From SamuliS: So close, yet so far (185 points)

With the night fast closing in here in Finland I've frantically tried to get my final entries finished. As I'm writing this the PVA glue is still drying on the bases and soon I'll have to resort to a hairdryer to speed things up so I can get to bed!

My rush to the finish got slightly sidetracked on the weekend with the aftermath of my little sisters wedding having a certain unplanned impact on my painting efforts. Alcohol may or may not have had something to do with it, but suffice to say not much painting got done, but at least I could watch plenty of NHL games from the previous night while lying on the sofa!

Still I did manage to add a few more units to my growing Saxon army. This time a normal line infantry regiment in the form of Regiment Niesemeuschel and then two artillery batteries from the second Saxon division. Same paint recipe as always with block painting, wash and reapplying colours. The flag is from GMB Designs. I've been using their flags for all my projects whenever they just have suitable ones. Really the best in the market in my opinion!

I also finally based two Skaven warriors that I had already painted up in late December. They were the paint test minis for my Skaven project and were waiting for their comrades. Just mainly wanted to see which would look better, skin or fur coloured body. I never got around to painting the 18 other Clanrats from their unit during the challenge so it was high time I put some groundwork on them and submitted the duo. As there will be over a hundred of these guys I want the basing scheme to be really simple. Hence I just threw on some Vallejo ground effects and pigments and covered most of the base with fallen leaves that I made with Green Stuff World leaf cutters that I got for christmas from the missus! Simple, but it works. On some rats I'll probably throw in some tufts as well, but these were really just quick and dirty versions to get them done.

This final entry consists of 19 AB infantry figures, 16 artillery crew and four 6pdr guns, which should give me 172 points and then the two clanrats for a further 10 points. This should put me at 950 points, which is just 50 points shy of my goal. Pretty good effort, but it was just too far!

Quite a few minis still left on the painting table in various states of readiness. I had two towns from Total Battle Miniatures almost complete as well as Chaos Terminator squad needing just about a days worth of work. A Dropfleet Commander civilian ship and some more Blood Bowl rats were also started at different points of the challenge, but never got too much paint on them. I should probably learn to finish a single project before picking up the next ;)

Finally thanks to Curt for organizing this wonderful event once again! And thanks to all the Minions who help alleviate our mighty Snowlords burden! This is my sixth time participating and I can tell you it's one of the high points of every hobby year! Wonderful fun seeing everyones entries and it really gets my painting mojo flowing. It's pretty amazing how much more you can get painted with some friendly competition going on!

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From SidneyR (stand-in Minion):  Fantastic work on your final submission in Challenge VIII, Samuli !!!  Another really great haul of finely painted figures to bring up your rear guard action with great style.  Painting this carefully in the last minute rush takes great skill - and I love Regiment Niesemeuschel, complete with their attendant casualty base, standard and wonderful uniforms.

It's great to see the Clanrats again.  I think they always look mean, menacing and unpleasant (even when well-painted) and these two are no exception.

And, its also reassuring that I'm not the only Challenger with a host of unfinished and part-started projects at the end of the Challenge!  It happens every year, and - like you, and I guess everyone - I try and stay relaxed about it.  A bit like fisherman talking about the 'one that got away'!  

Another well deserved points haul for you, Samuli.  I've added three points for the standard and the fine basing on the Regiment Niesemeuschel and battery, bringing the points up to 185 for the submission.  Terrific work, and a wonderful Challenge from the great country of Finland.  Bravo, Sir!

From StefanK: Rowing Boat with 13 men crew and 26 infantry passengers - 235 points

Another humble contribution for our February show game in Hamburg was one of the rowing boats Perry Miniatures released last autumn. It a pretty piece sculpted by Alan Perry to represent a Napoleonic British rowing boat used for several landing operations during the campaigns in Flanders, Egypt, Denmark and Spain as well as in the whole Carribean area:

The boat itself is a two part resin kit with six rowing seamen attached already. In addition there's a supplemantary set of six further seaman and a coxswain giving it a crew of 13 Royal Navy seamen.

