From StuartL - Finishing at the Start - 75 Points

Hi all,

Despite a lot of real life stuff going on, I was able to finish off some minis just in time. Both of the batches below represent new projects for me, hence the title of the post.

Many years ago, I got into Napoleonics with some friends at my local gaming group. I bought a few brigades of Waterloo era British, while those around me collected French, Russians, Austrians and Prussians, though mainly for the slightly earlier period. Unfortunately, all of my opponents moved away or changed hobbies completely. This left me with a bit of a problem. Having only one force meant that they would never see the table. So, I figured that I would have to start collecting a second army. While I was tempted to get a Waterloo era French force, I decided to go for the earlier uniforms. I got a couple of boxes of Perrys 1807-14 French for Christmas, but I haven't had time to start building them yet. I did want to do something for the challenge, so I had a friend print me some artillery.

    These are some French Foot Artillery from Battlecat Miniatures on MyMiniFactory. They were fairly easy to paint up and the details were nice and sharp. The gun limbers have very deep grain on the wood, which doesn't look so realistic up close, but at tabletop level it should be fine.

    I did have some trouble getting all of the minis onto the bases I had, especially the guy adjusting the wheel position. Some parts of the figure are sticking out over the edge of the base.

    
    These are really nice minis and I am thinking to have my friend print a few more for me. I have a couple of French generals printed as well, but sadly time was not on my side. 

    The second new force is more Space Marines. I have way too many Space Marine armies, (cough, 14 different armies including this one), I think I may have a problem. My armies come in two types, Horus Heresy armies and Badab War armies. These are both primarily Marine Vs. Marine conflicts, which explains why I have so many. I have dabbled with the new Primaris figures, but sold them on as they weren't really my thing.

    These five minis represent half of an assault squad for the Star Phantoms Chapter for the Badab War. Painting this much white was not as much fun as you might expect. 

    The Star Phantoms' background hints that they are an offshoot of the Dark Angels Legion, from the Dreadwing formation, which uses the same iconography. Their preferred tactical doctrines are 'Scorched Earth' and 'War Crimes'. They lean heavily into the 40K skull motif too.

     I have a bunch more models for this force lined up, so hopefully there will be more to come in the next challenge.

    Well, that is about all from me for this year. So, this final group should score me:

2x artillery pieces = 20 Points

6x French gun crews = 30 Points

5x Space Marines = 25 Points

    That should add 75 Points to my tally, taking me well past my target number, though not as high as previous years. 

    This lot get me two last Squirrels and the Star Phantoms have 32 Skulls between them.

  My ongoing duels information:

Skulls - 271 (+32)
BSRoD - 17 (+0)
Squirrels - 20 (+2) - D&D Animals, 30K Militia, Plague Clowns, Afghans, Robots, Anglo-Saxons, Medieval Polish, Clan Smoke Jaguar, 81st West Africans, Undead, 10mm FPW French, Daemons of Khorne, Modern Vehicles, Turnip28, Space Wolves, Free French, Arabs, Snake Folks, French Napoleonics, Star Phantoms.

__________________________________

I know you've been very busy as of late so it's nice to see you back for a final volley, Stuart. 

The Star Phantoms are very nice in their stark white livery and close combat weaponry. That being said, the stars of this post (at least for me) are the French artillery. I've seen several examples of Battle Cat figures during this year's Challenge and they look very nice (I think the deep woodgrain is a nice feature as it helps with painting). You've done a great job on this small battery and I look forward to seeing more from this project next Challenge! 

Until then have a great rest of the year!

- Curt

From SteveA: Space Marines, old Beaky Mark 6 Crimson Fists (25 points)

 After indulging my impulse last week inspired by my recent playing's of Space Marine 2 to reach deep into my old pile of grey shame to paint some old Mark 7 Space Marines minis as Ultramarines, I had intended to return my brushes and attentions to the pressing matter of me putting pigment on the many minis urgently needed in table top quality for those several table tops games I have jaw wagged to my peers that I imminently will play...  However, as I sought to reseal my battered box of old and and unpainted minis where I keep all my many near forgotten space marines,  that pile of shame stirred, shifted as if jostled by a ripple from the warp and reached back at me!

