Welcome to the Painting Challenge. Here you will find the fabulous, fevered work of miniature painters from around the world. While participants come from every every possible demographic, they have three things in common: they love miniatures, they enjoy a supportive community, and they want to set themselves against the Challenge.
This site features the current year's event along with the archives of past Painting Challenges.
Enjoy your visit and remember to come back soon.
Just a small post this week using up some Legio Heroica 15mm Muslims. I have a Muslim Crusader period army so these were left over from that.
I am hoping to use the Muslim Crusader Army as the Muslim armies in Spain as they are fairly generic. However, apart from the Mamelukes, I have painted the outstanding figures as Muslims more specific to Spain.
There are six cavalry units, each of 9 mounted figures and one unit of infantry, 16 figures.
Mamelukes (36pts)
Berber Cavalry (36pts)
More Berber Cavalry (36pts)
Andalusian Cavalry (36pts)
Another Andalusian Cavalry (36pts)
Yusef ibn Tashfins Hasham Guard Cavalry (36pts)
Yusef ibn Tashfins Black Guard (32pts)
I am about a third of the way through another army, but I'm not sure I'll get it finished before the end of the challenge, as I am away most of next week, but I will try and post what is done before I go.
Total Points this entry = 248pts
TeemuL: How many armies have you painted during this challenge, Grahame? This is a pretty one, once again. The strong blues especially contrasts nicely on the arid bases, which look very real to me by the way. Looking forward the next week what you have managed to finish!
Painting has moved at a snail pace this week as I have been renovating on the top floor again, laying tiles in a new bathroom and painting 1/1 scale. I did manage to get these done though yesterday though. Infantry battalion and chasseur battalion not far behind, along with all of my airborne infantry and should be completed by next week at the end of the challenge. Really happy with the resin Retrotracks 1/72 T13 kits . I do need to source crew from EWM for the T13s again they have hand painted markings,. The Vickers is a FAA model as is the crewman.
T13 two for my Cyclist Frontier
T13 B two for my chasseur ardennais
Vickers tractor “Eliza” for my infantry (red collar tabs)
20mm vehicles @ 15 points x 5
Cheers
Matt
TeemuL: Wonderful work on these rarely seen beauties! They might be "just dark green", but there are lots of details you have picked up and the pretty backdrops add to the value. I guess the T13s will see more action, but Eliza tractor is my favourite. That's 75 points to you!
P.S. Grahame is next in line, and if everything is paired today, then I guess we will get some 20mm or Belgian units today. Stay tuned! :)
You didn’t think I was finished with winter stuff did you ? With all the Zulus running rampage over my paint desk it’s just a small top up this week . I have a game booked in for the Sunday after the challenge and with more German armour having been added I think my Yanks need some more mobile Anti tank support .
So 4 Bazooka teams added to sneak around the flanks of the advancing Germans ,
Battlefront Winter Bazooka teams on scenic bases by Baueda
Points :-
8 x 15mm foot - 16 points
Still enough time to get sone more winter stuff in under the wire next week I think .
And well done to the Thursday crew for knocking it out of the park each week with productivity and quality . Top job on minioning the crew Teemu - you can do it again !
TeemuL: First we had pair of posts in 10mm, now we have a nice pair of winter posts. Let's see how long I can manage this today. :) Yes, Dave is back with more winter world war and promises to paint something more before the end of the Challenge. Your German colomn was quite impressive, these guys will be busy blowing them up. Good job, Dave, you and the Thursday crew in general have been wonderful group to minion. I guess I'll volunteer for the next year, too. :)
How is there only 1 week to go, until the end of the Challenge??? I still got loads to paint up!
Surprise surprise, here we have yet another unit for my and Lee's Retreat from Moscow project, this weeks entry is another mixed French and Allied unit of 8 figures from all over Europe including Portugal and Germany.
The figures are all from Perry Miniatures and are a mix of packs FN168 & FN171
The two front right figures are Wurttembergers while the chap in the back row left is from the Portuguese Legion.
The chap sitting down has the very distinctive Grenadier hat, with the black comb going from side to side rather than the usual back to front.
These chaps will add another 40 points to my total taking me up to 1142 points!!
TeemuL: 1142 points, that is a nice total, we'll seee how much more you will gather during the remaining week! Very nice and mixed unit again, Ray. I'm sure more uniformed units would be faster to paint in general, but I like your approach. And they all are nicely freezing (sounds nice?), too.
While my progress overall in this challenge has been slow I am delighted to actually have been able to finish something and to finally bring to a close my 1980s Cold War Gone Hot project in 10mm -- something I started way back in January 2021!
Cpl Kitchener Wants You!
As before these are 10mm TimeCast Miniatures which I love. This time there are four squads of 8, for a total of 32 based in pairs.
