From FrederickC - A Phalanx of Hoplites, A Gunslinger, and a File of Riflemen [Swords & Sandals] [Westerns] [Books] (176 points)

  From our last stop at the Fantasy studio, we are going to continue along the Blue pathway to the Swords and Sandals studio for the production of '300' with a 15mm Spartan De Bellis Antiquitatis army consisting of 12 stands of Spear and an optional stand of Psiloi. If I recall correctly these are from Falcon Miniatures that are now no longer in production. They were cleaned up and primed a quarter century ago, and have been sitting in the pending box ever since. Once again, the Special Challenges has cleared a project from the 'To Do' list. They were painted using Army Painter Warpaints Tannned Flesh for all the skin areas, Partha Paints Bronze Metallic for the helmets, greaves, and shields, and Vallejo acrylics for everything else. They were mounted on metal bases of the appropriate DBA dimensions that I still have in my storage boxes, and the groundwork completed. The temple in the background is one I built for a scenario that Curt hosted back in the early days of the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts. 

 

'300' from 2006

 

This is Sparta!

 

Spartan hoplites

Shields emblazoned with Lambdas

The General's stand

The lone stand of Psiloi

 

  Before carrying on, we will make a quick stop at the studio cafeteria for some refreshments in the form of a tall glass of Spartan Brewery 'Swords & Sandals' Session IPA. 😁

 

 Moving further along the Blue pathway we arrive at Westerns for the production of 'The Quick and the Dead'. Okay, it's not Sharon Stone as 'The Lady', but Alex Kingston as 'River Song' in the Doctor Who episode called 'The Impossible Astronaut', but she's wearing jeans and packing a big iron on her hip. That says Gunslinger to me. This figure was a freebie that came with my order from Warlord Games back in December. Just the thing for the Westerns studio.

 

The Quick and the Dead from 1995

 

River Song, Gunslinger (front view)

River Song, Gunslinger (rear view)

  

 And now we arrive at the fourth stop on the Blue pathway, the Books studio. If my wearing of a British uniform at Waterloo 200 raised Minion Miles's ire, my book choice will really be twisting the Minion's tail. Nearly 50 years before Bernard Cornwell wrote the first Sharpe novel, C.S. Forester wrote 'Death to the French' (also known as 'Rifleman Dodd'), one of two stories he wrote taking place during the Peninsular War. His second book was 'The Gun', that was made into a movie in 1957 called 'The Pride and the Passion', but we had to wait until the 'Sharpe' TV series to see riflemen on the small screen. Cornwell gave a shout out to Forester's character by naming one of Sharpe's men Matthew Dodd. 

 The figures I have are two Perry Miniatures plastic 95th Riflemen that were another freebie with an issue of Wargames Illustrated that sat in storage until now. They are very nice minis with lots of detail, easy to assemble with minimal cleaning of mold lines. Their rifle green uniforms were painted using Vallejo Luftwaffe Camouflage Green, followed by a wash of Citadel Nuln Oil. 

 

'Death to the French' from 1932

 

Riflemen Dodd and Harris (front view)

Riflemen Dodd and Harris (3/4 Profile view)

Riflemen Dodd and Harris (rear view)

The points being claimed are as follows:

50 x 15mm foot figures @ 2 points = 100 points 

2 x 28mm foot figure @ 5 points = 10 points 

1 x 34mm foot figure @ 6 points = 6 points

3 x Studio lots @ 20 points = 60 points

(Since the 34mm figure is halfway between 28mm and 40mm, I split the difference between 5 points and 7 points)

 

We are ready to try the Director's Chair on for size

Minion Miles:  Mr Fredrick - Another wonderful submission but there really isn't a 34mm category so its 28mm - I'm just too lazy to adjust the spreadsheet :). I do like the rocks on the Riflemen so a bonus point for that but this is probably the last time

Greetings, Minion Miles. I did some further research into the Warlord Games Doctor Who range of minis to try and determine their scale. Obviously it was not possible to make that assessment from just one figure, especially given a shorter than average character. It appears that they are 1/48 scale. The Star Wars Legion minis are apparently 1/47 scale and are rated as 40mm figures. Just sayin'.  ;^)

From Millsy: 28mm Red Dragon (40 points)

G'day All,

Having said I was going to be painting historicals this week I ended up also painting this wee beasty...

