From GregB: Espern Locarno, Imperial Navigator (60 Points)

Espern Locarno, Imperial Navigator - 28mm figure for GW's 40k Universe. He could be yours!

Hello again and welcome everyone - so sorry to be late to joining this edition of the Challenge, but I had a great opportunity to spend Christmas at our cabin on Lake Superior, visiting with family and keeping warm by the woodstove.  This was just perfect for relaxing, enjoying food and drink, and visiting, but not so ideal for painting, so hobbies took a back seat for a couple of weeks.

My first entry is modest, but is intended to accomplish a number of things at once - to obtain a landfall on "Challenge Island" and to provide an "entry fee".  Thus I submit Espern Locarno, Imperial Navigator, a character from the GW game "Blackstone Fortress".  Why paint this guy? Well, he looks pretty cool. Plus, I loved his description..."if you are looking to support your friends and manipulate your opponents, Espern Locarno is the explorer for you."   As someone who has a career in public affairs, this particular description really spoke to me :)

The shores of Lake Superior at Christmas, 2019.

And I generally love the characters of the Navigators in GW's 30k/40k setting. Essential for warp travel, the Navigators are important and influential in the 40k universe. Your Empire can't span the galaxy after all, unless your starships can travel through space.  It's nice that The Emperor can sit and rot away for eternity on his Golden Throne, but everything from His greatest battleships to his lowliest cargo lugs will require one of these pin-headed Navigators to get from point A to point B. 

Life it good when you can wear an outfit like this on your head...

The Navigators realize this.  And while they cannot challenge the Emperor, they still know they are part of the glue that holds the terrible and terrifying Imperium of the grim and dark future together. Insufferable, arrogant, entitled and required to be literally disconnected from reality as a core part of performing their work (steering a starship through the warp i.e. not-reality), the Navigators have always been fun symbols of the 40k universe. And as with many good science fiction symbols, for me, they also reflect much about our present...

Need to have some kind of respirator of course, just to ensure you air is better than anyone else's...and you need a skull on your cloak because 40k.

The Navigators also are a very clear sign of the influence that Frank Herbert's "Dune" universe had on the design of the original Warhammer 40k setting. Anyone who has read those books will no doubt see the many parallels. Oddly, the GW's writers these days seem to also be having their Titan commanders seem more and more like the "Dune" navigators as well, which I don't like so much...but I'll leave that blather about that some other time. 

"What do you mean I am just some kind of 'entry fee' - this is an outrage!"

As with "Dune", in 30k/40k the Navigators themselves are seldom seen on a battlefield, so there are not many figures representing them.  While I was not interested in "Blackstone Fortress" myself, I did go out of my way to track down one of these figures so I could paint one up.  The GW sculptor hit things out of the park with this figure - a perfect rendition of a whackadoodle Navigator.  He oozes arrogance, technical competence and a smug inability to grasp his own vulnerability, knowing there will always be someone at his beck and call to take care of things.

I'm hoping this submission will grant me landfall at "Reidy's Reef" - I know he's no age-of-sail model for sure, but I tried to have an aquatic colour palette on this guy, and I'm hoping a "ship is a ship" - even if it is a space ship.  So, assuming the naval figure gods show mercy, in terms of points, it will be 5 points for the 28mm figure, 30 points for the spot on "Challenge Island", and whatever bonus points one gets for providing the entry fee (perhaps that is zero...I admit I have lost track of things like this over some hectic recent weeks of travel).

And, as Curt has stipulated, as Challenge participants we are called to provide a prize figure...I think - or at least hope - that Espern here will make fine addition to some Challenger's collection.  Furthermore, given that I have been humbled by the honour of having a "Challenge Island" location allocated in my name, I would ask that Curt award Espern to a Challenger who successfully navigates "Burch's Bluffs"...so there you have it - Espern Locarno could be yours!

Well done to everyone for all of the great entries so far. The 10th Edition is shaping up to be one of the finest yet, looking forward to sharing the painting fun with all of you over the next few months. Cheers!

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First, welcome back to the Challenge, Greg! It's great to have you in the mosh pit again AND, as an extra bonus, your entry puts us over the half-way mark for entries from our 68 participants. Not bad for the first eight days!

Oooh, your Espern Locarno is rather fabulous. This figure alone tempts me to purchase the entire Blackstone Fortress boxed set. I like the colour scheme you went with for him - it's all wonderfully baroque, something I think Sarah would call 'Shabby-Chic', or in Espern's case, 'Shabby-Psyker-Chic'. 

