From TeemuL: Quintet of Heroes [Sarah's Star Yacht] (45 points)

Quick post today. I guess I could backtrack my way to Mars, but why bother when we can use a comfortable Star Yacht?

These are bendy plastic Pathfinder minis, I intended to buy these for my son to paint, but he found them too detailed. So off we go and collect another squirrel with these rather quick Contrast jobs. Also, writing with phone, terrible experience... There are two female oracles and fighters with a single male monk.

From Millsy:

Another post packed full of colour and character Teemu and a great way for you to round out your Challenge. They're all wonderful but I particularly like the monk, with his beautiful bronzed skin tone and wickedly curved blade.

Thanks for sharing your creativity with us this year mate. It has been a blast and I have enjoyed each and every one of your submissions. 45 points it is to add to you tally!

From PeterD - The Shelf Soup Post (60 points)

Last weekend of the Challenge and time to clear off anything on the workbench that is close to done. It's kinda like shelf soup or leftover day, a mix of everything.

First up a trip of nominally 28mm Wizkids monsters for my Beowulf RPG.  These have been sitting around finished or nearly so in some cases since January, but weren't as satisfactory as some of my other beowulf baddies.  We have a troll, an earth elemental and a Sea Hag,

I tried to get a different green effect on this troll from his skinnier compadre posted earlier. I'm not quite happy with the results but he's big green and ugly, and I'm pretty sure I've seen him pushing Chaos Space Marines around a 40K battlefield.  The earth elemental is a nice figure but I kinda whiffed on my attempted morph into a elemental from the sea bed for a Beowulf adventure.  I had ambitions of sculpting the base with modelling gel so that the broken rocks looked more wave like but in the end went for a paint conversion.  I gave him a green wash to represent marine growths and overdid the gloss medium applied over top.  The Se Hag came in the same pack as the Bheur Hag posted earlier.  Unlike her sister (which has a Disney villainous vibe) the Sea Hag lacks character and has more of a Zombie Luau dancer vibe. 

Next up a set of 28mm Bad Squiddo Women of WW2 ATA members with rifles, and an NCO from attached to a Highland regiment.  They are great figures, but not as colourful as the other packs in the Kickstarter I back (i.e Lumberjills and Pig ladies).  I am not sure of the uniform colours but am unlikely to ever field them on table and they look ok.

And finally a Wizkids 28mm well and Bad Suiddo Land Girls Rat catcher.  Yes she is proudly showing off her collection of dead rats which have been strung together and are draped over her shoulders.  I am not sure what to make of a woman who smiles so broadly while wearing a lei of dead rodents, but this sculpt is based on a period photo.  Lots of character but kind of disturbing, particularly as in the Miss Marple rural England universe she might be your Great Aunt Sally or Mrs Jones from down the lane.

So that's 7 regular 28mm figures (the 6 Bad Squiddo ladies and the Hag) for 35 points plus the well (5 points as being about the size of a 28mm figure or maybe 1-2 points as terrain.) and 2 two bigger figures.  My previous troll was counted as a 54mm figure so I suggest the same for these two.   The hag, troll and elemental would count towards the fantasy duel.

From Millsy:

A cracking little pot of soup you have here Peter! I particularly like the ATA NCO in her fetching side cap and who doesn't like / need a rat catcher? We're very lucky to have Bad Squiddo who produce such a wonderfully diverse and characterful range. It's great to see them getting some love!

I've scored the well as a 54mm mini given the size, totally 60 points for you to round out your Challenge. Well done mate, it's been great having you on the team.

From GeorgeS - Last points last figures! Italian WW1 and a Prussian 1:35 (140 pts)

One last post for this challenge and with that hopefully I reach my goal :)

Here we have 13 figures of the classic Airfix " Mountain troops" set in 54mm, 1:32 scale. Painted in a simple Toy Soldier standard in green uniform simulating Italian WW1 troops. 

