From Millsy: 28mm WWII Steiner's Squad & Bart (70 points)

From Millsy:

This is my final entry and as has become something of a tradition for me I've kept my entry fee submission right to the end. I'm calling this "Plastic Bart vs. The Magnificent Seven" for reasons you will soon understand.

Part one is a set of 28mm miniatures depicting the central German characters from Sam Peckinpah's WW2 classic Cross of Iron. The miniatures are by 1st Corps and quite unlike anything I've painted before. They are proportionally correct and absolutely packed with character but at the same time the sculpting is kind of overstated. The clothing and boots in particular are really chunky, making the subjects look like they're wearing some sort of odd costume. For all that they great fun and I enjoyed painting them far more than I expected.

I used a black undercoat and then numerous coats of lighter shades and highlights to build up depth. I don't often paint black undercoat at this scale but given the palette it works for me. The iron cross is a resin piece and sets things off rather well IMHO, hinting at the subject without giving the game away too easily.

Part two is more of an accident than anything else. When I was rummaging about last week looking for bits for my Napoleonic vignette I came across him in my enormous collection of junk. [ahem] I mean indispensable modelling supplies.

The figure is a *really* crappy plastic cowboy I dug up in my backyard years ago when landscaping. He somehow made his way inside and has been lurking ever since. Yes, really. Plastic Bart is exactly 54mm tall, made of vibrant bright blue bendy plastic and almost certainly came out of a cereal box. Looking at him I thought about how as modellers we often dismiss items like this out of hand. Yet at some point in time an aspiring sculptor quite likely spent a good few hours on him. They put in a pretty decent effort too and I thought I'd see what I could make of it.

So I scraped a LOT of flash and abraded plastic off to begin with and then undercoated him in white. Everything got a base coat of flat colours before inking on the blue and red vs. varnish dip on the other warm colours. Following that there was a lot of blending and adding details in places where much had been rubbed off like the face and hands. He came out much better than expected to be honest. He's no DaveD but he'll do given what I had to work with. Next year I'm going to have a go at converting a thousand Goodies Plastic Spacemen into 40K Terminators. Stay tuned.

So that's my challenge done. Time now for a quick couple of thankyous before I sign off...

To Curt who is truly one of life's gentlemen. Of all the wonderful people I've encountered in this hobby you sit right at the top of the pile, devoting time, copious amounts of effort and mountains of good will for no material gain whatsoever. Unless you count a handful of painted lead and (bright blue) plastic of course. Thanks Curt, you're a true mate in every Aussie sense of the word.

And to my fellow challengers, who are unbelievably talented, funny, creative, inspired, unstinting in their praise and fellowship and in one or two cases I suspect slightly touched. You know who you are. If the interwebs have done nothing else for mankind they have brought us together from all over the world and that'll do for me. Here's to you guys!

And that's it! I'll be in touch soon mate, but for now take care and try to get a little sleep. :-)

Thank you very much for these excellent figures Millsy, but more-so for the very kind words. I'm a bit speechless really. No easy feat there. It means a lot to me that everyone in the Challenge has a good time and gets an opportunity to mix with some of the best people in the hobby. As I've said before I think this 'blogging thing' is social media at its best - if we did not have this technology available to us we would not be able to make these connections around the world, share our interests and enjoy a few laughs. I've made more friends in the past 4 years of blogging than I have since my days in university. It is a great , great gift.

Bart rocks btw.

...and 70 points for you sir! 

From Millsy: 28mm ECW Rupert's Regiment of Horse (101 points)

From Millsy:

This is my last ECW cavalry entry - Prince Rupert's Regiment of Horse. These go alongside the lifeguard of horse I've already painted this challenge, giving me a really solid core of top quality gallopers. Look out Cromwell, ye crop headed rebel, Rupert and his lads are on your case!

The models are a mix of Renegade and Bicorne Miniatures once again, both riders and mounts this time. I've used the same techniques as before, horses painted over a black undercoat and riders over a white. Everything is blocked in and then inked or brush dipped to add depth before highlighting.

The guidon is another home made effort, put together in Photoshop. I really enjoy doing these and it gives a good sense of finishing things off making them myself. It's also cheaper :-)

To finish off here's a couple of group shots of all three units of horse I've completed recently.

Right, that's enough chatter. I've got two rather complex vignette/diorama things on the go to finish off the challenge and I've got no time to waste!

Fabulous job Millsy! These cavaliers look more than ready to attend to some Parliamentarian 'issues' and I love the final shot of the brigaded Horse. Wonderful.

Rupert's Regiment of Horse will give Millsy 101 points, including a nod for the excellent banner. Well done! 

From Millsy: 28mm ECW Rupert's Lifeguard of Horse (60 points)

From Millsy:

See? I told you I was painting ECW cavalry. Despite my easily distracted nature, I have managed to get these chaps off the painting table today.

