From MikeP: My Challenge

 I had a grand time this year, and I'm glad that I returned to the Challenge after taking some years off.  I was able to meet and beat my 500 point challenge, though the directions I took were largely unexpected.   Originally I'd planned to work on 28mm SYW stuff, so where did that Germanic war band come from?  Likewise I had no plans to do the Frankenstein vignette until it appeared in my mailbox as a late Christmas present and an idea for a visit to Skaro took place.  The Challenge was a great incentive to come to grips with 3D printing, though I have SO MUCH learning curve still to navigate.   But it was a good start.  Half of the 6mm stuff and all the Frankenstein scenery was printed for the Challenge.

More importantly, I've met up again with some Challenge veterans and met some new friends here.  I still hope to look at and comment on every one of your posts, I tried hard to do that but fell off the rails in late March.   I have been constantly impressed by your talent, creativity, and friendliness.  

Cheers and blessings, MikeP (the Padre)

From MikeP (Ready) 6mm Printed Napoleonic Infantry (32 points)

Hello Challenge friends.

This is my last entry for this year, returning to my main line of effort, God's Own Scale and 6mm Napoleonics.   These are 3D printed figures that were gifted to me by the owner of my local gaming store, who wants our group to start playing a Naps campaign.   Being a fan of underdogs and Charlie Brown Christmas trees, I took the Spanish. 

I have no idea who designed these STL files.  They are rather crude, and print in strips, reminiscent of the Warlord Epic figures, with the only the front of the front rank and the back of the back rank given any detail.  They paint very quickly, so perfect for starting an army quickly and for massed battles.  I just noticed the heads on the left most figures in the above shot are missing, I think my cat nibbled on them, so I guess the massed battle has started!

Speaking of massed battles, the rules I currently favour, LaSalle 2ndEd by Sam Mustafa, calls for each regiment to have four stands, to represent Line, Column, Massed and Square formations.  Even in 6mm, with my standard base size, units will take up a lot of real estate, but with these printed figures, it's not that hard to build units.  I haven't tried these four base units in a game yet, so curious to see how it will play.

That's a long line!

Since the flag is printed as a slab of resin flying straight out in the breeze, it was easy to freehand the Spanish crossed ragged staffs.

A final note about the trees in the background, I wanted to up the scenics standard for my 6mm tables, so ordered some regularly shaped MDF bases from Litko, and gathered all the trees I could find to fill them out.  The pine trees are quite large, probably more suited for 10 or 15mm, and probably not found in Spain!

No points claimed for the trees as all I did was prepare some bases.  For the Spanish, there are 32 figures per base, but since I only painted 16 fronts and 16 backs per base, I'll call it 16 figures X 4 stands X .5 points per figure, so 32 points?

Well, my friends, that does it for me for this year.  It's been grand to be a part of this, and to see all your creativity and enthusiasm.  As always, I'm grateful to Curt and the faithful minions, and to you Tamsin, it was an honour to be part of Team Tuesday.  It was very gratifying to get comments and to know that some of you liked my Frankenstein entry, thank you for that.  I did my best to add a comment (and sometimes some attempted humour) to every entry, but there simply wasn't enough time and I am sorry for anyone's work that I missed, I'll try to catch up after this weekend.  Now I'm off to Stratford, ON for HotLead, which we like to think of as one of Canada's best minis events.  

Cheers and blessings,  MikeP

From DaveD . AAhh some fine 6mm - you really can't beat them for a mass effect . Enjoy your visit to a show!

 

From MikeP (Ready): 28mm 18th/19th century German Farm (125 pts)

With the clock running out on this year's Challenge, here is a significant terrain project I've been working on for 18th century Seven Year War gaming in the big scale.   These are both 28mm MDF kits from Warbases, from their Napoleonic Prussia series of buildings.

