From MartinN: O'Grady's Gulch - A ride for Schloß Itter 60 points

The good thing with being all over the place painting wise is that somehow in the end things come together nonetheless. So, while I continue to paint stuff without anything approaching my usual "focus" I got another piece finally off the table. 

Some of you might be aware that former fellow challenger Michael Awdry (of 28mmvictorianwarfare.blogspot.com fame) and his mate James Walters (makeitminiature.blogspot.com) build a table of Schloß Itter for this years Salute. I can't remember exactly how it came about but one day I found myself agreeing to painting up a 3D-print of an old car  for them to put on their table. Admittedly I didn't get my finger out for way too long, but when going through the spots for this years challenge I instantly knew what to do for O'Grady's Gulch.

Inspiration was a similar model I painted for myself a while ago. I had a failed print gathering dust anyway so all I had to do was making a canvas cover from tissue paper and hunting down a cat for the bonnet. I decided to not weather the model as I did with mine but wanted it to look as if the car was still in useable condition. Who knows, it might be a "Special Item" in Michaels Salute game with which the prisoners of the Schloß might try to escape?

And why a white cat on the bonnet you might ask? Well, firstly it always helps to liven up the gaming table when you have some livestock and civilians on the table and secondly, well anything is better with cats, right? At the start of last year we adopted (or were adopted by?) a black cat (we call him Mr Stinky for a reason ^^) from our local animal shelter. So the cat on the bonnet of my own vintage car obviously was to be black. Now at the end of October we decided he might need a friend and so a white compagnion, now called Krümel (little crumb), was adopted from a local animal rescue organisation.

Like I said, anything is better with cats

So 20 points for the vehicle and 30 points for the location for another 50 points towards my total.

From DaveD ... AAH whats this - another quick post from the the brushmiester ..Thats going to be a fine addition to Mr Awdry's table . Now where is Blofeld to accompany the white cat? I have given you extra points for the moggie and a top up for the beautiful green !

From DarrellH - Reconquista at Partizan, Christian vignettes II - 15 points

Death from disease were a constant companion of all soldiers on campaign during the 11th Century. Dysentery, cholera, typhoid fever and even plague were to be the last fatal companions of many a stout soldier. Nor could rank safeguard from such epidemics that could strike at the heart of any army.

The knight below is in his final agonising death throws as cholera takes his soul. A washer woman tries to offer him comfort whilst a priest prays, perhaps as much for for himself as he does for his companion now that cholera and dysentery have broken out in the camp!

from DaveD - Thats another great creation Darrell well done

From LeeH - Mammoth and Bison Riders "For Joshua" (44 Points)

A slight change of tack from me today as I submit my contribution to a charity project for James MacCraggs (aka The Mad Tin Hatter). Last year James and his wife suffered a terrible loss and James wrote very movingly of how he would like to raise money for charity (detailed here and here). Back in November Posties Rejects went to the Warfare show in Reading and on the way down there we discussed a joint contribution to this worthy cause. So when we got access to the trade hall we went straight to the Kallistra stand and each picked a couple of units to paint. Ray has already painted his contribution and now it's my turn. Having just painted a load of 6mm Elephants I thought I needed a break and should do something completely different.... so 10mm Mammoths it is! 

I've not really painted 10mm before so this was interesting to see the difference between it and my normal scale. It was certainly fun to paint and I was able to use oil washes on these whereas I usually employ ink washes on my 6mm stuff. Interesting! Amazingly I found 10mm harder to work on than my normal fare and its the first time I have noticed how my painting style has gradually adapted to the predominant scale I work in, making everything else harder. Weird. 

Along with the Mammoths are more Barbarians this time riding Bison! Most impressive and very tough looking. 

James asked that all submissions not be based up, as he will do this stage himself for consistency. However, purely for the sake of presentation, I have tacked these models to some plain bases. They will snap off easily when they are moved to their final home. 

