From TeemuL: Elven Heroes (25 points)

My last entry for AHPC XV are these metal High Elf heroes from Games Workshop's LotR range.

There's Elladan and Elrohil (or vice versa), Erestor and then two different sculpts of Glorfindel. All painted with blue cloaks, golden armour with bluish mithril chainmail and green pieces of clothes to mark their nobility - my high elf infantry are coloured in similar way, but they don't have any greens.

They are bit rushed here and there, but on the other hand I'm very happy with some of the details or colours, the cloaks look quite like what I intended for example. The golden armour too, especially the helmets. They are all heroes, but they all from the same force, so limited palette was chosen. It might be easier to game with these if Elladan and Elrohir would have different colours for example, but not me!

Erestor and armoured Glorfindel are very similar, clearly sculpted at the same time, I assume. The newer Glorfindel is a different thing, very heroic and massive cloak compared to the other two. The cloaks of the brothers are similar to this one, probably from the same era. Although there are newer sculpts of the brothers, so I might be mistaken.

I believe 25 points is correct for 5 minis. Now I go to sleep and wake up tomorrow morning about an hour before the Challenge ends. I hope Curt and other minions can handle the barrage of remaining hours! 

___________________________________

Lovely work Teemu. I really like saturated blues and greens you've used for these figures - it gives them a very regal air. As time passing from the release of the first LotR movies I am constantly astonished at the number and variety of models GW has created describing Tolkien's character, with some having many different models depicting them at different times in their lives. It's amazing. 

Teemu, thank you for your participation, your faithful and kind comments to others and your minioning of the Thursday crew. It's all very much appreciated by myself and others. I look forward to seeing you with us for the next edition of the Challenge.

- Curt

From TeemuL: Parade in Paradise [The Ambitious] [The Lovers] [The Just Rulers] (100 points)

So I have been stuck in Paradise for some time now after clearing the First Circle: The Inconstant. Since that I have been painting everything else, searched for female miniatures and browsed dictionaries to figure out what all those fancy words mean and how I can twist them to fit my minis.

I was planning to use my Ambition entry for Wise, but lacking the females and time I had to make some changes. But I guess Gandalf is considered wise, but also ambitious: "A figure that is as keen as mustard, an overachiever".

I'll kill the Balrog, resurrect myself, replace the head of my order, be a kingmaker, ride couple of days and nights, make vaque promises and keep them and so on.

Does that sound an overachiever? It does to me. And this mini is Gandalf the White version by Games Workshop, a nice metal model, which I tried to paint white. Yes, lots of whites and shades of white, but I think it is ok.

Assuming my reasoning is valid I can move to the third circle and present The Lovers. Yes, Lannisters in paradise... Not the most usual love story, brother and sister loving each other and their common son. Jaime and Cersei Lannister with Tommen. There were some lust, some other strong feelings, too, but definitely some love. And at least Jaime and Cersei both loved Tommen, so that is my backup plan for Lovers.

These are from CMON box Lannister Heroes 3 and are plastic as the previous ones. Not that many details, but that makes them fast to paint. I'm happy with Jaime, but I guess Cersei would have liked more royal outfit, I don't know. I gave Jaime the white cloak of King's guard, I believe he was part of that even after losing his hand.

I'm not familiar with the game A Song of Ice and Fire where these belong, but these look quite strange heroes for a wargame. Queen (regent?) in a dress with his young son and a knight on his knees with a bandaged hand. Not may be the types you expect to see in the first line, but Seven Kingdoms is an interesting place.

Next stop is The Just Rulers. I'll present King Aragorn before he was wise and just king. Yes, I was planning to use Gandalf as Wise, but my female transportation options were scarce. Aragorn was very clever even before he was crowned king. Here he is from the "Two Towers era", where he was told "When last I looked, Théoden, not Aragorn, was king of Rohan." and kept his mouth wisely shut and later became king of Gondor.

He reigned long and died peacefully, made clever pacts and bowed to hobbits. In general considered as a good guy, I think I could have used him as the Ambitious one, too... But yes, he was just ruler, lived a long life and learnt a lot from elfs and men and even something from dwarfs and hobbits and ents. I think I could have used him as the Wise one, too? Tells something about the works of Tolkien, that his characters are definitely not one dimensional.

I've been talking about the female minis here and there and you might realize, that one must use a female or angel mini to jump over circles and I have just come from 3rd to 6th circle and I can't use Cersei for transport so I need to present something else.