However the boats were meant to transport troops so troops were needed to man the 28mm equivalent as well. For this purpose Alan created two sets of sitting redcoats which fits perfectly on the boat's benches. One of the set comes with 18 soldiers joint to thress or fours while the other contains eight solitary figures to supply bow and stern with brave Brits. Altogether the boat has a complete 26 figure infantry unit in addition to the 13 men Navy crew!

Painting the boat was a rather unusual experience. The Navy figures were pretty much business as usual. Although seated the rowers were complete figure that I painted more or less like any other 28mm miniature. But the strung readcoats were a challenge. On the one hand the missing feet made the surface to paint smaller which should cause time saving. But on the other hands the details were much more difficult to reach causing loos of time. After all I presume painting these chaps caught sligtly less time then painting 18 standing figures.

The solitary figures of course went in the normal manner. Especially the officers are wonderful sculpts wearing the top hat which feeld iconic for the early campaign especially the campaign in Egypt. For that reason I decided to use the 'old' pre-1801 colours. It is doubtful whether the units at Aboukir carried these or whether they had received new colours with the Irish Saint Andrew's cross early enough. Since I wanted to use the wonderful colours by GMB again I opted for the oldish version since the newer (Peninsular) version is already bearing the battle honour for Egypt.

On our table we had three of these boats in addition to two further rowing boats by Britannia and a British gunboat I built from Laserdreamworks nice lasercut kit.

Unfortunately the boat itself isn't appropriate as an entry since I started working on it before the challenge started. During late summer last year I assembled and painted the hull but didn't manage to complete my work.

During challenge time I reworked the cabin, created the mast and painted three artillery pieces for it. At least the guns might find consideration here.

Well... That's it for now. Of course my share of the Curtgeld project which Michael A., Sander and I executed mutually is pending but this will be brought to your attention by our most appreciated fellow Michael. Yours truly is working on a couple (ten...) T-72 tanks in 15mm but they'll not be finished until our challenge time runs out.

From DaveD.  Its great to see these Stefan , done with your usual care and detail alright. Your colours are really bright and vibrant. The complete look is excellent - a sight to scare any Frenchmen. I have topped up your points to 235 for the crews, guns and extra works. 

From StefanK: 28th Regiment of Foot at Aboukir 1801 (130 Points)

A couple of weeks ago I presented the intermediate state of the figures I wanted to paint for our game at Tactica wargames show in Hamburg (here). Namely it was the 28th Regiment of Foot which I wanted to recreate to serve during Sir Ralph Abercromby's landing at Aboukir in 1801. Finally the very day before we went to Hamburg I finished my work:

The unit consists of 24 figures of which 21 were converted plastics from Perry Miniatures and 3 metal miniatures for the three officers in the unit. First I though of using plastics for them as well but I wanted those iconic top hats most officers wore during the 1801 campaign.

For details about the conversion please look here. However as you see on the picture I used greenstuff to make most trumplines, water bottles and pouches. In addition I combined parts from the British Napoleonics, AWI British, AWI Continentals and NWF British plastics to create a rather relaxed looking unit. The idea was to have a unit which has a small break after a long march or something like that.

Colours by GMB.

The three metal officers with top hats. Without colours yet.

Of course the unit needed a combination of centre and flank companies. As usual I decided to include three men for each of the flank companies and 15 centre companie fellow.

Well... That's it so far. By now the most individual unit I painted and it was as much fun as it was work to create 21 individual figures. Finally they saw service here at Hamburg. During the three games we played they performed rather well and contributed their part in driving the French off the beach. However I hope you like my humble contribution to the challenge. Of course not a tremendous mass of figures but at least the project that kept me busy from November to February. In addition to this usual version of the 28th I created a rowing boat which carries them to the beach. But this will be content of my next post...

Ah these are fantastic Stefan, it's awesome to see more from this project. Those officers look most dapper in their top hats with massive feathers. And the regiment looks pleasingly 'on campaign' in their relaxed poses, motley equipment and choice of colours.

The beach landing game at Tactica looks stunning, really impressive. 

120 points base, but I'm going to top that up to 130 for the conversions and excellent Kings and Regimental Colours. Still a little way to your target though, so I hope those rowing boats are packed with more infantrymen! 

Phil