From MikeF - Hall of Traps - Ghost! 25 points

 For my first entry, I painted up a ghost from Mantic Games. Aside form being "trapped" in this mortal plane, it rams home the point by carrying around its own ball and chain much like dear old Jacob Marley!

This model is actually a test model for painting the spirit skulls on some Age of Sigmar Ossiarch Bonereapers I'm hoping to start during the challenge. The camera and my poor photography skills saw some of the color being washed out, but I think it'll work well for the tabletop.

25 points

From DrQ: Sneaky Ninja Traps and an Orkmas Miracle (50 points)

Hello all! I'm new to the main challenge but did participate in the Quarantine Challenge earlier this year. In that competition I painted a fair number of chibi minis (anime style with big heads and small bodies), and I've decided to start with this motif here at the beginning of AHPC.

For the Hall of Traps I present a sneaky kunioichi from the Yamazaru Clan of Ninja All Stars, a game from Ninja Division. These ladies specialize in laying in wait to get that sweet sneak attack to unsuspecting targets—a perfect example of a trap.

Additionally, in the holiday spirit I submit a kit-bashed ork boy as my entry for the challenge, to help all know the true meaning of Orkmas. Is he bringing gifts to good little grots or lootin' from the hoomies? I think we all know the answer...

I've got about a thousand points of 40k Ork Boyz as well as a couple of big sky vessels for the Kharadron Overlords from Age of Sigmar to paint up, so you can expect to see a fair bit of geedubs out of me over the next few months. We'll see if I manage to get it all finished! I set myself the recommended rookie goal of only 300 points in the hobby challenge. 

As for scoring, I'm not great with the maths (my degree is in the liberal arts), so I think this comes to 30 points? (Nope, 50 points. ed)

28mm Republican Allied Italian General - KenR - (20 points)

 

The Yarkshire Gamer is in da house !! Only just as well, my application email sent on the day of opening got lost in the ether and it was only an enquiry with Curt that revealed the problem, it was close but we made it !

I always like to get a cheeky entry in before Xmas Day and this year is no different. I finally (and only just) beat my techno fear and made it onto the Paint and Chat last night (until my battery ran out) which helped get these guys on the way.

So this is the start of my 28mm Italian Allied Legion for the Punic Wars, figures are from the slightly later General set from Victrix set, I've replaced the more obvious Imperial heads with spares from my Allied Legion box set.

2 x 28mm horse is 20 points which nicely gets things moving. If you don't know already my plan is for 3 General Bases, 32 Velites, 64 Hastati, 64 Principles, 32 Triari and 24 Cavalry. Maniples of 16 for the Infantry. By the end of the Challenge I'm hoping to have the bases below full.

I may even try the dungeon challenge and have some figures lined up for the first few, have a good Xmas everyone and I hope to see you after Boxing Day with some Velites.

From MilesR: A 6mm Republican Roman Army - part I (385 points, pending Curt's review & approval)

The first submission for Challenge XI from the Lair is part of a Republican Roman Army - all in glorious 6mm with figures from the superb Baccus range.

As you can see in the first pictures, there are some Spanish and Italian allies still being painted that will join the ranks in a few days.

The heart of any Roman army is it's heavy infantry which are represented in this force by 8 bases of Hastati (front) and 8 bases on Principaes in the back.  Each base has 24 figures.

Only 2 bases of Triarii - that will have to be remedied when the mythical Baccus shopping cart opens back up.

For ranged support there are 6 bases of Balearic slingers and 2 bases of scorpions.

Skirmishing ahead of the heavy infantry will be 12 bases of Velites, each with 8 figures.

 

Finally 8 bases of Roman Cavalry some with 6 and others with 5 figures (45 total figures).

In the front are 4 bases of allied Italian Hoplites

These are all based for the Age of Hannibal ruleset which is our ancients mainstay at the club.  They're a lot of fun and the basing is generic enough that these troops can be adapted for other rulesets if needed.

Sorry about the picture quality, the workshop is in a bit of disarray with the holidays (that's my current excuse).  Once I've got a better place to take some pictures, I will update this post.  Remember I adhere by Stalin's definition of quality when it comes to painting.

