Adieu Season 14 from the OG Boys!

Another year and another great Dad & Lad hobby event! Naturally, we lost some productivity by playing games against one another, but its a great problem to have and we both met our challenge targets which was great! 

From Paul: 

With my work schedule having me away for more than a third of the Challenge, I set a modest target to achieve 8,000 lifetime challenge points (over 10 Challenges) but ended up cracking a thousand points for only the fourth time, which was nice!

More lead models than plastic this year, so it felt like a thousand points worth carrying it!

I had a couple of different projects prepped but in November & December we enjoyed a few games of To The Strongest, which reinvigorated our stalled Roman Civil Wars project from AHPC IX. That became a throughly wonderful focus and I've now got the army ready for the tabletop to face Alan, which is exciting! Naturally, there was space for some Beastmen to celebrate the release of The Old World too :-)

And I was pleased to be able to help in my own small way, as the Duels Wallah and Guest Minion when required. I look forward to returning the support crew again in the future.

From Reilly: 

While thoroughly distracted with preparing to move house, I set a low bar to get the last few units done in order to finish my 3000+ point Warhammer Fantasy Battles Spider Goblin army. Whilst happy that I managed to get the few units done, inevitably with the release of The Old World more units to paint came flooding in and the project continues to grow. 

These massive spiders never cease to impress me
with their presence on the table... before they die.

From us both: Many thanks indeed to our Minion Millsy (the Antopodean 'paint and sip' sessions were excellent!) the broader minion crew that made Season XIV happen, and the wonderful AHPC community for their encouragement, banter and kind comments.

As ever the lion's share of gratitude goes to Curt and Lady Sarah - another wonderful hobby event, and thankyou for your tireless enthusiasm and passion for this project!!!

See you next year!

From Reilly OG: More Goblins! [New Acquisitions] (85 points)

Release of The Old World has gotten our juices flowing and motivated me to finish my Forrest Goblin army. These figs really bulk our the "heavy" (relative term!) infantry and add a mounted character to give them some resilience.

First up: 10 reinforcements for the utterly terrifying "Goblin Phalanx"

And to lead them a new Hero arrives, riding a fear inducing Giant Spider! I bought this Character specifically to paint for this challenge so it definitely counts as "New and shiny" for me!

Spiders: they're just bigger in Australia!

10 Goblins @ 5 points each = 50

1 large mounted character = 15 points

Bonus shelf for New and Shiny (New Acquisitions, but what's the difference really?)= 20

Total of 85 points, which added to my current total gets me over my 200 point target at the last minute!

...and 7 Skullz to my tally please Mr McSkullface!

I like these night goblins a lot, Reilly!. The spider is well needed to "beef them up" a little, I suppose, but they sure look nice, although myself I would rather hesitate to use the word "phalanx".. The spider character itself is rather more terrifying, a fine model and you have painted it up very well, with the different gradients of blue and it's intrepid little rider. Well done and congratulations on hitting your target!

Martijn

From ReillyOG: Goblin Shaman and Howdah (75 points)

Whats scarier that a giant Man killing spider? A giant man killing spider with a Goblin howdah crew slinging spears and firing arrows at you while their Shaman boss throws magic spells! The Spider was painted before the challenge, but the howdah, shaman, goblin crew and all the basing was done for this submission.

The third and final of my Arachnarok trio, this time with the Archbishop in Da Church of Da 'Ate Legged Wuns. The crew and howdah are always a lot of fun to paint, even the third time round. Lots of little details like webbed up skulls and quivers webbed onto the howdah itself, and spiders crawling all over. 

The Shaman 'imself was a model I was incredibly excited to paint its the most on theme model I could dream of for a force like mine, and I enjoyed just going to down blending all the skin and giving him way too many highlights. 

"Dat wun was mine!"
"woz not"

Lastly, I thoroughly enjoyed my first foray into proper water feature effects with the base. I'm loving how it came out with all the ripples around the tufts and skulls in the shallow puddle.