 

 

 

 

Also one more 1:35 finished figure for the Franco-Prussian Diorama. The first Prussian of the set  painted in Box Art colours. Not based as these figures comes with no base and they can stand on their own. Also he will be based in the diorama.

So, with these 140 points I reach and overdo my goal for this year :)

Looking forward to the next year's challenge and hope to see you all there again!!

..'till then...

Keep Up The Brushes!!

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Beautiful brushwork, George. I really like the Prussian infantryman, especially the metalwork on his helmet. 

Thank you for joining us this year, George, it's always a pleasure to see your work.

- Curt

From RayR: Donnybrook - Polish Haiduk No2 (95pts)

For this post I've painted up my second Polish Haiduk regt for my Vienna 1683 project.

The figures are from The Assault Group.

And were a pleasure to paint up, a little too much flash, most of which I only noticed while painting the bleeders up!

I matched the infantry unit to the colours on the flag.

The command, a boy, Officer and Standard Bearer.

Like the last Haiduk regt I painted, the flags come free online

here.

Apparently, Officer didn't wear the same as men in there unit?

Rear shot

2 units of 8 figures 80 points

3 Command 15 points

Makes a total of 95 points!

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Terrific brushwork on these Poles, Ray! I love the sculpts from The Assault Group - so wonderfully chunky and characterful. I like the pale grey-blue of the troops juxtaposed against the vibrant colours of the officers. Another brilliant unit for your Siege of Vienna project done! Bravo! 

- Curt

 

From BruceR, cleaning up with last bits, some objective markers and jump off points (14 pts)

I'm in the mode of trying to finish some bits for my trip to Adepticon and finalized these objective markers and jump of points.  The crates and barrels are Bad Squiddo Games and the young lad with his sheep are Wargames Foundry.  

I am trying to crank out 5 Hearth Guard for Saga and might not get them done.  Daughter transported to college today, so maybe tonight and tomorrow I will be able to get the brush out.

If this is my last post I want to send out a big thanks to GregB for herding the Wednesday club.  A huge thanks for Curt and the Lady Sarah for providing all of us with this great space and time to share out hobby.  Thank you.  Thanks to all.

2 jump of points and my Saga objective marker

Baa Baa

Jump off point with figure painted outside the challenge

Jump off point with mule and ranger added, painted outside the challenge

Scoring:

5 28 mm figures.  (small sheep and a boy) 2pts per       =    10 pts

2 60mm terrain features (I thought 2 pts per is fair)      =       4 pts

Total                                                                                =     14 pts

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Jeez, these are marvellous markers, Bruce. So thoughtfully composed, versatile and full of character. I particularly like how the ranger with his well-loaded pack mule fit so nicely on the terrained base. 

Thanks very much for joining us this season, Bruce! Your work was inspiring and a treat to take in. Have a great time at Adepticon and I hope to see you out for Challenge XIII!

- Curt 

In days of olde when Knights were bold....P is for Posh - from Kerry T (170 points and 3 Squirrels)

 Morning, afternoon and Evening all

In days of old and Knights wereore bold, and Barons held their sway,

A warrior bold, with spurs of gold,sang merrily his lay,sang merrily his lay,

My love is young and fair, my love hath golden hair,

and eyes so blue, and heart so true, that none with her compare,

So what care I, though death be nigh, I'm live for love or die....

Actually I'm not one for blondes myself and that sounds like ye old merry bullshit...

There are of course more modern versions but the ones I've just read are to rude for me to print here

This is my 12th P unit and this time P is for Posh or important

What could be more posh than a knight?

Standard belonging to Gilbert de Clare but I've yet to paint a personality figure for him

These offerings are from Footsore Miniatures Barons War range and there are eight of them including the Eustace of Lowham personality figure leading the way over the bridge

Ideally I would like to have painted more than 8 but I started painting the horses on the other 6 I have before the challenge started. I haven't planned any particular retinues and have been aimlessly painting various figures though will in the long run I think have a retinue for William Marshall, Llewelyn Fawr, and Templars to represent a religious fanatic retinue. Like most of my projects it started with "oh look shiny" and has just been an enjoyable painting project

Even Knights run away it seems

In deciding what to paint up as posh I'd always intended to finish some knights but..

