From BurkhardS: The last big rush (100 Points)

So this is it... this is going to be my last post for this Challenge. Before I get started, please let me thank you all for the nice comments you have left over the course of the Challenge. The past few weeks and months have been extremely hectic and downbeat (which also meant I hardly had any time to contribute to the other participants in the way I should have and for which I sincerely apologize) and those comments really lifted me up! Thank you all a million.

Also thanks a lot for all the votes on the theme rounds... I was quite surprised to make second spot twice and be a runner up a number of times!!!

Anyway... the last two weeks have only been the second time during this Challenge that I have been happy with my output. Probably had something to do with the weather getting better here in Germany. So in this spirit I decided to take some pictures outside (where actually about half the painting took place). So in the order that they were finished:

Modern Russian T-55

Now this was quite simple one. The model is a 1:48 die-cast (although it has a lot of plastic for that) from the James Bond collection (the one Pierce Brosnan drives through St. Petersburg). I have had that for ages, but never got around to work on it. Since I like my 2nd and 3rd Tier Russian tanks for Ultra Modern to look quite unspectacular, I decided to keep it in its original single colour green looks.  But I cleaned away the mould lines, painting imperfections and so on. The green was faded, skirts and mantlet painted in a different colour and minor details (like oil stains on the barrels) added. Last but not least it got a liberal coat of dirt and dust with an airbrush (which unfortunately blended too well with the fading :-( ).

Warzone: Resurrection, Kunshu Dragon Riders

Now I have painted a lot of Imperial for Warzone during this Challenge and before I tackled the last units, I needed a break from Imperial. Keeping with Warzone (partly because a mate of mine jumped in on our league but has no units painted yet) I chose a unit for Mishima, the Kunshu Dragon Riders. Looks wise they are one of the coolest units in the Mishima selection, but a bit too overpriced to play for my taste. (Or rather not as underpriced as the rest of Mishima.) 

Now what they are some Dragon like creatures found in the caves of Mercury. Domesticated (to a certain degree) they are ride into combat, usually by the heirs to noble houses of Mishima. Are a a very fast monster choice in the game, which can do lots of damage either at close range (combination of the riders SMG and the Dragons spewing flames) or close combat (combination of the riders Katana and the Dragons teeth and claws). 

To things that slightly bleeped me off about these models. For one, I had always had a vision of how I would paint them. Mostly like those flying creatures in Avatar. But once I took out my airbrush, I had to find, that the body and wing anatomy is too different for this to work, so I had to go for something less intricate. 

The other thing is in the background. The riders wear so called "Retainer" type armour, which is always a crimson red, whence the colour of the riders. Now this type of armour is also worn by the Crimson Devils, the most dishonored unit Mishima has in its inventory. I doubt that a noble in a culture based on medical Japan, would want to wear the same armour as a dishonored regular soldier. So I would have preferred, if they had gotten a different type of armour, where one could have gone wild with the colours. As a small personalization I gave the troopers white face masks and the squad leader a gold one. But anyway... here are the minis:

Warzone: Resurrection: Imperial Greyhound Tankettes

So after that small excursion to Mishima I returned to Imperial, namely two Greyhound tankettes. These are ridiculously small one man tanks, used either to fire poisonous gas in a flame thrower type attack (the version depicted here) or as a short range vehicular mortar. Personally I am not sure if I would have bought them, since a) I find the models a bit ugly and b) for slightly more points I can get a Hurricane Walker, which can do far more!

Otherwise, I went for the same camo I used on my Hurricanes, although it looks far less effective on these small models, and the same beat up and muddy look as the rest of the army. I also added WWI or WWII desert style red-white-red tank markings to the sides, but these are mostly covered up by the dirty and wear by now. 

Since the unit I play is loosely based on the Black Watch, they both got Scottish town names on the turrets. One is Peairt (Perth) to other Port Rìgh (Portree).

  WWII: Krupp Protze improvised AAA vehicle

And last, at least models wise, is a Krupp Protze. The model itself is a Tamiya 1:48th scale kit with a 2cm Flak by some after market company in the same scale (can not remember which one). Now I wanted this as a mid-war interim AAA solution. The Krupp Protze was mostly used early war. Some as a troop transport, some for supplies, but most to draw light 3,7cm PaK. Some units, especially on the Russian front, found that they needed something more flexible  and mounted their PaK on the rear flatbed. With time a lot of the Protzes were phased out and replaced by more effective trucks, but a few remained in service until destroyed. Now in the mid war period when the allies were more and more able to bring more planes to the sky mobile units needed more AAA units and looked at mounting light Flak on the backs of trucks. And this is what this model represents. So I placed boards (coffee stirrers) across the benches to create a flatbed and mounted the Flak on top. The truck retained is early war grey base coat and I applied a camo over this. Many units were delivered camouflage paste, which they stirred up by adding water to gasoline and applied this to the vehicles with everything at hand... at times just dappling rags on the vehicle. And this is the look I wanted to go for. With the Flak I wanted it to look like it had been delivered in Sandgelb from the factory with a green camo applied with an airbrush in the rear echelons workshop. All this to underline the rag-tag nature of this vehicles. Afterwards some weathering (including windscreen wiper marks) and it was done. I also wanted to add the crew, but the rest of the week will by so stuffed with work, I will not be able to paint, so the crew will have to be added post-Challenge.