The view seen by enemy troops!

Now when you think of Childrens' books, most think of whimsical adventures with magic and fun... but usually theres always some kind of creepy crawly they come into contact with in their adventures. This is that monster! See for examples: Aragog the Acromantula who dwelled in the Forbidden Forest near Hogwarts Castle, Shelob the last daughter of the Demon Ungoliant from Lord of the Rings, and Charlotte the Barn Spider from Charlotte's Web (but here she found some goblins for friends instead of Wilbur the pig)

That goblin underneath the great beast is having second 
thoughts about volunteering to be a sacrifice

Overall thats 9 x 28mm figs (45 points), the very detailed howdah and shrine as terrain are approximately a quarter standard terrain cube (5 points), and Children's Book bonus takes it to a 70 point submission.

And there are 39 Skullz liberally scattered across this submission!

Happy Painting,
"Right Stuff" Reilly

From Millsy: It's been a while since we've seen a monster arachnid and it's been worth the wait! What an absolute beast of a thing is Reilly, resplendent in purple and bone and bristling with teeth and spikes.

The way you have feathered the purple at the joints is really nice technique and gives the limbs a lot more volume. The crew(?) are pretty cool too and really pop with their green skins contrasting against the purple. The base really finishes the model off for me and I love the way you've used all that space to create a mini diorama effect underneath when you could easily have ignored it - 5 extra gold for that.

[Edit Millsy] Apologies Reilly, my COVID addled brain missed that you'd already painted the spider itself so I have adjusted your score accordingly mate, but I have added 5 points for you just cause I'm an idiot!. An awesome effort mate and one of my favourite posts this Challenge!

From Reilly: Goblin Shaman (25 points)

Here we have yet another entry into the 'Old World Player sifts through his decade old stash of fantasy stuff' collection. A humble goblin shaman to join my many, many others. Here's hoping he doesn't explode with badly channelled winds of magic...

One of several Elder Spider-Shamans for the force

His Ritual dagger is quite handy when it comes to making 
sacrifices to the 8 legged old gods...

A classic GW sculpt and always a favourite of mine, this lil guy was a pleasure to paint and get back into the swing of painting wayyyy too many goblins. 

I'll claim the fantasy bonus to up the points to 25 total, and another 3 skullz

Happy Painting,
"Right Stuff" Reilly

From Millsy: The only right way to do gobbos is wayyy too many, right Reilly? You've done a stellar job on this wee chap, especially his clothing which really pops. The blending on his hat is superb! I've got the same mini in my collection and it's amazing how different they can look. 25 gobbo points for you!

From Paul O'G and Reilly OG - Beastie Boys! (25+25 points)

The Old World returns shortly so we are clearing out the unfinished vestiges of my Beastman Army - it just wouldn't feel like AHPC without me doing some Beastmen! Just 19 models remain from >200 I started with a few years ago. These are the last 2 characters which we have painted together in the Dark Forest, under the pale moon while mumbling hateful chants...

Paul's offering to the sacred heardstone is this Beastlord with Great Axe. He is known for his compassionate spirit, high emotional intelligence and tending his rose garden with ample bone and blood offerings. He's an older model cast in metal, and boy does it have good heft!

To accompany this gentle yet frenzied monstrosity, Reilly has delivered unto me a fearsome Wargor with Battle Standard. He promised to do this 3 years ago, but all good things to those who wait patiently, in ambush, biding their time.... - and this was clearly worth waiting for!

The hand painted Chaos symbol and sigils shows he really cares and takes pride in his Banner bearer role. 

An amusing painting moment was Reilly posing the question"So the Elf head atop the Banner - do you want it to be High Elf, Wood Elf or Dark Elf? You've defeated all 3 in Battle". Cleary the Dark Gods must be rewarding me for my efforts! (You Elf Commanders know who you are...)

