Thursday is here again

With metronomic accuracy, Thursday is once again hot on the heels of Wednesday.  I'm reminded of contestants in the Winter Olympics on a halfpipe (totally gnarly dude) or perhaps alpine skiing or doing the biathalon, given we're at the point in the challenge where people batten down and keep grinding out the figures, lactic acid burning in the muscles like you're on the home strait of a speed skating 1km course.....



Anyway, we have a slightly lighter than usual schedule this week, but sit back and enjoy the miniatures presented to you today in between watching the heats, finals and having fun awarding points to the ice dancers.

From Barks: A Snow boy and his Wolf (11 points)

The boy is from Elladan, and the wolf is from Reaper- my first Bones figure. They will complement last years revenants nicely.

It is a challenge painting and photographing shades of black!

The wolf's eyes are a bit odd, but the rest of this large beast is great. He's on a 40mm Renedra base. The mould lines aren't apparent in real life!

I'm not entirely happy with the boy's face, it just doesn't ring true for me. But then, what would I know?

From Ray

I think you've made a terrific job on both these figures John. Black is a bugger to get looking right and it never photographs very well either?
Love the Wolf, he looks a handful, I really had to search for the mould lines on the wolf, so I think you've got away with that. Love the basing too, the snow effect is really cool!

I've added an extra point for the wolf as he's pretty cool and a little larger than 28mm.
So 11 points altogether!

From DaveD - Its a Bitsa week - 66 points

Yes that is right- bitsa this and bitsa that as I clear stuff off the table to stack up the next big one.

First up 6 skirmishers for the recently completed Cameron Highlanders in the Sudan.

last of the bloody tartan for a long time! 

 6 x 28mm figures = 30 points

Next up - a battery of 152mm SP guns for playing Crush the Capitalists..

1/285th GHQ - SAU 152mm SP guns 

5 x 6mm vehicles = 10 points

Next up the headache for minion Raymondo!

This weekend MartinC ,JamesM and I have a second outing of Team Yankee - (aka to Comrade Docovich as Crush the Capitalists) and i have been doing the various Timecast 6mm buildings i picked up at York.

Large oil storage tanks , and two apartment blocks each base is 6"x 4"

4 stand alone buildings 

So here are all the buildings so far.

I picked up some extra field pieces from Timecast as well , which needed painting and flocking

New field pieces - some ploughed up or just plain largest is 4 inches by two

And another one from left field - JamesM asked me to make some hedge sections for his upcoming 15mm Normandy game - so 8 6 inch long section , with 20mmx20mm hedges - with a breached section in the middle - they are made from rubberised horsehair cut and shaped  - pva and scatter material stuck on 1/16th sheet plywood. - the Shernan may give you hint to a  future project of mine! - its not finished yet (he's got a lot of mates...)

My estimate is the terrain bits make up 1 and half terrain cubes  = 30 points?

From Ray

Top work Comrade!! On all counts!
God I hate these terrain bits!!! They're so damn hard to sort the points out for???
40 points for all the figures and....
I've added the terrain together and come up with a combined 1.3 giving you 26 points
Giving you a grand total of 66 points!

From JamesM: 15mm Terrain 48 points

Hi folks,

I had a few days last week of being rather unwell, and have been focusing on the next theme round... but managed to get some more 15mm terrain done, because I know how much Ray loves it!
From Ray (Grrrroooaaannn!!!)

First up, three 15mm MDF houses. Manufacturer unknown - no split floors or internal structure, but with lift off roofs.

I've included a couple of WiP gunners for scale comparison!

These three buildings will be added into my town collections. They could do with a little detail work on them in the future - ivy, posters, etc. But for now they will do!

Next up some 15mm gravestones. I've already got some of these for my churchyard, but it looked a little sparse so I got some more. These are from Blotz in the UK and also from a Ebay seller who sells resin tombs and gravestones.

Again, some models included for scale comparison. I've glued these to flames of war medium sized bases, painted them up with a couple of drybrushes and then bases in a similar style to my figures. I've still a couple of bases of these to do, where the static grass was too sparse for some reason, so more of these might make an appearance in the future!

Points wise, I believe it's 15 points per 15mm building (45 points) - I'll leave the gravestones for Ray to figure out!

From Ray

Oh my Gawd!! Your killing me James!!!
Excellent brushwork on the buildings, but I love the gravestones, its gotta be the best kept graveyard in Europe, and luckily for that villages it looks like nobody's died recently!!

Now for the points.......Hmm?
45 points for the buildings as you said and
3 points for the Graveyard set
Giving you a grand total of 48 points!

From TomM: 116th Pennsylvania... and some levies (155 points)

This weeks entry into the Painting Challenge is one of the reasons I actually got into it, to build further on my full OrBat for the II Corps, 1 Division of Hancock, as it fought at Fredericksburg.

While I already finished some of the generals last week, this entry features one of the still many regiments to go for the campaign... the 116th Pennsylvania.

