From DavidB - 'Pama Mine' (Farewell)

A lot of stuff to pick up!

This is the usual state of my desk as I paint. I am afflicted with severe ADD when engaged in hobby time and it helps to have plenty of available models to give into whims. I won't be able to finish The Iron Snakes, the Samurai, gorkamorka trucks, spectre minis, necromundia, and the rest of the pile for a long moment.

'Pama mine' is from Pottawatomie and means farewell. Although I only know a few phrases I can tell you that most First Nations are not huge talkers. I am more garroulous when writting as I'm conveying thought. When speaking to a tribesman we usually use a few words as weather, place and environment carry the rest of the conversation as does the speakers body language and the company. If a speaker uses many words, there is greater depth of meaning. 

"Kshe'mnito kapma yawok pana mine' waje' wapte' kon" very loosely translated means " God be with you till we meet again" The more accurate translation is a more formal farewell than 'pama mine' and is given to family and friends. 

I have to bow out of the competition somewhat early and move to a more austere environment. with luck WIFI will be tolerable and I will have time to catch up on the entries without reading in email! ;)

What I did get accomplished, with a few on deck in the background. Modest compared to other years, but the quality is better than the past. 

Almost forgot the Ad-mech!

The Green horde will also have to wait a little bit longer.

I have to do 1:1 scale for a moment or three.

Blue Stones- shaking off the rust













As always, it was a lot of fun. I did spend the last two days at the brushes, so that was my shaking off the rust a few weeks before the rest of you do the mad dash to the finish line. 

I'll see you all in the comments!

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It was fantastic having you join us again this year David. As always, your enthusiasm for the hobby is wonderfully infectious, bringing a smile to all who read the marvelous staccato of your submissions. 

You will have family, friends and a pile of minis eagerly awaiting your return, so be safe and hustle back to us soon.

This is not a farewell, just a see you later.  

Curt

From SamuliS: Pulp Heroine ready to fly Sarah's Balloon (35 points)

Time for my first balloon ride of the challenge and what a better way to kick it off than by painting a heroic pulp pilot to fly me from Reidy's Reef to Sander's Sand Dunes! The miniature is from the newish Cool Mini or Not Cthulhu board game Death May Die. Olivia is a veteran pilot that racked up an impressive kill count in the Great War as well as racking up a slightly less impressive amount of crash landings having been shot down more than any other pilot on the Allied side, but miraculously not suffering a single injury in all the crashes. In the game her incredible (un)luck allows you to gain successes from throws where you completely failed as well as changing some die results.

This mini was bit of an experiment with the Citadel Contrast paints that came out last year. Originally I was very skeptical of them, but have been testing these out with different minis every now and then. As this is a boardgame mini I wasn't too interested in spending too much time painting it (and all the other minis from the box) so Contrasts seemed the perfect solution. The mini was basecoated with a zenithal basecoat of grey and white and then painted with four different contrast paints as well as normal paints for skin colours and the goggles. This mini was really well suited for the contrasts with large clear areas of different colours and I had the skintones ready on a palette from painting other minis so it was super fast to do the brushwork with the whole mini being painted in maybe 5-6 minutes maximum and even with the preparation, basecoat and clean up I think it was finished in under 10 minutes.

I've definitely started to warm up to the Contrasts and especially on smaller and more textured areas they work amazing. Stuff like shoes, gloves, fur etc. is super fast to do with them and especially when combined with a zenithal basecoat it really brings out detail very well. The flight suit was a bit too flat for the contrast stuff, but with a bit more careful application it still turned out good enough for tabletop. The skintones aren't that great so those work better with regular paints in my opinion and it can be a pretty easy way to make the rest of the painting look better if you just use a couple of minutes on faces when everything else is speed painted. I've now experimented with zenithal basecoats that utilize some other colours like brown for shadows to bring out some of the tones even more. Black doesn't really work, but especially for some of the more brownish-yellow tinted contrasts seem to come out really nicely with brown shadows, grey main colours and white top highlight applied by airbrush. Couple of minutes extra per miniature in preparation really makes the contrasts pop so much better.

One 28mm miniature and my first balloon ride should add another 35 points to my tally

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Oh, what a fabulous pilot Samuli! 

I have to say I'm a little gutted as I just picked up this game after playing it with Byron a few months ago (love the game btw) and I wanted to be the first to get some minis for it up on the blog - you've stolen a march on me, curse your eyes sir!

Anyway, winging aside, this is a great mini. Even though it was a shockingly quick paintjob it really turned out quite well. I particularly like her flesh tone, the leather accents and the light tan flightsuit.  As you say, with the Contrast paints, if you spend a bit of time cleaning up the blending and popping the highlights they can give great effects.

