From IannickM : A touch of Epic, a touch of Pulp (the last post of the year) (12 Points)

It was not in my plans to paint anything else than the Curtgeld this week-end; I'm really burned out by the challenge! But Curt did last week challenge me to a last second sprint to the end, and I felt I had to give it my best!

So I managed to paint two more pieces, as my last stand in the 7th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge!

How I react when Curt challenges me with one week left to the challenge...

So the first piece is a Legion Glaive Tank for my Emperor's Children force. The Glaive is a super-heavy tank pattern related to the Fellblade, but beyond the obvious surface similarities the two tanks are very different. The reason for this divergence lies with the Glaive's primary weapon system, the fearsome and arcane Volkite Carronade, a massive Volkite Weapon that is capable of destroying enemy vehicles in a single shot. Volkite Weapons produce a deflagrating attack, in which subsonic combustion caused by a beam of thermal energy is propagated through the target by thermodynamic heat transfer, so that hot burning material heats the next layer of cold material and ignites it. The Volkite Carronade used by the Glaive was able to make short work of all but the most heavily armoured enemy vehicles and structures.

In short, it's a massively dangerous metal beast! I followed of course the painting scheme of my Emperor's Children force, but gave the glaive white details on the turret instead of the gold I used on the Fellblades to make the model stand apart from my other super heavies. I'm not entirely happy with my work on the Volkite cannon, but it will do.

The second piece I painted is Destro, the well known founder of M.A.R.S. Industries, a weapons manufacturer and supplier for the Cobra Terrorist organization. The figure is obviously part of my GI Joe Pulp project, and is the first of a cadre of Cobra characters and officers which will be added to my Cobra force. Destro was a fan favourite of the 80s cartoon, usually seen as somewhat of a number two to Cobra Commander. 

Destro's key characteristics are his sense of honor, a calm demeanor, and love for Cobra's second-in-command, the Baroness. He wears a mask forged from beryllium steel, a tradition dating back to the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, when an ancestor of his was caught by Cromwell's men in the act of selling weapons to both sides. He respects the G.I. Joe Team for their combat skills, but detests them for wasting their skills to maintain peace. Destro and Cobra Commander despise each other but maintain an alliance of convenience. Although twice the tactician and three times the soldier of Cobra Commander, Destro's sense of honor works to his disadvantage in the face of Cobra Commander's ruthlessness.

Laird James McCullen Destro XXIV, usually referred to simply as Destro

The figure is once again a sculpt from the private range of a good friend. Painting a figure dressed in black is always a challenge; I gave him a base coat of black, then went with a second coat of a really dark grey mix, and highlighted with Foundry's Slate Grey A, also a dark grey. 

So that gives me a small 9 pts to add to my total. I believe I will either fall short of Curt number by merely two or three points or beat him by the same amount! And in my case, with my extremely slow painting speed, almost 700 pts is a massive number, and by very far my best score (my previous best was 510 I believe). 

Thanks to Curt for a great but exhausting challenge, you pushed me to the very end! And thanks to our Wednesday minion Byron. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a nice cold drink.

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Oh, that Glaive is very nice Iannick. I dunno what you're saying, that energy effect you did on the cannon is excellent.  I also really like your use of white for the hatches and highlights.

Unfortunately, I missed out on the whole GI Joe period, so I'm not familiar with the heroes or villains. Nonetheless, this guy looks like he's bad news. I especially like his white skin and Studio 54 getup. If I looked like that I'd want to beat up handsome heroes too.

As this is your last post I'm going to kick you up to 12 points as I think those super heavy tanks should be worth a bit more (I know, a bit late for that, eh.) and hey, its rockin' the purple which has to be worth something.

I hope we can organize a Canadian Epic smackdown, but if that doesn't come to pass we'll always have Paris the Challenge. :)  Thanks for joining us Iannick - it was a blast. 

From IannickM : Cobra Troopers (25 Points)

File name, unknown. 
Primary military specialty: Infantry
Secondary military specialty : Sabotage

Five of the nameless, faceless legions of Cobra command. Each Cobra is highly skilled in the use of explosives, all NATO and Warsaw pact small arms, sabotage and the martial arts. 

Cobras swear absolute loyalty to their fanatical leader, Cobra Commander...their goal, to conquer the world for their own evil purpose. 

Five more Cobra troopers this week, to go along my 80s Pulp duel with Sander. They were originally meant to be part of the duel, but I decided to include 5 Crimson Guards instead, to add some colour and variety to my entry.

The Cobra troopers are the "cannon fodder" of the Cobra organization, i.e. think of the classic James Bond villain henchmen (aka minions). So they will be quite useful in the games I intend to play with this project. They were mostly inept in the cartoons (poor sods afflicted with the famous Stormtrooper Marksmanship skill), but I loved them nonetheless, as once again I had a soft spot for all masked evil grunts! Doing all the work with oh so little recognition! 

 Cobraaaaaaaaaaa!

I tried to give them the classic cartoon bright blue, instead of the darker blue we often see on cosplayers and the figures. My blue is probably a bit lighter, mostly due to the highlights, but I'm satisfied with it. I actually used my base recipe for 40K Ultramarines, and then added extra highlights using two light blue colours. Couldn't do the white suspenders, though, that was too much siliness for me! When I started them, I thought they would be super easy to paint, what with them all blue, but I quickly realized the bastards have so much leg straps (and suspenders) they'd make a Napoleonic soldier proud! 

Of course Seb (creator of the range) gave them a more realistic outfit, with realistic guns and equipment. Gives them a slightly more serious look, and they fit right in an evil terrorist organization!

...aaaand another 25pts to add to my total. Once Curt adds my points from the 80s side duel challenge, I believe I will have surpassed my goal of 550pts! (yeah)

ByronM: Cool flash back to my childhood Iannick.  I remember when all those came out and all of us lost our minds and wanted all the cool GI Joe toys.  As you state, your colour is lighter, but its a comic and tv show, so whatever colour you like is good, no one is going to hold it against you.  They look awesome.