From KevinS: 28mm WWI Early War German Officers (10 points)

From Kevin:

These two early First World War German staff officers present an interesting comparison - the corpulent Junker and his gaunt colleague - both in 28mm.  I'm not sure who the manufacturer is.  

I spent some time researching the color for the uniforms, consulting various Osprey publications and also Mollo, as well as scouring internet sources.  I ended up choosing a feldgrau that was on the grey rather than the green end of the spectrum.  

I wanted my early war Germans to have a different feel about them in comparison to the more greenish hues I'd used for the late war period.  I'll be describing the process in greater detail on my blog.

Great work Kevin! As I mentioned to you when we were chatting I think these are from the Renegade Great War range. I quite like the slim fellow. He looks as if he should have a cigarette holder and a well-placed duelling scar. And I quite like that captured British tank in the background as well! 

These two German officers will give Kevin 10 points. Very nice work.

From ReneV: 28mm WWII American Infantry (33 points)

From Rene:

My final entry on the US 28mm front are the final 8 figures I needed for my first game. Some odds and ends which basically don't have a story to tell yet.

They were indeed already used in a game of Chain of Command and even though I already knew the game was good I was not prepared for this kind of gooddness.

The game is awesome and I don't think I have found anything "yet" that I don't like about them...

They are from Warlord, one Artizan and two Westwind figures. This time all metals. Well, back to the mini's.

Great work Rene. I really like the rustic style you used with these fellows - it works wonderfully with these sculpts. I particularly like the sitting radio operator and prone bazooka team, some great animation there.

This fine team of American infantry will give Rene 33 points. Again, lovely work! 

From AaronH: 15mm Mech & 28mm Celt Casualties (16 points)

From Aaron:

This entry is a 15mm Mech from Critical Mass Games.  It was part of their Kickstarter to expand the ZAS mercenaries.  It’s a big chunky resin walker with a nice few options.  They make two versions of this mech.   

I like the model.  It’s a good casting, no bubbles at all.  My son was playing with this and broke it.  I found the pieces hidden on the back of my desk.  It glued back together no problem, though I did have to add the base at that point to give it a bit more structural integrity.  I’ll be ordering a couple more of these.  I think it’s a good solid medium mech for any faction.

I had intended to turn this in for the vehicle bonus round but then got stuck on the paint scheme.  This camo pattern is something completely new for me.  It’s based, roughly, on something I saw Dwartist do, though no nearly as well executed as anything of his, of course.  I think of this as a savannah camo pattern.

Vehicles are not my strong point.  I’m going to be doing quite a few so I’ll have opportunity to work on weathering them.

Here is another missed opportunity on my part.  These were intended for the casualty bonus round but then I had to go out of town at the last minute and didn’t have time to finish them.  I was also delayed because these are my first Celts and I vapor locked on doing patterns.  I just couldn’t picture what I wanted.  A few hours spent going through some of the great blogs I follow finally gelled it for me and I was off to the races.  I actually enjoyed painting these, so perhaps I should knock some more out while that feeling is strong.

These are 28mm Celt casualties from Warlord Games.  They are nice castings, clean and flavorful.  You can almost see the pain in the faces of the two less supine figures.  Looking at the castings the bottom looks a little bit odd, until you put basing grit on and realize that Warlord planned it perfectly.

I built these up as casualty markers with dice holders.  These will work for Hail Caesar, my current rule set for ancients.  I’m not a fan of tokens on the table, as long as you have a less obtrusive way to show status.  I also like the modeling opportunity presented by showing status in a characterful way.

Great work Aaron! Seriously, what isn't there to like about big freaking robots, but perhaps that is just a boy thing - your son certainly has taken a shine to it! I like the Savannah camo you came up with and look forward to seeing your weathering techniques in your upcoming efforts.

The Celt casualty markers are excellent. I'm a big fan of these in my armies as well as they both help to neaten the tabletop and add some visual interest. 

This eclectic collection of figures will give Aaron 16 points as he closes in on his 600 point target. Excellent!

From KevinH: 28mm WWII Soviet Scouts, Feudal Japanese Monks & Royale With Cheese (80 points)

Kevin returns with this wonderful selection of miniatures for us to enjoy.

From Kevin:

For this entry, I have some BOLT ACTION WWII Russian Scouts.  Nothing too fancy with these figures, basic "amoeba" style camouflage suits and one model with a DP light machine gun.  The actual BOLT ACTION rules don't allow Russian Scouts to have a DP LMG, but other rules may, so I painted him as well.

