From MilesR: More 10mm Russo-Japanese War and a Romantic Surprise (320 Points)

A moderately sized swath of 10mm Russo Japanese War figures.  These are the new sculpts from Leon at Pendraken Miniatures and I really do love the line.

First up are 24 bases of Siberian Infantry.  I building my armies (and the accompanying rules) so 1 base equal a battalion.  Hence 24 bases equals 2 Divisions - only 22 more to go.  Most of the time in-game, these will be grouped on bases as regiments of 3 battalions, but every now and then players may want to detach a single battalion to grab an out-of-the-way objective or (more likely) as as a speed bump for a pursuing enemy.

Well if one does the "R" part of "RJW" one better do the "J" part too.  I've completed 12 bases of Japanese infantry in winter coats and a whole bunch of artillery - specifically 9 batteries of 75mm guns 3 batteries of heavy artillery and 4 of siege guns.  Don't tell anyone but the siege guns are actually WW1 British 9.2" howitzers.  Both sides had dedicated batteries of 75's for each division and the Japanese had some heavier guns in independent formations.

During the war, the Japanese field 13 divisions - yet I only have 9 division batteries completed - have my math skills deteriorated that much?

NO! I'm cheating.  I've learned for any Little Wars TV video project to send some of the miniatures out to be painted by somebody with some actual skill.  Those are the troops you'll see in the close ups.  My stuff, mercifully is held in the background where the focus is fuzzy.  I've gotten 4-5 division for each side painted that way and will eventually so you some side by sides so you too can laugh at my limited skills.

And now for the "Romantic Surprise".  So surprising that I put my pictures on the right side of this post!  We live in crazy times.  My lovely yet fierce wife really surprised my for Christmas and got my a Xtool S1 laser cutter.  I love this thing and have started designing some 15mm buildings.  First off the assembly line is a 15mm Norman themed church (you can also see a earlier "prototype" in the back ground).

Designing these buildings has been really fun and I've found it A LOT easier than 3D CAD - maybe it's all those years I've spent spelunking in spreadsheets.  I've got 4 other building designs to test out (a couple of houses, a Cafe and a replica of our wargaming clubhouse

. 

I'm also working on some gaming aids for the RJW/WW1 ruleset and just generally messing about

.

Overall I'm having a blast and will be happy to share any designs for those who want them.

The materials used is 3mm MDF for the structure and "Thunderbolt Paper" for the details like the window frames.  What is "Thunderbolt Paper"?  it's .02 inch think cardboard that I stumbled on for making detail parts like shutters and window frames.

I still have a lot to learn but have great expectations for my laser focused future.  At least now I can make my own bases in bulk!

Here's a look at the file layout - I still have a lot to learn on how to build these things.  On the file image red=cut, blue score (cut a thin line) and black is the engrave.  The black part didn't show up but it's for the hatch to the floor of the tower (center bottom of the image)

So what's the final tally?

10mm Infantry figures        144 x 1 Point = 144

10mm Artillery Crew 16 bases x 5 crew each = 80

10mm Guns 28x3 = 84

15mm Church - well its 6x3x5 inches so thats 90 square  cubic inches and the holy cube is 216, so 90/216 =42% lets round that to 8 points

And now I'm going to be a little cheeky and try to slip this church past the librarian as a "Romance" submission because the my wonderful wife surprised me with the laser cutter.  I think we can ALL AGREE that nothing says Romance more than a Laser Cutter - can I get a "AMEN"? 

I really don't deserve her and live in constant fear that one day she will realize she can do WAYYYYY better than the likes of me.

add 20 points for Romance and we get to 336 points

OK, enough rambling from me - Gus wants to go back outside and play in the snow!

What a great entry, Miles! First let me say (again) that I absolutely love your growing Russo-Japanese armies. As has often been said, 10mm and other small scale miniatures look great in their mass, even spaced out like your RJW formations. Now these are great, but your self-designed and built church is even greater! What a fine piece of handicraft that is. Well done indeed! Now, I have one or two surprises for your esteemed self. In the first place, I have re-positioned your photos to the centre as you have undoubtedly seen. It is all fine and good being a rebel, but we cannot have photos aligned to the left or the right. I am sure you will agree that that way lies the road to chaos and anarchy, if not madness. In the second place, although I will not laugh at any of your work, even (or especially) close up (would love to see some of those), and I am sure you deservingly love your spouse,  and the present she presented you with is extremely useful and a sign of loving insight into your wants and needs, I will not buy in your futile attempt to pass off the church as a valid entry for the Romance Section on that basis alone. Should you have adorned it with a newly wed couple (or one after many years of marital bliss for that matter), it might have different. So, 316 points. I will round that off to a still quite impressive 320 though, because that church is rather awesome!

