From AndrewG: The Last of the cultists and other bits (69 points)

 

To paraphrase a famous oil painter, my Frostgrave Cultist warband project this past winter turned out to be a ‘happy little accident’ of this year’s AHPC. It was never on my deliberate list of things to get through, but after painting the first few over the holidays I was simply hooked on these figures for some reason and really enjoyed getting them all done.

With these ten new additions I have now built the entire box, bolstering them with a necromancer and apprentice from the Frostgrave wizard’s set to give me several options for getting them on the wargames table.

Pretty much everything was built straight out of the Cultists 1 box, with the odd bit from the bits box here and there to give them some variety. The crusty rusty shield on the champion, for example, is a very old plastic Warhammer chaos shield which I augmented with a boss made from greenstuff. After priming I hit it with some AK corrosive texture and Army Painter dark rust effect, then let it dry before adding a wash of Warpaints Verdigris. I was very happy with the final result, and imagine this is some cursed item that has welded itself to its current bearer.

And here is the whole group, 22 baddies ready to spoil some do-gooder adventurer hero’s plans to make the world a better place.

With the Cultists done and dusted, I had just enough time left to finish off a couple of other miniatures for other games. First up, a couple more gunfighters to join the cowboys I had been posting at the beginning of this year’s challenge. These two Vaqueros are Copplestone castings metal miniatures and will eventually be joined by 3-4 others I am halfway through getting done.

Next up, I got roped into playing in a friend’s D&D campaign in which we were to play unconventional characters, so I opted to play a Dwarven Rogue (IYKYK). Thankfully, Reaper miniatures had produced a couple of these in their metal figure line, so I bought one from a second hand dealer and gave it a quick paint job.

Last but not least, I wanted some cool objective markers for my games of Frostgave and Five Leagues from the Borderlands and found these in an old Warhammer Black Skull Pass starter box set I had sitting in storage. If I recall these were originally Troll skull markers for the Goblin army, but they’ll do just fine for any number of fantasy skirmish games. I painted the cloth on each one a different colour so they can be distinct on the table as needed.

All in all, some good progress this week. Thus, we’re looking at:

13x 28mm figures = 65 points

4x 28mm objective markers = 4 points

Great work here Andrew.  Loving those despite desperados and your Dwarves rogue. However, ,my favourite is the Cultist with his book of forbidden lore.  Well done.

[From AndrewG: More Folks I Wouldn't Invite to Dinner (25 points)

 

As I blew past my original AHPC project and points objective rather early in the season, I’ve been forced a bit to create a two-track production line going back and forth between historical and other projects while I wait for one or the other to dry or get to its next stage. This week I did do a bit of both; this first entry being more Frostgrave baddies for what I’m now calling the Cult of the Double Scar.

I have to say I really do like these Northstar/Osprey plastic sculpts. They have an old school vibe about them and are nicely detailed without going too overboard. They are also very kit bashable, which is a huge plus for me. This group is made mostly from the Cultist 1 box, with some arm and head swaps from sets 2 and 3. I noted, however, in the Five Leagues from the Borderlands rules the initial enemy encounters often include a couple of slingers - so I incorporated one using some bits from a Wargames Atlantic peasant sprue.

Frostgrave and WGA kits mix well in conversions.

Frostgrave kits offers an excellent selection of belt gear

Apparently evil doers need loose fitting pants

 

I used more or less the same palette as last time and being pretty basic figures, these paint up relatively quickly. The application of some AK corrosive texture effects to the warrior’s shield was something new for me though. I had never tried this product before, and I have to say I really like how it works, especially with a bit of Army painter rust effects added in to give it the final look.

AK corrosive effects with Army Painter rust added in

And here they are with the first five figures I painted. I’ll probably do one more batch and give them a couple of leader/character types to round out the warband, then they’ll be ready to challenge our adventuring heroes in due course.

