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 EdwinK: 54mm Zulu War Colonial British Infantry (180 points)

Edwin's lucky nephew is about to receive these fine reinforcements to his growing collection.

From Edwin:

Here are some more 54mm toy soldiers for my nephew's collection.  Ideal for counterpane wars ;)

The are Armies in Plastic Set 5573 'Zulu War 1879, 24th Foot' (though to be honest the only difference between the various regiments they sell is the box art and the colour of the plastic they are molded in - these are a lurid red).  

It's a nice set though - 18 figures in six different poses.

Awesome! Your nephew will be delighted with these I'm sure. I especially like the floral quilt terrain that they are deployed on. If I squint my eyes a bit I see a detachment of Victoria's finest deploying onto the surface of Mars to claim it for the Empire.

These 54mm soldiers will give Edwin 180 points - only 3 away from his Challenge target. Well done!

From DaveD: 54mm Cowboy (12 points)

Dave treats us with another of his 54mm cowboys.

From Dave:

Here we have a further 54mm addition. "Poncho" man...he is by  Pegaso Models. While not as absolutely finely detailed at the Andrea equivalents , still very well sculpted and cast. Of course the increased scale means no easy options with the poncho patterns. 

I really enjoyed the challenge of this one. I have spent some time perusing various catalogues and now have. "Little list" of target figures. I want to take this Old West adventure on a stage from the the 28's shoot em up to something perhaps a little more personal for the characters.  My mind is full of ideas with this, as much as the possible spectacle of the larger scale. 

So I am looking for a name for him people.. Let's have your ideas..

Oh and I think there was a certain other character who wears a poncho... :-)

Hmm, he looks like a Charlie to me. 'Charlie Harlson' perhaps? Anyway, he's brilliant and I really like the pattern you created for his poncho.

Charlie Harlson and his amazing poncho will give Dave 12 points. Lovely work Mr. D!

From DaveD: 54mm Wyatt Earp (10 Points)

Like opening some dark eldritch tome on the Lead Mountain of Madness, Dave passes into insanity with the start of a new project: Wild West in 54mm...

From Dave:

So Mrs D continues to feed to my Old West "obsession" and dropped some very nice Xmas presents -  this time its gone up a gear - or more correctly scale . This is a 54mm Andrea Miniatures rendition of Wyatt Earp. Its been a long time since I painted any 54's - the last ones i did were at least 20 years ago and were done in oil painted - so i was a little concerned over the work involved. However I have been using the Andrea paint colour sets the last few years and decided to tackle him using acrylics.The casting itself is absolutley superb , incredibly crisp and the detailid just right to paint. I have enjoyed doing him so much I have been looking at the other figures available in the range - there are some real crackers.

I have decided I will do a 54mm Old West game using these - I will only need a handful of figures scratchbuild a bit of terrain  - oops this is beginning to sound awfully familier to how the 28mm collection started,,,god somebody stop me!!!

Well, its a wonderful madness that you've embarked upon Dave! This is a gorgeous figure and you've done a cracking job on him - well done!

Wyatt Earp will give Dave 10 points. I'm really looking forward to seeing more from this new project Mr. D.

From EdwinK: 54mm WWII British Infantry (120 points)

Keeping to the Old Skool theme Edwin sends these marvellous 54mm plastic toy soldiers he's done-up for his nephew.

From Edwin:

Now Santa's been and gone, I can submit these.  They are twelve 58mm plastic figures (two prone) from Steve Weston's D-Day pack.

They're here because my wife thought it might be fun to paint them up as a Christmas present for her nephew.  Of course, she didn't realize that I wasn't going to start until 15 Dec and how long it would take me!

They're obviously in a 'toy soldier' style with limited detailing and a high gloss finish.  Hopefully they will survive contact with the enemy (an eight year old boy!).

Great stuff Edwin. I've always had a soft spot for that dorky straight-arm-grenade-throwing pose. Wonderful.