Have a safe flight!

-Curt

From SamuliS: RED 'UNS GO FASTA! Sanders Sand dunes (68 points)

Rushing forward from the balloon landing ground is a bunch of reinforcements for my Epic Ork army. Sandor's Sand Dunes are the ideal location for the speed crazed greenskins in their red vehicles as like everyone knows "RED 'UNS GO FASTA!"

Two Landas and 4 bases of Warbikes to boost my warbiker count to have the maximum load for the two Landas. Warbikes are the Defeat in Detail Skinnerz bikers and the Landas are models from Thingiverse that I printed with my 3D printer some time ago. Painted with a paintshade from Vallejo called "Ferrari Red" to ensure that the Boyz are always speedy enough. Throw in some checkerboard patterns for good measure and no enemy can survive the onslaught.

8 mounted figures in 6mm and two vehicles. With about a 100mm wingspan and 70mm length the flyers are somewhere around the size of 20mm vehicles. 38 points from the miniatures and 30 extra points for the challenge island location.

Wow, just to be clear. WOW. Those Landas are fantastic.

MartinC

From DavidB Genestealer Cult soldiers( 75points)

I found this human bomb trooper while digging out models to try the contrast paints on. I doubt something like this would be made again in today's environment. He had a red uniform back in the day and I only had one. He only has been succesful in taking out only a few characters in epic fashion most notable being the Eldar farseer Elderad. Equipped with knife and grenades he has miraculously survived torrents of fire and even lasted 3 rounds against an irritated hive tyrant and even the eldar dark reaper phoenix lord. 

considering his paultry attack profile when his explosive harrness fails, he has done well to tie up big hitters for even a round! I might use the legendary rules and take him to field again next time I face Razor's elite Blood Angel Marines.

In addition to being the last unit painted, these are also the last unit painted almost entierly with contrast paints. A start of a genestealer cult army. The box of GCA troopers is currently the best bang for the buck as 12 models are obtained at a cost cheaper than a squad of marines. Three boxes of these guys are easy to get for well under a hundred and can make a whole platoon plus command of Cult troopers.

I liked the white armor and orange accents of the studio force and used similar with these fellows. I used purple as a spot color to nod to the classic paint scheme.

Just a basic guard kit with a GCA upgrade sprue.  They will see use in 40k, Necromundia, and killteam. I built them keeping in mind commo, demo, combat, and sniper specialists for killteam. 

They will also see use in Inquisimundia. Another friend uses narrative hooks in apocalypse games and wants to include a platoon of GCA soldiers in game having them switch sides against the guard army they accompany to battle at some point in the battle. 

I do have hybrid and genestealer models from a few box games so a force isn't too far out of reach as my model count stands. These fellows were a recent gift as the gifter thought they were Imperial Guard... well yeah, but with a twist! As a die hard guard commander, I can never have enough Imperial guard even if they have a shady character! ;)

12 soldiers plus cannon for 70 points plus a very old penal trooper-75

These are brilliant, loving the colour scheme and the gun is knockout. Top work

Martin

From NoelW: P.I. in the Sky: Sarah’s Balloon (10 points)

The balloon drifts down, lowering a rope ladder for us to scramble up. Lady Sarah appears to have forgiven our previous rudeness. Or possibly to have forgotten who we are. Either way, she introduces us to our elevated companions: a small Belgian man, who looks like a balloon himself and, once he speaks, also seems to be overinflated with hot air, and a rather mousey woman who smiles and listens attentively as somehow we find ourselves recounting all the gossip we’ve encountered on our wandering around the island.

“We are bound for Rousell’s Sandhill,” she explains. “A little bird told me that we might find what we’re after there.”

“Mais non,” says the dapper man, “no chicken was implicated. It was with application of my little grey cells alone that we find what we seek.”

“Do forgive me, dear Hercule, but we would not have the slightest idea, without that little tidbit I happened to overhear by pure chance in the village post office.”

He taps the edge of the basket agitatedly with his cane as if wanting to throw something overboard. From her handbag, she extracts a large compact and begins to powder her nose, watching us all the while in her mirror.

“And what is it you are looking for?” I ask.

“Ah!” says the little man behind the moustache, “that is of the mystery most profound. It is the story of le chapeau perdu, a hat most floppy and most vanished.”

“Such a shame,” – the woman drags a shapeless woollen garment from her bag, and begins to knit – “that such a valuable hat should go missing.”

“Valuable?” I say, feigning disinterest.

