From StuartL - Naughty-cal Types for the Aquifer (55 Points)

Hello again.

Having left an offering at the Altar of the Snow Lord, I thought that I would head back through the Chambers of Challenge and finish up the ones that I had passed by on my mad descent into the lower depths. Starting from the 1st level, that left me with the goal of painting up something nautical for the Aquifer.

With that in mind, I dug out 5 pirates figures and did my best to get them all shipshape for this post.

First up we have a couple of character minis, a dangerous buccaneer and a smartly dressed captain. The captain is from Reaper minis, so he's pretty large compared to the other minis here. The buccaneer and the crew below are all from Black Scorpion Miniatures. (Note the skull on the buccaneer's belt and the skull shaped belt buckle on the captain's right shoulder). I do like the Black Scorpion minis, they have a fair amount of detail and paint up easily. Sadly BS switched over to resin a while back, which has really put me off buying more. (That's not to say anything bad about BS's minis, I just hate resin).

Of course, no pirate captain would get very far without his trusty crew. Here we have 3 scruffy looking seamen intent on loot and plunder. I have so far used the Cutlass rules from Black Scorpion for pirate related games, but they are designed for small skirmishes with only a handful of minis a side and require a few house rules to make them playable. On the plus side, they are a lot of fun and also include options for more fantastical crews should you want to use them. I'm thinking of scaling up a bit to have full sized pirate crews on the table along with some royal navy types. Due to one challenger's constant promotion of them, I am looking at maybe trying out Donnybrook as that seems to allow for slightly larger games, includes rules for muskets and the like, and I want to see what all the fuss is about.

Rather than make a separate post, I have also included a non-pirate mini here. I painted up a Necron Cryptek mini between other batches of figures, and finished it off alongside the pirates. This figure came in a big boxed set, though I think it is available by itself now. The Crypteks are the mad scientist/engineer caste among the Necron forces and often have access to strange and incomprehensible technologies. This one has attached himself via his spine to a spider-shaped, hovering roomba. I guess those old space tombs get very dusty. 

If today's minion agrees, as a 28mm figure mounted on another mini, I have scored him as a cavalry figure. The precedent has been set that Necron heads count as skullz, so I will add one to my tally. (The spider thing probably shouldn't count, right).

So, that comes to 5x28mm infantry, 1x28mm cavalry and 1 chamber bonus for a total of 55 Points.

The pirates add one Squirrel point to my tally, the Necron adds 10 to my GW duel and there are 3 skullz for that side duel.

My running Duels totals:

GW Points - 676

Skullz - 374

Squirrels - 13

Well, you managed to sneak this one in just before I logged off, so I guess I have to minion it. What a rotten crew of reprobates. No, no, no - I'm talking about this year's minions, not those nicely painted rascals of the high seas!

55 points for you to close out my shift,

Tamsin

From DaveS - 'Allo 'Allo - French Partisans

 I have continued to work on the French Partisans that I plan on using for Bolt Action.  This time, I have the start of a second squad, and a pre-war 75mm Howitzer for support.

First we have the body of the squad, 6 troops with rifles, one with a Panzerfaust.  These are a mix of Warlord's French Partisans, and their Russian ones. Their leader has a sash, which I have attempted to paint as a French flag.  There is also the Partisan in a Trenchcoat that someone was wishing for.

As part of this squad, I also have the light machine gun and loader.  These were real pigs to photograph at all well.  I also noticed during painting that the gunner has no bipod for his machine gun.  The plan is to either make one in the future, or to balance the gun barrel on something else (maybe sandbags) when I manufacture some.  For now, he will just have to be wildly inaccurate instead.

Finally, we have an artillery option, in the form of the 75mm Howitzer.  This caused me some issues, as I was torn as to what colour to paint it.  Eventually, I went with an artillery blue, figuring that this was an older gun that had not been repainted, and small enough caliber to have never been painted in camo.  However, since I know almost nothing about French guns, I could be completely wrong.  It does, however, look good with the rest of the forces.

So that should be 12 28mm models at 5pts each, plus a crewed gun at 10pts, for a total of 70 points.

" 'Allo London, zees ees Missus Nighthawk calling..."

These are obviously the Communist resistance - the de Gaullists were all in berets, brown raincoats and wearing white ankle socks...

I'm sure you already have a certain cafe owner and his staff from Artizan's "Thrilling Tales" range (and if not, maybe you'll be ordering them now I've made the suggestion).

Tamsin

From NoelW: Guardroom (80 points)

“You don’t want to follow Gnawbone into there,” says Merlissa, trying to hold them back. “It’s the Guardroom.”

“And what will we find in there?”

“I’ll give you three guesses.”

Elfbow considers thoughtfully.

