PeterA: Last Post (229 points)

My progress, never that fast to start with, has well and truly ground to a halt as dealing with real life has had to take over. Today was the last day of school for who knows how long here in the UK and planning for this and its consequences has been rather time-consuming; a tip of the slipper to those intrepid souls who have taken this in their stride and continued to produce fabulous entries. For my part, I had planned a whistle-stop tour of a few more locations on Challenge Island, but alas, this was not meant to be. So, my last post for the 2020 Painting Challenge is a motley collection of what might have been.

First up are two figures which I had painted for O'Grady's Gulch - The Batman and The Joker from Knight Models. This is not a game I play but my son does and so these are for his collection. They are on plain bases as he wants to try putting them on clear acrylic bases. The models themselves are based on the characters as portrayed in Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight' movie. 

I had then planned a quick trip in Sarah's Balloon to Docherty's Dock. For my fare, I intended to present this original GW Necromunda figure from House Escher. She is meant to represent a Warrior Acolyte in an Inquisitorial retinue. The original Codex Daemonhunters was a great supplement, full of ideas for narrative campaigns and thematic scenarios. One of the ideas was that having certain types of characters in the retinue gave the Inquisitor characteristic bonuses. The codex also encouraged you to delve into GW catalogue of figures to come up with weird and wonderful creations. So in my head, this figure represents Trinity (love the Matrix, just the first one), a ganger whose ferocity and combat skills (honed in the unforgiving environment of the Underhive) have attracted the attention of  Inquisitor Ademar, an unorthodox (i.e. radical a.k.a. heretical) member of the Ordo Malleus. Despite the age of the figure, it is a lovely sculpt with a host of finer details.

The plan for Docherty's Dock was to encounter a small camel train of two ships of the desert. They are from Copplestone Castings and will fit in nicely in the Back of Beyond.

As the engineers for Cook's Crevasse never even got primed, we jump ahead to what would have featured on Hawkins Hill. This is the aforementioned Inquisitor Ademar - a figure that comfortably exceeds the requirement of being from at least three years ago (it is actually about 17 years old!). Years ago there was an article in White Dwarf on the Relictors Chapter of Space Marines. They believe that the weapons of Chaos can be put to good use fighting it and one of those weapons was the Dark Blade - a jet black daemon weapon. Needless to say much of the Imperium takes a pretty dim view of this, so the back story is that Ademar has been entrusted with the weapon by the Relictors. I also tried to paint a glowing effect on his plasma pistol; not entirely satisfied, but at least the figure is finished!  

The final part of the plan was to take one last ride in Sarah's Balloon back to the Path of the New Shiny and Burch's Bluff,  the fare for which is this trio of Hasslefree females - they are lovely sculpts but I fear they look too small next to my Spectre Miniatures operators, as you can see in the second pic.

The theme at Burch's Bluff was The Horus Heresy. Now, whilst my enthusiasm for WH40K has gradually declined (apart from the odd game of Kill Team), I have always loved the WH30K setting and I particularly like how the VI Legion - the Rout, the Emperor's Executioners, the Vlka Fenryka - are portrayed. They are not the Wolfy McWolf charicatures they have become in 40K for me,  but something more nuanced and complex, whose sense of honour comes from being prepared to bear the suspicion, antipathy and disdain of their fellow Legions because they are prepared to do what others will not - hold their brethren to account and administer the ultimate sanction if necessary. The fact that they have an anti-authoritarian streak a mile wide doesn't hurt either! Sadly, progress on these has been really stymied by dealing with the impact of coronavirus at work, so I have only finished a few models - a Jarl in Terminator armour, one of his Thegn bodyguards in Tartaros Terminator armour, and a couple of Grey Slayers. They are a mixture of 40K and 30K bodies, with accessories from the 40K upgrade sprue and the 40K Terminators.

So that makes 55 points for the figures and I'm not sure how to score the camels - are they mounted figures? 7.5 each? That would make 70 all told. Either way, I won't make my target, but all things considered, I'm happy enough. Thanks once again to Curt for being such a splendid host and congratulations to all the other entrants - viewing your entries has been truly inspiring. Stay safe, stay healthy and best wishes to you all and your nearest and dearest.

Peter

________________________________

These are fabulous, Peter. So much to like in this submission. Superhero, check, SuperVillain, check, Inquisitor and retinue (loved that old Inquisitor codex), check, gumpy overworked camels, check, kick-ass ladies, check, proper Dan Abnett Space Wolves, check! All gloriously painted and all have the ingredients for a spectacular run about Challenge Island. Harumph!

You know what Peter, being the one who dreamt up this nonsense to begin with, I think I can bend a few rules in your case. I'm going to give you the location bonus for each of these and we'll call it square. How's that sound?

Sooo, with my socks and mittens off to help me count, the grand total comes out to... 229 points! Not quite to your target, but pretty darn close. :)

Well done Peter! I look forward to seeing you when the circus tent opens for another edition of the Challenge.

-Curt