The Votes are in for the 'Villain(s)' Theme Bonus Round

Well, our 'Villains' bonus round proved a resounding success with 151 voters casting on 45 wonderful entries. You could tell that many of the participants were bringing out their A game which provided a feast for the eyes.

Here are the final results:

3rd place was a very close race with Ray's excellent Sauron, Nick's hilarious Goblin Pirates and Byron's terrifying Nurgle Demon Prince all finishing within a few points of one another. 

But it was in the last few days that Iannick's wonderful Jabberwock pulled ahead to take 3rd place. This will give Iannick 25 bonus points to add to his total. Well done Iannick!

Frankly I'm a little hesitant about announcing 2nd place as I believe it should have been at the top. Sidney Roundwood's series of Mata Hari vignettes are a work of genius - brilliantly conceived and masterfully executed, truly a joy to behold. I urge you to check out Sidney's blog to get a better sense of the craftsmanship that went into these vignettes, it really is quite astonishing. For this entry Sidney will receive 50 additional bonus points to add to his tally. Wonderful work Sidney!

So in this light I am truly humbled to have been given the nod for 1st place. I am delighted that my 1812 French Retreat were appreciated, which in turn does much to bolster my enthusiasm for this rather anachronistic if not desolate little project.

I will not take any prize but will gladly accept the 75 bonus points. Thank you for your support, my thanks to all my fellow Challengers in making this a great bonus round and congratulations again to Sidney and Iannick on their much deserved success!

Now, on to the 'Vehicle' Bonus Round, stay tuned...

The Second Fortnight Theme Bonus Round: 'Villain(s)'

For this fortnight's theme we look at Villainy. This is an interesting subject as a villain can come in many forms: a hero's nemesis, a voracious monster, the Persian-petting crime lord, etc. As you can imagine this subject can be widely interpreted and so duly has! So sit back and enjoy the creativity of our Challengers in their portrayal of... Villains!

After your tour of the submissions please visit the poll to the right and vote for your favourites. As before, you can vote for as many entries as you wish.


AaronH

These two models are my entry for the villains category.  They are foot and mounted versions of GW’s betrayer Nazgul for Lord of the Rings.  He’s often the general for my Harad army, when I’m not using Bob the Budget Nazgul.  

I’ve had these two models sitting, primed, on my desk for two years.  Considering it only took a couple of hours for me to paint them up, I’m ashamed of how long they waited. 

The final picture has a couple of the Harad models included just for context.  The blue on the turban is to tie the Nazgul in with the rest of the army.  For the armor I went for bronze since it is better at looking old and decayed.  

There is just a hint of green on the sword.  I attempted a green glow in the hood, and failed so utterly that I had to cover all traces of my shame with black paint.  It is remarkable how far away my attempt was from what I was trying to do.

AlanD

Hengest and Horsa

Isn't it great when brothers do things together? 

For the bonus round I painted up two arch villains of British history, the brothers Hengest and Horsa, intent on carving out new lands in the rich and vulnerable post-Roman Britain. Of course, as the case with many villains, these two could equally appear in the Heroes round, depending on your point of view. However, nothing says 'villain' as much as wearing a couple of eviscerated badgers, so Hengest's fashion sense convinced me that they belong among the collection of beautifully painted vicious psychos you will see above and below my contribution. 

The figures are from the talented Bill Thornhill of Musketeer Miniatures. I just love his work, and the steady procession of post-Roman personality figures issuing from his lair particularly fire my blood.

AndrewS

For this round I drew inspiration from a blog I have followed for a long time, the work of Kieron at Cheaphammer so I knew that this would be achievable and went off to ebay to source a couple of suitable villains. These are O scale (37mm) dc Heroclix figures. 

The first thing I did was rip them from there original bases and find a couple of spare circular bases. I then mounted the figures and sculpted a new set of bases for them, very simply I chose a brick pavement and a flagstone floor. Once set these were both primed black and reworked into the versions you see today.

The figure on the left is “The Shade” (Richard Swift) is a comic book character developed in the 1940’s,  first appearing in the pages of Flash Comics in a story titled The Man Who Commanded the Night.

Debuting as a villain, the Shade was best known for fighting against the superhero “The Flash” – To maintain the Dark shadowy look of this character was quite hard as he is clothed in black so he was worked in several tones of black with a touch of yellow added for each stage so as not to make him appear Grey, the face and Cane were then worked up as I would normally.

The figure on the right is “The Cheetah” she is a super-villainess appearing in DC Comics publications and related media. Popularly regarded as the archenemy of Wonder Woman, the Cheetah first appeared in 1943 in Wonder Woman #6 (volume 1). – This figure was harder to complete as getting the right tones over the black took many coats and stages to get right, these figures are also lacking muck in the way of sculpted detail so I had to spend a bit of time trying to define features with clever highlighting, the hair was just a blob on her head so I have done what I could to give that a better appearance.

Overall though I enjoyed doing these, they are just a bit of fun and they did break up the days nicely by doing them little and often.

AnneO’L

Bluebeard the Pirate!  This is a 28mm figure from Reaper and was sculpted by Bobbie Jackson. 

It is a BONES figure, but unlike many of the other BONES, this figure had sharp details and was well cast.

BrendonW

Bishop Odo, 1066.  He is a plastic Conquest Games figure but with a cut down club from Fire Forge plastics. The shield on his base is Gripping Beast plastic as is the axe embedded in it.

