From HerrRobert (Robert H): Seeing Red! (45 Points)

Next on our journey, Piper's Peak! Or should we say, Piper's Pique?

This entry could also work for Roundwood's Tower, seeing as how it's also influencing an imaginary world, but honestly the pun was just too good to resist.

Tamsin would like you to paint anything that is (or could be): 

i) associated with mountains; or
ii) taking a look (a peek); or
iii) displaying anger ('a fit of pique')

(Or a cheeky airline stewardess - ed.)

And so I give you a sight that thrills Goblin generals everywhere, and inspires dread in all their foes in the Old and New Worlds . . . Night Goblin Fanatics!

These gobbos don't quite qualify as cheeky airline stewardesses, yet, but they're definitely seeing red! These are three Games Workshop plastic Night Goblin fanatics I picked up back for Challenge Ate, and have been sitting on ever since. 

While I do miss the nostalgic Old World of my late teens, my gaming group has been breathing new life into their fantasy miniatures with Warlords of Erewhon.

Rather than Night Goblins, I've decided mine will be Snow Goblins, fighting it out with the Dwarves of the Gray Mountains and occasionally raiding down into the plains of Bretonnia.

Painting was relatively easy, if slow. I relied very heavily on Games Workshop Contrast paints, especially Blood Angles Red for the cloaks, Orc Flesh for skin, and Snakebite Leather for the leather work. All went over base colors, not white, except the Blood Angels Red, which I used to blend together an otherwise three color highlight that just wasn't working. Red is fast joining yellow and white in my hated colors list.

These fellows had such fun faces and facial expressions, I had to get a little silly. So, instead of painting eyes and teeth, I did them in red. It reflects the effects of the hallucinogenic mushrooms they consume quite nicely, and literally leaves them seeing red.

So, three Snow Goblin fanatics for Piper's Pique!

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Grey Mountain Snow Goblins? Noice!

I have to admit the red stained teeth kinda creeps me out, but I still love 'em. Those twirling wrecking balls are mental.

15 points it is. Next!

-Curt

From HerrRobert (Robert H): Portugal the Man (35 Points)

As you may or may not know, when not creating stunning miniatures, my day job is a public health epidemiologist and disaster response guy. So while many of you have been able to spend the last few weeks chained to your painting tables churning out challenge points, I've been extremely busy. While the overtime will contribute nicely to expanding the lead pile and assorted plastics, it's made painting rather difficult.

Having requested relief since I was beginning to see things, I have put my 48hrs into P&P, or painting and posting. With Tamsin having affirmed free-fire mode has removed the speed limits on Challenge Island, you're going to get a whirlwind tour of the most painting in 48hrs I've ever done.

My last post was booking fare on Lady Sarah's balloon ride to establish an airhead at Roundwood's Tower:

In this location, you will need to paint or create one or more figures or vehicles, item of terrain or aircraft, which are based on an alternative view of history or based on changing the story in your chosen work of fiction. So you might be painting figures from the Roman invasion of Ireland, or an ‘imagi-nation’ which fought Frederick the Great in India, or Black Numenoreans chasing Frodo across The Dead Marshes…. Its a chance to tweak history, weave through time, change the past to fit your imagination - and, please, feel free to add your backstory!

Lately, I have been playing a lot of Spectre Operations; those of you who are fans of the Tabletop CP channel can see the last two games here and here. The second video, rescuing Oliver from somewhere in Dubalah, inspired this entry. I was hoping to get him done before the game, but ran out of time.

Esteban "Portugal the Man" Portugal is a seasoned operator for the British private security firm Risk Intelligence and Defense International Control, Ltd. or RIDICL. They're eager to cash in on the prospect of operations in Dubalah, especially the lucrative client the Sheikh, and had been courting Oliver from Shadowspear. When he went missing on the most recent Shadowspear mission to extract the Sheikh, RIDICL had to step in.

Infiltrating OTP, Portugal quickly became a trusted commander of one of their militia units. Under his direction, OTP militia were able to locate Oliver's hiding place in Dubalah, prevent him falling into the hands of either Free Dubalah forces or Shadowspear themselves, and return him to the OTP militia headquarters. All that remains is to extract him, play on his sympathies to join RIDICL, and cash the checks.

Portugal is a Spectre Miniatures figure, MENA Militia Squad Leader Alpha, at 3.50 pounds, plus shipping. He was the first Spectre Operations figure I bought, as a bit of a Christmas present when I bought the rules.

So, five points for a 25/28mm figure, and 30 for capturing/infiltrating Roundwood's Tower, or 35 total!

Next stop, proceeding rapidly and maintaining social distancing, Piper's PEak!

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It's great to have you back so you can make this last evening blitz of Challenge Island, Robert!

