TomL, Ambitious Lovers. 75 points

This week we move along in Paradise.  First we visit the second circle where the Ambitious reside. Here we meet Team Chase from Pulp Figures, otherwise known as that keen as fresh mustard, an overachiever's overachiever: Johnny Quest

“Join brave and brainy 11-year-old Jonny Quest as he travels the world with his scientist father Dr. Benton Quest, his adoptive Indian brother Hadji, his bodyguard Race, and his faithful dog Bandit. ”

Bandit's face was unexpectedly quite the personal challenge.  Next we visit the Third Sphere: The Lovers.  Together through trials and setbacks, plane crashes and uncertainty - A fisherman & his wife.

 These figures were from Akula’s “Apocalypse Isle Miniatures”.  As I recall they were part of his “Lost” or apocalyptic line he commissioned for his own collection.  I picked these up with his other civilian figures (painted last AHPC). Everything was painted with a mix of ProAcrylic, Two Thin Coats & Foundry acrylics. Picture background is from Jon Hodgson's backdrop painting books.

Points: 75

Ambitious & Lovers: 40 points

7 x 5 point 28mm figures: 35 points.

Will definitely return to the ACW painting for next week.

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Johnny Quest? looks like some Johnny come lately version of Tintin! - he even has Snowy in tow! No Captain Haddock though sadly - all quality adventurers know at least one dodgy sea captain (don't they Alan and John...). Seriously though, what great characterful models and your bold colours make them look like they've stepped right off a comic page :-)

Looking forward to seeing more of your ACW next week - the project is really going great guns! :-)

- Paul

From RossM: 28mm Tafia Kingdoms Skirmishers 10 Points (11 points)

Time has moved quickly this month and there are a few things in the sidelines for submission shortly. 

When starting a new project, regardless of scale I like to put a few stands up that will enable me to complete a core unit or two in the early stages of painting that project. Light infantry and skirmishers are often good in that role and will feature in most versions of the finished project when used. 

Here is the first of several skirmisher units for the recently started x army in ADLG. 

Having used more "Christian" figures for this stand it allows further use of the figures in several different armies across the period. Great believer in getting the best use from a miniature. 

In terms of points, that's 

2 x 28mm infantry at 5 points each. Totalling a whopping 10 points. 

Cheers for now

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I like your style Ross; develop a sensible plan, start with a ubiquitous unit useful in every list to get you off the mark (somehow I always leave psiloi types to last though) and then out yourself for starting a new army to generates a perceived social pressure for you to keep at it. Nice one!

Take a bonus point for your style and sense of noblesse :-)

- Paul

From GregB - 30k Sicaran Battle Tank (30 Points)

Space Marine "Sicaran" tank for the Horus Heresy - 28mm multi-part resin model from Forge World. 

Greetings all! Not too much to share this week. Here we have a Sicaran tank from GW's Horus Heresy range. These days one can acquire this model in beautiful, multi-part plastic, but this is NOT that kit. It is, rather, an old veteran of Forge World's resin 30k range. It is painted in the colours of the XVI Legion Astartes, the Warmaster's own Sons of Horus.

Lovely lines AND lots of guns - perfect for Space Marines looking for that "sporting ride" in war time...

Space Marines have soooooo many tanks they can use to crush their enemies. There is a kind of spectrum in their designs, ranging from compact and brutal-looking, up toward medium-sized and brutal-looking, and on from their toward really-really-large and brutal-looking. Sure, some the speeders and jet bikes are sleek-looking things, but when it comes to tanks and troop carriers, the Space Marines want everything to look like it is coming to crush you - because, well, that is what is going to happen.

Auto cannons that are widely feared on Age of Darkness gaming tables.

But the Sicaran design stands somewhat apart...like the designers' brief said something along the lines of "killer Space Marine tank, but, you know, with a 'BMW' vibe...make it more of a sports-car-tank." And so, out with the troop compartment! Let's lower that silhouette a touch! And maybe not quite SO much slab-style armour? Guns, well, OBVIOUSLY, but, you know, a cool turret with rapid-firing auto cannons!

The Space Marines are not very "hip", but to the extent any hipsters survive the genetic conditioning process necessary to create Space Marines in the year 30,000 I'm sure they will all want to crew the Sicaran tank squadrons. These tanks race around the battlefield, they look cool doing it, and the weapons they bring to bear are effective against a wide assortment of targets, from protestors to xenos troublemakers to deluded "loyalist" Space Marines. While the standard turret mounting the auto cannons as seen here is the general favorite, there are all sorts of whacky alternate turret weapon mounts available too for hipster crews that wish to slay in a more unique, if still stylish, fashion.

