From SeanS - an Old-School Barn (25 points)

Hi All,

It occurred to me this week that I have precious little terrain. I got in a discussion on a chat group about buying versus making and then remembered I had several old buildings that I had started around 1990, but never finished.

I set about to remedy that.

The barn itself was made from the plans printed in White Dwarf, 140 I think. I found a copy online but the templates don't seem to match the dimensions of my final product. Maybe I enlarged them back in the day. The peak of the roof is 4.25" and the base is 5.5" by 5.25" I'm also not sure why I jammed the structure up against one edge.

As usual there are a few dodgy areas and some choices that could have been different. But I have a finished building now. So hooray for me.

If you want to see how it looked the middle of last week you can read about it on my blog here.

At some point in the next few days I'll be posting my build log.

Thanks for looking.

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Wonderful work, Sean!!  I remember lots of these buildings being offered in White Dwarf, and some of the original Warhammer supplements ('Bloodbath at Orks Drift', and maybe the 'Tragedy of McDeath').  I made them up, back in the day, in a far more ham-fisted way that this lovely model. It's really a very splendid piece of work, and very characterful.  I particularly like the tiled roof, and the winch for the hay-bales and bags of corn to be lifted to a safe dry place (or dropped from a height on a goblin, squig or random passer-by).

A terrific, nostalgic piece of terrain, Sean.  Fine work, Sir, and fully deserving twenty points for the terrain, and a five more for putting this together.

From SeanS - Bretonnians and Wizards (112 points)

Hi All,

I have for you 22 figures in 28mm that should net me 110 points. They are 20 retainers and two wizards. I'm not super happy with the picture quality, but here you go.

I'll start with the two C02 Wizards, Mazda and Holbon Toddlebrrew.

Yes that is a calculator on Holbon's belt.

I decided to go with stars and a crescent moon on Holbon to make him more Wizardy.

Next we have the retainers led by a Baron.

I accidentally painted his shield blue and yellow while batch painting and had to repaint it.

I also had to switch them around for the rear shot. They wouldn't rank up turned 180 degrees.

The second rank of these guys. I had four retainers and my friend, Blue in Vermont, helped me acquire the rest.

The fighter on the end has a bottle on his belt.

My four Perry, Games Workshop Crossbowmen and one Foundry figure. The plastic Crossbows seem a little large.

The second row are all Foundry.

Triumph and tragedy in each figure, but I'm happy overall with the end result. This time, at least, the varnish worked correctly. Just had a myriad of other little nit picking things that made this group seem to take forever.

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Fantastic work, Sean, bringing together a great collection of miniatures stretching back over quite some years.  I love the livery these figures are sporting - the blue and yellow match perfectly, and bring the units together in a really striking manner.  I love how you made the Baron look just a little bit special with his personal heraldry (clearly setting him apart from the hoi poloi of mere retainers).  Great stuff!

The wizards are very special.  I remember seeing these figures many moons back, from GW's wizards and magic users range.  It's brilliant to see them again here.  The mystical stars and colours of their magical robes really makes them stand-out in a terrific submission.

Well done, Sir, and a well-deserved 112 points to your tally (adding a couple through the sheer dedication of collecting these chaps over the years)!

From SeanS - Gorilla my dreams (14 points)

Hi All,

This was a rush job to try and get something actually published this month. I seem to be having issues with unmixed, perhaps not totally dry matte varnish. So please forgive any shine, I'm just running out of time to fix it.

This is Girron from Bombshell Miniatures, however he doesn't appear to be on their website anymore. He is an all resin affair and was a fairly clean casting. The arms are all separate, so I had to add green stuff to the gaps. My sculpting to blend them into the fur was hit and miss.

I tried my greenstuff world mesh roller to make his base. I still need a lot more practice, but I'll accept it.

My conception was a nod to the cartoon character Grape Ape. My original conception had been a white ape, but there are a ton of those. I built him up from Black in five steps to a light grey, but the Purple and then Black ink washes muddled the colors a lot. The flesh I did in my Vampiric Flesh triad from Reaper, but again the washes altered the final color. Although the triad does have a purple tint to it.

