From PaulO'G: Centigors! (50 points)

I've posted a few Warhammer Beastmen in previous challenges and this one will be no different!  Presenting five Centigors, twisted versions of the Centaur that are prone to drunkenness and fits of rage. Thus, they can be a bit fickle as the light cavalry component of the army. Then again, one doesn't play Beastmen to be super competitive... 

These are older, metal GW sculpts so provide some gratifying heft when picking them up

But 5 isn't enough to make one's enemies quail in fear! They join 5 I did mid-year as a second hand stall rescue, as well as the Centigor hero Ghorrus Warhoof. 

Ghorrus wields his mighty Mansplitter club and his head is adorned with the skull of a Unicorn Lord of which it is said that: 

Atop his scalp Ghorros wears the broken skull of Arsil, the Prince of Unicorns, who had an unfortunate encounter with Ghorros in a moonlit glade centuries ago. It still harbours some of the protective magic of its former owner

which goes to show that silly headwear is everywhere really!

these boys should make a dent when they hit!

Overall thats 5 mounted figs at 10 points each, adding 50 to my tally, plus a modest 3 skullz.  

More Beastie goodness to follow..

From JonathanO: Paint something in greyscale. "You will obey!" (The Chamber of Darkness) 25 points

In The Chamber of Darkness there awaits a murderous, emotionless, time travelling monster:

 

A Dalek!

Daleks look more scary on black and white TV, don't you think?

This is a Warlord plastic Dalek. 

That should be 25 points:  5 points for the Dalek plus 20 for the Chamber of Darkness bonus.

Having escaped the Chamber of Darkness, I'll move on to my next challenge.

From BruceR "The Chamber of Darkness" 25pts

 As the party flees the Russian militia Zombies (you can't fight zombies) the next chamber they enter is as dark as a moonless night.  As the party attempts to catch their breath they are assailed  by a horrendous gong sound.  Repeated and repeated.  "Gong" "Gong" "Gong" followed by a maniacal cackle, reminiscent of the fantastic faced earlier in their journey.   Again "Gong" "Gong" "Gong" causing the party members to wither on the floor attempting to cover their ears to block out the sound.  All at once the gonging stops and shuffling approaches the prone party members.  Out of the gloom comes a wee character with a huge gong.  The little fella simply grins and says "Gonging my way"... eeek

My first attempt at greyscale.  Still not sure.  Found the night goblin musician on the wall of shame, already base coated black so why not.  I have quite a large WHFB goblin army sitting in boxes as the world has crumbled.  Moved on and this fella was left behind.  I did give him the red eyes to simulate the photo daemon look.  So another games workshop night goblin 5 pts as he is a 28 mm scale model, bigger with the gong.  20 pts for the Chamber of Darkness.

Pardon the bad pun.

Cheers.

BruceR  

The Sorceresses of the Chambers of Challenge

The Witches, Muses or Sorcereress of the  “Chambers of Challenge”  are experts in the field of teleportation. 

They are independent contractors, but ply their terrible and beautiful talents under the watchful eye of Lady Sarah and her Balloon Service.

In order not to incur their vengeful wrath* dungeon adventurers must paint a female figure to gain 20 points in order to be teleported.

5 Bonus points will be awarded if the painted tribute figure is a witch, muse, sorceress, siren, enchantress etc.  To be awarded the bonus points the figure must recognizable as a female of magical talents.

 

Lady Sarah and Chief Flight Attendant Tamsin will be the final judges of any disputed entries.**

Extra bonus points may be awarded based on the whims and eccentricities of Lady Sarah. (Oh, and there are many, let me tell you... ed.)

 

*Please refer to Ray's She-Bear debacle of Challenge II

**Also refer to the She-Bear debacle

First Post - 6mm ACW: 133 points

 Hi, this is Sean from the God's Own Scale Podcast.

This is my first year on the AHPC. I have followed it for many years but for some reason or other not got involved. Probably because I procrastinate far more than I paint. But also because my painting ability is fairly basic. Don't get me wrong - I'm happy with it but it's never going to win any prizes.

