From PaulSS: [Hall of Traps] Major Hogan (35pts)

 

Hall of Traps: A figure or unit which is trapped, stuck in a trap, snared, or lying in wait. Watch your step, Challengers!

Major Michael Hogan is a little early for my Hundred Days forces, Bernard Cornwell had killed him off in the Peninsular, but I thought Wellingtons trusted Exploring Office would be good as both a trapper and trappee.

Major Hogan has to both counter the machinations of Pierre Ducos and at the same time attempt to snare the French army at a disadvantage, whether it is gathering intelligence or liaising with Spanish guerillas. 

Maj. Michael Hogan: "It ain't justice, Richard, but politics, and like all politics it ain't pretty, but well done it can work wonders."

This is a lovely model sculpted by Paul Hicks for Brigade Games and really captures Major Hogan as played by actor Brian Cox in the Sharpe TV series.

One foot and one mounted figure with the location bonus should snare me 35 points.

28mm Napoleonics Duel Totalizer: 4 mounted, 3 foot

From PaulSS: [The Pit of the Pendulum] Stocks (22pts)

The Pit of the Pendulum: Paint something torturous, terrifying - or just something with a slowly descending pendulum-blade… swoosh…swoooooshhhh….. arrrghhhh!!

I was at a loss as how to fulfil this location with something suitably Napoleonic (no matter how tenous) and drew a blank, fortunately a trip to my local game store turned up a cornucopia of torture implements that may fit the bill.

These are a pair of stocks from the Wizkids Deep Cuts range.

Stocks may have mainly fell out of use by the Napoleonic times, but there is a record of their use in the UK as late as 1872, so they may feature in some of our games.

They are a pretty simple paint job, so I think probably only worth a point a piece, plus the location bonus for a total of 22 points.

From JonathanO: Finnish snipers - Hall of Traps (40 points)

 Hello fellow challengers.  I am very happy to be back for my 6th challenge.  I have really enjoyed all the posts so far.  It is about time I got some points on the scoreboard myself!  I had the route and all the models for the various Chambers of Challenge locations figured out before the start of the painting challenge.  Some of my ideas are similar to many others that have already been posted.

My entry for the Hall of Traps consists of some Winter War Finnish snipers and anti-tank gunners - lying in wait for Soviet invaders.  These are 28mm figures by Baker Company.  I am not sure why, but I actually find painting white uniformed figures quite hard.  These took much longer than I thought they would.  

This group adds a few more figures to my growing forces for the Winter War.  I plan to use Chain of Command rules, but may also try Bolt Action.

 

The prone figures are just worth half points, so this should give me 40 points including the location bonus.

Scott has challenged me to be first to reach our 800 point target.  The winner (probably Scott) gets a painted figure from the loser (likely me).  As an added incentive to actually hit my target this time, I have agreed to paint a vehicle or group of figures for Scott should I fail!  Back to the brushes!

From Bruce R. Back to History "Vikings" 30 pts

 Stole some painting time Saturday and Sunday.  These six were in the que and our group here does do some Vikings for games.  Again Foundry Miniatures with names.  Olaf the Stout, Harald Finehair, Ragnar Hairy Britches, Bjorn Ironsides, Rollo the Ganger, and Harald Bluetooth.  Rollo is a head taller and makes for great model size differences on the table.  LBMS shield decals.   May even try them out with the gang through Zoom.  Well here they are...

Shield Wall!!!

Hmm, off to the "Chamber of Darkness" Greyscale.  Never tried before so need to dig out a black base coated mini.  Then to the Larder and I'm tempted to continue my strange offering for rooms based off the Zombie Militia.  

Keep your brushes wet.

Skol!

Bruce 

From DaveS - Did the Eart Move For You?

 This is the third of my entries that I have picked out from Wizkids D&D and Pathfinder ranges for the Chambers.  For the Golem's Haunt, the only thing I could see fitting for me was an elemental.  While I painted an Ice Elemental for an entry a few years ago, this time, only the rather impressively sized Earth Golem from their range would do.  Add to that the fact that it's a whole lot of model for £5, and my entry was decided.

