From RobH; Heros of the Soviet Union II (145 Points)

I picked up a box of the Plastic Soldier Company's WW2 Soviet Infantry (1942) summer uniform, on sale at the marketplace at CanGames. I wanted to see how the plastics compared to lead figures. I was please by the ease with which they were assembled, but I didn't like their weight. I think it was one of the things that influenced the use of a 30 mm base. I also found that the wash technique I use doesn't provide the same depth, especially to the facial features that it does on metal figures. 

There are 29 figures done. I thought I had 30 but it appears one went AWOL. One of the figures is metal. See if you can guess which one? With any luck I'll finish a terrain piece before tomorrow evening deadline.

From Byron:

Great looking figures Rob, and if you don't work with plastic often, Plastic Soldier Company is a good starting point.  They are both cheap and relatively nice for the price (depending on which set, some of the old ones are not great, but the new ones are really nice).  The detail is also softer on most plastics since they have to worry more about undercuts when working with the metal injection molds required compared to silicone molds for metals.  You just have to paint them slightly differently than metal figures.  As for weight, yeah it takes a while to get used to, but one HUGE benefit is that if they get bumped or dropped they normally don't break, and you can say goodbye to chipping!  That is the biggest thing that makes me far prefer plastic over metal, all my metal figs end up chipping no matter how careful I am.

Anyway, enough babble.... I think these look really good, so I wouldn't change anything too much. If you're worried about the faces, just give them a dark wash and then pick out the highlights again.   I look forward to your terrain piece coming up before the end of the challenge.

From MartinN: A last hurrah (62 Points)

Another challenge is drawing to a close and what a blast it was once again! So here I am with my last submission for this year. I feel a little drained by now I tell you.

So, in order to cash in some easy points I changed scale and went 15mm.
After having painted a US Paratrooper force for the Battle of the Bulge over the last two challenges, I decided it was about high time to give them some opponents...

... oh well, bugger that.

No, in fact I started work on some US Army guys ready to invade Tunisia/ Sicily/ Normandy. Figures are the current Battlefront plastic offerings. I got them for a steal which meant instead of painting up some Brits for a change, I was stuck with US... again.
The figures are OK-ish. Better than most of their metal ones but still there's the odd miscast in the mix.

And as if that wasn't OCD enough I also decided to paint a ISU-122. It's also from Battlefront and compared to the figures it was a joy to paint.
And truth be told it's all about tanks in 15mm - for me at least.

While being able to paint up whole infantry platoons in 15mm in the same time it'd take me to paint a squad in 28mm is certainly a boon, I definitely don't enjoy it half as much.

With tanks it's a completely different matter. In this scale they have just enough detail to look interesting while still being big enough to make best use of all the different techniques out there.

With 28 infantry and a tank this submission should be worth 62 points, thus lifting me comfortably over the 500 points barrier.

From Byron:

Wow, what an excellent last submission!  I am with you on feeling drained after a busy painting season, but what a way to end it!  I wish you had included some closer up images of the infantry though, because if they are anything like the tank destroyer... wow.  So much to love there with all the subtle shades of green and what I assume are brown or sepia washes and streaks over it.  Simply stunning work in 15mm. 

Also, congratulations on meeting your points goal.  With super high quality entries like this, that is no simple achievement.

From AlexS: terrain 25 points

Hello everybody. My name is Alex, I'm from Russia, and I really like to do the terrain. I was always inspired by one person who in his blog laid out the terrain made of ordinary things. He used a shell of nuts, children's toys and much more.

His name is Michael and he's my curator on this event and first reads my entry. This is very exciting! And today I present my small project. I am the father of two children and they are always breaking toys. Recently they broke the "tumbler". I did not let my wife throw it away.

I decided to make it an element of the terrain for games on post apocalypse or science fiction.

After I glued it again, I primed it and fixed it on the stand.

Then I painted it with an airbrush.

Then I thought for a long time how it would look better. There was an option - to cover the whole surface of the jungle with artificial grass for aquariums. But then I decided to paint it out by making an idol toy, which is worshiped by local wild tribes. Or a special border post that marks the territory.

Finally, I could not resist and made from this area an artefact of my childhood and youth.

Miniature 28mm, so you can feel the size and pathos of the terrain. He reminds me of a bear from the novel by Stephen King.

The size of the terrain: 9x6x8 inches
I think it's 30 points.

__________________________________________

Thank you so much for the kind words Alex,  many of my creations are in turn inspired by others so delighted to pass it on, as it were.  I just love this, so creative and I can just imagine this new idol being the centre of a Post Apocalyptic tribe.  Fabulous fun and a good reminder to never throw anything away! 

With regards to scores, I am going to be a little mean and suggest that it is a 25 rather than a 30 point piece.  It is wonderfully tall, but the volume is such that I think that it would only just fill a 6"x6"x6" cube - sorry!  

From StefanK: The final rush with T-72 ready to rush for the Fulda gap.

Actually I thought that the boat would be my final entry for this painting challenge but then I regonised that only 30 points were missing to fulfill 500 points goal. Luckily I've been working on a couple of 15mm T-72 tanks during last week. I inserted a night shift yesterday and a final rush this afternoon. So here we go:

All ten T-72 tanks.

The models are plastic kits from Battlefront's Team Yankee range. They are pretty easy builds but nicely models on the table anyway. As usual I primed them and gave them a thin coat of the Sovjet greenish base colour.

Numbers one to four...

Then some ink (Armypainter 'Strong Tone') and a couple of different layers of drybrushing. After all I wanted a 'quick and dirty' technique because I'm afraid the the Sovjets will obtain much more reinforcements than my German Bundeswehr in which I but some more work for the three colour camouflage sheme.

... numbers five to eight...

After all I'm pretty satisfied with the result. I haven't applied decals yet because I'm not sure for which country to field them. I'm undecided between Red Army and East German Volksarmee though...

... and finally numbers nine and ten.

However that's my final entry for this year painting challenge then. It was great to join the bunch and I enjoyed the many tremendous entries a lot. Many thanks to all participants and especially to Curt for taking the efforts of organising the gathering again!


Tamsin: What a superb rush to the finish line Stefan! Congrats on reaching (indeed, exceeding) your target. That's another 60 points in the bag for these great little tanks :)