From MartinC: thank you Teemu (187 points)

This is my last post with Teemu as my minion. He has been great, generous, good at maths and full of Finnish history.  Cheers mare, have a banana.

My Zulu war force is nearing completion, me and Dave fought Isandlwana today to test the rules. The Zulus one but enough british survived to form a square.

A battalion of 3rd foot, the Buffs, with a company of Royal Engineers at the front

Newcastle mounted rifles, Alexandra mounted rifles, Natal Hussars

7 troops of Boers with their dynamic commander Redvers Buller

4 battalion commanders 

7 assorted heroes

6 7lb field guns

Rhino, for officers to run off and hunt

Same for loads of water buffalo 

Hopefully next week I will have finished the whole army

Scores on the doors

69 x 10mm foot = 69

21 x 10mm cavalry 63

6 artillery and crew = 36

19 animals = 19

TeemuL: Thank you very much, Martin! I don't think I've been called a "mare" before, I take it as a compliment. According to my dictionary, it means either a female horse, a sea in context of planets or a nightmare in British spoken language. I take it as the last one, coming from a British gentleman with British humour. I'll overlook all possibilities of typos. Anyway, that's a nice amount of Brits to fight the hordes of Zulu. Keep them coming, I heard Zulus are gathering!

From MartinC: Further into Zululand. I sense we are being watched. (225 points)

Another week and the sense of unease increases. Luckily we have bought a lot of stuff, with reinforcements also being sent for

1st up the 60th rifles in their distinctive green uniforms

Continuing the units not in redcoats. The Naval Brigade

With the artillery in need of transport there are 6 limbers, ordered some more drivers - oddly the best figures for this are WW2 german wagon drivers. I also need to paint the artillery

All armies need supplies and mine has 10 ox carts, more drivers needed.  Never make 200 individual meanie bags and glue them in the back of 10 wagons. Just a tip for sanity

The most unusual units were the rocket batteries and mule pack horses 

3 gatling guns

Finally 5 hippos to disrupt river crossings

Scores on the doors

16 x 10mm vehicles = 96

61 x 10mm infantry = 61

9 x 10mm crewed guns = 29

24 x 10mm gun crew = 24

12 pack mules = 12

5 hippos = 5

Total = 203

TeemuL: I'll take your sanity tip and try to remember it! Your maths a bit off, I get 225 in total, which puts you nicely over your target. The question remains, two weeks left, how much more you will get?

These look great again, and hippos are a nice addition. I heard the Zulus are getting stronger and stronger, the British are happy to see some much needed reinforcements and equipments.

From PeterB - A gluttonous points bomb (Gluttony) (373 points)

My progress through the Abyss continues slowly. For the layer Gluttony I have found a model that is a monstrous creature that is a nightmare for those that overindulge. I present a Mimic from Archon Studios.

You feel peckish, you want a full fat fizzy drink full of sugar, some crisps and a chewy chocolate bar. You put your money in and a giant tongue slithers out of the collect slot and grabs your arm. You are the next victim of the Mimic.

The Mimic is 28mm scale and was a fun little distraction to paint.

Now to the bulk of the weeks painting. Firstly some of you may remember my Zulu War project from last challenge, well I have added some Natal Natives to give a bit more choice in army selection. Friendly natives who lived in Natal under British rule were conscripted into the British army to fight against their foes the Zulus. They were equipped with outdated weapons and minimal ammunition, some preferring to still use their native assegai and shield.

They would have been formed into regiments and companies as normal, but their only uniform was a red rag tied to their head or arm. Estimates are that about one I'm ten actually carried a firearm, I have increased that ratio somewhat, just so I have choices for wargaming purposes. 

We have been playing a lot of the Old World at our local club, my Orcs and Goblins army and Khornate Chaos Warrior army have both been reasonably successful. A chance opportunity to purchase second hand some Empire Knights and a Steam tank however that could not be passed up has led to the start of a new Empire army. I can't imagine I will have as much success gaming wise with this army as I will probably need to use tactics rather than just charge forward. I have had great fun painting it though and the latest work done is two units of infantry. Finding vintage GW models at a reasonable price has been tricky, so for Christmas I asked for some Warlord Games Landsknechts with zweihanders. This box combined with a box of Wargames Atlantic Landsknecht Ogres is enough for two units. One core infantry with halberds and a unit of Longswords.

The Ogres are unit fillers and game wise will just count for 4 normal men. It makes painting the unit easier and makes for an interesting looking unit.

For the longswords I chose all soft caps with feathers to identify them easier. Oldhammer rules mean you need larger bases now and instead of rebasing everything I bought these movement trays with slots from Warbases. At first I thought it would cause an issue with the Ogres, then I came up with this ingenious idea:

They slot snuggly in and don't shift about.

