From LeeH - Assorted Frostgrave Ruins (90 Points)

I have been trying to do a bit of terrain work every week but I got a bit behind and so today I'm trying to make up for it. This is a selection of mostly homemade buildings made from blue foam with one resin model embellished with additional rubble.

The Liquified Chapel

This resin building is made from several pieces that  I bought from Debris-of-War. As with my earlier resin models I decided to base them to form a single building that can be quickly plonked on the table and rearranged as needed from game to game. This model isn't of perfectly aligned walls, this time the building has clearly slumped and partially sunk in the ground with only the tops of window arches visible and walls at odd angles. This process is often seen at earthquake sites where loose ground 'liquifies' when shaken violently, causing buildings to literally sink as if built on mud. The resin sections make most of a circuit for the walls so I mixed up some rubble goo to fill in the blanks to suggest sections that have completely disintegrated.

A Trio of Brick Buildings

These three buildings a smaller than most of the others I have built so far and were the first to make use of a new tool that I bought...a textured rolling pin. I got mine from a company called Greenstuffworld in Spain and on the whole I'm pretty pleased with it. The texture could be a little more pronounced but with sufficient pressure, it makes a good impression on foam and makes short work of creating brickwork. I imagine that these small brick buildings are lower status structures, (maybe artisan buildings) as opposed to the stone-built more monumental buildings I have done so far. They also add a bit of colour to what has until now been a largely stone grey and frosty white landscape.

Corner Arched Building

This was an excuse to have a go at making an archway. This time I have opted to model a stone building made in larger stone blocks rather than brick. I have liked to imagine a use for all the buildings I have done so far but, to be honest, I don't know what this could be. Not that having a backstory for a terrain item is necessary of course!

The Rectory House

This is a larger building, formed essentially out of two corner sections with the hint of internal walls. For speed I chose not to model brings or stones for the whole building, merely hinting at it in places and treating the surface as if it were plastered. This makes me think this is more of a residence than a civic building. 

Incidentally, I have decided the overall look of my buildings is a little too dark and needed some extra attention. I like the black undercoat and high contrast shading I have used to give the terrain a frosty look, but I think all my buildings need some extra snow. I've decided that when I finish all of them I'm going to go back and add a dusting of snow to everything. I'll make up some dilute PVA in a spray bottle, apply it to all the models and 'dust' from a few feet above with the Woodland Scenics snow I have been using. If I do this at the end of the process I can ensure that I achieve a consistent effect across all my buildings, helping to bring the collection together as a coherent set of terrain.

Sizes and Scoring - None of these neatly fits into a terrain square so I have added up the overall dimensions of all the buildings and divided by 216 cubic inches, equalling a little over four terrain squares. Rounding down, that's a handy 80 points in the kitty. ­

Liquified Chapel - 2.5"x9.5"x7" = 166.5 in³

Large Brick Building - 3"x8"x6.5" = 156.0 in³

Small Brick Building 1 - 3"x5.5"x4.5" = 74.0 in³

Small Brick Building 2 - 3"x5.5"x4" = 66.0 in³

Corner Arched Building - 3"x8"x6.5" = 156.0 in³

Rectory House - 5"x8"x6.5" = 260.0 in³
Total 878.5 in³ divided by 216 = 4.067 terrain cubes

I think this is enough of the 'simple' buildings for the time being. I have quite a bit of terrain now, enough certainly to cover my small table for a game. I have a couple of more delicate resin models to put together and a few stand-alone items and scatter terrain to work on next. I'm also planning on making a couple of more complex buildings from foam but these will take several weeks just to construct let alone prime and paint, so expect to see these towards the end of the challenge. A very wise man (MilesR in fact) suggested the way to notch up the points was via terrain, and he wasn't wrong!

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A most excellent submission Lee!  I love nothing more than seeing cool terrain done up, and this all looks great!

I really love the Frostgrave setting and I think what you did with snow patches and ruins will fit right in for the theme of the game.  I also appreciate all the little bits you have taken from various places and companies and merged them all together to make something that still looks cohesive in a ruined town, awesome work!

As a result of the great work here, I am throwing in a couple extra points.

- ByronM

From PhilH: Simple Mud Huts (10 Points)

A quick entry to tide me over.

During a recent spring clean and organise of the terrain cupboard, I found all sorts of half-finished bit, which  I dug out to apply paint over this Challenge. They have nothing to do with current projects, rather just a short diversion.

They were bought in ~2014 for my Sudan and Pulp projects, both of which have been idle for a few years. I preppe, added the curtain and door, primed and then left them in a box. Poor neglected models.

They were painted over Christmas but didn’t fancy them as my starting entry and only just got round to tapping up the post. mostly painted with different neutral emulsions.

Four huts make about half a cube, so 10 points on my tally.

