From Curt: Darth Vader and Stormtroopers for 'Imperial Assault' (55 Points)

I know, I know, there's been a bit of a boardgame theme running through my entries to date. I have no clue whats driving it. I can assure you it's not out of any grand design on my part. As Robbie Robertson once sang, 'I don't know, the wind just sort of pushed me this way.' 

'Imperial Assault' is a newly discovered game for me, so I was pretty stoked to try painting some of the figures. I know the game is old news for many as it's been out for several years, but my interest was piqued when I heard that, like 'Mansions of Madness', an app was being released to run the game's core mechanics allowing it to become fully cooperative. 

The new Imperial Assault app.

The announcement of the app coincided with the news that one of our local game stores was shutting down. The silver lining to this sad news was that in and among all the stock they were blowing out was a heap of 'Imperial Assault' stuff. So being a big Star Wars geek, I jumped in with both feet and snapped it up.

So here are my beginning efforts of the core box.  I thought I'd start with a good big whack of bad guys as, well, you always need lots of bad guys for the heroes to ventilate and/or foil their nefarious plans. 

This is a detachment of nine Stormtroopers, their captain Kayn Somos and my favourite Sith Lord, Darth Vader. 

I thought the Stormtroopers would be an easy win being all white, but of course their armour was quite fiddly to get close to what I was wanting. I'm still not entirely happy with them, but they'll die in droves, just like unpainted ones, so they'll make do.

The plastic on these figures was not too bad to work on, but still a bit too bendy for my tastes. I removed Vader's slightly warped light saber and replaced it with brass rod, and for a bit of fun, I used some thin plastic rod to simulate him deflecting an incoming laser blast.

Photographing these guys was a bit of a challenge as Vader sort of disappears into the black background and I was too lazy to swap it out with something else.

Again, I replaced the stock bases with clear acrylic to allow the playing-tile surfaces to show through. Following my standard skirmish trope, I also gave Vader and Somos different shaped bases to aid in their rank identification, though this is pretty silly as it's blazingly obvious when you look at the figures! Apparently it's hard to stop a creature of habit. ;)

Thanks for visiting and I'll see you for the upcoming 'Flight' bonus round.

Artist: Robbie Robertson

Song: 'Somewhere Down the Crazy River' (1987)

And what a way to end my minion day!  I've always been a huge fan of stormtroopers, ever since one showed up the the cinema screening of "The Empire Strikes Back" that I went to when it was released. I think you've done a sterling job on all that white and they look almost dangerous all together.

The swap out of the lightsaber and the deflected bolt is a stroke of absolute genius!  It works so well with Darth being all monochrome and all, it's another area of colour that pings and accentuates his dark clothing.

I was certainly tempted by this game when I heard of the app and with you and Barks painting all this stuff my resolution to NOT buy anything showcased by others in the challenge is going to be sorely tested....!  A mighty 55 points headed your way, once I wrestle the spreadsheet of ultimate power into submission.

From KenR : 28mm Matilda Tanks (50pts)

My first two entries this year have involved my war on the WW1 Mesopotamia lead pile, today sees the first dig at the WW2 Desert mountain, a mountain made mostly of resin. For those of you who missed it Blitzkrieg Miniatures have had a number of 50% off sales in 2017 and its safe to say I took advantage, the resin pile growing in direct proportion to the reduction in my bank balance !

Presented here are three 28mm Blitzkrieg Miniatures Matilda II tanks painted up for my early war North Africa British. 2 of the tanks have visible Commanders and both these figures are from Perrys.

For those of you who don't know the camouflage scheme they are painted in is known as Caunter, introduced in 1940 it was in use throughout 1940 being gradually phased out by the end of 1941. The camo has been hand painted on with no masking used if you see any mistakes, that's my excuse  !

There has been much debate over the colours of the scheme over the years, too much too go into here, but locally sourced paints and the reaction of the paints to prolonged bright sunlight led to lots of variations.

Each vehicle type had it's own official template for the scheme, most of which can be found on line. The scheme was then applied by the crews or at the service depot leading to many minor variations on a theme.

