From PeterA: Odds & Ends (180 points)

 I think the fact that we are in the final week of the Challenge is proof that Curt has invented time travel, as I can't believe three months have flown by. Congratulations to all Challenge Participants for their contribution to such a fabulous event. Special thanks also to Comrade Dave D, the Sunday Minion, for being such a encouraging, accommodating and welcoming presence throughout, not to mention churning out a marvellous Bolshevik force.

First up are 8 more Cartel soldados. They are all 3d prints by Turnbase Miniatures. 

One of the odd things about the prints is the length of some of the weapons like the two RPD LMGs in the pic below, which look a bit too long too me. I think these are older designs, and perhaps more recent designs don't have the same issue. 

Two standard 'gangster' poses - obviously from the 'pray and spray' weapons school!

Three assault rifle figures finish the group - unfortunately the figure with the AK had a fall and the barrel snapped of, so now he is equipped with a carbine!

Next up, are 4 PMC figures. These are also 3d prints, this time from Combat Octopus. As well as being very nice sculpts, they are modular in nature, so you can mix and match torsos, legs, heads and weapons, as well as having lots of extras like pouches, spare magazines and radios. 

So two of these have torsos with body armour and the other two are without it. They are pretty versatile figures in game - they could be PMCs as advertised, plain clothes operatives, or even mercs working for the Cartel. I have gone for a fairly subdued colour palette - I used images from Sicario as inspiration. As an aside, the two figures in blue trousers were originally much brighter - the Army Painter blue I used is pretty saturated and bright. When I mentioned this to my son he suggested I add a touch of orange to the blue to tone it down. Apparently, because it is opposite blue on the colour wheel, it will have a dulling effect, perfect for what I was after. Every day's a school day!

Obviously, these guys will need some transport, so here are two Land Rovers for them to tool about in. They are die cast toys which have been disassembled, had the windows blacked out (I do this with all my cars, as they then fit in with solid resin vehicles I have, like the Police truck in my last post), painted black and given a coat of satin varnish. Simple and quick, which makes a refreshing change!

Finally, I have 16 IRA figures by Footsore Miniatures for the Irish War of Independence, to provide some opposition to the Black and Tans and Auxies I posted earlier in the Challenge. I had intended to enter these into the Resistance Theme, but I wasn't happy with their original paint scheme. I had tried using speed paints over a grey undercoat with a white zenithal highlight. I have seen many people get good results using this method, but I'm not one of them. So I started again and that meant I was too late to enter them (plus the excellent rugby on show on Super Saturday in the Six Nations certainly put paid to any lingering chance of getting them finished in time!)

The first four are the Character pack - a shotgun armed figure painted to represent an undercover IRA agent masquerading as a member of the RIC, a Lewis LMG and loader, and a leader with pistol and rifle.

Then we have 4 figures firing/loading their rifles. I like the different clothing of the figures, a couple in the trench coat that was as close as the IRA came to an item of uniform for most of the war, the other two in suits. All also have ammunition pouches in bandoliers.

Next are four pistol armed figures. The IRA were short of weapons throughout the war, and to be honest my force here is probably rather overly-armed - most would probably have been armed with pistols like these four here. My favourite is the chap in the grey with the Mauser - obviously, being dedicated to the cause of Independence doesn't mean you can't also be a snappy dresser!

The last pack is more riflemen, advancing this time. Again, nicely mixed clothing captures the irregular nature of the force.

Finally, a group shot of all 16 figures to finish and I have to say I am much happier with how they look now.

So 28x 28mm figures = 140 points

2x 28mm vehicles = 40 points (I feel a bit of a fraud for claiming this as the paint job itself is pretty simple, so this might be revised downwards!)

Giving 180 all told I think, and that means I have met (and gone a bit beyond) my target for the Challenge.

First, get rid of the imposter syndrome and take your 40 points for the vehicles!  We don't judge quality or time spent, we just count noses.  Besides they look damn fine to me, I like the window treatments.  Your cartel looks and ganstas came out well, but I really like those IRA fighters with their mix of attire and weaponry.  Congratulations on hitting your target.  

 

PeterD

From MartinN: Hairy arsed Barbarians (70 pts.)

For my penultimate post for this year I've got a bunch of hairy arsed Barbarians for you to enjoy. The figures are a mix of Victrix and Footsore Miniatures and were a lot of fun to paint. They're based on my usual 10x5 cm bases for use with Midgard Heroic Battles by James Morris. As I couldn't be arsed to hand paint all the different shield patterns I decided to use LBM (nowadays available through Victrix) decals instead. Backdrop is by Handiwork Games as ever

Points wise we have 14 miniatures for a total of 70 points

Lovely looking barbarians Nick, although I’m a tad disappointed that they are fully clothed given the title of your post.  I envy painters who can achieve those rugby shirt stripes on tunics.  Your transfers work well, and mark these guys as veterans of Roman units.  Love the basing and backdrop.

Peterd

From JohnS - Late Romans and Late Halflings (140 points)

 Life continues throwing curveballs but I managed to get some Late Roman Cavalry finished.

 These are Gripping [Beast? Minion Dallas] Late Roman Cavalry. The sculpting is a little stiff but they do the job.  

I decided to give them a variety of shield designs, just for the cool factor.

They are based as 2 (of 3) elements of a To The Strongest unit, with the Hero on the oval base.

What you probably don't want to know is that I dropped the middle of these three elements just after this photo and snapped the lance and popped off the shield...

I have also been working my way through Mantic's Halfling Muster Battlegroup.

These are LARGE halflings, taller than GW dwarfs!

They have a cool "early 19th century English villagers" vibe to them.

They look like the local squire has called out the muster and they have answered.

Armed with their fowling pieces, they are ready to repel the louts disturbing their idyll.

