From TamsinP - Seven years War Russian Generals, Artillery and Cavalry (195 Points)

Well, here it is, my second entry in this year's Challenge, and it's a bit of a points bomb. Not on the scale of my Swiss pike block from the 3rd Challenge, or my pirates from last year. But still a decent sized haul of points.

So, on with the details. This entry of 15mm Seven Years War Russians consists of 3 mounted commanders, 2 artillery pieces with 6 crew and 2 limbers, 18 cuirassiers, 9 dragoons and 9 horse grenadiers. This completes the non-infantry portion of my starter army. There will be 2 regiments of grenadiers and 6 of musketeers to follow in January. All figures are from Essex.

One annoying thing about the Essex Russians is that the flags are cast in such a way that they can't really be removed which meant I had to paint them. So, if you look closely at the cavalry pics, you should see my impressionistic freehand attempts to reproduce the actual flags of the regiments. I went for the squadron rather than regimental standards to allow (eventually) for some bright colours in the army.

The Generals

General Count Vasilliy Oldvol

General Baron Ivan Tovokov

General Vladimir Yvorluncz

It doesn't show up particularly well, but I used a similar trick to JamesR to create small puddles on the bases (paint a dark colour into the pit then top it with several coats of gloss varnish. I will probably use gloss gel medium instead next time I try this).

The Artillery

The guns aren't fixed to the bases. This allows for them to be shown limbered and for different types to be swapped in and out. The drew have been painted in 1760 uniforms. The painted wood should be more of a brick-red colour, but this will do for now.

The Cuirassiers

3rd (or "Fedorovitch") Cuirassier Regiment

The 3rd Cuirassiers fought at Gross-Jagersdorf, Zorndorf, Paltzig and Kunersdorf.

Kievsky Cuirassier Regiment

The Kievskiy Cuirassiers were originally a dragoon regiment, who were converted in 1756. They fought at Gross-Jagersdorf, Paltzig and Kunersdorf.

The Dragoons and Horse Grenadiers

Tverskiy Dragoon regiment

The Tverskiy dragoons fought at Gross-Jagersdorf and took part in the 1758 invasion of East Prussia.

Sankt Petersburgskiy Horse Grenadier Regiment

Originally a dragoon regiment, the Sankt-Petersburgskiy Horse Grenadiers fought at Gross-Jagersdorf (probably as part of the cavalry reserve), Paltzig and Kunersdorf.

I've done these in 1760 uniform as well as Essex didn't have cavalry figures in mitres.

So, 39 mounted figures, 6 foot figures, 4 horses, 2 guns and 2 limbers. That should give me 192 points I think; maybe a couple more if Curt considers my impressionist freehand flags are worthy.

And a shot of everything so far to end the post.

From Curt:

Wow! This is amazing Tamsin. I could be wrong but think this is some of the best work I've seen from you. The paintwork is vibrant, clean and neat and I think you've done a wonderful job on free-handing the flags. As you say, they just give enough of an impression to convey their primary elements. I also really like the red gun carriages and limbers. 

I'm going to give a few more points for the flags which will place this submission at 195 points. Well done Tamsin!

From Teemu - Frodo with the Ring (5 Points)

Third model to get paint from me during this challenge is another LotR figure. There has already been Ringwraith and Gollum, so what better addition to the trio than Frodo himself? All three are ringbound more or less. The sun is already gone and getting proper light to take photos is again quite difficult. I think I managed it somehow.

So here's Frodo with the Ring, familiar GW product. Frodo is usually seen in earthly colors, so green cloak and different kind of browns on jacket and trousers with not exactly white shirt and a golden Ring. There has been lots of talk about eyes during the challenge. I usually paint eyes with white and a black dot on them, which make them look quite strange. This time I tried a different approach, I painted the eye black. Even at that point the eyes looked quite good, small hobbit eyes looked good. As a final touch I put a little white dot on the outer sides of the eyes, it was so small that I'm not even sure it is there. Might be hard to notice it from the pictures. Anyway, that made the eyes look very good. I just don't know if I'm able to redo that again...

Here he is in different light, I'm not sure which one is better.

And here's a bonus shot of all three of them, at least the black Ringwraith looks better here than in the original entry. The photo is a little bit tilted, but it shows how horrified Frodo is.

I have couple of more figures almost ready, but I don't think I can manage to finish and photograph them today, so they need to wait a week to get here.

Another 28mm miniature should get me another 5 points.

From Curt:

Ah, a great figure and you've done a wonderful job on him Teemu. Your approach to painting his eyes seems to have worked quite well, especially for this figure when we imagine Frodo's eyes being wide in both terror and wonder. Great work.

From RichardM - 28mm Italian Wars Mounted Arquebusiers (40 Points)

It has taken me two weeks but have finally gotten my inaugural post up for the Challenge.

This is a base of mounted arquebusiers for my growing Italian Wars army.  They are based for the Impetus rule set. They are painted to be fairly generic - there weren't many 'uniforms' around in that period according to my (limited) research.

Having said that, at the moment they will join my growing Venetian Army from the early part of the 16th century.

The figures are beautifully sculpted and cast from The Assault Group and are their "Italian Mounted Arquebusiers Standing Ready".  

They were primed / under coated with etch primer and then given a brown diluted oil wash as a base / shadow.  Painted with Vallejo and Foundry acrylics after that.  

