From BillA - Spaceport Security Detail (25 points)

2020 is honestly shaping up to be my year for wargaming, at least on the skirmish front.  My friend Tom and I have been enjoying the heck out of the Fistful of Lead family of games from Wiley Games; originally designed around western gunfights, it's evolved into a family of skirmish games in a variety of genres.  Lately, we've been playing a lot of "Galactic Heroes," the science fiction variant, and demoing it at our friendly local game store.  We've gotten a couple of other people hooked, and had some very interested bystanders, so we're definitely looking at expanding our demonstrations, so I've been trying to get a bunch of "lender" crews together for people who'd like to try the game out.

This crew comprises a portion of the bureaucracy and security of a busy spaceport.  Leading this crew is Customs Agent Gilda Citlax, an overworked amphibian produced by Crooked Dice Games as part of their recent "Colony 87" Kickstarter.  I wanted some really bright colors for her to contrast with the more muted tones of her crew, and Vallejo's "Hot Orange" really hit the right note as the base for her skin.

Supporting Agent Citlax is this Impound Officer, a "Krogglogg Hunter" produced by Lead Adventure Miniatures as part of their "Astropolis" line of dystopian science fiction figures.  He's there to shoot out the power couplings on spaceships that have unpaid parking tickets.

Rounding out the crew are a trio of Security Officers (an-add on from Crooked Dice's Colony 87 Kickstarter).  In game terms, these are "Regulars," low quality troops that form the basis of any crew.  I tried painting urban camouflage for the first time on these fellows and think it turned out really nicely.

"No...no...damn you, look where I'm pointing, not at my finger.  

All in all, that's five 28mm figures at 5 points apiece, so this crew is worth 25 point.

Cool looking figures, Bill, and this post makes 10 submissions that I've had the pleasure of minioning today.

Tamsin

From TamsinP: A Request To Passengers - Post Formatting

"Good evening gentlemen (and Ray). This is your Senior Flight Attendant here with a request for when you submit your entertainments.  Please can you ensure that you:

1) include your name (as per the points table) in the post title
2) include a summary of what has been submitted (how many foot, mounted etc, what scale) at the end of your post and also note any bonuses that you think you are due
3) fill out the "Labels" - name, scale, island location, period/game, manufacturer etc"

"Please can you also format your pictures so that they are "large" and centred with a blank line between photos and text. Please also remember that the maximum size in any direction (height or width) should be 1000 pixels."

"If you can remember to do these things, it would be a great help to your hard-pressed flight crew and will save us a lot of unnecessary faffing around."

"Thank you once again for choosing to fly Snowlord Airways."

KenR: 3 x 28mm Honey Tanks (63 pts)

I made it this week with my personal quota of Tanks, but it was a close run thing. Followers of Yarkshire Gamer will have seen another outbreak of the dreaded Blitzkrieg Paint Flake Disease. The batch of primed tanks which I thought was ok are not, casualty rate is now up to over 70%, I have purchased both rubbing alcohol and Plastic Primer in retaliation, watch this space.

So here we have 3 x 28mm M3 Stuart Tanks (known as Honeys by the British) from Blitzkrieg Miniatures with a tank commander from the Perrys Rolls Royce Armoured Car which I had hanging around.

Painted in the Caunter Camouflage Scheme with decals from a number of sources and a spot of weathering, standard stuff on my vehicles.

If you look closely at the photo above you can see some remnants of the flaking on the front armour, there are also patches of bubbling and some patches of over painting, a real chore to sort out. You may also notice a slight shimmer on the tank, this is a result of a rather thick coat of Matt Varnish which I pray will keep the paint in place.

Points wise, 3 x 20 for the tanks plus half points for the Commander for a total of 63 points.

The Commander figure is wearing the British Side Cap in the colours of who else but the Yorkshire Hussars !

Not much time left this week for me to get some more done on my Landsknechts as I'm back to work and the tanks tomorrow.


Those Stuarts are real Honeys (D'ya see what I did there? D'ya see? OK, it would have been better if you hadn't referred to them as "Honey" yourself, but a girl's got to try to have some fun) and you've done a great job with the caunter scheme. There's more of that commander sticking out than with Pete's Pz Iv (the post before this) so it does deserve 3 points for him.

