From PeteF: Dracula's America Skinwalkers Invade The Shrine (70 points)

The Arcanist (Shaman)

My local band of wargaming brothers plays a lot of different games - SAGA (various flavours), Beyond the Gates of Antares, Kings of War, Bolt Action, Zona Alpha, Monster Apocalypse, Rampant various, Battle Tech, Black Powder (if I'm running something) and anything else that anyone fancies. One of the rulesets we started looking at is Dracula's America - a skirmish/scuffle with small warbands of around ten minis.

It takes place in an alternate post civil war universe with several fun factions - including a risen south with confederate zombies, paladin gunfighters, vampires and the skinwalkers - native americans with some shape shifting abilities.

Also shamany

These skinwalkers are a mixture of North Star Miniatures official  warband and Warlord Games Comanches. I traded them for a box of Frostgrave Gnolls in an unusual thinning of the shelf of shame. I had instant regret about the gnolls which were going to be a Kings of War unit -  Frostgrave might be fun...

For the shrine the war band includes an arcanist - who is a sort of shaman as well as this guy with the horns, fur and warpaint that kinda sorta reminds me of a shaman who's been in the news lately.

The group took ages to paint and base - I'm more used to batch painting and the members of this warband wanted to be painted individually. It was my first attempt at native american skin - still need to work on the fleshtones - there's a P3 colour that lots of Youtubers recommend for nonwhite tones. I'm behind plan for dungeon exploration so might need to hitch a ride with a witch to get to the next level. 

Shaman adjacent

Carrying a worship pole of some sort

That's ten minis and a room bonus for 70 points. Apologies if this is a lot of pictures for one room! 

The Squirrel Challenge Update!

Wait, did you say Squirrel?

Hello Squirrel Fans!

Below are the up to date(ish) points totals for the prestigious Squirrel Challenge.

For those few who are not in 'the know', participants get a Squirrel Point for each new submission on a new theme worth at least 25 points (before any bonuses).

In alphabetical order, here are the current scores for the group:

Curt: 8

DaveS: 1

JohnS: 1

KyleC: 11

Millsy: 1

NoelW: 12

PeteF: 3

RobertH: 0

StuartL: 13

Oooh! *claps in glee* I see we have a battle royale between Kyle, Noel and Stuart for Top Distracted Paint Hound. This is SO EXCITING! 

No. Really. It is. 

*indignant sniff*

Okay, check back in a few weeks to see how this unfocused struggle between these three distracted brush-jockeys unfolds. 

The tension is exquisite, almost too much to contain. I know, I'm wiggling in my seat... Hmm. Actually, I think I need to go find a tree. See you later!

- Curt

From GeorgeS - 1:32 British Redcoats - (80 points)

    Been busy with those guys the last week so there's no Chamber's Challenge for today. Just some points.

    These are 8 plastic 54mm "A Call To Arms" figures. British Grenadiers (Redcoats) painted in 4th Regiment (King's Own) colours. I enjoyed much these "forest themed" bases. Hope you like them.

 

      So , 80 points for me from these figures. Next will be a "Priest" for the "Shrine" Room.

'Till next time..

Keep Up The Brushes!!

 

From TomM: Ptolemy, silver saint of Sagitta (5 pts)

  For those who follow my blog, it will be no suprise that I like anime perhaps even more since wargaming.

And that all started back in 1986 with Les Chevaliers du Zodiaque on the french channel TF1, a series known even better perhaps under it's japanese name Saint Seiya.

It's also on Netflix btw now, just ignore that crap 3D monstorsity Netflix made, that is just horrible and in no way representative of both the story and the mythos of this mythology inspired series.

Now recently, a spanish company named Nonsense Miniatures started to make resin 3d printed "Constellation Warriors" models, well, the Saints actually, and one of their first 4 figures is this one, Ptolemy, Silver Saint of Sagitta, scaled at about 36mm.  They also have a free to download beta ruleset for them on their website.

 

 

So I painted up him as the first one, don`t ask me why because even if his appearance in the anime was rather short, he was the one that mortally wounded Athena, instigating the race across the twelve Houses of the Zodiac up to the Grand Pope's palace.

 

And just for reference, here is his anime version...  

So that makes a single figure and good for 5 points in this entry

From RobP: Conquest Games Archers (30 pts)

 Cranked these fellers out in a week- not too shabby, eh?

All straight from the Conquest Games Medieval Archers box set. In my opinion this set is better in detail than either Conquest's Norman Infantry or Cavalry sets: the faces, the hair, the fabric, no obscured detail. Mould lines are typical of most kits- not really bad, but present (as we can see in these photos, I missed a few...🙄).

The heads are a real standout for me- very nice, well proportioned and realistic features that are also easy to paint. Unfortunately, the way Conquest has designed the heads to fit to the torsos is a bit of a problem for positioning. The heads fit and look best, facing straight forwards; of course, when shooting a bow, that's not where you are looking. I had to alter a couple of the necks a bit to get them looking as natural as possible.  You can see see in the photos a lot of them end up nodding forward like the two on the right in the photo below. The best way around this would have been for Conquest to modify the torso so the head sits atop it like the figure on the left. That way the heads would still have been interchangeable between sets.

Before the AHPC started, I had already assembled and painted 6 for the kit; I learned a couple of things so this second batch ended up looking better. Here are all 12 together; enough for 1 point of Levies in Saga.

That's 6 28mm figures, equaling 30 pts. Next up, some cowboys I think...

