From TomG - Studio Scifi is ROCKING! & Lady Sarah's Limousine Request (54pts)

ERE WE GO, ERE WE GO, ERE WE GO! 

We who are about to rock, salute you, and welcome you to the rockingest Goff Rocker this side of the Studio Plot, bringing down the roof in the newest Space Opera: Squigs, Dakka and Orks onna Roll! 

Fulfilling the studio challenge for Sci-fi, I offer you the most entertaining model I've had the chance to paint in a very long time, and one that has fully ignited my love for painting again. Eschewing the standard black leather on black leather that is advertised on the box art, I wanted something a little more characterful. 

Having my wall of paints staring at me, I decided that nothing screamed metal more than a studded denim jacket, and having not painted fabric nicely in a while, it offered some fun opportunities for texture work. Next was a decision to go with red leather trousers, although having gone a bit too bright with the highlights, I decided to make them orange squig leather trousers instead. Allowing me to tie the amp-squig in to the rest of the model. 

I was then presented with a real treat; a single gloved hand! No other musician came to mind other than the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson, but a pure white glove was never going to work on an ork, so I went for a very grimy off white/yellow. As I chose to paint this with the hand and guitar detached I had to be careful to match highlight directions, but this was relatively easy, as you can see, due to the final position of the hand being very flat. 

When it came to the guitar I knew I needed to add a real punch of colour, and nothing would have worked better than red, and as we all know; "RED ONES STRUM FASTER!" But not any red, it needed to be a vibrant cherry red, mostly to help bring warmth back to the palette of the model nearer the top. The bonus effect was that the orange to red tones get more intense as you move up the figure, assisting with the journey I want the audiences eye to take, moving up the figure. 

But as we focus back to the amp squig and the base, there's a story to both of these elements as well. Growing up I always wanted an amp by the company "Orange Amps", however I got in to wargames instead of live music, so the money needed for a nice amp bought me many models instead. But this was my time to honour that previous desire, and luckily worked perfectly with the colour plan for the figure. 

As for the base, in my head all I could imagine was this epic song that called on the power of the WAAAGH! to raise the roof. So to reflect this, I wanted a cracked earth effect with the green waaagh magic seeping out, which was achieved by slapping a good layer or two of green down, followed by Agrellan Earth from Games Workshop to give that cracking effect. Finished with a drybrush of sand yellow from Vallejo, it really brought the whole effect together. 

I can't tell you just how much nostalgia this model brought up for me, from my earliest days in the hobby, buying my first box of Ork Stikk Bombers from Marquee Models in Harlow, Essex, through my time working for Games Workshop in Southampton, where I was tutored by a great painter to let a model tell its own story just by selecting the right colours, all the way through to the joy I had taking my son to buy his first models last week. I've always loved painting orks, and they never fail to remind me why I find solo mini painting so relaxing and inspiring. I've kept notes on most of the paints used, so if you have any questions please do ask, I'd love to share with anyone interested. 

Now on to the second model of the week! 

With my painting mojo well and truly up, I wanted to tackle my need for a ride in the illustrious limousine, and offer this Michonne from Walking Dead, for Lady Sarah's perusal. 

Having painted the infamous "Fish Tank" of zombie heads two challenges ago, I had this resin figure sat in a draw collecting dust. But I knew that I wanted to give it a breath of life, which I appreciate is a bit ironic knowing the setting she's from. Although I could have drawn inspiration from the TV series, I wanted to give my own spin on her clothing colours, as I imagined her from the comics. 

I knew I'd be sticking to earthy tones, however they needed to be distinct from her flesh tone, which ended up being the triad for "African Skin" from Wargames Foundry, and I feel it gave a lovely rich and warm tone to the flesh areas. I then tackled the cloak/cape with a military green in mind, almost imagining the oilskin material but a bit dried out, mostly to desaturate the colours. Again this was a deliberate choice so as to keep the warmth close to her skin, and differentiate the intimate from the necessary items.

This decision to go with saturated, warm tones gave rise to the spot colour being red, and where better than in the triangle pattern for spot colours. The red boots were painted with two separate reds, a shiny one for the toe caps, and a duller one for the rest of the fabric, although I don't think it really shows up after basing sadly. A bandana in a matching red helped finish the model off, and I was happy. The brown trousers, black shirt and katana were kept dull and simple in tonal variety so as not to distract the viewer from the key areas. 

