From Curt: Pink Horror Daemons and Tribute Figure for Barks' 'Pinkstone Fortress' (45 Points)

Hi All!

Once again, something a little off the beaten path today.

This time it's some Pink Horrors from the Warhammer universe. I did up a batch of these for a few reasons. First, they're wonderfully weird miniatures, with lots of animation and tons of whacky things going on with their constantly morphing bodies - so lots of fun picking out the details with the brush and colour.

Secondly, I needed a few of these for our ongoing Dark Heresy RPG campaign. Next session the adventurers enter an ancient abandoned Imperator Titan and some of these guys pop in from the warp to make things interesting for the party.

Finally, one of these (his choice) will be going to Barks as a big thank you for being such a great minion this year. Barks, I trust it will find a colour-complimentary home among your 'Pinkstone Fortress' collection that you've been treating us to this Challenge.

These five pink loons will give me a base of 25 points with another 20 for the tribute bonus.

Thanks again Barks!

Curt

From PhilH: Antihero Curtgeld (27 points)

Sorry Curt, I ignored your instructions for this year’s Curtgeld. Instead my token of appreciation to our Challenge Custodian is a “superhero” that’s rather more up his alley.  

The titular character of DC/Vertigo's horror series John Constantine: Hellblazer is an occult detective and con-man. A deeply cynical, deadpan, chain-smoking Liverpudlian punk, he’s pretty much the epitome of an antihero. While he strives to do good, his main tools are deceit, cunning and some hedge-magic. Constantine tends to succeed only at great cost to those around him, often his closest friends, and is wracked with guilt over past mistakes. 

The sculpt really captures the character: scruffy but charismatic. Probably the best-known Hellblazer storyline is 1991's 'Dangerous Habits', having Constantine contract terminal cancer from his lifelong habit. Knowing his soul is damned, he strives to con the lords of hell out of their prize. This run also has the dubious honour of being the very loose source material for the inexecrable Keanu Reeves film adaption (if you haven't watched it, just don't)

I bought Constantine as Curtgeld for the more thematic Challenge VIII, but never got around to prepping him for painting. He might be late, but I'm chuffed with the final result here, and wish I got to keep him.

I used the supplied cobblestone base, very fitting for a working-class inner-city fella like Constantine. I was going for a rain-slicked cobbles look and added an appropriate band poster.

Contains subtle swearyness

The mini is by Knight Models. A resin cast originally sculpted for metal, he should be more like this, but the demonic fire is so flimsy it was broken on arrival. Now it just looks a bit like poor John has set fire to his hand. I fired Knight an email about it, to no response. I've been done with Knight a little while now: pricey, poor quality and shabby customer service. 

I need an adjudicator on whether I can claim another squirrel for this one? I mean, he’s DC rather than Marvel and about as different a comic book hero to the spandex-clan X-Men as it’s possible to be...

I'm cooking up two more entries for the final straight - but will I be able to hit a nice round 500?

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And more not French! 

Curtgeld can always be paid in arrears, much like Army pay. So this can always be applied retroactively to Painting Challenge VIII. After all, I am shipping Curt a figure from Challenge VII!

And while I understand the frustration of both a broken figure and poor customer service, I'd say it looks better as you've painted it. Very much a lemons from lemonade there. In fact, your rendering is very much better than the Knight Models promotion.

Let's see, a 40mm figure is 7 points, and Curtgeld gets you another 20, for a total of 27. And yes, DC and Marvel will NEVER mix, so you meet Squirrel point criteria there. So, I'll allow it.

HerrRobert, Friday Follies Phantasmical, Over

From DaveS: I'm Batman (110 points)

So, I recently got a demo of the Batman miniatures game and fell in love.  I've painted some of the models before, both for fun, and as commissions, but I've never played the game very much.  I was put off by the huge number of keywords, and the pricey rulebooks.  Second edition seems to be better written, with a more reasonably priced rulebook, and so I've taken the plunge.

First model I painted, as befits the games was Batman.

He's been painted in the colour scheme from the box, which means he has the classic blue and grey with the yellow belt.  I worked quite hard on the cape, and I'm pleased with the result.

I then proceeded to paint the Arkham Guards that came with him.  These are the cheapest and most disposable models in a Batman crew, and so they got a quick and dirty paint job, but they look OK to me.

