From JamieM - Mantic Deadzone Nameless (Klendathu 96 points)

Hello to my fellow challengers! It’s great to be back and seeing all of your diligent output so far and I’m pleased to present my first post.

Stop me if this sounds familiar….. a Kickstarter appears that looks great….. excitement builds….. you go all in with your mates as it looks like such a great game……. And then, when it’s delivered 6-12 months later; you’ve moved onto other games and you don’t get around to playing the Kickstarter game.

Well, that’s what happened with us and Deadzone from Mantic games. The internet tells me that the game was kickstarted in early 2014 and delivered in 2015. Yikes.

Anyway, cue lots of figures being shifted around various shelves of holding until I saw that Mantic were giving away digital copies of version 3 of the rules with a wargaming magazine. Deciding this was all the motivation that I needed, I swooped in and picked them up, found the old miniatures and set to work seeing if the game was any good.

Despite all that intro, these chaps were purchased a month or so ago to give me another crew as only had one and I painted it before the AHPC started. I justified this latest purchase on the basis of “I’m only investing so that I can use the things I’ve already bought”. Good money after bad, anyone?

But onto the figures!

The Nameless seem to be a pretty standard alien race in the Mantic universe. Normally peaceful, but with some fringe elements who think humanity should be destroyed.

There are a variety of sizes to the creatures and these are the little ankle biters.

These are the bigger, scarier ones. Chap in the middle is the boss (the “Spawn”) and the ones flanking him are tough as nails close combat fighters.

I used a variety of techniques including contrast paints, sponging, highlighting, etc. to get different textures on the natural surfaces and plumped for silver armour as I thought they fitted a 70’s TV alien invasion sort of vibe.

These are one each of the human sized models. Andy the assassin, Colin the Squibbly, Jonny longshot and two pistol Pete.

 

I thought they fitted the “bug hunt” theme pretty well, so I make it 11x 28mm figures, 3x 40mm figures and a planetary bonus for 86 points in total?

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First, welcome back to the Challenge, Jamie!

Yes! I've totally been there with Kickstarter buy-ins, several times I'm ashamed to say. The most recent has been Solomon Kane and Ankh. The boxes were endless and I just did the starter pledge, honest!

Anyway, enough of that, these minis look brilliant. I especially like that nasty green you have for their chitinous carapace armour - it looks so suitably...angry alien. I also think your groundwork is very on-point, setting the colours of the minis nicely. The only thing that is slightly off is your scoring, as you've jilted yourself 10 this group (corrected for the sheet). :)

But where is the Moonstone stuff you told me of? Or are you waiting on that Kickstarter as well?

- Curt

From MartinC: Arda Lizardman General (30pts-ish)

So my first venture into the quadrant is to the planet of Arda and the figure that got me started on the lizardman army. I was randomly surfing figures and found Sundered Studios on Etsy. I have never used Etsy and never successfully bought 3D prints - too much sanding needed. But the figure was so fab I took the plunge.

This Lizardman General (maybe a wizard) with his pet feathered serpent is an amazing figure

I love all of it

I found the feathers a little hard to paint but I have more to practice on

The feather serpent just looks evil and ready to strike.

So 2x 28mm figures with the quadrant bonus = 30pts

Have a great new year

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Oh wow, he's absolutely fabulous, Martin! I love how his 'pet' is coiled protectively around him and that mace thingy is very impressive. Great work on the colours and basing. He's a centrepiece for sure.

- Curt

LeeH - More Berbers, Casualties and Goats (115 Points)

Another one of my less enjoyable Christmas traditions is catching a cold for the holidays. My Christmas cold went straight to my chest so I have been hacking my lungs up for a week and it has kicked nine bells out of me. It's not COVID, but it's doing a good impression of it! Needless to say, this has taken a toll on my painting time. However, I am feeling a little better and in the last couple of days, I have managed to pick up the brushes and get back to the desert. My usual method is to have several painting projects on the go at the same time so I can flit between them while I wait for the paint or varnish to dry on the last one. Usually, this means a consistent series of completed jobs but this time I finished three all around the same time. In a bid to reduce the Snowlords workload I have combined them into a single post. 

