From MikeW: 21 x 28mm Tomb King Guards, 3 x Savage Orcs & 9 x More Arthurian Foot (172 Points)

By way of a change  I have just completed a unit of Tomb King , Tomb Guards - these little guys are in 28mm and are by Highland Minatures and printed by Mini Print Factory.

21 x Tomb King Guardsmen

These guys have been painted to follow the colour scheme I have used on the rest of my Tomb Kings Army

Figures are Highland Miniatures 3D Prints

The figures came in grey resin and are great value for money, the Highland Miniatures team really do some outstandingly good designs in my opinion and Mini Print Factory supplied these quickly and perfectly formed!

Three Guardsmen

Three more Guardsmen

All I had to do was glue figures to bases and then undercoating in a suitable 'Ivory' paint. (Shields got the same treatment but were glued to figures after paiting, before varnishing).

Weapons and armour painted with Hoplite Gold Speed Paint, then highlighted with Vallejo Brass and the weapon edges lined with a Metalic Silver Sharpie pen! 

More Guardsmen

GW Skeleton Horde is my 'go to' for skeletons, so this was applied and then when dry the figures were dry brushed with Ivory paint again to pull out highlights. See rest of my collection <here>

Shields and weapon staffs washed with a watered down mix of blue andblack ink to give definition and aging effect

Next I added Army Painter Speed Paint Hoplite Gold to all halberds, armour and helmets before applying GW blue to loin cloths, jewels an shoulder armour panels.

The command group

Sky Blue was used for halberd shafts & shields, in keeping with other figures in my army, whilst shield reverses were painted with GW Gore Grunta Fur.

All bandages were picked out in Vallejo Light Sand before highlighting the gold with Vallejo Brass.

I'm claiming Skullz Points for these guys as well - 21 x Skeletons plus a drummer and standard bear with an addition 3 skulls between them (See Photos!)

Next up are some more 28m Arthurian foot...

Nine Arthurian Foot figures

In this post I have 9 new foot figures to 'show & tell!', 4 x Artizan Metal figures, a Warlord Games Metal figure and 4 x Victrix plastic Medium (Unarmoured) infantry.

Four Victrix, unarmoured Medium Infantry. Again, shields and heads have been swapped to give unit variation

.

Another view, showing the interesting cloak provided with the Victrix figures

The Warlords Games figure came free when I pre-ordered their 'Once and Future King', Hail Caesar supplement - which spurred me on to do these Arthurian figures. This figure depicts Agravain, Arthur's nephew, he is holding his sword and helmet aloft in a dramatic pose.

Agravain, by Warlord Games. A lovely little figure. Described as tall, dark & handsome but a unargumentative so and so!

The four Victrix figures have been painted in my usual manner with light grey tunics and a red & white shield theme. They are designed to be representing Loose Order Medium Infantry and are thus on 22mm bases.

Artizan mage, painted up as Merlin

Artizan mage, painted up as Merlin

Artizan Standard Bearer, note the full face mask,

early Christian icons added by hand to the shield

The Artizan Minatures metal figures are a Noble, a musician and a Standard Bearer as well as a figure that I take to be representing Merlin.

Artizan Musician

Finally on this post, I have three Savage Orcs and a related terrain piece that were originally going to be my entry for Dante's Limbo, until I stumbled upon those long lost Elves.

Three Savage Orc Blood Bowl figures to be pressed into Warhammer Fantasy service!

These guys were the last three of  set of Savage Blood Bowl figures that I was working on earlier in the year - but somehow they got left behind unpainted. That's all resolved now! Two of the three figures are actually pretty big, suitable for Bosses, the third is to be used as a Shaman - just because he has a funny looking mask.

Shaman, from the rear, note skull on his belt

Same figure from the front, with Shaman mask and a ring of seven small bird skulls around his left knee.

Again there are Skullz points to be had on these guys - by my count 12 in total - see photos for details!

This guy has a fighting fist, incorporating a blade plus the had of a Reptilian foe on his left shoulder!

Another view, showing two skulls hanging form his loincloth.

The terrain piece is actually some kind of game marker for Blood Bowl that came wit the Savage Orc set, but it also will work well as a Tomb Kings piece and is a great big SKULLZ point!