He/she/they is a "juvenile" red dragon for use in RPGs and fantasy gaming, specifically Oathmark but would do for anything else including an adult dragon for 15mm games. I've always wanted a "generic" dragon in my collection (by which I mean no rider or obvious game system affiliation) but it's one of those thing you put off because you don't really need one til you need one and they ain't cheap right?

The miniature is actually a discontinued plastic toy from German manufacturer Schleich. It previously belonged to my son (he collects dragons) but he made the mistake of leaving it behind when he moved out a few years back. Possession being 9/10 of the law, etc. It was green but I *really* like red, so now its red. It's like a car getting pinched and run through a chop shop. But the car has teeth. And wings.

All but the wings are made from a nice sturdy, opaque plastic that takes paint well. The wings are made of horrible bendy, transparent plastic which I believe is called "mastic" and which hates paint like nothing else. Even the primer I use on absolutely everything took nearly a week to cure properly.

Anyway, around 4 hours of painting, painting again, painting the wings five more times etc. and it has turned out like this. I'm pretty happy with it overall but it'll need careful handling not to damage the paint on the wings at the very least. Certainly it looks better than it did originally and the size is good for the table top.

I'm calling it "juvenile" partly because it is a small one for 28mm but also because an enduring memory of my early RPG gaming is Horror on the Hill, a Basic D&D adventure for low-level characters which featured a juvenile red dragon as the final encounter. And that's where I am getting my somewhat tenuous APHC Studios "High Adventure" bonus from hopefully(!).

Points-wise previous similar submissions have garnered 30 points which seems about right. Add another 20 for the bonus and that's 50 more me my total taking me past the 1000 point mark at last.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Millsy

Great looking Red Dragon, and a nice way to repurpose an old and discarded (???) toy. The colours really pop and the bright red contrasts nicely with the pale colour of the chest and spine. Unfortunately you haven't really given me anything to go by scale wise, saying that it would fit as an adult dragon for 15mm or a juvenile for 28mm, neither of which is a hard and fast measurement. As such, I am going to score it as a 28mm monster/vehicle and award you 20 points. I'm sorry if you feel a bit cheated, but this should still get you over the 1000 point mark.

From JezT: Post 5 - Final Successors "White Shields" 28mm and Studio Tour (75 points)

Dear All 

Happy to post the final figures finishing my Successor army reinforcements (based for Basic Impetus rules). For this I pulled out a trusty guidebook that I imagine many of you have. 

First up from Aventine Miniatures I have some Foot Light troops "Mercenary Thureophoros" - so named as they are using the oval "thureos" style shield. The book mentions white shields so painted as such. Plus I have read "White Shields" always roll higher on the dice!

Next I have an interesting Heavy Foot unit of Lykians - I had not come across these before but they are covered in the book being Anatolian Persian style troops. These are in the Basic Impetus Successor Eumenes army list which I especially wanted to play. Figures here are Gripping Beast although with a Aventine standard bearer with head swap. Historically I dont think the foot were particularly strong or great quality. On the base I just have 7 figures but hopefully it still gives the impression of a more close order unit. Again the guide mentions "White Shields" so went with that and just added my own shield pattern.

As I mentioned playing Basic Impetus using the Successor Eumenes option thought I would share a picture of the complete army - as standard there are 8-12 units in a Basic Impetus army. In the photo the new units painted in this Challenge are the General Command base, Elephant, Thracian FL and Lykians. 

11 units in total as pike block has 2 units double deep

Finally I have made a late start on the studio tour beginning with the Historical Drama lot - thinking of the Crusades and the Ridley Scott "Kingdom of Heaven" film here. I have painted a free figure I got from a Footsore Miniatures order and changed the weapon  to a more impressive two handed sword. I was torn between options but finally decider to paint up as in the Order of Knight Hospitallers. 

Must admit the close up focus on an individual figure rather than unit effect is really stretching my painting ability but this gets me on the board at least.

So overall is 11 x 28mm foot (55 points) and a studio tour single figure and bonus (25 points) for a combined 80 points for this week. 

