From PaulSS: [The Armoury] The Armourers (30pts)

Leaving behind the cacophonic clucking and stench of chicken shit our adventurers crept onwards through the chambers. From behind the next door emerged the screech of tortured metal and a shower of sparks was visible through the grille.

The Armoury: Paint a figure, a vignette or unit which is armoured - plate, steel, iron, ceramic, chain-mail - the choice is yours.

The Napoleonic wars don't offer a lot of scope for armoured, and I already have a pair of Cuirassier regiments done. So, not exactly armoured, but armorers, sharpening the blades of the cavalry about to do battle with the Anglo-allied foe on the fields around Mont St. Jean. This excellent set is again from Eureka Miniatures and makes another interesting vignette for the collection.

Like the earlier vignettes, I did the figures in muted tones again, the only splash of colour being the assistants bonnet d'police.

Like the earlier field bakery, I thought it best to do the base in the stained, compacted earth of a courtyard rather than adding the greenery of a field to it.

Two 28mm figure and the location bonus for a total of 30 points which should see me over the half way mark to my target.

28mm Napoleonics Duel Totalizer: 14 mounted, 34 foot

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Cap'n Wednesdy likes this a lot and adds an extra tot for the little vignette!

From SamuliS: Hall of Traps (30 points)

I'm a bit slow to start, but finally kicking of my challenge with the first entry! Bit of a change on how I've started on the previous eighth challenges I took part in as usually I've tried to speedpaint a couple of minis at the start for a chance at the glorious first place even if just for a few hours. And now it's almost a month before I could get anything submitted... I actually got these painted some weeks ago already, but just didn't get around to varnishing and basing them until recently. Busy work schedule and our firstborn being born in Autumn has had quite an impact on hobby time in the last half a year!

 

 To start of I figured I'd plunge straight into the dungeon by heading of into the Hall of Traps with a duo of Skaven engineers who are experts at building traps. I mean machines that are basically deathtraps and more liable to kill the user or his allies (as if Skaven have any) are basically traps aren't they! And as an engineer it's always fun to paint up and play with fellow engineers even if their creations are maybe lacking the finesse that is  expected in the human realms.

These guys will join my Oldhammer Skaven horde even if they are a bit newer sculpts. I've always been quite fond of the designs as to me they really seem to be the perfect image of a crazy rat scientist with plenty of gizmos  and weird equipment being carried to a battlefield. Like all my army I'm trying to keep the paintjobs fairly simple with most of the mini consisting of just a basecoat and a brown wash. Only the skin and maybe some single details like the Warpblades here get some extra love to make them pop and to give the illusion that they are better painted than they actually are. Pretty efficient and as there are a few hundred of them to paint I'd never get the army finished if I attempted to really highlight and put much effort on everything!

Overall that should net me 30 points with 10 points for the two 28mm minis and 20 extra points for the Hall of Traps submission. Hopefully the next entries will be finished at bit of a faster pace then!

Nice ratine (is that a word?) engineers. And good to have you on board again.

Tamsin

PaulS: Mixed bag of... stuff (27 points)

Unlike past entries where I've done separate posts... this lot can all be lumped together as there aren't enough to justify separate posts.

First up we have an inquisitor, 3d printed from Ghamak on MyMiniFactory. I just loved the bulky, no nonsense look to this guy and wanted him to join my new Guard force (more of that in a later entry)

Next we have some Deep Ones from the Crippled God Patreon (which is where the earlier cultists also came from), which should give my cultists some nice support when the 7TV mythos expansion comes out. I had to scale these down to as the original print size was about as tall as an ogre, which was pretty imposing, but not quite what I wanted. I'll have to see what is in the 7TV set as I'd like to have a larger one to accompany these

Lastly is a golem from the Smog board game. Smog is a steampunk world full of all sorts of weird and wonderful figures. There are others in the painting queue, but other projects are blocking their path to the table just yet... He's a beast of a model, standing about the same height as the ogre from the last post

So that is 4 28mm models (20 points) and the giant golem that I'm going to count as a larger thing at 7 points for a total of 27.

Two entries in a day? Lovely stuff. And this is a great mixed bag of it.

27 points it is.

Tamsin

PaulS: The Knight of the Sun (28 points)

 The sorceress waved her wand and we vanish from the previous room to turn up in a room decorated in a similar manner to a 17th century Spanish villa. We're not entirely sure what this means... or how it has appeared in this dungeon... but at least it isn't more of those bouncing red things!

