From AndrewB - Rabbits and Martians! Science fiction! (425 points)

Hello!   This week we’ve got some fun projects that I pushed hard to complete big pieces of this week, and I’m really excited to show them to you!  

First, some stellar rabbits from Thomas Foss over at Skull and Crown!  I’ve placed several orders for these, and they’re so simple to paint, yet incredibly characterful, so I keep finding myself drawn to acquiring and painting more and more of them!  This week, I have a group of rabbits, with some dogs as well, and two incredibly unfortunate monks who seem to have fallen afoul of the furry beasts! 

Interestingly enough, Thomas bases all of his figures on illustrations from the margins of illuminated manuscripts, which were transcribed by monks, so maybe there was some internal frustration going on in whatever monastery produced the source material!  

I particularly enjoy the rabbit priest with a censer, and my mounted commander, ready to lead his forces into battle upon his hound.  I have no idea if these gents will be taking over Peter cottontail’s place, or fighting to defend Watership Down with some new technology!  Maybe they’ll just beat up monks, who knows?   In any case, they’re some of my favorite minis, and I’ll work on getting they and the rest of the collection together for a group picture amongst the DIY terrain I made a few weeks ago, which should be pretty fun!  

Next up- coming soon to March to Victory, a fantastic convention in Kansas City next month(more on that later), this project fell perfectly into the Sci Fi section!  Fresh from the mind of Frank Chadwick, a small horde of Martians for the Space 1889 setting, as originally published by GDW, with miniatures still available from RAFM.  Quite possibly my favorite strain of Victorian Sci-Fi, the setting’s support died out fairly quickly, and it’s mostly fan-driven nowadays, so what better entry for the sci-fi room!  These are a split between the more civilized, advanced Canal Martians, and the more primitive, but flying Kraag Martians!  

 

These Canal Martians are the more civilized of Martian inhabitants, clinging to the former glory of the red planet.  There’s a good mix of firearms, and they tend to perform rather like humans.  The gashant-mounted leader and bards to find leader with his polearm and sword on the far right are two of my favorites! 

 

These ‘Kraag’ Martians are the more primitive cousins of the Canal Martians, and have lost the ability to produce firearms, but can curiously take to the skies in flight, so they shouldn’t have any problem presenting real troubles to the humans they’re fighting.  

Lastly, a group photo of the week’s progress!  That was a push!

As for points, we have 30 28mm Rabbits and company, as well as a single mounted figure, for 160pts!  The 47 Martians and single mounted figure brings me to 245, plus the 20 for the Science Fiction section, for a whopping total of 425!  You’ll have to forgive me if this next week is a bit light on the figures, this week was a real push. 

With 12 sections completed, I’ve emailed Curt, and we’re working on getting my Rare and Antique section hammered out, so I can get started!

***

An unusual assortment indeed. I had no idea Thomas Foss was doing these sorts of figures, although I am sure all Challengers can relate to the sentiment of enjoying a particular figure or sculptor so much that one keeps acquiring more of it...certainly my basement would not be the absolute mess it is without that feeling! It would be interesting to actually get a look at these rabbit miniatures...perhaps you can take some close ups next time?

Between the rabbits and tide of VSF Martians, that is 425 points. Best of luck with your Rare and Antique Challenge.

GregB

From ChrisW The Good, Bad, Ugly and Weird [441 points]

 Limo ride to the International studio

For the limo ride, she can guide us

 International studio (two productions) [6 x 28mm]

So not one but two international films here, one the inspiration of the other. A total of 6 gunslingers. First up is a classic Spaghetti Western brought to you by Artizan miniatures. The second movie is a more recent entry from Korea (south) that is way over the top with humour and action. These figures came from Empress Miniatures.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The Good, the Bad the weird

A cross over movie!

Back of Beyond Return to VSF Mars

First off, you may notice, that these are not Back of Beyond Bolsheviks, White Russians or even Chinese warlord cavalry. Those fine figures (around 72 more or less) remain untouched on my gaming table. I certainly thought I was going to do them this week, I sat down with them on Monday all ready to go, but colour choice indecision hit me (even though they have a limited colour range) and so I shifted focus to Mars, something I have done before and even recorded the colours used!

Hill Martians [20 x 28mm]

 

Keener eyes than mine might have noticed there are only 19 figures in the pictures above. Well somehow Bob here failed to make it to the light box.