This guy has to be one of history’s Villains. Let’s look at his charge sheet. Born as half-brother of William the Bastard (later The Conqueror) who made him Bishop in 1049. Said to have acquired the ships for the invasion of England when he was still in his teens.  Some say that he may have been responsible for that famous tapestry which features him holding a club encouraging the lads riding a black horse.  After the invasion he acquired land and wealth second only to the King. He would be King Regent in Williams’s absence.  He led Royal forces against a rebellion. In 1076 he was put on trial for frauding the King and he lost some land. In 1082 he planned another invasion this time of Italy but he faced the law again and got a 5 year prison sentence. William on his deathbed freed him. Odo Joined the first Crusade and died soon after in 1097.

In conclusion, perhaps a sneaky individual who extorted and robbed his way to build his wealth.  Man of the church….hardly, a morally bankrupt overly ambitious man perhaps. I will use him as a ‘Warrior Priest’ in an historical version of ‘Kings of War’. A suitably frustrating use as it has an ability which means he helps units stay in the fight for much longer than they should.

BurkhardS

So here is my entry for the second fortnight round. Believe it or not… I have not touched a single mini since the last fortnight round. So in order not to fail my sub-challenge (to enter something for every fortnight round) I sat down today and painted this one. 

It is Boba Fett, the Bounty Hunter from Star Wars Episodes IV to VI. I had been thinking long and hard about the villain entry. Since I plan to do a lot of WWII minis for the Challenge, an SS officer came to mind, but honestly, I wanted to do something different here. I have had this minis for about two years now (it was a birthday gift by my better half) and I felt  it was fitting. There are few characters that scream villain in Star Wars, most either have their moments of goodness and others are pure evil. But I think the Bounty Hunter makes for a good villain. While only a hired gun, if you like, in my opinion he always saw what was going on around him and always passed his chance to do something good. He always chose money and it always came from the bad guys. So I felt he was a good choice.

Not much to say about the mini itself. It is by Knight Models. While bleeping expensive, I felt it did not really measure up to the price. Lot of mould lines to clean off, bad fit of the part and weak detail, which got only worse due to the mini being very slim by 28mm standards. So i ended up spending more time on him than I would have liked. I still have Han Solo from them, whom I shall eventually paint, but I will not buy another minis from them in the future.

ByronM

I promised this week’s entry would not be anywhere near as pretty as my old woman entry, and I think the pictures speak for them selves, I didn’t lie.  While not a “name-brand” villain like the Joker or Venom or someone like that, I certainly feel he is evil and therefore a villain. This will be my new Warhammer 40k Nurgle Demon Prince.  He is a demon from the warp bent on spreading pestilence and disease in order to further Grandfather Nurgles aims.

 

This demon prince is made from two plastic kits, the first being the stock demon prince kit and the second being the chaos Hellbrute kit.  I used the legs and feet of the Hellbrute to make him taller and beefier looking, and from about the waist up he is the demon prince kit.  I them crafted my own scythe blade for him as that is the traditional Nurgle weapon.  I then green stuffed on a distended and ruptured gut, Nurgle pustules and diseased areas all over, the Nurgle 3 circle symbols on his arm guards and shoulder pad, and a Nurgle Fly on the other shoulder pad.  I added several guitar strings to him as power cables to tie him in with the rest of my Nurgle force.

He is painted to look very rough and corroded, with drips and gore streaked down.  He is green throughout and fairly bright so that he fits with the Nurgle marines I have done as he is supposed to be one that was possessed by a demon and grew to massive proportions once taken.  Hope you enjoy.

ChristopherS

This is my Villain entry a Rebel outlaw.

I had this figure in mind for Curt's entry fee as he fit's in the Western Theme which is one of Sam's periods with the Wild Bunch. I planned on painting him later to send to Canada, but then I noticed I really didn't have a villain for the fortnight theme round as it just doesn't fit in with my painting plans and then a rare thing happened....a light bulb went off in my head and I thought why don't I just use him as my villain too as he is indeed an outlaw which constitutes is a villain by most counts. 

So he is both my villain entry and the figure I will be sending to Curt as my entry fee. 

I painted him up as an ex-confederate(possibly a previous member of the notorious Quantrill raiders) who now that the war is over needs to find a means of making a living. He's good with his gun and has had plenty of practice so has decided the life of robbing and murder is just the ticket for him. 

With this in mind I painted him in shades of grey and butternut to best reflect his origins. The figure is from Wargames Foundry and was a real treat to paint up with very nice smooth surfaces to paint and little to no flash to clean up.

ClintB

Two Mexican Banditos, (Artizan Figures Banditos, II pack). It has always struck me as a bit wrong that Mexican characters in Western Films are either Villains or Victims, the notable exceptions being Zorro and Manolito from the High Chaparral. 

Anyway 2 28mm Wild West characters painted to my normal standard. 

DallasE

I was wracking my brain trying to think of a "villain" I could paint. History's full of them, for sure, but they so seldom appear on the wargames table. Our games seem to usually be baddies of some sort vs. other baddies, and I don't personally tend to think of individual German or Russian soldiers as "villains" in the classical sense - that is, a character who's vilified (just so) for his evil deeds.

Then I had an "aha" moment!! Since I'd gotten a load of Indian Wars stuff from a friend's estate I figured I'd paint up "Yellow Hair" for the challenge. Certainly a figure that's been seen as both hero and villain, but moreso the latter, in the current popular narrative anyway...

In any case, it's a 28mm Foundry figure of course, the classic representation of Custer in my mind, albeit probably incorrect for Little Big Horn as I think many accounts have him wearing his buckskin jacket and his hair short. The model was painted yesterday afternoon (priming and basing too!) and there is one interesting thing about the base... it incorporates some actual sandy soil from the foot of Last Stand Hill that I collected when I visited the battlefield in 2008.

