From Curt: For 'The Gallery of Ancestors' - A Cave Troll and an Mordor Armoured Troll (40 Points)

I recently finished the last book of 'The Lord of the Rings' and so am quite jazzed with all things Middle-Earth. So, for the Gallery of Ancestors I offer you a venerable Cave Troll and his beefier, younger cousin from Mordor.

This fella GW produced upon the release of 'The Fellowship of the Ring' back in 2001. Yep, twenty years ago folks, can you freakin' believe it?! 

This guy's old, grumpy and all metal. Bless 'im. 

He's a repaint from a 'move failure' I had when we relocated across country. He originally has just the hammer and chain, but I've given him a nasty long hafted glaive to make him extra fearsome. While I wax nostalgic about him, he was a bit of a b@astard to put together, with a few imbedded pins and some green stuff required to make him presentable.

Next is his even larger cousin, an armoured Mordor troll from the 'Battle of Pelennor Fields' boxed set. He comes as a fairly simple plastic kit. While I'm usually not a big fan of plastic models, seemingly always shaving down seam lines or filling gaps, I have to say that this guy is quite well engineered, with lots of nifty build options.

Everyone seems to do up this brute with the huge war hammer, so, ever the contrarian, I went with the big honkin' spear instead. I kinda like this pose. I think he has a bit of a Greek hoplite look to him (if a hoplite were to weigh 800 pounds, have three fingers, and carry a Buick's worth of sheet metal on him).

Sure, this guy's cool and all, but I don't think he's as interesting as the older, metal version. The venerable cave troll has more surface texture, and his 'I'm going to clobber ya' pose seems far more dynamic to me. This being said, the two of them provide a neat contrast in design and production over the past two decades. 

These two boys are around 60 to 70mm tall, so I'll claim 10 points each. With the chamber bonus that should top me off at 40 points. Well, that's just trolltastic!

Next: Hmm, I think I need a teleport to The Tomb. Time to rustle up another female figure for the Sorceress.

- Curt

From Dallas: Graveyard Terrain in the Tomb (45 points)

Into the Tomb... and some suitable terrain. Not sure where these came from but they've been in my terrain drawer unpainted for many years. So a quick coat of paint and some tufts and voila, 45 points and another room down.

Cleric and ghoul face off in front of an open grave... yikes!

On to the next one!

AndrewB - The Shrine

 Two of the figures I finished about a week ago as a part of my conquistador project mentioned in my last post fit too well into the challenge to leave out!  These two monks are perfect for the Shrine!  

I have absolutely no idea who manufactured these models, or where I got them, to be perfectly honest.  But they’re here, they’re painted and based, and they fit well with the conquerors. 

Painting these two fellows was an absolute delight, allowing me to work on some of the layering I’ve been fighting with, as well as reaching the absolute madness in my painting life.  I finally decided I’d attempt to paint eyes on models   I’m not entirely convinced it’s a great idea that I’ll try again in the next decade, but I think they came out alright.  

Two 28mm figures should bring the total for this post to 30pts when the points for the room are added as well.  The rest of this army should be done before the end of the challenge, and should be interesting to see. 

AndrewB - The Landing

 For the landing, I dug out some quite old 6mm landing craft, and a few which I believe came from the Cruel Seas American starter box from Warlord Games.  The others are likely a combination of GHQ and god knows where else.  I’m not supremely knowledgable about paint schemes of this variety, so I went with a green for vehicles which may have fallen under Army purview, and a gray for the rest. 

They’re not quite making landing yet, but it’s obviously imminent.  I wanted to use some conquistadors for this room, but they’re not quite finished, and a significantly bigger batch, so they’ll have to wait.  

My calculations have these 12 6mm vehicles totaling 24pts, plus the 20 for the room bringing me to 44 for the post!

From StuartL - The Altar of the Snow Lord - 60 points

Hello everyone.

After a blitzkrieg pace through the Chambers of Challenge, I have finally arrived at the Altar of the Snow Lord. Reaching this room is the culmination of a month's worth of painting until my brushes glowed red hot and my arms ached from the stress of turning a hundred minis to reach every last spot. Well, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea. 

