From Barks- WW1 French big post (230 points)

These 15mm French were one of my key goals for this challenge, and I've knuckled down over the past few weeks to get them done. They're from PSC's  Commands and Colors: Great War game, and are in soft plastic. I was heavily influenced by James White's painting technique. The bases are Vallejo Dark Earth paste drybrushed with VJ US Tan Earth.

First, les Poilus: 52 riflemen.

Squad specialists: Elites, marksmen, grenadiers, and Chauchat LMGs.

An ammunition handler and engineer.

Hotchkiss MG teams. I resculpted the front tripod legs using green stuff and 1mm plastic rod as the original figure just had a flat triangle.

Crapouillot ("little toad") 58mm trench mortar teams.

Flamethrower! The first time I have tried this technique. I soaked some clump foliage in black paint and PVA, then drybrushed it white/ yellow/ orange/ red. It is affixed to the base with a small nail and has a styrene rod running through it. I'm really happy with the outcome.

Officers. The binoculars have two spots of gloss white.

Staff Officer- this is a metal figure from PSC's original Kickstarter. I based it on General Foch, and I think it came out OK for 15mm!

But that's not all! I picked up some tanks from PSC (Schneider CA1 and a Saint Chamond) and Battlefront (two Schneider CA1s). I made up the camouflage scheme, and am really happy with it. The PSC tanks had no machine guns, so I drilled out holes and added 1mm plastic rods.

Saint Chamond

I've got one PSC Schneider CA1, and two from Battlefront. The PSC one is diecast pre-assembled, and the Battlefront ones are resin hull with metal MGs and tracks. They are very similarly proportioned, but the Battlefront ones have more pronounced rivets and deeper detail on the front grill. They were harder to assemble. I added the front posts from H-column strip styrene on all the Schneiders.

Schneider CA1s. PSC on the left, Battlefront centre and right.

They'd be perfect for WW1 What A Tanker!, but are in an unacceptable scale... 😔

Finally, the hex tile groundwork is a 3D printing project I've commenced to make a full battlefield with 'proper' trenches. I won't score it yet, but maybe later this Challenge...

On ne passe pas!

94 Infantry 188
4 vehicles 32

From guest grognard minion DaveD

Oh my... now thats a sight to behold a proper points bombe! Cracking work Barks , lovely blue on this smaller scale to make it stand out. There so much to like here and I am not sure which is my favourite - Foch , flame-throwers or tanks .. hmmm ... I think its the flamethrower.. extra 10 minion points for the tank camo , and a brilliant job on the flamethrower. 

From:PaulS: Selected Works, Part 2 (202 points)

Back before Christmas I took the dive and subscribed to the 40k magazine, Conquest, as it seemed like a good way of trying to get back into 40k with regular deliveries of hobby fun. I was interested to see how the painting guides worked over time and what they felt was a good intro to the rules and background. So far, I'm actually really impressed with it as an intro system for kids. Back when I first started we had Heroquest as a gateway drug, with extra adventures in White Dwarf... About 30 years later and I'm still throwing money at GW...

Years ago I had a Red Scorpion force made up of all the Forgeworld kits, which was hellish expensive and was sold not too long after completion for various reasons of disinterest. I always liked the colours, even if they are slightly puritanical when it comes to genetics. When it came to selecting a colour scheme I reverted back to what I knew.

The figures were all finished weeks ago, but the rubber and resin to cast the bases didn't turn up until last Monday waiting for all these lovingly crafted bases to be immortalised

Casting these turned into a series of disasters. First half the rubber didn't set properly... then some of the resin didn't set properly (probably due to bits of non-set rubber being present?). Demoulding then destroyed half the bases as well... things were nearly thrown. In the end I got enough bases out of it so disaster was averted... but some of my favourite bases were lost :(

Aaaaaanyway, onto the show and tell!

Primaris captain in Gravis armour from the starter set. Another should be along at some point from Conquest, so I can play around with poses and equipment later.

10 Primaris with Bolters of varying designs. a number of these are the easy builds that came with conquest. Issue one was 3 of these, plus a brush and 2 pots of paint for £2. It would have been rude not to buy extra copies to bulk out the force. You'll notice that throughout the force, all of the baseline infantry have their heads covered. Bare heads with power armour just seems like a dumb idea to me, so one in three of those figures are still on the sprues as their helmet is stuck on their leg.

For a bit of fast attack we have 4 of the easy build Inceptors. Two more of these should turn up throughout the course of the Conquest series, eventually giving me two squads of these guys.  The OSL on these was done with some light dry brushing of the blues and was surprisingly effective.

