From StuartL - Last minis of 2025 - 100 Points

Hi again,

    My second post for today, and hopefully a lot more positive than my previous one. 

    I'm lucky to have a long break over the winter period, and I have wasted very little time in getting pigment onto plastic. I have way too many projects on the go at any given time, so there is always something around for me to be working on. So, this post has a few small batches of minis that I had sitting in the (far too large) to-do pile. 

    First off, some Afghan tribesmen. Ages ago, I got a selection of Afghans and British troops for the 2nd Anglo-Afghan War from Artizan Designs. I've managed to get most of my forces done, but I still have a handful of Afghans to do. My plan is to play The Men Who Would Be Kings with them. These minis are all metal, and were really fun to paint. I went for simple colours for the clothes, but with some splashes of brighter colours for the turbans and sashes. Having done this batch, I kind of want to order more of them, Artizan do some amazing figures.

    The next set of figures from my work bench are some robots. I painted up a bunch of robot minis for This Is Not A Test for the challenge back in 2021. I have to admit that I haven't actually used them yet. But, that isn't a reason not to paint up more of them, right? These minis are all from Reaper Bones. The quality of them varies quite a bit. The big green one was super clean and crisp, whereas the robot at the back right is permanently leaning forwards, despite my best efforts to get it to straighten up.

    Being robots, painting was largely a case of base coating them in metallic colours, giving them a dark wash and then adding some highlights and spot colours for interest.

I'm going to be cheeky and claim these two robots' noggins look like skulls...

    My final entry for the year is a group of ten Anglo-Saxons. These figures are for Gripping Beast and will be joining my massive Saxon army (around 200 minis so far), for use in Saga, the new Pillage game from Victrix and possibly Hail Caesar once I get my Normans done. Having already done a lot of these figures, I can practically paint them in my sleep, so I blasted through these chaps in no time. While the sculpts aren't as pretty as the newer Victrix options, I find these very serviceable and they look good enough for gaming with.

      And that should see me done for 2025. I still have a lot more to do in 2026, so I will see you all then!

    Points wise, there are 20x 28mm minis, which should set me up for a nice, round 100 points. There are also entries for all 3 of my side duels.

My ongoing duels information:

Skulls - 141 (+2, assuming the robo-skulls count)

BSRoD - 5 (+5 for the robots above)

Squirrels - 6 (+3) - D&D Animals, 30K Militia, Plague Clowns, Afghans, Robots, Anglo-Saxons

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A great way to close out 2025, Stuart. I really like the Afghan fellas with their coloured turbans and the not-Terminators with their creepy glowing red eyes.  A very tidy 100 points for New Year's Eve, well done!

- Curt 

From: TomL A seasonal entry (5pts)

Just a quick entry to start the Challenge.   Lest we forget the true meaning of the season and the best way to live your life, we have Artizan Design's Jacob Marley to remind us of the consequences...

 

Jacob was painted using various acrylics & washes.   One 28mm figure:  5 points 

I am planning on painting mostly "Epic" ACW & BattleTech units with the three themes providing some variation.  My wife joined me recently in retirement, so we are finally getting around to the long-planned trip to Australia & New Zealand. Not being alone all day and a vacation will no doubt impact my painting time but I plan to paint like a madman and finish the backlog. Reality of course will be different but it's good to have a plan!

My potential:

 

Off to prime the last planned entry before we begin the holiday.   

Merry Christmas & happy holidays!

Tom 

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Welcome back to the Challenge, Tom!

Your Jacob Marley is excellent and a very fitting cautionary tale about working during the Holidays. I see you have A LOT of Battletech waiting for your attention. I hope you've joined David's Big Stompy Robot Challenge as I think you could be a serious contender. Is that some Warlord Epic stuff in the handy box? Very interesting! I look foward to seeing what you have in store over the next few months of the Challenge.

5 points for Mr. Marley! Well done!

- Curt

 

 

From AndrewG: Law, Order, and the Undertaker (15 points)

Tap, tap…is this thing on? Okay! Hi everyone, my name is Andrew and let me start by saying thank you very much to Curt et al., for the kind invitation to participate this year. This being my first time doing the challenge, I set my own bar relatively low with a modest 300 points goal.

My own painting objectives over this winter are twofold. First, complete some small warbands for various skirmish games as my local group tends to play a lot of these. Second, add some more units to my ongoing big battle projects, specifically the Battle of Northampton in 1460 (Wars of the Roses) and the Battle of Bunker Hill/Breed's Hill in 1775 (American War of Independence).

My first entry is a simple one and consists of a couple of 28mm Old West characters which I can use for skirmish games such as What a Cowboy or Dead Man’s Hand. I bought these over a decade ago at a show in the US, and they’ve been sitting in the pile of opportunity since then waiting patiently for the paintbrush.

