From StuartL - A Mammoth 1st Post - Skaro - 117 points

Hello everyone.

As this is my first post for this challenge, a quick introduction (for the newcomers to the AHPC) and a quick recap (for people who have been around for the last couple of challenges), seem in order.

My name is Stuart, I was born and grew up in the UK, but I emigrated to Japan about 17 years ago. I have been working over here as an English language trainer for various corporations and businesses for most of that time. After Covid came along, a lot of businesses started to work from home and stopped providing training to their staff, so this time last year I found myself with a lot of free time. I was able to get some more work this spring and I am now teaching part time at a Junior High School. It's not what I want to be doing, but it pays the bills. Japan was a little slow with the vaccines, I got both of my shots in October. No plans for a third jab yet, but that might happen next year as Omicron has been found in a couple of places over here. 

And now, on to the painting. 

As I have the opportunity for gaming again (at least until Omicron spreads and shuts everything down again), I plan on trying to get armies/warbands/crews etc. done so that I can A) play the games I want to play, and B) put on demo games to get my local group to try them. I also have a mountain of Reaper Bones minis from their various kickstarters that I need to make a dent in. So for the most part I will be focusing on these two goals. Plus the Challenge XII sector of course. I've also been asked to take on the role of Squirrelfinder General after having decided that I didn't need the distraction of chasing squirrels myself. And to round things off, I'm participating in the Skullz Duel this year. I'm hoping to function as a 'pace car' and not get too carried away.

To start off my Challenge XII, I have painted up this set of demons/devils from Reaper. They were all simple enough to paint and I made use of GW's contrast paints to do their skin. Some of them are in strange poses, (check out the guys flexing their muscles in the back row), but overall they'll do for D&D or similar games. All of the models have a skull icon on their belts for those of us who care about such things.

More Reaper minis here, a set of gorillas including one wearing armour. No contrast here, these were all done in a mix of standard Citadel colours and Vallejo. One of the many things I'm working on is a couple of armies for Saga: Age of Magic. Unlike the more historical versions of Saga, Age of Magic allows you to take pretty much any minis you want and fit them to one of six themes. These gorillas will be Biped Creatures for the Lords of the Wild theme. Saga: AoM is definitely worth checking out if you like mini-agnostic skirmish games.

And here we have the mammoth from the post title. This was part of the most recent Reaper kickstarter and it is absolutely massive. It stands about 13cm tall and is 20cm from tusk to tail. Its base is an old CD. One of the best parts of the Reaper KS's is the price. This gigantic chunk of plastic only cost $14. While some of the smaller minis are a bit bendy (see the gorilla's sword in the picture above), their big models are amazing, and very sturdy.

For the fur, bones, tusks and the armour, I used GW Contrast paint, followed by a metallic drybrush on the metal plates. The skin, chains and harness were all done in regular paints. For things with a lot of texture Contrast works well, but sadly Bones minis tend to be a bit hydrophobic and need a couple of attempts to get the paint to sit correctly. The model is still a bit glossy, so I might have to hit it with another coat of varnish before putting it away.

To help give you a sense of scale, I have enlisted the help of Jarl Hvat-Skael to show the sheer size of this beasty. The Jarl was painted years ago, so isn't part of this entry. There are two skulls hanging on chains on the side of this monster and its leg armour also has large skulls on it.

And finally, on to the Challenge Sector. My destination? Skaro.

Now, I grew up watching/being terrified by Doctor Who on a weekly basis. (Mainly Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy), but I don't really have any Doctor Who themed minis. Luckily our most generous Snow Lord left a little room for manoeuvre with the theme of weird robots and I do have a few of those.

This model is a kit bash for a game called This is Not a Test, or TNT for short. TNT is a post apocalyptic skirmish game which has a bit of a Fallout feel to it if you are familiar with that series of PC games. The model consists of a vending machine scenery piece from Reaper, with added legs and cannons built from spare GW Necron parts.

Sadly, just as I finished painting this, I dropped it and managed to sheer off three of the four legs. Originally, the legs all had plastic pins on them that allowed me to assemble the robot in an upright pose. After the break, I had to drill out all the holes again and insert metal pins. Getting the correct angles was nearly impossible, so the repaired model is slightly more wonky. 

TNT is another model-agnostic system and consists of a base rule book and half a dozen pdf expansions, one of which includes robots. In said pdf, there is a scenario where both players are fighting to control a Quantum Cola Vendo - An advanced robotic vending machine. Rather than paint the mini in the colours shown in the PDF, I decided to model it after my favourite imaginary beverage Brawndo! What is Brawndo? It's from the movie Idiocracy and plays a central role in that film. You can see a commercial for Brawndo here: Youtube.

And for a final TL;DR recap.

All of the models were at least 40mm tall (50 in the case of the gorillas), so that should be:

11x 40mm minis = 77 points.

1x mammoth = 20 points?? I have no idea how to score it, it dwarfs most tanks I have.

1x Sector Planet = 20 points.

Grand total = 117 points.

Skullz Tally - 13

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Wow, great first post! That mammoth is an absolute beast - what an impressive tusked lump! I think my favourites are the ferocious apes, though I also really like the whacky vending machine/robot. Sorry to hear of your mishap with its legs. Reading it made me cringe. I've been there too many times, pinning shorn limbs, muttering unmentionable things under my breath - I feel your pain.

Finally, good opening volley on the Skull count. I need to get a wiggle on with my figures to try to catch up.

Welcome back to the Challenge, Stuart!

- Curt