These  D-Day Tommies will give Edwin a very nice 120 points. A lovely gift Uncle Edwin!

From JamesB: 28mm Romano-British Cavalry, SYW Artillery & 54mm ECW Shotte (499 points)

From James:

Thank you Curt for a great winter Challenge, may I present my last entry for this year. First up I offer a unit of Romano British Cavalry (see above and below) from Foundry Miniatures.

I ran out of time to create the standard but I am happy with my shields, these complete a Foundry Army deal I painted for my friend Bernard. 

Next up is my effort to shoot to the top, I have been gunning for that all Challenge but I may have run out of batteries (ok enough puns). 6 Cannons from Front Rank for our French SYW army 4 of these are battalion guns and the last two are bigger pieces.

The last entry has been inspired by Kev and his 54mm entries, I picked up these figures a couple of years ago with a plan to use them to encourage my niece and nephew into gaming but they were not needed as with both their Grandad's wargaming they decided it was a super cool thing to do.

So I offer my last figures: 21 54mm ECW Musketeers I have painted these as the NMA so I can now say I have painted the MNA in 3 scales in pre-history I did them in 15mm, I still own a 28mm army and now 54mm.

So there you have it.  By my calculations I have complete 646 figures in this challenge making it an average of 7.1 figures a day. Can I take this chance to say a huge Thank You to Curt for creating this competition it has been a blast. I hope to catch up with many of my fellow Ronin at Salute this year, till than guys keep your brushes sharp and you paints wet.

Peace James Brewerton Ronin #17

Lovely work as always, James. Those 54s turned out brilliantly (dip?) and I also really, really like that unit of Romano-British cavalry.  Top shelf stuff.

These lads, both great and small, shields and all, will give James a very impressive 499 points - just enough to slip past Chris.  At least for now (bites fingernails in anticipation)...

Thank you James for participating in the Challenge and keeping us inspired with both the incredible quality and quantity of your work. Bravo!

From KevH: 28mm English Civil War Cavalry, AWI Infantry & 54mm Knights (342 points)

From Kev: 

Well, here I have a mixed bag for you. First up are the 28mm Empress ECW Heavy cavalry (12 mounted figures). Mmmmmm, what can I say about these. I'll start at the beginning. Beautiful  exquisite, finely crafted miniatures. Very realistic, accurately proportioned, they look fantastic,

BUT!!

Assembly is a git, although these were part assembled when I recieved them. They fell apart during painting on a number of occasions. The swords are very thin, although this is accurate, they break really easy, really easy.

The horses are ok but if you remove the run throughs on the hoofs, the entire horse bends with the weight of the rider, I left some on after removing some and having this problem. Much of the detail is so fine, be careful not to obliterate if when priming.

The figures are very unforgiving when painting. Some areas are hard to reach when assembled, yet you must assemble to paint. All in all, I did not like painting these, they took twice the time and effort to paint. Overall, I think they turned out ok, I just hope my customer likes them.

I fancied painting something different for a change so I decided to do some more work on my Muskets and Tomahawks stuff. AWI and FiW came out again. First up are 14 x 28mm Foundry American Infantry with command.

I did these with green facings so I could tell them apart from my regulars, they will act as light infantry for the moment.

Followed by 10 x 28mm custom Militia/Civilians for M&T games. These are converted from various manufacturers, but are mostly Foundry & Front Rank.

Closely followed by 3 x 28mm Brits. The light infantry is a conversion from a bugler into an NCO. He was started before the challenge, so dont include him please Curt. These Two 28mm Brits bring my British infantry up to full strength. (24 figs, 2 x 12)

And Finally. 2 x 6 figure units of 54mm Knights. Once again these are Accurate Miniatures plastics. Basic paint job as before. I am about a quarter way through my Siege game troops. Charlie is slowly progressing with the missile units. 

Gorgeous stuff Kev. Even though you describe the ECW cavalry as particularly troublesome I think you've done a beautiful job on them. The horses are splendid and I really like how you've done their buff coats. I think your client will be very pleased indeed. 