A couple boxes of the original Games Workshop Space Marines Mark 6 Armor kits represented my crossing the line from collector of a few D&D minis into a dabbler of table top Wargames, with fever dreams of many fully painted armies for many games, and thus the line was crossed, more minis purchased than painted, the cycle began and thereby the piles of shame was born.  Now,  just over 2 decades later, these same old beaky marines refused to return again to the dark and dust, demanding I honor my decades old paint-sworn oath to paint them as near as their box art as I was able!

So with some Vallejo blues, bronze and black I endeavored to improve upon the Crimson Fist painting I had last done oh so long ago when I had hair atop my head rather than only whickers upon my chin.  

Some years of more experience with brush and paint, and the magic of liquid talent found within pots of Nuln oil and Agrax Earth shade did yield some more satisfying results than the small army of Crimson Fists I had painted as my first army of my wargaming and mini hobby.

Now these 5 stand on display in my mini display case,  in front of their few dozen Crimson Fist brothers that I had painted and played in my youth back when there were fewer editions of 40k than I had fingers on my hand.  Hereon, at least for the remainder of this year,  I hope my Marines dreams are sated and abated, and my next posts will be points for the armies I aim to play in the near coming days.  But painting space smurfs these past couple weeks has made me happy,  infusing  my other models in progress with more fun, and knocked off some of the oldest dust upon the pile of grey that pleasantly haunts me!

Total 25 Points:

25  pts = 5x5pts 28mm Foot Figure Space Marines

Great stuff here Steve! The RTB-01 Space Marines are awesome and it's great to see some more painted. It's great that you mention good old Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade... I recall that the first plastic Space Marines I painted in the late '80s were Space Wolves in grey. We didn't have washes back then but my "painting mentor" had a technique where he used a dark brown oil-based "antiquing stain." This was applied liberally to the model and quickly wiped off with a paper towel, leaving shade in the recessed parts... wow things were primitive back then!

Twenty-five points for your tally!

Dallas 

From SteveA: Ultramarine Space Marines (30 points)

Sometimes the pile of shame demands attention over the logic of current gaming endeavors.  None of the top 10 miniature war games in my current list of games I am working towards preparing to field and play require any Space Marines, and yet, the Emperor plucks at my frayed spinal nerves like a drunken minstrel bothering an electric lute, reminding me of past passions and oaths almost lost to an aging mind.... 

Since I have been casually playing SPACE MARINE 2 the video game,  the grey and nearly forgotten Marines in my pile o'shame have been calling out "Paint Me!, Display Me!!"  and to Heck with the Armies for games you are actually aiming to play right now!

Thusly, I have thrust my hand deep into the heap of grey and pulled free these 6 mark 7 marines that had gathered naught but dust over 25 years, and here I now have painted as Ultra Marines, in denial of the forces for games I aim to field and play in the near coming years, but none the less welcome within my display shelves, as it was the Space Marines that did pull me into this fine mini painting hobby that both vexes and delights us! 

Perhaps now my mind and brush can be freed to paint more pressingly relevant things..

Total 30 Points:

30 pts = 6x5pts 28mm Foot figure  Space Marines

Squirrel: Switch up from previous post  10mm BlackPowder American Civil War Union to 28mm 40k Space Marines. . ** However, given blue is a predominate uniform color for both current and previous posts  I will endeavor to accept  Squirrel point submissions negated by my failing to escape blue shift between posts..

Skullz:   7  ( 7 human and alien Skullz decorating bases, I totally added skulls to these bases for ticking points on the AHPC skullz challege)

Well! These are some pretty nice Space Marines Steve. I've never painted Ultramarines myself but it looks to me like you've really nailed the blue armour here. It's always great to see models whose existence is measured in decades get that lick of paint to finish them!