One is a farm cottage, the other obviously is a barn.   Both were labours of love.  To give the cottage a stucco style look and as bare MDF walls look rather sad, I coated the exterior walls thickly with LePage plastic wood filler, painted the walls an off-white cream colour, and then stained them with Agrax Earthshade.  The slate roof is made of cut-up cereal box, glued in place and painted blue.

Likewise for the barn, a three-story model, I used the cut up cereal box method to suggest that the ground floor was made of field stones cemented in place.  Not sure if that's common in 18th century Prussia, but you still see it in old barns in SW Ontario where I live.

For the barn roof, I saw the error of my ways with the cereal boxes and ordered some roof tile sets from Sarissa.   Two sheets wasn't enough and I had to cut a few strips to finish the job.  The barn is a massive thing, as you can see from these 28mm figures.

The bases were made as well, following a recipe from my friend Joe Saunders, who runs a clever YouTube channel called Miniature Landscape Hobbies.  I had hoped to make some scatter to add to the bases, to make it all appear lived in, but that will wait for another day, along with the three more Warbases buildings still in the flatpacks.  

The barn is a bit of a beast, 7" wide, 10" long, and 8" high.  The farmhouse is 6" wide, 3.5" wide, and 5" tall.  I can supply photos later to verify this, but as I'm pressed for time, I'd be grateful if a kind minion can take my word for this.   Not counting the bases, I would say the buildings would need five 6" cubic boxes to hold them, so I'm asking for 120 points, but honestly, since I pretty much made my goal this year, I'll take whatever you award, and if you want to reward my stupidity for all those cut up cereal boxes, I'll take bonus points for stupid.

I don't think there's a Challenge planet dedicated to German agricultural so no planet bonus claimed.

Cheers and thanks for looking, MikeP

From DaveD. Thats a fine bit of work you've completed = i always like seeing these mdf buildings brought properly to life - lets  call that 125 

From MikeP: Some 6mm Napoleonics (90 points)

 Hello friends:

Frankenstein was a pleasant diversion, but it's back to business, and for the last two weeks I've been working in God's Own Scale, clearing off some old lead and newly printed resin from the Napoleonics side of my workbench.'  I've found that the downside of 3D printing is how easy it is to add to the painting pile!  I'm waiting for a machine that prints spare time.

Here are some French Voltiguer skirmishers, 3D prints from MC Miniatures, which you can find on My Mini Factory.  Several of the rules I currently use, Sam Mustafa's LaSalle 2 and General D'Armee from Reisswitz Press/TFL, allow for most infantry units to throw out skirmishers ahead of the main stand.  These cheap and cheerful prints would allow me to cover a brigade or a division, depending on the scale.

One of the guys in the trio in the centre is a previously painted figure who lost his mate in a horrible crushing incident, so only 12 painted figures in this group.

Next up are two regiments of Bavarian Chevau Legers light cavalry in their distinctive tall leather helmets.  There was a bit of a friendly challenge on historical minis Twitter last fall to paint Bavarian troops, and I'm a bit late to the party.   These are metal figures from Baccus.    They'll either fight for or against the Emperor, depending on the year.

Finally, some printed cavalry, Napoleonic Russian Cossacks.  These are 3D prints, also from MC Miniatures.  They print in long strips, which are easier to handle than the Baccus figures which are cast on strips of three, and they're a lot easier to paint, though the end result is a little wooden.  However, it's a fairly easy way to get masses of troops done, and I hope to be exploring the 1812 Russian campaign in the coming year, so I'm going to need lots of troops.

These are actually two command stands, I need to print and paint two more strips of troopers to get two complete regiments.   A friend on Twitter suggested finding some Orthodox icons, shrinking them, and printing them, to serve as banners.  I thought it worked well.

I gave this unit red lances, to distinguish them on the table top.

Massing figures like this is for me the great joy of 6mm gaming.

Points: 

12 X 4 Cossacks = 48 + 36 Bavarians = 84 6mm cavalry @ 1 pt ea = 84 pts.

12 X 6mm foot @ .5 points ea = 6 points.

I can't think of a clever or even a dumb way to link this entry to a Challenge planet.

