From MichaelF: 28mm 'I Give Up' - Challenge 'Desperado' & Doc Holliday (25 points)

From Michael:

'I Give Up!'

If I do the math I'm about 30 points or so short of my target this year. Not at all that bad given the limited painting time available this year but still a failure.

So I need to surrender and I will do so by entering this years submission fee. Now I've seen all sorts of great entry fees (did I see a duck?) but old west figures seem to be the main theme here.

Now Curt has his Wild Bunch secured I figured they could use a hostage to drag along in their gunfights. He is travelling your way soon Curt together with the figs from the to other members of the Dutch Water-Bicycle Detachment.

Miniature from Foundry and Doc Holliday from Artizan.

Ah, but it was a valiant effort Michael.  You may not have come away with the quantity you wanted but your quality was peerless. (Folks, check out Michael's Revolutionary War French battalion in the 'Last Stand' gallery - simply gorgeous.) Plus your throwing down the gauntlet to your mates Jacco and Rob really helped to motivate them in getting their projects kick-started. A great success in my books - bravo!

Finally, thank you very much for the wonderful hostage figure. I have a distinct suspicion taht he will be featured in many upcoming scenarios...

Doc Holiday and this hapless townie will give Michael 25 points. Excellent and thanks again!

From MichaelF: 28mm & 15mm WWII American Paratroopers (33 points)

RobP's current activity with the Challenge has paid its dividends and so we are treated to these marvellous figures from his good pal Michael.

From Michael:

Well, this challenge is not the best for me so far. Way too many distractions but I hope during the second part I will have some more painting time... 

For my second entry another couple of figures I had to paint to finish a unit I started before the challenge. They are Offensive miniatures I bought at Salute last year. I already painted a platoon a few years back but I really liked this figures and it would give me something different than the usual Artizan WWII figs. They are highly detailed quality figs but that also means they take up a lot more time than the bulkier figures.

The 15mm are a test to see if this scale will work for skirmish games. They have passed the test and I will be joining a couple of friends friends with a 15mm skirmish force for Chain of Command.

Although these Battlefront figures are nice I won't be painting them any time soon as I prefer doing regular infantry as opposed to the elite guys.

Absolutely gorgeous work Michael. Those paratroopers are off the hook. Beautiful colour blending and the screaming eagle insignia is clearly discern. I particularly like the medic and the .30 cal gunner with the tawny moustache who is creeping ahead, slowly letting out a breath under the tension. Brilliant.

Your 15mm paratroopers are also very nice. Our group games WWII in 15mm for Chain of Command as well so you're not alone. The scale of the smaller figures seem to really fit the ranges of these skirmish rules. That being said we also like (and use) 28mm figures for the sheer detail and spectacle of the tabletop. Apples and oranges, eh.

These very fine American paratroopers, in two scales, will give Michael 33 points.

MichaelF: 28mm Winter War Finnish (108 points)

MichaelF sends his first mainstream entry with these two fine squads of 'Winter War' Fins. 

From Michael:

Winter War Finnish.

For this years challenge I took the opportunity to get some unfinished work done. Inspired by the fun we have playing Chain of Command I started with these Finnish rifleman from the Baker Company Kickstarter.

I did about half a platoon a few years back using Brigade games and  Battle Honors figures so I was overly excited when this Baker Kickstarter arrived on the scene. Eager to get my platoon to strength I backed for a finnish platoon deal and hoped for the best. Especially when Baker company announced it would catch up to modern standards since their current range was outdated and not compatible to the current standard of miniatures. Unfortunately it didn't turn out exactly how I wished for.

Now while I'm typing this Samuli just posted his Finnish Rifleman and I fully agree with his opinion on the figures. Baker has been a victim of success and he started sculpting, producing and shipping thousands and thousands of figures like a madman. And yes, I do appreciate the energy and enthusiasm he puts into it but I feel he just forgot his first goal as I have understood it: Get Baker Company on the map again with fine quality modern figures.

So it became a rush job and you notice it immediately.  Flash everywhere, some weird faces and a couple of odd figures. A detailed inspection does not make you much happier. 