From Curt:

Ooh, that is lovely work. Well done Richard and welcome to this year's Challenge! I really love the basing system for Impetus as it allows (if not demands) the creation of wonderful vignettes like we see here. I've always wanted to get into this period as it's so colourful, both in its uniforms and in its crazy politics (I. Must. Resist...). If there are others who are interested in the Italian Wars please do check out Richard's blog as he has many other amazing images from his collection. I like your use of colour from the uniforms of the troopers to their horses' tack - marvellous stuff. I look forward to seeing more of this period from you over the coming months!

From RoyW - 15mm Moderns, Rebel Insurgents & Toyota Pickup Truck (14 Points)

Continuing on from my post in the first week of the Challenge, here's some of the models I'm painting up to face off against the soldiers from my earlier post.

They're 15mm Peter Pig miniatures, from their Range 17 "AK-47 Republic" collection. Although all of these miniatures have actually been modified via head-swaps from the Range 6 "Heads and Odds", using the Tuareg heads. The barrels are from the Old West range / Terrain collection.

For the sake of completion I'll mention that the bases are by Pendraken Miniatures / Minibits (the same family owns both companies) and are either 25mm circular MDF or 60mm x 30mm rectangular MDF .

From Curt:

Great work Roy! It's good to see the OPFOR to the regular forces that you showed us in your debut post. Again, very nice and clean paintwork and basing. Are you going to have a DShK or recoilless rifle to swap into the back of that 'technical'?   A very interesting (and topical) project.

From SamuliS: Infinity Nomads (20 points)

Time for my next entry with 4 Infinity miniatures from the Operation Icestorm starter set that came out this Autumn.

These guys are part of the Nomad faction and consist of 3 Alguaciles and a Mobile Brigada. They were actually supposed to be submitted with a further 4 more guys from the PanOceania faction, but I managed to mess up some of the edge highlighting and after some frustration decided to push them to the back of the painting queue for a while.

I never thought I would curse at miniatures for being too detailed, but these really started to get on my nerves as there is just so much to paint if you want to do it. Looking at what the Corvus Belli studio team had painted up as inspiration definately didn't help either as my efforts didn't seem very good compared to that :) Luckily I came to my senses after attempting to individually highlight all the tiny hexagons in the armor of the Mobile Brigada and resorted to drybrushing etc. to bring out detail and to finally get them finished.

I basecoated them red and did a few different highlights with an airbrush before adding some sharper highlights by brush. After that I desperately tried painting all the other areas and highlights with small layers to achieve a smooth blend. After coming to my senses I finally just drybrushed most of the black areas and followed up with a black wash to shade them. It would be nice to paint them even better as the miniatures are absolutely gorgeous, but frankly it's getting way over my skill level and I don't really have the patience to use days on a single model. And these are still going to be used in gaming and they won't just stay in a display cabinet.

The bases are from Micro Art Studios. I did a simple paint job on them and added some variety with Vallejo pigments to make them look worn and slightly rusty. And finally there is the orange area to mark the 180 degree front sector on the miniatures to speed up the game a bit. I went for a matt varnish on these, but as an afterthought a satin or gloss varnish could have looked better especially on the Mobile Brigada. Might have to go back and apply gloss on his armor to make it look shiny and polished!

Next up something easier to gather up some points to get me on track for my goal of 1000 points and maybe gather some motivation to finish the PanOceania forces.

From Curt:
Very cool figures Samuli. I'm always amazed by the incredible detail packed into these Infinitiy models, though sometimes I find the animation on some of their figures (especially the earlier models) to be a little affected and over the top. I really like the red/orange tone that you came up with for these guys - a wonderful colour choice - very 'Space 1999'. Also, I agree with you in that they might benefit with a soft satin finish to emphasize their hi-tech nature? Not sure. I look forward to seeing what you do with your next group from PanOceania.  Well done!

From RoyW - 1/600 ACW Naval Blockade Runner (18 Points)

Hello everyone,

This post sees my first submission to the Naval Race Duel / Side Challenge. The model shown is a 1/600-scale, Peter Pig American Civil War, Confederate Blockade Runner "AD Vance", from their Range 7 "Hammerin Iron" collection.

Of note: I've modified / converted the original stock model by creating a textured base, repositioning the pilot house (at least I believe it to be the pilot house), created the various masts and the flag.

• The base is MDF and polyfilla, then painted. 
• The masts are steel pins glued together, and drilled into the model.
• The 'rigging' is an approximation on the actual, and is done by using needlecraft thread (thanks mum!). The holes drilled into the resin model were actually to thread the 'rigging' through, but after a quick attempt I gave that method up and simply pulled taut and superglued the ends of the thread to the painted model. Painting over the glue and thread where needed, afterwards.
• Lastly, the flag was made from ordinary paper. The design painted upon it with normal paints and, once dry, it was liberally coated in white (PVA) glue. The glue dries clear and stiffens the paper, allowing for it to be bent as if 'in a wind'.

The model has been painted up as a generic vessel, not the AD Vance.

 This photo is to give Curt, and other readers an idea on the scale of the piece.

The comparison figure is a 28mm Wargames Foundry Gladiator 

(although at this angle it's as much use as a chocolate teapot!).

From Curt:

Oh, this is wonderful work Roy. I for one am really enjoying these 1/600 naval entries as it reminds me of the games of 'Smoke on the Water' that I used to put on for the Fawcett Ave crew years ago. I think you've done a marvellous job on the modifications/improvements to the 'AD Vance'. The rigging looks crisp and taught and I really like the tone of the wood planked decks. Beautiful. 

This Confederate blockade runner will give Roy 18 points. Again, great work.