It's a relatively simple paint job, with drybrushing used mainly.  I aimed for a ruddy brown clay like appearance, and I'm happy with the effect.  The blue glow was created by wet blending several blues together in the mouth, and again  I think works.

I've no idea how many points this should be.  I know I should get 20 for the chamber, but I don't have a clear idea how to score the model.  I've included a shot below with one of the 28mm human sized models from the same range for scale.  Hopefully our glorious leader can give me some advice.

From StuartL - What do you get if you cross an Owl and a Bear? - 25 Points

With Christmas behind us and the New Year looming in front, it is time to delve deeper into the Chambers of Challenge. Descending to level 2, the first chamber is the Hatchery. Finding something that fit the Avian theme wasn't too difficult, deciding which model to paint was. In the end, I plumped for a staple of the D&D series, the classic Owlbear. 

Ferocious and able to see well in the dark, the Owlbear is a prime example of why wizards and alcohol are a poor combination. For some reason, this specimen also has bony protrusions jutting out from it's spine.

As with a lot of my recent entries, this mini is from Reaper's Bones range of minis and will no doubt see play with my D&D group as and when normal life resumes.

And for the third picture, the chef and his bestest buddy from my last post are back to create a bit of an action scene.

So this should net me 5 points for the mini, (he's a bulky looking critter, but was really fast to paint being largely brown) and 20 for the chamber. No Skullz, Squirrels or GW side duels here sadly, so those totals won't be changing... yet.

From RobP: Codsticker's First Submission: Negavolt Cultists (20 pts)

 Hello all, this is my rookie appearance in the APC but I have followed it for years and missed registering last year 'by that much'.

    My first entry is 4 Negavolt Cultists from the Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress basic game. 

I started these on the 21st but didn't get much painting time in between the 24th and 26th with family stuff going on. Today I was able to finish them off.

Like most (all?) GW figures there is a lot of detail on these minis; I may regret my choice to try and get through the remainder of my Blackstone Fortress models as part of the challenge.

Actually, looking at the pics, I'm not sure why they took so long...😕

Next up something simpler I think; possibly a unit of Norman warriors for my Saga warband or some boats to float around the aquafer in...

From KyleC - Adventurers Landing 64 pts

After much faffing about in Level 1 and dealing with a lockdown Christmas here.. I finally got a chance to do some printing and painting again!

Landing in a strange land, our heroic adventurers end up a bit underwater in a sunken land. 

Floating past the seaweeds, whale bones and ancient viking longboat... Everything seemed fine until an encounter with the local populace.. 

Between the Shaman and the Warrior, we have the hive mind and her pet mantaray. 

I tried to keep a darkened underwater color scheme here. I also had fun with the monotone on level 1 and wanted another go with it here.

All in its 20 pts for the terrain, 24 pts for the models (2*28, 2*40) and the challenge giving me 64 pts here.

And seeing the photos I really need to find another backdrop here other than blue! Now to get back at painting more Chambers worth.. And also begin to show off the Adventurers moving through this Dungeon! 

From PeteF The Horror, The Horror (65 points)

Horrors

After a quick break from dungeon exploring to paint some Minifigs - here is my entry for The Pit of The Pendulum. These beasties are Horrors from the Nightstalkers faction in Mantic Games Kings of War.

Riftweaver

It's something to do with sprues and molds or whatever - but Mantic ended up putting more of these nasties in their Nightstalker armies than you'd really need in a typical force. So they introduced the "Horror Riftweaver" monster - which is just five horrors on a single 50x50 base. Since I had a bunch of Horrors from various sources I've done five as a riftweaver.

Unfortunately the riftweaver is pretty crap in the game so it may never see use on the table top. The individual horrors, however are quite handy. They are cheap (Kings of War being an army building points based game) and have good spell options for making other units more effective. According to the fluff "their warped and broken bodies channel the bitter winds of the shadow worlds". Mwahahahaha.