Part of the 2nd Brigade, better known as the Irish Brigade, this is the first brigade I'm aiming to complete because a) it's the Irish Brigade and b) their flags, compared to the other regiments in the division, are more wildely available.

Though truth to be told, the 116th is harder to find, I got mine through GMB designs, but Flags of War for example only have the other four regiments.  Typical of this fifth regiment of the brigade, is that they didn't carry the green flag, even though in the movie Gods and Generals, it is their colonel, Mulholland St Clair, that leads the charge in the film as the flags of Erin unfolded...

Of course, that meant I just had to give their commander a reddish orange beard and white gloves ;-)

In addition to the regiment, I also finished this lone sniper, in the green uniform typical of the earlier war and regiments like Berdan's Sharpshooters.  The model is the limited edition figure you receive if you order the Black powder ACW supplement directly from Warlord Games.

The final piece of my entry this week wasn`t planned at all for the challenge, but is a result of better then expected games in TSA's Dux Britanniarum campaign.  If all my troops after the first round debacle return, and with the hired mercenaries in my army, I would suddenly found myself short of one unit of levies for the battles to come.  So I grabbed 6 from the Dark Age box and painted up a fresh unit, just in case if my luck would stay with me...

So that's it for this week, all in all 31 figures in scale 28mm, so that amounts to a nice 155 points to the tally, and the crossing of the 1.000 threshhold huzzaah...

From Ray

Very well done passing the 1000 mark Tom. Very well deserved!!
I'm pleased once again seeing more historical figures from yourself! And hopefully we'll see more of those excellent fighting Oirish!! I'm sure that's my ol' pal Happy Fran leading the men from the front!
Great looking levies as well, let's hope they do their duty in the forthcoming battle?

31x5=155 points!

From PeterD 28mm French SYW Infantry 40 points

Note to self - must clean up the front of the Ordnance colour!

Forgive me Father it has been three weeks since my last confession....
Rumours of my death being slightly exaggerated I am back with a post again having missed two weeks with the flu. Continuing with my ongoing slow progress with my SYW project I have another 8 members of the French Touraine Regiment.

Three Crusader figures led by a Front Rank Officer

The rank and file members are Crusader as are the drummer and one of the two standard bearers.  I wasn't overly enamored of the Crusader command pack so pick up some Front Rank figures to swell the ranks.  The Front Rankers are the two Grenadiers and the two officers in the front rank (appropriately enough).   The two figure companies worked better together than I had feared, with the Grenadiers looking suitably buff compared to the fusiliers without dwarfing them.

I'm quite happy with the unit labels.

During the Seven Years War French Battalions had 16 fusilier companies and one Grenadier company, so in a 24 man battalion that should be 1.4 grenadier figures, which I have of course rounded up to 2 beefy men in mustaches and spiffy bearskin hats.  There were often piquet or chasseur companies detached for counting, raiding or other Kleine Krieg activities which I hope to add later.  Unlike the Allied armies opposing them, the grenadiers were not detached into permanent composite battalions but typically remained with the parent regiment unless detached for a specific action.

I really like those Front Rank grenadiers.

Of course a big attraction of a French army of the period is the flags, the white Colonel's colour and the multicoloured Ordnance colour.  Normally my default for flags is the excellent Warflag site, but the examples for Touraine seemed a little garish and I ventured more widely on the web and found these examples on the Not By Appointment site.  I downloaded the jpeg, resized the images and printed them off at home.  Hopefully I've not violated any copyright in the process, but these are gorgeous flags.

16 down, 8 more to go.

Here's the 16 completed members of the Touraine Regiment in line.  I've added unit labels at the back, including a small image of the Ordinance colour for added visual reference given that I'll have several French regiments in grey-white.

From the rear.  I quite like the Crusader drummer.  Being a Provincial regiment, I've given him the King's livery.

So by my count that's 8 28mm figures for 40 points.  it also means that after three weeks stuck at 196, I finally get over my modest 200 point target!

From Ray

Crackin' painting Peter! These 8 figures added to the other 8 make a wonderful looking unit!
This damned flu has really hit the Challenge hard this year, with several participants struck down with the dreaded lurgy!! Including me!!!
The flags on Not by Appointment are some of the best around, I'm pretty sure David would be very pleased to see his flags flying high on your gaming table!
And so to the points. Nice and simple, just like I like it.

8 x 5 = 40 points!

From AdamC - "Piano" man and Irish Warriors 76 points

 The fifth member of the band from my music entry, The Harpsichordist, he was ready to go but his instrument was not.

I had hoped to fit him on the same base with the strings but the spacing was a little tight so I put him on his own base.  I've got the audience on my painting table and now we'll change gears to some more Dark Age Irish. 

This is the warlord from the Footsore set. He was a little late arriving as he and his banner man weren't packed with the main box. That Said Footsore got him out to me quickly and sent some freebies too.

