From SimonM - The Tomb Of The Cybermen (45 Points)

All of these 28mm metal models are based upon the Cybermen from the British Science Fiction television series “Doctor Who”; more specifically from the four-part serial "The Tomb Of The Cybermen", which opened Season Five back in September 1967 when Patrick Troughton was the (second) Doctor. They're made by “Black Tree Design” and "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio".

These eight Cybermen miniatures are all code DW207 Tomb Cyberman by "Black Tree Design". Whovian officionardos though will naturally recognise it as the Mark II Cyberman, which first appeared in the 1967 adventure “The Moonbase”. However it is far more widely recognised as the Timelord’s foe from the aforementioned story “Tomb Of The Cybermen”, which was broadcast later that year.

I must confess to this figure being one of my all-time favourites, despite its rather static pose, but some of the features on the sculpt are a little soft. All of the Cybermen were first undercoated with “Citadel” Abaddon Black and then given a layer of Boltgun Metal. Once dry each was washed with the Shade Nuln Oil. The models were then dry-brushed with more Boltgun Metal before receiving a light dry-brush of Mithril Silver. Finally, as these were really 'Moonbase' Cybermen, I picked out their chest and shoulder piping with Abaddon Black and washed around these areas with more Nuln Oil to blend them in.

This Cyber Controller figure is code DW217 by "Black Tree Design". The model does suffer from being slightly smaller in size than his fellow cybermen. Something which is greatly at variance with his television presence as the Cybermen's leader should be somewhat taller than his silver minions. But there’s a nice lot of detail on him to be brought out through dry-brushing. In fact too much detail, as the Cyber Controller does not actually have a chest device in "The Tomb Of The Cybermen".

The model was painted in exactly the same way as the Cybermen, except his (slightly skewed) command dome was finished off with a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Red and "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson.

These Cybermats are all the Robo Rodent model by "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio". I've previously painted five of the small 28mm models before, but felt an additional five would allow me to 'table' a serious cyber-swarm of them. The models were also painted the same way as my Cybermen, with the exception of their eyes. As I wanted these models to mix with my previous Cybermats, I painted all of their eyes first with "Vallejo" White and then dabbed a spot of "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson" in each pupil. This had the effect of giving the robo rodents nice deep pink eyes which lighten as less Shade billows out to the area's edge.

 Finally there's the 160mm tall Cyber- +++ Delete Delete +++ But you'll have to go over to the Victorian Themed Bonus Round to see all about that.

From TeemuL - Empire Militia (15 Points)

No Bonus Theme round entry for me this time, so let's make a third regular entry for this week. It was a long day and lots of small gaps of free time, so I was able to finish these three today, too. They are Empire Militia from Games Workshop. The first picture is bit dark, sun has set and it's snowing again, but I managed to fix my old camera last week with the help from Google.

So, why I painted this lot? While I was painting the last goblins and the ogre, I realized, I was running out of primed figures. I decided to take a shortcut and paint these three, because the previous owner had primed them white. Rest 20 or so primed black and some are already painted and some are not assembled yet. Well, while I was fixing the spray job, I realized that the mold lines where still there... So I needed to clean them and then paint white again. What a shortcut. As I said, these were already assembled and I must say that the fellow holding the sword close to his chest was quite painful to paint... I don't think I'll be taking more shortcuts very soon.

I have couple of these fellows already and they are painted red and white like in the box, so I gave these guys a similar treatment. The straps are not as neat as I hoped for, but these are rank-and-file and easily killed... I wonder why these guys have identical legs, when the box has possibilities for four? Why did he paint these pants white and others black? One of the mysteries, I will never solve.

These are not my best paint jobs, but I still painted the eyes and the fellow in the middle of the last picture has mustache and all. That's something I learned from this challenge, mustache can't be ignored. Even though the eyes have little lunatic look on them, they are not that bad - I have painted worse. Little craziness fits these irregular troops.

Those old diagonally based warriors might be hard to rank nicely, but think about these guys. You can assemble them in million different ways and glue the legs where ever on the base you want. This means, that location on the unit must be known while assembling and then kept same for the rest of the one's life. Very easy, when you buy already assembled figures and try to insert them into your existing unit...

Three 28mm figures give me another 15 points and my point total for this week is higher than for last week!

The Third Theme Round: 'Victorian' is Now Up!

The third theme round, ‘Victorian’, is now upfor your viewing pleasure. For his fortnight’s theme we have 33 entries ranging from Victorian Steampunk to steely-eyed, cleft-chinned heroes of the Empire. 

For myself, I’ve submitted on of my favourite Victorian antiheroes: The Artful Dodger.  

With that and before you leave to look at the theme gallery,  I’ll leave you with an irrepressible song from the film 'Oliver!' that can’t help but leave you smiling, tapping your foot and feeling for your wallet.

From TeemuL - More Old Skool Goblins (20 Points)

Four more goblin arrers, again with similar paintjob and with unique hats/hoods. That's seven in total and I still have two more, which I just bought, but even nine is maybe too little for a valid unit. Like Curt noted in the previous post, they are not aiming at the enemy, they are diagonally based. But that just means that they are taking care of the wind.

