From AdamC: Coyotes (15 points)

A very small and unimpressive offering this week 

My friend Dave from Bloody Scotsman Games made these up as part of the wild animals for his various Devil in the Wilderness games. 

Having some scruffy looking animals is always handy for the table. 

You can see one is lacking a tail, I'm happy to use the guys who don't print out quote right.  They are 25mm scale so if we count them as 'infantry' they would be 5 points each for 15 points in total. 

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Sylvain: This might be a first: there is no label "coyote" in the index of the Painting Challenge.  A very interesting idea to add wildlife in the background. You did a great job at representing the fur on these miniatures. Extraordinaire!

 

From TomL: BattleTech Steiner Strikers & 19th VI (142 points)

First up is another Battletech unit.  These are painting in the Steiner Striker colors - red with an inverted triangle in white. 

These were 3D printed to plug the gap in a friends Catalyst KS collection.  Some of the details were a touch shallow so I did a black wash over the base red followed by a red & slightly orange highlight. The inverted triangle areas were painted grey, then white with a final contrast basilicom grey to add some depth.

Finally got a chance to finish one of the ACW CSA units I started while on vacation. This is the 19th Virginia:

 

As before, the base colors are done with contrast paints, details and highlights used Vallejo & TTC acrylics with a final coat of Vallejo Game wash.  

Score:140
4 28mm figures @ 5 for 20 points.

60 epic figures @ 2 for 120 points. 

4 points for the Stompy robots of death duel.

 

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Sylvain: You are consistent and productive. I have seen your robots and your ACW many times already and can only reiterate how impressed I am with the attention to details and the look on the table. I will add two points for the flags. Extraordinaire! 

 

From GregB: Raven Guard Assault Optae (5 Points)

"Assault Optae" - Raven Guard Space Marine officer - multi-part plastic kit from GW with slight conversions.

I have only a small submission this week - a single figure - but it is one I have been looking forward to posting as it is connected to Curt and Sarah's pending visit! As Curt mentioned in his post last week, he and Sarah will be stopping for a short visit here in Toronto on their way back to Regina, and we will be looking to squeeze in as much gaming as possible amid good food and wine. As part of the hospitality, I have painted this figure up as a gift to Curt, so he can join the ranks of his new Horus Heresy "Kill Team" Project. 

It's just one figure. But even a single figure can still throw up a larger word count...so...buckle up...

The Basics

This is Space Marine Centurion in Mark II power armour, a slight conversion of a multi-part plastic kit from GW's latest "Age of Darkness" starter box. The figure is meant to be wearing a massive, billowing cloak (as one does) while sporting an insane vexilla on the top of a slightly fancy version of the power pack commonly seen on Space Marine power armour. I have done away with the cloak and some of those other bibs and bobs to give him the jump pack of an assault marine instead. This was done for a few reasons.

Legion numeral on the shoulder plate - and a nice view of the insane jump pack. 

The first reason is the most important: I wanted him to fit in! Curt's initial "Shattered Legions" Raven Guard force for "Kill Team" looks to be built mostly around Raven Guard assault marines - the crazy(er) ones who wear "jump packs" and to get to grips with their enemies at close range. So if this fellow is going to participate in Curt's squad, he should be wearing the appropriate gear. In their recent wave of releases GW has issued a new set of plastic kit assault marines in Mk II armour (they are awesome - just haven't got around to panting any of em' yet), and the whacky jump pack from those kits fits perfectly on this fellow's armour. 

I added a custom shoulder plate with the embossed Raven Guard legion symbol to complete effect. I also tried my best to match the dark colours and dark look Curt achieved on his guys. Critically, I was able to find a washer-type base, so hopefully he'll fit in without too much trouble. 

Another view of the crazy jump pack - and we can see the "power maul" is large enough to be wielded with both hands, should the occasion call for it.

The MkII armour has lots to recommend it to fans of the Horus Heresy setting. Lots of segments and plates, a less-efficient-yet-more menacing overall appearance. This centurion model retains all of those elements, but adds heaps the "bling" associated with Space Marine Legion officers. The effect is tremendous in my opinion. You can't see his face, but he still "looks" annoyed. It's a great miniature, and really neat that GW has taken the time issue plastic kits for the Mk II marines.

