From SimonM: "Lucid Eye Publications" Grove's Shrubs (45 Points)

These eight 23mm tall "cartoon scale white metal figures" of Grove’s Shrubs are produced by “Lucid Eye Publications” and can be brought from the company's "Toon Realms" range. Sculpted by Trish Carden to be the Shrub Henchmen for Yewan the Treeman, I actually thought these miniatures would make some excellent-looking Ents for my ongoing 'Lord Of The Toons' project using the "Dragon Rampant" rule-set by "Osprey Games".

Initially primed with a double layer of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, the talking trees were 'immersed' in "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade and later dry-brushed using (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, as well as (the somewhat lighter) "Vallejo" Heavy Brown. I then 'picked out' their leafy beards using a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Green and "Citadel" Biel-Tan Green.

Finally, the ancient shepherds of Fangorn Forest had their eyes 'dotted' using a tiny spot of "Vallejo" Heavy Ochre" and the fungi living on their backs treated to a lick of "Vallejo" Heavy Red. These oyster-shaped toadstools were subsequently shaded using a splash of "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson, before each ensemble was tidied up, courtesy of either some additional “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna, Heavy Brown and/or dash of “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade.

With two units of Lesser Warbeasts completed, I also turned my attention to one of a handful of free miniatures “Lucid Eye Publications” have kindly sent me as part of my recent orders with their company. These figures all consist of the self-same wizard sat atop a dice whilst smoking a pipe, and whilst not quite as cartoonish in style as the manufacturer’s other “Toon Realms” sculpts, they certainly seem to still fit the genre quite nicely. 

As a result I’ve decided to utilise the models as statues/objective markers for my games of “Dragon Rampant”, and paint them so as to represent a variety of materials. To begin with, I thought I’d prime the wizard with some "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and subsequently treat him to a double coat of Brass. The figurine was then heavily washed with "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade, and dry-brushed with more "Vallejo" Brass.

To give the idol some ‘weathering’ I applied plenty of "Citadel" Nihilakh Oxide over the miniature, and later ‘blended’ this in with the rest of the colour scheme by giving it a second dry-brush of "Vallejo" Brass. Lastly, I pigmented the 28mm “Games Workshop” circular base beneath the wizard using “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey, as well as a mixture of “Citadel” Nuln Oil, Biel-Tan Green and Agrax Earthshade, before dry-brushing the ‘stone plinth’ with more “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey.

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Great work on the shepherd shrubs(?), Simon, but I have to say I'm really taken by that wizard-smoking-on-a-die, especially with how you did the verdigris with the gold. It really makes a terrific looking marker. I have a somewhat similar game marker that I need to paint and I think I may pilfer your recipe for it. Thanks and Well Done!

-Curt

From DavidB - Establishing a beach head (115 points)

I could continue to play with the contrast paints and circle the island, but what kind of fun would that be!? After a look through the mountain of neglect, I found a primered duelist from the ancient game Talisman. He had to have red to make proper landfall at Sander Sand Dune as there is a whole lot of folks there already and red seems to be the fashion on that portion of the island.

I started painting him this morning and had to skip adding a nice dash of white or yellow to his puffy sleeves as the slashed knees and shoulders are merely small sculptor marks and not quite generous in area for some contrast color. At least the contrast paint Blood Angel red soaked into the creases and the effect did get him to where I was happy with it. I did add some orange highlights to the red as i still feel funny painting a model so quickly.  

And some eyes...not a whole lot of detail to this old sculpt and I usually don't go that far, but he needed some more detail to spruce him up a little farther.

I also plucked this fellow out of the mountain of neglect foothills. he actually had a lot of companions and I was organizing them to figure out regimental personnel. after allocation of commanders, banner-men, and musicians, this fellow was in his very own rank. I decided that he was an excellent volunteer for a test model and he also won the lottery to be Curtgeld for this year's challenge.

With a lucky blue tunic and some orange warpaint, he is now ready to pillage and terrorize on a distant shore. perhaps he will find a hapless dungeon party to mug and show off his amazing skills with two Choppas!

I still have no idea as to what I was thinking with this lot. I wanted to try the Iyanden Yellow contrast paint and a small voice whispered "space marines, they are tough enough to pull of yellow armor and look amazing!". And wow did that contrast yellow really pop on old white primered space marines. I thought I might do them up as Horus Heresy Imperial Fists, but I realized my Crimson Fists used all the icons I got from shapeways. I didn't want to curl transfers around the shoulder paldrons, so I thought Lamentors...."you have one already", that little voice whispered"he needs some company, and the checks were not THAT difficult". 

So the lone champion has a tactical squad to accompany him in Inquisimundia and now I can do Lamentors in kill team.