“Antique halberds and quaint Swish stripy uniforms for us all to dress up in?”

“Guards, Tinkerbelle! Guards!”

“Definitely what it looks like,” says Getrude, as Gerald forces open the door. “They look like guards to me. Rows and rows of them.”

“Gnawbone may’ve put on a little weight. And height. But even with a shiny blue sword and a handful of mad orcs, he surely doesn’t stand a chance against that vast array of spears and shields.”

“Perhaps someone should explain that to him. Because he’s charging straight at them, like a bargain hunter on Black Friday.”

“I’ve never seen human skittles before…”

“He’s carving through them like a hot starlet through teenage fanboys...”

Leading his herd of scruffy goblins, who don’t seem all that aware of how outnumbered they are, but nevertheless continue to beat a rhythm on their drums that Gene Krupa/Ginger Baker/Dave Grohl (delete according to generation of upbringing) would be proud of, Gnawbone sweeps the horde of invading guardsmen before them.

“With that new improved Gnawbone ahead of us, these scurvy Challenge Islanders don’t stand a chance!” exclaims Titchy, “we simply have to tag along behind, and the treasure will surely be ours.”

“Gerald thinks we should lend a hand,” Getrude says, edging towards the fray. “Gerald reckons those bronze-header warriors could benefit from a tap on the noggin.”

“Gerald should keep his opinions to himself. Hold her back, Elbow.”

“Oh, yes, that’s right. Give the elf the impossible job of restricting the insane woman with a homicidal cudgel.”

But already it’s all over bar the shouting. And, in a moment, the shouting is over, too, as the last of the armed guardsmen flees the chamber pursued by an orcish rendition of “Another one bites the dust.”

As the last stunted goblin departs in embiggened Gnawbone’s wake, complete silence emerges from the chamber beyond.

“Tell me,” says Elfbow, “What kind of silence would you say is the kind of silence currently emerging from the chamber beyond? It wouldn’t. by any chance, be a deathly silence?”

“Woof!” suggests Scruff.

***

My guards are 12 Republican Romans, to be added to my gradually growing Punic collection. They’re Victrix figures: a little fiddly to put together, but nice models and quite decent to paint. Shields are by Little Big Men – I could never create something like this freehand, so there’s not much point in trying.

Score: 12 x 28mm figures: 60 points

Guardroom: 20 points

Total: 80 Points

1 Squirrel point

Labels: 

Another fantastic tale from Noel. And some smart-looking Romans to illustrate it. I don't think anyone is going to top that write-up today (unless you have another entry lurking in your pockets).

Tamsin

From MattK - Necromunda, WW1 Germans, and Cavemen (125 pts)

 Rather Eclectic mix this time around.

First up, I just finished one of the forgeworld bounty hunters, Ortruum 8-8, for my Necromunda games. 

The photo doesn't show it but he has some surprising heft to him. 

I finally got back into painting historical stuff this week as well. I've had the Blood and Valor Rules, and these Wargames Atlantic Germans since their release but I just got around to putting paint on them this week. Super easy to paint and puts me one step closer to playing the game. 

Finally, I've had these figures in my collection for a year or so now and never opened them until this week. I don't know what grabbed me to do Cavemen but theres a game I missed on Kickstarter called Primevo that I'm dying to get my hands on so I figured I'd get a jump start on the figures for once. All of these were painted almost entirely with Contrast paint, which I'm definitely warming to.

Here are 4 Cavemen Characters

And two blisters worth of general Cavemen

So all together 25 x 28mm figures at 5 points a piece nets me 125 Points

That's certainly eclectic, what with over 40 millenia spanned. I do like those cavemen - hope you've got some prehistoric beasties for them to defend against!

Tamsin

From GregB - 10mm French Artillery for 1870 (33 points)

Some 10mm French artillery and crew for the Franco-Prussian war of 1870.

Since I have my 10mm figures out, 10mm painting is on my mind and I'm kind of in a 10mm painting "streak", I thought I would bring my brushes along to an ongoing project - the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 in 10mm. This posting includes various artillery units to bulk up the French side of my collection. There are two 12-pounders, three 4-pounders and one Mitrailleuse, plus crews. All of these castings are from Pendraken, with one  exception: of one of the 4-pound guns and crew, which came from Magister Millitum.

A couple of 4-pounders in the front.

I love this period, but I generally have a lot of trouble finding to motivation to paint artillery from any "Black Powder" setting...it's the f***ing spoked wheels, a pain in the @ss to paint in any scale. A lot of my projects slow to a crawl when it comes to artillery. So as I contemplated moving along on my 10mm FPW, I figured the best thing to do would be to get another batch of guns and crews out of the way first, so everything else can be more fun.