So, the challenge set for me by our icy overlord was:

Okay Stuart, last year you were working on a WWII Far Eastern Theatre project. Let's see you complete another unit for that collection. Once done, you will have met the challenge and will receive your prize.

Fair enough, a unit for WWII in the far east. No problem. 

Actually, when Curt was setting the challenge, I suggested that I could not only paint a unit as above, but it would also be one that most people didn't know about and that, more than likely, no-one had seen on a gaming table before. Hopefully the minis below support that small boast.

As well as quite large selections of troops for the Normandy and Russian campaigns in Europe, I have assembled quite a lot of minis for the Far Eastern Theatre, focusing mainly on the attempted invasion of British India by the Japanese army, followed by the British counter-offensive. In terms of models and rules, this theatre doesn't really get a lot of attention. Sure, you can find Chindits and Gurkhas easily enough, but those were relatively elite groups within the British Indian army. Personally, I am more interested in the other, less elite, but no less important troops that took part in the conflict.

In 1944 the Japanese army launched Operation U-Go, an offensive aimed at entering India through the border with Burma. Planning for the offensive had begun in 1943 after the Chindits had (rather ironically) proven to the Japanese that it was entirely possible for infantry units to advance through the dense jungle and hills along the border. In March, 5 Japanese infantry divisions advanced into the Northeast India regions of Manipur and the Naga hills. The British Indian army had been expecting an attack by the Japanese, but had no idea where or when it would strike. The sudden advance by the Japanese army quickly pushed into the border regions and several British Indian divisions were encircled and trapped in the areas of Kohima and Imphal. 

Fighting in these regions would last for nearly 4 months and saw 10s of thousands of casualties and the eventual shattering of the Japanese offensive force. Conditions were harsh, and food, medicine and ammunition were in short supply on both sides. 

But, it is to neither of those two armies that I have turned to for this challenge. Instead, I have painted up some of the locals from the region, the Naga people. 

The Naga were a group of tribes that lived in the jungles on the edge of India. They were headhunters and farmers, eking out an existence in the harsh climate and on land ill suited for agriculture. Fierce and independent, it was only the arrival of the British that tamed them. In exchange for a cessation of all headhunting (it still happened from time to time), the British supplied the Naga with medicine and heroin (Yes, the Empire did some very questionable, if not downright evil things). This brought relative peace and stability to the region and by all accounts, the Naga had good relationships with the local government representatives. So much so, that when the Japanese invaded, the Naga warriors signed up with the British as scouts, messengers, guides and even soldiers. Among all of the tribes, there were supposedly only two Naga who went over to the Japanese, the others siding with the British.

At first armed only with muzzle loading muskets and their Dao swords, the Naga took on the role of guiding British patrols through the jungle, keeping watch for advancing Japanese units and rescuing downed airmen. Eventually they would receive supplies of more advanced weapons from the British reserves, but they always fought well regardless. That the British took a rather more relaxed view towards headhunting when it was directed against Japanese troops also encouraged the Naga who saw it as an important coming-of-age ritual for young warriors.

Warriors from the tribes would often decorate their skin with tattoos made from tree sap pigments. Only those who had been a part of a headhunting raid were allowed to tattoo their skin in such a fashion. They would traditionally wear necklaces of precious stones, bones and feathers, and wore kilts and wraps of dark cloth with colourful stripes. I have tried to show these elements of their culture through my painting, particularly giving them all tattoos across their faces and torsos.

Of the Naga, Field Marshall William Slim wrote, "Many a British and Indian soldiers owe his life to the naked head hunting Naga, and no soldier of the Fourteenth Army who met them will ever think of them but with admiration and affection."

When I first started researching my Far East project, I was unable to find any miniatures suitable for the Naga tribesmen. Luckily one of my friends is pretty good at sculpting, so I supplied him with a bunch of Zulu sprues from Warlord Games, figuring that their near naked appearance would be a good starting point to build from. My friend did not disappoint and produced these 8 unique miniatures for me. He added earrings and necklaces to some of the models, extended the loincloths into kilts and wraps, added leg wraps and changed the hairstyles of the models. He even managed to get one in a kneeling pose. All in all, they came out very nicely and I hope that my paint job is worthy of his efforts.

