'Characters/Scene from' Anthony O: 'The Fall of Berlin 1945' - Assault on the Reichstag

For the challenge I have painted up a German soldier vaulting a fallen eagle during the assault on the Reichstag. The soldier is 28mm and from the Raus blister pack by Warlord Games and the eagle and base are from Heer 46.

The inspiration for this is a Soviet movie titled 'Fall of Berlin 1945' released in 1950 and in part has room by room fighting for the Reichstag which can be viewed in YouTube. The combat is brutal and at times hand to hand and I have tried to represent the feeling of the battle in my little simple scene.

The German soldier is not depicted in the film vaulting an eagle however I feel it represents the fighting the film is showing as the Russian soldiers advance through the rubble as Germans defend and counter attack.

'Characters/Scene from' Barks: 'Mystery Investigators'

I am really looking forwards to what challengers put out for this round! My entry was an excuse to put in a order for Hasslefree figures I had been eyeing off for a while. I had a lot of fun with the bright and more unusual colours.

These investigators are perfect for Ganesha Games' Kooky Teenage Monster Hunters. I'd love to see them in Mansions of Madness: "Help me pull off Great Cthulhu's head- why, it's that old Mr Lovecraft!"

I am jonesing to find a VW Kombi...

'Characters/Scene from' ByronM: Steampunk Mary Poppins and Bert (A Gift for my Wife)

For this week's theme week entry I present to you a figure set that I have been waiting to get to and paint all of this years challenge.  That set is Mary Poppins and Bert in steam punk style from the Guild of Harmony, although they call them Maria Poppets and Albert for obvious licensing reasons!  This set is the original limited edition version where they are connected and taking off from the roof tops, which I am very happy to have picked up, as they now only sell them separately.

This figure is a gift for my wife, which is now kind of an annual tradition during the Challenge.  It came up a few years ago that I had never actually painted anything for her (mainly due to the fact that she is not a gamer) over the many years I have been playing games and painting.  So, I decided that in the interest of a happy marriage, I should probably rectify that and went looking for something she would like.  Since she is a huge Disney fan and loves the steampunk aesthetic, I searched out some figures that would relate to that, yet still be interesting to paint.  That is where I happened across the excellent small company Guild of Harmony and picked up several of their figures.

This figure was a bit of a challenge to work on as everything on it is resin and much of it small and thin enough that there is a lot of flex to it (his brush, her umbrella pole, and even his ankle and arm holding her).  Worse, they connect by the hands (well, his wrist) so it adds even more flex if painted together, and even separately there was no great way to hold her for painting.  I painted them separately which was easy enough for him, but had to drill a hole in her, under the dress and stick a metal rod up her dress (much to the amusement of the wife and my teenage boys) to mount her on to paint.

In the past I have just selected colours that I liked, but this time I handed that duty off to Kim as I wanted to make sure it matched her image of them in steampunk style.  So all the credit on the colour choices go to her, I had a different image in my head for colours, but these turned out better than what I had in mind!  Everything started out as a base coat of black and then I did the faces first to get a good expression to go from to stage the figure around, which is not something I normally do, but it helped here.  One thing that I really tried to do was get valid looking skin tones, and added a lot of colour to her, while it doesn't show well in the image, she does have pinkish / rosy cheeks, lipstick and a very pale complexion.  Albert on the other hand has a darker complexion and dirtier cheeks to fit the scene.  I find it really hard to get the flesh or light colours to balance properly against a black background though, so they dont show well.

All of the clothing was worked up from black as well.  I used completely separate methods for each as they are in very different outfits.  For her I glazed everything up using at least 30 thin layers of just one colour on her dress relying on the pre-shading I had done with white primer via airbrush.  It was my first real attempt to relearn proper glazing techniques after having just read Arsies's Painting Toolbox book and having discovered that I need to re-learn many of the things I have been doing wrong (well not wrong, but not in a manner to get better results and learn more over time).  For anyone that did not pick up his book on Kickstarter last year, it is well worth looking for a copy!  I really like the result and think that her dress came out with a really soft look to it and almost no hard edges, it did take a ton of time though.

