From GeoffreyT: Pixies and Impulse Buys [Arda] (75 points)

Hello All,

I was remit for introducing myself on my first post, too full of business and uncertainty of how to do this blogging business.  My name is Geoff and I am an Australian grognard with 40+ years of gaming experience.  I starting playing Charles Grant rules in the late 70's with my elder brother.  He soon lost interest, but I have not.  Gaming has found me lifelong friends and a great community to be a part of.  I play in just about any era or genre, and I feel that my gaming habit is mostly so I can socialise whilst collecting and painting things.

Last year I heard of the challenge from Sidney speaking about it on the TFL oddcast.  I was too late to join, but I unofficially followed the painting challenge.  I completed the chambers of challenge by delving into the dark recesses of my strategic reserve of unpainted miniatures.  It was this that enthused me to try it out live this year.

For this post, I was looking to find Pixies for 'The Silver Bayonet', they are small flying faeries in the rules and I found them surprisingly difficult to source.  I eventually found something correct size, but with no wings.  On my search for Pixies through Eureka Miniatures catalog, I picked up no end of oddities that took my fancy.  Most of which I do not have any particular purpose for.  

Starting with some impulse buys, here we have "Mundane Shotte" two 28mm figures from the Eureka Miniatures 'Avalon Burning' Range.

They don't look very Mundane to me.  I think what we have here is a parody of a Cavalier and a Roundhead.   I will therefore claim the letter "R" for Roundhead in the alphabet soup challenge. 

I chose a red and blue coat for these to give them a uniform look.  Although for the 'era' they probably should be in buff.   It is hard to be harsh on incorrect uniform for fantasy parodies.

I have found it a bit tricky getting true colour photos when shot on a gaming mat.  Seems better on a dull background in dull lighting (the desert mat I was using is almost orange-yellow).  So some of the shots are taken on my painting desk.   Might need to add more contrast to those green pants.  Will need to suss out a better photo background method.

Next up in the suite of random stuff is Eureka's 28mm "Veteran Frog" for the letter "V"

This guy has bags of character.  Watch out, there are some spaniards behind you!

Frogs have pale underbellies, but should a bipedal frog have a pale underbelly as they stand upright?  This is the big question being asked when I painted this.

From the back...

Next is a 28mm miniature that Nic from Eureka kindly threw in the order as a sample.  I could not see it in the catalog and suspect it is an unreleased model from the chaos army range.

I love how bizarre this guy is.  A Watchman with a torch but no eyes (for the letter "W" thank you).   I tried hard getting a full depth of shadow from the torch from pale to black.

From the rear (I think this is his rear?) you can see his torso is curled in a circle and his shoulders are upside down.   The rear of his boot was exposed to the torch, so I highlighted the heel.

The shadow on the foot was challenging, from the torch I could see his toes but not his shin.  Could probably have done more black on the shin.  I shaded the base in the centre to give more of a look of shadow extended to the base.

From the top to show lighting

These next two characters I based to go with my Warhammer Fantasy Battle 3rd edn Chaos Army, as chaos thugs.  About the same scale so should fit in nicely and add some more variance at the same time.

These guys will be "S" for shells.  Here they are in their natural habitat on the painting bench.

I tried out a few different paints here.   The fellow on the left has GW apothecary contrast white paint shaded up to titanium white.  The white contrast paint is pretty good.  I like the black too.  I have not used them much yet tho.   On the right, the shell is another new colour for me, Vallejo "Shifters" paint in violet-gold over a burnt umber base coat.  To add depth I did a thin layer of bright silver on top and filled the recess with black ink.

Next up are Eureka 28mm "Little Creeps".  About half the height of a normal mini.  Their range of creeps comes in little, regular and large, like coffee or ice-cream.

I don't normally paint eyeballs on 28mm scale minis, but in this case I made an exception.  The blue was contrast paint used like a ink and done in layers.   I touched it up with a pale blue where needed.

On the reverse side they are rather bland.  Just a lurid green skin tone with pretty rough block shading in layers.  But hey, these guys are all about the eyeballs.

Looking closely we can examine the blemishes.  The hardest bit was getting the line between the white and green in the right spot.  They are about 1/2 the height of a regular 28.

Bit of reflection in that photo too.  But I will finish by claiming the letter "H" for homunculus.

So then, how about these pixies I was looking for before I was distracted by shiny things ?

These are 10mm scale fairies on mushrooms, again by Eureka miniatures.  Frankly, this scale is too small for me to paint, so I banged on some contrast paint and called it a job.  10mm is for people with better eyes and steadier hands than me.  I had grand plans of adding wings to them, but when I saw the size I realised this was beyond me.  Either their wings are see-thru or fluttering so fast that one cannot see them.  

I chose to do white mushrooms as The Silver bayonet is a pseudo-historical fantasy game and I wanted it to look not too high-fantasy.  The Pixies have olive skin and dark hair as this will be in the Peninsular war theatre, claiming the letter "P" for Peninsular war Pixies.  I based them with a rich dark soil colour as that is where mushrooms grow.

9 x 28 mm foot = 45 points, (and a squirrel for 28mm fantasy)

10 x 10mm foot = 10 points,

and +20 for the planet of Arda explored for a total of about 75 points.

Perhaps I could claim the Pixies are mounted (on mushrooms) for extra points ? But then the creeps were half sized ??? maybe it all just comes out on average.

From Arda, I will leap into the Warp Maelstrom and see where it takes me ...

Kind Regards

Geoff.

Thanks for the introduction, Geoff! You have a venerable gaming history.

I'm sure this post will attract a lot of attention. Eureka do a superb mix of the serious historical and the weird and wonderful. Silver Bayonet seems to be popular this Challenge, and these fey figures will be great. I do like their frogs, and your Little Creeps are fun. Half the challenge with eyes is getting the pupils to point in the same direction, but cyclops don't have that problem!

I'll offset the small creeps' size with the 'shrooms, and leave it at 75 points.

The Warp Maelstrom sends you on a fantastical journey, spitting you out between Noel's Comet and LV426...

Barks