From MilesR - 28mm WWII Soviets (85 points)

 15 WW2 Soviets in 28mm scale with this submission.  These came from the plastic/metal Siberian Veterans" box from Warlord games.  The plastic figures are so-so but the handful of metal casts that come in the box are good.

 This group consist of a 10 man squad of Siberian veterans, a medium machine gun team and a Soviet commander and aide using state of the art Soviet communications gear.

 I got a kick out of the commander with the megaphone!

A shot of the Soviet army to date - a good bit more to add.....

Lets see, 15 figures a 5 each equals 75 points.  The machine is pretty small and probably doesn't deserve any unique points on its' own.

Miles you are producing in both quality and quantity.  These are a great group of Soviets.  The figure with the Megaphone reminds me of the scene in "Enemy at the Gate" where they give every second soldier a rifle (the unarmed guy is supposed to pick up the gun when the first one is shot). Plus, megaphones don't rely on fluky electronics.   And I think that the MG counts as a crew served weapons so it gets you 10 more points.

The Votes Are In for the Nostalgic Bonus Theme Round

As I had mentioned in my opening remarks at the start of this round I was a bit nervous to how Challenge participants would respond to the theme of 'nostalgia'.  As Clint rightly pointed out in one of his comments, nostalgia is a very personal and subjective thing and as such I was concerned that people would not respond well to the theme. Well, as you can imagine, I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Visitors of the Bonus Theme gallery were given the privilege to see and read many touching remembrances of good times gone by.  Below are but a few honourable mentions of the Round:

Alan's 'Forgotten Heroes of the Advancing Game'

Stephen's 'An Army for my Dad'

and Sander's 'Creating a Perfect Nostalgic Moment'

As to the top three submissions by votes, we have:

In Third Place, Millsy's 'Ethel & The Fire Brigade'

Millsy will receive another 25 points in recognition for his excellent submission to this round. Wonderful work and congratulations Mr. Mills!!

In Second Place we have Tamsin's cheeky 'Millsy the GIMP'.

Tamsin will receive another 50 points to add to her total. Well done m'dear!

...And claiming First Place for the 'Nostalgic' Theme Round is Michael's stunning vignette depicting characters (with tunnel and lighting!!) of 'The Great Escape'.

Absolutely wonderful work Michael. For claiming top spot on the podium Mr. Awdry will receive another 75 points AND a gift certificate from the great  folk over at Westwind Productions. Congratulations Michael and thank you for sharing your work with us.

For those interested in the stats of the bonus round feel free to examine the poll here.

All of the bonus points for this theme round have been tabulated and are reflected in the Points Standings. 

Finally, as a reminder, next Saturday midnight (Jan 16th) is the submission deadline for our next Thematic Bonus Round: 'Epic Fail', so roll up your sleeves and get to work so we can enjoy a wonderful cacophony of catastrophes!

From GregB - 28mm System Troopers from Pig Iron (45 Points)

"System Troopers" from Pig Iron Productions - 28mm troops

After Sylvian's huge points bomb landed yesterday, I felt a bit desperate to get something up on the board today. I've been away for over a week, but lucky for me I had some primed figures sitting around which had been waiting in the pending pile for ages - and hammering out figures like that is part of what this Challenge is about, after all, right? So here are 10 "System Troopers" from Pig Iron Productions.  These came off the painting table while watching the first round of the NFL playoff (go Chiefs!).

Mercenaries? Regulars? A lot of different settings can be conjured for these fellows

If you follow a lot of sci-fi gaming, you have surely seen the "Kolony Militia" range from Pig Iron on a gaming table somewhere.  That range is, I expect, the best-known one from Pig Iron, but they offer several. Pig Iron is home to some of the nicest, chunkiest, full-of-character 28mm sci-fi stuff out there.  The ranges are small, but have some pretty decent overall composition and completion to them (as opposed to others who released three figures and wonder why the sales don't roll in, but I digress).  I really enjoy painting the Pig Iron figures - nice, proper, heavy, chunky metal figures, the way wargames figures are supposed to be!

A view showing the back packs

These "System Troopers" are the heaviest of the heavy infantry (in fact, I think I stole that line directly from Pig Iron) - heavily armoured, carrying huge, frigging guns.  The sculpts are brilliant - the armour gives a sort of exo-skeleton sense, without being all encompassing/enclosing.  These heads are not the standard "System Trooper" heads - they are the "Inner Guard" heads from the "Kolony Militia" - there are many head options to choose from with these figures and I thought these heads looked spookier.

Red helmets to set the fire team NCOs apart

I had painted a small group of these figures years ago - might have been the first or second Painting Challenge, actually, but before sci-fi figures counted in the race.  I had a bunch more primed and ready to go back in that initial 2012 rush, but I moved on to other projects, etc. etc. and these have been sitting there, primed and ready to go, gathering dust in my hobby pile for years, until I got home yesterday, was spooked by Sylvain's huge entry, and broke out the paints!

Pointing fellows make great NCOs

The chaps in the red helmets are NCOs/section leaders. The rest of the fellows are regular grunts. As a group, I think they can represent all sorts of factions, ranging from ominous mercenaries acting on corporate interests to the heavy infantry of a futuristic science fiction army.
   

Regular troopers - heavy guns, love these sculpts

Some variety on the backpacks as well

There is a large round spot on the back of these helmets, and I painted these lense-style.  I think of them as part of the armour's "Decision Making Assistance System". The online DMAS helps the System Troopers stay in touch with HQ, know where to direct their fire, understand that orphanages make great firing positions, and realize that asking questions about the morality of their overall orders will have a negative affect on their own existence...

