From Iain W - 28mm Napoleonic Austrian Infantry regiment no10 Anton Mittrowski and infantry regiment no15 Zach (245 Points)

These have taken a bit longer than I'd hoped, 48 28mm Perry plastic Austrians, although as you only get one command in a box and I like to field units of 24, I've supplemented them with 2 Victrix plastic figures converted into a flag bearer and the other into a drummer with surplus Victrix French drum arms and drum,the officer is a rather more heavily converted Perry plastic dismounted French dragoon with Victrix arms,he is alright but for the additional six boxes I'm going to use the Perry plastic Confederate command sprue as you get an officer in a long coat, a flag bearers arms and pole and a drum with arms ,perfect for £1.00!

I still haven't got the white right, the red faced regiment has had another process (a top highlight of white) whereas the green faced regiment I've only used white on the straps  and I kind of think that might work better with the off white uniform? I also was wondering if I should have primed them black like the casualty figures I've done,they're converted from British casualties that you get with Perry's French heavy cavalry and as I have no intention of doing British  (my nephew is and you've got to draw a line somewhere!) so hacked them about a bit, I think they're good enough. So 48 x 5 and 2 x 2.5 gives me 245 points to add to the total and be my first entry in the Napoleonics duel, two more posts like this should more or less get me to my total, better get on with it,I've been thinking about my approach to painting white and I might be onto something, let's hope so as I have literally hundreds of the blighters to do!

All the best 

Iain 

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Hi Iain - Napoleonic Austrians!! What a lovely sight!! These fellows look lovely, ready to march forward and keep that Corsican fool and his arriviste ambitions in check, where they belong! Very nice work on the conversions too! And as for painting the colour white, I am authorized by the Painting Challenge Gods to share a secret - NOBODY gets it right! It's always some kind of bodge, and I think BOTH approaches you have used here look excellent. I further encourage you to embrace that variety - after all, the Hapsburg Empire was a big place, and I doubt they ever managed a standard of white either. 

Well done!

 GregB

From RayR - Vogshere/Bureaucracy - The Clergy (65 points)

 

Vogsphere: Bureaucracy; Black Comedy

What the hell's Vogsphere were my first thoughts when reading the Bonus rounds this year, after a quick google search, I found out its the home world of the Vogons...

 

Not a clue? And I'm not inclined to find out anymore! Moving on to Bureaucracy, during last week's Covid, I had a Netflix rampage and watched all episodes of The Last Kingdom, one after the other, it took a few days, but I'm still here to tell the tale.

 

Watching the series, made me realise just how much influence the Clergy had over political decisions during this period of English history.

The definition of Bureaucracy is "a system of government in which most of the important decisions are taken by state officials rather than by elected representatives."

So these 9 figures fit the round perfectly. The figures were gifted to me by my old pal and old Challenge painter FranL. He sent these to me in the post a few years ago, so I thought it was high time I got them painted. They're from Conquest Games and sold as Benedictine Monks and Nuns.

Rear view

From left to right

Brother Martin, Brother Miles and Brother Paul

L to R

Father Curtis, Brother David and Brother Lee

L to R

Sister Natasha, Mother Tamsin, Sister Sarah

Bonus round 20pts

9 x 25mm figures @5pts

65pts

 

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Great work Ray! While of course we would be assured that such spiritual people are in no way bureaucrats, any short analysis will show that organized religion is indeed home to towering empires of bureaucracy! Nice to have these figures, they would make great accent pieces, or even targets/objectives, for a variety of different games in quite a number of different periods. Also nice to have a shout out from Fran! Well done. 

 

GregB

From RayR - Donnybrook - Polish Cossacks (120 points)

 

Back to my Vienna 1683 project for today's post. 

Last week I was banished to my painting shed because I had Covid for the third time!!!. Mrs R works from home so I wasn't allowed in the house, (well only to only to use the loo). I was in there from 6.30am till 10 at night. I watched a lot of Netflix and Amazon Prime while painting lots of figures, while still holding the fort for work as the boss was on holiday, beer doesn't sell on its own you know!

I did get quite a bit painted, some of it will appear here today.

These 12 figures are from Barry Hilton's most excellent Warfare Miniatures!

Gotta say these are really nice figures and were a pleasure to paint up.

There's a wide variety of poses, with separate arms and top half of the body, so you can change the style and pose of the figure.

I gave one figure a longer spear changing it to a standard bearer.

There's my favourite figure, leaning back and firing with his pistol, with his Papakha on sat a jaunty angle.

Rear shot.

A close up on the flag, which was from a free download.

12 x 25mm Cavalry @10 pts each

120 points!

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Hi Ray! Glad you have recovered from Covid for a third time, although I expect this won't be the last time you are banished to a shed...

I love this setting, and you have done fine work on some lovely figures here. So much character! The hats! The weapon assortment! So much going on with this lot! That will be a well-earned 120 points for you. 

GregB

From RustyP - Arrows Abound with 28mm Dark Age Archers - (250 points)

I may have been absent from posting but I haven't been absent from painting.  I skipped any space travels this time and went back to my roots.  Here we have 50 dark age archers that I really wanted to get painted and ready for game play.   We game a load of different genres and these will come in handy for fantasy, dark age and even some RPG's as well.  These are hot off the press.  I put my tufts on them and straight away to the photo shoot. lol

The guy in the fancy red shirt is trying to hide behind his bow.

Must be more than 20 here! -- 25 says I...

