From SanderS & MichaelA: Die Herausforderer or 'Project L!' (60 Points Each)

Now I make no secret of the fact that I was planning on giving this year’s challenge a miss.

There was no sinister reason behind this decision other than that my hobby interests were changing, I was painting less and gaming more.  That and that fact that I knew that we were likely to be very busy at work and what with the planned refurbishment to ‘Awdry Towers’ it just seemed like a sensible idea to take a back seat this year.

What I have subsequently discovered is that our beloved Snow Lord is a very difficult man to say no to and before I knew what was happening I was a fully fledged minion!  Now just when I thought I had got this new development squared away, I received an email whose introduction will sound familiar to many, “Hoi Michael!”  Yes, our good friend Sander had a plan that involved another collaboration and suddenly I’m hooked again!

So good folk, allow us to present to you a truly monstrous submission that will form Sander’s and mine own offerings as Curtgeld.  Imagine, if you will, the moment when the infamous Die Herausforderer (The Challengers) rise from the grave only to be sent straight back to Hell by their decedents, now a modern mercenary unit.   A tale of monsters and monstrosity, referring particularly to the colour scheme.

It would appear that Sander has forgotten that he had promised that, "I will never paint Landsknecht ever again!"  That said I am grateful that he did as this has proved to be another wonderfully fun collaboration and always interesting to work with miniatures that I had previously not experienced, mine been from The Assault Group, whilst Sander's were from Wargames Foundry.

So thank you Sander for taking me out of my comfort zone, once again, and to Curt for allowing us this opportunity to let our imaginations run riot.

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You guys are a wonderful pair of crazy. Yes, I distinctly remember last year Sander saying 'Landsknechts, never again!' AND this year Michael saying 'Old Boy, I'm afraid I'll have to give this year a miss.' BUT here are the two of you AGAIN, painting me a whacky vignette of Landsknechts. You know, my Sith powers amaze even myself.  ;)

Seriously guys, this is just brilliant. Hilariously nutty and wonderfully imaginative. In my minds eye I can hear a fife, drum and alphorn version of 'Thriller' playing in the background. Thank you so much. I'm going to add a few more points for the wonderful basework and level of logistics required in getting this completed. Bravo to you both!

Now, I need to come up with a scenario to feature this set. I think this may call for some choice single malt and a pipe of our soon-to-be legalized 'Old Toby'. :p

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Rolling into the Last Weekend of Challenge VIII

Alright Follies, it's the last Friday of Challenge VIII. Let's roll out in style and show everybody how it's done...

Curt

From DavidB - Deathskull orks and gobbos (340 points)

I didn't think I'd get the gobbo gang from GorkaMorka completed, but I do suffer from extreme ADHD when painting and the Death Skull faction of Orks had inspired all sorts of "look squirrel"

Also fits of rage as it took a moment to get transfers to work and I still had issues with them falling from the models once dried. I applied the transfers over a base coat and shaded and highlighted over them...alas decals are a wizardry I'm not adept with!

I have a modest warband of gobbos, but not enough vehicles to mount them all( it was easier when they were white primer, but now that they are painted, I'm loath to pile them on the lugga!

of the lot, these two are my favourites. A spunky snot and a desperado grot with two pistols.

When looking for backplate decals for the orks, i found the sticker sails for the grot cuttas and just had to paint them so I could apply the sails...I had to paint the lugga and the rest as I couldn't just have two cuttas completed for the mob!

Grots aren't allowed to use fuel or drive the big trucks, so they make do with the wind powered cuttas or the muscle powered lugga.

a driver, a catapult gunner, and two grots cranking the prop! additional grots may add to the muscle and propel the lugga faster.

I painted the lugga green as the grots are upset they aren't included in Da Plan. The Grots are smart, but not smart enough to know the orks need them for all the work they can't/won't do.

fully functional boarding ramps as illustrated by the Red Gobbo and the boss Mr Scratch.

This is another reason for the grot gang inclusion...The death skulls are thieves, and runt herders this Runt herder has gobbos from the 2nd edition box game(20 more to paint) and all the snotlings and metal rogue trader goblins I had left.

my favourite goblin is the surly fellow with shackles, locked iron body suit and a flintlock pistol. he seems he is only half hearted following orders to fire!

In rogue trader anyone could have any weapon. Orks lost the plasma guns somewhere in the rule changes. Death skull lootas make up for that as they can "make" plasma weapons of a sort from tinkering with weapons they stole. This is a modest counts as from RT to just phased metal orks.

The whole squad had ultra marine decals, but only a few didn't flake off when dried. Death skulls believe blue is a lucky color and being thieves have stolen armour from Ultra Marines.

Even the old orc backplate decals had issues which caused me to vary backplate color which does seem wonderfully orky!

Deathskulls love to chant which powers weird boy psychers. Weird boys don't like the power from the chants and need minders to keep them from running away. Minders decorate the weird boys with bells to hear them trying to sneak off! I painted the other minder a long time ago, so only did his companion with this batch.

a mixture of orks from old and new ranges for a unit of slugga boys.

As much fun as these guys were to paint, I'm glad to have them off my desk.

I still have a box full of unpainted ork stuff, but this is the last for this challenge. perhaps I'll get more painted next time. I'm thinking I need a stompa for them as I own no 28mm titans and my buddies do have a lot of knights.

