From RobP: 28mm AWI British Infantry (43 points)

From Rob:

So we are nearing the end of the Painting Challenge... I have managed to squeeze in some extra painting time to complete one more group of figures; unfortunately just too late for last saturday's game with Jacco... However, still in time for the Challenge deadline.. 

Here we have a group of 9 AWI Brits; painted as light infantry for use in Muskets and Tomahawks.. All figures are Foundry except for the officer which is Perry.

It has been great fun painting during the Challenge once my painting dip at the start was over.. A little bit more planning would have been helpful but then again... every chaos creates its own order.

Wonderful stuff has gone by on the blog with some impressive amounts of minis painted: a deep bow to you all!! 

And of course to the Great Master of Schemes, Curt himself, for putting in the effort and all the hard work for keeping the Challenge running. You have certainly earned your first beer when you are over here in May... 

Ah, and I will certainly take you up on that libation Rob - I look very much forward to it.

A great final effort across the finish line Rob! These fellow look very fine (love the wide-brimmed hats) I look forward to reading the AAR of that game you had with Jacco on Mike's blog. 

This group of British infantry will give Rob 43 points. Good job!

From RobP: 28mm Revolutionary War Austrian Grenzers (70 points)

From Rob: 

Here is a new entry for the Challenge. A 14-piece unit of Revolutionary Wars Austrian Grenzer. A colourful bunch to paint. I have chosen to paint them in the early uniform colours, still wearing their white coats. 

These excellent skirmishers/marksmen will prove to be big trouble for MikeF´s early French that he is  painting up and of which we hopefully will see more of in the near future... 

Our group's team effort to get into the Revolutionary Wars is getting shape with JaccoK also painting up Austrians and MikeF and another member taking care of the French.. 

This unit will provide the light troops in my Austrian Brigade... Now I can get started on my next line  battalion. The figures shown are form Eureka Minis and they certainly are excellent in sculpting and are a joy to paint. They match perfectly with Perry minis and also with my other (Trent) Austrians. 

This entry will bring me over my initial goal of 500 points and takes the pressure of painting against a deadline and I can spend the last week on some fun stuff on the painting table. Or try to improve my photographic qualities since for some reason I do not manage to get good clear pictures anymore.... 

Ah, but friendly deadlines can be good Rob - look at all the marvellous work you've managed to finish during the past three months. Your excellent Chasseurs a Pied, the Sudanese Bazingers, AWI Minutemen, your Nuns and lets not forget the most excellent Rubber Duck - all of these during the Challenge. Wonderful stuff. Nonetheless, now that your deck is clear, I look forward to seeing what you come up during our last few days of the Challenge.

These fine Austrian Grenzers will give Rob 70 points. Congratulations on reaching your target and emerging victorious in your side duel with the other lads from the DWD*

(*The Dutch Waterbicycle Detachment)

From RobP: Challenge Desperado & Rubber Duck (20 points)

From Rob: 

My next entry is the Painting Challenge Entry Fee Figure.. The theme being anything related to Sam Peckinpah made me look at different options since I have seen almost all of his pictures.. 

I figured that almost everybody would choose the theme of the Wild Bunch (and so it seems now..) and enter a western figure in the contest; so i decided it had to be something else... 

Starting out with Major Dundee, I came across another film that is an iconic Peckinpah work.. For those who remember the movie 'Convoy' will know what I mean...

Here he is: one of the most mentioned characters in the movie: Rubber Duck...

Nonetheless, since I thought it best to please the Judge of the Challenge I thought it would be better to have an entry that can lavish his cabinet so decided to change plans once more and to come up with yet another desperado to make up The Wild Bunch. 

Figure is from Foundry, as always easy to paint and plenty of character...

Superb work Rob. The yellow is remarkably smooth, the highlighting spectacular and the evil glint you managed to convey in its eyes is especially chilling. 

...that cowboy isn't too shabby either...

Thanks so much Rob - that's 20 points for you! I very much look forward to seeing BOTH of these in my collection in a short while.  ;)

'Yep, that's a big 10-4.' 

