From TeemuL: A Bridge and a flag (12 points)

First a bridge from Warbases, 15mm scale. A very simple, single arch bridge. Painted to look like grey stone. I added some Agrellan Badland to cover the joins and bring some texture, couple of tufts added as well. They are may be a bit too big, they make the bridge look smaller. I tried to create some track marks, but they didn't work out very well, at least they are hard to see. Some dark blue and green around the drum to hint about possibility of water, moist, moss etc.

Assault Gun painted in the previous challenge, just showing the scale

And then there is banner bearer for my Numenor army, I painted him at the same time as the previous two, but I run out of empty wine bottles and couldn't finish the flag until now. Nothing special here.

About scoring, the bridge is approximately 4"x2,5"x1" and my calculations say, it would be 5,5 points. That's a bit over I think, because I rounded the dimensions up.

The banner bearer is regular 25mm Games Workshop human for Lord of the Rings, so 5 points.
That is 10 points. But may be the terrain piece and the flag round the total all the way to the eleven. May be not. We will see. Anyway, I don't really need any more points, I have passed my target and I can't reach the next level anymore.

From Byron:

How about we round it up to a whole 12!  It is a nice last minute entry, and being a terrain maker am always a sucker for good looking terrain, especially since you spent some extra time and made it look like more than plain MDF.   The standard bearer and flag are also nice, but to me the bridge is the star here.

Great challenge this year Teemu, I hope you enjoyed yourself.

KenR : 28mm WW1 ANZAC Infantry (140 pts)

Quite literally it just all in a days work ! Amazing what a bit of focus will do.

I started these at 8am and just finished them now at 8pm, chuck in a bit of TV watching and walking the dogs that's not to shabby.

There are more 28mm WW1 figures from Woodbine Design Company and are the orignal figures released in the range. I needed these few figs to finish off a third battalion of these so the Challenge was ideal to get the enthusiasm up to finish them.

These figures are quite versatile, we have used them for ANZAC troops when we refought Gallipoli but they have also doubled as British Infantry in our Mesopotamia games and of course they would be good for dismounted Aussie Light Horse.

There are 24 Infantry and an MG base with the MG and 3 crew, the equivalent of 28 Figures at 5 pts a piece that's 140 points. Is it enough to keep me in the top ten ?

It's been a cracking Challenge again this year, it's been great to see everyones efforts as the 3 months has just flown by. Personally I made a big dint in my WW1 Mesopotamia collection "to do" pile, in fact I got all the figures I prepped done except some British Cavalry. I added to my WW2 Desert collection as well with some vehicles and finally there was the "must do" Spanish Civil War entry. I will do some end of Challenge photos tomorrow.

So that's all Folks. Thanks very much to everyone who has left kind comments on my entries over the last few months. Thanks to my Thursday Minion Jamie and of course to the Snowlord himself, Curt, who started off and continues this madness every year. A donation is on its way to a local animal charity.

Curt We Salute You !

See you all next year. Pop by my Yarkshire Gamer website now and again to say hello.

From Byron:

Not a bad way to spend the day at all! I like your painting on these as they look suitably rugged as the ANZACs should! The colours seem spot on to what I know of the period and I really like the rough scrub basing you are using, it looks splendid against the figures.  Excellent overall painting and appearance and a period that I don't think gets enough attention wargames wise.  

KentG French heavy cav and ww2 germans (200pts)

 Just a quick post before i race off to work

i have one more post to do and then thats me ladys and gents

its been a blast, these are a few of the winter Germans i picked up last week really enjoying the change from the French Naps

 And then we have these lads which i painted up with the dragoons over two days last week

really pleased with them always loved the look of these guys

From DaveD guest minion - People  I think Kent has 6000 points in sights - he still has more posts to come...

The Cuirassiers are a piece of work alright - always nice to see a decent sized regiment. The winter Germans look suitably frost bitten to me - altogether 200 points with a little minion bonus cause I really like the cavalry - your point total will update a little later..

From ByronM - Mechanicum and terrain ( 60 points )

First up, I have the last two 30k Mechanicum figures that I am getting done this challenge.  They are 2 more HQ models and are called Magos.

They have given most of their bodies over to the machine god and have very little humanity left.  Which is probably a good thing since the weapon on their side is a Rad Cleanser, which as the name suggests cleans away enemies with radiation.  Lovely, friendly guys, aren't they?

To get command points in 40k you need to fill certain slots in your command structure, so I needed to get to 3 HQ models and hence these guys being added, which allows me to move my auxilia Magos to his true elite spot.  This allows the army to get some additional spiff in game, and each Magos allows nearby robots to re-roll 1's on shooting, and can heal d3+1 wounds to any nearby robot each turn.  This is extremely powerful, especially given that the robots are the core of the army, and I don't get very many of them.