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Awesome little pieces of terrain here Phil.  They have a lot of character and the paint job looks great.  Sometimes it it the simple little things that make a big difference when wargaming, and that thing is often having nice terrain. Great work Phil!

- ByronM

From DavidB - Heavy Metal (40 points)

These were the first models I tried Contrast paints on. Back in the 80's they were coated in enamel paints and venturing in the Space Hulk Game. I used brake fluid on them in the 90's removing the enamel  paints-mostly- and primed them in gesso before boxing them up when the new Grey knights appeared. They were only finished today after I discovered that snakebite leather makes a pretty nice almost gold tone.

These two are Grey Knight MK 2 as they came out a few years after the original model.

They are a lot more dynamic than the older trio.

Made from four seperate metal bits(body, two arms, and a halberd) At least the MK 1 Grey Knights had some pose options.....some options anyway.

This is an Ordo Malleus(demon hunter) I have not decided how he will be used yet, but probably as another Grey Knight as the psycannon and crozious will come in handy.

He has an extreme forward list...maybe storarge warped him? I just used an asphalt color on the rim and GW urban texture paint for the bases. Terminator models need a larger base and I may look for suitable resin bases for them. 

Some Ambots for necromundia and possible proxies for servitors until other models are available.  These are hulking brutes and I do plan on at least four more for build or conversions. 

I painted them thinking to use the purple one with my Escher gang and the Grey one as a sort of random NPC to cause havoc in Necromundia games

The Cadian 7th has been getting pounded by Blood Angels recently, I think some classic Grey Knights may just be the thing to smash elite Blood Angel assualt troops. since they are all pshykers they should also hamper the Blood Angel Librarians as well. And it is always fun to drag out old lead to a battlefield once again!

eight 28mm models for 40 points

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Yet another post from David today, seems he has been saving up a whole lot of stuff to post all at once as there are a few more in progress coming in later today and tomorrow from David.

Way to go David, the Grey Knights are a very cool force and it is glad to see more of them being done. I get what you mean about the bases being small, I was against all the increased base sizes in 40k initially, but after seeing figures on larger bases it looks odd seeing them on small bases again, especially terminators.

Great work getting the yellows to pop against the other colours on the figures.

- ByronM

From KatrinaS: Octopus for Reidy's Reef (10 Points)

Hello everyone I'm late to the challenge but none the less going to give it my best, I hope to speed up my painting process with whats left of the challenge by catching up with all of you and your fabulous work. 

I honestly decided to start at Reidy's Reef because well my daughter loves picking out the most random minis while at various shops around town so I have a assortment of animals and her most recent pick happened to be a 28 mm (deep cut) Giant Octopus from WizK!ds. 

Never have I ever attempted to do a ocean floor base so here is my best attempt, with the addition of bleached coral.

I really enjoyed this quick warm up and for me I got him completed relatively quick maybe 5 hours over 2 evenings.

Giant Octopus 28mm= 5 pts ?

using as Prize Figure

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First, Katrina, welcome to the Challenge!

Everyone, this is KatrinaS. She found out about the Challenge through her husband who heard us mentioned in a recent WS&S podcast (thanks Guy and Jasper!). As many of you know, I usually close the gates upon last call in late November, but in the desire to have a wider representation in the Challenge I was happy to accept Katrina's request to join.

Anyway, on to Katrina's entry.

Wow!! This is absolutely beautiful work, Katrina. So much to compliment here. The colour palette, the colour gradations, the highlighting, the base-work... all of them are tremendously well done. I especially like how your ocean floor sets up the soft magenta tones of the octopus. Beautiful.

As to points, I'm going to place this as the mass equivalent as a horse and rider. So, with that 10 points added to the 30 of Reidy's Reef AND the 25 for being a prize figure will give a grand total of 65 points. A nice points haul for your first entry!

Well done Katrina, and again welcome to our merry band of brush jockeys.

-Curt

JohnP: Necron Immortals and Wraiths (Mudry's Mesa, 85 pts)

New year, new army is the theme of my entries thus far. I picked up some Necrons using some cash I picked up for Christmas. As a result, they're my pick for Mudry's Mesa since they're brand, spanking new! I shared Overlord Ozymandias a few weeks back. Now, he has some actual troops at his disposal: 5x Immortals (28mm warriors) and 3x Necron Wraiths (28mm cavalry/monsters). I'm trying to go for a unique look that still pays some homage to the classic Necron scheme. My "elite" troops will share Ozymandias the Resplendant's golden aegis, but the Canoptek and "lesser" troops will have a similar silver/dark green scheme that mirrors the GW standard Necron scheme. The green's a bit of my own twist (cause screw edge highlighting), and the silver has some added rust to it.