“C’est vrai. There is most certainly a secret within it. In the hatband of that hat can be found a piece of paper. And on that piece of paper – “

“ – on that piece of paper is a map of the secret route to the Snowlord’s Peak, and so to the untold riches that can be found there.”

Now I really am interested. I’ve always been very interested in hats. I can’t bear skin that’s not behatted. I would love sombrero or other, but to cap it all would adore a fedora.

“And what kind of hat is it? Perhaps we could help you look for it.”

“It is – how to say – it is hat with no name. It is a most floppy hat. It has no character, no charm. It is flat and round – a sort of floppy disk useful only for the ancient information it contains.”

With minimal fez, I peer beret carefully down at the approaching Sandhill, scanning the panama-rama below us. I mitre just spot it before they do and kepi the information to myself. After all, they hardee own the rights to it.

---

A small submission to hitch a lift from Sander’s Sanddunes to Rousell’s Sandhill.

These two figures are for my WW2 Sealion/Walmington set-up. I'll probably also use them as Poirot and Miss Marple. The latter is from Wargames Foundry’s WW2 British Characters, representing, I think, Pike’s mother from Dad’s Army. I’m not sure about the Poirot figure but, being in the same sculpting style, I’m guessing that it’s also from that range, but now out of production.

Scoring: 2x 28mm figs: 10 points

OK Noel just stop or I'll have to cap your points. Love these figures, I think they are Mrs Fox - hooked Corporal Jones, and Captain Mainwaring in civies, and you've done a craking job

MartinC

From StuartL - Challenge Island Safari Tour.- 26th January (72 points)

Welcome back to the Challenge Island Safari Tour.
As much fun as it has been to spend time atop Snow Lord's Peak, it is time for all of us to begin the descent back down the mountain. On behalf of all the C.I.S.T.ers, I'd like to thank the Snow Lord for sharing his magnificent home with us and for eating less than half of our group. And really, what are a few gnawed off limbs in comparison to the view from up here?

Anyway, it's time we were off, so we're taking the easy route down and heading for Hawkin's Hill. The hill itself is famed for it's strange time-space distortions and people visiting it have been said to encounter time lost wanderers from a bygone age, specifically 3 years ago.

What is this? Staggering forth from the misty slopes of Hawkin's Hill, it appears to be a group of Anglo-Saxons.

Slightly disoriented from their sudden time skip, the leader explains that he and the others were recruited to take part in a re-enactment of the Battle of Fulford in 2017, but for some reason were left behind while the rest of their mates went forth to do battle with some dastardly Viking types.

After giving the anachronistic wanderers directions to a nearby C.I.S.T affiliated guest house and promising to contact them if a proposed re-enactment of Stamford Bridge ever gets off the ground, we bid these stragglers adieu.
With the peak to our left and the island behind us already explored, the tour will head West at first light to an infamous Gulch I think.

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These Saxons were originally going to be part of a community project in my local gaming group. Sadly I ran out of time (or I had too many models... no, that doesn't make sense, it was definitely a time thing), so was unable to get everything done. To represent my Saxon's humble Christian roots, they are wearing quite drab tunics, with a bit of colour around some of the edges. The only bright points on them are the shields, where I have stuck to painting simple cross style patterns. They are based for Saga and I have some movement trays to use them for other systems like Hail Caesar.
The minis are all Gripping Beast plastic figures and are easy to paint up. I think I have about 200 or so of these chaps and the less armoured Dark Ages figures from the same range painted, as well as a few Vikings, so at some stage I'm going to try and get my local club to do a Stamford Bridge game.

Anyway, these 8 fellows should score me 40 points plus the 30 from Hawkin's Hill for a total of 70 points.

These are very nice. I do love Saxan shields so you get a bit of bonus there

MartinC

From JamesM: 10mm Pegasus Knights, For Joshua! (Cooke's Crevase) (64 Points)

Hi folks,

Following my earlier dabble with Sci Fi drones, I've ballooned it over to the fluff filled crack that is Cookes Crevase.

If that doesn't put you off your Sunday dinner, nothing will.

My previous airborne insertion being a failure, I decided to go with gliders this time round. In the form of some winged horses (Pegasususeses, which I think is the plural). The (tenuous) connection to geology being that these creatures are mountain dwellers, who use with mighty wingspan to gloat over mountain goats and reach inaccessible pastures. As with most mountain dwelling fantasy flying creatures, you do not want one of these to poo on you while out for a hike.

I would also point out that the rocks on the base are real, hence a slightly less tenuous geology connection. Martin can spend hours figuring out which types they are next time we play.

