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

From Curt: Third-Tier Security Mooks (50 Points)

Hi There!

For this submission I have a team of third-tier security mooks to help quell all sorts of volatile situations. Things like chaos incursions, vehicle parking arguments and particularly aggressive seniors at grocery checkouts.

These models are from Knucklebone Miniatures, one of my favourite 3d designers.

I wanted a quasi 'Mega-City One' look for them so went with a distressed yellow ochre for their shoulder and knee pads. Also to give them a little 'somethin' somethin' so I provided them with snazzy looking chromatic visors - besides, the bad guys need something to aim for...

I had a few of mishaps removing supports with a couple of their weapon magazines going missing. Bad words may have been uttered. Anyway, I rolled with it and came up with some sprue replacements, but I placed them at their feet, figuring that these hapless new guys had accidentally thumbed the magazine eject on their weapons and are now caught wanting.

I like 'Number 10' the bare chested officer with the cigar. He has a sort of Robert Crumb counter-culture look about him. 

I had some extra Adeptus Imperialis decals laying around and so gave the bunch their very own shoulder pad numbers. Easier for body identification I figure.

These chalk outline aspirants will be valued additions to future games of Mothership, Kill Sample Process and Cy_Borg. 

Aaand another 50 points to add to my tally along with another Squirrel Point - wooo!

Thanks for dropping in for a peek!

- Curt

From Curt: Let's Call him Dave (5 Points)

Hey there!

I know, I know. Last weekend I said that I'd not have another T28 entry before the end of the Challenge. But, you see, I couldn't let the last Tuesday slip past without another rootistic entry, even if it's only one measley figure. Right?! Riiight.

Let's see, what should we call this sturdy fella. I know! Let's call him 'Dave'! Yeah, somehow Dave seems to be the PERFECT name for him.

Dave is the first chap for an upcoming Brute unit. The rest of the unit won't make the Challenge deadline, but Dave felt he had to set an example. He's a good lad, showing up early, looking for new challenges, wanting to please. Never met a Dave I didn't like. 

Gosh, we've had so many Turnip28 entries on Tuesday that I think it will be remembered as 'Turnip Tuesday', right Dave? 

Riiight.

- Curt :)

*lol* Well, one could say that Dave was just begging to be turnipised one more time on a Tuesday, so it's good that you rose to the occasion. I, for one, will be rooting for Dave as he marches to the beet of the drum.

Does this mean that I won't be getting to minion one of your Empire units? Or will there be two posts from you today?

Tamsin

From Curt: 'Brutes' for Turnip28 (30 Points)

 

Hey Everyone!

Though I have not posted much these past few weeks I have been steadily working on several projects all at once (yes, I know, no surprises there). With Dave raising his standard on keeping Tuesday 'Turnip Free' I couldn't resist pressing on with this root vegetable entry to mess with his lofty edict. :)

For this year's Challenge I wanted to see if I could complete two baseline forces for Turnip28. They're not quite there yet, but I am inching ever closer. I've managed to finish the line infantry ('Fodder'), light infantry ('Chaff'), the light cavalry ('Welps') and the artillery ('Stump Guns' and Bombard). So, for this entry I have a contingent of the heavy infantry, 'The Brutes'.

In game terms, Brutes are both more resilient and somewhat better skilled (less bad?) than their fellow foot sloggers. Not as numerous as the Fodder, being composed of only 6 figures, Brutes still make a valuable storm group to help take down nastier targets.

Like most of my Turnip stuff, these guys are from Knucklebones Miniatures. I quite like the brutal, inelegant, slabbed trench armour they're sporting. It makes them imposingly bulky, and fairly easy to identify on the tabletop. Again, I've laid on heavy with the rust, and festooned them with mushrooms and flora all in the fun of it.

I have another group primed-up and ready to go, but I'm not sure if I'll get them done in time as I'm trying to get some other stuff across the finish line first.

Anyway, these six armoured knuckledraggers should give me 30 Points. 

Next up will be the objective markers.

Thanks for dropping in for a look, and HAPPY TURNIP TUESDAY!!

