Welcome to the Painting Challenge. Here you will find the fabulous, fevered work of miniature painters from around the world. While participants come from every every possible demographic, they have three things in common: they love miniatures, they enjoy a supportive community, and they want to set themselves against the Challenge.
This site features the current year's event along with the archives of past Painting Challenges.
Enjoy your visit and remember to come back soon.
I thought I would get more scatter terrain done last night but did not, so here is my finally measly finished items for the event. I am running a "What a Cowboy" game at a convention in a few weeks and needed some more scatter terrain to hide behind. So I went to thingiverse and found some free covered wagon files and scaled them to the correct size and slapped some paint on them.
They are super basic, I airbrushed the covering with 2 shades of a linen/canvas type colour for some shading, and then painted everything else brown, inked it, placed a few quick highlights and called it done. While bigger than figures, I am just going to claim 5 points each due to their simplicity, unless whomever posts it feels that is too much, in which case feel free to change it.
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These look great, Byron, and super handy for Wild West games for sure. Now you just need a Gatling Gun in the back of one for Josey to use.
Well done and thanks again for being our Terrain Minion this year - it was very much appreciated!
To paraphrase a famous oil painter, my Frostgrave Cultist warband project this past winter turned out to be a ‘happy little accident’ of this year’s AHPC. It was never on my deliberate list of things to get through, but after painting the first few over the holidays I was simply hooked on these figures for some reason and really enjoyed getting them all done.
With these ten new additions I have now built the entire box, bolstering them with a necromancer and apprentice from the Frostgrave wizard’s set to give me several options for getting them on the wargames table.
Pretty much everything was built straight out of the Cultists 1 box, with the odd bit from the bits box here and there to give them some variety. The crusty rusty shield on the champion, for example, is a very old plastic Warhammer chaos shield which I augmented with a boss made from greenstuff. After priming I hit it with some AK corrosive texture and Army Painter dark rust effect, then let it dry before adding a wash of Warpaints Verdigris. I was very happy with the final result, and imagine this is some cursed item that has welded itself to its current bearer.
And here is the whole group, 22 baddies ready to spoil some do-gooder adventurer hero’s plans to make the world a better place.
With the Cultists done and dusted, I had just enough time left to finish off a couple of other miniatures for other games. First up, a couple more gunfighters to join the cowboys I had been posting at the beginning of this year’s challenge. These two Vaqueros are Copplestone castings metal miniatures and will eventually be joined by 3-4 others I am halfway through getting done.
Next up, I got roped into playing in a friend’s D&D campaign in which we were to play unconventional characters, so I opted to play a Dwarven Rogue (IYKYK). Thankfully, Reaper miniatures had produced a couple of these in their metal figure line, so I bought one from a second hand dealer and gave it a quick paint job.
Last but not least, I wanted some cool objective markers for my games of Frostgave and Five Leagues from the Borderlands and found these in an old Warhammer Black Skull Pass starter box set I had sitting in storage. If I recall these were originally Troll skull markers for the Goblin army, but they’ll do just fine for any number of fantasy skirmish games. I painted the cloth on each one a different colour so they can be distinct on the table as needed.
All in all, some good progress this week. Thus, we’re looking at:
13x 28mm figures = 65 points
4x 28mm objective markers = 4 points
Great work here Andrew. Loving those despite desperados and your Dwarves rogue. However, ,my favourite is the Cultist with his book of forbidden lore. Well done.
Two different projects gaining additions this week, and both of these are projects I have already played games with and hope to play more in the future! Let's start with Old Wild West or how you want to call it. This fellowship of nine are Great Escape Games multipart plastic gunfighters from Gunfighters and Gunfighters II boxes - the first one contains the gentlemen and the second one the ladies. I shared these boxes with a friend and painted one lady on last challenge, hence the odd number. What a Cowboy is the ruleset I have and have played with, so I went with varied weapons to have all kinds of different options available. I have painted some several Old West minis in the past, now I should have quite a large selection - barring the mounted options.
