From RayR: 28mm Floppy Hatted British Horse Holders (40 points)

Another non-15mm, non-Nine Years War entry for Ray. Could this be a trend?

From Ray:

My next entry is only a small one. Postie asked me to paint up these Dixon Battle of Sedgemoor figures, as I painted up the rest of his Sedgemoor collection a few years ago.

They're Horse holders for the English, King's Royal regt of Dragoons led by none other than John Churchill himself.

Lovely work once again Ray. I always like seeing these additions to the tabletop - not really required but they add such a nice finish to the overall display. I also like the spray of red poppies on the one base - very whimsical.

These two horseholders and their equine charges will give Ray 40 points, enough to edge past Fran... Now the game is afoot! Well done!

From KentG: Challenge Desperados (30 points)

Kent send in his Curtgeld with this wonderful vignette of a shoot-out.

From Kent:

Today is just a wee one. These two are my price-of-entry into the Challenge - I hope you like them. 

They are Dixon miniatures, full of character and who makes some of my favourite cowboys.

Wonderful stuff Kent! I really like the pistoleer peeking over to take his shot and the poor blighter who's copped it next to his trusty horse. 

This rootin' tootin' High Noon vignette will give Kent 30 points. Well done and thank you very much!

From TimB: 28mm Feudal Japanese

Tim sends in this stonking submission for his Feudal Japan project.

From Tim:

STILL More Feudal Japanese in 28mm. This is a mix of 37 Perry, Dixon and Black Hat Miniatures.  Finishing this batch up last night put me at 1000 28mm foot painted in 2013. 

The temperature in Saskatoon is -30°C with a windchill of -40°C... I damn near froze my fingers off trying to arrange these for picture taking - I do like taking pictures of my minis outside in the natural light whenever possible. Sometimes when I don't get one that's totally in focus I'd go back out and set them up again... not doing that today... so one or two of these pics aren't totally in focus. 

Four assorted armoured Ronin from Black Hat Miniatures. 

The backs of the Black Hat Ronin (to show off all their annoying... er... highly detailed cording) 

A merchant and two ronin I imagined as his yojimbo (bodyguards) - all from Dixon Miniatures

The backs of the Dixon Miniatures Merchant and Ronin. 

A few female samurai from Dixon Miniatures

The backs of the female samurai from Dixon Miniatures

A couple teppo gunners from Dixon Miniatures

Ashigaru teppo gunners from Perry Miniatures. 

I have about seven Bushi buntai that I am working on - the colours for each are based on the clans form the Legends of the Five Rings games (as many of the miniatures are from their old Clan Wars games). I thought I'd get a few Teppo gunners so they could all have the option of fielding one if they wished - hence the wildly different colours of the Ashigaru above.

The rest of the batch I finished up is a (more or less) complete Ikko-Ikki Buntai for Ronin. The entire buntai - all from Perry Miniatures. 

These are the leaders The Hanshou (the big boss - on the left) and a Monto Gashira (on the right) 

Four Monto (foot soldiers) armed with teppo

Five more Monto with various armour and close combat weapons. 

Eight Peasants with a mix of yari and improvised weapons. I also have a few other Perry Miniatures peasants I painted earlier with the "villagers" that I could add in to pad out the ranks. 

In the game the Ikko-Ikki buntai adds up to a little over 200 points - unlike the Bushi or Sohei buntais that would, for the most part, only be able to field one teppo gunner - due to the high point cost of their significantly better troops and thus low number - I could probably field three or four of these in a 150 point buntai. I am curious to see how swarms of totally crap troops do against the considerably smaller but hard-hitting and well armoured Samurai/Ashigaru of a Bushi Buntai.

Now... to find some "Villains" to paint...

Awesome effort Tim! These are all just wonderful. The samurai corded-armour is excellent but my favourite is still your patterning on the kimonos, robes and trousers. Very nice.

This group of 47 ministures will give Tim 200 points, with some points added for the detail work on the armour and the various patterns on the clothing. Well done!

From FranL: 28mm Plains Indians, Tunnelling Machine, Steam Tank, Wagons, Cowgirls and a Bleedin' Rocket (320 points)

From Francis:

This is my last entry and while the challenge has been a blast, it has drained me, well mainly listening to Ray has drained me, he gets a little obsessive!

We have a real mixed bag here and some of it was no internet for two days at home last week and this is especially evident with the V2 rocket, anyway here we go........

We have 19 28mm Foundry Plains Indians for the wild west shenanigans.

We have a 28mm tunnelling machine from Ironclad Miniatures erupting from beneath the earth possibly full of chinese invaders.