Finally, I have also over some time, been making a barbarian/viking/marauder army, not historically accurate, but useful for a Chaos marauder army, or Midgard or Dragon Rampant. I already have plenty of foot troops and horse riders, I felt like they needed some chariots. Victrix do a great set of three chariots in plastic (parts of which were used in my last post for the Mammoth crew. This week my large bases from Warbases arrived, so I could finish off the chariots.

They are fiddly kits with individual reigns to glue on, but I think they are worth it. Yes, technically the kits are Celtic Chariots but I think they still fit in as I have avoided the shields and helmets.

To the points.

One 28mm Mimic - 5 points

One location-  20 points

32 Natal Natives in 28mm - 160 points

20 Empire human troops in 28mm - 100 points

4 Empire Ogres (counts as 40mm troop) - 28 points

3 chariots in 28mm scale - 60 points.

Total = 373 points.

"A chance opportunity to purchase..." Ha, I had never had that happen to me, surely! But I am glad you did not let it slip, for the Empire troops are the highlight from this points bomb for me. Excellent sourcing of "alternative" miniatures, and a cracking paint job. Very clever solution for the basing too. I also like your NNI, I think you captured the skin tone really well. And the chariots, well who doesn't like a good pair of wheels, Celtic or not? Last but not least, the Mimic is a great find. Better think twice before indulging! All in all a great post, and a major step on the road to your target!

Martijn

From PeterB. Zulu war gatling gun and crew (30 points)

Oh go on then, just one more post.

I know I said I might be done, but after finally finishing my Zulu War project, I said I might get a gatling gun. Well, I did. I wasn't sure it was going to arrive before the end of the challenge, but luck was on my side.

Of course now I will have to paint more Zulu's to justify the presence of such a weapon. So I guess I know what will be on my to do pile for next years challenge.

I did originally start painting them in red uniforms, then remembered that that might not be accurate, so a quick bit of photo research (These chaps know their stuff.) and I think I have their colours correct. I have even copied the colour of the gun carriage from the Die Hards own.

Perry Miniatures as you probably know just make lovely models, so these were a joy to paint. The gun was a tad fiddly to put together, but didn't need much done to it to make it fit neatly together. I thought you might appreciate seeing the awesome little boxes these models come in.

I could even use the cotton wool for some smoke markers later.

So, points.

10 points for the gun

4 crew at 5 points each.

Total 30 points.

I'm done now, I promise. ;-)

From Millsy:

Just one more post indeed, especially when it is something this cool Peter. Few things are more evocative of colonial wars for me than early automatic weapons. A bit crazy, unreliable and almost as terrifying to the operator as the receiver these things must have been an absolute nightmare to lug about in the heat and rough terrain. The "This is not a toy" label is unintentionally ironic I feel.

Lovely brushwork mate, that blue/grey is spot on and the red trouser strips are a nice flash of colour. Congrats on a wonderful Challenge and thanks for sharing your creations with us.

From StuartL - Naval Brigade at Adventurer's Landing - 45 Points

Hello again.

For my second post today, I am working on clearing out the remaining locations on my trip through the Chambers of Challenge. Having bypassed a few spots on my mad descent to the Altar of the Snow Lord, I still have a few bonus points to grab before I am done. So, this submission is to fulfill the target for Adventurer's Landing on level 2. 

Like many hobbyists, I have multiple projects that I am working on at any given time and several that I add to as and when the mood takes me. For the most part, I try to collect armies for games that at least one other club member plays, simply because it is easier to do so. However, one of my largest projects is one that only I have any interest in, the Anglo-Zulu War. Having seen the eponymous movie multiple times in my childhood, when Warlord did a range of plastic minis about 10 years or so ago, I leapt at the chance to recreate it on the tabletop. Since then, I have bought up a bunch of Ospreys on the subject as well as multiple books by a variety of authors in an attempt to understand the short, bloody war in as much detail as possible. While I still enjoy the movie Zulu and it's prequel, Zulu Dawn, very much, it's quite sad how much of it was changed from the original history. 

While Warlord provide decent enough plastic minis for the bulk of the British regulars and the Zulus, the conflict included a lot of other auxiliaries and volunteers on the British side of things, and for those I turned to Empress Miniatures. (The Perrys do some figures for the AZW as well). Empress minis are nicely detailed and accurate figures, though their shipping can be a bit on the pricey side. 

Due to a lack of regular infantry at the start of hostilities (by the British, the Zulus weren't the aggressors in this case), Lord Chelmsford grabbed every able bodied serviceman he could get. After the debacle at Isandlwana, the lack of manpower became even more of an issue. Several Royal Navy ships docked at Durban deployed crewmen and marines to aid the British column fighting around the coast. One of those ships was the HMS Shah, a steam powered frigate named for the Shah of Persia. These four sailors are sporting the sennit straw hat with headband identifying them as from the Shah and are equipped with cutlass bayonets. While most of my collection is multi-based, these four have been given single bases to allow them to be used as a tiny unit of skirmishers in Black Powder.