Anyway, for Albert since his clothing is more work like, I went with a much harder, almost pure wargame/tabletop 3 colour approach.  I ended up using more than 3 colours to get the highs and lows as I wanted them, but as you can see it is a much different look, and I think very close to the style that Curt and Greg use to great effect on many of their figures (which I love, but have a hard time duplicating).

The only part I had any real issues with was the umbrella/helicopter contraption.  I had images of it being colourful and tried several paint schemes (I think I painted it no less than 6 times!) trying to work in purples, pinks, and whites.  In the end, after much "I told you so" from the wife, I went with the copper colour she had suggested to start with.  Damn, I guess once in a while she is right....  shhhh, don't tell her I said that!  Anyway, in the end I think it works better this way as it gives more steampunk look to the figure and helps convey the idea that it is a machine and is in fact strong enough to lift them (even though she shouldn't be able to hold him).

After finishing that off, it was time to connect them and base them.  Here I ran into one other issue, how to base them! I had images of doing a section of roof to put the chimney on, but the supplied chimney was not high enough to build up a V section of a roof peek around as it almost completely disappeared. All the model bricks I have around here are all different in style to the piece so I couldn't extend it with that either. By the time I realized this it was too late to build it up and extend it with green stuff as it wouldn't have time to cure to paint.  I was also not 100% sure that was the look I wanted.  So in the end, I just put a magnet in the chimney and in the base and attached it that way for now, until I figure out what I really want to do with it.

I hope you all like it as much as I do, it was a lot of fun to paint.

For those interested this is the Third Steampunk figure I have done from Guild of Harmony, all as presents for my wife Kim.  The other two were Tinkerbell and the Little Mermaid.

'Characters/Scene from' EdwinK: Doctor Who Companions

Sadly the vignette I bought with this round in mind is still languishing in the plastic bag it arrived in before Christmas.  In order to have something to submit, I've had to fall back on my old favorite for the Challenge - Doctor Who.

I therefore present you with six 28mm Not-Doctor-Who Companions (they're even more Not Not-Doctor-Who now as most are OOP since Warlord Games got the official licence to produce Dr Who figures).

First up, River Song - the Doctor's Wife 

River gets the 'Alien Sand Pit' treatment.  As the other characters are mostly seen on Earth, they are on the lawn of whichever English country house UNIT is currently occupying.

Then two versions of her mother...

The Amy Pond on the left is the only one of these figures not by Crooked Dice.  It's by Heresy Miniatures and still in production (they changed the name to 'Girl' and the colour of her hair in their pictures).

Strax and Jenny Flint

I'm not sure why I see the Paternoster Gang as Guinness drinkers, but I do.  Possibly it's easier to paint than a whiskey and soda...

And finally Captain Jack

Jenny is behind Jack to show that I broke up all the black by having the back of her waistcoat purple. As with most of my photos, that detail is lost.

'Characters/Scene from' EricM: Vorenus and Pullo

My submission for the Character Theme Round is Centurion Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo.  While they are probably best know as the main Characters in HBO's fantastic series called Rome they were actually based on real people.   In Caesars commentary of the Gallic Wars he mentions both as rivals competing for Primus Pilus of one of Quintus Cicero's legions.

If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend watching the HBO series and if you haven't read it, read Caesars commentary's.  Hes a master of self promotion and may have actually invented the humble brag. 

The figures are both by Warlord Games.   Really nice figures, clean with dynamic poses. 

Here is Lucius Vorenus



I really like the Titus Pullo figures a dynamic thrusting pose.


 

Here they are side by side.

I really appreciate the character packs Warlord has been developing.   I love their Marcus Crassus figure I painted earlier.   I just wish they would make some different body types.   I dont want all my officers to be Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson.

'Characters/Scene from' GrahameH: 'Band of Brothers'

I am sure I will not be the only one to do these, but managed to get the 24 of them done this morning.

These are Battlefront 15mm "Easy Company" figures

This mornings work

Spiers - Doc Roe and Winters

Gens Gavin and Maxwell

Do I get double points for doing the Generals from the book/film "A bridge too Far"? No idea when i purchased these. 

