From AlanD - Long Overdue Roman Command (170 points)

In AHPC XI, Paul OG and I started our Roman Civil War project. This was originally aimed at playing Infamy! Infamy!, but what with Covid and all we lost all focus. However! The project has since burgeoned into a plan to build large-ish armies to pit Pompey (me) and Caesar against each other using To The Strongest! I'm at the stage of adding some eastern allies and command figures to Pompey's army.

First up, we have a unit of Thracian cavalry, using Relic Miniatures. I await the inevitable ribbing from Paul for using shield decals.

The command bases and the individually based heroes are all either from Foundry or Warlord. The Foundry figures in particular are lovely to paint. I think they were sculpted by Mark Copplestone? Pompey himself, here being saluted by some optimate flunky was painted in 2011, and now inevitably rebased.

The general with his arms crossed is my favourite. He has the air of someone watching the cavalry on his left flank victoriously charging off to do something heroic thus allowing his unit to become enveloped and massacred.

And finally, a scorpion from Warlord.

With nine cavalry, the scorpion and ten figures on foot, this should be worth 150 points, with another 20 for the Overdue bonus please Millsy!

From Millsy: I know these are long overdue Alan but you just can't rush quality and these are certainly top quality mate. Everything about them is so evocative of the period and the army right down to the basing. The metallics are especially good I have to say.

I agree that the general with the crossed arms is great pose but I also love the swords drawn chap with the billowing cloak. There's a real dynamism there which you've only added to with your colour choices.

Paul better look out. These guys are well worth 170 points!

GeoffT - From the Library Entrance into the centre room (Fantasy, Romance, Statue of Famous Person, 122 points)

Hello Challengers,

Last week I left off completing all but one of the shelves in the library entrance room.  I finish that shelf this week, the Fantasy shelf.  These three 28mm skeleton warriors by Grenadier have been based and painted to go with a cobblestone mat I use for Frostgrave and similar games. 

From the entrance chamber, I enter the central chamber and gravitate immediately to the Romance shelf.

The classic romance is the three musketeers, here are the said three with D'Artagnan and four of the Cardinals guards to duel with.  Watch out Milady !  

All they need is a suitable published ruleset, looking and you Sidney Roundwood.

Finally we have a Statue, indeed a living statue which is a Famous trope from DnD.  This model was produced with DnD in mind, from Grenadier miniatures in the '80s.

I tried a bit of a go at a Bronze patina, looks a bit fresh really, probably should be fully green like a statue of liberty.  Mini is quite big, about 40 mm tall.

The library as it stands.

Points:

11 x 28mm infantry = 55 points

1 x 40mm infantry = 7 points

3 x library shelves (Fantasy, Romance and Statue of famous person) = 60 points and 3 skullz.

Total = 122 points.

From Millsy: I love everything to do with the Three Musketeers but unfortunately have never managed to game the setting. Your wonderful swordsmen and making me think long and hard about adding to the lead pile mate which is always dangerous! Presumably there is a Cardinal Richelieu waiting in the wings somewhere along with other dramatis personae? And maybe Sid will get his publisher's hat on if enough people ask?

Your skellies and the statue are all lovely work too. The basing is brilliant and really contrasts well with the red and blue of the shields. Nice work here too.

122 very well earned points it is for you Geoff!

KentG, 28mm Aztecs sacrifice, Napoleonic light lancers, Napoleon and staff (190pts)

 

Well here we are again, another week has sped by, I had great ideas 

of what I would have completed this week but choosing a bunch of 

highly detailed figures put and end to that. I had another entry 

I was about to take the photos of when my wife popped in and 

said you can't submit that it needs to be on a proper base to set 

the scene so it is now sitting on the desk uncompleted.

Of course she was right.

First up we have a 3D printed Aztec sacrifice set from Wargame Atlantic

This was a really fun paint, the minis are so detailed, these will be added to 

my slowly growing collection of Aztecs

This is my favorite shot, I sent this photo to a friend without thinking

that he had just informed me that the valves in his heart were shot, 

He found my picture a bit to much I'm afraid

I used blood of the blood God by Citadel paints which comes out so good

Next up This French Napoleon set by Perry Miniatures

I had way to much fun painting these Chaps, they are great sculpts 

with tones of detail hiding on them.

