From SimonM - 28mm Jeeves, Clockwork Robot and Cyber-Reavers (50 Points)

First up for Monday morning we have Jeeves offering his patented pick me up, "sure to produce results in anything short of an Egyptian mummy". 

This rather tall 48mm single-piece metal automaton was made by “Reaper Miniatures” and comes from their “Chronoscope” Code 50063 Jeeves, Clockwork Robot. Sculpted by Jason Wiebe and released on June 4th 2009, this ‘mechanical butler’ has a pair of rather fragile arms, so ended up having his right pincer hand placed (protectively) down to his side.

The model was initially given an undercoat of “Vallejo” Gunmetal Grey and subsequently washed with “Citadel” Nuln Oil.  It was then dry-brushed with more “Vallejo” Gunmetal Grey and had its joints heavily dabbed with “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade in order to represent the wear and tear of its daily chores. Once dry, the entire miniature was given a highlight of “Citadel” Ironbreaker and ‘spotted’ with some watered-down “Vallejo” Copper. I then applied some more Strong Tone Quickshade to each of these ‘rusty’ areas and dry-brushed them with “Citadel” Ironbreaker so they blended with the surrounding metalwork. 

Finally, as I wanted to break up the all-silver look to this “Gamma World” mechanical servant I picked out his lower left leg, one of his pincers, his large central chest screw and face plate with “Vallejo” Bronze. These areas were then washed with Strong Tone Quickshade before I painted his eyes with a combination of “Vallejo” Dark Vermillion and “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson.

 

In addition to finishing Jeeves, I have also managed to paint eight more Cyber-Reavers by “Reaper Miniatures” and now have a small force of sixteen berserk androids for my “Gamma World” post-apocalyptic tabletop.

Very good Jeeves, a pot of oolong and some toast please.  And lay out my clothes for traveling in the two seater, we have work to do in the country.   

Well done Simon, these are an intimating group of Cyber-Reavers and I love the old school vibe to Jeeves.  You've done an excellent job of shading and highlighting the cog works and shafts of this group.  The Chronoscope range is nominally 28mm and I am counting Jeeves as having the same bulk and fiddliness of a crewed weapon and so worth 10 points.  With the 8 murderous Cyber Reavers that totes up to 50 points on my scorecard.  I've also added a "Robots"  label (can't believe we didn't have one before) so that we can track future posts of this ilk.

Monday. Monday.

PeterD here and you're back on my watch.  Yes its that day again and start of the first full week of 2016 for many of us (self included).

I would like to give a shout out and a well done to MichaelA for his winning Great Escape entry in the Nostalgia round.  Next year I'd like to see him do a similar vignette based on Chicken Run!  In fact well done to Tamsin and Millsy the runners up and everyone who posted in the theme round.

On today's menu we have some Frostgrave figures from Adam, more pulp and scifi goodies from SimonN and some lovely historical figures from IanW and AnneO'L.  Not to mention d a special guest entry from Miles.  Plus what ever else shows up on the radar screen over the day.

So enjoy your coffee, spit in Monday's eye and keep on painting.
Cheers, PeterD

From Curt - 28mm Italian Wars Bolognese Crossbowmen (55 Points)

I'm trailing Peter in our 'Renaissance Men' duel so I thought I best get something off my paint table to narrow the gap. 

This is a unit of crossbowmen from the Italian city of Bologna ca 1500. We see them here, shooting from behind their pavise shields, while under fire from some opposing missile troops.

I chose Bologna for a couple reasons. The first is pure laziness: Bologna's heraldic crest, a red cross on white background, is relatively easy to do freehand. 

A depiction of a fight between militias factions in Bologna, from the Croniche of Giovanni Sercambi of Lucca.

I also I appreciate Bolognese civil politics of the time. It seems that Bologna was the only Renaissance Italian city (and probably one of the few in Europe) who allowed women to excel in any chosen profession, even permitting them to attend the city's university. Also, Bologna was a center of the arts in its own right, with a residence of painters that rivaled that of Rome and Florence during the period. (In 1506 it was invaded and sacked by Papal armies, its art was stolen and its progressive civil liberties ended (yet another tick-mark in the scorecard of enlightened organized religion...).)