But…

I decided to paint up a few and see how they turned out. I took them to my friends here for a final test (they are waiting for their Russians now) if I would continue with them. Well, obviously we found them good enough to give them a paint and have a few games. I was lucky I painted the other half of the platoon in a heavy mud look so I could throw all sorts of brown on those as well which helps camouflaging things.

In the end I'm happy how they turned out and I look forward receiving the extras for this kickstarter because for 60£ you get a lot, and I mean a lot, of extras. Only that, and all the hardware you will get makes the Kickstarter worthwhile to me. I just hope Baker learned from this journey and sorts thing out when he starts his next Kickstarter. We know he can sculpt well because there are good quality figures with these as well.

Great work Michael. Like Samuli I think you've done a wonderful job on these figures. As you say it's too bad that the success of the Kickstarter may have inadvertently affected the quality of the final product (at least for the 'stretch-goal' figures). I think many Kickstarter developers need to build-in realistic timelines to take into account the potential escalation of their the projects otherwise they risk having to deliver products that do not meet their original quality standards.

These Finnish riflemen will give Michael 108 points. Great work Michael and make sure to tell Jake and Rob that they're dropping in your rear view mirror.

From MichaelF: 28mm AWI, Revolutionary War French, ACW & Ronin #27 (146 points)

From Michael:

First a couple of AWI rebels to complement my skirmishers from the previous entry. Pretty soon they will get some actions when we try our first game of Muskets and Tomahawks. Perry figures so great animation but also a lot of free unwanted metal.

Next some Eureka figures from their revolutionary line which I initially paint for the wars of the third coalition. With little modification though these can be used from 1800-1807 in many different campaigns.

Unfortunately I only managed to do 20 while I planned to do the whole 36 man battalion this competition. I'm sort of dissapointed with this so I set my own new deadline for March to complete them.

The quality of these is just insane and I've become a huge fan. Luckily they will be at Salute again this year so the Eureka lead pile will grow substantially I'm afraid.

Another thing I'm constantly exploring is the use of smaller scale miniatures for grand scale battles. I' just cannot decide which scale and period but once in a while I do some testing. I would not have posted this experiment but hey, every point counts now.

So this is just 1 base of 10mm ACW from pendraken.  I think they would look great if you have lots and lots of them but I'm not sure if I can paint up that many. Maybe I should just use a painting service for this project...

Second picture is a comparison shot. Don't know why but they are a  28mm from Steve Barber, 15mm Blue Moon and the 10mm pendrakens. 

Finally the entrance fee. I know virtually nothing on this subject and I knew researching it would drive me crazy and I would probably end up ordering a new collection of figures. So I just sat down and painted some colours on the Perry figure.

For the Sashimono a friend who studied Japanese came to the rescue. While it's assumably very incorrect for someone who knows Late Middle Japanese  it's an attempt at least. So this one is for you Sarah, it has  you're name on it...

Now I must admit that I was overwhelmed by the Japanese armour and all the bells and whistles on the Samurai figs I have here so I was not very keen to paint him in the first place. But how wrong could I have been. I had so much fun painting him (while also working as a robot on the Naps) that I actually started researching to get into the period (mission accomplished Curt:). I will definitely get me some more of these now...

Curt, thanks again for hosting the competition! It's been pleasure to participate again and admiring all the submissions. The personal challenge is a great addition and makes it even more fun. Many thanks, great job and the Dutch Samurai figs will start their march to Saskatchewan soon (with the base corrected, just noticed it has some damage).

 Yikes, such beautiful work, Michael. I've always been such a great admirer of your style as the application and transitions are so nice and smooth. Wonderful.

Thanks so much for the samurai! He's awesome and Sarah will be ever so chuffed to see her name 'in sashimono'. :)

This fabulous selection of figures will give Michael 146 points, giving him enough to meet his Challenge target. Great work Mike and thanks so much for joining in on the fun again.

From MichaelF: 15mm WWII American Reconnaissance & AWI Skirmishers (81 points)

From Michael:

The next submission marks the end for my 15mm Americans project in this competition. They will have to wait for reinforcements after we played a couple more games. I finished this small Cavalry recon platoon and a forgotten command stand a while back but I had to wait for decals and in the meantime I put aside my brushes as I could not decide what to paint next. 