DaveD

I was given the "Pulp Alley" rules for Christmas, you know - like I need another distraction right? 

Anyway while rooting around darkest depths of the lead pile I came across this chap - or rather ex chap - its that earliest incarnation of zombies I give you "The Mummy" -  better to start off my Pulp collection.  

I have no idea when, or even why I bought this - It may be an Irregular miniatures figure - but may not!

EdwinK

I introduce the Mad Maharajas.  These are from  Studio Miniatures Sikh Wars range, but I'm using them for a much later period as the deliberately anachronistic leaders of a movement to eject the British from the Punjab and restore princely rule.  

As someone has pointed out, they could also come in for the League of Extraordinary Capt Gentlemen's Capt Nemo (but he's not a villain!).

They share the megalomaniac's obsession with red and gold, but I also wanted something from the palette to represent the rich silks available to Sikh royalty.

FranL

Here is a 28mm mounted Nazgul from Lord of the Rings and won on Sam's blog before Christmas, I believe he is from Mithril figures and maybe not as good as the Games Workshops Ringwraiths (which I have painted in the past) but he is a villain to me and free!

GregB

Like many gamers, I really enjoy the 40k setting, but find the current 40k game itself to be an exercise in smearing dog excrement on the table.  I call this the "Abnett Dissonance", and feel it nowhere more than in the telling of the Horus Heresy.  

This long-time story is the flat-out best aspect of the 40k story arc (entire legions of Space Marines! Betrayal! Civil War! A siege! Galaxy in flames! So cool), and has been a part of the 40k setting for a long time.   GW has mangled it over this period, and where Horus once led a rebellion that was subtly but firmly tainted by the Chaos powers, the rebel marines evolved to "Chaos Marines", with forty skulls and spiky bits sticking out of 25 new orifices that appeared as soon as they sign up with Chaos. 

I cling to the more original notion of the Horus Heresy - that it was a rebellion, a civil war.  Yes, Chaos tainted the leaders of it, but did not suddenly give every follower a bunch of tentacles and rusty armour. With this in mind, I present, as a villain, a Terminator Sergeant from Horus' own legion, the Luna Wolves (not as the much lamer "Sons of Horus").  

The model is wearing the "Tartaros Pattern" armour from the "Legion" Range - a gift from fellow conscript Dallas.  I hope to do a force of Legion marines this year…but I just don't know if the finances will work out. 

I love the crest of the Luna Wolves, and took a stab at freehand painting it.  Let's just say I'm going to order decals…many thanks to Dallas for this present - sorry it took me so long to start painting these buggers!

IanW

So Curt want's a Villain, so what's the worst I could come up with?

I have to admit I am a little anxious about this one, bit like pushing the envelope a little bit to far. This is a Blacktree Miniatures Figure and was very crisp (maybe a mould that does not get a lot of use?), anyway some of you may remember my Sniper reminders from last year? Well I have based him as one of these and offered him free to a good mate who promptly turned it down so I guess that envelope is a little singed.

Worked a lot on the clothes and went away from my normal style making the shading a lot more pronounced which I think kind of works with him. All told it was a reasonable figure to work with, the medals etc. are a little soft in detail making them hard to pick out.

IannickM

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!

I hesitated a lot when it was time to decide what figure I would enter in the villains bonus round. After all, with me painting an Oldhammer Chaos army the choices were plentiful! In the end I went with the Jabberwock for two reasons : it's a really cool figure and I figured there was no way someone else would submit one!

The Jabberwock was always one of my favourite Chaos monster. I mean, just the name "Jabberwock" is awesome and for some strange reason fits perfectly with the beast's appearance. I remember seeing a picture of one in the Warhammer 3rd edition bestiary and thinking I needed one of those! Just...so...bizarre!

The figure I used was released in the early 80s, 1982 I believe, by Ral Partha, and was sculpted by Tom Meier. While not a Citadel figure per se, it was sold in Europe by Citadel under license. I bought that figure, actually sold in the Citadel packaging, in the late eighties, in a now long defunct hobby shop "bargain bin". I undercoated it, lost interest and the poor fellow spent more than 20 years in the bottom of my lead box. The figure has aged remarkably well I find, and it is still today imho the best looking Jabberwock available on the market. Few sculpts of the Jabberwock have been made in 28mm; one by Ral Partha, one by Citadel and a recent one from Reaper.

The great thing with this creature is that you can truly let your imagination run wild as there is no "accepted" reference, and most pics are black & white. I went mostly with a striking green to match the colour scheme I intend to give to my chaos force. He will more than likely have a place of honour among my Chaos monsters, as I really like him.

JamesL

Major Heisst, Scourge of the French Resistance. Heisst will become part of my German Bolt Action Army, chasing down French Partisans in his Puma armoured car (not included in Challenge). He is my first attempt at painting eyes on a figure, and I did it to emphasize his eye patch.

JeremyM

Curt is actually one of my colleagues (though not very collegial - ed.). With both of us being in the archives/library world it shouldn't come as too much a surprise that I chose some minis related to that. These are from Black Cat Miniatures as are the bases. 

There is an evil librarian (or archivist) complete with a tentacle crawling up her leg at 28mm. There are also two 40mm book golems and a couple of evil books around 15mm. 

Curt even gave me the bright idea to come up with some rules to use these guys in 'Strange Eons', can't wait to try them out.

JohnM

Some Villainous Gall-Gaedhil! 