Points wise, these are relatively simple. 2 Mammoth and six riders should get me 12 points and the 16 Bison riders will net another 32 points, so 44 points all in. One more step towards my target, and a modest contribution to a very worthy cause.


From DaveD - Nice to see you 10mm efforts Lee , they have come out very well indeed - with added minion charity bonus that makes 50 points

From MikeW - 32 x 28mm Late 17th Century Figures (160 Points)

This submission is in two parts, the first and biggest part is the representation of the Spanish Tercio 'Los Blancos', officially known as the 'Tercio Provincial de Segovia'. The second part of the post is a follow on from my earlier post where I did 8 x French Dragoons of  'La Bretesche Regiment', see original post <here>.

The 'Los Blancos'

I originally got these figures from North Star Miniatures sometime in the late summer last year, I have already painted-up one 24 figure Tercio of little guys but wanted to complete a second Tercio, to join my other Spanish tabletop forces.

Spanish Tercio in waiting, figures based, awaiting undercoat

For, anyone that is interested, these are relatively new additions to the North Star 1672 range, they replace similar figures that North Star were stocking up to about 18 months ago, that were based upon the original Copplestone Casting figures that are the basis of this range. As such some are a little smaller than the old range, which makes up the majority of my Spanish Army.

Pike stands formed up around the central with
Command stand, OCD at work here!

As you may know Spanish Tercios of the period tended to adopt distinctive colours to distinguish them selves form other Tercio units. This was the beginnings of the move towards regimental uniforms - in the Spanish world each unit picked a coat and facing colour. It wasn't until the early 1700s that coat colours became standardised and the distinguishing feature was the facings colour!


So for the challenge I decided to do a unit based primarily in white with red facings. I had seen pictures on the internet of a couple of Tercios that had these colours - the 'Los Blancos' and an enigmatic 'Tercio Alemana' or German Tercio, for which I could only find an illustration of an officer. I opted for the former with the option of changing unit flags to allow for the later if scenarios required.

Another view of the Pike Block

Well I have always struggled with White uniforms - especially getting the shading right, and this unit was no different!

As usual I undercoated in white, before doing a top coat in white, then adding in deep red facing colours. I then built up the other required colours - browns for musket and darker brown for shoes and scabbard. Tan leather was added for the straps, gloves and boot laces and then flesh, steel etc.

4 x Musketeer Stands

I then went to fix all the mistakes and in doing so ran into the challenge with white - most colours show through it - and with reds the colour seems to bleed into the white paint and stain it pink. I had to leave the figures to dry for a couple days, when I returned to them the bleeding issue was solved!

In the meantime I started work on the French dragoons - see below...

When ready I used Army Painter dip to add shading, I deliberately left the tin unshaken so that the level of pigment in the dip was as low as possible, nevertheless for a number of the figures the white uniforms ended up being over-stained and looking rather grey and dull.

The command stands, featuring the speculative flags I made

So after applying matt varnish, I over painted the white coats with white paint again - using a semi-dry-brush method, really just to emphasise the highlights and lightening up the coat colours.

Completed Tecio lined up just as I like them!

I based the figures as per other units, on 40 x 40mm bases, Pikemen and command stands on 40 x 20mm half-stands to enable my OCD tastes in figure placement within the units - i.e. A central block of 8 Pikemen, surrounding the command stand , flanked by two musketeer stands on each side....

Final touch was to make two speculative flags for the unit, if finding info about uniforms is hard for the period it's even harder finding info on Tercio flags - plenty of pictures but no one seems to know which units they belonged to!

So I kept it simple a couple of Burgundy crosses on white backgrounds, they came out a little small for my liking so may have to redo them a bit bigger!

The 'La Bretesche' Dragons

These four guys were painted to add to the 8 other Dragoons that I recently painted - enabling me to bring the unit up to two dismounted squadrons of 6 figures each. I still need to do the mounted versions at some point!

Completed - Additional French Dragoons before integrated with existing figures

These also enabled me to continue being productive whilst pulling out what little hair I have left waiting for the Spanish figures to thoroughly dry!

