From Evan: A Sting in the Tail (10 points)

A change of climate for this week's entry; I'm back in the arid zones of the fantasy world of your choice with this monstrous scorpion.

It's actually a plastic toy I picked up at a National Parks & Wildlife shop at Fitzroy Falls, in the beautiful Southern Highlands of NSW. That's three bucks well spent!

It's actually a 1:1 model, but I'll be using Mr Stabby as a tabletop piece in 28mm. Here's a shot for scale purposes.

"So you've been a good arthropod this year? Forgive my scepticism."

The base is an 80mm Warbases MDF round, dressed with sand, slate chips and a token Tajima1 Desert Tuft in deference to the barrenness of the landscape.

I worked the beastie up from a black undercoat using Vallejo Gory Red, Citadel Mephiston Red, and the old Citadel Blazing Orange for edge highlights, and then inked the hell out of it with a wash of GW Agrax Earthshade.

My gut feeling is to score him as a 28mm cavalry fig, so 10 points would seem appropriate, but any and all such decisions on the matter must rest with the Snowlord.

More next time - stay tuned!

Ev

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What, it's 1:1 scale?? Good Lord, I may have to rethink our travel plans to Oz... 

Great paintjob, Ev! The red you've come up with is excellent (and this reminds me how much I miss the old Citadel Blazing Orange...), and your arid groundwork is ace as well. 

I love that shot of Santa staring him down. 'Santa, I'm here to apply for the Reindeer position. Sure, I know what you're thinking: I'm a little left-of-field for the job, but I'm a team player...right, and just check out my red nose...<click, click...>'

I'll follow your gut feeling and go with 10 points. Now, what's next, Ev?

From JamieM: Blackstone Fortress Adventurers and something long overdue....(80 Points)

I've cracked it.  Three weeks of posts and all of them have been on the same topic.  Which is now finished.  And allows me to play the game with all painted miniatures.  It's a good job I'm sitting down as I type this as the last time I achieved anything like this was the previous Warhammer Quest game GW did, "The Silver Tower".  So I now present the Adventurers from the Blackstone Fortress game.

First up, the Rogue Trader (middle) himself and two of his buddies

Rogue Traders go waaaaaaaay back in WH40k.  The first game was named for them after all.  They're essentially captains of lone ships or flotillas of ships and their remit is to explore the galaxy, investigating things and generally getting rather rich in the process.  Bit like Christopher Columbus in space.  They can have crews of specialists, Imperial Guards regiments and even space marine assigned to them to help them do whatever needs to doing spread the word of the Emperor, find new planets, contact new races and either steal their stuff, or kill them and then steal their stuff.

My Rogue Trader mixes kits from Warhammer Fantasy Battle and the 40k world and I'm rather pleased with his arrogant manner and gesture.  The adventurers in Blackstone Fortress represent the Rogue Trader Janus Drake and the motley crew that he's surrounded himself with.  The other two are a Kroot mercenary, now working with him (not much converting needed here, just a selection of stuff added and a pelt) and the Navigator.  Navigators are the mutant psychics able to pilot ships through "Warp Space" using the their third eye which grows in their forehead.  I chose a helmet with something that could be a third eye and I rather like the staff which is also from a mix of kits.

Next up are the Mechanicum related adventurers.  The two little chaps are Ratlings (Halflings in space) and one is a sniper with the other having a tracker and other assorted gubbins instead.  They started life as goblin bodies and with a few choice Imperial guard and skitarii parts they become ratlings.  The heads come from an old bretonnian sprue as really looked the part for me.

The last chap is the large robot explorer.  The one in the boxed set steps outside the usual Grimdark aesthetic and GW explain that he is a relic of a bygone age.  I like my future Grim and Dark, so I converted him to be  a mighty servitor (cyborg) with an unfeasibly large gun and pinchy power claw....

The last three are the religious pairing of a lunatic who likes to burn heretics and then chop them up with the chainsword that he's welded to the underside of his flamer (don't try this at home kids!) and a preacher who likes to read Harry Potter whilst slaying the unbelievers.  The third one is an Eldar (elf in space) and he's based on a fantastic Dark Elf assassin model who has been 40k-ified with the addition of a shuriken catapult and stuff on his belt.

