"I need the biggest pair of lobster tongs you have...no, that's too big..."

I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with GW's contrast paints (shhh, don't tell anybody!), as well as the novelty of custom bases from Secret Weapon. These two factors have meant that 40K has dominated my recent painting time, which has been spotty at best over the summer.

Nevertheless, I'm quite happy with what's been rolling off the ol' paint-spattered desk lately:

Painting Challenge Wrap-Up

The 6th Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge wrapped up this past Sunday.

I ended up finishing with a decent score of 620, which was nonetheless well short of what I'd hoped to hit (850). This was mostly owing the fact that I was also working on a massive writing project in the midst of the Challenge, a project that ended up taking up most of my December and January. And then it took me most of February to really gather my wits back about me. So by the time I was ready to start painting again in earnest, the Challenge was nearly complete.

Still, I did manage to knock off one big painting project (a platoon for Bolt Action) and make a start on my 40K Black Templars project (which will get a post of its own at some point, I imagine).

Another reason I didn't do as well as I'd hoped is, ironically, because I've managed to establish a regular painting schedule outside of the Challenge. Last year, the Challenge was key to me getting a ton of unpainted figures finished up for my display cabinets, as it forced me to establish a regular nightly painting routine. I managed to maintain that routine, and even (thanks to moving into a bigger house) set up a permanent painting corner that makes putting in time on my figures even easier. So I felt less pressure to get things knocked out - there wasn't the "now or never" feeling of last year.

Also, due to my insane work schedule, I wasn't able to get invested in the community of the Challenge - commenting on other peoples' work, offering encouragement and advice, etc. (Indeed, I still have yet to get caught up on my blog feed in general; I've got a backlog of several weeks to wade through!) Losing that connection to the Challenge further reinforced my lackadaisical participation.

I'll probably participate again next year, but with a much lower points target. Maybe just a single big project or something. We'll see.

At any rate, as I did with my last post, here's a round-up of what I submitted during the back half of the Challenge...

A Bit of Brazilians

Outside the Painting Challenge, my biggest project last year was putting together a platoon for games of Bolt Action. I went a bit off the beaten path with my choice of force, in that I modeled my platoon on the Força Expedicionária Brasileira (FEB), or Brazilian Expeditionary Force, which fought in Italy during the latter months of the war.

I wrote about my collection in greater detail here, but in brief the FEB was mostly U.S. kit but with Springfield rifles instead of Garands (and an according difference in tactical doctrine). Part of the draw for modeling this force was the fact that the army was racially integrated, so it presented an opportunity to paint up models that look at once familiar yet subtly different, but I'll be honest: what really sold me was their divisional insignia--a snake smoking a pipe!

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

I got to have a game with my boys from Brazil a couple months ago, and noted that my squads needed some beefing up, both in numbers and firepower. So here are six more recruits (including two BAR gunners) set to join the FEB's ranks in time for my next game.

One thing I didn't have in that game (nor in the pictures taken for the above-linked post) were sleeve insignia. The kind folks at Fighting Pirannha Graphics (and what an appropriate name that was!) took care of that for me, and I am now the proud owner of two sheets of FEB sleeve insignia decals...

So that's six 28mm infantry for 30 points. A small ding in my total, but a good way to get back in the swing after losing January to work obligations. Next week, hopefully, a modest points bomb...

28mm "Defenders of Leningrad"

"Next week, hopefully, a modest points bomb..." 

So spake I three weeks ago. Well, that's what I get for making promises, I guess.

But here, at last, is the promised modest points bomb: a platoon of Soviet naval infantry along with a KV-2 tank and a gaggle of citizen militia. This is a 1,000-point Bolt Action force modeled on forces defending Leningrad in early 1942, somewhere towards the end of winter and beginning of spring.

I've long had an interest in the "Black Death" of the Great Patriotic War. Long ago, I had a platoon of them in 20mm scale. After getting into Bolt Action last year, and finding an opponent who enjoys early-war Eastern Front games as much as I do, I set about putting together a naval infantry force in 28mm.

First Squad

Manufacturers are Warlord and BTD. There's a nice mix of black pea coats, blue middy blouses, and army-issue telogreika.

Second Squad

Although I appreciate the authentic mix of uniforms, this is chiefly what slowed me down the most (especially with the extra militia squad in their civvies thrown in for good measure!). I'd anticipated that this project would paint up quickly--it was supposed to be just a bunch of black uniforms, after all. No such luck.

