From SanderS: "From the fury of the Northmen deliver us..." at Hawkins' Hill (105 pts)

Hoi,

Since my vacation has ended last Monday, painting time is more limited. I did try to get some stuff done however and  therefore I have tried to finish two Challenge Island entries as soon as possible. One is the contribution for Hawkins'Hill

Silly really how much figures that I prepped for earlier Challenges are still in the cue! Hawkins'Hill is the place to be since here your entry needs to be prepped pre Challenge 7.
Perhaps you guys can remember me listing some characters from the Stronghold Terrain Saga series that features Famous Vikings? Well at that time I had bought two sets from the firm at the Crisis; one for my brother who is a great fan of the series and one for myself. The figures I painted back then were my brother's set.

Curt liked them a lot so I decided to choose my Ragnar as the Curtgeld for that Challenge. Curt implied he liked Floki better so I took my spare Floki figure and painted that up for him as well. That left me with an incomplete set and my interest in painting them waned. The TV series has progressed into season 5 or is it 6 already? and more characters were added to the Stronghold range. So last Crisis I replaced the missing figures from my set and bought some additional ones.

 

So here are the Vikings from Challenge 6 (my original Lagertha, Björn and Rollo added to by Ragnar and Floki and some others as well!

 Ragnar (to the left) and Floki. While I am happy with the overall look, bungled up the tattoos on Ragnars head and Floki's eye-make-up so I left the tattoos off and redid the facial make-up trice...

Rollo (to the left) and Björn.

The most famous Shieldmaiden of all: Lagertha, sadly I painted he face resembling Madge Simpson... 

Stronghold seems to work together with Brother Vini on this range and the two shieldmaidens on the left are from their combined range. Right of them are Athelstan the monk and the Viking mage known only as "The Seer"

Stronghold also has some Saga civilian sets and the four figures from the left are from one of those sets. The two figures to the right are complementary figures I received in my package.

A casualty marker:

The mede-drinking guy to the right looks like a Jomsviking to me but he's a 

nice addition to any table.

There are still some other characters from the series prepped for painting but I am not sure I will be able to finish them within the time left for the Challenge.
I believe points wise these figures will bring me 15 x 5 =75 plus 30 from the Challenge bonus is 105 points.

***
You are not alone Sander, I have tons of things prepped from past challenges that are still sitting there with only primer on them....  I am sure most of the entrants do <sigh>....

As for your figures, I love them.  They have a ton of character to them and your colour choices are really great. The mix of colours between the different figures really makes them look right.

Now I want to go paint my vikings....

-ByronM

From AlexS: Wild West (125 pts)

Hello to everyone! My name is Alex and I love great projects. Last year, I started doing a big project, Wild Wild West, in which cowboys confront Cthulhu and other ancient nightmares. I did terrain and painted miniatures, and the call perfectly helped me in this. This year I made a small addition to this project - three buildings, a monk, cowboys and Indians.

I especially drew attention to the war paint of horses. It does not coincide with the historical one, but it looks great. These horses are truly fighting friends of the Indians.

I made two buildings myself, and the church - factory production. It turned out better, but I believe that I myself will make such terrane from clay and sticks. In general, a very good addition came out. I am pleased that thanks to the event I got these buildings and miniatures.

points
terrain - 40 points
9 inf 28mm - 45 points
4 cav 28mm - 40
total - 135 points

***
Once again a lovely collection of terrain Alex!  I love how you manage to grab seemingly random junk and make great looking terrain.  My only concern/question is where on earth do you keep it all???  I have a hard time keeping even 25% of what I would like to, and the wife is STILL on my case about how much I have!!!

-ByronM

From NoelW: The Stones of Venice : Cooke’s Crevasse: (120 points)

A stone’s throw from Hawkin’s Hill is the crooked declivity of Cooke’s Crevasse, where a small village sits, frequently rocked to sleep by the sporadic landslides and rockfalls from the cliffs that lean above it. Some buildings line the valley floor, but others, a little bolder, perch on the cliff-face itself.

Today they’re having some sort of festival or rock concert – I’m afraid I’m igneous of the nature of the celebration – they seem to celebrate rock around the clock, loud music perpetually threatening to make everyone stone deaf. In my view, they should leave no turn unstoned. Meanwhile, not a single villager is stone cold sober, with more than a couple sprawled on the sidewalk, completely stoned.

For some reason the centre-point of the festival seems to be total bullocks, as they’re pulling this elaborately decorated wagon. 

Behind it is a massive great gun, which looks so old it was probably the source of the original Big Bang.

Unfortunately my latest sergeant, Cliff, does not realise the gun is of purely ceremonial importance. In a slightly inebriated haze he lifts one of the mighty stones nearby and  proceeds to load it into the gun. Then, failing to stand well back, he lights the blue touchpaper. With a roar the size of a politician’s ego, the great stone ball shoots out to hit the great stone wall of the crevasse. There’s a landslide-like rumbling which is not, for a change, the sergeant’s stomach, and a headache of rocks tumble down.

In a few moments my sergeant becomes not only Cliff in name but very much in appearance, too.

---

In 1853 John Ruskin, artist and art critic, published “The Stones of Venice” a three volume treatise on the architecture of Venice which became a significant stimulus to the movement for preserving Venetian buildings. With sea levels rising, this is of particular concern once again.

Here are my Stones of Venice.