Now if I am not mistaken and my math does not fail me, all these should be 100 points. With the 55 points still due from the last theme round, this should put me a mere 2 points over my 1000 points target. Not really proud of this, since I had hoped to actually raise my target during the Challenge, but it can not be helped!

My workspace

I am not sure who it was, but someone asked early on that we all show our workspaces, since this is going to be my last post I thought I should oblige.

As you can see this is all very basic. I have no dedicated working area, but rather work on the kitchen table. Since it is large enough, I can keep it on the table even when we are eating. It is all centred on a cutting mat with some foam on it (to allow me to handle the minis without scraping the paint off), two brushholders with my brushes, two pots of water, a bottle of acetone, a rag, some cutters and a pair of pliers. Oh and a simple Ikea desk lamp with a daylight bulb.

The idea behind this is simply. I love to paint outside, so I wanted something I can easily take out onto the balcony when the weather is fine and I can do this in less than a minute.

Now those with a keen eye will have spotted a paint cart to the left on the first photo. I DIY´ed that a couple of years ago to fit my needs. In the top is a removable tray which holds 35 film containers filled with sand. I use these to mount my minis on while painting to have a handle to hold them by. Underneath is my "kill-book" (a pun in reference to the books kept by snipers) which holds all my painting notes. Seven drawers underneath hold all my paints and other tools, except for my airbrush and airbrush paints. All in all it holds almost 300 bottles of paints, washes, filters and pigments, sculpting tools, cutters, pliers, wires and so on. And again... this can go outside in less than a minute.

So again... thank you all for your nice comments during the Challenge and most of all thanks to Curt for having me and for organizing this madness once more!

From Curt:

A great final entry Burkhard! Like you, I'm not too crazy on the design of those tankettes but you've done a great job on them. The flyers and the T80 are excellent (especially the hide on the flyers) but I have to say my favourite is the Protze AA portee. The camouflage and weathering are brilliant and I also appreciate the little additions like the unit designation and spades. Lovely work.

I really like your hobby setup, especially that amazing DIY hobby chest. Wonderful!

I think that with your theme entry you will hit your target so definitely no shame there. You've had a great year Burkhard and I'm delighted that you joined us for the wild gallop that is the Challenge. Until next time!

From IanW - ECW and Ancient 6mm (80 Points)

It's been a great ride this year, big thanks to Curt for running what has been an epic challenge. This looks to be the last entry from me due to being a complete idiot :-)

The first four regiments for a mates Parliament army to be pitched against my Royalist Oxford Army. I will also paint up The New Model as well at some point.

Earl of Essex's Foote Regiment. The figures are Baccus and of all the figures I have painted the ECW castings are the only ones I would say are not good. It's mostly the muskets though the whole range would benefit with re-sculpting but that is on the cards for later.

Lord Sayy and Selees Blue coated regiment, one of the few that we can attribute the correct flags to, most of the others including Essex are just generic flags. I have never been a follower of the idea that the flag was the same colour as the coats theory.

Thomas Ballards Foote, rather boring grey coats so I gave them a nice green standard to fight under. I am painting up the Essex army of 1642 for Lee, these will act as the core but given that both of us have two army packs each we have plenty of other regiments I can add to these. I intend to do a few units of my own each time I do some of Lee's so that we will both have a reasonable force at the same time.

Lord Brooks which is another regiment that we know the standard colour of and again they also had coat colours the same, well for the first year, after that I believe they were replaced with grey in 1643 or 1644. 

As a last hurrah for the Ancients in the challenge I painted up a block of Hoplites, these again are Baccus and unfortunately the photo does not do them justice though those shields are not great.

Keeping with the mass idea these are on a 30x60 base with 48 figures in total. One pack makes two units, I think I just need a couple at the moment but will expand them in the future.

Points wise the ECW are 28 figures per base and the Hoplites are 48 for a total of 160 figures so 80 points getting me past my 2000 point total.

The army so far, actually it is missing the four heavy stone throwers but you can see the progress made in this challenge as this is a new project. I sure need more heavy infantry!

Last night I even flagged the Hanoverian's from last week. Indeed the flagging of the ECW and these was quite difficult, I did also try painting but it was getting quite painful so it looks like I won't finish any more figures within the Challenge.

On Sunday afternoon I took a pan out of the oven and seconds later (with the oven mit in my right hand) tried to move said pan by it's metal handle with my LEFT hand. 200C metal will sting a bit, fortunately we have a burn gel in hand (ha ha) and that has preserved the skin a lot but finger tips are sore and just under half the palm has various levels of burn. Thanks to the gel it looks better than it should though the raised area near the closed fingers is solid, feels like plastic on the surface and very tender below. As such gripping is a bit of an issue :-)


From Curt:

Owchie!! Yikes, that looks painful Ian. I hope you mend soon and without too much discomfort. Look on the bright side it could have been like that German dude in Raiders of the Lost Ark... Okay, I got nothin'.