Third Squad

Speaking of the black uniforms, I'm pretty pleased with how those turned out. They look suitably dark without losing too much detail or going too gray with the highlighting.

Platoon Command: HQ, Politruk, FAO, ATR team

The Commissar's in town!

I owe this to the "Black Paint Set" from Andrea Color, a set I'll be returning to when I shift gears and start working on my Black Templars for 40K (which I'll hopefully be able to at least get a start on before the Challenge ends).

Maxim HMG team

Back to these fellows, though: When researching this force, I read somewhere that there were KV-2s at Leningrad. One of my all-time favorite tanks, I leapt at the opportunity to do one in 1/56 scale.

This KV-2 from Warlord bears the weathering of a tough winter: its whitewash camouflage largely dissolved by now, rust streaks in great abundance, tracks and running gear covered in frozen mud.

Bolt Action provides Red Army lists with a free squad of Green-quality troops, so I decided to build on my "city defense" theme by representing my free squad with "partisan" figures, here standing in for Leningrad's ad-hoc People's Militia Army.

These figures from BTD have tons of character, and I found myself making up little back-stories for many of them. I painted up their commanding officer as a dismounted Cossack cavalryman, put in charge after his horse ended up in the communal stew pot.

Black Templar Terminators and Land Raider

As the finish line looms closer, I finally at least manage to put some points on the board towards my Black Templar project. I'd hoped to get through my entire Templar list this Challenge, but so it goes.

I've always had a soft spot for the 40K universe, but most of my gaming in that setting has been via Epic-scale engagements. For various reasons, I never got into 40K proper back in the 90s. I've nearly gotten into it a few times over the last 10 years, but I lacked a project that really fired my imagination.

That changed when I discovered the Black Templars. I love their look, I love their lore. In a gothic sci-fi universe, they are the most gothic of all. I used to field an Empire army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle, and I think the Black Templars come closest to capturing that same visual aesthetic. I was additionally pleased to find out that Forge World offer a variety of resin and brass-etched "add-ons" to properly pimp out one's Templars in grand gothic fashion.

What we have here is one of the centerpiece units of my Templar force: five Terminators and their Land Raider Crusader transport.

The Terminators are kitted out with custom shoulder plates and shields from Forge World; for their helmets, I swapped in appropriately knight-like pieces from Puppets War (gotta love those third-party Eastern European conversion companies!).

As befits the Eternal Crusaders of Righteousness, these guys are positively festooned in purity seals. (I love purity seals.)

And then there's the behemoth that is the Land Raider Crusader. This thing took almost as long to build as it did to paint! Coming off of painting WWII tanks, which are usually no more than 3-5 pieces total, it was a bit daunting assembling this thing, with its dozens of parts.

Size-wise, it's truly massive - probably the largest vehicle miniature I've ever painted.

Once again, lots of nice additional details courtesy of Forge World.

I'm quite pleased with how the black turned out on both the Terminators and the Crusader. I used Andrea Color's "Black Paint Set" (as I did with my Soviet sailors in my last entry) and the kit worked great both with the brush and airbrush (although the rather viscous paints needed a lot of watering down for the latter).

I'm going to knuckle down and get one more entry in before the closing ceremonies, so I won't say cheerio just yet...

Curtgeld & Farewell

For this, my final entry, I present my Curtgeld. Coming into the Challenge, I honestly had no idea of what this was going to be, but when David Bowie ascended to the stars back in January I suddenly had a notion of who I wanted to represent a risk-taker and gambler.

As many eulogies following his death pointed out, Bowie was a consummate risk-taker, constantly shedding his pop identity in favor of new realms of exploration, dabbling in the latest frontiers of a variety of musical genres and forms of expression, never sure if his next move would spell the end of his popularity or career. Yet time and time again, he proved his doubters wrong. Even his failures and wrong-turns were interesting and edifying in their own way.

His public devil-may-care image inspired countless fans from all walks of life and identities to be themselves, to revel in their weirdness. His impact on the generations that grew up with the image of Ziggy or the Thin White Duke or, yes, Jareth the Goblin King is incalculable. And he went out like a true artiste with a brilliant final album musing on the nature of death and dying and immortality.