From Dallas: Bolt Action 88mm AT Gun Crew (30 points)

 

My Bandai/Fuman 1/48 88mm Flak 18/36 plastic kit was one of those models that sat on my shelf for literally years. I'd opened the box, looked at all the tiny parts on the sprues, and closed it back up again. It was only due to the encouragement of fellow Conscript Frederick (who'd built and painted his own identical model) that I took up the challenge of this one. However, it was done before the Challenge began so I can't claim credit - but if you're interested you can check it out on the Fawcett blog here.

However, even though the gun was finished, to use it on the table you need a crew! Warlord Games came through (after a fashion) with an excellent 6-man crew set for the Flak 18. I say "after a fashion" because of the standard Warlord shipping faff... basically, although I'd ordered the models on 18 December, they didn't get into the post until well after New Year's... "we moved facilities, COVID-19 has disrupted the supply chain, there was another lockdown, etc...", but somehow they'd managed in the meantime to find the time to put together, promote on social media, and post out a bunch of their "mystery boxes" (unsaleable junk boxes?), which was annoying... but I didn't bother ordering one of those as I already have a laser pointer I bought at the Dollar Store, ta very much :-)

Anyway, the crew eventually arrived and paint was slathered upon them. I think they look quite good crewing the gun. The models came with separate heads so I used the ones that made the crew most flexible in terms of period.

Here are the lads lined up. I have to say the heads fit really well and the poses are quite good. All in all a great purchase for seven quid.

So that's the 88mm Flak ready for action, now we just need to find a game...

Stay safe all!

From MartinC Vietnam Huey (20pts)

 All conflicts need transport and in Vietnam it's helicopters. This Huey is 3-D printed from Butlers Printed Models and is OK. Like all 3-D models it needed lots of sanding and the side windows are not great. However its a good size and easy to assemble

It's on a telescopic aerial mounted into a plaster "rock" and secured with a magnet.

You can't tell from the photos but it's painted up quite well considering none of the greens I had were correct and I ended up painting it german field grey and then heavily dry brushed light camo green. The windows black grey with chainmail. Overall it looks like a helicopter, so job is a good 'un.

No decals, I really hate decals. I'd rather paint 54mm Napoleonics. Also don't have the right decals. Maybe later, much much later

So 20pts for a 28mm vehicle

From JohnS - Still Wandering Around Spain With Flags (45 pts)

 This weeks sees me still on the Sunny Spanish Peninsula (at least in my imagination) with the colour parties for my Spanish Militia.

This is actually two colour parties for two different battalions. The right colour is the Coronela normally carried by the First Battalion. Traditionally the 1st Battalion is half grenadiers but the Militia grenadier companies were split from their parent units and formed into Provincial Grenadier Regiments.

The other colour (the one like a spikey red cross) is the Sencilla (or Ordenanza) carried by the 2nd battalion. As neither battalion now contained grenadiers they were entirely fusilier battalions so the different flags is a useful way to differentiate them.

I have also completed an officer to accompany them, based differently and seperately from the fusiliers to allow me flexiblity in usage across games systems. All my Napoleonics do duty in Sharpe Practice II, General D'Armee and Black Powder.

Why no fusilier bases to accompany the colours this week? I am a bit distracted by 1:1 scale scenery painting (house renos are not fun and eat into hobby time) and I have managed to paint up 9 fusiliers with 3 different uniform colour schemes/cuffs. Not enough to make a four man base out of any of them...maybe they will join us next week. 

So nine 28mm figures completed this week @ 5 ea = 45 points

War of the Roses Knights and Pike Matthew Williamson 90 points

 A bit of stuff coming over the next few days as I complete a painting commission of Perry 28mm War of the Roses and flock some of my own Canton of Saint Gall Pike in French service for the Guerre Folle. 

Four plastic WOTR cavalry figures, 28mm Perry Miniatures

10 Swiss Pikemen Canton of Saint Gall, 28mm Perry Miniatures

4 cavalry = 40 points

10 Infantry = 50 points

total 90 points

cheers

Matt

KenR : 28mm Principes Part Deux - 160 points

 

No alarms and no surprises with this entry, guess what, it's more Allied Italian Legion ! We are nearly done know just 1 Cavalry, 1 Triarii unit and a Command Base to go.

This is the second group of 32 Principes for the Legion, 8 figs a base on 60 x 60 bases, Victrix figures (with one Agema Miniatures to make up numbers) and LBMS Shield transfers. Definitely one of the best things I did 8n this Challenge was doing all the shield transfers in one day at the start, made life so much easier later

Points wise its nice and easy to work out, 32 x 28mm figures at 5 points a piece is a nice round 160 points.

On the plus side I haven't run out of white paint yet 🙃 

Just to finish is the Project progress picture, not much MDF left. Things will slow down a bit for the next couple of weeks as work takes over but looking at the above photo I'm confident that the Project will be completed in time for March 21st.

From Barks: Heroes (60 points)

These are the eight heroes from the Descent 2nd edition core game. I remounted them on 25mm bases because 20mm wasn't aesthetically pleasing. There's a fair amount of Contrast paint going on here; I'm grudgingly coming to like it. It makes certain colours quicker and is excellent for straps and bags etc.

Taste the rainbow.

Jain Fairwood, outcast ranger

Tomble Burrowell, Murder hobo gnome

Widow Tarha, orc witch

Ashrian, elf herbalist

Syndrael, elf exile

Leoric of the book, mage

Grisban the Thirsty, dwarf

Avric Albright, cleric

8x28mm: 40 points

Hall of Heroes: 20 points

Skull-o-meter™: 1

Where to next...?