Vehicle Bonus Round Points and Achievements

Well I managed to grind through the point allotments for the recent 'Vehicle(s)' bonus round (no thanks to Tamsin, whose entry made me take off my mitts and socks in order to add up the points for her crazy Space Fleet submission). The new totals are now reflected in the sidebar points roster.

Additionally, we had several notable achievements stem from the bonus round:

1) Clint has handily met his Challenge target of 600 points. Congratulations Mr. Camel! Now you have to set a new target to take you through the next two months - On to Damascussssh!

2) At the start of this year's event Miles, in the spirit of the recent America's Cup, had challenged any Aussies or Kiwis to race him to 750 points including at least one nautical themed entry. To his country's honour, Brendon picked up the gauntlet and fought the good fight (check out his great Dystopian Wars Japanese battleship in this latest bonus round) but Miles has claimed victory by perfectly tacking onto 750 points this round. Great race guys and congratulations Miles!

3) Finally, Christopher, Martin and I challenged one another to see who could get to 500 points first. I have managed to muddle my way to this target ahead of the lads and so claim the brass ring. Well done guys, but you should know not to compete with the guy who runs the books. ;-P

Now we only await the end of the voting to discover the final point awards for this round.

As a reminder the next round is 'Hero or Heroic Group' so start glueing fingers together and thrashing those brushes!

From KevH: 20mm Romans, Celtic Cavalry, Crusader Command & Saracens (220 points)

From Kev:

A few more entries for you. All are for our Hail Caesar games.

First up are the Romans for the game we had last thursday. We did notice that for the battle of Medway we needed a few more units of auxiliaries. I painted up another unit of Strelets 1/72 Roman auilliary Medium foot (12 figs) and had to do a bit of conversion work for the 6 light cavalry.

4 of the figures are made up of, Italeri celtic cavalry legs with a light infantry upper torso from Hat's. Alexanders Light infantry, all on Italeri Celt horses. These seem to fit the bill as they are javelin armed. A Hat celt and an odd Hat Numidian make up the 6 figure unit.

Then back to the Crusades. I need a few divisional commanders, so here is the first.

Crusader Military commander. I decided on the red and white to make them stand out on the table. The flag bearer is a small conversion. Both are Strelets figures on Accurate figures horses.

Next up... The First non Military order foot unit is a unit of medium infantry Flemish warriors in the usual green surcoat with added cross. (12 figures with converted standard bearer). All Strelets 1/72.

Finally... The first of my Saracen units. 12 figure medium infantry City Militia.

These are actually from Hat's El Cid range and are Andalusians. They do fit in quite well for the Crusades though and make great generic Saracens.

Unlike the Crusaders that I want to have a quite uniformed look, the Saracens I want to be colourful and very diverse in their appearance.

Beautiful work Kev! These are all great but that Crusader command and the Saracens are off the hook. Gorgeous stuff.

This collection of figures will give Kev 220 points with a bonus for the banners, shields and heraldry. Well done!

From BrendonW: 28mm Dark Age Characters (65 points)

From Brendon:

1 x Norman Knight, 2 English Heroes. The Norman is the last mounted plastic (Conquest Games) in my collection so it's a great feeling to have them completed. The other two fellas that have a mounted and unmounted version come from the Dark Ages in England (Harold & Tostig Godwinson). Both metals from Crusader games but one has plastic shields from Gripping Beast with LBM decals. They will make for great looking Kings and Nobles for my Dark Age armys. As you can see the Metal horses look a little smaller than the Plastic Norman but that's no big deal to me.

I had a bit of a stupidity attack when I went to matt spray these and picked the wrong can (German Tank Yellow) but fortunately it wasn't too much time before I had them back to how they should be. It was just a light spray but it did ruin a Viking shield with a nice LBM sticker on it. Lesson learnt.

The Viking King and his daughter are Foundry figures. The Large wolf is from Northstar for the Myths and Legends game. I mounted him on a 40 x 40 base and he will be a 'counts as' model. My 10 year old daughter insisted I painted the girls hair brown like hers so who am I to refuse. I was not sure how to paint the Super Wolf but had an idea in my head after a bit of thinking and I was pleased with the result.

After a week of super hot we went to a Cyclone watch but never got a direct hit but we have had non stop tropical rain for a week or so which means dark days so it made photography very tricky.

Lovely work Brendon. I feel your pain on the matt spray gaff. I am verrry deliberate when I pick up any can of spray now. All of these figures are great but that wolf is particularly awesome - reminds me of the Stark direwolves in the GRR Martin novels. I think I need to get one for my Strange Aeons collection...

These Dark Age heroes and characters will give Brendon 65 points. Well done sir!

From RossM: 28mm Challenge Desperado (20 points)

Ross enters the fray by submitting his Challenge Desperado.

From Ross:

This year so far has been a bit hectic. However, things are settling down now and hopefully there will be more pictures coming through shortly. 

So without any further ramblings there is the entry figure. A Hired Gun from Artizan Design. I am not overly familiar with Sam Peckinpah films so after a short time on google and you tube I have opted for a generic hired gun in a generic Western colour scheme.

The figure in 28m scale was great to paint with clean sculpting and a good casting too. There will be more of this range following shortly.

Wonderful work Ross! I'm a big fan of the Artizan Design range - their sculpts often have a great presence and sense of mass without being too bulky or ungainly. I quite like the unshaven craggy face on this dude, kinda reminds me of Josh Brolin. Very cool.

This fellow will give Ross 20 points. Well done Ross and thank you!