From TimB: Shaolin Monks, Yakusa, Demons & Dwarves (70 points)

From Tim:

A few odds and bits and parts of things I didn't quite get done in time - most of these are parts of forces for A Fistful of Kung Fu that I'd hoped to get done by the end of the Challenge - in fact most of them I've been sitting on for over a week (or two, in some cases) thinking I WOULD finish the forces and be able to post them all together... but I'm just not going to be able to. First I switched gears to get the Jacobite Highlanders done for the Last Stand entry. Then I switched gears again to crank out a few units for another project for my final entry (coming up) because... well... they'd be easier to paint and I'm a fair bit off my challenge goal and I would actually like to get SOMEWHAT close to my challenge goal.

These are the Shaolin Monks from the North Star Miniatures "Martial Arts Heroes" set. There's another five dudes that need to be finished up in this force. 

This lot is from the North Star Miniatures "Yakusa" set - there's only two left to finish up... which one would think I totally could have gotten done... but the last two have bare body bits I feel compelled to cover with yakusa-style tattoos... and that would take a bit more work... 

This lot is from the North Star Miniatures "Demons" set - this is the Minor Demon "Bruiser" and some Human Demon worshiper "extras" - which I've painted like the Wing Kong from Big Trouble in Little China. 

Finally - nothing at all to do with A Fistful of Kung Fu - a pair of dwarves. The fella is from West Wind Productions Dwarf Wars line, and the lass is an old Citadel Minatures pre-slotta base era  miniature I picked up off ebay a while back. 

The backs of said dwarves to show off their tartan... because I apparently didn't paint ENOUGH tartan last week... 

Cool beans Tim! Those Yakusa are fabulous minis and the grimacing dwarf makes me laugh aloud. 

These figures will give Tim 70 points. Great work Tim but now I see the stonking entry of your's coming up... Eek!

From RossM: Old School Orcs, Pulp Villains & Mycenaeans (83 points)

Things have been a little quiet from Ross these past few weeks but he comes back to us with a great selection of entries for us to enjoy.

From Ross:

First up are the last of the current batch of retro Orcs from Citadel and Ral Partha. These seven Orcs like the previous entry are 28mm in scale. 

They have been painted in a style which is dissimilar to many Orc armies that I see currently; that is I have avoided as much as possible bright colours and gone for a more uniform approach using colours from Foundry's range of WW2 colours. This has given the Orcs a much darker appearance than some you may see elsewhere but I think it really works. So much so that I am looking at creating an Oldhammer army in this style.

Next up are three figures from Artizan Design's Pulp Hero range which are again 28mm in scale. These figures have been painted with a certain film in mind. 

The central figure should spark a few memories of Major Arnold Toht from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Well that was the inspiration.

The Braunen Brüder (Brown Brothers) are his hired helpers and will be a part of his group in several games coming up in North Africa as well as some of the DAK. As with all of the figures from Artizan these have been a pleasure to paint.

Finally my most recent Mycenaeans. These six figures are from Redoubt Miniatures 28mm range depicting the Trojan War. Not much else to say about these except the shields are taking a long time to paint and there will be more from this range over the final weeks of the challenge.

It's great to have you back with us Ross! A great variety of figures and all of them wonderful to behold. The orcs really take me back to those heady days of 1st Edition D&D and Warhammer. (It makes me a bit misty actually.) I quite like the dark tone you've gone with for these. 

The pulp villains are always crowd pleasers. I particularly like the 'Brothers Brown' - I see them having great futures as nefarious henchmen. 

Finally it's very nice to see your continuing progress with your Mycenaean project. Always lovely to see. I continue to be impressed with your clean style and your lovelyh work with the hide shields on these fellows. 

This fine group of figures will give Ross 83 points, with a bit added for those excellent Mycenaeans. Great work!

From TimB: 28mm Assorted Sci-Fi Figures (30 points)

 From Tim:

Continuing on with the theme of "I'm sick of painting Samurai"... I finished off a few odd sci-fi-ish figures last night. 

A pair of Citadel Miniatures/Games Workshop Rogue Trader era Eldar. 

I have NO IDEA what make or manufacture this fellow is... I found him in a bargain bin a number of years back for $1 (or maybe it was $1 for a pack with two in it...? I can't remember...) anyway, I thought he looked kind of cool and figured I could use him as some sort of techno-whatever in some sort of sci-fi game or even a superhero (or supervillain!) with some sort of electro-techno powers.

Finally three Cobalt-1 figures from Black Hat Miniatures. I thought the middle fellow looked like he could be a Rogue Trader (or a senior advisor to a Rogue Trader) and so picked him up recently along with these two others. 

Very cool! Those early Eldar figures take me back and I quite like the black girl with the white bobbed hair and the portly Rogue Trader as well.

These half-dozen non-Samurai figures will give Tim 30 points. 

From RossM: 28mm Citadel Orcs (70 points)

Ross begins to build some steam with these excellent Citadel Orcs from the heady days of 1980s era Citadel Miniatures.

