From AlexS: 'The Island' for Snow Lord's Peak (50 Points)

Hello everybody! My name is Alex, I am from Russia and I present to you my most important project at this event.

The Snow Lord, wise and great, set before me the task of creating terrain worthy of his island. At first I decided that I could do it with materials that I would find in the garbage dump. But this is not worthy of a great lord! So I went to the store.

The material I bought, among other things, is patriotic.

As you understand, I was going to make the island itself, because it is such a terrain worthy of the Challenge.

Further photos will be interesting if you want to know how I did this and you want to repeat my idea. If not, you can easily ignore them.

By the way, as the Great Snow Lord ordered, I used a gun with hot glue!

I painted almost the entire island with an airbrush.

And a little literary description:

The tired traveler ascended to the top of Snow Peak.

-  Oh great lord! - he exclaimed, - I brought something worthy of you! Now, in order to survey your possessions, you can not go out in the cold, but sit in your office, drink wine, bask in the fireplace to contemplate the land that belongs to you! Will you accept my gift?

 It was an interesting experience, and I am grateful to Сurt that I did it. In the summer I will actively use this island during the pirate games - it will be called "Сurt Island" and on it we will note the movements of our troops. In addition, I hang it on the wall and will regularly watch and remember this event and all those people who took part in it. Thank you all!

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Alex, this is absolutely amazing. I LOVE it. When I first wrote up your Snow Lord's Peak challenge Sarah said to me, 'You know, Alex is not just going to make a terrain piece of an aspect of the island, he's going to do something for the WHOLE thing.' As usual, she was right on the mark. 

I enjoyed seeing how your project came together and had a wonderful time popping back and forth between Sidney's drawing of the Island and your 3D rendition; looking for specific features like Millsy's Millpond, Fran's Fijord, Awdry's Atoll, etc. If one takes the time to look they're all there to be enjoyed. 

As your prize, I think it's only fitting that your upcoming island adventurers have a suitable objective for their quest, so here is Dave's excellent 'Treasure Horde' to add to your enviable collection of terrain.

Well done Alex, and thank you for such an entertaining and creative SNP submission.

Curt

From NoelW: Gone but not frogotten : Millsy’s Millpond: (10 points)

Last time we were here, we came across a rather rude frog. And here he is again!

“Ribbit!”

“What do you mean ‘kiss me’?”

I look at my corporal quizzically: “You speak amphibian?”

My men are a continual surprise.

“I had a somewhat misspent youth.”

“With frogs?”

His face reddens: “Don’t jump to any conclusions. Mainly just leapfrog.”

“And this one wants you to kiss him? Her? It?”

“It’s a well-known fact. Well, motif. Well, cliché of the lazy writer. If you kiss a frog, it’ll be restored to its original human self and shower the kisser with treasure.”

“Or warts?” I suggest. But his last word strangely interests me. It’s certainly worth a try, if treasure is involved.

“Ok, Corporal. Or, let’s say, Sergeant, shall we? Give the amorous amphibian what it desires.”

With an unexpected lack of reluctance my newly elevated sergeant leans down to the frog and, well, surprise, surprise, there’s a flash of absolutely no light at all, no sound of thunder, not even a whisper of wind, and where there was a frog and a sergeant suddenly I’ve no frogs and two sergeants. Frankly, given the way things have been going with sergeants lately, I’d confidently expected to have two frogs.

“Good to have you back,” I say to the newly reintegrated sergeant, as he's escorted shakily back into line.

“Ribbit,” he says.

I interpret this to mean “It’s surely time to put all this behind us and be on our way to Benito’s Brook.”

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This was a difficult one, finding a vignette of early figures for Millsy's delight, so a slight compromise. The figures are definitely from pre-2000, but I don’t know exactly when, acquired from a miscellaneous collection at a Bring and Buy. They’re Wargames Foundry Indian Mutiny figures. I’ve no plans for a British 1850s army in India, but they’ll be fine as part of my Cape Wars collection. The Brits in these wars, against Xhose, Boer and various other groups, wore various motley uniforms on campaign (which was most of the time) and as the wars cover pretty much 100 years (1779-1879) most variants of uniform over the first three quarters of the nineteenth century are acceptable.

Score: 2 x 28mm figs: 10 points

MilesR: An excellent story to match two excellent figures.  Your pointology is a bit off as you forgot your 30 bonus points.  Never fear, that's what minions are for.  Well that and lots of menial tasks Curt assigns us which were hidden in the contract and are - well, perhaps I digress here.  40 points for you!



Edited by TamsinP - the location bonus points were added by mistake (this is Noel's 2nd visit to the location) and have now been removed.

From EvanH - Cool for Cats (14 points)

Greetings Challengers and Challenge Fans, I've found time to paint up a couple of quick beasties to keep my hand in. Honestly, real life has such a terrible habit of intruding upon painting...!

These are Smilodons from the Acheson Creations Primaeval Designs range, one in resin (L) and the other in metal (R), and very nice they are too.

