From MartijnN: 10mm ACW and the Four Circles of Hell (Wrath, Heresy, Fraud, Violence) (149 points)

Quite surprisingly, I have painted more or less only 28mm figures during this Challenge, apart from the one 6mm Blucher base of Napoleonic French last week. Obviously, that would not do, so here are some 10mm ACW. I have painted almost all my infantry, but I still have lots of artillery and cavalry lying around. So, I decided to paint up some dismounted skirmishing cavalry for both sides, and some horse holders. I really don’t know why I got those, for they are not necessary for Altar of Freedom, but they look cool anyway I think. I don’t think I will paint up all of them though 😉.

The skirmishing cavalrymen are Perrin figures, the horse holders Magister Militum (basically also Perrin, I think).

Then, this must be almost my last chance to grab some bonus points. I know it is preferable to do separate posts for each location, but in order to ease the workload of Curt and the Minions a bit during the mad dash to the finish I thought I’d better combine them this time.  Last week we were at Greed, so now it is time for Wrath. I present to you the unfortunate but very wrathful Gunnar Dingemansson.

 

He has been confined to a wheelchair ever since a sneaky orc shot him in the backside at the Battle of Grubenhavnor-in-the-Fields-on-the-Garf when he was a wee lad. His brother, who is something of a do-it-yourself guy, made this wheelchair for him. He is still working on a self-propelled version, but has not really got the hang of steam power yet, so in order to keep his remaining limbs intact, Gunnar has to make do with his arms to get up to speed for the time being. As you can see, he is quite capable of doing so, charging filled with wrath and at full speed at any orc that comes into sight. He is, unsurprisingly, a Lovecraft figure, 3d printed.

Next stage is Heresy. This is personified by Brother Johann. Johann was a boy tending his father’s sheep when one night he received a vision. It was revealed to him that the only True God was Baa, the chief sheep. It was his duty to go out in the world with his woolly  Disciples to spread the Word of Baa. Here you see hem reading from the Book of Baa to his flock. 

What is good enough for his sheep, is good enough for Johann. Thus, he dresses in shades of black and grey. 

Johann is again a 3d Lovecraft figure. I think the sheep are from Great Escape Games for Dead Man’s Hand.

Next, we arrive at Violence. According to the famous dictum of the British bard, Hell has no fury than a woman scorned. I do not know if this lady was scorned, but she is clearly prepared to dole out some violence and I would rather stay behind her.

 

She is also a 3d printed figure, this time by Join or Die. She is part of a ladies’ warband for Dead Man’s Hand, but the others will have to wait a while yet.

Finally, we arrive at Fraud with another 3d printed Lovecraft figure. In one of his projects, Iain Lovecraft did a bunch of figures “inspired” by Terry Pratchett characters. This his Cut-my-own-Throat Dibbler, accompanied by the only one who really appreciates his sausages:

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say of him:

Claude Maximillian Overton Transpire Dibbler — usually known by the epithet "Cut-Me-Own-Throat", CMOT Dibbler, or simply Dibbler, or even sometimes as just "Throat" — might be described as the Discworld's most enterprisingly successful unsuccessful entrepreneur, no-one has failed at success more times than Dibbler. A 'merchant venturer' of Ankh-Morpork, and the master of selling the 'sizzle' over the steak, Dibbler is most famous for selling meat by-products to unsuspecting passers-by, and also suspecting passers-by who have gotten sick from his sausages before, thus demonstrating that he is indeed a very good salesman.

So that’s that for now. I hope to finish some 6mm Napoleonics before the Challenge ends, but we will have to wait and see if I succeed in that. As to scoring, I am going to a be a little cheeky here and score the six horse holders as 10mm cavalry @3 points. However, if the Minion of the Moment decides that’s shaving it too closely and scores them as 12 foot figures @1, I think I can survive. I’ll score the sheep and the little dog as 10mm figures to, so 1 point each.

We have then:

24 10mm foot @1 = 24

6 10mm cavalry @3= 18

7 animals as 10mm foot @1=7

4 28mm foot @5= 20

4 Challenge locations @20= 80

For a total of 149 points.

Which sees me shooting past my target after all!

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Geez, you present to us to a tremendous potpourri of wonderful miniatures Martijn. The 10mm dismounted skirmishers, with their attendant mounts and minders, look excellent. I also really like Gunnar who makes it very clear that it takes all types to make a successful adventuring party (I look forward to the steam-powered version in a future Challenge). I've never been a Terry Pratchett fan, I but like the background story (and hopeful pup). I think my favourite is the sheep and the Prophet of the Book of Baa. Excellent work (and I love the 'Sound of Music' background you used). Well done sir, and congratulations on exceeding your Points Target!

