From MattK: Orks for Various Purposes, Solar Auxilia (75 Points)

Happy New Year everyone,

This year marks my return to the challenge after changing careers (leaving the hobby industry) and having a child. I've been really getting back into hobbying this year and thought this would be a great way to keep the momentum going. Without further ado, here are some quick snapshots of some Orks I speedpainted this week. 

 

These are now super old figures that are some of the first models I bought when I first joined the hobby back in 2011. The sculpts are dated and although I love them, they're far from "fantastic sculpts worth spending time painting" if that makes any sense. I spent a day or so chipping away on them off and on. We're planning on playing Space Gits, Modulorka, Gorkamorka and who knows what else so I imagine these are far from the only Orky things I bring to the challenge this go around. 

I also took a little time this week to paint up a small batch of 3d printed Solar Auxilia. These have an odd spot in my collection. I painted the leader months ago so were not counting him for points but I wanted to show the "squad" together. 

 

I play a bit of 30k and have a Word Bearers army. I printed some of these from Red Makers around the time of the plastic release with the vague intention of making a Zone Mortalis force. When I ran some numbers and did some math I realized just how many figures I'd need and pivoted to something else. For now, these are going to count as Space Marine Scouts for a game of Shadow War Armageddon because why not. They're a pain to paint and I really have no desire to do a whole army of these any time soon but I think they're kind of neat. 

So all told, 15 28mm figures x 5 points for a total of 75 

Matt, the models look great, Orks and Solar Auxilia are right up my street! I like the work you've done on these models. My own taste in Orks leans more towards Rogue Trader style (a bit less insane looking) but I can also get behind big choppas and such. The Solar Aux just look great, nice work. 75 points for you - but I'd love to see more close-up pictures in your future posts! 

Dallas

From MattK - Villains for Crisis Protocol (28 Points)

Hello everyone,

Glad to be back for another year.

One of the games I've been playing regularly in the last while is Marvel Crisis Protocol. With the slew of excellent movies lately I decided it was time to get a few of the villains done.  

This time I painted up Green Goblin, Carnage, and Doc Ock. I love the figures for Goblin and Carnage though I find the (included in the starter box) figure for Ock a little on the bland side. I wanted to get him done though because I just got the new rival panel bundle (with an updated sculpt) in the mail. 

I also took this time to paint up Jean Grey to go with my X-Men stuff.

Another cool sculpt. I'm a huge fan of the game and am looking forward to putting a dent in my pile as I've actually picked up most of the available figures so far and have only painted a chunk. 4 40mm figures at 7 points each for a total today of 28 points.

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Lovely work on these Sups Matt! I particularly like the exhaust on the Green Goblin and Jean Grey's 'magical' effects lifting her from her base. Too bad they didn't do Doc Ock with his pods keeping him aloft, like the early Spiderman animated series (but maybe that's coming). 

Anyway, very cool minis and wonderfully painted. Well done Matt and welcome back to the Challenge!

- Curt

For Adam: The Altar of the SnowLord

Altar of the SnowLord (brought to you by the kids of Kinsmen Park South)

 

Adam, I think we need to give you a rest from all your naval endeavours and put you onto something more terra firma. I think some wild-eyed Jacobites would be suitably landlubberly, what say you? Once we have a mob of those contrarians done up you can claim your prize.

Adam's Prize: The Mimic from MattK

From MattK - Necromunda, WW1 Germans, and Cavemen (125 pts)

 Rather Eclectic mix this time around.

First up, I just finished one of the forgeworld bounty hunters, Ortruum 8-8, for my Necromunda games. 

The photo doesn't show it but he has some surprising heft to him. 

I finally got back into painting historical stuff this week as well. I've had the Blood and Valor Rules, and these Wargames Atlantic Germans since their release but I just got around to putting paint on them this week. Super easy to paint and puts me one step closer to playing the game. 

Finally, I've had these figures in my collection for a year or so now and never opened them until this week. I don't know what grabbed me to do Cavemen but theres a game I missed on Kickstarter called Primevo that I'm dying to get my hands on so I figured I'd get a jump start on the figures for once. All of these were painted almost entirely with Contrast paint, which I'm definitely warming to.

Here are 4 Cavemen Characters

And two blisters worth of general Cavemen

So all together 25 x 28mm figures at 5 points a piece nets me 125 Points

That's certainly eclectic, what with over 40 millenia spanned. I do like those cavemen - hope you've got some prehistoric beasties for them to defend against!