As we discussed earlier, I have to smile at your description of the Navigators in 40K as they are, as you point out, shamelessly ripped off from the Navigator guilds from 'Dune'. I continue to marvel at the sheer moxy of GW's lawyers who litigate others for supposedly pilfering their IP when most of it is based on 20th century geek pop culture. But I digress. 

Mssr. Burch, you now have 60 points to mark your entry upon the field. Well done dude!

From MarkB: Curt’s Cleavers at Millsy’s Millpond (90 Points)

For the blast from the past challenge at Millsy’s Millpond I decided to add a few more Orc Warriors to my nostalgic Orc and Goblin army. My first ‘proper’ wargames rules were Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd edition in 1987 aged nine, and they still hold a special place for me. I wanted to capture some of those great moments in the photos that captivated me as a kid. In the introduction to that book there was a great ‘how to’ painting guide for an Orc unit using these plastic figures from the Regiments of Renown set. I’ve been collecting them slowly from eBay when they turn up at reasonable prices and got several different coloured shield units done. I’ve already get blue moons and yellow moons and now it was turn for some green moon boys! The leader figure with the two cleavers is the same metal figure as Rick Priestley allegedly purchased in the book as the unit leader (while wearing some god awful jumper if I recall correctly!) I chanced across him in a big lot of eBay Orcs a few months back and had to have him. I’ve called him Curt the Cleaver because of his rather nasty looking butchers cleavers that he wields with huge ferocity! I also hope the sycophancy is not lost on our dear patron? I tend to name the Orcs after the people who donated them to me. On my twitter feed you can also see Enry Manhide (donated by Henry Hyde) and Rich Git the nailor (donated by Richard Naylor), so this naming is not entirely without precedent!

The standard bearer is a slight conversion of a broken Orc Guy Bowers the editor of WSS gave me after last years Lard Day I was organising. He had a broken sword, so I’ve replaced it with a scratch built and hand painted banner with a suitably ugly Oldhammer Orcish motif and the title of the unit. I’ve decided he looks a bit like a veteran Orc crusader so I will dub him Sir Guy Devours after my mate. Obviously I should have added a greenstuff blonde ponytail but the figure was too nice and full of character to mess about with.

I only painted eight figures in total but all date from the mid- late 1980’s. It’s always great to get figures you dreamed of having as a kid and painting them to a better standard than you could’ve ever dreamed of back then. The shields are hand painted but in a light relief, so not quite so tricky as normal freehand.

Here is the Orc himself - Curt the Cleaver. I had lots of fun adding extra rust and dried blood on him. His butchers shop only has a one star hygiene rating on Deliveroo!

So for the points...

8 x 28mm figures at 5 points each

10 points for being figures from the 1980’s (I do have some 70’s Ral Partha and Minifigures I could have gone with, but life is too short to paint things you don’t fancy doing!)

Was the backstory enough for the bonus 10 points?😜

I make that a total of 60 points?

Now all I’ve got to do is work out the theme of my next challenge!

Cheers

Mark Backhouse

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Mark, this is a fabulous entry. From the background of you as a little 9 year-old spout, goggling at the photos from 3rd ed of WFB, to you as an, erm, 'adult' getting models from mates and those rare finds on eBay - it's all wonderful stuff. I really like the desaturated colours you used for these guys and that banner is just terrific. It all reminds me of the gritty art that you would see from those early books from faraway Nottingham.

So, 40 points for the unit, 30 for facing the challenge at Millsy's Mill Pond, 10 for the 80s vintage minis and another 10 for the backstory (AND all backed up with more than a whiff of well-placed sycophancy), which gives a grand total of 90 points! Well done Mark!

-Curt

From PeterD: 28mm Italian Wars House

First post for me is a BUA for my Italian Wars project in 28mm.  This piece is from TTCombat and I picked it up at Meeplemart during a trip to Toronto the Centre of the Universe last fall.  

This was my first kit from TTC and I was quite pleased with it.  TTC uses a heavy pdf than Sarissa or Warbases and it required a bit of work with the Xacto to trim the pieces from the frame and to make sure than Tab A fit in Slot B securely.  As such there are some gaps on this first effort that hopefully will be rectified on further efforts.  Paint work is very basic, I left the pdf and greyboard unprimed and used washes in various earth tones.

As can be seen TTC provide some interior details but I chose not to paint the interiors.  I glued the two floors together but left the roof as lift off, but the upper story could be left in lift off state as well.  This would be useful in skirmish gaming.

This kit (plus two other on the workbench) come from TTC' Streets of Venice range which is worth checking out.  The structures would be useful for many historical periods plus fantasy gaming.  Although labelled for Venice I think it will do for any Italian locale.  I was quite pleased when I showed this to my wife (who unlike me has been to Tuscany) who said it looked like Sienna.  

