From ChristopherS: 28mm ACW and Ronin #5 (50 points)

From Christopher:

First up is a Confederate artillery piece ready for action. I used a mix of browns and grey's to give that campaign feel, but still kept the red in the uniforms as that was the color of artillery for both sides during the war and one man wearing regulation sky blue trousers. I've seen several colors used for gun carriages, but I've always liked the green and so used that. The cannon is 12 pounder smoothbore and so received  a bronze barrell.

I'm pretty happy that I've managed to stay on course and do another ACW piece and I hope I can keep focused and do some more as that's always been hard for me to do (stay focused that is).

Most of the paints I used are once again Foundry with some Vallejo. The figures are Perry and as expected the sculpts are very nice, but do require some clean up.

The Japanese Warrior Monk (Sohei) is for Curt and his Samurai Ronin project. I asked Curt if I could do a warrior monk and he said no problem as he thinks at least one of them did join a monastic order. I've always thought warrior monks are well....just cool!

I kept the colors very traditional using black armor, a white robe and dark brown prayer beads and a rawhide leather. The only "splash" of color to adorn this otherwise very practical monk is the light blue which also in fact was common. 

Paints were again from my Foundry/Vallejo combo I like and figure is from the Perry's. The sculpt is very nice(they have a great Samurai range), but had more clean up then I would have liked and some of the detail was quite difficult to do as it was very fine.

On to the next project. Reaching 1,000 points does look like a fool's bet, but I'll keep trying.

Lovely work on that artillery piece its crew Christopher, I particularly like your groundwork. The warrior monk is also excellent, he definitely looks the business and will be a fine addition to the 47.

The gun, its crew and Ronin #5 will give Christopher 50 points. Brilliant stuff!

From PhilH: 28mm Revolutionary Spanish Artillery & Crew (35 points)

From Phil:

Entry seven and a 200 year detour in search of colour. Back to Napoleonics with a gun and crew to support my Spanish regulars. It is actually a French Revolutionary 8pdr, I understand the crew's uniforms are pretty close to those of Spanish gunners. It is from Trent miniatures, who are new to me and a bit of a fail in scaling with my Perry/Victrix. The chaps are giants and while I'm all for characterful miniatures, these are more caricatures - look at those massive hands! Well enough priced but I don't think I'd choose more from their human ranges. 

Off for a weekend's gaming now, including a trial run of Pulp Alley. Suspect I'll be back into painting WWII after that.

Large mitts aside you've done an excellent job on these guys Phil. I've not seem much from Trent so it's great to see some completed examples. If you decide to explore this period further I'd highly recommend looking at Eureka's superb range of Revolutionary period French, Austrians and Russians.

This gun and crew will give Phil 35 points.

From ChrisP: 28mm Modern American Infantry (133 points)

From Chris:

Continuing with my "get as many time periods as possible" plan, here is a force of United States soldiers suitable for the Iraq or Afghanistan conflict. All miniatures are from Eureka. 

Landing first in MH-6 Little birds is a SEAL team, comprised of 6 SEALs, and one canine soldier! SEALs have been using scout dogs famously lately, apparently one was used in the raid that killed Osama. The dogs are equipped with ballistic armour, which is then equipped with Infared and other sensors, to really enhance what nature has blessed the dog with! The rest of the team is made up of 5 shooters with M4s, one with an M249 SAW. The strange attachments to their foreheads are Night Vision Goggles. I have done a representation of Desert Camo Uniform (DCU) on them, which in 28mm terms equates to mismatched splodges of colour. Not a job to do late at night with tired eyes!

Landing next via Blackhawk comes a force of  US Infantry, which could represent Paratroopers, Rangers, Armoured, Infantry or anyone else I so desire! These guys are all done in ACU (Army Combat Uniform) in UCP (Universal Camouflage Pattern). Done the same as the DCU, but with different colours. Still random splodges however! 

First up we have the Squad Leader and JTAC, both essential in modern combat, the Squad Leader for command, the JTAC to ensure communication between the ground to other assets- such as Aircraft.

The real heavy hitters is the three fireteams of Infantry. Each fireteam is made up of four soldiers, one equipped with an M249 SAW, one with a M203 Underslung Grenade Launcher in addition to his M4. The other two are equipped with M4 rifles. Plenty of firepower, especially in the hands of trained marksmen.

But perhaps you need a bit more firepower? Got a lot of enemy you need gone? Then the M240 MG is just what the doctor ordered! This two man team came designed to fit together, so I put them on one big base.

But perhaps there is an enemy strongpoint, which has been resistant to the lighter fire that you can put onto it. That is a job for the SMAW-D team. The army took the successful SMAW and redesignated it, still firing the same HEDP (High Explosive, Dual Purpose) round.

The last of the US Army contingent is a single sniper, armed with the fearsome 50 calibre Barrett Anti-material rifle. Firing a massive round, the Barrett shoots a long way, and has good penetrative power once it gets there. Woe betide anyone on the recieving end... The sniper has got a sweet DCU boonie hat to go with his ACU uniform.

The last figure is not a US Soldier. Rather he is a random freebie that Eureka put in with the last order I did with them. It is just one Somalian red shirt, armed with a cheap copy of an AK and gesturing wildly. Poor guy is a bit outnumbered, I think he needs a few more allies...

I am going to use these guys for the excellent game of Skirmish Sangin (http://www.radiodishdash.com/), which was written by a local here. The game has a lot of RPG style elements, but it plays really well, plus at $15 NZD for the pdf of the rules, that works out to being, what $1 when you convert it to real money?

Awesome work Chris! These are such great castings and you've really done a marvellous job on them. That GPMG team at the top of the post is particularly find - very dynamic. 

These 26 figures and the wardog will give Chris 133 points. Again, great work.

From ScottB: 15mm WWII German Halftracks (60 points)

Scott makes his Challenge debut with these excellent WWII German halftracks.

From Scott:

Here we have a boxed set of PSC 15mm SdKfz251/D half tracks that have been converted using the PSC Conversion kit. 

In this case I have chosen to make the optional platoon command halftracks for the gepanzerte panzergrenadier combat platoons. This features the 3.7cm AT gun, which give the platoon a modicum of AT fire power. In game terms it rarely achieves a heck of a lot but it looks interesting and certainly makes the command vehicle stand out.

After these 3 vehicles I was left with two and wasn't sure what to go with; stummels, 8cm mortar carriers or Flamethrowers. In the end since I already have 2 each of the stummels and mortar carriers, I decides the flamethrowers would be something different.  So these are the SdKfz 251d/16 Flamm halftrack.

Potentially very nasty in the game (auto kills against infantry and gun teams), but in practice I will probably have a heck of a time getting them anywhere near the target platoon! Time will tell...

Next up Tigers... just got decals to go...

After that back to finish off Hobbit goblins...

Wow, lovely work Scott - your camo on these is brilliant and I really like the crews and stowage. Those Flamm tracks look particularly nasty, but as you say the test will be if they can get close enough to do their work.

These five Hanomags and their crews will give Scott 60 points to mark his entry on the roster. Happy to have you back Scott!