Dear Lady Sarah, 

Please accept this warrior woman from a zombie apocalypse, to strengthen your forces and share many a fascinating, and possibly gruesome, story or two. I have marked on the map below my desired journey to the Casting Couch, where I have a fun twist ready to share, next week.

Yours,

Tom

Welcome weary traveller, you have made it far in this post, through highs and lows, so why not take a seat as I regale you of my points and how they came to be...

28mm Model x2 = 10pts

Studio Entry x1 = 20pts

Lady Sarah Entry x1 = 20pts

Total = 50pts

Thank you all for reading this post, I worry my colour theory might have bored you, but I do hope that my enthusiasm shines through, because I've had a blast painting these two. Now it'sover to the big green guy to sing us out...

ORKS IS BEST, CRUMP DA REST, ITS FIGHTIN TIME! 

ERE WE GO, ERE WE GO, ERE WE GO, 

ERE WE GO, ERE WE GO THRU DA COSMO!

WAAAAAAAAGH!

Tom.

From TeemuL: That Orc Rocker is terrific and I did read and enjoy colour theories and stories behind the colour choices. I guess the Orc is bit tall compared to 28mm minis so I gave you a few points extra, it is just so stunning mini with great paint job. There are some skulls, too, for those interested in that kind of things. It is kind of funny, that your Limo ride is such a grim and dark and your orc from grim and dark future is not, quite clever (if unintended) contrast. Waiting for the Casting Couch entry.

From SanderS: Continuing the Quadrant journey to Arda (105 points)

  Hoi,

Next stop Arda, something with Old School fantasy/ Tolkienesque figures eh?! Well I could paint over my old LotR Fellowship, but another chance popped up unexpectedly. Arthur, my gaming buddy Mark and myself have been dabbling in Blood bowl lately and what do you know: two other of my colleagues play the game as well! Looks like a school league in the making to me. 

To get to the point: co-worker Menno had several unpainted Blood bowl figures and I offered to paint one  team up so he could use them on the pitch. He chose his Ork team for this as he had already thought up a background story for them. Apparently they were an amalgamation of two teams that sported yellow and purple outfits respectively... Am I ever going to get rid of that scheme?! 

Anyway he didn't only have a regular old school team kicking around but also some specials and so I set to work.

Menno wanted them to look clean and bright like the older style GW figures and I think I managed that quite alright. My favourite must be the Troll it almost painted itself and just oozes character.

Now as far as points and skulls is concerned: if I am not mistaken there are 24 skulls in total on these old skool GW figures Barks ;-)

Pointswise there are 12 regular 28mm figures and the troll so that's 13 x 28mm figures = 65 points and if this entry is worthy enough the bonus for Arda is another 20 resulting in 85 points total.

EDIT: as Teemu so kindly pointed out; there's 12 orks in the team AND 4 specials and a troll. So that's 17 figures amounting to 85 points. Together with the bonus that's 105 points total. Thanks Teemu!

Cheers Sander

Well, they are fantasy creatures, so I guess they qualify for Arda...

Nice painting, Sander!

Tamsin

From TomG - Ork2 D2 - The Orcs' Pit - 25 points

From a race so foul we find them in pits, to a film character so rude every single word he speaks is censored with a beep or whistle! 

It was at this point I realised I had met my Challenge goal of 500pts, so I now intend on smashing on through the Chambers as they've brought me so much joy already! 

So, as I continue through the Chambers of Challenge, I finally had a reason to paint up this chap, having hung up my Warhammer 40k boots for good with the most recent release. A superb sculpt, from I believe to be Scibor miniatures, this ork certainly seems to have got himself an interesting outfit. 

The painting of this chap was a mix of my favourite hobby past time, painting orc skin, to trying out different weathering effects. I mostly stuck to stippling and washes, but I managed to add in an enamel rust fluid from AK Interactive and a pool of GW Nurgles Rot for the green ooze on the rear of the base. 