Tamsin

From PeteF: Heer Comes The Boom - Panzer IV (22 points)

This is the second Blitzkreig vehicle for Operation Sealion - a German Grey Panzer IV.

This is part of Warlord Games Blitzkreig Germans box - the tank had a resin body and turret with various metal bits to stick on. The resin tracks were a little warped and needed some coaxing to fit into the assembly. I thought the tank commander had an eye problem until I figured out he was wearing a monocle. His folded arm pose makes him look like he's wearing a straight jacket - although I like his being shouty.

The resin was easy to drill for magnets so that the turret can freely rotate, and yet stay put, if the rules call for it pointing in the direction it fires.

I'm not sure I love the freehanded numbers - an airbrush and tiny stencil will be in my future if I end up doing more Bolt Action and/or Chain of Command - these ones might get painted over if the tank is transferred to a new theatre. I attempted a little bit of weathering and chipping - enough for the table top.

It feels good to be getting so close to completing everything that came in the box.  I think the top half of a 28mm figure might be worth 2 points so 22 points for the tank and commander? Now onto some island exploration - something rocky I think.

Cor, blimey, guv'nor, that's a gorgeous little tank! That's got to be worth, let's see, 22 points with the (just about showing) commander.

Tamsin

Adam's Challenge on Snow Lord's Peak

Adam wearily brushes off the dust from his hands and knees as he crests the summit. 'Cripes, what a haul! This is way harder than scaling packing material covered in gravel, Who knew?!'

The Snow Lord greets Adam and says, 'Let me guess, you're here with that hobby-nerd tour group?'

'Yup. Now give me the goods, you blue skinned weirdo.'

'Not so hasty,' the creature growls, 'I'll be wanting something in exchange'.

________________________________________________________

The Snow Lord looks into Adam's past and discovers he is a member of an AWI re-enactment group, the Regiment Saintonge ('...and he calls me a weirdo...'), and so asks Adam to submit an entry illustrating that unit.

Once this challenge is complete Adam can claim his prize:

TomG's 'The Naga'

'Wait!' Adam calls out, 'I want to paint a Land Rover instead.'

The Snow Lord scowls, 'Funny guy...'

_______________________________________________________

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with, Adam!

Kate Winthrop 'The Scientist' - For Sarah's Balloon to Piper's Peak (5 Points)

Continuing on my riff of heroines from 'Mansions of Madness' I present to you Kate Winthrop, 'The Scientist'.

In the game's background, Kate witnessed one of her fellow scientists being ripped apart by a strange being from anther dimension. From that horrific experience she was determined to create a device to combat these terrible creatures - thus the 'Flux Stabilizer' was born. In game terms, this allows her to disrupt the placement and movement of monsters on the board, which can come in very, very handy.

This being said, Kate's a bit of a hot-n-cold character. In monster-heavy scenarios her Flux Stabilizer can be an absolute game winner, but if the setting is more investigative then her special ability will not be as on-point and she may struggle a bit.  

A somewhat rough and quick paintjob, I found the figure for Kate to be a little soft in detail, so I tried to amp it up by layering in some high contrast on her lab coat and giving her a touch of vibrant blue as a counterpoint. 

_______________________________________

I believe Sarah has a frequent flyer program for her balloon service, but further clarification is needed. I hope to get enough flights logged to get Gold Passenger Status - that way I can hang out in the posh flight lounge, drink umbrella drinks while getting foot massages. Until then Kate will give me 5 points. 

Next destination for me: Piper's Peak!


Nothing beats a smart woman on a Friday afternoon and what a delightful figure to see you on your way to my island location. 

Tamsin

From TomG - Wild West Exodus Golden Army (40 points)

Welcome back everyone to another selection of random figures I've had lying around unpainted for too long, this time we have the Golden Army crew set, from the game Wild West Exodus, made up of 4 Conquistador style miniatures led by a Matriarch with a Holy Hand Grenade.

