From ScottM: Referee for Teleportation & some Rangers (65 points)

The first part of my post is my tribute for teleporting from the Knights Solar to the Lair of the Great Beast. This 28mm metal fig is from Impact Miniatures.

I think I must have picked this fig up back when I was still playing Blood Bowl a fair number of years ago. Simple easy to paint fig.

The second part of my post is this group of British Rangers/Backwoods Militia for the French and Indian War. These 28mm metal figs are from Galloping Major Wargames.

These are the first Galloping Major Wargames figs I've painted up. They're pretty nice, my only quibble is their hands tend to be quite large. Otherwise they're nice figs.

So that should be:

1 - 28mm foot fig + relocation bonus = 25 points

8 - 28mm foot figs (Rangers) = 40 points

For a total of 65 points.

I do hope that the match is being played somewhere warm - that referee could catch a nasty chill in that outfit.

Nice work on the rangers.

Tamsin

From PaulSS: [Adventurers’ Landing] Hearts of Oak (70pts)

A couple of years ago I won one of the Challenge spot prizes, a voucher for Barrage Miniatures so put to it and bought myself three of their great boats. 

Last year I entered one of the boats for the "Riedys Reef"   this year, it's another entry for Adventurers’ Landing.

Adventurers’ Landing: A chance to paint a landing on a home or foreign shore to collect some points. Try not to get your feet wet...

The crew are from the Brigade Games and I added the option for Oars & Oar Locks to save me the fuss of building my own.

The dunnage is a separate piece that can be stowed fore or aft and is made from a few spares from the bit's box, there is even a bin from a T-34 in there. I covered it in a piece of napkin soaked in PVA to represent some old sail-cloth.

As it's removeable I also have the option of adding a cannon or mortar to make it into a gun boat as part of some harbour defenses.

Like all the Brigade Games Napoleonics they are full of character and I really enjoyed painting them up. The starboard-aft fellow's bare arms are perfect for a fouled anchor tattoo.

The Lieutenant and Midshipman are also from Brigade Games, I did think about doing "deck" bases for them, but in the end decided on my usual scatter as they are most likely going to be deployed on my standard terrain.

Six 28mm figures plus a boat (vehicle?) and the location bonus will add 70 points to my target.

28mm Napoleonics Duel Totalizer: 26 mounted, 99 foot, 3 guns, 1 boat.

That's a jolly nice boat Paul and the crew look great. I'm pretty sure the ratings won't be too happy about having to clean out all the soil and grass the officers have brought aboard though!

Tamsin

(yes, the "jolly" was deliberate)

For Barks: The Altar of the Snowlord

Altar of the SnowLord (brought to you by the kids of Kinsmen Park South)

  

Barks enters the glowing crystalline chamber and stares in wonder at the Altar of the SnowLord. 

The idol, suspended in the air, seems so pure and perfect, so... 

Wait, is that a dog mark on its side? 

Bi-weekly Duel Update - Games Workshop Minis Duel - Update #4

We're now 8 weeks in to the challenge and the end is drawing nearer. Brushes are whizzing, paint is flying and challengers around the world are desperately trying to complete miniatures in all shapes and sizes. Nowhere is that more true than among the crazed duelists in the GW minis side duel. Or not, I'm pretty much guessing at all of this to be honest.

From the previous update:
Barks - 320
Codsticker - 40
DrQ - 300
GregB - 5
Paul O'G - 208
PaulS - 184
Reilly O'G - 450
StuartL - 666
TeemuL - 197

After two more weeks of painting, the current scores are now:

Barks - 355 Points

Since the previous update, Barks has done some terrain and this massive LotR Fell Beast and it's Nazgul rider. The entry was given some bonus points due to it's size, which I have included in the total above.

Codsticker - 55 Points

Having narrowly missed the last update with his entry last time around, Codsticker has a few more points on his total thanks to some great looking minis from Blackstone Fortress.

DrQ - 375 Points

Maintaining a steady painting pace, DrQ has been adding regular top ups to his score. The Dr's Ork Waaagh has continued to expand and he has added more AoS minis to the finished pile. After the spooky wraiths from the last update, DrQ has finished off some even spookier Banshees.

GregB - 5 Points

Greg seems happy to be painting up some historic minis for the time being. Lots of Franco-Prussian War minis have been posted over the past few weeks and are well worth a look. 