In keeping with the lore to 40k, and trying to stick to a vaguely R2D2 colour theme, we've got a lucky blue lid and wrist bands. The bands were a fun treat to paint as dyed leather, initially working up through blue highlights, then switching to Vallejo Cork Brown to add the cracked edges of the leather beneath. 

For the hand pads, they were initially a lot cleaner, but after a happy little mistake they ended up looking suitably corroded and scuffed up. The barrel added an interesting feature with the plug at the front, and although it was tempting to have blood or slime coming out of it, oil ended up making more sense. 

I did try to get as vibrant an orc skin tone as I could, simply just to contrast with the muted and desaturated tones of the metallic surfaces. All in all, my favourite piece so far, and I hope you like it too.

Points -

28mm Infantry = 5pts

Challenge Bonus = 20pts

Total = 25pts.

From DrQ: Onto the Chamber of Darkness! (50 points)

So for the Chamber of Darkness I've painted up a fellow who is familiar with the monochrome grey palette of the Underdark: a duergar warrior.

This guy is from the new Reaper Bones Black line (which is of course fitting for the locale as well). In generally the new Bones recipe is much better than the first generation of these miniatures, which are extremely bendy and somewhat hydrophobic. 

Additionally, I've finished up my first five Ork Boyz. 

The painting is really basic here. The colour scheme is still a work in progress, but I think I can successfully paint another 85 or so of these Boyz without losing my mind.The meta right now is to run your Greentide as Evil Sunz, and hence the red. I wanted the bases to read urban black top, but there might eventually be more to the basing than Vallejo texture paint. For now I'll call these 'finished.' 

As far as points, I've got 20 for the Chamber of Darkness, and 30 for the six 28mm foot soldier, for a grand total of 50 for the post. 

Also, I'm not sure what became of the paint duel for Games Workshop miniatures, but so far I've painted 8 foot soldiers and one vehicle total.

Onto the Aquifer! 

From DrQ: The Golem's Haunt (30 points)

Alright folx, onto the Golem's Haunt! When I think of the cobbling of tissue and technology the nature place my mind rests is with your average Ork boss.

This big boi doesn't have a name as of yet (still working on the fluff of my force), but he's here for all your lootin' needs.

Like the Deffkopta from yesterday, he's pulled from Assault on Black Reach box. I've got five of these guys sitting around, which is way more than needed for a standard HQ in 9th edition. So, I expect some of these will be kitbashed into other units—most likely meganobz. 

Speaking of kitbashing, here is an example of that dwarven (or Duardin) holiday spirit: Krås Krüngle. 

Krås Krüngle is made from the head and body of a Blood Bowl Troll Slayer head and body, the right hand of a Runner, and the boots from a Kharadron Overlords Arkanaut. A green stuff cape, fimo clay gift, and sprue brick chimney make complete the model. 

I wrote up some lore on this fellow over on my blog that I'll repeat here:

The Kharadron claim that they believe only in the power of the capital and the cunning of a mercantile meritocracy. They tell stories of how their god told them to fend for themselves, and this was the impetus for them to learn grit and self-determination—how they have outgrown the Old Ways and are beholden to no god, creed, or superstition. However this only the official party line.

In the outer rings of the skyports and the below decks of almost any skyvessel of the line, things are different. The old ways persist, and even new stories and myths have emerged as the Age of Chaos turns to the Ages of Sigmar. 

One of these stories is of a Duardin of old—ancient in years beyond counting. One night a year, he visits all the skyports in a single evening and delivers presents to good little dorf of various genders. His name is Krås Krüngle.

As the days grow short and the nights grow long, and as forces of chaos stretch out their evil tendrils to ensnare all that is good in Chamon, Krås Krüngle calls forth the fallen Duardin heroes of yore and leads them on a yearly hunt across the heavens. He and his host bring light to the darkness, spreading goodness and cheer across all the skyports by giving gifts to the younglings. 

While the Geldraad don't like to admit it, the stories are good for business and so they let the "superstition" go....

As far as points, that's 20 for Golem Haunt and 5 each for the models, coming to a total of 30 points. Also, I've got a few models now towards a GW side duel if that's going on—either 2 or 4 depending on if you count my holiday conversions.