And yet...up above, I say, "the first reason". That implies more than one reason I did not build this kit as GW intended...read on...

Adventures In Modern Plastic Modeling

I mentioned above that this figure, as originally designed, is wearing a big cape (as one does), vexilla etc. He even has a friendly servo-skull (probably an old friend that he wanted to, er, "keep around").  The "intended" finished figure is indeed a fine-looking 30k specimen, sporting all of the very best, whacky 30k Space Marine silliness that Horus Heresy fans enjoy. I did manage to complete a version of this original figure. Here is how he turned out, painted in the colours of the VI Legion Astartes, the Space Wolves.

Space Wolf Centurion wearing Mk II armour, accompanied by his buddy, a floating skull because 30k. Painted last summer/fall. 

He turned out OK. But it was a hell of an adventure to get here - and required a replacement of the left shoulder plate (of course, I am the sort of dork who would have plenty of those handy, but still). You see, the original figure, as conceived by GW, looks beautiful in theory but is almost impossible to assemble as-is in practice. There is no way in which one can assemble the cape, the power pack and the shoulder plates in a fashion even remotely/distantly resembling the method laid out instructions. 

There is no physical way to get this...

...when trying to follow this....

Trying to follow those instructions lead to desperate repair attempts. The cloak needs to, at once, go under AND over the vents of the power pack. THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE once the power pack itself is already fastened to the back of the model. Even proceeding cautiously ended in desperate repair attempts as it became clear I had made a major mistake by following the published instructions..such repair attempts don't always go well, as we see here... 

For f*ck sakes!! This is what happens when you need to make repairs...

This is why you often see alternate versions of this figure posted online, as I have done here - because the cape, power pack and shoulder plates defy assembly in any reasonable fashion, or even an unreasonable one for that matter. This is what happens when the people who design things with computers are not the ones who have to build and paint them, IMO. Oh well. 

The Final Bit - A Back Story

OK. Enough about the modeling - let's get back to this specific miniature! I know Curt loves the story aspect of gaming, and so this fellow would need a back story too. While I have not named him, I have that story ready...

He see him as an "Assault Optae", a veteran of The Emperor's Great Crusade, hailing from Terra! He has served in the XIX Legion for centuries of fighting! This sort of provenance would be ideal in a warrior, one would think, but...well, in the Horus Heresy story, this would breed division within the Legions. 

The "Great Crusade" lasted centuries. The Space Marines Legions all started with Terran "recruits", but as the Crusade expanded across the galaxy, the sources of recruits expanded too, and ultimately shifted to whichever homeworld their Primarchs were discovered on. As Primarchs took over their legions, they tended to distrust those officers who had been serving with the Legion prior to their arrival - they looked to the fellow Marines raised on the new homeworld, and looked slightly askance at those of Terran lineage. 

Now, those "Terrans" were still loyal - and desperate to prove it - but these were among the issues that led to divisions building slowly within the Legions over the decades, ones the Horus and his dark allies would ultimately exploit. The "Terran core" of each legion was gradually sidelined.

Handy Raven Guard symbol embossed on the shoulder plate.

Different Legions handled this generational distrust in different ways - in some, these Terran veteran officers were merely sidelined, while in others they were sent toward certain death in battle, or they were sent off on pointless missions to the other side of the galaxy. Some were just quietly fragged and re-processed. 

Corax, Primarch of the Raven Guard, took the "I'll just let attrition handle some and sideline the others" approach. I see this fellow as a survivor of this. When word of Horus' betrayal broke, and the Raven Guard were mustered to attack the Traitor Legions on Istvaan V, this fellow was among the few thousand left behind as part of the garrison to keep an eye on the Raven Guard homeworld. Nothing personal, of course, no official reason - someone has to keep watch, after all - but he would know why, everyone would know why. 

Crazy gun? Check. Crazy "power maul"? Check. Let's get some revenge...

Betrayed at Istvaan V, the shattered survivors of the Raven Guard would have been rescued by guys like this officer. He is at the forefront now...he'll still never be fully trusted by Corax, but there really are not many officers left...not many Raven Guard left! So he is at the forefront of the vengeful battle to bleeed and harry the forces of The Warmaster as they march across the galaxy toward Terra and destiny. 