The Skull Terrain piece, with two small skulls tucked in by the right hand tusk

The terrain skull, next to the Shaman to show scale.

That's it for now, coming soon are more Arthurians, Necrons and some Elves.... 

SKULLZ                                                               39 Skulls

SQUIRRELS           Arthurians & Tomb Kings      2 Squirrels                                       

POINTS

21 x 28mm Skeletons @ 5 Pts ea                        105 Points

3 x 28mm Savage Orcs @ 5Pts ea                        15 Points

1 x Skull Terrain Piece                                            1 Point

10 x 28mm Arthurians @ 5 Pts ea                        50 Points

TOTAL                                                                171  172 Points 

Wow, you have been quite productive! The Highlands Miniatures are great; although I have a lot of their STL's, I have not yet printed any of them and it's great to see them in the flesh. You have done a fine job on them! I always have a soft spot for Arthurian figures, and yours presented here look great too! Love the hand-painted details on the shields. And the orcs are... well, very orky I guess .  Good job!

Now it is just one of those days, and I have again to be strict: no terrain in this Challenge, except for Limbo. So I'll deduce your skull terrain piece point from the total, but then throw in 2 extra points for the shields. So 172 is the final count!

Martijn

From MikeW: More Savage Orcs and Tau plus 28mm Alamo Cavalry. History & Overdue Bonus, Skulls, Squirrell (260 Points)

 Into the second week of January and my painting production line is moving into full swing, at last! This week I present more Warhammer Fantasy Savage Orcs alongside another group of Warhammer 40K Tau models. In addition I have been working on a long overdue set of historical Alamo 28mm mounted troops.

Let's begin with where I left off last post and finish the Savage Orc unit that I had started last week. Today I have an additional 14 figures, all completed in the same manner as last week's posted figures. Together they make up a 20 strong unit.

The group of 14 Savage Orcs, completed this week.

The colour scheme remains the same - vivid green skin - all that healthy outdoor living by these Savage Orcs - they are armed with a variety if crude weapons, blades made form bone or roughly crafted iron & steel.

A view of the second rank of figures.

As previously noted, I source most of my figures from eBay, these guys being no different. They came partially built and totally unpainted, which was nice. Just a matter of minor surgery to add weapons to hands, or hands to wrists or heads to necks etc!

And the final third rank,
The bone armor makes a good contrast to the green skin of the Orcs.

Armour is bone based with small shards of iron attached to give additional protection by those Orcs with enough mental agility to think of such refinements. Overall I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.

All twenty Savage Orcs re-united. I need to find a suitable standard bearer
and musician for these guys and potentially also a unit boss.

Next, I'll cover the 28mm mounted figures that I have got completed this week. These are for my Alamo collection, these figures are from Boothill Miniatures, they have been sitting in my drawers for a couple years and it was high time to get them painted!

Eight Alamo related 28mm mounted figures, long waiting to get finished!

There are six Mounted Alamo Volunteers, these are Anglo-Mexicans who fought on the side of the Texas Republic. Figures were undercoated white and then I used speed paints to block in the horse flesh and a variety of browns, greys and blues etc on the little guy's chaps, clothes and weapons etc.

First three Alamo Volunteers, a lot of leather on show for these figures,
I used a red accessories theme to try and tie these guys together in to a unit.

The other three guys, you'll see all the horses have red tassles on their bridles,
I assume this is to keep the flies away. The men have red bandanas or ties around their necks as well.

I believe the two Mexican Irregular Lancers are also Boothill figures but I'm not 100% certain, these were painted in a similar manner to the above.

The two Mexican Irregular Lancers, again with red details (well I had the pot of paint out!)

I used a Flesh wash to add depth to the skin areas and a dark ink wash on the rest of the rest of the figures to add shading and keep them in line with the rest of the collection.

Next group was my continuing saga with the Tau, I have completed another three Stealth Warriors in much the same style and method as the first three that I submitted. 

Three more Stealth Warriors, I really like the size and feel of these Stealth Suits.
They seem easier than the regular troopers to paint.

Next there are a group of nine Tau troopers including a Gue'Vesa (Human) Squad Leader.

