From NoelW: Challenge Island, the Sequel: It’s madness, I tell you! Absolute madness! (60 points)

Well, here we are in the throne-cave, in the heart of the Snowlord’s Mountain vastness, a cavern awash from stem to stern with tides of gold: golden coins, gold plates and gold cups and gold saucers, gold teeth (some of them still attached to their owners), statues of gold, pillars of gold, gold canvasses covered in golden paint, frogs of gold, mould of gold, untold gold – maybe you get the idea. The Snowlord has a hoard.

In my haste to show him how much I revere the great and Snow-bedecked Lord (it must be snow, surely, that flecks his shoulders) I trip over a gold fish, and fall prostrate before him (I’ve had prostrate trouble for quite a while, actually).

“No need for grovelling,” he says, “but always nice to see it.”

Hastily I try to stem the Snowlord’s embarrassment by stashing the fish in my codpiece, but it wriggles down the leg of my hose and escapes through the hole in my sock.

“Oh mighty Lord of snowballs and Master of ice cubes, oh beneficent and most generous –"

“Haven’t you left yet?”

“Not entirely, no.”

“I thought you’d be halfway across the seven seas by now. Sea three and a half at least..”

“No, oh most helpful, and did I mention 'generous', Lord –“

“Look, cut out the grovelling, will you? Save it for the Visitors’ Book on your way out. Next!”

“No – but – inexecrable lord – there was – ahem – mention of treasure…”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but have I not already bestowed upon you one of my fiercest rays of sunshine, the mighty Andbhag (see here:)

and his even mightlier cuddly warhound the cute little warpoodle Tiddles (likewise:) 

Yet you ask more of my ineffable bounty?” *

“Well, it seems to me in many ways, quite effable,” I venture, “We were simply wondering if we could help recycle any of this surplus gold that’s getting in your way.”

“Do you know what I really fancy?” said the SnowLord, “Can you guess? What, do you think, might go well with a little fava beans and a nice chianti?”

“Anyway, as I was saying, if you could just let us have a map of the way home….”

“A map? A map? Didn't you record your journey here?”

“Sort of, but my second in command made little sketches all over it of everything  we encountered on the way, and the arrows sort of obscured all the detail, and then Andbhag needed something to clean up after Tiddles, and we’d run out of rags – er –" - I consider the way the Snow Lord is chewing on his club - "the short answer is ‘no’.”

“That’s the short answer, is it? Well, my advice is to go back to the place you last came from – Roundwood’s Tower, wasn't it? Once there, figure out how you got to it, and retrace your steps. Then from the next place, figure out where you came from…”

“I get the idea – but it took us days to get here. To do that whole journey again, that will take ….”

“…you well away from here. Guards!”

Valiantly we decide not to take up any more of the Great Snowman’s precious time. Luckily we're escorted off the premises by on honour guard of very friendly, red-coated military types who help us find the way out. They seem so amicable, we let them escort us the many miles back to – ah! How well I remember the many, many attractions completely missing from this dark, foreboding Tower!”

I think it's time for a balloon.

“Lady Sarah! Lady Sarah! Any chance of a quick lift? We’ve a champagne bottle, and there may still be something in it…”

(*For readers in the UK, other chocolate bars may be available.)

---

I’ve enjoyed the constraints of Challenge Island so much, I decided to double my fun. Having complete the trek to Snowlord Towers, I decided I wanted to repeat the journey in reverse, so that’s what I plan to do if it can be managed in the time that remains.

To make things that bit more interesting, I’m hoping to create a command base or similar small vignette at each location. Some will be tougher than others, though. However, I still plan to finish various forces that are on the stocks, too. I doubt can make all this match up perfectly well, but I’m going to fit things together as much as I can.

So I’m aiming to do the whole island, reversing the route I came by, although there won’t be any points for revisiting locations, so this route is, quite literally, pointless.

As I’m planning a vignette-like base at each location, here’s the first, for alternate history of Napoleon in India:

The mounted general is Hutchinson, from the Perrys’ collection for Egypt, whilst the foot figure really belongs in a later period and probably a different theatre. So I’ve painted his cape, which should properly be blue-grey, as if it was made from local Egyptian white cloth, as worn by many of French officers and troopers in that time. I'm not sure who manufactured this model.

Here are their junior officers:

and the sepoy grenadiers they command:

All Perrys, of course. 

Pointswise, that’s 10 28mm foot and 1 mounted, so 60 points.

From DaveD - Noel returns to knocking em out - lovely vignette pieces there Noel.

and with that the Wednesdays Minion is signing off - i leve you with Martin to bang the rocks together tomorrow

From Curt: Thornycroft LCA for Douglas' Shallows (50 Points)

For 'Douglas' Shallows' I offer a 1:50 scale Thornycroft landing craft (LCA).