"Wot'choo doin' in my 'ere sola?"

We all turn and stare. Unsure what to make of the being stood before us in all it's finery...

In the Warhammer rpg, Ogres aren't a weird problematic view of mongols, but just another race that lives and works across the Old World. There used to be Empire Ogres dressed up as Landsknechte, so when I saw this in one of the Titan Forge Patreon packs, he just had to be printed up as he fitted my idea of a Tilean knight. He even had the sun on his armour! (yes I know sun and solar aren't the same thing... but still)

He's a giant of an ogre, so I'm going to count him as 54mm, so 7pts for him and 20 for the Knight Solar room.

Conquistadore ogre? I'll take your word for it being 54mm (you seem an honest chap, unlike that Ray character), but that's 10 points not 7!

30 points for you.

Tamsin

[update]

Looking back, possibly not 54mm, but a lot bigger than a normal figure, so your call! - Paul

Tamsin Update:

Ahh, more of a 40mm figure then - 7 points it is. Plus a bonus point for honesty!

KenR - 28mm Italian Allied Legion Hastati 2 - 160 points

We're back with what I promise is a different unit from my last post !

This is my second and final batch of 32 x 28mm Victrix Hastati figures giving me a total of 64 for the entire Legion, these can be broken down into 4 smaller 16 figure units if required. There are so many variations of how Republican Romans fought I won't go into it here, but I wanted to have some flexibility with the figures to enable me to work on the different possible formations.

Exactly the same as my last entry, 8 figures on each 60 x 60 base, mix of armoured and unarmoured figures, LBMS shield transfers. There are a couple of Agema Miniatures hidden in the back ranks of the unit to make the numbers up, they are quite different to the Victrix figures but in a big unit like this you can't really see them.

Look great in a mass or in a close up, sign of a really nice figure, these shots really show how a bit of work blending in the shield transfers post application makes a big difference.

Above is a picture of the Hastati in formation and ready for action. 32 x 28mm figures at 5 points each will net me 160 big ones.

And just to round off above is the Project to date, lots of MDF to cover but I'm still on track to finish before March 21st. 

Painting plan is, 12 Cavalry, 32 Principes, General, 32 Principes, 12 Cavalry, 32 Hastati, Top General.

Lovely brushwork Ken, and it's always fascinating to see your large project plans. 160 points it is.

Tamsin

From LeeH - British Airborne arrive at last (126 points)

It's taken a while, but I finally have something historical to post in this year's Challenge! My big 'lockdown project' last year was learning how to play Chain of Command and adapting my existing 15mm figures for that game. Thanks to a bit of judicious re-basing I was able to get some troops on the table really quickly (ie a few weeks rather than a few years!). Learning the rules and playing games solo was a great experience and I decided very quickly that I wanted to expand my collection. British Airborne was at the top of my list of candidates. 

Chain of Command is a Platoon plus sized game so I have painted up an Airborne Platoon and a range of support units to back them up. The core platoon consists of an HQ Section with a Lieutenant and Platoon Sergeant, A Piat Team, a 2" Mortar Team and a Sniper. Then there are three sections, two of which have a Seargeant, five men with rifles and one with a Sten, and a Bren team of three. The final section has two Bren teams each with an additional Sten. A total of 37 men.  

The support units include a couple of additional PIAT teams, a 2" Mortar team, A Bren Team, a Flamethrower Team and a full additional Airborne Section. And because I have a tendency to damage figures I also painted a few 'spare' riflemen bringing in another 26 men. 

The figures are a mixture of Peter Pig and Skytrex and they work so well together, now that they are painted, I can't tell which figures came from which company. All I can say is they are excellent figures and the two ranges complement each other perfectly. I have some Airborne Jeeps to paint up as well so expect to see them later in the Challenge. 

(Scoring: 63x15mm Foot = 126 Points)

Not a bad job on the Denison camo at 15mm. Mind you, those berets are rather too bright a red. Of course, for supports you'll also want to add a Vickers and a 6-pounder.

Oh, and expect to have to rejig your core platoon a bit when the Lardies release their Market Garden supplement(s) later this year.

Tamsin

From Mike W: {Shrine] Ork Gorka Morka Totem (25 Points)

First of hopefully two or three posts this week as I continue to work through the challenge and juggle different project themes and real world work.

