From RossM: Old School Orcs, Pulp Villains & Mycenaeans (83 points)

Things have been a little quiet from Ross these past few weeks but he comes back to us with a great selection of entries for us to enjoy.

From Ross:

First up are the last of the current batch of retro Orcs from Citadel and Ral Partha. These seven Orcs like the previous entry are 28mm in scale. 

They have been painted in a style which is dissimilar to many Orc armies that I see currently; that is I have avoided as much as possible bright colours and gone for a more uniform approach using colours from Foundry's range of WW2 colours. This has given the Orcs a much darker appearance than some you may see elsewhere but I think it really works. So much so that I am looking at creating an Oldhammer army in this style.

Next up are three figures from Artizan Design's Pulp Hero range which are again 28mm in scale. These figures have been painted with a certain film in mind. 

The central figure should spark a few memories of Major Arnold Toht from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Well that was the inspiration.

The Braunen Brüder (Brown Brothers) are his hired helpers and will be a part of his group in several games coming up in North Africa as well as some of the DAK. As with all of the figures from Artizan these have been a pleasure to paint.

Finally my most recent Mycenaeans. These six figures are from Redoubt Miniatures 28mm range depicting the Trojan War. Not much else to say about these except the shields are taking a long time to paint and there will be more from this range over the final weeks of the challenge.

It's great to have you back with us Ross! A great variety of figures and all of them wonderful to behold. The orcs really take me back to those heady days of 1st Edition D&D and Warhammer. (It makes me a bit misty actually.) I quite like the dark tone you've gone with for these. 

The pulp villains are always crowd pleasers. I particularly like the 'Brothers Brown' - I see them having great futures as nefarious henchmen. 

Finally it's very nice to see your continuing progress with your Mycenaean project. Always lovely to see. I continue to be impressed with your clean style and your lovelyh work with the hide shields on these fellows. 

This fine group of figures will give Ross 83 points, with a bit added for those excellent Mycenaeans. Great work!

From PhilH: 28mm Mahdists with Command & Challenge Desperado (75 points)

From Phil:

My next entry, it may surprise you to know, takes me back to the Sudan. Seven foot Mahdists, plus a command stand of one foot one mounted. I painted these alongside the casualties I also submitted, a fairly sizeable batch for me but a mere drop compared to DaveD's ocean. 

Once again, this batch is well furnished with conversions to mix things up a little. These five all got a good hacking, mostly with arms from various places, including Warlord plastic celts and Wargames Factory Greeks. My favourites are the tribesman with arm thrust in the air, his war-cry of 'Allahu-Akbar' almost audible and the Beja flinging his spear, shield arm thrust backwards for balance. 

The Beja wing of the force gets a mounted commander, this being the Perry's version of Osman Digna himself. This set was kindly bought for my by my Secret Santa this year and he has been turned around in record time (the Mahdi himself is still in the box, though!) 

Different parts of the force are starting to get differentiated by colour, with Beja being very plainly dressed, mostly in Vallejo Iraqi sand and tan yellow.

He's such a badass sculpt, surveying the scene, I wanted to keep him nice and plain as well.

And as my entry fee, a desperado painted in the style of Peckinpah's Wild Bunch. I picked this chap up alongside a bunch of cowboy minis in a bargain bit at Triples so I don't know the manufacturer. He is rather a slim model but painted up nicely, though perhaps not the most interesting. I liked the pose, saddle bags slung over the shoulder.

Looking at the photos, I'm not quite content with him - I think he needs to be a bit grubbier, so I will add more stippling around his feet and I think he deserves his eyes doing, a chore I usually skip. 

I have left his basing for Curt to do to his own liking. 

I hope you like him!

Excellent work Phil! You're getting quite resourceful with your mods to the base Perry plastic set (using the Ancient Greek plastics from Wargames Factory is sheer genius). I love the command vignette and I think you did the right thing to keep it minimalist as it seems fitting for the subject. I also really like the basing, with his horse calmly standing on the flat rock and scree. Very nice.

And thank you so much for the Desperado! I think he's quite marvelous. I like his understated pose with his saddlebag (full of ill-gotten loot I would suppose) slung over his shoulder. The cream waistcoat is a great touch as well.

These Mahdi and the Desperado will give Phil 75 points, which includes a bit extra for the various modifications. Great job Phil and thanks again!