Happy painting ............ 

Cheers Jez

From TeemuL: They do look great, all the white shields especially! The complete army army photo is a nice touch, shows real progress. But what shall you paint next? The crusader looks fine, keep strecthing your painting. :) What is there on the base?

The Studio location bonus is only 20 points, not 25, so 75 in total.

From FrederickC - The Battle of Waterloo, and the Hero's Journey [World Cinema] [Fantasy] (121 points)

 We are going to take the long walk eastward to the World Cinema studio for the production of 'Waterloo' which was definitely a world cinema event involving British, Canadian, French, Italian and Soviet actors, directors, and producers, plus 17,000 soldiers of the Soviet Army to act as extras in the battle scenes. The figures are old school Miniature Figurines which I have painted up as the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers and the 79th Cameron Highlanders. The Fusiliers were a gift from a student who had gone to England on holiday and brought back a box of 'toy soldiers'. The paint job was pretty sketchy, including painting the drummer in reversed colours, something that 'Royal' regiments didn't do. The Highlanders were picked up at Keystone Hobbies in Winnipeg back in the early 1980s, and at one point I thought I would do a small diorama with them. So the sketchy paint job got stripped off, and then all twelve minis were primed black with an airbrush before painting them with Vallejo acrylics. The Fusiliers were quite easy compared to painting 'Cameron of Erracht' tartan and diced hose on the Highlanders. Once they were painted, I mounted them on 40mm x 60mm pieces of Masonite and completed the ground work.

Waterloo from 1970

 

Part of Wellington's Army

23rd Regiment of Foot, 4th Brigade, 4th Division

23rd Regiment of Foot, 4th Brigade, 4th Division

79th Regiment of Foot, 8th Brigade, 5th Division

79th Regiment of Foot, 8th Brigade, 5th Division

'Yours truly' at Waterloo 200

 That completes the sixth green studio, and we will now move on to the blue studios with our first stop being Fantasy. We give you 'The Hero's Journey' starring Aragorn as he progresses from Ranger to Captain, and finally to King in 'The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King'. The figures are three different versions of Aragorn done by Games Workshop depicting him in the Attack at Weathertop, at his encounter with the Army of the Dead, and before the Black Gate.

 

The Return of the King from 2003

 

The Ranger, the Captain, and the King

Strider the Ranger

Aragorn the Captain

Elessar the King

The points being claimed are as follows:

14 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points = 70 points 

1 x 28mm mounted figure @ 10 points = 10 points

2 x Studio lots @ 20 points = 40 points

 

We had arrived at the Blue Studios

Minion Miles: As a Napoleonic Francophile, I feel the urge to deduct 1,000 points for the side you chose at "Waterloo 200" but, apparently, the Minion rules manual prohibits me from being an overt jerk - covert is fine but overt is strictly forbidden.  Your discretion aside, these are some wonderful minis and I'm giving you a bonus point for the kilts.  Superb work.  Of course, if they were Imperial Guard it would have been 1,000 bonus points..... 

From FrederickC - The War Lord and HIs Tower [Historical Drama] (58 points)

  Moving Southeast from the High Adventure studio, we arrive at Historical Drama. Years ago, I had picked up 28mm figures of William the Conqueror and his brother, Bishop Odo of Bayeaux, which then languished in a drawer for several decades until now. If I recall correctly, these are some early sculpts from Gripping Beast, but if anyone recognizes them, let me know. I am not planning on painting up a Norman army in 28mm as I already have one in 15mm, but plans can change. They seemed appropriate for the movie, 'The War Lord'.

 I mounted them on fender washers which are the same diameter as the Games Workshop cavalry bases, and then used some spackle to get a smooth transition between the figure's base and the washer. As with all my other figures, I glued some fine sand to the base with PVA, and then primed the figures black with an airbrush. I used Vallejo acrylics to paint them, along with some Citadel washes, primarily on the horses.

