From MikeW: More Savage Orcs and Tau plus 28mm Alamo Cavalry. History & Overdue Bonus, Skulls, Squirrell (260 Points)

 Into the second week of January and my painting production line is moving into full swing, at last! This week I present more Warhammer Fantasy Savage Orcs alongside another group of Warhammer 40K Tau models. In addition I have been working on a long overdue set of historical Alamo 28mm mounted troops.

Let's begin with where I left off last post and finish the Savage Orc unit that I had started last week. Today I have an additional 14 figures, all completed in the same manner as last week's posted figures. Together they make up a 20 strong unit.

The group of 14 Savage Orcs, completed this week.

The colour scheme remains the same - vivid green skin - all that healthy outdoor living by these Savage Orcs - they are armed with a variety if crude weapons, blades made form bone or roughly crafted iron & steel.

A view of the second rank of figures.

As previously noted, I source most of my figures from eBay, these guys being no different. They came partially built and totally unpainted, which was nice. Just a matter of minor surgery to add weapons to hands, or hands to wrists or heads to necks etc!

And the final third rank,
The bone armor makes a good contrast to the green skin of the Orcs.

Armour is bone based with small shards of iron attached to give additional protection by those Orcs with enough mental agility to think of such refinements. Overall I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.

All twenty Savage Orcs re-united. I need to find a suitable standard bearer
and musician for these guys and potentially also a unit boss.

Next, I'll cover the 28mm mounted figures that I have got completed this week. These are for my Alamo collection, these figures are from Boothill Miniatures, they have been sitting in my drawers for a couple years and it was high time to get them painted!

Eight Alamo related 28mm mounted figures, long waiting to get finished!

There are six Mounted Alamo Volunteers, these are Anglo-Mexicans who fought on the side of the Texas Republic. Figures were undercoated white and then I used speed paints to block in the horse flesh and a variety of browns, greys and blues etc on the little guy's chaps, clothes and weapons etc.

First three Alamo Volunteers, a lot of leather on show for these figures,
I used a red accessories theme to try and tie these guys together in to a unit.

The other three guys, you'll see all the horses have red tassles on their bridles,
I assume this is to keep the flies away. The men have red bandanas or ties around their necks as well.

I believe the two Mexican Irregular Lancers are also Boothill figures but I'm not 100% certain, these were painted in a similar manner to the above.

The two Mexican Irregular Lancers, again with red details (well I had the pot of paint out!)

I used a Flesh wash to add depth to the skin areas and a dark ink wash on the rest of the rest of the figures to add shading and keep them in line with the rest of the collection.

Next group was my continuing saga with the Tau, I have completed another three Stealth Warriors in much the same style and method as the first three that I submitted. 

Three more Stealth Warriors, I really like the size and feel of these Stealth Suits.
They seem easier than the regular troopers to paint.

Next there are a group of nine Tau troopers including a Gue'Vesa (Human) Squad Leader.

This week's batch of Tau

Additionally I found a fantastic Sci-Fi figure on eBay that I fell in love with as soon as I saw him, thinking that he'd make a great Tau Gue'Vesa - possibly even a alternative for a Tau Ethereal...

My 'Proxy' Ethereal.
I just liked the pose and the feel of this figure!
No idea who manufactured it....

Finally I painted a Tau Rocket Launcher, again in the same colour scheme as the rest of the army that I'm putting together.

Is it a figure or a terrain piece? I'll leave that to or minion!

So in completing this week's Tau figures, I realised my schoolboy error on the basing! I've not been using my usual brown gloop on these bases, instead I'm using an Orange 'Hobby' paint, all well and good for the desired look but I've forgotten to add in PVA glue - so there are issues with the sand and tufts remaining stuck to the base. 

The solution I have used here is to use a generous coating of mat varnish to soak into the basing materials, hopefully this will fix the issue. I have retro fitted this solution to my other completed Tau and all new figures will get the PVA added to the base when the orange paint is applied. The perils of experimenting with new solution!

Four new Tau Troopers, with a Gue'Vesa Sqad Leader on the left.

The rest of the squad

Points wise I think my submission this week is pretty straight forward, however, I'll have to call on my already 'long suffering' minion for a ruling on the points for the Tau Rocket Launcher. I have claimed 5 Points - as per all other 28mm figures - but this may be considered to be a piece of terrain. I'll go with whatever is decided!