First off I have three units of Berber riflemen. I have kept the colour scheme simple on these, partly because I still feel pretty grotty, but also because I’m reserving my energy for a load of Berber Cavalry currently waiting in the wings. Trying to find reference pictures for these that aren’t monochrome has been quite difficult so I’m having to use a lot of poetic licence. 

I also completed a set of casualty markers which include an interesting selection of sculpts not only of the dead but wounded figures. I’ll have to get some more of these because I think they will really enhance a games table, especially as the battle progresses. 

Lastly, I have a bit of whimsey with a lone Goatherd and his flock. The Figure is a converted casualty figure with his sword removed and a ‘stick’ put in its place (involving a tiny tiny drill and a very steady hand!). The Goats are from Pendraken and although they are 15mm scale the models are only about 5-6mm tall so I’m counting these as 6mm for the purpose of points (so half a point each). 

Next on the paint table are a load of Berber Cavalary so that will keep me busy for a few days. 

Points Scoring:
Berbers - 36x15mm Foot = 72 Points
Casualties - 18x15mm Foot = 36 Points
Goatherder - 10x15mm Animals (treat as 6mm) + 1x15mm Foot = 7 Points

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More Berbers, wonderful stuff Lee! I particularly like that goatheard and his passel of goats (great work modding the casualty figure for the herdsman).

though you may have been feeling under the weather, you're output has been impressive. I look forward to the upcoming cavalry.

- Curt

From ScottM: Assorted Early-WW2 Goodness (100 pts)

My last few figures to get done this year are some World War 2 early-war infantry and tanks. All these 28mm figs are from Warlord Games. First up is a small group of plastic Soviet infantry.

Next up is a T-38 tankette. This resin and metal fig is sold by Warlord but is actually from Trenchworx. This little guy is why I like the early-war stuff. Lots of neat armoured cars, tanks and no nigh-indestructible Tigers and IS-2s. 

Next up is a plastic T-34/76. This little kit came with the option to make it a variety of models and went together really nicely.

And here's the pair of them. Bit of a size difference.

And finally is a German Panzerjager I tank destroyer.

So that should be:

8 - 28mm foot figs = 40 points

3 - 28mm vehicles = 60 points

Total = 100 points

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Great work Scott. I love seeing all this early war stuff, especially all the whacky light vehicles like that Panzerjager I and the T-38. You can understand that when the T34 was encountered in June '41 it came as quite a rude shock to the Germans - thus the tank design war really kicked off. Well done!

- Curt

Ready From RayR - Vulcan : Prince Rupert & Boy (20 pts)

 

Believe it or not I have been very busy with the brush since the start of the Challenge, but like the twat I am, I started too many things at once, so I've not got a lot finished....Sigh!

Vulcan: Something Logical; Pointy Ears

I suspect as most of you know, I don't do a lot of fantasy of Sci Fi, but do have a small collection of figures just for the Challenge, BUT, I thought I'd go a bit left field. 

My first entry into Challenge 12 is a 25mm Bicorne figure representing King Charles' nephew Prince Rupert and his dog Boy. I've got a crazy yearning to do a small (yeah right) ECW army for Donnybrook, based on one of the smaller skirmishes that Rupert was involved in. So I thought I'd start with the main man himself. Whether or not anything else gets painted is another story.

Prince Rupert didn't have pointy ears, nor did his Poodle Boy, but his horse sure did!

Just look at them ears!!! Pointy or what????

So there we have it, and I managed to get this post in before the end of the year too.

10 points for the mounted Prince Rupert

2 points for Boy?

20 Bonus points for Vulcan

Total of 32 points!

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The words 'Donnybrook' and 'small army' should twig those who know Ray to what's to come. Great work Ray! I like how you think, with starting with the Man himself. Bicorne has done a nice job on Ropert here - he looks suitably commanding and hirsute and your brushwork does him great credit. But I have to say that the sculpt for 'Boye' is pretty lame. He was a standard sized poodle, meaning he was a pretty big dog. The designer must be a Parliamentarian sympathiser. 

And 20 points for the horses ears? Riiiight. I should have expected no less from you Ray. I tell you what I'll give you 10 for both Boye and the 'pointy ears'.