This week's batch of Tau

Additionally I found a fantastic Sci-Fi figure on eBay that I fell in love with as soon as I saw him, thinking that he'd make a great Tau Gue'Vesa - possibly even a alternative for a Tau Ethereal...

My 'Proxy' Ethereal.
I just liked the pose and the feel of this figure!
No idea who manufactured it....

Finally I painted a Tau Rocket Launcher, again in the same colour scheme as the rest of the army that I'm putting together.

Is it a figure or a terrain piece? I'll leave that to or minion!

So in completing this week's Tau figures, I realised my schoolboy error on the basing! I've not been using my usual brown gloop on these bases, instead I'm using an Orange 'Hobby' paint, all well and good for the desired look but I've forgotten to add in PVA glue - so there are issues with the sand and tufts remaining stuck to the base. 

The solution I have used here is to use a generous coating of mat varnish to soak into the basing materials, hopefully this will fix the issue. I have retro fitted this solution to my other completed Tau and all new figures will get the PVA added to the base when the orange paint is applied. The perils of experimenting with new solution!

Four new Tau Troopers, with a Gue'Vesa Sqad Leader on the left.

The rest of the squad

Points wise I think my submission this week is pretty straight forward, however, I'll have to call on my already 'long suffering' minion for a ruling on the points for the Tau Rocket Launcher. I have claimed 5 Points - as per all other 28mm figures - but this may be considered to be a piece of terrain. I'll go with whatever is decided!

Additionally I'm claiming the Historical Bonus for the Alamo Mounted Volunteers and the Overdue Bonus for the Mexican Irregular Lancers, I see others have had this allowed as we are limited to one posting per week so hopefully everyone will think that is fair.

Completed two new locations in the Challenge Library

What's coming next - hopefully in the next week or so there will be some Goblin Frog Riders, more Tau and some Warlords Epic ECW Scots Covenantors, as well as General Santa Anna, a mounted Polish Kettle drummer and who knows what else takes my fancy...

Highlands Miniatures Swamp Gobllin Frog Riders.

Highlands Miniatures Frog for the above Riders.

Undercoarted Warlord Epic ECW Infantry on the frame

POINTS

14 x Savage Orcs @ 5 Points ea                                        70 Points

10 x Tau @ 5 Points ea                                                       50 Points

1 x Tau Rocket Launcher @ 5 Points ea                               5 Points

3 x Tau Stealth Warriors @ 5 Points ea                             15 Points

6 x 28mm Alamo Mounted Volunteers @10 Points ea     60 Points

2 x 28mm Mexican Lancers @10 Points ea                      20 Points

Historical Bonus                                                                  20 Points

Overdue Bonus                                                                   20 Points

TOTAL                                                                                 260 Points

+2 Skulls

+1 Squirrel (Fantasy Orcs, 40K Tau, 28mm VBCW & 28mm Alamo)

 

 Sylvain: Good Lord, that's quite the point bomb we have here! The Tau units are superb, their color scheme really fits their fluff. The Orcs look mean and crisp, a job well done with the paint brush. And the Alamo's "Band of Brothers" will impose their presence on the battlefield not only with their huge weapons but also with their huge mustachios! That was a very productive week for you!

From MikeW - Warhammer 40k Tau, Fantasy Savage Orcs and various 28mm Figures, Squirell & Skulls (125 Points)

 I've switched my focus back to the Tau as I have now completed 5 x trooopers, 1 x drone, 3 x Stealth Fighters and 2 x Crisis Battlesuits. All with the same white and Orange theme that I piloted in my first post of the challenge.

Two Tau Fighters in Crisis Suits,
large Sci-Fi mechs, with varied weapons load-outs 

Rear view of the same

Close-up of one of the Tau Mechs.

...and the other one.

The three Stealth Suit Fighters have benefited from being slightly larger models that the standard Tau Troopers, this made the pinlining of the armour panels much easier to do and I'm pleased with the results. Again these guys have the same white armour, painted in the same manner as previously described, with random orange panels, the only item that remains constant  is that all models will have a left knee pad that is orange.

Three Tau warriors in Stealth Suits,
these are similar is size to old school Space Marine Terminators

These guys each carry a heavy weapon in their left hand and have various load-outs on their back packs and antenna as required.

