From TeemuL: The Last Ducks and Orcs (50 points)

My last post of the Challenge has elements of two of my favourite fantasy worlds, Glorantha and Middle-Earth. First Glorantha and heroic ducks. I recently painted first five of them here: Ducks from 2022. And now was the time to paint the rest and claim one more squirrel!

They being fantasy ducks and not real I was able to use varied colours - one of them is blue, another one is green, one yellow and light and dark grey pair to finish them off. I tried to again use a limited palette to tie them together, look unified, but not uniformed. So lots of greys, greens and browns, followed by wash and gentle drybrush. It is a miracle indeed how many colours you can shade with Reikland Fleshshade and drybrush with Caucasian Flesh and the end result is great! I give you hint, basically anything but blue and green on these ducks...

For those of you don't know, ducks from Glorantha are barbarians and live side by side with other barbarians following their Storm God called Orlanth. Ducks don't take criticism well, especially if it is targeted towards their height, size or skills with weapons. They are short tempered, I wonder if Donald Duck is related to them...

Times like these, Challenge coming to end, skull duel almost tied, every skull counting, it would be tempting to paint free hand skulls everywhere, for example on the shields of these ducks. But skull is not a symbol widely used in Glorantha, so one of them got a storm rune and other one got a luck rune. Whirling storm rune is also the mark of Orlanth. They are smallish minis, 20mm in height, but in 28mm scale and previously counted as 28mm so it would be 5 points per mini and total of 25 points and a "Glorantha Duck" squirrel.

<Enter some quack jokes here>

And lets move on. Here are five more Uruk-hais for my army. You might remember my earlier entry where I said these were surprisingly easy and fast to paint. So I primed five more and they were still easy and fast to paint. I need to remember that, because I have quite a lot of them waiting for paint.

The recipe is the same and since there are dozens of entries on the final hours, I'll save you from long rants. 5 minis for 25 points, no squirrels or skulls. 50 points total. Thank you and "See You In December!"

From Millsy:

One of my favourite aspects of Gloranthan lore is the quirkiness of it and the ducks are the epitome of that quirkiness. I would never have though to use such bright colours on them as you've done mate but it really works.

Lovely work Teemu and another 50 Lunars added to your tally.

PS. I tried to think of a duck joke that would quack you up but couldn't manage it.

Cheers,

Millsy

From TeemuL: Orclike creatures (70 points)

Couple of weeks ago I posted an entry about all things green. Today I'm not far off that subject, but this is more a study of orcs rather than of a green. And the "study" is created while typing, after I managed to create a topic which would gather all the models of this week. Orc is a tricky word, I believe, everyone knows what orcs are, but no-one really knows what orcs are or what they look. :) It is a specific but generic term with many different points of view, different lores and different authors/artists.

These are Uruk-Hai from Games Workshop Lord of the Rings range based on the movie trilogy by the same name. In the movies Uruk-Hai are creatures created by Saruman, in the books they come from Mordor, but Saruman just manages to enhance them to not be afraid of daylight.  Tolkien's orcs were originally corrupted elves, Jackson's version is mix of orcs and goblin.

I chose to paint 5 of these, just enough for another squirrel, but they were so quick to paint, that I primed another 5, which might get painted later in the Challenge. I have largish collection of painted Uruk-Hai, but only 3 with pikes before this. Definitely need for more, luckily I have lots to paint. These are 20 years old or so, gathered from here and there over the years. These "orclike creatures" are brown skinned and heavily armoured and have long pikes, which gives them unique fighting abilities in the game. Very quick to paint, like I told. brown skin and armour cover almost everything. The photos are quite bright, but there are two layers of black wash over the plate mail to give them darker and more industrial look. Brown bases to finish them off, green tufts to add some colour to all brown, black and metal.

The next one is a mean, green killing machine, so I'd say an orclike creature. For Toy Story bonus round I painted a Centurion tank for my Delmonteland project, but since Wars of Insurgency rules are not really about tanks, I thought the jungle troops would need another kind of vehicle. The answer came from the box of toy cars I bought Gaslands in mind, but this 4x4 Cherokee is claimed to be 1/64 scale, so the same as the Centurion, so it should be a perfect fit.

I painted the car green, then added lighter green highlights, painted the windows and tires black and bumpers brown. A little bit colour to the lights and then some muddying. The freehand palm tree and slogan on the roof were painted light grey and highlighted with white.

