From StuartL - Challenge Island Safari Tour - 50points

Greetings once again C.I.S.T.ers. You must all be very tired after traipsing up and down mountains, through gulches and over crevasses. Well, it's time to sit down, put your feet up and enjoy a spot of theatre. Here at Benito's Brook, the Challenge Island Players are going to put on a show for you. I'm told that tonight's performance is a tragedy titled "The Death of Napoleon... No, Not That One!"

Most of you are no doubt somewhat familiar with the exploits of one Napoleon Bonaparte and his efforts to unite all of Europe in one glorious, harmonious Empire. After his defeat, his name is absent from history except for notes of his passing. However, he did have a family and they still played some part in French history. His nephew eventually became Napoleon III, Emperor of France until his defeat at the Battle of Sedan and subsequent exile in Great Britain.

Napoleon III died in 1873 leaving one heir, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, the Prince Imperial. Born in 1856 he trained with the British army as a soldier, serving with the Royal Artillery. A noted rider and fencer, he was eager for action and used his family's influence in the royal court to secure himself a place in the British reserves sent to South Africa to reinforce Lord Chelmsford after the Isandlwana debacle. Technically assigned as an observer to the relief force, he was reminded not to do anything rash and to remember his family and political party back home in France.

Of course, being a young man desperate for action, he immediately went and did something rash. When on a reconnaissance patrol, he and his party stopped for a rest at a Zulu homestead where they were ambushed by a group of Zulu warriors. The British party made a dash to escape, but the Prince's horse bolted before he could mount, dragging him along for 100 yards before the strap he was clinging to snapped. Alone and unable to escape his pursuers, the Prince turned to fight. When his body was recovered, he had 18 stab wounds, all to his front. A testament to his unwillingness to surrender or to flee.

----------

When the different locations of the challenge were announced, this was the one that caught my eye the most. I have been meaning to do a vignette along these lines for a while and the challenge presented me with the perfect opportunity to do so. The Anglo-Zulu War is one that I have a deep and enthusiastic interest in, sadly one that isn't shared by my local group, so I am forced to collect both sides of the conflict and have a substantial pile of unpainted minis lying around for it. The Prince Napoleon figure is a limited edition model from Warlord Games and the Zulus are from the plastic set from the same company. The prince should have a spear in his right hand, but sadly I snapped it during assembly and instead attached the optional sword arm that came with the figure.
The Prince's last stand took place near a donga (dried river), so I have placed all of the models inside the river bed and filled it with weeds. The edges of the river have dried grass and a few bits of greenery to differentiate them from the interior section. The rocks are painted pieces of cork bark, which I have used on a few different entries now and am quite taken with.

Points wise, I have 4x 28mm minis for 20 points, plus a further 30 for the location, giving a grand total of 50 points.

From DaveD. Thats a great creation , and fine entry for Benito's Brook. Another 50 pts to the tally 

and I will check out with that and leave you with Dr Cooke to bang the rocks together tomorrow!

From StuartL - Of Paint and Squirrels (275 points)

I had thought about posting this lot up as separate entries, but I am sure that Curt and the Minions are all pretty busy today, so here we go, my final post of the challenge.

One of my favourite periods to read about, research and play is the British Colonial period. I have a small but growing collection of figures for the Anglo-Zulu War and this challenge was a good excuse to get some more minis added to both armies. Above is a Zulu InDuna, or commander. The mini is from Empress and will be used as a command figure for Black Powder. Strangely the picture shows white marks around the left eye and mouth, but when I went back to double check the figure, there are no marks. I guess it must be a reflection from the camera.

This second unit is a group of the Natal Native Contingent. The NNC were local volunteers who agreed to serve with the British in the hopes of getting some revenge for years of oppression from the Zulus. Each unit of the NNC was given a European officer, though many of them couldn't speak the native languages very well. The NNC were not deemed to be very good troops by the British high command, but this can be attributed to a lack of firearms, a lack of training and poor leadership in many cases. As I am collecting both sides of the conflict, I am tending towards slightly smaller unit sizes than those recommended in the Black Powder rules. Each of my British units is 16 men strong.