In terms of total figures painted 

24 Figure bases:  22x24 = 528

8 Figure Bases:  18x8= 144

Scorpions  8 figures & 2 scorps

Cavalry 45 figures

Grand Total

Infantry Figures        680 x 0.5pts = 340 points

Cavalry                      45 x 1 = 45 points

Grand Total:  385 Points    

From BenitoM: Ambush in Hall of Traps (35 points)

Good day everybody. My first entry in the XI edition of the Challenge and also my first cautious steps scouting the Challenge Island vaults. 

 

 

This is an "ambush point" for my Infamy! Infamy!'s Gallic/Briton armies. For those poor souls not familiar with this excellent set of Ancient-era rules, unlike the civilized Romans, the cunning Barbaric armies loved to try taking their foes by surprise. 

 

This is simulated in the pre-game phase by setting a number of "ambush" points of deployment, about which the Romans have only limited (if any) intelligence. In this case the poor legionnaires have been caught totally by surprise, and the scene represents just a moment before the last remaining survivor of the patrol is going to be cut down by the sword.

 

All these minis belong to my venerable collection of 28mm Wargames Foundry models acquired in the mid-late 80s. Last year's Challenge I decided to remove the old enamel-based colours and repaint in a more consistent (and I hope better quality) way.

 

Unless The Snow Lord disagrees, this ambush point is totally aligned with the Hall of Traps theme, therefore I can claim my 20 extra points. Thus, this first submission sums up 35 points (3 x 28mm minis @5 points = 15 points + 20 extra points). I also score my first 15 points in the "Rome and its Enemies" duel.

           

Submarines Laying in Ambush: Hall of Traps 21 Points

Work and Christmas stuff has kept me too busy to do much painting, but I wanted to get at least one quick entry in before the Holiday.

I have been doing a lot of Naval games both because I enjoy them and because they are easy to do remote which is the only game in town these days.  Submarines are tricky I like to use markers for them rather than models (this was an effort form a few years ago Periscope Sighted).  

I have been meaning to make some more so this hall seemed a good excuse to make some more. I used some left over MDF prices left over from some model kits you will see latter in the Challenge.  A base painted blue a little paint and them some silicon to make them look awash with water.  They look like the conning towers of two subs laying low in the water or in the act of diving or surfacing. 

Here they are with a 1/2400 scale Destroyer.   PointsI am going to award myself 1 point for the two markers Plus the 20 points for the room. 

The Rat Trap!

 Welcome once again fellow painters. As I venture into the dungeons of despair the brave adventurers enter the Hall of traps! What to do? Lots of things crossed my mind but in the end I decided I would do a homage to the old White Dwarf cut away dungeons packed with funny vignettes. The first room then was a trap. The brave but greedy Halfling thief has been tempted by the Skaven trap. Who could resist free cheese after all? But the brave Halfling does not see a rat trap, he sees free cheese and a challenge!

GW Skaven and an ancient Halfling I think from Ral Partha? The dungeon is made of foam underlay scored with a biro and dry brushed up.

So I reckon that’s 3 x 28mm figures @5 points each

A rat and a swimming Skaven plus set I’ll @5 points

Challenge completed @20 points

So let’s make it 40 points as my first entry. Expect more dungeons and some very very very small things later!

Cheers

Mark Backhouse

SebastianR: Not Curtgeld, Out of the pit, and something hideous, getting bigger we hear (76 pts)

I got very little done this lockdown year, painting wise. For the past 2 years it's been solely this challenge that has driven me to actually get anything actually done.

With that in mind, this year, I wont be doing any bits, no long prose-y posts, just pure unfettered  p r o d u c t i v i t y.

Boom, hard out the gate, mandatory prize figure, jobs a good 'un.

I call him man with two guns, distaff counterpart to lady with two guns - AKA Black Widow. A copplestone castings miniature I think.

Dual wielding pistols seems a fairly anti-hero thing to do, outside of the 90's anyway. Maybe Max Payne and John Woo protagonists? (I haven't seen any John Woo films, dont @ me). So I suppose his future owner is in line for a bad guy in their pulpy skirmish games.

I even got some asphalt basing material to do up the base.

