Welcome to the Painting Challenge. Here you will find the fabulous, fevered work of miniature painters from around the world. While participants come from every every possible demographic, they have three things in common: they love miniatures, they enjoy a supportive community, and they want to set themselves against the Challenge.
This site features the current year's event along with the archives of past Painting Challenges.
Enjoy your visit and remember to come back soon.
So after a week off last week, retirement is so busy, I'm back with some WW1 German colonial troops. Don't remember the manufacturer, but the figures have separate heads that don't really fit very well. Still they are a simple paint job
10 man squad
Another 10 man squad
5 man squad
Some officers
Machine gun team
These may find action the back of beyond, in a similar African version.
29 x28mm infantry = 175
1 x machine gun with 3 crew = 25pts
Total 200 points
Right I'm off to make trees using expanding foam, more of that next week.
Last minute update. I'm a massive Port Vale fan and yesterday we knocked Sunderland out of the FA Cup to reach the quarter finals for the first time since 1954. For those in far flung parts of the world, i.e. not Burslem, Port Vale are pretty rubbish in the grand scheme of things and are bottom of the 3rd tier of English football and 60 places below Sunderland. I'm a very happy bunny and we have drawn Chelsea in the quarter finals. The income from that one match will be about 25% of our annual attendance income. UTV
They may be of unknown origin and they might need their heads adjusted, but they painted up very well. Love the basing too. Plus Schutztruppen is just one of those German words that fun to say, even though I probably get it wrong. Good luck for Port Vale against the Blues in the quarters. Making trees out of expanding foam sounds like it will give you quite a buzz - let us know how it all works out.
FYI, you forgot to add labels so I've added a couple.
Well I'm back with some more old-school 40K goodness. This time it's a metal Chaos Dreadnought done up in Khornate colours, for service with my Berzerkers.
Firstly a word on collecting these ancient out-of-production models. I might have mentioned this in my post on the Chaos Lord on Juggernaut, but generally speaking OOP Games Workshop stuff ain't cheap. Yes you might get lucky from time to time (like I did with the Jugger), but people on eBay generally are aware (or think they are aware) of the prices these models will bring and set their own BIN accordingly. Models sealed in original blister packs or boxes can be outrageously priced, but painted stuff can be had for not-unreasonable prices. This model was unpainted and loose and acquired on eBay for about $100 CAD.
"A hundo for a chunk of metal that cost $55 brand new? That's crazy!" you might exclaim. But I have a perfectly reasonable justification for this. The Bank of Canada has an "inflation calculator" that compares the cost of a basket of goods in any year to its cost in any other year, and that's a good enough proxy for me. It tells me that $55 in 1999 is equivalent to $99.18 today, and that's about what I paid for the model. The other thing to consider is "what would an equivalent model cost, brand new from GW?" The answer here is... about $75 for the Space Marine Venerable Dreadnought. So maybe that's a bad example.
But then again, maybe not... is the new Venerable Dreadnought "comparable" to this classic Dreadnought? The new Dread is a million plastic parts that you have to assemble (correctly), and has a fist on it that would put Hellboy to shame. This one is METAL and fewer than 10 parts. I'm also paying for the old-school cool because this model fits right into the 25-year-old aesthetic of my project. To me that's worth $25. I know, this is all just to make me feel better, but it works :-)
How cool is this, right? I know it's missing the trophy pole but I have a plastic one I might add later... anyway the red was done with Khorne Red, highlighted Mephiston Red, washed with Nuln Oil, then brought back up with KR and Mephiston. Brass bits were done in Brass Scorpion, highlighted Retributor Gold then washed with Agrax Earthshade. The rest is mainly Leadbelcher washed with NO. Groundwork was Dark Brown, Steel Legion Drab, Rakarth Flesh as a final drybrush.
I'm claiming 20 points here for a 28mm vehicle.
Cheers,
Dallas
No need to justify your labour of love here Dallas, although I teach class in financial mathematics so understand inflation adjusted prices. It's a great bit of kit. I love the steam punky look and the fact that it appears to have toes. The Red and Gold livery suits it very well, and you basing is aces.
I've decided to keep the them of merchant shipping going, so this time I have a small merchantman. This model is sold by Warlord Games as a fireship, which is such a niche use-case that I'd rather have it as the merchantman which I can use more often. In addition I painted up a little longboat to use for landing scenarios.
The model itself is nothing particularly crazy. Technically, with the foremast being taller this would be a ketch rather than a brig.
The reason I decided to paint her as a merchant is that her deck is modeled with a ton of crates and barrels, which as a fire ship would have been loaded with flammables and explosives. Instead I've given them a more peaceful purpose.
The longboat is a simple little conversion I did, where I took the largest boat from the 3rd rate frame, sculpted some tiny crew, and given them some oars. Some small, fine work, but not overwhelming.
I've painted all of the passengers as marines, which gives it a really nice bright pop of color on the table.
I've counted the merchantman as 10 points, and 2 points for the little longboat, for a total of 12.