Almost 3 weeks after the start of the competition and I finally get my first submission painted. I have put up for 1500 points, going to be tough at this rate. I started with some Front Rank Légére, they are half done, but I wanted to get something in the Villain's sub-contest, and I could not really say the French were villainous....not to me anyway.

These are from Gripping Beast and are one of their Swords for Hire packs, I have got them all done now. They are nice enough, but they were challenge to get done. I started painting them on Thursday, so there was no time to use the magic dip. They were block painted, some highlights applied and then multiple different Citadel washes were applied. I had no shield transfers left so a rudimentary attempt was made at painting the shields. In between painting, I had to do two shifts at the Gates of Hell, so I have been busy. 

This morning I got up to finish all the details, the shields and the bases and half the power in the house was off including the power to my painting room...........so they were finished by using two battery operated lamps!

JuanM

Panchito, "Prince of Tijuana", a Black Scorpion 36mm miniature I have painted as the bad guy or the Villain.

Very nice figure, and a bit difficult to paint.

KevH

The scourge of Christendom, "Saladin".

Although really quite a chivalrous sort of guy, he was a real Villain to the Crusaders.

1/72 scale figures by Strelets. This will be my CinC for the Saracen army.

KevinS

So, how do four seemingly wholesome freedom-loving GIs qualify as villains? The answer lies in the blue and rose scarves they wear in place of the standard 1944 US Army issue.  To the alert these are none other than members of Otto Skorzeny's Einheit Stielau: German soldiers cunningly disguised as Americans, intent on sewing fear and confusion in preparation for the advance of the German thrust into the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge.  Among other methods they employed to aid in identification for friendly German units were these distinguishing scarves. We're they true villains? I guess that depends on which history of the conflict you read.

LeeH

My contribution to the 'Villain' Bonus Round was a last minute inspiration, driven by a great Hammer Horror classic. The Christmas break has been a whirlwind of activity and I haven't put brush to metal for over a week and a half. Once the new year (& my daughters 18th Birthday Party) celebrations were over and done with however I was determined to get my bonus entry painted even I managed nothing else. The only problem was I couldn't think of a suitable Villain to enter, which was when serendipity took a hand in guiding me. 

My wife has recorded a load of classic hammer films for me because she knows I'm a fan of Peter Cushing (a fellow Wargamer as well as a renound actor). One of these was the 1959 Hammer version of The Mummy, staring Cushing as the archeaologist John Banning and Christopher Lee as the mummified priest Kharis brought back to life to avenge the desecration of the Princess Ananka's Tomb. Its a great version of this often remade and revitalised classic and I thoroughly enjoyed it. By the end of the film I knew exactly the Villan I wanted to paint for my Challenge entry. 

So here he is. Kharis, heretic priest, buried alive for 5000 years and reannimated by the Scroll of Life to wreak havoc and mayhem on the big screen! The model is a 25mm Ral Partha figure from the 1983 Things That Go Bump in the Night line. I can't remember where I got this model but it had clearly been painted and then stripped (badly) because it needed a lot of cleaning before I started painting it. Its not a hugely dynamic pose but its a classic model and worthy of a second life. 

MarkG

My second entry intends to kill a few birds with one, or rather two stones, that is the Villain’s theme, and the entry charge. These are two 28mm figures from the Gringo 40’s Mexican Revolution range, and nicely sculpted they are too. Hopefully my paint job has done them at least some service. 

 First up is a Federales General. This is my “Entry Fee” to the challenge, and this chap is inspired by the notorious General Mapache from the Wild Bunch film. The character is most likely based on the real life General Huerta, but given Peckinpah’s firing as director from an earlier film (Villa Rides) for presenting too negative an image of Pancho Villa for the actor Yul Brynner, and the uncanny likeness of the character General Mapache to Pancho Villa, then I guess we can say Peckinpah was “recycling” some old script…

The next figure is also a villain, and is based on the character “Captain Herrera” from the Wild Bunch (he’s the chap “escorting” the Wild Bunch and the stolen guns back to General Mapache in the middle of the movie).

I really enjoyed painting these, and certainly it’s giving me thoughts about starting two small armies for the Mexican Revolution. Yet more lead to the mill."

MartinN

As Curt has allowed for Fantasy entries this year also I jumped at the chance to paint some figures I had laying around for far to long. Initially my missus bought them as they're soooooo funny and hoped for me to paint them. As I'm normally not too enthusiastic about painting fantasy stuff they were soon forgotten (at least by me). While searching for suitable figures for the challenge I decided to finally paint them up and give the painted miniatures to her as a christmas present. So two kills with one stone.

The miniatures are Goblin Pirates by Freebooter Miniatures, a German company. They're intended for use in Freebooters Fate which is a relatively popular TT-Game over here in Germany.

The figures are well cast and come together with scenic bases. They're full of character and have plenty of tiny details what made them a challenge to paint in my eyes.

MichaelA

Given that I have managed to embroil myself in a friendly side challenge with Phil and Greg to see who can amass the most points painting 'Victorian' miniatures, I clearly looked to this era first - perhaps a Moriarty, Fagin or even the nefarious Jack the Ripper himself.  Sadly none were forthcoming, but I did fall upon these splendid Mexican bandits and Deputy Sheriff! 

All from 'Black Scorpion', they seemed to fit the bill perfectly; the Mexicans miniatures were, in fact a give away prize from that most excellent of Bloggers, the 'Laughing Ferret' and were already prepped and primed in white.  I did rebase and pin them so that they fitted more closely with the rest of the characters from the 'secret project'. 

