From RossM: 28mm Dark Age, Ancient Greeks, Myceneaens & 15mm WWII German Vehicles (145 points)

From Ross:

Here are the first of my final entries to this years competition. 

Before the pictures I would like to thank you again for organising and hosting this event. Whilst I may not reach the godly totals of some painters I do really enjoy the challenge and the opportunity to view so many other painters work. Now to the pictures.

First up is the last of the Dark Age casualty figures from Perry Miniatures. This figure will be used with both Impetus and SAGA in 28mm and as always with a Perry sculpt is great to paint.

The next set of pictures are of a stand of Mercenary Peltasts for Impetus. The figures are from Foundry's 28mm World of Greeks range and are some of my personal favourites from this range. The figures will see use in my existing Spartan army for Impetus and hopefully in the Macedonians when they get started.

Next there are several more vehicles from Battlefront. Well 12 to be precise. 4 Stugs and 8 Opel Blitz soft tops. These 15mm vehicles paint well and don't take too long to complete.

Lastly is a stand of Myceneaen Spearmen for Impetus again. The figures are 25mm's from Redoubt Miniatures and capture the period excellently in my opinion. The tower shields and long bladed spears really make the unit but I have a feeling that they may well come off a few times in the future. Sadly, due to having a nightmare attaching the spears and shields on these fellows the base is not fully textured and coloured yet. I have  started this but due to it being just before 3 AM in the UK and that I am working tomorrow at 9 am they won't be completed this morning.

Hopefully, if my calculations are correct this will take me to my challenge total.

Looking forward to next years challenge!

Ross, your calculations are spot on. This fine collection of figures will give you 145 points which will pip you right onto your Challenge target. Congratulations! Great work and thank you for participating.

From PhilH: 28mm Pulp Adventurers (35 points)

From Phil:

You'll never guess what I wrap up my challenge with. No sandbagging here, just another small entry : yet another eclectic collection of miniatures! 

First up, four Artizan Designs French Foreign Legion that I got on eBay or in a bargain bin ('they'll be useful some day' syndrome). Classic uniform, painted in a 1930s Khaki, these will be useful for Pulp - some hired guns for the Societe, perhaps?

Next, an investigator for Pulp, this lady looks like she means business. I really liked the sculpt, from Hasslefree Miniatures. I've no use for most of their modern range, but figured she could pass for a little earlier. Kev White does lovely females, while often very petite (this one particularly so), they seem quite natural and believable sculpts. 

Third, another lady, this time from the Victorian era. She is from the Mutineer Miniatures 'Defenders of Lucknow' pack that Gharak grabbed. I bugged him to let me have this feisty lady. She looks like she means business and can add some colour to my Sudan Brits! I've done a lot of ladies in the challenge it seems. Not entirely intentional, but they have been great to keep it varied! 

Finally, one with a story. With the Sarah's Choice rules this year focusing on noncombatants, most of the ladies I had in stock wouldn't fit the bill (I've painted them anyway, of course!). I pondered for a while and came up with two options: a single figure and a small diorama. Time ran away from me and I didn't get the diorama done, so this will have to be my stab at reclaiming the prize. 

When I saw the miniature, I was a little struck by the ethereal grace of her. I thought she'd look great alone on a cliff edge, looking out over crashing waves. Perhaps a sailor's wife, waiting for his return, quietly watching for sails on the horizon, with the breeze catching her hair. 

There's only so much space on a 30mm base, I wasn't up for making cliffs and crashing waves. But I thought I'd position her offset slightly from the usual position on the base, which I think draws out her loneliness a little. A simple paint job to bring out the simplicity of the sculpt, in my usual clean style. I tried a new recipe for the blonde hair and am rather pleased with it. She was a pain to photograph though, the flash often makes the dress look harshly pale. 

A lovely miniature and a joy to paint, Hasslefree once more. 

The paint is still drying on her. With these submitted, it is late and its off to bed I go! 

Beautiful work Phil. Though all are excellent I have to say that my favourite is the solitary lass. You've done such a nice blending with her dress and hair. Lovely stuff.

This final submission will give Phil 35 points to close off his roster. Well done and thank you for joining us again.

From RobP: 28mm Mahdist Ansars Warband (235 points)

From Rob:

The last bit that will pull me over the threshold of my personal challenge/goal is a bunch of Mahdist Ansar. These are Perry plastics and although I am not a great fan of the plastic stuff I have to say that these are extremely nice figures.. Lots of character and a lot of possibilities for variation. They were actually a lot of fun to put together without any hassle like I had when trying to construct some of the early Victrix plastics (which i never finished and ended up giving them away.).

This is a bunch of 31 brave warriors looking for a honourable end and the reward of number of virgins in prophets paradise. Flag is from the Flag Dude. 

Again some ACW Union Irish Brigade figures: 8 skirmishers and an extra command base to be more versatile when breaking up the larger regiments in the brigade to form seperate smaller units... All figures are Foundry and the flags, as they are in all regiments, are from Redoubt.. I bought them at a bargain at a trade show some time ago and they turn out to be OK.. Not as good as the GMB flags i normally use but in the end they did the job.. 

Next up is the Challenge Entry Ronin.. I am not sure about the make of this figure.. It is one of a small pack of three that i bought a long time ago at a trade show.. I think it is a Foundry figure but might also be Dixon.. I have repainted it a few times during the challenge because I could notdecide on the colours to use... It ended up in a totally different  colourscheme than i started with and it was finished only today at the end of the Challenge... 

I must say it has been a fun ride doing this challenge.. Although I had a slow start in December I finally managed to achieve my personal target and I´ve got a lot of stuff done that otherwise would have taken longer or wouldn´t even get painted at all.. Good for you Curt and a big hurrah! to keep us on track with finishing something that we can replace with hew purchases to keep the leadpile at the same level... 

