Friday 8 March 2019

From MattK: Idoneth Deepkin (60 Points)

It looks like the deadline is creeping up on me a bit faster than I was expecting. I'm not sure I'll be able to reach my goal but I'm really happy with how much I've gotten painted so far. This weeks submission is a bit out of left field for me. I started another new army for Age of Sigmar. I swear when I signed up for the Challenge I painted historical stuff too!

First is the Tidecaster. In my opinion this is some of my best work. The model was a blast to paint and Im beyond excited for how it turned out.
To accompany her is another one of the characters from this range, the Soulscryer.



And finally a unit of Thralls to act as infantry.
All told 12 28mm figures coming at 60 points even.
In the next week or so I'm going to attempt to put the finishing touches on a bunch of odds and ends I started during the challenge and maybe surprise myself with one last push for points.

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I'll admit, I'm more of an old Games Workshop fan, before they decided to make so many miniatures defy gravity. But you have done a sweet job on these.

120 points in the book, and a nod to Sarah's Choice for the Tidecaster.

From PeteF: Old School Minifigs - The Prussians are Coming (120 points)


I get a lot of help while I'm painting and sometimes bayonets are mysteriously removed

If you've read some of my other minifigs posts you'll know that I am blessed with a gigantic Anglo-Allied 100 Days collection. However, if I'm ever going to refight Waterloo I'll need quite a few Prussians to arrive on the left flank later in the day (let alone the French).

The first Prussian battalion... of 141?


Every journey begins with a single step and the first step of the Prussian Waterloo (or 100 Days?) army is the 1st battalion, 10th Infantry Regiment, 13th Brigade, IV Corps. I think they were some of the troops who beat up the Young Guard at Plancenoit.

Buttony trousers


Although the sculpts are basic and lack variety I love Minifigs. Painting these Prussians was fun - and thanks to the trusty Ospreys and the Centjours website the uniform research was easy - however, I never did figure out what colour the drummer's plume should be.





I won't live long enough and/or paint fast enough to finish the project - leaving the French aside, the 100 days Prussian army included 25 infantry regiments and  22 Landwehr regiments, each with 3 battalions!

Flag downloaded from wargflag.com and printed on linen paper


In any event - all lead deserves paint and my weakness for adding to the mountain means that I have several  boxes of these guys to paint and will always be looking for more.



24 x 25mm infantry for 120 points. All 2nd generation Minifigs.


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And now for some anti-French. Though, of course, the Prussians were vassalized after Jena, and so they could be sent to Russia . . . so Frenchish!

Minifigs en masse sure do the trick, though their older 10mm and 15mm figures can be quite nice. Always liked the AIM cuirassiers.


120 points on the board!



From DavidB: Light infantry for 40k (59 points)

Probably the most neatest uniform of the American Civil War and still not represented at all in miniature form. I've wanted the regiment for my Miner Creek board for sometime. Although Miner Creek was in the Western Theatre and was 3:1 in Confederate favour and mostly cav squadrons with scarce a battery for the Rebels and none for the Union. I have decided to use infantry and cav regiments that were in(famous) as well as those sharpest dressed. Union highlanders definitely made the short list. But, no miniatures, lots of contradictory information and examples on the pattern..it's a slow slog. I haven't ever painted a tartan either!

Drookian Fen Guard! A perfect place to venture for practise and a long wanted regiment for 40k. Armed with blue, red, and brown paints, I attempted the tartan I needed for the ACW. They were supposed to be my recon team for the first bonus round, but the tartans seemed to be like a liberal- arts schoolgirl skirt more than a kilt. The red needed to get toned down and the blues brought up, The browns and yellow hues kept getting lost too. I still have some more practice to do, so I'm going to get a platoon of these fellows at Adepticon so I can get more practice.
Ill use them as a kill team and get the some more from Victoria Miniatures as well as the ghost models she makes. A mixture of light infantry to accompany the Tanith force I have.

Some scouts with space AKs. didn't have lasguns in the kit I bought and I liked the detail of these rifles. They will be the veteran squad of the regiment and the AKs will help the vets standout.


Four special weapon troopers a melta gunner, sniper, flamer, and plasma gun. In 40k rules a veteran squad can have 3 special weapons. These are light infantry however and light infantry knowing we will always be outnumbered, we will cheat! ;)
I don't usually use sniper rifles in veteran squads, so the ginger soul stealer is going to be part of a command squad. Otherwise he allowed in kill-team and corporal McAlistar is going to help remove obstacles there.