I used mainly quite dull, earthly colours and drybrushed everything in the end to get a dusted appearance, but tried to add some bright colours here and there - the scarf, undershirt or something. So you see lots of different browns here, lots of Reikland Flesh Shade everywhere, but still not exactly Sergio Leone dust levels. :)
Playing around with some other environment than the dungeon (see below), I decided to use Last Chance Saloon for my Gunfighters, and it is quite ok. I just need something colourful for the background.
I painted some SU-76s for the Soviet Army for Bagration and since I'm in the process of painting the both sides, it felt only fair to give something for Germans as well. I guess the Russians have quantity and Germans have the quality, here are two Hornisses, also known as Nashorns, and officially as Sd.Kfz. 164. These are part metal part resin figures, a bit painful to assemble thus, but they look quite nice when ready. They are tank hunters, rather cheap and manouvarable solution to break Allied tanks. Open topped with a highly effective Pak 43 gun, similar gun was used later in Tiger IIs and Jagdpanthers. And of course as anti tank gun as itself. Hornisse first saw action at the battle of Kursk and remained in the service until end of the war.
I have used Averland Sunset as the yellow colour, then some green DIY store green added with blister foam to create the camouflage and finally some XV-88 (nice connection to the gun "8.8cm Pak 43" this vehicle carries) to finalize to overall look. AA gun was painted black, same as the wheels. Tracks are some greyish colour I had. Reikland Flesh Shade is used here, too, some touch ups and identification info. Glued on MDF base with some green sawdust and tufts to tie them nicely to Eastern Front in summer 1944. My philosophy with late war Germans is, that anything goes. I mean, there are of course rules to follow, but as long as playing Flames of War type of games, which are not strictly historical battles, rather generic encounters of what-ifs, German forces are happy to field what ever they have available. Retreating units from the front line, reinforcements from the reserve, you take what you have to fight for the Motherland. So these two Hornisses should have no trouble finding a home in my army.
The crew was painted separately, because that was easier and I could then claim full points of them. Khaki jacket and caps with dark brown and bright green camouflage pattern, grey pants and black boots. And that famous Reikland Flesh Shade pretty much everywhere.
Nine 28mm gunfighters for 45 points and a "28mm Old West Squirrel!"
Two 15mm vehicles for a total of 16 points and then 4 and 2 halfs of crewmembers for 10 points, 26 in total and a "15mm WW2 German Squirrel." It's amazing how they plan these "Squirrel in a box" products!
Total for this post is 71 points and 2 squirrels, no skulls or stompy robots, but something for Lady Sarah, if that is still a thing. :) And three cardboard boxes are now empty and ready to be recycled.
Fellowship of Nine on the balcony
P.S.While I was taking photos of these, my 10 year old son was bored, because screen time was all used up and he then spent some time chatting with his mother and I overheard this kind of question:
- What is that "Desert song" that is always played in the movies, when they are in the desert?
I'm quite sure he means Youtube videos and such like, since he doesn't watch movies, they are too long and boring. My wife was a bit puzzled about this "Desert song", but our son insisted that it is a real thing and told her to search for it. She thought a while and then played this song from Youtube and that actually was the "Desert song!" So now you know, too! :)
P.P.S. I did write the text about "Sergio Leone dust levels" before this conversation!
There's nothing better to get the vreative juices going then playing the game that needs painted miniatures and while those Eastern front tanks are awesome, for me it's the Wild West figures taht are the star of this post, more so because of the very recognisable story about your son and his questions... it's no different at this end of the line mate.
Last summer my wife and I spent a week at Wasagaming in Riding Mountain National Park. While dropping into the local Dollar Store to get a jug of water, I happened to spot two dYI log cabins that looked like they had some potential for scenarios of 'What A Cowboy'.