The shield is hand painted it’s a fairly "Irish" design (similar to one of the little bigman transfers) I ran out of the Warlord purple flowers so I had to pick up some woodland scenic flowers, they are harder to work with, but I like how they look.

This figure will be my Curtgeld. Since we have the option to make a charitable donation this year I will be putting him up on eBay and donating what I get for him to Extra life. (He'll be listed Friday)

The warlords banner man. This guy with his impressive mustache and gold chain is clearly a bit of a dandy. So, he got a fancy read robe with gold fringe. Maybe he should sell the chain to get some shoes.

I haven't decided on a banner yet, but I have a couple I am considering. I'll have two bannermen for the army which can have some advantages in Saga.

As an apology for not sending the warlord Footsore sent along 8 additional Fianna. The have the same poses but I tried to make them different form the previous fellow with different colors and weapons.

Looks like I missed the back of another shield! doh! but otherwise I am pleased with how the came out. I plan to use these guys as leaders with in units these have no function in Saga but I feel they would be there.

These 4 with their chain mail are clearly the wealthiest warriors. I decided to make them a bit brighter than other folks in this army. The Yellow cloak might be a bit over the top, but it is from the dark age “color palate” data I found.

I think the grayish white cloak with its orange boarder really came out well. These guys will make good hero figures since they will stand out. Points. There are eleven (11) 25mm figures so that should come to 55 points.  I'll leave it to Ray to determine how many points if any the harpsicord is worth. Curtgeld figures have been 20 Points in the past but I man not sure if that applies when Curt isn't getting the figure. If I do get the Curtgeld points the total is 70 points.   

From Ray

Another mighty entry Adam! Love the Harpsicord player and the carpet his sitting on too!
You must have a massive collection of Irish by now?
I love the Curtgeld figure, what a great pose! And well done for being my first Curtgeld figure entry. I'm going to award you 20 points extra for the Curtgeld figure and i hope he makes a fine price on ebay!! I'll also award you an extra point for the Harpsicord!
So that's.....
11x5= 55
1 x Curtgeld 20pts
Billy Joel's piano 1 point
Making a grand total of 76 points!

From LeeH - 24th Foot at Isandlwana...plus Cattle (74 Points)

As promised my own brand of insanity continues with six companies of 24th Foot from the Zulu War, this time formed up in a firing line. For those that have been following my recent painting projects you may by now have realised that I have been rather selective in my choice of units. I am focusing primarily on troops that were present at the Battle of Isandlwana, 22nd January 1879. Six companies were involved in the battle, five from the 1/24th and one unlucky company from the 2/24th. The aim - eventually, a long way down the line - is to play a few 'what-if' scenarios regarding this disastrous engagement. I expect I'll be painting units for this battle and for the wider Zulu war long after the painting challenge has ended... so don't be surprised if you see more of this project in Challenge Nine!

My original plan was to have the command figures amongst the ranks on a single base but at the last minute I decided I wanted the company commanders to be based separately. In keeping with the theme each if the bases is labelled with their company details and the name of the commanding officer. 

Once again I have lavished as much detail on these figures as my rapidly fading sanity (and eyesight) would allow. Overall I am happy with how these turned out, although it has to be said that I'm terribly self critical and no sooner had I finished than I began picking out details I could have done better. Luckily these won't be the last British infantry to cross my painting desk so I expect I'll have plenty of opportunity for improvement! 

I'm also submitting several bases of cattle that I managed to get finished this week. 'Steak on the Hoof' was used by both sides as a source of fresh meat for the troops.

102 figures (96 infantry plus six commanders) will net me 51 points with a further 22 points for 45 cattle which adds up to a grand total of 73 points. This should bring me to within line-of-sight to my challenge target and and my best performance yet. I'm not about to stop though, I have yet more Zulu's to paint, imperial cavalry, wagons and more besides.

From Ray

Excellent little fellows Lee. I'm really enjoying your dally with Victorian warfare. I've got to admit to being slightly jealous, I wish I'd painted a few 6mm armies, my eyes just can't take it anymore. I've gotta buy one of those giant magnifying glasses!!
I do like the idea of the commanders on separate bases too, does this mean they can become casualties themselves?? I do hope so?

So that's 102+45, which makes 147 which equates to 73.5 points. So I'll add and extra .5 point (Woo Hoo!) to take you up to 74 points!

From JohnM: More Revenants - 60 points

Missed making a submission last week; I have been working on a new project but I was able to get another unit of SAGA Revenants done, so something to go with. 

I have used a different method of painting than I had previously, as can be seen. 

I have another 12 figures to go which came in the original box set. I may do these in a completely different style, but I suspect they will not surface until next year's challenge.

Anyway I have to say that time has sped by in this challenge, hard to believe that it is almost two thirds over. Hopefully 3-4 more submissions before we are done.

From Ray

Crackin' work John! 12 great looking figures, I like the splash of colour on the beautifully dressed Woman in Red, that's if it is a woman?????
I like the painting style on these ones, they look kind of cleaner, if you know what I mean?

60 points!!