Lots of different parts in all of these and a real blast to build.  And we even got a game in the other night!  Here are some of the adventurers in action.

It's a great little system and we absolutely smashed it.  However, it's a legacy game and so you draw a card to see what gets added to the game after each expedition...... and we drew the mighty Chaos Lord so we may see him sooner than we'd like - yikes!

The next item is somewhat embarrassing but it had to be done...... two AHPCs ago (yes, two) I lost a duel to GregB which was based around how many points of Horus Heresy miniatures we could paint.  Greg absolutely smashed me and when I asked what figure he wanted, he asked for a survivor of the Drop site massacre..... Little did he know it would take me two years to actually make good on my promise (insert embarrassed smiley face here.....)  Now, for background, there were 18 Space Marine legions at the time of the Horus Heresy.  Four of them turned rogue and purged the loyalists in their ranks.  When this was discovered, 7 loyalist legions were sent to the Istvaan system to destroy them, attacking from space onto the Drop site where the four traitor legions were dug in.  Three legions made up the first wave and then the remaining four legions dropped in the second wave.... but these last four legions had also secretly turned traitor and so the 3 legions from the first wave were massacred in the crossfire with very few escaping.

It took me quite a while (and more than one abandoned idea) before I came up with what I wanted and here he is - Barek Furibundus, Dreadnought.

Barek is a dreadnought from the Salamanders Legion, one of those massacred in the drop.  The Salamanders revere and hunt giant lizards on their home world, hence the trophies on the carapace.  He fought bravely in the cauldron of battle, but suffered critical damage to his left arm, right foot and cogitator system.

Left for dead, he was recovered by a scratch force including from the Iron Hands legion, who are notoriously good with machines.

Repairing his cogitator system, but unable to save his original left arm and right foot, they salvaged alternatives from a Dreadnought from the Word Bearers legion - one of the traitor legions.

Deciding that having Barek rejoin the fight was worth the use of the heretic equipment, they effected battlefield repairs and so he fights on.  The Wordbearers Legion iconography has been crudely scratched off.  With his group managing to escape the battlefield on a commandeered Thunderhawk, Furibundus will fight on across the worlds of the 31st millennium, opposing the forces of Horus wherever he can to avenge his fallen brothers...

Anyway, a massive thank you to Greg for being a total gent and never once chasing the (long) overdue duel-gelt whilst I faffed around not knowing what to make for it.  I've also left the base unhighlighted as despite zooming in on Greg's Horus Heresy bases, I couldn't find a brown in my paint collection to match so figured Greg could highlight and add some tufts to make him fit in better with the forces he'll be fighting alongside.

So there is is, 9 28mm figures for 45 points and I think dreads are 10ish for 55 points.

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Wow, great post Jamie! I have 'Blackstone Fortress' still sitting unopened and now it feels completely lame just to use the normal models - thanks a lot, bud. ;P Seriously, these are brilliant Jamie, I especially like the Mechanicum explorer with the Delonghi espresso machine on his back - he's probably pretty popular with the rest of the crew. 'Hey, LeadArse! The Navigator wants a Promethium Mocha and I'll take a Flat White with extra chocolate sprinkles...' :)

Your GregGeld is brilliant as well and I know Mr. Burch will be delighted with the addition of Furibundus (did you come up with that name yourself!) to his Shattered Legion forces. In fact, I'm going to demand that I run him the next time I'm in Winnipeg for a game. I promise you, it'll be epic. 

That'll be 80 points, with a few added for Greg's gifted figure. Wonderful work Jamie!

From DaveD: 'Where's my camel?' (15 Points)

Colonel Docherty looked across the desert plain from his lofty perch - there was a long hot plain to cross and tea and biscuits to be had at the other end.

Corporal Millsy had stopped for another of his usual calls of nature and was off behind some sand dune and was erecting his patient Government Issue Mobile Privy (aka GIMP) ... just what was keeping him...

The brave colonel set off over the dune to find Millsy stood looking across the desert and shouting "Sopwith !! Sopwith !! where the hell are you!"  