Gorka Morka Shrine, skulls and entrance

Having completed four Chambers on Level One of the dungeon, I have now descended to level two.

For the Shrine special chamber I present just that - an Orc Gorka-Morka shrine, from the Games Workshop old Gorka Morka boxed set, if I remember correctly!

Slightly different angle

As a terrain piece or maybe an objective marker, this piece was moulded in two parts, I glued them together and spray painted black, before highlighting with a light grey spray paint and then a top highlight of white spray paint.

Gorka Morka Shrine, side view, wood panels

I painted the wooden frame and support planks brown, with metal work picked out in a steel colour. Around the base is a pile of skulls, painted a skull white colour, there is also a large greenskin face stretched between poles on the frame that makes an entrance to the shrine...

Back door!

I then spent way too much time coming back to this piece to add in the details. But, the fun in this piece was all the detail! This included what seemed like dozens of toadstools, all painted red with white spots, shields, skulls etc and the marvellous Moon Face icon on the top of the shrine 

Another side view

Everything was given washes and then matt varnished.

Lots of toadstools

POINTS

Shrine                5 Pts   

Bonus                20 Pts

TOTAL              25 Points 

That does look rather spiffing. And 25 points for you.

Tamsin

From StuartL - The First Ladies of Horror (and plus ones)- 46 points

 Hello again. Today I am venturing further into Level 3 of the Chambers of Challenge. Having passed through the Knights' Solar, I must now brave the strange creations of the Laboratory. This was quite an easy chamber to find inspiration for as I happened to have a couple of minis that fit the bill perfectly. However, as I am also hunting for those rascally Squirrels, I needed to put some flesh on the entry and expanded it to introducing the first ladies of horror and their significant others.

The Strong Female Character Who Refuses To Be Defined By Her Relationship To A Man.

As a successful doctor, lawyer, teacher and parts from at least 7 other Jane Does, Mary is a career focused young woman, a diligent supporter of women's rights and refuses to be held down by the patriarchy. Despite having an electrifying wit and a style all her own, Mary spends most of her time on her research work in the lab.

On the subject of her partner, "Frankie means well, but he's hardly the most eloquent of individuals, and terribly clumsy. I don't let him near the lab these days, he has a tendency to smash the place."

Queen Tutankhamun

As the wife of the Mummy, is the Queen a Daddy? Maybe someone more in touch with 'woke' culture can clear that up for me. After having awoken in the afterlife, the Queen found that it looked remarkably the same as the previous life, just with more of the locals running in fear whenever they saw her. Still, as an eternally animated corpse, she has plenty of time on her hands for starting new hobbies and learning new things. Recently she's been tempted to give becoming a historian a go, figuring she has a head start on other researchers.

On the subject of her partner, "King Tut has been awfully grumpy since he awoke. He kills any visitors we get and he barely even bothers getting changed out of his bandages anymore. I was hoping he'd lighten up after retirement."

Countess Dracul

Running the estates of Castle Dracula is a demanding job, but one which the Countess undertakes diligently. The zombie servants work around the clock without complaint in service to their mistress. The Countess takes great pride in both her appearance and that of the estates, believing that it is important for the upper classes to uphold certain standards of behaviour.

On the subject of her partner, "When we first met, the count swept me off my feet and left me pale and breathless. But times have changed. These days he's out drinking at all hours of the night, chasing local girls and then he comes home and just sleeps all day. I'm really quite fed up."

And there you have it, Mr. & Mrs. Frankenstein should cover me for the Laboratory theme of the chamber, plus a few other friends. Every October an American friend of mine likes to run games with a Halloween theme, so these figures will ideally be used for a pulp style adventure game with the heroes trying to avoid the monsters and escape. All of the minis are from Reaper's Bones line. The Countess isn't supposed to be a vampire figure, but I think she'll do. I do have male and female vampires from Reaper, but I painted them ages ago so they weren't eligible for the challenge.

So, I think that should be 5x 28mm minis for 25 points, maybe 1 point for the Count/decor and 20 points for the chamber, giving me 46 points in total. Pulp Horror should also add another Squirrel to that side duel. Sadly no skulls amongst this lot.

My running Duels totals:
GW Points - 287
Skullz - 143
Squirrels - 8

"As I was working in the lab, late one night
When my eyes beheld an eerie sight
For my monster from his slab, began to rise
And suddenly to my surprise..."

