From: SanderS - Guess what? Right, more Heroquest... (155 Points and 10 for Arthur)

Yea yes, I know; I should be painting 1:72 Napoleonics by now but today I had a special pre-Holiday Quest at school using a custom Quest "Mound of the Beastmen"and I didn't own any beastmen so had to start from scratch.

First up I need to say that my mission to spread the hobby-joy is succeeding, since two of my pupils now own a HQ boxed game as well. Since their miniatures are unpainted and therefore rather unsatisfying, I have started painting them up for them in between other projects and these 5 will go to Collins set soon.

Next up are some more Greenies. I have managed to paint up some of the WHQ Goblin archers and spear-men. The archers apparently are a sort of prototype night-goblin but their hats make them look silly to me.

For the custom quest I needed Beastmen and a Chaoshound. Ebay proved to be my friend and I was able to score some metal OOP figures as characters. The first of which I present here: the Chaoshound, Shaman and the Beastlord, some others are still in cue.

Through a FB trading page I obtained a sprue of plastic beastmen and made and painted 10, yes there are only 9 of them in the picture because I stupidly forgot one at school today. The pictures are not the best and sadly the blue of the bases is not shown in it's actual hue but it's really dark and has a really nice light blue highlight. I am almost happier with the bases then the figures themselves.

To top today is another figure Arthur has painted, I gave him an old Ex Illis mounted figure to paint in order to practice for the metal riders he has planned for later on in the Challenge. I know his palette to be a little limited but he was adamant that this is how the knight should look. Since it was a trial in dry-brushing for him I did not press the matter.

Specially for Lady Sarah: I have put your suggestion of painting a female adventurer before him and he's not convinced. I got him to accept that Girls can, in theory, be cool and badass yet he does not actually want to paint one at this moment. I'll keep on it ;-)

So for me that would be 31 foot figures in 28mm making 155 points and Arthur has a mounted 28m for 10 if I am correct.

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Wow, Sander, you are absolutely on fire with painting your (and your students'!) Heroquest collections! You must be one of the most popular teachers in your school. 

I love seeing these old Beastman castings as they were one of my early Warhammer Fantasy armies (I remember them being a very nasty lot in 4th edition). I agree with you, your stone bases on these fellows look very fine - that blue highlight is a great touch. Please let Arthur know that I think his knight looks excellent. I especially like the horse's barding, the heraldry on the shield and the neat marbling effect on the base. The lad has talent! (Sarah is confident that he will come around to liking the ladies.)

So that's 155 points you and another 10 for Arthur. Well done boys!

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From VictorC: Four More 10mm Spanish Battalions Arrive for Battle! (224 points)

Over the last week and half I was able to finish 4 more Spanish battalions. Please give a nice warm hand to the Guadalajara, de la Armada, Cordova battalions and the Valladolid Grenadier battalion.  They have made hard journey to the battlefield and they will not be denied their right to fight!

Again all of the flags are speculative and taken from what I could piece together from various sources. 

The de la Armada battalion

The Cordova battalion

The Guadalajara battalion

The Valladolid Grenadier battalion

I have 9 more Spanish infantry battalions to complete for my Battle of Almanza project.

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What a terrific group of battalions, Victor. I like the punchy bold colours you've used for these fellows, with my favourites being the chaps in yellow from the De la Armada and Guadalajara battalions. I'm curious: what rules will you be using for this Almanza project once it's done? One thing for sure, it's all going to look spectacular, especially with what you've shown us to date.

224 points for your march up the points roster Victor. Excellent work!

From MilesR: Sons of Anubis (217 Points)

This weeks submission is 31 painted Anubis Jackal Warriors.  These will be added to the growing ranks of NPC opponents for my upcoming Historicon participation game "DAK & Dragons 2.0" - I think these miniatures are from the Eureka "Chaos Egyptians" line.  I'm not totally sure as these were purchased second hand.  More on their acquisition at the end of this post...

Thirty warriors and a leader that make up this pack.  All of the figures are in some form of motion and most only have one foot on the ground which is a bit of an issue for stability.  I'll need to add some weight to the back of most of the bases to keep these fellows from toppling over.

The shields are really basic for now but will suffice.  I'm trying to track down more of these figures so I can have a few different unit running around causing mayhem (as is their nature).

The Eureka website classifies these as 28's but they're rather large mini's as compared to two future opponents - a Perry Plastic SAS figure (DAK & Dragons) and a Empress US Ranger (SOCOM & Sorcery).  I tried to normalize base heights to get a fair representation.

These figures are not quite 40mm but way over 28mm.  I'll leave it to our fair and just Challenge Overlord to determine how to judge these humble servants of Anubis.  I also feel obligated to mention that Curt is a very snappy dresser and is both erudite and charming.  Obviously, since these are statements of fact, they can not be misconstrued as an attempt to sway his opinion.

Many people may also say that bonus points are in order for my possessing a ruler with the blasphemous metric system on it.  It's just another proof point that I am a citizen of the world and regard all of people-kind with the same level magnanimity.  There really are only two types of people in this world - highly evolved miniature painters and Morlocks.

The way I purchased these figures is a funny story and also shows how generous and thoughtful our gaming community can be.  While running a DAK & Dragons game last year at Historicon (I think was my 6th iteration of the game) a gentleman came up to me and said he really liked the game and had some minis on his flea market table that, rather than sell, he wanted to give to me - it was a box with these minis.  I was blown away by the generosity but did insist on paying his listed price.  The box also had a much larger Jackal Warrior, who you might see in a future bonus round.

I think we should always bear in mind that the vast majority of people in this hobby are both kind and generous, especially if one chooses not to delve in the darker internet corners of the hobby like the TMP forum.

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What a cool batch of figures Miles. Maybe it's me being such a dog lover, but I've always found the whole anubis thing very creepy - whenever I've come across them I often have a hard time meeting my dogs eyes for a few hours. Nonetheless, I've always enjoyed the sculpts coming out of Eureka - they always seem very characterful and well thought out. I also really liked your feel-good story about the generous fellow at Historicon. Trolls and troglodytes aside, there are so many amazing people to be found in this hobby, many of which, I am proud to say, are participants of this humble event.

217 Points for these dog-faced boys, well done!

Somewhat Harried, but Friday's Here!

Happy Friday Everyone!

I've been on the road for work today, travelling back and forth between cities for meetings, so please bear with me as my updates may be a little choppy.

Also, please remember, if you haven't already, to make your selections for the 'Music / Musician' theme round. The results of the voting will be announced this Sunday.

Have a great day!

Curt