These guys ride mechanical horses, called Blackhoofs, in to battle, however I didn't actually want them to be black owing to the faction being called the Golden Army. Although initially a struggled to like these figures, the final family photo isn't all that bad, even if I do say so myself. 

I don't get to play this game much due to a real slump in interest locally, but I still love the theme to the figures, a sort of twisted wild west /steam punk feel, but still having enough variety to get character in to the armies. 

Well here we go, some individual photos of the four models making the force, I hope you like them. 

The quantity of metallic shades was a struggle to paint, but once I got my drybrush out, and I relaxed a bit, I sailed through them. The bases were kept very simple as they will be playing pieces first and foremost, and I wanted them to fit the wild west theme in my head and the gaming board. 

Take care, and I'll see you soon with another dive in to my array of unfinished starter sets haha! 

Scoring - 

4x mounted 32mm (counting them as 28mm) = 40pts


Those mechanical horses look fab and fun - great painting on them and their riders! 40 points coming your way!

Tamsin

From TeemuL: Getting to the Squirrel Island (63 points)

Once upon a time in this historically accurate, scientific-fictional oriented pulp world with a hint of fantasy spice was an island, Squirrel Island, or Challenge Island, as it was better known.

A group was heading for that Island, they had been on their way for many weeks now. We don't know yet who they really are and we don't have a complete story, only fractions of discussions and so on...

"What, Border Patrol wants something in order to grant as land? No gold, jewels or anything valuable is accepted?"

"Give them the useless priestess, she has been with us for weeks without no use!"

"Land ahead!"

"This is no island, this is a bloody Atol!!¤#"&¤"

"You say now, that the useless priestess could have landed as anywhere on the island and instead we got into this hostile looking atoll?"

"We can only get as far as to a some Reef now? that's not a proper landing site for us!"

"I guess we go there, then..."

"Let's rest a while, make a camp next to that broken whatever next to those spiky plants."

So, this post marks not only the participation fee, but my landing on the Challenge island. The fee can be seen above, a Mithril Miniatures Wose Priestess, MM249. She has rather simple paint job and the washes are still glowing in the pictures, I need to doublecheck them later and make any corrections if needed. It is glued on 25mm MDF base with same sand and tufts glued on.

I believe she can be used in various purposes, MESBG as one option and other fantasy themed games of course as well. She is a true scale model, still available on Mithril webstore, if someone likes to get one. And of course this one goes to someone as well, if you like her, feel free to make comment and I will let the Snowlord know. (I know I could have used that for Sarah's balloon ride, but I really liked to land on the Atoll, since building stuff on CDs is great fun.)

After the fee business, it is time to make the landing, I'm going to the Awdry's Atoll with this piece of scenery on an old cd. There's an odd piece of packing material looking like a part of sewer, some venerable styrofoam ball cactuses with dangerous spikes and general rubble. Some parts from my bitz box as well, mostly WH40K parts, but the vegetation implies to a ruined area, which has seen some action, but not recently. We'll see where I'll use it.

There's also a bit of mdf building frame on the ground, two sorts of sand, old paintbrush brush cover as pipe and dried white glue "ring" taken from the bottle. Yes, you can use everything...

The last picture shows one model (painted for Challenge IX) in the terrain, so yes, it is a working piece.

Terrain piece is about 2 inch high and given the size of a normal CD, the volume should then be about 35 cubic inches. That's about one sixth of the terrain cube, which would mean about 3 points... Doesn't sound much, so may be I have made an error somewhere...

1 25mm miniature - 5 points
Participation fee bonus - 20 points
Terrain - 3 points
Challenge Island location - 30 points


That's some interesting terrain and a cool priestess, Teemu. There's a slight miscalculation in your scoring though - the 25 points for the Curtgeld is being scored in addition to the figure, so that gives you 63 points for this entry.

Tamsin

From Barks: 15mm WW1 artillery crews (62 points)

I painted one of these guns and crews in 2016 for AHPC VII, my first Challenge. I painted the guns in 2017. For Hawkins' Hill, I've pulled my finger out and painted the remaining crew. Silver Whistle convinced me to go 40mm round bases.