This was the first time that I have painted any miniatures with a white undercoat and on reflection, I still have mixed feelings about them; I enjoyed the way the colours seemed brighter and had more impact, but having become so reliant on a black undercoat to disguise any mistakes, I felt a little 'exposed' with these.  Sure enough I resorted to type with the sheriff, a resin miniature that was lovingly given my more favoured black undercoat!

Having assembled the requisite miniatures, I now needed to be clear as to their villainous context, after all we wouldn't want anyone accusing us of any point grabbing shenanigans!  So it was that I stumbled upon my muse, the gentlemen and scholar that is, Raymond Rousell Esq.  Ray has, of late, been the butt of some remorseless ridicule due, in part, to his own efforts to achieve the best possible score he is capable of in previous painting competitions.  (I understand that the term  'Sandbagging' - to deliberately underperform in a race or competition to gain an unfair advantage, is now more in use in the English language that at any other time since its creation!)  

Ray, is of course, a fine upstanding pillar of the community, but like a good many of us, prone to making the odd misguided decision or two, take for example this illustration of sartorial elegance!  

Yes dear reader it was this photograph that helped me create the legend that is - El Tejón!

El Tejón, a self appointed maker of laws in the town of Moriarty, New Mexico (I kid you not, look it up in an atlas; I knew there was a Victorian link!) was respected and feared in equal measure.  This villainous being has amassed a vast fortune by collecting protection money from the vulnerable townsfolk.  It is said that El Tejón would offer bags of sand in exchange for wealth, offering a scant physical defence from the marauding bandits; bandits that he in fact controlled!

Still curious as to the name?  Perhaps the hair colouring will give you a clue!

MichaelF

Ok, my first submission for this years challenge: “Every new land demands blood.”- The Swede

So here we have The Swede from Norway with his old friend the debt collector. I've been searching the web for favourite tv-personalities but no one seems to make Ziti eating Sopranos characters or the meth cooking Pinkman/White duo but Brigade Games came to the rescue. But they do a great figure with a remarkable likeness to The Swede from 'Hell on Wheels'...

MilesR

It’s a model of a Norse Troll that I’m planning on using as part of a SAGA campaign.  The model is a GW Troll from their Lord of the Rings line.  Also on the base is a cavalry casualty figure from the Conquest plastic Normans set.  While some may have strong feelings about some of corporate policies at GW, their models are pretty good and this Troll model was no exception. This was a fun little side project and a nice break from historical models.

I’m still working on the Troll’s “battle board” for use in Saga, but I’m aiming to make the model the equivalent of a four point army. 

The last picture shows the Troll fighting against some 28mm scale Vikings to give an idea of the size of the model. 

Millsy

Given I got my ass handed to me in the first bonus round voting I thought I'd best step things up a notch or three. This entry is what I always planned it to be but I've put in maybe a wee bit more effort in than I thought I would. I can't tell you how many hours overall but Kemmler took four to paint on his own, plus basing.

So what do we have here? This is the entire set of lords and heroes from my Oldhammer Army of the Cairns project. As this is the centre piece of the army I've knocked up a quick "Vignette a la Awdry" for the figures on foot. When they're out and about there are drop-in extra grave stones so it can be used as terrain as well.

First up we have the Wight King in his way wicked Chariot of Spikes 'n Skulls. She's fresh from the chop shop where she had some extra horsepower (um... two), 500-odd spikes and plenty of red paint applied. He's an original wight miniature on a chaos chariot (less the crew who are languishing in my bits box for future use).

Next up we have Heinrich Kemmler the Lichemaster, Wight King Krell and a Shadow Druid. Kemmler and Krell are the second generation figs and the nicest of them I think. The Shadow Druid is a Dark Emissary with a head swap and green stuff hoodie as he appeared in WD.

Kemmler is staying true to the first rule of necromancy - accessorize, accessorize, accessorize! Over a stunning purple velvet robe he wears a bespoke orphan-skin kilt, all set off with blood red boots, hat and nail polish. Over that he's thrown a trusty little black cloak, which as we all know goes with *everything* sweeties. But how many can say theirs is lined with the skulls of kittens and bunny rabbits? Not many I think. The verdict? Faaaabulous! (that was just for you Ev).

Krell is as we'd expect him to be, decked out in enameled blood red armour and fist pumping to the beat of Kemmler's drum. He's toting his trusty Black Axe and sporting an over sized horned hat. Jamiroquai eat your heart out.

The Shadow Druid is wearing this year's latest fashion in rotting grey rags and vermin skin over-mantle, just right for a night out in the shadows. He's clutching his invite to Kemmler's next battle after-party and toting a funky witch-wood staff. All this is set off with a set of designer glow stones and a bespoke bronze sacrificial bowl. Stunning!

PaulJ

The Black Knight always Triumphs!  This is a heroically proportioned 28mm metal figure by Heresy Miniatures called "Armoured Big Boris" to which I have added the "Evil Boris" head and a  mace from the weapons sprue.  

It was quick and easy to paint up and has some lovely detail on him. I kept him to metallic and dark colours because we all know villains prefer black.   Plus it helps the blood show up better for that "just home from slaying" look.

And yes, it took me ages to get the figure base to match my garden!

PaulS

What villain has been sending kids screaming to hide behind the sofa for 50 years? Yup, that's right. Daleks... you can't get more villainous than these malevolent lumps of plastic. These models are from the cover of the children's Dr Who magazine, but unlike the Cybermen and other monsters, these ones are perfectly for 28mm gaming once placed onto bases. 

