TomL Pulp Robots and Epic ACW (210 points)

My final post of free fire.  While waiting for various stages of the ACW units basing to dry, I painted these Pulp Robot minions from Bombshell Miniatures.

These comically menacing robots remind me of the Buzz Lightyear villain.  Painted with Vallejo Metallics Aluminum, Tamiya Clear paints with a few washes.  The final infantry regiment for my ACW challenge is the 7th NJ.

 

I went back and added the unit name from the Warlord flag sheet to the bottom of all of the flag stands as it's practically impossible to tell the unit flags apart at this scale. 

These were not quite as clean a sculpt as the infantry plus painting horses takes me forever but at least I finished one of my two cavalry units.  Painted with a mix of contrast and normal acrylic paints as before.

Final points: 210

2 28mm figures * 5: 10
60 epic figures * 2 :  120
20 epic cavalry * 4 :  80
 

As I said before, thanks to everyone for all the hard work and effort to support the challenge and to all the participants for the excellent entries.  My morning coffee will be quite boring going forward.

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Congratulations on completing your Challenge Tom - you've certainly pumped out a lot of your ACW troops and I'm looking forward to seeing them all arrayed in your wrap-up post!

- Paul

From ScottM: Historical Drama - Ashigaru & Rocket Bikes (160 pts)

My last post for this year's challenge is a two-parter. First up is my last studio location.

Historical Drama - With thoughts of Akira Kurosawa rolling around in my head, for this location I went with a couple more bases for my ongoing Samurai armies project. These are two bases of Ashigaru with yari. These are 28mm metal figs from Kingsford Miniatures.

I had run out of the larger decals for my sashimono and had to use the smaller ones, so they look a little odd unfortunately.

Scoring: 16 - 28mm foot figs + location bonus = 100 points

And for my last set of figures I painted up a trio of rocket bikes. These 28mm resin figs are from Bombshell Miniatures.

Scoring: 3 - 28mm vehicles = 60 points

Scoring Total: 160 points

That ends this year's challenge for me. See you all next year!

Friday minion: Hey again Scott, great to see you back with one last post. Those Ashigaru look lovely indeed, the basing is really effective. and the Bombshell miniatures bikes are great pulpy silliness, great choice of colours. My favourite is the red one because it clearly goes fastest.

I believe this puts you over your 500 points target, congratulations! Great to have you with us this challenge, may your brushes ever move swiftly. 

From JamieM - Pulp Sci-Fi (Babylon 5)(30 points)

Just time to squeeze another quick one in - a pulp hero and heroine.

These two were originally a pack of two from statuesque miniatures for use mainly with the Pulp Ally rules. The chap came with a pistol and the mechanic lady had a spanner.

After reading the Stargrave rules, I realised that I needed more figures with rifles, so I swapped his weapon with a brilliant ray gun that I got with a Bombshell miniatures Kickstarter.

I decided that the lady also needed some weaponry, so I found a combat drone (from the same bombshell Kickstarter) as she looked like the sort of character who would put robots together to fight for her.  I pinned it to her arm to give the illusion of it flying….. I decided to go with this instead of a clear flying stand or similar.

I’m pretty pleased with how they came out and they gave me the Low Budget fun vibe (the drone stuck to the heroine’s arm reminds me of zaphod beeblebox with the second head stuck to the actors shoulder!) so hopefully that’s enough for the planetary bonus….. if so, I find myself next to a warp maelstrom and so await the minion’s guide as to where I end up in the middle ring!

For scoring, 2 x 28mm figures and a planetary bonus for 30 total points.

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Very, very nice work here Jamie. I love that this one Kickstarter somehow provided all of the weapons and conversion bits you might require in order to suit your vision for these two figures. "Stargrave" certainly sounds interesting! Also, brilliant stuff with the flying drone - you managed that just right, in my opinion. Very cool...seems to be waiting for her command, like a loyal (if mechanical) hawk. Nice work. 

Now...as to the Maelstrom...well...I get to drop you any old place I like, do I? Let me go find a 40k Navigator figure and some star charts...and some wine...some more wine...just a BIT more wine...mmmm Chianti, so good with pasta...

The gods of the Warp Maelstrom have deposited you on Coruscant! Bring forth something Imperial, or something touching on "Good vs. Evil"! The soulless authorities await your efforts!

GregB 

From ScottM: Tank Girl for Teleportation (25 points)

Having completed the Hall of Heroes, our trusty adventurer needs to relocate to the Knights Solar. To carry out the relocation, Tammy the Tank Girl steps up. This 28mm metal fig is from Bombshell Miniatures and their Babes line.