It will be no suprise that as the host of the third most popular historical wargaming podcast dedicated to 6mm miniatures, my first entry is...6mm miniatures. I am nearing the end of my Antietam project using the Altar of Freedom rules and the scenario therein. For the most part I have used Baccus Miniatures, though there are a few Rapier in there plus some Adler, mainly for the generals.

My plan for the next 3 months is to finish the Antietam project then look at my Charlie Don't Surf project using 10mm Pendraken figures. They remain in the cupboard, untouched since purchase over the summer. I have a company of U.S. grunts plus a company of VC for them to go up against.

I also have a couple of other projects in 6mm. Actually several. First of all are my First World War projects. I am using Great War Spearhead for these. Mons is up first. This is nearly done. Just buildings and scenery to finalise. Then it's onto my demonstration game for the Joy of Six 2021 show, on 4th July. I'm crossing everything that this show will go ahead. The game will be the GWSH scenario for the Thiepval sector of the first day of the Somme. I have nearly all of the figures purchased. I have several feet of latex trench from Timecast. And I have several ideas about how to build the table. 

Ontop of that I have plans for the beginnings of my foray into 6mm AWI. I have the Continental army for Guildford Court House using Rus de Guerre. Also I have figures for a planned 6mm Rorkes Drift.

...and I have a metric ton of 28mm Mantic Games figures. For the purposes of the challenge I have the figures for the Hellboy boardgame plus some for the Walking Dead. So lots to go at.

Anyway, here is my first entry into the #AHPCXI. The first picture is of the last untis for the Army of Northern Virginia for Antietam. I now have 36 Confederate brigades and 12 batteries plus 3 brigades of cavalry done. These figures were painted between 25/12/20 and 28/12/20.

The totals are:

 224 x 6mm infantry

 21 x 6mm cavalry

Total Points: 133 (300 target)

This is my General Thomas Jackson command stand. Mounted figures are from Adler. The standard bearer is from Rapier Minioatures.

An example of one of the infantry brigades. They are Law's brigade from Hood's division. They were made up of 2nd and 11th Mississippi, 4th Alabama  and 6th North Carolina. It suffered over 50% casualties at Antietam in fighting Hooker's I Corps on the morning of 17th September. The unit here carries the Confederate battle flag. They are Baccus Miniatures. The fence is a resin print, kindly given to me by Aaron from Project Wargaming.

Another example pf one of my brigades. These are Hood's brigade, commanded by William Tatum Wofford from Hood's Divison. They carry the Texas flag as befitting a unit bearing Hood's name.

Okay, that's enough for now More soon. Play nice and keep talking about six!

From StuartL - Necron Warriors - 40 Points

Today I'm taking a slight detour from the Chambers of Challenge to post up a few minis from a 40K army I am working on. Years ago I bought a large Necron army and got most of it assembled and painted. Since then, I have had a handful of sprues kicking about that I have largely used for conversions and the like. When the Necrons got a big update earlier this year, I figured that it was time to dust off my army and finish off the last few minis. 

I have to say that I am not a big fan of the current Warhammer 40,000 rules. I only played 5 games of 8th edition and didn't think much of it, and 9th seems to be more of the same. Sadly my local group loves 9th, which causes me a bit of a problem if I want to play at the club. Luckily I have a gaming table at home and a couple of friends who are happy to play anything. So, I have been experimenting with using 40K 5th edition blended with the Bolt Action random/alternating activation system. So far it seems to work ok and produces fun games. Once face to face games become possible again, I hope to have a couple of armies ready to go and a workable draft rule set to use. 

These are the older plastic models with the day-glow green rods in the guns. They are showing their age a lot when compared to the newer kits, but I like them.

One of the plus points for Necron warriors is that they are really easy to paint. A metallic base colour and wash sees 90% of the mini finished.