If anyone is interested in the battles of Kohima and Imphal, I recommend Road of Bones by Fergal Keane. It is very well written and covers a lot of the events of India in Spring 1944 in all their tragic detail.

So, I hope that the miniatures receive the Snow Lord's seal of approval. Hopefully they also match my boast of being largely unknown and never seen before on a gaming table. 

By my calculations, there should be 40 points for the minis and 20 for the chamber added to my total. No skulls, even though they are headhunters, (Heads were kept at the tribes village), but they do add a Squirrel to that tally.

My running Duels totals:

GW Points - 666

Skullz - 371

Squirrels - 12

From LeeH - The Orcs Pit - Stallu Redcap, Orc Hero (25)

I bought this model three years ago and its been looking at me accusingly ever since. At first glance, he looked quite simple to paint but as I worked on him I found all sorts of little details that demanded to be painted, such as a tiny gold ring in his lip or the various charms and amulets hanging from his belt. I went for a deliberately dark theme as it seems appropriate and matches the dark look in his eyes... I certainly wouldn't want to encounter him while exploring the ruins of Felstad. 

The model is mostly cast in a yellow resin that must be unique to this manufacturer. The axe hand and shield hand (and their contents) are cast in metal. Combining the parts was trickier than I had hoped, not because they were ill-fitting but simply because they needed to be pinned and supported while the Epoxy I used to join the set. Then both of the legs broke at the ankle! This required yet more pinning and repair work before I could even prime the figure. The sculpting is wonderful, but the choice of material lets this particular figure down. 

The model is by Oakbound Studio and stands 35mm tall, making this guy is very imposing next to a 28mm figure. He will make a significant presence on the games table and the implied threat in his expression will leave little to the imagination for any that face him!  

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

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He is a fiesty looking character - would make an excellent addition to any boarding party actually! I looks partial to a tot of rum also. I understand that a Frostgrave expansion later this year will include Giant-born soldier options for your retinue - maybe I need one of these for my Orc Witch force!

Cap'n Wednesday

from RayR - Donnybrook - Ottoman - Segban Light Infantry 60pts

 

Next up for me are more of my new Donnybrook Ottomans.

My second Ottoman unit of the Challenge are 12 x Segban Recruit Musketeers armed with Matchlock Muskets. The Segban units were not a fully formed unit and acted mainly as light infantry for the Janissary Orta's

For those of you unaware in Donnybrook a Recruit Infantry units has 12 figures and throws D6 to hit and for morale, so as pretty as they look they're not the best unit on the board.

Segban units usual wore there own cloths, as they were not issued any uniform, but just for ease of use in games, I've given them all a light blue hat and green waistsash. I've kept the rest of their cloths pretty subdued, greys, browns and dull greens.

Points mean prizes so my Segban should earn me....

60 points!

Nice additions to what must be quite the Donny-horde in your collection now Ray! Love the colour on the hats to brighten them up a bit too

Cap'n Wednesday

From GregB - Some 10mm Imperial Roman Infantry (93 points)

10mm Roman troops from Pendraken - ready to move out and defend the Empire!

 

My 28mm Byzantine painting efforts have halted for now as I managed to run out of some key supplies...but like many participants, I'm hardly ever short of lead to paint, even after all of the hobby disruption in my house-move last summer. So here is a new project - some Imperial Roman Legionnaires in 10mm. These castings are all from the excellent Pendraken, and they are based for "Warmaster Ancients" - there are three units of infantry and one command stand.

Close-up of the first unit.

Painting Romans is a new thing for me, but I have always been interested in the setting. The Painting Challenge has always been a particular spur, as so many of its participants have done (and are doing) very cool projects set in the time of the ancient Roman Republic and Empire. AHPC's 11th edition is no exception - Matt has been trying to inspire folks with a "Rome and It's Enemies" side duel, and there has been some fun submissions there. I promised Matt in a couple of comments that I would do SOMETHING to pitch in on that, so I thought now would be a good time to test the waters and paint some of the 10mm Pendraken Romans I ordered on a whim as part of a carefully considered and well-thought-out plan last summer. 

Close-up of the second unit.