One of the "quirks" of the Batman rules, is that all of the Arkham guards are able to arrest enemy models.  The Arkham police, who I painted next however, apparently aren't.

Finally, you need some way to actually see the enemy in the dark back streets of Gotham.  So some lamp posts.

And something to see, in the TTCombat Apartment A, with added extension level.  That makes it about 10"x6"x10".  It really is huge looking, and I've included a previously painted Harley Quinn for scale.

So thats 7x35mm models (and I just noticed that the photos were taken before I put the final black on all of the base edges), plus whatever the Lamps and building are worth.

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As I luxure with a rather cheeky little Spanish red (always drink Spanish reds, the whites are ok, and save the beer for when you have to torture the terrorists to find the location of the nukes and/or the kidnapped Robin), DaveS presents BATMAN!

And, while the cape prevents the gratuitous butt shot we've come to expect from many a Batman film, Dave's Batman and Arkham guards are quite gritty. 

The apartment block is spectacular, and HUGE. It's something you'd expect to see in a Lardy special. Very fab.

So, let's see. We don't have 35mm figures in Millsy's spreadsheet of DOOM, but 35 is closer by a hair to 40mm than 28mm, so we'll go with that. 7 40mm figures gives you 49 points. Now, the apartment building is 600 cubic inches; normalizing that into 216 cubic inch increments gives us 2.7 repeating. Punching that into the Spreadsheet of DOOM gives 55.5 repeating points. We'll be kind to the poor souls who don't run statistical models for a living and round that to 2.8 and 56, respectively. Throw in another 5 points for the lampposts, and call it an even 110. 

HerrRobert, Friday Follies Phantasmical, Over

From SimonM: "Black Tree Design" Myrka (7.5 Points)

This 46mm long metal miniature of a "genetically modified... unknown deep-sea creature" is produced by “Black Tree Design", and can be bought as Code DW509 Myrka from the manufacturer's "Doctor Who" miniatures range. "A large species of reptile used by the Silurians for heavy backup in times of war", the "bullet-resistant" beast which can attack using a powerful electrical charge first appeared in Johnny Byrne's January 1984 BBC Television story "Warriors Of The Deep".

The Myrka was first super-glued onto a "Citadel" 75x42mm oval base, primed with two coats of "Vallejo" Heavy Green, and drenched in Strong Tone Quickshade by "The Army Painter". The monster was then heavily dry-brushed using (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Green, so as to bring out the detail of its "strange kelp-like growths" under its chin and around its "rubbery" body, before subsequently being washed with "Citadel" Biel-Tan Green.

After a second (and final) dry-brush of "Vallejo" Heavy Green, the Myrka's "wide, pale eyes" were 'picked out' using a combination of "Vallejo" White and Pale Grey. Lastly, the four-legged reptiles's base was gritted with sand, undercoated "Citadel" Abaddon Black, dry-brushed in Doombull Brown and Rakarth Flesh, then washed with "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade.

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One of the perks of the free fire round, aside from Facebook and ESRI continuing to think I am a Russian artillery brigade commander, is that I have entries that are not French. And here we have something decidedly not French.

It's reptilian, and centauran, and clearly the product of some deluded mind at the BBC after one too many nights cavorting with snifters of absinthe and actresses sunning their magnificent ankles in foreign climes. Quite smashing, too. The eyes, though, are the centerpiece of the Myrka, and you've done quite well picking them out, as it were.

Given that it's centaurish, bigger than a lone horse, but not as big as a cavalryman, let's split the difference and call it 7.5 points!

HerrRobert, Friday Follies Phantasmical, Over

From ByronM: 15mm Thirty Years War Swedish force (288 Points)

I had plans for doing so much this year, yet due to struggles with getting my head around painting 15mm I just never got into it this year.  Now finally at the end, once I started basing them up and looking at them from tabletop distances, I am actually really happy with them, and realized that my issue was that I was looking at them individually and close up while painting them, expecting 28mm style looks, when really, its all about the bulked up / ranked up look....  I really should have based some up way earlier, and I could have gotten past the mind lock and painted more!!!

Anyway, on with the show....

These figures are a mix of Wargammer LLC (makes of By Fire and Sword), Khurasan, and Blue Moon.  I honestly do not know which are which anymore as they all just went into a pile to be painted.  All of them are very good though, with Blue Moon being the roughest, but at the price they offer for bags of 50 I really can not complain.  The Khurasan and Wargammer LLC figs are both super clean and easy to work with.