This is Prince Rupert's Lifeguard of Horse, armed and armoured as befits the best of the best. No pistols out for these lads, it's swords out and charging into the teeth of the enemy just as Rupert taught them.

The miniatures are a mix of 28mm Renegade and Bicorne riders on Renegade horses. An absolute joy to paint as always and packed with lovely detail and character. The sashes on the Bicorne figures are especially nice.

The guidon is a commercial one for once, as opposed to my usual home made efforts. I was given it as a prize years ago when I took part in a massive ECW participation game. I commanded the Royalist cavalry and drove the enemy horse from the table with their tails well and truly between their legs. In proper Cavalier fashion I immediately followed and myself and my opposite number retired to the bar early. :-)

Well, that was certainly worth the wait, eh? Bravo Millsy, these are some excellent harse boyz. Very clean brush-work and great basing to boot. Wonderful stuff.

These hard chargers of Rupert Lifeguard will give Millsy 60 points. 

From Millsy: 28mm English Civil War Royalist Cavalry - Sir Tyldesley's Regiment of Horse (101 points)

From Millsy:

I think I may have overdosed on the works of the Evil Empire. This weekend I was faced with the choice of yet more Space Marines or I could turn my hand to something different. In the end it proved to be a bit of a no brainer and so I got stuck in and finished off Sir Thomas Tyldesley's Regiment of Horse for my ECW project. The army is quite large, close to 260 figures already and I'm planning a bit of a royal review when done soon.

Sir Thomas Tyldesley was a stout Royalist and long term supporter of King Charles and was present at Edgehill. He raised regiments of foote, horse and dragoons. He continued to fight through all three civil wars and at times served under Prince Rupert. He never once surrendered to the evil crop headed rebels and his light was only extinguished in 1651 when we was finally killed in action at the Battle of Wigan Lane. Today his memory lives on through re-enactment by Sir Thomas Tyldesley's Regiment of Foote.

These are Renegade Miniatures from their lovely ECW range which is unfortunately currently unavailable. Luckily I bought enough to make two units well before that happened. The remaining figs are currently also in progress and should appear here presently. These paint up a treat, with plenty of prominent detail and nice poses in the riders. The command are particularly nice with nice chunky sashes and a Dutch coat for the trumpeter. If I have a gripe at all it's that the horse poses are very similar with the exception of the head position. Still, it's a minor quibble and they rank up well.

I've painted these in my usual style - horses with a black undercoat and riders with white undercoat. The black base gives plenty of help with the reins, etc. on the horses and also a nice dark coat colour for the various browns and greys. I love painting horses and tend to go a bit mad for variety but the result is worth the effort. The riders are base coated in a variety of colours before a combination of dip and inks for shading with highligts to finish off.

Next up, Rupert's Lifeguard AND Regiment of Horse.

Ah, we haven't seen much ECW this Challenge so this is a nice change of pace. Lovely work Millsy. I've always liked the Renegade models for this period so I hope they come back again soon. Wonderful work here. I particularly like your horses - nice variety of colours which keeps things interesting.

Tyldesley's Horse will give Millsy 101 points (the extra pip is for the lovely banner). Well done & God Save the King!

From Millsy: 28mm Warhammer 40K Servitors & Terminators ( 67 points)

From Millsy:

Unfortunately work has re-entered my life [sad face]. Coupled with a nasty pinched nerve in my neck and my painting time has been severely restricted of late. I've managed to grind some stuff out though, even at a much reduced pace and volume.

This entry is an addition to my 40K Space Marine force. First up we have another eight Servitors in the two chapter colours of red and green. I have absolutely no need for these chaps number-wise as I already had four complete. However, I love the models and wanted all sorts of weapon options so they've been painted anyway. I won't be adding any more now though. I hope... :-) 

The second half of the entry is my first unit of Terminators. They're armed with all the usual goodness for shooting up all manner of nasties at both long and short range. We still play 4th edition hence the double heavy weapon load out. 

They had their debut yesterday and ripped through plenty of stuff including a unit of IG Ogryns, helping me to a solid win. Normally anything I paint and run out first time fails miserably so it was a pleasant surprise indeed!

Great work Millsy! I particularly like the servitors with their cadaverous blue-hued skin. The whole idea of using society's miscreants (i.e teenagers) as biological parts to create mindless servitors is somehow strangely appealing to me.

These two units from the dark dystopian 41st millenium will give Millsy 67 points. 

From Millsy: 28mm OldHammer Kemmler's Undead Army of the Cairns (514 points)

When Millsy first sent this submission in I was about ready to kill the f*cking git. But I consider him a good mate and since he's flying us down to Australia for a visit I thought I'd give him a pass. ;) Anyway, Millsy starts the escalation of what I'm sure will be the beginning of the huge, two-fisted entries of the Challenge.

