From NoelW: Awful Apparations at Awdry’s Atoll (180points)

Most of us decide to learn swimming quite quickly, encouraged by that wail in the waves behind us.

Struggling through the rocky seas, we find ourselves unexpectedly arriving upon an atoll. We don’t know what an atoll is, so aren't really surprised to find it’s just a ring of almost revealed rocks. One minute we think you’re on land, and the next you’re ankle deep in saltwater. From time to time the sea washes over us like crutons in a thin soup, as we stumble upwards, clambering to the highest point on the largest rock of the atoll.

It’s here that we find a few stubbly trees, and between them various ancient mechanisms and buildings.

Perhaps these were the installations protected by the harbour we’ve just left. Perhaps they were destroyed by one of the two strange armies we recently encountered. 

Some are guarded by ancient cannon of enormous size, now rusted, split and unusable

There’s not much shelter amongst the ruins, but we do our best to wring out our sodden clothing. Just as the rain begins.

We name the place “Our dry Atoll”.

There’s faint graffiti on the walls of some of the buildings, as if someone has been sketching out elaborate plans for a massive campaign with enormous forces – but every sketch is half-finished, overwritten by some greater plan, even more massive and improbable. They seem like the ravings of a megalomaniac.

So now we’re stranded, with the sky darkening, rain dripping in, the sea growling against the rocks and the counterpoint of distant thunder. And then, faintly on the wind, we hear that plaintiff cry again. Has some monstrous creature followed us from the mainland, trapping us where it can leisurely take a toll of our bodies for its entertainment?

There’s no time to contemplate such questions for, as the thunderous darkness overwhelms us, shadows stir amongst the broken buildings. Out of the walls, a shivering wisp of cloud appears, slowly resolving into pale creatures, which stare at us mournfully, as if puzzled.

Then, slowly they begin to shamble towards us, as if they know exactly what the jugular is for.

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The five CD terrain pieces are based around buildings I picked up at a flea market, but I don’t know what they’re supposed to be, who made them or even what scale they are. I’m using them as targets/objectives/defences for Epic battles. Having the perfectly circular CD bases make it easy to determine when a force is “in” the terrain and when outside it. I wanted each piece to be different, yet sufficiently coherent to form a single area if needed. I also wanted the buildings to appear as if they might be in use, despite their overall dilapidated look.

The second part of the submission consists of objective markers and defences from GW’s Aeronautica Imperialis Ground Assets set. This is half the set, the ork defences. (My ork planes should appear in a later submission). There are 2 ground targets, 6 double-sided numbered counters to mark objectives, one landing zone marker and 6 anti-aircraft pieces. I’ve left space on the terrain CDs for the placing of the AA defences if I decide to defend the factories.

Finally a shift of attention from the small-scale stuff: 24 zombie Germans. I’ve been developing a Walmington on Sea project for a couple of years now, and I thought it could be fun to have the potential for a “weird war” variant. However, I didn’t want to spend a massive amount of time on this, as it’s merely a sideline for the existing project. So, I thought I’d make it a bit of a speed-painting experiment.

Whilst I have worked in a mortuary, I’ve never seen a zombie, but it seems to me that they’re likely to be pale-skinned and etiolated (what a good word, vicar!), especially if they’ve spent more than a few minutes underground. So these are done almost entirely using thin washes of Contrast paints over a white undercoat, plus a little detail picked out after the washes with a light off-white drybrush and an Army Painter dark wash in places to emphasise some of the lines. I feel the results are mixed: overall they’re fair enough and will certainly serve my purposes, but maybe the watered down effect is too insipid – I won’t be submitting any individual models in a painting competition.

Scoring: 5 x 6mm terrain pieces of 5ins diameter and a height of about 1.5 inches. Maybe together that’s about half a cube. - 10 points - topped up to 15 for for number of em!

7 x objective counters and 2 Orkish ground targets – 3 points

6 x artillery pieces. These are about 25mm in size but intended for 6mm figs, so I’m not sure if that’s 60pts or 12 pts - scored as 6mm vehicles  but with a top up bonus

24 x 28mm zombies – 120 pts

Awdry’s Atoll – 30 pts


From DaveD - Oh my , now theres a collection of bits n bob for a ealrly minion. So i have topped up your overall to 180 points!