In some respects this is going to be a long three months, I can tell. :)

- Curt

From BenitoV: Exploring Caprica - Canadian Vickers HMG Support (43 points)

Salutations, space travellers. Our next destination is Caprica.

Following with my WW2 Canadian Army core Challenge project, I have completed a critical support option in the Chain of Command army lists: a Vickers HMG team.

The Vickers can act on the offensive, or maintaining critical points in any defensive line. There are a lot of references in Mark Zuehlke's book on the Scheldt campaign of concentrating HMG units to provide covering fire to units crossing canals or advancing to take German defensive positions.

 

The model here presented is the Warlord's British Vickers team, a nicely sculpted set of three 28mm models plus the MMG. 

Why Caprica? We have set up our model taking a defensive camouflaged position in some place of The Netherlands or Belgium, awaiting a German counterattack to regain some positions gained by the Canadian infantry. This fits nicely with the "ambush" Caprica theme... and I'd like to think that the counterattack was also "doomed"

With this entry I add 45 points to my Challenge scoring:

3 models @5 points =                       15 points

1 crewed weapon @ 10 points =       10 points

Caprica (outer rign) Bonus =             20 points

Total =                                                45 points

 

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Wonderful work on this Vickers and crew, Benito. The Vic may have had a relatively slow rate of fire, but with enough water, ammo and barrels, I understand it could lay down fire for hours. I really like your high-contrast style and your groundwork is terrific. 

I typically only give half points for prone figures, so I've adjusted your score accordingly and rounded up.

- Curt    

ByronM - Pointy Ear Pansy Space Elves - Warhammer 40k in 15mm

Normally I like getting an entry in the first day of the annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, but this year I have been laid up sick for almost 2 weeks and haven't been able to focus enough to paint at all, so here is is over a week after the start of the event, my first entry.

Recently a group of friends here have started playing Warhammer 40k (old 5th edition since the newer versions SUCK BALLS) in 15mm true scale, and of course I had to join in!  Being true scale means that everything is sized to the lore, rather than to what GW had sized things.  This means Imperial Guard stand about 18mm tall (or real 15mm scale), while things like Eldar and Space Marines stand 22-24mm tall (20mm scale) since in the lore Eldar are 7' tall but have huge poncy helmets and Space Marines are 8" tall.  This scaling makes everything look so much better on the table as it makes more sense and looks better.  Also being 15mm fixes (or minimizes) so many of the issues in 40k being 28mm scale, like having lots of HUGE tanks on a table, ranges being ridiculously short and more.  It's still 40k at its core, so it's still not perfect, but it is better!

That said, the armies we play with are therefore mostly 20mm scale even though we call it 40k in 15mm.  The Falcon and Wave Serpent here are almost 5" x 4" so pretty damn big for what we would call 15mm scale.

Most of the models here though are actually 6mm STL files from Lord Chronos on Cults and are meant for use in Epic Armageddon.  As you can tell from these prints though, the guy is a genius sculptor and there is more than enough detail on the models to stand up when scaled up 260% to be about 20mm scale! 

The few models I could not find for my force were the Warlocks and Farseer models!  This would be a problem for most people but I have a friend that is a great sculptor and an even more helpful person which I asked for some help. He had me buy some files that had eldar helmets and weapons in 28mm per-sculpted and then bodged them up and modelled them onto some bodies and cloaks for me in like 2 days!!!  Thanks a ton, amazing work!!!  Before you ask though, no the warlock files are not for sale they were for personal use, and his name is not listed here as he wants nothing to do with GW and their insane legal team! 

These are the first batch in what will hopefully be a 2000 point Eldar army within the next few weeks.  I have been jonesing to paint these for over a month, but wanted to leave them for the painting challenge to start... so here they now are!  Much more to come...

I am sticking with traditional aspect colour schemes for these, but since the Eldar are space elves and therefore a bit light in the loafers, I needed a kinda pansy colour for the transports, so I came up with a kinda pale blue green that I think is almost the colour of corroded copper.  I think it works well, but had no idea how to actually highlight anything on it, luckily it looks ok as is I think.  I just need some magnets to come in so I can attach them to the flight stands and have them off the ground as they should be.

This entry should also count towards my "Squirrel Challenge" and as the first planet on the challenge map Vulcan where I have to paint something either logical or with pointy ears.  Eldar seemed to fit the bill, so I used them. 

