From MikeP: 20mm WWII Soviet ISU 122 Assault Guns (26 points)

From Mike:

Here's my entry #5.  These kits are from the Italieri ISU 122 Fast Assembly Kit, which gives you two of these Russian bruisers, each in 9 parts.  No little bogies to cut and glue on, no flexible tracks to try and melt together. 

The only drawback to this kit is that it doesn't include decals, so I tried my hand at handpainting some slogans found on a website of Soviet posters.  One says "Cut the bastards!", the other says "Fight to the Death!".  I chose them because they were reasonably short, but I still ran out of space on the hulls.  Oh well.

The Challenge rules require that entries are based, so I stole heavily from Sidney Roundwood's amazing WW1 bases and cobbled together some bases that have an urban theme, suitable for a Fall of Berlin game which I hope to do when I get a bit more kit.

Two firsts for me with these models. They are the first tanks I've airbrushed, using Vallejo Russian Green, as I slowly work up the nerve to use my airbrush.   It was reasonably successful, and nice to get away from the mess that brushwork sometimes makes of vehicles when the paint bunches and clumps. The second first was using pigment. For the tracks and lower hulls I used Vallejo 73109 Natural Umber from their Earth and Oxide kit.  It was fun to use but in retrospect I think the "less is more" rule will apply.

Great work Mike! Congratulations on your two 'firsts', you did a very fine job with both the airbrush and pigments. I also really like the 'Roundwood' bases you created for them, though truth be told, I only require basing for figures that clearly require them (my bad for not being more explicit in the rules). 

These two monsters will give Mike a base of 24 point but I'm adding a few more for the bases and abreiviated slogans.

From JohnM: 'Clever Boy' Viking and Fleming & Ronin #19 (32 points)

From John:

Just 3 figures up next. I recently had a small contest on my blog entitled "A Clever Boy", it entailed answering two questions about some Flemish Mercenaries, I had painted earlier for the Painting Challenge. The winners were David K and Curt C as detailed here in this post.

David asked for a SAGA Viking and Curt wanted a Fleming. Unfortunately I had neither, but I had two Saxons that would do. For David, we have a Viking Bannerman, the latest rendition of SAGA has special rules for Bannerman, so I hope David finds it useful. For Curt we have a Flemish Captain, bearing the arms of the town off Saint-Simon in Picardie, part of historic Flanders.

And finally we have the price of admission to the Painting Challenge: one 28mm Samurai. I am by no means a free hand painter, so I had to pick a family with an easy to paint Sashimono. I was always intrigued by Okudaira Sadamasa's leadership in the seige of Nagashino Castle. Oda Nobunaga was so impressed he gave the Sadamasa the honour of changing is name to Okudaira Nobumasa, thus becoming part of his family. If I remember correctly this seige is retold in my favourite Akira Kurosawa film, Kagemusha.

All the photos are extreme close-ups with many blemishing, but I am hoping the recipients find them of good wargaming standard.

Very lovely stuff John and thank you so much for the figures. These are waaaay above 'wargaming standard', and I'm afraid I don't really deserve any 'clever boy' moniker, but I'll happily take both the kudos and figures and run! 

BTW, you seem to be getting on well with your new camera - those macro shots turned out quite nicely.

This fine trio of figures will give John 32 points.

From StefanosS: 28mm Napoleonic Italian Infantry (117 points)

From Stefanos:

Here I is my completed 2nd Btg of Italian Kingdom, 1st Line Regiment.

22 28mm figures, almost all are from Crusader miniatures, the two wounded from Offensive Miniatures. Fanion is from Flag Dude

1 French Voltigeur in greatcoat (see top image) by Perry Miniatures.

Lovely work Stefanos. We've had a lot of Napoleonic Italians entered during the Challenge which is a nice change of pace. I've not seen a close-up of Crusader naps before but they look quite nice - the sculpts have an almost Foundry look about them.

This battalion with their lonely voltigeur and banner will give Stefanos 117 points.

From KevinS: 25mm Great War British Mark IV Tanks (30 points)

Kevin from Digger's Home opens his climb on the points roster with these two excellent British Mark IV tanks from the Great War.

From Kevin:

I've finally produced a finished product from my paint table: two Mark IV tanks - one "male" and one "female". Both are 25mm metal castings from Wargames Foundry.

I have many half and three-quarter finished items in production, as well as a lonely Samurai so stay tuned... 

Excellent work Kevin! I really need to get my Mark IV done but I became stimied on the detailing - nevertheless Kevin's given me some great suggestions so I think I'll have to drag it out and give it a go.

Also, I've asked Kevin for a couple more larger images of these two beasties, so make sure to come back later to check them out.

Mr. & Mrs. Tank (Gedit? 'Male' and 'Female' tanks... <sigh> ...never mind.) will give Kevin 30 points. Welcome aboard!

From GregB: 15mm WWII German Infantry (106 points)

From Greg:

My latest submission continues with the 15mm WW2 stuff - this time I switch over to the German side.  There are two platoons of German infantry - one of Peter Pig castings, the other of Plastic Soldier Company figures.

The Peter Pig castings are lovely to work with.  The platoon pack gives you a little of everything you need to model a 1944-era German grenadier platoon, including MGs, a Panzerschrek team and Panzerfausts.  The little details impress - like the chevrons on the NCOs.  I am not wild about the "carrying" pose of the MG34 - it seems popular with figure sculptors, more so than I suspect it would have been with real German troops - but overall these were a lot of fun to paint.  I tried to give them the light green piping of Panzer Grenadier troops.

The PSC figures were rather the opposite.  I have to say up front that I am a huge fan of PSC, and I enjoy watching them ruthlessly re-price the 15mm WW2 market at the expense of the incumbents like Battlefront.  Competition = good for gamers.  Their 15mm armour models are lovely - fun to build, fun to paint, and look great on the table. 

But I cannot say the same about the infantry.  The detail on these is very, very soft - it barely survives the application of a base coat, and fades further with each layer of paint. And I don't really use a lot of layers.  The poses are odd - the guy throwing the grenade looks like he is trying to match some kind of yoga pose.  The riflemen are strangely compressed. 

I suspect the larger scale figures might be nicer, but these 15mm figures are nearly flats, and are far from fun to paint.  It's good to finish the unit, but this will be the only PSC unit in my 15mm collection.

The bases on the PSC guys are from Litko, and on the Peter Pig guys are on spare Battefront bases. 

Awesome work Greg and thanks for the comparison opinion between the Peter Pig and PSC  figures - I'm sure it will be helpful for others considering these for their own collections.

These two German platoons will give Greg 106 points allowing him to fight his way back into the top 10 points standings. Well done.