From RossM:

Here is my second entry for the Challenge, a bit behind schedule, but here none the less. 

The figures are all from the Golden Age of Citadel Miniatures, back in the early eighties. Well eighty four to be precise or there about. The Orcs are all 28mm in scale and vary greatly in style as they should do. These were some of the first opponents I faced back when as a fourteen year old beginner in D & D and other such fun. Ironically D & D turns forty this year if my memory is correct.

Over the last year or so I have tracked down these fell fourteen and painted them especially for the challenge. I do remember in one game I played that the Orcs of the Black Shields were the toughest and meanest of all Orcs, their shields stained black with the blood of their fallen foes. 

That memory and many others have been the inspiration behind these dour warriors and will be that of their other seven brethren to come. Hope you all enjoy these.

Ahh, now that was a nice trip down memory lane. Thank you Ross! I forgot how much more I liked these orcs over the modern muscle-bound ones so popular today. These seem much more varied, sinewy and Tolkienesque to me. Very cool.

These fourteen Old Skool Citadel miniatures will give Ross 70 points.

From JohnM: 28mm Dwarves from 'The Hobbit' (60 points)

From John:

The minute I saw these figures last weekend in the GW store in Montreal, I knew that I had to have them. They are just really cool. Painting them was great because I could see immediately how I wanted to paint them. No googling away this time. 

Here we have 12 dynamic poses of heavily armoured dwarves. It took a bit of time assembling them, but all in all they went together easily. 

They were primed white, I know this sounds strange, but the car primer I use, has really a great bite. They were then airbrushed with the old GW Boltgun Metal. I then heavily washed them with a really oldie Citadel Tin Blitz. A very new paint Citadel Dry Necron Compound was brushed on. 

The beards and the clothing was then painted and AP Dark Tone was sparingly applied. I then touched up only the beards and the clothes with AP brush on Antishine, leaving a lot of the metal shiny. I really like how they came out. 

I will leave the Hobbit now and get back to some Napoleonics.

Lovely work John. I really like how you did their armour - you're getting very good with the airbrush (something I've never had the patience for). I'll have to try out some of the Necron compound as it seems to give a very nice effect.

These dozen dwarves will give John 60 points. Good stuff!

From JohnM: 28mm Goblin King and Goblins from 'The Hobbit' (200 points)

From John:

Well here is the first of my 3 planned submissions of my Cunning Secret Project: GW Figures from the Hobbit.  Here we have 39 goblins. Why cunning you ask, well I thought that I could throw these together at a rate of less then 10 minutes a figure. So 195 points in 6 hours, I thought that sounds clever. 

My initial plan was to prime white, followed by an immediate dip of very slightly red tinged AP soft tone (minimal pigment). I would then paint the loin clothe, weapons and eyes and that would be it. Never happened. The mistake is to think and research about things and not go with your gut. Well I googled painting goblins from hobbit and got this as the top hit.

Seemed easy enough, quite a few steps, but they are very nice figures and I wanted to do a good job. Well I should have realised, I am just not that good a painter, layering escapes me as I really can not be bothered. It went well until the step after the application of the Citadel Dry Eldar Flesh (if you have not tried these paints take a look, I have never seen anything like them). 

I just had a difficult time getting the figures back to white as I wanted. I eventually almost got there with another dry paint Praxtis White, but I still feel that they could be whiter. By now I had well over 30 minutes plus per figure in, and that is really my limit, so I stopped. Not so cunning after all, but I am generally happy with them and they are great figures. First photo is the king, the captain (filthy little fellow) and the task master.

Wow, I think you did an excellent job on these John! I find they're very evokative of the film and I particularly like the gritty layering effect you've achieved with them.  

This horde from Goblin Town will give John a base of 195 points but I'm adding another 5 for The King ('Thank you, thank you very much.').

From TamsinP: Ronin #47 (20 points)

Tamsin begins her dash up the roster with submitting her Challenge Ronin.

From Tamsin:

This figure is a mid/late 1980s Citadel Miniatures Samurai in 25mm (although to be fair, by then Citadel were pushing towards 28mm). Rather than going for riotous colours, I opted for a more muted brown look. The painting took a day (during which I was also doing work on some other figures) and used a series of thinned down layers of paint to bring out the richness of the colours on the cloth. All parts of the figure got at least 3 levels of shading (some 4 or 5), before receiving a Klear/ink coat to seal the paint and shade the recesses. Folowing a matt varnish spray, the cloth and hair were given a brush-on coat of satin varnish; the sword blade and scabbards got a coat of gloss varnish.

Lovely work Tamsin, thanks so much! I really like seeing these 'Old Skool' Citadel castings. They bring back memories of a varied and vibrant Games Workshop, back before they became dominated by their established corporate branding (Warhamer, 40K, LOTR, etc.).  Ronin #47 will give Tamsin 20 points for her entry on the Challenge Points Roster. Well done!