Saturday's Information Bulletin from the Ministry of Truth

Well, I'm very pleased.  We're almost a month into the Challenge and I think things are moving along pretty smoothly.  Over two thirds of our participants have submitted entries and from these entries we've been treated to loads of amazing miniatures - over 16,000 points worth. So I extend a big 'Thank You' for all your enthusiasm, support and hard work.

On an administrative note, we have a new Challenger joining us. LeeH is coming aboard, replacing StacyS who unfortunately can't continue due to pressing family commitments. My best wishes go to Stacy in that things go well, and I hope to see you join us in a future Challenge. 

For those who don't know him, our new recruit Lee is known in the hobby blogosphere as Big Lee from Big Lee's Miniature Adventures. He is also a charter member of that glamorous gaming group from Gravesend: 'Postie's Rejects'. Lee will be joining 'Tamsin's Tuesday Teamsters' and will be aiming for a 300 point target. Please join me in welcoming Lee aboard!

As a final note, in regards to future Theme Round submissions, feel free to submit your work to me via email if you want to make sure nobody peaks before the 'big reveal'. It's not a necessity, but some people have asked if this can be accommodated and it is no problem at all.

Alright brush-jockeys, I'll return you back to our regular Saturday programming.

Curt Out.

'Strength Through Unity. Unity Through Paint.'

From AlexS. 28mm Napoleonics (400 points).

Completing a Napoleonic army is the "Holy Grail" of the majority of players and painters. Yes, we want to put on the famous cocked hat and commanding the Old Guard: «Tout le monde en arriere!» But it is very difficult and long way. Like any road in search of the Holy Grail. I've come this way once, with a miniature 1/72 scales, and now I will try to repeat it a second time, in the scale of 28mm. I do not know if I will make it or not, but I will try.

If the opportunity arises, I always practice on a miniature to see how beautiful the rest will look. This dragoon is a practice model. I realized, as I worked on it, and wait when it comes to posting thumbnail that will allow me to assemble and paint an entire regiment.

Next work - Prussian line infantry battalion. I tried to make it so that you can use in the campaign of 1812, and 1813 and 1814 and even 1815. It's not very good in terms of historicity (eg, volunteer jagers appeared only in 1813), but I think my opponents will agree to "close our eyes to this." But if not - so, then we need to do other miniatures ...

 In conclusion - a battalion of the French line infantry. I am delighted with plastic Perry brothers, who used in this work, but nevertheless decided to use officer on horse of Wargames Foundry, in order to emphasize that this is the first battalion of the regiment.

Total in this submission is two cavalry, 76 infantry, all in 28mm size.

This is quite wide assortment of great quality Alex.  You are right - the Napoleonic force is indeed the "Holy Grail" for a number of us.  Myself, I've gone down the road in 6mm, 15mm, 28mm and lately even 3mm...the road never seems to end...truly one of the more addictive - and at times frustrating - periods and settings to collect.  But nothing tops a great Napoleonic game when its all said and done!

No doubt those test dragoons will lead to another sizeable and excellent submission...looking forward to that!

Another sizeable pile of points for you Alex - 400 points! Your goal is already in sight...

From DaveB - More Catachans - 28mm Imperial Guardsmen (215 points)

 

I did not win the lottery draw, so I won't be traveling to England this year for Salute, the Bovington Tank museum, nor teaching Ray how to run a 5k through the woods the Potawatomi way. ;)

It's a little overcast today in Michigan as icy rain is forecasted, so these are all going to be a touch dark. I changed up my 5 layer flesh mix for the first squad pictured above. Death World vets are allowed LRPs for fast attack. These fellows are proficient at scouting and harassing enemy forces. They will set up ambushes and begin the game hidden in the jungle. It's a longstanding tradition that the first squad/first platoon is not the best. Above is Bravo Patrol they have a six layer mix of green for skin tone and black ink to give them the illusion of camouflage paint. The vet Sgt carries a long bladed Catachan knife in addition to his lasgun and they have a melta-gun as a special weapon choice.

My daughter has dubbed them the Poinsettia squad as their refusal to change up the traditional Catachan red bandannas has left them looking like that Christmas plant.
 

Alpha Squad, or Apache Squad have a bolt pistol armed Sgt with a flamer for a special weapon. They sport warpaint from inks and are entirely formed from the plastic Catachans. They do mock the Poinsettia Bravo squad as much as possible.

This is both the LRPs pictured together. I recently discovered P3 Coal Black which is a nice blue black and is great for a base coat for NMM painting. The two squads also got a wash of nuln oil on all except flesh areas as it really helped to tone down my highlighting.

