From Curt: The Death Knight Poses an Important Question, while his Mooks Look On (40 Points)

When I posted my fantasy Star Wars entries a few weeks ago I didn't have the files for the not-Stormtroopers, so I just ran with what I had ready at the time. Nevertheless, it somehow just felt wrong, not having the classic White Bucketheads mucking in with their nasty overlords, so when I managed to chase down the STL files, I quickly got them printed and painted-up to add to my collection of villains.

These are the crossbow-armed versions of the Troopers. For additional variation, the talented folks over at One Gold Piece also offer a sword and shield set, along with a polearm-equipped squad. As we're now on the clock for the end of the Challenge, I decided to stick to the missile armed flunkies as they seem to have that iconic, hapless mook-with-a-blaster look about them (yes, they will be re-rolling any hits in our future games).

I primed the Troopers black and then oversprayed them using Krylon Ivory, which I think gives the armour a nice, smooth, satin finish. I then used an assortment of Contrast paints to pick out their gear and weapons. I wanted to keep them fairly high-contrast, to trace back to the iconic source material, so I kept it all very stripped-down and simple. 

As to the Death Knight, again, I didn't see any reason to overthink him too much. I kept his paintjob fairly minimalist, just using some colourshift colours on his spooky enchanted blade and working up some contrasting highlights for his gloss black armour.

It was fun going back to painting renaissance style 'puff & slash' for the Rebel prisoner's uniform. Funny, working on him made me a little nostalgic for my Italian Wars stuff - I may need to do-up a few more Landsknechts to quash those silly romantic notions. :)

These guys being so high-contrast, photographing them was a bit of a nightmare (one of the inherent limitations of my older iPhone camera). Anyway, I hope you can get a sense of what they look like.

Points wise? Well, we have seven 30mm figures, plus one at a 40mm for the Death Knight. That should put me at 42 points total (with one grim skull for Barks, peeping out of the Big Baddie's coal-scuttle helm). 

Thanks for dropping in for a look!

- Curt

Impressive. Most impressive. The ivory is satisfying, and the whole project forces you to do a double-take. The puff-and-slash has come out very nicely- but you won't find me in a hurry to do an army of them! +1 to the pile o' skullz.

Barks

From Curt: 'A long time ago in a fantasy far, far away...' (Corsucant and Sarah's Yacht to finish in Cybertron) (126 Points)

Hi All,

I've landed on Corsucant and thought that I'd try for something close to home for the planet's theme of 'Imperial / Good vs Evil'.

I've been a big Star Wars nerd ever since seeing the first movie as a kid in '77.  So when I discovered that my friend Kawe over at Westfalia Miniatures/One Gold Piece had done a brilliant range of fantasy not-Star Wars minis I knew I had to give them a go.

First up are our doughty heroes. These seven adventurers will be very recognizable as: The Apprentice, The Princess, The Old Master, The Smuggler, The Bugbear, The Butler Construct and the Trashcan Construct. 

Then we have our iconic arch villains, with The Liche Lord and his Honour Guard, and the terrifying Death Knight.

I actually had a print fail on the Death Knight where his sword didn't properly resolve. So I replaced it with some plasticard, doing a sort of anime thing with the shape of the blade. It's a bit of a bodge but I actually don't mind it.

The other fun thing about these being 3d prints is that it allowed me to scale up the Death Knight to be a little more imposing.  David Prowse would be pleased.

As to points, most of these models are 28mm, but The Death Knight, Bugbear and Liche Lorde are well over 40mm, so let's say 66 base points. The Corsucant location will give me another 20, and I'm going to be a clever lad and use The Princess for Sarah's Star Yacht to drop me into Cybertron, where I can use the two constructs for the Robot theme. So all this will give me a total of 60 bonus points for a grand total of 126. 

This will also give me another Squirrel point (my 6th)

There are 5 skulls tucked away in there with the baddies.

I will fill in 'N' for 'Not Star Wars' for my Alphabet Soup challenge.

Thanks for dropping in for a look! 

- Curt

From Millsy:

Oh my. How cool are these Curt?!?! This may well be the thing that finally flips my Star Wars switch from 'meh' to 'yeah'! Maybe. :-P

The deep rich red of the Honor Guard has a distinct Inquisition vibe about it and these feel far more scary than the movie version henchgoons. I can see myself using these as cultist/harem guards or something of that nature. The Death Knight's sword is an amazing piece of brushwork too and I would love to know how you achieved that effect on the edge. I absolutely love all of these.

I naturally gravitate to the bad guys in almost all sci-fi and these are no different but there are definitely elements of the good guys that resonate for me. The subtle Disney Beauty and the Beast homage is just brilliant (or is that just me?) and The Butler Construct is particularly good. I love that you've kept one leg a different colour too.

Well done working the Challenge Quadrant to get yourself a tidy bonus on top of the minis themselves mate. 126 points it is!