The melee troops are armed with mallets, ready to tenderize.

As soon as I saw these figures I was reminded of a bronze faced maul my coachbuilder grandfather had, so bronze they are!

Once again I made the shield faces quite plain as these are not warlike people, they are armed with what is needed to do the job.

These smaller halflings (more GW/LOTR size) are a Paul Hicks sculpt.

Now available from Footsore, I purchased these in a Kickstarter many moons ago.

I have painted these as members of my ever increasing Halfling Empire Army for Old World or Warhammer Fantasy Battle. 

That's my lot for today. Apologies for the awful photos. One of this week's surprises was a need to temporarily move out of my office which means my photography set-up is adhoc.

5 x 28mm Cavalry @ 10 pts  = 50

16 x 28mm Infantry @ 5 pts = 80

2 x 20mm 28mm Infantry @ 4 5pts = 8 10 [these are 28mm halflings so I'm awarding 5 each]

Total 140 points.

Nice production this week John, and you're right - the halflings give a nice "green and pleasant land" kind of vibe, which I think was always Tolkien's idea. Their rural attire is also really good and you've done a nice job with them. The Late Romans are pretty cool too. 

Happy to confirm 140 points for this lot!

Dallas 

From Darrell H - 8 Late Roman Archers (Points 44 )

I finally finished the last eight speed painted Late Roman Archers to go with the first Legionary unit of my LR army! I say finally as they really do seem to have taken forever due to varnishing issues and the weather (I do a Humbrol Enamel Gloss coat before matting down so it can take time and is weather and humidity dependent).

These eight fellows were originally going to be painted a few years ago, prior to the Vanishing Disaster Incident, which put me off painting the army completely. Until this year.

As the Archers are integral to the whole unit of Legionaries I've included a piccie or two of the lot to give you guys and gals an idea of how the miniatures work together.

Please  note, I am only claiming the points for the 8 Archers as the other 16 models were painted a few years ago!

FromDaveD , lovely work once more Darrell. I too use Humbrol  Gloss , from a pot though I am switching over to using Screwfix Yacht Varnish as a hard protective finish and then a Matt down - we all have our own solutions. You must be pleased to get these done . I’m giving them 44 pts 

From KerryT - A walk down a country lane (270 points)

Morning afternoon & evening all

I seem to have moved away from 3d prints for now and have painted some metals instead. Both units were prepped for last years challenge but never made it to the painting table.

Both sets of figures  find themselves walking down a country lane a few hundred years apart

The first unit to take the walk or ride are a unit of Footsore Arthurian or Romano- British cavalry. They've just crossed the river at a ford and are now on the lookout for an ambush

There doesn't seem to be anyone at home

I came, I saw, I had a look and now I'm going home

Milling around

Ready to charge

The banner is from LBMS but the shields are hand painted but only because I must have previously used the decals that I had. I copied to designs from the LBSM sheet

A few close ups 

I like the flying slug

Arthur Pendragon

I wasn't entirely sure how to base these as my Romano Briton army is based in singles (though I only have foot) but I figure that I'm likely to use these with Midguard or Lion Rampant and figured  multibases would be best, though I wish I'd had another figure that I could have added to Arthur's command stand.

Now imagine that you've somehow fallen asleep under a hedge in that lane for a couple of hundred years and you've just been woken up my the stomp of marching feet. You now find yourself in the 1930's and are watching the dreaded BUF take a stroll down that country lane

The lane has changed a little with a bridge over the ford and now a small village

They're on the lookout for trouble

My VBCW collection started more that 10 years ago when my good mate Giles Allison was visiting NZ and had kindly gave me some figures he had painted for myself and another friend. I added to the collection, basing my back story on the exploits of a pair of twins who I imagined had grown up in my valley back home in Wales. My VBCW back story if you are interested is here https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/vbcf/viewtopic.php?p=31839#p31839

I've played a few games and added quite a bit of WW1 figures to act as opposition to the valley forces but I've since added some BUF figures using the Footsore range and some additional figures from Empress Miniature Spanish civil war range

These guys are attired in blue rather than the traditional black of the BUF

Anyone coming down the lane is going to get shot up

The Empress figures are in shirts

The figures were painted with Vallejo Dark Blue Grey for tunics with trousers in Black Gray, washed and then highlighted. Those in shirtsleeves were given a highlight to the VJ Field Blue

All together say cheese

Once again, thank you for looking and your previous encouragement

In summary

14 x 28mm Mounted figures @ 10 points = 140

25 x 28mm Foot @ 5 points = 125

Total 265 points

2 Squirrels =- Romano-British cavalry & VCBW BUF

(previous Squirrels - Berber Cavalry, Goblin wolf riders, Dwarf cavalry, Spanish Military order knights. Scottish archers, 15mm Napoleonic British, 15mm Napoleonic Naval, 15mm Napoleonic French, 15mm Napoleonic Spanish,100YW French Pavisiers) 

Many thanks and best wishes Valleyboy

From Millsy:

Oh wow! These are spectacular mate. I spent the first 5 minutes distracted by looking at your amazing terrain and then the figures finally broke through my distraction.

The vibrance of the blues and reds on your Roman Brits is wonderful and the hand painted shields are so crisp! I've added 5 points bonus for those because I can only imagine how long that took to complete.

Good to see I am not the only person with a solid BUF force for VBCW. The Empress figs are almost perfect Blackshirts and I have a bunch in my collection too. I assume you have seen Outrageous on the goggle box? It captures the craziness of the times so well and I can't wait for season two.

Wonderful stuff everywhere Kerry. 270 more points added to your tally which kicks you up to first spot in considerable style as well as bringing you within sight of you target with a month yet to go.

Cheers,
Millsy