Above is LT G "Cud"-Bear of Second Platoon with the 1st squad. 1st squad has a vet Sgt with las pistol and chain sword (really good for carving a path) a melta gunner and a heavy flamer. 1st squad also has a com link trooper for the PL to contact higher.

2nd platoon 3rd squad has a vet Sgt with bolt pistol and chain sword, a plasma gunner and a heavy flamer. The Chainsaw warrior, heavy flamer and two bare chested helmeted troops are the oldest GW figures that I own besides a few marines and eldar. This is also the first time they have ever been painted as I have long since given up on ever finding the chainsaw warrior game, as well as the other figures.

3rd squad 2nd platoon has my favourite Catachan Sgt as it's squad leader. 3rd squad also has my only Perry automatic SSW the heavy bolter. A plasma gunner completes the squad.

 

I filled 3rd squad with all of my favourite Perry sculpts.

 

 

A close up of some of my work, The chainsaw warrior has a red band as he didn't have a bandanna.
 

 

 This army has enough painted models to be legal now with a HQ, two troop choices, two fast attack, and two elite. They can purchase a heavy support by way of traps.

Besides changing up my NMM for these fellows, I also had to change the basing as GW no longer makes graveyard earth. I used "Stirland Mud" which has clumps of grainy pigment in it which can be broken down by adding more water. This makes it easy to have grainy, thick rocky mud or a skim coating of dark earth. I dipped the models in my flock after painting the bases and allowed the paint to stick to the paint. after drying I tapped off the excess than placed a few drops of PVA for static grass clumps. I will have to change this as one of my friends just told me the technical line was just dropped. Really!?!

I better go see if I can find some more, in the meanwhile....

43 Catachan infantry.

PS: Millsy, I just found an unpainted Perry Catachan tank commander - the one with the helmet - if you want him, I will see about sending him to OZ.

Holy cow - I've clearly been some kind of snob when it comes to the Catachans, as there is obviously a lot of appreciation for them out there when you look through the Challenge.  Dave, another excellent entry.  Your appreciation for the setting and the character of the figures really comes through in your posts, and your brush work is top shelf.  You shame my Catachan cynicism! 
Very cool to see the Chainsaw Warrior in the group - excellent work fitting him in!

The technical line has been dropped? After being on sale for a couple of months? With no explanation or reason? I don't know, but that sounds like the way the ass clown collection in charge of GW rolls.  Watch for them to appear in a special "legacy paints" collection in two years for four times the price...

Another big batch of points Dave - 215 for the pile - keep up the good work.

(Friday) From JamieM - 30k Bearers of the Word (beakies!) (180 points)

For this post, it's a slight change of tack..... 30k still, but the start of my second legion. Because when I start collecting something new, one army isn't ever enough despite what I promise myself when I start out!

As to the "history" of the legions, The Wordbearers are baddies. Deluded, but still baddies. You see, when the Emperor pushed into the stars on the grand reconquest of worlds lost, he created 20 space marine legions to help make that happen and each legion had a Primarch to lead it, a super human being. Each Primarch was different, growing up on different worlds and being shaped by their experiences and then further shaping their legions in their image.

Lorgar, the Primarch of the Wordbearers, grew up on a religious world and hence his legion became one full of religious zealots, who venerated the Emperor as a deity. Now, the Emperor didn't like this much as he claimed there were no gods (especially not him) and so he heavily chastised the legion. This led them to turn to the Chaos gods and drag down the other traitor legions with them. So this lot essentially started the Horus Heresy......

Anyway, onto the figures! First up, 20 marines in the mark VI "beaky" armour

I've always loved beaky armour, ever since I owned the RTB01 plastic box set of marines produced by GW in the 80's. I never thought I'd be able to get this many of them again (GW doesn't produce a unit of them outside forgeworld, instead choosing to scatter parts of the armour around other boxed sets, in line with their often baffling approach to customer service) but then I was given this:

Have you ever had a box like this given to you from a family member or friend because they know you're the wargamer of the family? Badly stuck together and horribly painted figures that someone used for a while and then got bored of? Well, within this box of "delights" were nearly enough legs to make 20 Mk VI armours. A few purchases from bits sellers of helmets and the use of the iconic left studded shoulder pad from betrayal at Calth and I was away!

A fair bit of religious iconography, with hand painted scrolls and decals applied direct to armour of favoured writings.

Next up, 2 sets of support marines in Mark V armour. The box comes with heavy bolters, but I've never liked that weapon, so a quick barrel swap later and I have a unit of 5 autocannons:

Added to these is a unit of plasma gunners:

The scale doesn't really show the religious writing too well, so here are some selected closer shots:

Mostly on lower legs and vambraces as that's where they fitted best!

