Sunday, December 23, 2012

From DaveD: 28mm Banditos (15 points)


From Dave:
Here we have 3 28mm Banditos to add to my Old West collection ready to head of the town of Serenity Flatts to cause trouble. They are by the Knuckleduster Miniatures range. The don't have detail and crisp castings of some other manufactures, and on first look i was abit disappointed but the undercoat really brought them to life. 
I think these lads have a great character in them - i just can't get the Mexican music out of my head...

The Old West collection started as a slight distraction last year and has been subject to "wargamers mission creep" it was supposed ot 10--20 figures tops. It's heading for 100 figures , 20 buildings , stagecoaches, a train etc with more to follow. I will have some plains indians along later. It has caught on down at the local games club - with 5 guys having signed up to a full campaigning season next year -- if anyone is interested in following the madness I have created a seperate blog page this Wild West world!


Great stuff Dave. I love this project and always enjoy reading about each new addition to your 'Serenity Flatts' collection (the steam train is particularly fine, I think).

These lads will give Dave 15 points, marking his official entry on the Challenge books. Excellent!

From TimG: 25/25mm Persian Immortals & Command (100 points)


Tim sends us a selection of figures for his Persian army.


2x8 25mm Persian Immortals (figures by Garrison)







25mm Persian general & standard bearer.






Very nice Tim. I really like the background you're using for your pics. Also, what rules system are you using for these? 

This group will get Tim 100 points for his entry on the Challenge roster. Well done!

From PhilH: 10mm WWII Commandos & Pulp Adventurers (30 points)


The other Hawkins brother makes his debut and sends in this eclectic submission consisting of a 10mm WWII Commando force and two heroes for Pulp Adventures.

From Phil:
Last year, I went away for the holidays before even picking up a brush, only to be left watching others rack up points for a week. I didn't want to repeat that, so here is my first entry before I head away. 
First up, a few 10mm WWII from Pendraken that I finished on Saturday afternoon. This pretty much finishes my British force for Blitzkrieg Commander.  Two stands of mortars and two of  Commandos, for a total of 18 miniatures. The mortar tubes were already painted and based before the challenge. Looks like I've sent these a few short hours too late, with your points tweak!
Also, a little Weird(ish) World War Two, as long as you will accept them. First up a British army Chaplain taking up arms to confront the German monstrosities. A characterful Warlord Games miniature. I've named him Padre Jonathan Harkness. 
And a second character, 'Mad' Ross of Erracht, actually  an Infinity miniature that I though would serve perfectly well as a furious claymore-wielding Scot from centuries earlier. A little freehand on his kilt and I couldn't resist a little Saltire on his backpack. I went with a simplified 'Cameron of Erracht' tartan, as the green base echoes my Commandos' berets and the flash of red that also features elsewhere in the force. 

Brilliant stuff, Phil. I quite like that Highlander, but I must admit that I thought it was a strapping lass at first!  

This submission will give Phil 30 points for his entry on the scoreboard. Nice work.

From IanW: 20mm Numidian Light Cavalry (268 points)


Here is an impressive bit of work from Ian's desk: 33 Numidian light cavalry in 20mm.

From Ian:
My second submission is more of the Numidians. This finishes off the light cavalry with 11 units. This gives me about 16 or so in total now. When I get the Roman cavalry done that will complete the army.  

These are again HaT and I believe recently were discontinued. Just one of the 33 figures is not HaT, can anyone spot the lone Zvezda? This was left over from a box I had already used and allowed me to complete the 11th base. 

I had the usual fun with the goat skin shields which paint up fairly fast as really does the whole figures. I really will be happy to get onto painting metal figures after so much plastic. I really still need to add tufts but I don't have enough right now and need to order some more. This will still be done during the challenge time but the few I have left are for the 28mm WWII, though I need bases for them.
Next up is finishing the 6mm cavalry that I painted the horses for whilst painting the Numidians.
Well done Ian! Those goat-skin shields look excellent.

These lads will give Ian an impressive 268 points, rocketing him to the top of the points standings. Awesome job!

From MarkB: 1:300 WWII Aircraft (39 points)


Mark has for us this fine group of WWII aircraft in 1:300 scale.

From Mark:
So what do I have, 12 x 1:300 scale WWII Soviet Yak 1 aircraft.  They are made by Scotia, I order my aircraft from I-94 Enterprises.  The stands are hand made by me, I use sculpy and wood dowls with a good strong magnet.  I paint the stands in different colors to make it easier to identify flight groups or nationalities. 


As a bonus I found this FW 200 that I did not remember buying so I painted it up as well.  It is also at the 1:300 scale and is also made by Scotia.  I get my paint schemes from a rusian website called wings palette, they have a ton of diffrent paint schemes for aircraft from different periods.  The two Yak 1 escorting the FW 200 are part of the 12 that are in the other pictures.  I wanted to give everyone a size comparison of the FW 200.


I will use these aircraft along with others to play CY-6 WWII air combat.  It is a great set of rules and I enjoy playing them.  I will be painting up some more WWII bombers as we go along with the competition.
Very nice work, Mark! The camouflage paint schemes on these are brilliant. I'm going to give an extra point each for the custom bases and for the FW 200, so 39 points total. Well done.