The lovely banner is made from the flayed skins of defeated enemies, available via Amazon

Points wise:

Paul claims 5 points plus the Fantasy section bonus, and 3 Skullz

Reilly claims 5 points, 6 skullz (sadly another is insufficiently flensed), plus the highly appropriate Overdues section bonus :-), which gets him onto the AHPC XIV tallyboard and off the "Merciless Snowlord's Slaughter List" (as we laughingly call it) just in time!

From Millsy: The rarely seen father/son post rears it's head! Just like always Dad is pulling the lad's chestnuts out of the fire. Seriously, it's like us Dads are responsible or something....

Great work from the pair of you! Just the right amount of gruesomeness to match the ferocity of these beasties. Or should that be gore on there gors? 25 challenge shekels apiece and Reilly dodges the cut for another year.

From PaulO'G & ReillyOG - AHPC XIII Wrap Up

As ever, it feels like more when you're painting it!

Reilly and I set modest set of goals to yield appropriately modest yet immensely satisfying outcomes amongst a range of other real life pressures and travels. We both had a lot of fun and pulsed hobby focus

We covered an eclectic mix of Genres: War of the Roses, Necromunda, WW2, 40k, Last War and this little game themed on turnips that you may have come across...

The least Turnipy Bits - Necromunda, Last War and War of the Roses Pikemen

War of the Roses Pikemen and the Turnip Rocket Battery

Along the way I discovered new methods of inefficiency mid-challenge; printing, scultping and scratch building. I'm keeping CAD design in reserve for AHPC XIV

Giant Crabs and Space Crusaders - the Black Templars

I was really happy to get some of those 40k guys done - I'm on a mission to get my 9th boxed set minis (from whence these came) finished before the newly announced 10th edition is released!

We eagerly await news of the turnip side-challenge: Have I grasped the coveted Silver Turnip?

So from us both, a hearty thanks to the AHPC Community, our Sunday Minion Martin, the Snowlord's Crew who helped make the Season a reality, and of course Empress Sarah and her live-in Minion Curt: Long may they Reign!

Raise horns of Ale! Skal and Farewell to AHPC XIII

See you all next Season, where I hope to break 8,000 lifetime points!

ReillyOG: US Armour (42.5 Points)

 

Here we have some US armour armor (have to spell it the silly American way!) -no you don't and never do it again, to support my D-Day paratroopers as part of my Bolt Action project. With the morning jump troops done and dusted, its time to start doing the afternoon as the support wave of US army and tanks catch up with the vets to help crack through any stubborn defenders still left standing.

Here we have an M3A1 Stuart,  a quicker zippier tank sent up through the lines to support the airborne earlier on while the rest of the platoon were stuck clearing hedgerows. Positively COVERED in MGs with 3 hull mounted, a co-ax, and a pintle, the "BATTLE WAGON" is ready to hose down the krauts as they push into Normandy proper, and later Holland. This is my first plastic tank kit being the Warlord plastic Stuart kit and man difference in heft is certainly felt when moving it around (I much prefer the resin kits when it comes to tanks).

The "BATTLE WAGON" having met up with the forward
deployed airborne, providing the wonders of mobile cover and resupplies.

"THE GOVERNOR" shows up to finish the job with its hefty firepower

Next we have "THE GOVERNOR",  an M4 Sherman ready to finally get back into the action after busting open hedgerows all day with its ad-hoc Culin cutter. Armed with the 75MM mainline gun and a 2 30. Cal MGs it's presence will definitely be felt on the table. The Culin cutter was 3d printed by myself, and the rest is the classic resin warlord Sherman kit.

In total we have 2 tanks for 20 points each, and 5 points for the tank commander sticking out the top of the Stuart for a total of 45 points. 

An M3A1 Stuart and an M4 Sherman
photographed together in May 1944, Italy.

Happy Painting all!

Brilliant work on the tanks, you only get 2.5 for the 1/5 a tank commander. Well done and never correctr you spelling to the wrong version again

From ReillyOG - The Emperah's Sewer Saints (45 points)

and here starts yet another House O'Grady distraction...