And the figures integrated into the existing unit.

I have also re-worked the bases of the original 8 figures to integrate the new figures into the stands.

POINTS
28 x 28mm Spanish Infantry @ 5 Points ea = 140 Points
4 x 28mm French Infantry @ 5 Points ea = 20 Points
Total Points 140 + 20 = 160 Points

From DaveD - Lovely work Mike. The extra work on the white has come out well indeed. i am going to make it 165 for the flags too

From DarrelH - Reconquista at Partizan 2020, Christian Vignettes part 1 - 12 Points

Hi,

I've been working on a few larger units while simultaneously having the odd vignette sitting at the side of the table to work on if I'm waiting for anything to dry, that sort of thing.....

Here's the first, a Bishop blessing a Caballero Villanos (poor knight) who were quite often taken from the upper peasantry and were likelier still to come from a border region where there was often conflict, or the threat of, mainly in the form of raids. These border zones on the Spanish peninsular were not, as one might assume, necessarily borders between the religious principalities. They could just as easily be a border between two Christian 'nations' or two Muslim kingdoms.

From DaveD - lovely work there  Darrell, very evocative - I will go with 12 points for em!

From ScottM: Civilians at Rousell's Sandhill (50 points)

Having finished my journey to the Snow Lord's Peak, our heroes decide to wander down the Path of the New Shiny. Our first stop is at Rousell's Sandhill. Two of the figures in the set below are wearing floppy hats. I went with King William's War, the North American theater of the Nine Year's War. Conflict in this theater had France and England squaring off against each other. During this conflict, there were numerous raids against various settlements. One of those raids involved this group of figures.

In early 1690 a force of French and their Native American allies attacked the village of Schenectady in the New York colony. As the community was undefended, the civilians had to fend for themselves.

This group of figures (from left to right), John Godfrey, Williams Ballard, Robert Beaumont and Henry Peck were some of the village's defenders.

All but John Godfrey fell defending their homes and families from the rampaging French and Natives. Godfrey escaped the carnage and was able to reach the safety of the fort at Albany.

These figs are from Sash and Saber and are actually from their French and Indian War line.

So that should be: 4 28mm foot figs = 20 +30 (location bonus) = 50 points.

And our journey continues!

From DaveD - aah , more floppy hatted goodness - 50 points it is!

From HerrRobert (Robert H): A shady sphinx for the New Kingdom Egyptians (32 Points)

Frankly, 2020 has been a terrible day, week, month and year, especially in terms of my painting output. I just barely made the cull, and haven't really had much time, or desire, to touch the brushes. So, having took a few mental health days off, I tucked in to landing on Challenge Island. 

One of the many items in the hobbyhorde was a 3d printed sphinx I'd asked a friend to print as an edifice for a New Kingdom Egyptian DBA army I'd started. What's an edifice? In reasonably clear Barkerese (DBA 3.0, pg 7):

An EDIFICE is an isolated large building, such as an Amerindian or other pyramid, a pharos, a monastery, a temple or ruins. It has no economic value, denizens or defensive value.It is treated only as BAD GOING, except when it is being used as a CAMP.

Now, DBA puts some size restrictions on area terrain features, described in less clear Barkerese (DBA 3.0, pg 6):

Each must fit in a rectangle of which the length plus the width totals no more than 9BW [base width, usually 40mm for 15mm figures). Only one feature can have a length (maximum dimension) of less than 3BW. Every feature must have both a length and a width (maximum dimension at a right angle to its length) of 1BW.

Reading this, I thought it would be a perfect entry for Awdry's Atoll. Prior to landing, it is always wise to consult the Challenge Island triptik, courtesy of the Snowlord and Associates Auto Club:

For me the challenge, and laterally the bonus rounds was always about having fun, often scratching a creative itch. Weaving a narrative through an idea was always the goal and in order to best compose these frivolities I would often start with a blank CD or DVD. Given the geographical alliteration, Awdry's Atoll, I am proposing as my challenge a Desert Island Disc! I would like to see all manner of creativeness, command stands or even terrain pieces that start life with the humble CD or DVD. (If proving difficult to obtain then any circular basing material of a 120mm diameter will suffice.)