From Millsy:

Name dropping and a challenge of sorts

Last Thursday was supposed to be our fortnightly D&D session. Vinnie Jones and Rutger Hauer had already cancelled (man flu and crochet club) but it still left us with our minimum of three plus DM. At the last minute the Dalai Lama rings and says Hauer has been ragging him all week on Facebook, going on about now that Mandela is gone HE has to be the cleric cause that's for pussies and nobody else will do it. Anyway, long story short and the Dalai says he isn't playing any more. He's going to play X-Wing with Di Caprio and the Beckhams instead. What a big girl's blouse.

So I've just hung up and I hear the door slam. In walks Mr T and Clint Eastwood all ready to play. What do I say? I skirt round the issue but after T puts me in a headlock I eventually fess up (I can call him "T" cause I've know him for ages, don't you try it). Fortunately the lads are pretty ambivalent about the whole thing and before I know it we're doing shots and watching Ferris Bueller.

Eventually conversation turns to the painting challenge and T wants to know who's dropped the biggest points bomb. I answer someone did a 350ish I think and he just snorts. He turns to Clint and says "Yo C, tell Millsy what you think of 350ish." Clint doesn't answer, he just looks at me like this...

T responds "Ha! Nuff said. Millsy, you need to set an example brother. Do something impressive. 500+ or nuthin!" Anyone who knows T knows you don't argue with him after the third bottle of tequila, and well, the rest of this submission is history.

My good friend T wants to know if any of you have the cojones to try and take me down (his words not mine). Anyone got a bigger points bomb in their locker? T says not...

NB. Some of this may be a slight exaggeration. It was only two bottles of tequila. Plus I don't really know Rutger Hauer either. I wish I did though, he'd play an awesome Fighter/Magic user multi-class.

Submission info

Right, that's the bant over, time for some facts. This "rather large" submission represents the remainder of my Undead Army of the Cairns project, plus some stragglers that have been hanging about clogging up my painting desk. If my Mathhammer is correct it's 510 points worth. Woot(!) plus apologies to Curt, I reckon this might finally slay Blogger. :-)

First up we have four additional command stands for my 28mm Royalist ECW army. These are intended so I can field some of my muskets as units of commanded shotte. I can only count 12 of the 16 towards my point total though as the other 4 already had a couple of colours on them. They're a mix of Renegade and Wargames Foundry miniatures.

Next up we have a unit of 5 knights for my Warhammer Dogs of War army. These are Empire plastics with old skool Empire plastic spearmen shields as I wanted a lion motif. I've named them the Regimento Los Liones de Lustria (please bear with me and my bad Lustrian-mock-Spanish). I made the banners myself in Photoshop to finish them off.

Now we move onto the remaining units of my Undead army, starting with another unit of 20 Skeleton Warriors armed with spears. These are mostly plastics with a metal command from the Cursed Company Regiment of Renown. These will be one of my standard core regiments in the army list.

Rolling along we have a rare 20 figure unit of Glooms. In the WD article these were represented by Spirit Host miniatures but they are flipping expensive figs to buy so I've used a combination of Empire skirmishers and undead bits instead. With the weapons clipped out and their hands still clutched into fists it looks like some sort of ghostly pub brawl. Awesome! Not sure how much use they will get but hey, they're in the list so they get painted.

Following on we have 10 figure unit of Unquiet Horsemen. These are the older Black Knight miniatures commanded by a Wight King. The Wight Kings is possibly the single most badly cast GW model I've ever built and he required oodles of green stuff to line up the two halves of his steed. Things worked out OK in the end though. They're rubbish stats-wise in the list but I've got 10 and I needed something quick and mobile in the army.

Lastly we have a 20 figure unit of Barrow Guardians, a kind of elite infantry formation. These were built using Empire state troop torsos and skeleton weapon hands and heads. I've continued the red skull shield theme on these guys too. I will eventually replace these with decent metal figs of some description but they are fine for now and clear another pile of plastics off the paint pile.

So that's it. Kemmler's Undead Army of the Cairns is complete at a total of 108 infantry, 10 cavalry, 2 monsters and 1 chariot, all done as part of the challenge. I have to admit I'm rather chuffed with it overall, especially the character figures and the Winged Nightmare. Now to get a game or three. Thanks for the inspiration Curt!

I know, what a ultramaroon, eh? 

Seriously, Millsy, this is amazing. I can't believe you got this whole freakin' army completed in under one month - that is an astonishing amount of work and they look brilliant. Bravo to you!

Okay, points wise, what do we have here? Hmm, I make it at a whopping 514 points, which includes a few points extra for the nice ECW banners. Awesome work Millsy, that puts you in third place (for now). Best of luck with your first time out with these lads!

