From KentG: Lady Gunslingers for Sarah's Choice (10 points)

Kent sends in this dynamic duo of two gunslingers a la femme. 

These are 28mm Reaper miniatures. Beautiful work with the colours, Kent!

These two will give him 10 points to chip into his impressive total.

From PhilH: 'Over That Hill And Get Me A Latte' 28mm Spanish Guerillas (100 points)

Phil has pulled out all the stops on doing up these excellent mounted Spanish guerillas for the Peninsular War. 

From Phil:

'These are an attempt to convert up some mounted Spanish Guerillas for the Peninsular War, inspired by a scene in Sharpe's Enemy where a guerilla band led by Sharpe's floosy rides off over a hill. I tried to find a screenshot, but my google-fu failed me, sorry! I started with Perry ACW cavalry, which, being plastic, were relatively easy to butcher. Most had their left arms carved off and replaced, alternate right arms, a good number of head swaps, some of the large cavalry sabres on the left leg removed and variety added to the bedrolls and baggage on the horses. The officer in green even had his entire body and boots replaced with those from a Victrix French officer. As well as plenty of greenstuff, I used leftover bits from all sorts of sets: plastic Perry British, Victrix highlanders, Victrix French, Victrix British Artillery and probably others.

Painting-wise, I tried to put extra time into them to help make each an individual and almost tell stories in miniature. Why are they led by what looks like a Spanish Officer? Did he desert or is he under orders? Why does he look like he is falling off his horse? (not sure the conversion worked...) Why in one in a red jacket with one epaulette? Did he steal a uniform or is it his own? Why is one of them carrying a nasty-looking head wound, hastily bandaged? Even the horses got more work than usual - socks and other markings, dappling on the grey.

I'm sure traditional 'big battle' Napoleonics gamers might not get why I bothered. For fun, mostly! In game, they will serve as convoy guards, or messengers (WSS 'catch the pigeon', perhaps?), or flavour figures on the board, or as a unit of mounted infantry in our games of Sharpe Practice. No cavalry charge bonuses for these chaps though! 

I'm happy with them, a lot of work but something unique. The Perry ACW cavalry are so-so, seem quite small and nothing special sculpt-wise. Clearly the Perry's first attempt at plastic, which i know (from the British Hussars) that they have greatly improved upon since. The horses are super though - I kept the other half box in case I ever need some horses (they may feature in Pulp...). My only thought is that if I started these guys again I would work more on the basic bodies, they do almost seem uniform, though a range of of colours helped break that up if you don't look too closely.'

These six fine caballeros will give Phil a base of 60 points, but I'm going to add another 40 for the thought and conversions that he put into them. Lovely work Phil!

From MilesR: 15mm WWII German Panzergrenadiers (210 points)

Miles sends in some more reinforcements for his 'Flames of War' force. This time we have some panzergrenadiers along with their supporting halftracks and a command car.

These are 15mm Battlefront castings and models.

This group will give Miles 210 points. Nice work!

I Have My Wonka Ticket!

I got this in the mail yesterday and I must say I'm quite chuffed.

I attended SALUTE '08 and had a great time but went alone and pretty much knew nobody there (sniff). So this year I'm particularly looking forward to it as my good friend Dallas (from the Fawcett Ave Conscripts) will be attending with me AND there will be many new blog-pals that we will get a chance to meet face-to-face. It's going to be pretty darn sweet. Actually, I know Dallas will be wearing a Conscripts team t-shirt and I may be wearing one specially made up for the Painting Challenge. 

So if you see a tall guy and a short guy from Canada wearing t-shirts with these dorky logos please say hello!

From SteveM: 15mm Soviet Infantry in U.S. Lend-Lease Armoured Cars (90 points)

Steve sends in this great unit of Soviet reconnaissance infantry mounted in Lend-Lease U.S. armoured cars.

From Steve:

The us300 Armored cars were previously painted but thanks to the lend-lease program my Soviets were able to hitch a ride.  I used the mounted razvedki crew blister (su748) and the company hq blister (su701) to find the right mix of figures that show action and movement as the recon trucks find new prey. The trucks are painted in an amoeba camo which is normally found on the infantry uniforms but it looks pretty cool on the trucks and sets these apart from plain US trucks with red stars.  It should make these pieces fairly unique but at the same time historically plausible. The force composition is taken from a list out of the Red Bear army list book produced by Battlefront for Flames of War.

How: Primed grey, Vallejo acrylics, MIG pigments, and washes, Testors dull cote.

I agree, that is a pretty neat camo scheme.

This group will give Steve 90 points. Very nice work.