Points wise the building is 6" tall, 6"long and 3" wide.  That's a perfect demi-cube and an easy to calculate 10 points. 

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That's a very nice looking kit, Peter.  I like the corner detail and the edge profile on the tile roofing. I suppose that this would work well for periods from the Renaissance to modern day, as this type of design is fairly timeless. A great addition to your terrain collection!

Well done Peter and welcome back to the Challenge.

-Curt

From ScotM: Sarah's Balloon trip to Fran's Fjord (35 Points)

Our heroine having outfoxed some terrifying ants has hired out Sarah's Balloon for a trip to Fran's Fjord. Here she is as she's about to board the balloon.

This fig is a female civilian from Sash & Saber's French and Indian War line. And that will complete the Sarah's Balloon location.

So that should be 1 x 28mm foot figure = 5 + 30 (for the location) = 35 points

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That's a very nice figure, Scott. I like her white apron and bonnet cover against the warm ochre tones of her dress. I really like Sash and Saber's Napoleonic range, but I wasn't aware that they offered civilians as well (information filed away for future use). 

Great work, Scott. Enjoy your flight to Fran's Fjord!

-Curt 

From ByronM: Landing on the Reidy's Reef in a sub? (45 Points)

Well, it has taken a while, but I am finally ready to land on Challenge Island.  With holiday season and family events it has taken longer to arrive on the island than I had originally planned, but at least I am here now!

To be fair, a lot of the delay was about not really being sure where to land and what path to take.  In the end I figured I had to take the path of the new and shiny since a) I have a space on that path bearing my name, and b) as anyone who knows me will attest..... SQUIRREL!!!  I kind of get distracted and jump onto new projects pretty damn fast.  So, overall it makes sense to follow this path, at least for a while until I get distracted again.

To make landfall, I went digging through my pile-o-shame looking for something that would fit the Reidy's Reef nautical theme requirement.  While I had a bunch that I could use, I had not planned ahead for the island challenges and therefore didn't have anything assembled or primed for the spaces.  I had lots of ships kicking around but nothing ready to go.  Then I happened across my box of Games-Workshops Dreadfleet, which I had bought, assembled, primed, played a few games, found out how bad it was (despite having some really cool looking figures) and then sat in the box for years.  At least I had everything there assembled and primed though!

So I pulled out something simple to paint and away I went....

May I present to you my Dwarf submarine war machine.  It is basically a mechanical kraken and is a great example of the cool models in the Dreatfleet box.

While I painted it up in a super simple steel and brass colour scheme, I think it works.  After all it's underwater most of the time so any real life paint details would very quickly corrode away and be gone anyway.

Hope you all like it.  Not sure I will get to any other Dreadfleet models this challenge, but I may simply because they are all ready to paint, so any time I hit a nautical theme space, they may become my go to choice.  Also, it would me nice to have them all done at some point.

Oh, and size wise the game has no real set scale, but the base is 32mm x 75mm.

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Oooh, how very cool! I've always wanted to pick up a copy of this game as the minis looked so groovy. Great work on this 'sub', Byron. as you say the craft itself is fairly straightforward, but I have to say I really like what you did with the water and wave effects - very nice. 

As to points, we'll count it as a 28mm cavalry figure with a few points added in.

Welcome back to the Challenge Byron!

-Curt

From LeeH: Ships of the Desert (Challenge Island Entry Fee) (35 Points)

The fortuitous combination of Bank Holidays and my regular day off means I have had almost a whole week off work over Christmas, without having to use any holiday up. That's lucky in two ways; first I work for a Charity and they are understandably stingy with holiday entitlement so I don't have many days leave available to start with, and secondly, it means I have had lots of time to get stuck into painting for the Challenge. On the less happy side, my poor wife has been quite ill over the holiday and while she has spent the last week and a half laying on the sofa watching TV, I've been free to occupy myself with my miniatures. I have to say that even I'm champing at the bit to get outside and painting these two ships of the desert is just stocking that need to be outside. 

I'm not 100% sure where I got these (Britannia Miniatures I think?) but I do know they almost made it into Challenge IX. I started painting them but ran out of time and I wasn't at all happy with how they looked, so I stripped them, re primmed them and put them aside for another year. Now, at last, they are back on my desk and I have managed to finish them off as my entry fee to Challenge Island. It won't take a genius to guess who I had in mind for these figures, but they could go to any of those that make it to the Snow Lords Peak. I decided not to rebase them, with the idea that if I kept the original cast metal bases they could be adapted to fit into any suitable force with a little groundwork. 

I have already finished my first location-based entry to Challenge Island, but I'll submit that later, once my fee figures have been posted. So two camels should net me five points each, plus the entry fee bonus of 25points will give me a tidy 35 points from this entry. Onwards and upwards! 