When I was an adolescent, in the early nineteenth century, I’d often walk along Longwall Street in Oxford. It’s one of those picturesque places which feature in TV detective programmes set in the city, such as Inspector Morse, and a nice long walk which pretty much guaranteed I could be late for Morning Assembly. Along that street are a series of buildings painted in pastel colours. I used to wonder who lived there (probably rich Dons) and whether I might grow up to live in such unusual buildings (I didn’t grow up, so I’ve never lived in such a place).

When I bought TT Games Venetian buildings my research into suitable colours reminded me of those childhood walks. Many of the characterful buildings of the Burano district of Venice are painted in distinctive and varied bright or pastel colours, so that’s what I’ve plumped for. I’ve no idea how accurate this might be for the Renaissance. 

These pieces are part of my rather erratic inroads into the Italian Wars. I’d been contemplating the period for some while, working on odd pieces here and there, but largely sporadic, but became particularly keen on it after Yarkshire Gamer’s beautiful work last year.

I began the Carrochio several years ago, but I assembled it badly, gluing the banner pole the wrong way round, and breaking one of the wheels so after a little desultory painting, I gave it up. Similarly, I painted the bombard from the Perrys’ kit, but failed to assemble or paint the mantlet or the crew. So this year I decided to rebegin these pieces. I repainted the carrochio from scratch:

And I built and painted the elaborate mantlet, together with another bombard to use with it, slightly smaller than the original, but perfectly fine.

Scoring is a bit complicated, I guess. Each of the three buildings and the bridge are based on a nominal 3” x 6” x 3” block, but they’re all a little bigger than that in all three dimensions. An earlier post this year awarded the tall building paired with the bridge together 20 points.  So I’d suggest:

28mm Carrochio: 4 bullocks: 20; wagon: 10; 3 devotees: 15; flags: 1 – Total 46

28mm Bombard: 1 gun: 10; mantlet: 10; 4 crew: 20 – Total 40

28mm Buildings and bridge: about 1.6 cubes, so 32 points

TOTAL: 118 points

***
You are right that this is a rather eclectic submission with bits and pieces, but they are all really good!

You also forgot to add your 30 points for the map location, so you score has been rounded up to 150 points.

As for the figures themselves, they are great with all the bright colours, as are the buildings which are simple but very effective and will really make the tabletop look alive!  Awesome work!

- ByronM


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.

Burch's Bluffs from PeteF: Post Apocalypse Family Vignette (45 points)

Striding out along the path of the New Shiny I come to the imposing Burch's Bluffs. But the Evil Empire of GW is anathema to me - I cancelled my subscription to White Dwarf when the whole enterprise went over to Warhammer. What minis in my collection could fit the  Horus Heresy?

The giant civil war in question raged across many worlds as the rival genetically engineered factions duked it out. Often forgotten in such conflicts are the civilians, left to scratch out a living on the ruined remains of their once prosperous home planets. The Space Marines have moved on to create yet more destruction elsewhere. Here is one of the many post apolcalypse families they have left in their wake.

Bullet Proof Vest and Gasmask

And self defense... even in one so young

The minis are from a Fantasy Games Unlimited kickstarter that I supported last year. They are modelled on the cover art of their post apocalypse RPG: Aftermath. The company is decidedly old school - I don't have the Aftermath rules but the minis reminded me of Gamma World, which I enjoyed in my teens. I also have a soft spot for post apocalyptic fiction (from Earth Abides to Wool, from When Worlds Collide to The Stand) and one day might find a related skirmish game. In the meantime, some of my friends are starting to play Star Breach and these miniatures should fit right in.

The sculpts are really good with a lot of nice detail. The kickstarter backers got the resin base thrown in - and this is fun too with lots things to paint - including flowers, critters and a skull.

16 locations visited - 3 to go.

The minis are worth 13 points and the new location 30 - not sure how to score the base. As a terrain piece it's not very big - maybe a couple of points for a total of 45?

***
What a great little vignette Pete!  The miniatures are so full of character as well, wonderful submission.  The pattern on the dress would have confounded me, so great job on that at well!  You are right they have a very old school look and feel to them, and remind me of something that would fit right into the world of Fallout.

-ByronM

From StephenS: Cartheginians... when will it end? (60 points)

Hi,

Many moons ago a gaming buddy and I decided to play out some classic ancient battles - Rome against Carthage. We decided on the Basic Impetus rule set and then got to collecting and painting. My buddy, as is his want, produced a beautiful Roman force in what seemed like an afternoon. Then before I had got mine completed (almost 12 months later), he had doubled it so we could play larger battles. So, I needed to double my force. Then just as I finished, the second edition rule set landed. My army list had been revised. Units had been added. I needed to paint more models to field a legal force. I needed to paint them twice to field the double sized force. It has been 5 years and I'm still painting Carthaginians...

The first of the new reinforcements is some Spanish scutarii, eager to assist Hannibal in his quest to destroy Rome. They're 28 mm metals miniatures from Warlord Games.

Next are two units of skirmishers, also 28 mm metals from Warlord Games.

All up that is 12 x 28 mm figures for 60 points.

The good news is I only have three more units to paint up, so I should be finished in time for the next edition to drop...  =)

Cheers,

Steve

***
These are some great looking figures Stephen and I really like the basing as well.  I find that I am drawn more and more to systems that keep figures based in groups for anything other than skirmish combat, it makes it so much easier to move units around.

As for your painting, I love the bright crisp reds and the deep shadows on your figs, great work!

- ByronM