From RayR: 20mm Russian Partisans & Casualties (183 points)

Ray sends in this fabulous group of forty 20mm Russian partisans. I really like the animation and variety of poses in this collection - particularly the dancing and drinking partisans - great stuff.

The funny thing about this group is that they've been painted for Fran! So, while Ray gets to scoot ahead in the point score, Fran benefits from some nicely painted miniatures for his WWII collection. Sort of a symbiotic relationship... or should that be psychotic relationship, I'm really not sure.

Ray does not know who manufactures these figures - perhaps Fran can fill us in?

The next set is a group of fifteen 15mm casualty figures which he'll be adding to his French & Indian War collection. These are actually War of Spanish Succession figures from Irregular Miniatures but the dead keep secrets very well.  

Though Ray has been soft-lobbying for full points for the casualties I'm going to give half points simply because only half of the figures are visible. Weasel. :)


So with that being said these two groups will give Ray 183 points. Well done!  

From JuanM: 40mm AWI Infantryman

Juan sends into the Challenge our largest figure to-date, a very nicely painted 40mm Continental soldier of the  American War of Independence.

This casting is from Front Rank's beautiful AWI range. Juan has done a very nice job with the muted earth tones and the face is particularly well executed - bravo!

This sturdy fellow will give Juan 8 points. I look forward to seeing more of these over the weeks to come.

From PhilH: 28mm Napoleonic Spanish Infantry Battalion 'Regimento Voluntarios de la Patria' (65 points)

Phil has come through with a lovely battalion of 28mm Spanish Napoleonics to add to his Peninsular collection.

These lads depict the 'Regimento Voluntarios de la Patria' who saw action at the Battle of Albuera. Phil found some very useful background history and colour information here: http://balagan.org.uk/war/peninsular-war/order-of-battle/albuera_spanish.htm

Phil had a spare box of Victrix plastic French which he put to good use to model these. He came across the idea from Aki at Too Much Lead  and the Victrix models seem to fill that gap quite well, especially as he did them in campaign dress - ragged and mixed in their poses. Very nice work here.

A shot of the full battalion, 25-strong.

Phil found working on these to be a welcome change from painting ranks of Redcoats. He'll be adding colours from Flag Dude when he (hopefully) visits Salute later this upcoming spring.

These thirteen will give Phil 65 points. Well done!

From GregB: 1:285 Scale WWII German & Soviet Tanks (7 points)

Greg bridges his next group of Napoleonic Austrians by sending in these seven micro-scale tanks. The first photo depicts two Panzer IV Ds with the short 75mm gun.

The second group is five early-war Soviet BT-5s. These are 1:285th scale GHQ Micro Armour castings. The bases are from Litko and have magnetic bottoms for safe storage.

These will give Greg a quick 7 points to add to his tally. 

From MilesR: War of 1812 US Rifle Battalion (180 points)

To start off the New Year Miles sends in this fine unit of 1812 American riflemen.

These are 28mm Knuckleduster castings.

This beefy battalion of 36 will give Miles 180 points - Well done! 

Miles is taking a few days break and then will be working on more War of 1812 US infantry.

From KentG: Early Imperial Roman Camp, Scorpions & WWII Medic (60 points)

Kent has sent in this wonderful Roman camp vignette which would grace any wargames table.

These are 28mm Foundry castings on a scratchbuilt base. Lovely.

Kent tells me two of the crewmen were completed before the Challenge and so will not be tallied for points.

Next is two ballistas along with their crew. Again these are Wargames Foundry castings.

Last but not least is a WWII British medic. This fellow should have been with Kent's last entry but he must have been out visiting patients or something. Not sure on the make of this figure, Bolt Action perhaps?

This group will give Kent a base of 50 points and I'll add another 8 for the Scorpions and 2 for the Camp (balancing with the fact that I usually don't score 'terrain'). So that totals a cool 60.

From Curt: 28mm Norman Crossbowmen (40 points)

I managed to get these eight Norman crossbowmen done over the weekend while judiciously avoiding relatives, partygoers and assorted revelers. "Yes, yes, Happy New Year and best wishes.  Now, bugger off..."

These are 28mm Gripping Beast castings. For a change from the norm I decided to use AP Quickshade (strong tone) for this group and then go over them with to pick out their highlights. On the whole they turned out OK, but I'm still trying to get the hang of the whole Quickshade thing.

Last pic is of my Norman warhost to-date.  Slowly but surely its coming along.

These crossbowmen will give me 40 points. Next is a batch of archers and some Jomsvikings for fun. (Mmm, jom, jom, jom...)