From AlanD: 15mm WWII German Halftracks (41 points)

Okay! We've had our fun with the first Theme Bonus Round now back to the trenches (well, for me anyway). 

Alan sends in this great set of German WWII era halftracks.

From Alan:

One of my best gaming discoveries of 2013 was Battle Group Kursk, which made me enthusiastic about painting WWII stuff for the first time in years. I particularly love the fact that the rules actually give you a reason to paint up and use lots of support vehicles, such as these 15mm half tracks from Forged in Battle. 

What we have are two Sdkfz 251/3 command vehicles, a 251/8 ambulance, a 251/11 telephone cable layer to increase the chances of those artillery requests getting through and a Sdkfz 10/4 flak vehicle.

Wonderful stuff Alan! As I mentioned to you before I particularly like the communications halftrack with the elevated wiring guide for the cabling. 

This group of vehicles will give Alan 41 points (which includes a few for the crews). Great work!

Announcing The First Fortnight Theme Bonus Round - 'Non-Combatants'

'It's not over until...'

Well, it took a bit of work but I think I have it all sorted and ready for prime time...

I'm delighted to announce that we have our first Fortnight Theme Bonus Round ready for viewing. Please follow this link or use the navigation bar above to navigate to the page.

From my last count we have nearly 40 entrants for this round and they are all wonderful. To kick off the fun, here is my submission, 'It isn't over until...'

I feature my entry to both open the Theme Round, but more importantly, to show off one of Kawe's figures, Maria Theresia of Austria which I've shamelessly defaced to depict a simple opera singer. So why is this figure important? Well, Kawe is going to ship each and every participant of the Challenge a copy of this limited edition casting as a special memento of the event. And this is on top of generously providing prize support for other elements of the Challenge.  An amazing gesture Kawe - I thank you.

So, please visit the Theme's gallery and look in wonder at all the entrants' wonderful work. Also, don't forget to vote for your favourites using the poll I've made up for this bonus round (you'll see it on the right-side panel). Vote for as many entrants as you like - there is no limitation. 

Enjoy and Have Fun!

From StefanK: 28mm Drunken Monk (5 points)

Stephan debuts with this great little vignette of a inebriated friar.

From Stephan:

This is a nice 28mm miniature by Shadowforge. It's a rather old one which I bought ages ago. Since then it had been hiding somewhere in my lead mountain but now I found it time to paint this little fellow.

Ha! That is a great little vignette Stephan. He would be great as a watchman whose job it is to look out for Viking raiders - a Lindisfarne stamp on the keg would be quite fitting...

This happy tonsured chap will give Stephen 5 points to put him on the board. Welcome aboard Stephan!

AndrewS: 20mm Ancient Briton Sacrifice (16 points)

Andrew sends us this grisly yet wonderfully thematic vignette for his Ancient British army.

From Andrew:

This is just a small entry for today I have been creating a small vignette for our Hail Caesar games, I normally default to having the hapless Ancient Brits against the might of Kevin's Romans. So I thought it would be nice to add some flavour to the table in the form of some wildly celebrating Druids holding a ritual sacrifice of a Roman at the altar. 

These are all 20mm plastics, the Druids are from Hat and the Roman from Italeri I believe.

The stone altar was carved out of another piece of dense styrene and dry brushed up to be a touch more realistic. The hapless Roman was beheaded and mounted onto the alter then a leg and arm were removed and repositioned to look correct and his head mounted on a nice little stake.

These have all been painted to my tabletop standard, which is fine enough from a couple of feet away.

Awesome work Andrew! Those Britons do have a reputation of giving a pretty mean haircut. I particularly like the altar and the grisly 'lamp-post'. Nothing says Winter Solstice like a ritual sacrifice to the gods of the forest.

This vignette will give Andrew 16 points. Well done!

From BenG: 1:72 Napoleonic French Regimental Gun and Artillerist (12 points)

Ben sends us a Napoleonic regimental gun, a 3lb 'door knocker', for his 1812 French collection. 

From BenG: 

Here's a bite sized entry to whet your appetite while I concentrate on larger units: A regimental artillery piece! 

The gunner is another 1/72nd HaT figure with a head conversion, replacing the original bicorne with a shako wearing head from another HaT figure. The gun is a  metal 15mm 6-pounder from AB/Eureka masquerading as a captured Austrian 3-pounder pressed into French service.

For our Borodino game, the French get a 2-gun section per regiment. They'll be lucky to cause any damage, but add a little colour to the game! I really should have made a little red flag to stick out of the barrel with the word BANG! written on it!

There'll be more of these as I have 5 more to do before I finish IV Corps.

Great stuff Ben! I really like the idea of using 15mm guns to stand in for lower caliber 1:72 artillery - brilliant.

This artillery piece with its attendant gunner will give Ben 12 points. Well done!