Bright yellow one looks quite good, the yellow triangles over black trim on red hood is quite striking as well.

And then the two with check patterns, I don't think I can get more classic than that, can I? I never managed to get them right in the 1980s and decided to give a try now. The red hood was first one, it was not so good, but I got it better second time on the black hood. It is not perfect by any means, but looks good at least from certain angle.

Four 28mm models gives me another 20 points. Like I said, I still have two unpainted more, I'll try to paint them during this challenge, but I need to paint something else for a while.

From Curt:

They're taking account for the wind? Riiight, of course... :)

Teemu, this project of your gets better and better! I love the black and white cheque pattern - can't get more late 80s than that! Wonderful.

From SteH - The Hobby Butterfly Strikes Back! (150 points)

The holiday period always seems to push something to the backburner and in my case it was blogging. Luckily my very understanding other half has hobbies of her own so I do get the opportunity to paint once the kids are in bed (whilst she explores the wonderful world of crochet, cross stitch, painting or cake decorating!). Anyway this entry is a bit of a cornucopia of submissions, I am definitely in the hobby butterfly camp and do not expect to change for the duration. And so here are my random submissions completed through the festive celebrations:

Lord of the Rings – 8x Orcs
Some more of my budget second hand Orc’s, these are the ones that required repairs, mainly on weapons and such. Very simple paint scheme’s and my usual Vallejo sepia wash to give them a suitably grubby look. I think I’ve only got another 15 to go now!







Lord of the Rings – 6x Warg Riders
If I was more organised these would have made it into the Rider and Mount bonus round however I was too busy stuffing my face with the aforementioned cake decorating output. Much like the Orcs above these little devils were second hand and required a little repair prior to base coating and repainting. They’re painted in the same style as above although for some insane reason I used an old GW Black Ink on the Wargs which has given them a bit of shiny look (obviously they’ve recently been playing in a pond, like all happy doggies do!). I’ll see if it dies down once I get my dull coat spray. I have to say I’m not a big fan of these models, maybe it’s just that I haven’t found a colour scheme/style that I like




5x PSC 15mm M4A1 Shermans
They’ve been in the painting queue for some time and deserved a little attention. I really like Will’s stuff (apart from the weird German infantry, which he has now redone) and have quite a large stash of tanks in 15mm to get completed. And so here we have five M4A1, two with 75mm guns and three with the rather excellent 76mm gun. Now where did I put those good WW2 rules?





Naismith Sung Chinese 15mm

This is a weird one, I’ve had these sitting about for ages and suddenly got the urge to paint them just after Christmas day. So while my kids tried to destroy their wooden train track I set to painting them up with no other plan than to enjoy myself. What came out of it is a vague plan to collect an Empire of Tsuranuanni army, these figures being part of the Minwanabi force! I’m not sure whether I’ll actually do it however I did enjoy painting them and they’ve turned out pretty well so we’ll see. I’ve just got to figure out what to use for the Kingdom forces and the Cho-Ja? Anyone know any good 15mm Ant models?

So after all that I reckon this little lot is worth 148pts (ish). Not quite the points bomb that others manage to achieve but a tidy little effort nonetheless. However I shall let the ultimate arbiter (Curt) decide the final tally!

From Curt:

Wow, that is a wonderful spread of genres, periods and scales Ste! All of these miniatures look great - Lord of the Rings goodness, wonderfully weather-beaten Shermans, but I think I have to say the Sung Chinese are my favourites. I always find their whacky artillery to be fascinating and I like the ad-hoc reinforcing around the canon (I think they may want to be further away when this thing goes off...). Wonderful stuff.

Great Job Ste!

From SimonM - "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" - Federated Security Guard Commander and Squad (25 Points)

This Federated Security Guard Commander with Balaclava is by "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" and is from their excellent Federated Security Starter Set. Like the rest of their models in this (video-like) boxed set he's a ‘dead-ringer’ for the despicable black jump-suit wearing minions of the Terran Federation from the BBC science fiction television series “Blake’s Seven”. The figure was initially given a double undercoat of “Citadel” Abaddon Black before being rather roughly dry-brushed with “Vallejo” Heavy Charcoal. In my opinion this is an excellent paint to use when highlighting black, though I do find it still needs a few washes of “Citadel” Shade Nuln Oil just to tone down its contrast a little. Once dry I picked out his belt buckle and key chains with Mithril Silver and his Federation carbine rifle with Boltgun Metal. All of these areas were then washed with more Nuln oil.

In addition to my commander I also painted up four more Security Guards. Originally I had swapped two of the models' heads with those from a Balaclava head sprue "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" also sell, as I'd hope to create a couple of non-commissioned officers. But I found the heads to be slightly too large for my liking and as a result they seemed to actually make the miniatures marginally taller than those wearing the helmets; something which irked me to the point where I swapped the heads back.

A previous posting of mine explains how I painted the Security Guards, which can be found here: http://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/from-simonm-crooked-dice-game-design.html

From Curt:

Great work Simon! They look to be a suitably nefarious and oily crowd to be sure, and a great addition to your existing Federated Security force. I really like the leader with his evil, evil moustache. As they say, 'Guns don't kill people. People with moustache kill people...'