Close-up showing the active "DMAS" on the back of the Trooper's helmet - keep focused, trooper!

Some more points for the sci-fi duel...but not enough!!

There are 10 figures pictured, but one of these pre-dates the Challenge, as he was being used as a model to make sure I matched the colours the best I could, so this gets me 45 points. Even with these points, I'm still eating Sylvain's dust... hopefully I can bear down and go full-Millsy this week to get some more stuff ready for next weekend...but in the event I don't, I'm wondering Sylvain, what kind of figure would you like me to paint for you?

This is awesome stuff Greg! Like you, I really like the Pig Iron range. I have a bunch of their Kolony Feral and Infected castings that I want to use for my post apoc 'Metro 2033' collection. They have a nice, chunky heft and possess a more gritty look than most other manufacturers.

I think you've done a fantastic job on these bad boys. I like the red quasi-diving helmet of the NCOs juxtaposed against their sand coloured exo-armour. And their unanthropomorphic flat eye pieces are just too spooky. It's like they could care less that they could be a targeting point.

45 points for your Sci-Fi duel!

From TamsinP - 28mm Aztecs (40 points)

I know what you're all thinking - "We're three weeks into the Challenge and she's only racked up 75 points. Something is seriously wrong here...". Have no fear chaps and chapesses, things will (I hope) all be back to normal next week when my 6mm confederate infantry are submitted.

In the meantime, I wanted to add a few points this week so I decided to make a start on the Aztecs for my "Mexicagrave" project - Frostgrave transposed to an abandoned (or is it?) meso-American city hidden in the jungle.

I picked these eight Tequihuaqueh (low level warriors) for my first batch. Six of them have obviously campaigned before as they have the "ichcahuapilli" padded/quilted vests awarded to those who have captured an enemy warrior. The other two without any armour haven't taken any captives.

Oh yes, the captives. They get taken back home and sacrificed at the temples. Nice people the meso-Americans.

The archers:

The melee guys:

Cuahololli (club); 2 x Macuahuitl; Tepoztopilli. All with chimalli (shields)

I did attempt to replicate one of the three most common Aztec shield designs on one of them. I didn't really pull it off - I should have used a smaller brush I guess (or one with a better point).

Painting these guys has been fun. After some trials, I settled on using Vallejo grey surface primer as the base so that I can show off the bright colours better. I'd also done some trials with the skin tones (most important for these guys as they do have a lot of flesh showing) and came up with the following:

Base - Orange Brown
Flesh wash
First Highlight - 2:1 Orange Brown/Ochre Brown
2nd Highlight: 1:2 Orange Brown/Ochre Brown
Flesh wash

The highlights were done as multiple thin layers. I might be able to go straight to the second highlight for the rest as they only have faces, hands and feet showing.

In case you're wondering about the scatter material on the bases (and haven't been reading my blog), I've been doing a little experimenting this week with staining herb using inks and thinned paint. As the abandoned city is overgrown by jungle, I figured that there would be lots of fallen leaves and branches/twigs on the ground and herbs seemed to be the best was to represent this on the bases. the scatter I've used is a 3:1 mix of burnt-umber stained mixed herbs and sepia-stained rosemary (for the woody bits). I think it's worked quite well:

The figures are 28mm from The Assault Group and eight of them should give me 40 points.

Lovely work Tamsin. I like your freehand shields and the flesh tone recipe you've concocted looks very effective - I think I may try that out. I also really like your use of herbs for the groundwork - I've tried it for autumnal bases and I think it looks very effective for your 'Mexicagrave' setting.

40 Points for you Ms. P!

From ChrisH - The next few figures (80 Points)

The first couple of minis follow on from the Warmachine ones I submitted in my first post. These two are called light Warjacks, steam powered and magic infused mega robots from the Warmachine universe belonging to the faction known as Menoth.

Redeemer

Revenger

Next up are some of the Reaper bones fantasy characters. I really loved the price point but I am finding it hard to paint them all. Some are great and take paint well others I am struggling with as the detail varies and the ability to hold onto the paint somewhat odd. So I am not really trying to go for top of the line paint jobs (I can't really do this anyway if I am honest). Finally some Reaper metal thieves and a couple of modern/Sci-fi Zombie Hunters.

Blacksmith

Bones

Reaper Metal Thieves

Pink the Zombie Hunter (don't know who the manufacturer is?)

Different Angle

Bones Zombie Hunter with CHAINSAW how cool is this mini!

So going by the normal points that's 12 X 5 or anpther 60 but as the Light Warjacks are 3 times the size of a standard 28mm mini I plan on milking Curt for a few more..................please.........

Very nice work Chris. I like the bone base colour of your Warjacks, it gives them a very stylized look about them. 

Your character figures all look great but I think my favourite has to be the Blacksmith (thought I do like the zombie hunter with the pink bangs as well).

I've heard similar comments about paint adhesion with the Reaper Bones stuff. I wonder if it has something to do with the release agent they use. Would a good soak in a warm soapy dish prior to priming help? I often do this and then use an old toothbrush to scrub the figures down to make sure the release agent has been scoured away. It works the treat with my resin and plastic stuff and wonder if it might help here.

 As to the points, we've previously scored Warjacks as 54mm figures, but I'm thinking a 28mm vehicle might be more appropriate, so we'll run with that instead. That will bring your total to 80 points. Great job.