From AaronH - 28mm Celt Warriors (55 Points)

First things first, a shot of the paint desk.  In line with the precedent set by Tamsin, here's my Christmas present as well.

This entry is another eleven Celt infantry for Hail Caesar.  This group is armed with spears and mostly armored in chain mail.  Now that I think of it, that doesn't really make sense as I would expect the armored warriors to have swords.

Eleven more bruisers to beat up on the Romans.

These are, again, 28mm Warlord Games plastics.  The shields are also the stickers.  I went ahead and did all of them at once because I like to get the suck over as quickly as possible.

The left end of the line.

The center.

The right.

I have ten more of these on the table right now.  I may get them done today but won't be able to get pictures, so you'll be spared until next Monday.

Run away!

The other end of the line.

There are a lot of options in this kit.  It's great for filling out an army with a mass of models.

I have some more single based models but then I'll switch over to 60mm x 60mm bases. These guys are going to be the second line.  The third, obscured, line will be the wretched Wargames Factory Celts.  The front will be the best of these models and metals from various manufacturers.

There is nothing wrong with these plastics.

I know a lot of people hate painting Celts.  I've found these guys to be pretty straight forward.  I'm not going wild on the plaid/tartan.  I'm sticking to a fairly limited pallet.  I'm using decals (stickers).  That's good because I have a lot of these to paint.

From Curt:Aaron, you've been a very busy boy this past week - brilliant stuff! Another wonderful entry here. I really like how bright these figures are. The 'dip method' has become so ubiquitous in the hobby, and while it's often very useful, I find it frequently creates armies that are rather dull and jaundiced looking. So it's nice to see clean crisp colours without the tell-tale yellow.  Also, I know you hate your stick-on shield decal experience but you've done a very nice job with these as they look quite sharp. 

Finally, thanks for the great shot of your workspace (BTW the hobby-desk precedent was set by MilesR). I see the other 10 Celts in the  assembly line there. What was the award for the '3rd Place General' for?

From ByronM - 30k Deathguard Terminators (42 Points)

This week besides getting my theme entry in, I managed to finally get around to some Horus Heresy (ie: Warhammer 30k) miniatures. I picked these up about this time last year, when GregB twisted my arm about getting into 30k.  I know, it didn't take much twisting, but that's normal for a gamer, right?

Anyway, here they are 5 Death Shroud terminators all with hand flamers and power scythes. These guys are extremely nasty in close combat.  What makes them even worse, is being accompanied by Calas Typhon the first Captain of the Deathguard.

I am painting all of my 30k force as an embattled and stranded force.  The battle that takes place as Horus turns from the light of the Emperor is a nasty one, where thousands of battle brothers turn on each other and fight to the death.  I am therefore not going with the typical GW shiny and new look for marines, and instead trying to get them dirty, grimy, and worn down. 

The look comes from essentially a white base colour, and then successive "washes" with different colours mixed 1:8 with glaze medium.  Then pigments mixed with alcohol, then they are chipped with a sponge.

The bases are 40mm rounds and left very simple to fit in with the barren world they are fighting on.

From Curt:Beautiful work Byron. I love the grimy tones you've achieved on their previously white armour - fantastic. I assume these are destined to be Chaos Space Marines in the 40K mythos? I like that they aren't festooned with the typical tentacles, skulls and spiky bits - the restraint is nice. As these are significantly larger models than the typical 40K humans I'll score them as 40mm so 42 points total.

From AaronH - 15mm Tank from Rebel Minis (6 Points)

This next entry is for my son Rhys.  He's been getting 15mm Sci/Fi models as rewards for doing well at school.  He and I play Gruntz together.  Part of the deal is that I'll paint them for him, though he likes painting his models as well.

Light tank for Gruntz.

This model is from Rebel Minis.  It's supposed to be an APC but I prefer it as a light tank. Rhys' models are based (roughly) on Clone troopers, hence the white and blue color scheme.

The 46 is, schockingly, a decal, not free hand.

Rhys' troops are a light armored recon battalion.  So far he has two of these little tanks and a couple of squads of infantry.  There's a medium mech and a lander on the paint table, but not done in time for today's entry.

Orange is Rhys' favorite color, so it had to be worked into the scheme.

The model got a white undercoat.  The blue is Vallejo Magic Blue,  I struggled with what to do with the white hull.  This is my second attempt at a pin wash.  I used Gryphonne Sepia and then watered it down even more.  I think it works pretty well.  You can see the details but you still get the overwhelming white of the hull.

The decals are from GW's Imperial Guard decal sheet.  Rhys browsed through several sheets of decals before he settled on the lightning axe design.

