From ByronM - 15mm WWII Germans and Robotech Zentraedi (164 Points)

Hello again, here is my second submission for this years painting challenge and it is a mixed submission.

First up I have some great castings from Peter Pig to expand my 15mm WWII German force for Chain of Command.

The figures are based in our groups normal way, which was initially planned out by Greg and Curt I believe.  Senior leaders are on hex's, heavy weapons are on large rounds, specialists (in this case sniper teams) are on ovals or pills, and most normal troops are on rounds.

Three new senior leaders for some additional options in my force, and just because I could not resist a few of them.

Two heavy tripod mounted HMG teams.  One of them has 3 men on the base, the other just 2 but the third is separated off.  I already had extra riflemen previously painted so that I can field them as teams of 5 men as they should be for CoC.  Obviously the extra men are not shown here as they were painted before the challenge.

A lot of heavy support to help out against vehicles and tanks.  Here are 5 panzerfäuste armed troopers and 2 panzerschreck teams.  Probably way more than I actually need, but hey they are 15mm and easy to paint up.

Lastly 2 sniper teams for my Germans, for reaching out and touching someone.

All of these are painted up quickly, using a pretty basic 15mm methodology.  Base coat, block in colours, wash the whole model with devlan mud, then highlight with base colour again.  Simple, fast, and table ready in no time at all.  They won't win any painting awards, but they are solid tabletop quality.

Next up is a unit of Zentraedi from the Kickstarter shipment that just came in for the Robotech RPG Tactics game.  The unit is made up of 9 Regault tactical battle pods and 1 Glaug officers battle pod.

I tried to keep the paint jobs simple and fast, since I need to do a whole lot of these and don't want to get too tied up spending too much time on each. Also I wanted them to be very cartoony and match the simplistic look from the show.  Therefore they are done with base coats of white, paint on the other colours, line them with black ink, then touch up / clean up, decal, and then clear coat with a satin coat for some shine rather than my normal dullcoat.  

They are left on the basic plain bases with the fire arcs marked on them with painted arrows, at least until I figure out how important those are.  I am not sure what kind of table or board I am going to setup to play Robotech on so did not want to base anything with either urban or rural themed bases yet.  I realize that may mean a point hit, but the bases are done for the "game" right now, just not as our normal display bases.

The miniatures are actually pretty nice once assembled, BUT whomever designed the sprues and instructions learned model making way back in the 40's or 50's and never bothered to learn how things have improved since then.  Each battle pod is 15 parts and there are 3 of them on a sprue.  The sprues have no part numbers or labels and the instruction sheet can therefore not reference anything.  Each foot and leg has a different angle and go together best with only 1 or 2 of the other foot or leg parts of the 6 on the sprue, however this is not identified or labeled anywhere.  Very frustrating and very fiddly, and something that just a little bit of extra time and effort could have prevented.

Again, the figures, once together are very nice though, and having picked them up through the kickstarter, CHEAP!  I think the final model count was right around 100 models for $140, so you I can not complain too loudly at that price.  

Scale is a bit odd, as while the official scale is really small, as these things are supposed to be almost 5 stories tall, the physical size is actually pretty big.  Therefore I am including a picture with a standard 28mm space marine to help Curt figure out what they should count as.

They are a lot of fun to paint, but I am only doing this squad and 1 squad of the human forces during the painting challenge.  More will have to come later, or I won't be able to get the items I wanted to get done finished this year.

Hope you all enjoy.

From Curt:Great work Byron! Those 15mm Germans look the business, nice and neat work for the tabletop. As for the Robotech battle pods, though they are not really my cup of tea, you've done a brilliant job with them. I really like your approach of using primary colour block-painting as it reminds me of the dynamic cell shading seen in the animated series - very cool.  I'm going to count the pods at 12 points each so 164 point total. Well done!  