I'm really hoping to coordinate my Bretonnian Retainers this month so I can share them here as well as on the Old World Army Challenge.

I provisionally scored him for 10 points, same as a 54mm figure. He is 28mm scale but 55mm tall.

Thanks for looking.

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Congratulations, Sean - I think that's successfully given me nightmares for the rest of this week, or maybe much longer.  Wow, what a terrifying miniature.  You've really done wonders with his fur, the extra greenstuff work looking really wonderful around his arms.  And kudos to you, Sir, for using the greenstuff roll so successfully - that's a really good looking base you've created.

The painting is brilliant - and I can certainly see why you've gone for brown-purple-black themes in this monstrous simian.

I love it, and in fact I love it so much I'll adjudicate you with the 10 points for a 54mm figure, and another 4 for the modelling, greenstuff work and the fine base. Tremendous, if nightmare-inducing, work, Sean!

From SeanS - Bretonnian Foot Knight Standard Bearer and Mounted Knight (16 Points)

Hi All,

I know it's small, but this is the post that almost wasn't. These two are the only ones out of a total of 26 that I started after Dec. 20th for a thing we're doing with Iannick over at the Old World Army Challenge. They required some additional assembly and I almost gave up on the whole month several times as I wasted time doing things that turned out to be totally unnecessary.

In the picture I can see where I put my thumb in wet paint on the base, I had trouble with the lighting in the room and was rushing a tad while finishing these. The banners need a little more work, but I'm not certain that they'll survive the trip back home in my luggage, so they're good enough.

Only 15 points by my count, but you eat an elephant one bite at a time.

Thanks for looking.

________________________________

Welcome back to the Challenge, Sean! 

OldHammer Bretonnians, very cool. I like the deep red you've used for these two and the raw wood lance is the business, none of this fancy barber pole malarky.

'I wasted time doing things that that turned out to be totally unnecessary.' Oh man, I'm completely with you on this one, Sean. I often feel so scattered that its amazing that I get anything done at all. With that being said you've done a great job on these two. Now, let's see the rest.

15 points, plus another for the flag and pennant. Well done Sean!

From SeanS - "Psycho Sam" Oldhammer 2015 figure (5 points)

I'm drafting this early in case I somehow fail to finish and photograph any other figures.

"Psycho Sam" is a figure that was commissioned for the Oldhammer 2015 events that happened, coincidentally, last year.

The color scheme I chose is a riff off of the Plexus Ranger uniform from the Howard Chaykin comic American Flagg. The idea is he will be a leader/member of a group of cop types that "enforce" the laws of Borborygmus Prime.

I deviated from my normal process in that I did not slather the figure in my grunge wash. In fact the only wash on him was a darker blue on his pants. If I had thought about it I would have layered up from that color, but I forgot I had it.

The other thing is my sort of NMM on his gun. I wanted to differentiate it from the black leather so I used Charcoal with Zinc highlights on the edges. I need to work out a little better how to spot gloss varnish the metallics, his facial piercings and ear rings look like I might have accidentally hit them with the matte varnish. They're supposed to be gold.

I used the same flash photo set up, I spent a bit of time dialing in Shutter Speed, Aperture and Flash strength to get it. I'm still not sure if it isn't a little under exposed. I left it without any post processing this time, other than cropping and resizing for the blog.

I intend to use him for Rogue Trader games, but if he's not Sci-Fi enough to count in the duel, that's fine by me.

May your brushes keep their points.

Now thats way to cool Sean. A really colourful piece too. Yes i agree a bit of spot gloss would help things pop - i use an old enamel gloss paint - its reasonably thick and does not run , just apply with a brush reserved for enamels. 

From SeanS - 4 Ogres and a Rat (21points)

Hi All,

Not as productive as I need to be to get on track, but here is a small selection of figures I finished while watching the Cardinals get shellacked by the Panthers on Sunday.

These characterful little sculpts come from Splintered Light in their 20mm fantasy range here.

I decided to go with the Reaper golden skin triad, but used only the shadow and mid and then wased with the shadow again. I think some areas could have used a dark lining where the golden shadow hits a darker color, but only realized that in hindsight.