But Ev, I hear you cry, what the blue blazes are you doing with prehistoric stuff? I thought you were doing Bronzey Agey figs at the moment, not extinct animals! Well, they're not extinct in Glorantha, and they are a menace to pastoralists in the highlands of Sartar. Good for Lost World Pulp Adventures as well, now I think of it...

I based them on Warbases 60mm MDF rounds, and textured the ground with your friend and mine, Vallejo White Pumice Paste, the quickest and most effective groundwork for my money.

The base tone on the cats was Vallejo Game Colour Beasty Brown, worked up through Leather Brown, and with an added drop of GW Bleached Bone to lighten the final muscle highlights. This mix was lightened further to bring out the belly fur and ruff around the face and neck of each of these beasties. I painted and drybrushed the earth tones on the base, and finished the painting with a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone, and a blast of Dullcote.

I finished off the groundwork with some Tajima Tufts Desert Diorama Elements. My last ones as well!

No theme bonus for this submission, so I've calculated the points value at around seven apiece, since they're not as massive as my mythical monsters, but they're considerably bigger than a 28mm human. Seven points each seems a nice compromise.

Better get cracking on that Reidy's Reef submission... that boat ain't gonna sink itself!

Stay tuned!

Ev
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MilesR: Two very nice cats, indeed.  I like the Acheson Creations line and have several of their figures waiting painting.  The basing is very nicely done and seems to match the cats look very well.  I've heard through many sources that the participants of this year's challenge find the locale "Reidy's Reef" to simply be the best spot of the whole damn island.  Hey that's just what I'm hearing....

PaulOG: Wall of Matrys (90 points)

Finally got some paint onto a long neglected bit of terrain this weekend: the Wall of Martyrs. I recently picked up an Imperial fortress looking thing second hand at CanCon, so that gave me the impetus to get it done - great battlefield options for playing Kill Team.

 Here is the Wall of Matyrs - a defensive fortification in inimitable GW style.  It comprises 2 long trenches, 3 intersections and 6 end pieces to make a flexible system.

New terrain deserves some new defenders!

I also did 2 tester figs for my new Kill Team faction - the Black Templars.  Yes I am a sucker for a new army, but at least in Kill Team its only a modest investment (or so I tell myself)

In action this morning - defended by Chaos Marines!

This entry makes the Skull-o-meter very happy: The templar figures have 4 skulls between them, and the myriad corpses of dead imperial guardsmen stacked against the wall of martyrs add another (48+28+17+26+26) = 145: a small skull bomb!
Added to my previous work, that brings my current tally to 233 noggins.  Thats a lot of grim dark!

Points wise the trenches all add up to 6 lengths of 6 inch x 4 inch wide terrain.  Thats the equivalent of 4 terrain blobs for 80 points. The two 28mm figs add another 10 for a total of 90.

Thats should break my target 500 points target - onto Snowlord's Peak!

MilesR: A wonderful and macabre piece of terrain there Mr O'G.  The skull count is just as impressive.  I like the weathering on the walls.  Hmmm, If only you had some ships to paint...... 

From JohnS - F is for Fusileros - How I got Lost On The Iberian Peninsula (40 pts)

I am currently obsessed with the War in the Spanish Peninsula, with a trip in the planning and new armies being painted. My gentle interest in the Napoleonic Wars have been steadily increasing since my Waterloo trip in 2015 and is now manifesting as  full on miniature collecting and Spanish lessons!

As part of my British Allied contingent I have been building Spanish mid-war units and I am particularly interested in the transition uniforms when everyone had a hodge podge of bits of issued, scrounged and improvised kit, plus a lot of civilian attire too. This group of Spanish Fusileros represent the regular infantry beginning to receive British manufactured equipment but mixing it with locally sourced items.

Besides, who doesn't love a chap in a top hat. (Yes, I know they were referred to as Round Hats, just pipe down in the back and count your buttons). From the fabulous Perry brothers, these miniatures were easy to paint while at the same time difficult. I find it easy to "colour-in" uniforms that are all the same but give me choices and I get a bit lost. I ended up limiting myself to a small palette and achieved what I hope is a semi-coherent unit.

As part of the Sharpe Practice side duel and my own ABC challenge I hope you enjoy them. The 40 points from these will take me to an AHPC personal best. I can even see achieving my stated points goal as a possibility this year.

MilesR: JohnS - these look wonderful - very nicely done.  I do have so bad news for you, becoming fascinated with Napoleonics is definitely a sign of aging.  It's a well known scientific assumption that as wargamers age they become more Napoleonic in nature.  Another classic sign is hair migrating form the top of your head to your ears.  Ummm, lets move on......

40 points for you - congrats on doing your personal best!

From Barks: Plague Marines (20 points)

I had the lurgi last week, and coincidentally started painting these Nurgle figures. I thought they'd be quick, because Nurgle is just a basecoat and a dirty wash, right? But I was wrong- they're covered in lovely detail that I felt compelled to pick out, and I kept finding new details tucked away.

I went for a yellow and black scheme, reminiscent of hazmat suits.

3x 28mm: 15 points

Skull-o-meter™: 17

Cumulative Skullz: 37

I'd like to up my points target to 1250.

