From MattK: More Necromunda, Cawdor Gang (50 Points)

As mentioned in my last post, I want to put this game on the table this Winter and I was on a roll with the last gang. I actually painted the first test figure for this group right after finishing the Delaque but I figured I'd post them all at once.

So this is ten figures, the new plastics, built by the instructions same as last time. I actually bought these the day the week they were released. I love the aesthetic with the candles and nooses. I bought them under the pretense that they'd look cool in a case even if I never played. I got them all built that night and then looked into what book I'd need to play it. At the time to play in a campaign I think I was told I'd need something like 3 or 4 different books to have all the rules for the gang so they went back on the to-do shelf and gathered dust until Dark Uprising and the Gangs of the Underhive book came out.

In particular I think these are my favorite figures of the bunch, the one on the left was the test figure.

Though I also have a soft spot for the gaudy leader type

I think they came out just a little dark, they look a little better in person. My photography skills are in definite need of improvement but overall I'm pretty happy with how these turned out and for me, the challenge is all about turning the lead pile into playable games.

 
I have a few other gangs for Necromunda but I think I'll get a test game or two in before I break the shrink on those. There are a few more models for this gang though (bomb rats) that I'll post as soon as I can find some bases for them. For now though, that's enough figures to get a game going, so its on to the next project for now.

10 28mm figures again for 50 points

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Matt, you're on fire with these Necromunda gangers - excellent stuff. Cawdor is another great looking gang, with lots of gritty models. This being said, I think your use of blue as a contrast colour gives an interesting counterpoint to the otherwise earth(grease)tone of the models. I think my favourite one of the lot is the chap with the combination boat hook / blunderbuss. Easy to learn, hard to master?

Great work Matt. Which is the next gang coming up?

-Curt

From ScottM: Landing at Sander's Sand Dunes (120 Points)

My first landing on Challenge Island will be at Sander's Sand Dunes. And what does any foreign land need: ANTS! Giant red ones!

These figs are all metal except for the two large ones, which were resin. I picked these figs up from the Crooked Dice Games 7TV Apocalypse Kickstarter. Nice simple figs to paint. So one location checked off.

In addition I've painted up a box of Imperial Death Troopers from Fantasy Flight's Star Wars Legion game.

Relatively simple figs to paint as they're all black. The trick was not to paint them completely black as the details would be harder to make out.

So that should be:
12 x 28mm foot figs (ants) = 60 + 30 (for the location)
6 x 28mm death troopers = 30
For a total of 120 points

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Gosh, those red ants look like they's leave some nasty ouchies for sure. I like how the red accentuates their chitinous bodies, especially the biguns. Shudders. And speaking of nasty things in armoured shells, those Death Troopers look the business. Black is always a little tricky to pull off but you've done it admirably here. 

Great work Scott!

-Curt

From SamuliS: Two Horsemen of the Apocalypse (20 points)

Time to get myself on the points board once again in another edition of the challenge! By my counts this should be the eighth one I've participate in. As the world was maybe a bit more optimistic when I was a participant the first time I figured a suitable apocalyptic submission would be in order to kick the challenge of from my side this time around.

Two leaders who seem to be bent on watching the world go down in flames. So when I noticed that Red Star Coven had a Kickstarter for miniatures of BoJo and Trump riding A-Bombs into oblivion in the style of Dr. Strangelove I just had to get them.

Quick paintjobs just to get me on the board as Christmas has been pretty hectic and I'll be travelling for a couple of weeks at the start of next year so painting time will be quite limited. Luckily with suits and black bombs the palette was extremely limited anyways so I managed to crank these out fast.

"I never understood wind. I know windmills very much, I have studied it better than anybody. I know it is very expensive. They are made in China and Germany mostly, very few made here, almost none, but they are manufactured, tremendous—if you are into this—tremendous fumes and gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right?"

"Voting Tory will cause your wife to have bigger breasts and increase your chances of owning a BMW M3"

I must say I was slightly tempted to put these in for the Reidy's Reef Challenge Island task. As both of these world leaders seem to promote environmental politics that seem to lead us towards us living in Waterworld with the rising temperatures and melting ice caps they could probably be considered a nautical subject ;)

Anyways two mounted 28mm miniatures to get me started with 20 points.

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Fat Man and Little Boy, indeed. Great work Samuli. These two figures are sadly very inspired, but you've done a terrific job on them (though one could be a tad more orange imho). I seem to recall that bombs would often have witty epithets written on them, we should have a poll for the best one-liners for these two. ;)  

Welcome back to the Challenge, Samuli. See you in a few weeks.

-Curt

From MikeW - Young John Churchill at Sander’s Sand Dune (60 Points)

The young John Churchill
in the Duke of York's Livery

Being of little imagination when embarking on a new challenge - I thought I'd go down the Historical path and start at Sander's Sand Dune....

The requirement being RED!

So I have done a figure depicting the young John Churchill in the early 1670s, at a time when he was the Duke of York's (future James II) protegee and a time of innocence and valour for both, before the ugly stink of politics turned both their heads...

The figure is from the North Star 1672 range and the Red with Yellow trim livery are the Duke of York's personal colours and yes, there are contemporary images of Churchill in this or a similar style of uniform, which seems to hark back a further 40-50 years, in terms of fashion sense....

The figure was part of an eBay (other online auction sites are available) lot I purchased a couple years ago and not used, as I already have a version of this same figure that I'd painted up from the period when Churchill was an officer in the French Regiment d'Anglais - the uniform being much more subdued and based on light greys and blues of that unit.