Posh of course can have another meaning as in Posh or Gawdy

There's nothing more Gawdy than a Landsknecht is there?

Have big gun will travel

Figures from Wargames Foundry that I've had for aeons

This week ith only 8 knights to paint and a little more time than I had anticipated I decided to tackle more of the leadpile (actually itemised here 2 years ago https://valleyboyinnz.wordpress.com/2020/05/10/the-lead-pile/ - )

The other thing that I wanted to make a start on were some more foot troops for the Italian Wars.

I think I have enough Pikemen now with around 430 Pikemen, Landsknecht and Swiss - these are a mixture of Artizan, Warlord and  Old Glory

What I don't have though are enough missile troops and Swordsmen and halbediers.

Some time ago I bought a box of Landsknecht with Zweihanders from Warlord Games and just wanted to see if they match with their metal Pikemen. I'd bought the Pikemen a few years earlier when they were first being sold by Warlord.

A test paint of 6 figures

They do look ok together I think though I wonder if they're a little on the small side for burly 2 handed swordsmen. This was certainly my impression when they were at the unbased and undercoated stage

Here I've taken the liberty of putting them in front of a unit of previously painted Warlord Pike

I thought it best to put them in front of a reasonably big Pike block as Ken Reilly is wandering around!

I'm not sure what to do with these going forward - separate units of swordsmen and halbediers? A mixture of both and how to base them. Any bright ideas?

So there we have it, a trio of Posh units

8 Knights at 80 points

8 Landsknecht crew and 2 guns 60 points

6 Zweihanders at 30 points

Total 170 points and hopefully 3 squirrels (Total Squirrels so far should be 21 I think)

I'm pleased to say that I've reached both my  points and 12 P units target and originally this would have been my last post. (Cue bugle sound).

However I wasn't able to get to golf last Wednesday afternoon and had the following 2 days off because of a cough. So with a few extra painting days I hope to offer a final post tomorrow provided I can finish the basing. I should I suppose with continuity in mind label that one as P is for Pestilence!

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Oh, lovely brushwork Kerry! Those cavalry are spectacular in their brightly coloured caparison and bannerman. I'm also quite taken with your Italian Wars artillery and the doppelsoldners with their zweihanders. As to your question, I have mine both based within the unit (as small vignettes) and also some individually based to signify when they would emerge to do their nasty work ('Furioso' models this within its rules, which provides great flavour).

I look forward to seeing your next post to close your Challenge!

- Curt

From ScottM: Krypton and some Cavalry (150 pts)

My last post for this years Challenge lands me at Krypton. Using the 'weakness' theme I went with some Greek hoplite casualties. These 28mm metal figs are from Wargames Foundry.

I had to paint the pictures on the shields as I hate trying to put decals on domed shields.

And lastly I have a bunch of Carthaginian cavalry. These 28mm metal figs were from Renegade Miniatures. It's been a number of years since I bought these figs and since Renegade isn't around any more, I'll have to guess what they actually were. This first base I'm pretty sure are Gallic cavalry.

The next base some sort of light cavalry.

The next base I believe are Spanish cavalry.

And here's where my voyage ended:

So that should be:

• 8 - 28mm foot figs (casualties) = 40 points
• 9 - 28mm cavalry figs = 90 points
• 1 location (Krypton) = 20 points

Total = 150 points

So that wraps up my paint challenge for this year. Thank you to Curt and his crew for running another excellent Paint Challenge. On to next year!

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We'll help out Millsy as he gets his beauty sleep down in Australia. 

Lovely work on these Greeks and Carthaginians, Scott. I think you did a great job on the hoplon shields and those ancient cavalrymen look suitably ferocious. 

Thank you for joining us for this years season, Scott. I hope to see you in with the scrum next time out.

- Curt