 

Thus, in this batch:

5x 28mm figures = 25 

Very nice figures Andrew.  They’re a nasty looking bunch and I won’t be sharing a table with them either.

From AndrewG - More Fantasy/Sci-Fi Characters & Creatures (56 points)

This week I continued plugging away at my fantasy and sci-fi skirmish game requirements in between some historical figures (see other post) and was pleasantly surprised with the results.

First up, a rider to add to the Guards of Traitor’s Toll (GoTT) patrol detachment I showed last week. Interestingly, GoTT includes rules for mounted troops, wagons, animals, etc. but there are not many figure options readily available yet, so I made my own kit bashing some town guard bits with a Wargames Atlantic medieval mounted sergeant. The bed roll is from a 30+ year old Italeri 1/35 scale German soldier kit (never throw those extra bits away!). Overall, he turned out pretty good. Additionally, I finished one more townsfolk – a distracting puppeteer – who keeps the guard preoccupied while someone else fleeces his saddlebag of goodies.

 

Next up, a small addition to my monster library. These three Constructs are metal miniatures from Northstar’s Frostgrave line, and I have to say I really enjoyed painting them up. For ‘Barrel Man’ and ‘Pencil Head’ I followed the grain so to speak and kept my paint strokes all in one direction. For ‘Creepy Muppet’, I kept the colours drab as he would be put together from abandoned clothing items. By the way, I have no idea if that’s the actual names of these figures but that’s what I’m going with. The winter bases were made with Vallejo rough grey pumice (26.213) that dries lighter than the picture on the container, and little pieces of quartz, which pass for decent ice blocks.

Turning to Sci-Fi, I knocked out a big stompy mining robot and its handler for my Stargrave campaigns. Again, both are Northstar figures – the mining robot is multi-part metal, and the handler is a plastic figure kit bashed from the Crew and Mercenaries sets. Being a mining robot, I added some access panel decals, serial numbering, and gave it a couple of washes of nuln oil to dull down the brighter colours. Off he goes to drill holes!

Claiming the following points:

1x mounted figure = 10 pts

5 x 28mm figures = 25 pts

1x 28mm vehicle = 20 pts

1x Squirrel points – different genres – riders, monsters, robots

Total = 56 points

I am enjoying your GoTT pieces Andrew, nice guard and puppeteer.  If you're looking for mounted figures, you might want to check out the Perry WoR "Light Cavalry" kit.  Those creepy constructs as almost as unnerving as Byron's KD stuff.  But I have to say that you christened them with appropriate names.  Do the blue base rings have any significance in game play?  And I like the Rompy Stompy Robo-miner and handler.  I don't want to be on the receiving end of those.

I can give you 55 points for the figures, but the Squirrels are a separate tally. I've tagged this post to give the Squirrel Finder General (SFG) a heads up.

 

From AndrewG: Fantasy/Sci-Fi Characters, Creatures, [squirrel] (130 points)

I’ve had a growing interest in a number of skirmish adventure games lately – rules like Frostgrave, Guards of Traitor’s Toll (GoTT), Five Leagues from the Borderlands (5LFTB), Five Parsecs from Home and Stargrave to name a few. As most of my miniatures collection consists of historical units, I’ve started plugging away at a few warbands for these other games.

This first group is a detachment of 9 city guards in Lady Eryka’s colours for GoTT. You only need 6 figures or so to play co-op or competitive, but the rules recommend up to 9 figures for solo play so I went with that. These models are plastics produced by Wargames Atlanticand are an absolute joy to build and paint. Nice sculpts overall that are detailed without drowning in it (looking at you Warhammer).

For games of GoTT you need about two dozen townsfolk to populate your busy streets – everything from thugs to barmaids - so I have started getting stuck in on creating a variety of a different folks. Again, these figures are plastics from WGA and I was impressed with how much variety one can achieve from a single box. As well, as with most plastic figures they scale well with many other sets so kit bashing possibilities are endless.

