From: SanderS - The Lord Cypher for Burch's Bluff (40 points)

Hoi,

The journey inland continues as I try to find my way to Burch's Bluff. This was a poser to me as I know next to nothing about 30K, nor am I particularly interested in said period. But perhaps as I am a Dark Angels player that's only understandable...

Well to get to the point: I was fearing I'd have to go and buy some stuff to get this locale on the map. Until my eye fell on a little guy standing based, coated and ready for paint on my table: The Lord Cypher. If any Dark Angels related character is 30K then surely he must be!?

So when I was at school my eye fell on the showcase in my classroom, in there are quite a lot of miniatures: Hannibal's Army in 1:72 as well as 1914 Germans and Old Contemptibles and a series of Space Marines of several chapters I have painted up years ago. Among them was a Space Marine in really old armour which I think could be Crusade armour worn in the days of 30K so he was quickly given a new coat of paint to resemble a Fallen Angel to accompany Cypher.

These chaps are now awaiting entry in one of the skirmish (Inquisimunda/ Kill team?) games in the future in my cabinet. But whether they're really 30K is up to the Powers that Be to decide. If so, these two chaps should net me a nice 40 points in all with two 28mm figures at 10 and the bonus for Burch's Bluff at 30 points.

Cheers Sander
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By Paul
Lovely old GW sculpts and that Crusader Marine is the bomb - I love those old models, they just drip character.  Naturally these figures count as 30k themed too! 

Thus, you have conquered Birch's Bluff with 2 figures for a total of 40 point - nice work Sander!

From PeteF: Treeherder and Unicorn for Forces of Nature Army (25 points)

To celebrate the newly published 3rd edition, my local Kings of War friends are doing an escalation league, allowing each of us to slowly build a full sized army. I am using it as an opportunity to add to my bare bones Forces of Nature army and try out some new units.

The tree herder is from a box of fantasy stuff that I bought at a wargaming convention bring and buy last year. I don't know who the manufacturer is/was. He is 4" tall and made of metal. This made him quite hard to paint - I don't wear gloves for painting and the acrylic had a tendency to rub off with even a small amount of handling. There's also a lot of stuff on the base and on the model. I don't love the sculpt or my paint job and may end up doing some more work on him (maybe changing some of the colours - it's one of the hardest things with fantasy figures since I'm used to uniforms). Initially I tried to paint him with all contrasts but it did not look right so he ended up with various green/brown/grey layers. At least he is now table ready for our game this Sunday.

Hard to Photograph!

The unicorn is from Wizkids Deep Cuts/Pathfinder Battles range. These plastic models come primed - normally with some minor but unfortunate mold lines. It is quite a bit bigger than a 28mm horse - about the size of a 40mm equine. I quite like the Wizkids line for filling in gaps in the Kings of War army. They are nice sculpts and affordable at 5 bucks for a blister pack. She is painted with Contrast Apothecary White layered and highlighted with white and drybrushed with silver.

The last 4" high monster I submitted was scored as a 28mm for 20 points. The unicorn is probably worth 5-7 points. I'll leave it to the minion of the day to decide the final number.

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By Paul:

Great start to your escalation League project Pete!  Good luck with it

I particularly like the way you have done the Unicorn - she looks very clean and pure

I've scored the Treeherder as a vehicle so that is 25 points in total

From SanderS - Aeronautica (20 points)

Hoi There,

Let me start with apologising to you Challengers: life has turned me a nasty trick as I have been absent for over two weeks due to correcting tests (I am a teacher) and other real-life related stuff. Therefore I have been unable to reply to new posts, and boy have you guys been busy! There's some truly great stuff added to the Challenge pages recently which is all a joy to behold.

During the last two or three days I have been trying to paint some figures to enter here. The first entry is my 28mm Avenger Strike fighter. This is not an original model it's a 3d print. You can get the files on Thingiverse and I had it printed at school.

Choosing the right colourscheme proved to be the biggest challenge (apart from the rear-heavy stubber barrel breaking off and me not having a replacement) since I couldn't choose.  The problem was I wanted to use them with my Sisters of Battle army (it's in the unofficial codex now replaced with the new official one) and I had seen great schemes in Inquisition colours of red and black. Yet I wanted to be able to use it as a regular Navy craft as well.