These models are 10mm scale figures from Polar Fox Studios. In my imagination force of good as part of my ongoing charity project, these units form the dedicated bodyguard of King Joshua. Able to keep up with the boss on his Hippogriff, these are elite troops equipped with the very best equipment, including rings of featherfall...

I've stuck to the same red, green and blue paint scheme for these troops, while the wings of the Pegasus are faded from grey to light tan. I used the flying stands provided (which are for Warmaster style basing) but adapted to mount on the 50mm by 100mm bases. I had planned to have 6 on a base, but wingspan meant this was a bit of a squeeze, so I have three.

These figures took me a while to paint, mainly as I had no idea what to do with them. A common issue I have with fantasy figures. Give me a uniform to paint (with appropriate colour guides) any day...

In total then, there are 12 mounted 10mm figures for a total of 24 points. Plus 30 points for the Challenge Island location giving me a total of 54 points.

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Lovely Pegasi James (see, you learn something new every day)! 

I really like the dusky grey-blue-to-tan of heir wings set against the blue, green and red of the riders' livery. In addition, the basing looks terrific, with them all massed together, swooping in for the kill. 

I'm going to give a few extra points as these are bit more involved than straight-up cavalry. A great entry for Cooke's Crevasse, well done!

-Curt

From Curt: Trish Scarborough 'The Spy' for Sarah's Balloon (5 Points)

Well, after a short hiatus I'm back to featuring the femme fatales from 'Mansions of Madness'. Sorry folks, but this game is chock full of great pulpy gals so you're just going to have to grin and bear it. 

Okay, so today we have Trish Scarborough, 'The Spy'.

At first glance, Trish Scarborough is simply a middling employee for a nondescript company. Nonetheless, in reality she is a spy for the shadowy organisation, 'The Black Chamber', travelling the world, thwarting occult plots and generally being a heroic badass.

In the game, Trish is a great all-rounder. She has a solid stat line (as long as she keeps away from magic), but her real strong suit is investigating for clues and getting into and out of scrapes.

I had a bit of gaff when working on Trish. I first painted her from memory (ALWAYS a bad idea for me), thinking that her trenchcoat was a classic camel colour. Well, I pulled out the character card to do the pictures and discovered that, no, she actually wears a dark indigo coloured trench. 

F*ck. 

So, it was back to the desk for a quick costume adjustment. Now she is sartorially conforming to MoM canon. A huge sigh of relief from all you viewers, I'm sure.

It's a nicely posed mini, and I kept it fairly simple for the paintjob - dark indigo raincoat (ahem), black turtleneck and brown slacks. The only embellishment I gave her is a nice pearl-handled revolver (really, it compliments her hair).

Trish will serve as my fare for my next journey: to Burch's Bluff!

-Curt


***
More fine brushwork my friend.  I'm really enjoying all of these "Mansions of Madness" characters, and I've no doubt the other Challenge participants are as well. It's such a fun game and a great setting. Playing the game causes one to suspect just about every nondescript company we encounter in our daily lives. I think that's positive, right? That insurance broker up the road is probably just...selling insurance...I mean, what are the chances that it is a front for some manner of global shadow organization...?


What a relief that you got Trish's coat done properly. But have no fear, in the event that the stress of the sartorial situation has been too much, there is a trained medical professional ready to assist with "non-traditional stress relief" when you arrive at the scenic vistas of Burch's Bluffs.


Great work Curt - this entry was fun, and I am certainly excited to see your next one! Now, I think I'm going to go and take one more look at that local insurance broker...


GregB

From TomM: Piper's Peak: Watcher of Kharna (35 Points)

Reaching the Peak, one can see the Snow Lord's Mountain on the horizon...

And as such Tamsin's challenge has been laid down, paint models gazing to the horizon.

To that end, I dug up a model from my MESBG pile, namely The Watchers of Kharna, especially because one of them is actually holding his hand above his eyes to gaze towards distant places, making him perfectly suitable for the challenge laid down.

So this elite warrior from the Fallen Realms arrives in my forces, bolstering the ranks of Harad and bringing wrath and ruin to Middle-Earth.

A total of a single 28mm figure painted as such, yielding me 5 points and the challenge bonus for this round, totalling 35 points.

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Ah ha! This is a great rendition of Tamsin's theme - well done Tom. I was first stumped with the MESBG acronym, but the penny dropped when I hit the Harad reference - I guess I'm too old school, not wanting to give up on the 'classic' LotR tag. 

I quite like this model and your painting really does him justice, especially with the blue gems on his belts and the muted red sash and scarf as a contrast to his dark robes.  Lovely stuff.

Now, is it off to Roundwood Towers, Benito's Brook or trip on Sarah's Balloon? 