He is gutted that he was not there to face the dire fate of the Raven Guard on Istvaan V. Even though he helped rescue the survivors, it is a guilt that drives him. Maybe he will never prove himself to his Primarch - not fully - but he will work to ease his "survivor guilt" by opening the skulls of as many traitor Marines as he can manage...the fan-made version of "Kill Team" is perfect for games/scenarios with these sort of dynamics at play. I hope Curt enjoys him!

That's too many words. But it's still just one 28mm figure for five points. If you made it to here, thanks for reading! Hope to be back next week with more. 

 

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Sylvain: I Greg, is your middle name "Black Library"? Now I can't look at this miniature without feeling his inner guilt... Excellent job on that "one" figure. Extraordinaire!

 

From BruceR: Fleshing out the Force, More Braganza's Besiegers (56 points)

Back from somewhat sunny California (still warmer than North Dakota) and once more into the deep freeze (so to speak at -4 F).  Nice little break from the temps and now back into the downslope of the challenge.  

I am taking a Dogs of War force to Adepticon end of March to play Warmaster and need the requisite 4 units of bows.  I had ordered them early on for the Challenge and when I started to paint realized I was short about half the stands.  Oops.  back to the interweb for reinforcements.  They arrived while I was away and I started on them as we recovered from traveling this past weekend.  

I took a different approach to the troops this time.  

The prints come as 2 figures on a base front and back rank.  I placed most groups of 2 on popsicle sticks and also tried 2 stands of 8 on their bases for painting.  Not sure which method worked best.   

I gave them the black undercoat and as they are mostly armored, I decided to slap-chop them and use metal speed paint for the armor.  This seemed to speed up the process, without a downgrade in finished product.  The pouches, bow strings, bows, limited flesh, shields (these probably took the most time) and I think makes the unit pop at this scale, were done with acrylics.  I did go back and hit the helmets and shoulders with acrylic gold as I find the speed paints seem to dull the figures down somewhat.

I've started using Monument Hobby Pro Acryl Brown Earth Fine basing texture for all of these 10mm bases, a light dry brush and add clumps of flock.  

I will be using them as simply crossbows so they do not get the pavis bonus or armor bonus.  Simply ranged armed humans.  I think they look better than simple crossbows so play for looks and fun I say.

So, here are the 7 stands to flesh out my required 12 stands.

1st Unit:

I smeared some basing pumice on the shield by mistake and
figured normal weathering for campaigning so didn't sweat it.

2nd Unit w/ additional stand:

The force defending the hill:

The four units completed during the challenge.  

Points for the week:

7 Stands of 8 10mm figures at 1pt per figure          Total 56 pts  

Thanks for looking.  Hope all are enjoying the challenge and keep those brushes up as the finish line is in sight.  

Bruce

 

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Sylvain: The demonstration of your painting skills, by picking up so many details on such tiny figurines, just blows me away. I will add 2 points for the flag. Seeing you army would be a good enough reason to travel to Adepticon. Extraordinaire!

From PeterD: Sino-Japanese War and Skulls (26 Points)

A few more ships for my ongoing Sino-Japanese war project.  No long history rants this week, as these mostly repeats as I finish off the two starter packs that I got from Tumbling Dice.  The smaller vessels were packaged in twos and in a few cases threes, so I did one of each pack to start with.  Now I am coming back to pick off the second and third models.

First up four Chinese ships - the cruisers Jingyuen, Jiyuan, and Yangwei, plus the torpedo gunboat Kwangyi.  These are all sisters of ships in my last week's posts, so there's not much to add.  Torpedo gunboats (TGBs) were built by most navies in the early 1890s to counter the emerging menace of enemy torpedo boats.  Basically they were a top down approach, small cruisers armed with guns and torpedoes.  They proved too slow to catch a torpedo boat so navies developed the torpedo boat destroyer, soon shortened to destroyer, built as larger torpedo boats and with enough speed to do the job.