Paul O'G - 308 Points

Keeping with his theme of expanding his Beastman army, Paul has added a large mob of Ungor infantry to his tally of painted minis.

PaulS - 219 Points

Paul's group of Skeletons for Warhammer Underworlds are his offering for this update. For models with no facial expressions possible, they seem very characterful. Hopefully we will be seeing some Necromunda figures in the near future, something to look forward too.

Reilly O'G - 503 Points

Reilly has added some very wet and sticky looking Trolls to his Goblin army and a Beastman tribute for his Curtgeld payment. Reilly mentioned a painting dry spell in his last post, but fingers crossed he can move past that and continue to wow us with his WFB minis.

StuartL - 806 Points

Oh no, not this guy again. Every time he seems to have found some way of racking up his points through some nefarious, underhanded trickery. Is he just posting the same models over and over using a photoshop colour filter to change the images slightly? Disgraceful. Anyway, here are some marines he "painted" recently.

TeemuL - 227 Points

Teemu has done a marvelous looking Halfling Hot Pot catapult, but what really caught my eye was this gorgeous LotR eagle figure, painted purely with Contrast paints.

And that is about it for this update. There are still a few weeks left, so I hope that our various duelists still have something left in the tank for that final push. As always, if you feel that I have miscounted or made an error somewhere, please comment below. See you all again in 2 weeks.

From BruceR Chamber of Challenges Graveyard Beach 5 28mm 25 pts + 28mm vehilce 20 pts + Chamber 20pts = 65pts

Muff McGillicutty has returned and assembled his royal marines to venture into the Graveyard Beach.  For this task the royal scoundrels have commandeered a tug and a good thing as well.  What else could you get through this cavernous stream in search of the "Red Casket" for Muff's benefactor.  Not sure what it contains just retrieve it we shall lads.  

The Royal Marines are pulp figures and are really great to paint.  The white uniforms are fun and the faces are great.  I picked these up to go with some pulp British army lads I had used for a Bolt Action force. So while in the subzero painting muse of the Challenge I grabbed the bag and knocked them out.

The tug is an Empress Miniatures Resin model.  I picked it up for those same pulp army brits I did thinking I would use on a show board to indicate my early war brits sat on the  Suez Canal.  Well the army was done but the board got tanks instead of a boat.  Again the Chambers Challenge had me grabbing it of the shelf, break  out the airbrush and go at it.  I base coated it rust brown and a light grey.  From there the brush hit everything else.  Not sure how it will play other than terrain at a dock.   Now to build a dock...............

Here is the crew landing at the Graveyard Beach and retrieving the "Red Casket".  Muff oversees the retrieval, while two sailors cover the other three.  

The Casket is a metal miniature from the lead pile.  Not sure where it came from and it has no markings on the back.  So I have painted the Royal marines, with the intention when purchased to flesh out an early WWII force for flavor.  I saw the water and thought, Royal Marines + Tug + Casket = Graveyard Beach.  So I hope the Chamber god's approve.

5 28mm Royal Marines 25 pts

28mm Tug Boat 20 pts

Chamber "Graveyard Beach" 20 pts

Total 65pts

Thanks for following the perils of Muff.  Thus ends the US 3 day weekend.

Cheers

BruceR 

 

From BruceR Chamber of Challenge, 3 25mm 15pts + Adventurers Landing 20pts = 35 pts

 

Moving from the Shrine the party enters the Adventurers Landing.  Here the party returns to the FIW with Rangers Hal and Will moving through still water looking for the supply island.  As they approach what they think is the correct spot they see movement and Hal drops his paddle and sights his musket in case the Huron or some Frenchie has stumbled upon their supplies.   The figures and canoe are AW and will work great as a Sharp Practice 2 moveable deployment point.  I used a 60mm base and painted it green.  Next I used Vallejo Still Water, a product I had, yet never used.  After pouring over the painted surface I dropped a couple of tufts in the goop.    

The two are painted as British Rangers in FWI.  One has his ranger frock still on, the other working hard has packed his coat.  The canoe has seats, a bag, paddle and a couple of additional muskets.  Hoping approaching the landing with the canoe is acceptable for the chamber.  

5 pts for the 28mm figures = 10 pts

Canoe I took 5 points as well, adjust if too much = 5 pts

Adventurers Landing Challenge = 20 pts

Total 35 pts

Stay safe and sane.  Tomorrow the weatherman says
it will break above zero.

