From SimonM: "Copplestone Castings" Mgebrov Single-Turret Armoured Car (20 points)

'The Interceptor' - Accompanied by Mad Max and Imperator Furiosa

This 1/55th Scale Mgebrov Single-Turret Armoured Car can be bought from "Coppletone Castings" as code K53 and is actually produced by "The Honourable Lead Boiler Suit Company". Designed and sold to compliment the manufacturer's "Back Of Beyond " range of miniatures, I actually purchased the resin model in order to use it as a rusty 'steampunk' version of Mad Max's famous Interceptor for my fledgling "Mad Max: Fury Road" project.

Unsurprisingly the kit, also available from "North Star Military Figures", is supplied unpainted and unassembled, and actually proved somewhat cumbersome to put together as a result if it arriving with no instructions. This omission was eventually overcome largely thanks to a picture of the vehicle on the "Copplestone Castings" website, and a bit of drilling (so as to accommodate the metal wheels).

"So I exist in this wasteland... A man, reduced to a single instinct: Survive."

In addition to the model, I also separately prepared a "Games Workshop" 120mm x 92mm oval base for it to sit upon, by marking out the position of its wheels and gritting around them. The base was then primed with "Citadel" Chaos Black, and dry-brushed first with Doombull Brown and then Rakarth Flesh. As a last step I washed the stand with "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade and left it to dry...

The 'Interceptor' itself was initially primed with two coats of "Citadel" Chaos Black and subsequently dry-brushed with "Vallejo" Heavy Charcoal. I then 'picked out' it's turret weapon and wheels with Ironbreaker, and heavily washed with the entire vehicle with "Citadel" Nuln Oil.

"How much more can they take from me? They got my blood, now its my car!"

With the car's basic layers finished, I then took some "Mig Productions" Extreme Rust Wash, and having shaken the bottle vigorously, simply administered the particle-charged solution over the majority of the model using a "medium sized round soft paintbrush". Once this had thoroughly dried, and the bottle's contents had been given time to settle to the bottom, I roughly dappled a far more sediment-filled brush over all the seams, rivets and bolts. This technique really seemed to help build up some thick rust in the deeper recesses of the vehicle.

As I wanted the automobile to appear somewhat well-cared for, despite its post-apocalyptic environment, I decided to 'clean' the car up a bit by dry-brushing certain areas with more "Citadel" Abaddon Black. In addition to this, I tidied up the wheels, weapon, and painted the headlight with a combination of "Vallejo" White and "Citadel" Nuln Oil.

'The Interceptor' WIPS - The model was dry-brushed with more Black once the rust effect had dried

Having fixed the vehicle to its 'finished' base (as the car's clearance was so low as to make painting its stand impossible otherwise) I shook my bottle of "Mig Productions" Extreme Rust Wash once again and applied the 'watery' solution over the edges of my recent dry-brushing, so as to tone down its starkness. The 'Interceptor' was then varnished.

I certainly have experience in building models sans instructions! I can also acknowledge how tenacity, ingenuity, but really just sheer honest stubborness will win the day. The effort you put into this iron(ok resin) beast has paid dividends in the last. A very fine ride it is. I appreciate the stage shots as I can see how stopping at any one of the "Mig" wash steps would have yielded a different ride altogether. This is very well suited to Mad Max, but I do envision many other games where it would have an impact as well. I'd like one myself!
just for the extra work and the base, I piped you up a few points. Very fine work, Simon!

From AaronH - Eowyn, Maiden of Rohan (5 pts)

This first entry is going to be solo because I don't think this princess deserves to be lumped in with the riff-raff that will be following.

This is a Games Workshop miniature from the Lord of the Rings line. She's really a fantastic sculpt. I don't know why it took me so long to get to her. I finished her mounted version back in 2009 or 2010.

In this picture she is next to an Uruk-Hai captain, who will, no doubt, soon fall to her blade. After which he'll show up in the next post.

The detail on her is perfect. The artists really captured the face of the model. Sadly she is washed out so you can see the brilliant blending I used to capture her ennui as she heads into what she believes will be her last battle.