A bit of detail - tattoos on the arms. The dagger is from a Warlord Games Dark Ages set

My only criticism of the WGA plastic sets is that there are surprising few pouches and daggers on the town guard and townsfolk sprues, especially given that the guards have waist belts suggesting they're carrying extra weapons or gear. I had to dig some out of the bits box to give my figures the bare essentials - something to keep in mind when building these.

For games of Frostgrave and 5LFTB I needed some good old fashioned baddies to fight and nothing says evil like a bunch of cultists. This first batch were built straight from a box of Northstar/Osprey Frostgrave plastic Cultists. Again, there are nice clean sculpts with great detail – easy to assemble and quick to paint up.

The 4 rats are also destined for Frostgrave. These critters are old Reaper metal figures that I bought forever ago and were just sitting. Super quick paint job and a bit of winter basing to match the genre.

Last in this week’s entry – two more test figures for the next warbands I’m working on. First, a second detachment for GoTT in different livery. Second, a sneak peak at a kit bashed Frostgrave Gnoll for a new Stargrave or Five Parsecs from Home warband. More pics of him and his companions to follow in a future post.

Thus, this week I’m claiming the following points:

22 x 28mm figures = 110 pts

4x 28mm giant rats = 20 pts

1x Squirrel points – different genres

Total = 130 points.

Wow Andrew that's a fantastic bunch of figures in several factions, and that doesn't include the Terrain bits that I weeded out for Byron to admin on Sunday.  really like that guard set in the green, especially the stocky officer with his blue hat and feathers.  You've done some fine wrk wit these various plastic kits.  A shame about the lack of pouches etc on the WGA kit.  Have a look at some of the Victrix dark age kits, they have spare bits and bods and I think the torsos would work well with your other figures.   I have counted the rates as 5 points each like a human or large animal as they are giant rats!

From Barks: Journey through the spheres (Wise, Warriors of Faith, Just Rulers, Contemplative) (130 points)

I have a selection of figures today to propel me around the last of the spheres of Paradise.

To get me there, I summoned Sarah with these Sci-fi civilians I made from assorted Stargrave kits. I love putting these together and matching bits, and then experimenting with colours I don't often use. The fifth civilian is made with a Fireforge zombie body (hence the unhealthy legs). I think she lives somewhere in the ash wastes protecting her claim.

My favourite is the surrendering one in green...

Sarah Connor vibes.

The Wise

You can tell this person is wise, just look at the size of their brain! Surely it won't implode and release warp daemons everywhere. He's made from the excellent Frostgrave wizard sprue, with a spare head I had.

The Warriors of Faith

Hot on his heels are these two thugs warriors of faith. The photos make me think I should redo the robe highlights.

1998 metals

The Just Ruler

Faramir. What a guy. Briefly the Steward of Gondor before some smelly ranger waves some jewellery about and claims he's the long-lost king.

2003 metal sculpt

Contemplative

I liked painting this Genestealer Cult character, who is Contemplating the plan of attack on this awesome hovering holo-map. I used Contrast Aethermatic Blue for the hologram. I'm thinking of adding somemorehighlightsand glow, but don't want to ruin it. The building complex is based on Warhammer World in Nottingham- a little Easter Egg.

That completes my journey though Hell and Paradise!

10x 28mm figures (50 points)

4 x locations (80 points)

Side Duels:

Squirrel +1 (sci-fi civilians)

Skull Duel +6 (total 18)

From Millsy:

What a great collection of painted miniatures and I love how you have aligned them to the various spheres mate. I've been very tempted by that Genestealer character myself for some time. It's a great sculpt with loads of interest and the composition is excellent. There's so much story telling going on there.

The warriors of faith are really cool too and I'm pleased to see you sticking with canon by painting hazard stripes on the chainsword. If ever there was pointless and redundant safety labelling this is it!

130 pointeriffic points for your tally sir!

Cheers,
Millsy