Total: 90 points.

Cheers and thanks for looking, MikeP

That's lovely work on the tiny guys, Padre! Those red lances certainly pop!

Tamsin

From MikeP: The Triumph of Frankenstein (Skaro, Death Star) 80 points

 Hammer Studios, Tamsin's Tuesday Terror Talkies, and MikeP, present:

A dear friend of mine knows that I am inordinately fond of fellow Canadian Bob Murch of Pulp Figures and his sculpts inspired by movies and pulp magazines of the 1930s.   A package arrived at Christmas full of Pulp goodness, including Bob's "Triumph of Frankenstein" set.   What could be a better way to visit Skaro, planet of strange doctors, then in the company of Victor Frankenstein.   So be prepared for a spine-chilling, blood-curdling post.

The figures are terrific in their own right, but I wanted some scenery to suggest Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory so I turned to my 3D printer.   I found a mad scientist's lab set on MyMiniFactory, sold by Print Your Monsters, as well as dungeon floors and tiles from Legend Games.  Not entirely sure what the massive steampunk thingy in the corner does - power source maybe? - but it looks cool as does the workbench with the extra brain in the box!  The walls and floors are primed black and dry brushed with successive layers of three shades of gray craft paint, going from darker to lighter.

Dr. Frankenstein's lab coat is a base coat of Folk Art Dove Gray built up with thinned Folk Art Vintage White.  I resisted the temptation to splatter it with blood.  I prefer the idea of the young scientist with pure (amoral?) intentions who doesn't find himself covered in blood and guilt until much later.    The poor monster is mostly brown undercoat picked out with FolkArt Linen, a very useful colour.  Bob's wonderful lifting table is painted in Folk Art Wrought Iron.  Igor and Viktor are painted using the Foundry Triad system for their flesh.

The "set" measures 4.5" by 4.5" and a little over 4" to the top of the power thingy so it fills a 6" cube.

Hi 

I hope you'll agree that Viktor is a natural for immigration to Skaro.   I hope you'll also agree that his handiwork, the Monster (yes, Bob also sculpted the monster as we know him from movie lore) is a creature of very questionable design, when you consider that he's made of dead body parts, that Viktor's henchman stole The Wrong Brain for the monster, and the monster drive up a pretty high body count.  Also, poor hubristic Viktor, who wanted to master the secrets of life and death,  never even gets a sniff of a Nobel Prize, so it all goes rather badly for him.   Hence, with this big green mini as my ticket, we're off to the Death Star.

Poor Igor, he's about to regret terrorizing the poor monster with fire. 

Bob's sculpt of the monster is a great homage to Boris Karloff

The cast of characters.  This project is the first time I've used clear plastic bases, which I felt went well with the printed and textured floor tiles.  I ordered a mittful of them from Litko, and I'm sure I'll find more uses for them.

This was a fun project to do as a diversion.  It allowed me to discover some of the capabilities of 3D printing for scenery and backgrounds, and was also a restful break from the historical painting that I usually do.  I'm grateful to the Challenge for these opportunities to be creative.

4 X 28mm foot figures @ 5 points ea = 20 pts.

1 6" scenery cube = 20 pts.

Skaro and Death Star @ 20 pts = 40 pts.

Total: 80 pts.

Cheers, and thanks for looking,  MikeP

Mad doctor for Skaro? Yes, Viktor is definitely good for that. His "modern Prometheus" for the Death Star - you've made a good argument for that. 

However, trying to argue that 4.5" x 4.5" x 4" fills a 6" x 6" x 6" terrain cube is a bit of a stretch. If we go down that road, someone (you know we're looking at you, Ray) might try to claim that a 28mm bear is a piece of terrain and counts as a terrain cube. By my reckoning the volume would be 0.375 terrain cubes, so 7.5 points for that.

