From Codsticker: A Tootle Around The Library(70 pts)

 I took a brief (very brief) break from my main project, painting the Bloody Miniatures range, to return to the Challenge Library. Having already claimed the bonus for History, I have returned to New Acquisitions/Front Desk with a couple of metal Mordor Orc archers from the Games Workshops LoTR range.

Not particularly inspiring models to paint; but fairly straight forward and easy to get to a table top standard. 

That is the end of the interlude from painting Bloody Miniatures. 

I submit one of The Gallant Ladies for Sarah's Library Cart. This young lady has dared to dress like a man. I shudder to think what could happen to her if a mob of militant Puritans got a hold of her.

They would have to get past her pistol and sword first though- I imagine she knows how to wield them.

She is my ticket to vault to the third floor and the Biography section...

Charlotte Stanley, the Countess of Derby was one of several British noblewomen who played active roles in the English Civil War. Born Charlotte de La Tremoille in France to the second Duke of Trouars and the Countess of Nassau, she was a grand daughter of the Prince of Orange, William the First, on her mother's side.

She is best known for her defense of Lathom House which was besieged by Lord Fairfax from February 27th until May 1644 when Lathom House was relieved by a force led by Prince Rupert. Parliamentarian forces made several offers of an honourable surrender; she refused them all,on one occasion responding:

"... tell that insolent rebel (Colonel Rigby), he shall have neither persons, goods, nor house. When our strength and provisions are spent, we shall find a fire more merciful than Rigby; and then, if the providence of God prevent it not, my goods and house shall burn in his sight; and myself, my children, and soldiers rather than fall into his hands will seal our religion and loyalty in the same flames."

After the siege was lifted, she relocated to the Isle of Man which she held for the King until 1651. After the Battle of Worcester saw the destruction of what was left of the Royalist hopes, and the execution of her husband, she surrendered; hers was the last Royalist stronghold to surrender in the three kingdoms.

Like the two figures above, the remaining two are from the Gallant Ladies Pack. 

This poor girl was born with a bit of odd nose (or, perhaps, it was a fall from the painting desk mid-paintjob).

The dresses on these ladies are beautifully sculpted.

So, for points I have (I think...):

6 28mm figures @ 5 pts each = 30

Sarah's Library Cart= 20 pts

Biography Section= 20 pts

Total= 70 pts.

Wonderful models here and a great tribute to Sarah to move along in her cart. I do suspect they would be quite the defense and a surprise to boot. 

70 pts for you

Kyle

From PeteF: Waterloo’s Fightin’ 44th in The Gift Shop (236 points)

One of my gaming buddies unwisely purchased Warlord’s Epic Waterloo (and many of the add ons).  I, also unwisely, asked him if he had anything that he wanted me to paint.  He said Highlanders – I countered with regulars.  I’ve never painted British Napoleonics so this is my first foray into Les Rosbifs.

Here is the 44^th East Essex regiment, a rifle company, foot artillery and mounted officer.  This is what you get on one regular sprue in the Waterloo box - a whole lot of troops!  YouTube furnished a speed painting recipe - using a combination of contrasts and AP Speed Paints (which I really like).

Maybe a little too grasshoppery on the green

Even though this was speed painted (with some highlighting) it took a while  – despite being fused together in strips these 13.5mm ish fellows pack in quite a lot of detail and there are numerous opportunities to accidentally paint outside the lines (don’t look too close).

I didn’t really know what I was letting myself in for with this entry – I think NickG will be happy he has one less regiment to paint himself (and there are so many).  He got flags with the kit and will be adding those in due course. I’m looking forward to seeing the epic armies on a nice big table.

I think we score these as 15mm scale – 2 points per foot, 4 for mounted and  the gun.

104 foot = 208 points

1 mounted = 4 points

1 artillery piece = 4 points.

Gift Shop Bonus = 20 points

Total= 236 points 

Amazing work here Peter! I have only thought of the idea of picking up this boxset, let alone the effort required to paint them up. And after doing 8mm space marines in large numbers, I am not sure I could stomach such a mass of models in double that scale. 

So to see this, done so well, for so many models, and for a friend... wow.. such a great gift/assistance provided here! Hopefully he gets many more of them painted up, and offers you a game with them all. 

Great job all around, and a very hefty 236 pts for you here!