Martijn

From Barks: The bitter end (27 points)

Here's the last odds and sods as I gaze at my distant points target. First, some movement trays from Knights of Dice. These hold either three or five 25mm round bases. The mdf remains are interesting negative spaces, maybe I should save these for swamp terrain?

Next, a wasteland robot. It's the non-seasonal version of the Xmas-o-tron I submitted way way back at the start of AHPC XIII. It's a free stl from Imitation of Life.

Some battlefield stakes, with Middle-earthlings for scale. 3D prints from Asgard Rising. I struggled with warping, even after softening with heat, over-bending and dumping in ice-cold water.

Next, a lone squig.

Penultimately, a sausage dog from Eureka. I have a weird relationship with dachshunds: they're annoyingly yappy but such a humorous shape! The Skirt Swisher & I get points for how many sausages we spot on a given day.* So, I couldn't pass up the opportunity for this little chap. I'd like it to become a pet for a Rogue Trader or Inquisitor, snapping angrily at the heels of eldritch horrors etc. If it's a boy, Fritz. A girl, Heidi.

Finally, I was unable to avoid the Call of the Turnip. I failed to get a proper unit up of Lord Barkington's Brownjackets, the tuber-worshipping tirailleurs. Instead, here are their mascots, the vicious spudlings. Again, 3D prints from IoL.

• Bases: 5"x3"x3" thus 4 points
• Stakes: 10x 4"x1"x1" thus 4 points
• Robot: 1x28mm figures: 5 points
• Sausage/ potatoes/ squig: I'm counting them as 15mm so 7x2 points: 14 points
• Turnip28 Side Duel: 10 points

Thanks, everyone! See you at the wrap-up.

*Current record: 5. It was a pentasausage day.

________________________________________

Haha! A scattershot wrap-up, Barks! All of these are excellent (though the bases are a bit of a stretch), but I especially like the wasteland robot and the vicious spudlings (checking out that designer after sign-off...).

It's always a pleasure, Barks. Thank you for overseeing the Skull Duel and I hope we can count on your noggin for the next edition of the Challenge. Cheers mate!

- Curt 

From ByronM - Northern Lights Terrain (50 Points)

Here are three terrain pieces I designed for my MDF terrain company (Northern Lights Terrain) a while ago and then never actually got around to painting them up.  In fact I realized I designed the first two of them over 2 years ago, and only ever actually put the power plant up for sale, I never even listed the garbage bins for sale - DOH!

Anyway, here is the power plant that I designed, that is meant for use with Warhammer 40k and meant to be used as a large line of sight blocker, it is actually big enough to hide a Knight behind.  It measures in at a bit over 10" wide x 9" tall x 7" deep.

I painted it up in a green meant to match the power and telephone junction boxes that was all see scattered around cities in North America, and meant to look very industrial.  I could have gone with a standard concrete grey, but I have too much grey terrain kicking around already.

Next up is the industrial garbage bins that I did up that I am going to sell in 2 packs.  These are meant to be large bins seen at construction sites, and while a bit over sized scale wise, I did that on purpose to help block LOS in games like Spectre and Infinity. Each one is about 4"x 2"x 2".

Lastly, I have a custom piece that I made for myself for the "Chariot" racing game that I have been working on for the last few years.  Ever since seeing the new Ork 40k vehicles I wanted a reason to use them in something, and the Curt told me about a game called Charioteer that could be used for some fun racing scenarios.  That got me started on the project and I finally finished off the board for it this year.

It is meant to look like a broken up highway, and each car (Chariot) ends up in 1st through 4th place and in the inner, middle, or outer lane.  It's a very nice system that I will be adapting to fit a bit more vehicle based combat, but we have already played a few games with the rules as written and it's super fun and very cool looking with the board and cars on it.  Hope you guys like it!  It is about 18" long and 12" wide, therefore it would fold up to create a perfect 6"cube so I am claiming 1 cubes worth of points for it.

Overall I am going to call this 2.5 terrain cubes and therefore 50 points.  Feel free to adjust as you feel fits.

 

That's some great terrain, Byron! And a rather cheeky points claim for the "road" piece, but I'll go with it.

Tamsin

From JamesM: Necromunda Chaos Helot Cultists and terrain (100 points)

Hi folks,

As I've spent the last few months painting terrain for Necromunda, I thought I should get some gangers painted to play with. I've a few gangs planned out, but wanted to start with my rather uninspired Chaos cultist gang. These are mainly GW figures, with a single 3d printed 'witch' model. Other than a single head swap and a few basic weapon swaps or alterations, I've done very little with these figures. 

