From IanW: 28mm WWII Winter Sniper Vignette (20 points)

Ian sends us a real little gem:

Here is a deluxe Sniper Reminder.

Everything but the figure is scratch built, oh the base is custom built built for me :-)

The walls are made from Linka moulds with the pavement made out of Linka stone walls.

The window frame started life as a Warbases panelled window which I cut out most of the inner frames then added another though I had to cut out the corners to make it fit.

The power lines is fuse wire with the pole two old paint brushes, bits of balsa and brass pins.

The figure needed elevating so I added a few piles of bricks and pinned a door (more balsa and another pin head) on top of them. 

I have also added some broken bricks from Model Display Products. You get about 250 bricks for just £2.50 and being made of clay break up just right.

More of the snow I have been playing with recently. I am very pleased with the result and hope the person who has waited well over a year for me to get to it will be as well.

Wow! What an amazingly evocative scene. Great job Ian. From the shattered telephone pole through to the frost on the walls this is simply amazing work and so wonderfully realized. I'm sure your client will be delighted with this new addition to his collection.

This sniper vignette will give Ian 20 points. Again, great work!

From GregB: Rogue Trader 25th Anniversary Commemorative Figure (10 points)

From Greg:

Time sure flies - the 25th Anniversary of "Warhammer 40,000 - Rogue Trader" seems like a relatively recent thing to me, but it was actually in 2012, just about two years ago.  

In keeping with GW's sure-fire tin ear and clueless lack of self-awareness, the company celebrated this significant anniversary with a special White Dwarf featuring Gandalf on the cover. But they also released a special figure to commemorate the occasion - a figure inspired by the Crimson First leading a doomed last stand from the cover of the rulebook.  These were limited edition models issued at the time and I picked a couple up because I am a shameless fanboy, and I love Rogue Trader.

This has been sitting primed since February 2012…thank goodness for Curt's painting challenges that encourage to get these kind of projects finished!

You have the option of mounting it directly on the scenic base beside the standard, or mounting the officer on a smaller base separately.  I went with a separate base for the Commander, leaving the banner to be a piece of scenery, and objective or terrain. 

It's a really, really nice figure, and was a nice souvenir of sorts. This being GW, though, it can't take two steps forward without taking one-and-a-half back, so unfortunately the figure was made of "Finecast" instead of proper metal. This is the first Finecast figure I have worked with (even though it has been around for a couple of years now). "Finecast" combines the issues of resin with the floppiness of plastic - all at the price of gold. Fortunately I was spared many of the more serious problems (holes, deformed casting etc) this crap medium seems to present to many other gamers.  

Finecast truly does suck, however.  The detail on the figure is really something, but the banner in particular was tricky to paint as Finecast has all of the tensile strength of a wet noodle - even my 8/0 brush caused it to bend! The experience did not pump me up to seek out other Finecast figures, although GW seems to be out of the metal business so more and more of its products are cast in this medium.

Anyway, the figure was still fun to paint and I'm glad to have it done.  The sculpt is very loyal to the inspiration of the image on the Rogue Trader book cover, right down to the ominous Ork head being waved around in his right hand. As I continue to build up my little collection of Crimson Fist troops this fellow will fit right in, and the standard will make a fine rally point for them to make some kind of pointless last stand on the gaming table.

Whoa, wonderful work Greg!  I clearly remember my buddy and I receiving the first copies of 'Rogue Trader' at our store, flipping through its pages and then looking at each other,  saying almost in unison, 'F*ck, this is going to be huge.'  And it was. 

I really like the over-saturated blue and red you've used for this figure and banner Greg - they do a great job in making the figure 'pop'. As you mention, it's weird how GW either misses the plot completely or can't leave well enough alone. The original art had this guy blazing away with this righteous big-ass, fist-cannon thing, but of course for the commemorative figure GW decides to make it a measly plasma pistol. Buncha ijits, I tell ya.

This Space Marine of the Crimson Fist Chapter along with his banner will give Greg 10 points.  Thanks for the memories buddy!

From RayR: 15mm 9YW French Cavalry (70 points)

Ray staggers us all by submitting something completely new: 15mm Nine Year War French cavalry... in light blue (GASP).