I thought I'd show  closeup of these faces as i liked them a lot. Perhaps I should have used a tripod, the picture isn't as clear as I'd like.

Here we have the Giant Rat from Reaper. I got him with the Basic Learn to Paint kit : Fur and Armor. The Drybrush highlight of the fur didn't really come across. In general I've taken to picking out fur with a small brush instead of drybrushing. Funny as that used to be my go to technique.

The flesh was just good ole Reaper tanned skin and the boils were Rosy skin, a wash of red and then a drybrush of rosy skin again. He is 28 mm scale on a 25 x 50mm base.

Here's a shot of the group so you can make a relative size comparison. The Ogres are pretty large, but I've only scored them at 4 points each as many of my 20mm offerings have been fairly small goblins and such. The rat I scored at 5 because he is essentially a riderless mount. So 21 for the lot.

Just wanted to show this weeks change in photo set up. Normally I use static lights, a tripod and a laptop to remotely control taking photos. This time I used some remote flashes. This set up evolved as I was messing around, it's not quite right. All of these photos were still under exposed, so I tweaked the levels in GIMP. But I did manually adjust the shutter and aperture and hand hold the camera for these. Thanks for looking.

Fine painting Sean, the facial detail is excellent and as you say they are very characterful, and rat is particularly nasty looking. Adjusting things in GIMP... hmm wont go there.. Nice work.

From SeanS - The Merchant of Venus XII and his bots HU-E, DU-E and LU-E (11 or 8 points)

Hi All,

So my first entry since the free for all sees me doing a weird mix of size and manufacturer.

The Merchant of Venus XII is a wonderful sculpt from John Boyce and his Colony 87 line. I have more waiting in the wings, but just wanted to get something done. I rested on my laurels after week one and then got too busy once I got back home.

As you can see he has all sorts of odd gear. I tried to make his space suit look like a shuttle astronaut flight suit. I had all sorts of ideas for his poncho thing, in the end what stuck was the idea of a re-purposed tarp, you know the blue kind.

The bots are minion bots from Bombshell Miniatures Counterblast line. The robot menace. The aerial on the merchant's helmet and the bits heads made me think they needed to go together. I also channeled a little bit of Silent Running in coloring and naming the bots HU-E, DU-E and LU-E.

Those of you who read my blog may remember that the Merchant's staff arrived broken and had been unsuccessfully repaired at least twice. Well my vacation fix was not only ugly but was still weak. So I cut and bored a plastic tube to make a more solid join, it's the gold band above his had. I thought if it was a problem I should make it a feature.

As for points the Merchant is a straight up 28mm figure, although I didn't measure him. So he should be 5 points. The bots are perhaps a tad problematic. They are 28mm scale, but only about a half inch tall foot to head. I'm not counting the aerial. They are mounted on 20mm bases because I have a bunch and I thought they would look lost on a standard 25mm base. So if we assume their height is 12.5mm do we score them as 10mm or 15mm? Thus my total is either 8 or 11 points. Sorry for a tricky first entry Dave.

Oh and this is my first shot across the bow for the Sci-Fi duel. It's not looking good.

A grand start to your sci-fi duel. I have gone with 6 points for the bots - that Silent Running homage is just too cool. Personally I am always amazed at the range of sci-fi stuff that is out there - its not been an area of painting interest for me - so I always enjoy seeing what appears here. The Merchant certainly looks a character alright, and well done on the repair works its looks just fine - so frustrating when you get figures arrived damaged

From SeanS - Bertok the Barbarian - (5 points)

This should be my third entry in the challenge.

For a change of pace I decided to work on a single 28mm figure.

Bertok is a metal figure from Reaper that I got as part of a learn to paint kit. I had intended to follow the guide, but came up with some ideas of my own and did it my own way.

He is freakishly big and muscled compared to most 28mm figures, especially the ones from Games Workshop in the late 80's and early 90's.

I thought I'd paint him up as a Chaos thug for my up coming Chaos army. Although my army is going to be Tzeentch, Bertok's color scheme is slightly Khorne with the red and brass/gold accents. It doesn't come across in the photo that well but his hair is Purple. I used the Vampiric skin triad from Reaper and I really like how it came out. Just a hint of purple. Originally I was going t mix purple into my regular flesh color.