BruceR

From BruceR The Chamber of Challenge (The Shrine) 28mm 5 pts + Chamber 20 pts = 25 pts

Making our way through the Chamber of Challenges the group has hit the shrine.  Looking about for the key to this room the group searches the man cave for something that will qualify to satisfy the Chamber Judges.  Behold an adventurer from Felstad in the Frostgrave realm.  Simore the Alchemist may not be a priest or holy man, but one night in the back alley tavern aptly named "Boozer" he befriends a holy man trying to convert every living soul in the Boozer and the whole of Flestad.  Well, one drop from his sleep vial and the holy mans head hit the table.  Thus, during his current adventures Simore sports a very official staff, which seems to bring every sheep within 100 leagues to his area and his most now prized possession the hat of Bishophic knowledge.  Hard to get through doorways, but scares the tails off those little summoned demons.

The model is from playing Frostgrave at Adepticon and if I'm not mistaken was made for those events.  Spotting this hat in the bin of lead my problem of the shrine was solved.  Great little model to paint and with scrolls, vials and the crook this figure is ready to hit the tunnels to seek knowledge and loot.    

So here is my Chamber Challenge for the Shrine.  Next off to the Adventurers Landing

Thanks

BruceR

1 28mm 5pts + Chamber 20pts = 25 pts.

 

From BenitoM: Gallery of Ancestors - Spanish Republican Fighter 1936-39 (25 points)

This is a somewhat emotional post, as it links directly with a personal situation but also the not so far away history of Spain. First, I must confess that I envy the tales that many of you have posted about your ancestors, fighting a war to liberate Europe from the yoke fascism: British, Americans, Canadians, Australians... voluntary or conscripted, at least they fought for the good cause, the good fight

Unfortunately I can't  tell the same tale. This is the story of my grandfather (abuelo) Paco or at least the little I know about him. Abuelo Paco was born in Peñarroya, a small village near Cordoba and worked in the mine that supplied coal to the local power plant.

In July 1936 a military uprising led by a group of army generals resulted in a 3 year bloody civil war. What I know is that abuelo Paco joined the loyalist army of the Republic, but voluntary or conscripted, it's a mystery to me. 

My grad mum, my father (then 6 years old) and my then two very young aunts (babies actually) left the village in haste and arrived after several weeks (or months?) to Valencia, the seat of the Republican government after leaving Madrid and many-many hundreds miles away from my father's birthplace... undoubtedly a terrifying experience.

Next thing I know, all the family is reunited in Valencia, where my two surviving aunts still live. Abuelo Paco started working in a local shipbuilding company where my father (a boy 10-11 years old) also worked. However around 1945, abuelo Paco died from silicosis, a frequent illness among miners and my father still a teenager had to become the earner for the family.

Where did he fight? In which units? How (or if!) he was able to avoid the detention camp that demobilized Republican army soldiers had to go for "re-education"? We have no idea. No papers from my grandfather were found when my grandmother died. And she never wanted to speak about the war... the pact of oblivion... I don't even have a photograph of him to show here.

This model presented is therefore an idealistic representation of my ancestor. A fighter for the doomed Spanish Republic, abandoned by the Western democracies, abused by the Soviets and against all the power of the professional African army supported by the fascist European powers.... and going through the ordeal of a dictatorship until the mid 70s because of Cold War international geopolitics convenience.

The model is from Empress superb Republican army range, expensive but worth every penny given the outstanding suclpting and poses.This from an unfinished project of 8 yeas ago, when we played a long and intense campaign with Chain of Comand SCW rules variant. I bought several blisters of Republican and Nationalists, but never completed the project as my gaming group shift thie sights into other period.

This post therefore adds 25 point to my Challenge scoring: 5 points for the 28mm model + 20 bonus points

From PeteF: Old School Minifigs Stretcher Bearers - Napoleonic Heroes (33 points)

Lots of things came to mind for the hall of heroes - but where possible I've been trying to use Napoleonic Minifigs to meet the dungeon challenges and this stretcher party fits the bill. Battlefield medicine was in still in its infancy in this period. Although things had moved on from "a course of leeches" as the solution to all problems, it was still long before the development of germ theory.