Two 28mm MDF wagons from 4Ground plus 2 resin wagon loads specially designed to fit the wagons, these were really well designed kits but very fiddly, you can see were there should be 5 wagon hoops but there are only fecking 4, damn these shovel sized hands!

Two 28mm Ironclad Miniatures Steam Tanks with gatling guns, currently painting some Hinterland Miniatures to go with these.

9 28mm horses from Dixon Miniatures, 6 are Apache and 3 are cowboy, these are primarily scenery.

A mounted and dismounted princess from Hinterland Miniatures with a queen Victoria from Eureka Minis.

Some apache females and scouts from Dixon Miniatures, 7 figures plus 1 horse (I promise there is a figure behind the horse). 

4 28mm female gunfighters from Eureka Minis called The Earp Sisters with Dr.Holly Daye.

This is either a 1/48th or 1/35th scale WW2 V2 rocket which will be used for 28mm Pulp gaming, there is a 28mm Ironclad Miniatures scientist pushing the button beside it and to give an idea of scale!

There is a rumour circulating that next year you're doing the challenge dedicated to the 300 at Thermopylae, just a rumour though Curt! An excellent challenge this year, congratulations my friend.

Ha! 300 Spartans? Now that is an idea... Can you imagine? God's Holy Trousers, I'd be a gibbering mess in the first 3 days.

Funny you should mention 300, I see my blog has just tipped over 300K hits today. Whoa. I would have never guessed when I started this ...

Okay, a tunnelling machine and a steam tank?! (sigh) Whatever. I'm too tired to say a word...

Lovely work Fran. Your submissions never fail to make me smile. That rocket is completely mental btw (your reflection in the window is excellent).

This final submission by my favourite Irishman will garner him a well deserved 320 points. Hey, this almost doubles what your original target was. Great work Francis! 

It has been a pleasure, mon ami. Until next year...

From FranL: 28mm ACW Union Cavalry, Apaches & Geronimo (320 points)

From Francis:

My second last challenge entry consists of 12 plastic Perry Miniatures ACW Union cavalry, I'm not a fan of painting cavalry especially plastic cavalry (not a fan of these but they were cheap!). 

The second lot are a mixture of 22 Foundry and Dixon Apaches including Geronimo.

Below is an Apache stakeout and scalping, 6 figures, all Dixon.

Apache cavalry including Geronimo himself in the middle.

The next entry will be plains indians, steam tanks, a rocket etc.........

Excellent work once again Fran! I really like the indians putting on the jacket and boots - wonderfully macabre. 

The Yankee cavalry, Apache warparty and Geronimo will give Fran 320 points. Brilliant stuff!

From JuanM: 28mm Afghans, Poles a Mercedes & Ronin #20 (65 points)

From Juan:

Here is, I think, my last entry for this year´s "The Challenge". I have been able to paint an small group of figures, but I have had no much time, I´m painting terrain elements for my Afghanistan first game and, also some Science Fiction figures. At least, this years I have been more disciplined with my topics! 

First up, is an Afghan insurgent and a civilian from Eureka Miniatures in 28mm. Really nice models very easy to paint.

Secondly, a Mercedes SUV from Company B, also in 28mm. This one is for my Contractors team.

Thirdly, at last, Curt's Ronin. This figure is an old Dixon Miniatures model I have had for many years. I like a lot these figures, and would like to paint some more of them, specially for this period, the Mogol Invasions.

And finally, two Polish soldiers in the French pay, 28mm models from Murawski Miniatures (only the sapper and the soldier at his left can participate in The Challenge). These are fantastic models sculpted by Paul Hicks. They are wonderful, wonderful.

I have other two figures on the table but I´m not sure if I'll finish them on time.

Awesome work as usual, Juan. That civilian checking out the bloomers just kills me. His expression perfectly conveys that race, religion and politics aside, shopping is truly universal. Your Ronin #20 is beautiful and you've done a wonderful job on his ornate armour. Finally your Poles are marvellous - I'm very jealous of you as I've not been able to source these figures yet but look forward to trying them out.

Ronin# 30 along with his Afghan and Polish compatriots will give Juan 65 points.  Well done and thank you very much! 

From RossM: 28mm Ninjas! (45 points)

From Ross:

These Ninja models are from Dixon Miniatures. 

There are 9 in total. 25mm but on the smaller end of the scale.

 I not pleased with the finish from the varnish, so they will be getting another coat shortly.

The features and posing of these figures are quite accentuated but I really like them. Great job on the grounwork, Ross, and I really like how they all fit together with the hex-bases.

This team of assissins will give Ross 45 points.