-Curt

From DavidB: Spectre Ops (80 points)

Modern Wargaming has never been an interest for me. I'm not superstitious, but it is too close to life. I could blame Curt for the several posts he has done with Spectre and other brands. I could also blame my kids for the superhero and zombie games. I will blame the fine folks at Spectre Miniatures for the models and game they made. The game is pretty simple and fast and has more scenario angles than just Middle East scenarios. I chose to collect the Cartel and other models going for vibes of John Wick, Sicariono, Shooter, Jason Bourne. Since it is a skirmish game I can drop geopolitics and politics in general.

The game creators are a nice married couple who have family connections in the SAS. The models and rules had input from real life trigger pullers. It shows when you see the difference between experienced and elite soldiers as opposed to the militia and criminal models.

This is the model that sucked me into the range. A supressed marksman/sniper rifle and he has a silenced pistol

His forward lean and heel toe stride show a sniper doing a security check before setting up for work.

I only have a few cartel models and plan on getting others as well as some Insurgent forces for more elite hit teams.

Even the Cartel have some who with a change of paint could even represent other extremist groups.

I like the middle model quite a bit. he is an enforcer for the cartel with a ham fist hiding a small for him pistol. He is shooting"Israeli" style but seems more like he is trying to" throw" the bullet

The well dressed "Jeffe" on the phone flanked by two well dressed guards one is an older fellow while the fellow in orange has a military style haircut

The covert ops I painted in neutral tones as they can be Law enforcement, survivors, criminals, goverment contractors, or just a crew of veterans.

These were all painted in my standard form of black undercoat to many highlights, but I did use the contrast paint( the paler shades) as glazes in a few spots. There is a Cartel Flame trooper that missed the photo.

Counting him it's 16 modern for 80 points!

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Wonderful work on these operators and cartel soldiers David. I'm quite addicted to the Spectre range and have waaay too many of their models for a game that should only need a couple dozen for the tabletop. 

Your professional operators looks suitably 'hard' in their natural, more muted tones, but the cartel guys are where the fun is at, with their somewhat gawky poses and bright civilian street attire. Very cool and very well done.

-Curt

From Paul O'G: The Beastmen Cometh (125 points)

Apologies up front for the recent lack of presence other than Minioning duties - in the last few weeks I have moved house, started a new job (which is involved in the current natural disasters here) and... real life stuff.  So sorry about the lack of comments on your entries, there has been some really awesome stuff here of late!

One of my AHPC objectives this year is to work on a Beasts of Chaos/Beastman force.  A few years ago I did a Beastmen unit as allies for my Chaos Raider army but have now been goaded into expanding to a full force. And I am a sucker of hobby peer pressure...

I have gone with 12 figure units for use with Dragon Rampant, but as I find figures will add to them for Oathmark and maybe even a spot of OldHammer (shhh...)  Here are the first two units: 1 each of Gors and the smaller Ungors, plus a War Leader to inspire their ferocity - all GW models of course.

It was good to experiment with GW contrast paints, of which much has been commented.  In the right context they worked nicely: specifically the fur, shields and other high detail areas came out well indeed. However, for larger or smooth surfaces I went back to traditional techniques which delivered the look I much prefer.  I've also been playing with some different inks to give the flesh on different units a different look - representing different tribes coming together to make the Warband.  Some work better than others - the Ungors look a little like baby Hellboy :-)

Skull-o-meter update: these 25 figs and their two hand painted banners are adorned with a total of 23 skulls (plus a few fleshy and seemingly recently severed heads that clearly aren't classical 'skulls' so weren't counted). Coupled with the 44 previously recorded skulls from the Herdstone model, this takes me to 67 noggins in the renowned "Skully McSkullface" side challenge. Not the same high skull to figure ration as say a 40k Chaos army, it seems nonetheless quite reasonable.

Overall for this entry, that is 25 figs in 28mm, for a total of 125 points.
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Hobby peer pressure is real and must not be resisted. ;)

Paul, these beastmen are brilliant. These make me a little nostalgic as my first Warhammer Fantasy army was Beastmen (Back when the lowliest ungor had 2 wounds!). Nice, clean brushwork here, and I really like the verdant basework - it gives the impression that they're in a forest glade. I also think their skintones are great, even the 'Hellboy' ungors (they'll lighten up with age). I agree with you on the weakness of the Contrast paints on models with large, smooth surfaces - they seem better utilized on figures with a good amount of relief/texture.

125 points it is, with another 23 skulls for the 'Skully McSkullface' challenge. I wonder how Barks will respond? Stay tuned!

-Curt