My next entry is a set of  12 Japanese infantry for the war in Burma and the attempted invasion of India. If you aren't aware of it, in the Spring of 1944, the Japanese launched an offensive through the jungle and across the border of Burma into India. The British raced troops to stop them and a close and brutal battle was fought out at Kohima and Imphal. At times the front lines were scant metres apart. Eventually the British, Indian and African troops were able to break the Japanese invasion force and this paved the way for a counter-invasion of Burma.

These figures are all from Warlord Games' Bolt Action range. They painted up fairly easily and I tried to give them some variation in how I based them to better represent the jungle terrain they were fighting in. I had planned to do a unit of Gurkhas to oppose them, but ran out of time.

And here we have another set of Bolt Action figures, 5 early war Polish infantry. I was given these by a friend as a trade for some old 40K minis. I never had much interest in the early stages of WW2, but these figures painted up very quickly and easily.

Usually, I paint up one figure as a test piece, making notes as to colours used and so on as I go along. With the Squirrel duel, I have made the effort to do 5 test models, as that is the target to get the Squirrel point. It has been challenging to try and find enough different projects to work on, but now I have these models done and a recipe for doing more should I find the time.

These models were painted up on a whim. I had read a tutorial recently about painting black. Some rummaging around in middle of the mountain of unpainted figures netted me 5 Black Templar space marines and the perfect figures to try out the tutorial on. I used to play 40K a few years back, mainly when 5th edition was at it's peak. At that time I didn't really enjoy painting marines too much. These guys were surprisingly fun to paint and I love how they have come out. I'm still undecided about the bases, but those can always be changed.

All of the models were painted in Vallejo Black and given a few highlights in Basalt Grey. I have tried to line highlight every panel on a marine before and it drove me nuts, so with these guys I just did a few random spots here and there. Once that was done and I had painted in the metals, I gave everything a glaze of blue ink. (1:10 ink & water). This helped make the highlights seem more natural and has given the black a bit of depth. Whereas the standard colour for the shoulder pads is white, I have gone for a warm off-white shade with a mix of Vallejo Bonewhite and Sky Grey. I used a fine tipped marker pen to add some religious script to the sides of the pads to better demonstrate the zeal of these crusaders.

And to finish off, some D&D monsters. As this was the theme of my first entry, it seemed fitting that it would also be my last. The large fellow above is a Chain Golem. The figure was originally an old D&D pre-painted mini, but I gave it a new coat, a wash and a drybrush to bring out the detail more. He is very large, standing nearly 100mm high on a 70mm base. 

To accompany him are a Were-bear, a Marilith Demon, a goat-man, a wraith a dire rat and a dire weasel. Most of the models were done with a simple Base>Drybrush>Wash technique, but the Marilith I spent a little more time on. The figure is a little NSFW, so I have added a black bar to the picture for decency. The Were-bear and the weasel are pre-paints, but the others are all from Reaper's Bones range.

And in a final shot to give you an idea of scale, you can see a rather confused looking Japanese NCO standing with the three big monsters. Both the bear and the demon are on 40mm bases.

And that is it from me for the challenge. There is still some time remaining, but right now I can't even stand to be in the same room as a paint brush, let alone think about picking one up. I have beaten my target by a mile and had a good shot at the Squirrel duel too.
I'm looking forward to seeing the final scores after the dust settles.

So, to end my post, a tally of points for the Minions.
The NNC and InDuna get me 17x28mm models for 85 Points and 1 Squirrel.
The Japanese get me 12x 28mm models for 60 Points and 1 Squirrel.
The Poles get me 5x 28mm models for 25 Points and my final Squirrel.
The Black Templars get me 5x 28mm models for 25 Points.
And finally the D&D figures are where I have to ask the minions to step in. 4 of the figures are roughly the same size as a standard 28mm model, but as you can see in the last picture, 3 of them are a bit bigger.

So that gives me a total of 195 Points, plus whatever the minions see fit for the D&D figures, plus 3 Squirrels.

Thank you to everyone who commented on my posts. I tried to comment on other people's but never had enough time to look at all of them. Thanks also to Curt for organising this and to Evan for being an awesome minion.
I believe a recap post is usual, so I will have a rest and come back after the end of the challenge.