 

 

From left to right – a Wargames Foundry character (Judge Guthrie Prentice dismounted), the 2012 Partizan Show figure (No.15) - ‘The Undertaker’ - sculpted by Mike Owen, and an Artizan Gunfighters figure representing ‘The Bad’ in the Good/Bad/Ugly set. These will form the core of my law-and-order folks, soon to be challenged by a couple of gangs which I’m currently working on.

I find Western figures a joy to paint – the colours are simple, yet small touches can add some nice variety to an otherwise dull palette. The Undertaker’s waistcoat for example done in purple betrays the fact that his business is booming and he can afford some nicer threads. For the other two, functionality is the key. Simple clothes that hide dirt and a long day’s work.

I painted the figures with a range of Vallejo and Army Painter paints. I started with a black primer and then worked up from there, using colour, washes, and quick highlights where appropriate. The bases are simple plastic 2mm thick rounds. The basing materials consist of tufts from Vallejo scenery and Quicksand basing paste from Legendary Paints, over which I add a highly complex mixture of the free sandy grit that collects at the end of my driveway every spring before the dust cleaners go by (if you live in Canada and suffer winter road conditions, you’ll immediately know what I’m referring to). Once dried, I gave it a wash of Army Painter Warpaints Soft Tone to bring it all together. A bit of Vallejo Flat Earth covers the base rim.

Finally, I do two coats of varnish to protect the miniature for play. Done and dusted and ready for the table!

Claiming 3x 28mm foot = 15 points to get things rolling.

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First off, welcome to the Challenge, Andrew! It's terrific to welcome new people into the fold of Challengeristas. 

These gunslingers look terrific and compliment each other wonderfully even though they are from different sculptors. Very neat and tidy brushwork, and your basing is equally on-point (what did we ever do without tufts?). 

This trio will give you 15 points to work towards your target. Well done! I look forward to your upcoming entries over the next three months. 

- Curt

From Kerry T: A visit from the wargames weights & measures bogeyman- Landsknecht (120 points)

 Morning, afternoon and evening all

It happened last weekend, I don't mind telling you, it was terrifying - he came at the crack of dawn, there was a hammering on the front door and the sound of a yappy bark...

He said his name was Narvik Mentana and looking me in the eye said that it was grim and serious. He said it was official and that he'd been sent by the Department of Wargames Weights and Measures. He had come to confiscate my figures and that he had a warrant. 

He looked a bit odd in his uniform, the flat cap didn't quite fit and with the whippet that was with him barking all the time it was hard to hear what he had to say. 

The whippet was the better looking of the two

Overcoming my initial fear and trepidation I realised that somehow, somewhere I'd heard that voice somewhere before though.....

"Hey mate, you're a bit short"

Startled, I said "yes I know - but at least I'm perfectly formed. Its not my fault, you know,I can't help it if my mum was only four foot eight and generations of males in my family spent their years working down the mines and never saw any sunlight. That's probably why I'm so short and stunted"

"Not you"he said, "the block"

"The block? what block?"

"The Pike block, yes your pike block- this one, the one you posted on Farcebook a few weeks back -this one - look, its short, its probably only about 72 figures, that's well short of the requisite 96 for god's sake....

The middle block,there

"I'm afraid you're going to have to hand them over, we can't  have you doing that, is sets a bad example, if we allow that - before you know it some cheap sod or every man and his whippet will be showing off his 4 man pike block. Give them here, C'mon. Hand them over now and I'll go easy on you lad"

"Wait" I said, "give me a little time, just a chance, err I'll paint a few more and make it up to 96 in a week or two"

"You've got till Monday and then I'll be back..... that's of course if you make it worth my while, nudge nudge, wink, wink, say no more....

It was then that I finally realised what he craved for and wanted. That folks is how I manged to get rid of him. He'd obviously heard about my mushy pea tree....

Psst don't let on its an Avocado tree

"Look at the size of those peas" he exclaimed...and promptly farted.... sorry I mean fainted 

Now I know it looks like I've lost but focus again, but that folks honestly (without the word of a lie ) is why I needed to radically change my painting plans for this week. There I was, on track painting my Jocks and they're straps, only now to find myself suddenly and hurriedly painting codpieces and scrambling to put together the stragglers to make up a 96 man pikeblock. All to make sure that the "Wargames Weights and Measures bogeyman " wouldn't take them away.

24 Artizan Designs Landsknecht Pikemen

I needed more with levelled pike in any case

Vicious wire spears from Northstar

Extended bases are definitely needed

I decided to add a bit of water to the bases

Bit of a close up

Running away

Phew, saved in the nick of time,the unit is now complete

The original figures were painted more than 10 years ago hence the base depth discrepancy 

I think its more than 96 strong now

I forgot to count and I'm away on holiday writing this

Can you spot Wally?