The trunk opens, so I painted the inside yellow, looks quite practical. Some thin lines to windows to mimic reflections. Not necessarily the best effect, but at least something to break the blackness.

In the photo below I have included two jungle warriors I painted before to better show the size and scale. Looks may be a bit big, but probably just big business... "Let's go Bananas" is something I invented tongue in the cheek, something eager mercenaries might think when going to fight in the jungle. Afterwards I learnt that there is a Canadian TV show for children with the same name, so salute to Canadians is included (unintentionally).

Another size comparison, this time with Warlord Games WW2 jeep. Again, looks a bit bigger, but clearly the design is not so Spartan, so not a problem for me. Someone might argue about the correct scale for 25/28 minis, but for me this is close enough - especially when this was supposed to be a cheap side project.

The following 3 photos show the Cherokee before my salvage job. I liked the red paint and "Mad Bull" text, may be I should have stick to that instead of "Let's go Bananas"?

It can clearly be seen that this toy car has seen lots of action and most likely love. I hope to field it for my games so it can enjoy the new life and love.

And the last photo shows the technical details, 4x4 Cherokee by Majorette, Made in France, 1/64 scale and No 256.

And then some actual orcs, at least the Games Workshop version of them. Games Workshop orcs in the Fantasy (or Grim Dark) setting are greenskinned. They are not evil as such, they just like a good fight and enjoy destruction. Back in the days orcs were considered brave warriors, nowadays they are cowards hiding inside armours, made of metal gone through pigs... This entry shows the more heroic orcs rather than those cowards. These are (or were) called Savage Orcs and as you can see, their equipment and weapons are from the lo-tech end of the technology tree.

Yes, good old metal orcs with goblin green bases and red weapon shafts! I guess I'm bit of a dwarf and savage orc inside me, dirstrusting pretty everything too new and modern...

I added some variety, each one has different coloured skin or fur and there are actually 5 different sculpts here, even though two pairs look quite the same - but not exact. Shields are quite modern, but they are rather rough, so they fit these savages better.

In general they were painted basecoat, highlights and gentle wash, but there are some variations here and there. The bone weapons of the boss guy have severel layers for example where as the red eyes have just the basecoat.

What might surprise you, there savage beasts (as some imperial scholar might call them) have zero skulls on them! Bone and stone weapons, feathers, severed head, all kinds of armbands, bracelets and nose rings, but not a single skull. Well, if you want skulls, you'll have them next week!

"28mm LotR Forces of Evil" squirrel, no robots or skulls, 25 points for 5 minis.

25mm vehicle for 20 points, no skulls or new squirrels.

"28mm Warhammer Fantasy Orcs" squirrel, no robots or skulls... 25 points for 5 minis.

Total 70 points, 2 squirrels.

With all these points I reach the halfway of my target with two weeks to go!

Oh boy Teemu, what a great mix of offerings you have for us today! I do like both the versions of that architypal enemy: the trusty Orc or Ork. Those Uruk Hai really look good, but I like the Savage Orcs better they are goofy and just ooze charakter! That Cherokee is the cream of the crop for me, what a nice rescue job, the banans theme does really work well indeed, so get those brushes started and try to paint some more we sure like to see more of these kinda posts!

Cheers Sander 

From AdamC: Riders of Rohan (60 Points)

 

Six Rohirrim from Games Workshop armed with a variety of weapons.

These two are horse archers something Tolkien never mentioned. They have "Good archers in their fashion" according to Legolas. 

Still Jackson had them use these in the movie so I guess it works.  Still its not a weapon set I ever imagined them using. 

These two are armed they way I wish all the riders were armed. The spear, javelin or lance is the weapon for a hose man.

I like that one is throwing and the other is using his as a lance (though I have repaired it twice so maybe not the best grip).

Finally we have two rides with secondary weapons.

We have an axe and a sword. Games Workshop miniature are frustrating, I always feel they should paint up better than they do. The issue may be me not them but I am always a bit disappointed with how they look when I came done. 

Still they are serviceable enough to use. Six mounted 25/28 miniatures which are 10 points each for another 60 to add to the pile.

 

=====================

Sylvain: Ha, the charge of the Rohirrim! Such a great moment of cinema. Your miniatures brings back the magic of the screen just looking at them. Your choice of color is right on. I'm sure your next game with theses horsemen will be as epic as their movie counterparts. Bien joué! 

