From MikeP: 28mm Samurai, Ronin #28 & Oktoberfest Hottie (45 points)

'Quick, protect the girl with the beer and nice badonkadonk.'

This may be my last entry before the deadline. There is a unit of horse on my painting table that may get done in time if I pull an all nighter. We'll see.

I am happy to say that this entry includes Ronin 28, my entry fee. He is the fellow holding the severed head of his foe and bellowing in triumph. Perhaps he can be the ronin who takes the courtier's head to the grave of Lord Asano?

The samurai figures in this entry are 28s from The Assault Group. A few words on the awesomeness of TAG are in order here. I ordered a blister of four samurai with katana and got the other four chaps shown in the attached photos. The fellow with the head came on his own in a blister entitled "Special Edition" which they seem to have thrown in for free. I am becoming a huge fan of TAG for classy gestures like this and don't mind paying a bit more for their stuff.

Of the other four samurai, three will be going to Curt because I am also a fan of the SPCA and have no practical use for them. One will go to my friend Krista Johns, who runs the blog Flat-Out Whimsy (shameless plug here).

Also, in the hopes of winnng either Sarah's choice (I think it was for civilian female fgure?) I also present Samurai Beer Garden Girl. 

She is the Reaper 28mm Oktoberfest Fraulein, which I bought for my Weird War Two campaign where she will be an Allied agent (code name Katana) gathering intelligence in German beer gardens and practising some wicked Kill Bill style sowrd moves that she learned from hanging around with these guys.

I also got her because I am moving to Kitchener/Waterloo this summer and I like Oktoberfests. :)

Awesome Mike! Thanks so much for Ronin #28. He is suitably badass and you've done a remarkable job on his and his compatriots' armour - such vibrant colours! Miss Katana is lovely and I'm sure will be the scourge of the nefarious Nazis (if she doesn't succumb to exposure first).

Ronin #28, his comerades and 'Katana' will give Mike a well-earned 45 points. 

Form MikeP: 28mm Great War Characters & Safari Pulp Adventurers (28 points)

From Mike:

The three WW1 figures are 28s from the Great War Miniatures British personality set.  I bought it a few years back for the splendid padre in the set (he now graces my desk at work) but loved the other figures so much I almost got into the Great War in 28s.  

Curt, your blog doesn't help my resolve in staying out of this period.  The motorcycle dispatch rider and the football kicking Tommy are prizes just awarded for a contest on my blog.  

The officer with the shotgun will stay with me as part of my Weird War Two collection.  He will play a ghost, the father of one of the characters in my campaign, a Scottish commando officer, whose ghostly dad sometimes helps his son on the battlefield.

The dispatch rider was fun to paint.   I wasn't sure if the armbands were supposed to be Signal Corps white over blue - I've read that most dispatch riders were siggies, so I hope I got that right.  A quick look out my office window to the G6 det building shows the white and blue flag flying, so I guess I got the colours right.  A little poetic license and Canadian content in the road signs.

The two adventurers, Pith Hat Guy and Safari Girl, are also 28s, from fellow Canadian and two-fisted sculptor Bob Murch.  They were great fun to paint.  A like how Bob sculpts women who like real, vice the ridonkulous outfits and Barbie bodies one often sees.   These two figures are also prizes in my blog contest that's just finished.

Excellent work Mike! I love Bob Murch's sculpts as well - such great characters and very... pulpy. Your Great War models are brilliant. I especially like your dispatch rider and the signs are a great touch. (If the officer with the shotgun is a ghost then you need to do him up in greyscale!)

These five and the Douglas motorcycle will give Mike 28 points. 

From MikeP: 20mm WWII Soviet Cossacks (136 points)

From Mike:

Entry #6 continues the theme of February as Russian month. These 17 20mm Soviet Cossacks are soft plastic from Revell. I suspect it is OOP now. This set got high marks on Plastic Soldier Review and they are nice figures, adding a nice touch of colour to an otherwise rather drab army.

The one dismounted fellow ended up on the command stand. I figured he would be holding the boss' reins while he used his binos to look for the Fascists.

I'm not sure what use they will get on the tabletop, but I've been opining for a while now that we don't do enough recon stuff in miniature wargames, and I will try to find a use for them in a recce role.

Wow, gorgeous work Mike! I really likehow you set them in pairs on the circular bases - it seems to really work for them. The officer with his dismounted aide is particularly fine. 

These seventeen cossacks will give Mike a very tidy 136 points. Well done Padre!

From MikeP: 20mm WWII Soviet ISU 122 Assault Guns (26 points)

From Mike:

Here's my entry #5.  These kits are from the Italieri ISU 122 Fast Assembly Kit, which gives you two of these Russian bruisers, each in 9 parts.  No little bogies to cut and glue on, no flexible tracks to try and melt together. 

The only drawback to this kit is that it doesn't include decals, so I tried my hand at handpainting some slogans found on a website of Soviet posters.  One says "Cut the bastards!", the other says "Fight to the Death!".  I chose them because they were reasonably short, but I still ran out of space on the hulls.  Oh well.

The Challenge rules require that entries are based, so I stole heavily from Sidney Roundwood's amazing WW1 bases and cobbled together some bases that have an urban theme, suitable for a Fall of Berlin game which I hope to do when I get a bit more kit.