Each British tank at the time was given a name, some units had naming conventions, names beginning with A for A Company etc or names based on a letter of the alphabet so 7 RTR used named starting with the 7th letter, G.

Those of you with excellent memories might recall I did a Matilda for one of the bonus rounds last year and I described my naming protocol then, it's based on the novel Wind in the Willows (because when I did the first tank I immediately thought of a Fat Badger) so continuing that theme, here we have Mole, Ratty and Hedgehog.

So that's three 28mm vehicles at 15 points a piece with 2 28mm figures at 2.5 pts a piece for the Commanders for a total of 50 pts.

On the paint table at the the moment is my nearly complete Flight entry before I return to WW1 and a full British Battalion, 1st Ox Bucks Lt Infantry. Probably won't get them done before next Thurs so I will see you in a fortnight.

What a spiffing set of tanks!  And handpainted camo without masking tape?  I salute your dedication sir!  I can never get lines to stay straight enough.... I do like the names you've given them too, just the kind of personal touch I can imagine the crews adding to their vehicles.

And an excellent set of information for people like me who don't know the background of these mighty beasts.  I'll probably get into trouble for this, but all the arguing about shades of colour in historical wargaming leaves me a little baffled... I'm not entirely sure how people are supposed to know exact shades given the uneven quality of photography (if it existed), the effect of the elements and the difficulties inherent in mixing the paints/dye in the middle of wartime!  Still, each to their own.  These colours look splendid to me and certainly fit the period.

I've adjusted the points down a touch as each crewman counts as half a figure, but an excellent return at 50 points nonetheless!

From NickJ: AoS Ungor Raiders (101 points)

Once Upon a Christmas Break

Well it finally had to happen; I actually managed to have time off work between Christmas and New Year for the first time this Century.

Naturally I celebrated with some painting and the Wife seemed happy for me to be locked away in the spare room...

I'm a confirmed Games Workshop-A-Holic and I tend to side with the forces of Chaos in both Age of Sigmar and 40K. I work in IT; Chaos is what gets us out of bed in the middle of the night.

So onto the submission to keep my Minion happy (he's been nagging me all day) - for those wondering I've known Jamie the Thursday Minion for 15+ years so expect some ribbing! What I'm enjoying most is everything he gets to Minionate for me he knows he will end up fighting soon... :-)

So this week please stand up and welcome the Ungor Raiders.

These 20 fine fellows are the low caste of the Beastmen; runts of the litter as it were. But they have missile weapons and those are like gold dust in the Chaos forces!

I've painted them with Citadel paints with the skin tone being purple washes over a light skin base. Any "highlights" are caused naturally by the combination of the base and washes rather than any planning on my part!

 

Considering these guys are the runts they don't half have a big banner. And what's more it has more skulls on it than the Skull God's Chariot of Skull Collecting.

My army is made up of 5 separate factions all painted differently. The banners and bases are what ties them all together. I really like how colourful it all looks on the tabletop - nothing beats seeing fully painted armies lined up ready for war in my opinion. Well maybe Cheese on Toast but I suspect I'm digressing...

So that's 20 x 28mm figures which should net me a cool 100 points.

And if all goes to plan I've also got something sorted for the Saturday Flight Bonus round! It'll be my first ever bonus success so here's hoping I can get the basing done before Saturday.

Sadly it's back to work now so most likely something new every couple of weeks as I'll naturally slow down.

Thanks for reading this far!!

"Oh Mr Tumnus, it's jolly spiffing to be back in Narnia and so I've brought ginger beer and marzipan cakes to celebrate...... oh look, I see you've brought some new friends Mr Tumnus..... but why do they need nasty looking bows Mr Tumnus......?  And is it just me or do they look a little angry.....?"

An excellent set of chaotic loonies Nick, these certainly ain't the fauns CS Lewis had in mind!  They look like a right ticked off bunch of chaps.  That purple skin recipe is working as well as ever and really helps bring out the expressions on the faces in particular.  I'm a fan of the brighter blue that draws the eye and the muted basing and fur scheme works very nicely to balance it all out without it being overpowering.