I'd love to hear what you all think! Comments and critiques welcome. Thanks for looking.

 

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The plan to increase the global revenue impact of the challenge is working with Mudry's Mesa!  Nice to see... too bad I don't get a kickback from any of the companies making cash off my map space....

Great work here John!  I really like the colour scheme having something other than all metal like many necrons, it adds something to it where all metal can get a bit boring.  The green bring out some extra details and helps bring out the shape of the wraiths armour.

While I like the immortals as well, and dig the fact that you tried to add some extra details by having the silver strip up the center of the head, I wonder if added green shoulder pads to them wouldn't add something extra to them?  Not sure how it would go against the gold though, so I get why you may have left them all gold. 

I always loved the Necrons, having picked them up when they first released years ago.  It is nice to see some of the newer models for them here, especially with such great paint jobs on them.  Keep up the great work.

- ByronM

 

From DavidB - more greenskins ...and wolves! (75 points)

And I'm back! I did not succeed in completing my Orc army, but I did paint up another Orc while painting some more goblins that my kids bought me.  

He is from an old box game and was painted with contrast paints. I did highlight with regular paint and had a lot fun etching off-white on the blade. All the orcs will be very tribal when completed.

I can no longer say I avoided the AoS minis as I have two complete warbands for the skirmish games. Zarbag's Gitz from Nightvault and Rippa's Snarlfangs from Beastgrave. Besides the great character sculpts, I like the modeled bases like the snotling smashed by the Fantatic above.

Not sure on the fellow roasting shrooms on his back, but Zarbag is a wizard. He will be a nice addition to the Night Goblin army.

I never did get wolf riders as I really disliked the older sculpts (the plastic wolves not the riders) These fellows are very animated and packed with detail.

I will definitely be seeing if further riders like these are available

Meanwhile, Zarbag has three archers that came with his band. My favorite is the center archer with the hood covering his eyes.

So, perhaps the Fanatics are not crazy, but merely drunkards? both bands were painted with contrast paints, but I may revisit this one and add a few washes to the wreaking ball

These plastic squigs are very characterful and are making me look twice at the newer squig models available. 

I will have to see about adding some more in the future especially if I can find some classic squig hunters.

The new gobbo additions!....

plus the netter that almost escaped!

9 foot sloggers for 45 and three fuffy cavalry for 30 = 75points!

Hu- Wolf Totem












A new band for me...was enjoying them while painting the wolf boys. They are more appropriate for White Scar spacemarines...hmmm.... white scars

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Good work once again David.  I especially like the wolf riders and the squigs here.  Like you, the old wolf riders never did anything for me, I found them posed to two dimensional and they never looked right.  These new ones look awesome though and have a lot of sense of movement to them.  The squigs have always been amusing no matter what version, and these are no different.  Great work.

- ByronM

From TamsinP: Lizardmen at O'Grady's Gulch (For Joshua) (90 points)

Extract from the journal of TamsinP, Time Traveler, Society Girl and Adventuress

26th January, I haven't a clue what year...or even what universe...


Alighting from Lady S's balloon after another enjoyable flight, I find myself atop a hill overlooking a gully or gulch. Peering down into the gulch I spy some tiny green figures formed up in ranks as though for battle.

I decide that it is my duty to descend and investigate. It isn't as far down as the green figures' appearance led me to believe and I find that they were indeed small, not far away*. I must appear a great giant to them, for they flee in terror. 

Lifting my eyes to the East I notice a tall, snow-capped mountain in the distance. I feel compelled to approach and ascend it, as I am sure there will be a great reward for doing so...

Swordslizards

Spearlizards

Some close-ups:

These were quite fun to paint. As with my previous entry, I used my wet palette for these and the weapons were done as NMM - I think it came out quite nicely on the swords. If you look carefully at the photos, you will notice that no two lizardmen are identical. And that I have painted the yes and teeth. And varying shield patterns, although that hasn't come out quite so well in the photos.

I actually painted these before starting on the hairy bikers. The figures are 10mm from Magister Militum. I'd originally bought them with the intention of using them to make "friezes" to decorate pyramids and buildings for my Mexicagrave project, but that has been in abeyance for quite some time. Then along comes James' most worthy "For Joshua" project and I decided to make them my contribution to that - can you think of a better use for them?

For scoring:

60 x 10mm foot @ 1 = 60 points
O'Grady's Gulch = 30 points
Total = 90 points

* luckily I'm not as easily perplexed as Father Dougal:

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What a great little entry here Tamsin.  I love the figures, for 10mm they have a lot of detail.  The painting is really very nice for that scale as well, they look great, and doing NMM on 10mm???  You truly are mad Tamsin.

The basing is also top notch, which I find many people (myself included) tend to skimp on at smaller scales, but the basing here really makes these pop. 

- ByronM