Barks - Rusty Terrain Entry (25 Points)

Some rusty skully scenery to dress my tabletop. I do like these arcane tech pieces; it is a struggle not to really go to town on them. I also painted up a fistful of crates and barrels- these were quick wash and drybrush jobs.

Did you know you can fit 125 skullz on this?

My marble statue technique is white; washed pale grey; thin sepia to cracks; then thinned grey veins.

Skullz: +147 (total 192)

-----------

What a great and weird tech terrain piece (and knowing GW 5x the price of what it should be!) and wow that should really help out your skull count.  I like the dirty rusty paint job, but wonder if maybe you should wash the skulls and mechanicus symbol to blend in more with the dirty nature of the rest of it?  Shame to wreck the clean painting, but I think it might be more cohesive all dirty.  Just my take though, which counts for nothing :-). I do really like the marble effect on the statue though.

As for points, the tech piece looks like it is pretty sizable piece with a lot of detail to work on, so I am going to score it at 15 points (about the same points as a normal sized building).  As for the crates while simple, there is enough detail on there the count them as a small building so I am going to go with 10 points. 

- Byron 

From DavidB - Kill Team, Modern US Army, WW1French (145 points)

Don't judge me! 

A very messy desk with lots of things piled up...It must be close to midseason of the Challenge! ;)

I think I could finish an army in a week, but I just can't help myself. Every time I change the wet pallet, it is a challenge just to keep the same colors I have been using. I now have it loaded with the John Blanche paints just to force myself to focus on the next batch. So, while I was clearing the Deathguard from the table...a few more units snared my attention before the pallet change.

  I prevail- Breaking Down

I had to see the VA shrink this week just to check a box and talking to psychologists has never been on my list of things I want to do on any day. I still text my old doc (actually, she is young) about once a few months as she wants to be sure I am still doing well. My only anger issues spring from editorial news and online "social" media. The new trigger is when I fall and dealing with getting older and not being as able bodied as I once was. I cannot kick in doors anymore and running and ruck marches are rapidly fading to my past. Heck, climbing stairs and ladders is rough now. I have to accept a reality of age and injury where it is no longer my job to perform missions and hunt bad guys and even if it was, I am not mission capable. My anxiety is still crowds as I cannot stop assessing for threats but also being unable to do things I wish to do. 

The Wounded Warrior Project (woundedwarriorproject.org) is my charity for this season and they do quite a bit for assisting Vets in getting homes and vehicles to outdoor activities and mental health. Camp Winlow here in Michigan is another place that they help. Winlow is funded by the VA, Michigan, and private donations. It is a Boy Scout camp in pristine North Michigan woods and has the same shoddy Wi-Fi as the Upper Peninsula. The Veteran Village is a small collection of cabins with indoor plumbing and cozy rooms with fire pits. A veteran only needs to bring food and clothes and can enjoy catch and release fishing or being in a serene forest. It is my favorite place to just unwind and escape the internet and the world for a few days. Quiet and woods reminds me I am not quite done and have a few more years before I can have my own quiet, serene place.

Now on to the minis....

First up is the Deathguard that came with the space marine kill team and is the plague marine blind box set. They are newer than the Ultra marine set and each marine has a splendid scenic base that really tells a story with an accompanying nurgling.

a regular trooper throwing a grenade with a nurgling sitting atop a pile of grenades

even with the grenade pin in hand, there are others scattered on the base with grenades and maggots

The nurgling has another pin hanging on it's horn.

A gunner with fungal/coral growths and a leaky toxic gun. The Nurgling is enjoying the toxic goop leaking from the gun.

similar growths a sprouting on the ground.

This marine has a flail with a nurgling enjoying the free swing

The missing chain and ball is at the marine's feet

another trooper with a fetish for skulls

Yes, I did count them! 27 skulls on that shoulder!

more on his base.

The most disgusting one of the lot and he is spreading nurgle's gift

he has no nurgling except for a lot of flies and maggots as well as his own set of wings.

The champion with a rotten bone sword and plasma pistol

and a very fine, but tattered cape

My favorite of the bunch is the icon bearer. I used a head that reminds me of some old Chaos marine artwork from years past. he as a tube inserted into his mouth and vanishing to places I do not want to think about, not a rebreather but a cable connecting his mouth to his own rot.

there is nurgle worms and tentacles and at his foot is a nurgle medallion.

A nurgling removed the medallion and has stuck his own head in the icon to take its place.

Using a lot of the greens and browns, I have a small group of US infantry. A Ssgt with a m4 and 203 grenade launcher leads a sgt, a gunner with a 249 saw and three scouts. This is what a squad of scouts would look like...but bear in mind that scout infantry is light infantry, and we are known to cheat A LOT

I bought them at Adepticon from a loose box of minis and traded a ten for them. Together they make a heavy weapon squad of ten with three fireteams and three support weapons. I can also make them a squad of eight with two support weapons for standard infantry.

The sgts have holstered pistols and are posed to direct traffic.

two grunts with m4 and one with a saw, the fellow to the right is popping smoke.

The squad leader is upfront with his m4 and underslung 203. the Staff Sgt makes sure the sgts leading the fire teams are doing well and can use the 203 to direct traffic or remove impediments to traffic.

They are going to be used in Spectre operations, pulp, and zombie gaming.

Speaking of Pulp....WW1 French Infantry

These are Wargames Atlantic WW1 French. I was thinking of Forbidden Psalm when I got them but ended up building them for pulp/interwar games.