Unfortunately they are lumpy, uneven and have horrible joins in the plastic that you can still see even if you file it completely flat :/. I destroyed one trying to get rid of the joints completely, so I'm afraid these other 6 aren't completely line free as you can see down the front of the vents. Still.. on the tabletop they will work just fine. I intend to use these as the bad guys in 7TV; now I just need to get some of the absolutely-not-Dr-Who figures to save the world :)

The last image is a 50th anniversary homage to the original grainy broadcasts ;)

PeterD

For my submission for the villains challenge, I present the Man Eating Lions of Tsavo.  The original lions were notorious for eating railway workers in British East Africa in the Late Victorian era.  They have been immortalized in books, films (The Ghost and the Darkness) and in stuffed form at the Field Museum in Chicago (I've included a shot of the real McCoy at the Field).  They decided that humans were more abundant, slower and tastier than regular Lion Chow. 

More details can be found at the link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsavo_Man-Eaters

The figures are 28mm Ral Partha lionesses and were primed at least 10 years ago and possibly in the last millennium!  The original lions were males, but male Tsavo lions are maneless and a little sickly so it works as the other key differences between lions and lionesses are not visible on the figures.  I added a potential victim, gifted to me by Padre Mike in one of his visits last year.

The longest lived lion took numerous rifle hits and finally succumbed to 3 close range shots from a Martini-Henri.

Recent scientific research as reduced the number of kills accredited to these two puddy-tats.  Chemical analysis shows that one lion consumed 10.5 and 24.2 humans respectively.  Personally I think there are some questions that science doesn't need to answer.

PhilH

Here is my contribution to the villain theme round. A rummage through the lead pile found this curiosity. 

More a villainous henchman than mastermind, his name escapes me but I feel he has a very strange occupation. 

RayR

Its a bit of a break from the norm for me today. I was a bit stuck for an idea with the villain figure, but dug deep in the lead pile and out came this set of figure, I've had it for a long time, I bought it around 10 years ago for my nephews Lord of the Rings army and never got it painted. 

I've included the other base of figures as it comes in a set. It's the Games WorkShop Sauron, Elendil and Isildur.

RobH

When my original plan for this round went to pot, I decided to paint my 28mm Reaper Lion and Lioness for some quick points, and it hit me. I'd paint the lion as Scar, the villain from the Lion King!  

I'm a little disappointed that his coat is not quite golden enough for Scar, but I think I got all the other markings from the movie right. His golden coat is darker than the lionesses of the pride (as you can see in the comparison shot), with the lighter bands at his mouth, belly and muzzle. I even got the green eyes, as you can see from the close-up. Scar also has some rocks to stand on, as he's often portrayed.

To go with him, I have a lioness. Again, a very simple paint job I finished yesterday. The only snag is the bit of flash on the muzzle, which I didn't realize was there until I was completely done. To fix it up, I decided to paint it as a scar, presumably inflicted through Scar's villainy!

Now all I need are some goose-stepping hyenas.

SamuliS

My entry for the Villain category is Mr Edwards with his pet Bolivian Flying Toad. Many have doubts about the true nature of his pet, but it's hard to prove him wrong with all the new fauna being found by the gallant explorer's of the British Empire and any who have tried to investigate further seem to be struck with mysterious diseases. 

The mini is one of Lead Adventures Pulp Investigators. Great looking sculpt as all the Lead Adventure minis always are. Trying to get the suit to look good proved quite a challenge as black always seems to be a struggle for me. The main suit color is actually dark grey with a some grey highlights, but it doesn't really show that well in the photos. 

Anyway I'm quite pleased with him and his little pet. Now I just need some cultists to accompany him in Pulp and VSF scenarios.

ScottB

Meet Lilith; my Vampiric Consort, for Empire of the Dead. And no she's not one of the new Requiem models...

She's actually listed as a 'Harem Dancer', at 28mm, from Hasslefree miniatures... wrapped around her 'pole' - so pole dancer, if you will... This was a birthday gift from my mate Brett, last year.

As appealing as the figure was by itself, I didn't really have a contemporary use for it, so it languished while I thought what to do with it... then a thought struck me - turn it into a vampiric consort for Empire of the Dead... so a small amount of conversion work - chop the base off the pole, and attach a spear tip (actually a sword from an LOTR Numenorean)... 

I painted her as pale as I could yet retained a contrasting black head of hair, and enjoyed her sensual twirl round her ancient spear. 

Will she seduce you to the dark side tonight?

Her full nudity is perhaps not strictly in the canon of classic gothic literature, but close enough I felt for the world of Empire of the Dead! Now who wants to play the game!?

Whilst the 'Villain' week, comes to a close, I managed a couple more...

The first is a 28mm Requiem Empire of the Dead, Vampire in bat-like form ... I think this model is based on the scene from Dracula when the hunters confront Dracula whilst he woos Mina, and he ends up backing away with the statement; 'Look what your God has done to me!' Before turning into a rat-swarm and fleeing... classic movie action. Must admit it's not the best model in the world, but was relatively quick to paint. Sorry my rushed photography this evening has not quite done the face justice.

The second model is again a 28mm Requiem EotD model, this time the hound from the Hound of the Baskervilles! Another classic 'villain' if such can be said of a large beastly dog! 

ScottS

I was struggling to find suitably villainous miniatures in my lead pile, but struck upon the idea of painting up some of the character models from a board game.  These are three of the Villains from the Dungeons and Dragons board game, Castle Ravenloft.

First up is the lord of Castle Ravenloft, Count Strahd von Zarovich (it should go without saying that he's a vampire!)  

Next up is his Kobold Sorcerer assistant, Klak, followed up by a disappointingly anonymous Werewolf.  Actually I recall that there is a quest in the game where you rescue a villager from the castle, who then turns into a werewolf and attacks you.