Horus for hope!

As noted above this an old resin model from Forge World, and this is a re-paint, part of an ongoing campaign to bring a consistent look to the green armour for all of the Sons of Horus troops and vehicles in my collection. Such conformity stills my inner hobby OCD brain monkey...for a time, at least, until I must turn to the next batch of troops and vehicles who require a similar update.

Scoring-wise, we have a single 28mm vehicle, which should be good for 20 points. That's all for this week - thanks for reading! 

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Another great addition to your Legion Greg, I'm sure the additional ranged firepower will come in quite handy.

I know (from looking down the barrels of Reilly's Sicarian) that this is quiet a beast of a model so I'm awarding an additional 10 points for its sheer mass!

- Paul

From DallasE: Battlefront Magach-6s for the Yom Kippur War (40 points)

Well I have GregB to thank once again for further hobby escalation... several years ago, encouraged by Mr. B, I built up a small force of Egyptians for the Yom Kippur War. Greg had Israelis and we had a few good games, including a game at PrairieCon that made it into the pages of Wargames Illustrated, no less! But sadly Greg now lives in Toronto with his IDF and it occurred to me I should maybe paint an Opfor to face my Egyptians, so here we are!

I was able to get a box of Israeli Magach-6s (aka US M60 Pattons with some choice modifications) from Meeplemart in Toronto. The Battlefront site recommended that the smoke dischargers be eliminated from the turret fronts as the Magach-6 didn't have 'em. That was pretty easy.

I don't have a ton of spare 15mm stowage so the turrets just got a couple jerrycans glued on. I have a bunch of resin stowage coming from abroad to stick onto the BF Israeli M113s I'm building next.

Painting was straightforward - AK Green-Grey washed with Agrax Earthshade for that lived-in look, tracks Mechanicus Standard Grey washed Nuln Oil, and some sponge chipping with Vallejo German Camo Black-Brown. A light dusty drybrush of Rakarth Flesh around the wheels and lower hull and it's done. Decals are Battlefront of course. 

Bone-dome helmets needed a little carving to look right for '73 as the supplied crew have more modern headgear with bulges for the headsets. Uniform and helmet were painted Vallejo Khaki. Groundwork is Steel Legion Drab, drybrushed Khaki, with static grass and tufts to suit.  

Scoring is easy.

5x 15mm vehicles (8 pts each) = 40 points
 

Dallas

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Nice job Dallas - they look great! Its amazing how the small details in white (and the light blue goggles) really make a difference.  

Its always hard when you have matched armies with a mate but you then get geographically separated. Happens to me rather frequently sadly.

40 points well earned :-)

- Paul

From Barks: Tyranid gribblies (87 points)

Some more gribblies for my 'nid swarm. I used Contrasts Gryph-Hound Orange and Skeleton Horde to do a lot of the work.

The neurogants have a symbiotic creature on their back, which steers them to the fight.

The leader is bigger and slightly more elaborate, with a bigger base (the abominable 28.5mm) and a bigger brain.

Last year I described spore mines as "exploding jellyfish balloon thingies". I love their languid deadliness, and got my hands on more.

11x Neurogants (55 points)

8x Spore mines (32 points)

Squirrel: +1

From Millsy:

Nicely done Barks! We've not seen much of the Nids of late and you are making me want to return to my own project which has been stalled for a while.

I really like your chosen hive colour scheme, there's just something that works when red, bone and black come together like this. The shading is superb and the stark highlighting on the claws makes them feel like they really are deadly sharp!

Brilliant work and a great way to clock up another 87 points.

Cheers,
Millsy

From StephenS: The Punisher (Wrath) (27 points)

G'day everyone,

It has been a little while between posts, with the usual humdrum of life and work to blame. 

I have finally finished painting up what is my favourite Marvel comic character, Frank Castle, known more widely as the Punisher. Many moons ago I received a single copy of a Punisher comic as a ten year old for Christmas as part of some supermarket novelty gift. Widely inappropriate for a ten year old by todays standards (it was nearly 40 years ago now), I was of course, immediately hooked. I vacuumed up the story of the Punisher battling the French Foreign Legion for some reason that would have been more obvious, had I had the opportunity to read any of the other comics in the series. 

While I have long stopped reading the comics (I had to make some hard choices when I took up miniature gaming as a 13 year old), I have always had a soft spot for Frank. Driven to wage a very violent one-man war against crime after the killing of his wife and kids at the hands of mobsters, I think he epitomises Wrath.

The miniature is a 40mm plastic model from Atomic Mass Games for their Marvel game. With the bonus, that should be 27 points please.