Millsy turned - and said - "Sorry sir seem to have mislaid my camel" - hoping his officer would not get hump with him!  "But I have made arrangement for the  kettle to be on back in camp sir! "

Col Docherty decided it  was no use berating him - he was usually such a good batman- and could be relied upon to make tea anywhere!  They would cross  the scorching desert on the same camel. The pair will ride again!

With due apologies to my erstwhile partner in crime  Millsy! And now of course I am back on the Sudan! more camels to come....

I received the above figures from MartinN (aka Nick) from the challenge earlier in year. The camel mounted figure was used as the give away for the Tactica show in Germany last year and is a fine rendition of T.E Lawrence - thanks so much (even better I have another of these that Stefan K gave me at Crisis - so I can feel a little conversion coming on too ..) - I am not 100% sure on the foot figure - but its a grand one.  

1 28mm mounted , 1 28mm foot... 

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'Sopwith'? Groan. Haha, Corporal Millsy and Col Docherty ride again. Let the off-colour jokes begin!

Brilliant work, Dave. 'Larry of the Sands' and his trusty camel is a terrific casting (as you say, great likeness) and you've really done it justice here. I find the Millsy figure has a definite, 'The Man Who Would Be King' look about him - a cracking set of adventurers. I look forward to reading of their upcoming mis-adventures. :)

15 points for you, Colonel!

From PaulO'G: DAK Specialist Vehicles (124 points)

Scraping in my second weekly - a grab bag of DAK specialist and support vehicles I have enjoyed researching and collecting.  I am building options for force lists and these help me both in the early years in the desert as well as and expanding into Tunisia and the Operation Torch era.

SdKfz 265 Panzerbefehlswagen - modified from a Pz I Ausf A, this was a Command Tank variant with dedicated radio transmission equipment and operator.  Here it is accompanied by a SdKfz 250 Halftrack, for use as the Luftwaffe Air Liaison Officer to control Air support (this has a tabletop control function in Battlegroup rules)

SdKfz 254 - Produced as an artillery tractor by the Austrian Army between the Wars and prior to Anschluss, it has a  unique and adjustable system of tracks and wheels. The Wehrmacht used it as a Forward Observer vehicle. Its such a cool and distinctive vehicle that I had to have one. This Battlefront model has the options to model with the wheels either engaged or retracted (I have done the latter for resilience)

SdKfz 250/10 - A classic 250 Halftrack, fitted with a 37mm AT gun and frequently utilised as the Recon Platoon Commander's vehicle. In the 41-42 period in the Desert, the 37mm gun is very useful against an array of light armour and Armoured Cars.

Schwimmwagens - who doesn't love the mighty Schwimmwagen? My dream car is not a Ferrari, Porsche or Audi, its a Schwimmwagen! No, the irony of fielding amphibious vehicles in the Sahara Desert is not lost on me.  I promise that if there is an oasis on the table, they will always try to schwimm across it, regardless of the tactical value of such a move. Unless I'm playing Dux of course.

Lorraine Schleppers - converted from captured French Lorraine 37L tanks, this motorised 150mm Artillery gun platform provided highly mobile fire support in the desert in support of the fluid nature of combat in North Afrika.

Marder III (SdKfz 139) - Classic early-mid war German Tank Destroyer made by fusing a Pz39t body and mounting one of the many captured Russian 76mm AT guns.  It is accompanied here by a captured British Truck to act as its ammo hauler across the desert.

StuG III Ausf D - Who doesn't love a StuG? I needed one, though only a very small number served in Afrika, the rest being sunk in their transports en route. Due it their later arrival in theatre, I have presented it as newer and less weatherbeaten #stuglife

SdKfz 11 - Medium halftrack prime mover which saw widespread use throughout the war with over 9000 produced and its chassis was used as the basis for the SdKfz 251 Halftrack. I will be using these to move towed guns which are on the painting desk

Models are predominantly a mix of Battlefront and Forged in Battle, the British Truck is a metal model by Peter Pig and the Marder and SdKfz 250s are by PSC.  In aggregation, this is 13 x 15mm vehicles and 10 crew figures.

Its also my first submission to the alternative What A Tanker challenge
15mm Tanks are real AFVs too - don't be scalist! Don't assume my scale! #notatanker

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Paul, what a wonderful retrospective of German Afrika Korps vehicles. The painting is your usual excellent work - crisp yet weatherbeaten, totally believable. I also really enjoyed reading the little snippets of technical/background information you provided (i.e. I had no idea the Germans deployed the Schwimmwagens in North Africa, or that the hybrid SdKfz 254 was originally an Austrian design - very cool).