Let me present you Bertha the Bear, the famous female bear!

This is a metal bear from Warbases, I ordered her at the same time I ordered the bases for Napoleonics. I know there has been some strong rulings in the past regarding female bears, but I believe they are all sorted out now?

But if I'm mistaken and Bertha is not counted, I have another classic from Challenge Wednesdays, Dorothy Dromedar!

She is from Warbases, too. She has quite a strong mould line on her back, looks good from one angle, but terrible from other. Both Bertha and Dorothy are mainly painted using Contrast paints with some details added and especially the underbellies and legs drybrushed.

Sarah the Shootist is the last and third female of this post and she makes it sure that I can pass.

She is a plastic from Great Escape Games Gunfighters II box and painted mostly with traditional acrylics. Green and brown sounded like practical colours, violet scarf gives a hinf of her feminity. Little bit dusted clothes to match my other Old West minis.

With these I have gone through 4 circles in Paradise and can either pick The Warriors of Faith or The Contemplatives next. I need to browse through the dictionary again...

I'd say this is 8 (6 humans and 2 animals of different sizes) 28mm minis in total for 40 points and then three locations for total of 100 points! I have more to come before the Challenge ends!

Wow Teemu, you've pulled out all the stops with this entry! I really like your interpretation of The Ambitious, The Lovers, and The Just Ruler - each one a terrific example of those themes. Bertha the Bear made me laugh aloud (and I'm sure Ray will do the same) and Sarah the Shootist looks truly formidable, ready to draw her long-barrelled Colt if the need arrises. Brilliant work, sir!

- Curt

From TeemuL: Riddles in the Dark [Children's book] [Self Help] (100 points)

While figuring out which could be the fourth section to enter and finish, I wonder back to the section one and finish the "Children's Book" section with these resin minis from Games Workshop. These are of course Bilbo and Gollum from the "Riddles in the Dark" blister for the Middle-Earth Strategy Game and they are based on the world famous children's book Hobbit or there and back again. Professor Tolkien used to tell this story to his kids and eventually he wrote it as a book and got it published. Adults like this book, too, and especially it's sequel Lord of the Rings, while some hard core fans like the prequels, like Silmarillion or the Book of the Lost Tales.

Like I said, this minis are resin and because they are quite small, they are very light and different to work with after painting some metal minis or larger plastic ones recently. In the end the painting process was rather simple, although it took a time to get there. Bilbo has brown pants, green shirt and red coat and that's about it. Gollum has pale skin and brown loincloth. The third object is Gollum's boat next to a rock with remains of fish. I tried to paint the rock next to the boat and the one on Gollum's base with some green to get a mossy effect, but I think there is too much, at least in the photos.

In general there is a basecoat, wash and some highlight/drybrush here and there. The basing is my standard brown without the tufts, since the scene is located underground and I guess there is little plants.

And then the fourth section, which will be Section 6. I head straight to the Self Help topic. I guess most of us (if not all) have been stressing about the unpainted minis and what to paint next, feeling bad about buying new minis, while there is a mountain waiting to paint at home. Some Self Help is needed, while the support from other's is important, too. I have learnt that, instead of looking at the whole mountain, just take a look at the smaller detail and forget the rest. For example take a one box of minis, assemble, prime and paint it, then take the next one.

It might be useful to have two or three boxes open at the same time, each "project" in different stage or perhaps each project needing different techniques to finish. That way you can switch from one project to another, if one of them is not interesting at the moment or has some drying paint and you still want to paint. Just switch the project and continue.

One of my goals in this Challenge is to empty-and-finish several miniature boxes, which links nicely to this Self Help topic once I understood it. It gives me pleasure and makes me happy to have one box or unit or whatever completed and I can move to the next one. For example these Type 97 Te-Ke tanks from Battlefront are my only minis for 15mm Pacific War and I find it extremely unlikely to have any gaming use for them in the near future, but I still wanted to paint them after buying them from a sale several years ago. Now they are painted, the box is empty and in general I will have more storage space and more painted minis, which makes me feel good about myself. Naturally I have bought more minis this year than I have painted, which makes me feel not so good in general, but these small moments of happiness is all what counts, right? Self help and self deception, ok?

Type 97 Te-Ke tanks were used by Japans in the WW2 and compared to the late war beasts in Europe these look rather small. In fact they were used for scouting and recon. The box comes with two different turrets for each tank, most commonly with a machine guns, but some 37mm guns were used on some. I have painted the both options, the first two photos show the MG versions and the bottom two show the 37mm gun versions. Unfortunately one of the guns (second left) snapped at some point and it looks a bit odd now. There are also 5 tank commanders in total, each roughly a half mini.