The vehicles should each count for 15 points (30 total) and then the 10 Dire Avengers and 7 Farseer/Warlocks each count for 4 points (68 total) and 20 points for completing the Vulcan planet challenge for a grand total of 118 points!  Not a bad start!

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I've been looking forward to seeing this project come to life, ever since you mentioned it a few months ago. They look great, Byron, and I really enjoy the whole contrarian, not-GW aspect of the whole endeavour. I also enjoy the project's ancillary objective of having all the various factions to be in 'true scale' to one another, as per the 40K fluff. The other bonus, as you mention, is that the ground scale and weapon ranges look a bit more believable (if you can say such a thing with 40K), so it's possible to have a few large vehicle on the table without the whole thing looking ridiculous.

Wonderful work Byron! I look forward to seeing more of this project over the coming months!

- Curt 

From DaveS - Yet More HYW French - 100pts

The last few days have seen more progress on the HYW French army.

One of the quirks of the Basic Impetus 2 System is that it has "fixed" army lists, with a very few options provided to change it up.  This means that there is very little variety in terms of which models are used.

This army has all been built from Perry Plastics, mainly the Agincourt Cavalry and French Army boxes.  The slight downside to this, is that there are no archers in either of these.  This means that in order to make the archers that the fixed list required, I have had to buy a box of "English Army" plastics, in order to actually make the french.  This was.... odd.  Despite this, the models themselves went together really easily, and painted up quickly and with no real hassles.

The other unit was the Heavy Infantry.  How heavy is not really clear from the army list, and I initiallt built these using the men at arms figures from the French Army box.  Unfortunately, reading the list again, I realised that these were supposed to be armed with "Long Spears", and that the Men at Arms were better used as the foot versions of the Cavalry, which can be used.  Therefore, I built a second unit, this time using the armoured bodies and spear arms.

Finally, I took the opportunity of having the models out for basing to get a photo of the whole army so far.

Missing from this are the Noble Cavalry, Men At Arms Cavalry, and another unit of spearmen.

The list also requires a skirmisher unit of Bretons with javelins.  I'm still struggling to find models to use for these, and may just take the option to exchange the unit for an initiative re-roll.

This post is made of 8 archers and 12 Spearmen, for 20 28mm models, at 100pts.

Having taken much less time on this army than anticipated, I've started looking at the army lists from the rulebook to see what I might want to build next (given that I really like the fixed, defined forces that can be "finished").  I think that I have decided on an early 16th Century Florence force, which will give me the chance to make use of the Warlord "Landsknect" models, as well us many of the leftover Perry plastics that I have from this project.

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Dave, wonderful work on these French spearmen, and English, er... French archers? I dunno, maybe put a fews baguettes or a croque m'sieur in there somewhere for safe measure. I also like the Army-as-it-is (or as you say 'finished') group shot.  Well done.

16th century Florence next? Oh, yes please!

- Curt

From MartinC Crocodilian Warriors (100pts)

Hope you all had a good Christmas. I had 4 fab days away with the family and then a full days gaming with the Old Guard for our annual Christmas game. So not much painting done (I'm an unheard of 20th place at the moment).

Arrived home yesterday, had a massive nap and then did some painting. These are the next batch of Lizardmen from Sundered Studios and are more crocodilian than the last load of skinks.

These are slightly chunkier than the skinks and have that armoured feel of crocodiles

I gave them a general green look with some yellow highlights

The shields come with 4 different designs on them, crocodile, bird (looks like a duck), jaguar and something else. Went for a painted bronze look

The yellow highlights on the spine "fins). The level of detail is amazing with ropes to hold on tail armour, skulls as necklaces and other cool stuff. Love em.

So 20 x 28mm figures = 100 pts

Martin

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Crocodiles, sure, but not a tear to be found amongst these snappers (I know, groan). Lovely work Martin, I particularly like the Aztekian shield designs (No, I don't think that's a real word, but you know what I'm getting at). Do we get to see any of the really big critters in the future, Mr. Cook? Gosh, I hope so.

Well, these amphibians will handily pop you up sixteen places on the score sheet. Well done, me lad!

- Curt