Even though I find the pikes a bit unconvincing in 6mm these guys look brill.  The groundwork is excellent and I think the vibrant banners really cap them off nicely.

That all being said, the stars of the show, in my opinion, are those Spartans with the teeny-tiny lambdas on their shields. Totally mental. Love it.

Congratulations on hitting your 2K target Ian!  It was terrific to have you join us for this fifth Challenge romp.

From SimonM - Doctor Who Yeti (25 Points)

These five 28mm metal models are based upon the robot Yeti from the British Science Fiction television series “Doctor Who” story "The Abominable Snowmen". This six-part serial formed part Season Four back in September 1967 when Patrick Troughton was the (second) Doctor.

They're made by “Black Tree Design” under code DW204 Yeti. All of the Great Intelligence’s mechanical minions were first undercoated with “Vallejo” Heavy Brown and then given a heavy wash of “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade. Once this was dry I washed the areas around the eyes and claws with some “Citadel” Nuln Oil.

All of the ‘hairy beasties’ were then drybrushed with more “Vallejo” Heavy Brown before I picked out their eyes with “Heavy Goldbrown”, and their claws with White. Both of these areas were then washed with more of “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade. Finally the eyes were highlighted with some additional “Vallejo” Heavy Goldbrown.

Disappointingly I originally varnished all these miniatures with the “Citadel” Technical ‘Ardcoat. Having dabbed it on as I’ve previously done with the manufacturer’s previous gloss finish product, I was rather horrified to discover that the brush was so sticky it was pulling off both the brown wash and paint!?! As a result I have had to touch up all these models and now use “Coat D’arms” Gloss Varnish instead.


From Curt:

Good to know about the 'Ardcoat - I'll be steering clear of that product, thanks for the heads up.

Those are some awesome-though-whacky looking Yetis Simon - they actually remind me of the guys you see wearing Chewbacca suits at comic conventions (they just need to be holding a spiff bag and a Big Gulp to complete the look). I really like their spooky orange eyes.

Ah, and I see you have another wonderfully hairy entry coming up soon. Stay tuned folks! 

From Evan & GrantH - A Very Cunning Plan Indeed (176 Points)

So seeing as it has been one hundred years since The Great War, We thought it would be fitting to find an anti-hero from this era. So while it would have been great to find a very serious historical figure for this role, we then realised we would need a much more cunning plan. This posed a crisis. A large crisis. In fact, if you have got a moment, it was a twelve story crisis with a magnificent entrance hall, carpeting throughout, twenty-four hour portage, and an enormous sign on the roof, saying “this is a large crisis”. A large crisis requires a large plan.

 
Excellent question. Naturally, the man to develop such a great and cunning plan would be Captain E. Blackadder.

The reasoning behind Blackadder being an anti-hero is because of his very self-centred method of survival, combined with begrudgingly accepting the duty he has been tasked to perform. Although he almost never does the duty, he does manage to pull off the occasional decent gesture. Clearly a man of wit and reason.

(We have two versions, one done by me and the other by Evan.)

Also a Lewis gunner, because he was part of the set.

 Evan's version:

Quick note: the figures are from Renegade Miniatures which provide outstanding high detail miniatures! Also the last ten Paras from the earlier post!

And from just Evan…

WWII Canadian Commandos. Size: 15mm 

The commandos were formed in 1942 under the command of Colonel Robert Fredrick. They were nick named the Devil’s Brigade and initially saw service in the Pacific. In 1945, the unit was disbanded and most of the commandos were sent to the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, some of the Americans in the unit were sent to the 101st or the 82nd Airborne Division in America, or to the 474th Regimental Combat Team.

The miniatures took a good 24 hours to clean, file/trim, paint, and landscape.

 

So the total for today is thirteen infantry, one 75mm howitzer piece (all in 28mm), and 45 infantry more infantry in 15mm scale.

We have one more post in us for this Challenge I think… 

From Curt:

A very cunning plan indeed! 

Well done lads, Blackadder is a brilliant antihero guys! Now, do I get both or just one? ;)

Seriously, great work, both of you. The WWI chaps are excellent and I especially liked that you included the details like the shoulder insignia, rank chevrons and red piping on the cap. 

The Paras are wonderful as well, with that howitzer and crew being particular standouts. 

Finally, bravo to Evan for doing up some of the Devil's Brigade. You couldn't want a more tough-as-nails unit on the tabletop.  Made up of both Canadians and Americans they were a very hard act to follow (though we all know that the Canadians were the greater amongst equals in that partnership). ;P 
Terrific work Evan.

AND congratulations in attaining your points target for the Challenge. That is no small feat for your first outing.  Again, well done.

I look forward to seeing your final entry guys!