100 points for the chaps themselves and an extra point for the handpainted banner (awarded gleefully because I'm secretly hoping that the IT geek side of you gets twitchy with the total not being a round number). Oh and I reserve the right to retrospectively reduce the points quite considerably if they do well against me on the field of battle, which I think we can agree is eminently reasonable?

 

From GregB: Vive L'Empereur (The Second One)! (60 points)

French Imperial infantry ready to defend their country against Prussian invaders...while their senior commanders prepare to fail them utterly...

Well, no marks for originality with this next submission - why it's yet more infantry for the Franco-Prussian War! My last submission was a pile of Prussians, and here now is the completed force of French infantry to take them on. These are 28mm castings from "Eagles of Empire".  There are 31 of them in the pictures, but as with my previous submission, there is a bit of propaganda at work in the photography - a number of figures in this group shot that were painted previously or prior to the Challenge. Only 12 of the castings will count for scoring purposes this week. I just liked the group photo, so piled the whole lot in together!

Bugler figure serving as an NCO on a square base

These are based for skirmish games, with NCOs on square bases and more senior officers on hex bases.  As with the Prussians, there is a senior command base that adds a standard bearer to a senior officer that will be used to represent a higher status officer on the table. I was not able to find a proper eagle to affix to the standard unfortunately, but I still like how the fellow turned out.

NCO directs the deadly fire of his unit's Chassepot rifles

While the sculpting style of these castings is definitely a little different, something I have remarked on in previous posts, I do give full marks for the sculptor capturing the feel of the period.  Where the Prussian sculpts feature many figures charging forward, the French are in a variety of firing poses, working the deadly effect of their Chassepot rifles, holding some manner of hopeless position. I think the sculptor clearly had a good feel for the dynamics of the period.

Great selection of firing and loading sculpts

A lot of detail on the kit...different pans, canteens, tent-poles and other supplies for the march

And as before, I just LOVE the uniforms of the Imperial French infantry. Those kepis, baggy red pants and epaulettes are just SO cool. Can't wait to get these fellows on the table!

Senior command stand with a flag - from the 70th Regiment

The flag on the command base is also from "Eagles of Empire" - they offer flags for two of the French infantry regiments in the War.  This is fine for skirmish purposes, but for my larger plans involving games of "Black Powder", the lack of available flags from providers of nice flags like Flag Dude, GMB or Maverick Models is frustrating - Warflags has some for free, but you have to print those yourself, and the quality is just not the same...

An eagle would be nice for the top of the standard...oh well...

The battle honours of the 70th Regiment

Anyway, this submission will provide another 60 points for the pile, and represent the conclusion of my initial mad rush of this edition of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. I wanted to get enough 28mm figures painted to do a decent-sized skirmish game of some sort for the Franco-Prussian War, and between these chaps and the Prussian regulars and Jagers, I think we will be able to have a game very soon! Time to take a little bit of a break from this period and switch gears to another subject...see you next week!

 Artist: Audiomachine

Album: Magnus

These folks are from the US, and they make a wide range of symphonic and electronic scores.  I first heard their music as part of the crowd-pumping montage for Winnipeg Jets games, and the effect is excellent.  Great background for painting little soldiers and wargaming!



Ka-pow!  And the veritable avalanche of beautiful miniatures from the age of uniforms being bright and fun continues from the prolific brush den of GregB.  The colours are fantastically realised with the highlighting really making them pop (that blue is ace) and the little details on their packs are spot on.  The command stand is my favourite, especially as I've long  suspected this is what it looks like at Curt's house when he's getting ready to rally the troops for each AHPC.... That officer is a brilliant sculpt and you've really brought him to life, bellowing orders at his hommes.  I feel your pain on the flags as that one does look very nice indeed.

As a dutiful minion, I thought I'd go take a look at some details on this conflict so I could sound right knowledgeable when commenting...... And I backed slowly away from my PC given the amount of info on there!  What I did gather was things didn't seem to go too well for your boys here, so hopefully they'll fare a little better on the tabletop than in real life.  Anyway, 60 points irrespective of how well or badly the war went for them to add to your ever growing total.