So, here are all 20 Hill Martians

 

Canal Martian rocket launchers [2 crew served weapons & 5 crew 28mm]

 Old Parroom Station miniatures, mostly, the two bald Martians are by RAFM. They had to sub in as rocket crew because the actual crew had already been painted years ago!

 Martian personalities [5 x 28mm]

The two swordsmen and the priest are by Parroom Station, the lady with the raised are is a Mithril miniatures Elf. The last figure was a freebee figure possibly from Alternative armies.

German lizards on Mars [10 x 28mm]

These are all RAFM figures. They hail from Venus but the Germans have decided to deploy them on Mars. They do have a chameleon like quality to their skin hence the orange/red tinge to their skin. They were to have had rifles but the Logistics officer seems to have mislaid them. So, instead, they have their native shields and 'traditional' weapons. These weapons are actually spars from the old GW Man O War game. 

 

Frankenstein & his creations [8 x 28mm]

All but the really big monster are Pulp Figures miniatures. The big guy is a Reaper bones figure. So many scientists so few henchmen (I will get to them next week)
 

Mad science run amok [11 x 28mm figures]

Tell me how you feel about the transformation?

A real mix of figures, the monsters are all Crooked Dice while the mad scientists are Black Cat Bases. Some assembly required for the assistant and janitor, so a choice of mutations.

Failed(?) experiments

Calm, collected & cold hearted; the worst type of mad scientists!

Tekumel monsters (The Hlutrgú)     [14 x 20mm figures] 

These figures come from the Tekumel Club operating in Kingston Ontario. A nice range of human figures that would look good in many fantasy games. He also has some interesting alien races, like these guys.

Points total this time

• 20 points for the Limo ride
• 20 points for the Studio 
  
• 300 points for 60 x 28mm foot 
• 45 points for 28mm Martian rocket & 5 crew
  
• 56 points for 14 x 20mm

Total of  441 points

Squirrels this time around [+8]

1. Gunslingers
2. Hill Martians
3. Martian artillery
4. Lizard infantry
5. Tekumel monsters
6. Failed experiments
7. Dr Frankenstein and monsters
8. Cold hearted mad scientists
   

 New squirrel total 43

You know, if I am doing my squirrels wrong please feel free to correct any errors. I am just taking advantage of my low attention span and butterfly like qualities.

 Previous squirrels

1. Back of Beyond
   
2. Mad figures (Top hat toffs and companions)
3. Greek skeletons
4. Sisters of Sigmar
5. Ancient Germanic women
6. ECW cuirassiers
   
7. Monsters large
8. Post apocalypse
9. Tekumel Palanquin
10. Empire Pike
11. Jazz Band
    
12. French Cuirassiers on Mars
13. Court of Dr Koo
14. Movie makers
15. Gothic/movie Vampires 
16. Gladiators
17. Women rocket corp
18. Supers
    
19. Forest scenery
20. Robin Hood
21. Gorillas 
22. Dr and his pets
    
23. Nuns
24. The flying squad 
25. Mechanical spiders from Mars 
26. The Gorgons
    
27. Cthulhu creatures
28. Mad gardeners and their plants
29. Pulp mummies
30. Pulp Egyptian skeletons
31. Jason and the Argonauts
32. Asylum residents 
33. Dwarf Roman style troops
34. Hatchet/axe wielding maniacs
35. Free range lunatics
    

 Another fine assortment of strange and fantastical minis, Chris. I love the science projects, they look like they may have been a terrible accident or maybe terribly intentional. Should the Tekumel models have spears? It looks like their hands are all in a stabbing position, they just lack any kind of weapon.

Anyway, another massive boost to your already staggering totals, both for overall points and Squirrel side duels. 

ChrisW Gladiators, Supers & Rockettes [445 points]

So, this weeks post came up a little short of what I was aiming for, but I guess it just means more stuff for next week.😁 

A rambling note about how I get things done (and all to often do not get things done), my 'style' is chaotic, unfocused and always teetering on the brink of failure. Plans that I might have at the start of the week often change part way in, or even near by end of the week. For example, this week I only decided to work on the supers on Thursday which shunted other projects aside. The other aspect of my approach, not entirely premeditated, is that I tend to work on all projects, even those not scheduled for the current week, all at once. I rarely finish any project before the last possible moment before posting day. The Rockettes in this post is that rare exception, actually started and finished them in the first two days of this past week. 