Thirty points for you!

Dallas

From PeterB: Blood Angel Terminators - The Angels (40 points)

Well, it was tight, but I managed to get to every location. Last week we left the Fixed Stars of Faith, Hope and Love. So, there is just one stop left, The Angels.

My first ever attempt at painting was a Space Marine that came free with the first issue of White Dwarf I ever bought. I only had my Dad's Humbrol gloss paints to do it and I am a little bit glad that I no longer have that model. I do have the magazine though, not the original copy, but a recent ebay bargain replacement.

Keen FW historians will know that this issue has the photo in it that I shared on the blog back in January as inspiration for my recent Blood Angel project.

I am still painting more of the vintage models I have for these Angels, so to finish off I have four Blood Angel Terminators. Three of which are armed with my favourite of all close combat weapons in the Warhammer universe, the lightning claws. (Snickety snick!)

There should be a fifth one for the squad but as I only have four painting handles I normally paint things in fours. I have not had time to finish number 5 as these were finished just five minutes ago. (Including still drying transfers.)

So, finishing off with a score.

Location 20 points

4 x 28mm infantry, 20 points

Total 40 points.

Oh PS, skull count. Those lovely lightning claws have loads of skulls on them.

Sergeant has 9 skulls.

Each other chap has 11 skulls.

Total skull count 42.

Congratulations on completing your Dante journey, Peter! These Blood Angels don't look very angelic to me with their menacing claws, but there you go. They are very well done though! Thanks for showing us all your fabulous work, and perhaps we will see the final Space Marine (or something else) in the final days of the Challenge? In the meantime, 40 more points for you.

Martijn

(PS: don't forget to report your skulls to the Duels Wallah!)

From Barks: More 40K (136 points)

Because of reasons, this may be my last post this Challenge. I've not reached my ambitious target, but it has been good to get paint on figures. Starting with some 'nids:

10 termagants

6 genestealers. I really dislike these particular sculpts.
Full of moldlines and soft detail, and hard to parse what is what.

Next we have some more sneaky specialist marines, to round off the lads I did a few weeks ago:

Medic

Comms dude

Heroic commander

These next troops are Reivers, specialising in behind-the-lines terror with their signature Crocodile Dundee blades, skull helms, and anti-grav backpack vanes that I'm sure will snap off. I used 3D printed pauldrons- and I don't actually like them. They lack the charm of the hand-painted ones.

5 Reivers. I do like their dynamic posing.

Sergeant denoted by helmet stripe

So, 16x 28mm tyranids: 80 points

8 x big marines: 56 points

Can-opener +56 points

Skulls +20 (total 38)

I'll see if I can get a small amount more done before the end.

From Millsy:

More glorious 40K for me to drool over thanks mate!

I totally agree re these genestealer sculpts but unfortunately there's not a huge choice on offer so we have to make do. They look great regardless and will still terrorise your enemies I've no doubt.

I'm not sure how being bright yellow and eight feet tall qualifies as "sneaky", especially given how much electromagnetic radiation these guys must give off! Whatever else they may or may not be they're superbly painted and a reminder I must try your yellow recipe.

136 points added to your score Barks. Can you get to 1000 be Challenge end or will "reasons" prevail?

Cheers,
Millsy

From JamesM: Primaris Jump Assault Squad (37 points)

Hi folks,

Another small entry of bigger than usual models from me. A squad of five Primaris assault marines of the Crimson Fist chapter. These are the newer GW figures, wearing the jump-pack-equipped version of Mk.10 armour. 

At the end of December, I used this squad in a basecoat stage for our club's 'one-page rules' tourney. They were less effective than I'd hoped, but fingers crossed, now that they are properly painted, their performance will increase!

Still, they are cool models with lots of nice details. I've decalled them up as per the rest of my painted collection of these marines. Rather than putting them on flight stands, I decided to have them land, take off, and leap over piles of rubble. This should hopefully provide a bit more stability than flight pegs. 

