From Barks: Tommy Atkins's weird WW1 day (Limbo)(64 points)

I've been a little slow getting off the starting blocks for this Challenge, but I'm happy to be back.

My initial Limbo entry is this Martian scout tripod from Alien Dungeon, which I picked up from the good people at the War Library. I sprayed the whole thing silver and washed it black, and then hit a creative wall. Should I make it rusty and decrepit? What colour should the eye be? Should I make the details more defined? So it languished, until the Challenge inserted new life.

I decided to leave it un-rusty, and go for a red gem effect on the eye. I blended a deep red to black and orange, and then gave it a gloss coat. I'm not entirely happy, but it is done. The photos are with a previously painted PSC 15mm plastic soldier for scale. What else will poor Tommy Atkins encounter today?

I painted the tripod because I had been inspired by The Last War, a Forbidden Psalm/ Weird WW1 ruleset. My 15mm WW1 project had also been in a bit of limbo as well, and Last War has helped it approach completion. The tripod will be my 'Thing from the fog'. To add to my meagre Squirrel score, I've painted a few more gribblies.

First, I had a bag of transparent zombies from a board game. These made great ghosts, and also mud ghouls when liberally coated in mud effect.

Ghosts

Mud ghouls

I 3D printed some other figures at 50% size.

Trench maggots (Goonmaster)

Hounds of Annwn (Knucklebones)

Gas bugs (Goonmaster)

Trench rats (Duncan Shadow)

Some of these were barely painted (mud ghouls and ghosts) and others are small (15mm giant rats). So how about:

• 1 x 25mm vehicle: 20 points
• 24 x assorted 15mm gribblies: 24 points
• Limbo bonus: 20 points
• Squirrel (Last War) +1
• Can opener duel +8

From Millsy:

Great to have you join us again this year Barks! This is a great way to kick of your Challenge and I think you did the right thing sticking with the shiny finish on the walker. I've always thought part of the otherworldliness of tripods is they were made of unknown materials and wouldn't rust. I've scored it as a 28mm vehicle given the scale.

Nice work mate, a healthy 64 points to kick of your Challenge.

Cheers,

Millsy

AndrewB- A week missed, some fun projects! (264 points)

Hello everybody!   Sorry for missing last week, real life caught up, and I had to roll what little I got done in with this week’s entry!   

Without further ado, we’ve got the Maritime Room!    I’m sure at least a few of you remember the late great PBeccas, a truly phenomenal Australian. He served in his youth in the Australian Navy, and I printed a fleet of 1/2400 RAN vessels from early WWII shortly before he passed.  They’ve sat unpainted for too long, and I grabbed them to get rolling in his memory. 

First, the cruisers!   Historically, two County class Heavy Cruisers, Australia and Canberra, accompanied by three of the modified Leander class Light Cruisers, Hobart, Perth, and Sydney!  These were fun to paint up, and represent the force’s heavy units.  

The RAN historically had four V class destroyers, and the destroyer leader Stuart.  These little guys were a nice break from trying to paint 1/6000 destroyers, so I had that going for me!  

Here are four ‘Grimsby’ class sloops (had to improvise, couldn’t find .stls for them)

The fleet assembled!   I may have goobered up the scaling on the sloops a bit, but they have the right number of guns and stacks, so hopefully nobody makes too much of an issue. 

Next some nice little houses I printed for my ongoing Battle of St Louis project set in the All Quiet on the Martian Front universe!   I printed these from free files on thingiverse, and I’m pretty happy with how the prints(some of my first FDM) came out, and how they painted up.  They’re also some of the first models I’ve ever used an airbrush on, which you can sort of see on the tan walls.  More work on that in the future. Here’s the first 8!  

 

These poor houses have sustained some damage from both traditional weapons and Martian heat rays!  I intentionally left them more clean than I wanted, but that lets them be used fairly well for FoW or alongside the battlefield in a box buildings that you see pretty commonly.  There will certainly be lots more to come, but for challenge purposes, I need to stick to 28s for the points.  These each take up about a quarter of a terrain box, so I wound up making them the same points.  Still, a good start on the city!

Moving along with that project, bases finally arrived!  There’s also some quite fun characters to go along with the mass of infantry!  Here’s the infantry, which made an odd 14 stands worth, which combines with the previous three for a frustrating difficult to split seventeen, but that’s alright!  

 

Like the previous models you’ve seen, these are from Old Glory, and came together quite well!   They’re ready to keep the goober Martians out!  Still quite happy with how this Geek Gaming Forest Ground Cover is shaping up to look like shattered lumber with the smaller scale figures, so that helps!  I also did two command bases with these figures, and boy howdy are they gonna hit a couple rooms!  

 

These two additional command stands have a couple notable locals, who would certainly be able to call upon men and resources in this time of need!  First with his assistant, on the right command stand is the legendary August Anheuser Busch, who brought the brewery founded by his father and grandfather to the fore in the early 1900s.  We’ve all had it, the world made Budweiser the King of Beers, and this guy is largely responsible for that rise!   We’ve got his trademark suit, hat, and belly, so here he is, a truly Famous Person!  