In all seriousness, I did spend a lot of time on the face. It saddens me that my poor photography skills are covering up for my poor blending skills.

I really like the green of these capes. It screams "Rohan" to me. This model will see action this evening, but not as the lady Eowyn. She will, instead be standing in for the Cleric Sybil during tonight's D&D game. Still, I expect her to draw first blood. RPGs are more forgiving of newly-painted model syndrome that miniature games are.

Eowyn is most definitely a vision from the movies. You captured her well in color and I can fully envison her advancing upon the Witch King. (cannot be harmed by a blade from mortal man indeed!)
I'm glad you tagged her for Sarah's Choice as smart, capable Eowyn has more grit than most privates I know! ;)

From MichaelP - Napoleonic Spanish Light Infantry (72 points)

I have finished 18 20mm infantry figures, representing Spanish infantry of the Napoleonic Wars.  The figures belong to my friend Tony, who goes by the name of MS Foy and who runs the wonderfully eclectic blog Prometheus in Aspic.  Tony has been very kind to me over the years, and I wanted to repay him by offering to paint this unit for him.

Tony has been building a Spanish army ca 1809, which is quite distinctive in that most of the troops wear bicornes and wear some lovely uniforms.  There are some impressive group shots of his army here.

He asked me to paint these figures in the uniform of a rather mysterious regiment of light infantry called the Voluntarios de Campo Mayor.   It's mysterious because Campo Mayor is the name of a place in Portugal, so it's odd that the Spanish would name a regiment after it.  There's a long discussion about it here, if you are so interested.

The figures themselves are manufactured by a Spanish company, Falcata.  As it was explained to me, Falcata were a pair of sculptors whose early work was quite fine, but who apparently couldn't sustain a business model.  One of Tony's friends was their UK distributor for a while and got badly burned financially.  I am not sure Falcata figures are still available.  I found these figures to be quite detailed and mostly crisp sculpts, but alas, I am not a talented enough figure painter to capture that sort of detail in 20mm.  I am much happier doing Napoleonics in 6mm.

Command group:

Skirmishers in their distinctive brown capes.

Marching chaps.

Eighteen 20mm foot figures at 4 points each should get me 72 points.  Tony asked me NOT to base these figures, as he has his house method of basing, and they will be much easier to mail if they are unbased.  However, if the Minions wish to enforce the penalty for unbased figures, which I think is 25%, I think I would lose 18 points and thus only get 54.   Plus there is no flag, Tony is still researching the flag carried by Campo Mayor, but that's his problem now.  I am just happy to get these figures back to their master.

 

You are definitely selling yourself short, Padre! These are some splendid Spanish Infantry that you produced. They are sporting some very sharp uniforms, I like the brown capes of the skirmishers. These fellows remind me of my own stalled Penninsular War project! I struggle to get this level of detail on 28mm Napoleonics!

Yes there is a 25% penalty for unbased troops, but these are prepped for block basing I see with the grassy green applied to their intregal bases. They are also a friendly commission for a friend, it would be churlish to dock generosity! I am only disappointed that I will have to wait to see them fully done with regimental colors!

 

Iain W Italian Wars crossbow men renaissance side duel ready(50 points)

Here we have ten French/Swiss crossbow men, together with ten I painted a year ago . I realised that I needed to add some 16th century metal Perry heads to these figures, simpler then landsknechts!

            

I have changed how I have done the bases following on from the last post and I think they are more succesful.
So that is 10 x28mm figures, 50 points towards my total and my renaissance side duel with Curt.
All the best
Iain


One of my favorite things about the challenge is the reminders of projects I want to do. Italian Wars are definitely high on the list. Admittedly mine are GW Empire and not Perry Italian War sculpts, but if you squint just right....
I do like the mixture of costume and the color combination, it also appears they are about to let loose then retire behind the waiting pike."Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception"-but if that fails-"If you need to injure someone,do it in such a way that you do not have to fear their vengence" two apt quotes from Machiavelli that should be mantras for skirmishers! ;)
 50 points well earned!

Thursday Minion -3am is sleeping in if you are ususaly up by 2!

IT'S Thursday!

I have just completed my work week and am ready to hit the brushes again.