I can never stick with the same technique so this time around I added the black lines in the DPM camo pattern using a 0.05 unipin fine line which worked absolutely wonderfully -- I use a mix of unipin and copic fine-liners and find them indispensable for detail work like this or for edging heraldry.
Black lines added with .05 pen
Anyway, here are some other close ups. I ended up doing the 58 pattern webbing in a different shade to my last batch, oh well there was some variation in the field!
As before these are based on 2mm East Riding Miniatures MDF bases with a mix of Geek Gaming Rugged Fields base ready and my 2mm autumn static grass. The labels are laser printed, covered with sticky film and then stuck onto 2mm brass strip. Also, apologies that I haven't cleaned up the base edges which I still need to do!
It is great to have finished this project after 4 years -- here's a view of the complete British force ready to make its debut on the table.
So that probably does it for me for this challenge as I've got a lot going on over the next week so don't feel able to start on another painting job -- while I have again failed to achieve my target I am pleased with the work I've done, making progress on several fronts and actually managing to finish a project, and complete my two vignettes!
TeemuL: Targets are something to aim for, but it is practical to look behind and see what one has accomplished. You have a nice list for that and now you are ready to play a new theater, good luck!
10mm minis are comfortable to calculate, since one is 1 point, so 32 to you. Any camo in that scale is difficult, but you have done a great job! The labels are clear, just finish those base edges before the first game and before starting the next painting project. ;)
The journey from ingot to Impi continues. I am now about 2/3rds of the way to the 1000 Zulus . I cast these lads up toward the end of last year ready for this project and it good to see them moving along .
Here we have 4 newly raised regiments .
The uVe “Flycatchers” the 3rd and last for the Left Horn - at around 2000 strong it has 106 figures
The “Black Mamba’s “ at around 1500 have 87 figures .
The Dust Raisers at around 1500 men has 85 figurees
The Leopards Lair at around 1000 men has 62 figures
Pleased with this little lot
Oh and here is them starting life
Bare metal in 1.5kg ingots
Zulu moulds - ZC5 and ZC8 …
Next are the Zulu command which are by Steve Barber
Cetshawyo on horse and various senior commanders .
Another command stands for a Zulu Prince
1 mound of wounded Zulus - contains 3 casualties.
Points :-
350 10mm Foot
1 10mm mounted
3 prone
Total 355
And to the colonial duel …
Martin C and I have a game today to run through the home brew rules that need some tweaked for the this period.
TeemuL: Yes, I won't count those individually and I trust your maths, 355 points it is, cruising you well over 2000 points! They look beautiful as a huge group, very nice. Almost a nice photo from "the beginning" of those models, most of us see just the plastic bags or cartoon boxes as a starting point, but you have a longer history with these ones. Good reminder to all of us.
I hope all the best for you and MartinC in your games, may there be plenty!
Time flies and this is the last Thursday of this Challenge, AHPC XV ends on the night between Wednesday and Thursday next week.
So far in these Thursday intros I have told something about the Finnish language, phrases, wars and their reasons, notable persons in wars and some holiday photos. I've been quite busy with work this week and I have not really prepared anything interesting for today, but let's see what I come up with!
I could tell something about my favourite military museum in Finland The Parola Armour Museum, but I guess it would be unfair for other Finnish museums. I haven't visited them all and I can't tell much of them, so let's be equal and not discuss of museums. Other than that we have several in Finland, please come here and visit them. Parola is quite easily reached, halfway between Helsinki and Tampere in Hämeenlinna.
The history of Finland is closely related to south-eastern parts of Finland, which were first claimed by Swedes. I happen to live in that area and Turku is the first capital of Finland, the current fishing village Helsinki is the current one. The are is officially called "Finland Proper" in English and Finnish version is quite same, this area is Finland is the "real Finland" and the rest of the current area is added later and not considered as good as the original Finland. The people in other areas don't seem to understand this, especially the people in Helsinki or Tampere. But I got distracted, I was supposed to mention that in Turku there is a nice castle called Turku Castle, they started building it in 13th century. The best castle in Finland, but then again it would be wrong to represent only one castle of many, so I don't do that.
I seem to have a problem, not that much to tell you. :( Fortunately I'm not alone, Finns are often considered as quiet and shy, very humble and not willing to speak in public. However some other people not like us, for example Joel Willans is a Brit living in Finland, who creates content to Youtube and Instagram under account @veryfinnishproblems. There are others, too so it would not be equal to promote just one. Anyway, because it is Thursday, I'll share one of his short videos on Youtube, related to Thursday and winter:
--- In Other News ---
It is spring here, season between Winter and Summer, and this morning we have couple of centimeters of snow and temperature is a bit below zero. More winter than summer, that is. And handful of nice posts from the productive Thursday crew.
