From JohnM: 28mm AWI British Infantry (55 points)

From John:

British Infantry for French Indian War

These 11 figures bring up my British colonial force for Muskets and Tomahawks to over 400 points. Like my previous FIW miniatures these are from Conquest Miniatures, also sold by Warlord Games. Again very nice figures, well proportioned and almost anatomic in nature. A bit more flash than usual and only 3 different sculpts, unlike the other figures they sell, which are all different. Rank and file, I suppose.

They were primed white and painted completely with Citadel paints and washes. I am quite happy how they came out.

Well we are to the end of the contest and I think I am going to be just shy of my 1500 point goal. I thought I might have a chance as I have one more submission that is almost done and I was cunningly planning another to just push me over the top, but I just figured out that the contest ends tomorrow night, not Thursday night. Very tricky..........when I saw the deadline date I presumed the contest was over the end of the day on the 20th March, I just realized that it finishes 1 minute into the 20th if I have it right. Should never presume anything, but anyway I was getting tired and if I can get this last submission off I will be happy!

Yes, I think I may have sucker-punched a few people with the deadline... Sorry for that John!

Oh, these are very tasty. I quite like the bright yellow facings and turnbacks - quite natty me thinks! 

These  lads will give John 55 points. Nice!

From BrendonW: 28mm Dark Age Characters (65 points)

From Brendon:

1 x Norman Knight, 2 English Heroes. The Norman is the last mounted plastic (Conquest Games) in my collection so it's a great feeling to have them completed. The other two fellas that have a mounted and unmounted version come from the Dark Ages in England (Harold & Tostig Godwinson). Both metals from Crusader games but one has plastic shields from Gripping Beast with LBM decals. They will make for great looking Kings and Nobles for my Dark Age armys. As you can see the Metal horses look a little smaller than the Plastic Norman but that's no big deal to me.

I had a bit of a stupidity attack when I went to matt spray these and picked the wrong can (German Tank Yellow) but fortunately it wasn't too much time before I had them back to how they should be. It was just a light spray but it did ruin a Viking shield with a nice LBM sticker on it. Lesson learnt.

The Viking King and his daughter are Foundry figures. The Large wolf is from Northstar for the Myths and Legends game. I mounted him on a 40 x 40 base and he will be a 'counts as' model. My 10 year old daughter insisted I painted the girls hair brown like hers so who am I to refuse. I was not sure how to paint the Super Wolf but had an idea in my head after a bit of thinking and I was pleased with the result.

After a week of super hot we went to a Cyclone watch but never got a direct hit but we have had non stop tropical rain for a week or so which means dark days so it made photography very tricky.

Lovely work Brendon. I feel your pain on the matt spray gaff. I am verrry deliberate when I pick up any can of spray now. All of these figures are great but that wolf is particularly awesome - reminds me of the Stark direwolves in the GRR Martin novels. I think I need to get one for my Strange Aeons collection...

These Dark Age heroes and characters will give Brendon 65 points. Well done sir!

From BrendonW: 28mm Gladiators, Normans and Cowboys (72 points)

Brendon tells me that he has a relative visiting soon and so he decided to press on with getting multiple entries done before their arrival - so we have here a feast for the eyes!

From Brendon:

I really like the sculpting of some of these Gladiators more than others and the Thracian with the curved sword is one of those figures I rate highly. It's awesome and a pleasure to paint. Only 2 figures in this submission and both Foundry 28mm but unlike the previous ones I photographed I took these shots outside in the shade in the morning. It's a much better result. Providing it's not seasonal monsoonal rain here, I will try and use the same technique for my future submissions.

The feather topped Gladiator has the shield sculpted on which doesn't really help when you paint it but the Thracian comes with a separate shield. It seems a shame to cover his finely sculpted hand with a shield but such is the life of a Gladiator. 

I tried a new product (GW Blood) and while I am not usually a fan of the over use of blood on figures it adds a splash of violent colour to these slaves.

Next, 28mm Norman Knights from Conquest Games. 2 Plastics and 1 Metal figure. I really like this product. I like painting them and I like building them. I think the King type hero is brave indeed for maintaining his balance wearing all that Armour and getting his horse to rear back like that.