They did need a bit of extra work, as there was a gap under the bottom log onthe sides of the building, an artifact due the the nature of the assembly. This was filled with a piece cut from a chopstick to ensure the wall came all the way down to the ground,
I also decided that the roof would look better with shingles, rather than just a thin piece of wood. So strips of cardboard shingles were cut ad glued into place. That is as about as fancy as it got. Having assessed what would be needed to actually cut the doors and windows through the logs, I decided that is wasn't worth the effort, I did however cut a base on which to mount the cabins to give greater stability, and to make sure the structure would sit flat on the table.
"I'm in pieces, bits and pieces."
Assembled cabins (still without pases.)
Showing the 'lift off' roof.
The dimensions for the two cabins/bunk houses/lumber camp office are 5" x 6" x 3.5"
These were painted with water base latex paint from the 'Oops' section at Home Depot.
Pop Up Roof to show interior
The final group of items are five log piles which would be handy cover from bullets. Here I painted some doweling different shades of brown, and using a jig, sawed them into standard lengths. They were then glued on a base until I thought it looked like the right height. Eventually I produced 5 log piles, each 1" x 2.25" x 1.75".
All the bases got a thin layer of sand glued on them, with some sporadic bits of greenery scattered here and there. Once again, what Byron says it's worth.
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What a great little find Frederick. I agree they needed something with the roof and the shingles make a big difference and look great. As a suggestion to fit even more into that really rustic look, you might want to try gluing some flock onto the roof in patches as well, as a lot of old cabins get that moss growth on them and it could look good, but if your thinking of these as a new build then I wouldn't.
Overall, the colour choices overall are really good as well, the cabins look suitably aged and the logs being different colours look great as well. I might even be stealing the idea for some of my own western terrain. Points wise I am going to say about 10 points a building as they are pretty simple, and then a few more points for the logs piles. I would say about 5, but am going to go to a total of 30 between the buildings and the log piles. Keep it coming Frederick.
“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!
Tap, tap…is this thing on? Okay! Hi everyone, my name is Andrew and let me start by saying thank you very much to Curt et al., for the kind invitation to participate this year. This being my first time doing the challenge, I set my own bar relatively low with a modest 300 points goal.
My own painting objectives over this winter are twofold. First, complete some small warbands for various skirmish games as my local group tends to play a lot of these. Second, add some more units to my ongoing big battle projects, specifically the Battle of Northampton in 1460 (Wars of the Roses) and the Battle of Bunker Hill/Breed's Hill in 1775 (American War of Independence).
My first entry is a simple one and consists of a couple of 28mm Old West characters which I can use for skirmish games such as What a Cowboy or Dead Man’s Hand. I bought these over a decade ago at a show in the US, and they’ve been sitting in the pile of opportunity since then waiting patiently for the paintbrush.
From left to right – a Wargames Foundry character (Judge Guthrie Prentice dismounted), the 2012 Partizan Show figure (No.15) - ‘The Undertaker’ - sculpted by Mike Owen, and an Artizan Gunfighters figure representing ‘The Bad’ in the Good/Bad/Ugly set. These will form the core of my law-and-order folks, soon to be challenged by a couple of gangs which I’m currently working on.
I find Western figures a joy to paint – the colours are simple, yet small touches can add some nice variety to an otherwise dull palette. The Undertaker’s waistcoat for example done in purple betrays the fact that his business is booming and he can afford some nicer threads. For the other two, functionality is the key. Simple clothes that hide dirt and a long day’s work.
I painted the figures with a range of Vallejo and Army Painter paints. I started with a black primer and then worked up from there, using colour, washes, and quick highlights where appropriate. The bases are simple plastic 2mm thick rounds. The basing materials consist of tufts from Vallejo scenery and Quicksand basing paste from Legendary Paints, over which I add a highly complex mixture of the free sandy grit that collects at the end of my driveway every spring before the dust cleaners go by (if you live in Canada and suffer winter road conditions, you’ll immediately know what I’m referring to). Once dried, I gave it a wash of Army Painter Warpaints Soft Tone to bring it all together. A bit of Vallejo Flat Earth covers the base rim.
