From Dallas: Mad Max in the Hall of Heroes (26 points)

The Hall of Heroes! The last Chamber in my journey through the terrifying Chambers of Challenge. And what better "hero" to appear in the Hall of Heroes than that greatest of the Main Force Patrol-men, the bronziest of the Bronze, "Mad" Max Rockatansky.  

Max, a 20mm casting from North Star, is pictured here with his Ford Falcon XB-based "V8 Interceptor" diecast car.

You even get a "driver" figure with the two-model pack from North Star. It did take quite a lot of work to fit this model into the cockpit of the Falcon XB. The car is pretty easy to take apart, you just need to Dremel out the rivets holding the body to the chassis. Comes right apart.

The roadway is actually a roll of tape from the toy section of Wal-Mart, made for kids to play with their Hot Wheels cars. I stuck the tape down to the sticky side of a stick-down vinyl tile and trimmed it up.

It was a bit of a challenge painting this basically monochrome model...

But that's Max for you. These figures were actually finished some time ago, but I was waiting for Max's base to arrive, which it did today. Like many Challenge participants I base some of my figures on pennies, and that was the plan for Max... but I wanted an Australian penny. Not so easy to come by as it happens! 

Australian currency was decimalised in 1966; before that it was a confusing British-style system of pounds, pence, shillings, florins (!), etc. At first I bought a 1959 penny on eBay - 1959 for the birth year of Mel Gibson. But when it arrived it was an enormous pre-decimal coin! That wouldn't do for a small 20mm model so I found a 1979 decimal penny commemorating the release of Mad Max in theatres. Done!

So that's 4 points for full-size 20mm figure; 2 points for a half-figure, and 20 points for the Hall of Heroes. Now - on to the Altar of the Snowlord! See you on the road, Bronze!

"Look. Any longer out on that road and I'm one of them, you know? A terminal crazy... only I got a bronze badge to say I'm one of the good guys."

Nice work on Max and the Falcon.

Tamsin

From Millsy - 15mm Sci-Fi 'Herbie Network' Army (194 Points)

This is one of those entries that makes Curt shake his head when I submit them. Firstly, there is the size of it (not so much points but what it entails). Then there is the fact it represents yet another significant change of direction from previous entries. Curt commented recently I just about gave him whiplash so with any luck this one will net me a full 360 Poltergeist-style head rotation. Here's hoping!

So what do we have here then? 54 x regular infantry, 2 x mortars, 9 x battle suit infantry, a mech, a command truck, 2 x missle carrying APCs and 4 x recon jeeps. Yeah, that's all of it. I present to you the Titan Marines Rigel 7 Desert Campaign Force of 3012NC... aka "Herbie Goes to Rigel 7". The army is designed for the Gruntz 15mm rule set but could be used for pretty much any future skirmish rules I guess.

First up is a Rebel Minis mech with missile pods and twin laser lances, perfect for chewing up enemy armour. He's supported by 9 x Khurasan battle suit infantry armed with a variety of hand weapons. Both absolutely wonderful models in their own way and a joy to paint.

Next up is a lot of 36 infantry in 4 units of 9. They are Rebel Minis "Titan Marines" and I love the models and theme so much I stuck with them, including their palette (something I very rarely do!). Heck, I even carried the name through to the whole project.

From here you'll want a little explanation before I start showing things off. All of the vehicles are actually Matchbox models. Yes, really. I've drilled out the rivets holding them together, pulled them apart, repainted, re-assembled and "tarted up" each and every one of them as something of a change of pace. I also made the "official" Titan Marines logos and vehicle ID artwork myself.

It all took FAR too long but was pretty darn good fun and the result is not bad I think. A smart man would have done it before the Challenge, but hey, this is me we're talking about. Here's what they looked like beforehand...

Argh! My eyes! The yellow! All the yellows! So many yellows!

OK, now we can move on. Next we have the force commander and his transport, complete with some sort of electronic surveillance gear (provided by Old Crow Miniatures).

Supporting the ground pounders are 2 x missile-pod armed APCs (some of you may recognise the pods as Battlefront Miniatures German rocket launcher bodies). These also carry troops armed with a mixture of shoulder-launched missiles and medium mortars for a little extra fire power.

And lastly there is 4 x 4x4 dune buggies armed with a mix of light projectile and light missile pods (again Old Crow). These dudes cruise the dunes and alert the units behind of incoming trouble, before firing a few shots off and then bugging out.

So all up that's 46 x 15mm infantry (92 points), 2 x 15mm mortars and crew (16 points) and 9 x 20mm infantry (36 points) which totals 144 points. I have no idea what the mech or the 7 vehicles are worth so I'll put that in Curt's hands and hope he's not too annoyed with me :-)

OK, one last group shot to finish off...

Hey Tamsin, maybe one day I could bring these lads round and go bug huntin. Nah, they'd probably prefer a stand-up fight I guess...

PS. Merry Christmas to each and every one of my fellow challengers and most importantly to Curt!

From Curt: Okaaay! Yes, this is a bit mental to be sure... Millsy, buddy, I think you need some meds to help you focus. You've been ALL over the place these past few weeks. The only saving grace is that you actually finish these crazy little side projects whereas most of us would get a few figures done and the rest would collect dust in the 'to-do' box. 

The Herbie the Love Bug scout car troop is completely cracked, but I still think they're awesome. So is your custom force insignia, though it does make me think that they're somehow fighting for an intergalactic TV network... 

I'll give you 50 points for the modified vehicles and the walker, so that makes it 194 points total. Wicked. Awesome job Millsy!