So, Simon, how many points do you have logged for our 'Pulp Duel' right now? I have a sense I need to step on the gas a bit... ;)

From TeemuL - Blood Bowl Ogre (7 Points)

I don't think I have seen any Blood Bowl figures in the challenge yet. Well, this is not an official Blood Bowl figure either, but it will count as Ogre in my human team. Originally he is a Grenadier War Troll from 1988 without weapons. You can take a look at his friends here: Link to eBay

It took me while find out who he is, he was part of huge pile of lead and plastic I bought over a year ago (most of the classic orcs and goblins are from that same pile, too) and has only "Grenadier 1987" on his base. I was looking for a proper stand-in for ogre for my team and happened to find him there. Looks ogre enough for me. Looks Blood Bowl enough for me. I like looks of his eyes.

My team colors are white and blue, just like the colors of Reikland Reavers in the 3rd edition starter, which I copied to my own team. Hence he is wearing a blue loincloth and whitish rags around his arms. He also liked the yellow plumes of the blitzers and decided to dye his hair in the same style.

I was thinking about to sculpt him a little badge, to write his number, but then I decided not to mess around with this old and beautiful figure. Human teams allow only one ogre, so it should not be impossible to separate him from this team mates. I just put him on a base (30mm washer) to give him a proper base and better balance.

At the moment he is not actually part of the team yet, because there's not enough gold coins in the treasure. But as soon as the next season starts and I get the first income from the gate, he will join the team. That's why his team mates have not named him yet, he is only known as the number six. Is he a man or free, that's another story.

Here he is posing with future team members. Blends in quite nicely, I'd say. Shows also little of his size.

I think that there were no 28mm miniatures in the 1987, so he is most likely a 25mm guy. There's no monster category in the rules either so I leave it to Curt... 5 points at least?

From Curt:

Okay, I'm going to age myself here, but does anyone else out there think that this guy looks like Sweetums from The Muppets? Or is it Mickey Rourke from 'The Wrestler'...? Then again his facial expression also reminds me of Stalone yelling out, 'Adrian!' in 'Rocky'.

Whatever the cultural reference, he's a wonderful figure, Teemu, a real classic from the 80s. You did a great job on his flesh tone and I really like how you painted his dirty boxing wraps. Nice work!

From TamsinP - The Four Musketeers (150 Points)

No, not these guys...

Or these...

***hands Anne a fan***

Or even these...

***sets Anne's air con to full blast***

And sadly not even these:

*Just replaced the original vid with this one!

(showing my age)

No, for my ninth entry, I present you with a bit of a points bomb in the form of the last four musketeer regiments for my (initial) Seven Years War Russian army. It was a stretch to get all four done by this week, but I was spurred on by:

a) Curt's challenge to get them all done for this week; and

b) the desire to regain my lead over Alan and Ian

I wasn't sure that I'd manage it, but I have done so and put myself over half-way to my target in just over 5 weeks. I would consider slowing down, but I've still got my side-bet with Alan to win, and he has the advantage of bonus points from the theme rounds (which I'm skipping this year)...

As before, all figures are 15mm from Essex Miniatures and the flags have been hand-painted after the impressionist school.

Arkhangelovskiy Regiment

This regiment fought at Gross-Jagersdorf, Paltzig and Kunersdorf.


Astrakhanskiy Regiment

This regiment fought at Paltzig


Chernigovskiy Regiment

This regiment fought at Gross-Jagersdorf, Zorndorf, Paltzig and Kunersdorf and took part in the siege of Colsberg.


Novgoridskiy Regiment

This regiment fought at Gross-Jagersdorf, Zorndorf, Paltzig and Kunersdorf and took part in the siege of Colsberg.


The Flags

Now that I've finished painting all of my starter army, I thought it would be good to show some pics of all the regiments assembled.


The Whole Army:

The Cavalry and Artillery (as seen previously):

Slobodskiy Hussars; 3rd Cuirassiers (f); Sankt-Petersburgskiy Horse Grenadiers (r); Kievskiy Cuirassiers (f); Tverskiy Dragoons (r); Zelity Hussars

The Infantry:

Chernigovskiy; Novgorodskiy; Apsheronskiy; 1st Grenadiers; 2nd Grenadiers; 2nd Moscowskiy; Astrakshanskiy; Arkhangelovskiy

They will be getting their debut run-out on the 22nd in my first game of King of the Battlefield. I'm hoping my opponent will be so dazzled by and admiring of the paintwork, that he will not want to attack them in case they disappear off the table!



From Curt:

Haha! I just KNEW that if I baited you to complete these units for weekend you'd rise to the challenge. You m'dear, are one competitive paint jockey - well done Tamsin! 

These regiments are wonderful additions to your existing force, and again, your work on conveying the essential elements of these otherwise complex banners is excellent. 

I'm giving you a couple extra points for the effort and for getting this starting force completed. Again, a great effort and a wonderful army for your match on the 22nd. Best of luck Tamsin!