From AlanD - 28mm Saracen Archers for Crescent and Cross (60 Points)

This week I have mostly...been painting some Saracens for Crescent and Cross and Lion Rampant. First up is this unit of 12 levy archers, with figures from Black Tree Design. I think these should give me 60 points.

From Curt:
Nice work Dux! I really like the striped garments and the arid basework definitely does the trick. Well done. 

From BrendonW - 15 x 28mm Perry Foot Knights

15 x 28mm Plastic Perry Miniatures Foot Knights. An excellent box set of miniatures in my opinion. They go together easy and have little flash to clean. While these look relatively simple there is a bit of trial and error to get armour to look near convincing at this scale. I kept it simple with a spray of Army Painter Plate Metal then washes, then further painting with Plate Metal from the matching Army Painter bottle. My force will have Red and Black as it's Lords colours and while this is inspired from history it is not to represent an historical source.

These Knights do not come with any shields because by the time period they come from (1450-1500 War of the Roses England period) armour had improved.

I purchased these for building a retinue for 'Lion Rampant'. I think you can only have a Max of 2 units of 6 in that game. Certainly enough in the box to make enough Foot Knights for 2 retinues and some left over for Unit Leaders of less noble units.

From TamsinP - 'They Mostly Come At Night. Mostly...' (112 Points)

And so, my third entry. 

A brood of Aliens with their Queen and King.

The figures are Space Demons from Khurasan Miniatures. In theory they are 15mm, but I've sent Curt some size comparison pictures as they are a bit bigger than 15mm human figures. I'll leave it to the Challenge-Meister to decide how to score them.

There are 48 of the little bugs. I've mounted them on washers singly, in pairs and in threes to allows for figure removal. I honestly can't remember how I did the base texture as it was a long time ago that I first started these. I'd got as far as spraying them with black metallic paint and then left them in that state. As there was a lot of bare metal which the spray hadn't hit, I re-primed them with black Vallejo surface primer.

I did these as a "break" from the SYW Russians - it is too close to Christmas to start on the 8 foot regiments I have waiting in the wings.

There were numerous steps in painting these.

The Aliens - base coat of Prussian Blue mixed with some black; wet-brush of Prussian Blue; medium-to-heavy dry-brush with Medium Blue mixed with metallic medium; black ink wash (a little bit too thick - it has pretty much hidden the first two steps!); light dry-brush with Medium Blue mixed with metallic medium; Gunmetal Blue on the extended proboscii; silver on the teeth and some claw tips.

Bases - base coat of London grey; wash of Black Grey; dry-brush of Stone Grey; a few bits picked out with Blue Violet; "veins" picked out with German Camo Medium Brown; washed with diluted Sky Blue pearlescent ink. I think the last step has really given them an alien look.

Some Close-Ups:

The King:

The Queen:

And one of the brood:

"Smile for the camera!"

Now, with all of these nasty bugs, one really needs a plucky female spaceship second officer driving a big cargo handler to deal with them:

"Get away from her you BITCH!"

Again from Khurasan, this is the Hercules Cargo Handler. I'd forgotten about it until last night when I suddenly thought that it would be an appropriate addition to this entry. I quickly prepped, assembled and primed it, then painted it this afternoon. As you can tell, I went for a well-used look.

The base is 30x40mm MDF with some wire mesh glued on top.

Some pics to show that the crew figure has been painted:

One of the Alien brood figures has a pose that always makes me think of Morecambe and Wise:

For those who don't know what I'm talking about, when you get to the end of the vid, you'll see what I mean.

Well, that's it for now folks, so here's an Alien saying "bye bye!"

ps - I'll get it in before anyone else does - "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

From Curt:

Very cool submission Tamsin. I like the paint recipe you came up for the Aliens and the drizzle of pearlescent blue on their bases is a great touch.  

This brood, along with its King and Queen and Ripley in her Cargo Lift Suit will give Tamsin 112 points, enough to allow her to slip into 3rd place. Wonderful work Ms. P.

