From SamuliS: 28mm Norse Gael Warband (69 points)

Samuli, our man in Finland (I love saying that), starts his Challenge with these great Norse Gaels for use with SAGA.

From Samuli:

While my plot to gain the first place with a fortnight challenge entry somewhat failed due to all of them being published at the same time I had to paint some replacements fast. So as my first published entry I present you the beginnings of a Norse Gael Warband for Saga. We have here a Warlord with his retinue of 4 Ostmen (Hearthguard) and 8 Bonnachts (Warriors) armed with Dane Axes.

Gripping Beast minis from the Norse Gael starter warband. I've gotta say I love the detail and quality on them. Miles away from the Wargames Factory stuff I've previously used for Saga. Although I must say it's a bit weird that most of them are modeled barefoot. Either Gallic Vikings are exceptionally poor or exceptionally tough, or both.

I started them by doing a 3-color base with black from underneath, grey from a 45 degree angle and white straight from top. Speeds up the process quite a bit as I already have shades in place and can see quite clearly where highlights would naturally go. Painting itself was a fairly simple process with Vallejo Paints with GW and Army Painter Inks followed by a few layers of highlights. Basing with Army Painter tufts and some assorted flock.

I was initially planning to use decals for the shields, but as mine are still somewhere in transport I resorted to painting some quick shields freehand as I was hungry for points. I guess I'll update the guys when I get my decal pack from Battleflag.

Next will be a short painting break as I visit with relatives during Christmas. Plenty of time to decide what to paint next. Chimera for Fantasy Battle, Winter War Finns in 28mm or Flames of War US Paras.

Wonderful work Samuli! All these barefoot Norse loons swinging huge freakin' axes makes a pretty sobering sight. 

This nascent warband will give Samuli a base of 65 points but I'm adding a 4 more for his hand-painted shields. Great stuff Samuli and welcome back to the Challenge!

From ClintB: 10mm Ashigaru Infantry (48 points)

Clint debuts with these two units of Ashigaru which will reinforce his growing Samurai collection.

From Clint:

Today we have 48 Pendraken Miniatures Ashigaru in 10mm (code SAM8). These are my latest additions to my two Samurai armies. Hence the different uniform. They are all painted to my usual wargames standard for 10mm. That being a base colour followed by a heavy dark wash and then highlighted to bring out any relevant detail. While they will not win any painting competitions if we use the 2 foot rule to represent how they will look on the table top that simple painting technique yields fairly good results. 

Being all the same pose they are armed with both Naginata and a scabbarded sword in their belt sash. I decided early on while building these armies not to mix an match weapons on the same base only for reasons of wargames clarity so all players would clearly be able to identify which units were armed with designated weapon. Very slowly both of these armies are coming together but they are still a long way from the level I desire so be warned I may well be painting more in the challenge.

Excellent work Clint. The single pose actually works quite well with his genre and I like the uniform block colours that you used - reminds me of the massed armies in Kurosawa's 'Ran' or Kadokawa's 'Heaven and Earth'.

These lads will give Clint 48 points for the roster. Great job and welcome to the Challenge Clint!

From LeeH: Dave the Wizard from Bromley (5 points)

Lee sends us this rather minimalist wizard figure that he's painted for an upcoming Christmas RPG game (?!)

From Lee:

This wizard model isn't exactly overburdened with sculpted detail, but was exactly what I need for a quick RPG game I'm putting together for the kids over Christmas (no Charades or Trivial Pursuits in our house, No sir! Its D&D or nothin' as far as I'm concerned). 

 

The game calls for a shadowy wizard that appears to float across a lake of blood...so I think this model fits the bill! Its a 28mm white metal figure from Games Workshop and its been lurking in my Lead Mountain for years, just waiting for its big moment. 

This was understandably a quick model to paint. Black basecoat, several dryrushes of successively lighter blue for highlights and a dark ink wash to add a little depth to the shadows. Oh and a blood red base with a red ink for added redness! 

Oh and its called Dave the Wizard because when I was describing the model to my daughter (who wasn't listening properly of course) she thought that's what I called it, and the name stuck. So instead of being menaced in the game by the Evil Wizard Xa-zlekial of Harkania they will be mildly imperilled by Dave the Wizard from Bromley. 

Well, nothing says Christmas in the Hadley home like a well decorated tree, sweet pudding fresh from the oven and an evil wizard floating across a lake of blood... And I thought we were weird for having cheese and chocolate fondue on Christmas eve!

Dave the Wizard from Bromley will give Lee 5 points! Have a great game with him Lee!

