Thursday, February 28, 2013

From SamuliS: 28mm Napoleonic French Battalion (182 points)



Samuli sends in another beautiful Napoleonic battalion for us to enjoy, this time its the French 21st Regiment of Line.

From Samuli:
Here is my next batch of models for the painting challenge. The 1st Battalion of the 21st Regiment for Waterloo. Perry plastics with some metal regimental command figures. Nice minis although I'm not too happy about the heads being attached to the torsos.

I quite liked painting these guys as the more ragtag appearance and many different types of equipment make them a lot more interesting to paint. As usual I've painted them with Vallejo paints and finished up with Army Painter dip and basing products. The flag is from GMB Designs again. Getting the whites to look good was surprisingly hard. Now I have a couple of layers of grey and white finished with army painter quickshade. Looks OK enough, but still got a lot of room for improvement. Maybe on the next batch.




I tried to paint all the backpacks etc. slightly differently to add a bit more variety to the unit. I think the extra effort makes the unit look quite nice and maybe a bit more realistic.
My points target starts to look a bit optimistic with all the university work and work obligations starting to pile up. Next up some Brits again to at least try close the gap.
Really lovely work Samuli. I particularly like the cowhide backpacks and the overall campaign grubbiness of these fellows. 

The 21st Line will give Samuli 182 points. Well done! I look forward to seeing the upcoming British...

From MichaelA: The Seven Samurai in Greyscale & Ninjas in Black (80 points)


First, I have to apologize for my lag in keeping up with submissions as of late. It seems that Work and Adult Responsibilites have recently conspired to make Hobby and Carefree Fun almost non-existent. Nonetheless, I will endeavour to correct this and catch up over the next few days.

Now, in regards to Michael's entry here, I must say that I'm a little speachless so I'll let the man himself describe his submission:

As always I'm never sure where the time has gone, but I did manage to complete my entry fee for the challenge. 
Having been blown away but the ingenuity and beauty of Curt's 'Great War in Greyscale' project, I've been harbouring a notion to have a go myself, and when  the theme for the challenge was anounced as Samurai an idea started to form.  Like a good many I adore, Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and this wonderful piece of cinematography became the inspiration for my own greyscale project.   Now I'm hear to tell anyone who listens that this isn't as easy as it appears and I certainly should have given the palette more consideration before diving straight in; as a result there is a definite blue hue that I had't envisaged.
I just couldn't resist a spot of hollywood red blood on the drawn swords and, now that it is complete, I'm jolly pleased with the results.  I now present them to you, as a group, as my entry fee for the challenge.  Yeas I know Curt only asked for a single figure, but I don't think that I could bare to break up the group.  Just for his continued hard work and heroic efforts in managing the challenge, I can think of no better recipient for the 'Seven Grayscale Samurai'.
The Ninja, were an impulse purchase when I was ordering up the Samurai and if I'm honest I was rather hoping that they would be a quick fix, points wise, but not a bit of it.  By the time I had given them three shades of black, my eyes were starting to cross, but we got there in the end.  Both the Samurai and Ninja are Perry Brother's sculpts and although required a fair bit of tidying up were, as always, a joy to paint.  


Wow, absolutely gorgeous work Michael.  I'm very flattered by your nod to my greyscale project. I certainly will agree with you that the whole greyscale thing is a lot more tricky than it may first seem being that there are a bewildering variety of grey shades/tones/hues, each possessing its own 'warmth' or 'coolness'. I think the cool blue-grey tone you used here is wonderfully suited to the Samurai theme, especially as seen through Kurosawa's lens. I especially love the addition of the muted flowers, the 'Seven Samurai' design on the sashimono and the blood on the katanas. They all pay such great homage to Kurosawa's film. Bravo and Thank you very much!

Michael's beautiful work with The Seven, their sashimono and the five Ninjas will give him 80 points.

From PhilH: 28mm American Jeeps & Ronin #33 (55 points)




From Phil:
No doubt Gharak will have a few hundred points waiting in the wings. But here I am with another motley collection. First up, some transport for my commandos, two rather grubby jeeps. I only had one suitable driver, which is a pain. I had some fun magnetising him on so both can serve as battlefield litter. They have been in the box for a year, they were picked up ages ago in a sale. I wouldn't normally base vehicles, but these are a bit tiddly - they are metal West Wind sculpts, which I think are 1:60. The bases hopefully give the illusion of more size, offset the bases on the miniatures a bit and stop you placing troops too close. The Commando alongside is for scale only, he was painted a long time ago. I had them finished then managed to drop one and mangle the windscreen. I mostly got it back into shape, but it needed a good touch-up. 


Also, my entry fee. Samurai seem to be an excuse to get the colours out and I really fancied the challenge of doing yellow. So you get a very yellow samurai! I added a bit of freehand to break it up, but I couldn't quite face doing the design all over. He is from the Perry Miniatures unarmoured set.


Those jeeps are great, but I agree, they are a bit like clown cars compared some beefy 28mm figures. Perhaps you can make up a driver in a Shriner's outfit! Beep Beep!


The samurai is gorgeous. I love the yellow / red combination (like the lads above!) and the flower pattern is amazingly well executed - bravo and thank you!

These two jeeps, driver and Ronin #33 will give Phil 55 points. Great job!


From MilesR: 28mm ACW Infantry & Artillery (180 points)




From Miles:
Sorry I haven't been more prolific but my son's robotics teams have been taking a lot of time.  One of his teams just got invited to compete in the World Championship so the season will be going on a bit longer!

I have managed to finish another 24 figure Confederate infantry regiment (28mm plastic Perry's) and for a minor variation I've also done 2 confederate guns and crews (Perry 28mm metals) - 8 crew figures and two guns.




