From SebastianR: Making it ashore (35 points)

We sighted land in the early morning, the island rising out of the sea mist on the horizon and rapidly growing closer.

In the shelter of the the large bay I could see a number of larger ships, cruise liners, tall ships, ironclads, junks, hydrofoils, even an aircraft carrier. I was late.

"How do I get ashore?" I asked the captain of the ramshackle craft I had called home for the past week.

"We can't get into the shallows, you'll need to contract one of them." He indicated a number of smaller boats ferrying adventurers and their gear ashore.

Getting the attention of one of these ferrymen proved more difficult than expected. Many of them had already filled their boots with fees from other adventurers, or saw my solo expedition to be just to small to be worth their while.

It was getting dark, and we had been riding at anchor for hours when the fox pulled up.

A veteran of a long forgotten war and a person of few words, his sampan seemed unsuitable for the choppy waters of the bay, but I wasn't in a position to argue. With the help of the crew I lowered my sparse equipment into the boat - the maguffin magnet, the phlebotimiser, the badger repellent - and we set off towards The Island, my heart in my mouth and breakfast in the sea.

***

I'm actually quite proud of the paint job on this one. This is the first mini I've completed in a year. 

The fur/flesh was my biggest worry, but I seem to have pulled it off.

The figure wasn't originally going to be for anything - beyond getting me a beach head, but now I think he's going to form the gunner for a new post apocalyptic gang.

***

Points wise, I think that's 5 points for the model and 30 points for landing at Douglas' Shallows for a total of 35. I'm not counting the Sampan as I haven't actually painted it, just constructed it. I quite like the aesthetic of unpainted foreground-esque models.


Welcome to the Challenge, Sebastian! That's a great paintjob on a truly bonkers miniature - he certainly looks like he means business. He'd certainly fit in nicely as an NPC-type (or even as a PC) for a bonkers Vietnam/sci./fant mashup game. Or maybe for a modernised version of Burrows & Badgers? If you're including humans, this cunning fellow could be a "Kitsune" (a Japanese shapeshifter - think werefox). 

TamsinP

From Curt: Carolyn Fern: 'The Psychologist' for Sarah's Balloon (5 Points)

I need to book a journey on Sarah's Balloon to O'Grady's Gulch so I present to you all another heroine of 'Mansions of Madness', Carolyn Fern: The Psychologist.

Carolyn is a fairly powerful support character in the game, having the ability to heal the sanity of both other characters and herself. It's a super handy skill, especially in setting where going bananas is a constant threat (if not an inevitability).  

The miniature of her is fairly good, only needing a little careful cleanup of mold lines in a few spots. Again, I stuck to the game card art, giving her a blue blouse and red hair. I thought a nice neutral grey would be good for her pencil skirt, with oxblood high boots for a splash of colour.

I think Sarah (and Tamsin!) will especially like Carolyn as she uses her wits to help her fellow investigators and is a hot redhead. :)

This should pip me 5 points and, after a glass of champagne with our lovely aeronaut,  allow me to set down on O'Grady's Gulch.

Cheers!

What a lovely redhead she is, Curt. Whilst she may be helpful for curing insanity in the mansions, I sadly fear that she has little hope of curing the insanity of us Challengers. 

Just in case anyone is wondering why this is only being scored as 5 points, you only get the 30 bonus points for your first balloon ride.

TamsinP

From SanderS - An Indian Infantry Brigade (192pts)

Hoi There,

The Challenge is all about getting paint on the contents of the unpainted-pile and also of course to gain some more points. So I took 2 of the battalions of HäT Colonial Indian troops I have had based for quite a while in my cabinet and put some paint on them.

The uniforms I took from several Ospreys and the Digby Smith book on the period of Imperialism but allowed for some artistic license as well.
The only spot colour is the bright red/ blue piece of the turnbans. The yellow and red ones are from the Osprey, the blue and red a concoction of my own.