Next some Japanese ships, the ironclad Kongo (sister of the Hiei) and the gunboats Yamato (no not that one), Atago and Chokai again sisters of ships posted last week.   Note that I've tried to vary the rigs or flag position of sister ships to provide visual differences.  In the Chokai's case, lost or banjaxed masts meant that she hers were repurposed to other ships and she got wire masts instead.  Also a torpedo boat flotilla to run away from the Chinese TGBs. 

And finally two merchantmen.  The Kowshing was a British flagged vessel sunk in the Battle of Pungdo, initiated by the Japanese before the formal declaration of war (sense a pattern?).   The Cassius (having been born on the Ides of March,  am partial to Big Julie themed names) was repurposed from the second ship in the pack of Guangia class corvettes.   Info on the ships of the Guandong fleet is sparse, but the Guangjia appears to not have had any sister ships.  However, her generally lines were similar to older merchants of the age.

Finally because Barks asked, here's some photos from a recent Skull Tour put on by a colleague's Bio class at our University.

These are various cats.  The big one is a lion with a bullet hole in the forehead.  There wasn't much difference between the bobcat and house cat skulls.

Moose, top and bottom

Beavers.  As any Canadian 5 year old will tell you, those teeth never stop growing and they need to keep chewing wood.

Grizzly, Black and Polar bears.  Note the responsible emphasis on safe boning.

Various weasels and the like (not the ones holding public office).

Back to the ships, there's a total of 12 hulls in 1/2400 scale for a total of 24 points.   

I'm going claim two squirrels points here.  I have completed 13 Chinese hulls (9 posted last week and 4 this week) for 26 points.  I have also completed 16 Japanese hulls (10 last week and 6 this week for 32 points).

My squirrel total now stands at 6:

• Badass Female Pulp Heroines
• Badass Female Nordic Resistance Fighters
• US Navy 1898 (including transports)
• European Intervention squadrons 1898
• Japanese navy 1894-5
• Chinese navy 1894-5 

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SylvainR: With bright yellow to identify the Chinese fleet, there is no risk of friendly fire. As usual, very fine paint job on your ships and I hope we can try them out on Friday. I will add 2 points for the flags, as per Minion's right. Your display of "Canadian" skulls was very amusing.  Extraordinaire! 

From BillA: 3D Printed Alien Monsters (20 points)

Mixing things up once again! 

With my wife being immunocompromised and the hygiene standards (or lack thereof) I've seen at some of the local game stores, a lot of my wargaming has shifted to solo play since 2020, and one of the games most often seen on my table is "Majestic 13," from Snarling Badger Studios. While it hasn't gotten the same level of attention that their offerings "Deth Wizards" and "Space Station Zero" have, it's been a very enjoyable game for me.

You play as a team of five "Agents" in a covert war against alien invaders, represented in most games by one big gribbly monster that can absorb and deal out a lot of damage. Each game is capped at five turns and you'll usually have a secondary mission attached alongside the primary mission of "kill the monster." It's built for campaign play, with agents improving skills, requisitioning improved gear, as well as developing PTSD and dying and being returned to the battlefield as clones of varying quality. 

I'm currently (as of this blogpost going live) four games into my current campaign, and have a small collection of painted monsters to use; the game offers stats for 26 monsters, each of which are described in the vaguest possible terms to allow you to use whatever figures feel most appropriate to the you. Most of mine are 3D prints from various designers, and here are two more newly painted for my collection. Both of these were purchased from TableTopTradesman on Etsy, who has been one of my go-to sources for these.

The first of these is a sort of generic "Cthulhu"-y humanoid figure with long arms ending in tentacled "hands" and a octopus-like head. I tend to keep my paint jobs on these monsters relatively simple, often with a main color and pops of contrast; they've also been good for me as practice for glazing and similar techniques. Here, I used a medium cool gray for a base-coat, washed it with some thinned down GW "Nighthaunt Gloom" contrast paint, and then drybrushed with a very pale blue-tinged gray, and a second drybrush using a 70/30 mix of white and that same pale blue-gray. 

I then went over the "hands" with "Baal Red" contrast paint up to the wrists; once dried, I gave them a light drybrush of a red-orange color, and then used a lighter red to glaze over the orange and carried the glaze all the way up to the...second wrist? There's a lot of extra joints in its arms. Hopefully that reads as a shift in the creature's pigment, rather than it being wrist-deep in gore. 

