From ChrisW: Final post - A Cornucopia of miniatures (530 points)

A busy final week

So, first off, I really feel like I have to explain my painting process (such as it is) Any given week I typically slack off a lot before I frantically start flailing about to try and get some stuff finished. By Monday morning I wake up with a plan of what I can/must get done by Tuesday (posting date of Wednesday) However without fail I will suddenly start a brand new painting project on Monday morning rather than finish off the almost done stuff. The end result is that throughout the challenge I have started and stopped a number of projects, so that by the end of the challenge I have a lot of almost done miniatures. This is by way of explaining why my output seems kind of large this week. It also is not to say that all of this years challenge projects have been done. (more on that in my challenge end post)

The smaller groups of figures have been on the cusp of being done for quite a few weeks.

Now, armed with a new camera off we go!

VSF Prussian unicycle lancers [10x 28mm 'mounted' troops    [60 points]

&

VSF Prussian Armoured Penny Farthing [1x 28mm weapon      10 points]

I did not think I would get these done in time. When you are nearing the end of the challenge and you need a lot of points, these are not the figures you should choose. They are from Eureka miniatures, as is the armoured penny farthing bike. I have 4 penny farthing models, but could only locate this single model. The plan is to paint up each of the models based on the colours of some WWI German planes.

While the troops are 'mounted' they hardly count as fully mounted, so I gave them an extra point for the stick they are sitting on.

All Quiet on the Martian Front American tanks [25x 15mm vehicles 200 points]

These are the last major grouping of tanks that needed to be painted. I already have 18 of these tanks in the more traditional green colour and I decided to branch out to a different colour.

MK III tanks plus command (13)

MK IV tanks

There is 1 Command tank,  3 Mk 2 tanks, 12 Mk3 tanks, 6 Mk IV, and 3 hybrid Mg support tanks. The 3 support tanks will be assigned to some heavy armoured infantry companies. The remaining tanks will form a secondary company.

Except for the MG tanks, all the tanks were primed/base coated with English uniform rattle can. Then craft Khaki paints and light brown colours were used as an overbrush and drybrush, with the tanks ultimately having a wash applied to them , then more dry brushing and some weathering.

MG tanks (3)

Mk IV tanks (6)

MG tanks & Mk II tanks in front

BoB vehicles   [6x 28mm vehicles 120 points]

So, 2 Medium C tanks a ex French tank and 3 armoured cars. The two Medium C tanks will see service with my White Russian forces while the French Schneider tank is destined for a Chinese Warlord army. The German Ehrhardt AC will go to my Freikorps troops (once I paint them) Then the desert for one armoured car and somewhere in Russia (side to be determined) for the last armoured car.

Medium C tanks in White Russian service (2)

The two medium C tanks were not fun to build. Each of them are only 3 parts (plus some metal bits) but the two side parts are the same double sided part. This must make it easier to produce and ship, no mis packaging two left side parts. However it means that there is not any clear connection point when building it, no slot in one part to the other.

Chinese tanks

All of them have been well and truly dirtied up and one is especially rusty.

 

BoB Tugboat           [1x 28mm vehicle         20 points]

So, another Empress miniatures miniature. I just felt I needed one but I am not certain why. I may use it in some pulp game or maybe BoB. A total of 6 pieces make this a rather easy assembly. I left off the mast. There is no hole for it (yes I could drill one) but its main problem is it is very tall (yeah I could cut it down) I have visions of it getting tipped over in game play. But it would look neat on it, so maybe I will add it.

It is rather larger than some vehicle, but I scored it as a 20 point vehicle but a 25 point vehicle score would be another squirrel, just saying😉

So, while I confess it is painted yellow, it really does not look this yellow in person. It has a more of a dirty yellow, light yellow look to it. I can tell, because the bumpers are painted off white not yellow.