I've really enjoyed your Age of Sail work Raul, and this week's post is no exception. That's fine looking Merchant brig suitable for many uses. Also love the long boat.
As we enter the last few weeks of the Challenge I have switched full production to the Swiss Pike in an attempt to get the planned figures done before the end of the Challenge.
Here are the boys from Thun, 32 x 28mm Perry and Steelfist Miniatures painted up in a mainly red and white scheme to match the flags, these will form a "column" within the main block.
The 3 rear bases have 8 figures and are 60 x 50, while the front base is extended to 60 x 110 to accommodate the levelled Pike at the front. Flags are from Flags of War.
Points wise it's 32 28mm figs at 5 pts a piece plus 3 flags at a point a piece for 163. I have one more "column" to do which are underway and then I have 32 more Pike to extend the rear ranks of an existing block (because 96 figures just isn't big enough 😄) and of course heres a group to date shot.
What a Thun-dering great pike block Ken! (Don't worry I am only here on a limited engagement.). There's just so much to love here. I know these fine figures and they've been beautifully painted, posed and based. The read and white scheme is very effective and love the flags.
With the end of the Challenge only 10 days away, I'm trying to get as many Cruel Seas boats as possible done before the deadline. This week, I was able to finish some core units for the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine.
Three Vospers Type I. This will bring my total to six boats.
Three Vospers Type II, to join the three I already have. Again, I allowed my evil creative twin to sculpt some crazy waves, sideways this time. I guess it brings variety to the bases, but no captain in his right mind would take a torpedo boat to sea in such rough weather.
Two Fairmiles D MTB 624. These boats were originally designated as MGBs (Motor Gun Boat), but when torpedo tubes were added, they were renamed MTBs (Motor Torpedoe Boat). These baddies are bristling with guns and, contrarily to the undergunned Vospers, could deal a significant amount of damage to enemy vessels. I'm sure PeterD would love a pair of these to protect his convoy against pesky enemy torpedo boats.
Here is a close up on three of the five S-38 I painted. The type of camouflage they are sporting was used in the Baltic Sea. Eventually, I will have to paint the Russian flotilla...
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Points claimed:
In past submissions, the Snowlord has given 8 points to all these smaller ships, plus points for the crew, but I will not claim points for the crew; I'm already over my goal of 1000 points.
13x 15mm vehicle @ 8 points = 104 points
TOTAL: 104 points
Thanks for reading!
I case anyone hadn't figure this out, Sylvain doesn't do things by half! I've seen the backlog of Cruel Seas ships in his basement and I'll be interested to see how many of them that he cranks out before the end of the Challenge. As also ways, wonderful work on all of these ships mon ami. I really like the basing and camo, but your anvil twin should be put in a small boat in steeps seas. Your crazy waves remind me of the time that my nDad tried to go through the Alderney Race with wind against tide. I'm not bothering to count figures from your photos, so I'll go with your points suggestion.
Hi all, something slightly different from me this week. But don't worry, there will be more Carthage coming next week!
For this entry I have
12 American Riflemen 60 pts (Brigade games)
2 Riflemen Officers 10 pts (Brigade games)
6 Hessians 30 pts (Brigade games)
10 American Militia 50 pts (Brigade games + Black Hussar Miniatures)
For a total of 150 points.
Sorry no nice background today, and the work desk is horrendously messy, so the window with natural light if going to have to do for pictures today.
The American War of Independence/ American Revolution is probably the area of US history that holds the most interest for me overall. And in particular the years of '75-'78.
My main goal is to do a slow grow for the battles of Hubbardton and Bennington (long live the Green Mountain Boys!), which are my particular fascination, but the battle of Long Island also holds a big interest for me, along with the other battles of '76.
Now the danger with the slow grow is that the grow is too slow and the forces fails to grow at all, while being a distraction of time and capital from other projects. However, I am pretty committed to this, and my goal is to only order new elements once all the previous troops or terrain have been completed.
First unit completed are 6 Hessian (or Brunswick for the Saratoga campaign of '77) Jaegers with "Amusettes" from Brigade Games. I mainly did these troops up as they were sitting in the stockpile for some reason (no idea what possessed me to buy these a few years ago) while I await the arrival of the main crown forces in the post. The Amusettes are somewhere between a large rifle and a small cannon, weighting in at around 50lbs. No idea how these will be used on the tabletop or what rules to use for these, or even how they will be deployed. But they were decent painting practice for the rifle armed Jaegers arriving in coming order.
Next the riflemen - all from Brigade Games
Here we have a rifleman officer, probably my favorite figure from this batch that I painted. This fellow would be one of Daniel Morgan's troopers, drawn from the backwoods and frontierlands of Maryland, Virginia, or Pennsylvania. I loved the elaborate linen hunting shirt on this figure - obviously the more fringe the higher the rank among the rifle corps.
This gentleman would be a Level I leader in "Sharp Practice", is perhaps a Captain, and would lead a company of riflemen.