Lovely job on the ladies and their "companions". Forty six points for you.

Tamsin

JamieM - post apocalyptic survivors (35 points)

My second post if this challenge involves the genre that I intend to spend most of my time on - post apocalyptic. I’ve had these figures for a number of years, slowly adding to their numbers as they pop up on eBay or elsewhere. I’ve no idea at all why I would be inspired this year to do post apocalyptic figures, but let me know if you have any ideas.....

Anyway, these first five are general survivors. The average people trying to make their way in a vastly changed world.....

These figures are from a now defunct range for a game called “Eden” produced by a French manufacturer. Originally they were “Taban Miniatures” and then the range passed to a company called “Happy Games Factory” and they now seem to have closed.

The game is split into a number of factions and whilst I find some of the factions not to my taste, there are a large number of figures that I really liked, so I started purchasing them even though I couldn’t really see myself playing it any time!

First up is Angela. We met her in a bombed out music shop where she was cradling her “Axe”. Turns out she was part of the civil defence force, before that fell with everything else. She kept her leg armour, but the rest of the suit needed batteries to work so she dumped the rest of it. She’s sure handy in a fight.....

Dietrich is next. Bit of a survival nut, even before things got bad. Doesn’t seem to have had any formal military service, but knows his way around his assault rifle and seems to have raided an army surplus store for his kit......

Luther was some kind of hipster before it all went wrong. Kept his hat, shades and washed out t-shirt and grabbed a pick axe from his shed when he headed out into the wilderness.

Liesl was a self styled “soccer mom”. Don’t have the heart to ask what happened to her family, but she’s sure handy with that spear and shotgun.

Otto worked construction before the Events. Only person I’ve met who’s strong enough to lift that chainsaw on his own. Strong and silent type.....

Some conversions to give than a variety of weapons from different manufacturers, I intend to use them with the “Fistful of....” rules as they’re quick, simple, fun, great for multiplayer and can be adjusted to fit pretty much any era.

With regards sizing, they’re chunky figures, slightly bigger than Star Wars legion I would say (scale shot below with a 28mm figure) so I was going to suggest 40mm scoring like Star Wars legion are?

I too cannot possibly imagine what could have inspired you, now, to paint up these post apocalyptic survivors.

Lovely work on he figures and the basing. I'll score these as 40mm figures, as per your suggestion, so that's 35 points for you.

I almost missed this post as it somehow snuck in between mine and Stuart's.

Tamsin

Tamsin's Tuesday Titivations

 

"Good morning, Ladies, Gentlemen...and Ray. Snowlord Airways flight AHPC-XI out of Challenge, Blogland is currently cruising at 19,044 points, which means we have ascended 6,414 points since my last announcement. At this rate of climb, we should achieve our target altitude of 69,600 points eight weeks from now which is slightly earlier than planned."

"As of this morning, 69 (*titter*) passengers have boarded the flight, leaving us with just 21 still to join us. They'd better do so soon, or they may find that Captain Campbell has locked the doors."

"Although I am not participating in this flight's painting contest, I have been keeping my hand and eye in nevertheless. Here is what I am currently daubing:"

"But that's enough nonsense for today. Wax crayons are in the usual place (if Ray hasn't eaten them all); medications may eventually be administered; the drinks trolley will come around in a few hours time (it had a rather heavy night). What's that? You didn't realise it was sentient and abused it? No wonder it got completely trollied* last night!"

Toodle-pip!

Tamsin

* in case you ever wondered where the expression came from, now you know.

From Barks: The construct (35 points)

When the old wizard died, did his powers flow into the ruins of the mansion- or was a dark presence there all along?

Last week I unexpectedly acquired a large collection of Descent 2nd Edition, which simultaneously derailed some of my Challenge strategy as well as throwing a few lifelines. This figure is Skarn, a perfect fit for the Golem's Haunt. I've also started to dabble in Citadel Contrast- about 90% of this figure is plain Contrast.

I don't really feel like I've hit the ground running this Challenge- but I can feel the juices begin to flow again and have a few posts lining up.

3" tall construct: 12 points?

Golem's Haunt: 20 points

Wow! That is a great way to get derailed! The contrast paints have worked really well on this model.

I'm going to score it as 12 for the construct and a point each for the birds, so that's 15 points plus the 20 chamber bonus points.

Tamsin