...and finally, let's not forget that a good Bolognese sauce is in of itself worthy to fight for...

These ten 28mm metal figures are from the Perry's 'European Wars' range while the pavises (pavisii?) are from their European Mercenaries box set. 

For the stricken crossbowman I used a plastic Perry Napoleonic British casualty figure, shaved off the offending detail, gave him a breastplate (roughly) made with a bit of green-stuff and then added a sallet helmet and crossbow. The city pennon is a repaint of one of the cutouts provided in the Perry box sets.

I often hot-glue a stump, boulder etc. at the back of my large bases to give players something to grip on to when moving them on the tabletop.

The irregularly shaped MDF base was a sample sent along to me from Simon Miller (aka BigRedBat). He's developed these for use for his 'To The Strongest' ruleset. (Thanks very much Simon!)  For the past year or so I've been thinking of creating basing like this and so I was really stoked when I saw Simon's bases on his website. I really like the organic shape of these bases and am planning to do-up my upcoming Italian Wars collection using these in various dimensions. 

For points, there are 50 for the ten crossbowmen, 3 for the converted casualty and say 2 for the shields and banner (yes, they were freehand, but they were pretty straightforward and not very good). So 55 points for the lot.

Update on Side Challenges & Paint Duels

Hi Folks!

I've been meaning to catch up on the tabulations for the Side Challenges & Paint Duels, but it seems our good friend Byron has taken it upon himself to provide a draft of a score-sheet, a summary of which you can see below (he has each scoring entry listed on his main sheet - yikes).  He's also agreed to take on the role of Duel Minion in order that the sheet stay maintained and up-to-date. Thanks so much Byron - You're my Hero!

Byron and I know that this preliminary sheet will have errors, so please drop him a note (bmudry at shaw dot ca) and he'll make the appropriate edits. Byron asks that you title your email to him for easy searching and making sure your messages are caught, something like “Painting Challenge Points Update - <whatever duel it is for or relevant comment>”.

In the future we will be installing this on the right sidebar once our wayward Spreadsheet Minion gets back to his seat in the Challenge Galley. Geez, spare the lash for the weekend and they go all soft on you...

Now, back to your oars, er, brushes!

 

	Participants	Scores
1/1200 Napoleonic ship Challenge
	MilesR	0
	PaulO'G	0
101 Years War Challenge
	Curt	0
	RayR	0
6mm Challenge
	IanW	24
	MarkO	112
	TamsinP	0
Bavarian Challenge
	ChristopherS	0
	Nick	0
Bronze to Steel Challenge
	ChristopherS	144
	IanW	36
	JonathanO	0
	MarkH	0
	MarticC	635
	SebG	0
Cetshwayo Challenge (Zulu)
	MartinC	635
	MichaelA	40
England and Spain Challenge
	JuanM	31
	PhilH	25
English Civil War Challenge
	AaronH	100
	PaulO'G	0
Frostgrave Challenge
	AdamC	192
	BillA	77
	ScottS	0
	SimonM	0
Horus Heresy Challenge
	GregB	140
	JamieM	130
	PaulO'G	0
LOTR Challenge
	ScottB	0
	SteH	0
Modern Mayhem Challenge
	ByronM	0
	Curt	45
	GregB	0
	KyleC	0
Native American Challenge
	DavidB	0
	TamsinP	0
Odin's Night Challenge
	Dux	0
	JohnS	0
	PaulO'G	0
	StephenS	0
Reject Challenge
	Fran	0
	Ray	0
Renaissance Men Challenge
	Curt	25
	PeterD	117
Sci-Fi Challenge
	DavidB	160
	GregB	185
	KyleC	0
	SeanS	11
	SyvainR	454
The Brothers Hawkins
	IanH	0
	PhilH	25
The Pulp Challenge
	Curt	0
	MichaelA	0
	PhilH	15
	SimonM	60