Oh, and for those that wanted a full army view, here you go.  So much for starting this project as a "It would be cool to have 2 or 3 robots to add into out 30k games", a few months later I now have a full other army!!!

Next up, a building I have been working on designing for a while to add to my Middle Eastern set of terrain.  As some of you likely know, I run www.northernlightsterrain.com and did a middle east set to play Spectre on. Some of you may have even seen them at Salute or other conventions as one of the key demo guys from Spectre (Ivan) picked up a full set and did some amazing mods and changes to them to make them look fantastic! One key piece I missed in my initial set was a mosque, and it has been requested a few times.

This piece is fairly large at roughly 10x8x4 and then the towers giving a very small area that is higher.  The roof comes off and it has a tiled interior.  This version has some tile roof sections from green stuff world that I thought would look good, however to me it almost looks like a Taco Bell now...  So, I have made 2 new fronts for it, with either a square door front section so that it looks like a Spanish / Mexican old west church, or a front with a big sign and windows so that you can make your own taco bell.

While the kit is straight plain MDF, as you can see with a little liquitex smeared onto it, and some plasticard tiles, you can add a lot of extra feel to it and it looks a lot less like flat MDF.

There are a few more small posts coming today, but nothing big, so I am pretty sure the top 3 are set for the challenge (unless someone lower than I am does a huge points bomb).  In fact I already sent Noel a message last night letting him know that I didn't have enough things going up today to beat his score and that he should not worry or kill himself in a last minute rush to ensure he stays in the top 3 due to my points.... After all, I never expected to get this much done, and never really worry about points anyway, it's all about getting stuff done.  I can't promise someone else doesn't try to pip him, but I won't be.

From DaveD Guest Minion - More fine work from you Byron - the full army view is awesome. That also looks a fine building and nicely different to others I have seen too - with the extra work its come up really well  - 60 points to add to your total which will be updated a bit later

From MartinC And So I Face the Final Curtain (636pts)

So this is it, the final post of Challenge VIII. It's been an odd one. I started with a new very time consuming job, a spectacular bout of the the actual flu and no real plan of what to paint. My lead pile was full of stuff I don't want to paint and my mojo was off. I've ploughed my way though it and am within 10% of last year's total, with these and completed my ACW collection started a couple of year's ago and painted a significant Russian Civil War force.

There have been some great highs. The Mr Lee figures I discovered are brilliant, sponsoring and participating in the challenge is good business, I've gotten into WW2 Flames of war with a British para force, still hate tanks, thanks to James. I'm really taken with 15mm and will paint some more - as good as 28mm and less annoying than 10mm. I need to find a period though.

Overall the standard of painting by this year's challengers has been the highest ever and the output from Kent, Noel, Byron and Miles, to mention just 4, has been earth shattering. How Kent paints Naps so well and so quickly and so brilliantly is terrifying. I thanks must go out to Sander for being a great minion, there is not maths with this entry - just trust me.
So how did I finish this show. Like this

For Christmas I got a Norman army, mix of Black Tree, Foundry, Conquest plastics and some 2nd hand ones

30 mail armoured spearmen

Some nice shield patterns

10 mail armoured axe men - less good shield painting

6 crossbow men

Command figures. I have 20 more mounted knights to paint but wasn't in horse mood

17 bowmne - don't you just love prime numbers

8 slingers

I started my Napoleonics, for the 1st time, with some Portuguese infantry. Obviously they needed some support so I painted up their most obvious allies - some Russian Cossacks. 

12 Cossacks - these are actually for a Napoleonic Persian excusion. Have a couple of infantry regiments to paint

My Flames of  War British Paras needed some transport. 

7 jeeps and 2 Universal Carriers (artillery HQ) I added lots of stowage

I'm always on the look out for a bargain and picked this up for a tenner

FT17 tank - VBCW

One of my main interests remains colonial and I've had this foundry piece for ages. It's a stunner

Litter carrying wounded Brit

Finally Miles and I were supposed to have a side duel - Cornwallis vs Washington but Miles only finished his yesterday so probably too late for a proper vote. Miles has a good excuse, he was reprrducing the Western Hemisphere in 28mm. I suggest that we leave it to curt and the Minions to decide whose is the best

Foundry Cornwallis figure. The Brits took so much baggage that the army was described more as picnic than an army. So I added a slave bringing drinks to the General

The final tale of the tape

80.5 x 28mm infantry = 402.5

14 x 28mm mtd = 140

9 x 15mm vehicles = 54

7 x vehicle crew = 7

1 x 28mm tank = 15

1 x 28mm litter = 10

 Total= 628.8 plus any shield and banner bonus

Thank you all

From DaveD guest minion - Another classic MartinC mixed combo post. Cracking stuff, the mass of spearman look the part , so a little top up of extra effort points gives you 636.