In a departure from the norm I only put grunge wash on the no flesh portions. I felt the brown in the wash would ruin the lovely pallor of the skin.

I hope you like him. Chalk up 5 more point. Woohoo!

Nice work Sean! I like his purple hair and the very pale skin-tone you chose to use. Very suiting for a barbarian of Tzeentch. For those who have read the Erikson books, this figure might make a good Karsa Orlong as well, with a bit of modification.

A very nice mini Sean! 

From SeanS - 20mm Goblin Warriors (40 points)

Now that I've remembered the titling convention of the challenge. Here are some 20mm Goblins. 10 of 'em.

The last of the Caeser plastic set I had primed and based. You may remember their compatriots from last challenge.

The paint of choice for my goblin flesh was being a tad problematic, so these weren't as satisfying to paint as I'd hoped.

Hopefully you can make them out in the pictures, I was a little rushed as were getting ready to head down to the in-laws.

Hopefully I can get some 28mm going soon, but I do have quite bit of 20mm left.

Best of luck on your painting today.

These are some great looking goblins Sean! They have that classic eighties D&D look about them (those ears are awesome). I particularly like the chaps with the oversized stone hammers - they look like they'd fall over if they swung them over their heads!

These 10 dungeon denizens will give you 40 points - Great work!

1/72 Scale Roman Gladiators (36 Points)

The boy said he wanted to play gladiator combat games, so I thought what better way to start this years challenge.

These are a mix of Orion, Italeri and Pegasus 1/72 plastic figures. The Orion in particular were very hard to clean up and have a sort of fringe effect where I tried to clean up flash and mold lines.

In addition to my regular Tanned skin triad from Reaper, I used the Drak and Golden skin triads that I purchased just before the challenge.

I probably went overboard with color choice, I can't seem to not use multiple metallics. The leather cuirass on the third figure from the left bothers me a little. I am worried it is too similar to the Dark skin tone.

I've set myself some daily goals, and is my want, failed to reach them. But on the bright side I'm doing well towards my weekly goal to hit 1000 points. So I can't be too sad.

Macte virtute sic itur ad astra.

Great job Sean! I had no idea that these companies did gladiators in this scale - very cool. This is a colourful lot and that backdrop is just ace. What rules are you going to use for these? Once the boy gets old enough I strongly suggest 'Spartacus' - it's VERY adult in theme but gives a great game.

These nine gladiators will give you 36 points.

So, What Was Done - 5th Painting Challenge Group Shots

Hello Everyone!

I thought it would be fun if we had a gallery of all our work. If you have the time, please set-up your accumulated work for the Challenge, take a few photos and send them to me. I know some have already done this in previous posts, but if you can resend them to me I'll place them in this gallery so we can all be together.

Okay, I'll kick-off with my 3-months of work. 

Curt's Collection:

Alright, c'mon people, send me your Challenge group shots! We all want to see what you've achieved! 


AlanD's Collection:

BrendonW's Collection:

Attached is the grand total from the Paint challenge.
However I realised it is actually one 28mm figure short...the Curtgeld butcher.
I have him on my paint desk still as I plan to add a bit of gold/brass on his sword hilt.

It was very strange the last few evenings not picking up a brush.
My hand feels like it needs something to do.


DaveD's Collection:

All the pulp,

90% of the Imperial army,

...and a third of the Mahdist forces,

Serious stock up been had! Steamers and Camel Corps under way!


DavidB's Collection 

I accomplished a great deal for my inaugural outing. I now have nearly 75% of my Cadian 7th completed including stuff that may be repainted to match which would actually be 50% done. ;)

I also have my very first 15mm including my favorite Alien Legion ready for the battlefield. 

I know have a good feel for the challenge and am ready for another go. I still have heaps of guard, Napoleonic, ACW, Zombies, Supers, and LotR stockpiled and prepped (I was SUPPOSED to complete this outing).

I'm sure quite a bit will be there still as I have begun Eastern Natives circa black powder/Queen Anne and my comic pulp WW2 for Bolt Action and weird WW2.

Evan & GrantH's Collection

The final collection from the challenge!