Anyway these 48 figures in 20mm should amount to 192 points for the tally.

Cheers Sander

These Indian troops look jolly good, Sander. 192 points it is.

TamsinP

From ArthurS: Racing Sander's Sand Dunes ( 45 points)

Hoi There,

Well Arthur decided to join in the Challenge fun this year as well and of course wanted to start at Sander's Sand Dunes. He needed something red, but his favourite colour (at the moment) is purple so that was a conundrum. He also wanted to paint some of the Crisis Loot so we decided to combine this into one piece: a new racing vehicle for Gaslands.

So 15 points for a 20mm vehicle and 30 for finishing the Sand Dunes makes for 45 points.

Cheers Sander on behalf of Arthur


Purple is my favourite colour too (after black of course), so Arthur is in good company. That's a great little banger for Gaslands!

TamsinP

From MartinC - Kujumashi Villages and Curtgeld in a Balloon 160pts

During the horrors of my 1st day's minioning, 20 posts and a million points from Miles, I managed to complete some of my Kujumashi villagers, by Perry. These will act as adventurers, develop and progress and generally become collateral damage to better armed guys, random beast and even Japanese mythical beasts, both good and bad

The towns women

The farmers

The travellers, including a pipe player with a cage on his head - will have to find out what that means. That is 20 figures and enough women to get frequent flyer miles in  a balloon. Which will take me to O'Grady's Gulch

Finally for this post my Curtgeld.

This wandering Samurai is called Sunorodo (Snowlord) and he wanders the frozen north in a quest to find his true master

So that is 21 figures = 105pts

plus a balloon ride = 30

plus Curtgeld = 25

total 160pts

Wow! That is a lot of lovely painting that you got done during your minioning marathon yesterday. Sunorodo looks like a spiffing addition to anyone's collection. Of course, with so many of the menfolk away fighting in the war, you should really have more female villagers - I believe that Annie at Bad Squiddo Games has an excellent range...

Your only error in judgement is to submit all of the womenfolk together - as I understand it, it is one balloon ride per submission, not one per figure submitted. Even more reason to buy some more female Japanese villagers.

160 points it is to add to your already impressive tally for the first two weeks.

TamsinP

From StuartL - Challenge Island Safari Journal - 3rd Jan. (76 points)

Greetings fellow C.I.S.T.ers and other Challenge Island visitors.

Well, it seems like the tour suffered from a slight delay, but we are off on our safari of the island! For our first stop, we're heading out from Docherty's Dock to visit Cooke's Crevase. The area around Cooke's Crevase is famous for it's unique geological conditions. Scientists and researchers from around the world visit the area to see the numerous rock formations which are unique to this area of the island. In fact recently a group of anthropologists headed out to the point we are visiting. They thought that they had found evidence that the standing stones were actually a point of worship for some as of yet unknown tribe of large, bipedal carnivores. Fascinating stuff eh? Strangely the anthropologists never returned, it looks like they all left their campsite in a hurry, leaving only some torn up clothing and the remains of a large barbecue. Needless to say they won't be getting their deposit back. Challenge Island Safari rules state that all campsites must be left clean and tidy when you leave, even if you are a scientist and just got wind of some new cultural discovery.
Anyway, here we are at the rock formation. Please tie up your camels nearby and feel free to walk around and take some pictures.

As you can see, the rocks are a naturally occurring formation, with some noticeab... wait, can you hear something? It sounds like guttural laughter and the tromp of heavy feet. Quick, into the bushes over there.

Oh my, it looks like the anthropologists were correct, this is a site of worship. Those ogres don't look very friendly, stay quiet everyone. It looks like they are more interested in the rock formation.

It seems that they are between us and the main road. We may need to take a short detour. Everyone follow me and we'll see if we can get on with our tour and.... NO! Don't take a photo you idiot! Great, now they've seen us. Run!!!