Finally, I do two coats of varnish to protect the miniature for play. Done and dusted and ready for the table!
Claiming 3x 28mm foot = 15 points to get things rolling.
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First off, welcome to the Challenge, Andrew! It's terrific to welcome new people into the fold of Challengeristas.
These gunslingers look terrific and compliment each other wonderfully even though they are from different sculptors. Very neat and tidy brushwork, and your basing is equally on-point (what did we ever do without tufts?).
This trio will give you 15 points to work towards your target. Well done! I look forward to your upcoming entries over the next three months.
In the Spring of last year I picked up the rules for 'What A Cowboy' from TooFatLardies. The mechanics of the game has similarities with their 'What A Tanker' rules, which I enjoy playing with the local gang of Fawcett Avenue Conscripts. However I didn't have any appropriate figures to go with the rules. While on my re-enacting travels I came across two sets of multipart plastic figures from Great Escape Games to go with their Dead Man's Hand rules. Each box contains two identical sprues with five sets of legs and torsos, but with enough options of heads, arms, and weapons to build ten unique figures. They have since come out with a box of mounted gunfighters, but the heads, and torsos match those in the first of the two sets. That is definitely a future project of building mounted versions of the gunfighters I have just painted.
In July I attended Historicon and the theme was 'From Hollywood to Historicon". Their 40th Anniversary Mini was a figure of ‘The Outlaw Josey Wales’ sculpted by Paul Hicks. It will be a useful addition to all the other gunfighters.
All the figures came with small oval bases, so they got glued onto larger 25mm round bases, and a layer of fine sand was then added to the bases with PVA glue. They were primed black with a rattle can before being painted with a variety of Vallejo and Army Painter acrylics. All the figures were given a coat of Army Painter Soft Tone Wash. The bases were painted with craft acrylics and a few tufts of dry grass were added. Here is the final result.
21 unique gunfighters of the Old West
Here are some closeups of the figures built from the Gunfighters box. There were two figures where I didn't like the
fit of the neck to the torso, so I covered up the area with a bandana
sculpted out of epoxy putty. I have arranged the figures in the two photos so that the legs match from left to right. I was able to create ten unique figures from the options available.
Gunfighters - Group A
Gunfighters - Group B
Here are some closeups of the figures built from the Gunfighters II box. Again I have arranged the figures in the two photos so that the legs
match from left to right. It shows the variety that can be created from
the options available to once more give ten unique figures.
Lady Gunfighters - Group A
Lady Gunfighters - Group B
I am going to use the gunfighters with masks, in the act of robbing the town bank, the train from Deadwood, or the Wells-Fargo stagecoach, for the fourth Circle of Hell - Greed.
"Plutus guarding the Fourth Circle of Hell - Greed" by William Blake
Now we come to a tale of murder, hatred, revenge, and retribution with Clint Eastwood as 'The Outlaw Josey Wales'. For those who may not have seen the movie, watch the official trailer on Youtube. I will use this figure to represent the fifth Circle of Hell - Wrath.
"Well, you gonna pull those pistols, or whistle 'Dixie'?"
"The Stygian Swamp of the Fifth Circle of Hell - Wrath" by William Blake
The eight female gunfighters not used for ‘Greed’ I will bank for the present to use as succubi or seraphim at a later point in the Divine Comedy. Whether tough and wily Cowboys, stoic Lawmen, ruthless Outlaws and crazy Desperados, they are all member of the cult of 'The Devil's Right Hand'.
The points being claimed are as follows:
21 x 28mm foot figure @ 5 points = 105 points
2 x Circles of Hell - Greed & Wrath = 40 points
Thanks for stopping by.
Sylvain: Pilgrim, that's a lot of Colts for a single posting! You did a good job creating diversity with the set you had at hand. And your colors for your figurines really evoke the Far West. Very nice work!