I really enjoy Spectre Operations and am totally addicted to their miniatures so I know where you're coming from. I quite like the sound of your ongoing campaign and will be checking out the links when the dust settles. 'Portugal' is a great looking mini. In particular, you did a great job on his face and eyes - he looks the part of a hardened operator.

Now, let's see what else you have for us.

-Curt

From NoelW: Is this the finishing line? (680 Points)

So my target with this last post is 669 points, which, if achieved will scrape me a bare 5000 points for the whole Challenge. Let's see:

Firstly, 27 Carthaginians to oppose the Romans I've previously posted (Victrix figures, Little Big Man shield decals):

And then, the remains of my 15mm Austrians, who've been waiting since this time last year. There's infantry (jagers, line and grenadiers), a total of 75 figures:

And "Hungarian", or light, cavalry - one large regiment of hussars and two smaller ones, plus a regiment of uhlans, 55 figures:

Then there's the remainder of the orcs I began somewhere on Challenge Island (17 GW figures):

When I buy artillery set, I've a bad habit of painting up the gun crew but leaving the guns alone - they need assembly, and are boring to paint. (I give the crew the nearest possible substitute gun from a different army). So I've a backlog of guns. Here's 8 of them:

These are all 28mm Perrys British Napoleonic guns. The 4 on the left are from the British forces in Egypt. To prevent the wheels sinking in sand, they were protected by wood tied to the rims. The other 4 are from the Waterloo period.

Finally, a little bit of point grubbing. The following three pictures are are "finished", as far as it goes. The first is a single velite who failed to attend the muster in a previous post.

These are four of the sepoys I finished along with a previous post, but, as you can see, they're Ensigns without their standards. I was hoping I'd figure out what they should be carrying, and make the flags, but have not found relevant info, so the figures stand alone.

And finally, a xebec. I'd painted this by week 2 of the challenge but, as you can see, it still lacks rigging and sails. So, technically, it's not finished so maybe not pointworthy. It's smaller than a Black Sails brig.

Whether the sepoys without standards and the xebec without sails are legal for points, I'm not sure. The velite is merely a figure missed from a previous post.

So, what's the scores on the doors?

8 guns at 10 points: 80 pts
75 15mm infantry: 150 pts
55 15mm cavalry: 220 pts
27 28mm Carthaginians: 135 pts
17 28mm orcs: 85 pts
1 28mm velite: 5 pts
Sepoys and xebec Any bonus points??? I leave this to my trusty minion.

TOTAL:  675 points

Huzzah!!

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Good Gravy Noel, do you ever sleep?! You know, I really can't process all this right now, it's all so bewildering and... numerous! I'll simply say, wow, 5000 points, this is tremendous output Noel. If you went pro you've put a few Far Eastern sweatshops out of business.  

Let's round this mob to an even 680 and call it a cease fire? :)

Amazing. 

-Curt

From KenR: 28mm Stuarts (yes more !) (110 Points)

Hopefully I will have sneaked these under the wire, my final batch of British Armour for the Desert.

This is my third batch of Honey Tanks and will complete a Battalion for our games, 3 sqns of 3 tanks and 2 Command vehicles all done up in a spot of Caunter Scheme.

It's been an awkward Challenge for me this time round, I was ready to go, boxes of tanks prepared and then as I'm sure you are all aware flakegate occurred. It really dented my enthusiasm this time round and I apologise for not being as active as I normally am commenting on others posts etc, hopefully next year the primer will stay on whatever I paint ! If you zoom in on the models in this post, the scars of the flaking is all too clear to see.

Points wise, 5 x 20 for the 28mm Blitzkrieg Miniatures tanks plus 3 crew, I've gone for 110 all in but a couple knocked off for the half figures is not a problem if needed, it leaves me well short of my total but I know why that is.

I'll do a round up shot of all the tanks in the next couple of days, hope you are all keeping safe and well in these uncertain times, back to work tomorrow for myself.

Regards Ken

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Ken, flakegate aside, you've been killing it with these armour entries this Challenge. You've truly become the master of caunter, treads and primer this season, well done. :) 

Next winter I will look forward to your new all-encompassing project. Until then, take care and enjoy the fruits of your labour.

-Curt

From AlanD - Some Thracians in the Nick of Time (45 points)

Here's my last little submission for AHPC X - another 9 Thracians for Mortal Gods. I'm cheating a little - there is a bit of shading and highlighting still to go, but they will do for now.

Thank you Curt and you excellent Minions for supporting the challenge for another year, and may you all stay safe and well in the challenging times ahead.

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More delightful Thracians! Again, I greatly admire your creative patterns for their cloaks, shields and jerkins. Really wonderful work Dux. 

Take care and we'll see you again this autumn.