Rear view

The figure came undercoated in black - so I went with that - layering on red colour. I wanted the outfit simple but striking, so it is predominantly red, with a white undershirt on show and then the trim you'd expect for the period.

I used washes to build up depth in the colours and the based and varnished the figure in my usual manner.

On the tabletop, if used, 'Young John Churchill' will bestow a special skill of allowing the unit he is with to re-roll any dice that throws a '1'. Hopefully reflecting what a lucky guy he was to get where he did in life!

Another frontal view

Again with a cheeky reading of the rules, I'll be using this as my Challenge Island Entry Fee figure and I have arranged with Curt that this should be made available to a local co-challenger - GrahameH - so that we can avoid the complexity and complications of international postal and shipping systems!

Basis this - I think the scoring should be:

5 Points for the 28mm Foot figure.
25 Points for my Entry Fee figure.
30 Points for completing Sander’s Sand Dune.

TOTAL = 5+25+30=60 Points

Having now committed to the Historical Path, I need to figure out what to do to meet the requirements I will now find at Millsy's Millpond - luckily I have some old figures lying around that might just help me out.

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Ah, what a wonderful looking figure, Mike! Mr. Churchill here has that pose that only youth and early success can grant. His red doublet and trousers make him perfect for Sander's Sand Dunes, but he'd also be spot on for Rousell's Sandhill with that marvellous floppy hat. He will make an excellent prize figure for Grahame once he scales SnowLord's Peak. Well done.

-Curt

From MartinC Mill's Millpond - The Viking Horde (360pts)

Back in 1987, I was a young freshfaced University student, Ok even at 20 I was short, bald and fat. I mate Giles (posh not French) got me into Warhammer. I'd never heard of it until I went to Uni. We had been playing for a couple of years, I was new to the rules and he only ever fielded Wood Elf Archers so I kept getting slaughtered before I got even close. Then the Ravening Hordes supplement came out and Vikings were rock hard. You could by the army - Auden's Ravens for £60 - which was a lot then (90p per pint so a weeks drinking). They were Citadel minis on the new fangled slotta bases with plastic shields - you can still get them on the Foundry website. The shields were all wrong and there were only about 10 poses for the whole army but they were state of the art for 1987

I painted a few but painting wasn't that important then. Fighting was. We set up. I had to face his Wood Elf horde across an open field. So I charged. He shot and I kept coming. I made it into contact with the loss of only 3 figures, including Auden, and slaughtered him to a man (or Pixie or some other poncey woodland creature). God did he sulk. From that point forwards he became totally defensive and battles got boring.

So scroll forward 25 years and I dug them out and bought proper shields and fixed all the bases so that they were no longer slotta ones. Pinted a few and then put them back at the bottom of the lead mountain.

Well today I have finished them, these are the last 58 figures - not quite true but the few remaining ones are a crap pose, partially painted and I made a pigs ear of them 30 years ago.

The full force

Unit of huscarls

Unit of warriors

More warriors

Archers

last of the huscarls - these are the best of the bunch

So there are 58 figures from 1987 with a history to them. This should give me 58x5 +30 for an island location + 20 for being dead old + 20 cos I can remember their history = 360pts.

Right off to play To the Strongest tomorrow - might use these.

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Wow, a points bomb of Vikings!  Great work Martin and a good history of where and when you picked them up as well.

You are a bit off on the points, as the history is only worth 10 bonus points, HOWEVER I will give you the extra 10 points back for hand painting shields you mad man....  Not sure why people do that when their are so many easy to apply decals out there... but hey, we are each mad in our own way.

Anyway, the whole lot looks awesome, and makes me want to actually finish all the vikings I started in the challenge for Saga two years ago and then got sidetracked from. 

They look great and will serve you well on the table.  Great seeing some old figures getting some love.

- ByronM

From MilesR: WWI German Naval Landing Party makes landfall at Reidy's Reef (280 Points)

 My second entry for this challenge is also the start of my meandering trek across Challenge Island.  My journey starts at Reidy's Reef (of course) with this WWI German Naval Landing party.  The figures are 28mm in scale and from Brigade Games here in the US.  They stock a fairly large WWI collection and have lots of nice esoteric stuff.

Thee are 43 Sailors armed with rifles, 4 figures in the command group and a 3 man heavy machine gun team.  These will work great for some raiding scenarios and also general pulp gaming.

The selection of poses is a limited limited but then again the demand for WW1 German Naval troops is likely fairly limited.

A close up of the command group.  Please accept my apologies for the poorly staged pictures.  My gaming area is still a bit of a wreck due to the pipe burst and will be a few more weeks in repair mode.

Surprisingly, there aren't a lot of uniform guides for WW1 German Naval Troops but I did find a picture of this gentlemen, so patterned the uniforms after the colors in the picture.

The final tally for this entry should be 280 points.  50 28mm figures at 5 each and 30 for my first "X-marks-the-spot" locale.  While there is a machine gun, it's just painted gunmetal grey and based so let's just throw that one in for free.

Why WWI German Sailors?  You'll just have to wait to find out.....

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A Pipe burst?! Have you been eating spicy food again, Miles?

50 German naval troops. Wowzers. You never just test the waters do you, Miles? From looking at this entry I get the very strong sense that a BIG convention game is being cooked-up here. Based off of how cool these guys look I'm eager to see how this project unfolds over the next few months.

A very well earned 280 points for you, Miles. Welcome to Challenge Island!

-Curt