The Thornycroft LCA was designed in 1938 after it became clear to the British that war with German had only been delayed, not forestalled. The Imperial General Staff desired a craft that could carry a platoon of men, have a low profile, be quiet on approach and be able to land their payload in 18 inches of water. After rigorous trials it was determined that the Thornycroft design was the best fit. It was made primarily of mahogany and had two 65hp engines, allowing it to make headway at 6kt fully loaded.

Canadians and the Thorycroft LCA have a tragic association with both being involved in the August 1942 Dieppe raid fiasco. I have a personal connection with the Dieppe operation as two men from my home town were members of the South Saskatchewan Regiment which landed at Green Beach on that day. 

Due to navigational errors, the South Saskatchewans were set down on the wrong side of the River Scie and became bottled up by machine gun and mortar fire at the foot of its only bridge crossing. Their commanding officer, Charles Merritt, led his men across the bridge under heavy fire and then proceeded to knock out several pillbox positions on the other side. Nonetheless, the battalion was forced back to the beach, and with their defensive perimeter closing in, Merritt decided to stay with the rearguard and the wounded. They fought until out of ammunition and then surrendered. Merritt was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions that day.

I was generously given two(!) Thornycrofts by Alf at Barrage Miniatures when we visited Madrid a few years ago. They are very nice resin models, meticulously scaled to 28mm figures (yes, Nick, I believe Alf said it was built to 1/48 to 1/50 scale). ;)

On top of the excellent casting, Alf created an ingenious way to display the boat with its loading ramp up or down by utilising two separate prow inserts. The inserts are very robust and look great.

A fairly quick paintjob, I've done it up in a three tone camo, common to that early period of the war. From what I understand, the boat identifiers for the Dieppe operation were hand-painted in red and so I've tried to copy a similar style here.

I did a bit of archival sleuthing and found a list of all the LCAs that were lost at Dieppe and found a few images to correlate to them. Here is one image of LCA 215, which from the position of the photo places it at Red Beach (you can see one of the abandoned Churchills behind it and the town's seawall further in the distance). 

LCA 215 grounded at Dieppe.

As to points I suggest simply scoring the Thornycoft as a 28mm vehicle. With the 30 points of Douglas's Shallows that should give me 50 points to add to my tally.

-Curt

From DaveD - that a nice piece MrC , the camo gives it a nice bit of something extra - 50 pts it is

From Barks: What shall we do with the drunken pirate? (37 points)

This Challenge has been an excellent impetus towards me getting paint on some of those odder single miniatures that have been floating about for years. For example, this Reaper pirate who is covered in little details. I like the little story the miniature tells with the monkey lifting up his eyepatch. You can't quite make out the "RUM" label on the bottle- also, can you find the cork?

I was a bit intimidated by having to sculpt the decking out of green stuff, but it wasn't too hard at all. I used a Renedra 30mm base.

This nicely suits the nautical theme at Reidy's Reef.

28mm pirate + monkey ~7 points
Reidy's Reef 30 points

From DaveD - cracking job there Barks thats a fine job. I can almost hear him singing!

From SimonM: "Wizkids" Zzzax (12 Points)

This 58mm tall plastic model of Zzzax is produced by “Wizkids” and is miniature number 025 from their Marvel “Heroclix” Mutations & Monsters range. "Formed from electricity by an act of sabotage at a Con Ed nuclear power plant in New York City", the humanoid creature was created by Steve Englehart and artist Herb Trimpe, and made his first appearance in the August 1973 issue of "The Incredible Hulk" by "Marvel Comics".

Brought to life by absorbing "the minds of the terrorists and several engineers", the translucent orange figure was initially primed using a couple of coats of "Vallejo" Heavy Ochre, and later soaked with "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson. I then began an hour long process of slowly dry-brushing the electrical super-villain's nicely-detailed body with an increasingly lighter combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Ochre and White using a professional cosmetic kit's makeup brush by "Abody".

This really proved something of a patient process, and I made sure not to clean my brush every time I concocted a new mix, so as to help blend the different layers together. After finally applying a 'pure' "Vallejo" White dry-brush, I decided to apply a layer of Yellow Fluorescent as something of an experiment. This seemed to work reasonably well, but in the end I decided to somewhat dampen the luminosity with a final dry-brush of (more) "Vallejo" White.

As a penultimate step I noticed in some of the comic book drawings of Zzzax that the monster has a noticeable pair of eyes, and even visible teeth in his mouth. I therefore 'picked out' these areas of the figure with a little "Citadel" Abaddon Black, before applying a couple of brush-tips full of "Vallejo" White. I then applied a couple (more) lines of "Citadel" Abaddon Black to the eye sockets to help give the always-angry behemoth a grimacing scowl.