In the end I decided to give it a yellow-sand colour with Inquisition band markings along the tail and wing-tips. This should imply it's inducted to serve the Imperial Inquisition. It's a big and hefty piece not being resin and all but I really like it!

Cheers Sander
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By Paul:
Death from Above indeed!  Looks great Sander.  

I like the colours - coupled with the WW2-esque design I find it reminiscent of early WW2 Luftwaffe aircraft over North Africa. Cool!

20 points well earned

From TomM: Space Pikachu (7pts)

Inspiration can come from the strangest of places, and for this (unplanned) entry it came from... a meme.

While I like The Mandalorian (offering a lot of redemption to the franchise after the recent three movies), and Noshi is going constantly like "ooh", "aaaah" and "it's so adoooorable" when Baby Yoda comes into view, that wasn`t the reason for this entry.

It was this meme...

I laughed so hard at the nickname of Space Pikachu, I just needed to print one for a stander by in Star Wars Legion.  A game I`m not actually playing (yet), haven`t bought models for (yet), let alone painted up something for (yet).

Except then this little guy...

The model was printed on my Ender 3, but the ears where to wide and thin on the STL to come out decently without breaking during clean-up.  So to that end, I sculpted some new ones on him using greenstuff.

Now to explain to Noshi you can`t actually PLAY him in the game (again, yet, I guess FFG is going to jump on the hype wagon soon)...

And that adds a 5 points to the tally for a 28mm scale model... and the start of journey to a galaxy far, far away...

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By Paul:
Inspiration does flow from many weird and wonderful places - but few people then move to printing and building their own model from greenstuff.  Very impressive Tom!

Take your 5 points and add another 2 for your ingenuity!

From MikeW: US Mexican War - Indiana Volunteers (75 Points)

I had these figures at the back of my workbench since this time last year, so I thought it was time to paint them up and press them into service!

Undercoated & Based figures.

They will fit in with the rest of my US-Mexican / Texas-Mexican Wars collection, these guys are US Army figures, from Old Glory - I believe - and I have opted to paint them up as Indiana Volunteers, who were kitted out by their state in pretty much regulation US Army uniforms of sky blue trousers and shell jacket, dark blue cap and white belts and straps etc.

Finished Volunteer Company of 15 figures.

The figures were undercoated in white and then painted all over in sky blue - I used Vallejo paint as this is form an old set of ACW colours that I have and I assumed that the colour would not be too off for the earlier period.

Another view

I have done the officer and NCO / Standard Bearer in a dark Blue Shell Jacket, really just to make them different and this kit was available during the period. Also - to break-up the uniform feel of the unit - I added a couple pairs of White, grey and brown trousers into the mix.

Close-up of Officer and flag.

Once completed, I painted the figures with Army Painter Dark Tone to add shading and once dried, I worked on the bases, which I left based with sand and added a few 'dried grass' tufts of grass, to give an impression of the Mexican landscape.

The flag was taken from an online image of a flag presented to the 33rd Indiana Volunteers in the Civil War. Obviously not very accurate for the US Mexican War - but I will need to do some more research to get the right flag in place here. The flag is removable - so will not go to waste.

Another close-up showing basing finish with dried grasses

I base these figures individually on round bases and on the tabletop these 15 guys will represent a fairly strong company of 12 Other Ranks, an officer, standard bearer and drummer.

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By Paul
Good job Mike - 15 figs is 75 points

From TeemuL: Chaos Space Marines (35 points)

Like I mentioned earlier, I'm participating (and partly organizing) a Kill Team Campaign. I painted some Primarii as backup, but my real intention is to play using these renegade Chaos Space Marines from Magma Hounds chapter. It is a real chapter, mentioned in the official fluff, they are renegades for no particular god of chaos and they look good in their purple and gold. So an easy choice, once I found them. I didn't pay too much attention to the sources, so I might have misunderstood or forgotten something. Take a look by yourself: https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Magma_Hounds

These are all metal Chaos Space Marines from the past with plastic arms, backpacks etc. I didn't have enough points for 100 point team, so I had to take four Chaos Cultists for my first game with them yesterday. Newly painted model syndrome looked rather bad, when I asked some gifts for my zealot at the beginning in the first round - he was called to her gods immediately. Shortly after one of by Chaos Cultists got a flesh wound, but after that it went perfect. I shot and beat 3 Primarii to death, 1 shaken and 1 prisoner. No additional damage to my team, so I won.