One of the reasons for choosing this gang to start with was that I'm relatively unfamiliar with painting larger models, being more used to 15mm figures. I'd also gotten a set of Army Painter Speed Paints specifically for my Necromunda models and wanted to get used to them on a gang which would always be messy 'deliberately'. This would hopefully give me some practice for other models later. 

While painting these figures, I also took the opportunity to clear my desk of a couple of MDF platforms and some scatter terrain barrels. 

My concept for this Helot Cult was of a subversive Tzeentch based organisation. For my planned narrative campaign these will be the bad guys causing trouble, fermenting unrest and setting gangs and the authorities against each other in pursuit of some deeper plot to further the aims of the Changer of Ways. As such, the gang name chosen is 'The Cult of the Tattered Mirror'. 

For those unfamiliar with 40k lore Tzeentch is the Chaos God of change, evolution, mutation, intrigue, ambition, knowledge, sorcery, destiny, lies and trickery - his demons tend to be blue. 

In keeping with that theme, I went for a mainly blue colour scheme. 

The leader, a Demagogue in game terms, has the random and rubbish sword and shotgun combo found on the stock GW plastic model. He's supported by a Witch - a 3D model designed by Imitation of Life Miniatures and purchased from CrisisActorMinis on Etsy. This figure is a bit smaller than GW models, but fits in fine with the gang - she's obviously wasting away from the corrupting power flowing through her. 

I also included a few Disciple (champion) or Specialist options with the inclusion of grenade launcher, sniper and heavy stubber figures. The gang is missing a close combat armed champion, but I've one model with two hand weapons which might fit the bill if needed. The Sniper I painted up in more uniform green colours, with a grey camo shawl. He's an off world specialist traitor guardsman that's been brought in to help the cult cause trouble. 

I actually did some work after these pictures were taken to tidy up messy base edges and re-highlight a few bits I spotted I'd missed in the pictures. The models are all based on Necromunda plastic bases, coloured to suit the terrain I've painted.

The scatter terrain consisted of pile of individual barrels painted primary colours, given a wash and then weathered, while the MDF platforms came from a set I've been steadily butchering to provide levels and height options on my tables. I've stuck to a very simple paint scheme with my MDF terrain, going for a rusted metal effect. Nothing fancy at all, but quick and easy to replicate over all the MDF buildings I've done or have planned. 

Using the Speed Paints was an interesting experience. I'm a pretty slow painter, but I found I could get 5 or 6 models to 'completion' at a sitting. Which is unheard of for me. I used a variation of the 'slap chop' method, starting with a black base and drybrushing grey then highlighting/drybrushing white before applying the paints. I found some of the darker colours didn't work too well, and required additional medium applied to stop them looking too patchy or dark. 

This quick and easy method I considered to be a good thing. Combined with the points for painting 28mm figures, I realised how easy scoring wise you larger scale painters have it in the challenge!

However, it took a little bit of further work to get the models to a point I was 'happy' with them. 

I highlighted flesh and a few other bits, but something still seemed off. I resorted to applying a thinned black wash to 'tie the models together' and some further highlights using my regular vallejo paints. One of the downsides of the Army painter offering is that they do re-activate, and I found that putting the wash on caused some issues (though I had few when painting them). I'm not sure whether my feeling of the models not looking right is a combination of me not being used to the scale or non-uniformity, or whether there is something I've missed - or whether the paint job is falling short of my intent. 

Overall, I'd say I'm only reasonable happy with the models, which is a shame. They do look a lot worse in the photos than they do to the eye, but I made some poor colour choices (some of the models are just too dark) and 

Total then would be:

16 x 28mm models - 80 points

1 x 6" terrain cube - 20 points

Total - 100 points

Minion Miles: Glad to see others using the spped paints - I do agree they are "varied in quality". Very nice submission.

From TamsinP: Operation Rescue Oscar Part 4 [Vast array of photos!](194 points)

 Extract from the Journal of TamsinP: Time Traveler, Society Girl and Adventuress

"Nice driving - you seem to have parked us on a pedestrian plaza!"

"You can hardly blame me - you're the one who set the device!"

"Fair comment! OK, let's get out and take a look around."

"Ahhh! We seem to be in those Gerry Anderson outfits still. You may be right about this being a fictional future."

"Our ride's changed though - look at the lines on this baby!"

"Wow! That is sweet!" OK, let's look around - Oscar might still be here."

