From TamsinP: 15mm Pirate Army(!) (500 points)

Tamsin, like Prometheus bound to his rock, has been tied to this monstrous pirate entry for the past few weeks. The force is sooo large that, like Dave's, it has to be split up into smaller sections. So here is Tamsin with the first group:

"Aaaarrrrrrr me hearties! Splice the sails! Hoist the timbers! Shiver me mainbrace! *hic* 'Tis pirate time!"

After my fun units submitted earlier in the Challenge, here are the proper pirates. The bulk of them anyway - I still have the commanders, artillery and light troops to do. The figures (248 of them!) are a mixture of Blue Moon and Rebel Minis.

For the Buccaneer army in FoGR, there are three main troop types. "Disciplined" and "Veteran" buccaneers are medium foot musket/-/sword, differing only in quality; "Other" buccaneers are warriors musket*/impact foot/sword (musket* have less shooting dice than musket). I've chosen to represent the disciplined/veteran guys as having two figures with firearms and one without on each base; the warriors have one figure per base with firearms and two without on each base. 

'Disciplined Buccaneers' a wonderful oxymoron.

In total there are 36 bases of disciplined/veteran buccaneers here and 44 bases of other buccaneers. To enable me to distinguish between disciplined and veteran units, I've also done two command bases with 4 figures each which I can swap in instead of a 3-figure command base (you can have a max of 12 bases of veterans at 6-8 bases per unit).

The 'Other' Buccaneers

Carmen Miranda with a brace of pistols. 

Wow. 

Yep, there's no doubt about it: That is a huge freakin' heap o' pirates... 

Bluebeard's holey trousers, Tamsin, what a tremendous amount of work! These guys are a wondrous riot of poses and colour. I particularly like the stout fellow in the third pic from the top, with the long coat and eyepatch. And then there is the bare chested lad with the brace of pistols in a classic Carmen Miranda pose - he just needs a fruit salad hat, a tight floral skirt and he'd be ready for The Copacabana. 

This horde of faaabulous pirates will give Tamsin 500 points (because not giving her the extra 4 points for this lot would somehow seem churlish). This entry will see her smash through her initial 1200 point target and she's already set her sights on the 2400 point mark for these final weeks of the Challenge. Great stuff!

Again, an amazing bit of work young lady!

From EdwinK: 28mm Pinkertons (15 points)

From Edwin:

For my latest submission I have three 28mm figures from Artizan Design - their 'Pinkerton Detective I'. These are the first Old West figures I've painted and (like all Artizan's) proved to be a joy to work on - in contrast to some others, which I'll address in another submission.

I went with the classic bluff duster coat look - it's hard to imagine that these figures were supposed to be done any other way.  That being said, I was tempted to convert the guy with the glasses into Prof Calculus for my Tin-Tin league!  Another time... 

I see the dude in the blue suit as The Boss - it seems to me he could be quite at home as a rancher, saloon-owner or hired gun.  The other two certainly have a professional killer vibe about them.

These are excellent Pinkertons Edwin. I quite like the Boss man with the gold signet ring - he just needs a red carnation to complete the picture. (The fellow in the glasses would indeed make a great basis for a Professor Calculus. I'd like to see him with that unruly ruff of hair around his head!)

These three fellows from The Agency will give Edwin 15 points. Great job.

From PaulS: 28mm 'Achtung! Cthulhu' Servitors, Hound of Tindalos & Chthonian (32 points)

From Paul:

This entry consists of six of the Achtung! Cthulhu kickstarter models, bringing the horror of the Mythos to WW2 skirmishes. Currently they are only for use in their RPGs (assuming you're one of those that like miniatures in their sessions), but there are two sets of miniatures rules coming out later this year, which should be fun. It's also why I've painted up the commandos and some other Bolt Action stuff (more to come later in the week).

First up we have three Servitor Overlords. These are officers that command the chittering hordes of Servitors of Nyarlathotep. 

They are nice models, but like the heroes that I painted up with the commandos... scale is a bit wonky with these guys. Each one is a slightly different height and scale. Believe it or not, all three of these are lined up next to one another, so should be the same height. They symbol on the armband has been left off for the sake of some forums I'm on being based in Germany... don't want to break their forum guidelines!