Tamsin

From Matt K - Entry Fee and More Necromunda (80 pts)

For this year's entry fee I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. For the Entry fee and for the Hall of Traps -

The figure is a Reaper bones figure that I've always wanted to paint. The Mimic. It was a super quick paint job but the sculpt has a decent amount of character to it. I have a ton of bones stuff I've grabbed over the years but this is actually the first on I've put paint to. I have a second one for my own collection so I figured I'd pass this on to one lucky winner. 

I kept the base generic stone grey in case the new owner wants to make it match their dungeon better. 

As you may remember last year, I spent a fair chunk of the challenge working on stuff for Necromunda. I havent painted a single Necromunda figure since last challenge surprisingly and even more strangely, I've only played the one game so far but boy do I love painting the figures. 

Here is a starting gang for Van Saar. Like an idiot I went to order the new figures for this gang along side the book and accidentally ordered a second box of gangers. 

I pulled the actual list from a Goonhammer article but added the shield just because the clear plastic is neat. In keeping with my new goal of finishing two things before buying one, I'm holding out on buying the new stuff until I get another box finished but I'm already about halfway through building the Orlock Gang. 

All told, 1 x 28mm figure 5pts, Hall of Traps 20pts, Entry Fee Bonus 20pts, 7 x 28mm figures 35pts for a total of 80 pts

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Very nice Matt -the Mimic figure is full of character, as is anything from GW's Necromunda range.

80 points for your treasure chest!

Cap'n Wednesday

From MattK: 3d Printed Forest (60 Points)

 For my next entry, I decided to submit the terrain I just finished. These files are from Printable Scenery and I have a full write up on the process coming to my blog in the next few days over at Gaming With Mitten

 

Over all the project is 10 trees averaging just under 6 inches, 6 fallen trees, and 4 stumps. There are 5 unique designs and the fallen stuff in the pack and each tree takes an average of 9 hours to print. Which when all typed out seems ridiculous. I'm still coming to terms with how slow the process can be sometimes. 

I've arranged the trees into more or less 6 inch cubes and I'd say the total contents roughly fills 3 of them netting me 60 points. 

After seeing them all painted, I rolled out a 3x3 mat to see how much of the table they take up and my original plan was to make another ten or so but I don't think I'll need quite that many. I guess the beauty of the 3d printer is if I want another, I can just hit print.

From MattK: Aliens and a Christmas Gift (90 pts)

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! Sorry for the late start this year but the Holidays were surprisingly busy this year. I started seeing someone before the pandemic started and who wouldve guessed that having a significant other would make the holidays worth celebrating. Forgoing my usual tradition of Christmas Day and New Years day marathon Painting has put me a touch behind but I certainly think it was worth it. Apologies in advance for this batch of photos, I've been staying at my girlfriends during the break and didnt bring my photo booth.

First up I have two "Ornaments"painted for my Girlfriend for Christmas. This was a file I found on Thingiverse and printed and screwed an eye hook into.

They were painted to look like the two family dogs, Sammi and Koda and went over well enough that they went right up on the tree.

These were the last two figures I painted in 2020. Kicking off this year, today I decided to get started on my Aliens Collection with the new Gale Force Nine Board Game. I painted all 16 aliens in the base game. Super simple paint jobs but I'm super happy with them. I have the marines and both expansions to work through still, as well as the Prodos games game and some extra odds and ends. One of my big plans this year is a Bug Hunt game for whenever conventions return. 

The pugs are a bit bigger than a standard 28 but the paint jobs were simple so to keep everything easy lets call it 18 x 28mm figures for this submission, for a total of 90 points. I hope everyone had a good holiday season. I plan on adding to my Necromunda collection and fleshing out some terrain for some games I have planned.

From MattK: He did what now? Sisters of Battle and Something for Necromunda for Snowlords Peak (415 Points)

Well, here we are at long last. The challenge given to me by the Snow lord was "Well, I see that you've become enthused with both Necromunda and the new Sisters of Battle releases, so how about something that includes one of these?" In my infinite wisdom, with the end of the challenge approaching and the everlooming threat of "show season" I decided it was in my best interest to take on the challenge head on and agree to do both!

First up some of the amazing new plastic Seraphim from the Sisters of Battle box set. I'm not at all a fan of the clear plastic stands that came with the kit so I picked up some of these awesome 3d printable smoke bases from Deadly Print Studios. The file was reasonably priced and easy to print with the whole batch of five printing up in a bout 2 hours.

Now for the Necromunda half of the challenge. When Mr. Lord presented me with the challenge he proposed it as "something for Necromunda, another gang or a terrain piece"

I was going to paint up my Escher gang, but I wasn't happy with the test figure. I built my Corpse Grinder Cults but wanted to take my time painting them. With all this in mind I decided a terrain piece was the way to go. Not one to half-ass a project though, I went with not just a terrain piece but a whole tables worth.