I added an officer in his snazzy cap and a machine gunner. I have a few Germans and Russians and other sorts of monsters and mad scientists. My adventure heroes only have a few Harlem Hellfighters to back them up, so 12 French Infantry will help even things up for my small band of heroes.

 7 Deathguard for 35 points

10 US infantry for 50 points

12 French for 60 points

29 troops for 145 points

squirrels --40k White scars, Mongolian Orcs, WW2 American infantry, WW2 German Infantry, WW2 allied Vicks, WW2 German Vicks, Iron Snakes, Wood Elf warband, Stormtroopers, Deathguard, Modern US infantry, WW1 French

skulls- 47 new skulls for a total of 91

stompy robots of death- 8

Excellent production this week David! First of all, good shout for the Wounded Warriors Project. I can imagine that Camp Winlow is a lovely place and good for the spirit. Peace and quiet can be restorative, that's for sure.

I think the Plague Marines have fogged up your camera lens a bit with their... emanations but from what I can see they look great. Those new GW models have a ton of detail and Easter eggs for painters and you've done a nice job. The modern US infantry are very nice and you've assembled a useful squad there. I also really like the late-war French, I think you've really nailed their Horizon-Blue greatcoats. 

One hundred forty-five points added to your total!

Dallas

From TeemuL: Space Aliens with Supersoakers! (50 points)

This is once again a new project from me. Warhammer 40k Eldar, but these are the Ynnari, followers of Yvraine, emissary of Ynnead. I decided to paint the helmets or headgear red to mark them as one of Ynnari. Original idea was to paint these aspect warriors following the GW schemes, but then I decided that would be boring. It all started with the Pathfinders, who have some skin visible, and I started to think what colour their skin would be... Usually Eldar are like pale humans, but I started thinking greenish. And dropped that idea, because Orks are the greenskins in 40k. But that sparked my imagination and I decided to paint these in wild colours. Of course that meant slower painting, when everything needed to be thought out. Colour green stuck to my head and I decided to keep it as a main colour of the force, it works well with red at least.

Those of any knowledge of Warhammer 40k rules will notice, that there are three different warriors and not enough to create legal units. And here is the next trick, these are not meant for Warhammer 40k, I don't think I will be playing any edition of the game with these. Instead a friend of mine has Xenos Rampant rules and he said that the game can be played with any minis, so these are "planned" for Xenos Rampant.

These are the four Fire Dragons, painted green. Green armour and red helmet screamed for blue weapons, so there I went! I decided to paint all the guns blue and they do like supersoakers to me... There are actually three different sculpts here, hard to believe, but trust me.

Gun holster are dark brown and two spheres on the shoulders were painted Mihtril Silver followed by green wash. There are tons of other details I didnt' want pick up to keep my sanity. I have some Harlequins to paint, so the wildest colour combinations will wait for them.

Dark Reapers next, a bit darker green than Fire Dragons, but with big blue guns. The body armour was painted Mithril Silver and followed by green wash gives a quite nice look, something different and eerie.

And finally some Pathfinders with much more colours than the others. The skin colour was determined by "pick up a paint with strange name for skin" and US Field Drab was chosen... Something you wouldn't except from Eldar, I think. Yellow hair looks nice and red details work together. There are some greens again, to tie all these together, but there are more colours here and instead of 1960s LSD colours they are much more earthlike.

The Eldar are superior but dying race, they could just equip their Pathfinders with devices creating invisibility, but they need to save resources, too. Piece of cloth will be enough to fool those letter races. Cloaks are black with grey and brown highlights, the same colours used in the bases - quite clever. Brown boots and grey gloves complete the earthly look.

So my Warhammer 40k minis of Xenos Rampant lore have their first warriors here, 10 minis to start with. That would be another 50 points to my tally and another squirrel "Warhammer 40k Eldar" Surprisingly no skulls this time, even when they are Ynnead Eldar.

Gee Teemu, what an excellent rendition of these old school Eldar! I love how you have used those vibrant and even more old school paint schemes, magnificent work and many thanks to take us back down memory lane! 

Cheers Sander 

From QuinnM: New Old World Models (155 points )

The last couple weeks for me have been really hectic and busy. But I have been able to squeeze in some painting time. 

To start with, I finished up with my unit of Jade Warriors which are from the new Warhammer fantasy faction Grand Cathay. Normally I don't like buying GW new because it's soo expensive. But around Christmas I got a good bonus and decided to treat myself with some of these new models. They are highly detailed models almost to their detriment as doing anything fun or unique with them (at least how I paint) would be too time consuming.  

So for the Jade Warriors I painted them up in a lighter green and highlighted with teal to make them very vibrant and pop and normally I paint things in a much darker style. I think ultimately they turned out really good and look great all ranked up. 

I ended up doing two units all totaling 25 

10. Halberdiers 

And 15 with sword and shield. 

I've already submitted one for points so it was left out of the photos with my freehand Banner

Also, I was reached out to by a 40K player to paint up his army of white scars for him. I don't do a lot of commission stuff but he was just running a simple paint job so I agreed to do it. Ultimately, I think the final result on the first unit went better than I expected as I've never done white armor before. Always was scared of messing it up. 

And here are two more heroes for my Warhammer quest that I painted up and realized I forgot to post. These guys are like a month old at this point. 

Point wise this week.

31x28mmfootman@5points = 155

====================

Sylvain: Good progress on your projects! I am especially interested in your Cathay army. It's always interesting to observe how a British game maker "sees" what an ancient Chinese army is. There is lot of jade in there and you rendition is splendid. I also agree with you about your White Scar commission: they turned out good. This should provide you with hours of fun game play. Fabuleux!