Mitrailleuse in the foreground...at this scale, it looks almost identical to a 4-pounder, so the gun shield helps it stand out a bit.

These guns were rifled muzzle loading artillery pieces, and their poor performance overall contributed to the very poor showing of the French during the war in 1870. It wasn't just the guns themselves, but the doctrine and training around them - and dud fuses didn't help either! Where the Prussian artillery (with their breech-loading guns) was often decisive, the French guns generally underperformed, contributing (together with many, many other factors) to the rapid defeat of the Imperial Army in the summer of 1870.

The 12-pounders...big guns from the Corps-level artillery reserve, meant to provide support on the battlefield where the action is hottest/most critical.

These miniatures can be used for different rules, but generally each gun and crew will represent one battery on the table. The 12-pounders and two of the 4-pounders will be from the Corps-level artillery reserve, while one 4-pounder and the Mitrailleuse will be attached to a specific division. Two of the 4-pounders are actually horse artillery, but by this period the distinction between the horse crews and general artillery crews is fading, and the differences in the uniforms of the gunners do not stand out in 10mm - I just used three crew instead of four crew for the horse batteries - and at some point when I paint limbers for the guns the distinction will be clearer.

In terms of points, I have six guns, and 21 crew, all in 10mm, so that should account for about 33 points or so. Thanks for reading - stay sane - or at least try to! 

Artillery, the Queen of the Battlefield. Great guns and crews, Greg.

Tamsin

From JonathanO: Aramean Light Infantry (40 points)

This unit of Aramean infantry will form part of a Babylonian army to oppose my Assyrian army.

These 8 x 28mm figures are from Warlord Games.  The figures are on a 120mm x 60mm unit base.  

That will add 40 points to my total.

My Race to 800 Points duel with ScottM is really no contest as Scott has 676 points to my 243.  

Nice work on these spearmen and the basing works well with them.

Tamsin

From MattT - Scots Isles and Highlanders - (30 points)

The main Impetus army i am looking to complete this year is Scots Isles and Highlanders 1050 - 1300 AD.  Its quite a large age range, but for me its main opponets will be my brothers Anglo Saxons and Normans and my Vikings.

First up is the Big Man himself accompanied by awesome banner from little big men studios.

One of the interesting elements in the army are a couple of bases of  Highlanders that are classified as shooters with a high impetus value enabling them to charge into combat aggressively. I have portrayed them as a mix of archers and 2-handed axes. This photo looks more impressive than it is as i painted the archers before the challenge started and am only claiming the 4 axemen.

6 x 28mm models = 30 points

All the best. Matt

Great figures, and that LBMS banner is stunning.

Tamsin

From Dallas: Three Ladies for the Sorceress (35 points)

Back again with some female figures - gotta rake in those bonus points from Level 3 before I finish the Chambers altogether. These three are from the ever-popular (with me at least) Midlam Miniatures. 

First up is a fighter-ranger type. She's wearing quite practical adventuring clothing and is heavily armed to boot.

I like that her bow is wrapped up in a protective cover, gotta keep it all dry and safe you know.

Second up is a druid-ish looking woman with a staff, carrying a book. Perhaps she's out for a ramble in the countryside just looking for a spot to stop for a nice picnic lunch and a read...?

What's in the backpack? Sandwiches maybe? Sounds like a pleasant way to spend a summer afternoon. Either that or killing orcs and stealing their treasure. Either way...!

While the first two figures were Josef Ochmann sculpts from the old Metal Magic range, this last one is a new model from one of Midlam's Halfling Kickstarters. She's a ranger out looking for trouble.

  

I really really like the Midlam range (could you tell?) and these three are a nice addition to my growing "army" of murder-hobos set to invade a dungeon near you :-)

With this submission I would like to petition Mrs. Snowlord for transportation to the Graveyard Beach, there to post some more Midlam goodness!

Stay safe all!
 

Very nice ladies, Dallas. For three of them you get to teleport first class to the Graveyard Beach.

Tamsin

From Mike W - 28mm Gallowglas Warriors (50 points)

As had hoped, I have now been able to complete a historical group of figures, although there are plenty of Fantasy figures still in the pipeline and about to be finished!

A bag of Gallowglas found hiding at the bottom of a drawer

I have returned with a small group of 10 x 28mm Irish Gallowglas miniatures, I missed these a couple of weeks back when I did a similar batch - the downside of having a metal pile kept in a drawer - you never find everything all at once...

I believe that these figures are from Reiver Miniatures and there are three poses, two in chain mail shirts and one in a padded coat.

The completed group of figures

I was going to do some head swaps to add a little variety, but I forgot and undercoated them before I remembered what I had planned, instead I moved one two handed swords from an archer figure and added  to one of the figures running with a lochinbar axe..