I made a choice while working on the Swedish force that a good section of them was going to be King Gustav II Adolf's personal force and therefore they would be in the regular uniforms of blue coats and yellow sashes.  While normally during the 30 year war, no one was in any sort of regular uniform, in theory Gustav's personal / elite guard was.  Probably not in any real numbers and even though they were uniforms they were probably not as regular looking as I have done them, so I expect some would be historians to have issue with the uniformity, but it's my force, so my choice!

I discussed my basing choices last time I posted some 30 years war figures, but I also made a choice to cut some bases with some rounded edges to use for my leaders bases since then.  This is so that I can tell them apart from the normal troops when I use these figures with Pike & Shot, but still use them attached to units in By Fire and Sword.  This can be seen on King Gustav II's base.

I painted a pile of Cavalry to go along with the King, after all, even though he was known to charge in recklessly, but never alone, so three units of cavalry should be enough to support him.

As most of you know by now, I am not a fan of painting horses, but I think these came out well with a few different shades mixed in.

I also needed Musketeers to help out with the force, so painted two units of them as a start.  Many more are to come in the near future but this gave me something more to post at least.

Again, probably way to uniform in colour, but I wanted the Swedish force to look like a force compared to the coming Holy Roman Empire army that I am working on where everyone is wearing something different.

Last up in this post is what started it all for me with the Thirty Years War, pikemen!  Here are 4 more units of pikemen to add to my Swedish force.  Most of them are without armour, but one is an armoured unit.

As you can see, I also took Curt's advice and got some standards to start adding into the units.

Now that I am in the right mind set for painting 15mm, it's almost too late for the challenge.  Sigh...

I will get at least a few more done before the end, but it looks like I will have a lot to carry over to next years challenge. Which unfortunately means that I am likely to miss my points goal for the year.  I ALWAYS go for 1500 to make sure I can meet it, this year I looked at everything I had to paint and decided I could go higher....  bad call.  I would have made 1500, but will miss my 2k target.  Oh well, live and learn, right?

******

For points:

Cav: 30 x 4 points = 120
Infantry: 84 x 2 points = 168
Total: 288

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With the Snowlord calling sauve qui peut, what is a good minion to do but pitch in and stem the tide? And here we have the future foreign regiments (at least the German ones) of the King of France!

The Army of the King of Sweden has always been one that has fascinated me, ever since the heady days of my youth, finding Trevor Dupuy's The Military Life of Gustavus Adolphus: Father of Modern War in the kid's section of my local library. And who can forget the illustrated Great Commanders and their Battles?

I fully sympathize with the pain of switching to 15mm. I tried painting a DBA army pre-challenge for a tournament and was stopped dead in my tracks, for much the same reason. I also sympathize with the not meeting your target fears. I'd love to paint 1500 points in three months; I feel I did quite well passing my lowly 200 quota.

But these are beautiful, Byron. Keep up the good work!

288 points in the spreadsheet!

HerrRobert, Friday Follies Phantasmical, Over

From TeemuL: Dwarf Crossbowmen (20 points)

Just a quick post to get going on this last week: 4 Hasslefree dwarfs on square bases to add to my Oldhammer dwarf army.

I don't have uniforms on my dwarfs, so every one is having different colors. These Hasslefree minis work very well on that aspect. My favorite from this lot is the green-and-yellow striped guy.

That's another squirrel for me (counting the earlier high elf), something on my desk as well, so be prepared. :)

Twenty points, please and this is the eighth squirrel.

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Great looking dwarfs, Teemu! I really like their striped surcoats, and the red fletching on their crossbow bolts is ace. 

20 points for you sir, which allows you to hit your points target! Very noice, very noice indeed.

- Curt

From TamsinP: 15mm Kra'Vak Adolescents (72 points)

A few weeks ago I presented the first part of my Kra'Vak force and mentioned that the original sculpts could be used to represent adolescent Kra'Vak troops. Well, here are a small contingent of those pesky kids!

The Infantry

The Cavalry

Whilst adult Kra'Vak might be regarded (by humans at least) as complete lunatics, even they aren't lunatic enough to considering riding the warbeasts. They leave that to the even more lunatic adolescents.

I did mention that they are somewhat smaller, so here's a side-by-side pic to show the difference:

The new sculpts are about 20mm to top of head; the original sculpts are 15mm to top of head. Quite a difference.