Next up, is the Sohei (Monks) Buntai for the RONIN skirmish game, by North Star.  Again, nothing too fancy - I just followed the "box art."  I wanted to try and get these guys done quickly, as I have all the Buntai figure sets from the RONIN line, and when I try and get "fancy" (ie: creative) with my painting, I tend to get bogged down, and it takes me forever to finish things!

I had a number of things planned for the Fortnight Challenges, but because of the 'funk' I've been in the past few months, they just never materialized.  Case-in-point, this entry was either going to be a "Villain" or "Hero" entry.

I picked up lots of miniatures and games from my friend Tim's estate sale, including a bunch of the little, dark grey Copplestone boxes.  I didn't really even look in them at the time, but they were "Copplestone" so I scooped them up as I love his work!

As I was sifting through things over the last few months, I found the "not Samuel L. Jackson" figure in one of those little boxes!  I have had the "not John Travolta" Foundry figure based and primed for years!  But I never got around to painting it, as I didn't have the companion figure.  Now I had the companion figure, so it was time to get things done.  And depending on your point of view from the movie, these guys could easily be either "Villain" or "Hero."  I don't know if it will be visible in the photo, but I even got Vincent's (Travolta) golden earring!

Now that they're done, I feel like a ROYALE with Cheese!

Lovely work Kevin. I always love seeing your stuff as its just so smooth. That monk in black is my favourtie, he looks quite the hard-ass with that 'Osaka Slugger'! 

This wonderful assortment of miniatures will give Kevin 80 points. Great job and welcome to the Wild Bunch - you still have lots of time to participate in the madness!

The Votes Are In For The 'Casualty' Bonus Round!

The results of the voting are in for the 'Casualty' bonus round. For this round I bit the bullet and purchased a professional voting/polling application to assist me, and wow, has it made my life easier!  It's actually more than what I really need, and I do apologize for it looking a bit clunky, but slips aside, I am slowly scaling the learning curve.

In the segmented chart below you can see that, like many of the previous rounds, we've had a healthy race to the podium.

Accordingly, I'm going to provide a retrospective of the entries of five runners up as I thought they were all so excellent and each of the positions were hotly contested. 

We have:

Stefan's wonderful vignette of the Death of Captain Ompteda on the field of Waterloo:

Anne's excellent Greyscale 'Rosier and Slig Soldier':

Ray's dynamic (and unfortunate) Stricken Crusader:

Lee's grisly Aztec Sacrifice:

and Sidney's Poor Bloody Poilu:

Third Place was taken by Samuli with his poignant scratch-built vignette depicting the recovery of Ensign Kennedy and his Colours from the front lines of Waterloo:

Samuli will receive 25 bonus points for his efforts. Wonderful work once again Samuli and congratulations!


For my part, I managed to secure Second Place with my greyscale WWI Belgian refugees:

My humble thanks to all who voted for my entry.  I'm very, very flattered, especially amongst such talented company as we have arrayed here. I will respectfully take the 50 bonus points and scuttle off to add it to my tally.

I don't think anybody can be particularly surprised to who seized First Place in this week's theme. Michael Awdry's Whitechapel vignette is pure Gothic Horror genius. From its conception, execution and completion Michael has schooled us to how a simple (and chilling) vision can be fully realized within the area of a Compact Disc - absolutely astonishing work: 

I commented on Michael's blog a few days ago about his entry, saying that I was delighted and honoured that he debuted his work in this Challenge as it sets such a high standard to what can be achieved in this 'little' hobby of ours. Bravo Michael - well done! 

Michael, you will receive 75 bonus points to your total and have also earned a generous gift certificate from Edwin's fine literary establishment, 'Diplomatist Books'. Once again congratulations!

Okay everyone! One supreme effort and we'll be at the finish line. Next up is 'Last Stand', our grande finale to this Challenge year. So get to work with your entries.  Let's go out in style!

From BrendonW: 28mm Dark Age Saxons and Viking Standard Bearer (22 points)

From Brendon:

28mm Gripping Beast Plastic and Foundry Metal.

The three Saxons have heads from the Warriors box and one shield has a LBM decal. The Foundry Viking has a Banner made by me. I found the Raven image doing a google image search and I think it is actually a Tattoo. 

So thanks tattoo artist. Hope you don't mind me using it. The Foundry viking came with a shorter banner pole with a small Raven on its top but it was a very flimsy join to the hand so I removed it as it probably wouldn't last painting let alone gaming.

Wonderful stuff Brendon. These lads are nice and gritty and that raven banner is a brilliant piece of work - bravo! 

These three Saxons and the Viking banner bearer (and the banner itself) will give Brendon 22 points, enough for him to reach is 750 point Challenge target. Congratulations Brendon, well done!