Sunday 29 January 2017

The Votes are In for the 'East' Theme Round!

Hello fellow Brush-Jockies!

As the title says, the votes have been finalized for the 'East' theme round.  We had another wonderful series of submissions, all with their own interpretation of the theme 'East'. Thank you to all the participants for your entries - your work makes administrating these rounds a joy.

Following are the results.

Runners Up (we had several ties, which is great)

AlanD's 'Retreat from Moscow'



MartinN's 'Eastern Roman Clibanarii'




GregB's 'Mounted Samurai'





Curt's 'Viet Mihn'






Bark's 'Samurai Command Tent'






Third Place


ChristopberS' sobering but amazingly realized 'Aftermath in the East Woods'



Christopher will get 25 extra points awarded to his tally. Well done Chris!







Second Place

BrendonW's wonderfully serpentine 'Eastern Dragon and Mongols'




Brendon will be awarded 50 bonus points for his fine efforts here.








First Place


ByronM's rather intimidating '35mm Egyptian Rex Gladiator'.




 

Congratulations Byron! For this magnificent entry you will receive 75 bonus points and a gift certificate from the good folks over at Comic Readers.




And for those who are interested, here are the stats for the round:





Okay! Next Sunday is our 'Terrain: Home' theme, so I hope to see lots of interesting interpretations on that nesting topic and remember to get your entries in by midnight Saturday.

Tomorrow Miles returns to us with his Monday Miscreants so keep an eye out for their submissions.

Have a great week everyone!

From AlanD - Retreat from Moscow (125 points)


A new school year starts tomorrow, so I made a big push this week to get some figures painted before production inevitably slows under the weight of marking. I have been finishing off the Retreat from Moscow figures in my leadpile, with Sharp Practice 2 in mind. As I have said before, these figures from Perry and Murawski miniatures are an absolute pleasure to paint.

In Painting Challenge IV, (or maybe V), I was fortunate enough to win some figures from Murawski Miniatures one of the esteemed sponsors of this madness. Their Duchy of Warsaw figures for 1812 are a great complement to the Perry range, and will be forming a good chunk of my army. More are on their way to join the unpainted lead, but here is a little group of infantry skirmishing. 


Some more Poles now, this time from Perry Miniatures. These men are not in such good shape, and include straggling infantry and horseless cavalry.


Some dismounted cavalry and an Eagle from various French units. I am particularly fond of the Carabinier with the twin pistols looking very Gangsta.




And finally some more assorted troops, including a wonderfully characterful Wurtemburg (I think?) chasseur à cheval and a stoic Grenadier of the Imperial Guard.



In total, that's 25 figures, and should net me 125 points.

___________________________

This is wonderful companion piece to your previous Retreat entry, Alan. 

As I've mentioned before, I think these figures demand a certain attention to their basework in order to come off well, and I think you've done a terrific job on them. The snow, the ice and especially the winter-kill grass really help to covey the weather these people had to endure. I've not worked with the Murawski figures but after seeing these I know I need to pick up a set.

125 points for you to add before your school year starts. Great work, Alan!


From Paul OG: Fantasy Units (160 points)

Fantasy focused goodies from me this week, with some unusually good productivity prior to having this weekend off painting to attend CanCon: the biggest hobby convention in Australia.  Hoping to catch up with a few friends and bloggers there, including a number from the challenge.

Orc champion riding a Warbeast

First up: Ta-da! This is a surprise present for JohnS’s birthday!

The colours specifically match John’s lovely 28mm Orc army, which is comprised of the long OOP Chronopia figures with their great Moorish vibe.   I carved the body off a Chronopia Orc Leader and remounted him onto a similarly dissected Scotia-Grendel Carnosaur.  This was a somewhat challenging conversion so I added a back banner which is actually a long steel rod which pins the model together very strongly despite the dissimilar materials.




Pleased to present a good buddy with something unique for his army and I know he will enjoy using it.  Naturally though, if I have to face it on the tabletop it will automatically fail all of its activation rolls :-)

Happy (belated) birthday John!