From Ray:

For my next entry of stuck with my French NYW army and I've stuck to the Cavalry but this time a Dragoon regt. They are once again Essex Minis with a great flag from Maverick Models. They're based up for Beneath the Lily Banners, using Warbases MDF bases. 

The unit represented is the Dauphin Dragoons mounted and dismounted. They wore an all blue uniform which again was a nice change from all that boring grey. I used a lighter brighter shade of blue than my previous Anjou regt, just to make a change.

Ray, you are like a dog with a bone when it come to the Nine Years War. Three Challenges and you've hardly ever wavered from The Cause.  I salute you! Seriously, these look great Ray (wonderful job in picking out the cording on the drummers) and that backdrop does a great job in setting the scene. 

The Dauphin Dragoons (with and without horses) will give Ray 70 points. Great job!

From PhilH: 28mm Colonial Sudanese Infantry & Khalifa Command Stand (56 points)

Phil returns Michael's volley with his own with these excellent Sudanese infantry and a Mahdist Khalifa.

From Phil:

The Sudan project continues apace (well, apace for me). Tempted as I was to save everything up for a Millsy-esque points bomb, I decided against that folly. Today I bring you another unit for the Anglo-Egyptian forces: the Sudanese IXth infantry. The Sudanese battalions were regarded as the elite of the Egyptian army, being professional soldiers recruited for life from Southern Sudan and the Nuba mountains. The Xth and XIth were even recruited from old soldiers that had been captured by the Mahdi, served in his Jihadiyya before escaping en masse in 1885 and re-enlisting in the Egyptian army.  

Mine are officered by an Egyptian (in the final photo, painted pre-challenge), though it was also known for Sudanese to be promoted from the ranks. The IXth's conduct alongside the Cameron Highlanders at the battle of Ginnis led to them being presented a unique standard in 1886: of red silk fringed in red and gold with Kosheh and Ginnis as battle honours and a central wreath. Other Battalions carried a green standard with only an Arabic numeral. 

The uniforms of the Egyptian army changed quite a lot between the various campaigns. I've settled on having my Egyptian units in a white summer uniform and Sudanese in a blue with white trousers. All units were later issued khaki uniforms. 

Also rolling off the table is this Command stand for the Mahdists: a Khalifa and his faithful standard bearer. Both were part of my first challenge batch but set aside part way through. I pondered a while how to paint the Khalifa, given he has such a large robe aching for some freehand like patches in the Mahdist style. But for a religious leader, I was also tempted by the understated purity of a plain white robe. In the end I settled on white with a jagged edging in blue. The standard bearer is converted from a standing spearman, carefully trimming his cast on spear off and replacing it with the Flag Dude banner. 

Beautiful work Phil! I really like both of the banner bearers, especially the Sudanese trooper. The flags from Flag Dude have such excellent animation, and I love the all-in-one cost (I have quite a few myself), but I wish he would upgrade his image files to eliminate the jagged line art - there really is no excuse for it in this day and age.

This Khalifa and his uniformed Sudanese opponents will give Phil 56 points, placing him one point behind Michael in the Victorian Side Challenge. A tight race - well done! 

From MilesR: 28mm ACW Confederate Artillery (60 points)

Two more 28mm Perry ACW artillery pieces and crews. These are metal figures and represent the last of my metal artillery sets on the “ye lode lead pile”. I’ve seen the greens for the upcoming plastic Artillery and I’m very much looking forward to them. 

 

Theses two guns and their crews have been painted as “generic rebs” and don’t really belong to any specific unit. They’ll see good use on the tabletop and bring my Confederate artillery arm up to six guns and crews - almost a match for those damn Yankees!

Great work Miles! I've typically based my artillery along with their crews but I can see the attraction of individual basing for its flexibility of placement on the tabletop and for skirmish gaming. I quite like the look of these, all arrayed to punish some Yanks.

These two guns with their crews will give Miles 60 points. Well done!

From KentG: Challenge Desperados (30 points)

Kent send in his Curtgeld with this wonderful vignette of a shoot-out.

From Kent:

Today is just a wee one. These two are my price-of-entry into the Challenge - I hope you like them. 

They are Dixon miniatures, full of character and who makes some of my favourite cowboys.