This figure, originally a Ral Partha and now available via Iron Wind and amusingly titled "Androgynous Rocker with Microphone", fit the bill nicely to provide a 28mm tribute to the man.

And his tush.

[Project Ork] Finis

Many moons ago I blogged about drinking the Kool-Aid and embarking on a Warhammer 40,000 collecting and painting project. At the time I promised pictures as the project unfolded.

What ended up happening was that rather than slowly building the army up over the course of the year, as intended, I painted everything up all at once in a stretch of about three weeks and then essentially put the figures aside, where they proceeded to sit in my display case without a whole lot to say or do. I felt unmotivated to take pictures and felt disappointed in the work I'd done.

So I've decided to sell the collection. Ironically, in the course of taking photos of the figures I've come to appreciate the paint jobs that I did, as well as the modeling and conversion work. I think my demoralization came not from the quality of the work, which in retrospect was up to my standards, but rather the realization that I wasn't going to use them for anything. It's a nice collection and I hope it finds a good home, but the project taught me that Warhammer 40K just isn't for me. I intend to use to proceeds generated by the sale of the Orks to fund a return to World War II skirmish, albeit in a scale new to me in that genre: 28mm. I've already bought a couple sample figures from Artizan and I'm quite excited to be working in the larger scale. Pictures (and hopefully some battle reports!) will definitely follow for this project, albeit at a slow pace. I'm determined to pace out my WWII project as I had wanted to do for the Orks.

But enough of future plans; let us take a moment to bask in the glow of what-might-have-been, Project Ork. The conversions and paint jobs were based on World War One German forces, inspired by an influential 'Eavy Metal spread from a White Dwarf of my youth featuring the work of the late, great Carl E. Cordell, aka the Orkmeister. On with the show, then - click and ye shall maketh the pictures to become larger.

Three Nobz with resin heads. I was very pleased with the Micro Art heads - without them, my concept wouldn't have worked nearly as well.

A squad of Stikk Boyz. Note the gunner of the Heavy Bolta and his gasmask!

I couldn't resist adding a unit of Shootas with a Rokkit Launcher and all those big guns!

Another Nob. I exercised my experience with painting WWII figures to add fun little details, like the chipped paint on his shoulder plate.

The other unit of Stikk Boyz.

Kommandos. "They're doin' their best, do what they can..." I was particularly pleased with how their masks turned out. The ones with goggles had their lenses painted with day-glo green paint to make it look like night vision.

The Kommando Nob, a resin monstrosity from Forge World. That axe is the most 40K element in the whole army. Ridiculously wonderful.

Killa Kans. I had a blast painting the WWI-style camouflage.

Looted Leman Russ tank. I added an Orky flame-thrower on the sponson mount, an Ork heavy bolter on the co-axial, and bolted-on armor. I was also quite happy with how the hand-painted Blood Axe logo on the turret turned out.

A bit of weathering, too.

I found this Cybork Mechboy on eBay, complete with the little helper  Gretchin; I added the dynamite chucker in the backpack.

My warboss. A mashup of the plastic Boss from the Assault on Black Ridge set, the resin banner pole from the Forge World Kommando Nob, and the original metal Kommando Nob. The cigar clenched in his teeth made him the perfect Patton-esque Blood Axe boss.

Another view of the first unit of Stikk Boyz.

I drilled out the barrels on all the guns. Maybe I did get a little carried away...

The Shootas again. I was really pleased with how the Rokkit Launcha turned out. The "rokkits" added a nice splash of color to all the earth tones.

Kommandos! You get a nice view of the night-vision goggles in this shot.

What a bad-ass.

I've always loved Gretchin.

I was quite happy with the bolted-on armor plate. It looks suitably funky and rusticated.

I have to say that Killa Kans with WWI camo was my original mental image around which the collection coalesced, and this shot pretty much matches that image exactly.

And we can't forget the Death Koptas! I patterned the paint jobs on German biplanes from Richtoffen's Flying Circus. My only regret here was that the Koptas didn't have more surface area to show off the colors!

In the end, the project was a success, but ultimately I realized I'm just not going to be playing any 40K and I'm not enough of a collector to be okay with having a display of minis that never get used for a game. So the Orks are off to find a new home (maybe your own?), one where they can hopefully do all the shootin' and stikkin' and blastin' their little green hearts desire. On to the next project!