Not a member of the Royal Navy, but just an extra AZW mini I had lying around, this is another Empress mini. By the brace on the neck, I think this is meant to be Private Hughes at the Battle of Rorke's Drift, played by Larry Taylor in the movie. Again, he is mounted on a single base as a skirmisher.

And here we have the five of them all together. Painting them was fairly straightforward, though the lettering on the headbands was a little tricky. 

So, for 5x 28mm minis, that should add 25 points to my score along with the bonus of 20 points for landing some troops on a foreign shore in the Chamber. Again, no skulls or GW minis, but another Squirrel point for my side duels.

My running Duels totals:

GW Points - 806

Skullz - 451

Squirrels - 17

From StuartL - Challenge Island Safari Tour - 50points

Greetings once again C.I.S.T.ers. You must all be very tired after traipsing up and down mountains, through gulches and over crevasses. Well, it's time to sit down, put your feet up and enjoy a spot of theatre. Here at Benito's Brook, the Challenge Island Players are going to put on a show for you. I'm told that tonight's performance is a tragedy titled "The Death of Napoleon... No, Not That One!"

Most of you are no doubt somewhat familiar with the exploits of one Napoleon Bonaparte and his efforts to unite all of Europe in one glorious, harmonious Empire. After his defeat, his name is absent from history except for notes of his passing. However, he did have a family and they still played some part in French history. His nephew eventually became Napoleon III, Emperor of France until his defeat at the Battle of Sedan and subsequent exile in Great Britain.

Napoleon III died in 1873 leaving one heir, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, the Prince Imperial. Born in 1856 he trained with the British army as a soldier, serving with the Royal Artillery. A noted rider and fencer, he was eager for action and used his family's influence in the royal court to secure himself a place in the British reserves sent to South Africa to reinforce Lord Chelmsford after the Isandlwana debacle. Technically assigned as an observer to the relief force, he was reminded not to do anything rash and to remember his family and political party back home in France.

Of course, being a young man desperate for action, he immediately went and did something rash. When on a reconnaissance patrol, he and his party stopped for a rest at a Zulu homestead where they were ambushed by a group of Zulu warriors. The British party made a dash to escape, but the Prince's horse bolted before he could mount, dragging him along for 100 yards before the strap he was clinging to snapped. Alone and unable to escape his pursuers, the Prince turned to fight. When his body was recovered, he had 18 stab wounds, all to his front. A testament to his unwillingness to surrender or to flee.

----------

When the different locations of the challenge were announced, this was the one that caught my eye the most. I have been meaning to do a vignette along these lines for a while and the challenge presented me with the perfect opportunity to do so. The Anglo-Zulu War is one that I have a deep and enthusiastic interest in, sadly one that isn't shared by my local group, so I am forced to collect both sides of the conflict and have a substantial pile of unpainted minis lying around for it. The Prince Napoleon figure is a limited edition model from Warlord Games and the Zulus are from the plastic set from the same company. The prince should have a spear in his right hand, but sadly I snapped it during assembly and instead attached the optional sword arm that came with the figure.
The Prince's last stand took place near a donga (dried river), so I have placed all of the models inside the river bed and filled it with weeds. The edges of the river have dried grass and a few bits of greenery to differentiate them from the interior section. The rocks are painted pieces of cork bark, which I have used on a few different entries now and am quite taken with.

Points wise, I have 4x 28mm minis for 20 points, plus a further 30 for the location, giving a grand total of 50 points.

From DaveD. Thats a great creation , and fine entry for Benito's Brook. Another 50 pts to the tally 

and I will check out with that and leave you with Dr Cooke to bang the rocks together tomorrow!

From StuartL - Of Paint and Squirrels (275 points)

I had thought about posting this lot up as separate entries, but I am sure that Curt and the Minions are all pretty busy today, so here we go, my final post of the challenge.

One of my favourite periods to read about, research and play is the British Colonial period. I have a small but growing collection of figures for the Anglo-Zulu War and this challenge was a good excuse to get some more minis added to both armies. Above is a Zulu InDuna, or commander. The mini is from Empress and will be used as a command figure for Black Powder. Strangely the picture shows white marks around the left eye and mouth, but when I went back to double check the figure, there are no marks. I guess it must be a reflection from the camera.

This second unit is a group of the Natal Native Contingent. The NNC were local volunteers who agreed to serve with the British in the hopes of getting some revenge for years of oppression from the Zulus. Each unit of the NNC was given a European officer, though many of them couldn't speak the native languages very well. The NNC were not deemed to be very good troops by the British high command, but this can be attributed to a lack of firearms, a lack of training and poor leadership in many cases. As I am collecting both sides of the conflict, I am tending towards slightly smaller unit sizes than those recommended in the Black Powder rules. Each of my British units is 16 men strong.

