From DebD: Lorus Hightower (6 pts)

This guy has been sitting on my desk for three weeks now, just waiting to be blogged.

Scale: 28mm
Mfg: Reaper Miniatures
Product: 02771: Lorus Hightower
Material: Metal

I think the dragon head on the staff is a bit weird and thought maybe he should have been wood color, but my imagination got the better of me and he became the color of an icy sea creature. 

Since I was in the icy sea creature mood, the base became icy as well.. but the icy blue color looks kind of magical.

His cloak had to have the galaxy pattern on it.

I am not sure what spell he is invoking with his sea creature staff and scroll, but it seems dangerous to be on this side of it...

1 x 28mm = 5 points

Thanks!

Deb

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Beautiful work once again Deb. 

I really like how his wooden staff transitions to the mythical creature's head - lovely effect that. I also very much admire the starfield on the back of his cloak. With his hirsute face, arcane shopping list and trippy staff, he definitely looks the image of a heavy-hitting magician.

6 points, with a pip added for the great basework. Thanks for sharing Lorus with us Deb!

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From DaveX: Some Winter Terrain and a Base for my Trees (50 Points)

Its been a busy couple of weeks for me however I have managed to get a fair bit of Hobby done, especially for the next bonus round but you will have to wait and see that.

I have been meaning to get more of my winter stuff done for Frostgrave plus WW2.  I had the Warlord Games ruined Hamlet Set that came with the Band of Brothers starter box set.  I thought it would be ideal for Frostgrave plus somewhere in either Eastern or Western Europe.

I used a variety of winter weathering products on it.  Citadel technical paint, Wilder Snow Effects and Woodlands scenics snow flock.  They produce a very nice result.

These are about 8 inches by 5 inches each so I am not sure what that converts to points, (sorry Curt!) I am guessing around 20 points each based on the 6 inch cube guideline but as the ruins are small maybe 15 points?

Next up is a stand for some trees.  Sick and tired of my trees being knocked over,  and wanting to create a terrain feature that can block line of sight, I grabbed some left over plasticard and cut out a rough shape.  I designed and 3D printed some circlets about 61mm in diameter to fit my 60mm diameter trees.  I probably need to adjust this to 62mm as once painted and flocked its a tight squeeze.  The trees can be replaced by team weapons that I use the same bases for and looks pretty sweet.

A PAK 26 Looks rather nice

This tree base is about 6 inches across on all angles extremities so again I am not sure of points. Maybe only 10 points as it does not fill a whole 6 inch cube.

Till next time...

Dave X

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Ah, some more excellent terrain for us to enjoy, wonderful work Dave! I've seen several renditions of this Warlord building set and am now convinced that I need to get one for myself. I really like your inclusion of tufts with the patchy snowfall as it lends a very natural look to the scene. Also, well done on using the 3D printer to make rings for your tree base. It looks great and I like how it harmonizes with the base of your PAK gun. Ace!

Your estimate on scoring seems sensible to me, so let's go with 50 points for the lot. Again, great work Dave!

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From ArthurS and SanderS - King Arthur! and Thief (37 points and 5 Points)

Hoi There!

At the Crisis last year Arthur and myself were standing at the Wargames Foundry Stand, he had brought some of his pocket money to buy some figures to paint for this Challenge. So I asked him what kind of figure he wanted to paint. So he says "Knights!" and so we walked over to the rack displaying all kinds of medieval figures. Arthur went in and looked at all the blisters very carefully and took out this one. 3 mounted Dark Age knights, the label read: "King Arthur".

Coincidence or what?

Anyway here are the painted figures.

The Poldercon goodie bag contained a Mantic sprue of Elves. Arthur wanted to paint one for his mum. Now his mum does not approve of war, weapons and rough playing with sticks and the like. So getting her a figure she'd like would be hard. Arthur thought long and hard and came up with an answer: give the man a banner or a music instrument. In the end he opted for the banner because it could take more different colours being larger. And here it is.

I myself have only finished one figure this week because I am hard at work on the camel challenge side duel with Dave D.

It's a North Star Frostgrave thief which I painted as an assassin for one of the kids in the School club.