Speaking of the Servitors... here's what one looks like, all tentacles and claws...

Mind the corners! Next up we have Modiphius' take on the infamous Hound of tindalos. I really like the angular nature of these things; plus it's really really delicate as each ankle is about the thickness of a small pin. Do not drop...

Lastly we have a Cthonian. The colours didn't quite come out how I imagined them in my head, but it's suitably creepy and WTF? I couldn't decide if the bubbles on the side were eyes or just lumpy bits of flesh... so for now they are flesh (or eyelids).

Like the Hound, this one was really fiddly to go together as each tentacle was a separate piece. As there were no instructions with any of these it's one of those best guess things, which seemed to work well enough.

Ooh, I'm a complete sucker for all things Cthulhu so I was clapping my hands and squealing like an 8-year old girl when I first saw these. (Hmm, that's a disturbing image onto itself. Sanity Check everyone!)

The Servitors are very nasty looking in their Hugo Boss designed coats and jackboots. The size difference doesn't really bother me - as the Elder Gods know, not all Servitors are created equal. (I also like that the MP40s are a decent size as opposed to the pop-guns on some sculpts.)

I agree, the pooch is a brilliant take on the Hound of Tindalos (it even comes with its own hard edges to assist its hunting). Nonetheless I can understand your concern to its fragility as those paw-joins seem pretty thin. 

The Chthonian is very technicolour and I love that a few of it's tentacles are giving us 'The Bird' as they emerge, somehow suiting I think. I also like the spooky shadows on the white background in the photo - it reminds me of the covers on the pulp horror novels I read as a teen.

These nasty denizens of Achtung! Cthulhu will give Paul 32 points. 

From AaronH: 28mm WWII American Infantry (25 points)

Aaron completes his WWII project for the Challenge with these last members of his American platoon from the 90th Division, the 'Tough Hombres'.

From Aaron:

Here’s my last WWII entry for the challenge. This round consists of five more 28mm WWII GIs from Warlord.

First up is the Lt and his Platoon Sgt. I made the Plt Sgt the only model with a jeep cap in order to make him stand out from the other models.

Next up is the bazooka team. The primary weapon is more than obvious, but his assistant also needed to stand out. I not only stuck the rocket pack on his back but gave him an M3 submachine gun (the only one in the platoon) as well. I could have given him a rocket but I’m saving that for my next team.

The last guy is a sniper. He’s armed with the M1903 Springfield equipped with a scope. He looks like he’s peering around the edge of a wall or tree, though I didn’t model that on his base.

The final picture is of the entire platoon. I’ll be adding another squad as well as support weapons, specialists and vehicles, but this is enough to get started playing. My wife bought me 'Chain of Command' for Valentine’s Day, so I’ll dig through that to see what I should work on next. I still need to paint up some opposition to these guys so a box of Wehrmacht infantry is in my near future.

In the meantime, on to the next period.

Great work Aaron. I like that you've described the purpose of each figure in the team. The grizzled sergeant in the jeep cap and the bazooka loader (very nice shoulder insignia btw) are my personal favourites. Our group has played 'Chain of Command' several times now and I think you'll enjoy it. I'll be following your blog, interested to see how you get on with the rules.

This American officer, NCO and assorted specialists will give Aaron 25 points. Well done! Now go and have some fun with them!

From KentG: 28mm WWII StuG IIIG (17 points)

From Kent:

Today I decided I needed a break from a commission job so I painted this 28mm Bolt Action StuG IIIG that I bought earlier in the week.

There were a few broken pieces so I cut out a panel of armour plating. I wasn't sure how I would do painting this size tank but am really happy with the end result.

Well Kent, you should be pleased with the final result as it looks great. I've always liked the low-slung silhouette of the StuG - it seems to reinforce its predatorial purpose. Your commander is great, with his range-finding binocs peeking up from the hatch, and the missing panel of armoured skirting seems to reinforce the veteran status of the vehicle. Great work.

This German tank destroyer will give Kent 17 points.