I was prepared to paint a characterful yellow cross camo, but my very quick look at the refenrence told me, that the yellow cross was not used in the late war, so I just went with the three colour camo with khaki as a base colour and dark brown and dark green as additions. I gave a brown wash and pale drybrush in the end, but they look may be a bit too dark, I don't know. Anyway, they are finished now and my happiness factor has went up a little. I didn't paint any identifications on these, since I know next to nothing of them.

Here is the map showing my progress.

And here is my collection of empty boxes during the Challenge. I hope to add at least one more.

Then the points:

2 hobbits (historically scored as 28mm minis) is 10 points

1 boat is about the size of a hobbit, so may be 5 points? It is a vehicle, so 20 points? :)

5 15mm tanks is 40 points

5 15mm half men is 5 points

5 extra turrets may be 5 points?

2 library locations is 20 points 40 points

Total is somewhere in the region of 105 points regarding how my minion likes to score the extra turrets and the boat. :)

 

TOTAL = 100 points

 

 Sylvain: As usual, your location bonus topics are very well chosen and well argued. Your brush work on these models shows great mastery, especially the camouflage pattern on the Japanese tanks. I am sure that this newly painted core collection for the Pacific will have a domino effect and soon you will acquire more tanks and soon you will start petting them and whisper to them: "My Preciousss..."

 

I took away points from the boat and the turrets but gave back some for the location. A fair trade in my opinion :-).  

 

From SimonM: Black Númenóreans, General Kala and 15mm Black Adder Combat Lifters (31 Points)

Alongside pigmenting a quartet of Robomen Guards by "Black Tree Design" for the Overdue and Returns Library desk, I've also managed to squeeze in a few other miniatures which have been impatiently sat on my painting desk awaiting the start of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (AHPC).

First up are two (more) 28mm 3D printed Black Númenóreans. These are sold by "Fenris6661982" on "eBay", and can be purchased as part of a six-figure 'Buy it now' auction. As I've mentioned before I bought the resin figures as infantry proxies for my Barad Dur army until "Games Workshop" once again produce the "cruel oppressors" for their "The Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game", and resultantly painted them in the same manner as the previous four models I've entered into this year's AHPC.

In short this meant being primed using a mixture of "Vallejo" Surface Primer Black and "Warlord Games" Pitch Black, a heavy dry-brush of “Vallejo” Heavy Charcoal and a drowning in "Citadel" Nuln Oil. The dark-hearted fiends' belts and shield straps were given a lick of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade, whilst their armour, shields and swords received a layer of "Vallejo" Gunmetal. These metallic areas were later shaded using "Nuln Oil", and dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" Gunmetal, before the armour was treated to a splodge of "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade.

This 28mm metal model of a Ruthless Lieutenant is produced by "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" and can be brought as a pack of four figures from their SKU: DEAL 238 Galactic Villains. Clearly inspired by actress Mariangela Melato's portrayal of the ruthless, cold-hearted General Kala in Mike Hodges' 1980 science-fiction movie "Flash Gordon", and has been sat in my Pile of Potential since I first received her way back in 2020 following the Lincolnshire-based company's successful Pulp Sci-Fi Heroes and Villains Kickstarter.

Described as possessing "a merciless streak matching that of Ming and Klytus", the miniature was undercoated with a mixture of "Vallejo" Surface Primer Black and "Warlord Games" Pitch Black, before being dry-brushed in “Vallejo” Heavy Charcoal and shaded with "Citadel" Nuln Oil. I then carefully 'picked out' all her gold finery with some "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, Gold, "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade, a careful dry-brush of (more) "Vallejo" Gold, and an incredibly delicate dry-brush of Silver.

These two 15mm scale Adder Combat Lifters are sold by “Alternative Armies” and can be purchased as Pack Code IAF036C and IAF036D from the company’s "The Ion Age" range. Supplied as a multi-piece metal and resin vehicle, one is "armed with a Fretan Rail Gun in a turret mount", whilst the other carries a Hermit Grenade Launcher. They are approximately 60mm long, 30mm wide and 25mm tall.

Each model was super-glued on to a large-sized plastic "Flames Of War" stand by “Battlefront Miniatures”, and was primed in "Vallejo" Dark Green in order to be the start of a new (not) Dark Angels army. "Used for a variety of purposes and in many variants", the automobiles were then enthusiastically drowned in “Citadel” Nuln Oil, before receiving a heavy dry-brush of (more) "Vallejo" Dark Green using a soft-bristled make-up brush.