I was a bit wore out and went straight to bed last night, fortunately, the thursday crew have been diligently pluging away.

I was planning for an entire day of miniature fun, but my minions have various athletic functions, exams, and a half day of school. This translates intono adult beverages for dad till much later and sporadic posting throughout the day.

I also have military training!....no...alas, No fun in the woods or ranges. Apparently with my new rank, I have to complete some military training via online courses.

Surely the DoD knows I'm infantry!? I suspect that the spreadsheet has some involvement in this unexpected task...excuse me while I try to find some coffee...

[Wednesday] From PaulS: Wednesday Madness (Ready)

Much like previous weeks, we're going for another very mixed batch of games and manufacturers in this entry with no thought to consistency of theme, other than "That's weird..." and I suspect that will be your response to the selection too.

Starting with some bits that very nearly got finished for the last entry, but didn't quite pip the post. These are all for Bolt Action/Konflict '47 or the Achtung! Cthulhu skirmish. The first two figures are a german super  soldier and Canon from the A!C skirmish game from Modiphius. The figures are more true scale than Warlord's which makes the Canon a little small, hence him being on a thicker base than the other guy.

When I picked up the plastics for the last batch of Germans, it included some tanks (in the queue). One of which was a choice of SD.KFZ 251 kits. Rather than grabbing the normal one, I opted for the mortar carrier... but opted to build it as a normal 251 and made the mortar into a medium mortar team instead

There is also a lone flamethrower from the Pioneer box set. I still need to make his partner in crime to complete the team, but that involves getting out the green stuff, so rather than delay things further with more modelling, I'll leave that until after the challenge. For now a generic rifleman will have to do.

Next up we have two characters from the Pulp Alley range. These are some of the nicest models I've painted in a while. I think it is the clean sculpts and just enough detail to make them characterful, but not over the top so that it takes forever to pick out the bits and pieces

Pulp Girl has been done up as a German super soldier or mystic with a powered/magical gauntlet... not quite decided which she will be.

The other figure in the pack has been painted up as Lobster Johnson from the BPRD comics. What pulp/weird war setting would be complete without his appearance?!

After the deviation into Pulp, we return to the Weird West with three giant, two headed rat-type things from Shadows of Brimstone. Like most of the earlier sculpts, the detail is soft, but not as soft as the original sets. There are also less gaps caused by poor casting design and warpage or plastic, so I have some hope that the rest of the KS figures will actually be worth while when it turns up. Lobster Johnson is fighting these off to give you a sense of scale on these things. They are massive...

Last, but definitely not least, is a deviation off into 30K with 5 Custodes from the Prospero box set. These guys make Terminators look small and weedy!

This totals to 16 28mm figures to add to the totals so far. 

ByronM: Another great eclectic post Paul.  Everything here looks great, but my two favourites are the giant rats and the pinup.  The rats I really like as they could be used for so many different games and fit right it, and your neutral / normal paint scheme for them looks great and helps them be universal.

The pinup girl is my other favourite as I love the contrast from the grey uniform to the blue glove and back to the blond hair. Speaking of which blond hair is always so hard to pull off, but it looks spot on with her, and that is what helps sell it.

The rats look big enough to be considered cavalry, so you get 95 points for today's submission. Great work!

From IannickM : Female Assasin (5 Points)

Yes, two posts today! It didn't feel right to mix Napoleonics with fantasy. So a single piece for this entry, a female assassin from Dark Swords miniatures. The figure is not attached to any planned games or project, really, it's a Christmas gift from the girlfriend. Now usually when she gives me figures as gift they go into the lead pile (as all my purchases go), and she gets to see them painted many moons later, so this year I decided to do something different and put it in my priority pile!

So there she is, I painted her as a single so I did spend more time on her than most other figures, and I'm really happy I did as I think she looks gorgeous! The figure itself is an awesome sculpt and has that nice Old School vibe the fantasy masters at Dark Sword still manage to produce. It's a very simple sculpt, no skulls or extra belts and stuff, but it is very effective.

Yes, I couldn't resist using some pink on the female warrior, cliché you might say, but I just love the colour and any excuse to use it is good with me! I tried to offset the bright colour with a darker mauve cloak, a very simple basing and some grey pants. I quite like the final results.