Recently the series added a squad of easy build aggressors to the army. These I really like as they still seem to be able to move in their chunky armour, unlike most of the old plastic Terminators (not counting the relatively recent Space Hulk ones)

5 Hellblasters will add a bit of punch to the force. Again, the OSL was all dry brushed on. 

 5 Reavers ready to sneak up and murderize any Chaos that turn up. These were from the Kill Team box as the ones that came with Conquest were easy-builds with pistols and knives. This will give me some extra bits and pieces to stick on the duplicate set of easybuild reavers when they turn up, stopping them all looking the same.

I know I said no bare heads, but the Lieutenant is my one exception to this as I really like the model. I know a lot of people still moan about the Primaris, but to me they look how a Space Marine should look; towering over the regular humans and able to move freely, rather than constantly in a squatting pose that makes some of them shorter than a Cadian infantryman. 

I had a Contemptor dreadnought kicking around from the Horus Heresy board games, so I decided to add him to the lineup as well. As this was the plastic Contemptor, the pose was a bit naff, so a bit of hacking later and he is now striding forward and twisting at the waist to look a little bit more dynamic than the very static pose they decided to go for.

*phew*

That is the end of the Space marines, so here is a crowd shot of them all together

This, combined with the initial test batch that were completed before the challenge started, I've for a reasonable size force made up of things just from the starter set, Conquest, one Kill Team kit and two characters. Not bad. Not bad at all! The plan is to try and keep on top of the monthly deliveries and paint the 4 issues worth of stuff before the next batch arrives. The marines are caught up, except for the three characters who were on the painting table as the challenge started. Must finish them soon...

Oh, those bases I was having problems with? Messing around with the rust effect has been great fun and has taught me even more about the Modelmates stuff. If you brush it on very lightly and scrub it around a bit, you can get some really nice burnt effects, rather than rust. I need to try a wash of blue underneath this to see if it looks like scorched metal

After all that, I also managed to complete 7 doorways for Warhammer Quest that I undercoated about 3 years ago!

In summary, we have:
- 7 doorways at just under 1 box, so probably about 15 points?
- 29 figures at 5 points each for 145 points
- 1 dreadnought. Not sure if this counts as a vehicle or what?

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Great post, Paul!

Your Primaris marines look fabulous. I'm really taken with the dark grey and yellow livery you've come up with, especially the striping on their helmets. Personally I find the whole Primaris fluff to be ridiculous, but I do like how these Space Marine models actually resemble what a 'normal' Marine should look like next to regular humans. I wish they had just adjusted the scale and called it a day instead of cooking up this stooopid storyline (and with that hopped-up, armoured accountant, Roboute Guilliman behind it, the whole thing becomes immediately suspect). Whatever, the models are still cool.

Even though you had some hard sledding with your base project I must say they look pretty darn nice to me. I really like the weathering effects you achieved with that Modelmates stuff. Notes being jotted down...

Digging through the Challenge archives I found that we traditionally give 15 points for Dreadnoughts, so all together (with and extra point each for the infuriatingly bespoke bases) this gives you 202 points. Quite a tidy bomb there actually. Well done Paul!

From PaulO'G: Orc Legionaries and Goblin Sagittarii (120 points)

After the very positive comments about my Romanised Orcs and Goblin Auxiliaries submission a few weeks ago, I decided to advance the timetable for this army and produce two new units.

First up is the mainstay of the Army - the Orc Legionaries, deployed here in a double line wall of spears type of formation. I have done them on two bases so I can denote when the formation to gets to half strength (which halves your attack dice in Dragon Rampant).  Figs are Oathmark Goblins fitted with Warlord Roman Shields.

Second is a Goblin Sagittarii unit to support the main Orc foot troops.  To be honest I haven't found Bow units to be very effective in Dragon Rampant but this is how Roman Legio were tyoically built so I am following keeping the faith.  Figs are GW LOTR Moria Goblins.

In total that is 24 x 28mm figures ready and arrayed for battle Prefect!

The Army thus far:

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Ahh, excellent! More Orc goodness from this wonderfully whacky project. 

I really like the stark contrast in colours used in this force. The puchy red juxtaposed to the olive skintones and all set against the subdued snowy grey groundwork - a great looking recipe. The two ranks of spear really fit together nicely, giving the look of a unifified mass, wheras the archers look more like a organic mob. 

So, if the Orcs are the (civilised) Romans then I'd hate to see what you have planned for the barbarians! :)

A well-earned 120 points Paul!

Our Weekend Warriors

Happy Saturday Everyone!

We have a full roster of submissions today so sit back and enjoy the show.