It does keep me from being bored by any one project, but it does mean that my gaming room is cluttered with 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 finished projects. Teetering stacks of boxes and other detritus spill over from the gaming table and the prep tables. One must be nimble to navigate around my room! 

So, this week the dreaded deadline caught up with me. I have a number of projects that are almost done, and would just need a bit more time to finish but frankly I just do not feel like staying up into the wee hours of the night, again. 

Anyways on to this weeks post. This starts with a limo ride.

Limousine ride

Now that I have access to a blue pass it is time to visit the Sword and Sandals studio. However, first I will need to hitch a limousine ride. For this ride, I submit the following figure. 

Sword and sandal studio, those about to die [33 foot, 3 mounted 28mm figures]

Most of these figures are by Foundry with a few Black Tree Design figures thrown in. They were kind of fun to paint and educational. This time around I did a bit of research and discovered aspects of their attire that I did not know about. There are three mounted gladiators, 31 foot gladiators and two lions.

Now you might have noticed that some of the figures have no shields. Perhaps someone in the group can help me. I need someone who is friendly with the hobby gremlins that steal and hide small items. I had the shields with the miniatures, on my desk when I started painting these figures, but those damn gremlins snuck in and stole them!!! So, for now, the Black tree figures and the mounted gladiators are shieldless. No doubt the shields will be released back into my care as the challenge progresses. 

Limousine ride

On to another studio, this time the Superhero studio. For the ride to this studio, I submit the following figure. 

Superhero studio [16 x 28mm and 4 x 54mm)

Last minute idea to paint up some superheroes/villains. As such I was only able to tackle 16 figures, but thankfully that really cuts into the unpainted supers pile! There is a possible end to at least one genre.

 

The villains

Two skull headed villains

Scale shot, they are really large figures

These are almost all Old Glory figures, with 2 Pulp Figures thrown in and I am not certain who made the 'Black Widow' figure. Four of them are oversized 54mm figures while the rest are 28mm. For the most part I used contrast/speed/Xpress paints to establish a  shadow/midtone then finished off with normal paints. Some weird figures in this grouping, some very nice sculpts and some not so good.

 Independent feature looking for studio backing.

American heroes in the sky! The Rockettes! (WARCs) [10 x 28mm]

The rocket women are Eureka figures, while the other two are not. They are set up as a Pulp Alley league. 1 leader, 1 sidekick, 1 Ally and a gang (the 5 regular troopers). The bazooka team gets used when the league spends gear points for them. They all have fly, even those that are not wearing a rocket pack. I used Speed paints for the pants & leather. The shirts are contrast plague bearer flesh, while the flesh is Vallejo Xpress (as a base) then touched up with Scale75 assorted flesh paints.

Women's Army Rocket Corp (WARC)

Sidekick (Gauge), Leader (Angel), Ally(Rosie)

Weapon team

The gang

Points for this weeks entry

• 40 points for two limo rides
• 40 points for two studio
• 30 points for 3 x 28mm mounted
  
• 295 points for 59 x 28mm foot
• 40 points for the tall supers
  

Total 445 points

Skull duel [+2]

Squirrels this time around [+3]

1. Gladiators
2. Women rocket corp
3. Superheroes

New total of 18 for the challenge

 Previous squirrels

1. Back of Beyond
   
2. Mad figures (Top hat toffs and companions)
3. Greek skeletons
4. Sisters of Sigmar
5. Ancient Germanic women
6. ECW cuirassiers
   
7. Monsters large
8. Post apocalypse
9. Tekumel Palanquin
10. Empire Pike
11. Jazz Band
    
12. French Cuirassiers on Mars
13. Court of Dr Koo
14. Movie makers
15. Gothic/movie Vampires

 

Another spectacular batch of minis Chris, I don't know where you find the time to paint so many models. I am in a similar predicament with my hobby room and its state of (dis)organisation. It is just so difficult to stick to any one project long enough to finish it off. There is always something else to paint or a shiny new toy to buy.

All of your figures look great, but I love the bright costumed adventurers and villains in the Supers batch. They remind me of the numerous comics and publishers that sprang up in the 80's/90's with a whole host of new characters.