"Are they...?"

"Judges! And they don't look happy to see us!"

"They definitely do not look happy to see us. Scarper?"

"Most assuredly!"

"Quick - get it started while I sort the device!"

"That was definitely a time-travel device!" 
"No, no, no! It was definitely a Psionic event!"

We return to the starship wreckage.

"That was definitely a close call. You were right about it being Mega City One."

"Yes, so the devices are taking us, and Oscar, into fictional futures. Maybe that explains how a dog was able to write a message here."

"That is rather disappointing if true - maybe he'll be able to write when we get him back home?"

I allow Curt to entertain such thoughts while I scan the instruments. 

"Hmmm, another new event, more recent. We must be closing in on him."

"Really? You mean we might finally find him and be able to take him back home?"

"Hopefully!"

I check the time and location and spit with disbelief. It can't be. Not there and then. Please not there and then! My mind drifts back to my previous time traveling foray...

"Well, where and when is this new event?"

"OK. Now, I really hope this isn't where I think it is. It's saying 'Cross Plains, Texas(?) 1933(?)'."

"What's so bad about that? And why the parenthesised question marks?"

"I think the parentheses indicate 'not quite what you think'. As for what's bad about it, you recall my previous excursion a couple of years back?"

"Why, yes, I think so."

"When I ended up in Robert E Howard's homoerotic dreams* of half-naked barbarians?"

"Oh! Yes, well, I see why you might be reluctant to go back there."

"Nonetheless, go there we must."

I program the device and hit the button. The rift opens and Curt drives through...

*for reference see:

Link 1

Link 2

Silliness over for this post.

There are a lot of photos coming up. Grab yourself a cuppa!

The Rescue Team's New Wheels

This is a 28mm resin model from the Antenociti's Workshop "Cyberpunk" range. 

The Judges

Mechanismo

Psi Judge and Judge in Rad-Cloak

Med Judge and Tek Judge

SJS (Special Judicial Squad) Judge Alex Gerhart

I also painted the biker version of him:

Drat - should have gone in closer so Barks could see the skull on the helmet!

Cadet Judge

I didn't paint the biker version of the cadet because somewhere along the way I lost his right arm.

I also had three "Wally Squad" Judges prepped but ran out of time for painting them. I also didn't have time to paint the two Lawmaster bikes:

Jack Point, Aimee Nixon, Dirty Frank

The figures are all from Warlord Games "Judge Dredd" range. They are 35mm, which has been counted as 40mm for scoring in the past. The Cadet is smaller, so I'll claim him as 28mm.

The Terrain

You may recall that several weeks ago I included a photo of a pile of assembled MDF terrain. Well, most of it has been painted.

In case you're wondering about the lighting I used for the photos in this post and the previous one, it was done with some of these:

The Plaza

I really wish I'd just left the benches as plain red, rather than adding the metal detailing - that took about two hours work to do!

The Shopping Centre

Pre-Fab Hab Pods

Pre-Fab Chem Lab

Oops! Forgot to paint the wall-mounted thingies on the inside!

Pre-Fab Hab Blocks

I really wish I hadn't added the  red/silver pieces - they were a right royal paint to paint!

Accessories

The Various Roof Pieces

This terrain was a "White Box Bundle" from TT Combat which I bought at last year's SELWG show. I have my suspicions that some of the kits were early prototypes as there were parts missing from the sprues, parts included which don't seem to belong to anything, one base piece that was the wrong size (easily fixed with a bit of filing and sanding) and some etching which seemed to be misaligned. I might buy some more of the pre-fab units at some point.

Here's a photo of everything stacked:

The stack measures 22" x 7.5" x 8" = 1320 cubic inches, which comes our at 6.111111 terrain cubes. Call it 6 cubes for scoring. I think I spent 2 days priming, 2 days airbrushing the main colours and three days painting the details.

For Scoring

6 x terrain cube @ 20 = 120 points

1 x 28mm vehicle @ 20 = 20 points

7 x 40mm foot @ 7 = 49 points

1 x 28mm foot @ 5 = 5 points

Total = 194 points

...and that should see me sail past my upgraded target of 1700 points!

ps - I do not, repeat *not* apologise for the very garish colour scheme on these buildings!

Drokking nice judges! They look like they mean business. And justice. The car is wonderful as well, with the colour, panel lines, and especially the glass. The standout is your terrain- no apology required! The colours are vibrant and yet oppressive, and the LEDs are a pro touch. If you touch up the interior detail, I wonder if painting the windowsills will make a difference as well.

Barks

PS the skull has been noted!