From AndrewG: A Head in the Sand and other Desert Terrain (35 points)

 

Our group is planning to run a Pulp era skirmish game set somewhere in Egypt, so I’ve been beetling away at getting some scenery done for the board. I have to say this has been one of the more fun building projects for me lately, as it’s a rich setting with plenty of inspiration in both history and film readily at hand.

Before I bought my own 3D printer I used to shop for pieces on Etsy, and as I’m sure many know the quality on there is sometimes a hit or a miss. When I purchased this half sunken Pharaoh’s head and ruined pillars set for an Ancients battle, I was initially a bit annoyed. It was clearly a rushed print, with striations visible throughout from a job that either didn’t bother using a smaller nozzle or didn’t iron any of the surfaces (both of which add time to the print job). I ended up not using them and put them away.

When I pulled these out of storage for this project, I realized the poor layering could actually work in my favour for a 20^th Century era game – a bit of careful weathering and dry brushing made the pieces look like they’ve suffered a few millennia of getting pelted by sandstorms and baked by the sun. Done and done.

The three rocky formations were simple plastic 3D prints that were then slathered with Vallejo Desert Sand (26.217) diorama FX. I found, however, that this basing material has more of an egg yolk yellow colour about it rather than a more traditional beige look, thus I gave these pieces several overbrushes, washes, and dry brushes to dull it out a bit. Also, of all the Vallejo FX materials this one has to be the messiest to work with, so I’m open to any suggestions for alternates.

A trip to the local dollar store provided ample materials for making all the terrain pieces. The palm trees are cake decoration toppers, while the shrubbery comes from a mix of cut up cheap aquarium plants and a piece of fake golf turf. I printed out a variety of puddle bases in different sizes, then went about making the scatter terrain using Vallejo desert sand, tufts, and small rocks from the driveway. I also made one larger piece as I wanted something that figures could move through.

Overall, an inexpensive but effective project that gives me plenty of terrain options. And while I'm happy with how everything turned out, I may go back and dry brush some of the Vallejo desert basing as it still seems too yellow toned for my liking. 

Thus in this batch (no figures – included just for scale comparison)

1x large Pharaoh’s Head

1x ruins

3x rock formations

8x vegetation pieces

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Some very nice pieces here Andrew, and your description of the issues with the 3d printed head fit my issues with even well printed filament prints, I hate those lines!  However the price difference between filament printing terrain and resin printing terrain is still big enough that my cheap nature wins out most times.  You are also 100% correct in that the lines actually help you in this case as it does look like its wear lines from wind and sand in the great desert.

As for points, I think both the head and the ruins would probably take a few hours each of painting so 10 points each, the hills are super easy to paint up and so are the tree bases as its just the groundwork that looks painted (not the actual trees, although the palm tree trunks maybe drybrushed) so as with past tree bases and hills, just a few points per as there is not much painting to be done on them, however the hills and some bases are bigger so I am going to go with 15 points.  This gives you a grand total of 35 points and a whole pile of great looking terrain.  

As for your comment on the colour being to yellow, I dont think so on most of them, other than the last picture of the tree bases and the first one of the head in the sand.  Maybe its just those pictures? or those pieces?  I know how photos sometimes colour phase things a bit.  If they look like those pictures in real life, I agree with you and would lighten them up, if they look like the hills and ruins, I think those are a perfect desert colour.  Completely up to you though, and very hard to comment for certain without seeing them in real life.

 - Byron  

From PeterA: 28mm Cartel & Zombies! (165 points)

 Hello all! Although I haven't posted for a couple of weeks I have been pottering away on a few things (and enjoying the Six Nations) and have got some finished for today.

First up are 9 Cartel figures - they are 3D prints from Black Hills Games and Turnbase Miniatures. Last year I came across a modern skirmish solo game called Haywire. The author has a YT channel full of excellent videos showing off the game and his incredible terrain. One of the settings for the game is special forces taking on cartels (think Sicario 2 or Triple Frontier). Suitably inspired I ordered a bunch of 3d stl files and these are the first to be done.

The woman in the yellow shirt and the kneeling sniper are Turnbase figures, the remainder are all from Black Hills Games. The latter are a bit heftier than the former but not so much as to be unworkable together IMO, as the next photo shows I think. The figure all in black is mostly painted in GW Contrast paint over a grey undercoat. The others are painted using standard acrylic paints - I used Army Painter Fanatic colours on the woman as they are quite saturated and bright, and this contrasted nicely with the more subdued AK 3G and Vallejo colours used on the figures with assault rifles. A couple have red bandannas in Army Painter Pure Red for a bit of visual interest/contrast and as a cartel 'colour'.

The three with assault rifles and body armour are, not surprisingly, more lethal than the more lightly armed foot soldiers. The woman will count as a Sicario - a nasty assassin-type in Haywire.