The new model on the right.

Here's number 46 next to the previously (before the challenge) tank.  This is the APC version.  The turret can be swapped out for one that is identical to #46, except for the turret number.  Now Rhys doesn't have to make the agonizing choice of whether he wants the tank's firepower or the APC's ability to deliver his infantry alive.

From Curt:What a great reward for getting good marks! I really like the effect of the white base colour with the sepia wash, and the blue detail stripe sets it all off nicely. Rhys must be delighted with it. Well done!

From BrendonW - 28mm Wars of the Roses Archers (60 Points)

Plastic Perry 28mm Bowmen from one of the War of the Roses Plastic sets. I built these 12 to be a unit for Lion Rampant. Really good set to build with a variety of poses possible and some great detail. Not the best photos really. I think I will take future photos inside. I tried these ones outside and I am not very satisfied with them. 

Over there.

They follow the Red and Black (actually Panzer Grey) scheme and had Army Painter strong tone dip applied with a brush on them. That was followed by matt varnish and highlights. I used khaki to add some mud on knees etc. Hopefully they become a fearsome unit of legend on the tabletop.

No. Behind us.

The other side? I think we are surrounded.

From Curt:Another wonderful Wars of the Roses entry. Nice and clean work Brendon and the black and red livery is very sharp indeed. I don't know what the weather was like when you photographed these but I find cloudy days work best for outside shooting - diffuses the light and limits shadows. Nonetheless, these look great. Well done!

From DaveD - Miss Lilly van Verde - Pulp (6 points)

In between doing the Sudan units I have some Pulp stuff sitting on the table to provide some much needed colour. So here is the fiery tempered,  red haired chanteuse at "Long Sally's" entertainment club. Miss Lilly - from Bob Murch Pulp figures.

From Curt:Ah, another great figure from Bob Much and you've done such a wonderful job on her Dave. I love the deep, rich green you've achieved for her dress - fantastic. And the chequer patterned floor is just ace. A great addition to your New Serenity.  

From AlanD - 15mm Volksgrenadier Platoon (68 Points)

For my first entry in the Challenge I painted a platoon of Volkssturm for Battle Group: Fall of the Reich. I'm continuing the theme now with a platoon of Volksgrenadiers. The figures are a mixture of Skytrex, Peter Pig and Battlefront.



As with the Volkssturm, I had fun basing these in an urban environment, using bits of ground cork, matchsticks and broken bits of plaster walls.




I tried to give some of the figures camouflage smocks painted in 'Marsh Pattern' camo. It's very hard to get right in this scale, so any suggestions welcome.



That's 32 figures, which should give me a base of 64 points. Happy New Year, everyone!

From Curt:Another great unit of last-gasp Germans for your late-war collection Alan.  The figures are wonderful to be sure, but it's the spectacular base-work that really places them in their proper context. I particularly like the grafitti on the walls and the irregular shaped bases - worth a few extra points I think. Excellent work. 

AaronH - 28mm Dark Age Celts (55 Points)

This next entry is the first troops for my Celt army.  These 11 guys are being painted up for Hail Caesar.  They are individually based so they can be used for skirmish games as well.

Eleven angry Celts.

These are Warlord Games plastic Celts.  They are not bad sculpts.  There is a fair amount of variety on the sprue.  The details are generally good.  There are some attachment points that are unfortunate, such as the top of the head.  This results in some odd flat spots on some of these guys.

These models came with stickers instead of decals.  I.  HATE.  THEM.  SO.  MUCH.  Each one has to be cut out exactly right.  The center, for the shield boss, has to be cut out. Once they are stuck on I hit them with Mod Podge to seal them and try to get them to stick better.  Then I had to go around the edge with brown paint to get rid of the white from the sticker edge.  Then I had to hit the center with bronze to get rid of the white next to the boss.  They are just terrible.

Stickers are even worse than decals.

There is one metal model in this group, also from Warlord.  He is the army standard bearer. This group was going to be ten models but when I found him I threw him into the group as well.  He came with an attached white metal standard pole.  You can probably guess how that went, but just in case, it broke.  I had to drill the hand and put in brass rod.  The drilling did not go well and now he has a decidedly odd hand.  Other than that, this is a very nice model.  I'll be working him into one of my command stands, with a sabot spot for him.

Standard bearer and some close ups.

Standard bearer, always trying to get a head.

A little free hand on the bottom of the cloak.

I chose five primary colors and just mixed them throughout this force.  With various strips and solids it makes for a very colorful warband.

A close up of a single warrior.  There is good detail on these plastics.