Artist: Jane's Addiction

                   Song:mountain song

My ork force is loosely themed after Comanche and renegade confederate forces hence the common use of grey and brown and heavy Snake bite and deathskull presence. The mountain song although very Hollywood-native does fit this vision . ;)

38 gobbos-190 pts

3 vehicles-45 pts

19 orks-95 pts

4 snots- 8 pts

338 points

I have a few more miniatures to clear in the next few days, but no more paint bombs as I'm back to work come Sunday...

Where do I start with all this orky/grot goodness?  The cuttas I think as they are absolutely brilliant models.  Nothing says Grot ingenuity like a land surfing bucket of bolts - and two of them to boot!  Once again I love the mixing and matching of the earliest orks with the most recent.  Really shows where this figure range has been and is a real blast of nostalgia for me having grown up with lots of these figures.  I'm a fan of the Ork "Clans" and the Deathskulls are always good for a laugh with their looting tomfooloery.... Brilliant paint jobs all round and a very worthy 340 points as I'm rounding up as a reward for all the brilliant work done to mesh all the different eras of orks together!

From DavidB - Hydra cultists, traitor marines, another PDF tank, and a battlefield (180 points)

I have a whole raft of minis prepared and photographed for today, so give a prayer for Jamie as I'm sure I'm not the only one who will keep him busy today.

First up some sandbag scatter terrain from Games Workshop. in the back is one that I missed in the eclectic organisation of my painting desk. It does serve as a glimpse of what I started with, so I will use the serendipitous neglect for a before and after.

Mainly base color with highlights followed by rust and typus corrosion which is a muddy, gritty wash much akin to oil mixed with mud. it dries with a grit which really catches the rust well.  Each sandbag wall has all sorts of detail with boards, sheet metal, equipment, and boxes all with battle damage. they were a lot of fun to paint.

I've had this crippled Chimera transport for a long while, but I finally decided to complete it by using the camouflage pattern as the PDF tanks. It can be an objective or battlefield dressing. By painting it in the PDF camo it does tell the story of a civil war between loyal and traitor forces.

This was even more fun than the sandbags and has even more detail.

The cast up earth and crippling wound hint at the ferocious action.

I can still use it as terrain for other 40k games too, and even scifi generic.

This is a vac base from Games Workshop when they first began offering terrain other than cardstock kits. I was really disappointed it was a vac plastic and rediscovered it when I moved. I'm glad it's done. I may static grass the edges yet, but at least now it will get used.

I also completed this quonset hut and tower by Laser Craft workshop. It is the laser cut wood kit and my first of such. The company is run by the owner of my local hobbyshop and he has a lot of stock of several neat kit including construction equipment and bayou style shacks.

He uses and recommends house latex and craft paints as the wood really sucks up the paint.

I also painted up 4 barrels and three sandbag walls for scatter. two of the walls were primed black while the third was primed white....not sure why I did that!

I also painted these resin crate stacks that were a gift from an uncle who does model trains. I like the stacks as troops can move thru them quite easily. They also seem genre inclusive from western to scifi.

A fast brush with craft paints, highlights then brown, black and green washes to shade them up.

I had a chosen champion and marine left over from the 40k box game that I purposely didn't include in the Deathguard from the last challenge. I planned on making them Alpha legion and include them as heroes for the vast pool of cultists. Just some emissaries selling "Horus for Hope" to the masses.

The two squads of cultists also came from the game and I painted them similar to the style of the Alpha legion cultists in the Chaos Codex from 7th edition.

And here they all are with the final target identifier model.

This is a heavily modified ZSU 23/4. A radar guided antiair machine built in the 1950's and still in service all over but the newest mods can radar lock. As a RSTA this thing was a high priority target as it can shred a helo pretty quick. It is also good for tearing up infantry which the Soviets did in Afghanistan. Its best if targeted to be still and tell yourself they only think you are there. Just tell yourself you built your hide site well! ;)

It does have four Autocannons. The model only had one intact when i got it so I removed it and replaced it with some spare 40k autocannons. The new additions are huge compared to the old one removed that could easily fit in the 40k barrels, but is too short to be a good weapon cleaning rod for the tank!

Some spikes, a chaos star and a few gubbins to complete it's transition to the dark side

I added another confrontation mini to this bunch as the mask fits with the champions of the cult squads. plus the alpha legion marines probably could use a minion to relay orders.

I may end up taking this force to adepticon. My buddies are taking 30k and custodes forces, so I don't expect to win. They do look to be a pretty horde though!

 Artist: Faith no more

                                                          Song: Last Cup of Sorrow

23 28mm inf- 115 pts

zsu AA tank-15 pts

5 sand bag walls

3 scatter sandbag sections

4 oil drums

2 crate stacks

2 fire bases

1 quonset hut and tower.... 40 points

I figure 170 for the lot.

Good gravy, this is a great mix of eclectic stuff!  I do like the scenery, that destroyed chimera is a brilliant piece and the weathering on all that stuff makes it look very battle worn - I agree with you on the Typhus Corrosion, it's a really useful "technical" paint.

That 4 autocannoned tank is an absolute beast!  I absolutely would not want to be targeted by that in the field as I can well imagine it shreds whatever it targets, be it in the sky or on the ground..... I do like the Alpha legion too, plenty of warm bodies dedicated followers to stand in front of the guns in the light of whichever chaos god they're worshiping this week!

That last "family shot" is brilliant, and best of luck if you do go to Adepticon, it's somewhere I'd like to go to one day.   Anyway, I have used the metric ruler of power on the scenery and I come up with 50 points for it all by mentally stacking it in my head, so 180 points all in.

Now, I must go, there's a Mr Bromley who has a paint bomb that requires my attention.....