 

The War Lord from 1965

 

Bishop Odo of Bayeaux and Duke William of Normandy

Closeup (front view)

Closeup (back view)

 

   Unlike the 2D rocketship I used on the Sci Fi set, the tower in the photos for this set is 3D and was inspired by the tower that features in the movie. I had a thick cardboard cylinder in my terrain building hoard for years. It measured 5.5" high with a diameter of 5". I didn't think that was tall enough to be Chrysagon's tower, so it was augmented by three layers of 1.5" thick blue styrofoam, plus a layer of thick cardboard to form the floor at the top to give a total height of 10". I originally thought I would clad the entire structure with stones cut from more blue styrofoam, but it was taking too much time, and I only did as far as the top of the foundation, as well as the stones around the windows and the door. The rest of the 'stones' were made using self-adhesive address labels that I cut into smaller lengths and stuck on the cylinder with slight gaps in between. It's a technique I used when I refurbished a Vauban style star fort a few years ago. The floor and the door are coffee stir sticks, and the iron banding on the door is made from strips of thin card. Once everything was glued and pasted, the whole thing got painted with black latex house paint, followed by a dry brush with medium grey paint and a final dusting of light grey. I used acrylic craft paints for the brown on the floor and the door, and a green wash on the stones of the foundation. All in all, it was approximately eight hours of work to get it to this stage. At some point I need to build a dedicated ramp and/or bridge to get up to the height of the door, but that is a future project. If I build one of these again, I am going to get a Proxxon hot wire cutter first.

 

Towery McTowerface

An elevated view showing the platform at the top

 The points being claimed are as follows:

2 x 28mm mounted figures @ 10 points each = 20 points 

0.90 x Terrain cube @ 20 points per cube = 18 points

1 x Studio lot @ 20 points = 20 points

 

My progress so far

 

Minion MilesR: and here is Frederick's second post - he has been a busy beaver this week.  love the tower.  I highly recommend the proxxon wire cutter - it's worth the investment

From PhilH: What's Black and White and... (80 Points)

Q - What's black and white and goes really fast before crashing in a blazing fireball?

A - Imperial Scout Troopers on Z-94 Speeder Bikes!

For my second Studio location, I was embarrassed that JohnE was working on his Star Wars Legion Core Set that he got this last Christmas, while I still had stuff lying around from mine in...2018? 2019? Yep, I got totally sick of painting the Imperial white armour/black undersuit in a COVID lockdown-induced frenzy, and couldn't muster the enthusiasm to start these at any point since. They might not be artistically greyscale, but the prospect of 20 bonus points was enough for me to promote them to the top of the queue for this location. 

I was painting these to match the stuff I'd already painted, using a method pitched as quick and easy, but ended up being very tiresome, involving contrast paints as a pinwash. If I were starting over, I'd be deploying every shortcut and a big drybrush. 

I settled on grey speeder bikes instead of brown, in part as a colour and weathering test before I tackle the big stompy chicken thing that we all know and love. It may even feature this Challenge!

Like the scout troopers, I did some conversion work to add a bit of variety: changing up the stowage on the bikes, and changing up the duplicate guy daftly shooting backwards while zipping through a forest at high speed: he had his body pivoted around to be facing at least vaguely in the direction of travel.

Those with long memories might recall that my last Legion stuff was all on clear perspex bases, whereas these have groundwork. Well I've done a u-turn on the clear bases, mostly because I find the method of mounting them after painting to be very tiresome and for models with small contact points, they break off all the time during handling. I also came to the realisation that with the explosion of 3D designers working on proxy models at this scale, I can inexpensively do characters and units in different environments with appropriate attire, satisfying my Star Wars nostalgia and nerdery. Seriously, I've at least four Luke Skywalkers, a half dozen Mandos, three Vaders. and so forth. I'm increasingly cool on the Legion ruleset anyway, with its silly metagaming and bonanza of cards and tokens on the table, though it's locally played so is useful to have the stuff. I have plans to use the collection with some alternative rulesets. 

So, I've re-booted this project with classic Endor forces of civil war era imperials and rebel commando strike teams. I'll follow, likely during this Challenge, with some desert stuff focused around the scum and villainy of the galaxy.

Four mounted troops at 35mm scale, 15 points each, plus the location bonus is a lovely 80 points, now we're cruising! Any guesses where we're going next?

These are fantastic, loved that bit of the movie. 35mm not on the spreadsheet of doom (?) so let's call them 40mm