AlanD - Viking Ship for the Mini Duchess (8 Points)

The mini duchess turned 8 last week, and requested a Viking ship birthday cake. She has embraced Norse mythology in a big way recently, to the point that I heard her berating the children of a Catholic friend about how silly their god was compared to Odin. I couldn't be prouder.

I'm not sure that there is anything in the Painting Challenge rules forbidding edible miniatures, so I present this entry in a spirit of fun. The figures are largely made from pre-coloured fondant, which I am treating as equivalent to coloured primer, but the faces are painted, along with anything that is supposed to be metal (thanks to edible silver paint). I also coloured the sea, which is probably equivalent to an ink wash.

What do you reckon, Curt? Gotta be worth a point?? :)

From Curt:Ah, Brilliant work Dux, your daughter must have been so excited when she saw this cresting the horizon! It's all so wonderful but I have to say I especially like the beards, the prow and the water effect. Just fabulous. (Was it truly edible though?)

Well, I think we need to give a point for each year of the Mini Duchess.   An excellent gift to be sure. Well done!

From TobiP - 28mm ACW Union Infantry (77 Points)

My first "regular" entry (after the "cold" special theme) is a small unit of Union infantrymen from Perry Miniatures. They are mostly plastic figures except for the three single based figures.

I'm going to use them as part of my already large army that I've painted and collected for the brilliant "Longstreet" ruleset. The function of the single based figures is to act as markers for sharpshooters (the two kneeling figures) and heroes (the standing figure, waving his less heroic comrades to come with him).

As you can see they're not painted to my highest standard, but I like them well enough - especially as part of the whole army. If it hadn't been for this contest, I fear I would not have painted them for another few months, as I'm really quite fed up with painting shades of blue... so it's probably a good thing this army project is nearly finished :-) 

From Curt:

Beautiful work Tobi. The colour hues and shading are brilliant and your photography flatters them very nicely. How many units have you done up for this project? I haven't checked out 'Longstreet' yet, though I usually like Sam Mustafa's rules. I do like the idea of using single figures as markers - anything to get away from unsightly cards, chits, etc. cluttering up the table.

These 15 fellows and their brave banners will fetch Tobi 77 points. Great stuff! 

A BIG THANKS to Three More Prize Sponsors!

I’m delighted to announce that we have three new prize sponsors for The Challenge!

Martin and Diane Murray of 'Warbases' return this year to provide a gift certificate to some lucky individual from their talented shop.

Another new sponsor this year is Thomas over at 'Skull and Crown' who creates wonderful wooden flat figures in several periods. 

And a local game store here in Saskatchewan, ‘Dragon’s Den Games ’ is putting up a gift certificate from their fine establishment.

From the bottom of my coal black heart I thank each these businesses for their wonderful generosity – as I’ve said before, prizes aren’t everything but they do add a nice sparkle to the event.

Also while I have your attention, please remember to vote for your favourite 'Cold' theme entires as the poll will close Sunday night at midnight.

Best,

Curt

From SteH - "Send out your Warg Riders" (62 Points)

And in keeping with the Lord of the Rings theme that's permeating the Challenge this year I present my second standard entry, six of Games Workshops plastic Warg Riders.

Now if anyone has seen my blog you may recall that I started a Lord of the Rings on a budget project some time ago and these guys were one of my acquisitions (costing me a trade of a few Necrons that I would never ever actually paint or use). Anyway I ended up with about 13 warg riders in various states of completion and thus had to repair strip and repaint accordingly.

The captain is a conversion as the model had no arm and seeing as I'd acquired these second hand I had no appropriate spares. Therefore for the arm I cannibalised an old LoTR goblin, hacked off the head and used a metal head that I found in my bits box from a previous lotr acquisition. A bit of green stuff sculpting to fill the gaps and voila, a truly ugly orc captain to lead his own Warg warband.

Now I just need to repair, strip and paint the other seven!

From Curt:
Beautiful work Ste! I think your conversion of the warg rider captain came off wonderfully. I also really like the shading of the wargs themselves, especially their faces - excellent stuff. 