I had a great trip down memory lane painting this one up.

Cheers,

Steve

From Millsy:

Now THIS is cool. Such an iconic character and you have really pulled off the look. Really impressed with him overall but especially the skull on his t-shirt which is one of those things that's instantly recognisable even in isolation. Was that easy to paint? I know if it was me there'd be loads of touch ups and then touch ups of touch ups!

Cracking work mate, just brilliant. 27 well earned points!

Cheers,
Millsy

From RichardM - Sudan start of the Egyptians and British limbers (228 points)

I’ve moved onto the Egyptians this week and wanted to get one unit of each arm painted so I could get happy with the paint recipes for future units.  

In the original purchase from Pendraken, I bought sufficient Egyptian infantry to make three battalions.  Subsequently I have looked at the OOB for the iconic Battle of Omdurman and have seen there are 16 Egyptian and Sudanese battalions on the field.  It is a decision for later whether I acquire the figures to refight that battle - which I think would look pretty spectacular.  However, that is a further 26 packs from Pendraken and at somewhere near GBP 7 per pack you can see that even 10mm can get pretty expensive.  I think I need to do some more research to see whether anywhere near that many battalions were used in other battles.

So first is the Egyptian 2nd Infantry Battalion.  

Then we have the first two of five batteries needed (for Omdurman) of Egyptian artillery.

And finally the first regiment of Egyptian cavalry.  I like the combination of the red fez and blue pants.   

Lastly, for no other reason that they were the first bag I pulled out of the figure box, I have the first limber teams for the British Artillery batteries.  

As always, all these are the lovely 10mm Pendraken figures. 

And just for fun, perhaps a ‘family’ photo for the Egyptian ruler’s album:

I think I’ll go back to British units next week.  

Points:

Egyptian Infantry battalion - 60 figures = 60

Egyptian Cavalry regiment -  24 figures = 72

Egyptian Artillery - each gun and crew is 6 points, so six guns and crews = 36

British Limbers - each limber and team is 15 points, so four teams = 60

Total: 228 points

From Millsy:

I was hoping you'd get to the Egyptians before the end of the Challenge Richard. They're amongst my favourite protagonists for the conflict. Rows and rows of red fezzes atop white uniforms look amazing, and the officers sprinkled throughout in all dark blue are the icing on the cake.

Great to see limbers too which are often neglected (I'm equally guilty) as they are mainly set dressing and still cost money and time. They do give a proper sense of how large an artillery park is in practice though, something we conveniently forget as gamers for the most part.

228 more points of North African goodness it is. Love em!

Cheers,
Millsy

From KentG: Medieval foot & cavalry (230pts)

These first figures are the second half of the Wargames Atlantic 

Plastic foot knight boxset, so happy I have another box  paint as

I really enjoyed painting these

Painted them up as William FitzGeoffrey de Mandeville retinue 

For the  banner I cut out a Norman banner for the shape

Then just painted the yellow and red on them like I did the figures

I got the patten off a flag from the barons wars range.

I know next to nothing about paint figures from this era so it’s all new to me

Not sure I’ll get to the next box before the challenge ends but you never know

Next up is the last of my Perry crusades minis 

I have a few foot left but they were extras you know when you make a purchase 

Get the boxes and think I didn’t order two of those, look back and go

Opps

A few French knights a part of a ongoing commission 

Always just little bits come in every now and then

Lastly 12 archers from the Wargames Atlantic peasants boxset

Two of the minis were sent to me with their hand around the wrong way

So I painted the hand to look like it was done correctly 

So this week we have 

11 x 28mm cavalry @ 10pms each 110 pts

24 x 28mm @ 5pts each 120 pts

So total of 230 pts

From Millsy:

Another high quality batch of medieval goodness to fest our eyes on Kent! Wargames Atlantic must absolutely love you mate, every time you show off something you've painted it a free marketing bonanza and no mistake.

The Perry Miniatures stuff is also very nice and you've done them proud. Their horses have a very distinct look to them (not a bad thing, they're lovely) but you can clearly pick them out vs. other manufacturers.

230 more points it is. The way you can consistently produce that kind of number is impressive indeed!

Cheers,
Millsy

Monday Madness once again!

Yep, Monday again! There's not normally much to smile about but but being the Monday Minion puts the whole day in a different light. I have the benefit of seeing a bunch of cool new painted minis before everyone else. What more could you want?

Four Challengers this week have Monday subs...

• More medievals from KentG
• More Sudan themed work from RichardM
• The Punisher(!) from StephenS
• Hive swarm goodness from Barks

Enjoy them you luck people! I know I did.

Cheers,
Millsy