To the left, we have another figure who wielded large amounts of influence in St Louis at about the same time, Thomas Egan.  Before we get to his room though, the two lovely ladies on these bases will take us on Lady Sarah’s Book Cart, Coming to rest in the True Crime room.  Egan wasn’t a very nice fellow, and began running liquor and bringing large-scale organized crime to St Louis well before prohibition even began.  His grip on the city held from before the turn of the century to his death in 1919.  He’d absolutely bring his men to the streets, as the Martians surely support the Volstead act.  

Group photo!

That’s a long post, thanks for sticking with it!  

As for points, there are 60 15mm minis at 2pts apiece for 120, two 6x6 boxes of houses for 40pts, and twelve 1/2400 ships for 2pts apiece(if I recall previous scoring properly) for 24pts  with Maritime, Famous Person, and True Crime rooms, alone with Lady Sarah’s Book Cart, we have 80pts to add, for a total of 264pts.  I’ll try not to let the weeks stack up again, I appreciate everything our great Wednesday Minion does!  

***

Welcome back Andrew - no shame missing a week here or there, life often gets in the way of hobby work after all. Besides, you put your time to good use, uncorking another little points bomb here for all of us to enjoy. 

This whole St. Louis-Getting-Zapped-By-Martians thing is certainly entertaining, and I like your use of some famous local characters to add colour to the setting. I congratulate you also on cracking the "airbrush barrier" - certainly remains an issue for me, but I salute others who power through it. 

Thanks very much - we look forward to your next submissions, whenever they might arrive!

GregB 

From AndrewB - War of the Worlds St Louisans! Lady Sarah, Local History - 96pts

This week, we’re persisting with the 15mm Blitz, in a rather more self- defeating fashion.  I spent the week painting up the better part of 100 15mm early 1900s civilians, as well as some guns, only to find when I took them off the sticks, I only had three bases left to put infantry on!   I got the guns(and what an assortment), a couple command stands, and a group of three infantry stands based up, so we’ll just have to hold onto the rest while we await a package from eBay!  

If any of you are familiar with the All Quiet on the Martian Front franchise, it has been rekindled by new ownership, and recently completed a Kickstarter relaunch!   In the previous edition, when the IP was owned by the fine folks at Miniature Market based here in sunny St Louis, MO, the Battle of St Louis was an important turning point in stemming the tide of the Martian invasion in the US, and remained a place of conflict.  Naturally, I’ve been 3D printing 15mm ruined houses and such like gangbusters, and have been working on local militia units to fight the martian menace.  First, let’s dig into our HMG teams and a couple larger guns for dropping tripods!  

This motley assortment of militia and privately sourced machine guns include a Nordenfeldt, a Colt 1895 ‘Potatodigger’, and a Maxim on a cavalry mount.  Additionally, these teams have lady loafers bringing ammunition in their purses, which they’re removing!

These two guns are a dismounted light naval gun(quite heavy when land-based), and a large brass heavy gun from the civil war era, certainly liberated from the grounds of the old arsenal, and chained to a beam!  The improvised guns are being entrenched, and some poor soul is having to examine projectiles to see what will fit the comparatively ancient cannon!  These machine gun ladies will flag down Lady Sarah’s cart and hitch us a ride to the Local , where all these fit quite nicely, even if the setting is slightly off-kilter from history!

Next up, we have some of St Louis’s Finest, a detachment of the metropolitan police!

These fine chaps are leading the way through ruined streets to take the fight to the big eyed Martian menace   Lay into them, Lads!  

Lastly, we have two command stands of local heroes to lead the forces mustering!

On one base, we have a fairly standard base of respectable looking gentlemen, while the other has a gentleman fully decked out for the era, in all white, ready to impress the gravity of the situation on anyone he encounters!

Look for the rest of these to be uploaded sometime in the next couple of weeks, as more bases come in!  Sorry I wasn’t able to put them up, but you’ll certainly be seeing more of this project!  

As for points, there are 28 15mm minis for 56pts, as well as Lady Sarah’s 20, which advanced me to the Local History room, for an additional 20, bringing me to 96 this week! A pretty paltry showing next to last week’s entry, but I’ll have an added boost in the future!  Happy painting!

***

Thanks for this submission Andrew, and for the update regarding this game system. I recall seeing some of the Martian Pods in an earlier edition of the Painting Challenge some years ago, and so it is interesting to learn not only that it had gone under, but is now back under new ownership! And so nice to see that pouring machinegun fire into Martian invaders can be a community building endeavour...looking forward to seeing much more when your shipment of bases arrives. 

Greg

From ChrisW - Planet Gethen Mix bag of stuff, including Ilsa the she wolf, Dr Who Ice Warriors & more 337 points

 

But first, a few items left over from Altair IV, the robot planet.

