Pendraken 2025 Painting Competition

It's that time of the year...approaching every February, I pause my various hobby projects and dedicate some resources and time to entering the Pendraken Painting Competition. I've had some decent but mixed success with the competition. Some entries won that I didn't expect while others I felt were better didn't. Regardless, it's fun and I enjoy seeing all of the other entries as many of these provide inspiration for future and current projects. 

Vehicle Category:

This is an Egyptian Su-100M from the Battle of the Chinese Farm that occurred October 15 to October 17, 1973. I made some modifications to make it the proper variant: extra fuel tanks, an additional storage compartment on the front right. I also opened up the one hatch and added a crew member. These conversions were either Pendraken bits, green stuff and plasticard. The inspiration for this was a scale model conversion that I saw on the internet. 

Fantasy/Sci-Fi Category:

Here we have the aforementioned Sardaukar on Planet Arrakis from the novel and movies Dune. I realize these fellas are a bit plain with the black uniforms. I added the three gold stripes to the right shoulder pads and tried to accentuate the neon face screens. The basing is plain because I wanted to stay true to the sands of Arrakis. 

Foot - 20th Century Category: 

For the 20th Century Foot category, I am entering this Chinese Infantry Platoon, 1950 Korea. They are based for FiveCore Company Command. Comprising of three infantry sections, there are also assault and leadership attachments that provide an additional order and a bonus in assaults. Additionally, they have some extra firepower with a Russian Maxim machine gun. 

I purchased these figures from Leon over at Pendraken during the 2024 Claymore Convention. At the time, I told Leon I would make these winter-themed with snow bases so I guess I made good on my promise.  

I will put the whole company with various attachments and support weapons into the Open Category - Army category for the competition. 

Open- Army Category:

For the Army category, I chose my Chinese PVA infantry company based for Company Command. 3 overstrength platoons with company heavy weapons, attachments and even a Japanese Type 95 Ha-Go tank in PVA livery. I was pleased with how easy they were to paint up and how the basing and snow effects came out. I really look forward to painting up the Americans as well as some winter scenery and finally getting them on the tabletop for some gaming.. 

Open - Single Base Category:

This base depicts a standard bearer and commissar for the Chinese Peoples Volunteer Army's 38th Army (which was really more like a corps). I found an image of the actual flag online and modified my own image. When I saw the flag, I thought it looked so cool that I had to recreate it. For wargaming purposes, it is just like a commissar in Company Commander (or is it Company Command?). The figures are from Pendraken's WW2 Soviets in winter kit.

Foot - Pre-20th Century Category:

I went with Sassanid Persian levy spearmen for this entry. Originally it was going to be Pathans based for TMWWBK but I called an audible at the last minute. I purchased these figures with the assistance of winnings from a previous painting competition and the plan was to base them up for Dux Bellorum (and using my new bases that I plan to redo my existing DB armies). Unfortunately I couldn't find my bag of dice frames so I based without them. When I find those frames, I will add them to that empty area in the back right corner. I wanted the Sassanids in muted, soft colors. That choice probably doesn't make them "pop" to the eye but I am fine with that.

Mounted Category:

Similar to the pre-2oth Century foot, it was going to be Pathan cavalry based for TMWWBK for the mounted category. I went with Sassanid Persian light horse instead. Muted pinks, creams and whites for the color palette and a green and yellow shield. This code could have really benefited from an additional sculpt to add variety.

And that's it, there are my entries for the 2025 Pendraken Painting Competition. I enjoyed the diversion of painting these however I didn't enjoy photographing them. It is a skillset that I am very ignorant to despite much research and practice! Definitely looking forward to resuming some of my long-neglected projects and ultimately starting some new ones.

T-34 Identification

I recently purchased this 10mm T-34 off of eBay. It was described as being Pendraken code SVV4 which is the T-34/85 variant. Does the turret look like a T-34/85? It appears to have a single hatch in the center of the turret roof. 

Any insight is appreciated. The plan (if it is in fact SVV4) is to clean it up and include it in my Chinese force for North Korea. 

UPDATE: I have been informed that I have a T-34/76 M1941 or M1942 model with 76mmL41 gun. It's a bit of a downer as I was planning to use this with my Chinese PVA forces and apparently the Chinese did not use the 76mm variant. I ended up ordering a T-34/85 and a Japanese Ha-Go tank and will use one or both for my Chinese PVA forces. 

Big Battle Ravenfeast Norman infantry

With the Vikings and Anglo-Saxon armies complete, I have turned my attention towards the third and final army of the 1066 campaign, the Normans of William the Bastard. 

Unlike the other two armies, the Normans have a rather decent sized contingent of cavalry. They also have some crossbowmen and archers. The Normans have a much smaller infantry core: 6 Norman infantry stands and 3 stands of Flemish infantry. 

Here are the completed Norman infantry, I opted to use Old Glory's heavy infantry (SVN-304) which have chainmail in addition to helmets, shields and spears. I will use the medium infantry for the Flemish. 

Side view of the stands to show the armor details. These were very easy sculpts to paint and even the shield designs went quickly. I have a feeling the Flemish/medium infantry will be a bit trickier. 

Frozen Chosin...

Or is that the Frozen Chosen? Any matter, when I went attended the Claymore wargaming convention in Edinburgh, I had the pleasure of chatting with Leon from Pendraken. I had placed a small order for pickup in advance but as I was standing there, I had pounds in my pocket that needed to be spent and lots of tempting miniatures on display. 