-Curt

PeterA: Last Post (229 points)

My progress, never that fast to start with, has well and truly ground to a halt as dealing with real life has had to take over. Today was the last day of school for who knows how long here in the UK and planning for this and its consequences has been rather time-consuming; a tip of the slipper to those intrepid souls who have taken this in their stride and continued to produce fabulous entries. For my part, I had planned a whistle-stop tour of a few more locations on Challenge Island, but alas, this was not meant to be. So, my last post for the 2020 Painting Challenge is a motley collection of what might have been.

First up are two figures which I had painted for O'Grady's Gulch - The Batman and The Joker from Knight Models. This is not a game I play but my son does and so these are for his collection. They are on plain bases as he wants to try putting them on clear acrylic bases. The models themselves are based on the characters as portrayed in Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight' movie. 

I had then planned a quick trip in Sarah's Balloon to Docherty's Dock. For my fare, I intended to present this original GW Necromunda figure from House Escher. She is meant to represent a Warrior Acolyte in an Inquisitorial retinue. The original Codex Daemonhunters was a great supplement, full of ideas for narrative campaigns and thematic scenarios. One of the ideas was that having certain types of characters in the retinue gave the Inquisitor characteristic bonuses. The codex also encouraged you to delve into GW catalogue of figures to come up with weird and wonderful creations. So in my head, this figure represents Trinity (love the Matrix, just the first one), a ganger whose ferocity and combat skills (honed in the unforgiving environment of the Underhive) have attracted the attention of  Inquisitor Ademar, an unorthodox (i.e. radical a.k.a. heretical) member of the Ordo Malleus. Despite the age of the figure, it is a lovely sculpt with a host of finer details.

The plan for Docherty's Dock was to encounter a small camel train of two ships of the desert. They are from Copplestone Castings and will fit in nicely in the Back of Beyond.

As the engineers for Cook's Crevasse never even got primed, we jump ahead to what would have featured on Hawkins Hill. This is the aforementioned Inquisitor Ademar - a figure that comfortably exceeds the requirement of being from at least three years ago (it is actually about 17 years old!). Years ago there was an article in White Dwarf on the Relictors Chapter of Space Marines. They believe that the weapons of Chaos can be put to good use fighting it and one of those weapons was the Dark Blade - a jet black daemon weapon. Needless to say much of the Imperium takes a pretty dim view of this, so the back story is that Ademar has been entrusted with the weapon by the Relictors. I also tried to paint a glowing effect on his plasma pistol; not entirely satisfied, but at least the figure is finished!  

The final part of the plan was to take one last ride in Sarah's Balloon back to the Path of the New Shiny and Burch's Bluff,  the fare for which is this trio of Hasslefree females - they are lovely sculpts but I fear they look too small next to my Spectre Miniatures operators, as you can see in the second pic.

The theme at Burch's Bluff was The Horus Heresy. Now, whilst my enthusiasm for WH40K has gradually declined (apart from the odd game of Kill Team), I have always loved the WH30K setting and I particularly like how the VI Legion - the Rout, the Emperor's Executioners, the Vlka Fenryka - are portrayed. They are not the Wolfy McWolf charicatures they have become in 40K for me,  but something more nuanced and complex, whose sense of honour comes from being prepared to bear the suspicion, antipathy and disdain of their fellow Legions because they are prepared to do what others will not - hold their brethren to account and administer the ultimate sanction if necessary. The fact that they have an anti-authoritarian streak a mile wide doesn't hurt either! Sadly, progress on these has been really stymied by dealing with the impact of coronavirus at work, so I have only finished a few models - a Jarl in Terminator armour, one of his Thegn bodyguards in Tartaros Terminator armour, and a couple of Grey Slayers. They are a mixture of 40K and 30K bodies, with accessories from the 40K upgrade sprue and the 40K Terminators.

So that makes 55 points for the figures and I'm not sure how to score the camels - are they mounted figures? 7.5 each? That would make 70 all told. Either way, I won't make my target, but all things considered, I'm happy enough. Thanks once again to Curt for being such a splendid host and congratulations to all the other entrants - viewing your entries has been truly inspiring. Stay safe, stay healthy and best wishes to you all and your nearest and dearest.

Peter

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These are fabulous, Peter. So much to like in this submission. Superhero, check, SuperVillain, check, Inquisitor and retinue (loved that old Inquisitor codex), check, gumpy overworked camels, check, kick-ass ladies, check, proper Dan Abnett Space Wolves, check! All gloriously painted and all have the ingredients for a spectacular run about Challenge Island. Harumph!

You know what Peter, being the one who dreamt up this nonsense to begin with, I think I can bend a few rules in your case. I'm going to give you the location bonus for each of these and we'll call it square. How's that sound?

Sooo, with my socks and mittens off to help me count, the grand total comes out to... 229 points! Not quite to your target, but pretty darn close. :)

Well done Peter! I look forward to seeing you when the circus tent opens for another edition of the Challenge.

-Curt