My Norman collection has grown since it was started for 'Saga' and I felt the need for another unit flag-waver and champion as well as a stand out Noble Lord or King. This expansion will see my collection travel beyond skirmishing in 'Saga' world to other Army-type games.  The 2 Shields with Ochre yellow on them are hand painted while the kingly fella has a paint enhanced decal from Battleflag. I used up all the Knight decals I got from them but have some Infantry ones still. 

The problem is though, the Infantry ones are a lot smaller so I had to expand the pattern with a bit of freehand work. This includes the discarded shield on the rear of the unit champions base. I also stuck a shield boss on that one.

I only have 1 more unpainted Plastic Knight left in my collection and he will be completed by the end of this Challenge. Yippee!

And to wrap up, 6 x 28mm Cowboys from Foundry. These are my first gunslingers for the Wild West. The entry fee figure will look like one of these dudes so these are good trial figures. 

I wanted a gang who mostly wear black. The Black Hat Gang perhaps. The choice was inspired by the cover photo on the 'Motorhead', 'Ace of Spades' album. 

Turned out this did not make it easy. I had to brighten the images a little.  I use German Panzer Gray for black and once a khaki dust dry brush went on it help to show the detail. I kept any other colour in the dull end of the spectrum. 

Painting the bases fairly bright helps contrast this dark drab look. I dabbed a bit of Khaki on the flock as well to help with the dusty look. I purchased these a while back when 'Dead Mans Hand' was first released. I am yet to play a game but soon I will have a gang to gun fight with. Yeeehaw! Git SOME! 

This was a great series of entries Brendon, thanks! While they are all excellent I find my favourites are those two gladiators. Hmm, perhaps a future Challenge theme here? Now, I wonder...

This fine selection of figures will give Brendon 72 points, with a little extra added for the Norman shields and pennant. Well done and enjoy your upcoming visit!

From AndrewS: 28mm Napoleonic French & FIW Colonial Rangers (135 points)

From Andrew:

This is my final entry. First up is 21 conquest miniatures 28mm Colonial Rangers. I have painted these as two groups of 6 and one group of 8 with a single officer as per the rules for Muskets and Tomahawks.

These figures will complete my ranger force now I will be moving onto some French forces.

The last submission is 6 Perry French skirmishers, I have painted these so as to be able to use as a detached light company for the Neuchatel Battalion I painted at the start of the challenge. Again I have given them a campaign feel in the painting.

Fabulous work Andrew. You've done a marvelous job on those Conquest sculpts (love the fellow with the map) and I've always had a soft spot for Berthier's yellow Canaries. 

This final submission from Andrew will give him 135 points. This will give him a grand total of 1274 points for the three-month Challenge. Great work and thank you very much for participating!

From KevinH: WWII German, Soviet and American Infantry; FIW Indians, ACW and a Grey (290 points)

Kevin is a veteran Conscript from Winnipeg  (one of the 'Originals') and has a well-deserved reputation for knowing his way around a brush. He's certainly not one of the fastest painters off the block, but you can always rely on him to make it for Last Call with some lovely stuff to admire.

From Kevin:

Hello fellow Challengers.

Well, I'm pretty much down to the wire for my submissions! I don't expect to win the Challenge (obviously), but at least these entries will get me out of the basement!

Most of my entries are 28mm.  Paints used are 'various' but mainly Vallejo "Game Colour" and Privateer paints, with a few GW's thrown in here and there.

First off, a German Mortar from the old Bolt Action Miniatures line (pre-Warlord). Nothing too fancy here, except I use Vallejo's "German Uniform" for the German uniforms.  It looks best to me, for the German uniform colour.

This piece, a German HMG team, also from BAM, took a good bit of time! I don't care to do German camo, as it's pretty fiddly, but sometimes you have no choice. In the end, I think the camo smocks turned out pretty good.

Below is a Battle Honors Russian squad.

Back when Curt was still living in these parts, we started playing Easy Eight's "Battleground WWII" rules.  I bought a bunch of Battle Honors Russians for the game.  Well, the rules weren't quite what we were looking for, and the WWII figs got "shelved" for a time.  When the Bolt Action rules showed up recently, it looked like we might have need of WWII figures again!  I dug through my "lead mountain" to see if I had anything I could put together for Bolt Action forces.  My old Battle Honors figs turned up, and I found I still had a squad's worth of unpainted infantry. So I knocked these out pretty quick - they won't win any painting contests, but that's OK - they're painted and ready to play!