VSF static defenses and turrets. [3 defenses (10 each) 2 turrets (5 each) 40 points]

These are from Oshiro part of his VSF range. I have painted them for service on Mars (what else) but the redness of the base is not so intense that I could not use them on Earth. It took a while to paint these as I, at first, wanted to emulate the pics on Oshiro's site. But the pale grey/white did not work with the reddish bricks. So I went with shades of grey/green (3 in all)  

Witch Hunter general and troops    [8x 28mm foot, 1x mounted 50 points]

Foundry ECW officers, a Warlord shot and a Warmonger Witch Finder General make up this collection. Again, I still have not read the rules, but these are slated for Devilry Afoot as another faction/group. 

Combat Robots  [5x 28mm     25points]

I do not remember where I got these (maybe Alternative armies) I thought I had more of them but if I do all I could find were five of them. I seem to have a thing for robots, usually pulp robots but these are more Sci-fi in nature., so, I am not certain what use I will get out of them though I do have some  other Sci-fi stuff.

Old school Epic Knights [ 14x 5 points (28mm equivalent) 70 points]

Yet another blast from the past. So, here are twelve Imperial knights and 14 Eldar. These figures just cry out for contrast/speed paints. I especially like the contrast effect on the Eldar figures. I wanted the Imperium figures to be a bit more solid for their colours with the Eldar being more ethereal.

Fantastic battles characters  [7x 28mm figures  35 points]

So, a mix of figures these are to be used in fantastic battles. There are two Goblin thieves, an Orc mage and four Undead characters.

The two thieves and the Orc mage came from Warmonger miniatures. I had a tough time finding a good thief character, but stumbled upon these a while back. The Orc mage comes with a feather back thing, and once I find it again I shall paint it up.

Two of the undead characters are quite tall and fragile. There had been a large sword being wielded by the figure on the left, but it fell off pretty soon after purchasing the miniature. My attempts to fix failed, so now he just clenches his fist in anger. 

Solitaire (y) figure. [1x 28mm figure 5 points]

Points this time

•  200 points for 25x AQMF tanks [15mm]
•  120  points for 6 armoured vehicles [28mm]
•    20  points for 1 tugboat [28mm]
•    70 points for 14x Old School Epic knights [28mm size figures] 
•    50 points for Devilry Afoot Witch Finder general (mounted) + 8 foot troops [28mm]
•    35 points for 7 Fantastic battles characters [28mm] 
•    40 30 points for VSF turrets & static defenses
•      5 points for Solitaire figure

 Points Total 540

So that is that. I have reached my target, but it was a near run thing. Discounting the one theme post, I achieved my target on painted miniatures! But at a cost. This week was a frantic one, painting until 12:30 AM on Wednesday night. I would have been painting right up to the last minute but I have a convention to attend.

Thanks to my minion and to Curt for another fun challenge! 

Squirrels

8 more squirrels for a total of 36

1. Gladiators
2. Epic Orcs
3. Epic Imperial
4. Warlord Chinese
5. Red Russians RCW Back of Beyond
6. Alien Invaders
7. Pulp US Marines
8. Urban Cultists
9. Egyptian cultists
10. VSF Japanese armoured vehicles
11. Tripods
12. Bugs!
13. Evil minion deep sea divers
14. Puritans
15. Explorers of Egypt
16. Jungle explorers
17. Heroic deep sea divers
18. Muslim troops for the British
19. Free stater Armoured cars
20. Guardians of Antiquities
21. Minerva's Flying Circus
22. British cavalry and rocket launcher
23. BoB terrain (terrain post)
24. Epic Chaos Warlord Titans
25. Pillage Viking shield maidens
26. VSF Martian Hill Martians
27. Plague Apothecaries
28. Witches fair and foul
29. AQMF American tanks
30. BoB White Russian Medium C tanks
31. Witch Hunter General and troops
32. 28mm combat robots
33. Old school Epic Eldar knights
34. VSF Static defenses
35. VSF Prussian unicycle troops
36. Fantastic battles characters

Big stompy robots of death 

+14

Lady Sarah

Solitaire

****

Well...what can one say? That is quite a lot of stuff. I salute your devotion to the "Squirrel Duel" aspect of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. 

