From PaulS: 28mm Night Goblins & Gargoyle (105 points)

Paul returns with this (wait for it): great group of goblins with a great gnashing gargoyle. Schweeet.

From Paul:

First up are a selection of monsters for my project to rebuild Warhammer Quest with newer models. We have 8 Night Goblin archers, 8 Night Goblin spearmen, a champion with spear/shield, a warlord with two hand weapons and a Netter/Clubber team. 

The Night Goblin box has 20 models, so rather than building 20 of one type, I decided that it would be better to start with a small group of different types so I can start some level 1 dungeons. Over 2014 I hope to try and flesh out lots more of the different monster slots as well as making 3d versions of all the rooms...

The lower level monsters are going to be tabletop standard, with characters, NPCs, named villains and the rooms having a lot more love and attention put into them. 

There's also a quick little addition to my Pulp/Mythos skirmish setup too in the form of a gargoyle. This guy came with the Dredd Cultists set from the Mongoose kickstarter and was a real pleasure to paint. I think he is supposed to be a demonic imp, but I thought he looked more like a gargolye, so the blips on him became glowing crystals instead of spots

Awesome work Paul! The Night Goblins are great (love the purple bows and the yellow Bad Moon shields), but I find the verdigris growing between the gargoyle's toes to be particularly fetching. Nice!

This excellent group of figures will give Paul 105 points. Well done!

From KevH: 28mm Wars of the Roses Archers (133 points)

KevH is a man who's remarkable brevity of prose is only exceeded by his mad painting skills.

From KevH:

More WotR.

Henry Holland, Duke of Exeter's Retinue Bow.

28mm Perry Plastics. 24 figures in total with command and the usual bowstrings, argh.

The 'argh' bit cracked me up. 

Okay, this fabulous group of archers will provide Kev with 133 points with some extra added for the banner and the 'argh' bowstrings. Rockin'. Kev has a bunch of stuff in the queue so stay tuned over the next day or so.

From TamsinP: 15mm Choson Korean Missile Troops (196 points)

Tamsin's got her painting mojo back!

From Tamsin:

"Cor blimey guv'nor! If she ain't gone 'n finished another army!"

Yes, these 98 figures complete my Choson Korean army for FoG:AM and FoG:R. Well, for now at least - I may opt to add some more bits later on.

There are 80 arquebusiers and 18 crossbowmen in this submission. The arquebusiers and 16 crossbowmen are by Grumpy (available in the UK from East Riding Miniatures or from Eureka elsewhere), the other 2 figures are from Old Glory 15s left over from my previous units.

72 of the arquebusiers are based as medium foot for FoG:R, the other 8 are based as light foot for use in both FoGs. The crossbowmen are based as medium foot for FoG:AM.

Pretty inspiring stuff Tamsin - that is a load of missile troops - great work! With these tucked away what's next on the painting queue?

These 98 figures will give Tamsin a very impressive 196 points, putting her well within sight of the front-runners. Well done!

From Greg: 15mm M51 IShermans and Israeli Infantry (80 points)

Greg finally gets some traction with this great entry of Arab-Israeli War armour and infantry.

From Greg:

Some more 15mm IDF troops.  Up first is a group of M51 "IShermans" from Battlefront.  These were "released" by Battlefront several months ago but thanks to the company's system of using some combination of floating bottles and Victorian balloons for shipping, they did not arrive around here until the late fall and I was finally able to finish them over the Christmas break. 

The Old Glory M51s had been pretty nice, but I had really been looking forward to these models from Battlefront. The main components of the castings were beautiful, but I was disappointed with the casting quality on some of the extra bits - the crew castings were weak, the MG castings were really weak, and the combination of a narrow mounting point made from resin and a bad casting on the .50 cal MGs makes for some very precarious modelling.   Only a couple of the tanks have the .50 cal MGs up "high" as intended - I cut the posts down and drilled my own mount into the turret for the balance of the MGs. On the plus side, the casting on the running gear, gun barrels, turrets and hulls was crisp and very nice.  And you get magnets with the tanks! The turrets would not stay on without them. 

I tried some new (to me) painting techniques on these tanks, after reading a great online article on the Battlefront website. Battlefront recommended using Vallejo's "Grey Green" to try and get to the elusive IDF "Sinai Grey".  I followed this with a "pin wash" of GW Devlan Mud, and then a sponge-chipping of GW Stormvermin Fur. I'm very happy with the results of this new approach, and glad to have found a more "real" look for the IDF Sinai Grey. 

These IDF infantry are a product of Khurasan's "Year Of The Next Few Days" in which the company spammed TMP with computer-generated renderings of products coming "soon" from countless different scales and settings.  The time period involved with Khurasan's notion of "soon" is highly and frustratingly elastic (from days to months), but they have kicked some 15mm Arab-Israeli stuff into the market.  I'm sure Battlefront's entry spurred this along - competition is good!

I was excited to see these castings arrive - my prior 15mm IDF troops are from Peter Pig and needed head swaps, very annoying! And they were incomplete - no guys with Uzis, for example.  Khurasan products are generally of very high quality, and promised to offer a complete and accurate line of figures for the period.  What could go wrong?

So it was a let-down to see these castings up close. They are messy - the figures have incredible detail in some respects, and they suddenly go soft - right on the same figure!  The infantry rigging is visible on one part of their backs, and then the straps are suddenly gone.  Some of them are very, very thin, bordering on flat.  And there is only one LMG figure in the line, and he's prone (aaargh! I hate prone figures).  

While these are still a lot nicer than, say, QRF castings, these are not as nice as Khurasan's other products, and they eat the dust of Peter Pig. Head swaps are a pain in the ass, but for those searching for 1973 IDF infantry I would still recommend a head swap Peter Pig infantryman over these, and use the Khurasan stuff sparingly to add dudes with Uzis, the "super" bazooka team and other elements to round them out.

  

Of course, Battlefront has some guys too - I hope to paint them if they every show up…

Beautiful work Greg! I really like your new approach to painting Israeli tanks. I think I'm going to steal some of your methods for my Indochina French armour. Too bad about the Khurasan figures. You've made them look fabulous but your description of their overall quality is troubling - this is espcially agravating when they tout them for months and they come off rather flat (literally).

This group of armour and infantry will give Greg 80 points. Well done, my friend!

From ClintB: 10mm Mahdists (58 points)

From Clint:

Here are 57 10mm Pendraken Fuzzy Wuzzy's. Three figures to a 20mm by 20mm square base  ready to use with the "Patrols In the Sudan" rules. 

All figure have been painted in a simple 2 tone manner as befits miniatures of this scale where you are relying on the mass of figures as opposed to the detail. I have only put one flag with this group a simple printed paper flag as I wanted the troops to look like one mass as opposed to several tribes or groupings.

I have also kept the bases very simple using just sand, paint and static grass in small patches. being mostly desert and scrubland I did not want to over detail the bases. This is only the start of my Mahdist army and by using 10mm figures I hope to highlight the difference in numbers between the thin Khaki Line and the Native forces.

Fabulous work Clint! I really like the horde effect these 10mm troops provide (with the added bonus in that they don't take up an acre on the tabletop).

These Mahdists will give Clint 58 points. Great job!