As a resin multipart kit they went together really well and had lots of detail. I did have to remove considerable flash, but these are an old mold now. The detail on them makes up greatly for the cleanup i had to do.

I had to include the piper. The sgt is know my communication specialist. His song list should be able to flavor-fully convey every order to the squad and the haunting notes will echo nicely back at the Drookian TOC for higher to disseminate. 

Although I succeeded in getting the Tartan "tolerable" I still need a lot of practice.

The lads are all set to represent in kill-team at Adepticon though!

Once again I used the bogmire  happyseppuko stamp base. I bought that stamp just for these models although I have been finding other uses for it. I painted an overbrush of brown over the black undercoat. The water effect was a blue varnish over a black/blue paint.  A few olive colors were used on the dry ground and I used my custom mix of flock and added a few bunches of static grass.
I've never been to the bogs in Scotland, but figured they were similar to the Cedar Swamps in the UP. spongy moss and lichen covered bits of ground shattered by water of unknown depths. Perhaps your boot will sink a little or you found a bit of grass covering a a rotted tree that will drop yiou to waist or deeper...better off following the game tracks!


Sounds about right
10 models for 50 points. they aren't GW official so I won't claim evil empire points

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Well, now, something completely different: the spacefaring Ladies from Hell!

The tartan may require more practice, for it is a tricky enough thing. But the bases are inspired.

Fifty points for the squad, and nine more for the bases.

From AdamC: Romans, the True Heir, a Bastard and Alvar (131 points)

 One Big post today.  I've got Roman Spear men and a standard bearer.
 There are 10 in all which is a bit of an awkward number its what cam in the gripping Beast box.
8 Armoured legionnaires 4 with swords and 4 with pears perfect for point of Hearthgaurd troops in saga.
 I would have like a few more men in mail but you get what you get.
 Two roman commanders one with an oval shield the other with a round shield.
I wish there had been some more options to customise these guys. So that Gripping Beast Box is done 20 men for the Legion all together this time.
 Next we have one of Badd Squiddo games Civilians.  Originally she was holding a hatchet but I didn't like the way that looked so I converted it to a staff.  Now she looks like a woman on a journey who has been startled not one cowering behind an inadequate weapon she doesn't know how to use.
She's carrying an infant which makes her great marker if I ever use the True Heir option for a game of saga. (this potion basically give your opponent fatigue every time they go after your warlord because they fear killing a member of their royal family)  She's also raises me to 25 points worth of civilians for another Squirrel point.
 This fellow is from Crusader Miniatures and is the mounted version of the figure I used for Rodrigo  in the bonus round. I could have made him match that figure but for me the unhelmed head and out stretched hand brought to mind the incident from the battle of Hastings where William the Bastard (Conqueror) rallied his men by removing his helm to show he was alive.
I think I need another layer of wash on the horse and possibly the cloak as both look a little flat or it could be the effect of the camera flash.  I can use him for Saga as William or as any warlord that I want to have look more like a "general" than "warrior".
 The Second figure from Crusaders' Personalities El Cid and Alvar Minaya set.  This was intended to represent Alvar one of El Cids most trusted companions, and a historical figure: Alvar Fanez
 There is also an Alvar in the Lions of Al-Rassan book a young man who is on his first mission with the Captain's company when the story begins. When I first read the book he was the character I most identified with. (This was in 1996 when I was a young buck myself)
I painted this fellow as sort of generic Noble man of the Crusade era.  I'm especially pleased with how the colors I used go together especially the robe and belt.  He won't match my other crusaders but a nobleman commanding troops for his lord wouldn't necessarily wear that lords livery so it works.

we have 20 Romans with a hand painted banner for 101 points (banner traditionally get an extra point so I am presuming a little).
2 other 28mm figures on foot for 10 points
2 cavalry figures also of 28mm scale for 20 points
That's give me 131 points my largest entry of this challenge.

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The robe and the belt do go together quite nicely on that crusader vassal. Very Aragon and Barcelona.

And 131 points go into the books!

From EricM: Napoleonic British and French Infantry

I have been pushing hard to make a good run toward the end of the challenge.  The last two weeks I have been finishing up the last of the infantry for our Cold Wars game.