Now, of course, being who I am it might just be the start of a Frostgrave or Songs of Blades and Heroes warband! Somewhere the old masters at Dark Swords are smiling, knowing I need at least 10 more of their figures...

So that's a small but satisfying 5 pts. 

ByronM: I would agree with that, you should be satisfied with this small but high quality submission.  The figure would suit itself to many different games and settings, and is very feminine due to the pink colour.  Once again I like the stark highlights, it is a method that a lot of painters that I realy like (like Curt, Greg, Sydney) all use on thier models to produce very high quality tabletop miniatures.  Calling it tabletop, is not a put down in any way, as this style is done for that exact reason, to look good at table top level, and in fact looks BETTER on the tabletop than many of the super detailed methods that a lot of the elite painters use.  All to say, I really like the look and style.

From MichaelD: 16 French Foreign Legionaires (80 points)

One of the projects I'm using the challenge to get completed is a French Foreign Legion force. I've already got about 20 or so and I'm also working on some Tauregs for some skirmish gaming action.
So here are the newest additions to La Legion. These are Artizan figures.

Had a bit of a problem when I realized that the blue I had used for the great-coats was a bit lighter than what I had used previously on the rest of the group, but I think I'll go back and fix that later. The bugler here I got right, because I had realized my mistake by the time I'd started him.

I especially enjoyed doing the command figures. They had a lot of character, and I'm happy with the way they turned out.

ByronM: Very nice figures and paint job on them.  In regards to the blue, it is your call on adjusting them, but I will give you the same advice Curt gave me when I complained about having done that on some of my first Napoleonics... 

No two uniforms were the same in real life, and even if they all started the same, they saw different amounts of wear and cleaning, so rarely looked even close the the same after a few weeks, then faded or colour shifted due to dirt, sun, cleaning, etc, - You are perfectly fine leaving some different colours.

After that advice, I started painting big units like that different on purpose.  While I keep them close to the same colour, most of my units have a least a few members with far different colours on them, including completely different coloured pants, as most of the time at least one squad member would have ripped them or replaced them.  While not "standard issue" or normal, I think Curt's advice makes a lot of units look more real, than flowing the official uniform standard.

From IannickM : Duchy of Warsaw skirmishers (25 points)

We take a break from the little fellows (Halflings) this week, and completely change register by doing some Napoleonics! 

Indeed, au menu today we have five Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw skimishers, from Murawski Miniatures. The figures are from the Voltigeurs in Full dress, campaign dress set as well as the new "extra" scruffy Campaign dress figures. And boy are they scruffy! Roger has a real problem and just keeps producing more and more Poles! The sheer variety is one of my favourite thing about the range, and oh if all Napoleonic armies could get this level of completeness and love (other than the French and British, the boring and annoying favourites, of course).

The figures are fusiliers and voltigeurs skirmishers from the Duchy of Warsaw 1st infantry regiment, presumably in the middle of an exhausting campaign! I'll probably end up using them for skirmishes set in the 1809 campaign between the Poles and the Austrians (and maybe Brunswickers 'cause they look cool).

They are meant for a Napoleonic skirmish project I'm just starting, the goal to play really small scale skirmishes and maybe eventually bigger ones like Sharpe's Practice. But mostly, it's an excuse to give extra love to my favourite Napoleonic ranges: it seems I always paint Naps in batches of 16 or 24, and I wanted to work on small batches and individuals for a change. I must say it was a very different experience from batch painting Napoleonic battalions!

The Murawski figures are as usual lovely (I'm biased), and I'm always surprised I don't see more Duchy of Warsaw in blogs and on the battlefield, as it is really a lovely army with their distinctive Czapka and colourful facings.

Finally, I just want to remind y'all that Murawski Miniatures is giving away a complete set of such skirmishers (11 foot, 6 commands), so if you like what you see work extra hard on your productivity and such gems might be yours free of charge in about two months! (this extra motivation speech is brought to you free of charge, courtesy of Murawski Miniatures.)

So, for this entry that's 5 28mm figures, 25 pts, hopefully more to come in between Halflings! 