Two firsts for me with these models. They are the first tanks I've airbrushed, using Vallejo Russian Green, as I slowly work up the nerve to use my airbrush.   It was reasonably successful, and nice to get away from the mess that brushwork sometimes makes of vehicles when the paint bunches and clumps. The second first was using pigment. For the tracks and lower hulls I used Vallejo 73109 Natural Umber from their Earth and Oxide kit.  It was fun to use but in retrospect I think the "less is more" rule will apply.

Great work Mike! Congratulations on your two 'firsts', you did a very fine job with both the airbrush and pigments. I also really like the 'Roundwood' bases you created for them, though truth be told, I only require basing for figures that clearly require them (my bad for not being more explicit in the rules). 

These two monsters will give Mike a base of 24 point but I'm adding a few more for the bases and abreiviated slogans.

From MikeP: 20mm WWII German Waffen SS (60 points)

From Mike:

Entry #4 from me. Slowly on track to making my par objectives.

We have a section of 20mm SS German infantry, and my first attempt to paint Peadot camo, which I gather is one of the Holy Grails of WW2 miniature painting.   Not sure if I got it quite right but I am happy with the result. 

The figures are by CP Models / TQD Castings - the names seem to be used interchangeably.

In general I like these figures, they have good detail, and the weapons seem proportional to the bodies.  The arm on the pointing squad leader seems a bit long, but otherwise no worries.  Whoever sculpted the kit knew what they were doing, it's very accurate. 

The five German casualties are from AB Miniatures.  I wasn't planning to enter these but as I had the German paint palette revved up, it seemed to make sense.   I can't say enough good things about this company.  If you do WW2 in 20mm, they are the gold standard.  Great fun to paint.

Excellent work Mike (I actually thought these were 28s). The dot-pattern camo came off very well. 

This group will give Mike 60 points to add to his tally.

From MikeP: 28mm Pulp & Fantasy Adventurers (25 points)

From Mike:

Here's my third entry, 5 28mm figures, quite a mixed bag. 

You might be forgiven for thinking that this group shot is The Doctor's latest gang of companions.

First up is an Ottoman commander from The Assault Group.  I call him The Sultan of Swing.   I got him as a freebie from TAG during their very generous promotion last year.  I finally got him painted up and think I may even dig out my Ottoman army and refurbish it.  Pete at TAG is a great fellow and I just sent him an order for some of his samurai and for more Ottomans.  Generosity and great sculpting should be rewarded, I think.

Next up are two Wargames Foundry figures from their Realms of Faeire series.  My intention for these two dangerous ladies is to use them as what I am calling Galadriel's Scouts, an elite group of wood elves who will help protect the Elven realms from Orcs and Uruk Hai in my Middle Earth gaming.   I am hoping that they will count as part of your Tolkien exemption to the Challenge's historical focus.

The lady covered in flowers was terrific fun to paint and a real step out of my normal comfort zone.  For me the challenge is not about volume so much as giving me the impetus to try new and different things.

The last  part of this group of five are the first figures i've finished from a bunch of Bob Murch's Pulp Figures.  I've wanted some of Bob's figures for years and I am quite happy with them.

This duo will play a role in my Weird War Two campaign that I am collecting figures for.   Readers who want the backstory can visit my wargames blog.  In brief, these figures are a married couple, Burton and Alberta McAskill, a hunter and Great War vet and his wife, a rancher's daughter, from Alberta's Kananaskis country. 

Their expertise in working with the RCMP on a series of grisly and eldritch events in the 1930s, including the Werewolf of Kicking Horse Pass, has brought them into Project Alice, the Empire's secret war effort against sinister occult forces stirring in the Reich.

Great work Mike! I'd usually not accept the fairies as they are really outside the Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' oeuvre but you did such a nice job on them and who can't admire the sylvain support garments provided to their archers (how she draws and releases a bow beggars the imagination). 

These five will give Mike 25 points. Well done!

From MikeP: 28mm ACW Iron Brigade Infantry (37 points)

From Mike:

Attached are a mittful of photos for a smallish (7) number of 28mm figures.

All figures are from Wargames Foundry's line of ACW figures. They are somewhat on the petite side, more true 25 than 28mm, but they are one of my favourite ACW ranges. These figures are Union infantry from the early war period, wearing the formal uniform and headdress known as the Hardee Hat.

I bought several command packs from Foundry to give me another command stand for the Iron Brigade, one of the storied formations of the Army of the Potomac. Normally I don't use elite units in my gaming, but hey, sometimes its fun to have one, even if it's not rated on the table as Elite. The command group represents the 19th Indiana and the flags are from my go-to flag guy, GMB.

I mentioned that there are only seven figures in the entry. The drummer in the group of four can't be scored because he's been painted and waiting for a base for over a year.

Another problem was the two guys sculpted in the act of falling. I thought about mixing them into a unit stand, but then I came up with the idea of a mini-diorama that I might use for a shock or a rout counter. The explosion is a little over the top, I'm not sure that ACW fused HE ordanance exploded so dramatically, but it's a bit of theatre.

The two solitary guys are based for Too Fat Lardie's skirmish rules, Terrible Sharp Sword.

Lovely work Mike. I have these very same castings and I agree that they still hold their own with the newest stuff out there. The explosion is great as well. Very dramatic. 

These seven will give Mike a base of 35 points but I'm going to add a couple more for the  'Saving Private Mulligan' diorama. :) So, 37 for the roster!