- Curt

 

 

From StephenS: Vampires and Death Robots (Heresy and Violence) (85 points)

G'day,

Two entries today to keep the points ticking away as we edge towards the finish line.

My entry for the Sixth Circle are two German Nachtjager from Warlord Games for their Konflikt '47 game. German scientists have merged the DNA of reptiles, bats and alligators with 'volunteers' to produce these horrific creations. A process that is probably contrary to more orthodox views of what is proper in war and science, and thus, heresy! The end result is these two fine 25mm metal sculpts. I haven't played Konflikt '47 for a number of years, but a search in a drawer for something else uncovered these, and I thought they fitted the theme nicely.

My entry for the Seventh Circle is an elite group of combat droids programmed for maximum destruction, perfect for the theme of violence. They are Dark Troopers and were some of the big baddies in the Star Wars: The Madalorian TV series. These are 32 mm plastic figures from Atomic Mass Games, for their Star Wars: Legion game, though they are quite big and are more in line with some of the 40 mm figures I paint.

Both were reasonably quick to paint up, separated by an inconveniently timed week-long school camp, and involved more dry brushing than I normally indulge in. All up that should be 9 x 25-32mm figures and two bonus locations for 85 points.

Cheers,
Steve

From Millsy:

LOL! I think I have a Konflikt of interest (see what I did there?). I've painted these exact same two sets of miniatures, and in the case of the Dark Troopers we were painting them at the same time unbeknownst to each other. Clearly you're also a man of taste and discernment sir!

Like The Addams Family vs. The Muntsers (look up the timing) you can't have enough of a good thing and I very much like your interpretation of the dark metal. Mine is less obviously highlighted and I think yours will read better on the table.

Well done Steve, a cracking way to earn yourself 85 points.

Cheers,
Millsy

From JohnB: Sir John Oldcastle a Lollard: 1/72 (Heresy) (55 points)

This years challenge is proving to be a challenge. I scooted round last years library and seemed to easily tie in the theme with my various project figures and new buys. This year it has been a mental slog. Quite simply I had left all my medieval stuff behind at the end of AHPC14 and there it has stayed - It missed AHPC14 too :).

All this mental wrestling has had me pestering my minion on ABYSS interpretations. Sorry Martijn. Hopefully I am now a bit sorted and usefully I have dug into that medieval primed heap that is my abandoned/shelved Shrewsbury 1403 project.

Having no easy solution to Sarah's Succubus, I was stumped by heresy although I did run a train of thought past Martijn (sorry it's an in joke). And then I simply looked in my display cabinet and saw some 100 years war figures staring at me.

So I punched the computer with heresy and voila - Sir John Oldcastle pops up. What a story - super side kick to Henry V - he also happened to be into Lollarding and decided his values were more important than power and prestige. He was put to death at the flaming stake.

John Wycliffe was a Catholic Theologian dismissed from Oxford University in England in 1381 for heresy. By 1395 his teachings had been incorporated into the 12 conclusions of the Lollards. In essence they were............... 1 - the church had toó much temporal power 2 - too much ritual without scriptural basis 3 - clerical celibacy had simply encouraged sodomy 4 - transubstantiation - e.g. communion bread promotes idolatry 5 - exorcisms and hallowings carried out by priests are a practice of necromancy/shamanism 6 - clerics in secular office - far too much pride on show - excuse clerics from these roles 7 - prayers for specific dead people is selfish and paid prayers is a form of bribery - it has become an industry and is simony and idleness. 8 - pilgrimages, images, crucifixes and veneration of relics approach idolatry and offerings for these instead should simply be given directly to the poor/needy 9 - confession - is a blasphemous act as only god can forgive us our sins 10 - war, battle, crusade - christians should refrain from battle except for certin reasons. Crusades are blasphemous; likewise slaying heathens for glory. Lords who purchase indulgences for their armies actions are actually stealing from funds for the poor. 11 - female vows - nuns should be allowed to marry instead of needing abortions if they become pregnant to conceal breaking their vows 12 - arts and crafts - the multitude of crafts used by the church cause waste - only those crafts for simple living are necessary.

Being essentially a form of regime change - it was associated with uprisings and assassinations of government offcials. It was brutally suppressed. Between 1409 and 1413 in the reign of Henry IV, Sir John Oldcastle was summoned to Parliament as a Lollard leader but evaded prosecution - being a friend of Henry V. Sir John was eventually convicted but escaped from prison in the tower of london in 1413 and then led a rebellion against the King - now Henry V. Eventually he was captured in 1417. The records are not clear if he was hung drawn and quartered first - for high treason and only then burnt as a heretic. Plenty of wikipedia information is available - it was my source.