Millsy told me I had to get a shot of the map because at one stage

 I thought I had really messed it up while we were on our painting chat

Finally we have 12 Napoleonic French lancers by Perry Miniatures 

they are some of their meatal range once again  I found that I was 

enjoying painting these guys so much that I found it hard to stop adding details

One thing I wasn't looking forward to was making the pennants

 for the lances, then I saw that Piano Wargames have free files for Flags 

and one of those had pennants on them so I printed them 

out repainted them to the correct colors and hey presto we have pennants

This is the first time I have painted this unit, not sure why I've 

not venture into painting lancers before they are so nice to paint.

I have placed 12 more of them into the painting queue, they will be 

Front Rank not Perry  and I have also put 12 Guard lancers on the table, 

so lots of pointy sticks to come.

I don't normally paint all the horses the same but sometimes 

with these Nappy Regiments it just looks right.

And with that we come to points for this week

    First up 6 x 28mm Aztecs @ 5points each =30pts

    crazy skull thingy (should have entered the skull challenge) 28 skulls = 5 pts  no idea ?

    28mm Napoleonic staff set 6 figures and table 5points each =30 pts table 2pts ?

    12 x 28mm French Cavalry 10points each =120 pts

    Total  187 pts maybe

From Millsy: Another cracking collection of Napoleonics from you Kent. The Ogre of Europe and his lackeys are particularly good and a fitting centrepiece for any collection. I presume that's the map you were painting during the chat? It has certainly come up a treat!

Aztecs are not something you see a lot of, possibly because it makes for rather one-sided gaming if Europeans are the adversary? Sets like this are a good opportunity to dip you toes in though and you've really brought out the horror with your brushwork. The skull rack is a nice touch and one I am sure Barks will appreciate.

The skull rack and hand painting on the map deserve a few extra points so I've rounded you up to 190 mate. Nice work!

From StephenS: A well spent childhood [Children's Books] (40 points)

 G'day Everyone,

The best part of my job is that I have never really had to grow-up, but like a fair few of us here, I can look back on my eighties childhood with fondness. Especially with the passage of time, rose-tinted glasses and lots of beers.

Nothing sums up an eighties childhood like action figures with accompanying TV shows to sell them, and today I present the 'grown-up' version of two sets I used to play with as a kid.

First, we have Teela and Ram Man from the Masters of the Universe. These are 28 mm plastic sculpts from CMON's Clash for Eternia board game that was on Kickstarter. I painted He-Man last challenge, and they take paint pretty well for board game pieces. I remember having He-Man and Castle Grayskull as a kid, but can't recall if I had Teela or Ram Man. I enjoyed painting them up a lot more than I enjoyed watching the original 80's cartoons with my son recently. Not everything ages well...

Something that did age well though, is Star Wars! I was definitely more into Star Wars as a kid and never fell out of love, despite the varying quality of the sequels/prequels that have been produced since. These two minis are 32 mm plastic figures from Atomic Mass Games, and are part of the Star Wars:Legions game. They are General Veers and an Imperial officer.

All up, that is 20 points for the figures and 20 points for the location.

Cheers,

Steve

From Millsy: You're bringing back fond TV memories for me with the Masters of the Universe stuff Steve. Skeletor was a firm favourite and I'd always wanted to name a ginger tabby Battlecat but never got away it. You paintwork on Ram Man in particular is great stuff, with the depth and variation on his armour a big improvement over the mass produced toy version.

Veers is also a favourite and I have him in my collection too. The pose always strikes me as a bit weird but maybe that's in part because of his massive helmet? Regardless both he and his assistant have a proper no-fuss get things done feel about them. Rebels beware!

40 points for your tally my friend!

From StuartL - Row, row, row your boat - Maritime and Sarah's Library Cart - 70 Points

Hello all,

    So this week, I have a couple of posts for you. I had hoped to have more, but my boss seems to think that I need to spend more time at work and less time having fun. I don't fully understand what she was driving at, but I have found that my work schedule is starting to fill up now that the holidays are fading in the rear view mirror.