From RobP: 28mm AWI American Minutemen (45 points)

Rob cracks the whip to prompt his fellow Dutchmen to greater efforts with this excellent entry of AWI Minutemen.

From Rob:

After a two-week skiing trip I was surprised to see that my two fellow Dutch contenders (MichaelF and JaccoK) did not take the opportunity to catch up with me on the points list.  I have given them another week but now there is no more mercy regarding getting first place in our side competition...

To further work towards my points goal here is my next entry: 9 AWI Minutemen.

The figures are Foundry (Perry sculpts) and I think almost everybody bought this pack since you see them in a lot of pictures and articles. I had these lying around for a long time but since we are into 'Muskets and Tomahawks' with our gaming group I decided to paint them up to field a small American force as an addition to my British to be able to play both sides if needed.. 

The figures were fun to paint and will certainly get more company in the form of some militia units in the near future.

Excellent work Rob! These are great models (as you noted, one sees them everywhere it seems) and you've done a very nice job on them.  I like that you've kept them in a varied mix of colours to underline their irregular status.

These nine Minutemen will give Rob 45 points, bringing him within 55 points of winning the Dutch side challenge. Well done Rob! Now, Michael and Jacco, where are your entries?

From RobP: 28mm Sudanes, Nuns & French Imperial Guard Chasseurs a Pied (325 points)

RobP, veteran member of the beer disposal unit of the 'Dutch Water-bicycle Detachment', debuts in the Challenge with this stonking entry of Sudanese, Nuns and French Chasseurs. An entry which, I'm sure, will raise the eyebrows of his compatriots MichaelF and JaccoK.

From Rob:

I finally have gotten around of getting some things finished for the Challenge..I have been extremely busy with work the last few weeks and also suffered a major painting dip caused by  being very indecisive about what to paint... However, things are looking up now and since this weekend it feels like I am on a roll again... 

First up are two units of Sudanese Bazinger for the Sudan.. Figures are Perry. I had these still lying around and could not decide on what to paint for the Challenge so  started with priming a lot of different figures from different periods ranging from ACW to Napoleonics to Colonial to  western and WWII.... 

In the end I decided to finish these as a first entry due to the fact it offered me some easy-to-paint figures to get out of my painting dip... Not sure if I have succeeded though... 

Also included are some figures I painted for the non-combattant theme but that i finished too late because I had the dates mixed up... I do not know the make of these figs anymore but they will provide some female addition to the number of clergymen i painted in the past and that litter our gaming table as bystanders etc... Not quite like the Monty Python Nuns of Castle Anthrax unfortunately... 

Finally is a unit of Imperial Guard Chasseurs a Pied; 44 figures in total; all Foundry and two Perry figures in the command stand. Given the size of the unit I painted an extra  command stand so i can split the unit into two for gaming purposes. 

I bought the Foundry figures some time ago as a bargain offer in their ebay shop. They are Michael Percy sculpts and although not as detailed as the Perrys they came out very good after painting.

This entry will put me ahead in the little Dutch side competition and encourage MikeF and JaccoK to come up with some real units as a next entry... It looks like my painting dip is over so there will be more to come.

Holy Smokes Rob! That is a shed-load of lovely stuff. The Sudanese and Nuns are very nice but those Old Guard Chasseurs are the absolute bomb. Wonderful work!

Rob's debut will give him 325 points which I'm sure will make MichaelF and JaccoK scramble for their brushes. Well done Rob!

From RobP: 28mm Mahdist Ansars Warband (235 points)

From Rob:

The last bit that will pull me over the threshold of my personal challenge/goal is a bunch of Mahdist Ansar. These are Perry plastics and although I am not a great fan of the plastic stuff I have to say that these are extremely nice figures.. Lots of character and a lot of possibilities for variation. They were actually a lot of fun to put together without any hassle like I had when trying to construct some of the early Victrix plastics (which i never finished and ended up giving them away.).

This is a bunch of 31 brave warriors looking for a honourable end and the reward of number of virgins in prophets paradise. Flag is from the Flag Dude. 