There are many sub-settings within the ancient Roman world. I know many players enjoy the earlier era, and the wars with Carthage and others. But for me, "Rome" is the legion at the height of its power, the soldiers in their segmented armour, carrying square shields and pila, facing down the Germans, the Dacians, the Parthians and the Sassanids (and many, many others). The later Roman era is very appealing too...but I started with troops from the time of the Empire at its height.

Close-up of the third unit.

A little closer...sorry it is blurry but there has been no light in Northern Ontario for three months...

I really like the "Warmaster" rules, and so the "Warmaster Ancients" was an easy choice - the units look lovely without having to be too large, and I have had fun with the rules over the years playing the original version of the game set in GW's now-vanished "Old World". I thought it would be great to use for ancient gaming as well.

A Roman command base.

There are three "units" here - could be cohorts, could be whatever, depending on your imagination and scaling of the game. I know the colour red is cliche with Romans, but I wanted these first units to "pop" on the table, even from a couple feet away, and nothing says "Roman Legion" like red. As I add other units I will start to vary the colours. The shields have just enough of a freehand squiggle on them to imply a deeper/more ornate pattern without one actually being there. I will vary the colour of these on other units in the future too.

Time to march!

I can't say enough good stuff about the quality of these Pendraken sculpts. Sure, they are small, but damn, I enjoy painting them - they are brilliantly sculpted and well cast...little details still present and you are able to take some time with each one if you wish. Maybe not the most efficient approach, but I enjoy it.

So, in all, we have 91 10mm foot castings and a single mounted 10mm castings...there are no naval connections here, so only 93 points in the end! Thanks for reading, and stay sane everyone.

Oh they are indeed lovely - quite a few Romans appearing in this Challenge (mine included) but the mass look that these 10mm troops provide without the loss of detail is quite stunning. Get thee behind me Satan! Great job Greg!

Cap'n Wednesday

From StuartL - I'm So Hungry, I Could Eat a World - 75 Points

Hello again. I'm just waiting for some paint to dry on my Altar entry, but in the meantime, I did manage to get some other figures off the workbench. The more eagle-eyed among you may note that they share some colours with my previous entry, though this is purely by chance. This group of minis have been taking up space at the corner of my workbench for a few weeks now, whereas the mechs I posted up were done in just a couple of days. The colours are just a coincidence.

Anyway, here is today's submission, a group of World Eater Legionnaires for the Horus Heresy setting by Games Workshop. (Or Warhammer 30K).

I started wargaming with Hero Quest and Space Crusade, but my first real taste of the Warhammer hobby was through Space Marine, the 6mm game. I remember playing massive games of that with my friends back in school. The backdrop for the original game was the Horus Heresy and I loved the background in the original rulebook. I must have read all of the short pieces of fiction a few dozen times over.

Fast forward quite a few years and the Heresy became a bit of a niche part of the hobby. Bell of Lost Souls and other online gamers started to put together rules, conversion ideas and the like for gaming in the era and I read all that I could and even tried to cobble together some bits and pieces. It never really amounted to much as I just don't have the green-stuff skills needed to make it work.

Eventually Games Workshop, Forge World and Black Library began to make official Heresy products including a range of novels, resin and plastic minis and some proper rules. I snapped up multiple copies of the Betrayal at Calth and Burning of Prospero boxed sets and then... proceeded to completely fall out of love with GW and 40K, largely due to GW's constant attempts to screw their fanbase over (blocking online stores from trading internationally really hit hard in Japan, where the exchange rate GW charged was ludicrously unrealistic) and the almost weekly new editions of the core rules. It has only been recently that I have made an effort to get back into the GW hobby, mainly with the aim of playing using modified 5th Ed. rules, not caring too much about army lists, and generally focusing on narrative based gaming with friends.

Which is what led to what you see here. 15 Assault Marines from the World Eaters Legion in their old colour scheme of white and blue. Sadly the transfers I had for the shoulder pads are from their 40K incarnation, but I have a pile of transfer sheets and I am NOT paying the 20 GBP price tag that Forge World wants for the 'official' transfers. Likewise, there are a few 3rd party bits (notably the jump packs) mixed in to give the unit a more varied appearance as the figures are all built from the same kit. I can't remember where the parts came from as I ordered bits and pieces from half a dozen different makers and didn't make any effort to keep them separated. I still despise resin, but sadly it's almost impossible to do an all plastic 30K army.

