From MartijnN: Germanic bowmen and sundry

Yes! Invitation received. However, it will be two more weeks before I actually get my jab, so I thought I'd better get on with it. Strangely enough, I seem to be more consistent and faster now the "real" Challenge is over (although I remember struggling a bit too in the Quarantine Challenge a year ago).

Anyway, in keeping with the theme my painting seems to be taking on a bit here are six Germanic bowmen. These too are MTH figures which I printed myself.

To accompany these, and the Celtic bowmen I painted last week, is a unit of ten Celtic warriors, also from the MTH Rome series. I had a lot of fun painting these and I am quite happy with them.

Finally, a Celtic dog handler with two Irish Wolfhound-like characters. I would not much care to come across these chaps, neither on or off the battlefield! I promise to make a bit more of an effort with the next dogs.

Next up are two 32mm thieves from the Arbiter Miniatures range. These are great figures, and supportless too which is quite a boon in my book. They printed without any problems and I like how they turned out. They can be used in a variety of ways, the painting scheme is a bit ranger-like I guess.

Then, there is an armoured polar bear from Wilds of Winterland by Evan Carothers. This is a wonderful 3d print file range with ice giants, snowfolk, arctic animals, yetis, you name it. Shades of Westeros, obviously. I think the bear is a great model.

Next, the only part of this week's output that was not 3d printed: a brigade of Confederate troops for my ongoing Champion Hill project using Altar of Freedom. These are once again 10mm Perrin figures. I try to give my Union troops a more formal character, but I like my rebels to be a somewhat more motley bunch.

Finally, two pieces of terrain. A bridge and a viking burial mound. The last obviously was to have been my offering for the Tomb in the Chambers of Challenge, but I never got there. Both are 28mm figure scale miniatures, but scaled down to somewhere between 6mm-10mm.

So there you have it. For me this is a record production, pointswise:

22 28mm figures @ 5 points is 110 points;

20 10mm figures @ 1 point is 20 points;

and as I don't feel like doing the complex calculations for the terrain pieces I am awarding myself 1 point for each for a total of 2 points;

Which yields a grand total of 132 points; a veritable points bomb for me!

From MartijnN: Another mixed bag

The fact that I am happily printing away means that the stack of "things to be painted sometime" has been growing rather than diminishing lately. Still, I have managed to get some things done. It is not really much, but I do expect to receive an invitation for a jab soon, so best to get a post in while I can!

First, here are three 15mm Essex Companions for my DBA Bactrian Greeks. I had originally intended these for the Knight's Solar but I have never even been in the vicinity! I know that a DBA  army is hardly a challenge in figure count, but since this one has been in the works for the best of three decades there's no need to start hurrying now. One more element of Companions with general and four elements of pikemen to go. I may get there yet!

Next up is a brigade of 10mm Perrin Miniature ACW Zouaves for my Altar of Freedom project. I'm not even sure if there were Zouaves at Champion Hill but they made a nice change from the standard Union infantry.

Then here are two wood golems from the Scourge of Valtan Forest Kickstarter. I intend to use these as Ents for Warmaster or something similar. They are nice figures and the prints came out fine. 

Finally,  a potions shop printed in more or less 10mm scale from another Kickstarter, the Architecture Medieval Set (yeah, I know, I tend to go overboard a little when embarking on something new, like 3d printing) . In spite of its rather unimaginative name this set actually contains some very nice and creative fantasy mediaeval buildings, and this quirky potions shop is a fine example. I rather enjoyed painting it up and look forward to doing more of the buildings.

So, there we are, 3 15mm cavalry for 12 points, 20 10mm infantry for 20 points, 2 28mm figure for 10 points and a 10mm building for 1 point (80/3375 cm3 of a standard cube or 0,023 point, generously rounded up). 43 points!

From MartijnN: QCwk3 Slightly less small matters

For my third weekly task I have.. well, some 6mm of course! Some more miniature real estate, a Belgian/ Northern French house from TimeCast and a church from Total Battle Miniatures. The church is actually from their North-American range, but I think it will also do nicely as an Eastern European building.

Next, let's turn to bigger matters. Now, I am a slow painter and the rate at which some Challengers turn out beautiful 28mm figures never ceases to amaze me. I myself am quite happy to have been able to produce all of twenty-four 10mm figures and a gun from the former Perrin range (they are still sold by Magister Militum). I bought these in 2004 without having any clear purpose in mind (hey, they were a bargain) but never got around to painting them until I discovered the excellent website on the Altar of Freedom rules: 6mmacw. I believe that fellow Challenger Miles has some involvement in the matter... Now, these have obviously been designed with 6mm figures in mind but I don't see why 10mm wouldn't work so here are a brigade of Union infantry and a Confederate artillery battery.

These are for my modest first ACW project which aims to recreate the battle of Champion Hill (AAR on 6mmacw here). This is one of the smaller scenarios in the rules so should be doable. Only 9 more brigades to do!

I used contrast paints again, The Ultramarines Blue turned out just a bit darker than my other Union infantry and the pants are a bit less skyblue, but all in all I am not unhappy. The flag is from Pendraken.

Lastly, I made a small piece of terrain: a swamp. It is on an mdf base by Warbases, just a simple affair but I find it quite effective.

Thanks for looking, easy on the Easter eggs, stay safe and wash those hands!