I have another eleven that are close to done.  If I can get them finished they'll come up today as well.  If not, they'll be up next week.

From Curt:Great stuff Aaaron! I really like your work on these figures. The standard bearer repair looks very good and I admire your freehand work on the bottom of the cloaks and the trews. As you can imagine from my previous complaining, I feel your pain regarding shield decals but these sound particularly hellacious.  In this light, my experience with LBM products has been good, so I think I'll be religiously sticking with those ('scuse the bad pun). 

From AdamC - 15mm WWII Canadian Shermans (19 points)

These are 3 more vehicles I got from Battlefront as part of Ranger program that never got off the ground (locally at least).   I had heard some horror stories about the Open Fire Sherman tanks but all and all these went together well (very small issues).  I now have British tanks to support my airborne troops if I when them.  Instead of making them British I decided I would rather they were Canadian.

One reason is I did this is I feel Canada is underrepresented in World War II gaming. Anther reason is my Nephew William who is named for his great-grandfather a decorated veteran of the North Shore Regiment who made it ashore on Juno beach on D-Day and fought through to VE day.   Someday I hope William will be interested in war gaming and I hope to gift him a company of his namesakes regiment with appropriate support troops(this is step number one, I have time he's only two-and-a-half so meantime I get to use them).

To this end I painted and decaled these guys as the 3rd troop of the 1st Hussar Regiment part of the Canadian 4th independent tank Brigade who supported the 3rd Canadian infantry division on June 6th and in the battles that followed.  (the Maple Leaf flag may actually be the wrong color for the divisional badge but we use what we have).

I love bags slung on the side of the turret since it means you don;t have to put a decal on the turret. Actually the stowage provided with these was very good all around.

You know like this circle, actually this decals were pretty cooperative for members of their species.

The only images I could find images of the troop indicator or the left hand side of the turret any one know if should be on one this side as well.

I tried getting a close up of the platoon leader and his wonderfully mustachioed face. Gingers seem to be popping up all over the challenge and I unconsciously followed this trend. So I think that should net me another point; 18 for three vehicles and 1 point for the tank commander.

From Curt:Great work Adam! I really like the weathering and stowage on these three tanks and the Canadian marking are a great touch (along with the jaunty ginger moustache). I hope your young nephew takes an interest in his family's history as he will have a real treat in these beauties. Well done!

AaronH - 28mm Santa from Foundry (5 Points)

This next entry was something I whipped out on Christmas day.  This model came free from Foundry last year, when I ordered the Curtgeld.

Santa's not hearing any of your crap!

The model was a quick paint.  Simple but loaded with character.

The snow is OK.  Not great but it'll do.

The snow is GW's.  I'm not really sold on it, but I have a container of it to use up now.  I'm not really sure what I'll do with this model now, but it was fun to paint.

From Curt:
Great work Aaron! I like his quartered shield design and it's good that you didn't go overboard with the snow. You could have a scenario of him guarding his home in the North Pole from raiders. He looks like he should be standing in a doorway saying, 'And I've heard you've been very naughty...' His 'elves' could be bad@ss Jomsvikings and Mrs. Santa a formidable shield maiden...

From Jake - 20mm WWII American Infantry (184 Points)

We always play a large battle at the end of the year and make it a project for our group. So this year it was Normandy late 1944 in 20mm. I had to paint over 60 Americans from AB miniatures mixed with Blitz. I knew it was going to be tough to paint them all in the painting challenge and be ready in time for the game. So I painted 24 before and finished 46 of them in the painting challenge making 184 points.

Here they are just after the battle.

Yesterday we played a great game of Battlegroup Overlord. Mike and me played the 1st US Infantry division while Rob van S joined us with his excellent Brits. On the opposite site were Mark, Rob P and Sam with some Germans and a lot of PANZERS! We also had some support if you can call it that (Shermans, Stuarts and Greyhounds).

Part of the game table made by Mike and Rob P.

Below are some pictures of my troops in action (although they saw little of it because it became a real tank battle).

The Second Theme Round ('Rider(s) and Mount(s)') is Now Up!

I'm happy to announce that the second theme round is now ready for viewing so please, click on over to the Theme Page, view all the wonderful entires and cast your votes. As usual, the top three get extra points and a prize from one of our prize sponsors.

For this, the 'Rider(s) and Mount(s)' theme, I decided to submit a 'Tanchanka' machine-gun cart which was a common sight along the Eastern Front during both the Great War and the Russian Civil War. This also serves as a kick-off for a new project of mine which will focus on many of the colourful units which fought during Russian Civil War. 

So please visit the gallery, enjoy all the wonderful submissions and, again, remember to vote for your favourites!