Finally a question for Barks:

Do Necron heads count as Skullz? Necrons are supposed to be the 40K version of an undead army and have a certain skeletal look to them, but on the other hand, they are robots and therefore don't really have a human anatomy.

So, that's 8x 28mm figures for a total of 40 points. They are all GW minis, so that will add to my side duel there. They may, or may not count towards my skull count, but they are a Squirrel point.

GW Points - 255

Skullz - 81 (Maybe 89)

Squirrels - 2

From JonathanO: Scary Scarecrows (Golem's Haunt) 40 points

 Here are 4 scarecrows that have come to life and left the farmer's field.  They are striding through a meadow, not caring which rare wild flowers they tramp on.  No doubt they are going to cause quite a stir when they reach the nearby village.

These scary scarecrows are from Gripping Beast's Woodbine Design Company range.  They should be useful for a number of games.

Points:  4 x 28mm figures = 20.  Plus the Golem's Haunt bonus of 20 = 40 points in total.

Now on to the even more scary Chamber of Darkness.

From EdwardG: First Post! - Medieval Russians and Hall of Traps Entry (118 points)

 Hi All, 

Merry (belated) Christmas and Happy New Year!

This is my first challenge! And first post! I have been following the Challenge for a long time and it is great to finally be able to join. :D I am located in Hamburg, Germany. We have a small but dedicated group of historical wargamers up here. Hope to possibly meet some of you in person one day if you visit the Tactica Wargames Show that is 'normally' held around February time. 

For my first entry I have pulled out some old 15mm figures that have sat around undercoated for at least the past fifteen years (minimum). These are the majority of the elements I need to complete my DBA (v3) Early Russian Army. I can no longer remember where I got the figures from, but I painted up the General's element at the time and the others have sat on the lead pile waiting for their turn. I had made a small self goal back at the start of 2020, to get them painted before the end of the year. And true to form, I have managed to put it off until nearly the deadline! I still have three elements of spear, and a German mercenary Knight element to complete, but I thought to put up what I have so far.

I paint with a mix of Vallejo and Citadel paints. Often I make liberal use of washes and inks for shading. 

I have to apologise. I am trialling my photography set up, so the pictures are not great and I cannot get many elements in the frame as I would wish. I hope to improve over the course of the challenge.  

First up is the upper class nobles, as mounted Knights. Four elements, are in the army, making it a third of the 12 element total strength. With them are the two elements of Tartar light horse. These elements plus the generals element are the total mounted for the army.   

Then there is the PBI. the foot sloggers who make up the other half of the army. There are a number of options in the army list. Therefore I have painted elements to cover all. It comes to 1 x 3Bw, 1 x 3Ax, 2 x 2Ps.

 Finally, I have my first entry for the Chambers of Challenge (and I hope it will be accepted!). My entry for the Hall of Traps is the Horde element for the Early Russian Army. This is an element representing the serfs of the nobles who have also been called out for the campaign. DBAv3 classes these peasants as Hordes (which is a nice term for filler that should really stay at the back and out of trouble.) I argue that as these peasants are trapped in the bonds of serfdom for their entire lives', along with their families and decedents, they qualify as an entry for the Hall of Traps (please). 

    

I make my tally for this post to be:

16 x 15mm Mounted = 64 points

17 x 15mm Foot = 34 points

+ 20 points for the Hall of Traps entry

Total = 118 points

I hope you all have a relaxing remainder of the holidays! I need to get more figures prepared for possible dry priming weather tomorrow! 

Tschüss!! 

Ed :) 

From TeemuL: Erkenbrand to the Helm's Deep (75 points)

I guess I have been around since Challenge V, so that is quite a lot. I'm from Finland and you can follow my mostly-hobby-related Instagram account @vainvader78, if you like.

I have usually tried to post once a week, but I already missed the first one. Things happen, when you are on holiday, not enough time for everything. Buying an old house will keep my rather busy for next couple months, or years. Challenge Chamber hopefully will give me a reason to post small entries regularly.