- Curt

See what you've done, Dave? I did warn you that your taunts would provoke him to submit Turnip stuff for posting on Tuesdays, but would you listen?

Lovely but bonkers stuff, Curt!

Tamsin

From Curt: Turnip28 'Welp' Light Cavalry - The Davekon Radish Light Dragoons (40 Points)

Hi All,

As Dave recently declared that Tuesday should be kept 'Turnip Free', I thought it best to send in a tuber torpedo with these 'Davekon Radish Light Dragoons'. ;P

These motley fellows represent the light cavalry, or 'the Welps' in Turnip parlance. The base models are from Knucklebones Miniatures, with a few modifications involving head-swaps, etc. I quite like these figures as they have sort of a Ralph Bakshi 'Wizards' vibe going on.

This one I did up with a bicorne as his pose reminds me of David's famous painting of Napoleon crossing the Alps.

For the standard bearer, I removed the musket and replaced it with a brass rod. I then made up a flag for the pole, freehanding a heraldic device.

I liked the morion helmet on this mook.

...and the bearskin on this fella.

As to scoring, these four cavalry figures should give me 40 points.

Thanks for dropping in! Have a great week!

- Curt

It's always good to have the Show Lord himself drop by. When I saw the title, I thought "Welp" might be a reference to the noise DaveD will make when he sees this post appear on a Tuesday, followed closely by "wibble, wibble".

These cavalry and their "mounts" look very, well, bizarre. Great painting and basing, Curt.

Tamsin

From Curt: Turnip28 Artillery (90 Points)

Hi Folks!

So, now that I have the officers, rank-and-file and skirmishers done, let's move on to some stuff that makes a big bang on the table. Yes indeed, it's the artillery! In Turnip28 artillery are as prone to blow up their crews as they are to harm the enemy. But with grave risks comes great rewards, right? 

Stump Guns are the garden variety artillery in Turnip28 (heh, see what I did there). Think of them being similar to the artillery used in the late medieval period, but even more capricious and undependable. 

For a bit of fun and colour, I played around giving a verdigris patina to the guns using a variation I found on a YouTube tutorial (so handy for ideas). 

Next are two Rocket launchers. Again, quite dangerous contraptions, but they have the siren's sweet promise of wreaking havoc amongst your foes. If your dice are lucky. Maybe. Otherwise, well, at least the crew will get to see some sights as they enter the atmosphere.

Finally we have The Grand Bombard. This beast can be rather rude to the enemy, and in a pinch, its crew can even 'invite' Snob officers to serve as makeshift ammunition. So when the gunner says, 'We'll shoot you to the head of the column, Guv'nor', he's really not fibbing.

All of these whacky pieces of ordinance need to be crewed, so we have a half-dozen fanatical gunners, along with a brace of ammunition carts for them to gather around during their smoke break.

The rocket batteries, Grand Bombard and crew are from Knucklebones Miniatures, whereas the Stump Guns are from StoneAxe Miniatures and the carts from Mammoth Factory.

Points? Hmm. The five artillery pieces are worth 50 points, while the 6 gunners another 30. For the two ammunition carts, let's say 5 for the pair? So, if this is amenable to our esteemed Minion Martin, that would give a total of 85.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you all have a great week ahead.

- Curt

Spectacular, as always brilliant work. Love dodgy artillery. 5 points each for the carts I think

From Curt: 'Chaff' Light Infantry for Turnip28 (40 Points)

Hellooo,

I have to say, I'm having a bit of fun reading the bewildered responses from some participants to all this Turnip silliness. Remember, be inclusive people, root vegetable-based wargames need love too.  :) 

So, another small post from me for my T28 project. Moving on from the rank-and-file of the 'Fodder', we now consider the much-abused 'Chaff'.

As you can imagine from their name, Chaff are the light infantry of Turnip28. They're typically tasked to screen other units, nip around the battlefield to seize objectives, and generally be an annoyance. Similar to skirmishers from other systems, Chaff benefit from being able to deploy in a loose formation, making them harder to hit, and, as they sometimes clean their begrimed, rusted muskets, they are marginally less horrible shots than their comrades.