I next applied some "Citadel" Abaddon Black to the Combat Lifters' flexible skirts, side panels/windows, rear vents, front headlamp frames and giant guns. Some of these areas were subsequently 'picked out' using a combination of "Vallejo" Gunmetal and "Citadel" Nuln Oil. In addition, I used a dollop of "Two Thin Coats" White Star and a wash of "Vallejo" Pale Grey on each hover-tank's trio of lights, and lastly applied some old(ish) "Games Workshop" Dark Angels decals to mark the vehicles out as belonging to the First Legion.

Three x 28mm scale foot figures = 15 Points

Two x 15mm scale Vehicles = 16 Points

Total = 31 Points

Two posts on one day! You are spoiling us, Simon. More dark things, I see. A fine selection of figures and vehicles, I must say. Your Ruthless Lieutenant  is my favourite, the black and gold is very striking. Another 31 points on the board!

Martijn

From SimonM: Black Númenórean Warriors by "Fenris6661982" + Fantasy Books Bonus (40 points)

These four 28mm 3D printed Black Númenóreans are sold by "Fenris6661982" on "eBay", and can be purchased as part of a six-figure 'Buy it now' auction. "Seduced and corrupted by Sauron", the resin miniatures were bought as infantry proxies for my Barad Dur army until "Games Workshop" once again produce the "cruel oppressors" for their "The Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game".

The quartet were initially primed using a mixture of "Vallejo" Surface Primer Black and "Warlord Games" Pitch Black, before being heavily dry-brushed with “Vallejo” Heavy Charcoal and soaked in "Citadel" Nuln Oil. I then 'picked out' their belts and shield straps with a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade, before applying some "Vallejo" Gunmetal to the warriors' ornate armour, and swords.

These metallic areas were subsequently drowned with (more) “Citadel” Nuln Oil and later dry-brushed with (more) “Vallejo” Gunmetal. To dirty the armour down somewhat and create a contrast between it and the Númenóreans' blades, I gave all the plate armour a splash of "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade. Lastly, I 'picked out' the models' teeth using a little "Two Thin Coats" White Star and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade, as well as their chins with a dollop of "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone and "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade.

These supposed 3D printed proxies are bound to cause a little controversy as having scrutinized the sculpts closer, the manufacturer has quite possibly just somehow scanned the old "Games Workshop" miniatures and then digitally tidied-them up - as some details, such as the models' sinister teeth aren't present on my versions, despite being clearly visible on the now out of production (OOP) official models. However, as I don't have any of the metal or "Finecast" originals, nor am willing to pay a whopping fifty quid to own one second-hand, I can't say for certain.

This ethical conundrum has definitely curtailed my enthusiasm for the project though, as I absolutely don't agree with the re-casting of other manufacturer's figures. I suppose some might say that as the Black Númenóreans are no longer available to buy, and the products are clearly advertised as being "not [an] official product", then there's an element of acceptability in this instance..? But, I for one, see this as being part of a bigger problem where so many unlicensed or rather 'fan-art' 3D prints are flooding the hobby, and some sellers may well be sailing far closer to the wind than others.

Setting aside any debates though, I thought the foursome would make an excellent subject for my visit to the Fantasy Books area in the Challenge Library.

Four x 28mm scale foot figure = 20 Points

Fantasy Books Bonus = 20 Points

Total = 40 Points

Well, we definitely have some dark things going on here, Simon! However, whatever their provenance, you've certainly done a sterling job on these Black Númenóreans. Black is not an easy colour to work with, but you seem to have developed a good recipe. Well done, and 40 points it is!

MartijnN

From TeemuL: Free Peoples of Middle Earth (50 points)

Going through my Ikea box this week, last of the dwarfs and some Rohans. They were rather fast to paint, since I have painted lots of them in the past and I know the colours and painting order etc.

Here are the last 5 dwarf warriors from the box and the last unpainted Lotr dwarfs I have, so army is more or less finished. I will buy reinforcements though, so don't worry. I need some specialists and rangers at least.

As I said, painted in the familiar way, green and blue for clothes and brown leather armour with yellow pouches and black shafts. Based on my usual Lotr way, paint brown, glue sand, brown wash and brown drybrush. Simple but rather nice, I think.