Finally for this fun little group of nutters, 2 contemptor class dreadnoughts:

I liked the one in the box so much that I procured another one on eBay!

This allowed me to convert the weapons on one to give him double assault cannons and have him pointing them off centre. The conversion opportunities are much reduced compared to the resin ones I did for the salamanders, but the reduced cost more than makes up for it!

Double assault cannon chap also got a head swap as I could see the legion re-modelling the head to look like a daemon and the other got a torso twist to add a little dynamism.

And a family shot to finish:

A total of 30 28mm figures and two dreadnoughts for this submission.

More 30k goodness! With "beakie" Marines to boot! Fantastic stuff.  As a fan of the "Horus for Hope" movement, I am of course very pleased to see these enlightened soldiers of faith, who had the courage to embrace change and reject the dictatorship of the so-called "Emperor". The story of the models themselves - rejected and found - matches the story of the Legion nicely.  Those "hey, are you into this junk" (which turns out to be treasure) moments are rare, but they are fun. 

Solid brush work again Jamie, and the religious touches are quite nice, fitting the back story of Word Bearers very well.  And once again your dreadnoughts have a menacing look to them that is quite appealing. I also love the conversions of the autocannons...I was not able to get my own autocannon guys assembled properly, and seeing what you did here will definitely have me copying that...

Great work Jamie - another 180 points for you!

From SanderS - The Russian Bear, Crimean War 15mm (140 points)

Hoi Folks,

Here's part two of my "Khaki-Project" the larger part of my 15mm Crimean War Russian army.

There are 3 16 man infantry regiments, the colours are tin foil and I more or less freewheeled on the design.

There are also two cavalry squadrons of 4 men each:

Oh and a gun served by 3 gunners:

After painting these I still have to do their British counterparts but probably not for this Challenge, I now do know I do not like to paint 15mm figures, way too small for me. I'll stick with 20mm and 28 mm.

Cheers Sander

Sander, this is an excellent entry.  Crimean War is another period that has always piqued my curiosity, but intimidated me at the same time too much to try it, so I love seeing the efforts of others. Your brief reference to the unit flags being made from tin foil and the colours being done freehand belies, I suspect, a considerable amount of effort - particularly as I think they turned out quite nicely. Well done.

I am a huge fan of 15mm myself, but I can relate to having a certainly feeling of "scale remorse" after I've embarked on a project.  Perhaps some time and work on other projects will offer a chance to re-connect with 15mm, and the Crimean War, as I would love to see the Brits for these fellows to come up against. 

I think anyone who spends time messing around with tin foil to come up with hand-painted unit flags deserve at least a LITTLE extra, so this will net you 140 points.  Great stuff!

From SylvainR: Rise of the Viet-Cron (418 points)

Thịt thì yếu đuối. Kim loại mạnh mẽ. [Flesh is weak. Metal is strong.]

This project has been sitting on my shelves for 5 years and it is finally done! The inspiration came from a post by GregB, back in 2011, when he was working on a Valkyrie. Greg had many flyers ready to transport Elysian troops or blast enemies and I thought that this was a cool transposition of Vietnam warfare into science-fiction. Then I thought that there are very few sci-fi counterparts to the Viet-Minh and Viet-Cong armies and was wondering what a Asian style sci-fi force should look like. Games Workshop often integrates elements of various cultures into their armies: the Lizardmen's background is inspired by the Aztecs while the Tau are obviously a transvestite (perhaps "travesty" - GB) of Japanese anime robots, but nothing in their catalog seems remotely Vietnamese or even Chinese. So I decided to "asianize" one of the existing faction and bought a bunch of Necrons on kijiji for this purpose. If the Tau I bought previously were in fine shape, this time the lot I got was in a sorry state. The monolith had been put together with epoxy glue of all things! There were huge gaps between the panels and many parts were missing. I haven't bought miniatures on kijiji since.

A few days ago: the Viet-Cron army primed and ready to be "metalized" and "asianized."

And now, the Rise of the Viet-Cron is complete! All models are from Games Workshops, except the hats and the roof.

First, there are 12 scarab swarms for 60 points. These are the only Viet-Crons not wearing the trademark rice straw hats.
 

The core of the Viet-Cron is made up of 45 warriors. However, one was painted before the Challenge as a prototype and must be counted out. This group is worth 220 points. Because some figurines were damaged, a few warriors have been mounted with a head or an arm missing, as if recently damaged in battle. As the fluff says, the Necrons can self-repair anyway. Instead of silver or steel, I opted for bronze as this color of metal, evocative of oriental palaces and temples, appears more "Asian". The rice straw hats were made of black construction paper cut and shaped into little flat cones, then glued into position and painted.