------------------

Since the challenge started, I have had a hard time gaining any traction with my painting. Work, family and friends have all done their best to ensure that my hobby time has been pretty minimal. That all seems to be over and done with for now and I have a few more entries lined up and underway. Fingers crossed I'll have more for you over the weekend.
The Ogres are from GW's plastic range and are painted with a mix of Vallejo and Citadel colours. The skin was done with one of the new GW Contrast paints and it has left the models with very dark patches on their skin. I'm not sure if I will go back over them with usual paints, but I haven't quite got the Contrast stuff down yet. More practice is needed I think. I'm not a big fan of Age of Sigmar, so I figure I'll use the Ogres for Dragon Rampant.
The rocks are bits of cork bark sawed flat and glued down to a base. I built them for the last challenge, but ran out of time before I could get them done. Luckily this year's challenge has given me a good reason to get them finished off. I plan on using them for Dragon Rampant or maybe Saga depending on the scenario.

The rocks are about 6" across, 4" deep and about 2" high, but I realise that there is a fair amount of open space between them. At most they should score me 4 points, plus 30 for the location. The ogres are closer to 40mm minis than 28mm, so for 6 of them I estimate the total at 42 points.

So... 4 plus 30 plus 42 should add 76 points to my tally.

Aha! So that is where Martin is getting all those rocks for you to bang together on Thursdays! Nice work on the standing stones and on the worshipers. I agree on the points - 76 is being added to your tally.

TamsinP

From BenitoM: Roman Landing Party at Sander's Sand Dunes (70 points)

This entry marks my landing at Challenge Island. I have sent a party of ferocious and motivated Early Imperial Auxilia as exploratores towards Sander's Sand Dunes... hopefully it will be veni, vidi, vinci allover until the final domination of this mysterious island.

 

The condition to score is something RED, and red are the tunics of my unit. Incidentally this totally historical: when researching the Early Imperial Romans, the general consensus among the historians is that Legionaries tunics may have been red and white mainly; blue was only wore for marines and no way green (sorry, Asterix fans). For those interested, Legions of Rome by Stephen Dando Collins I found particularly useful as a source to research Romans (...and a bargain at US$4.99 in electronic edition).

Auxilia wore chain mail and oblong flat shield, instead of the well-known lorica segmentata and rectangular curved shield of the mainstream legionaries in the Early Imperial era. 

This unit is the first of my Auxilia Cohors Peditata for the incoming (April 2020?)  Infamy! Infamy! rules by TooFatLardies. Each unit is made of 8 models and 4 units conform a "formation", led by a Centurio and an Optio.

 

The models here presented are the Victrix Early Imperial Roman Auxilia plastic. Although they need a little bit of assembly and gluing (something bothering to some people), the superb sculpting and the variation provided (see photo of the sprue) I really believe offset any inconvenience. The poses chosen are attacking with the gladius, the next units will feature javelins and pilums.

I have based individually in 20 x 20 mm squares and then use a movement tray adapted to the rules. The idea is that if we use some other set of rules, avoid rebasing (the wargamer's curse) and instead acquire other suitable movement tray. Bases and movement ray are from Warbases.

In these models I'm also using for the first time the Scale Color metals ranges, both for the chain mail and the helmet. Scale Color are absolutely superior to the Vallejo's mainstream metals (which will probably end in the dustbin). I can't recommend more this range, stunning finish. Now, the only problem is that you can't varnish the model, otherwise the "wow!-effect" is lost. 

Finally, for the shileds I use the Little Big Men Studios transfers created specifically for the Victrix Auxilia (also used for the Roman Cavalry) 

As noted in a previous post, these are very tall figures, close to 30mm rather than 25/28mm and don't mix well with other manufacturers ranges, specially Wargames Foundry. Having said that, we have been testing the rules opposing Warlord/Victrix Romans with Foundry's Celts/Gauls and I can assure that nobody really notices once on the table.