Regardless, happy holidays!

From DrQ: Whirling Blades (30 points)

Looking at my shelf of shame, I don't have much in the way of a "slowly descending pendulum-blade". However, I do have 15 plastic deffkoptas from a pile of old Assault on Black Reach boxes. So, let's try quickly descending blades of death!

I really don't know if I'll be able to paint up all 15 of these machines this challenge, but the idea of unleashing a squadron of these over the tarpit of ork infantry sounds like a fun strategy when I finally get to play out again. And of course, painted red...

As far as points, I think it's 20 for the Pit of the Pendulum and 10 for the model (it's more the size of a mount than a true vehicle). So another 30 points, and on to the Golem's Haunt!

 

From DrQ: Sneaky Ninja Traps and an Orkmas Miracle (50 points)

Hello all! I'm new to the main challenge but did participate in the Quarantine Challenge earlier this year. In that competition I painted a fair number of chibi minis (anime style with big heads and small bodies), and I've decided to start with this motif here at the beginning of AHPC.

For the Hall of Traps I present a sneaky kunioichi from the Yamazaru Clan of Ninja All Stars, a game from Ninja Division. These ladies specialize in laying in wait to get that sweet sneak attack to unsuspecting targets—a perfect example of a trap.

Additionally, in the holiday spirit I submit a kit-bashed ork boy as my entry for the challenge, to help all know the true meaning of Orkmas. Is he bringing gifts to good little grots or lootin' from the hoomies? I think we all know the answer...

I've got about a thousand points of 40k Ork Boyz as well as a couple of big sky vessels for the Kharadron Overlords from Age of Sigmar to paint up, so you can expect to see a fair bit of geedubs out of me over the next few months. We'll see if I manage to get it all finished! I set myself the recommended rookie goal of only 300 points in the hobby challenge. 

As for scoring, I'm not great with the maths (my degree is in the liberal arts), so I think this comes to 30 points? (Nope, 50 points. ed)

From PhilH: Millsy’s Millpond, Prizegeld for DavidB (60 Points)

My second Island location continues down the Path of History to Millsy’s Millpond. Millsy demands a model from before 2000.

I was fortunate that my parents moved house last year, and dumped returned an ancient and long forgotten ‘bitz box’ from my teens. Chock full of 1990s GW, including loads of spares from plastics and leftover junk from conversions, and some treasure too.

Classic GW ahoy! 

(If anyone can spot anything that they want, its mostly on its way to less neglectful homes via eBay, so give me a shout and we can work something out)

From here came inspiration for my Prizegeld, for a Challenger who’s painted a whole Waaaaargh!-worth of GW Orks in the past: the ever-enthusiastic and industrious David Bromley.

The box contained my old GorkaMorka trukks and minis and some 3rd edition plastic Orks. I liked David’s Bad Moon-funded Blood Axes in Challenge VIII  post, so picked out a suitable mini. It was from when I started a unit of Blood Axe commandos, not long after GorkaMorka was released in the late 1990s.

It’s a Boy with a converted Big Shoota (looks a bit MG34 to me, even) and helmet complete with big Teef. I tried to match David’s colour scheme (though I’ve no Goblin Green for his skin..) and left the basing so David can match him to the rest of his collection.

One Ork might be a small contribution to your impressive Waaaaaaaaaargh! David, but I hope you like him.

Points: 4 basic (for not being based), plus 30 for a visit to the Millpond, plus 25 for Prizegeld, for 59.

My Challenge Journey

***
While one ork may be small by itself, a WAAAAAAARGH starts with just one and grows!

Great work on this old figure Phil, I remember them well from the Gorkamorka game, and thankfully you did not use the retarded bases that came with that game.... wow were they horrible!  For anyone who has never seen them, the were small ovals 25mm x 10mm (ish)...  they never kept anything standing upright for more than 10-15 seconds.

Despite not having the Goblin green for the flesh, it looks pretty close to the right shade.  The yellow is awesome too, such a painful colour to work with.  I am sure David will enjoy the addition to his force.  Oh, and I am not deducting the point for not being based, as it is pretty common to leave gifted figure unbased so people can match them.  I see no reason to take a point away.

-ByronM