I'm running out of things to say... The ponytail guy looks grumpy

Pardon me but is that wet glue on your shoe?

Group B - all 25.

They're actually interrupting a Star Wars Legion game.

All together as one big happy thrall gang!

These figures are mainly Gripping Beast plastics with a few different heads mixed in.  A few are metal sculpts from Crusader minis.  Not my favorite figures to paint but I am happy that I completed them.  These will get put to use in many future games.  

As far as points go:

50 different 28mm foot figures @ 5 points per = 250 points

These were kinda rushed as far as I'm concerned.  I would have honestly spent more time on them but hey... they're ARCHERS!  This Challenge is doing me good and getting me to push a little faster than my normal turtle pace. 

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Hi Rusty - painting and pacing are a relative thing of course, but a sudden deposit of 50 different 28mm figures - even just archers - would count as a fairly hectic pace for any us, I expect. Well done on this lot, as they look set to fill the sky with arrows, and do so in a variety of settings. Very nice!

GregB

From BruceR: Lady Sarah's Star Yacht, ticket booked Arda to Klendathu, Bug attack on Klendathu, more Jersey Blues (106 points)

This week I'm buckling in for another outer orbit trip aboard Lady Sarahs Star Yacht.  Amazing the number of female models in the lead pile to allow travel on the Star Yacht.  Today my submission is a Target miniature from Warzone.  I've used the airbrush to give a flat coat to the armor and painted the rest with brush.  The figure is somewhat of a flat pose yet turned out okay using some different colors to try and get the model to pop.  Again, this figure will join my little band of StarGrave crew members.  Shotgun, carbine and blade with some light armor.  I again use some table junk to make the base so she will match the other crew members.

CPL Elizabeth Claire

 

While disembarking we find Klendathu overrun by arachnids.  These are plastic spiders I picked up at a during hobby shop travels and had intended to use them in Ranger of Shadow Deep.  Never played (too many games so little time) and when digging in the miniature pile the multitude of eyes begged to see paint.  The past weekend was not very productive, paint wise (too warm at 40 degree).  Did base coat a number of AWI figures and these little beauties.  The spiders are based on dungeon style cobbles made with millput and the light grey helps the brown to pop. 

I have included my "minigun exterminator" trying to fend off the little arachnid buggers.  He is also a Target games Warzone figure with base to match the crew.  One more to go for my crew of 8, and it happens to be female again, so will allow another ticket on the Star Yacht next week.

I also tried using a white color base for photographs, so see how this goes.  

Last are 7 more New Jersey Blues for my continental force.  I did highlight these a little differently and like the outcome.  Next week I hope to have Sauerkraut and Haggis as the main course for my AWI forces.  These, like last weeks submission, are Front Rank figures.  

That rounds out the submission for Wednesday.

Tally

Ride on the Star Yacht        20 pts

28mm Elizabeth Claire         5 pts

Klendathu                            20 pts

4 15mm spiders                   10 pts    

1 25mm spider                       5 pts

1 28mm Exterminator            5 pts

7 28mm New Jersey Blues   35 pts

Total                                    100 pts

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Hi Bruce - quite a lot going on here, much for folks to enjoy. Your tally is close, but there is a slight correction - the spiders are big suckers, worth 4 points each (essentially 15mm monster points), so that would make 16 points for them, bringing you to a 106 points, with 68 points of actual painting in there. Nice work. 

 

GregB 
 

From MattT - More Dark Age Warriors - (55 points)

I am continuing to plough through my pile of Dark Age warriors at a steady pace (which is a snails pace compared to some of the output seen on here) and I have another warband ready. This time mainly spearmen accompanied by some skirmishers.

Once again they are a mix of different manufactures, based for Impetus.

 11 x 28mm foot = 55pts

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Very nice work here Matt! Ah "Impetus", that mysterious game that simultaneously calls to me, then confuses so thoroughly three second after I start reading the rules that I despair. I really must try a game of it sometime, instead of trying to learn from the book...what size are those bases again?

Don't worry about the pace of your painting - after all, our only true opponents in this Challenge are our own piles of unpainted lead and plastic - progress against your own target is the progress that counts! Besides, it is lovely to have a nice, digestible sized submission to start the day!  That's fifty-five well-earned points for you!

GregB

From PaulSS: Gaslands 1968 Mustang (15 points)

 

I've been away visiting family for a few days this past week and really was not sure if I would be able to get anything painted for this weeks slot. Fortunately I had a Hot Wheels 1968 Ford Mustang that I could do a swift job on yesterday.

It's a basic Hot Wheels model with just the addition of a roof mounted machine-gun.

I was given a demo of Gaslands back at the end of October and really got caught up in it, especially enjoying the converting and painting of the cars, I've now got way more than I'll ever need done.

With what is currently WIP I should have some bigger entries next week.

A single 1/64 vehicle is probably worth the same points as a 20mm one so should add 15 points to my total.

American Civil War Duel Totalizer: 81 foot, 2 mounted, 4 horses (504pts)

Napoleonic Duel Totalizer: 8 foot, 2 mounted (100pts)

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Hello again Paul - what is more fun than classic cars? Why, classic cars with GUNS! That blue is very sporty, and so is that lovely MG! What a lovely beast. While the prospect of "bigger entries next week" by your standards is somewhat threatening to my brain, for now I will simply relax and allow my inner 10-year-old to enjoy this vehicle, and make "vroom! vroom!" sounds in my head on my next Zoom call. Not out loud of course. Probably.

GregB