Totals:

18 early World War One 28mm Highlanders

30 Canadian 28mm Paratroopers

45 15mm Commandos

9 Vintage Imperial Guards from Grenadier

4 late World War One command team characters

2 Capt. E. Blackadder

Thanks for the support and warm welcome to the challenge!

PaulS' Collection:

Another year, another Painting Challenge complete. A big thank you to Curt and all of the other participants for making it another great year, full of inspiration and encouragement!

This year I clocked in at 1521 points. This photo is missing 8 figures that I painted up for friend's Christmas presents... so imagine it a bit larger.

This is not only the largest number of figures I've ever painted in that timeframe, but it also saw parts of some projects not only started, but completed too. This year I managed to:

- Start and complete a full War of the Roses Lion Rampant force (lets not mention that I was supposed to paint two forces!)
- Start and complete 2 Familia for Jugula 
- Finish my ww2 Russian infantry
- Finish all of my Zombies for Zombicide!
- Finish the skeletons I built two years ago

I didn't manage to get around to some of the other projects I had lined up, sadly, but it is still mightily impressive. I was supposed to be painting up a load of vikings, including some really nice ones sent by my secret santa!

Now to start clearing house a bit so I can make room for next year's Challenge.

MarkO's Collection

A few pics of my Austrian Army all together that I had time to take. All but four of the infantry regiments were painted during the challenge! 

MartinC's Collection 

This is the final group shot of my figures painted during the challenge

The bulk are ACW, 2 brigades that will soon fight each other. I also painted 30 odd medieval infantry and 8 Carolingian cavalry, couple of dozen Dwarf Legionaries, 40 republican roman legionaries (with hand painted shields which I’m quite chuffed with), 12 flying carpets (think I found some core rules to build upon for these), entries for all the bonus rounds, a weird war grizzly walker and a Rolls Royce armoured car. 

I tried to start some more today and got nowhere. I definitely need a proper break from painting, although I have already purchased some figs for next year.

MilesR's Collection

This is what one gets for three months of intensive painting and 3,204 points.

 

MartinN's Collection

So here's my final group shot for you. Over the past three month I managed to reduce the mountain of shame by incredible 91 miniatures.

Compared to our top scorers it may look like almost nothing but to me it was quite an achievement.  Surprisingly I also managed to stay relatively focused with mostly WWII and First Indochina.

MichaelA's Collection

Having read your post regarding amassing a gallery of Challengers' efforts, I was initially reluctant as I felt that this year I had not done justice to my place, bemoaning 'real life' at every turn; I must have started to sound like a broken record, for which you have my heartfelt apologies.  Still, being a naturally inquisitive soul, I decided to collect up my toys and have a look for myself and I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised.  

True, it is not an entire Austrian army or enough to form a British square in the deserts of the Sudan, but there was colour, variety and fun and I allowed myself a moment of self congratulatory pride.  It is for this that I need to thank you and all my fellow challengers Curt.  Being part of the challenge has given my hobby a sense of direction an purpose at a time when I desperately needed a distraction.  Along the way I have tackled new challenges, constructed larger scale models and tried to get to grips with the basics of airbrushing.  I have been fortunate enough to meet with a little success in the bonus theme rounds and wondered with admiration at the diverse nature and often sheer quantity of what everyone else was doing.  Simply put, I have enjoyed every minute, so thank you again and here's to next year! 

RichardC's Collection

Here's a shot of my entries for the Challenge. You may spot the name plate for the Lancer Officer - it arrived two days after the Victorian Round deadline! 

The one thing I will do for next year is to prep everything beforehand - I had some issues undercoating, which cost me time and in a couple of cases, figures as well. 

All in all, a great winter diversion.

SanderS

Well I finally managed to get some pictures of the miniatures I've painted during the Challenge . Some are missing in these pictures since they are not at my home, but still most of them are there.

For me the Challenge was a great way of getting on with some of my long going projects. I finished my Barsoom project. Nearly finished all my Bavarian Napoleonics and have made a big leap with my Victorian project. So all in all I am very happy with the results.

Yet again I'd like to thank Curt for creating this great event!

