From ScottM: French & Indian War British Rangers (95 points)

Before I venture into level 3 of the Chamber of Challenges, I finished off this batch of 19 French & Indian War British Rangers. These 28mm metal figs are from North Star Military Figures' Muskets & Tomahawks range. There's three separate packs with an officer attached to the first group.

What I like about these is that there aren't any duplicate figures. Some are very similar but they're all unique.

So that should be:

19 - 28mm foot figs = 95 points

From ReillyOG: Goblin Fanatics!(20 points)

Emerging from their handing place with a vengeance, come the latest in a line of suicidal Goblins, Fanatics! These fine lads clear enemy units in droves before inevitably crushing themselves with their own hefty companion.

Had a bit of fun with these lads, including some taunting messages on the big swirling death balls.

"X marks the spot"

A close runner up was "If you can
Read dis, your too close."

Nothing too fancy, but a bit of fun. 20 points for 4x28mm infantry. Happy painting!

from Paul O'G: Khorngors for the Blood God! (101 points)

After some solid Challenge productivity in quarantine, progress slowed when Mrs Man Cave checked for secret doors in the Chambers of Challenge. A mystery staircase went up to the hitherto unknown location: The Balcony of Domestic Distraction!  Cue the requested significant sanding, repainting etc With that now out of the way, I'm back to more entertaining scales of re-modelling :-)

Back in the day, hearty Beastmen Gor warriors could be given different marks of Chaos. Many know the erstwhile Pestigor (who also make fair Blood Bowl players on Nurgle teams) but those who follow the Blood God are known as Khorngors.

The Khorngor models were removed from production back in 4th or 5th edition so it took me a few years to collect enough of these metal figures to complete a full unit of 20 (including Command characters) but finally here they are in all their Oldhammer glory.

These will be one of the 3 elite troop units in my army, being screened into contact by the supporting hordes where they will (I hope) hit like a truck. Lets see how that goes.

In addition to the 101 points these should earn me (20 x 28mm figs plus 1 for the standard), they boast an impressive number of skullz - as you would expect for followers of Khorne. In fact there are 127 of them amongst them, taking me to a total of 132 for this Challenge.

Blood for the Blood God!

From StuartL - Reinforcements for Normandy - 25 Points

Hi all, just a short entry today. Having reached the Altar of the Snow Lord in the Chambers of Challenge, I am in a holding pattern until I can paint up a suitable tribute to satisfy the fickle whims of our frozen overlord. Also, work has been picking up and I have been struggling to settle into a good painting rhythm, so I haven't accomplished much this week.

One of the many games I play is Bolt Action. I enjoy the uncertain nature of the activation mechanic and the rules are simple enough to enjoy a game without needing to constantly look things up. I currently have far, far too many Bolt Action armies and I am constantly finding more minis to add to them. 

One of my forces is a platoon of Commandos for storming the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, and it is for that platoon that I have painted up this small group of extra minis. 

To lead my force, an officer and a couple of assistants.

And to provide some fire support to one of the sections is a Vickers K LMG team.

These minis are all from Warlord Games' Bolt Action range. The officer and the LMG team are metal minis, the two assistants are from the plastic boxed set. 

So 5 quick and easy 28mm minis will add 25 points to my challenge total and will also pop another Squirrel point onto my side duel count.

My running Duels totals:

GW Points - 591

Skullz - 352

Squirrels - 9

AdamC: The Tomb: Buiried at sea (40 Points)

According to Unesco there are over 3 million shipwrecks world wide. Making the Oceans of the world a very large tomb. 

The two sinking ships are from Warlord's Terrain box.  They are up to the usual standards of Warlord's sculptures.  

For points I am going to count them as half ships so 15 points for the sinking First Rate and 5 points for the sinking Brig (incorrectly called a 3rd rate on the box) Plus another 20 for the room if that is granted to me for a total of 40 Points. It will also add 20 points for the Naval Side Duel (though sinking ships only count as terrain for points not number of hulls) 

From TeemuL: Grey fox, Chamber of Darkness (25 points)

S.N. Owl-Ord was not sure how Sararwen managed to get him to this door, the port was probably playing tricks on his head. She had spoken something about the Grey Chamber, Shellington was not sure they had mutual understanding about his destination, but at least this Chamber (of Darkness) was not having a pest problem. It was having a problem with lights, everything was a bit grey. Even the bard in the corner looked grey with his lute and his face didn't look good. He had a foxy grin when he followed S.N. advancing through the room. "This is not the Principal's office and I'm getting hungry", Uggla thought as he moved on.

Continuing in the Chambers of Challenge, the Chamber of Darkness was quite difficult at first. I have never done anything in greyscale, but I have given it a thought or two in the past. I was thinking, that yes, I can paint a Ringwraith or some statue like thing, but then again this is a challenge... I remembered the soldiers in camouflages painted in grey, but that was may be a bit over the top. But I was thinking different colors, maybe a sport figure, Blood Bowl or something, with stripes and so on? You know, that the figure itself should have colors, but it is painted with greys - not a grey model painted in grey.