Up first, 4 more All Quiet on the Martian Front tripods. Again it is 1 assault walker and 3 more scouts. This time around the assault tripod is sporting a rack of gas grenades and is even in the process of trying to throw one with it's stunty T-Rex arms! I tried out the colour shifter paint on this one, I think I am really, really going to need more practice with these paints. That or dust off my airbrush, read the instructions watch some videos and start using it! I had fun with the base utilizing some bring and buy ruins that I got some time ago for just such an occasion.

The scouts were done in the more traditional silver tone as opposed to my earlier tripod entry. More rocky basing, fewer rocks than last time. One tripod carries a targeting device useful for a bonus to shooting, go figure. Oddly it is the first scout that I have equipped this way, but more will be coming. 

Even after painting up 8 tripods for this challenge, I still have a photocopier box loaded with more AQMF stuff. Something to sort out after the challenge. Models by Alien Dungeon [32 points]

 

Finally I have finished Big Red! I have tried to paint this up since the start of the challenge and it has been a challenge! I just could not figure out what colours to use, in the end it became a sort of Iron man  Ape. It is a mess of a casting, with bubbles and not fully cast detail. I believe it was cast as one piece, or maybe the gun was an add on, bought it so long ago that I do not fully remember. I cleaned and repaired it as best as I could then primed it with army painter red (not certain which red)

Then it was a lot of blocking/base coating with GW paints for the colour bits and P3 for the metal parts. I would like to say I had fun painting it, but that would be a lie. I started and stopped so many times for many reasons from colour choices to just a lack of motivation. In the end I finished it out of sheer pig headed determination to not see it on my painting table again. It is done and ready for storage and hopefully to be played with in a super game. I still have the pilot to finish off, maybe next week. The figure appears to be OOP, but came from Old Glory. [20 points]

Pinky is the brain, yes Pinky is the brain...

 

 This figure comes from Alternative Armies, who recently had a sale. Now, I have noticed that stats get calculated at the end of the challenge including how much money invested into the hobby this challenge has generated. Well, I believe once I add up my receipts I will find myself above the curve.

The figure is a giant brain, duh. Not certain why I wanted it, but I did. I am sure it will come in handy sometime just not too certain when that might be...It is scale agnostic, sold in the 15mm section but usable for 15 to 28mm, so I settled in the middle at 20mm.[15 points]

Time to finally leave Altair IV and make our way to Gethen!

 

Not using Sarah's yacht this week but that did not stop me from painting up another a women unit. This time it is Ilsa by Pulp Figures.

Frozen planet meets cold hearted PULP femme fatales! Painting black clad figures, with black accoutrements, including black boots, is not as much fun as it may seem. I really wanted to keep the black cloth looking black. In the past when I have tried my figures came out grayish. So this time around a kept the highlights, light, using Vallejo dark grey to contrast the shiny black leather. Not convinced it completely worked...I did paint the armband on the figures, but there was no way I was going to be able to paint on a swastika. Maybe I will search out some decals, but for now they remain red. So 17 Pulp Figure figures. [85 points]

Frozen world what better than the Martian Ice warriors! Certainly Mars is coming up on my tour, but I have something else planned for that planet. So 17 of these rather oddly posed figures have been done, my first fully finished faction for Dr Who. They are so quirky that I guess they are kind of cool. (sorry for the pun) Black Tree Design [85 points]

A mysterious macguffin has arrived and will draw adventurers like a magnet. No doubt this will become a major plot point in a Pulp Alley game. Sally 4th model. [20 points]

 

In keeping with the cold theme, and as a preview to coming attractions, I present the following creatures of the northlands.

First up the elusive big footed Sasquatch! Pulp Figures [10 points]

The typical blurry picture of big foot (feet)

 

 

or

The loping away picture...

Distant cousins? A pair of Yetis for some intrepid explorers to encounter. Copplestone [10 points]

 

 Final entry for this week, a couple of 28mm armored cars for the Back of Beyond.[40 points]

Points

• 20 planet Gethen
  
• 32 points for 4 x 15/18mm tripods
• 15 points 20mm brain/vehicle
  
• 190 points 38 x 28mm foot
• 80 points 28mm vehicles 2 x RCW A/C, Crashed satellite,  Robot Gorilla.

Airfix tank for comparison

 Squirrel stuff

           Last week

1. Super heroes
2. Epic 40K
   
3. Sci-Fi Robots 28mm
   
4. Dystopian wars
5. Dr Who                                                                                                                                            New for this week
6. Pulp
7. All Quiet on the Martian Front  
8. Back of Beyond
   

 Alphabet challenge 

New thing that I am tracking; the number of female figures painted for the challenge! 

• 67 figures painted so far this challenge aiming for 100.

 

What a marvelous mixed bag, once again, if somewhat smaller than previous weeks have seen you produce. I do like that Iron Ape - totally bonkers!

Tamsin

 

Thanks, I will try harder for next week...😁