From JamieM - Kings of War Northern Alliance (188 points)

Just in under the wire….. the silly thing is that these should have been about my third entry. I had a plan for the bases and it didn’t work out like I had thought it would and so I shoved them to the back of the painting table, approximately 97% done, and left them there until now.

As you can see, they’re literally still on the painting tray. They’re multi based up for the Kings War game by Mantic. The game started as a derivative of Warhammer fantasy battle, with all of the classic races, but this is one of Mantic’s own, a mixture of men, elves, trolls, monsters and animals who live in the frozen north.

Cavern dweller (a horrible monster)

Thane and wolf

Elf hero and human skald

Lots of wolves

Elven heroes - all three are ladies so I shall claim lady Sarah’s library cart for one of them!

Snow trolls

A different angle to show the weapon swaps - mantic only produce one body with two slightly different heads and one separate arm holding either a rock or a club, so I swapped in some weapons from a Games Workshop giant to make them more interesting.

Snow Troll hero and elf ice bolt thrower

And some ice elementals.

Some great sculpts by mantic and nice to see them striking up their own armies. I picked them all up as a job lot by someone who had made something of a mess of them and so they took a lot of paint stripping, but I find that reclamation projects are one of the parts of the hobby that I really enjoy.

Some other angles

I’m pleased to get these done as my painting table is now fairly clear - at one point during the challenge I had my painting desk and dining table covered in miniatures in various stages of building/painting.

A big thank you from me to Curt for running it back again, Greg for being a cracking minion with some great comments and also a big thank you to the serial commenters who comment on most posts, irrespective of genre, as you do much better than I do at keeping up with posts and encouraging people, which is the whole point of the challenge after all.

For scoring then:

10 wolves, 6 heroes and 2 crew all at 5 points (28mm) each for 90 points.

One (38mm) crew served weapon for 10 points

6 trolls, 3 elementals and 1 cavern dweller each at 7 points (40mm) for 70 points.

Lady Sarah’s cart for 20 points.

Knock off a couple for a couple of bases not finished (two wolves didn’t fit on the multi bases) and that’s 188 points to just put me over the 1,000 points mark!

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Wonderful work Jamie! This force looks terrific and very chilly (great job on the winter bases)! I especially like the Skald and the Ice Elementals. I quite like it when the Challenge causes household mayhem with hobby projects spreading from room to room - a success story if I every heard one. :)

Well done Jamie and wonderful job in blowing past your points target.  I look forward to seeing you in the lists next time we roll out.

- Curt

From Pete F: Ice Naiads [Arthouse](160 points)

 

With the end of Challenge XIII fast approaching, I feel lucky that I've managed to finish this unit of ice naiads for my Kings of War army.  We had a tournament at the weekend and I needed to get them done - just made it under the wire. 

This is my entry for the arthouse.  Partly because - blue skin! But mostly because I  shillied and shallied, lollyed and gagged, trying to come up with a colour scheme that would work. I wanted to do blue metallic armour - which one of them still has - but with the blue skin it was too blue.  I messed around with different hair colours, different furry bits. And so on.  It took forever. And I'm still not that happy with it - although as they say the best colour is finished.

I'm not saying I'm happy to see the back of them though - I have a few more to paint for smaller troop sized units - this large base is a horde.  

I enjoyed painting some of the details as the unit finally came together - mainly as a result of the time pressure.

This one slightly reminded me of the bad dude in Game of Thrones.

Fortunately the effort paid off and with a 3-2 record at the tournament I managed to squeeze in to the top eight in our region (we are by far the worst region!) and onto the team to compete at Kings of War's US  Masters in July - got to find a cheap flight to Nebraska.  

28 x 28mm foot plus 20 for the Art House = 160 points.

That's 4 greens and 4 blues (with Westerns being blue on the new scheme) - if there's time I'd like to paint something for the Director's Chair - what say you?

Well, it seems like you got past your doubts with the tests to have these ready for your game. Great work, and congrats on completing 4 studios for each of the Green and Blue zones. What say I? I say email the Show Lord and agree a task that you can complete before the Challenge ends!

Tamsin

From PeteF: Elvish Ice Blade - Limo to the Casting Couch (25 points)

Time to get back on track - non-hobby stuff is taking way, way too much of January and February - but still hope to make it round most of the lot before the end of winter.

This mini is an Ice Blade from the Northern Alliance faction in Kings of War.  She's an individual hero - elf or half elf.  Individuals can be useful - many of them inspire your other troops and they have more maneuverability.  This one has a special ability that helps her when attacking other individuals. I think they get the point.

I've said it before - I highly recommend Kings of War if you think massed battle rank and flank fantasy gaming might be your jam.  It's great game for meeting some stand up folks and collecting all kinds of armies.

My Northern Alliance are getting a not too imaginative icy theme and a purple tartan. 

Mantic did a nice job with the sculpting of this mini - I like the pose and movement. My eyesight is definitely going a bit - I could have sworn she had less of a squint before I took the pictures.

Tamsin - I'm getting back on track - as this is a limo ride which can take me anywhere from anywhere I hope it's OK to skip the map today.  I'd like Lady Sarah to take me back to the Green Zone and to The Casting Couch where we may meet a well known soldier of silver screen.   

Not sure if I'll get him done for next week or even the one after that - on the way to the Old Country for a family wedding so the Bloody Little Soldiers (what my mum calls them) may be on pause for a bit.

1 x 28mm min plus 20 for the Limo.

+ 1 Skull - right there on the knee (Total 26 Skulz)

That's a great figure, Pete! No worries about the lack of map as it's just a limo. A well known soldier of the silver screen? Hmmm, I wonder which one that will be?