My next entry is a set of  12 Japanese infantry for the war in Burma and the attempted invasion of India. If you aren't aware of it, in the Spring of 1944, the Japanese launched an offensive through the jungle and across the border of Burma into India. The British raced troops to stop them and a close and brutal battle was fought out at Kohima and Imphal. At times the front lines were scant metres apart. Eventually the British, Indian and African troops were able to break the Japanese invasion force and this paved the way for a counter-invasion of Burma.

These figures are all from Warlord Games' Bolt Action range. They painted up fairly easily and I tried to give them some variation in how I based them to better represent the jungle terrain they were fighting in. I had planned to do a unit of Gurkhas to oppose them, but ran out of time.

And here we have another set of Bolt Action figures, 5 early war Polish infantry. I was given these by a friend as a trade for some old 40K minis. I never had much interest in the early stages of WW2, but these figures painted up very quickly and easily.

Usually, I paint up one figure as a test piece, making notes as to colours used and so on as I go along. With the Squirrel duel, I have made the effort to do 5 test models, as that is the target to get the Squirrel point. It has been challenging to try and find enough different projects to work on, but now I have these models done and a recipe for doing more should I find the time.

These models were painted up on a whim. I had read a tutorial recently about painting black. Some rummaging around in middle of the mountain of unpainted figures netted me 5 Black Templar space marines and the perfect figures to try out the tutorial on. I used to play 40K a few years back, mainly when 5th edition was at it's peak. At that time I didn't really enjoy painting marines too much. These guys were surprisingly fun to paint and I love how they have come out. I'm still undecided about the bases, but those can always be changed.

All of the models were painted in Vallejo Black and given a few highlights in Basalt Grey. I have tried to line highlight every panel on a marine before and it drove me nuts, so with these guys I just did a few random spots here and there. Once that was done and I had painted in the metals, I gave everything a glaze of blue ink. (1:10 ink & water). This helped make the highlights seem more natural and has given the black a bit of depth. Whereas the standard colour for the shoulder pads is white, I have gone for a warm off-white shade with a mix of Vallejo Bonewhite and Sky Grey. I used a fine tipped marker pen to add some religious script to the sides of the pads to better demonstrate the zeal of these crusaders.

And to finish off, some D&D monsters. As this was the theme of my first entry, it seemed fitting that it would also be my last. The large fellow above is a Chain Golem. The figure was originally an old D&D pre-painted mini, but I gave it a new coat, a wash and a drybrush to bring out the detail more. He is very large, standing nearly 100mm high on a 70mm base. 

To accompany him are a Were-bear, a Marilith Demon, a goat-man, a wraith a dire rat and a dire weasel. Most of the models were done with a simple Base>Drybrush>Wash technique, but the Marilith I spent a little more time on. The figure is a little NSFW, so I have added a black bar to the picture for decency. The Were-bear and the weasel are pre-paints, but the others are all from Reaper's Bones range.

And in a final shot to give you an idea of scale, you can see a rather confused looking Japanese NCO standing with the three big monsters. Both the bear and the demon are on 40mm bases.

And that is it from me for the challenge. There is still some time remaining, but right now I can't even stand to be in the same room as a paint brush, let alone think about picking one up. I have beaten my target by a mile and had a good shot at the Squirrel duel too.
I'm looking forward to seeing the final scores after the dust settles.

So, to end my post, a tally of points for the Minions.
The NNC and InDuna get me 17x28mm models for 85 Points and 1 Squirrel.
The Japanese get me 12x 28mm models for 60 Points and 1 Squirrel.
The Poles get me 5x 28mm models for 25 Points and my final Squirrel.
The Black Templars get me 5x 28mm models for 25 Points.
And finally the D&D figures are where I have to ask the minions to step in. 4 of the figures are roughly the same size as a standard 28mm model, but as you can see in the last picture, 3 of them are a bit bigger.

So that gives me a total of 195 Points, plus whatever the minions see fit for the D&D figures, plus 3 Squirrels.

Thank you to everyone who commented on my posts. I tried to comment on other people's but never had enough time to look at all of them. Thanks also to Curt for organising this and to Evan for being an awesome minion.
I believe a recap post is usual, so I will have a rest and come back after the end of the challenge.

Thank you!


TamsinP:

I have enjoyed your large, mixed-bag entries throughout the Challenge, and this is no exception. Lovely work on all of these Stuart.

I'm going to score the D&D figures as four 28mm foot and the big monsters as 28mm vehicles. That gives you a grand total of 275 points for your final entry.