Thank you!


TamsinP:

I have enjoyed your large, mixed-bag entries throughout the Challenge, and this is no exception. Lovely work on all of these Stuart.

I'm going to score the D&D figures as four 28mm foot and the big monsters as 28mm vehicles. That gives you a grand total of 275 points for your final entry.

From NoelW for Thursday: There’s tharsands of ‘em (205 points)

I’ve presented a couple of long posts recently, so I thought it was better this week if I submitted separate posts, as seems to be good practice for many. This first post is the largest, in terms of points.

In last year’s Challenge I painted a large number of Zulus, mainly Warlord figures, which are fair enough in their way, but didn’t really excite me. Then the Perrys released their own zulu plastics, which are truly beautiful sculpts, and offer a huge range of poses and possibilities, too. So I bought several boxes, and this post delivers almost the last of them, except for a few of the casualty figures, which I may never bother with, because there are more than enough of those in this post. I’d saved most of these, and the firing figures, till the end as I’ve been building up several regiments. The assegai-armed figures here are supplements to two existing regiments, both married regiments: white shields and red and white shields. Both could belong to different regiments, so there’s some flexibility here.

Firstly, red and white shields:

Now, white shields:

One of these I built as a scout, which illustrates the versatility of this set:

Firing figures and casualties who, in an inversion of history, seem to be defending Rorke's Drift:

And the lot:

That’s 41 figures, so 205 points. And another squirrel.

                                                           

Terribly impressive,these look great, and more posts yet to come! 
Both Toby and I entirely agree with your estimate so 205 points it is!

All the best Iain

From NoelW: 28mm ECW, Zulus, some boxes and a Russian (408 Points, perhaps)

Well, I seem to have banished the ‘flu bug, but instead I’m suffering the Annual Painting Challenge Bug which, it seems, is highly contagious and quite virulent. I’m enjoying the business of painting for points so much that I’m spending every spare minute painting figures or terrain, and I’ve a long list of figures I want to have a go at before March 20^th. As I’ve already exceeded my initial target of 500 points, and now just passed 1000, I think I’ll revise the target up to 2000, and maybe even see if I could hit the hugely ambitious 2500. After all, who needs sleep?

I’ve done well towards that total this week, with, I think, a submission of just over 400 points. Admittedly, these are not the most beautiful figures in the world, but that’s not the point for me with these armies – I want to get them on the tabletop as quickly as possible, and that means compromises in painting style.

Firstly, though, a figure that’s a little better quality than the rest. This is another EMP figure, painted for Wargames Emporium’s display. It’s a Russian officer from the Boxer rebellion. I couldn’t find a perfect source for the uniform, so took a uniform from the Russo-Japanese war instead. I do have quite a decent library of uniform information, but it’s pretty feeble after 1890 (mainly because my only interest after this date is WW2) and I've found it quite hard to locate decent uniform info on the Boxer rebellions online, strangely enough.

Next are more figures for the continuing ECW saga: 18 cavalry this time. There are 6 “lobsters”, the early war cuirassiers who may, in fact, never have taken the field, but who make a cool variation on the tabletop. The remainder are the usual lobster pots and soft hats. All Warlord figures, I’ve a sort of love-hate relationship with them. They’re cheap (and can be even cheaper, with shopping around) which means a reasonable army can be built quite quickly, but they style is sometimes a little awkward, and the apparent variation you think you might be getting with plastic figures turns out to be quite limited in practice. For the infantry, there are three pike poses and four musket poses, and attempting variation upon them largely results in unrealistic poses. I may have a go at converting a few figures later on, simply to add a little more variety to the setup.

Next, 42 zulus. This is pretty much the remainder of my unpainted Zulus. I wanted to get them done before buying the new Perry figures, which I’m certain I’ll be doing as soon as possible, perhaps even at Vapnartak in the coming weekend. Again, I’ve taken the simplest possible approach to painting them: block painting, Warlord’s dark shade, then a little highlighting of key areas. In the mass, I think they look fine. Close up, I keep thinking “I should just touch that bit up, just highlight that feather). 