From AlanD: 28mm Western Outlaws (50 points)

Alan puts his stamp on the points roster with this excellent entry of Wild West outlaws.

From Alan:

Here is my first entry, and riposte to Paul's lovely steampunk Royal Marines.

I've enjoyed playing Dead Man's Hand recently, and building a town (provisionally called Hurricane), so one goal for the challenge is to populate it! A couple of nights ago I even managed to convince my cool 15 year old daughter to have a game of Dead Man's Hand, and she loved it, so there's an extra incentive to get some painted figures on the boardwalks and dusty street of Hurricane. This bunch of shady characters are all 28mm, most from the set of Outlaws put out by Great Escape Games for Dead Man's Hand, and some extras from Wargames Foundry.

My favourite figure is the bloke with a six gun in each hand. For some reason whenever I look at him I think of Michael Gabon in Open Range saying in his Irish accent 'you won't think it's so foony when yer all shot ta hell an' doiin.' There are a couple of other figures obviously inspired by movies, Tombstone and 3:10 to Yuma amongst them.

Yeeee hah!

Wow, wonderful stuff Alan! I really like the judicious use of colour for their waistcoats and jackets - very nice. And that terrain is brilliant - this lasercut stuff has really revolutionized this genre in the hobby.

So these 10 rascals will give Alan 50 points. Well done and welcome to the madness!

From PaulS: 28mm Greyscale Zombies (90 points)

PaulS sends us his second entry with these wonderfully creepy greyscale zombies.

From Paul:

This time we have 18 zombies from Zombicide. Earlier in the year, tried painting them up in full colour, but it just ended up looking messy and took forever trying to get each one looking different enough, so, I decided to give Carmen's black and white zombies a go. 

Rather than go down the same route he has for the rage and toxic zombies I've decided to be a bit more subtle and go for a Sin City approach. Normal zombies are plain black and white; rage zombies will have splashes of red and toxic zombies will have puss green dripping from them. Nice and juicy!

This batch consists of 16 walkers/runners of various types and two much larger Fatties to tower over everyone.

Great stuff Paul! I'm a big fan of Carmen's greyscale work and you've done a very nice job with these. I also like the idea of different colour 'points' for zombie-types. And again, I really like the clear bases.

This herd of zombies will give Paul a very tidy 90 points.

A New Prize Sponsor: Fife & Drum Miniatures

Yesterday I was contacted by 'Der Alte Fritz', owner of Fife & Drum Miniatures who, completely out of the blue, has very kindly offered prize support for the Painting Challenge. For those who may not be familiar with the range, 'Fife & Drum Miniatures', whose 30mm figures focus on the American War of Independence, was awarded 'Best Historical Miniatures Range of 2011' by the Miniatures Page. Fife & Drum also carries the wonderful Minden Miniatures range which focuses on the armies of the Seven Years War. Both ranges are sculpted by the ridiculously talented Richard Ansell.

So again, a huge thanks to 'Der Alte Fritz' for his generous support of the Painting Challenge. Huzzah!!

In a few days I'll post more details on the various prizes in order to whet your appetite and spur you all to more heroic bouts of painting madness!

From AndrewS: French & Indian Wars Armed Civilians (70 points)

Andrew comes to us again, this time with a passel of French & Indian Wars figures.

From Andrew:

These 14 redoubt figures from their French Indian War range are all 28 mm figures, range that I have bought via ebay and various other sources. 

I split these away from the un armed ones so as to be able to make this my 2nd entry proper this year. They have all been worked up from a black undercoat with a mix of foundry and vallejo paints. Then finished with a gloss varnish followed by army painter anti shine.

Wonderful work Andrew. I have quite a few Redoubt models for my ECW collection and I forgot how nice they can be when painted well. Lovely stuff.

This fine collection will give Andrew 70 points. 

From SebG: 28mm Medieval Citizens and Monks (20 points)

Seb begins his climb up the points chart with these four medieval civilians.

From Seb:

Here is my first entry: two medieval civilians and two priests, from the Perry brothers. When Lee had his giveaway on his blog, I had been tempted by those. I had entered only once, but managed to win big time! Thanks again Lee, these minis are perfect for the challenge. Indeed, as soon as I received them, I knew I had to keep them in my lead pile for the challenge.

They've been easy to paint, over a brown coat. I wanted to work on fast techniques to paint the browns, and inks are the way to go! It's also a good way to practice my face-painting.

Nice work Seb! I particularly like the skin tone you achieved with the big bruiser sporting the club. 

These four will give Seb 20 points. Welcome back!