Great work Rob.  They look suitably ferocious. I know plastics can be a bit of a pain but you've done an excellent job on these fellows. And thank you so much for your Ronin! He looks the business and I really like the vibrant red bow. 

This warband of Ansars, American and Ronin #35 will give Rob 235 points. Bravo! Another member of the Dutch Waterbicycle Detachment breaks into the clear.

From MichaelF: 28mm AWI, Revolutionary War French, ACW & Ronin #27 (146 points)

From Michael:

First a couple of AWI rebels to complement my skirmishers from the previous entry. Pretty soon they will get some actions when we try our first game of Muskets and Tomahawks. Perry figures so great animation but also a lot of free unwanted metal.

Next some Eureka figures from their revolutionary line which I initially paint for the wars of the third coalition. With little modification though these can be used from 1800-1807 in many different campaigns.

Unfortunately I only managed to do 20 while I planned to do the whole 36 man battalion this competition. I'm sort of dissapointed with this so I set my own new deadline for March to complete them.

The quality of these is just insane and I've become a huge fan. Luckily they will be at Salute again this year so the Eureka lead pile will grow substantially I'm afraid.

Another thing I'm constantly exploring is the use of smaller scale miniatures for grand scale battles. I' just cannot decide which scale and period but once in a while I do some testing. I would not have posted this experiment but hey, every point counts now.

So this is just 1 base of 10mm ACW from pendraken.  I think they would look great if you have lots and lots of them but I'm not sure if I can paint up that many. Maybe I should just use a painting service for this project...

Second picture is a comparison shot. Don't know why but they are a  28mm from Steve Barber, 15mm Blue Moon and the 10mm pendrakens. 

Finally the entrance fee. I know virtually nothing on this subject and I knew researching it would drive me crazy and I would probably end up ordering a new collection of figures. So I just sat down and painted some colours on the Perry figure.

For the Sashimono a friend who studied Japanese came to the rescue. While it's assumably very incorrect for someone who knows Late Middle Japanese  it's an attempt at least. So this one is for you Sarah, it has  you're name on it...

Now I must admit that I was overwhelmed by the Japanese armour and all the bells and whistles on the Samurai figs I have here so I was not very keen to paint him in the first place. But how wrong could I have been. I had so much fun painting him (while also working as a robot on the Naps) that I actually started researching to get into the period (mission accomplished Curt:). I will definitely get me some more of these now...

Curt, thanks again for hosting the competition! It's been pleasure to participate again and admiring all the submissions. The personal challenge is a great addition and makes it even more fun. Many thanks, great job and the Dutch Samurai figs will start their march to Saskatchewan soon (with the base corrected, just noticed it has some damage).

 Yikes, such beautiful work, Michael. I've always been such a great admirer of your style as the application and transitions are so nice and smooth. Wonderful.

Thanks so much for the samurai! He's awesome and Sarah will be ever so chuffed to see her name 'in sashimono'. :)

This fabulous selection of figures will give Michael 146 points, giving him enough to meet his Challenge target. Great work Mike and thanks so much for joining in on the fun again.

From BurkhardS: 28mm Napoleonic Prussian Artillery (120 points)

From Burkhard:

So in the nick of time, here is my final entry for this years competition. These models are to represent the Prussian Berittene Batterie Nr. 2 (Horse Artillery Battery No. 2) for my Völkerschlacht project. Not much to tell about these, since they were quiet a straight forward job. It is amazing how little I manage to get done these days. The guns were painted the weekend before the last and the crews this last weekend. This was my best shot at getting the final two points to meet my target together (and to actually surpass it) with a decent entry. The worst thing was getting them based. Not I glue the minis to their base using two part epoxy. So that first step takes about a day to dry. The next step is applying filler to the bases to reduce the pitcher mound look from the integral bases. And there goes another 12 hours drying time. The Rest of the basing is quiet straightforward with sand, tuffs and static grass, but it meant that I was constantly afraid of not being able to finish them in time. Back to the minis themselves. They are from Calpe and easily my favourite range when it comes to Napoleonic Prussians. I wish I had found the time to do a French Infantry unit for this challenge.

Since this will be my final entry I would like to say a few things. First of all I really enjoyed myself. I never entertained any hopes of winning. I am a slow painter, constantly work overtime and most of my entries were Napoleonics (which take me the longest by far of all the eras I paint). But it helped me do just what I wanted... get me motivated to paint a lot of minis so I can hope to have everything painted in time for Crisis in Antwerp this fall, where I am going to host my Völkerschlacht game. My inital goal had been 500 points which I felt were going to be a stretch, but somewhere along the way I was happy to raise that to 700 to get me more motivated. If my math does not fail me I shall have surpassed that goal by more than 100 points. So I am really happy for this challenge for it allowed me to make a big leap on my timetable.

I would also like to apologize to my fellow Ronin. I had far too little time to look at your entries (usually only once every one or two weeks). I was really impressed by the company I had and by the quality of your works. So I wish I would have had more time to comment on your entries, instead of restricting myself to the most recent ones, when I had the time to look. You all would have deserved more attention from my part.

And last I would like to thank Curt for his efforts. Hosting this kind of challenge for nearly 50 people is madness. Still finding the time to help his friends during times of hardship at the same time is more than applaud able. In this sense, like a true Samurai you are one fine example of giri-ninjo. Arigatō, Curt-San!

Wow, that is one gorgeous battery of guns Burkhard. I really like that you've dirtied up both the guns and the crew to reflect them being out in the field. Very impressive.

These Prussian guns and their crew will give Burkhard 120 points which will be more than enough for him to meet his Challenge target. Well done and congratulations.

Thanks very much for your kind words Burkhard. It was a great to have you join us in this little cabal of toy soldier madness.