But first post is not about the Chamber, it is about my hobby resolution: paint all remaining Rohan miniatures. With Erkenbrand riding to Helm's Deep with his companions, I can start my journey to somewhere deeper...

These are painted mostly with Contrast paints, which work like magic on Lotr miniatures. They are not as tidy as the miniatures I painted some years ago, I have slightly changed my goal from quality to quantity (neither of them is very high, though).

Anyway, when focusing on playing with your miniatures, it is better to have an average level painted army than having a skirmish group and unassembled sprues, if you want to actually play. :)

Here they are in all their glory, Erkenbrand on foot and mounted and 6 riders of Rohan.

75 points, that will keep me in the top half for now.

Minion Teemu: These posts look a bit wrong without the minion comment, so I add them by myself and it makes me feel like a minion, too!

From TomG - Going Quackers Entering the Chambers & "Not" Curtgeld Ahoy - 50 points

Hello again, today I bring you my first entry in to the Chambers of Challenge via the Hall of Traps, and my entry cost mini, although this is a long post I hope you enjoy it. 

To start with is this Trapper, laying in wait for a dastardly, yet daffy, prey. The vignette is made up of a French Indian Wars plastic Warlord Games mini, from yet another freebie sprue, a tree stump and a duck from the recent Mantic Terrain Crate 2 Kickstarter.

I had great fun creating this, my first ever completed vignette, all for the sole purpose of exploring the ideas of laying in wait, trapping and being trapped. I wasn't sure what colours to use as it is a period of history I've never read in to, but the frame where the trapper came from was chock filled with interesting details. My thoughts went to the fur traders and the Jason Mamoa tv series, where all manner of visceral violence is laid out for our entertainment. Somewhere in there I'm sure I saw buff coloured clothing, so here we are.

From the top down you can just about see our dear friends aim is slightly off, but I'm sure any duck hunt players had a glitchy game once in a while. The added hatchet was initially going to have the musket rested on it, but the effect seemed daft, so it just became a visual interest point.

Painting the duck offered a surprisingly high level of calming and cathartic relaxation, simply letting go of what uniform and texture to work with, and instead just working from memory of all the ducks my kids and I have fed over the years. And of course we have our trapper who I named Trigger, for no better reason than I was watching the classic English sitcom "Only Fools and Horses" at the time of painting. 

Next we have the infamous Curtgeld mini for this year's entry fee. This chap has been sat in a collection of special edition minis i wanted to paint but had no reason to, and so what better reason to get at him than as a potential prize to one of you. I hope you like him as I loved painting him up. 

All in all I have very little idea how to score the vignette,  so I'll stick to the points I know I've earned:

Trapper Vignette (28mm mini plus bonus challenge points) - 25 points

Curtgeld (28mm mini plus bonus challenge points) - 25 points

Total - 50 points

That's all folks, I hope you like what you see and I'll catch you next time.

TomG

From KyleC - level 2 teleport 45 pts

Having navigated level 1 of the Dungeon, and surviving the underwater landing, they begin to make their way through Level 2!

Pre the big C this year, we had begun to play a bit of DnD within the family, but also with another family and their boys. So I figured with the downtime now and a printer at my disposal, it would be a good time to get some models sorted for future sessions. 

Now these were just test figures to see how printing actual 28mm scaled models would go. Had to adjust timings for future bits but it worked well enough here. Aside from a few printing fails.

Great Van Fleet, the parties Bard. Of Gnomish decent but plays her lute like a mad woman on stage with Foo Fighters...

Tina the Tiefling Warrior. Knwon for her rage and ability to get her point across. 

Ock'tAra the Half Orc Monk. Coloring reminds me of Picolo from Dragonball Z but still and overall nice paint job.

Shakira the Sorceress. Hailing from distant lands, she carries the light of her people with her. 

And finally Diane the Dwarf Cleric. Once she had a Mace, however she dropped it to lay hands on some undead and send them back to the underworld.

5 28mm scaled models.. Some bigger some small but altogether they work. 25 pts for the models, 20 for the challenge. 45 pts overall.