The figures are about 28mm in scale, maybe slightly smaller, and were surprisingly fun to paint! I tried to go with a garish 80s d&d look for them and I'm quite happy how they turned out.  Another thing I'm pretty happy with is how the minimalist bases turned out, keeping in with the idea of them running around a castle's dungeon.  Maybe we'll see the heroes from the same game for another bonus round?

SeanS

My villains come to you from a dark future. After the big crash things became desperate. No one knows who was the first deploy the nukes, but as soon as one did it didn't matter anymore. In an instant, huge swaths of the once great super powers were laid waste. Out of the ashes a new society struggled to be reborn. In it you were either a viking or a victim and those brutal enough to eke out a living preyed upon the weak and the just. These are just a few.

Gargantua & Pantagruel and the Warrior of the Wasteland come to you from the Warlands range produced by Aberrant miniatures. They are 1/72 (20mm) scale. I was going for a grungy and, in the case of G & P, oil soaked look which I think I achieved. The Flesh wash on WW was too heavy but I'd like to think that it makes his skin look a little raw and burned. From radiation perhaps. Both of these models came in three parts. For G & P I just painted them and then super glued them together. WW I had to drill and pin, using some Testors contour putty to fill the gaps at the shoulders. This is the first time I've really filled a gap as I always shied away from conversions and most of my previous pinning was standards and riders.

I essentially did all the work on them since returning from my holiday trip and all of the painting in the last two days. The method was base coat, wash, drybrush. I tried to add some colour on the base, but I think I covered it with flock and static grass.

I hope you enjoy them, and I hope to incorporate them into some Post Apocalyptic gaming this year.

SebG

Here is my second bonus entry, a 25mm mini from SHQ representing Hauptmann Stransky from Cross of Iron.

I know it might not fit entirely in the "villain" category, since, after all, he's clumsy, almost ridiculous. But he's one to me. Indeed Cross of iron is the second war movie I watched, when I was 9-ish. The first one was The Longest Day.

And when you're 9, someone cold enough to order the murder of good soldiers, simply because they might testify against him, was worthy of Machiavello.

Anyway. When I saw SHQ had this mini, I ordered it ASAP. It's in fact a former Chiltern miniature, and honestly, at first I was thinking of throwing it away. It was crude, with very few details, and, above all, a huge gap in the left arm. I repaired it and decided to have a go. It's not my entry fee though, you'll have to wait.

SidneyR

My second themed submission, for the Villains category, features perhaps the most famous villain(ess) of the Great War, Margaretha Geertruida Zelle – better known as Mata Hari.

There’s a huge amount about Mata Hari on the internet, and I’m guessing everyone here knows the story of the Dutch exotic dancer whose provocative and flirtatious dancing became famous before the War started, and whose later career during the War became one of a courtesan embroiled in espionage and scandal. 

Her story is remarkable and, although there’s no time here to go into details, I felt Mata Hari deserved not one but three images for the “Villains” theme.  I also wanted to place the figures at different parts of her story, and mix that with a little Alternative History.

So, here we have three figures for Mata Hari.

The first is Mata Hari as she became famous in Paris before the Great War – the City of light, of champagne, of laughter and of dubious morality.  Here she’s depicted on the stage of the Musée Guimet in 1905, a bouquet of trumpet lilies at her feet.  And, as I knew Curt would like it, she’s painted in greyscale, perhaps to offset the lurid gas-lights of the Parisian stage.

Next, we see her dancing in more private surroundings during the War.  Perhaps for Captain Vadime de Masloff (her historical lover) or perhaps for a French general ensnared in Mata Hari’s web of seduction and betrayal, his be-medalled tunic, letters and High Command despatches lying thoughtlessly discarded on the carpeted floor of a hotel close to the Gare du Nord.

And finally, in a blast of Alternative History, the terrible result of Mata Hari’s espionage is clear for all to see.  A discarded copy of Le Petit Parisien (no doubt dropped by a stunned and shocked veteran of the 1870 campaign close to his local Metro station) announces in sombre tones the fall of Verdun to the Germans on a cold Autumnal day in 1916.  A copy of the newspaper, and stolen confidential despatches from the French General Staff are placed on the back seat of Mata Hari’s limousine as she quietly leaves Paris, with fallen leaves and doubtless a fallen French Government in her wake. 

The car is a lavish 1910 Mercedes, complete with liveried chauffeur, picked up from Ebay for a couple of pounds with a couple of changes such as adding transparent plasticard for the front windows.  Both Mata Hari and chauffeur are from Sloppy Jalopy, although Mata Hari was converted with a new hat, matching the one she was wearing while arrested in 1917.  The dancing figures of Mata Hari are both from Alex Bagosy, sourced through Lead Adventure Forum a few years ago.  The bases are built up with a mix of plastic card and “grey-stuff”.  (I’ll post full details on my blog shortly about how I made the newspaper announcing the Fall of Verdun, as that was a lot of fun).

StefanK

The miniature is a Broodlord from Games Workshop's Tyranid range for Warhammer 40K. Those fierce aliens are kind of symbiotic species and usually leaders of hordes of genestealers. Therefore I thought it might serve well as a kind of villain from outer space. The miniature is about 48mm high and made of white metal. As you see it's rather old since GW re-published it in Finecast some time ago. As usual I painted the Broodlord with Vallejo Model Colour and Armypainter Quickshade. The base is flocked with different types of clump foliage, static grass and model railway flowers.