So as usual I undercoated these figures in white before using a generic 'Linen' colour to block in all the padded shirts - and under shirts for those in mail. 'Oily Steel' was used for the chainmail, helmets and sword blades before applying flesh colour to hands and legs and faces.

Three archers, I swapped out the big double handed sword on the middle figure

Various shades of hair were added and then leather straps, scabbards and quivers before going round all over again to correct any smudges and 'over painting'.

... and added it to the back of one of the charging figures, for dramatic effect!.

Again I used coloured inks from Army Painter to add definition - flesh tone on skin, Strong Tone on all other areas apart form the metal work, which had Dark Tone applied. All washes were watered done by about 50% to avoid staining the underlying paint.

Possibly my favourite pose of the three, a mailed warrior
with a double handed sword, ready to strike.

Matt varnish was applied when the inks were dry and then basing was done using fine sand and electrostatic grass.

POINTS

10 x 28mm Foot Figures @ 5 Pts ea.= 50 Points

"The merciless Macdonwald - 
Worthy to be a rebel, for to that
The multiplying villainies of nature
Do swarm upon him - from the western Isles
Of kerns and galloglasses is supplied,
And fortune on his damned quarrel smiling
Showed like a rebel's whore."
(from Act 1, Scene 1 of Macbeth)

Great figures Mike and 50 points onto your tally.

Tamsin

JamieM - 7TV minions and bystanders (90 pts)

Whilst rummaging through the lead pile, I happened upon some already undercoated and based figures that I must have got ready for a previous AHPC. So I decided to get them painted as a “quick win”. As ever, it took a lot longer than I thought it would, but I’m pleased they’re done.

These are one of the evil bands for the 7TV game from Crooked Dice.

These are the forces of the totally-not-evil corporation known as “United Radionics”. Led by the charismatic and completely benevolent Lancelot Cray, he has his bodyguard Lionel always by his side.

Standard jumpsuits and helmets for all of the minions, who stand ready to make sure that everyone has upgraded to the latest version of the United Radionics software and hardware, which is definitely not used for location tracking and stealing everyone’s data.

I’ve not played 7TV yet, but what with the stuff I painted in the last AHPC, I’ll be well placed once lockdown is done.

Next up are some bystanders/civilians for my super hero game, hence the change in basing.

These are metal reaper miniatures and made me smile. I see them as wargamers/RPG players, with the latest rules clutched under their arms.

The Gray chap is brilliant. I think he fits right in with his natty hat and suit..... perhaps he’s a scout? Or perhaps he likes human culture and so is trying to fit in?

18 28mm miniatures for 90 points overall.

Crooked Dice sell minions figures? Where did they get photos of all of us?...Oh, I see, minions as in lower-level henchmen of criminal masterminds...hang on a sec, if Curt is calling us his minions, that means he is a criminal mastermind. It also begs the question of who his higher-level henchmen are...

But I digress. Great work on these bods - a well deserved 90 points winging your way.

Tamsin

Tamsin's Totalitarian Tuesday

 

"Good morning Ladies, Gentlemen (and Ray) and welcome to another Tuesday. Snowlord Airways flight AHPC-XI out of challenge, Blogland is currently cruising at 36,811 points with a new target altitude of 67.900 points, a slight increase over last week's target. "

"However, it seems that you have all been slacking off over the past week as the our ascent has been half that of the previous seven days."

"Zis is nicht acceptable! If zere is no improvement, ve vill have to take ze measures to ensure you vill do better. Versteht?"

"It is also deeply regrettable that there are no orange wax crayons left. It appears that someone has eaten them all, haven't they Ray?"

Toodle-pip,

Tamsin

From TomM: The Oubliette: 6mm AWI Britsh (60 pts)

 One of my personal goals in this year's AHPC is to paint up as much 6mm as possible, in a variety of era's and settings.

Because I have a lot of the little guys, and I find that the AHPC isn't a good project finisher per se, but it is a great project starter as you navigate the challenge map.

To that end, I began at last on painting some of my AWI british by Baccus Miniatures which have been lying around here for 7 years now, and did a few odds and ends to have a good starting point and idea of colourschemes and all.

This small kick off force as such consists of 3 stands of infantry numbering 16 soldiers each, 3 stands of 3 dragoons, two mounted officer stands and a cannon.

All in all, accumulating into 52 infantry models, 13 cavalry models and a man-handled gun, good for 40 points in the challenge and 20 bonus points, totalling 60 as such.

Well, if you're using each of the chambers to kick off a project, you're going to have enough projects to keep you going for at least a couple of years! Nice work on the wee chaps, Tom!

Tamsin