Elite Riders
These guys are the centre piece of my Riders of Doom fantasy army and while expensive points wise, they really kick butt in Dragon Rampant.  Yes they are indeed GW plastic Chaos figs and I didn’t de-skull/chaos them as much as my last batch because I think they look quite good as is. 




Unfortunately, three of these had a little paint applied mid last year before stalling, so I’ll only be claiming 3 of them, including the hand painted banner chap.  Great to have this unit finished and on the table!

Trolls
4 big ‘uni which are lovely old and characterful Troll models, originally by Ghost miniatures and now by Old Glory.   Beheaded casualty fig is from the Conquest Norman boxed set and I quite enjoyed doing that dioramic basing to demonstrate that these lads are not to be trifled with!

They have already played their first game and yes they were slaughtered (by Reilly's Dwarves from the Armour bonus round), but at least they looked good doing so :-)

Thanks to JohnS for the donations to the horde – I hope I’ve done them justice!

Beastmen
Classic GW figs to mix up my Riders of Doom force for Dragon Rampant.  I really tried to speed paint these but so help me I just cant leave all those details untouched.  Overall, these maybe took 2/3 of the regular time but I think the rougher and ready looks suits them well.  After painting all those FIW Indians recently I felt compelled to add some tribal warpaint and think it adds nicely.

They have also seen their first combat and were routed from the field after suffering 1/3 casualties, again at the hands of Reilly's Dwarves.  So now we've gotten that out of the way, I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do :-)

Champion
Yet another GW fig and I didn’t deskull him either – I understand he is a limited ed figure (?) so I let him be as is.  And standing on a pile of skulls? Well, who is going to inform your Riders of Doom champion that doing so is not in accordance with the warlord's work health and safety policies? Exactly!

I went for blue with metallic features appearance – end result wasn’t exactly what I was after but he will do for now to get him on the table.


In wider terms this isn't a bomb, but for me its as close as you're going to see from me! 

Points wise, this submission takes me past the half way point to my objective.  My target goal is in sight...but I'm contemplating a push to join the 1k club.  Mission Creep? You betcha, but in the best possible way :-) And peer pressure from Alan has nothing to do with it. Honestly!

_________________________________

Wow, Paul, you are hitting it right out of the park with these fantasy units you're creating. 

I'm sure John will be absolutely delighted with his mounted Orc commander/champion. That is truly an amazing bit of work, Paul. The conversion looks terrific and I like the addition of the stained banner. What an majestic lump of nastiness those two make. Bravo!

The 'King in Purple' cavalry look suitably imposing, the beastmen are slaveringly ferocious and the champion a complete tyrant on his mound of skulls, but I have to say that I'm quite taken by that unit of trolls. Their faces have a certain Maurice Sendak look about them which I find very cool. I think they need to be lead by a precocious boy in pyjamas, wearing a crown and long tail. 

'Let the wild rumpus begin!'

160 well earned points for you, Paul. Wonderful work and I hope you enjoyed the weekend at CanCon.

MilesR: Ammat Devourers (70 Points)

 Just a small submission this week - 10 Ammat Devourers from Reaper Minis.  They're listed as 28mm figures but actually weigh in at 40 so they're big boys.

The figures are metals and were very nicely cast and a pleasure to paint up.

These guys will be part of the "Boss-Level" for my Historicon game

Sorry for the short note and low productivity but real life has gotten in the way again!








___________________________________


Holy Cow! This is a inordinately small entry for Mr. Miles. I had to check the header to see if I had really seen 'Ready' on the post!


These crocodile guys are pretty darn cool. I really like their quasi-Egyptian red and white headdress, bronze scale mail and their humongous Kopesh swords. Will there be more of these fantasy units coming up in the next few weeks?

I'm also quite intrigued by the whole idea of a 'Boss Fight' in a miniatures game. You must tell us more Miles.

70 points for you Miles, I'll expect one of your patented R-Bombs in the coming week. :)