Reverse view of the Tau Stealth Warriors

The Crisis Suit Fighters are the smallest of the Tau 'Big Mechs' and these two were sourced from eBay and came pre-made with the load-outs that you can see. Again these figures were undercoated in a grey and then dry-brushed light grey and then white before applying several white glazes to bring out the highlights.

Business end of a Large Plasma Gun

Again the panel lining is easier due to their size but also due to their size tere are alot more panels to line! The black is done with GW Black Templar contrast paint, whlist the panel lines are GW Aggrax Earthshade.

Reverse side of the other Mech, with a combat Force Field shield

The weapons on each figure vary, I believe each can have upto 4 weapons attached to their 'hardpoints' but each has only three. (I may add more later as I build p a supply of spares).

Tau Droid to spport the additional Tau Troopers

Regarding Points, I have counted the Stealth Suit Warriors as regular 28mm figures, my logic being these are similar to Space Marine Terminators who get scored that way and also counted the drone as a regular figure as well. For the Crisis Suit figures I have counted these as 28mm vehicles, as they are considerably bigger than regular figures - I have seen similar in posts to older challengers but happy to be corrected if that oversteps the mark.

Tau Trooper section with a Gue'Vesa on the left 

Size comparison of Crisis Suit, Stealth Suit and regular Tau Trooper

The other items that I have been working on are a first batch of Savage Orcs, the first six figures of a twenty strong unit, which I'll hopeflly finish in the next week or so.

First six Savage Orcs, of a twety strong nit that I'm working on!

These guys were again sourced on eBay and they were a ready made totally unpainted unit with a few figures needing a bit of TLC to either complete their construction or put back together where they had broken. 

Close-up od three of the Savage Orcs

These are essentially wild Orcs, with very few clothes on them except for the skins of various beasts that they have slain. These figures are heavy on bone weapons and body ornamentation and again disappointinly sparce on skulls, only two in this first batch!

The painting method was essentially the same as in my last post bit with the lack of clothing to distract the eye, the skin has appeared to retain a very vivid green hue. I have offset the skin with alot of attention to the bone and this was achieved with an ivory paint job, washed with GW Skeleton Horde and the highlighted with more Ivory and then White.

The remaining three, just 2 skulls between them all!

I opted for the Lizard skin clothing to be blue, so this is an Army Painter Blue Speed paint, then dry brushed with a sky blue before being washed with a dark blue ink to pull the colours together.

Finally I have also completed a few 28mm figures for some of my historical interests. Of these I have 5 x Interwar British Infantry, these are Wargames Atlantic plastics, built to represent a faction in a proposed Very British Civil War (VBCW) collection that I'll put together. Some older readers may remember I have done VBCW figures in 20mm previously - but I have decided to go big and swap to 28mm for future figures.

Five Man Infantry Squad, Lewis Gunner on left,
next to his No.2, then two riflemen and an officer.

There is an officer, 3 riflemen and a Lewis Gunner, these guys were undercoated in white, painted with a watered down khaki and webbing and packs in a light brown. I'll claim a Squirrel point for these guys! Hopefully I'll find time to do some more as the challenge progresses.

Another view of the Interwar Infantrymen

Last figure this week is a Polish Late17th Century Foot Officer, armed with a two handed sword, he is destined to command a Polish infantry regiment in my Siege of Vienna collection.

Polish Officer, with two handed sword,
ready to lead a his nit

POINTS

9 x Tau Figures (Stealth, Drone & Troopers) @ 5 Points ea            45 Points

2 x Tau Crisis Suits @ 10 Points ea                                                      20 Points

6 x Savage Orcs @ 5 Points ea                                                              30 Points

6 x 28mm Infantry @ 5 Points ea                                                         30 Points

TOTAL                                                                                                   125 Points 

2 x Skulls

 

Sylvain: The pattern you choose on your Tau unit is very clean and also evocative of Japanese anime. Good job on the pin wash, it really provides depth and definition to your miniatures. After  searching for precedents, I counted your Crisis suits as "mounted figures" for 10 points each. I would be curious to see all your Tau units together, as well as all you have collected so far for your "Siege of Vienna". Joli travail!