Additionally I'm claiming the Historical Bonus for the Alamo Mounted Volunteers and the Overdue Bonus for the Mexican Irregular Lancers, I see others have had this allowed as we are limited to one posting per week so hopefully everyone will think that is fair.

Completed two new locations in the Challenge Library

What's coming next - hopefully in the next week or so there will be some Goblin Frog Riders, more Tau and some Warlords Epic ECW Scots Covenantors, as well as General Santa Anna, a mounted Polish Kettle drummer and who knows what else takes my fancy...

Highlands Miniatures Swamp Gobllin Frog Riders.

Highlands Miniatures Frog for the above Riders.

Undercoarted Warlord Epic ECW Infantry on the frame

POINTS

14 x Savage Orcs @ 5 Points ea                                        70 Points

10 x Tau @ 5 Points ea                                                       50 Points

1 x Tau Rocket Launcher @ 5 Points ea                               5 Points

3 x Tau Stealth Warriors @ 5 Points ea                             15 Points

6 x 28mm Alamo Mounted Volunteers @10 Points ea     60 Points

2 x 28mm Mexican Lancers @10 Points ea                      20 Points

Historical Bonus                                                                  20 Points

Overdue Bonus                                                                   20 Points

TOTAL                                                                                 260 Points

+2 Skulls

+1 Squirrel (Fantasy Orcs, 40K Tau, 28mm VBCW & 28mm Alamo)

 

 Sylvain: Good Lord, that's quite the point bomb we have here! The Tau units are superb, their color scheme really fits their fluff. The Orcs look mean and crisp, a job well done with the paint brush. And the Alamo's "Band of Brothers" will impose their presence on the battlefield not only with their huge weapons but also with their huge mustachios! That was a very productive week for you!

From ForestP: 15mm Alamo (yes, the whole thing) [Arrakis] (480 points)

So, after my last post I decided to dive headfirst into a Warp Maelstrom and humbly asked Millsy to give me a challenge. He sent me to Arrakis... the desert world, vast and deadly. In the immortal words of Frank Herbert, "You never talk of likelihoods on Arrakis, you only speak of possibilities." So, of course I needed to do something to match this sandy and lofty challenge, but what? 

"Remember the Alamo."

Oh yeah, I have one of those! Purchased nearly a year ago from Old Glory Miniatures and languishing on my "to do" shelf.

It's... a lot.

Why languishing you say? Well, the whole thing, when put together is 40" x 58" (see below). Even when piled up, and not laid out in it's proper configuration, it fills a 44" x 18" shelf. Most of the buildings and walls are 2.5" tall, but the largest piece, the Church is 3.75" tall. Doing some math the whole thing in component parts would fit in 22 6" cubes... 

In all it's glory.

I started out laying it out as you see above, just to see what I am getting myself into. Next I used a Dremel to grind out windows and doors/entrances that should be open, and made some minor repairs to cracked pieces.

This is going to be fun to paint.

You know, one good thing about the pandemic is that I now have plenty of disposable masks laying around that I can use when grinding resin. Nasty stuff, but oddly enough has a rather sweet, almost apple-like smell when grinding. How odd. Once I was satisfied with opening up the windows, doors, and other entrances that I wanted I gave everything a quick bath to clean up resin dust and mold release agents. No pictures here; too wet.

The next couple nights, and a few early mornings before work, I ended up priming ever piece in Krylon Colormaxx Paint+Primer Matte Sand Dollar (5600). I went through an entire can of primer, plus part of another before I was finished with the job. There are a few spots that only got a light coat, but I figure they will look just fine once I started with the dry-brushing.

The whole jobber primed up. What a beast!!!

Since I had much of Thursday devoted to, yet again, another online training where I primarily just had to listen, I decided to go ahead and start on the dry-brushing. I am using both George Nelson's "The Alamo: An Illustrated History", as well as my own photographs from visiting the Alamo multiple times during my many TDY's to Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio.

The first step was tackling the church interior, going from the lightest-to-darkest. The interior walls were slathered on with Folk Art Vintage White (4646), and the areas of rubble also got a light dry-brush coat of the same color. The wooden ramp was painted/dry-brushed with Apple Barrel Brown Oxide (20511), and more of the same color was lightly brushed onto the rubble to provide more depth and variety. The exterior brick was all dry-brushed with Folk Art Linen (879). The marble columns and sculpture at the front of the church were also brushed in the same Folk Art Vintage White as above. I finished up the rubble with a very light dry brush mix of 2:1 Folk Art Vintage White and Pure Black (2957CA/4656). The last bits were dry-brushing the wooden door with the Apple Barrel Brown Oxide, and highlighting over that with a bit of the Folk Art Linen mixed 1:1 with the Vintage White, painting the bricked over windows with Vintage White, and finally the sand bags with a 1:1 mix of Folk Art Linen and Vintage White (then hitting them with the lightest dry brush of 1:1 Folk Art Vintage White to make them pop).

