From ByronM: 28mm Great War Canadian Highlanders (50 points)

Byron builds on his Great War theme with this brilliant entry of a section of Canadian Gordon Highlanders in their early war gear.

From Byron:

This is a section of WW1 BEF troops, specifically a rifle section of Canadians from the 16th Battalion. The 16th was made up of four different highlander regiments as the Canadians rushed to the aid of the Empire. 

This section is made up of the Gordons as shown (barely) by the blue green yellow tartan peeking out under the kilt apron and the red white checked hat and blue pom.  While I really wanted to paint them up with complete kilts showing, while discussing the project with Curt earlier, he argued that they really would have gone into battle with the aprons on made me rethink that and so I stayed with the apron being the apron, despite the fact that I really wanted to show of the colours of each of the different regiments that made up the battalion. [I know, I'm such a wet blanket, er, apron. ed]

I believe all of the figures in this section are from Muskateer Miniatures (http://www.musketeer-miniatures.com/index.php) and are great castings!  There may also be a Great War Miniatures casting or two mixed in, but I got the figures, cleaned, primed and based them a while ago and then they sat waiting for this painting event to start. 

Having mainly done Warhammer miniatures in the past (only a small number of FoW WWII stuff and figures for other small skirmish games), I missed out on the event last year and needed a project that would allow me to enter this year, so picked the Great War with a Canadian perspective.  Then of course, Curt goes and changes the rules and allows “any” figure this year to be entered….  Oh well, this gets me doing more historical figures.

Cripes Byron, you make me sound like a real SOB. Oh yes, I forgot, I am!  ;)

Seriously, beautiful work once again. The Musketeer WWI range is excellent and you've done them no shame here! I particularly admire the red/white chequing on the glengarry and of course the (partially visible) tartan.

Love the card as well. It does make me laugh though: Canada is filled to bursting with ferocious and majestic animals, but what critter ALWAYS gets rolled-out as our national symbol: the freakin' beaver. (sigh) I suppose I should take heart in at least this one has a fixed bayonet and claws... 

These nine strapping lads will give Byron a base of 45 points, but I'm rounding it to 50 for his attention to detail on the Highland uniforms. This places Byron neatly into first place, well done!

From LeeH: 'I am the Law!' - Judge Dredd (7 points)

This is Lee's first Challenge and he opens it with a bang with this wonderful figure of The Judge.

From Lee:

I bought this model a few weeks ago when I visited the Foundry factory/shop during Blog-Con. As a kid I was always more into British Comics like 2000AD rather than the DC or Marvel variety and so I am much more familiar with characters like Dredd or Rouge Trooper than I am with Spiderman or the Avengers. So when I saw this model I just had to buy it for inclusion in the Challenge. 

The figure is quite large, standing 32mm from foot to eye and 36mm overall. This larger scale combined with the fact that it is made from white metal gives this model a nice hefty feel when you pick it up. Frankly casting Dredd cast in plastic or resin would just be wrong.

I went for strong highlights and bright colours rather than the subdued hues that are seen in some illustrations. While I loved the new Dredd film that came out last year, you just can't beat the original look of the uniform from the comic, complete with gold plated body armour. 

Great work Lee (love that last photo)! I agree, Dredd should be in metal - the heavier the better. I also really like the bold colours that you've gone with for him - brilliant stuff. 

As Dredd is basically a 40mm figure I'm giving Lee 7 points for his efforts. Thanks for debuting him with us Lee and welcome to the Challenge!

From IanW: 15mm Romans (52 points)

Ian sends us the first unit of his new15mm project: a Roman 'Dominate' army.

From Ian:

A great thing about the Challenge is the ability to get new projects off the ground and onto the table. I was given a Essex 15mm starter army by a ASL mate who was never going to paint it, that was about 18 months ago so I guess it's about time I started it and what better than the Legion's finest?

I bought the command figures at the Worlds this year as I wanted them not to just be the same old. But I don't actually have any command figures to boss round the army so need to pick up some of these before I can play with them.

This is just one basic battle group of six bases and I have prepped four of these but will have to wait till I get the correct Osprey (yes I bought the Principate one by mistake!) Also prepped is some of the Auxiliary and Bow troops which I plan to get done during the challenge as well.