World Robotics Championships!? Wow, that is a really great way to be preoccupied. Congratulations to your son, Miles, you must be very proud.

AND great work on these Rebs. Even with your coaching hiatus you've managed to put a good dent in your ACW project.

This group of Confederate infantry and artillery will give Miles 180 points, enough to put him within striking range of his points target.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

From IanW: 15mm WWII Soviet German Infantry & Ronin #14 (100 points)



From Ian:
Finally I have plucked up the courage to add my Samurai to the mix, unlike most of the others, mine seems to be a peace loving thoughtful type, yep first to die then. He is a Oriental Blades Miniature and my first play with Static Grass.


Next up thirty nine Russian and two German 15mm Forged in Battle figures that brings to a close the 3D Sniper idea. These were the worst of the three nations that I painted. The sculps were not as good, I had the idea that the sculptor was not really sure where some of the belts went which lead in many cases to two belts becoming just the one. But on the plus side they did paint up fairy fast.




Now onto finishing the Baccus WSS command and doing a few ECW regiments.
Very nice work on the 15s, but I must say the pièce de résistance is your Samurai. Beautiful work Ian! I really like the pattern on his kimono, the blue grips on his swords and his pensive face (maybe his topknot is too tight). Thanks very much Ian!

This group of 15mm WWII infantry along with the contemplative Ronin #14 will give Ian 100 points.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

From ChrisP: 28mm ACW Federal Infantry & Artillery (235 points)



From Chis:
First up is three units of ACW infantry. Sadly for my points total (or perhaps gladly for everyone else) two of these units were started before the competition, I still went to the effort to finish them because I really wanted to get them off my painting table! The models are just basic Perry Plastics, these three units will get flags in the future, once I figure out what unit they are going to represent! Likely they will be the 95th New York, 147th New York and the 56th Pennsylvanian, which when I paint up another unit, will mean I have painted the whole Second Brigade, from the 1st Division of the 1st Corps.  
Naturally, there needs to be some elder statesman on a horse directing things, so my General is suitable bearded, reading some sort of notice about something going on. Perhaps a rise in beard taxes? Who knows.
Lastly there is three units of Union artillery, of varying calibres, but all looking super swish in their blue uniforms with red trim. These guys were a bit of fun to paint to give me a change of scence, although they still are in regulation Union blue.

So, just 27 Infantry, 3 Guns and 1 Horseman. I have plenty more Union to paint, but I think I will paint something different for a little while - something not blue. Perhaps red? Not yellow, I don't like yellow. Perhaps a big green thing?
Is that a clue? Or a sign that the last few marbles I had have finally rolled under the refrigerator.....

'Just' 27 infantry, 3 guns and 1 horseman, Chris? You must be slipping... Seriously, yikes, that is an impressive amount of work! But hey, where are the colours for the infantry? Already snatched away by the Rebs I expect. For shame!  ;P

This passel of Bluebellies will give Chris an impressive 235 points, allowing him to close in on his 3K target...

Monday, February 25, 2013

From AndrewS: 28mm Viking 'Loknar' for Curt (15 points)


I'm a big fan of Andrew's work, particularly his Dark Age figures (see here and here). 


So, being the cheeky git that I am I 'invited' him to paint me a Viking figure for my collection. The man, being a consumate gentleman in not telling me to get stuffed, acquiesced and so I present to you the fruits of my impertinence: 'Loknar' the Viking.




He's pretty awesome, huh. I quite like his stripped trousers and shield, but oddly enough I especially dig his beard and braids. I'm thinking the dude could go into the scandinavian Death Metal scene if the whole viking thing doesn't work out for him.



Thanks so much Andrew! He'll take a proud place amongst my other honoured Vikings from last year's Challenge. (And yes Fran and Ray, I will get a post up featuring the whole group - I promise!)


Loknar will give Andrew 15 points.

From TamsinP: 28mm Norman Warband (242 points)


Tamsin makes her bid for glory with this impressive submission of Dark Age Normans.
For my 12th entry, here are 44 28mm Norman knights on foot. These are from the Conquest Games plastic Norman Infantry set.
The the guys without armour or just with padded gambesons will be "Sergeants" (= Warriors in Saga).


The eagle-eyed and elephant-memoried amongst you may have spotted that the shield designs are the same as for the mounted knights I submitted a week or so ago. I figured that any knight called to serve his Lord would be expected to bring a couple of footmen along with him, so it seemed reasonable to do them with the same shield designs.




Wow, you sure have built up the steam now Tamsin. I remember at the beginning of the Challenge you thought that you'd be hard pressed to meet your original target, but here you are, not only past your original goal but sprinting past Ray! Well done! These fellows are great and I always like your shieldwork.

This formidable force of Normans will give Tamsin 242 points, with a few extra added for her work on the shields. 

Sunday, February 24, 2013

From JuanM: 28mm Taliban, Civilians & Modern Contractors (50 points)


From Juan: 
I have painted some more models for The Challenge.
These models are from "Eureka Miniatures" in 28mm; excellent figures I´m going to use in my modern warfare games. I am going to test the new skirmish rulebook I have bought, "Skirmish Sangin".


I have painted five Afghan insurgents, two civilians from a wonderful set I found in the E.M. catalogue, a Somali Eureka Miniatures sent me without cost and the first two "Blackwater" contractors I´m going to use in my first game. All of them are fantastic figures, really nice, and, IMHO, better than those of "Empress Miniatures".


Wonderful work Juan. All are excellent but those mercenaries, er, 'contractors' certainly look the part. I always enjoy your painting style as it's so clean and smooth.

These ten figures will give Juan 50 points.