In total points, 5 x 40mm minis are at 35pts in total. 

TeemuL: A nice group and variation for the wintery theme we have had today. I guess I have painted one squad of those, too, and I have another one in a box. Crimson Fists are iconic part of the 40k lore and you have done terrific job on highlighting them. Extra mention to the dusting of legs and tying them to the bases. I'll give a small bonus for the overall effect.

From DallasE: The Emperor and Horus - Homage to Mike McVey (20 points)

If you're over 40 and played Warhammer 40K I bet you recognize these models. Back in the days of second edition, one Mike McVey headed up the painting crew at GW and what a talent he was. One of the amazing projects he undertook for the Studio was a diorama based on an Adrian Smith illustration, "The Emperor vs. Horus" from back in 1990. I've put a pic of the illustration at the end of this post.

So ever since then I've wanted to have these models to paint for myself. This desire was only reinforced when I saw the original diorama at Warhammer World in 2019. Unfortunately the models in the diorama were one-offs converted and sculpted by McVey - he said in an article in White Dwarf #183 that the Emperor model had parts from eight other models and some sculpted detail too. Horus was similar.  I even tried my hand at a Horus conversion myself, so desperate was I.

Fast forward to this year. I'd seen some 3D prints of models sculpted by a man called BigMrTong, a fellow who's also an enthusiast of the Golden Age of GW. In fact I bought a set of amazing Rogue-Trader-style skeletons in spacesuits (wielding RTB01 bolters no less) and needed to know more. So I joined his Facebook group...

...and nearly lost it when I saw this model, painted by one of the group's members. I hoped it was a 3D print but was quite deflated to learn that it was a metal sculpt produced (along with Horus) in a limited run by BigMrTong. He picks up the story of their origin: "a guy was finding all the parts used in the original conversions and I found the final few bits and then tracked down all the original parts, then resculpted the custom parts, finally casting up a few sets with that base for display." 

Sadly (and unsurprisingly) they quickly sold out, but after I reached out to him, BigMrTong came to the rescue by offering to sell me a set he'd held onto himself. I couldn't get out my wallet fast enough, and after a week or so the parcel arrived with the Emprah, Horus, the 3D-printed diorama base, and a smaller bit of stair for the Emperor to stand on. 

What can I say about these models? They're fantastic and were super-fun to paint. I'd always wanted a set of these models and BMT made it happen.

                                       

Freehand here on the shoulder pad and power fist [pats self on back]

Here's Horus, looking mean and moody. A word about the painting. Having only a fraction of Mr. McVey's skill, I painted the armour in straightforward red and white. However, if you've seen the original models, you know that McVey painted the armour in a very detailed freehand filigree style, it just looks stupendous but like I said, well beyond my skill level.

I cheated a bit on the freehand here, the base was a decal from "Chaos Decal Sheet 1" from the 1990s. I painted the white around it and the colours on the eye.

As you can see here I've actually magnetized these too. I ended up sinking one small neodymium disc magnet into the bottom of one foot on each model, then putting a somewhat larger disc magnet in the appropriate positions on the diorama base and 32mm round bases.

That way Horus and the Emprah can actually take part in a tabletop game if we want - however unlikely that is.  

Supposedly the original head here was a part from the old Leman Russ model, with the hair carved off. Looks scary.

Here's the original diorama just in case anybody needs a reminder of how good it was. 

And here's the picture it was based on. So good.

I know that the world of GW has moved on some in the last 30 years, but I miss metal models and the original lore, before everything got so serious. Let us not forget that the "Horus Heresy" was only invented because Space Marines were the only models made for the Space Marine (epic scale) game and there had to be some reason that Space Marines were fighting each other. But that was before there were 200 books published telling the story of the Heresy. Whatever.

Anyway I had such fun painting these models. Gotta say a big thank-you to BigMrTong for the sculpts and for selling me these models from his personal collection. If you like RT-era GW please check out his stuff (Facebook or Google works) and support his work.