Next some Rohans from the same box, but there are still some to paint. I hope to finish the last during the Challenge. This army will be more or less finished by then, I wil probably buy only some character models in the future, but we will see.

This is actually Mithril mini of King Theoden, so coming from the Mithril department of the previously mentioned Ikea box. Two challenges ago I painted the old metal GW mini and the "new" plastic models from the Pelennor box. This one is mounted and without a shield, so gives some options. And I think I like this more than the plastic one, the horse has a nice pose, could be from the movie...

Not as detailed as modern plastics, but very characterful metal mini, I'd say. Painted with Contrast paints and metallics from GW.

Then three metal Rohan Royal Guards from GW. I painted three mounted and unmounted with spears some time ago, but managed to buy these second hand. I decided to give two swords and one spear, just to get some variation and options. I have painted the characters and royal guard with red cloaks, regular warriors with green cloaks, and I think these elite warriors pop up rather nicely. I especially like how the shields came up, I got lucky with the Contrasts, I guess.

From this angle they don't look that special... I'm writing this on Sunday, since I will be the whole week in the military refreshment and the following weekend at the scout camp. My access to phone will be limited (and no laptop at all), so I won't be able to comment much this week. Next week I need to focus on my Director's Chair challenge, but I won't be able to finish it by Wednesday, so I will need to think something else to keep my at-least-one-post-a-week schedule. And I guess I need to give some updates regarding the Muir and Drar movie, too. I have been too busy to write anything.

8 28mm minis for 40 points and 1 28mm mounted for 10 points, 50 in total.

Minion Miles: Love the shields!  

From FrederickC - Forth Eorlingas! (110 points)

 Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!
Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!
Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,
a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!

 This week's submission is a force of Rohan riders and mounted commanders consisting of a box of 6 plastic Riders of Rohan, two metal Rohan Royal Guard, King Théoden in full armour on Snowmane, and the mounted version of the Captain and Banner from the Rohan Mounted Commander set, all from the Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings line of miniatures. I had hoped to get them done for last Wednesday, but there were too many other calls on my time.

 

Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!

 

 All the figures were cleaned up, the horses assembled and mounted on their bases, and some sand was glued on with PVA. They were then primed black with an airbrush since it is still too cold to go outside to use a rattle can. As with the Rohan warriors I did two weeks ago, I left the shields off until all the painting was complete. I even left the plastic riders on the sprue to paint them. 

 I started with the horses, and used craft paints almost exclusively on them. The riders were painted with primarily Vallejo acrylics, along with an occasional craft paint. I used the same selection of browns (Chocolate Brown, Leather Brown, Beige Brown, Cavalry Brown) and greens (Camouflage Olive Green, Camouflage Luftwaffe Green, German Feldgrau) that I used on the Warriors of Rohan. Once all the basic colours were applied, the figures were mounted on their horses and the shields attached. They then got a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quickshade. 

 The easiest to paint were the plastic Riders of Rohan, followed by the captain and the banner. The hardest were the Royal Guard, and Théoden due to their armour that is covered with horse-related iconography. Plus my gold paint didn't want to flow well when I was doing Théoden's armour. I am a little concerned about the durability of the plastic horses that came with two Royal guard, the captain, and especially the banner. That's a lot of weight to be supported by a single plastic horse's leg. We will see how long they go before a leg breaks. At least Théoden is sitting on a solid metal mount.

 

King Théoden flanked by two Rohan Royal Guard

 

King Théoden flanked by two Rohan Royal Guard

Captain and Banner

Captain and Banner

Six Riders of Rohan

Six Riders of Rohan

 These will conclude my Rohirrim muster, other than a few duplicate figures. But where to next? Gondor? The Elven Kingdoms? The Kingdom of Rhûn? Or back in time to the War of the Last Alliance?

Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!

 

The points being claimed are as follows:

11 x 28mm mounted figures @ 10 points each = 110 points

Thanks for reading. Next stop - ?????

 

Minion Miles: I really like these - but I have to ask - where was Gondor when Rohan called?

Greetings, Minion Miles. How familiar are you with the Lord of the Rings story? I don't know if you have read the books, only seen the movies, or just seen the meme of Théoden asking 'Where was Gondor when the Westfold fell?'. So here's my answer to your question. When the Westfold fell, Théoden was still under the sway of Saruman, before the arrival of Gandalf and Aragorn at Edoras. Where was Gondor? Defending the passes of Anduin the Great at Cair Andros and Osgiliath. Rohan never called for help. ;^)