I have painted one gaming base using my chosen medieval gaming element - Basic Impetus switched me from DBA and given my 1/72 scale preference as per the guidance in the 1st Edition rulebook I opted for 80mm frontage (for 15mm) and reduced the figure count. It just so happens a previous dabbling with Shreswbury 1403 had already seen me abandon the traditional figure counts which crammed figures onto bases.

My standard medieval set up is 80x60mm bases with 8 foot figures per base - sometimes I do 10 or 6. Here the "Accurate Models" 1/72 sculpting slenderness mean you can see the individual figures and given poses are very variable its more "Diorama" and less "serried ranks" - all thanks to Impetus. I am experimenting with contrasts and ordinary paints - here my only failure was the vallejo contrast mystic blue bleeding out when I varnished the figures - I had allowed 24 hours drying time before varnishing. The shield design is based on what I could find online - plenty of pics of Sir John burning - not so many of his Oldcastle brand! I opted to hand apply the castle and used some permanent black drawing pens. Not sure I would do it again. They crazed but ironically some created minute white lines that look like the stone mortar joints in the online images! Others make it look a bit messy. ho hum.

My bases are done with a 3 colour - burnt sienna/ochre/white yellow dry brush of budgie grit then finished here with gamers grass light green 6mm tufts. Points tally 1/72 figures being nearer 20mm = 8x4 = 32 points. And also 20pts for the heresy level in the Abyss. Grand Total = 52pts

Yes, I was expecting you to steam along happily. However, I must say that you came up with quite a heretical story in the end, well done indeed! I do have Basic Impetus (of course), but I have never played it (of course). But if this base is anything to go by, it will provide a nice spectacle! I do hope it will inspire you to get on with your abandoned Shrewsbury project. Great work, John, they came out very nice and I love the shields. I'll throw you some points for those, to round it off to 55 points.

Martijn

AndrewB- Ancients! Project hoppery for sanity! Wrath, Heresy, Violence! -507pts

My apologies for the delay in posting!  Real life 1:1 scale terrain projects (hooray old house!) have gotten in the way, but I’ve managed to sneak in some additional minis, and possibly completed one of my larger projects builds for a challenge yet!  A whole mess of ancients!  Not a huge amount of time for pictures and posting, as my scant hobby time has been pushed into as much painting for sanity as possible, but here we are!  A top view of a load of ancient figures just itching for the tabletop!  

89 of them, to be precise!

First up, some Egyptians!  These I planned as the Wrath! Entry, as they were built and painted to fight a bunch of Sea People figs a buddy was supposed to be painting(Historically, the Egyptians were the only survivors of the possibly Sea Peoples-induced Bronze Age Collapse, with Ramses II stopping them in the Nile Delta, avenging the rest of the Eastern Mediterranean), but his figures didn’t get done!  That’s alright, especially with the angry bald dude in the front, wrath still sits well.  The Wrath of the Pharaoh, perhaps!

These guys are slightly more interesting, they’re a mix of various peoples of the area of Israel and Judea in the early biblical period, along with a group of six Philistine figures, who can be opponents, or mercenary allies.  Lots of basic spearmen, some slingers, and some really fun command figures!  With no chariots, this should likely be a force from the time of Saul/David, but can also represent the smaller rural forces of the Hebrews all the way through to the Jewish Revolt in the 60s-70s AD, giving an impressive ~1300years of possible play.  In that time, the peoples of this region fought hundreds of opponents, from the Egyptians, Assyrians, Hittites, Greeks, Babylonians, to the Romans, with a huge amount of fighting taking place with one another!  They’re the perfect candidate for the ‘Violence’ category!  

Last but not least( I know it’s out of order, but it’s all the same post), my submission for Heresy!  This giant dude is my representation for Goliath, should I ever find a set of rules to game his fight with the ‘A’ portion of Force=Mass X Acceleration. Fighting and even unsuccessfully trying to kill future King David is probably enough to count as Heresy for a lot of folks.  

That’s 88 28mm figures and a 40mm, and three categories!  My math isn’t always the best, but I think it’s 507pts.  My apologies for the poor backdrop and lack of pictures, but I needed to make sure folks knew I hadn’t dropped out, and have been putting in work in my now short amounts of time. I’ll be sure to get more detailed and quality pictures for my wrap-up post.  Not sure the unexpected home repairs are going to let me hit my 1200pt goal, but I’m gonna try!  Thanks for all the help and inspiration!  