What I will do is count the various bits and bobs (including the animation table the monster is strapped to) as 2.5 figures, so 12.5 points for those. That way your total points work out the same.

Tamsin

From Michael P: Mr. Bannon - Curtgeld Figure (25 Points)

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Steve Bannon:

Kidding.

Curt, I regret that I did not get myself coordinated enough to work with another Challenger on my tribute figure.   By the time I was able to think about this aspect, while other people were willing to make space for me, their projects had already gelled and I did not want to freeload on them.   So I present this 25th anniversary special edition figure from Reaper Miniatures.

I like him because his hourglass, which has almost run out, evokes for me the constant time pressure of getting an entry ready, and always being surprised when the appointed deadline drew near.  

I hope you can find a use for him in one of your Pulp games, or maybe just as a keepsake.

Thanks again for running this.

Best,

MP

_____________________________

Thank you very much Michael, 'Mr. Bannon' is a wonderful figure and will be a very good reminder that time, and the its best use, are precious. 

Until next... time. :)

From Michael P: At the Court of the Elven Queen (25 pts)

My final Thursday entry includes these four 28mm female elves from the fantasy range of the UK's Heresy Miniatures.   I entered two other Heresy figures earlier in the Challenge, and continue to be impressed by this company.  Their sculpts are delicate, graceful, and are great fun to paint.


These four elven ladies will be leader and character figures for my LOTR collection as well as for my elven army in Dragon Rampant, which has a decidedly matriarchal theme.  I am hoping that the lovely Sarah will smile kindly on one of these and, like a Galadriel of the prairies, grant a sign of her favour.

The mysterious elven queen, doing a passable imitation of Lady Galadriel complete with palantir.  Or maybe she's at the bowling alley, who knows?

Shamaness / druidess / hippy chick.  Definitely my favourite figure of the lot.  She will be useful as a magic user in Dragon Rampant.  Fun fact: her cape is painted using Vallejo Luftwaffe Uniform, which makes a very satisfying elven cloak, I think.

Captain of archers and mistress of rangers:

Captain of swords and leader of the chaotic, scantily dressed unit I call "Galadriel's Grrrls":







The girls like to take heads.  I don't think their new boss will mind, somehow.


Finally there is this barbarian warrior with the big ... axe on the left.   I was ordering some Reaper figures recently and couldn't resist adding this Reaper Bones figure to the cart, as I thought that Kevin the Barbarian could use a ladyfriend.   Don't they look happy? They look like they have stepped out of the pages of Cerebus the Aardvaark.  (They struck sparks on Tinder, and used that fire to burn a village).

I feel like I should personally apologize to Annie the Dice Bag Lady, champion of realistic female miniatures, for having painted blondie here and her chainmail monokini.

So that completes my entries for this year's AHPC, other than my curtgeld figure to be unveiled this weekend.   Thank you Curt and the minions for organizing and doing this.   I am pleased that I exceeded my modest goal for this year.  When I choose 500 points, it was at a rather dark time when my wife had undergone two emergency surgeries for cancer and I didn't think she would make it to spring.   The Challenge gave me something to focus on and was good for my mental health.  Kay is doing remarkably well now, things are under control, and the fact that I could exceed my goal is a reflection of how well things have gone.

Blessings all.

Mike the Mad Padre

Padre, these are some very nice models. I really like your pallet choice on the elfish ladies as well. The wizardess/shaman bears a striking resemblance to Daenerys Targaryen of the show Game of Thrones. I imagine that may aid her performance on the table as Daenerys is a briliant tactician both on the battlefield and in the political realm. She is my favorite of the bunch. I quite like the Heresy style and as my older girls have elvish forces, I may have to seek out some heresy models for them to add to their forces.

The barbarian girl is a little "cheeky"! I'm sure you will be forgien as she is painted very well. She does seem to be a fitting companion to Kevin too!