Not sure what I'll use this figure for, maybe the upcoming Stargrave? Fun, little figure to paint.

So that should be:

1 - 28mm foot fig + relocation bonus = 25 points

From JamieM: Maelee and Vivienne Gale, space junk salvagers (60 points)

Oh how the old hands laughed on the docking bay of Space Port Theta Gamma 512.  These two girls were saying they were going to salvage space junk and turn a profit?  In a pink spaceship?  Who did they think they were?  Mind you, the laughter soon stopped once they saw what these two managed to bring in on seemingly every run......

Maelee had always had a knack for fixing up mechanical objects.  Fixing up other people's junk and selling it on was how she earned enough credits to get off the dead end world of Augustus XVII, joining the crew of a cargo hauler.  Meeting Vivienne on board changed both of their lives as Vivienne had also long dreamed of making her own way in the galaxy.

Jumping ship at one of the tedious stops on the ship route was made easier when they purchased a near derelict shuttle at a ridiculously low price from some locals in a bar.  Maelee's skills proved invaluable to getting the shuttle space-worthy again and who cares that some previous owner had thought pink was a good colour choice?  The two now make good credits from salvaging the space junk floating around Theta Gamma 512.

The space port had previously been strategically vital to navigating the lynchpin Newberry system and as such had been the site of 4 space battles in the previous 50 years.  'Course, the opening of the Newberry bypass shunt had significantly diminished the value of the place, so there were good credits to be made investigating all of the junk floating around the space from all of those battles now things had quietened down.

Vivienne uses her jetpack to investigate whilst they're out and hauls in likely looking finds.  The pair of them then use the well worn (but perfectly serviceable) tools they have to take the most valuable parts back to port.  They've even removed the seats to fit more treasure in.

Anyway, this submission is intended to pay for my trip on Sarah's Balloon and consists of two Bombshell Miniatures figures and an MDF shuttle recently released by Blotz in the UK, who are purveyors of some fine MDF scenery and vehicles.

Maelee the Mechanic is a KS exclusive from the very first Bombshell KS who I managed to pick up as part of a decent sized KS lot someone was selling on eBay for a very reasonable price a few years ago.  Vivienne was also part of the KS.  The idea for this submission came when I saw the MDF shuttle, which is designed by one of my regular gaming buddies who has genuine talent for this sort of stuff!  The tool rack was added as a whim late on to give them something to work with using a ttcombat set of shelves and some spare bits from GW figures.

Points wise I think it's 20 for the vehicle, 10 for the two 28mm figures and 30 for the use of the balloon for the first time?

I'm hoping the balloon will fly low enough over Burch's Bluff for me to dive out and land softly enough to not break too many of my brushes......

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Maelee and Vivienne are fabulous, Jamie, and I really enjoyed reading their back-story. I would totally play in an RPG with this as its setting!  

I really like the figures from Bombshell but have never tried painting any. I think I may need to get some after seeing your work here.  I particularly like the spunky blu-haired lass with the yellow space suit - such great brushwork here. The shuttle is also a brilliant piece of kit - it has a very Rocket Robin Hood sort of aesthetic about it, which takes me back to my childhood.

Great work and happy landings at Burch's Bluff!

-Curt 

From LeeH - Kung Foo Panda (5 points)

Today's entry is just a small one and is just a little bit of whimsey. I came across this model last year and couldn't resist buying it, just for fun. The Panda is 19mm tall (including the hat) and is made by Bombshell Miniatures. I've not heard of them before but a quick look at their website shows an interesting and eclectic mix of fantasy, sci-fi and steampunk miniatures in various scales. The handful of points I'll get for this figure isn't going to rock my final score by any massive amount, but it was great fun to put together and paint.

The blossom-covered tree I found in a local model shop and all it needed was some filler (and a dab of paint) to turn the wireframe into something better resembling a knarled wood trunk. I also knew I had some suitable bases I could probably use and sure enough, I found this one. Its resin but that's about all I can tell you. I have no idea when or where I bought it, I'm just glad that it has finally found a use.

In order to fix the Panda to the base, I had to cut away and file down the integral base. With the bottom of the feet now flat I inserted a pin in one of the legs so that I could get a strong bond with the new resin base. A tiny dab of fast setting epoxy was then used to bind the two together in what I hope is a strong bond.

I have a couple more entries that I am trying to finish for the end of the challenge, so I'm heading back to my painting desk to crack on with those.


Tamsin:

Now, that is an unexpectedly cute little entry Lee and a welcome break from nasty puppies, little beardy guys and such like. And the sandbag is a nice nod to Challenge traditions.

Given that you had to do extra work with the tree (and the panda), I'm going to score them together as a 28mm foot figure. Hopefully that will teach you not to try diddling yourself out of points! Hah!