Tamsin

PeteF: Cavern Dweller for High Adventure (30 points)

This delightful beastie seems to fit the High Adventure studio theme - I imagine it lives in a cavern deep in the mountains, somewhere in the frozen North.

The Cavern Dweller will be part of one of my Kings of War armies - it can play for either the (Good) Northern Alliance or their Evil counterparts, the Varangur. In the game it's quite a tough and hard hitting monster.

The model is made by Mantic Games (who also publish Kings of War).  When it arrived I was slightly disappointed because it's made from that plasticy PVC stuff rather than the more detailed resin.  As a grumpy old geezer I don't like paying big bucks for materials that feel on the cheap side.  But I do like the pose and the sculpting.

I used my favourite fur recipe again on this one (Field Drab/Khaki/Deck Tan) and went for a purply skin (burned red/magenta/pink/rose).  Teeth and claws I'm working on a recipe (this was: beige brown/tan yellow/ushabti bone/ivory - with some agrax earthshade washing).

I'm working on a new Kings of War faction - two challenges ago I did a lot of Nightstalkers - a horror/monster gribbly collection and I've enjoyed playing them.  For variety I'm trying out a different army with a different dynamic - the only problem is I need to paint a whole lot of new models.

One thing Mantic have done with their new rules is introduce a smaller version of the game Ambush! which requires smaller armies.  This means fewer models to a playable army which can at least give a flavour of what the faction is like.  I introduced a friend to the game this week and we both had great fun.

10 points for a 28mm monster (about 70mm if it stood up) and 20 for another studio.

Happy New Year everyone!

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Being in the 'frozen north' I think I saw one of these guys pushing out a car out of a snow drift and then eating the driver. I just pulled down my toque and quietly moved on. 

Great work on this big, bad beastie, Pete! I like the juxtaposition of the purply striated flesh next to his cuddly fur. I've not heard of the Ambush! rules, but may be keen to try, especially with it having a small model-count. I hope we see more from your new KoW faction over the coming months.

- Curt

From PeteF: Ice Elemental Horde (55 points)

Winter is Coming!

These are Ice Elementals from Mantic Games, based for Kings Of War - the, er, King of Rank and Flank massed fantasy battle games. Ice Elementals fight for the faction known as the Northern Alliance, a confederation of multiple races from the frozen North.

My Northern Alliance army is growing very slowly, this being its first finished unit. Quite a few more units are in the queue, but this is the only one that will be completed for Challenge XII. 

The Kings of War US Masters is coming to my neck of the woods (The Pacific Northwest) this year and I'm hoping to qualify for our team of 8 players - we don't have the best record in "Battle"(ie skill at playing the game) but we are (I hope) known for enjoying a friendly brew.

One of the drawbacks of Mantic's Northeren Alliance range is the lack of variation in the poses of some of the models - out of the box the Ice Elemental has only one pose - a friend 3D printed an ice elemental for me and I used its arms to do some minor conversions to break up the monotony. The paint job is a bit basic - I tried a few things and this blue with heavy drybrush looked OK to me.

The models are 50mm tall - I'm calling them 40mm for scoring. Going to try and finish the inner ring this week...

5x7 (40mm foot) = 35 points plus 20 point bonus for Gethen = 55 points  

+1 Squirrel (Total 7)

+0 Skulz (Total 1)

Nice work on these Ice Elementals, loving the icy blue tones.  Regina has been in the deep freeze this winter with tons of snow (I am running out of room to put it).  Therefore I will be more than happy if these things stay in your neck of the woods.

From PeteF at Piper's Peak: Snow Troll (45 points)

Piper's Peek/Peak/Pique put me in mind of the mountains, the Northern Alliance and their snow trolls - who also stand a good chance of being irritable, or piqued.

The Kings of War 2 Player starter set has models for two very different factions. I've already started on the Nightstalkers, horrific creatures from your worst nightmares. This is my first Northern Alliance mini. The Northern Alliance contains many races - including elves, dorfs, humans who look suspiciously like the Free Folk on Game of Thrones and trolls - all with an icy theme.

This snow troll has a colour scheme quite close to the official one - blue skin, white fur. I used colour shift paints (from Turbo Dork) for the metals and had to ask someone for help in choosing the loin cloth colour. Fantasy figures give me all sorts of colour choice problems - no Osprey book with the official uniforms. I ended up texting a designer friend of my wife, who used to teach colour theory.  Orange came back the answer so I tried it. It didn't come out as, er, orangey as I'd hoped. I might also come back with an orange colour shift and use it on some parts of the shoulder guards. The club is supposed to be stone with ice chips in it.

The troll is on a magnetized base in case I need to put him together on a metal tray with 2 more to make a regiment of trolls or 5 more to make a horde. On his own I think he can be used as a troll hero in Kings of War - or in Mantic's skirmish game: Vanguard (have the rules but no time to take on another game or friends that want to try it).

The troll was fun to paint - I find the larger figures quite challenging compared with 28mm  - I wish back in November I'd scraped off  all of the mold lines (he's made of that vynl-plasticy stuff) and hope the bits I missed don't show too badly. Mantic have come out with a ton of new models and some of them are quite nice, especially if you like the hunchback/head-halfway-down-the-body aesthetic.

The troll is around 60mm tall and is sitting on a 40x40 base so I thin k is worth around 10 points plus 30 for a new area explored.


Brrrrr! So cold! That's some lovely work on this snow troll Pete. I've scored him as a 40mm cavalry figure, which gives you some extra points; he's a big, chunky chap after all!

TamsinP