Kyle

From EdwardG - Just a quick one (10pts)

 Hej hej, 

I know many of the challengers would patently wait and painted a whole crew before publishing a post. Sadly, as I explained last week, my schedule doesn't allow such a luxury. But, I have made a little bit of progress before leaving for Tokyo and I wanted to share. 

I cheekily spent some of a very dull all day SteeCo call to paint up these two chaps. 

I belive both models are from Foundry. I bought them as part of the same job lot that furnished my first model in this year's challenge. Both were painted with 90-95% contrast paints, mostly for speed but also to test a couple of new colours I have just bought.

The Marshal is part of a set that make up a display piece based on the famous "Napoleon, bored at Borodino, with his foot on a drum" painting. I hope to get through all of these minis, and show the whole group, but it might take me a Challenge or two more at this rate!

The grenadier is not the model as sold. I've made some conversions to better shoehorn him into Silver Bayonet. Originally, this model is sold as an Austrian POW, but I though that wouldn't work without some adjustment. The axe and the horn have been taken from a plastic Vikings box set. I feel they give him at least at bit of an offensive capability. He's painted in the uniform of a Danish grenadier, to allow him to fit as an ally into my otherwise French crew. There are certainly some aspects of the uniform that don't match, but I'm pretty sure most people don't know Danish uniforms well enough to see/care.  

Points wise, I belive that I score the following:

2 x 28mm foot = 10pts.

Hope everyone continues to have a great week!

Best,

Ed 😀

Lovely addition to the challenge here Ed. Be it 2 models or 200 in a post, all are welcome and appreciated. Lovely painting on these 2 chaps here. 

Have a great trip to Tokyo!
Kyle

From LeeH: English 17th Century Warships (Library: Maritime) (80+20 bonus Points)

Sea spray and salt air mix with the smell of black powder as these 17th-century warships try to chase down their enemies in the Anglo-Dutch War. These 1/1200th scale models are by Ark Royal Miniatures and are based for use with the Mad for War rules, written by Barry Hilton (of League of Augsburg  fame)

My group, Posties Rejects had the great honour of refighting the Dutch Raid on Chatham using these rules, inside the target of the attack, Chatham Dockyard. We had two days of intense fighting as we recreated the battle and at the end, we all had such a good time we bought copies of the rulebook and a load of ships. I’ve already completed three of the ships from my British Squadron, these four are the remainder.

When we started these models we all agreed not to bother with the rigging…and then one person relented and now we all have to follow! I’ve used plastic bristles from a scrubbing brush for the main lines which were fixed with a mixture of superglue and intense, creative swearing!

So how to score these? Well, I should start by saying that only half of these count towards the Painting Challenge. The four smaller ships in the back row were painted a few months ago but hadn't been based or rigged because I wanted to do those stages on all the ships at the same time. So while I have done all the basing and rigging on all eight vessels, only the front four were painted during the Challenge and count towards my target. So what points for the four that do count? One of the advantages of the challenge blog covering so many years' worth of entries is that there is nearly always a precedent from a previous entry. There aren’t many 1/1200th scale ship entries to choose from, but Curt has awarded 15 points per ship before, so I’ll put that down and leave the final decision to the umpire. Plus I'll sneakily claim the Maritime bonus from the Challenge Library which should bring my total for this entry up to 80 points. 

4x1/1200 Scale Warships = 60 Points + Maritime Bonus 20 Points = 80 Points total

Lovely work here LeeH on these boats. Not just for the painting, but at the scale, and the rigging/basing aspects for it as well. Always amazing to see this, and I think the points are very well justified for it all. 

I added an extra 20 points, 5 pts per half finished boat, for getting the rigging/basing done on them alongside all of these. 

Only real comment to add is more for the posts.. if you can add your Library progress photo alongside the post that will help to see how far you have come and which sections you have finished so far in the challenge. Another accomplishment within the challenge itself. 

Great job, and 100 pts for you Jez

Kyle

JezT - Library True Crime Room - (60 points)

 Dear All 

Another small post to tick off a new Library Room "True Crime" for me but keeps the scoreboard ticking over. First as I am in the entrance area I have to use a Lady Sarah post to get to the back area. These are a pair of North Star figures painted up as armed and dangerous female archaeologists. 