The Emprah's devout cult followers set out to carve a sector of the hive for their own

 

After a long time coming, and a long time collecting, curiosity got the better of us O'Grady gamers and we finally took the delve to start playing some Necromunda after being prompted by the release of the Ash Wastes Expansion. This was a project I have always been somewhat dreading to start because I was afraid of having to learn the intricacies of oils in order to make these bottom feeders truly filthy, but they seemed like a nice break to start off the challenge from my Horus Heresy force of Emperor's Children which tends to become an stressful and fruitless exercise in chasing the precious perfection... 

The Gang's founding leader, Kayn the Klenser accompanied by his left and right hands, Ezekiel the Devoted and Shambles respectively

Thus the sewer saints after being "shelved" in the pile of potential for a good 5 years, finally received the emperor-sent blessing that is pigment. When brainstorming the colour scheme, I've always like the look of gangs that look the part of men-at-arms with proper medieval heraldry that has just been bastardised for the use of scum at the bottom of the hive. I settled on filthy rags nicely offset with Bone and Purple patterning all over the uniformed high collars and tabards while the rest was just filthy rags, bloody bandages, and rusty scrap armour.

The three Blunderbuss-toting 'Blunderboys', Squats, Squelch, Squints
 

This being my first adventure with oil paints rather than the traditional 'Eavy Metal approach to painting with gazillions of highlights, the base coating process left me quite horrified and hesitant to continue, but I adopted the gang's mantra and let my faith in the god-emprah carry me onwards. The very second the oil hit the test model I knew it had not all been for naught as I absolutely loved the result and riding that high, finished the entire starting gang roster in the next two days. 

The three slum-crusaders(Juves) the gang is starting with,
Slicey, Scramble, and Sizzle

I'm absolutely in love the end results and I look forward to continuing the gang in the new year with more redemptionists with their trademark flaming heads, rats with a remarkable amount of grenades strapped to them, wayyyy too many juves, and the eventual Klovis the Redeemer (and his once rival, now lectern servitor companion, Deacon Malakev)

Thats 9 x 28mm figs for 45 points please. Entry submitted this Yule feast day, M2.022

Patrolman Andre about to learn why
they call him "the Klenser"...

Happy Holidays and Happy painting all,
Right Stuff

______________________________

Terrific work Reilly. I really like the fuchsia and tan colour palette you've used for these chaps - they all look rather debauched and mad, which I suppose is the whole point! The Blunderbuss fellas look particularly daunting (love the mechanicals they're toting), though the entire mob seems particularly nasty. A great addition to the Underhive. Well done!

- Curt

From Paul and Reilly: Showdown at the OG Corral

As ever, the onrush of the Christmas season is proceeded by the exhilarating bow-wave of another AHPC! Our Dad and Lad challenge continues this year for my 9th season and Reilly's 4th.

Preparations are in full swing at the OG Man Cave, but focused on construct and undercoat vice clean and tidy. Since Ms Man Cave moved out of the nest last year, we have requisitioned converted her old bedroom into our hobby lair which allows to paint and chat together (when I am in the country at anyway). Organisation is more a state of mind anyway, but we do shuffle things around randomly to reduce the risk of spontaneous combustion and drive eachother mad. And after having to keep things rather ship shape at work, a bit of creative chaos is welcome :-)

Our ferocious war puppies Odin (left) and Loki (right) will keep us company throughout

We are currently engaged in energised discussion regarding our AHPC Project list.  The somewhat dynamic to-do list currently includes is a pair of new Dungeon Bowl teams, some Horus Heresy figures, new units for my Wars of the Roses army, Necromunda goodies, and the curiously addictive madness that is Turnip28...

Having initially mocked me without mercy, Alan has now also succumbed to the root and proceeded down the Turnip path - so T28 challenge of sludgy misery will be a bit of fun!