That looks like it was properly weathered in the desert if I don't say so myself.

Great detail, even on the interior of the model.

This piece me a whole night to paint, it's so large.

Saturday was the main day for painting for me. After fortifying myself with coffee I decided to simply work around the Alamo and just knock out as much as I could. Wooden parts, like the artillery battery positions were dry-brushed with more Apple Barrel Brown Oxide, then given a light wash of Vallejo Sepia Shade (73.200) before being highlighted with a 2:1 mix of Brown Oxide and Folk Art Camel (953). Areas of exterior brick were still dry-brushed with Folk Art Linen, with plaster being painted with a 1:1 of Linen and Vintage White. Thatched roofs were brushed with Folk Art Camel, and given a Sepia Shade wash to give depth, and then a Linen highlight. Areas of rubble were dry-brushed with a mix of any of the aforementioned colors, or mixes thereof, to give depth and an interesting visual look to each.

Here are a few simpler pieces to give you an idea of detail.

Interior view of the kitchens. Man, these models really have great detail.

Main gate with the roof on.

The Trevino House.

And here is the entire thing in al its glory! Took me about a week and a couple days of working every night, plus all day on an entire weekend to knock it out. I think I'm done with terrain/scenics for a while...

View from the South.

View from the West.

View from the North. Note, the model comes with the northeast corner before it was breached.

View from the East.

The entire piece did come with two small scenic pieces in metal/wood, the well, and the rubble and flagpole. 

Well with 15mm figures to give a scale reference.

Same with the flagpole.

I love the fact that one of the details were the outside latrines!

Soldiers got to poop!

This is a great model. My only gripe is the some of the buildings don't quite like up like the should. If you see in the above overall images the long barracks don't quite line up all the way. It's fixable with how I've laid things out, but still annoying. Other than that, a great bit of kit.

In summation, my points estimation is as follows:

22 x 6" cubes @ 20 = 440 points

Arrakis (Middle Ring via Warp Maelstrom) = 30 points

From Millsy: Monster crafting bonus: 10 points

Total = 480 points

Until next time, folks. Where I'll be painting something... smaller. 

Forest

From Millsy:

I'm kind of lost for superlatives here to be honest Forest. When you told me what you were up to I knew it was going to be worth waiting for, but even then I wasn't prepared for what you've delivered. This is something else mate. This would have to be right up there with one of the largest terrain submissions we've ever had.

Never mind the size of the thing, the level of care and attention to detail you've thrown on top is wonderful. The stonework on the church, the weathering on the walls and thatch, even just the consistency of the finish across such a big piece is brilliant. It would be a privilege to game on a table graced by your Alamo and no mistake.

Cracking effort Forest. Worth absolutely every minute you invested. BOOM! 480 points!

From Mike W - 12 x 28mm Mexican Fulisiers, The Alamo 1836 (60 Points)

In the first if this week's posts, I present 12 Mexican Fusiliers from the attacking force at the Alamo. I have quite a big 'Alamo' collection, covering this, the Texan Revolution and I'm starting to dabble in the later Mexican American War as well.

Figures in their pack before undercoating

These fabulous figures are from 'Boot Hill Miniatures' and under my own home brew rules, this represents a company of men (8 figures) plus command elements that will help a player to control and motive the unit.

Completed Company of Mexican Fusiliers

I undercoated the figures with a linen shade and then dry brushed white, red trim was then added to the jackets to give a representation of Mexican Summer Uniforms that were present in the Alamo Campaign.

Helmets were painted black, as were boots and bayonet scabbards. Flesh tones and hair were then also added along with oily steel and brass buttons and badges etc.

Four Fusiliers, all marching

A couple of figures ere then given light brown trousers, to break up the informality of the unit.

The other half of the company

A watered down Army Painter Dark Tone was then used to shade all uniform areas, with undiluted Dark Tone used on muskets and helmets. Flesh tone was used on skin areas before allowing to dry and completing with matt varnish.