So that will make 35 points for the lad and 5 for me ;-)

Cheers Sander

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Arthur, you've done excellent work on all of these figures. King Arthur's scarlet cloak and golden sword really mark him out as the monarch in this group, while his banner bearer with the red draco is very majestic as well. I also really your choice of figure for your mum, especially the red, blue and grey shield. Bravo! Great brushwork Arthur. Now you need to do something for your dad, perhaps help him out with something Napoleonic. :)

Sander, I would be the last to cast stones at anyone who submits one figure in a week - you are in very good company here. :)  It may be one chap, but he's very nicely painted. His flashing, gold-hilted dagger and red mask provide wonderful juxtapositions to the grey and black of his garb. Great work.

So that makes it 37 points for Arthur (with a few extra added for the banners and hand painted shields) and 5 for dad, who plods resolutely behind. Well done lads!

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We Call It... 'Friday'

Enjoy your Friday everyone! :)

Curt

From KenR 28mm - WW1 Mesopotamia Indian Battalion (190 points)

No surprise this week as I get firmly back on piste with the next full unit for my WW1 Mesopotamia collection.

This week it's a new battalion of Indian Infantry to join the forces of the Empire.

"Is it time for Tea yet, Tristram"

A full battalion under our rules is a 2 Fig HQ, shown above, who would initially in the Campaign would have been British Officers who had lived or were born in India who understood the language, culture and religious needs of their men. Later replacements from Britain lacked this knowledge and morale in those units often dropped as a result.

Added to that are 4 x 8 Fig companies and a HMG base of 3 figures plus the MG. My last full battalion submission was for 190 points and so this one, with the same number of figs should equal that.

The figures come from the Woodbine Design Company range which is an offshoot of Gripping Beast. The Indian figures come with a selection of two head types, the "Hindu" head as shown on these figures or a bearded "Sikh" head with a flat top turban. In fact it wasn't until I started research into the period that I realised how many official turban types there were in the British Army at the time.

So plenty more for Woodbine to get cracking on instead of the new version of SAGA.

I got into a bit of groove with these and have cracked straight on with a Battalion of Sikhs. With three weeks to go I am happy I will reach my target, some A9 Cruiser Tanks after the Sikhs and then hopefully some Mesopotamia Cavalry before Challenge End.

As ever, an extremely informative post to accompany the eye candy!  I'll bet the morale did drop when officers came straight from the rugby pitches of Eton into commanding the local battalions.... I dread to think about what the troops must have made of their new officers, so here's hoping those two you've painted survive for as long as possible!

Really nice stuff on the painting, this lot will look great alongside the others I'm sure and I'm looking forward to a shot of all of the painted figures together..... next week perhaps?

190 points is exactly what I make it too, excellent work!

From RossM - 15mm Undead and 28mm Retro Chaos Warriors (104 points)

This is the second entry to this year's challenge and continues with the themes in the first entry.

There are quite a few pictures here so please bear with the post.

Three character stands for the 15mm Undead from Alternative Armies. Two major characters at the back and one minor at the front.

Next are four stands of heavy foot spearmen which in Basic Impetus Fantasticus are the backbone of the army - sorry about the pun.

Below are another four stands of heavy foot protected, this time with out spears but with more armour through out.

Moving on now to the retro 28mm Chaos Warriors from Citadel and strictly speaking only the left and right figure are Chaos Warriors. The central front figure is from the C01 range and the rear centre figure is Sir Cador Celestor from the Warrior Knights of Law set.

Sir Cador Celestor

This figure has lost some of its detail through the ages and the colours just aren't right. Completed for now although the cloak colour could possibly change post challenge.

Another preslotta Chaos Warrior and he appears to be a variant figure from one found in the C35 range in Citadel Compendium 2.

Cedric from Compendium 3

At the time of this figures release I didn't manage to pick him up and always wished I had. Move the years on by approximately thirty and an late night eBay purchase and here he is.

So that concludes the second entry to the challenge and adds a few points to the tally:

15mm Cavalry: 2 - 8 pts
15mm Foot: 38 - 76 pts
28mm Foot: 4 - 20 pts

Total - 104

Half way to personal challenge and time is now starting to close in.

Cheers for now.

What a fantastic selection!  I do like the undead chaps - my personal favourites are the bearded skeleton wizard (!) and the chap with the bagpipes.... the mind boggles as to how he gets the puff to blow through it!  Mind you, he is an animated skeleton walking around, so perhaps we just have to suspend our disbelief  little further ;)

Those classic Chaos chaps are a real blast from the past, right up to the hex bases you've given them!  Great painting and I think the pink cloak will allow that one to cut quite a dash whilst wandering through the Realms of Chaos.

104 points looks good and well done on getting halfway!