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Great look camels, Lee. Some lucky Challenger will be getting these Ships of the Desert. I like how their head positions are evocative of how we imagine these smelly, hard-working creatures and I also fancy how the coloured tassels nicely offset their otherwise fairly drab appearance. Well done!

-Curt

From PeteF: Heer Heer (23 points)

When I moved out west three years ago and consulted with the local game store about games people play they suggested Bolt Action. I purchased a Blitzkreig German starter army, some British home guard, the rules and Operation Sealion supplement - the alternative history of the invasion of Britain. 

Since then I've managed to paint the home guard (Dad's Army in Challenge VIII), one squad and a gun with crew (primed and started, but not finished during Challenge IX). I didn't find any Bolt Action opponents until very recently so the project has languished. However, I'm planning to finish the rest of the box this winter. 

These six troops represent the sniper teams and command for the unit (which will be 3 ten man squads, a couple of vehicles and support weapons). I'm still trying to get to grips with the desaturated colours and trying to get enough hilighting/contrast. 

The figures are from Warlord Games. I like their WWII plastics as they have some nice poses and lots of equipment options.  Unfortunately their new website redesign means I can't buy in pounds from the US (enabled on the old website) so I'm a bit grumpy with Warlord at the moment. Any suggestions for other companies that do nice BEF and early war germans?

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Wonderful looking early war Germans, Pete. I really like your attention to detail, especially on the insignia and webbing. As too pricing I suppose Warlord is adjusting so we North Americans can't take too much advantage of the roller-coaster ride of the Pound. Not very sporting, is it? Maybe you'll get a better price after the mythical US/UK trade deal is signed, the one where everyone wins biggly (especially the US). ;)

-Curt

From PaulSS - Laserburn Trike Squadron for Millsy's Millpond (90 Points)

Back in the very early 1980's when I was at 'comp' I moved on in my wargaming journey, having graduated from throwing cricket balls at 1/32 Airfix figures to reading Military Modelling and finding out about the availability of commercial rules and figures aimed just at me.

What a great stride forwards was made when John and I found out that Tabletop Games (TTG) on Nottingham Road, Daybrook was only about an hours bike ride away from our homes. We made many trips to this place to spend our pocket money, paper round earnings, etc. and it was a treasure trove of dust and fantastic stuff. If you blew away some of the - probably highly toxic - dust you revealed a trove of figures including lots of their own 15mm ranges, Ancients, Napoleonics, Colonials, American Civil War to name but a few. Among this collection was a range of figures for a set of rules called Laserburn and I likely got very giddy at the thought of blasters and light sabres; remember we were only five years out from Star Wars: A New Hope at this time.

I don't recall exactly what I bought at the time, but I do recall that I did buy some 'Red Redemptionists' including at least one Trike. They were painted white and I recall that I made a 'Hoth' wargames table using some polystyrene roofing tiles.

Having embarked on Challenge Island I have placed an order on a company in the UK for some other memory lane 15mm stuff, but was concerned that it would not get here in time, but, browsing the online catalogue of my local games store was delighted to see that after the demise of TTG that not only had Alternative Armies picked up the range, but a Trike Squadron was available in stock. It just had to be done! (It said six models in the blister, but there were only five when I opened it).

With a shudder I recalled the original white Humbrol Enamel paint-job of the originals I had daubed on these models circa 1983 , no primer, no highlights, no varnish and discarded that thought completely. Instead I went for a burgundy bike and armour with white robes and black for the guns etc. I also decided against Hoth basing, these are instead on desert bases with a few cork rocks and some scorched grass tufts.

These did take me back, but I don't think I'm in any hurry to start a new project.

 Not sure how these five Trikes fit in with the scoring, small 15mm vehicles with a couple of crew each, I suppose if we've previously pointed some motorcycle combinations for WWII that would likely be an appropriate baseline. Hopefully I will get the bonuses for 1980's and the backstory too.

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I quite enjoyed reading your trip down memory lane, Paul (especially the 1hr bike ride to the nearest hobby shop). I never had them, but I clearly remember Laserburn and TTG figures. It's great that the range lives on with Alternative Armies, allowing us to ride shotgun on your trip down memory lane. Though perhaps a bit lumpy in spots, I really like the spirit of these figures, especially the pillion riders with their capes whipping in the wind - wonderful stuff. The purple and white combo does a nice job in making them looks very 80s sci-fi as well. Well done Paul!

With all the assorted nostalgic bonus points included, you get a very tidy 90 to add to your total. Great work and thanks for the 80s roadtrip, Paul!

-Curt