Cheers Sander

SeanS' Collection

Although I didn't quite reach my target again this year, I got closer and painted more figures. So onward and upwards I guess. My points went from 574 to 806 and figures painted from 64 to 82.

Since completing the Challenge I've been trying to reorganize my pile into some kind of prioritized painting queue, it's been marginally successful.

 

Once I packed away my Challenge output, into one Really Useful Box, it didn't look quite as impressive. The group shot is a little more satisfying.

One thing I've always wondered, what are the chances of a Curtgeld group shot? 

(Ed. A group shot of the Curtgeld? A very good probability, once most of them have made their way to my display case. :) )

SteH's Collection 

Well quite a lot it turns out, as the most interesting realisation for me was that I actually enjoy painting! 

That sounds a bit weird seeing as I've been doing it for about 17 years however I actually signed up to the challenge thinking that I'd use it as a sort of artificial project manager, constantly bugging me to deliver on my milestones and meet my deadlines, and at first thats exactly how it felt. However as the months passed I became more and more motivated to paint things that i enjoyed. Most of my painting over the years has been motivated with one singular goal - to get my armies on the table and roll dice. And yet my motivation has changed, maybe its my getting old (I hit the big 40 a couple of months before the challenge started) but i find that if I'm not enjoying painting then I don't want to do it, no matter how much I enjoy gaming with the figures.

So my plan going in to the challenge was to paint my Lord of the Rings figures, they were all based up and undercoated, and yet when I look back at what I've actually completed I find a whole of host of scales and genres - 15mm and 1/3000 WW2, Victorian Sci-fi, 15mm Sung Chinese, 28mm Dwarven Pirates and of course GW Lord of the Rings. My output was a total 82 models of which only 50% (41) were what I had planned to do.

Actually to be honest I never planned to paint the cave troll, it was more of a sanity check for myself as to whether I had the time and technique to paint 54mm (I was going to get involved in the Perry/Jackson ANZAC project but decide my sanity, employment or marriage wouldn't survive the pressure).

I think the most enjoyable models to paint were Smeagol (Gollum) who seemed to paint himself, the Victorian Sci-Fi (and especially the footie scarf!) and the Dwarven Pirates (Oooarrr).

Huge thanks to ScottB for talking me in to taking part, Mr C for hosting the crazy thing and most importantly my fellow challengers. It was great to see the range of genre's and scales on display, the varied interpretations of the bonus rounds and the quite terrifying volume that some of the challangers were able to put out!


StefanK's Collection


Finally here’s a group picture of my submissions as well. Actually it’s not much more than my seven bonus round entries and the Curtgeld. Together with all the bonus points this humble bunch of figures yielded 757 points and fulfilled my goal of 750 points narrowly.

It was great fun to concentrate on the bonus rounds and find entries for each of the rounds. Especially Thor for the ‘Mythic’ round and Richard III. for the ‘Antihero’ theme were wonderful figures to work with and I enjoyed the time to prepare them very much. Since life with two children of less than 1 and just over 4 is pretty challenging from time to time and because I’m a really lousily slow painter I didn't paint more than eleven simple figures besides these special things. Nothing comparable with the masses other participants submitted, but I’m rather satisfied with my outcome.

Anyway this painting Challenge provides three outstanding hobby months. Although I didn't manage to leave comments on all entries there was a lot of top-notch stuff. Well done chaps!

TeemuL's Collection

At the start of the challenge I had some kind of plan what to paint. Mansions of Madness monsters were one thing, and I did manage to paint them all. Second plan was to try participate in the bonus rounds, 6 out of 7 is not bad. 

I was supposed to paint some old WHFB Orcs and Dwarfs, but since I bought more and more Orcs, I didn't manage to paint them all and I didn't even start with the Dwarfs. I played couple of games of LotR during the challenge and because LotR range provided quite a lot of models to bonus rounds, I got carried away and painted much more than I planned for. WH40K Dark Eldar were a total bonus as well as the animals from the Warbases. Blood Bowl Ogre was in the pipeline, so I'm glad I got his painted - I'm not glad that despite the apothecary he died in his second game... So I painted quite a lot of stuff and from different areas as well.