 

The paint job is my usual little bit of everything. There's some traditional paints, mainly the purple. Metal paint for the gold trims. Contrast paints for the guns and claws (chainswords in our game). Drybrushing the claws. Purple wash over purple and gold. Free hand chapter icons (black dog skull on fire, but the fire is not showing very well against golden background).

One not-that-bad chapter symbol

I took one photo from different angle, or I thought I did. But it was accidentally a video, and thus no good for the blog. But I hope these will satisfy you.

Pointswise, that's 6 about 28mm models, so total of 30 points. They are old, so rather small compared to the current range, but in a heroic way they are much bigger that 28mm usually are, so might be worth and extra point here and there.

P.S. In case you missed a comment from Barks on my last entry, Chestbridge's head is never explained in the Danger 5 show...

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By Paul:  I'm playing a bit of Kill Team myself and your CSM are doing way better than mine - I am getting very used to ignominious defeat...

Classic old school Chaos Marines you've done proud Teemu. Good to see these golden oldies getting onto the table to promote their Dark Powers! 

From the Warp you are blessed with 30 points for the figs, plus 5 bonus points for hand painted chapter icons and old school model coolness.

From MikeW - 17th Century French Dragoons (40 Points)

For this post I have also dug into the recesses of my workbench and pulled out 8 x Front Rank Late 17th Century French Dismounted Dragoons.

Raw figures awaiting painting

I had these waiting to be painted so opted to do these as members of the La Bretesche Regiment that was raised in 1675 by Joussaume the Marquis de La Breesche.

As can be seen - I need to find some Command figures for this Regiment - ideally an Officer, Standard Bearer and a Drummer, as well as another Dragoon, so I can expand the unit to 2 x Squadrons each of 6 figures. Then I'll need to get the mounted version - but I'll cross that bridge later!

Finished Dismounted Dragoons

The figures are straight forward to paint, a white undercoat followed by the yellow hats, breaches, fs and coat linings, followed by red coats.

I base Dragoons in 'Half-Stands' to allow for a
Skirmish line to be created if required

Details were added including white shirts and neckties, dark brown boots and scabbards, muskets and metal work etc.

A bit more of a close-up

Again I used Army Painter Dark Tone dip to add shading and when dry I based and varnished.

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By Paul:
Nice work Mike - that period really was the rise of mounted infantry, as seen during the 30YW and the ECW. I'm sure these lads will provide stirling service, just keep their horses handy for a quick getaway!  40 points

From Curt: al-Docherty and al-Millsy's Flying(!) Camel Artillery - for 'Docherty's Dock' (55 Points)

Mu'tamid al-Millsy steps back and grimaces in expectation of the coming catastrophe.' I don't know brother, this seems to be a very bad idea...'

'I think it's brilliant.' Dawood al-Docherty reaches forward with his lit linstock. 'If the thrice-damned French can have flying horse artillery then why can't we have the same, but with camels?!'

'Yes, I understand, but I'm just concerned about the 'flying' part...'

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These figures were from a Westfalia Miniatures Kickstarter for Napoleonic Persians, way back when they were still doing Napoleonics (sniffs in pained remembrance). Wonderful Paul Hicks sculpts. They were an absolute pleasure to work on and I hope they get a smile from Dave and Millsy. Thanks Dave for the location challenge, it was great fun!

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Guest minion Byron checking in today to get a submission in for the Snowlord.

What lovely figures here Curt, and while your painting is top shelf as usual, what really gets me is the colour choices and usage.  I am horrible at picking colours and figuring out what goes with what.  I would not think to match some of the colours you used together, but they took great on the figures.  They look like something you would see in real life.  Great work!

I also look at this and think, hmmm I really hate painting cavalry, how much would I hate painting a camel?  After are they are just bigger, smellier horses that spit at you, right?

As for the flying camel artillery... I think something was lost in translation on these two fellas!  But then again given who they are, does that surprise anyone???

Regardless, great little diorama style piece.