I have enjoyed very much being your minion for this outing and you were amoung the few  fellows on the list that I knew beforehand! I am very glad that you came along and even more glad to know your wife is doing better. You were missed in the last outting, so I was very pleased to see you in the list for this one. I have really liked your LotR entries and the proxy models that you have sourced as I've still a ways to go in completeing my own LotR forces and proxies may fill some bit of that list. I look forward to seeing what else you come up with, but I'm sure that Mrs Padre will soon have you busy with 1:1 gardening projects!



From Michael P: Riders of Rohan (80 points)

To show faithful Thursday minion Dave some final love, here are seven plastic Games Workshop Riders of Rohan, led by Eomer, as one of my final two Thursday entries.

When GW launched its LOTR line around 2006, my teenage son and I gamed with these models quite a bit, but they were very hastily painted and over half of them were still mostly in their white primer, and then gathered dust for almost a decade as my son lost interest. Since my LOTR gaming has picked up again, I decided to use this Challenge to give them a 100% new paint and basing job.

Horse archers.  Mmmmm..  In Dragon Rampant these are my favourite troops: Heavy Riders with Bows.  Very useful.

Forth, Eorlingas!  All of these are plastic except for Eomer.  The LOTR line of figures is mostly still for sale and you can find them if you dig around on the GW website.  However, all the personality figures like Eomer are now resin, and sometimes not that well cast, though the pricing hasn't come down, strangely enough.  While I would like some more mounted Rohirrim, I think I will source them elsewhere.  The Footsore Miniatures line of Goth cavalry would do nicely, I think.

These eight 28mm mounted figures should net me 80 points.

The only thing I like almost as much as Star Wars is LotR! These are exceedingly well done, Padre! I really like Eomer and it makes me glad(somewhat) that i can still get  him from GW as the Ebay prices do get quite hefty! It is a shame that GW didn't reduce the price a smidge, but I know I can raise the dosh for models I like... like Lurtz!  I quite like the basing on these fellows and and the spot colors on the shields and horse tack. Now you need to  ride some Urks down! ;)





From Michael P: Pulp Heroes and Heroines (30 points)

Five 28mm characters for pulp gaming.  The one on the right is by Reaper, the others are all Pulp Figures sculpted by Bob Murch.

Reaper's Brigitte: Naughty French Maid.  Code name Bijou, she will do inside work collecting HUMINT from senior Nazi leaders, especially those with a fondness for the flying helmet, the limp piece of celery, and the feather duster.   The sculpt is by Werner Klocke, and I certainly did not do it justice.  The only thing I am happy about is the hand painted tile floor.

Very cheeky!

Major Paul "Puncher" McPhail, Chief of Staff of Project Alice, a top-secret British counter-intelligence and dark ops organization tasked with monitoring and thwarting Nazi investigations into the occult.

Bob absolutely nailed British-style mess kit.  This is almost exactly what hangs in my closet (minus the monocle).  First bald figure I've painted, that was fun.

The Major's niece, Fiona Harmer, sometime of St. Hilda's College, Oxford, ace researcher and crack shot.

I tried to add some colour and texture to the hair to offset the drab clothing.   

Sandy McGonnigle, Major McPahil's batman, gamekeeper and bodyguard.  I spent way too much time on this figure, but it was all fun.

Mimi LaRocque of the Resistance, a ginger with an attitude.  I love her outfit, which seems almost military, but I decided on a civilian paint scheme, to suggest a student, perhaps?  Who can resist a girl with a gun in a hat and tie?

Thank you for looking.  I hope that one of these three ladies might become the choice of the lovely Sarah.

Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Sorry for the delay, Padre! this is one of my favorite thursday submissions and not just for Bridgette's <ahem> obvious charms... I'm certain the Nazi crew is very distracted by her work! I like the whole crew including Sandy's Tartan, cap and scarf. very nicework there. Mimi and Fiona are very well done too. I quite like Mimi and her ginger hair with that sharp jacket. The Major has a wonderful group working for him! I piped you for the fancy base that Bridgete has...yes I did see that!