Here we have two figures equipped with SMGs and two with pistols - these guys tend to die quickly in Haywire  but you do get a lot of them!

They are mostly painted in Army Painter Speedpaints, although the trousers/shorts of two are painted in AK 3G sand and green-grey acrylics. I experimented doing the flesh in Army Painter Warrior Skin speedpaint over a grey undercoat given a heavy white drybrush. I don't think it looks as good as my usual method using normal Vallejo Flesh acrylics, but it is a lot quicker! Good enough for the table and from 3 feet I reckon.

Finally, we have a Turnbase cartel sniper - here you can see the difference between the skin done with speedpaints and my usual method of highlighting over a darker skin tone.

As well as the modern ruleset, there is also a zombie game called Haywire Outbreak, which uses many of the same mechanics (and like Haywire, is available to download for free).  This prompted me to dig out an old box of Zombiecide zombies I've had for years and done nothing with. All were painted using GW Contrast or Army Painter speedpaints - getting them done quickly was the aim as these will only be used for the occasional fun game. They then had a generous amount of GW blood effect paint stippled on.

First are three 'bloaters', which can be made to blow up, taking other zombies/unfortunate survivors with them.

Then we have six 'runners'. Faster than the usual shuffling undead, meaning they can get into close combat more easily, so need to be kept at arms length for as long as possible!

The rest of the herd is made up of 15 'normal' zombies. Individually not too dangerous but far more so once they start gathering in numbers!

A couple of group shots to finish.

So that's 33x 28mm figures for 165 points.

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SylvainR for DaveD: Tough looking thugs and rotting zombies. What is there not to love? Your brushwork really highlights the decaying look of the foul undeads while your choice of figurines for the cartel employees and the way you paint their clothes oozes "attitude" and criminal confidence. A very productive week for you!

 

 

ChrisW - Back of Beyond Terrain (25 points)

 

The tower itself stands 9" tall, 3" wide and 7" long. The base is roughly 9" x 7".

The 'face' is a one piece cast that is 4" x 4.5" and is 1 1/4" tall to the tip of the nose.

First up is a sunken or partially exposed carved face. I am not certain who makes this, I bought it at Fall In two years ago. It seems rathe fragile for resin feels more like plaster. I was concerned how it would turn out as the details seemed rather faint, however I think it worked out fine. So far I have not based it, but I suspect I should to offer it more protection. 

It was painted with a few layers, starting with three thin  coats of a craft grey/brown paint. Then more layers of a pale green/grey craft paint and a wash or two of brown. Then the inevitable application of a  dry brush finish to try and bring back the details.

Figures for scale

The non face part was 'painted' with a dark brown textured basing material then a mix of flock, some tufts and a vine that I had bought years ago to wrap across the stone face.

Up next is a 3d print ruined building that I bought last year at Hotlead. This was really a lot of fun to paint! It has lots of deep detail on it and I frankly like the look of it. I started with black rattle can primer and a blast of light grey rattle can. Then a drybrush of a lighter grey/white. The first things I tackled were the wood floors and the roof tiles. The wooden parts were painted with GW Contrast leather while the tiles were another green contrast paint.

Then I started the fun part. Armed with a spray bottle of water, some sponges, some wide brushes two GW contrast paints and a bottle of Woodland Scenics 'concrete' paint I had at it. So mostly concrete was used with a slap of contrast then some blending followed by stippling and sponging on and off, rinse and repeat. There was no rhyme or reason to this process, I just went with the flow. After letting it dry, I then applied some very light dry brushing with light grey, beige, mudstone and green.

The swampy water is an AK product that dries to a nice green slimy look. The shrubbery near the swamp was cut from a sheet of the stuff (from a hobby shop do not remember the brand) while I added a lot of different tufts to add a mix of plant life. I chose not to apply any flock.

The toughest part of it all was knowing when to stop, it was just to easy to have kept trying another shade of this or that, just a little more dry brushing another wash. Hopefully I stopped short of too late. 

So, that is it for my first and possibly only terrain post. Hopefully it will score enough points to count towards another squirrel, love those squirrels!

So points this post    ??

+1 Squirrel for Back of beyond scenery.

Thank you

Chris

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Hello Chris and thank you for submitting some marvellous terrain pieces here.  Both are very well done and have a ton of great little paint details and basing done on them.  The staining and weathering is also very well done, great work!

As for points the tower is big enough and detailed enough that I am going to say 20 points for it, and the face is a lovely piece but fairly small so 5 points.  I am not actually sure on what you need for squirrel points (having not participated in it this year), but hopefully this is enough for you. Again, great work!

- Byron 

From PaulSS: Medieval Serjeants (162 points)

This week really contributed to the gambeson painting fatigue! A whole box of Victrix Medieval Foot Sergeants joins the ever growing Barons’ War forces, enough for four more units for our Midgard games.

