From PaulSS: [The Tomb] Madam Two Swords (30pts)

 

The Tomb: Paint a tomb, a burial-mound, a barrow or a henge. Bonus points for any ghostly guardian which lives, entombed, within...

I was rather lost for inspiration for this entry, but a trawl of the local games stores turned up this Wizkids "Heroic Statue" a few times, and the plinth could hold some remains, so, on Saturday I pulled the trigger and bought one.

It's quite a simple paint job, the statue was done in VMC Bronze with a couple of washes of AP Green Tone to give a verdigris effect, while the plinth is from a basecoat of VMC Basalt Grey with some staining and lichen patches stippled on.

A single mounted 28mm figure with the location bonus will add 30 points to my target.

Nice bronze-work, Paul. I'm just wondering about the lack of verdigris given the moss on the stone plinth. I assume that some poor sod was instructed to clean all the weathering off the statue and noticed that the boss didn't mention the plinth so left it mossy. 

30 points well earned.

Tamsin 

From JeremyM, Imperial Guard Vehicles, the Armoury (110 points)

Hi all,

So time to keep going on the chambers and return to my Imperial Guard army. This time to much needed vehicular firepower for my troops. So 'amoured vehicles' for the armoury. These are all 3d printed from some thingiverse files. They are called the 'magnetic modular vehicle.' I have a love hate with these, as the concept was so amazing, where you could make so many different imperial guard vehicles, but the fit and finish leaves something to be desired. This is partially due to me. I started these early in my 3d printing journey and didn't make the most ideal resin printer supports for them, but  they also have issues due to the nature of resin vs fdm printing (these are likely meant for fdm not resin printing). Resin prints can sometimes suffer from warping due to the suction forces pulling the print off the plastic onto the build plate. As well they tend to shrink slightly. This meant several parts from this project did not fit properly. I had grown so frustrated with these I had actually toyed with the idea of binning the entirety of it. It didn't help that I had some magnetization errors. Anyone who has glued a little magnetic into a model improperly will know how frustrating it can be to try and remove...But I preserved with the project mostly because  they took up around two litres of resin and at least a month of my time (in print time alone), so I have tried to salvage what I could and stick with my 2021 resolution to make the best one can out of life.

I continued with my 'vresh' blue-grey scheme, and went for a sort of urban camo look to them. The artillery is how I'll start off. You can quickly see that dissassembly makes storage of these so much simpler than if they were fully glued. Basically the creator made the two side tracks and front of the vehicle common across the range. Then the main chassis and weapons for the various guard vehicles connects via magnets to those common pieces. 

Here is a missile launcher with two types of missiles as well as an anti-aircraft gun. The magnets were fun with the weapons as the missiles easily detach and the A.A. guns can be posed and swiveled pretty easily. 

And finally the chimera light tanks, the ones I'm least happy with. What isn't featured is that I painted up about 15 different attachments to the big turret gun as well as lighter caliber weapons that attach to the front end of the vehicle (that can also be used in the above vehicles as well). I'm least happy with these because of the poor attachment of the side treads. The square block that connects the pieces didn't fit properly in the cut outs and it leaves a pretty sizeable gap with all of the vehicles. With the more stationary artillery type pieces above, its less of an issue, but with something you would need to pick up and move in a game repeatedly, like these tanks, its an issue. Every time you pick them up it feels like the whole model will just fall apart. My solution will likely be to just use the above artillery pieces as 'magnetic and modular' and just print the treads and front ends for these two tanks and glue them on directly. Hardly the end of the world and its nice to have a solution to salvage the project once I get around to printing them eventually.

All told I printed 3 sets of the treads and front end, and then 6 chassis from the various vehicles. In painting challenge terms I think that gives me 4.5 28mm vehicles for 90 points and another 20 for the room for a total of 110.

From PaulSS: [Oubliette] Renault R-35 (45pts)

 

Oubliette: Your challenge in this chamber is to paint something forgotten, or lost.  A figure you thought you’d sold years ago.  Or a model from a long-forgotten project.  Resurrect what excited you, long ago, with a flourish from your brushes.

Being in the midst of the move back to the UK a lot of stuff is already packed up and ready to go or is in storage here in the US or the really old forgotten stuff is still in the UK so this is a slight stretch.