This fine assortment of figures will give Kev a very respectable 342 points, allowing him to close-in ever closer to his Challenge target...

From KevH: 28mm Wars of the Roses & 54mm Medieval Infantry (275 points)

From Kev:

First up some 28mm Perry's. Richard Duke of Gloucester's Billmen. 

 Usual White Boar Livery, 12 figures including command.

Followed by William Lord Hastings Billmen.

Bulls head Livery with Blue and Murrey back. All flags are my own design. 

I decided against the livery decals as they are so fine and a real pig to fit. So painting them it is.

Followed up by some pretty basic 54mm Medievals. A unit of 6 foot Knights and 8 Men at Arms. 

 These are for my "Siege" game. Figures are from "Accurate".

My Mrs is now finished painting some of the missile troops. They are on her blog, (follow the link on mine). She would really love and comments and advice. She not made a bad job of her first figures and she really enjoys painting. That's it, got her hooked, lol.

28mm Empress ECW lobsters on my table and some more 54mm meds. We getting near the end now. Hitting my new target will be close but if I can get all the 54mm stuff done, I may just manage it.

Very lovely work as usual Kev. I particularly admire your job on the livery and banners - well done!

I'm quite looking forward to seeing your Empress ECW cavalry as I'm thinking on picking some up myself.

This submission will give Kev 275 points.

From KevH: 28mm Napoleonic Westphalian Infantry, 54mm Medievals & 15mm WWII German Prime Mover (397 points)

From Kev:

It has been a while since my last post and I have been painting.

I also have my Mrs painting at last, been showing her the ropes and she is helping me with my Siege project. She is currently painting the missile units, she is a bit slow, but getting there.

First up are some 28mm Westphalians (commission work). A battalion of 24 figures with command and a mounted General de Brigade. All 28mm Front Rank miniatures. I have two more of these and one light btn as part of the commission.

Next up is my first 54mm Medievals for "Siege" This is a castle game I have been working on for the last year. The rules are now complete and ready for play testing. I now know how many figures and type will be in each unit.

The castle was started a few months back and is a toy castle from Simba. This painted up quite nicely and with the added thickness of some styrene is starting to look the part. I have built it in modular sections with some breaches made for entry for the attackers. I have siege engines, ladders, boiling oil and all sorts of nasties for this and it should prove to be quite a bit of fun to play. It will accomodate 1 defender (holding the castle) and as many attackers as wants to play, great for a demo game.

All in the lovely 54mm scale. All These medievals are plastic 54mm Accurate miniatures. They are painted in a pretty basic block style. The reason being, my Mrs is painting some of them and these are the first thing she has ever painted. They are based in singles and will be handled a lot, so easier to touch up.

They are a really soft plastic, unlike the ECW I have been painting that is a quite hard plastic. A few are conversions as the poses are quite limited...

The seige rules will be available on my blog for anybody interested in a stupidly simple set of siege rules.

And finally, a 15mm Battlefront Miniatures German Famo Tractor. (Hopefully to stop me bogging, lol.) DAK paint job to go with my recent panzers. 

I picked this up at Hammerhead in Newark a couple of weeks back.

Horrid cast, and a real pig to fit together. The resin on the underside was still soft and stank vile. I painted over it and and the matt varnish seems to have sealed it ok. The BF Mins really need to sort out there quality control. At £8, its not cheap. Quick paint job though and its fits in with my tanks perfectly.

Super stuff Kev! It's nice that your wife is joining you in the hobby - its a great way to spend time together (I know of others who use it for precisely the opposite reason!).

I'll definitely be looking at your siege rules as I have an old Citadel castle (yes, the Old Skool high-density foam one) sitting in storage, waiting to be brought out again.

This eclectic batch of goodies will give Kev a staggering 397 points! This will allow him to close the gap and bring him within striking range of the top two Challengers. Well done!