From MarkW: 28mm Studio Mcvey Sedition Wars Samaritan (5 points)

Hi Everyone,

It is the first time in the challenge for me and really looking forward to attacking the pile of metal and plastic and sharing the progress with you all. At only 500 points, I don't have the biggest target in the world but its going to be a stretch.

Today was supposed to be the big kick off, with a good sized unit of Studio Mcvey's Samaritan troopers from the game Sedition Wars.

In true challenge style I have been busy hitting the paints only to complete all the painting,  all the miniatures and the bases only suddenly realise I was going to miss the first deadline gluing them together.

So instead of 17 miniatures that were planned - I have one, but hopefully this means next weeks submission will be a lot easier. 5 points is 1% of the target, so not the worst start in the world.

It's the first time in years to truly break out the paints, so I am aiming for a quick, easy and relatively simple scheme.

This is my favourite shot; making it seem like he is backing off from something just out of shot. I have plenty of very gribbly creatures to paint up from the Sedition Kickstarter so will definitely pose a few scenes in the future.

The sculpts are first rate, but really let down by the restic material and my overzealous use of the spray cans in basing - giving the slightly roughened appearance.

Looking forward to a bigger update next week.

Cheers

MarkW

A huge welcome to the Challenge Mark!  And I note that you've immediately stumbled across the exact same issue that I (and many others I have no doubt) have in the challenge, namely the fact that time always seems to move faster the closer to the deadline you get......

 

But what a brilliant start - the blue visor is a wonderfully cool counterpoint to the warm armour tones. I'm also a fan of the "If I walk away from the large beastie I've just discovered then I have more time to shoot it with my plasma gun" pose this brave chap has struck.

 

Sedition Wars mostly passed me by, but I do like the look of a lot of the sculpts so I'm looking forward to seeing more of them.

 

It's also great to hear that the lure of the challenge has you at your paints again after a hiatus, I'm sure that'll warm the cockles of Curt's heart to hear as it's the primary aim of the challenge - 5 points as you correctly surmise and you're off and running!

From Anthony O - Australian 28mm WW2 Commandos - 50 Points

For my first weekly submission I have chosen a ten man squad of Australian Commandos from Warlord Games. These metal miniatures are some of the newest in the WW2 Warlord Games range are are just top notch.

 They released an entire range of Australians for the Pacific Theater alongside a campaign book last year and I was very impressed. The quality is really good and the sculpts are dynamic and well thought out.

They did get some criticism over the size of the miniatures as they are just a bit bigger than the other 28mm ranges but it is of no consequence to me. There was also some grumblings about the size of the Owen sub-machine guns but I really like them, they are robust and stand out and after an experience where the entire range of Owens snapped from another manufacturer I would take robust over correct size every day.

I have a bit more of this range to do during the challenge including several squads of PNG Battalian troops.

For points there are 10 28mm Miniatures so that is 50 points.

What a fantastic start!  I wasn't aware of this range, but they certainly are very characterful indeed.  I'm with you on the functionality of slightly larger guns - once thin guns break, they're never going to stick together properly again and no amount of nice painting covers up a snapped gun....

Your highlighting technique works really well on these and I'm especially taken with your work on the faces - the looks of grim determination on the faces of the two chaps in the second photo are especially impressive.

Nice groundwork too, the mix of materials is really effective.  50 points it is and Thursday is off to a flyer!

Thursdays Minion is.... full of excitement!

Good morning/afternoon/evening* (*delete as applicable for your selected time zone) all!

What an exciting day for me to be a minion as the Thursday crew have really come up trumps with some great posts for today.  Do you know how excited I am? About as excited as Mr Motivator!

Seriously, if you aren't from this fair isle, do take the time to go hunt him down on YouTube.... heck, do a workout to get yourselves going, I'll wait..... you're welcome!

Anyway, so far today we have some cracking posts planned, including....

• AnthonyO going Commando
• GregB painting up some troops for the Emperor (which Emperor you ask? You'll have to stay tuned to find out!)
• MarkW gets all seditious on us in his first post (so looks like he'll fit right in!)
• NickJ treats us to some Satyr-ical work

So stay tuned and we'll see what else pops up over the curse of the day for your viewing pleasure.