124 points for your efforts - Well done, Paul!

From IainW: Great Italian wars command (32 points)

So finally I've got something painted! Six 28mm command figures, a mix of Warlord games and Artizan, one stand has s later figures burgonets and a pistol! Both of the flag bearers are from the Warlord plastic landsknecht set, although one set of arms came from the Perry plastic mercenary set,I've got a pike block coming up that's a mix of the Warlord and Perry sets, I didn't really fancy the Warlord plastics to start with but I rather liked them when I started assembling them. The Artizan figures are nice and chunky and were straightforward to paint. The flags are downloaded from the free kreigspiel site and are the arms of various German cities, I can of course swap them out for other Imperial, Italian or even treacherous French flags!

So that's the earlier command stand,I quite like the flag bearer, with his hair it looks like he's from a motorcycle patch club!

And that's both command stands together, do I really need any more command stands? Possibly not, but I've got the figures so they'll get painted, what I really need is light cavalry but don't hold your breath as it's one thing I haven't started this challenge, foolishly I've started a number of things at the same time! What was I thinking! Six times 28mm figures gives me 30 points to open my account and count towards the Renaissance duel, it's okay I've kept back a command figure to paint for KenR!

All the best Iain

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Ah, it's great to see your opening volley, Iain, welcome back! These command stands are lovely. I have a couple of boxes of the Warlord plastic landsknechts, but haven't cracked them open yet. To be honest, I find that their heads are a bit too big, but maybe that's just how they come through when photographed (shrugs). This all aside, these stands look terrific, Iain, what with their vibrant colours and plate armour - I especially like the huge banners and Italianate groundwork. 

32 points for you, Iain (with a few extra for the banners).. You're not only on the scoreboard but you've stolen a march on the Renaissance Challenge as well. A great start, mate!

From MilesR: Napoleonic French Command and Limbers plus some Spanish Guns (187 Points)

More 15mm Napoleonics.  I know I've been a bit monotonous this challenge in terms of topics but I'm just about done with the painting list for this summer's Historic games.  I do promise a bit more variety over the next few weeks.

First up are some French command stands.  All of my "fighting" units are based on rectangular stands (as you'll see with the Spanish artillery below) so I use circular bases for commanders.  The larger the circular base, the higher the command.  I've painted up 10 French Generals from Old Glory and based them for three levels of command.  These could be 6 division, 2 Corp and 1 army commander.

10 mounted figures should net me 40 points.

Next up: three Spanish Artillery batteries.  The figures are from AB and the guns are Old Glory.  I think the guns came out too blue so there may be a repaint down the road.

12 figures and 3 guns nets me another 36 points.

6 French limbers.  I really despise painting limbers but still have some to do for my planned Austrian army.  These Limbers are from Old Glory and the castings were a bit on the rough side.  Still they are great value for the money and I recommend them.

These Limbers should get me 96 points based on:
24 horses and 12 riders at 2 points = 72 points
6 Limbers at 4 points each = 24 points

Lastly there is a pair of 15mm scale buildings.  These models are from Sarissa Precision and are laser cut kits.  I much say I am very impressed.  They come unpainted and are very detailed yet easy to build.  Both are shops / or pubs.  The first one I decided to name Club Postie in honor of a certain group based in Gravesend.

Next we have the beloved "Cafe Analogue" were the coffee is made with used brush water.  It sounds as awful as it really is....

These little building are great and are multifloor models.  I would guesstimate these occupy 75% of the fabled 6x6x6 cube so lets go with 15 points for the two structures.  I'm pretty sure you'll see a lot more buildings in the future.

This submission of 187 points should put me well over the 1,000 point mark!

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You never have to apologize for more Napoleonic goodness. As usual, I'm amazed at your output, Miles, especially with those benighted limbers - you're an absolute glutton for punishment, my friend. When all this is said and done, which nationalities do you plan on having collections, Miles?