Quite straight forward to paint really, and as you can see from the shields these are sponsored by Nike. Rebock of course have those in Britain covered. I have just started to use Tajima1 grass tufts and I have to say I will be buying some more of these when I get my next lot of funds

Great work Ian! The 'Nike/Reebok' comment made me laugh and I really like the red 'draco' - very cool.

This unit of Rome's finest will give Ian a base of 48 points but I'm adding another 6 for the nice clean work he did on the shields, so 52 points total. Well done!

From GregB: 1/200 Scale Regult Tactical Battle Pod Mechas (24 points)

Greg opens his run up the points roster with this pair of Battle Pods from the Macross animated series.

From Greg:

This submission is a pair of Regult Tactical Battle Pods, the main mecha used by the Zentreadi aliens from the anime series Macross (recognized more commonly in North America as "Robotech").  These are 1/200 scale multi-part models sold under the "Nichimo" brand many years ago, now available these days in isolated Ebay lots.  Six or seven years ago, long before any Kickstarter panhandling, I started piling together enough of these kits to play games of Macross with the gaming group here in Winnipeg.  They are not great models - they have to be screwed together (WTF !?!) so you have to fill those holes with putty.  But they look the part!  These models are about 4 inches tall.

I've loved the Macross series - complete with its bonkers notions, whacky plot with rather large holes, and terrible, terrible "pop music" - since I first saw a few scattered episodes as a teenager. Back then "GI Joe" and "Transformers" were popular cartoons, and in those shows nobody ever got hurt.  Along came this show with very cool animation, amazing mecha, and a plot that routinely killed off major characters (and also half the earth's population, ultimately). It was quite a contrast!  While of course the premise of the show was (and still is) preposterous, the themes in it still resonate (and echo into the current time through shows like Battlestar Galactica, which shares many attributes with Macross, although fans of that show will hate reading that).  I will toss a few episodes of the show on when I'm painting from time to time.  And although Macross fans rightfully take many barbs for the awful pop music angle to the show's plotline, I don't take them too seriously.  Especially from people who in turn believe any comic, cartoon or show with a character like "Wolverine" is somehow good for anything.... :)

The alien mecha from Macross are beautiful. With the reverse articulation in the legs, artful curves, the Regult pods fit the bill perfectly for alien bad guy soldier mecha.  They are armed to the teeth, elegant, maneuverable, funny-but-cool-looking, and easily blown away by the dozen by the heroes of the TV series!  In the series, these pods were about 70 or 80 feet tall, piloted by 50-foot-tall expendable soldier-clone Zentreadi soldiers. The aliens would attack with an approach that made the Red Army appear spartan in comparison, and clouds of these pods would lead the assault, getting mowed down by the ace human pilots in their own super-cool variable fighter mecha.

It was a lot of fun to collect these models from Ebay and paint them. I haven't painted one in years, and these two had been sitting forever, primed black. I figured I would clear them off the pending desk (I literally had to dust them off) as a way to recognize the expansion of the Analogue Challenge into the sci-fi realm!

Wonderful work Greg! These things always kinda make me scratch my head... but Greg's a great friend, so I nod and smile indulgently as he enthusiastically describes the impenetrable storylines and various bits of whacky technology laid out in the series. God bless him. ;)

These two Battle Pods will give Greg 24 points. Great to have you on the board, Mr.B. Now you need to get some Victorian stuff in the hopper to face-off against Michael and Phil!

From GillesW: Challenge Desperado (25 points)

Gilles starts his run up the roster by submitting his desperado for my posse. 

Here I am!

This figure was bought at a bring-and-buy with some other cowboys of different brands. I just cut off the cross he originally had, then I took a shotgun from a Bolt action plastic sprue along with a Colt 45, I cut off half of the Colt and glued it in the belt of the figure.

I undercoated the figure in black, painted it with Foundry paints and some hours later: TADA!!!!!!!

I hope Curt will enjoy it when it arrives at his home under the snow.

Wow! Gilles, this is a wonderfully characterful hombre in a classic Peckinpah pose and setting. You can almost see him moving in Peckinpah's signature slow-motion camera style: pistol in one hand, slide-loading his shotgun in the other, and all the while under a fusilade of gunfire. Great stuff.

As this is Gilles' levy figure it is worth a base of 20 points, but I'm going to add another five for his excellent conversion and basework. Thank you very much Gilles and welcome to the show!