I play Bolt Action but using a 1930's Very British Civil War theme and in previous challenges posted armed village policeman and so on. Against my brother now decided we will start a new desert based setting for the same period, and thinking of an "Indian Jones meets Casablanca" type setting.  Here is the start of my force. 

Using the library cart I can cross the building to the True Crime section and present "Sherlock and Watson". I know we have had some posts of these two already in the challenge and my versions are from Ironclad Miniatures. I think they have gone for the Jeremy Brett version of Sherlock and Watson as seen in the UK TV dramas in the 1980/1990's.

 

Anyway that should be a simple 30 points (two figures and bonus) for Lady Sarah and the same for True Crime so 60 in total. 

Five rooms now completed for me ....

Happy painting all - Jez

Great work Jez, and excellent models for both Sarah's cart and for the True Crime Section. 

An solid 60 pts here for you it seems. 
Kyle

   

  

From BenitoV: Late Roman Cavalry Reinforcements (80 points)

Another block of my Saga Late Roman warband: a second light cavalry unit but this time with javelins instead of bows. 

The Saga list for this particular army is pretty flexible in how to organize the warband, and light units are very handy when you face mobile armies like Huns for example. The same applies to infantry, offering you different potential combinations, either of lightly armed men with throwing weapons (slings, bows or javelins) or the more heavily armoured legions useful for  face to face melees.

These are 28mm plastic models from the Gripping Beast range. As commented in a previous post, nicely designed, and being multipart you can have an almost infinite variation. A box with 12 mounted models was €29 in my local shop at Madrid, which I found an extremely attractive price/quality relation. Shields are decorated with transfers from Little Big Men range.

The post today is worth 80 points if I have my maths right (8 x 28mm models @10 points each = 80 points). I'm afraid next will be a busy week and would unlikely be around on Sunday, but nonetheless I'll be visiting the blog and watching the other contenders contributions.  Have all a great Sunday and week 

Great job once more here Benito! The work you put into these models is wonderful, especially those shields! 

Agreed on how SAGA works. It has been a while since I played it last, but being more versatile with your army can have great benefits! May this work to your favor in the future games!

80 pts to you!

Kyle

Sunday - Clean Up Time!

 

Not sure if this is happening to everyone else, but with the weather turning a bit warmer ( and in between bouts of rain ), the garden seems to be calling. Oh no, not to me personally, but to my partner which inadvertently means it is calling to me! 

So as much as one might wish to be painting, it seems mulch moving was much in order this weekend. Wondering if I am alone in this activity, or similar gardening actions, this weekend. Or if others in the challenge have been pulled from their painting tables to see what all this fuss about fresh air and the outdoors is all about? 

For posts today, it is a lot of historical paintings from the Sunday crew. Lovely bits and pieces at that so far! 

Have a sit back, or lean up against a retaining wall, and have a gander at todays offerings!

From SebastianR: A nice and accurate record of my own [Biography] (22 Points)

I'm going to keep this one short.

This... tower is an award I won in a mordheim day event at a local Bristol club for having the most killy leader; specifically this vampire (I think).

 

Turns out giving vampires access to purchasable pregame buffs allows you to build something of a monster right off the bat. I do remember being quite proud of winning something as other than my inflated kill count (Kill Count geddit!), I did pretty underwhelmingly in actual missing wins.

The tower is a pretty shoddy 3D print job that looks like someones first foray into blender. It's designed to look like one of the towers of the Clifton suspension bridge with some scrap metal bolted on because... orks?

I realise I'm sounding churlish about my prize but I cant help shake the feeling that the organiser was trying to repurpose their early 3D print experiments. In any case, after sitting around pointlessly for over a year, it has now been given a quick airbrushing to somewhat resemble it's design inspiration, and to serve as terrain for Legions Imperialis. It has received the attention it deserves.

Peekaboo!

2 points for a 2.5*2.5*4" terrain

20 for the challenge

for 22 points

OK Sebastian... the tower is... a tower. Not gonna say any more about it than you did. It looks fine. And if you can live with yourself, I'll allow the bonus.

Dallas

From SebastianR: Neither big not clever (24 points)

So I have made some... spicy varnishing choices in order to keep the challenge ball rolling. I now have a comprehensive theory of frosting. It's just moisture. And sometimes a can going bad, but mostly moisture.