From Millsy: Dystopian Wars Kingdom of Britannia Dreadnought & Flyers (78 points)

Millsy performs the coup de grace on his Dystopian Wars project with this great entry.

From Millsy:

First up here's the Dreadnought for my Dystopian Wars Kingdom of Britannia armada. She's painted in the same blue / bronze / white scheme as my surface other vessels. Quite a hefty lump of resin and lengthy paint job but certainly worth it.

Secondly, it is with great pleasure I announce the maiden flight of HM Royal Fleet Air Arm. The little ones are Doncaster Class Bombers, the mid-sized ones are Scout Class War Rotors and the large beasty is a Eagle Class War Rotor. The Doncasters are all metal whilst the rest are resin hulls and metal engines / guns. Why the bombers are smaller and less well armed than the scouts I'll never know.

One of the Scout Class War Rotors had the last 5mm or so broken off his tail by an overly enthusiastic factory worker. Whatever, it was snapped right off and an eyesore. Luckily, I was able to rebuild it using green stuff and a mold made from Instant Mold (https://www.coolminiornot.com/shop/instant-mold.html) using the complete flier as a master. It worked so well I now can't pick the repaired craft after the paint has been applied.

To say these fliers were a nightmare to complete would be an understatement. I'm no stranger to the more colourful side of the English language for a variety of reasons but this lot required the kind of no-holds-barred doubled-barreled invective any salty old sailor would be proud to call his own.

Painting white pin stripe borders over black undercoat, across compound curves and at 1:1200 scale left me a gibbering wreck. Ten fecking hours of squinting, swearing and touching up later they look pretty good though and I'm happy to call them done. REALLY happy indeed. Never again.

By finishing these off I complete the entire force of approximately 1250 game points. From absolute last place to finishing well ahead of all the other lads in my gaming club in our fleet build efforts, all in under two weeks. Woot! Now it's back to the skellies once more.

Beautiful work Millsy. I love this colour scheme you came up with. I've been wavering whether to get one of those Eagle Class Rotors but your post has quickened my pulse a bit on the idea. Very nice.

This fine addition to Britannia's proud naval and air arm will give Millsy 78 points.

From Millsy: 28mm OldHammer Fantasy Undead (100 points)

From Millsy:

Back to the Undead Army of the Cairns and Oldhammer now as Heinrich Kemmler raises a unit of skeleton warriors from their unquiet graves.

This is nominally a unit of 24, however I ran short of a few figs so it is really something like 20 (when you add up the "halves"), plus some tombstones and graveyard detritus. That worked for me anyway as I wanted this unit to be in the process of crawling out of the ground to represent Kemmler's bad ass necromantic powers.

The figs are all plastics with the exception of the leader and drummer. They were spray undercoated white, sprayed cream and then dipped (painted on), followed by dry brushing and over painting. They took longer than I expected as I really wanted depth on the skeletal parts which isn't easy when there is so boney goodness much on display. People who rubbish dipping as "cheating" amaze me as it achieves a very particular effect which is just one more weapon in the painter's arsenal IMHO.

I've got a second unit on the table now armed with spears. I really only need one in the army list so these guys with hand weapons will serve as the spell-raised unit(s) during play. More undead coming soon!

Great work Millsy! I love the guys emerging out of their graves and the bright red shields give a nice splash of colour - well done.

These boney chaps will give Millsy 100 points to add to his tally. Nice job mate!

From Millsy: Dystopian Wars British Fleet (42 points)

Millsy changes gear for a bit:

The astute amongst you will have noticed that my second submission isn't wights, mummies, skeletons, zombies or any other form of undead. Nor is it Oldhammer for that matter.

The truth is I couldn't look another skeletal grin in the face without doing something different first, so when I got the Dystopian Wars rule book for Christmas the painting urge became near overpowering.

Whatever plans I had were immediately blown from the water by a broadside of Spartan Games resin goodness. Why some people think having large volumes of unpainted models about he place just in case you suddenly want to paint them constitutes a bad idea is beyond me. Anyway, enough rambling. 

With the exception of two small bomber aircraft this is the complete starter flotilla for the Kingdom of Britannia - one battleship, three cruisers, nine frigates and ten stands of aircraft. Despite my abiding affection for the dazzle pattern (it's all good right Curt???) I decided for something a bit different and went with a royal blue and bronze theme with white highlights. Cripes, I'm starting to sound like an interior designer.... 

I've still got another batch to be completed some time soon, mostly aircraft and a dreadnought. Before that though I should be able to face the lipless grinning hordes once more.

Dystopian Wars is such a great game and Millsy you've done a brilliant job with this British force. I think the 'razzle dazzle' thing has been done quite a bit so I really like the look of these. Now you just need to start pimping this core group with a carrier and a silly-big-ass flyer.

This steampunk fleet will give Millsy 42 points. Great work!