From ScottM: Goumier & Counterblast (167 points)

My contribution this week will start off with a squad of World War II French Goumier. These 28mm metal figs are from Artizan Designs. The figs seem to be mid-late war with the British helmets and the American officer, but I don't see why they can't be used for early-war battles.

Painting the stripes was very tedious and I can't see myself painting any more of these guys. I'll stick to the regular French infantry!

And now a hard right into the sci-fi world of Counterblast. All of the following 28mm figs are from Bombshell Miniatures and are from their Counterblast pulp sci-fi universe. First up is a trio of Bde Bots and a Bz-R Robot.

Next is a group of four Aggressors from the Mekkus faction.

Also from the Mekkus faction is this trio of Braindrones. Something a number of Counterblast figs have is the plastic 'dome' helmet. I love these and it really makes the figs stand out from other lines' figures.

The next set of figures are from the Edofleini faction. These figs are called Edo Trappers. The pic doesn't really show the contrasting colours very well unfortunately.

Here's all the Counterblast figs together. There will be more in the next few weeks!

That should be 16 Goumier and 17 sci-fi figs x 5 points should be 165 points.

What a cracking and varied entry! I like the stripes on the goumiers, well done- have a couple of bonus points! Your Counterblast figures are, well, a blast! I particularly like the Braindrones. I welcome our new overlords!

Barks

From SeanS - Gorilla my dreams (14 points)

Hi All,

This was a rush job to try and get something actually published this month. I seem to be having issues with unmixed, perhaps not totally dry matte varnish. So please forgive any shine, I'm just running out of time to fix it.

This is Girron from Bombshell Miniatures, however he doesn't appear to be on their website anymore. He is an all resin affair and was a fairly clean casting. The arms are all separate, so I had to add green stuff to the gaps. My sculpting to blend them into the fur was hit and miss.

I tried my greenstuff world mesh roller to make his base. I still need a lot more practice, but I'll accept it.

My conception was a nod to the cartoon character Grape Ape. My original conception had been a white ape, but there are a ton of those. I built him up from Black in five steps to a light grey, but the Purple and then Black ink washes muddled the colors a lot. The flesh I did in my Vampiric Flesh triad from Reaper, but again the washes altered the final color. Although the triad does have a purple tint to it.

I'm really hoping to coordinate my Bretonnian Retainers this month so I can share them here as well as on the Old World Army Challenge.

I provisionally scored him for 10 points, same as a 54mm figure. He is 28mm scale but 55mm tall.

Thanks for looking.

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Congratulations, Sean - I think that's successfully given me nightmares for the rest of this week, or maybe much longer.  Wow, what a terrifying miniature.  You've really done wonders with his fur, the extra greenstuff work looking really wonderful around his arms.  And kudos to you, Sir, for using the greenstuff roll so successfully - that's a really good looking base you've created.

The painting is brilliant - and I can certainly see why you've gone for brown-purple-black themes in this monstrous simian.

I love it, and in fact I love it so much I'll adjudicate you with the 10 points for a 54mm figure, and another 4 for the modelling, greenstuff work and the fine base. Tremendous, if nightmare-inducing, work, Sean!

From JamieM - Final pulp sci-fi figures (15 Points)

Have you ever watched the end of a marathon? Not in the Olympics or anywhere professional, just the type normal people run in to challenge themselves? If you have, you'll have seen that some people sprint full pelt when they can see the finish line, despite the fact that they were struggling for breath not a mile earlier. Well, that's kind of like how I feel now. After getting bogged down after a bright start, it feels like I have to get lots of the half finished stuff done in case I put down my paintbrush straight after the challenge, like the end of an exam!

Anyway, I'm glad you're still with me after my digression there.... So here it is, my third post in three days.  These are three more pulp sci-fi figures and comprise, from left to right, another member of the ships crew, the evil overlord lady and the right hand man of the overlord.

The ships crew lady I deliberately did bright, because it felt right. She's another great bombshell miniatures sculpt. The other two are relatively understated as the evil overlord and her hitman and they were from crooked dice miniatures. I thought after the bright yellow lady stormtroopers, they would provide a nice counterpoint.

All great fun to paint and the give me a full roster to use now as there was every chance that the lack of an evil overlord would have led to me shelving all the painted figures until I got round to it, which could have been months.....

Will I manage to get another post in? I'm certainly hoping to.....


From Curt:

Nice!  I like the vibrrant palette you went with for these three - it really reinforces that they are in a bright, sci-fi setting. Now that you're over the hump with these three you absolutely NEED to source that Evil Overlord!

Great work.