Well that's it for this week

So the moral of the story is... don't live dangerously and paint undermanned pike blocks.....

But if you do make sure you have the odd mushy pea available to ward off the bogeyman

In summary and with apologies to Ken, whose projects are always inspirational

24 x 28mm Foot figures @ 5 points = 120 points

1 Squirrel

Many thanks, no post from me next week as I'm now away on holiday

Valleyboy

From Millsy:

My Word! That was a lot to process in one go and totally worth the effort! I never considered the idea of an actual mushy pea tree and now I will spend the rest of my life lamenting the lack of them in real life. Avocados? Bah! Mushy peas every day in preference.

Culinary deliberations aside this is another splendid post mate. More gorgeous pikes painted in more gorgeous colours. Those final shots of all of them arrayed together are truly something special. Congrats on what will never fail to impress on the table!

120 more points it is!

Cheers,
Millsy

From BobV: WW2 U.S. Winter Infantry and U.S. Paratroopers (200 points)

Happy New Year Everyone!

I am very excited to take part in another AHPC and hopefully excavate yet another slope of the Mountain of Opportunity. Today I present a small squad of U.S. WW2 Paratroopers and the remainder of a platoon of U.S. WW2 Winter Infantry (40 28mm figures in all).

Here are the Paratroopers:

These figures are a few years old. They are Warlord metals painted to a wargames table standard using mostly Vallejo acrylics over black. I finished them with a slightly diluted strong tone wash. I am not entirely happy with them but I still feel a bit rusty after taking the Spring and Summer off (the explosion of spring flowers is covering a serious injustice in basing).

Here are the Winter Dogfaces:

These figures are also several years old. They are an Artizan Designs range and very easy to paint. Like the Paratroops, I am not entirely happy with them either. I have had better luck with face shading by painting a tan contrast paint over a white or grey facial base. Here I washed strong tone over Warpainter Fanatic Ruby Skin base. I found that I have more control with the contrast paint so I will likely return to that method on my next project. These guys also took far longer than I wanted, I was hoping to get them out before the New Year. I ended up burning through more than one episode of "Brews in the Binyard" without hitting the pause button.

For Points I am claiming 40 X 28mm foot @ 5 points for a total of 200 points.

So glad to be back and see you again soon!   

***

Hello Bob, and happy new year! So, 200 points worth of 28mm infantry to kick things off? That ought to get everyone's attention! 

While many of the bases here are cold and wintry, it warms the heart to see proper metal castings being painted up for service on the gaming table (and say this as someone who paints buckets of plastic and resin as part of my 30k obsession...) I have always loved the interesting character of the Artizan sculpts in particular, and it is so nice to see more of them ready for action!

You expressed some incomplete satisfaction with the outcome of your brushwork - I would say it sure looks fine, although would gently suggest and increase in lighting so we can all see just how nice they will look in the photos!

That's...200 points for you! Boom!

GregB

From GeoffT: Violence, WW2 German (70 points)

Hello Challengers,

For the seventh circle of hell there are a lot of options for wargamers.  I felt ww2 would be the most significant exponent of violence, as worldwide it was the largest number of casualties of any war.

Here we have some miniatures representing the Germans in WW2.  I play a lot of Campaigns in war games, and I do very much like Chain of Commands pint sized campaigns.  They are very respectful of the subject matter with a lot of research going into them.  More like an interactive history lesson than a game.  They do require addition of various equipment to one’s arsenal as campaign demands.

The Sdkfz 250/1 is by Rubicon models and will be used in ‘Martlet’ campaign set in Normandy, so is painted with a Normandy esque camouflage.  I’m never quite sure of the accuracy of modelling the various German camo designs as they varied so much I’m never convinced I have the right one for the campaign.

The Volksturm with MP 44 are from Artizan design, and have been painted with a mix of new and old uniforms.

So, we have, a 28mm scale vehicle for 20 points, 2 x crew for 10 points, four guys on foot for 20 points, and the Violence theme bonus for another 20 points.  A total of 70 points.  This also is a squirrel for the squirrel side quest.

 

There was one more crew painted and buried deep inside, but since I only painted his top half and is largely obscured, he can be a freebie.

Kind Regards

Geoff.

From Millsy:

That's a very cool looking half track Geoff and I really like your camo choice. I see a lot of airbrushed camo for WW2 and I think that underrepresents the fact that so much of it was applied with whatever was at hand in the field, including brooms and rags!

The volkstrum and a nice little unit to ride along. Artizan make some lovely sculpts and you have done them proud.

Another 70 points for your tally!

Cheers,
Millsy