Napoleon's specialist troops included medical orderlies - infirmiers - who were assigned to each corps. They carried wooden blocks and poles that could be assembled to make a stretcher. I like the chestnut colour of their infantry style uniform coats. 

I  think of these chaps as assisting Larrey, Napoleon's top field surgeon - the inventor of Larrey's ambulance - an early conveyance for speedily removing casualties from the field of battle - part of a system of evacuation and field hospitals that Larrey invented. At Waterloo Wellington ordered his troops not to fire in Larrey's direction saying"give the brave man time to gather up the wounded". Larrey narrowly avoided summary execution by Prussian troops after the battle - and spent time as Blucher's guest instead (he was credited with saving the life of Blucher's wounded son earlier in the Napoleonic wars).

The infantryman on the stretcher who took one for the emperor and the two infirmiers are all heroes.  Minifigs Set 5 is still available from Caliver Books. I'll have to figure out how to work it into a scenario - or maybe use it give the gaming table some added flair.

2.5 infantry for 13 points plus a room bonus for a total of 33. 

PeterD "L" Class Destroyers (8 points)

Another four Royal Navy destroyers from my WW2 med theatre project, these representing the four L class destroyers armed with 4" AA guns as main armament.  All four ships served in the Med and were lost there between January and May 1942.  HMS Lance and HMS Lively were part of force K with HMS Aurora and HMS Penelope, which had some notable successes in its brief history.

The design history of the L/M class destroyers had a number of bumps that were unfortunately matched by my attempt to proceed models for the ships.  Fresh not the heels of the highly successful J/K class of destroyers, the naval design team decided to do what all designers do and improve a good thing by changing to a new main armament.  The new 4.7" gun fired a bigger shell, had some high angle capability and had an improved gun house.  But it never worked as an effective AA gun and and the director was overweight giving structural issues.  Simulatenoulsy the RN had an internal bun fight over the best light AA guns for destroyers, and the class was initially designed without any light AA while this was sorted out.  As a result four of the "L" class were given 8 4" AA guns in stead of the 6 4.7" of the other 12 L&M classes. 

HMSs Lively, Lance, Legion and Gurkha.  I need to redo the label on HMS Legion as it badly smudged.

So onto the model issues.  GHQ does not do either an L or M class destroyer but CinC does three different ones!  One is clearly an M class with the 4.7" mounts - these were big enough that the Italians thought the ships were cruisers on first meeting- but there are two labeled L class AA.  I ordered a pack of 5 based on what I could see on the website  and had these prepped and primed for the start of the challenge.  However, when I opened Mal Wright's excellent book on Naval Camouflage I noted that the rear guns mounts on the models didn't match the pictures in the book.  This likely wouldn't bother anyone else but having researched and ordered models to fit particular ships it bothered me.  So I went bak to the CinC webstore and ordered the other pack of L class AA destroyers which do look like the pictures i the book and those are what I've shown above.  I can't figure out what the other casting is supposed to represent but it sure as heck ain't an L class destroyer.  These casts became some of my greyscale unidentified sightings along with the extra correctly modelled L class, since CinC sells these in a pack of 5 and there were only 4 ships.

 

Challengers who paid attention while watching Sesame Street will note that Gurkha does not start with an L.  The ships was originally to be named HMS Larne but this was changed in honour of the tribal class destroyer lost in 1941.  The Gurkha regiments did a crowd fund to pay for the ship and command was given to the brother of an officer in the Gurkhas.

Excuse the ramblings, but to sum up that is 8 points for 4 hulls in 1/2400 which also count towards my Naval Side duel efforts.

From TomM: Graveyard beach: Zombieeeessss (170 pts)

Well, I`m not really planning on building any 9th age or WFB Vampires army anytime soon, but these zombies, an old set from Mantic, would have been perfect for that.

Instead, I grabbed the box at a discount bargain, with the sole purpose of having "fodder" for games of Dungeons and Dragons or Rangers of Shadow Deep.

In that regard, I painted them in a fleshy, not to gory, colour scheme, because that way I can use them as crzed starved fanatical villagers or something as well, forming wave after wave of low hp and unskilled masses to throw at the heroes.

An added bonus is that it paints up really smooth as well, so a couple of hours later I had a nice heap of 30 zombies, ready to claw their way towards the unwilling opponents!

 

So that makes an excellent 150 points for the models, and a nice boost to my tally as it becomes 170 points due to the 20 point location bonus...