From IanH: 28mm Pulp Adventure Characters (10 points)


From Ian:

I've finally got off to my slow start, just a couple of miniatures for my 1930s Pulp Games I've had lying about for and age. 
First up Is a nasty looking strong guy, some kind of German or Russian mercenary for hire and no doubt will become someone for our heroes to go toe to toe in some precarious situation. I'm afraid I can't name the manufacturer as I've no idea where he came from, one of those figures I picked up years ago and never got around to doing anything with him. 



Secondly I've an important looking Indian fella, once again for pulp gaming, I've not decided whether he's the useful trader who happens to stock whatever our heroes require or perhaps he is the Maharajahs Lieutenant and leader of the Thuggee Cult. Either way the miniature is from Mutineer Miniatures part of their Indian Mutiny range.

A very nice and characterful duo, Ian. The face on the 'Indian fella' is just fabulous - great work.

These two figures will give Ian 10 points to kick-off his climb up the roster.

From AndrewS: 28mm Viking Norse Gael Warband (70 points)


Andrew sends us this beautiful warband of Vikings. (Hmm, can a warband of Vikings be beautiful? Sure, why not!)

From Andrew:
This is the first of my Norse Gael faction for Saga. 12 Hearthguards and a Warlord with his loyal war dog for a total of 14 pieces. These are Foundry 28mm figures and are perhaps my favourite range of Viking figures to paint. The clean up of this range is very easy with little flash and the detail is easy to paint up. I have used shield transfers for the first time and am happy with the result, and the amount of time I have saved. The basing scheme is my usual of static grass, tufts and flowers. The tufts are from a recently discovered source that I shall be reviewing on my blog.


Lovely work! In my opinion the Foundry Vikings are still some of the best out there for the period. The shield transfers turned out very nicely. I really love the dynamic use of colour and I always have a soft spot for the hounds... Maybe I should levy a viking from you as well. ;)

This warband will give Andrew 70 points. Again, well done!

From SebG: 1:285 Modern French Armour (10 points)


Seb submits another group of excellent modern microscale French armour for use with 'Cold War Commander'.

From Seb:
I know my second isn't very impressive, but sadly I didn't really have time to show you more. The family is about to arrive and they'll stay for a week. So no more painted minis from me, which is sad because I had almost finished another batch. Ah well.
These are 5 1/285 AMX-30 B2, from GHQ. They're supposed to belong to the 12th Cuirassiers. These tanks were the MBT for the French army until the Leclerc arrived. I really enjoed painting them. Yes, GHQ minis are expensive, but I have to say, I love them.
Great work Seb! Its interesting to see something in this period outside the typical NATO/Warsaw Pact mix. I look forward to seeing your next batch. 

Have a great visit with your family!

This group will give Seb 10 points.

From GregB: 28mm Colonial Wars - Tribesmen, Adventurer, Gun Team and 10th Hussars (105 points)


Greg is away on vacation visiting relatives, but we can see here from this impressive output that he's apparently packed his portable painting station and is pointedly avoiding Aunt Millie and the spiked eggnog.

From Greg:
These Madhists are from Perry Miniatures  - three Baggara horsemen, a mounted Imam and six Beja swordsmen. One horseman and two swordsmen predate the competition.



The "adventurer" comes from a pack of Victorian era civilians from Foundry. It looks like a Perry sculpt to me, but I'm not sure. There are five other civilians and they will make great objectives for another Sudan game. 


A 28mm Madhist gun "team", comprised of a Krupp gun crewed by three captured Egyptians and a Madhist overseer/volunteer coordinator.  This is another model from the Perry's outstanding 28mm Sudan collection. 

During their rebellion the Madhists acquired a number of captured Egyptian artillery pieces, along with a number of captured Egyptians.  The Ansar tried to make use of them, but they were extremely inaccurate when employed, and the pieces were not exactly well-maintained. I don't think the Madhists had much in the way of a functional artillery train either, and artillery preparation was not exactly something they concerned themselves with tactically. I'm not sure how motivated the Egyptian "volunteers" crewing the gun would be anyway...likely getting flogged no matter what results they managed to achieve with the artillery piece. 

This excellent little vignette from the Perry's will add a pleasant (and totally random) twist to our next 28mm Sudan game.  Who knows where the shells will land? The bonkers Air Strike table from Bolt Action (1 in 6 odds of hitting your own guys) should do the trick...
These are 28mm command models of the 10th Hussars from the Sudan. The models are from the Perrys. 





Although it is heretical, there was a challenge with these models in that a strap was clearly missing from the front body of the musician. It did not seem like a miscast - it just seems to be missing. I painted a strap in place - no big deal, but a definite rarity when it comes to Perry sculpts, which are typically awesome. 


This is an absolutely cracking group of figures. The speed at this quality is simply amazing - bravo Greg!

This group will give Greg a well-earned 105 points! 


Now, on to the next submission. I'm trying to catch up, but family, friends, imbibing and sleeping seem to be getting in the way... :)