ByronM: Words you never thought you would say "I miss the halflings!".  Regardless of the halflings, these Napoleonics are cracking figures and paint jobs!  I really like your clean painting and how each one is done differently rather than all the same.  

Maybe this is how I have to do Napoleonics, a few figures at a time to get better results. Doing small batches like this really lets you focus on them as individuals instead of rank and file, and it really shows in your painting here.  Great work.  

From BillA: Foot Knights of the Livonian Order (125 Points)

As I have mentioned, I'm building a Teutonic Knights force for Warhammer Ancient Battles, which is played regularly at a local gaming store.  The rules contain strictures on how many of certain types of troops I can field in my army - in an Early Period Teutonic force, which is what I'm currently doing, only 50% of my army list may be Brother Knights of the Teutonic Order.  A large portion of my force must be "Guest Crusaders," which for the sake of using figures I received for Christmas, I have opted to make members of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword - originally a separate order of warrior monks, but merged with the Teutonic Order in 1236 following a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Saule.

Mostly this gave me the opportunity to "assembly line" a regiment of soldiers that had a *bit* more color to them than the black-and-white surcoats and shields of the Teutons.  The figures are Fireforge Games' "Teutonic Infantry" plastic boxed set, assembled with hand weapons, for which I had to raid my Teutonic Knights sprues - while the Teutonic Infantry box provides bodies for 24 figures, it only provides 12 arms holding hand weapons, along with 12 arms holding spears, and 12 arms holding crossbows.  So I grabbed some sword, mace, flail and axe-wielding arms from the Knight sprues, since I assembled all of them with lances anyways.

The bases (magnetic, something I haven't used before - fancy!) are painted brown and then flocked with brown basing grit, some tufts of "Winter Grass" glued down, and then varnished to seal the grit in, before being flocked again with the snow flocking.  I went with this because one of the most famous battles of the Teutonic Order (at which the Livonians were a major presence) was the Battle of Lake Peipus, or "The Battle on the Ice," in which the German knights faced off against Russian forces under Alexander Nevsky.

This also represents something kind of special for me: this is the first rank and file regiment I've built and painted in something like 12 or 13 years, since I was in high school and discovered the Games Workshop store at the local mall.  This is, at 24 figures strong, also the largest rank and file regiment I ever built - the biggest I ever did back in the day was a 20-figure strong unit of skeletons when I wanted to build a Vampire Counts army for 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles.  I never finished an army for Warhammer Fantasy, being far too broke as a teenager to afford it.  I'm looking forward to being able to say I've completed an army for Warhammer Ancients.

ByronM: ARRGGG, yet another era that I always meant to pick up and get into.  They look really good all ranked up and the Fireforge miniatures look like they have a fair bit of detail as well.  I like the white and red colour scheme, especially against the snow bases, which also look good for a tabletop unit.

I hear your paint with big units, they are always a struggle to get through, these will look great on the battlefield though with all their high contrast.  24 figures nets you 120 points but I threw in an extra 5 points for all the hand painted shields, and congrats on your biggest ever unit.

From KyleC - Playstation 4 gone Rusty... (Just for fun!)

I hinted in the other post of a 1:1 project, and here it is. I had taken apart my son's PS4 controller and gave it a repaint. I like painting rust effects, so thought this might be a cool time to give it a go.

Main reason behind the paint to be fair was that his buttons were beginning to stick, and getting progressively worse. Once I had it all apart ( thank you YouTube and other crazy modders! ) I could see that the buttons had maple syrup on them. And that as it was drying, hardening, it was causing the buttons to stick lower and lower inside the controller. Down/upside of a Canadian household I guess... always having a bottle of Maple Syrup around.. though not always going where you want it!

Once I had gotten past the part of tearing the case apart I was able to separate the top half from all electronics. Making the paint work area easier, and less dangerous of breaking the controller further ( though prior to opening it, we had decided that if it died, it died for SCIENCE!!!! ).

First layer was the grey auto-body primer from Halfords, and then multiple layers of ModelMates rust effects.

I don't know why I went with an off-blue/grey coloring for this, but after several coatings of the AK Chipping Fluid, I gave it some nice gradient black to white with blue in the middle coats.