First up is the Kings German Legion.   The figures are all by Front Rank, lovely as always.





I made a few mistakes with this project.  First, I individually based everything... bad idea.  I have movement trays for them but they just don't work as well as multi figure bases.  Second mistake was buying troops in a firing pose.  I like the look but they just don't rank up as well as marching.
The individually based figures lets me move the figures around a bit to fit in but it looks messy.





The second unit I was able to complete was a jump back to the Perry brothers campaign dressed British.  I love the ragged look but as nice as they are I always feel like there is something more I could do .  Time has become a real issue for me, so I had to force myself to move on

Since time has become the major consideration, also took the short cut of printing the flags.  Thank you Warflag.com

Those two units complete my portion of the British infantry.

I was also able to finish up the last of the French Infantry.  This unit is Front Rank in great coats and shako covers.  I love the figutres but it feels like cheating skiping all the lace and other color.  These guys painted very quickly.

Again I called on warflag.com for a printed french flag.  I feel a little dirty but no one but me would ever notice.   You may notice the sapper in the front rank and the enthusiastic fellow in the second rank.  I miss counted when I made my purchase so I was forced to improvise. I really love the color you can add to French units.

Here are some close up of the flank companies. 

Lastly, I finished up a few odd figures to complete other units.  I was able to work in another sapper, I really need to use a spreadsheet next time I plan a project like this
Its been a productive two weeks.  I have two squadrons of cavalry and some officers to finish in the next week.  I think it can happen!...maybe

In total I completed 79 28mm foot.

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Well, one entry that has no French in it and the punters get a mite twitchy. Fortunately, Eric here will provide you your fix!

I absolutely agree on firing pose miniatures. Absolutely essential for skirmish games, but it makes things very hard to rank up for games where units are 30-40. And I commiserate on the single bases.

But it was worth it, lobbing a 395 point bomb into the rankings. Damn your eyes and well done, sah!

From BillA: Vampire Cultists (60 points)

I haven't had nearly the free time to paint that I'd anticipated this winter; over the past two years I've also become an author of adventures for the Call of Cthulhu RPG, and right after I'd signed on for this year's AHPC, I got commissioned to write a 25,000 word scenario set in Victorian London.  At four cents a word, that's a hard proposition to turn down, and so much of my free time has been devoted to that over the last few months.  I've still made some time to paint, and by sticking closely to the bonus rounds I'll still have hit my goal with this entry.  Hopefully next year a project like this won't hit during the winter months and I can get a bit more painting in.

Anyways, on to this entry.

As mentioned previously, I've begun building a new Dragon Rampant warband for use against my friend Neil's goblin army, with my army consisting of a vampire and the mortal cultists she's bewitched into servitude.  Today's entry is one such unit of cultists, fanatical devotees of the Countess Winterthorn sworn to defend her with their lives.  They've draped themselves in red-dyed robes and hoods and taken up an assortment of rusty blades in her service, and are just itching to hurl themselves at the Countess' foes.


These are constructed from North Star Miniatures' "Cultists" plastic boxed set for Frostgrave which is an absolutely lovely set to work with.  The figures have plenty of animation in their poses, you get a ton of spare heads (including zombie and skeleton ones to make cultists who didn't let death get in the way of servitude) and some fun little accessories to glue on to figures' belts including lengths of chain, various daggers, skulls and potion-bottles.


The figures were primed black, and the robes base coated in Reaper's "Deep Red" before getting a heavy drybrush of "Fresh Blood," while the pantaloons and undershirts were basecoated in "Midnight Blue" and drybrushed "Twilight Blue." Gloves, boots and padded leather jerkins were based with "Ruddy Leather" and highlighted with "Oiled Leather."Any metal bits were given a wash/glaze of GW's "Seraphim Sepia" shade to make them look slightly rusty.  All in all they were a quick paint - probably five hours divided between two sessions.


So that's a dozen 28mm figures at 5 points apiece, netting me another 60 points.

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Part of the fun of plastics is their customizability. Cultists are particularly customizable, seeing as how they work in so many settings, from Ancients to Fantasy to modern Pulp settings and back to sci-fi.

You've got quite a nice little warband going there, Bill. Paint up an apprentice for the countess, and you'll soon be ready to take to the Frozen City.