From AnneO'L: 28mm Undead Warrior (5 points)

From Anne:

This winter has been a brutal one and my family and we have undergone a great deal of suffering throughout. The temperatures have been well below zero and we have no central heat in our home. When the temperature got down to 40 below zero, our pipes burst and we were without water for over 30 days. Further, my husband is a near invalid and caring for him with a fully function house is difficult at the best of times. As a consequence, it has been a trial for me to make the deadlines for the Themed Bonus Rounds, let alone get anything else done. Things are slowly returning to normal and I am beginning to clear the back log of figures from my painting table.

This is a 28mm figure from Reaper Miniatures and was sculpted by Bobbie Jackson.

I wanted to attempt two new things here. Undead skin and object source lighting from the sword. I'm pleased enough with the skin, but the OSL is dreadful. One of the mistakes I made is attempting this on a dark, saturated colour.

I still find capes to be very difficult. Finding the midpoint in the highlights and making my transitions smooth are still problematic.

I kept the basing very simple as this is intended to be a gaming piece.

Lovely work Anne. I think you did a wonderful job on this chap's marvellously ghoulish skin.His cloak is also quite well done, with appealingly moody transitions with the shadows (and it's nice to see brown used as a primary colour for a character figure). Source lighting is always a tricky effect and you're learning its nuances so there's no shame here at all. A very groovy figure.

This rather dour fellow with the operatic helmet will give Anne 5 points. Great stuff!

From SebG: 15mm ACW Union Regiment from the Iron Brigade (63 points)

From Seb:

What you have here are 31 US regulars in 15mm from Old Glory. Obviously, the references are from the Iron brigade for a simple reason: Sykes was commanding the regulars at Bull Run, and afterwards, he ordered the men under his command to follow the regulars's regulations.

I have added a few wounded/ dead in action to represent the unit attacking the Rebs, as they did at Bull Run, before covering the rout. The flags have been downloaded and printed. The blue might be too light, but the varnish seems to have "whitened" it a bit.

Now on my way to the last bonus entry.

Another excellent regiment under your belt Seb.  Remind us again, how many units are you aiming for in this project? Your collection is bulking up nicely. Personally I think the flags look very good and accentuates the dynamism of the unit.

This regiment of Yanks will give Seb 63 points. Great job!

From PaulS: 28mm 'Qu-Sh-Ug' Monster (8 points)

From PaulS: 

This time we've got one, large beasty to terrorise the other entries with. This model, a Qu-Sh-Ug, is from PureEvilMinuatures and was funded through their kickstarter last year. Sadly it is not available to the general public though  which is a real shame as I want another one!  You can see some great versions over on their Kickstarter page along with some scale shots towering over one of their 28mm figures.

The kit consists of three major parts, the body and both front legs, plus a metric ton of tentacles to customise your nasty however you wish. All of the examples had different numbers of tentacles coming out of the mouth, but I decided to be different and turned one into a tail instead as it seemed to balance out the reaching paw. 

Painting wise he was a joy thanks to all the fine texture in the skin. This took a few layers of drybrushing, followed by a series of different washes to target specific parts of the model.

This guy is pretty darn awesome.  He reminds me of how I feel after a day in which I've skipped lunch.  I love the colours Paul's chosen for him, especially that turquoise for his veins and soft tissue. A very cool figure. I would have joined the Kickstarter if I'd realized that he was destined to be a limited edition figure. Oh well, you snooze, you loose.  

This stout fellow with his great gnashing teeth will give Paul 8 points. Nice one.

From IanW: 28mm WWII 8th Army and Afrika Korps Infantry Markers (80 points)

From Ian:

Here we have eight boys from the 8th Army all looking rather grubby with all that dust and heat. These are Black Tree Miniatures and whilst they have good detail they are missing the usual rifle slings that normally make BTM stand out. 

Other than the lack of slings they still are rather nice and were reasonable to paint up.

The Afrika Korps, on the other hand mostly have the slings (one pose out of four did not) and all have the traditional Y webbing. I struggle a little with the goggles and due to lack of time had only a short period to touch and retouch them up, not helped by a roaring cold that made detail work hard as I could not hold my breath LOL.

I have a further four each but the bases are not finished and need another four plus hours work so will do them when I am back from a very busy four days away (yes I am all excited, just one more sleep to go).

Well, you did a great job Ian, even without having to hold your breath for the detail work. I particularly like the 8th Army lads and your pebble groundwork seems to work very nicely with these desert-themed markers. 

These sixteen figures will give Ian 80 points. Well done and I hope you had a great time at your ASL tournament.