With this entry I will add 70 points to my challenge:

8 models (28 mm)  @ 5 points: 40 points

Sander's Sand Dunes: 30 points

With the beach head secured, now it's time to move inland. Next stop at Millsy's Millpond.

"They've all got in in for me!" That's a lovely octet of Roman auxiliaries, Benito.  And just enough red to qualify for this island location.
I can't fault your maths - 70 points it is!

TamsinP

From AdamC: O'Grady's Gulch Warmonger Halbardiers (61 Points)

These are 10mm Landsknechte Halbardiers from Warmonger Miniatures a local company here in Massachusetts that I have shown before here in previous challengers.  I kept this set simple Blue tunic with red highlights.

The pants are done in red with yellow Highlights and yellow feathers.  I've had these for a while but they now have a cause worthy of them.  These boys are heading over to the UK to join the Army of Light as Part of James' project to memorialise his son.  There aren't enough here for an army but they'll be a fine addition to some army or other and I hope James will accept this small contribution.

I got as close as I could to James' basing requirements from what I had at home.  I had to glue two bases together to get the frontage.  I've used white glue so James should have no problem re-basing them. 10mm miniatures are 1 point per man for 30 points and another 30 points for the miniatures painted for a friend so 60 Points in total.


Oooh! Those do look rather spiffing in their primary colours. And all for a great project (note to self - need to paint my contribution at some point).
The only fault I can find with your scoring for these is that you forgot to add a point for the hand-painted flag, so that brings your total for this entry to 61 points!

TamsinP

Tamsin's Friday Flights of Fancy

"Good morning ladies and gentlem...(crackle, mumble, crackle)...What's that, Captain Campbell?...(mumble, crackle, mumble)...I'm the only female on this flight?...(crackle, mumble, crackle)...OK, so it's another sausage fest - anyone would think you were Wil Wheaton! Well, in that case, when my shift is over I'll be shimmying over the rope to join Lady S in her balloon's cocktail lounge to quaff champagne and binge watch 80s Brat Pack movies."


"Let's start again. Good morning gentlemen...oh, and Ray. For those who haven't met me before, I am your Senior Flight Attendant, TamsinP. Thank you for choosing to fly flight AHPC-X from Challenge, Blogland. We are currently cruising at 8,181 points towards our 62,358 point target altitude."

"So far 43 of our expected 68 passengers and crew have boarded. Hopefully the other 25 will be joining us very shortly."

"Let me introduce you to your flight crew. Captain Campbell is our pilot at the helm and (alleges that he) knows where we're going."

"Dave is our flight nurse and will be dispensing your medications every Wednesday."

"Martin is our rookie attendant - he did a marvelous job yesterday on his first duty shift; he will be handing out rocks for you to bang together every Thursday."

"Byron will be looking after you tomorrow, if he can be dragged away from watching the Northern Lights (hey, Byron, was that plug for your company subtle enough?)."

"On Sunday, Miles will be on duty. He is our flight's mathemagician - please do not attempt to use the rear left toilet; it has been converted for his spreadsheet rituals and the blood from his sacrificial virgins can be very sticky and we DO NOT want it tracked through the cabin. He has assured me that the rumours of Warhammer stores in Maryland missing customers are entirely unconnected to his practices."

"Greg is your flight attendant on Monday. I understand that he will be handing out musical instruments and attempting to form an orchestra from you guys. But that might just be a "Bluff" to throw us off the scent of what he really has planned for you."

"Finally, on Tuesday you will be looked after by Paul O'Gulch. He has a huge supply of wax crayons for you to eat, stick in your ears, noses and I dread to think which other orifices."

"Today's entertainments seem to be rather light right now. Benito is doing something infamous; Adam has some little men with pointy choppers; Stuart has a collection of safari photos and Martin is going all Edo (Ergo Sum?) on us. I'm sure that more passengers will be offering up contributions as the day progresses, but that's all there is for now."

Toodle-pip!

Tamsin