Once that was done, it was pretty simple to just go and begin to slowly chip off the top layers with a warm warm soaked brush. Slowly working certain ares to remove paint. It allows the top layers to be removed, but keeps the bottom layers in tact ( mostly.. depends if you did the chipping layer properly ).

The effect gives a proper look/feel of an aging controller.

The bluetooth headset was much easier as it came with additional faceplates for it. So I just took the spare and gave it some different rusty effects here.

Both were fun little projects to spice up my console gaming set up, and make Junior feel a bit more special ( and less sad about breaking the controller with Maple Syrup in the first place ).

Now I threaten to paint the PS4 console itself.. but maybe when I have more confidence to take it apart without breaking it fully!

ByronM:  So this is your 1:1 project...  Nice!

Very cool demo of what can be done around the home, I love the results, and I am sure your son does as well!  It has a very Fallout 4 look to it.  I would go for it with the console, they are dead simple to take apart and there are lots of tutorials on how out there as painting them is fairly common.  

From KyleC - Scum.. and Penguin... (230 Points)

So it has been a quiet weekend for me ( and an even quieter week ).. but the first ( of unfortunately many ) units for my Parliament English Civil Wars army is ready.. finally! I normally am not so down on the painting, and quite enjoy it, but for some reason this unit took me far more effort to get completed than I thought humanly possible. 

I believe it to be a combination of the sculpts and the lack of knowledge in the period to throw me off in the end. But I did in the end begin to organise a method for painting them up quickly. So hopefully future units will not take as much time. 

The way in which they hold the pikes differs from model to model, so have to plan that out much better next time around.. ugh.. learning curves suck!

I also do not like that they are in batches of 4 for basing, which made me have to go about a different route for getting them painted before bringing them on here. As I do want them to be a bit nicer. 

Also, before others mention it.. I am aware that I had painted some of the armor sections blue instead of metal. My reasoning is that they colored it for this unit, but future units were more lazy and left them silver ( maybe ). 

The biggest pain of the unit of course is the pikes themselves though. Something that I had to have a think on how to paint them up. In the end, you can see that I used a larger socket, blutac'd them on, and went to town on them with sprays and airbrush work. Before coating them, and the figures, in multiple coats of gloss, and then matte varnish for protection. 

Smaller batches moving forward for this lot will be required, and some better thinking on how to attach them prior to painting will also help. 

In between cursing this lot of infantry though, I did manage to paint up a small gang for Arkham City skirmish. Penguin and 5 of his goons for one of the local players. A lot more fun than I thought, and I also got to have a bit more freedom in how I did it. Although I did copy the boxart for a majority of it, I did get to choose how to get there in the end. 

There will be a few more of these coming soon, and if I can figure out how it works, I might even go and get in a game of it!

So all in, I got a total of 46 models painted up in the 28mm scale. I am not sure what else I will have for next week as there is a bolt action tournament coming up which I will get to use some of the rangers and American vehicles in.. but also means less painting time. Curious what I might get done, and in what scale. Have one project that is in 1:1 scale! :D 

ByronM: Good stuff here Kyle! I am completely with you on painting block infantry they always seem to be a slog for me as well.  Others around this site seem to bang them off with no issue, but I don't know the secret either, so maybe someone will share and we can learn something?  Unless the answer is skip details, then that's a no go (for me at least).

You ECW guys look really good though, despite your issues. I like the subtle things, like the pants being a slightly different shade of blue to make them appear separate yet still part of the whole (if that makes an sense).  All the details are nice and clean as well.  Pikes are always a pain for everyone though, so welcome to the club!  As for basing and painting, while it takes a bit more effort to be careful, what I do is paint them all on sticks, then fit them all together after so that you don't need to deal with painting around other figures. It sounds (and I could be wrong) that you based them then painted them, that makes it a lot more difficult, although many do it that way.

I would have liked to see some more pics of your Penguin gang as they look awesome.  I really like the shading you did on the "white" parkas.  You went far darker in the shades than I would have thought possible, far starker contrast lines, yet they still instantly look white.  I really like the effect.