Wonderful stuff Kent! I really like the pistoleer peeking over to take his shot and the poor blighter who's copped it next to his trusty horse. 

This rootin' tootin' High Noon vignette will give Kent 30 points. Well done and thank you very much!

From AndrewS: 20mm Ancient Briton Cavalry (104 points)

Andrew switches from giant spiders back to ancient Britons with this fine entry. 

From Andrew:

Another entry staying with the Ancient Britons once again. This time I present two units of Cavalry which concludes the painting of my first cavalry division for the Army.

Both units contain a mix of Newline 20mm figures and Hat 1/72nd figures. In total 12 cavalry

The first unit is the Medium cavalry, I tried to unify them with the shields to a degree, the hat horses are a bad fit for the riders so all have been drilled and pinned to take wear and tear, though they do come with some gruesome trophies of war attached to the harnesses which add a bit of flavour to them.

The second unit is the light cavalry element again a mix of figures from both ranges, plaid and free hand shield patterns to finish them off.

Lovely work Andrew. I like how relatively bright these are with the shields and plaids really being shown to their best advantage. 

These two cavalry units will give Andrew 104 points which includes a few more for the time and effort for the shields and cloaks. 

From PaulS: Zombie Fatties, Abominations & Commando Force (160 points)

Okay, emerging from the crashing and smashing of the 'Vehicle(s)' bonus round we have another real treat with Paul's excellent greyscale zombies PLUS an impressive Commando force to counter this undead threat. 

From Paul:

I finally finished off the last couple of normal Fatties and the second Abomination for Season 2 of Zombicide. I've also managed to get a sample Rage fattie and Toxic Fattie complete to show the difference in the colour splashes. Hopefully the green will show up in a large horde. At the moment it's looking a little too subtle... but that's what experiments are for.

Just before I came across the challenge, I'd bought some Bolt Action figures to use in some WW2 games, mostly Cthulhu based ones like Strange Aeons or for my players in the Achtung! Cthulhu rpg. I'd originally only intended to put together enough for the players and a few NPCs, but with the challenge came the idea of actually turning them into working Bolt Action forces. So, I would like to present my first, complete, British Commando force, totalling about 500 points worth of troops (24 models). A very small, elite force. Hopefully this will be a fun little setup to learn with and is certainly a good starting point to grow from. Apart from the officer, the entire force was constructed from one box of Warlord's plastic Commandos. If I hadn't given one figure to a friend, I could have made everything from the one set, which seems like excellent value when you compare it to some other manufacturers who I will not name.

The force consists of a 2nd Lieutenant, plus his supporting rifleman. The Lt model came from a set of pulp characters one of the Lead Adventure forum members had sculpted. He was supposed to be Rorschach from Watchmen, so I replaced the masked head with a spare from the Commando sprue so that he fitted in more.

British forces in Bolt Action get a free observer to drop an artillery barrage on the enemy.

A Medic is always useful for keeping your elite squads going.

A PIAT team seemed to make sense in case I come across any armoured vehicles.

And a Sniper team to take out officers or weapon teams.

Along with the obligatory two sets of commandos to fill out the infantry slots. These guys are armed with 4 smgs and 1 lmg each, so should put out a fair amount of firepower

This week Also saw the Achtung! Cthulhu kickstarter models arrive in the post, so the two characters from the British army were painted up in the same style and colours as the rest of the commando force, seen here accompanying the commander; Captain Harris on the left and Corporal Singh on the right. Both are really nice sculpts, even if Harris is tiny compared to any of the plastics that surround him. The smg on his back was from the Commando plastics as the metal one in the kickstarter kit was far too thin and bent to be of any real use. These two will be of more use in the rpg scenarios or Strange Aeons, but could make for some interesting officers in Bolt Action if they ever get around to the rumoured Weird War 2 supplement.

Just for fun, here's a shot of some Commandos cornered in a graveyard by the zombie horde.

Awesome work Paul! Your greyscale zombies are first rate and I think the green will stand out on the tabletop but field-testing will confirm. The Commandos are very nice as well I love the medic with the comb-over hair and the Sikh with his Kirpan. Very cool.

These arcane commandos and the zombie additions will give Paul 160 points. This entry will see him surmount his initial points target with almost two months to spare. Great work!