From TeemuL: Army of the Dead (50 points)

I told last week, that I was going away for the weekend, and I did. It was hard to get back to painting minis after the break and I was busy with other life, too. I decided to paint something simple I had prepared and here you are. Feels almost like cheating, I could send these to Byron as statues and he'd give me 1 point per model, but since they are not terrain, I get 5 points per mini! :)

These are all old metal minis, Army of the Dead for the world of Lord of the Rings. I have previously painted a lot of plastic ones and some characters, but these are the really old stuff I have managed to acquire somewhere sometime. Nice minis, lots of different sculpts and being ghost-like rather easy to paint, since ghost skin, ghost clothes, ghost armour and ghost weapons are exactly the same colour. There is one king of course and then nine soldiers, these were sold in boxed set like this.

King of the Dead

Here's what I painted 8 years ago: 2018 Army of the Dead

And 4 years ago I toyed with idea to paint these ten during that challenge (Fool of a Took!): 2022 Army of the Dead

Lots of ghosty cloaks

Minis were primed black and then two coats of grey to get an even finish. Then some very old Dark Blue Ink all over them before a light bone coloured drybrush. Basework is my usual Lotr base, brown with brown sand and brown wash and finally brown drybrush. :) Some tufts here and there. It is kind of shame to paint these nice metal sculpts so fast, but I don't know how paint them "better" either. Looking at the photos again, I think they are quite nice in the end, the deep blue shadows and pale highlights create kind of a ghosty feel - I've never seen a ghost, so I'm not sure, but something I might imagine.

Ten of these nice minis should give me 50 points (I told this feels like cheating!). They are ghosty, but there are no skulls. One squirrel though, "Lotr Forces of Good", which should give me a total of 10 at the moment.

There's no cheating here Teemu, these are proper 28mm figures and you can paint them as complicated as you like or not. They still look really good! I also really like that you have included your earlier efforts in bringing these to the table, brings back good memories to earlier Challenges!

 

Go strong Pippin me lad! 

From RhysH - The Fellowship and a dinosaur (55 points)

This week Rhys has the Fellowship of the Ring in plastic from GW and a resin dinosaur from a new game that one of our local Colorado guys is developing.

All nine of them. I think this is some of Rhys' best work.

Aragorn, one of Rhys' favorites. 

Rhys loves this guy in a all of his forms. He's really good in game, as he should be.

The other four big folks.

I think Rhys nailed the shield on Boromir. I like his better than the one I painted.

The four hobbits. Rhys likes Pippin the best, perhaps because he can be taken in Minas Tirith but it's hard to say.

Rhys has wanted the Fellowship for a long time so getting these painted is a definite mile-stone for him.

Next up is a resin dinosaur from a game under development here in Colorado by Joseph Ritzer. He's had quite a few different creatures sculpted and cast in resin and is demoing it at local gaming conventions. I looked for a page for the game but he doesn't appear to have it up yet. Rhys was not really a dinosaur kid but he liked the game and loved the models, and Joseph is a genuinely nice guy. 

Swampy base and dirty dino.

As you can see these are nice, clean casts with good detail. 

I think I'll try to get Rhys to work with washes next. He takes advice better from our friends but we'll see how it goes.

I with I'd gotten a side-by-side with the Fellowship, but Rhys whisked the dino off to his room as soon as it was painted. It's the size of a 28mm monster so that's how we'll score it.

That's 9x28mm Fellowship = 45 points

1 x 28mm Monster = 10 points

***

Great work Rhys - your wok on the Fellowship really highlights the progress you continue to make in your painting, and there are some fine results here. Even better, surely, is that feeling of having completed one of those "oh, I have always wanted to get this!" sort of projects, such as the Fellowship from the "Lord of the Rings." I paint a lot - I love it, after all - but when you get one of those sort of projects finished, there is an extra charge, providing further motivation to keep painting, and just a nice little jolt when you see the models on a shelf - or, even better, a game!

That dinosaur is a large one, for sure - I hope things come together for your friend's efforts to develop a game!

That will by 45 points for you Rhys!