Here are two units of Chaff for my forces. One for the 'Rutabaga Brigade' 

...and the other serving 'The Fighting Fennel Fusiliers'. 

I wanted them to have a slightly different look than the Fodder, so, pulling from the artwork in the rules, I gave them each a pavise to lug around the battlefied (makes perfect sense, right?).  I had a bit of fun freehanding some unit heraldry on the shields. Granted, its pretty rustic, but I figure it fits with the overall setting of weirdness, decay and dissolution of Turnip28.

These eight Chaff will give me 40 points on the long path towards my 1300 point goal.

Next up for T28 will be the 'Brutes', or maybe the cavalry... or perhaps the artillery. No clue really. It'll sort itself out. 

Thanks for popping in for a look! 

- Curt

From Curt: Adventurers for Mork Borg/Forbidden Psalm (45 Points)

Hi there!

I apologize in advance for monopolizing the blog with my submissions these past few days - I have a bunch of stuff that I was working on over the holiday break, but didn't get around to posting while I was minioniong, so I'm shamelessly taking advantage of the Snowlord's prerogative of being able to post on any day. 

In addition to all things root vegetable and vehicular, I've also been bitten by the Mork Borg / Forbidden Psalm bug, and so have here five hapless and homely mooks to fit that setting.

For those not in the know, Mork Borg is a Swedish designed RPG set in a comically grim, circling-the-drain, Scandinavian death metal world (in fact, there is a mechanic in the rules to count down the game sessions to its doomsday). The small format hardcover is a real treat, whose cutting edge design and layout has allowed it to scoop up eight Ennies this past year.

The Mork Borg mechanics are VERY minimalistic (only 4 stat lines for characters, and probably less than 10 pages of core rules) and as such are a doodle to get into. Character generation only takes a few minutes (which is a good as they usually get chopped up and/or eaten in fairly short order), and if you're too lazy to put in the time, you can simply use their online character generator (aptly titled, 'ScumBirther') to do the heavy lifting for you. At its core, Mork Borg is an open system, where the GM and players are encouraged to fill in the narrative with their own creativity.

Another great aspect to the rules is that their licensing is very permissive. The creators actively encourage adaptations and spin-offs of their core system. This generous licensing approach has created several creative spinoffs already, including 'Cy-Borg' (cyberpunk), 'The Last War' (Great War horror) and 'Forbidden Psalm' (Mork Borg tactical).  

Both 'The Last War' and 'Forbidden Psalm' are not true RPGs, but rather figure-based wargame-adventure systems similar to 'Rangers of Shadow Deep' and the ever-popular 'Frostgrave'. These Mork Borg spinoffs are great rules for a light, but frenetic night of gaming (and a low figure-count of only 5 in a party/faction). I've been running an online Mork Borg RPG campaign for some out-of-town friends, and hope to get some Forbidden Psalm games in with our local group soon. With this in mind, here is a faction for FS - five misbegotten adventurers, all destined, I'm sure, to come to a quick, nasty and sticky end. 

Nick the Pick

Witnail the Flail

Gavin the Glaive

Wesley the Weaver

and, Ishmael the Pickerel 

Knucklebones Miniatures has done a terrific job in capturing the oddball, comical and weirdly grotesque nature of the Mork Borg universe. In the setting, the 'heroes' are typically homely (if not hideous), but in an interesting way, and it gets even 'better' when you come across the baddies. Hopefully I'll have more Mork Borginess over the coming months.

Sorry for the rambling post! Hats off to those who persevered to the end. :)

Five adventurers for 25 points, plus another 20 for the Fantasy Set. 

- Curt

From TeemuL: As a Challenge Veteran, this post probably doesn't even make the Top 10 list of rambling posts, so it was easy to read. Partly because the game system sounds interesting, I guess I need to do some further investigation, simple rulesystems have their place and small figure count, too. The miniatures themselves are tried and tested Snowlord style, lots of colours, very smooth, but lots of contrast. It was a joy to have the master producer join our Thor's Day team.