From ReneV: 28mm WWII American Infantry Platoon & Sherman Tank (172 points)

From Rene:

I have outdone myself with yet another entry. This time the Infantry Platoon component of my US forces for Chain of Command.

The figures are a mix but mainly Wargames Factory plastics with the addition of a Renegade model. Sherman support option is from Warlord.

All in all a mediocre paintjob and I must admit that the pictures are taken a bit too close for comfort. They do look better in real life when viewed from playing distance.

The way I have painted these are not what you would call advertisement quality, but decent gaming quality which at the moment is enough for me so I can get troops on the table and play a game.

All in all they are a medic, a 3-man engineer team and Adjudant (more a game marker than a figure on the table hence the GW base) together with a Sherman M4 (75mm gun) and a large part of an infantry platoon.

I think you're being too hard on yourself Rene as these look very good. The infantry's uniforms look spot on and I particularly like the weathering on the Sherman. 

This platoon with it's armoured support will give Rene 172 points. Great job!

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!

  

From MikeW: 28mm Parthian Cavarly (950 points)

From MikeW:

Here with submission number N+1 - what am I at now? Four? My entire Parthian army for this weekend's WABGT (http://www.wabgt.co.uk): a batch painting job to wargames standard that took me most of a weekend and a week of evenings once I'd got them assembled.

23 cataphracts, being a mix of Old Glory Parthians and Palmyrans, with some A&A Miniatures Palmyran command figures. (Old Glory UK didn't have enough of the Parthians, and they basically said 'will the Palmyrans do, they're very similar). Horses were undercoated in Army Painter Matt Black, and dry-brushed with Army Painter Plate Mail (or, for the unit leaders, Weapon Bronze). Riders, to provide a slight contrast, were undercoated in Plate Mail spray, faces, hands (AP Tanned Flesh), metal kontos (Vallejo US Field Drab), leather work (Vallejo Red Leather) etc painted, and then washed with AP Strong Tone ink and the faces retouched with AP Human Flesh (a lighter shade).

72 (yes, really) horse archers, being 6 complete boxes of Wargames Factory Persian cavalry. Horses were undercoated in AP Matt Black, then given assorted shades of brown (AP Oak, Monster, Fur Browns, Vallejo Flat Earth). I went with the 'mostly bay or black' approach for what's probably a set of fairly inbred mounts, though there are half a dozen pale enough to be duns or roans - see  here for what I mean. Saddle blankets in Vallejo Khaki, and one of AP Red, Ultramarine Blue or Angel Green detailing, and then harness in Vallejo Red Leather.

The riders were undercoated in batches of twelve in AP Daemonic Yellow, Desert Yellow, Bleached Bone, Uniform Green, Ultramarine Blue and Necrotic Flesh. After that, I snapped them on the mounts (they're a tight enough fit not to need glue, actually!), did faces/hands (AP Tanned Flesh), headgear (AP White, which covers *superbly* well), leggings (AP Leather Brown) and leatherwork (Vallejo Red Leather), and bows (Vallejo US Field Drab). Final stage was a wash of AP Soft Tone ink which dragged back and evened out the overall 'look' of the different colours.

Basing was Tamiya textured 'Desert Sand' and then dipped straight into Javis Desert Sand mix: left to dry, a few dabs of PVA and a sprinkle of AP Winter static grass. Varnished with AP Anti-Shine, and bob's your uncle. Done with most of an evening to spare! The pile of dead plastic sprues was *impressive*.

Pictures are taken from the WABGT (handily I was on a desert table for my last two games). Oh, and for the record? I came last :D

Woah! That is a heap of Parthians! Incredibly impressive work Mike and they look very, very good. Sorry that they did not come through for you during the tournament but that always seems the case with new recruits... 

This horde of horsesoldiers will give Mike a staggering 950 points! So in one entry he's achieved his 1K target and also rides into the top 10 - Well done! 

Nonetheless Mike, I do remember a niggling detail regarding a Ronin AND a Viking...