- ByronM

From ByronM: Snow Lord's Peak Challenge: Kingdom Death Sunstalker (50 Points)

Well, the challenge was set by the Snowlord himself, to paint a Kingdom Death (KD) monster as a tribute submission.  I needed to get one ready for a pending game of KD anyway as we are nearing the end of a "People of the Sun" campaign and the fight with the Sunstalker is looming near!

I was also looking for an excuse to work with some new toys I got for the challenge and that I had not broken out yet, as everything I have been painting was for tabletop quality, not character or show quality.  So, overall a great challenge event as it filled two things I wanted to do anyway.

The official artwork and colours for the Sunstalker

First up the Sunstalker, in all his disgusting kingdom death obscenity and strangeness.  I really wanted to keep him similar to the official artwork as I have pretty much done my own thing with most of the monsters, so trying to match an existing scheme would be a different king of challenge, and one I think I came pretty close on.

My interpretation in paint of the artwork, I think it's pretty close.

"Once sky had no day. There was a Shadow that was sad, it could only play in the small light of a lantern. The Shadow found a hole in the sky and decided to steal enough lanterns to fill it. It took many generations, and when it was done the shadow slept under its big light, dreaming dreams about how it would play. When it awoke, all of the light was gone! At the center of the hole in the sky, was a tiny shining entity, with a great big mouth. The shadow named the tiny thing the sun and they played forever."

To paint the Sunstalker I started with the airbrush and put on the basic colours starting with the green, light tan, then brown.  I then went back and laid in some highlights and shadows, again with the airbrush to keep things smooth.

Once all the airbrushing was done,  I went in and stippled the skin all over using slightly different tones of each colour, partially to try my new brushes described below, and partially to break up the colours a little.   

Then to get some contrast added in, and to not ruin the smooth airbrush / stippling effect with a wash over the whole thing, I used washes to actually paint in all the crevasses, instead of as a wash. After that I went over each fold and crack and applied a few thin layers of highlights so that they are visible and add depth to the model.

I kept the rest fairly simple, with a little bit of highlights via dry brushing on the hands / hair.  Then the mouth and teeth and eye stalks.  All kept very simple at a technical level, but trying to do it very cleanly.  Oh, and of course his "tentacle" needed some pinky flesh tone.

The Sunstalker with some survivors for scale.

So, back to the new toys I bought that I wanted to play with.  At the start of every challenge I generally order a new set of brushes or two, as I tend to burn through a set over the challenge or over the year leading up to it.  Normally I buy Windsor & Newton series 7's (and I strongly suggest them as they seem to last forever compared to cheaper brushes.  Sure they are expensive, but they last 4-5 times longer for me than brushes that cost 1/2 as much, therefore they are definitely worth it to me) but I have been hearing about some other brushes that are supposed to be really good, so I decided to give them a shot.

They are from Artis Opus and come in some snazzy wooden boxes and are apparently equivalent to W&N 7's but cheaper.  I picked up a standard set of 000-2 and a set of dry brushing brushes to try out.  I have to say so far they are living up to the hype and are very nice to work with, especially the dry brushes which are a dream and don't leave a chalky finish due to how soft they are.

I can not say for sure how well they will hold up, as I just broke them out of the case and am just starting to break them in so they have seen very little use, but so far they function and flow paint almost exactly like W&N and are in fact cheaper.  I will let you guys know at the end of the challenge how they have held up, as that will be the real test!

I am completely out to lunch on what he should be scored for points wise, I am just happy to have him done.  He is fairly large at a little over 130mm tall and his identical hang over all sides of a 135mm round base, but then again he painted up super fast and easy due to most of the work being done with the airbrush.

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Wow. Putting aside the more than somewhat disturbing subject matter (this guys pretty much breaks the 'Creep-o-Meter'), one can't deny that your paintjob is absolutely stunning Byron. I'm really impressed with the fades and smooth transitions you achieved with your airbrushing, and the subsequent detail work with your new brushes is superb as well. What an amazing piece.

Due to the size of this model, I'm going to score it as the equivalent of a 28mm vehicle. 

Your prize for completing the challenge of Snow Lord's Peak is Greg's brilliant warp navigator, Espern Locarno.

Congratulations Byron, and well done!

-Curt