I'm going to add a couple points for the conversion, so 62 points total. I look forward to seeing the other seven in the next few weeks!

From SimonM - "Pulp Figures" - The Boys In Blue (40 Points)

These ten 28mm miniatures come from “Pulp Figures” Gangland Justice range and consist of all the models from packs PGJ06 Boys In Blue 1 and PGJ07 Boys In Blue 2. The neighbourhood beat cops come in a variety of poses and with an assortment of weaponry as well as a vintage call box and fire hydrant.

All of them were initially undercoated with two layers of “Vallejo” Heavy Blue before their boots, belts, buttons and badges were painted with “Citadel” Abaddon Black. I then applied a generous wash of “Citadel” Nuln Oil over all the overcoats, collars and caps before applying a similarly heavy wash of “Vallejo” Blue Shade. As I simply didn’t want all eight officers to appear too alike to one another l decided to paint a couple wearing white gloves and one to be based upon Sergeant Samuel J. Battle; an inspirational cop who was the first black police officer in New York City.

As a result I painted the hands of five of the models with a coat of “Vallejo” Heavy Skintone and then washed them with “Citadel” Ogryn Flesh before ‘picking out’ their fingers and any flat surfaces with more “Vallejo” Heavy Skintone. For the gloves I initially undercoated them with White, before washing them with watered-down Heavy Bluegrey. As with the bare hands the fingers and flat hand surfaces were then ‘highlighted’ with more of the base colour; this bearing White for the gloves. For Samuel Battle I used a combination of “Citadel” Dark Flesh”, Agrax Earthshade and then Dark Flesh highlights. All of the officers’ faces were painted in the same manner.

Any rifle butts, truncheons or brown leather pouches were painted using “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna and “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade. For the badges, belt buckles, pistols and rifle barrels I used Boltgun Metal and Nuln Oil. The last paint to be applied was a dollop of “Vallejo” Gold on all of the cops’ buttons. I was planning on then washing them with “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade but forgot to do and ended up varnishing a few of the models before I realised what I’d done. However, I think perhaps this was a moment of serendipity, as the ‘brass’ buttons really stand out as they are, and as a result I have purposely left them all alone.

The fire hydrant was painted using a combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Red” and the “Citadel” Shade Carroburg Crimson and will join the vintage call box as objective markers; why else would you have an emergency source of water or telephone in the middle of some grassland…

All but one of these miniatures was very simple to paint, and I especially liked the ‘running’ pose with the open face as this not only allowed you to customize the model with a different hand weapon; such as a truncheon, pistol, rifle or shotgun. But also provided some great facial detail to highlight. The beat cop with his hands clasped behind his back was another favourite, especially as it provided me with an opportunity to ‘try out’ my “Vallejo” White and watered-down Heavy Bluegrey combination for his gloves.

Unfortunately I did struggle awfully with the miniature I chose to be based upon Samuel Battle. The model’s cap appears to be at a slight angle with the figure’s head tilted in the opposite direction, as a result the eyeballs, which Bob prominently sculpts, just did not align themselves in my mind and I repeatedly kept having to paint them then scrap off the paint and start again. At one point I even tried to just get away with painting a single eye with the second being ‘over-shadowed’ by the cap peak.

Eventually I believe I have found a middle ground and painted both eyes in. But I must confess I am not happy with the way they have turned out. This is a shame as the model itself, sporting a wonderful sub-machinegun looks great. “Pulp Miniatures” do two more Police officer packets; Police Special Weapons and The Sixteenth Precinct. Once I have painted a few more of Bob’s miniatures up I certainly plan to get both in the New Year.

From Curt:Great work Simon! I've always been a great admirer of Bob's sculpts as they are both minimalist yet have such great character. I particularly like the black officer with the white gloves but I have to say my favourite is the fellow with his hands clasped behind his back. The bright brass buttons are perfect. Great work!