From IanH: 28mm Pulp Adventurers & Minoan Warriors (70 points)

From Ian:

First up I've a number of new Pulp miniatures, a desert guide from Artizan designs who was a lovely miniature to paint, really nice crisp detail and a characterful face. I gave him that interesting shade of ginger beard which may suggest he's Afghan. The second individual is Yusef, once again from Artizan Designs, perhaps he's another guide for our heroes but then again he may be the member of a secret organisation sworn to protect the grail and keep it's secrets. Either way I kept the colours subtle and went for a linen suit look but decided on different coloured trousers just to break up the miniature a little. 

I follow those two up with a group of four fanatical turbaned warriors for my Kali cult, the miniatures are the Gazi from Mutineer Miniatures Indian Mutiny range. They've been painted up to match with my Thuggee stranglers my brother painted for me last year and are clearly inspired by the Thuggee from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Once again really nice crisp miniatures that were very easy to paint. 

Finally I've a group of Ancient warriors, these are some playtest miniatures for my Greek Mythology inspired game and will be representing the Minoan Faction when I get back around to some more play testing. The miniatures are a mix of plastic Zulus and Numidians from Wargames Factory. They're not my best paint job and I have to say I hated painting them after the pulp miniatures, poor detail and not well defined at all. but they're off my desk and can be added to the tally.

That's it for now, handily a couple of orders have come in to I have some more assembling and prepping to do over the next week.

Really nice work Ian. Those Artizan sculpts are so characterful. I particularly like the russet beard and blue and white cap you gave the Afghan tribesman. 

This collection will give Ian 70 points.

From MikeW: 28mm Clergy and a Brigantes Army (!) (600 points)

God's Holey Trousers! Mike drops a bomb with this entry. You'll see, just read on.

From Mike:

'First up, a set of 9 clerical types from Conquest Games UK. Slightly different from my usual approach in that I used Citadel washes (brown on most things, black on greying hair) rather than Army Painter dip. It's quicker to dry, but slightly slower to apply. Basing is Army Painter desert flock.'

'The second batch was completed for the WAB GT competition at the end of February - it's 110 (count 'em if you like :D) Brigantes warband, a mix of Warlord plastics, Warlord metals, Wargames Factory plastics and Wargames Foundry metals.' 

'Back to the usual approach for these - a mix of various colour Army Painter base coats (fur brown, platemail, human flesh, white, uniform green, dark blue, red) to save time with the top coats, then block colours and dip - basing is Tamiya drark earth texture paint, Javis moorland scatter and static grass.'

'These were painted on Monday through Wednesday, dipped Thursday, based and varnished on the Friday and packed off to the tournament on the Saturday. If I'm honest, it shows... but.. a) they pass the two-foot test and more importantly, b) I managed to figure out a production line system for getting a set of different colours on the tunics and leggings, and c) this is the batch of figures during which I started to get my head round how to apply dip properly with two brushes.'

Awesome work Mike! Its amazing what you achieved within a work week - a full army - wow. Well, this whack of 119 figures will give Mike 595 points, but I'll make it an even 600 for the sheer effort behind it. Well done!

From MikeW: 28mm Early Saxon Gedrith Warband (100 points)

Mike sends in this fine unit of Early Saxon Gedrith warriors that he will be using for a WAB 'Age of Arthur' list.

From Mike:

Gripping Beast plastics (with one exception), with the usual approach - basic block colours, Army Painter dip (this time I used the two brush technique - brush dip on in batches of four, take a clean brush and remove anywhere it's pooled), Army Painter varnish, and Tamiya diorama paint plus Javis Spring Grass and Gale Force 9 Parched Straw on the bases. The standard bearer is a Wargames Factory plastic Saxon Thegn (the double-handed axe wielder) and the standard itself is hand-painted atop a computer printout and attached (with the wife's blessing) to a bristle cut off our garden broom :D 

These fierce lads will give Mike 100 points to add to his score. Well done! He tells me there is a substantial submission on the horizon, so stay tuned!