Again some ACW Union Irish Brigade figures: 8 skirmishers and an extra command base to be more versatile when breaking up the larger regiments in the brigade to form seperate smaller units... All figures are Foundry and the flags, as they are in all regiments, are from Redoubt.. I bought them at a bargain at a trade show some time ago and they turn out to be OK.. Not as good as the GMB flags i normally use but in the end they did the job.. 

Next up is the Challenge Entry Ronin.. I am not sure about the make of this figure.. It is one of a small pack of three that i bought a long time ago at a trade show.. I think it is a Foundry figure but might also be Dixon.. I have repainted it a few times during the challenge because I could notdecide on the colours to use... It ended up in a totally different  colourscheme than i started with and it was finished only today at the end of the Challenge... 

I must say it has been a fun ride doing this challenge.. Although I had a slow start in December I finally managed to achieve my personal target and I´ve got a lot of stuff done that otherwise would have taken longer or wouldn´t even get painted at all.. Good for you Curt and a big hurrah! to keep us on track with finishing something that we can replace with hew purchases to keep the leadpile at the same level... 

Great work Rob.  They look suitably ferocious. I know plastics can be a bit of a pain but you've done an excellent job on these fellows. And thank you so much for your Ronin! He looks the business and I really like the vibrant red bow. 

This warband of Ansars, American and Ronin #35 will give Rob 235 points. Bravo! Another member of the Dutch Waterbicycle Detachment breaks into the clear.

From RobP: 28mm ACW Irish Brigade & Monks (273 points)

From Rob:

Here is my latest entry to the Painting Challenge.

I conclude the Irish Brigade with the 28th Massachussetts and the 116th Pennsylvania... These are all Foundry figs except the 28th standard bearers wich are  Steve Barber conversions... I was running out of command figs and do not want to double up so I had to come up with an alternative; nothing that a spare cossack arm cannot be used for....

The Foundry figs are among the best ACW I have seen; clean without mouldlines and full of character and paint up easily. I have used them before as they make the bulk of my  Confederate brigades. I know people tend to think they are over expensive but they currently have changed policy on shipping and offer a good deal on larger orders.. I am planning on  doing another Union brigade in a few months and will definitely use their figures.

Also some Brigade command and casualty markers; all Redoubt figures. The Redoubt Command sets are excellent and I have used them also within my Reb troops.  Being the Irish Brigade one would expect to see Meagher and Kirby instead of generic command figures. They will be up next included in the final batch I am currently finishing. 

Having kept my focus on this project I did however wander off sometimes and painted other bits and pieces in between.. Mostly little stuff that can be used to give our group's gaming table a more lively look.. This time I include some figures that can be used for Dark Ages or Peninsular, or even downed pilots if you are familiar with the ´Allo ´Allo series.... These men of the cloth are Qualitycast figures (where have they gone??) and have been fun to paint. I will enhance my procession overtime with more faithfull followers to litter our gaming table.. 

This batch will more then double my current score and puts me right on track of an average of 250 pts a month to achieve my challenge...

Beautiful work Rob! Your Irish Brigade looks marvelous and the command stand is brilliant, but I am eager to see Meagher and Kirby in your next submission. Those monks are very nice as well - I'd like to source some of these to go with my existing Foundry Dark Age monks...

This entry will give Rob a very respectable 273 points. Bravo, well done!

From RobP: 28mm ACW 69th New York (124 points)

From Rob:

Here is my second entry for the competition -  this time the 69th New York (1st regt Irish Brigade).

Again Redoubt figures with mainly Steve Barber heads. These mix very well size-wise and have more character than the Redoubt heads so actually a no brainer if you want to have more variation in your units. 

So another unit of 24 to add to my points total and to close in a little on the fast movers in the contest... 

These are the last Redoubt figures in this brigade, except for the Meager/Kirby command figures. Rest of the brigade will be made of the outstanding Foundry ACW figs.

An excellent unit of New York Oirish there Rob - well done!

These lads from the 69th will give Rob 124 points.