PS- if anyone knows of a good skirmish/big skirmish game for pre-ancient by wargaming standards figures like these, please let me know!   Picked up Clash of Spears, but these guys will have chariots soon, and not only is the conflict before the period of the rules’ design, but there’s no rules for them.  

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BOOM goes the Dynamite - a points bomb if ever there was one! Great to see some Bronze Age/Biblical period models hitting the Challenge Andrew.

We all know the pain of the worst of all scales (1:1) so this speaks volumes of your commitment - good luck!

- Paul

heresy-davidB(91 points)

 

Skulls AND spikes...definitely a bad guy

The Black Legion who were formerly the Sons of Horus, formerly the Luna Wolves; really could fit Wrath. I am using them to pass the ring of Heresy. They fell in the sway of Chaos and were corrupted most by their vanity. Their hatred though is what makes them so wrathful. Although some fell further and were corrupted further; most of the Black Legion are so black of heart that they hate the demons as much as the Imperium. They really loathe the newer marines that they believe are inferior parodies of "honored" foes that they despised. Abaddon leads them and has many failed Black Crusades against the Imperium, launched from the Eye of Terror. In the latest effort, he destroyed the planet Cadia  and has been relentless in their march forward.

the oldest chaos lord in my collection.

My first foray into 40k was just collecting the wonderful Scifi models of the Rogue Trader days and I knew nothing of wargaming except Risk and Stratego. I painted the miniatures in colours I liked and even when I did get the Rogue Trader book I made my blue marines Ultramarines and faced down with the grey Space Wolves. The Imperial Guard were the next large force followed by Space dwarves, eldar, then genestealers and forces of chaos. Space Hulk was a game I got for Christmas and soon I had every single terminator model that GW made. Including these six classic Rogue Trader chaos terminator troops.They were used against the genestealers and then using White Dwarf rules they were used in very intense games against loyalist terminators. 

In the day these old sculpts were painted in bright glossy colours of testors enamels. Just lurid combos of eye bleeding colour combinations. I then painted them years later in acrylic, that never covered them well, directly over the thick enamel in various schemes of the original chapters that started the heresy.

I stripped them(mostly) past summer by soaking them in simple green as Ray had already eliminated any chance I would use dettol after reading his exploits with Fran! 

The simple green did not get all the paint off, but it did eliminate some of the excessive layers of enamel paint and after washing, a black prime coat adhered well. Now these old skool boys are sporting the livery of the black legion and are ready to dominate in more games of space hulk and 40k.

No speed paints and very few washes were used. I used the fanatic black grey paints  and shaded them to highlights with those.

except the swords, I used that arkelian green to get that glowy dirty turquoise on the blades.

In the 90's I got these lads. four extra spikey terminators of chaos and the classic sculpt of Abaddon. 

Abaddon and his terminators were literally tossing my Leman Russ tanks off the game table. I picked them up at hobby shop for real cheap being used and white primed. This is the first time they have seen color beyond the chipped white prime coat. They have only been used in solo games where I found the best way to deal with Abbadon is to tie him up with a lot of ogryns or pull the tanks out of his reach and blast him to oblivion. Still he and his bodyguard deal an impressive amount of firepower on top of the tank wrecking melee capabilities. To this day ogryns trot faithfully behind my tank squadrons just incase  something like Abaddon appears.

Skulls and Spikes...big spikes!

so here is Abaddon with his extra spikey bodyguard. Not only do they serve as ablative armor for Abaddon, but they are combat monsters in their own right.

I am not sure if he is still allowed such a large force, but Abaddon and 10 terminators beaming down next to your squadron of tanks is still a bad day.

For some more stompy death, I have these mechs to get me on the board for my own sideduel of big stompy robots of death. Sander has definitely buried me again, but it is keeping me busy at painting up these mechs for  a first game of Battletech proper. I have no plans yet on an actual army, but plan to keep things calm and group the mechs in lances of four and try something different in paint schemes for each one. These are from the starter box game and feature the commando which for some reason was always given to my RPG character. I never took down another mech with it, but I could scamper and give suppressive fire for my team while they did the heavy lifting after my scouting.

I mimicked "real tree" by using browns and greys to paint their legs in branching stripes over a blue and white camouflage of cloudy winter sky. They cannot hide from radar,satellite, or infrared heat, but perhaps if they stand still in a winter forest they might be missed!