And also - big thanks to the Snowlord for setting up the Challenge and to my minion Kyle for his work too.

Lastly - for these two 28mm models and the diorama base that's... 15 points :-D 

TeemuL: There seems to be no "Nostalgia" topic in the Library, this would have scored about 40 000 bonus points from that section, I think. What a story to get your hands on these models, tells a lot about the part of commuity that still exists there and loves the good old GW stuff. Tracking all the parts and then sculpting the rest and casting in metal... And your brushwork, you might not be Mike McVey, but you have honoured his work in an excellent way. I'll throw 5 more points for the free hand, the pure nostalgia and the reason's of the spreadsheet. :)

From PeterB - The last visit to the Library with a few stragglers - 65 points

Are we really at the end already? It seems like five minutes since we started. My favourite thing about the challenge is that it fills that gap between Christmas and the first show I go to each year, Salute. Next month I will be off to London for the day where I will do my best to refill the leadpile again. These couple of months really keep my hobby itch occupied until then.

When I first glanced at the challenge map I wasn't sure I would be successfully traversing it, never mind visiting every stack. A task that wasn't necessary and only a crazy fool like myself would attempt. Last stop, Biography.

For this stop I have painted the historical figure of Jeanne De Clisson, known as the Lioness of Brittany. Jeanne was a French/Breton noblewoman born in 1300. In 1330 she married her husband Olivier de Clisson. Both of them were previously widowed and Olivier had a son from his first marriage. They then went on to have five children. In 1342 Olivier was captured by the English when they attacked the city of Vannes. His release was eventually arranged but the French Kings Lieutenant, Charles de Blois, declared the ransom too low and therefore accused Olivier of being a traitor and not defending the city to his fullest. After a failed attempt at a rescue by Jeanne and Oliviers oldest son, Jean, Olivier was beheaded in August 1343.

For her attempts to rescue her husband, Jeanne was now charged with Rebellion, disobediance and excesses against the King. (Oh and she also tried bribing the King's Sergeant) Jean died in June of that year and now Jeanne was tried in absense. Jeanne swore revenge against the King, sold all her estates, raised a force of 400 men and had three ships converted for Piracy. A 13 year career of piracy and privateering for the English followed. Jeanne died in December 1359 a few weeks after the death of her fourth husband Walter Bentley.

The model as you may have guessed (if you didn't already know) is from Bad Squiddo Games. She is sculpted by the talented Kev White.

The Space Orks painting has continued as well. A slaver and some Nobs. (They really did have fun with naming stuff back in the 90s.) The Nobs were all missing arms, so a good delve in the bits box later and some cutting and filing and I was quite pleased with the result.

As I have left it to the very end to complete all the stacks, I shall not be requesting a challenge from Head Librarian Curt for the last stack for Rare and Antique books as I have run out of time. I will however, give an alternative finish to the challenge that I have been saving from my old school 40K project. What better to paint for the end of the challenge than a Librarian?

Another model that I first painted back in the 90's, he has had a good dip in biostrip. He did have a couple of layers of paint on him. I first painted him entirely red, then discovered that in those days Librarians all wore blue and only had their army colours on one shoulder. Then he had another layer of paint from repainting all my Spam when I was enthusiastic about Brazen Brass shaded with brown ink. 

It took a good 24 hour dip to get him shiny and new and now you can see the details again that were lost in the thick crust of paint. I'm not overly happy with the banner, but I can easily print off some others to try until I am happy. 

So to my final points

7 x 28mm infantry. 7 x 5 = 35 points

1 x 28mm cavalry. 1 x 10 = 10 points

1 location = 20 points

Total = 65 Points.

From Millsy: Ahh..... seeing goblin green bases on orcs is like sitting in the sun, it's just good for the soul. Love what you've done with them Peter, especially the deep red and the arm conversions have worked a treat. I wouldn't have known some were swapped in had you not said so. Jeanne De Clisson is great work too and I really enjoyed the backstory. Nice work and another 65 points for your tally mate!