This was a little tricky to count up, but following some expert consultation on terrain points, I will actually rate your terrain bits at 30 points. I'm not sure the old time Epic Knights would sit to my eye as 28mm figures, but they are close enough I love to see OOP kit getting some paint, so I'll let that ride. 

By my count, that comes up to 530 points which is...quite a lot of points! If nothing else, Mars looks set to fall..or to conquer Earth?

Hope you have enjoyed your Challenge Chris!

GregB

From KerryT - A walk down a country lane (270 points)

Morning afternoon & evening all

I seem to have moved away from 3d prints for now and have painted some metals instead. Both units were prepped for last years challenge but never made it to the painting table.

Both sets of figures  find themselves walking down a country lane a few hundred years apart

The first unit to take the walk or ride are a unit of Footsore Arthurian or Romano- British cavalry. They've just crossed the river at a ford and are now on the lookout for an ambush

There doesn't seem to be anyone at home

I came, I saw, I had a look and now I'm going home

Milling around

Ready to charge

The banner is from LBMS but the shields are hand painted but only because I must have previously used the decals that I had. I copied to designs from the LBSM sheet

A few close ups 

I like the flying slug

Arthur Pendragon

I wasn't entirely sure how to base these as my Romano Briton army is based in singles (though I only have foot) but I figure that I'm likely to use these with Midguard or Lion Rampant and figured  multibases would be best, though I wish I'd had another figure that I could have added to Arthur's command stand.

Now imagine that you've somehow fallen asleep under a hedge in that lane for a couple of hundred years and you've just been woken up my the stomp of marching feet. You now find yourself in the 1930's and are watching the dreaded BUF take a stroll down that country lane

The lane has changed a little with a bridge over the ford and now a small village

They're on the lookout for trouble

My VBCW collection started more that 10 years ago when my good mate Giles Allison was visiting NZ and had kindly gave me some figures he had painted for myself and another friend. I added to the collection, basing my back story on the exploits of a pair of twins who I imagined had grown up in my valley back home in Wales. My VBCW back story if you are interested is here https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/vbcf/viewtopic.php?p=31839#p31839

I've played a few games and added quite a bit of WW1 figures to act as opposition to the valley forces but I've since added some BUF figures using the Footsore range and some additional figures from Empress Miniature Spanish civil war range

These guys are attired in blue rather than the traditional black of the BUF

Anyone coming down the lane is going to get shot up

The Empress figures are in shirts

The figures were painted with Vallejo Dark Blue Grey for tunics with trousers in Black Gray, washed and then highlighted. Those in shirtsleeves were given a highlight to the VJ Field Blue

All together say cheese

Once again, thank you for looking and your previous encouragement

In summary

14 x 28mm Mounted figures @ 10 points = 140

25 x 28mm Foot @ 5 points = 125

Total 265 points

2 Squirrels =- Romano-British cavalry & VCBW BUF

(previous Squirrels - Berber Cavalry, Goblin wolf riders, Dwarf cavalry, Spanish Military order knights. Scottish archers, 15mm Napoleonic British, 15mm Napoleonic Naval, 15mm Napoleonic French, 15mm Napoleonic Spanish,100YW French Pavisiers) 

Many thanks and best wishes Valleyboy

From Millsy:

Oh wow! These are spectacular mate. I spent the first 5 minutes distracted by looking at your amazing terrain and then the figures finally broke through my distraction.

The vibrance of the blues and reds on your Roman Brits is wonderful and the hand painted shields are so crisp! I've added 5 points bonus for those because I can only imagine how long that took to complete.

Good to see I am not the only person with a solid BUF force for VBCW. The Empress figs are almost perfect Blackshirts and I have a bunch in my collection too. I assume you have seen Outrageous on the goggle box? It captures the craziness of the times so well and I can't wait for season two.

Wonderful stuff everywhere Kerry. 270 more points added to your tally which kicks you up to first spot in considerable style as well as bringing you within sight of you target with a month yet to go.

Cheers,
Millsy