The second critter is marketed as a "Dire Bat," but those sure as heck ain't wings! The frills on the arms look more like fish fins to me, personally, but it was such an odd design choice that it drew me to this figure whereas I probably would have skipped over a more traditional "bat" design. 

I kept the colors fairly simple, an all-over basecoat of a dark red-brown, drybrushed with a brighter version of the same, and a final drybrushing of a rusty red-brown along the edges of the fins and the mane down its neck. In hindsight, I probably should have painted him *before* gluing him to the base! He's on a 60mm round from Renedra, by the way, while his paler companion is on a 40mm base. 

Since many of the monsters in Majestic 13 have energy-based ranged attacks, I painted the inside of the figure's gaping maw a strong golden yellow (3 coats), and then washed it with orange before going back over the middle with more yellow. Hopefully that sells the idea of it having a Godzilla-style breath weapon! 

ZZZZAPPP!!!

They're fairly large figures, but the paint jobs are not terribly complex, so I've been chewing over how best to score these. The gray monster is pretty close to 54mm in height, while the bat is probably not far off that in length. Here's a picture of them next to one of my Majestic 13 Agents for sale:

I'll leave it to Sylvain to make the final determination, but maybe treat them as 40mm figures to account for the simpler paint jobs, and call it 14 points for the two of them? I'm counting these as Modern Horror, so no new squirrel points for me.

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Sylvain: Those are some wicked monsters! Simple but effective game tools. Figurines are based on size, so you just completed two 54mm models. Extraordinaire!

 

 

 

From ChrisW: Send in the Ladies (85 points)

 

A rushed post this week as I type this just before I fly away to somewhere warm. Perhaps my rushing around could explain the blurry pictures, but, really it is my skill and a really old camera (they made digital cameras back then)

Anyways what I lack in clarity I shall make up in volume of pictures, hopefully some aspect of the picture will offset the blur.

These are Dragonbait miniatures who have a few VSF figures. The ladies are mounted on mono wheeled metal unicorns, kind of weird. but kind of cool. I have painted up 5 of the cavalry figures that I own, the others were not assembled and primed (somehow missed them)  Some contrast for the skirts, helmets and red coat but more conventional for the rest of the uniform and for highlights. 

I rather like the AP speed paint metal that I used on the unicorn rumps, it really creates a contrast between the raised bits and the rest of it. I still used a wash on the Unicorns as I wanted them to look like they had seen action and not just the parade ground. I have created a banner for the cavalry  (courtesy of AI) but could not get it mounted in  time. You may note that the riders have not been glued down as I may adjust the handle bars later on.

I also have done up a rocket launcher with a four person crew and a supply mule. (this time a mechanical mono wheel mule) 

These are on the large size of 28mm, but do blend in well enough with my other VSF stuff. I also have a unit of ten riflewomen that were almost done in time for this week, but alas not.

Points this time

• 50  points for 5x 28mm mounted troops
• 30  points for 28mm gun & 4 crew 
•   5  points for 28mm mechanical mule

85 Points Total

Squirrels

1 or (2) more squirrels for a total of 20 (21 for separate terrain post)

1. Gladiators
2. Epic Orcs
3. Epic Imperial
4. Warlord Chinese
5. Red Russians RCW Back of Beyond
6. Alien Invaders
7. Pulp US Marines
8. Urban Cultists
9. Egyptian cultists
10. VSF Japanese armoured vehicles
11. Tripods
12. Bugs!
13. Evil minion deep sea divers
14. Puritans
15. Explorers of Egypt
16. Jungle explorers
17. Heroic deep sea divers
18. Muslim troops for the British
19. Free stater Armoured cars
20. Guardians of Antiquities
21. Minerva's Flying Circus
22. British cavalry and rocket launcher
23. (BoB terrain? if it has been posted and was worth enough points)

Lady Sarah

The entire post

 

 

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SylvainR: Very cool ladies. It looks like they are dressed in Union Jacks. Regarding the miniatures, I thought "wacky" and "wow" were two incompatible concepts, but I've got proven wrong with your post. If you ever use them in a game, maybe you could post a few non-blur pictures. Extraordinaire!