Anyway, onto the scoring:

24 x 15mm foot @ 2 = 48 points
6 x 15mm mounted @ 4 = 24 points
Total = 72 points

I do have a couple of vehicles primed for them, but will probably leave those until after the Challenge to paint as I have a few more that are waiting to be assembled.

And don't worry - this will not be my last submission!

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Geez. Riding their warbeasts without helmets, playing their crazy music too loud...  Kids these days, eh! 

Very cool entry Tamsin. Just like the the adults you did-up several weeks ago, I like the colour scheme you came up with for these Kra'Vak - the purple and green looks very sharp. 

72 points for your final climb to your target. Well done Tamsin!

-Curt

From ByronM - Gundam in 1/144 scale (15 Points)

Hey everyone,  I am just posting this to show off a cool model I built, I wasn't going to post it at all, but a couple people suggested I show it off even though it gets no points, as it is likely that some others on here would be interested in it.  It also goes to explain a lack of production lately, as even with the wife getting in on building this kit with me, it took roughly 20 hours to build.

It's also a great thing to show off model / kit wise as what is possible in a kit and leaves me wondering why other companies kits (looking at you Games Workshop!) cost so much! Like we need another reason to despise their pricing structure...

I have always loved Gundam (anime robots) and always meant to build a model kit of one at some point. So I picked one up to do on vacation a few weeks (a cabin in the woods in a prairie winter , so we spent the time inside drinking wine, listening to music, playing games, and painting figs with friends) and OMG!

This is a Bandai RG (Real Grade) 1/144 Gundam kit of the Sazabi.  live joints! Meaning you clip the part from the sprue and it them is movable without any assembly!  To me from an engineering perspective was just amazing!  The wife laughed like crazy about me talking about how cool with was that you cut a part out of a sprue and it had 9 joints that you could immediately mend and move.  I got called a complete geek several times while building the kit.

What?  The part comes out of the sprue and can move???

Yup!  It holds the various skirt pieces in place!  Amazing!

The kit was $50, has 17 sprues of plastic, including 2 that are very cool... 1 is 4 different colours of plastic on one sprue!! The other is only 2 colours BUT are different materials that form

That's a lot of plastic for $50!

HOWEVER, even the wife (who generally dislikes miniatures) thought it was extremely cool and helped clip parts, file and sand, and even applied all the decals on it (lots of super tiny silver foil decals in hidden spaces that open up). 

Even better the kit is made so that it essentially makes an action figure that is completely moveable and transformable, right down to weapons, hands, opening panels and more!! Every single part moves on the kit, heck each foot has 7 points of movement!   Better even than that it it comes in about 9 different colours (including 3 shades of red and 3 of grey/black) and you essentially clip the parts, clean them, use a marker to do the panel lines, and then snap them together and you are done!!!

Each of those little missile pods come out of the backpack and open up with 4 wings!

That‘s right no painting required (they do each part in the right colour) and no glue either it‘s all press fit!  Hence me not expecting any points for this kit.  All I had to do was paint in the panel lines with a pigment pen, then clear coat it when done.

So, 200+ parts, movable, snap together, 100+ decals.... $50!

How much would something like this be from GW??? $200? $300? The single sprue ork vehicle I just got was $55.....

If Bandai can do this level of tech in a kit that likely sells 1/10th or 1/50th or even 1/1000th of the numbers that a GW kit sells and they can do it for less than 1/4 what GW would sell it for....... sigh.... This kit is at least 4x as good as a Riptide, about the same size (at about 7" tall), and 1/2 the cost.....

If anyone is looking for a cool and challenging model kit to build, I strongly suggest looking at a Bandai Gundam figure!  It was a lot of fun to build, and being a 1/144 this is a simple one for movable parts, the 1/100 and 1/60 get even more parts and details!  I have already gotten a 1/100 to play around with.

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Whoah! Now, I know virtually nothing about the impenetrably obtuse Gundam universe, BUT that bad boy one very cool big, stompy robot. 

As you say Byron, it's completely bewildering that Bandai can produce a kit of this quality and relatively low-cost and we still manage to get rogered senseless by GW's pricing structure. It's astounding.

Even thought it comes pre-coloured, I'm going to award 15 points for the complex build and extra detailing.

Thanks for showing this guy to us Byron!

- Curt