These are a mix from the old RTB01 and Rogue trader marine blisters with some of the newer more detailed models from the 90's. a veteran sgt with power sword leads his squad with a melta gun and missle launc..er rocket launcher.

A plasma gunner and another marine with a thunder hammer gives a few more options and allows for more kill team customizing. 

a capt in terminator armor and another captain with a combi melta and power axe to give them some more punch.

A very old chaplain from the rogue trader days. I have no idea why i glued that back pack on his back, but i added a banner to it as it felt funny without one. I suppose that since the lamentors are such a hard luck chapter still on a crusade to atone for backing the astral claws...maybe the additonal is a relic from a fallen hero, it also makes him look rather proud to be a lamenter marine

He isn't as detailed and bulky like the newer chaplains, but these older chaplain models still have that ferocious, heroic look that still appeals to me. although he lacks a crozious, the power sword and boltpistol should be good enough to carry him through.

With 15 lamentors, the duelist should be able to hold at the beachhead!

85 points and now I have to aid a daughter in assembling her new Soritas models, and spend some time with the family before training kicks off again....and i have to figure what sort of things to occupy the empty space on the painting desk too!

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An amazing array of models here David.  

I really like the yellow, which is a brave choice since we all know what a pain in the !@# yellow is to paint, but you have pulled it off here very well.  I also really like all the old school checkers you have added to them, it really pulls them back to the era they were produced in when 40k was over the top.

The duelist and ork are also nice additions here, and I can imagine the duelist trying to hold others off the beach (not sure how he will fair against some sci-fi gun weilding maniacs, but hey, honour demands he at least try!).

You forgot to add the points on for the map space though, so your total is actually 115 (unless I have made a mistake as well on math).  Great work, keep it up!

- ByronM

From MikeW: Late 17th Century Ottoman Heavy Cavalry and Artillery (60 Points)

I'm pleased to be welcomed back go participate in Challenge X, this year I'll even hopefully achieve my targeted 2,000 points of painting!

Having missed the target last year by a slim margin, I realise that getting a start over the Xmas and New Year period is key to success, thus my first post in the first week - albeit a small batch of figures and artillery pieces.

An added spur to keep me going is that fellow SAS Wargames Club member 'GrahameH' is participating in the challenge this year, withe the same 2,000 point target - and I'm worried - he can be a truly prolific, quality painter....

4 x 28mm Ottoman Armoured Cavalry

First up are 4 x 28mm Ottoman Turk, Armoured Cavalrymen, these guys will join 8 of their companions that I had already completed before the start of the challenge to make up 2 x 6 figure squadrons.

These figures are a bit of a 'mash-up', the horses are actually from the plastic HaT Industrie,  El CiD Sets, whilst the riders are from a couple of batches of suitable metal figures sourced form eBay with appropriate weaponry such as shields, bows, muskets and pistols added.

I use acrylic paints, from a variety of manufacturers and typically undercoat my figures in white, before building up the colours. I used Army Painter washes on these guys to get the shading as there is a lot of exposed armour and metal work.

Then there is a final coat of Matt Varnish, I have taken to using Windsor and Newton's 'Galeria Acrylic Mediums' varnish, it gives a truly matt finish and is very quick drying. Note - be sure to give the pot a long, strong shake before use!!

The bases of these figures were treated using my usual method - a coat of brown emulsion paint, mixed with PVA glue - various  house paint sample pots and any good glue will do, the paint mix is sprinkled with sand and allowed to dry. Next a dry brushing of the same emulsion / PVA mix and a sprinkle of electrostatic grass to give vegetation cover before applying a variety of grass and plant type 'clumps' to the base to give added variety.

By my reckoning these 4 figures are worth 10 points ea - so a total of 40 points

Field Gun with warped barrel!

Field Gun with acceptable carriage
but dodgey wheels

The final two items on this first post are 2 x 28mm Ottoman Artillery pieces. The green  Field Gun is a plastic model sourced with two others off the internet. Actually, together, they represent three of the worst quality moulded models I've ever seen....

After a lot of knife work to clean up the pieces - I feel that they are now presentable for tabletop games, as long as they are not too closely inspected. The gun carriages are distinctly wobbly and the barrels are still warped, but it is very hard to find suitable Ottoman artillery pieces for the Late 17th Century at present.

To be fair - I was looking for a cheap solution to allow me to put on a game without waiting for more established manufacturers to release Ottoman Artillery - so you get what you pay for! I think the Ottomans will have a high chance of miss-fires when using these field guns...

Ottoman Light Gun, from rear

Ottoman Light Gun, from front

The Red Gun is a similar 'mash-up' to one I did in last year's challenge - the carriage is from an old Warhammer Empire Galloper gun set, with a plastic barrel taken form the Warlord Games 17th Century Artillery set.