Oh, and as a quick reminder, if you haven't done so already please take some time to vote for your favourite entires from the 'Reconnaissance' theme round. The voting poll will be shut down at midnight tonight so make sure your votes are in!

The voting results will be announced tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!

Curt

From MattK: An Eclectic Mix - What a Tanker! (90 Points)

This third entry from me is a pretty grab bag of stuff. You may notice the photos are in a variety of locations this week. I scrambled to get everything ready for this weeks entry so it was a little fly by night. Let's dive right in.

First up is the second to last batch of Blood and Plunder Natives.

All that's left in this force is the commander and when I post him next week I'll show off the whole batch. These have been a nice grounding for me while I experimented on some crazier stuff. Stuff like...
A mangler squig (spoiled by the above photo)

This is one of the old finecast ones I plucked out of the used bin at a (now no longer in business) Local game store. I've been sitting on it long enough that theres a new plastic one coming but I figured with the new release, this was as good a time as any.
Speaking of local things, Tomorrow (Saturday) I'll be running a huge game of What A Tanker with a bit of a twist. Instead of your standard 28mm vehicles, we're using kits from Meng Model's Toon Tanks Range. My contribution to the project was a Sherman and a Pershing for a fictitious "Wreck at Remagen" game.

Pictured for scale next to a Warlord Games 28mm German (painted previously by someone else)

So there you have this weeks entries. Once this local show is out of the way, in theory my schedule clears up and I'll begin working in earnest on the epic 40k stuff.

I almost titled this weeks entry "I have no concept of how many points I painted" because I'm really not sure what this stuff is worth.
20 Points for the Natives + whatever you think the others are worth

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Cardinal Fang, *Amongst* our weapons . . . Amongst our weaponry . . . are such elements  . . . I'll come in again.

Now, what what? Those Toon Tanks are right cute, almost a Looney Tunes vibe. Very nice olive drab paint on them. Based on their size, and photos showing the tracks coming about waist height on a man, I adjudicated them as 54mm vehicles. So mote it be, Biggles! Record it in the Holy Spreadsheet. And the Squig, in a vibrant, snazzy red. Might do as underlings . . . .

Now,  you are accused of heresy on three counts -- heresy by thought, heresy by word, heresy by deed, and heresy by action -- *four* counts. Do you confess?

Ha! Then we'll make you understand! Biggles! Fetch...NINETY POINTS!

From AdamC: Crusader Infantry and the Crocodile man (67 Points)

 Another 12 infantry men for Saga and Lion Rampant.  These are more from the Sargent's Box from Fire Forge miniatures.  Its a great box of miniatures, easy to assemble int a variety of dynamic poses.

For Lion Rampant I would designate these as unit of Foot Sargents with the "Expert" upgrade.(I actually think the Dragon Rampant term "Offencive" hits nearer the mark) They are infantry that is intended to close with the enemy rather than fellows who form a fortress of spear points to defend other troops.  This gets me another 6 points for the Rampant Duel.

 The box has a variety of shields and three weapon choices, sword, axe, and mace/morning-star.

 I wish they gave you some belt pouches, molded some daggers in the belts... seriously everyone in this period would have carried a knife of some kind in their belt.

 I gave one fellow a hammer left over from one of my Frostgrave collections (probably the barbarians)

I wish there had be more weapon options, the box has one, type of sword, two types of axe and one type of mace. there should be more variation.  At least they provide lot of helmet and shield options.

 even so I decided to add some round shield to the mix because the more variation the better for armies an period before standardisation of equipment became common.

Sticking with my Kingdom of Heaven inspired livery for "uniforms"

 Another great miniature form Reaper the "Werecrocodile"  he's a great looking miniature and should make a nice addition to some Dragon Rampant army.

 I loved playing with the greens and blacks to try and create the look that he had emerged form the river and was wet with sunlight playing off his scales.

 I believe that the underside of real Crocodiles are whitish but I went with yellow green.  The belly button is a nice touch... and a feature a real crocodile would not have.

I wanted to suggest this follow was standing on bit of earth sticking out of a river or other body of water.

Points the the 12 infantry are 60 Points
In past years Bones Were Creatures have been scored at 7 points because of their size so I will assume this is the case again but leave it up to the judge for a final decision.

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Ah, yes, the red and yellow of Spain, which we honor with our most powerful weapon, nice red uniforms. Which nobody expects. In fact, those who do expect . . . Now, how do you plead?

The yellow-green is a very nice touch on the werecroc, and the mix of yellow-green and blue-green used for his scales is a quite good. I like how you feathered it in. Very nice touch there.

Sixty-seven points. Ha! Right! Cardinal, give the rack a turn.