16x 15mm +32 (just the crew, not the tubes)
Hawkins' Hill +30

So this leaves me with five locations complete, and I'm bracing myself for an attempt on the northeast face of Snowlord's Peak.

PS: FYI there are no apostrophes in Australian placenames.


Those gun crews look spiffing. Five locations done? I'll pass you over to the tender ministrations of Curt for your next Island challenge.

Tamsin

From MikeF - Entry Fee and Prize - Ork Deffkopta (50 points)

The entry fee for the painting challenge this year is to paint a prize for winners of Challenge Island. I used the opportunity to paint a model from my collection that I always wanted to paint, but always seemed to get pushed further down the painting queue. I purchased the model from Puppets War several years ago and I believe it represents an ork deffkopta. It’s very orky and completely bonkers. It’s literally a jet engine with wings and the pilot is sitting on the combustion chamber. That would normally be a problem if it weren’t for the fact that there is no fuel tank! This lends credit to the idea that ork technology only works because they believe is does. Hopefully it can be a nice addition for someone who is more motivated at painting an ork army than I am.

By the Snowlord, that's a bonkers contraption. Nice battering of the paintjob too! You forgot to sum up the points so I'll do it for you:

28mm crew figure - 5 points

28mm vehicle - 20 points

Curtgeld bonus - 25 points

Total - 50 points

Tamsin

From MartinN: Millsy's Millpond - Jackboots and Coal Scuttle Helmet (90 points)

At long last another entry in my challenge log. Since before Christmas Eve I'm plagued by a nasty cold that, while having eased off in between just enough to get in a game with mate ChrisS and meet up with some friends, is restricting my painting output severely. Sneezing and coughing all over half painted miniatures all the time isn't exactly my idea of fun, so progress is slow to say the least.

Whining aside, I've actually managed to paint up my Submission for the "Millsy's Millpond" location on Challenge Island.

With eleven men this squad of jackbooted German Landser is maybe a little on the big side, but an extra rifle man could well come in handy here or there. The figures are from the Wargames Foundry small but excellent range of WW2 Germans sculpted by the Perry twins back in the day.

I'm not exactly sure when the were first released but am rather confident that it must have been well before the change of the millenium. If they also qualify for the pre-1990's bonus? Frankly I don't know. So if one of my fellow challengers has some idea as to their release date I'd be keen to know.

While a tad on the small side when compared with more recent castings I'll happily mix these with the current Warlord Plastics which make up the bulk of my Early War German force. In my humble opinion the sculpts have aged well and the figures were a joy to paint.
As for a background story, well, there's not much to be said. The riflemen were part of a deal for some British Paras I made a while ago while LMG and NCO were purchased recently during the Foundry Christmas sale.

So if my math is correct these fine fellows should net me:
- 55 points for eleven infantry type figures
- 30 points for the completion of the hobby task
- plus whatever our esteemed minion of the day judges hand painted insignia to be worth


Those Heer troopers look simply spiffing Nick. Handpainted helmet insignia? My word! That deserves some bonus points, so I'll round you up to 90 points.

Tamsin

From DaveD: 10mm ACW - Bluebelly Artillery - 164 points

I am following my winter painting plan, so its a move up a scale to 10mm. This time a top up for my ACW collection. This is the 3rd year of adding to this one and its starting to build up nicely . All figures are by my local company Pendraken.

My Union artillery has been heavily re-inforced. 9 guns and crew , each of them with a limber or caisson team to provide the mobility. One of the things I like about the 10mm is the economic viability of providing these bits - so infrequently seen in larger scales.



There are a mix of 6 and 4 horse teams



Boom, boom , boom !



these have has thin coat of satin varnish as I like to brighten them up - and it does help the colour pop.

Totals :-
27 gun crew . (27 pts) , 24 unridden horses (24 points)
9 guns . (18 pts)
9 vehicles - limbers/caissons (27 pts)
24 mounted figures (48 points)
20 crew on limbers/caisson (10 points)

total 154 points .

Right off to do some accompanying infantry.


The satin coat really does make them pop! Nice bluebelly gun teams there - difficult to believe they're 10mm scale. I've decided to score the crew on the limbers and caissons as full figures, just because I can!

Tamsin