The standard pose

The horror model from Mantic is monoposed so I chopped them up a bit for variety. The Reapers (also Nightstalkers) came with some spare arms that seemed to fit the aesthetic. I used contrast paints to get the basic colour scheme done but ended up basecoating and layering over most of it. The crackling magicky bits were tricky but turned out OK if you don't inspect the minis too closely.

Movie Clue

You may notice a clutch of eggs amongst these horrors (so could have been used for the hatchery). My Nightstalkers have references to various scary movies as they are from the realm of nightmares. These were prepped and primed for Challenge X - glad to finally paint them.

PC XI Shelf - 2 squirrel points

Because of the pandemic, I haven't managed to get them on the table for a game or tournament - but hopefully they'll see some Kings of War action in 2021.

9 horrors and a room bonus for 65. 

From PeterD Aquifer - Spica Class Torpedo Boats (24 points)

 

Lupo and Cassiopia

First post from me this year and I think the first entry in the Naval Side Duel.  I have two Italian Spica Class torpedo boats (equivalent to a Destroyer Escort in USN speak) from WW2.  The models are in 1/2400 scale and are by CinC, now sold by Legions IV Hire slightly to our east in Winnipeg.  They are sailing up the Aquifer to get me not our dungeon's first level.

Lupo had the reputation of the luckiest ship in the Navy. 

A series of Naval Treaties limited nations' ship building in most categories, but placed no limits on torpedo boats under 1000 tons displacement.  The Germans built the Elbing class that gavee Allied Light Forces a headache in the Channel, the French built the almost useless Melpomene class and the Italians built these very successful and hard worked ships.  They carried three 4" guns, a light torpedo armament pus AA and ASW weapons.  They carried out the bulk of the escort work on the Convoys to North Africa.  Most importantly for the Regina Marina they were much more economical on fuel than larger ships, with oil reserves being the biggest factor restricting operations as the war dragged on.

There were 30 in the class, plus two sold to Sweden, and more in two similar classes.  Many of them put up impressive battle records. After the Italian Armistace many were taken over by the Kriegsmarine while others served with honour alongside the allies.  

These are the first pictures taken in my new light box picked up over the summer.

In the past 1/2400 scale ships have been worth 2 points a piece, meaning that I've got to put out a lot of hulls to keep pace with my opponents in the duel.  Add in the 20 points for the location and it's 24 points for the entry.

 

Ancient Indians and 1812 Canadians

                                                      Indian Light Infantry (8 15mm figures)

                                           Montreal Militia Artillery (6 15mm figures, 2 guns)

                                                Royal Marine Battalion (20 15mm Figures)

                                          My New Mug from work, very apt (is this allowed?)
 

From LeeH - 1st Level Witch Teleport - The Pink Lady

Having scratched my head and come up blank with a figure for the Pit of the Pendulum I decided I needed the assistance of the Witch of this level to teleport me to another room. So my next entry is a Female figure with shimmering pink hair! Once again I have painted this model for use with my Frostgrave collection (she'll be one of many female wizards I have already) and have based her appropriately to fit the theme for this game. Hopefully Sarah the Sorceress will accept this offering and transport me to my next destination, The Golems Haunt, which I hope to be ready tomorrow. 

While I have been enjoying this foray into the Fantasy world of the Chambers of Challenge, I do have some historical figures to get started on. These are on my paint desk now and I hope to have them ready in a week or so (I'm in no hurry, I want to enjoy them rather than racing against the clock).

I'm not sure where I got this figure, like much of my collection it was probably an impulse buy somewhere back in the mists of time! Indeed I recently found another box of figures hidden in a cupboard that missed the big tidy up when I got my games room together last year... I wonder how many more suprises await me in dark corners of the house! I have this rather macarbre image of my poor wife finding boxes of figures long after I have shrugged off this mortal coil, muttering under her breath about my silly hobby! Rather stupidly I glued this figure to an MDF base before checking the manufacturer and date of production on the underside, so if anyone can identify her that would be much appreciated. 

(Scoring: 1x28mm Foot + CoC Bonus = 25 points)