I opted to buy Korean War Americans and Chinese army packs in winter kit. It was completely impulse, I had never really considered collecting, painting or gaming the conflict (not entirely true, I think I purchased a pack of 15mm Chinese a few decades ago and maybe painted a couple and then sold them off, but I digress...). I told Leon I would paint some up for the competition with snowy scenic basing. 

Being a man of my word, I embarked on this project. I would initially paint up a platoon of Chinese with some support weapons. The army pack included infantry, officers, radios (alot of radios in fact) and 3 mortars with crews. I placed a small order for some additional support weapons and figures for both the Americans and Chinese. Hopefully that arrives in time for me to get them painted up as well. 

Here are my completed Chinese thus far. The uniforms were painted with a watered down, 50/50 mix of VMC 70.914 Green Ochre and VMC 70.821 German Camo Beige WW2. Green bits were Vallejo Game 72.145 Heavy Grey (which is actually green). 

Basing was accomplished with Golden fiber paste to create texture which was painted with Americana Dark Chocolate craft paint, given a wash of AP Strong Tone then drybrushed with CMC 70.843 Cork Brown. Brownish yellow static grass was applied and then GW Valhallan Blizzard (a very effective product). The reason why I am being descriptive with the paints and techniques is because I will invariably forget how I accomplished the look so I can use this as a reference later on. 

Here is a close up of an infantry base (representing a section) and the platoon command stand which includes an officer in an overcoat. 

Overall I'm quite pleased with how they turned out. I photographed them on a frozen tundra gaming mat that I purchased on sale from Cigar Box. I imagine I will paint up some snow covered hills and outcrops for additional scenery. I will have to do some research on the battles to get some good inspiration for scenarios. 

Sardaukar!

I managed to paint up the Pendraken figures that are my proxies for the Dune (1984) inspired Sardaukar Terror Troops. 

Here's the front view to see the green facial screens on both the figures and the movie.

A side view, I decided to give them a small bit of color so I painted three yellow gold striped on their right shoulder pad in homage to the Padishah crest of a lion and the stripes on the white armor of the Sardaukar in 2021/24 version of the classic. 

Being all black-clad in a desert environment, there is only so much you can do with the painting. I might do some additional drybrushing of the base to lighten it up. I used Army Painter Speedpaint black and Fanatic paint for the green screen. Basing was GW's Armageddon Dust (which I was underwhelmed with if I'm being honest). 

I plan to enter these fellas in the Pendraken painting competition's fantasy/sci-fi category because it's not often that I find myself painting 10mm sci-fi. 

Ravenfeast Anglo-Saxon Army

It was a bit of a slog but I finally finished off my Big Battle Ravenfeast Anglo-Saxon army...a total of 30 bases. With this force, I can game Fulford Gate, Samford Bridge and Hastings. 

Pictured above is the entire army, almost entirely Old Glory 10mm with some Magister Militum cavalry (or perhaps mounted infantry?). 

First up are eight bases of general fyrd. I went with muted figures for these fellas. This is probably my least favorite strip of figures in the Old Glory 1066 range. I think it's the shields (I'm not so sure about the convex oval one) and the fact you can't really cut this particular sculpt apart to get a little more dynamic pose. They are fairly easy to paint. 

Here we have the select fyrd, also eight bases. Same sculpts but I went with a bit more colorful shields and even some designs. Their clothing has a few more borders and such on them. 

Here is the rear view of some of the fyrd. Not much armor on these guys. 

I also took some photos of the three bases of  archers but managed to accidentally delete them...anyway, if I still had them they would be here. Tthey will give the army  a (very tiny) bit of a ranged combat ability. Some of these sculpts may be Norman archers but I figured there probably isn't much difference in appearance between various peasant archers of western Europe. 

Here we have the mighty Huscarls. Reputedly some of the finest infantry in the world at the time, these sculpts are heavily armored with axes and kite shields strapped to their backs. I enjoyed painting these sculpts. 

And here is the rear view of them. I painted curved cross designs on some of the shields to break up the monotony of solid colors. Fairly pleased with the results since I didn't really lavish a whole lot of effort in painting this army. 

And next up are the three command bases with draco standards and heroic looking leaders. The red draco is Harold Godwinson and the others are his brothers. 

Lastly we have the mounted huscarls which are an option for Samford Bridge. I believe there's some dispute if they actually fought mounted but I figured I would paint up the option for completeness' sake. 

I'm glad to finish this army, it was a bit tedious to paint but nowhere near as much of a slog as the Vikings. I can now play the first two scenarios of the 1067 campaign. The Normans will probably wait just a bit as I will want to take a quick detour to paint up some other small projects before returning to complete this project with William the Bastard's army. 

Saudakar idea...

February is approaching faster than I realize and one of the things that happens in February is the Pendraken painting competition. I typically throw my hat in the ring but only the historical categories...with Pendraken's recently released sci-fi range, I saw a pack of miniatures that sparked an idea. 

These little fellas (FWC-COL2 Human Collective Power Infantry) made me think of the Saudakar soldiers from the 1984 version of Dune. Ever since I first saw the movie, I was intrigued by these elite "terror troops". 

The 1984 movie depicted the Saudakar in what appeared to be black rubber uniforms with a head covering that had a clear green face shield. 

I'm thinking of painting the Pendraken sculpts up using a light primer with some type of black contrast paint that will show the depth of the sculpting and a neon green face shield to make them visually pop. The basing will be some kind of desert look that is evocative of the planet Dune. It should be a simple project but heaps of fun.