From DaveD - OH gawd here he goes again with something i have never seen or heard of - but it does indeed look mighty nasty... even if you have forgotten your trade mark Nuln Oil. I have gone with 54 mm plus a bit for the scoring - so 12 points

From TamsinP: Robert E. Howard Will Be In His Bunk; Sarah's Balloon (300 points)

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


19th February, 1933, Texas?


Having restored the Snowlord's memory (not to mention saving the Challenge), I bid him "Adieu!" and head back down the mountain. With this task complete, I have no fixed plans for exploring Challenge Island, so I get out my device, hit "Random" and step through the rift.

Hmmm, a shiny sword, a painted shield, arm rings, hide boots and a fur dress *sniff* that hasn't been properly tanned - I'll need a good long scented bath to get rid of that stink - and I suppose I should be grateful that ti at least partially covers *one* of my breasts. 

The land I am in is hot, dry and dusty. Walking towards me is a tall, well built young man - I figure in his later twenties, with quite a round face, wearing a Panama hat. 

"Good day to you, ma'am" he greets me politely in a soft, deep Texas drawl. "This must be one of my dreams. I hope I remember it when I wake so that I can write it down. Are you here on your own?"

"I appear to be at the moment, but I'm pretty sure that some others will be along very soon. Ahhh! I think I hear them coming now."

With a loud, raucous shouting a horde of barbarian warriors appear over the crest of a low ridge to our North and join us.

"My word, what delightful friends you have. So muscular, so masculine, so barely dressed, so...will you please excuse me? I feel I must return to my bunk immediately."

I question my new friends and discover that I am the long lost warrior princess of their tribe, for whom they have been searching.

"Well, you've found me. Now bugger off back to our tribal lands and let me continue on my adventures alone!"

After some remonstrations they obey and depart - when a Princess tells you to naff off, you naff off if you know what's good for you. I look South and see a hot air balloon drifting on the wind.

"Ahoy the balloon!" I holler "Is that you Lady Sarah?"

"It is, it is! Is that you Tamsin?" comes the illustrious aviator's reply.

"Yes! It's so good to see you - could I possibly get a lift to Fran's Fjord?"

"Certainly! I'll drop the rope ladder for you."

I climb the rope ladder and haul myself into the Gondola. "I could really use a long bath right now. Do you still have my luggage from my first trip? I can't really go around wearing this fur "dress" forever."

Lady S wrinkles her nose, catching the scent of the poorly tanned fur. "Of course. The boiler has been on so there should be plenty of hot water. Your luggage is in the closet over there."

I thank Lady S, and head to the bathroom, collecting my luggage on the way. Inside the bathroom I remove the fur and discreetly jettison it through one of the portholes, before settling into the bath for a long, scented soak.



I'm not sure why, but a few months ago I had this mad idea to build a barbarian warband for Dragon Rampant. I remembered seeing someone at shows selling some nice looking "very 80s Conaneque figures" so I did a quick search on the interwebs to remind myself who they were - it was Battlezone Miniatures.  I knew they'd be at the SELWG show in October, so I made sure I had enough cash to buy one of each figure in the range. However, when I got home and worked out the force lists I realised that I didn't have quite enough figures, so I had to place an order for the extras I needed. They were very helpful and I soon had all the figures I would need. I then had a slightly daft idea for an extra unit to join them and ordered some more figures - I'm keeping that unit under wraps for now!

This entry is just the foot figures - I've got 22 mounted barbarians to paint as well, which should be along before the Challenge is over.


Bellicose Foot

Archers

Javelinmen

The archers can be used on their own as Scouts, or mixed with the javelinmen to form a Light Missile unit. The javelinmen can be mixed in with the swordsmen and axemen to from a Light Foot unit.


Shaman and Acolytes

These can be used as Spellcasters or Clerics.


Champions

Standards

Musicians

All the shields have had Norse runes painted on them:

With so much exposed flesh, I ended up spending a lot of time painting skintones. I also tried a new (for me) way of painting the steel of the sword, dagger and axe blades which I think has worked OK for a first attempt - I think it could do with a bit more contrast, but the "blue" effect is quite nice.

The only problem with these figures is that the metal they use is rather brittle, as I discovered when trying to bend one to a slightly more upright stance - one broken ankle that had to be pinned and greenstuffed. Oh and the big standard - yup, that snapped and needed pinning and greenstuffing (as did the two similar mounted standards).

The Druid and acolytes (and I suspect the "princess") were sculpted by Martin Baker; the rest of the barbarians were sculpted by Mark Copplestone.

For Scoring:

51 x 28mm foot @ 5 = 255 points
Frequent Flyer Bonus = 10 points (this is my third trip!)

Total: 265 points
plus whatever the minion decides the three hand-painted standards and 22 shields are worth.

From DaveD - Blimey Tamsin - there is a points bombe for a Wednesday mornings - lovely work as well - instant army alright - ok for your mad painted shields and banners and the overall bonkers ness i will make this a nice round 300 points!