MilesR: GW figures can be really fun to paint and in your hands they turn out to be little works of art, puss oozing, contagious and somewhat disgusting works of art, but art none-the-less.  Very nicely done.  GW's are bigger than 28mm so I'm tossing in 5 bonus points.  You're also getting as I type this a scrunched up nose EWWWWW reaction completely for free.  You're welcome.

All kidding aside, the painting really is superb - well done.

From TomM: My name is Dungeon Master (7pts)

Let's go on a blast from the past in this latest figure print I made, Dungeon Master, from the 1983 cartoon.

Yeah, I am that old, looking at this saturday morning cartoon fascinated as a 5 year old, and this is probably one of the early seeds of my fantasy loving mind being formed.

While the series, which ran for three seasons and counted 27 episodes, was never completed and ended on a cliffhanger, it remains something definitlt worth to watch, and can be found on the internet easily.

The model itself is from Thingiverse, as are most of my prints as I set out in the world of 3d printing (though I am eyeing some Kickstarters and Patreons), and is scaled for use in 28mm games.  heck, a great encounter even for your DnD sessions if you need a godlike being showing up?

This model should add another 5 points to my tally, so my total is now really nearing the "mark" I gave at the beginning, so any day now I should complete my challenge hattrick, go me!

MilesR: A very nice 3D printed figure - what layer size did you use for the printing?  I am awarding you 2 bonus points as the provenance of this figure from Thigiverse likely violates multiple IP laws and I salute your bold, but perhaps, foolhardy stand against "The Man".  Go you, indeed, Sir.

From LeeH - The Hall of Heros (50 Points)

It probably hasn't gone unnoticed that I have been building a lot of terrain this Challenge for a Frostgrave tabletop. Most of the buildings are resin pieces that I have mounted on card, or simple foam buildings I constructed with a range of techniques. I have enough now to cover a reasonably-sized table but I wanted one more large building to top off the set. I didn't really have a clear plan of what I wanted, just a vague idea I didn't want it to be square like all the others. It also needed to be generic enough to serve as a range of possible building types. I've named it The Hall of Heroes but with the addition of some movable terrain items, it could be made to look like a wizards laboratory; a chapel or a mausoleum.

I started off simply by making a big bag of stone blocks, enough to give the building some height. This was a laborious task as I had to make sure they were as close as possible to being consistently sized, so some precision knife work and a lot of patience were required. These blocks then needed to be rolled (to round off the edges) and pressed with stones to give the otherwise perfectly flat surfaces some dimpled stone-like character. This step alone took a whole evening and resulted in a lot of foam dust - be warned, a mask is essential unless you want to breathe this nasty stuff in!

I used a large dinner plate as the template for the circular base, with the additional vestry/corridor added on one side. Then I scored the floor tiles, cracks etc using a pencil and a range of plastic sculpting tools. With the floor, layout sorted I started to build, again without any clear design in mind, and just let the muse take me as I built upwards! I tended to lay a course of bricks, pin them in place and then add another layer the following day when the first lot had died. All very time-consuming but it meant I was able to keep the walls relatively verticle and solid.

Initially, I was considering buying window frames from a dolls house specialist but I couldn't find what I wanted. They were either the wrong shape or just looked too perfect, so in the end, I tried making some myself. It took a few attempts to get a consistent result using the foam, but I'm pretty happy with the outcome. I'm glad I went with this option as I think windows that were too perfect would not fit with the rest of the building, which purposefully looks like the ravages of time and ice have bowed the walls, worn the stonework and of course collapsed the roof.

I found a couple of small items in my bits box to add to the scratch-built model. First off I added a shrine showing what is presumably a grieving wizard slumped over a great tome. It's suitably melancholic and fitted the 'theme' I had in mind. This model was part of a set bought from Debris of War. The dead tree that had burst through the floor and up the wall is part of a set from Games Workshop that I bought years ago. And the shields on the walls are from Colonel Bill's dark ages set.

As for size here's where it gets mathemagical... The main circular part of the building is 11 inches across with an average height of 5 inches. By the alchemy of Pi that gives an internal volume of this cylinder as 475 cubic inches. The little antechamber or vestry is 2 inches wide, 4.5 inches tall and 9 inches long (as an arc average) giving that a volume of 81 cubic inches giving a total for the whole building of 556 cubic inches. Divide that by 216 (a 6x6x6 cube) gives 2.57, call it 2.5 terrain cubes, which should earn me a tidy 50 points. Phew, all that maths has made my head hurt. That should conclude my Frostgrave Terrain for now, although I do have some other resin items I may work on if I find the time.

MilesR: What is this? Superb Terrain?, Arcane Calculations?, Pi? am I in heaven?  Oh Lee, you handsome rascal, I love it when you create both wonderful terrain and "do the math".  Welcome to the club, old boy.  The Tower ruin is simply superb and will definitely be a show piece on any table.  Not that've you've entered the glamorous world of mathmagical terrain making, what's next?  TV, Movies, maybe even the runways of Paris or Milan?  OK lets skip the Milan fashion shows for awhile....