The officer's 6 riflemen. I color coded his command with the yellow flower tufts. My goal is to perhaps use an adaption of "Sharp Practice" for this force, but also in my mind is adapting Simon Miller's "For King and Parliament" or his new up coming "Lust for Glory" ruleset
A second rifleman officer.
My original intent with these was to base them in a more forest floor like environment but I couldn't quite pull it off, so I just reverted to your classic field type terrain. I do want to try again with some forest floor basing on some of my coming units.
This force was color coded with each other and the officer with the white flower tufts.
Last, but not least, my militia force, from Black Hussar Miniatures and Brigade Games
Now there are 20 of these based up here, but only 10 were painted during this challenge. The other 10 I had painted a number of years ago. Originally I had bought these to serve as New Hampshire provincials during the French Indian War battles around Ticonderoga/Fort Carillon, who lacked uniforms during that conflict. However, painting French white uniforms at that time mentally broke me and I abandoned the project.
They were initially singly based but I have based them up into these mass bases. I was going to paint a commander to go with these, but realized I lacked a figure currently of significant enough gravitas to serve as a colonel of militia.
My idea for this project is that each base is a unit from "Sharp Practice" and in real life terms would be a company.
The officer bases would mainly represent Colonels or Majors, with the officer level represented by the number of figures on the command base.
Most of the actions that I am interested in do not have enough battalions for a "big battle game", but have too many troops from skirmish.
Anyways, if you are looking for some inspiration, I loved this YouTube documentary which I watched while painting these up:
What a great selection of AWI types Harry. I really like those Jaegers with their Amussettes. I remember that WRG has a very light gun category to cover these, plus swivel guns and Indian jingals. Some really fine detailed work on those 'Murcan riflemen too. I have spent time In New York and Vermont around Lake Placid and Lake Champlain and I understand your interest in the Saratoga campaign. Great work all around.
The Tyrant's Legion wasn't only composed of normal humans. Space Marines from the Astral claws chapter were assigned to every detachment to ensure loyalty and take advantage of the "ablative" armour offered by the Legion Auxilia. It was also a way for the Tyrant of Badab to hide his ever expanding marines complement which was numbering well beyond the 1000 marine limit as dictated by the codex astartes. Some of these units would be formed into Retaliator Squads, which were primarily concerned for enforcing discipline within the Auxilia. They are close combat oriented and equipped with chainswords and combat shields. I painted up 2 units of 5.
I hope to complete at least one more vehicle for the Tyrant's Legion, but we'll see how it goes.
The combat shields are from Kromlech
10 x 28mm miniatures for 50 points.
Thanks for visiting!
An Astral Claws Retaliator Squad sounds like something best avoiding, and looks that way too. Those are some bruisers, and very nicely painted too. I really like the blue with gold should guards. 50 point for you sire, and looking forward to their AFV.
Well Mr Tadaj Pogacar won Strada Bianche (three times in a row and four times overall - setting records).
The route is in Tuscany and the finish line is the famous city of Siena.
You could almost imagine a fifteenth century army marching through a wintry scene like the one above.
The finish is in the Piazza del Campo home of the famous Palio di Siena horse race.
The race itself crisscrosses the tuscan hills on dusty white roads
It even runs near the battlesite of Montaperti which we all learnt about in AHPC15 - concerning Dantes Inferno...
Nothing like an Italian Medieval City to inspire some painting although in my case its more modern, yet possibly something like this may have been in the allied armies struggling up the spine of Italy in 1944.
This week then its slightly less "sinews of war" and more "sharp end" equipment in the form of an anti aircraft gun.
The model is a kit from Airfix now sold under their "vintage" label. I bought it last year on a trip to the Monkbar Model Shop in York, UK. An Aladdins cave for modellers and brick built into the bargain.
I really like the Morris tractor which has an early war look about it.
The bofors 40mm anti aircraft gun was a very successful design. Swedish firm Bofors was according to the internet part owned by Krupp of Germany but the gun development was kept secret and became an international best seller certainly for allied armies as well as the axis forces.
I have modelled the gun in transport mode. The kit allows the gun to traverse and elevate easily.
Painting wise it was vallejo black prime then Vallejo Game Colour Extra Opaque heavy grey in two coats and then two coats of vallejo matt varnish. vallejo black model colour took care of the tyres. vallejo dark sand overcoated with citadel seraphim sepia wash dealt with the canvas elements. The driver got the sepia wash over his green uniform, black boots and hair and VJ flat flesh skintone for that campaign look!
2 vehicles - a tractor plus a gun in 1/76 = 2 x 15 points = 30 points.
Not sure if this qualifies for another squirrel but I will give it a go.
Breaker, breaker one nine, we got a convoy here. What a great bit of kit for convoy protection John, though I don't envy putting together all the fiddly bits that these kits must have included. It looks really impressive on your table top - I've really been enjoying the buildings and backdrop that you use BTW. I also really like the details and weathering on that fabric cowling. I will leave squirrel adjudication to the Squirrelmaster, but can confirm the 30 points.