When I was last in the UK in 2019 I picked up some of the lovely new Crusader Miniatures Senegalese and got them painted up for Chain of Command. Some pics here, here and here. I decided that they needed some armoured support and the Chain of Command list allows them a Renault R-35 so I ordered one from JTFM last year and it's sat in the box since and was primed ready for the challenge.

The crewman is rather fancy with his droopy Gallic moustaches and silk scarf.

I don't have any appropriate decals so the blue ace of spades is a free-hand bodge. I also did quite a bit of weathering but it does not show up that well in the photos.

Hopefully when I'm back in the UK I'll get some games in with them.

A 28mm vehicle figure with crewman and the location bonus will add 45 points to my target.

From MichaelD: More Renaissance Infantry (210 pts)

 Over the past few weeks I can't count the number of times I thought to myself that I should have my head examined for doing Landsknechts for a painting challenge. Next time I swear it's all going to be Republican Romans. Lay on top of it what the winter quarantine blahs have done to my attention span, and I have to admit it's a wonder I've gotten these done. And each one as much of a special snowflake as I could make them.

It's the last of my Steel Fist figures and a box of Warlord Landsknechts. The Steel Fist figures are justly ubiquitous on here, but here's my take:

Some shooters:

And then I have some Warlord pikes. While not as characterful perhaps as the Steel Fist they have the great advantage of being less cumbersome then metal figures presenting their points forward.

All told there are 42 figures (there's one odd SteelFist pikeman, you can see in the group shot above)

From Dallas: It's All Barks's Fault (15 points)

So here we have a Reaper Hill Giant. How is it Barks's fault?

A couple weeks ago, Mr. B posted an amazing Ringwraith on a Fellbeast, from Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings range. Wow, I thought, what an amazing looking model! I also have a sizeable collection of LotR models, but no Fellbeast... and Barks's post made me think I really need one. So off I went to look at picking one up.

At the same time, Conscript Frederick of our gaming group has been painting LotR models like a madman, and this made me think that maybe higher-order escalation might be appropriate. Since a Fellbeast by itself is $75 from GW, but the Battle of Pelennor Fields box set (which includes a Fellbeast as well as over 80 other models and a new rulebook) is "only" $190, the choice is clear - especially as the box can be found online for about a 15% discount...

So off I scuttled to eBay and found a Canadian vendor selling the BoPF box, and ordered it. Since the box includes 20 plastic Army of the Dead models and I'd never painted anything from that faction, I hit up the Web again to look at paint recipes for those models. "Biel-Tan Green" wash seemed like a good option and I don't have any in my paint stash, so I stopped at the local shop to pick some up. One thing led to another and I ended up browsing the racks of Reaper Minis... and was stopped cold by this very cool Bobby Jackson sculpt of a Hill Giant. Lacking any really big giants in my fantasy collection, I couldn't resist this one, and picked it up along with the BTG wash.

The Hill Giant was an easy afternoon project. It's made of some strange resin, but it's actually grey in colour rather than regular Reaper Bones white, and seems a bit sturdier and less bendy, which is an excellent thing indeed. The funny business started when I primed him with flat black spray - the finish on the model ended up high-gloss. Another coat made no difference, and even a dusting with a different flat brown spray ended up very glossy. So before I put the brushes to him I sprayed him with Krylon Matt Finish and that dulled him down a bit.

The Hill Giant is obviously mostly flesh... so I worked this up from the dark brown spray using Mournfang Brown, Skrag Brown, Cadian Flesh, and finally Kislev Flesh. The tree trunk is Mournfang and Steel Legion Drab washed with watered-down GW Brown Ink. Normally I'd painted the fur in a brown tone but considering how much brown there was on the model already, I opted for a grey fur.

This model was great fun to paint (once I got past the priming) and he'll fit in well with the rest of my fantasy stuff. Bobby Jackson did a great job with the sculpt (his facial expression is awesome and reminds me a lot of the old Citadel style) and at $12.49 the price can't be beat.   

So that's 15 points for this VERY large 28mm Giant... obviously I've fallen out of the top 20 in the league table but hopefully that keeps me in the top 25 for a bit anyway. Now back to the Reaver Titan I've been tasked by the Snowlord to paint!

Stay safe all!