TamsinP

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OPERATION BUDGIE SMUGGLER

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MISSION PURPOSE:

RECON; INTEL/EVIDENCE ACQUISITION; SURVEILLANCE

MISSION PARAMETERS:

SINGLE OPERATIVE INFILTRATION TO LOCATE VILLAIN'S LAIR, CONDUCT SURVEILLANCE AND ACQUIRE INTEL/EVIDENCE OF VILLAINY

OPERATIVE ASSIGNED:

TAMSIN_P (CODENAME "WARGAMING GIRL")

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF MISSION:

WARGAMING GIRL TO INFILTRATE OGRE KINGDOM OF SANDBAGGING WITH INTENT TO LOCATE THE PAINTING LAIR OF THE UNIVERSAL HIGH IMPERIAL KING OF SANDBAGGING, RAY (CODENAME "BADGER"). FOLLOWING LOCATION OF LAIR, OPERATIVE IS TO MAINTAIN SURVEILLANCE, ACQUIRE INTEL/EVIDENCE REGARDING NEFARIOUS ACTIVITIES OF BADGER AND REPORT THESE BACK TO HQ IMMEDIATELY.

******************

DIRECTOR'S REPORT

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CLASSIFICATION:

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

TO DIRECTOR, GREAT HALL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (CODENAME "LOKI")

FOLLOWING MY SUCCESSFUL INFILTRATION INTO THE OGRE KINGDOM OF SANDBAGGING I QUICKLY LOCATED THE LAIR OF BADGER. IT IS A CAVE AT GRID COORDINATES 31415/92654, SET INTO A CLIFF.

36 HOURS INTO MY SURVEILLANCE I OBSERVED A SHADY FIGURE EMERGING FROM THE CAVE. A LOW RES NIGHT-VIS IMAGE WAS TRANSMITTED TO HQ FOR CONFIRMATION THAT THIS WAS THE TARGET. HQ CONFIRMED IDENTITY AS BADGER AND I MAINTAINED SURVEILLANCE.

24 HOURS LATER BADGER RETURNED TO THE CAVE AND EMERGED AGAIN AFTER 72 HOURS. WITH THE TARGET BEING CONFIRMED, HIGH RES COLOUR IMAGES WERE ACQUIRED. BADGER WAS ON BOTH OCCASIONS CARRYING A LARGE, HEAVY SACK. THE HIGH RES IMAGES REVEALED WRITING ON THE SACK "APC 2014 SEND 20/03".

WARGAMING GIRL, SPECIAL MISSION OPERATIVE

**************

INTEL ANALYSIS

**************

TARGET CONFIRMED AS BADGER. IMAGES SHOW BADGER LEAVING CAVE WITH HEAVY SACKS. ANALYSIS OF MESSAGE ON SACK IN HIGH RES IMAGES SUGGESTS THAT THE SACKS CONTAIN PAINTED MINIATURES FOR SUBMISSION TO THE ANALOGUE PAINTING CHALLENGE 2014 IN THE FINAL FEW HOURS BEFORE THE DEADLINE.

OK, that's enough silliness! This figure is a 28mm Ogre Lord from Dark Art Studios.

I did a little bit of conversion work with Milliput. The spiked hammer head was left off and replaced with what is meant to be the ferrule and bristles of a paint brush. For the right hand I fashioned a full sandbag. I also made up a backdrop for the photos.

**********************

FLASH MESSAGE BEGINS

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AWARE REPORT LEAKED ON WWW. BADGER ALERTED TO PRESENCE AND ANGRY. REQUEST IMMEDIATE EXTRACTION. WARGAMING GIRL.

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FLASH MESSAGE ENDS

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TimB

The villain one was a bit of a challenge for me... 

"Villain...?" 

What IS a villain (one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, and all that...) Is an Ork Waaagh Boss any more "evil" than the Imperium that calls him a villain...? 

Ultimately I've gone with a 40K Ork baddie. I picked up some 40K RPG stuff from Fantasy Flight Games over the last couple months (Only War and Rogue Trader) - whichever I eventually run Waaaagh Boxx Gurgthrok MacGrok (and his trusty cybork minion) will be a recurring baddie.... 

-50°C, huh...? so yeah... windowsill it is... 

Both are older 28mm Games Workshop Warhammer 40,000 figures.

…and Curt

I'll keep this brief as I've prattled on quite enough in my original post about these fellows. I spent a good while thinking of what I wanted to do for this round. I had a great figure of Rochfort waiting in the wings, but after almost freezing to death slogging through the snow, with our poor pups in tow, I decided instead to choose Winter as my villain. 

As one can see from Tim's above screenshot of our current weather here in the Canadian prairies, winter can be lethal, remorseless and certainly something to dread. One of the most iconic winter holocausts is Napoleon's 1812 retreat from Russia. In a little under two months over 300,000 Frenchmen lost their lives in that 'white hell' and I thought these 28mm figures by the Perry's would be perfect for conveying their misery and desperation as they fought not only cossacks and vengeful peasants, but Winter itself.

This will be yet another 'little side project' that I will use for skirmish gaming (in high summer, me thinks).  I've gone with my typical skirmish base-shape trope to denote regular combatants, leaders and other special figures. Round bases are standard troops, while squares are officers and NCOs - later I will have specialized figures such as standard bearers and surgeons on octagons to denote their unique status.

I spent a lot of time on the figures' bases as I thought they should do their part in conveying the climate these men were trying to survive in. Several of the bases have military detritus, along with freshly cut/snapped tree-stumps as I understand the retreating Grande Armee was always desperate for firewood to help survive the coming night. 

So another Theme Round is complete! Please take some time and choose your favourite entries in the poll on the right. As before, you can vote for as many entries as you like so have fun!