Started of with some Napoleonic French but I could not handle the thought of needing to paint so many more before they start to make sense that I left them half painted waiting for better days. 

Then I noticed the Musket & Tomahawk rules hiding in the bookshelves. A quick read through the book and I knew what to do. It was a though call on AWI or some F&I Hurons but I decided to expand a bit on my AWI skirmishers so we can dust of the British. 

I follow the same strategy for AWI as we often do with a period, we start with a skirmish force to get some games and then add more regular larger units for larger scale games.

The American vehicles are from Battlefront and are far better then their Infantry. The Minutemen are Foundry with an Eureka and a Perry mixed in.

This is the typical beautiful work I now come to expect from Michael. The American WWII models are excellent to be sure but I my eye is particularly drawn to his AWI figures - really lovely stuff here.

This submission will give Michael 81 points.

From MichaelF: 15mm WWII American Infantry 'The Big Red One' (64 points)

From Michael:

The fourth and final entry for my American project. Mortar and HMG platoon with an additional bazooka team and a sniper. Just as I thought I could replace the paints on my desk for something more colorful I realized I'm one command stand short to field three Infantry platoons. Guess I need to do that one very quickly then. 

Also I'm thinking of adding a couple of Jeeps and Greyhounds in the near future to give them some recon possibilities.

Cool thing is that these minis actually hit the the table before they arrived here on the blog. Many times my efforts  are stored in a box and live in darkness for years before they see any action...

Not much else to say now. Still Battlefront minis, still many mouldlines and other annoyances but they do the job once you have a bunch finished.

Just like your last efforts these are excellent  Michael. Its especially nice that they are seeing some action on the tabletop. I'm not a huge fan of the Flames of War rules but one of the things you certainly have to give it credit for is that its popularity gets people out playing with historical miniatures, which is a great boon to the hobby no matter how you see it.

The Mortar and Machinegun platoons will give Michael 64 points.

From MichaelF: 15mm WWII American Infantry - 'The Big Red One' (48 points)

From Michael:

With the weapons platoon finished I'm almost done with 'The Big Red One" for the challenge. Next are the Mortars and some HMG to finish the project. All the wheels and tracks will come later after I played a couple of games with them and I'm still interested.There is also plenty available to borrow for a game. 

Also painted a spotter team for my off  board artillery. I have some 15mm Artillery in other armies but I always find it very odd to have them on the table so close to the fighting troops so I'll leave them out.

Last week I had holidays and I spent a lot of time painting. I did a bit of the math and I can now officially declare myself MiniSlow. I managed to do 50 figs and I realized it takes me about 35 minutes per 15mm fig from prep work to varnishing. Some of the guys here would easily paint up four armies in a week. I guess I need to skip some steps and paint a bit less detail if I ever want to increase my painting numbers. Or turn off the internet here, that will double the output as well...

Very nice work Michael. You are definitely showing off your fine brushwork and your camera's macro capability with those last few shots! Mad skillz my friend. I have to agree with your comment regarding your reticence of having artillery modeled on the board - it just seems very odd considering the deployment and ranges they typically operated at. 

This group will give Michael 48 points. 

From MichaelF: 15mm WWII American Infantry 'The Big Red One' (81 points)

From Michael:

Second platoon for my 'quick' Big Red one project. Again Battlefront miniatures and again lots of mold lines, flash and other annoyances.

I should have done them in greatcoats as these miniatures look much better and are easier to paint as well. Anyway, I'm getting tired of them so I will probably leave them after I finished the Weapon platoon. 

Hopefully these guys will get more tabletime then my other 15mm armies.

Can't really decide what to do next. Armistead leading his Virginians, Eureka's French Revolutionary or Finnish Winter war?  

Beautiful work Michael. As I said before you've really nailed the olive drab and khaki on the models in this project. I really like the shoulder insignias! 

My  vote is for you doing some more Revolutionary French!

These yanks will give Michael 81 points.