As ever, its great to be back and I'm looking forward to the fun, inspiration and banter :-)

From ReillyO'G: Broodlord of Hive Fleet Charybdis(10 points)

 

Quick sidetrack from the planned schedule (though frankly who doesnt during these chellenges eh?), a quick Broodlord for our personal Tyranid collection as motivated by the latest announcement of their 9th ed codex,.

Nothing too fancy as our genestealer scheme calls for mostly greys and blacks with some bone chitin but was fun to paint nonetheless, especially painting all those terminator helmets as Brother Noctis or Brother Leon from Space Hulk to pay homage from this model's original boxset.

As a 50mm model head to base calling for 10pts for this lad.

Happy Painting!

- Reilly 'Right Stuff' O'G

Late again? Luckily for you I've got a very soft spot for Space Hulk, genestealers and tyranids- not to mention that skullicious pile.

Barks

From ReillyOG: The Bright College Fyre Fiends make their debut as a full team! (Caprica, Lady Sarah's Star Yacht) (108 points)

Finally, weeks after these initial draft pics were revealed by Head Coach 'Right Stuff' of the Bright College Fyre Fiends, the rest of team is ready to step into the dungeon under his leadership! Lead by Captain Mighty 'Mo, an Ogre Runt-Punter fresh from the Maws Edge Mountains, the team has proven to be incredibly brutal in their approach to the game. Much to our delight!

In real world speak, I really enjoyed taking my time with this team and treating every single model like a full character and trying everything I could think off (bar nmm) to up the quality of the paintjob and it was an absolute delight. 

Captain Mighty 'Mo

This was also my first foray into major kit conversions with GW products with Mighty 'Mo who I converted from the lovely Ogor Tyrant model with some spare ogre arms and heads from the team box and I’m super happy with the final result. Had a lot of fun putting the arm on, imagining him throttling this snotling about to chuck him down a long corridor, for him to inevitably faceplant into a wall :-)

Close up of the Fyre Fiends at the start of a match

When it came to the rest of the team, the dwarves were an absolute hoot going to town on all their beards and really trying to nail the layered highlights to make them pop, and translating that same gradient to different beard colours. Unfortunately, I don't have close up photos of them all at the moment, but you'll see why in a moment.

Fyre Fiends at the beginning of the Promo Match

Yet another first for this team, this was my first time painting genuine forge world miniatures, and thus resin models. The forge world models in question were the 2 Bloodborn Marauder Linewomen from the Khorne Team Booster pack. They were also a lot of fun to paint, as it gave me the (unfortunately) rare opportunity to highlight more feminine features on a model, and a more muscular female model at that.

Overall, the team was tons of fun to take my time on, which was one of my major regrets from past blood bowl projects. Lots of learning in terms of painting skin and layered highlighting.

Last but not least, I am really chuffed to be able to claim that both this full team and its rival, Paul O'Gs Willoughby Shadow Walkers, are currently on display in our local GW store. After a fun few promotion games in the store showing off a painted copy of the Dungeonbowl box set, our teams now inhabit a shelf in one of the stores lovely display cabinets showing off their awesomeness to all who enter.

As for the planets credited to this entry, Caprica (doomed, ambush) worked quite well as due to the sheer beatdown this team has put onto all that face them, you are DOOMED to face them. Then using the wonderful female bloodborn marauders, I shall be boarding Lady Sarah's Star Yacht to take me to Istvaan V for an entry coming soon...

Overall this entry amounts to a neat point total:

2x Gnoblar: 10 Points

2x Bloodborn Marauder Linewomen: 14 Points

2x Ogre Runt-Punters: 14 points

5x Dwarves: 25 points

Team Icon: 5 points

Caprica: 20 points

Lady Sarah's Star Yacht: 20 points

Total: 108

Happy painting all!

Reilly O'G

Always good to see more Blood Bowl action, and it's great to see you stretching your painting abilities with this team. We'd love to see more up close photos when you can- congrats to both of you on your store display.

Reilly- label your post!

Barks