I started off by gluing it to the CD, after using some painter's tape to mask the hole. This doubles as proof it actually is a CD-ROM base:

Next, I glued the bottoms of four Woodland Scenics palm trees to the disc, followed by a LOT of ballast. Usually, I add the ballast after painting, since I usually ink and dry brush it. But, this time, I decided to try priming it, since I was using a colored primer. So, prior to priming, it looked like this:

Primer was Army Painter's Skeleton Bone. I've been experimenting with Games Workshop's contrast paints, and generally had good results with khakis. After that, I lightened the sphinx with Delta Ceramicoat Ivory, and dry brushed the base with Ivory and Ceramicoat Antique White. Then I hit the sphinx with Skeleton Horde contrast paint. After that, it was static grass, and then cutting a self-adhesive felt circle for the bottom. Easy peasy.

Not too bad for a few hours work, most of which were waiting for things to dry. On to calculating points with mathematical and statistical precision, as Miles is not the only statistician-challenger (as opposed to the statistically challenged). 

Now, not counting the palm trees, since I didn't paint them, the sphinx is approximately 3" high, and 4.7" in diameter. This gives a conic volume of 17.34 cubic inches, or roughly 18 cubic inches since the sphinx is not a perfect cone. Since points for terrain are awarded by normalizing to a 6"x6"x6" cube (216 cubic inches), this is 0.08 of a 20-point cube equivalent, or roughly 2 points. Adding in 30 more for Awdry's Atoll, this gives me a whopping 32 points, and puts me just north of the 20% mark for the Challenge total.


From DaveD - Aaah our resident mathamagician will be impressed! In the words of Maximus "are you not entertained"  . That's a fine creation you have there - I am going with 35 points with little mathematical logic , but a heap of creative emotion as I likes it!  - that will fix him!

From KatrinaS - O'Grady's Gultch- archaeological site location -50 pts

 The ride across the island in Sarah's Balloon was fantastic! Solo parenting this week meant less time for painting and so I did just that. To top off my lack of time my old Turkish Jones fur babe is sick and not doing well so I may be taking a little more time to deal with things. I have also not been so active on responding to all the amazing work being posted so I will be catching up this weekend.

 Now onto this weeks submission, I have completed a picture frame terrain piece.The picture frame is a basic white frame from Ikea 9*11, fitted with 2 inch thick pink foam board, I excavated 2 units from and layered with liquitex and different colours of pigments. I included 20mm sand bags which are used for backfilling once excavations are completed and a hand made shovel in a loose backfill pile of sediments near the site.

 I wanted to take a aerial view since making the journey by air on this project and did so with a 28mm owl flying above holding the view of the piece. I don't have a lot of friends that actually game but do have a few that take interest in my painting journey, and one that had mentored me back in school while practising to become an archaeologist. He also holds the same name as the location just insert Dr. so its rather fitting to be gifted to him.

 

Golden Owl View

 

I drilled out the frame with a tiny hand drill and inserted a metal wire to hold the owl above. I was so pleased that it worked out.

 

Closer view of the site location, somewhere in Southeaster Oregon...

 

As close as I could get to a 20 mm shovel from scrap plastics. I'm all about recycling and try to do so whenever possible. 

 

20mm sandbags that I lifted from my husbands WWII collection...Giving them a better purpose here.

 

tiny shovel I made out of plastic bits approximately 20mm

So yeah here is what I did for O'Grady's Gultch, I hope you all like it even though its not for gaming. I'm not super sure on scoring so I will give it my best.

28mm owl: 5 pts

20mm sandbags: 4 pts

20mm shovel: 1 pt

(9*11) framed terrain scene : 10pts

O'Grady's Gultch: 30

Total: 50 points?

From DaveD - Hi Katrina - someone is getting a very nice creation there.  - I have gone with nice round 50 points!