In order to get these warhound titans done I risked two gloss varnishes, and just about got away with it, despite it being ~10deg and damp. I wont be doing that again.

I shouldn't have to explain why these Legions Imperials titans fit the bill for Oversized Books. Are they the biggest models I've ever painted? No. (Although they might be some of the biggest I've painted since before uni). Are they the biggest 1:1 scale models I've painted? Also no. They're not even the biggest 1:1 scale models I've painted this challenge, with the Type 1934 being as wide in beam as the Warhound is tall (warhammer lore inconsistencies notwithstanding).

But they are the walking embodiment of the silliness of the 40k (or 30k as the case may be) setting. Proof that not only do sci-fi writers have no sense of scale, but that they think the square-cube law is for other, lesser, forms of nerds.

And I'm completely in love with them. As I assembled them, I was overcome with a real sense of adoration, to the extent that I've swiped myself a half price Adeptus Titanicus box set to augment my force of wildly impractical warmachines.

The colour scheme and livery is an attempt at the Fureans... er... legion (?), although sans flame templates I settled for the ubiquitous hazard stripe markings, and both yellows I used are probably too yellow; I must add more orange for subsequent engines. But I do love my big stompy JCBs.

I'm still learning lessons about masking and airbrush use.

They'll be matt varnished and flocked at a later date once the humidity has come down and I can avoid frosting them for a third time...

So that's 2 6mm vehicles... *raises eyebrow at Dallas* 2 six millimeter vehicles... *cough*...

2*6mm vehicles AT18 Warhound Titans x 12 points each for 4 24 whole points

Challenge location at 20 points

for 24 points

Sebastian, Sebastian, Sebastian... good try on the oversized books but it's gonna be a "no" from me. The spirit of the section is to submit a large model, and while these represent huge vehicles, there's no getting around the fact that they are... small models. I think that scoring them at two points is a bit miserly though. Delving back into the Challenge archives I've seen a score of 12 points awarded for an Adeptus Titanicus Warhound Titan, so I'm gonna go with that. Coincidentally it tallies with the points total you'd claimed anyway. I like the colour scheme for the Legio Fureans titans here. Good work!

Dallas

From KyleC - Reinforcements (Fantasy) (95 PTS)

So the Warriors of Chaos army project continues to grow.. though the lighting in my garage is not the best for army photos.. 😔

First with some Marauders and then also a powerful Chariot. 

So first up.. after the test model the other week, I spent the last 2 weeks working on these guys bit by bit. 

Spending a bit more time on each model to give a bit of variation on the skintones. Playing with basic skin colors but also different shades of grey and cream colors to give some hues throughout the unit. 

The armor I did not go full red as they are but Marauders. Not yet worthy of the fully blooded armor that the warriors receive. So between the darker black lower armor, the lighter sun averse skintones.. the reds they do get pop a bit further. 

Next real step will be to sand and paint the movement trays, but I do plan to do that for the whole army together. 

Now the big baddie here.. the Chaos Chariot blessed by Khorne. Ready to run over his enemies to feed him with skulls and blood. And even rocky terrain won't deter them from their mission. 

I have had this part assembled in pieces ready for painting since well before COVID was a thing. 

I am glad that I waited though as the motivation for painting it was much higher now, and the amount of effort I could put into it 

Plus for the first time in a long time I am liking how this red came out. A good mix of GW reds wet blended and stippled on top of each other. With a dark burgundy wash in the shadows. But I was finding it too unsaturated.. so I then glazed the Blood Red Contrast thinned over if all. Before tackling the highlights once more to just push it that much further. 

The base is corkboard, dirt, pebbles, and some resin printed bits before tufts of grass were added. 

Fantasy section completed now. 

So altogether we get a nice addition to the army and some points for the trouble also. 

9*5 pt Infantry = 45 pts

1*20 pt chariot/vehicle = 20 pts

2*5 pt riders = 10 pts

Fantasy section = 20 pts

Total 95 pts

Couple characters and more troops to come next.. 

Really nice Chaos models here Kyle! With the return of ersatz-Warhammer Fantasy Battle the thoughts of many are turning back to square bases and your work is really fuelling that excitement. I agree with you that the red looks great. Good work and 95 points for you!

Dallas