Something a bit different here - two British 8th Army Command Stands by Battlefront. The pack had been sitting on my work table for a while now, and I just decided to paint up the two stands for the Challenge.  I don't expect I'll ever do a full 8th Army force for Flames of War, but you never know...

Like the German HMG team, these guys also took a bit of time!  Five US Airborne figs from Bolt Action Miniatures.  I'd guess most of you will probably agree, "Band of Brothers" was a great series - I know I certainly enjoyed it.  

As such, I wanted to lavish some time on these guys and do them justice.  I really like how they turned out, and I look forward to getting more of these guys painted and having some games with them!  I think these might be the best 28mm US Airborne figures on the market.

A friend of mine and I are (slowly) working on figures for War of 1812.  Those of you who are familiar with the Fawcett blog, can check for keyword "1812" and you'll see some of the other figs I've already painted.

I'd already done six of these Conquest Miniatures North American Indians and posted them on the Fawcett blog, but I wanted to get more finished, so I painted another six to add to the group.  These are great figures - very detailed!  Sadly, I think I'm being a bit too "precious" with my War of 1812 figures, and I'm taking too long to get things finished, but when you have such great figures, you want to do a paint job worthy of the quality of the sculpts!

I have a problem - I don't care to get bogged down in one period or one army for too long, so my painting table tends to have ALL SORTS of figs on the go!  (Another reason my War of 1812 stuff is taking so long!)  Case in point, I'm working on some of the Perry Miniatures plastic ACW figures.  Here's a Union Officer from the Cavalry box set.  Again, nothing too  fancy, but he turned out quite nicely, I think.

This is another of those "don't bog me down on one thing" projects!  My buddy Tim gave me this piece a while back, and I finally decided to knock out the piece and get it "table ready!"

I have some of the Copplestone "Grey Aliens"...

...so Tim picked up this item for me to go with the Copplestone figures.  I don't know who the manufacturer is on this piece, and several Google searches failed to turn up a match...

If it isn't clear by now, I really like the Bolt Action Miniatures figure line.  I got in on the "ground floor" so to speak, when they were first starting out.  I think I'm partly responsible for the Brit/Canadian figures having squad leaders with Thompson SMG's! Anyway, here's a BAM Russian Medic and two "Stretcher Bearers"...

...a squad of BAM Russian infantry...

...and a squad of BAM German infantry.

With the release of the Bolt Action rules a while back, I started buying up all the "old style" BAM figures I was interested in, that I could lay my hands on.  I have enough Brit/Canadian, Russian and German (Heer) figures to do about three squads for each force, with  Command and Support figures.  I also have some US Army figs, but only enough for about two squads and Command and Support.

Thanks to the Painting Challenge, I was able to get some of it painted!  Now I just need to keep rolling on the rest of it!

Now I just need to get my Ronin/Samurai figure finished!

Very beautiful assortment of figures Kevin! Though all of it is excellent I have to say that my favourites are the US Paratroopers and the FIW Indian war party - fabulous work.

This fine collection of miniatures will give Kevin 290 points, and with this he achieves his Challenge target in one fell swoop! Well done Kevin!

From TamsinP: 28mm Norman Warband (242 points)

Tamsin makes her bid for glory with this impressive submission of Dark Age Normans.

For my 12th entry, here are 44 28mm Norman knights on foot. These are from the Conquest Games plastic Norman Infantry set.

The the guys without armour or just with padded gambesons will be "Sergeants" (= Warriors in Saga).

The eagle-eyed and elephant-memoried amongst you may have spotted that the shield designs are the same as for the mounted knights I submitted a week or so ago. I figured that any knight called to serve his Lord would be expected to bring a couple of footmen along with him, so it seemed reasonable to do them with the same shield designs.

Wow, you sure have built up the steam now Tamsin. I remember at the beginning of the Challenge you thought that you'd be hard pressed to meet your original target, but here you are, not only past your original goal but sprinting past Ray! Well done! These fellows are great and I always like your shieldwork.

This formidable force of Normans will give Tamsin 242 points, with a few extra added for her work on the shields.