Moving on we have House Steiner Lyran Guards in a striking blue and white colour scheme. In the game, skill level of the mech pilots adds to the capabilities of the mech. I plan on a few more famous and infamous colored regiments to indicate the more skilled elite lances. The rifleman and warhammer are some of my favourite machines. 

expect more rifleman and warhammers as well as atlas and longbow mechs. I do have many mechs laying in the mountain of neglect and several are the mechs that I like most....even the commando that really isn't the best one available!

And another swath cleared from the desk to make room for more models needing attention,

8 battle tech warriors I will count for 40 points as they are like 28mm troops

11 chaos terminators for 55 points

20 points for Heresy

115 points cleared

Skulls holding skulls

I have now 8 stompy robots of death and am on the board in the side duel

for the skull tally

the old skool termies have 71 skulls on six models

the version 2 chaos spik-ey boys have 68 skulls with Abaddon bringing 26 himself...and trim so much gold trim!

139 new gold and bone domes for a new total of 280 skulls

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David's last post for the week impressed with the old school metal termies and Mechs of yesteryear - warms the heart to see these classic models getting some love!

Sorry, but I'm obliged to score the Mechs as the 6mm vehicles that they are, for a total of 91 points

- Paul

wrath DavidB(80 points)

 

Wrath is this stop for Circle of Hell, it is also a chance to clear more minis from the haphazard piles I have on my desk. To keep the post shorter, I will focus on a few miniatures for this entry. I tried to focus on just the phobios kill team, but somehow 30k white scars got added since I am incapable of focus.* this is why I won't do the squirrel duel as it is far too easy. It would be better to attempt a duel where i have to focus on one period, game, army! ;) 

White Scars can definitely be wrathful, however there is different measures of wrath. There is the shock and awe of artillery and bombing runs bringing wrath from the heavens.The wrath brought by whole legions of troops scouring all before them. There exists another wrath. When you also need to send a message that no matter what your opponent does, they cannot hide, they cannot prepare, all their defensives and armies are for naught as you can just send forth a small team to wreck them. A small team that is sent to kill a general or political leader, wreck a command site or radar station, maybe raid and destroy an important site. I have painted a Phobios strike team before for the Iron Snakes, but these are White Scars and will also give my 40k force Infiltrators and Incursors. Phobios kill teams can include reivers as well. This 10 man team lets me add two units of infiltrators and plus up the Incursors which will give my White Scars additional options in deployment before battle and close support for the outriders...when not lending options for a White scar kill team. 

A few basic troops. 

just bog standard infiltrators. I did use bare heads for most and added dags and splashes of red. Some of the White Scar bare heads for 30k were used. One of the marines above has the bare head from the storm-seer. I wanted them all to have a more special heroic look in kill team and even raided my bit box for additional marine decorations and medallions

an infiltrator commo troop as well as icursor sniper and another veteran specialist that can sub as a sgt in 40k games

a mechanicus trained demolitions troop and a medic

a signal specialist that can double as an infiltrator commo upgrade

The 30k praetor bare head was used for the Sgt. I went entirely the rule of cool for this killteam.

the praetor has an ornate mk3 suit while the stormseer has a newer mk6 suit of armor...and a snazzy staff.

I only was able to finish this praetor and storm-seer from 30k. In the Horus Heresy, the White Scars took Imperial guard tanks and led an all out blitz on the Lions Gate spaceport held by the Deathguard. Only a few Scars on other duties were left behind. It was a very wrathful charge. The lead Stormseer died unleashing his powers against traitor forces. speeders, bikes, and chapter thunderhawks and fighter craft did CAS runs letting the tanks, rhinos, and landraiders punch through defenses. The White Scars brought wrath to the Deathguard. They were fighting brining battle to their foe instead of hiding behind the walls of Terra. Jaghatai khan wanted to lead his marines in a charge to the foe and most including him thought they would die inflicting damage on the forces of Horus. Mortarion was banished to the warp as Jaghatai brought him down, but the great khan himself was brought near death in the duel. 

Traitor and loyalist alike felt the fall of their Primarch. The deathguard lost all hope and many despaired at the corrupted forms they had become. The White Scars went the other way. In their grief they fought in berserk, wrathful, fury. Only a terran born praetor was able to make them stop their pursuit of the despairing Deathguard. Jaghatai wasn't dead but very grievously wounded. In one wrathful charge, the White Scars achieved a sliver of hope for the besieged imperial forces but at a great cost.

two 30k heroes- 10 points and 4 skulls

ten 40k marines for 50 points and 34 skulls

20 points for wrath and new skull tally of 133

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In a prolific week, this is the first of 4 seperate submissions from David this week. White Scars have always been cool despite them being a blatant copy of genocidal maniacs. Then again, they fit right in with the other happy-go-lucky denizens of grimdark universe

- Paul