The Company Command figures,
left to right: NCO, Standard Bearer, Drummer & Officer

I used a Mexican National Tricolour for this Standard Bearer, taken from a flag seen on the internet.

Fine sand and dried grass tufts were used to finish off the figures.

POINTS

12 x 28mm Figures @ 5 Pts ea = 60 Points

From NoelW - ECW, fantasy and the Alamo (320 points)

Luckily for me, I’ve been ill this week. So I’ve not had enough energy for much, other than sitting in front of the painting desk. Consequently, I’ve managed to finish a mass of figures that I thought would take me much longer. I’ve also made a first foray into the backlog of terrain. Apologies, though, for the quality of photos here. I've not figured out a decent setup yet and some are horribly dark.

First then is the Perry/ Renedra shack. This model is simple to build, and easy to paint – you can get a very effective job with relatively little effort (which I’m all in favour of!) Should be useful in multiple periods and theatres. I'm not sure what its points score should be, though. It’s roughly 4 inches * 4 inches * 5 inches, so perhaps worth 10 points? 

Next are seven more EMP figures I've painted for the display cabinet at Wargames Emporium. These are Texians from the Alamo, including Bowie and Crockett (sounds like a duo of TV detectives). They’re larger and chunkier than your average 28mm figure, and full of character. I enjoyed painting these, especially as they made a change from what I'm mainly doing.

Which is English Civil War. I’m pleased to making such good progress with these. As a result of this week’s work, I’m a good distance along the way to having an army completed well ahead of schedule. As I posted before, I’m trying to hold back on quality in order to push on with as many figs as possible, so there are quite a few weaknesses in this collection, but I think they pass muster in the mass, which is the aim. Firstly there’s the six missing musketeers from the green regiment, previously posted.

Then a Blue regiment of 18 figures.

Then a Grey regiment, also 18 figures.

Then four more cavalry 

and a couple of spare command figures.

You’ll notice that there’s currently no ensign in the grey regiment. I’m basing all the figures on individual bases, and using sabots. This way figures can readily be reconfigured for different purposes, such as changing the proportion of pike to musket, or creating deeper formations (e.g. if I stray into the Thirty Years War). It also means regiments can be used either as Parliamentarian or Royalist, merely by switching command figures. So my plan is eventually to paint up a selection of ensigns who can be used in different units as needed. Obviously, there may be some regiments limited in this way – I plan the King’s Lifeguard to be distinctive in some way, for example. But the aim is to get the maximum flexibility from the minimum array of figures.

All the ECW are a mix of Warlord and Perry figures.

Next, in order to give myself a bit of variety, here’s an invisible woman. Perhaps an adventurer under a spell. Or possibly a spirit or demon of some kind. Either way, she goes into the Frostgrave/Archipelago box. I was really pleased with the red shading, but this was muted a bit by the varnish, and even more so in photographing. I've no idea who makes this figure - possibly Reaper.

And last in this week’s offering, especially for Curt, is a boardgame figure: Shyla Varad, from Imperial Assault. My eldest son is running these campaigns for a group of us within the family. He paints up the dastardly Imperials (and does a brilliant job of it) whilst I paint the occasional heroic Rebel character (huzzah!) I was pleased with the core figure, especially the silver-blue metal, which perhaps doesn’t show up as well as it might in the photos. But I couldn’t get the cloak right – it looks too plastic-y to me. (There’s a reason for that, of course).

If I’ve got my maths right, that’s more than enough to now take me well over my target of 500 points, so everything from this point is a bonus! I make it:

4 * 28mm cavalry @ 10pts, 53 * 28mm inf  @ 5 points and 1 shack @ 10(?) pts = 315 points

After all that lot, I need a lie down...

Oh wow, Noel that is worth a lie down or two ;-) I do hope, however, that you are well on the mend by now. This entry of yours does contain quite an eclectic spread of subjects. If I really had to choose a favourite I would say either the ECW cavalry or the invisible woman. All your ECW troops are ace, but these troopers really look the part, great work. The invisible woman is a rare figure indeed, it makes you wonder what use it is to be invisible if you're going to wear highly visible red clothing anyway, but that said, the figure has turned out wonderfully well. 
Your Texians (Texans?) are very nice too by the way as is the Imperial Assault figure which must tickle Curt's fancy no end for sure. 

I just did a card mock up of the shed with the dimensions you've mentioned and I think it rather comes to 2/3 of the 6x6x6" box and thus I will award you 15 points. That makes your total 320 points.