Those Sarissa building are quite lovely, 'Club Postie' looks very inviting, but I do take umbrage with your description of the coffee at 'Cafe Analogue' - I shall report your besmirching remarks to the barista-in-chief and you can deal with the resulting fallout. (It must be the recent influx of imported coffee you are referring to - sorry, inside joke folks). ;)

Your mathamagician skills are still razor-sharp as your total of 187 matches my fingers, toes and tabulations on random bits of paper. Well done, Mr R!

-Curt

From ByronM: Nurgle Cultists (90 points)

Two years ago just after finishing working on my Nurgle / Deathguard 40k army I won a gift certificate from one of Curt's great sponsors - Pig Iron Productions.   While they have a number of great products the ones that really attracted me were their Kolony Ferals.

I was attracted to the Ferals as they had a post apocolyptic look and feel and I thought they would fit right into my Nurgle force as either cultists, mutants, or even pox walkers and provide something different than the normal GW look.

They arrived though and quickly fell into the closet-o-shame where I hide all my unpainted stuff, but I found them again this fall and decided it was time to get them all painted up.

I chose a super simple paint scheme or essentially 2 colours: green and purple.  I wanted something that was going to have high contrast between their rags and their masks, but still provide a Nurgle look.

After painting the figures, I kind of fluked out by having some purple flowers (a little more pink than would have been perfect) kicking around that I feel make them really pop colour wise.

Even though these were done quickly and *gasp* included dry brushing, I love the way they came out.  The colours really work together and I am quite happy with them.  The only issue is, now I want more!!!

Thank you again to Pig Iron for these great figures!

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Ahh, it's great to see you get these guys done up, Byron. I too am a great fan of Pig Iron's stuff, with me using these same figures as post-apoc raiders for my Metro 2033 project. An often overlooked range, they provide wonderfully characterful and chunky figures.

I like the sickly Nurgle effect you've achieved with their green and purple colour scheme, and the fuchsia plants on the rad-blasted landscape really set them off nicely. 

Yes, wonderfully blighted and suitably icky!

90 points for you Mr. Mudry - well done!

From DaveD: 10-4 rubber duck we got us a Convoy! & US Army (164 Points)

This weeks progress on a couple of projects. First up my cargo vessels for Cruel Seas . Last year I picked up some old skytrex stuff from a bring and buy - they are 1/1200th ,but still reasonable size. They are around 6-8 inches  long, mix of metal and resin kits

The top one is the Warlord games completed earlier for comparison

4 skytrex ships 

I think that will do nicely for a target rich environment - just need some suitable escorts.  I have a couple of British destroyers and one German the same scale as the freighters - I will do them later I think. I have been looking at full 1/350th size models for this - seriously tempted ... but not sure how the Tirpitz or Warspite will go down with purchase order control.... I just will have to content myself with completed the work on a couple damaged and sinking MTB/ S boats

A couple done with a camo paint job - couple plain 

Vosper MTB added  for scale ...

16 colour coded torpedos - its gonna hurt!

plus - 16 Torpedos - this time I have done them in batches 4 colour coded. In the game you fire and don't forget as the torpedo moves when its launching vessel does - this proved a bit of memory problem as to which torpedo was which in recent game ,  so hopefully  it will allow them to be identified going forward - need to go back a redo the others now!

Next up is a long awaited top up of infantry for my US Armoured forces. I have had these Plastic Soldier Company ones undercoated on the desk for at least 6 months - as I have come to hate painting them , they are too thin, and spindly , as a result  they have been kicked down the queue too many times . I am pleased to at least get them done .This gives me two full platoons worth for gaming . I will replace these PSC ones with something better in due course. 

cheers D

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A wonderfully varied post, Dave!

That assortment of freighters looks great. As you say, the scale difference is not really a big issue - they're big floaty things. Our gamers' eyes often allow for elasticity in scale, so why not here. I need to get my 3D printer warmed up so I can get some similar targets in the water for our group.

The colour-coded torpedoes look great and are a good idea. A nice way of avoiding confusion when you have several different 'fish' in the water. Nice!  

I know you didn't like working on those PSC yanks, but they do look very good. That being said, I can sympathise with your feeling of not wanting to work on figures you just can't get into. I have a long queue of these that I'm waiting for the worm to turn. Congrats on getting them done and off the table!

Curt