As the World Eaters are known to be a bunch of psychotic berzerkers, I have applied quite a lot of battle damage to their armour as well as a lot of blood stains. After spending hours getting the white to look nice and crisp, it seemed almost heretical to do it, but these are the baddies after all. No clean white armour for them.

So, 15x 28mm minis adds 75 points to my challenge total, as well as to my GW minis side duel. There are 19 skullz on the minis, which is quite low for GW. The 30K aesthetic is rather less morbid than the later 40K one. Just to bump the numbers up a bit, I added a couple of skullz to a base or two. Having seen Barks' Skull Bomb earlier, I feel that I should have added a LOT more. Oh well. This is also my first post containing minis for the 30K setting, so that should also be a Squirrel. A hat trick it seems, Woo.

My running Duels totals:

GW Points - 666 (fitting for a post about heretics, no?)

Skullz - 371

Squirrels - 11

Eat a whole world? Clearly you've never been on rations at sea man! You cant just scoff down other men's food you know - it makes them quite cranky you know! That said, I do like me some psychotic axe wielding space baddies and may even have some of my own...

Cap'n Wednesday

KenR : Curtgeld : 28mm Napoleonic French Lancers - 40 pts

 

With a big 15mm Napoleonic figure collection i have avoided going big and upscaling to 28mm, there are so many lovely figures in the scale and with plastics its so much cheaper. Over the years I've picked up the odd sprue and the Curtgeld is a good excuse to paint one up.

These figures are from Warlord and came free on one of the magazines a few years ago. Detail wise they are pretty good although the face on the sword guy was a bit poor, I prefer Perrys stuff personally but these do paint up well.

The two figures are painted in my usual style, oils on the horses and acrylic riders, they make a nice Skirmish  / Scouting or Command Base. The horses didn't have their own bases just a couple of extra bits of plastic under a couple of the legs so it could be interesting getting this to its new owner.

I've suggested a new owner to Curt, let's see if he agrees and they make the grade 😁 I would really like them to go to someone who will use them on the table, it would be great to see them in action !

Points wise it should be 20 for 2 x 28mm Cavalry plus 20 for the Curtgeld so 40 in total.

It was a nice change from the Allied Italian Legion Project, but its back to the grindstone with the white paint now, I hope to have the first 32 Principes done over the weekend.

Whoever gets these is a lucky person Ken - they look lovely indeed. Always good to mix up your painting as anything gets rather samey, and a change is a good as a holiday they say! Now get back to those Italians!

Cap'n Wednesday

From Barks: Skull Bomb at The Tomb (80 points)

I have pursued my quarry to the cemetery.

At the strangely wrought gates, a raven caws ominously.

The gates creak open of their own accord- what monsters lurk within?

I picked up the plastic GW 'Garden of Morr' about ten years ago, for its superb potential as gothic horror scenery. I found it has subsequently been rebranded as a 'Sigmarite Mausoleum'. I shaved off most of the Warhammer iconography (twin-tailed comets), and made hanging gate hinges out of staples cut in half.

This was my first time weathering copper, using Vallejo 72.135 Verdigris over VMC 70.999 Copper. The Verdigris is one of those bottled magic products which I applied with stippling and as a thin wash. I thought I over-egged the pudding by using Contrast Aethermatic Blue in the cracks between tiles.

I was going to have this statue as stone, but the verdigris roofs were too nice so I made the statue copper as well.

I magnetized the tomb lid.

The details are dense. I like the deep purple/ orange/ turquoise interplay.

It measures about 7x10x4 imperial inches, so I reckon 25 points?

That's 25 points to my GW side tally.

20 bonus location points for The Tomb, plus 5 points for the bonus haunters

Plus 30 points for 6x 28mm models from the Descent boardgame.

Oh, yeah, and the Skull-o-meter™ reads 375 Skullz.

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What a treat it is to minion this post! While I am of course shocked that you would deface this hallowed Sigmarite shrine, I applaud the results. The verdigris looks spot on! And having painted one of these 5 or 6 years ago myself, I am surprised there isnt another 100 skullz on that tally! Nevertheless, this should give Stuart a good run for his money - Bravo JB, Bravo!

Cap'n Wednesday