First of all here is all the terrain in a nice neat pile. The terrain I went with was the excellent Death Ray Designs Armageddon Table Bundle set I impulse bought myself a little while ago. This project is the main reason I haven't posted much in the last couple weeks. A week or so of assembly, a few days of priming, a few hours here and there of weathering and detailing.

The paint jobs are pretty simple and there will be a bit of a tutorial on how I did them as well as an in depth review of the terrain coming to my Blog soonish but, spoiler alert, I absolutely love this stuff. In particular though, this bundle was reasonably priced and covers a 4 x 4 foot table pretty well as you'll see later in the post.

Figuring out the points however is proving to be quite difficult. As a result here are the points I've come up with, feel free to modify accordingly.

The set comes with 4 of these large hex platforms that measure in at approximately 10x 9 x 4 inches. which comes in at 360 cubic inches. A terrain cube is 216 inches. For simplicity sake, i've rounded down to 1.5 cubes worth each making the 4 of them worth 120 points.

There are also 2 small hex platforms that measure 7 x 6 x 4 the 2 of which total out to 336 cubic inches so call that another cube and a half for 30 points.

Next up there are all the bridges that come in the kit. There is a whole pile of these which fills a 10 x 6 x 4 in cube. Well call this one more cube for an additional 20 points.

The kit comes with 4 shipping containers as well as 20 barricades. The 4 crates fill a 5 x 5 x 5 inch cube so between the crates and barricades I figure thats another cube for 20 points.

The main focal point of the kit in my opinion are these refinery towers, of which there are 4. These towers are 13 x 7 x 6 which is approximately 2 cubes. 160 points in total

Finally the kit comes with a bunch of ladders and a staircase, but with the points from everything else it seems unfair to even count these as the only fill a 6 x 6 x 1 inch cube.

So here we are at the end of it all. The set fills out a nice 4 x 4 table and I am beyond excited to finally play necromunda on it later this month.

So, points as follows
5 x 28mm Sisters at 25 points
4 x big hex platforms at 120 points
2 x small hex platform at 30 points
Bridges for 20 points
Crates, barricades, ladders for 20 points
4 x Refinery towers for 160 points

All for a grand total today of 375 points. Completing my Snowlords challenge as well as reaching my goal of 1000 points just in the nick of time.

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Wow, another Snow Lord's Peak points bomb - fantastic stuff Matt!

Your Seraphim are terrific and I especially like those 3D flight bases you've mounted them on. I'm not a big fan of the clear flight stands as well and did something similar with tree armatures with mine many years ago. I find it's little details like this that really make an army uniquely 'yours'. Wonderful.

But I must say the star of the submission has to be this stonking table-groaning schwack of terrain, wow! I can see why you've been off the radar for a few weeks - this is an amazing amount of work. I really like the modular nature of the entire setup, especially the hexagonal platforms paired with those impressive towers. Brilliant work, Matt.

As too points, your math looks good, but you forgot the 30 point Challenge bonus and, in addition, I'm giving you another 10 for the bespoke Seraphim bases and overall effort. Congratulations on bashing through your point's target in style!

For your reward I'm happy to give you Sebastian's excellent Sci-Fi WRNS (I think she'll make a great upper-hive Necromunda character).

Again, brilliant work on the Seraphim and the terrain, Matt, and a great response to the SLP Challenge.

-Curt

Matt Ascends The Peak!

Matt knocks on the Snow Lord's door then, while waiting, blows on his hands and hops on his toes to keep warm.

This week's Snow Lord's Peak brought to you by Mount Goodsir, British Columbia.

The Snow Lord opens the door, 'Oh, hello Matt!  A bit nippy out here, isn't it? Come on in.'

The temperature in the Snow Lord's home is just slightly above freezing, but it still allows Matt to begin defrosting. The great blue monster gives him a hot toddy and sits across from the adventurer.

'I saw Sarah's balloon coming in - I assume you're not here for the weather.'

'I don't want to take too much of your time, but I understand that you require something in return for the treasure. I'd like to know what you have in mind?'

The Snow Lord considers, 'Well, I see that you've become enthused with both Necromunda and the new Sisters of Battle releases, so how about something that includes one of these?'

'I tell you what, I'm keen as mustard - I'm going to do both.'

Whoah! You're on Matt, both it is!' 

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Two tasks in under two weeks! Great stuff Matt. Let's see what you come up with.

Curt

From MattK - Sister of Battle for Sarah's Balloon and odds and ends. (95 points)

As mentioned last time, I've got two larger project I've been working away on and one of which is a new Sisters of Battle Army. This is the first figure I've totally completed for that project and will act as my ticket fee for a ride to Snow Lords peak.