Well done on another fine challenge Martin - a final total of 3844 - your points total will show a bit a later

 

KenR : 28mm WW2 A9 Cruiser Tanks and some Trucks (70 pts)

It's the final day of the Challenge ! Here is what I hope to be the first of two entries today. A set of 4 28mm vehicles for my Desert collection.

There are few advantages to working shifts but having days off in the middle of the week especially on the final day of a painting challenge and having a body clock who thinks 5am is midday has got these models finished, it's not often you are waiting for the sun to rise so you can take some photos.

So first up are 2 A9 Cruiser Tanks from Warlord Games, these are the only 28mm versions I could find of this vehicle so they are missing the sand shields on the tracks but otherwise they are great models.

I have used the Caunter Camouflage Scheme on these tanks having another go with the AK Interactive Paints I used earlier in the Challenge on the Rolls Royce Armoured Cars, this time darkening the Slate colour with a touch of Olive Drab, a much better look. I have done a small amount of chipping and some washes for weathering.

It was common at the start of the Desert Campaign for armour to have tank names on the rear of the turret, the top vehicle show the real "Arnold" the bottom one my version and his bessie mate 'Arry.

Also in this entry are two trucks, an Austin K5 (left) and a CMP on the right. I have just gone for a straight desert sand colour on these, again with a spot of weathering and some sand effect.

The models come with removable canvas tops. I bought them from a Company called Anyscale Models who do a growing number of WW2 vehicles. The great thing about them is price, about half that of other 28mm manufacturers.

Yarkshire folk are notoriously tight with their brass and I have always been reluctant to spend 20 quid on a truck when I can buy a tank for the same price !

Points wise it's 4 x 15 for the 28mm vehicles (60) and 3 half 28mm figures at 2.5 points each so with a cheeky half point round up I make it 68 points.

With the day off and some half done ANZAC troops there should be more to come.

From DaveD Its guest minion time again - lovely work Ken , I have really enjoyed following your project - so a couple extra minion points cause I really like the cruiser tanks and extra work on camo
your points total will show up a bit later when another minion posts that bit for me (be assured they have been added to spreadsheet o doom)

From RobH; Heros of the Soviet Union II (145 Points)

I picked up a box of the Plastic Soldier Company's WW2 Soviet Infantry (1942) summer uniform, on sale at the marketplace at CanGames. I wanted to see how the plastics compared to lead figures. I was please by the ease with which they were assembled, but I didn't like their weight. I think it was one of the things that influenced the use of a 30 mm base. I also found that the wash technique I use doesn't provide the same depth, especially to the facial features that it does on metal figures. 

There are 29 figures done. I thought I had 30 but it appears one went AWOL. One of the figures is metal. See if you can guess which one? With any luck I'll finish a terrain piece before tomorrow evening deadline.

From Byron:

Great looking figures Rob, and if you don't work with plastic often, Plastic Soldier Company is a good starting point.  They are both cheap and relatively nice for the price (depending on which set, some of the old ones are not great, but the new ones are really nice).  The detail is also softer on most plastics since they have to worry more about undercuts when working with the metal injection molds required compared to silicone molds for metals.  You just have to paint them slightly differently than metal figures.  As for weight, yeah it takes a while to get used to, but one HUGE benefit is that if they get bumped or dropped they normally don't break, and you can say goodbye to chipping!  That is the biggest thing that makes me far prefer plastic over metal, all my metal figs end up chipping no matter how careful I am.

Anyway, enough babble.... I think these look really good, so I wouldn't change anything too much. If you're worried about the faces, just give them a dark wash and then pick out the highlights again.   I look forward to your terrain piece coming up before the end of the challenge.

From MikeD: A Few Last Greeks (65 Points)

Leaving it late, but it looks like I'll hit my goal. First up I've got eight Warlord Greek Slingers, painted in 50 Shades of Brown:

Just the sort of figures you want to see in your pile when you're trying to make a deadline.

And for those who prefer red, I've got these Foundry Hoplite characters:

I made excellent progress on my old Greek Bin this challenge. I've got about 1 pack of Hoplites, a pack of Spartan cavalry, and a few packs of Macedonian pike left to do. But the important thing to me is that with these 13 figures I make my last 65 points, to bring me spot on my pledge goal. 

Thanks a million to all the other challengers, Curt, and especially my Saturday minion Michael A

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Mike, between you and Byron I really loved seeing all these ancient Greeks getting done up.  I had to laugh about your '50 Shades of Brown' slingers strategically placed to cover for your last entry. A brilliant bit of planning there - I should remember that. As I've mentioned before, I have a real soft spot for the work Steve Saleh's did for Wargames Foundry and you've really brought them to live with these Spartan commanders. 

These fellows will indeed give you enough to hit your target nicely. Well done sir! I hope to see you in the head of the phalanx next time we push off.
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