They are nice enough figures, but suffer from the usual Victrix problem of being too fiddly with easily broken parts. The dynamic poses on these make it impossible to base most of them on 20mm bases like the rest of the foot in the collection, so instead I opted for doing three foot on a 40mm base for those too big to fit individually on a 20mm.

Those easily broken spears I mention, of the seven here three did not survive building and painting, that one closest in this shot has been glued three times already. 

If I did any of these in the future I'd stick to only making them with hand weapons.

Gambesons a plenty in this set, I think they come out alright, but oh-my they do get repetitive after a while!

Some close ups of a few of the individual stands.

The standard is hand painted on cartridge paper and then plasticised with Mod Podge to give it both durability and flow. Like the spears, the standard pole broke and had to be fixed, hence the pronounced bend.

Nice enough figures, would I do more of them? No, I have enough already and these are not the best to build or paint.

Thirty two 28mm figures should add another 160pts added to my total and have me well over my target for this Challenge, no letting up though, off to Cornwall for a week and the weather forecast says take the paints and brushes.

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SylvainR for DaveD:  Fiddly but awesome! You really did bring out the best out of these miniatures. I like how you unified your force with touches of blue and yellow. These will shine on the tabletop. I added 2 points for the flag. Great job!

 

 

From Mike W: More 28mm Crossbowmen, Egyptian & Greek Undead and 15mm Epic AWI Infantry (166 Points)

 Another varied mix of figures and subjects this week, with hopefully 2 more Squirrel points! New to this year's challenge are a group of Warlord Games Epic 15mm AWI Infantry, painted up as a Militia Unit, curently I have only finished two bases of these little guys but I have a few other Epic bases if I get round to them.

40 x American AWI Militiamen

A view of the left flank of these Militiamen

I made use of speed paints to do most of the heavy lifting on these guys, just a varied mix of jacket colours really. The flag was taken form the internet as a generic Militia standard.

And from the right flank whilst in column of march

Next is a return to the Egyptian Undead theme which sees me finally (after maybe about 15 years!) finishing a box of GW Khemri Charriots... 

I have done at least one of the other two in previous challenges, however, as a kitbashing execise, this one has seen me replace one of the crewmen with a spare mummy figure, (leftover after from an earlier post this challenge).

Complted charriot with crewman and a mummy as it's important passenger.
Tw Horse skulls and two human skulls on this model.

The mummy can be seen better from this angle, I'm out of suitable grass tufts
for a desert so these will be added at a later date when I restock!

I have adjusted this mummy figure by replacing the head with a GW Tomb King's head and adding a rather large spear, again from the GW kit. Painting is basis the same procedures that I have previously detailed.

Close-up of eth crew compartment

And a departing rear shot

By way of a departure on the Undead front I am looking to put together an 'allied' unit of Greek Undead skeletons, armed with spears, the classic round hoplite shields and typical ancient Greek helmets with flamboyant crests.

Completed 5 x Greek Undead Infantry,
I'm cheekily claiming 5 Skull points for these guys, although the
skulls are completly enclosed by their Attic Helmets

Another angle, sorry the auto-focus on camera is messed up by the long spears!

I'm also looking to paint these as specifically Undead Spartans, so the colour theme for the unit will be Red & bone! The figures are Wargames Atlantic Skeleton Infantry  and shields, swords and helmets are 'liberated' from a Warlord Games box of Ancient Spartans.

Again the bases will be improved when I get more grass tufts

Size wise, these two figure sets are a good fit together, a little thinner and shorter than GW Tomb Kings, painting wise it is a similar recipe to the Egyptians above. Cream undercoat, GW Skeleton Horde speedpaint, dry-brushed a bone colour when dry and highlighted with near white.

A Close-up on two of the Greek Undead

Clothes (well rags),  Helmet crests are red, to fit in with the Spartan vibe, with black spear poles and  Brass spear blades, helmets & shields with a red 'V' transfers were used to finish them off.

The other three Greek Undead

Next is another 8 x 28mm Renaissance Crossbowmen, again I won't repeat my painting method as it is the same as noted last week!

Close-up of four of this week's completed batch.

Close up of the other 4 guys

Finally the whole of this week's batch!

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SKULL POINTS

+9 Skulls Egypian & Greek Undead

SQUIRREL POINTS

+2 15mm AWI Infantry, 28mm Greek Undead

POINTS

40 x 15mm AWI Infantry @ 2Pts ea                                80 Points

1 x 28mm Egypian Undead Charriot @ 20 Pts                20 Points

5 x 28mm Greek Undead Infantry @ 5 Pts ea                 25 Points

8 x 28mm Renaissance Crossbowmen @ 5Pts ea            40 Points

TOTAL                                                                            165 Points

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SylvainR for DaveD: I admire the squirrel in you, hoping from one project to the next with equal grace and talent. I especially like the Spartan hoplites. The interwoven references to history and horror culture are quite unique. Oh, and I will add 1 point for the flag. Great job!