyone!

Yet more Bolsheviks - MartinC (140 Points)

I've finished my Bolshevik infantry, for now. These are more of the Copplestone Figures and have some bad mould lines that I should have worked on more. The painting is OK but I'm still ramping up my painting. Always takes me a couple of weeks to sort out my technique after a long break - I kinda forget how to paint, and I never knew how to photograph.

Infantry

Infantry

Er....Infantry

Cavalry, no wait, Infantry

Lewis gun support

Officers and Commissars - love the megaphone

Maxim gun

The basing is simple and is supposed to represent the Steppe in Autumn - mud.

That is 26 infantry, 3 prone figures and a gun. 

Time to move on to something different.

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More Bolshie reinforcements, Urahh! 

Those two Commissars are suitably inspirational (though I suppose anybody is 'inspirational' when they have a Makarov pointed at your head) and I really like the emplaced HMG team as well. Wonderful work Martin. I really quite enjoyed this project of yours and am sorry to see it come to a close. Nonetheless, you've inspired me to get some more of my RCW done so they've moved up the list a few spots - thanks for that! :) 

149 Points for your sterling efforts. Well done, Martin!

From MartinC - 28mm Bolsheviks (65 Points)

I've finally managed  to get started on this year's challenge. My opening submission are some Bolsheviks for Back of Beyond. I've been reading the Great Game by Peter Hopkirk and have become a little obsessed with the North West Frontier and the expansion of the Russian, Turkish and British Empires. The Russian Revolution provides a great opportunity to battle against imperial and tribal forces.

These 13 figures the the start of my Bolshevik force. They are from Copplestone and are nice figures. The painting is my usual style as I get warmed up

Good to be back in the challenge, 13 x 28mm figures = 65pts.

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First, welcome back to the Challenge, Martin!

It's -29 C here in the Saskatchewan prairies, a very 'Dr. Zhivago' day, so it's quite fitting to see these Bolsheviks, shivering in their greatcoats and lambswool caps. 

Lovely work Martin! I really enjoyed Hopkirk's 'Great Game' and am now working through China Meiville's 'October' and getting inspired to do my own Copplestone minis. I like how you did the soft grey of their astrakhan hats and the groundwork looks like the first snow is about to fly. 

Will we be seeing some armoured cars and cavalry being added to this force? I look forward to seeing how it develops.

65 points for you, Comrade!

Stick a Fork in Me, I'm Done - even the Curtgeld (sorta) (MartinC)

So this is it. I've come to the end. My painting table is empty. I started with 9 file boxes of unpainted, prepped figures and I'm down to 6 file boxes. I've painted more than that, but as always there has been buying and even casting.

I've really enjoyed the Challenge this year, the video chats have been great and I've even played a game of Zombicide with Blax via the video chat (that was a blast - Howard the Duck with a chainsaw is lean mean killing machine).

The figures I've painted have been wide ranging from Napoleonic Persians to the Angel Gang and from old school fantasy figures to flat pack trucks.

The quality this year from the participants has been very high indeed and too many to keep count of. Well done all and special thanks to Curt and my Minion Miles. whose maths wizardry is without comparison.

So what have I painted for my final submission. Well remembering being pipped at the post last year by Miles with the last post of the challenge I've gone big.

First up 2 units of ancient Persians, cue hippy stylings.

I bought this unit of 16 spearmen from ebay. They are OK and came without spears, which wouldn't have been a problem but they also came without hands. I now have a lot of handless arms in my bits box. Shields are from 1st Corps

This unit of 24 Sparabara is from 1st Corps and is really excellent. The best unit I've bought from them

Next some random stuff

Captain Bentine US 7th Cavalry - Wargames Foundry

Pierce Arrow Truck from Warbases - really nice kit - with added machine gun from Pulp Miniatures. Very useful for VBCW

For my Curtgeld this year I teamed up with EdwinK, the purveyor of the books we like to read. Unfortunately he's been busy and not finished his half so I'm going to jump the gun and post my half now. It's that famous Belgian detective, not that one the other one.

Tintin and Snowy - Edwin is obviously doing Captain Hastings - I mean Haddock. These are by Copplestone and are fab.

So how do you end your last post. Obviously with something big. With no sense of irony present 10mm Prussians and Danes

over the last couple of years I've been collecting Prussian and Danish figures in 10mm from Pendraken to refight the 1864 war and start a new imaginary world war 0.2 or 0.3, depends who you ask. I've now finished them all. This is a Prussian Regiment

6 hand painted flags

I had a few surplus figures so I made some Prussian skirmishers

and some Danish ones

Every regiment needs a commander

Finally a couple of stands of Jaeger

Right that is it.

40 x 28mm foot = 200pts

1 x 28mm cav = 10 pts

84 x 10mm foot = 84 pts plus a generous flag bonus

1 x 28mm Tintin and Snowy = 10 pts?

1 x 28mm truck with machine gun = 20 pts?

That's about 324pts and takes me past 4000 points. Yay me!

Right, I'm knackered so thank you all. Pint time

Tamsin:

*prod, prod*

"Youch!"

"Well, you did say to stick a fork in you!" ;)

What a fantastic mixed bag to close out your Challenge. Those Persians are Nebuchaneser's knees! 

Unfortunately I can't give you an extra 5 points for the machine gun on the truck - if a Tiger tank with an 88mm gun scores 15 points, so does a machine-gun armed jalopy I'm afraid. But I am awarding you some bonus points for the flags, shields and hippy-chick costumes on the Persians. Plus the 20 points for your Curtgeld. Now, let's see what the Spreadsheet says. My word! A nice round 350 points. I think you could be safe from Miles in first place but you'd better keep on painting just in case ;)

Enjoy your pint! :)