    Today I am pushing on with the Maritime section of the library. Now, I have neither the vast collections of naval vessels, nor the in-depth knowledge of every ship to ever sail that are so ably demonstrated by AdamC or PeterD, so I hope that my offering today passes inspection by the admirals of the challenge.

    This small boat is by Reaper and was acquired through one of their kickstarters. The mast and sail are somewhat bent, despite numerous attempts to straighten them out. As one of Reaper's newer Bones models, the detail is very crisp however, and this model painted up really easily.

    As I was painting up the boat, I decided to do some dockside decorations to go along with it. These are also by Reaper Minis. At some point I would love to build up a little pirate-era town with a beach front and harbour. I painted up some palm trees back in the 2021 challenge and these will add to my growing pile of scatter terrain. 

    And here we have the full entry on display. The boat is mounted on an old CD with a layer of PVA glue providing some texture, while the scenic items are mounted on plastic bases from Renedra.

    To give an impression of scale, I have added a 28mm model from Black Scorpion minis. This figure is not part of the entry and was painted back in 2021. I also appear to have managed to get some of the water colour on the hull of the ship, so I will have to revisit this model and clean it up once I am done posting.

    Finally, I need to move on to the next part of the library, so I will use Sarah's Library Cart to take a jaunt over to Local History. I had hoped to have this entry ready too, but time was against me.

    To pay for the journey, we have yet another Reaper Bones mini (complete with bendy great-sword). This blonde barbarian will be seeing play in my own skirmish game and maybe the occasional session of D&D. 

Scoring wise we have:

1x 28mm vehicle = 20 points

1x 28mm mini = 5 points

3x pieces of scatter terrain = 5 points (They are just a fraction of a terrain cube though).

Maritime Section = 20 points

Sarah's Library Cart = 20 points

TOTAL = 70 Points

From Millsy: They say work is the curse of the drinking man, but clearly that extends to painters as well. Perhaps you should introduce your boss to the joys of wargaming Stuart?

She's a lovely little vessel with nice clean lines and you have done a great job on her paintwork. That's a great little pile of cargo too, just the ticket for some sort of smuggling or raiding scenarios. As to the bendy sword, well we all know it's not what you have but how you use it that matters.

A very tidy 70 more points on your tally mate.

From Barks: HP Lovecraft (Literature)(25 points)

In the eldritch confines of my study, I unearthed a diminutive relic of unspeakable provenance—an accursed miniature that defied the feeble constraints of mortal comprehension. The blasphemous sculpt depicted an otherworldly figure, a ghastly visage that whispered of realms beyond the ken of human perception. In the sickly luminescence of my dimly lit chamber, the colors upon my palette seemed to shift and writhe, revealing cyclopean landscapes and nameless horrors. The twisted sculptor, a shadowy adept in the forbidden arts, had rendered the accursed author with a fiendish precision that echoed the cosmic malevolence of the Great Old Ones. As I gazed upon the diabolical creation, a palpable chill gripped my very soul, and I could discern the spectral murmurs of eldritch entities weaving their inscrutable tales within this infernal masterpiece. The mere act of contemplating the arcane artifact threatened to plunge my psyche into the abyssal depths of cosmic horror, leaving me teetering on the brink of sanity.*

HP Lovecraft

Howard Philips Lovecraft age 43 (1934)

"I am Providence."

HP Lovecraft and his friend LP Hovercraft, from Impact! Miniatures. They've done a good job of capturing HPL's eldritch chin. I picked this up years ago as a potential coach for a Blood Bowl team. The 'Literature' part of the Challenge is perfect for this. I don't have access to all my paints, and haven't been able to highlight his suit or fix up the base rim.

1 x 28mm miniature (5 points)

Literature (20 points)

*I used ChatGPT as a very strong starting point for this paragraph. Wow.

From Millsy: Everything about this post screams eldritch horror and that's before we even talk about the miniature! If his long face is anything to go by then he was looking into a bleak future where our lives are governed by unimaginably powerful beings that see us as mere playthings. I'm talking about AI of course but maybe Cthulhu would be preferable?

That's a great miniature Barks and he'd make a brilliant coach for a Bloodbowl Team. Maybe that's his playbook tucked under his arm and the "waterboy" wrapped around his leg? 25 points it is!