I'm blown away by these new figures and have a ton of them on my workbench now. I simply love painting them as well.

In addition to the actual ride on the balloon, I broke open a bottle of champagne for the bonus points among other celebrations, so included is an unflattering photo of me from the tail end of said bottle.

This location will mark 5 on my map and I'll be taking the balloon to Snow Lords peak.

This Sister of Battle is far from all I've been working on though. I was hoping these would be done in time for the last entry but they're done now. The final batch of boats for my trireme project. As I said at the beginning (and I'm sure every post since) I want to end the challenge having actually tried some of these new games and with this final batch of boats we did finally play Poseidon's Warriors so included is a small photo of that.

On the subject of adding to projects, In my ever growing Uruk-Hai army (which is now closing in on big enough for a proper game of War of the Ring) I've added another banner to the force and will now probably make it a tradition to add another LoTR banner to my collection with each challenge.

Lastly, I've finished one new scenery piece for This is Not a Test. This is a Shanty Town building I printed off thingiverse. I'm writing a tutorial for my own blog about it so there's a few extra photos.

The building is approximately 6"x5"x3" so for scoring purposes is comes in at just 10 points but it was a blast to paint. I have more printing at the moment but with how close the end is I'm unsure if there's time to get it submitted.

Here comes the math:
Sister of Battle - 5 points
Sarah's Balloon - 30 Points
Champagne Bonus - 5 points

12 Boats -  36 points
Uruk Banner - 5 Points
Shanty Town Building  - 10 points

For a total today of 91 points.

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By Paul:
Well that is quite an impressive menagerie of projects!  That Lady of Battle looks quite focused - I'm sure she will lead her sisters to Victory soon.

Your triremes particularly grab my interest - I was aboard the only one in existence late last year, the Olympias, in Piraeus harbour.  Quite a special day.

The Uruk is great - I particularly like the hand painted...hand. Better give you a few bonus points for that.  The 3d printed terrain is also very nice, you clever chap.

95 points in total, with particular emphasis on the "bottom of the bottle" pic of bubbly!

From MattK - Tiny Romans, Lord of the Rings Reinforcement and Messing About With Boats - Douglas Shallows(121 Points)

So, I've run into a bit of a prediciment admitedly. I have been working hard on two other larger projects and wanted to wait until they were done to post again but I realised I was sitting on a pretty big backlog if I did that so here is a smattering of whats been totally finished since last time. I'm really enjoying my time on the island but I'll admit it's changing up the order in which I'd post some stuff. Perhaps after this post I'll take a trip on Sarah's Balloon.

Firstly, according to the title are my new 10mm Romans. These figures are from Old Glory and are the very first batch I've painted for my eventual Age of Hannibal Game. Sometime between now and the actual Age of Hannibal game, I plan to make some lists up and use the figures to run tiny adorable kitchen table games of To the Strongest. These are all the Velites I'll need and the first two bases of Princepes. The basing was done for the sake of simplicity. 2 strips means I can get whole units from one bag of figures and easily represent different troop types.

Next up more Lord of The Rings. This is a very simple addition to my collection. We've been playing Battle Companies and this week our Dwarf Players (aside from winning both of his games so far) is up another Dwarf warrior and managed to snag the Mirkwood location. I told the players in the campaign that I'd supply everything we needed within reason and honestly, I didn't want to run out and buy a whole box of Mirkwood Rangers. I did however have a half dozen Legolas figures I've collected over the years (with the mounted version coming in the mail soon) Anyway this seemed like a good escuse to get him painted so I painted the 3 Hunters version. No clue when Ill paint the Aragorn and Gimli in that set but I suppose this is progress. So, a Dwarf Warrior and a "Mirkwood Ranger"

Finally, you were promised boats. As I mentioned before, I have a generic "red" navy and a generic "blue" one. My landfall onto the island saw the first batch of Roman ships so today, the entire Carthaginian fleet for my Poseidon's Warriors game. These were more 3d printed ships. This is my entry for Douglas' Shallows as I think we can consider raising a whole navy for Carthage "messing about with boats"

This puts me here for the challenge island with just one spot left to go before I can climb the mountain.

Glad to be back in the swing of it.

Today's totals
45 10mm infantry = 45 points
2 28mm infantry = 10 points
12 1/600 scale boats = 36 points (looks like I was given 3 points each last time)
Douglas' Shallows Bonus = 30 points
For a grand total of 121

Marvellous all round. Love te 10mm Romans, I have a bit o a soft spot for 10mm and they are big this year on the Challenge. Reinforcements always help - as Timur the Lame said "Better to be on hand with 10 men than absent with 10,000". And the Carthaginian fleet is marvellous (did you print these yourself?)