These 2 guns are worth 10 points ea - so a total of 20 points

Overall Post Value:  40+20 = 60 Points

So now I'll be looking for what to do next - I have several Ottoman Cavalry Units still to get done, plus some Polish Armoured Cossacks that also need doing, many units of European Foot. Then there is the SAGA Norman Infantry & Dark Ages Archers, some Warlord Imperial Romans. Some 10mm (1/144) Israeli Sherman Tanks. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do and how I can explore the Adventure Island!

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by Paul: Welcome back to the fray Mike!  Yes, I find that squeezing in some hobby time around Christmas to be essential for me getting off the mark with a few quick runs.

A lovely opening salvo though the modelling of the guns sounds like a frustrating process. 
Still, that is 60 points down range to start you on your way - good luck!

From DaveD - 10mm Barbarians - "For Joshua" Project - 204 points

This is my first post of the Challenge and me its a really important one. This is part of the "For Joshua" project set up by JamesM of this parish and MadTin Hatter fame (or aka the Detroit Sherman factory) .  The link to the project can be found here , and the link the James' video is here.  This is a very noble cause and if you have not seen it - its worth a visit.

Along with a number of our local gamers and people around the world we are doing what we are good at to help out the charity that helped James and Amy at their worst of times.

So here I give you my contribution which is a Barbarian horde .. now bear in  mind I don't generally do "spear chucking" this is a little out of the normal for me . The figures by Pendraken were all very crisply cast and were easy to paint. Leon from Penraken has graciously contributed some free figures to the project too - thanks mate.

altogether :-
10mm Foot x140 figures
10mm Mounted x 12 figures
10mm vehicle/equivalents -- 10 (6 catapults and 4 very large mammoths!)

total 194...

Right then ... let me go and find something with a gun and a uniform..

cheers DaveD

From MilesR:
Dave this is a wonderful entry and a very worthy cause so 10 bonus points for being a nice guy.  I love the mammoths and think you've done a marvelous job with the army.  A most worthy first entry.  Plus I get to enter numbers in the rarely used 10mm columns of the "Spreadsheet of Doom" - wooo-hoooo!

Well Done!

From LeeH - Frozen Tower for Frostgrave - 10 points

I wasn't expecting to post this last-minute entry for the first week of the challenge but once I got started I had to finish it - the bug just took me. So I'm planning on playing a lot of Frostgrave later this year and I need quite a bit of terrain to replicate the frozen city. The Young Padawan is still playing 6mm ancients games with me but in return, I have agreed to her request for some fantasy wargaming. I already had a lot of old D&D figures that I have been able to repurpose for Frostgrave but what I haven't got is much in the way of terrain. So one of my projects for this Challenge is to scratch build and paint as many buildings as I can. And first to be completed is this ruined tower. 

I may make another, larger, tower later on but this was my first attempt at using bluefoam for model building. My recently completed Operations Room means that for the first time in decades I have a space dedicated to my hobby and that means I can work on larger projects that take weeks not hours to complete...an important consideration back when I had to 'borrow' the dining room table for model terrain construction. My Operations room is now in a right mess, but it's my mess and I love it! 

This tower is built around a central core...the versatile Pringles Tin. I made the choice from the beginning not to build the tower from individual bricks but rather from concentric 'pineapple rings' of foam that would fit around the core and be glued and shaped one course at a time. I'm not convinced I made life any easier for myself as the rings invariably came out different sizes and I had to make several adjustments as I worked my way upwards. None the less I'm pretty happy with this first foray into the world of foam model making and I'm already working on more complex stuff for later in the Challenge. 

The tower stands about 6" tall and has a diameter of 4" so not quite a full cube of terrain (I'll leave the determination of points to the umpires mercy!). I built in a partially collapsed spiral stairway so that characters in the game can use the tower for some elevation, maybe gaining an advantage over the other side, or getting a clearer view of the path ahead. 

So with that icy side quest completed its time for me to get working on my first venture onto Challenge Island.

From Minion DaveD, 
Aah now that's nice to see , so back to schoolboy maths and the volume of your cylinders ( πr² x h) 75 cubic inches , a standard terrain cube is 216 cubic inches.. So lets call that a base 7 ,but for the extra steps and the fact its a new bit modelling skill  lets call it 10!

there are various items you can get yo help with working with foam - and it gets addictive Lee - looking forward to seeing what else you have for us

'Running Back to Saskatoon'

Hi All,

I'm taking my mom back home to Saskatoon today, but never fear, our Challenge Minions will step into the breach to handle the day's submissions.

Be back soon!

Curt