From TomM: 6mm Italian riflemen for the CSIR (12 pts)

  While working away on my finale entry, I did manage to complete some small sideprojects in the meantime.

And this one is the first of those, some 6mm infantry to bolster the ranks of the CSIR.

The models, produced by Adler, are standard italian riflemen with the occasional smg mixed amongst them, but as they are for use with the Blitzkrieg Commander rules, that doesn`t make any difference game wise.

I went for a dark olive colourscheme on them, in order to "blend in" with the dark green soil, though it doesn't really make a difference.  An infantry force facing the might of mother Russia's tank companies probably will spell disaster any way.

But that won`t mean I plan on holding the head low, as the brave carabinieri will take to the battle with panache, head up high, and a lot of galantry!

Or at least yield 12 points to this years tally, that counts for something as well ;-)

WOTR mounted Men at Arms Matthew Williamson 40 points

 Mounted MAA WOTR

Another 4 completed today, enjoyed the painted helm a mix of metal and plastic perry figures

4 x mounted 28mm @10 = 40 points

cheers

Matt

From Mike W, Late 17th Century Poles guarding the Pay Chest [The Snow Lords' Treasury] (30 Points) Points)

For this second post of the day, we have a small Vignette of two 28mm Assault Group Poles, each armed with a halberd, guarding the unit's pay chest. 

Pay Chest and Guardsmen

I imagine that they are awaiting their officers to show-up and distribute the money during a pay day parade or the like, maybe at the end of a successful campaign! 

The two figures are painted in my usual manner, with white undercoat and then colour blocked into eth main areas. Having just done a unit of Ottoman Janissaries, I liked the colour scheme used on these so pretty much copied it for these two little fellows.

A side view of eth chest and two little guys

Only difference was the blue hats and chest braid that I used for the Poles. I added shading with Army Painter coloured inks an then varnished with Windsor & Newton Matt Varnish.

And a final rear view!

The base is 60mm MDF with a scatter of fine sand and electrostatic grass.

POINTS

2 x 28mm foot figures @ 5Pts ea    =10 Points

Snow Lord's Treasure Bonus           = 20 Points

TOTAL                                             = 30 Points

from RayR - Haitian Revolution - 69th Grenadiers 45pts

 

You've had the line unit, so here are the Grenadiers for the 69th Foot.

 

Once again they're from Trent Miniatures, from their Irish Uprising Range.

I've included their very own Officer, in Carribean dress.

As for the points, there are 9 x 25mm figures, making a total of 

45 points!

AdamC: Snow Lords Treasury (21 Points)

 Here we have my offering for the Snow Lords Treasury 

This piece started as part of the Dragonborn Sorceress I showed earlier this challenge.  I decided to remove this from the base to use as treasure token for Frostgrave.  I haven't played Frostgrave in a while but its a good game to run for the Cub Scouts and other event where children attend. No such events are on the horizon but there may be a glow of dawn on the horizon. 

I added some "gems" from the family craft box to make it pop a little more. I think it will serve nicely . for Frostgrave.  Its a small piece so perhaps 1 point and 20 for the room.  Also I believe my way is now clear to the Snow Lords Alter and I await his pleasure. 

From ArthurS: The Oubliette! (27 points)

 Hoi,

After hitching a ride on the Lady Sarah's Nimbus 2000, we now enter the Oubliette. While I painted the entry fee to the Witching Service, Arthur had to do his bit for this room. Let's be honest, I have forgotton about half the figures still on the Pile of Shame so would not have a problem finding anything suitabel but the Lad has been so enthousiastic about finishing these rooms he almost certainly believes that these Chambers of Challenge ARE the Painting Challenge itself.

Anyway he found a Space Marine he was given as a freebie while we were in Canterbury 2 years ago...man that was pre-Covid and pre-Brexit, how times fly and change! He totally forgot he had that kicking around still on sprue.

 Also lying around in his modest "to paint bin" was one of my first 3D printing experiments: a Star Wars Landspeeder that I printed too small for use with Star Wars Legion.

Thinking up points for this entry is a bit of poser: the Space Marine is 5 points no sweat, but the landspeeder is difficult. Arthur and myself decided to ask for 2 points as it is rather small and the scheme is fairly simple. 

Together with the bonus that is good for 27 points.

Cheers Sander