Yes I know they are in the wrong uniform for Sept 44 but I like to Normandy uniform and the rest of my US Paras are painted in this way. And in case you didn't guess that finishes my US Paratrooper Army.

'Characters/Scene from' GregB: Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!

Horse soldier! Horse soldier!

For this last theme submission I encountered that rare-but-great Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge feeling - the connection of a theme with an ongoing project! This final theme round offered the chance to paint characters from a song, and one song popped into my head right away. After a quick search to make sure the lyrics checked out, I present two characters from the song "Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!" by Corb Lund.  Go listen to it right now, enjoy the wonderful, inspiring ode to cavalry through history, then come back and finishing reading this post!

Curt introduced me to this song some years back, and I find it inspiring for my painting efforts.  Like many Challengers, I find painting horses can be a bit daunting. But listening to this marvelous song I feel like I could knock off a 28mm cavalry regiment in no time!  And because Curt was the one who introduced me to it, it always makes me think of visiting him and Sarah in Regina, which is always a good time! So I thought it was doubly appropriate inspiration for this Challenge.

So, to each character, and the relevant lyrics from the song as captions:

And I knew Saladin...

...and rode his swift Arabians...

...harassing doomed Crusaders on their heavy draughts...

...and yet I rode the percheron...

...against the circling Saracen...

...and once again against myself was cast...

So as you can see this theme lined up very nicely for my SAGA project, as these are both warlords to lead warbands in the game.  The figures are 28mm metals from the Perry twins' incredible First Crusade range. The Crusader figure will complete my first SAGA warband (a small, four-point Crusader band). The Saracen commander is the first figure to be painted for the Saracen faction.

And since the Warband for the Crusaders is now complete, I thought a team photo would be nice:

My 4-point SAGA Crusader warband, finished during this Challenge! Yay!

Horse soldiers - timeless through and through! Seriously, go listen to that song, then paint some cavalry! 

'Characters/Scene from' IannickM: 'Hail to the King, Baby.'

Alright you Primitive Screwheads, listen up! You see this? This... is my BOOMSTICK! The twelve-gauge double-barreled Remington. S-Mart's top of the line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That's right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Retails for about a hundred and nine, ninety five. It's got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel, and a hair trigger. That's right. Shop smart. Shop S-Mart. You got that?

When I was maybe 11, I saw late at night a horror movie called Evil dead. It terrified me. So of course I watched Evil Dead II not long after and was also terrified, again. The "humour" in the movie escaped me, and the fact the main hero, Ash, spends a good half of the movie alone, tormented by evil demonic forces really made a number on me. But the worst part was the movie's ending, in which our hero gets propelled back in medieval times, not the happy ending you want for your horror movie.

Lady, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you to leave the store.

And who the hell are you?

Name's Ash. [cocks rifle] 

Housewares.

Two years later, I saw a commercial for Army of Darkness, and I realized it was the sequel to Evil Dead! Finally I would knew what happened to Ash! As I was 13, and the movie was PG-13, I went to see it in the theater. I quickly realized that the sequel was much more lighthearted than the original, and while for a moment it disappointed me I rapidly fell for it's humour, and laughed for 90 minutes straight. 

You found me beautiful once...

Honey, you got reeeal ugly!

To this day, Army of Darkness is one of the movies I've seen the most often, and I can recite most of the movie lines by heart. And they're so many classic quotes in that movie! 

It's a trick. Get an axe.

I got this Hasslefree miniatures a while back, because obviously as a die hard fan of the serie I needed it, and obviously when I saw the last theme I knew what I had to do! At first I wanted to do a diorama, but after painting the figure the wargamer in me whispered to my ear "you'll want to play with him, are you sure a diorama is a good idea?" That combined with lack of time as I've been working really hard on that Pulp duel with Sander made me decide he would be enough. And who am I kidding? Of course, Ash is enough! He would tell you so himself!

I intend to use him in Pulp games, and also of course Zombicide! It's a great figure, and I'm really happy with my painting.

Sure, I could have stayed in the past. I could have even been king. But in my own way, I *am* king.

Hail to the king, baby.