These 6 Flayed Ones bring in 30 points. These close range killers are supposed to cover themselves with the skin of their victims. However, to make these kid-friendly, the skin parts were instead painted as old rags. The rice straw hats really suit them: they evoke demential ninja assassins.

 For this group of 5 elite warriors (25 points), I used gold instead of bronze, just for a change.

The leader, Ho-Ma-Shin, with its mysteriously levitating hat. 5 points.

3 Wraiths. The guy on the right shows symptoms of epoxy scoliosis. I could not undo this misaligned joint without breaking the mini. 15 points.

3 Destroyers and 1 Heavy Destroyer. These units required careful rebuilding. Because there is no groundwork, I deducted 25% from these "mounted" for a total of 30 points.

Aww, isn't the Tomb Spyder cute with a rice straw hat? The three prong hands have been reduced to two prongs because of missing parts, but she still looks good. Her size makes her a "mounted" for 8 points (10 minus 25% for lack of base, rounding up).

Finally, the "pièce de résistance", the Temple of Metal (tm) (15 points). At first, given the sad condition of the model, I was considering just using the parts to make debris on the battlefield. But after breaking off a few parts, then plugging in the holes with plastic cards, it started to look OK. I found a paper model of a Japanese temple on the Canon camera web site and built a roof to put on top. All in all, despite the reconstruction ordeal, this fusion of Asian cool and sci-fi appeal was a very fun project.

The points gathered here will also contribute to my tally for the Sci-Fi Challenge.

As for Sophie, she took a painting break this week. Maybe she'll have something to show next Friday.

Well, Sylvain, what can I say to this, but MERDE! great work! On the one hand, another Def Con1 points bomb that nets you a huge pile towards your total and our Sci-Fi Challenge.  And you do it with a submission where you name/blame some of my own old models for inspiration! I don't know if I should feel proud about that, or go find those Valkyries downstairs and hit them with a hammer!

Even though you are rendering my competitive position in the side duel down to its component atoms, this is a very impressive and fun submission Sylvain.  Great brushwork, and I find the thinking behind it intriguing. I generally despise the Necrons, but here you have done something very fun and creative - insurgents who literally cannot be killed.  There is some excellent meta-commentary somewhere in that notion.  When we meet next, whether that is in Regina or here in Winnipeg, I will have my Valkyrie-mounted Imperial Guardsmen ready for a tangle with these fellows - we must set that up!

I'm giving you some extra points for adding all the little bits that make these guys "Viet Cron" - total of 418 points...sigh...where IS that wine? And can someone stop Sylvain? To borrow a phrase from the psuedo-setting in question, I need Napalm, NOW...

From GillesW - Welcome back to the Circus! 15mm Carthaginian Elephants (67 Points)

Hello everyone.  In my last submission, some of you spoke  about carthaginian elephants on the comments.  I'm weak and very easy to influence, so I went in my Circus ( the Lead pile ) and I prepped, converted, undercoated some beast for the parade of this Friday.

The figures are from a variety of ranges, such as Old Glory, Covus Belli and Essex.  I have tried to note the ranges where I can.  I changed the heads of the Corvus Belli figures because I don't like the heads with separate ears.

I hope you will like them.

The "circus" on the move - are those Romans up there?

This figures is from Corvus Belli, but the head is Essex miniatures

An Old Glory figure

This features another combo of Corvus Belli and Essex head.  The archer is also from Essex, and the man with javelin is from Old Glory.

An Essex Miniatures elephant converted - the back has been filed to fir the howda

The elephant is from Alain Touller figures - the fellow with the javelin is from Corvus Belli, and he is joined by a lybio-phoenician from Essex

A good circus always need to have some clowns, I have painted few staff slingers for a side project and some Sardinian archers for my "second life" project to do the task of amusing the crowd.

stay tuned, more will come soon....

Eléphants - la terreur de l' ancien champ de bataille! Bien fait encore Mr. Gilles! Another very cool ancients submission.  I'm mostly a sci-fi and modern geek, but I envy you guys and girls doing ancients because the stuff looks so cool, and you obviously know your history! I can picture those elephants running down some hapless Roman soldiers, or perhaps simply running amok among their own forces - either way, a lot of fun on the gaming table.

Another great entry Gilles.  I'm sympathetic to anyone who will go convert and paint a bunch of stuff on the whim of some comments (I know what you mean!) and the work going into these elephants, with the wide array of figures and good conversions, is very impressive - and that's before the brush work! Since elephants seemed to be the tanks of the ancient world, we'll score them as vehicles, and I will include a few extra points for the conversion work - for 67 points all together.  Looking forward to next week's submission!