There's a couple of close up photos to show how reasonable a basic painting approach can be (though you can also see the downsides, too!)

Finally, a little terrain: the mealie bag and ammo box defences of Rorke’s Drift for the Zulus to hurl themselves against. These are nice models to paint up, mainly through washes and dry brushing and I’m quite pleased with the final result. 

Not sure how to score it, though: there’s the wagon piece, plus 8 strips of about 5.5 inches long with a cross section of about 1.5” square. A stack of  the 8 strips would thus fill roughly half a six inch cube, so perhaps 10 points? Plus the wagon at, maybe 3? Making 13?

Pointswise: 1 x 28mm Russian = 5 pts + 18 28mm cav @ 10 pts = 180 pts + 42 zulus @ 5 pts =  210 pts, plus terrain at 13 pts: Total: 408 pts

Noel, you have done a sterling job yet again! That bug is one I would like to get, because I am not as productive as you have been this week. What's not to like about your entry? There's a beautiful Russian officer: that blue is really well done, ECW cavalry which is always nice specially when you're a Rupert and your Zulu's are ace too, even if there are no thousands off 'em sar! The terrain does remain a conundrum every time, but let's be honest 408 is an ugly number. I'll let you have an extra 2 points for the wagon and give you 410 points.

From: NoelW - 28mm ECW, WW2 and Zulus, (280 pts)

Well, I’m still in the grip of la grippe, but not bad enough to avoid working, so I’ve had less painting time this week. However, I’ve still managed to churn out figures for three different projects: more ECW, a few WW2 Brits and an impetuous impi.

For the ECW, a yellow regiment (18 figs). This is Sir John Talbot’s, one of my favourites, merely because it allows you to have yellow-coated troops. Camouflage? Moi? What’s the point of an ECW army if you can’t field Talbot’s yellow-coats and Newcastle’s whitecoats and Hampden’s greencoats and Brookes’ purple, even if most of the regiments were probably grey or red? I also like the fact that a talbot was a kind of hunting dog, so the regimental ensign is a pun.

Next, six red musketeers and another officer. These will be commanded muskets for the time being, but might become the nub of a red regiment, if that’s what I next paint.

I was disappointed with the way the next batch look in the photos. There’s nine Perry's WW2 Brits, intended for the Western Desert, in battledress trousers. I’ve tried to paint them in colours which would do for the desert, but also might not look too out of place if this squad unexpectedly found itself taking leave in Walmington on Sea. I’m actually quite pleased with them in real life, as it were, but in the photos they seem rather casually painted and slapdash. To be honest, the faces were finished in the near dark – for reasons too complicated to explain – but I still felt they were okay until I saw them here. Probably the photos are simply too close up. Must try harder.

Finally 22 Zulus. There were, in fact, 24 but, ahem, two were trodden on and, being plastic, didn’t put up much of a fight. (The perils of inattention brought on by ‘flu). These, in fact, look surprisingly good in the photos, considering much less care was lavished on them than on the WW2 figs. They’re Warlord, of course, which I was lucky enough to pick up at a bargain price. 40 more wait impi-atiently in the wings.

Because Zulus only ever get used in the mass, I can’t see a great deal of point in giving them too much detail or highlighting etc. It seems like effort wasted. But I’m soon going to completely contradict myself, as Perry's’ plastic Zulus were released today and they look like wonderful figures, as if they'll truly repay careful brushwork. If I’m lucky, I’ll have a couple of boxes of these to work on before the Challenge is over…

Hope there’s something there to appeal to you.   

28mm: 25 x ECW, 9 x WW2, 22 x Zulu = 56 figs @ 5pts = 280 pts 

Oh my Noel you loony! "Less painting time" he says and chucks out 280 points worth of mini's into our Challenge! They all look spiffing, the ECW regiments are very lively coloured and the Impi looks intend on slaughter but the WW2 Brits are my favourites. Right after I read they'd be in Walmington for R&R I noticed the bases would be perfectly resembling dune vegetation. Anyway I am sure that everyone here did indeed find something they like in your eclectic collection here.

Cheers Sander