Luckily(?) I have lots of stuff in my lead pile, lots of miniatures, which I'm not intending to use in any games, just paint for fun, for example lots of different models from YourModelBox subscription I had for a year. I decided to pick up Rox the Bard from the exclusive Model Box range. And grey fox was something I just couldn't resist, even though Rox is a red fox originally.

I started with white primer, as always. Old habits die hard, I usually start with white undercoat, because if I draw or paint something, the paper or canvas is white, so why would miniature painting be any different? Starting from white is bit difficult when aiming for greyscale, so next I painted the whole thing with old Citadel Black Ink. Now I could see the details, there were some dark shadows etc. Then I opened three grey paint pots, Light Grey, Mid Grey and Mechanicus Standard Grey, which was the darkest. I painted the face and hands first with the Light Grey, leaving the recesses black. Then I started to paint the different clothes, lute and stuff with different colors, adding highlights and layers. The watered down Black Ink helped a bit. I was thinking about going to the white, at least on some areas, but then decided not. It looks quite nice now. I continued the greyscale in the base, painting a simple cobblestone pattern to follow the Chamber theme. This was a nice experiment and after the Black Ink had dried, it took about 30 minutes to be ready. Much faster than with different colors... The lightning and shadows are not correct, but it looks good enough for me. I might paint even more in the future.

5 points for 28mm miniature

20 points for the Chamber of Darkness

25 points total, no skulls, no GW models.

 

 

From Jeff B: 陷阱与钟摆（The Pit and the Pendulum）Xian Jing yu Zhong Bai (40 Pts)

My take on the next chamber, "The Pit and the Pendulum" is a Chinese version  of the tale. My good friend Mad Guru from Maiwand Day blog fame asked his wife to translate for me. This is her translation, thank you Xinhua.

Poor Yu had been convicted of crimes against the govt, tortured, and forced to watch his comrades being beheaded prior to his own execution. His story is timeless.....

                      陷阱与钟摆（The Pit and the Pendulum) Xian Jing yu Zhong Bai

A WIP shot with reference in the background

The merciless execution (Woo Ching Choo Jue) vignette comes from the Wargames Foundry China Range. It is originally made for the Tai Ping Rebellion, however I think it can be used all the way through the Boxer Rebellion. I intend to use it for the Tai Ping Rebellion, Tonkin in the 1880's, and the Boxer Rebellion 1900. Pictured here is one of my motivational reference pieces.

The standard is an image I researched and captured from the net, copied, flipped, sized, printed, cut, and glued to a .032 Piano Wire rod from any craft or hobby store. The finial is a bead from Hobby Lobby where I purchased the piano wire.

The figures are based on washers to sit in their magnetized boxes. I used wood glue, ballast, sand, and old coffee grinds for the basing materials and painted with craft store paints. Burnt Umber, then Honeycomb, then highlighted with Bamboo.

                                            Here's some close ups.

(4) 25/28mm figures x 5 Pts each + 20 points for the chamber = 40 Pts + standard pts - ?

From DrQ: A Female Rogue to Sarah the Sorceress for Some Assistance (25 points)

Having previously jumped back up to the Larder in order to complete level one, I now require some sorcerous assistance in order to get to my next locale—the Oubliette.

This is Mika, another of the figures from the Arcadia Quest spin-off game Masmorra: Dungeons of Arcadia.

 

As a board game component the sculpt has a few problems if you look too closely—mold lines running through detail, awkward basing, etc. But it looks good from the tabletop. 

Also as a board game component I painted it up as closely to the box art as possible. I don't want to confuse players in the game. I also have an aesthetic choice where I only use NMM on my chibi minis to help sell the cell animation look.

Point wise, there's 5 for the miniature and 20 for the assistance of Sarah. (There's another skull for my meager skull throne as well.) 

From Dallas: Two Orks and an Orc in the Orc's Pit (35 points)

Next up in the Dungeon is the Orc's Pit... and whaddaya know, I've painted some Orcs to join the serried ranks in my figure cabinets.

First up are two of these great Ork Blood Axe Kommandos from GW. These two have been sitting primed for donkey's years, and it only took one evening to get them painted, go figure...  

These models are Perry twins sculpts and aren't they superb? The Blood Axe tribe are quite militaristic and disciplined, and their uniforms and equipment reflect this. Quite a departure from the Kev Adams aesthetic but I really like them. I painted them in the same camo pants as the rest of my all-metal all-Citadel Red Star Krew. And aren't those Swiss Army knives great???

Here's the six Kommandos all together. A previous owner converted the Ork carrying the multi-melta!

And here are the two new Kommandos with their fantasy forebear - another Citadel Orc from the old Lord of the Rings range (no not that one, the one from the '80s).

I like these models as they have a real Mongol Horde kinda feel.

Coincidentally enough I had painted his tunic in the same field grey colour as the Kommandos' field jackets!

 

Another room down, and next up is the Shrine, for which I have a plan... but in order to keep things moving I might use a Sorceress teleport next...

Stay safe everyone!