Speaking of basing, due to being a poor millennial in a one bedroom flat I am finding it difficult to be able to find a space warm enough and de-humidified enough to varnish my figures without gassing myself or the cat. Trying with this figure almost turned him into frosty the snowman. Nothing terrifies my more than nugatory work. I've tried to think up various ways to push through and get it done, but ultimately, I think I'm going to leave varnishing them for the spring. This, of course, means no flock will go on them until after that point either. Maybe there'll be a flocking post towards the end of the challenge. Regardless, I hope this doesn't impact scores in the meantime.

I think this next submission could do with a little flock, and is also my submission for the Hall of Traps; it's an objective for Flames of War.

As we can see, two german soldiers are out hunting for isolated British paras with their a dog

But who's this waiting for them with an SMG?

I've been threatening to make this objective for a while now. I picked up the German miniatures from the Partisans and Polizei box, the remainder of which I promptly sold, much to my lasting chagrin. I'm quite fond of the officer miniature who is casually walking along while working the slide on his pistol.

The para figure has always baffled me. He's on his knees, and has his head cocked in such a way that it looks like he's listening at a door or other opening. It's weird. It doesn't look anything like a common fighting pose.

And finally, for The Pit of Pendulum, a cultists from the board game Cthulhu Wars that I picked up at a bring and buy.

I'm not sure exactly what's going on here. He's got fleshy arms, but a skull face. Regardless of whether he's wearing a mask or is some abomination, barely able to keep up the facade of humanity, whatever he's summoning, I'm rolling SAN.

He'll be pulling double duty as a Mordheim necromancer and a Frostgrave wizard, if I ever get round to actually playing the game.

By my reckoning, that's 60pts for the challenges and 16 points for the minis, for a total of 76pts. A pretty healthy start, especially for me, especially for this early in the challenge.

Hopefully I can get one more post out before I leave to visit my sister for Christmas - legal even now on PLAGUE ISLAND! - but if not, hope everyone has as pleasant a holiday as possible!

From Barks: Grimdark Christmas (30 points)

G'day everyone, here's my seasonal first entry and Curtgeld for Challenge XI. This is my 6th Challenge! It is great to be back, although my vague plans and ambitions for the Challenge have been pleasantly derailed by the Chambers of Challenge. I have my usual mix of scifi, fantasy, and historical, in a variety of scales. I'm looking at selling a kidney and experimenting with some GW Contrast as well. I'm dabbling with SLA and FDM 3D printing as well, like this first post- I'll keep the jargon to a minimum!

I've acquired a 3D resin printer (Creality Photon S) and these are the first prints off the bed, with factory settings. Old King Swol and the Tree of the Holy Cog are free files from The Makers Cult. I added a skull to the tree top.

I like the raging Saint Nick; there's a definite pagan Hogfather vibe. He is my Curtgeld.

I was going to do a racing green and white 'tree', but inspiration struck and I went for AdMech red. The scheme reminds me of my Epic titans. It's a solid size on a 60mm base.

I am also invigilating the Skullz side challenge. My trust Skull-o-meter™, Skully McSkullface, is scouring all the entries for skullz. Skeletons, 40K, Black Brunswickers and all the 'Are we the bad guys' units- if there's a skull then it will be tallied! Can anyone come close to the reigning champion Paul O'G's 543?

Skullz: 16

Points: 10ish + 20 for the Curtgeld

Happy Christmas everyone, and stay safe!

From TomM: Classic Zombies (40 pts)

So, a monday off, and an early tuesday start before going to work, resulted in the first two entries I will be able to finish in all probability for these final days of 2020, though I have two more weeks off coming up in which I want to make a lot of progress on the entries for the map. 

 

 

For this entry, I have some really old models I found in my bit box: the classic WFB zombies.

 

 

While I don`t plan on an army, they are suited for "NPC" zombies in various fantasy games, as they are so full of character compared to the current day plastic kits of various sources.

 While I do use the plastics for the "masses" sometimes needed in games, these old metal jewels are used for that lost friend or fallen city guard in smaller scale games, and as such I painted them up in a variety of clothing schemes, though generally I took the old Empire city states as a guideline.  Heck, I am still at heart a Warhammer player, as that was my first game back in 1994...

  

So now I have these 8 lovely chaps to shamble around my gaming boards in search of brains and daring adventurers, though those two often don`t go together if you look at the average Dungeons and Dragons session... and 40 points for the personal total.