Greg

From KillianF: Fantasy Elf Heavy Infantry (40 points)

 Good day all,

Thank you for the nice comments on the Orcs & Dwarves previously. I am following them up with 8 Elf  warriors. These are for the most part from the Oathmark Elf Heavy Infantry, which is one of my favourite renditions of elves in plastic. The bodies are dynamic, the armour interesting, and there are far more posing options than the other Oathmark Elf kits. Additionally, I have used arms from the Wargames Atlantic Armoured Late Romans, which are a slightly different style of mail, to create even more poses. I also gave one of the greatsword bearers a crest from the old Warhammer High Elf Archers kit. These old High Elf kits provide a fantastic range of gubbins and decorations to create some really ornate panoplys. Here's the group: 

 

 

This then inspired the leader in his massive dragon helm. 

I made the dragon itself by carving one of the High Elf Spearmen banner pole toppers, with the wings coming from another piece, some sort of winged gem. Judicious filing and application of miliput hopefully has hidden the gaps sufficiently. The arm was made by chopping some various bits and pieces to straighten it, and then more miliput to fill the gap in the armpit. I used a small amount of terracotta putty for the initial fill, and then after a day some black miliput on top. I then carved a cocktail stick to the desired size and sculpted the mail. I essentially poked holes in the black until the orange showed through. Miliput is not the best for such fine detail (I'd rather green stuff), but it's what I had on hand. Overall I'm quite happy with him.

The painting is pretty simple, given the quantity of armour they wear. The cloth was either blue or turquoise, and the leather was either red, turquoise or brown. I always try to give my elves a green tinge to the skintone. I much prefer it when elves are characterised as somewhat alien, so I try to avoid painting them as just "humans, but better". These guys were based with a skintone mixed with yellow ochre (a fantastic colour), washed brown-green, and then highlighted up with Titanium Buff. I have yet to decide how I'm going to do the shields, so for now they're remaining plain blue.

My Elf army will have one unit of greatswords and one unit of axemen. These may or may not have similar stylings to Warhammer High Elf White Lions and Swordmasters. Sometimes in life you just want to recreate the army you badly painted at the age of 12. I have 2 additional fantasy elf armies to paint yet. One day when they are complete I will be able to field a massive host with several different types. But for now, I've got to finish off these Oathmark ones......

Points:

8x 28mm: 40 points

Squirrel: 1 point 

Squirrel tally: 7

Zona Scavengers, 10mm Black Orcs, 10mm Skeletons, 28mm Goths, 28mm Elves, Dwarves and Orcs 

From DaveD . That a fine addition for this Sunday Killian.good work on the kit bash elements here . 40 it is 

 

From KillianF - War in the Mountains (53 pts )

 Good day all,

Finally finished a variety of fantasy figures. These Orcs and Dwarfs are Medbury Miniatures(again, STLs 3d printed by myself. I would be remiss not to mention they can be bought in metal from Mr Medbury himself).

 

Firstly, four Orc archers. These guys were painted to be grungy and dirty, with lots of brown and desaturated colour. Indeed, after a zenithal prime of dark grey-grey-tan-white, they got a watered down umber ink wash to shade the entire model. Basecoats were then applied, leaving the brown in the recesses to make them dirty. Quite a few more brown washes followed.

 

The last orc is a banner bearer. The model is essentially a Roman legionary style orc, hence the wolf pelt, single greave and manica on the right arm.

The banner is tomato puree foil, covered with PVA soaked tissue to provide texture and an easily paintable surface. I freehanded another banner, because I like painting evil eyes in bright red on a backdrop of Payne's Grey. I added the traingle border on a whim, which was ultimately a silly idea. Painting that many tiny triangles is a recipe for insanity. However, it's an orc banner so I did not worry myself with making it neat.

Next are five dwarf rangers, also from Medbury. I enjoyed adding colour and texture to their clothing: I wanted them to look fitted out for running around a cold mountain. I really like Medbury Dwarfs, they're very serious, with clear (but not overwhelming) historical influences. I've got another 15 or so rangers, and a lot more heavily armoured dwarfs. I may dip into a few more before the challenge is over.

I've just noticed a few bits of kit I forgot to paint

Points:

5x 28mm Orcs: 25

5x 28mm Dwarfs: 25

Total: 50 points

2 Squirrels (5 total) 

From DaveD . Still the great work continues from you . The camera never lies does it ! Great work on the Tomato Purée foil banner . It’s a perfect media for it So it’s 53 points from me