From SidneyR: On a Winter Shore : Adventurers' Landing (29 points)

 

Hopefully you'll not need to adjust the settings on your screen, dear Challengers, to see my next submisison for the "Adventurers' Landing".  These are 1/4800th scale Napoleonic Naval ships, being a frigate and three unrated vessels, together with the hex terrain for a snowy, ice-bound coastline.

Hold on.  What's that, Sidney? 1/4800th Napoloenic Naval, did you say?  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the very same - ships which would neatly fit onto the surface of a coin (see below), and which could be used to fight Trafalgar on your coffee table.

So, what on earth is going on here?  Last year (which seems an age ago), in 2020, I wanted to create a set of hex tiles for a 17th Century version of the old Games Workshop game, "Mighty Empires".  I blogged about that project HERE and since last autumn I've been adding more scratch-built hex tiles to my collection.

I thought a set of small ships, moving along the winter coast seeking a suitable place to make landfall, would be a good candidate for the "Adventurers' Landing" chamber in Challenge XI.  I already have a couple of port hexes, but I wanted the ships to depict locations on the campaign 'map' where a naval landing, or a 'descent' on the coastline, was being made.

"Wait Sidney.... are those....ice floes?  Off the coast of Flanders?"  

Correct - here's part of an account of William III's journey from England to Holland in the Royal yacht, Mary, in January 1691: "...After four days at sea pelted by snow showers, dodging floating ice and fog-hidden privateers, the convoy finally reached the shallows off the Dutch coast...." .  

OK, OK, so the ice floes might not have been quite as large as these ferociously sharp ice-shards, but... a little artistic licence goes a long way, I hope!

After weeks of painting 28mm figures, the tiny 1/4800th ships are just a sheer joy to paint.  And for any non-Jack-Tars out there (like me - sorry, Peter D!), the absence of rigging - and the inability to even try and add rigging on the ships - is a blessing and a liberation.  

The ships didn't take long to paint - just an enamel basecoat/ primer, a wash with Army Painter 'strong tone' wash and then some highlighting on the sails, with some careful brushwork on the hulls.  I added a dash of red for the fighting tops on the Frigate and some dabs of Vallejo brass for the sterns of the frigate and the larger merchantman to complete the look of the tiny squadron.

The sea effect was done with PVA-soaked toilet roll tissue.  It's a very easy technique to use and forms very durable and realistic waves, which can then be painted.  I chose a dark, cold blue for my sea, but I am sure a Caribbean azure would have been possible as well.  

Here's the sea and shore tiles matched up with the other hex tiles in the set, which I painted last year.

I made the ice with thin slivers of styrofoam, glued onto the waves using PVA.  There's no science here.  Please can I apologise to any geographer, marine biologist or iceberg specialist?  I wanted to get the 'feel' of the ice floating dangerously close to the shore - I am a little doubtful that the ice would really look like that.

All that being said, when using the campaign hexes, having the ice depicted on the sea tiles is a nice way of letting the players know that the rivers might be frozen and passable.  A visual cue to a game effect, if you like...

And here's the scale of the unrated merchantman with a United Kingdom new 50 pence piece.  And yes, I am probably certifiably insane, dear Challengers, for wargaming in what is really a micro-miniature scale.

But there might, just, be some method in the madness.  As I was painting the squadron (which took, in total, about one hour), I did notice the range of paints I was using.  There are hardly any colours needed for the ships and the sea, and in this scale you hardly need any paint.  The Tumbling Dice ships are very nice and work out to be about 50 pence each.  Which if you're planning Copenhagen, The Nile or Trafalgar, is not to be sniffed at.  

As I mentioned, its a form of method in the midst of wintry madness, fellow Challengers....!!

As for the points, I'm a bit lost, to be honest.  

Looking at other splendid, recent micro-ship entries from Miles and Peter (among many others), the going-rate seems to be 2 points a ship.  That might be a bit high for my smaller sized squadron, but to complement that, I'll just add a single point for the terrain tiles I prepared with the ships.  So, 8 points for four ships, plus one point for terrain.  Plus 20 points for Adventurers' Landing, giving 29 points in total.  

I hope that would work?

******* 

Well, Sidney, I don't think my brain could cope with trying to come up with a scoring scheme for these tiny ships in comparison to the scores for other ships, so I guess I'll just have to go with your suggestion.

That PVA-soaked toilet tissue does a very good job of simulating waves.

Tamsin

From SanderS: The Tomb (25 points)

 Hoi,

Finishing the last Chamber on level 2 of the Snowlord's Dungeon we enter The Tomb. Did you really expect me to enter anything else but Heroquest stuff? 

These are some 3D print and original parts combinations, at least the tomb itself and the altar, the fireplace is an entirely 3D printed piece as the original item from the game is of little use.

The tomb is my favourite it looks really hefty. The fireplace has a slot for a painting, but I still have to figure out how to size a picture correctly...does anyone have a suitably spooky picture of Ray?

Asking more then 5 points for these furniture pieces would embarass me so another 25 points bring me over my intended points target for the Challenge...pfew my honour is saved!

 

Those are some nice bits of dungeon terrain, Sander. I especially like what you've done with the "Tome in the Tomb" - great aging on the pages.

Tamsin

From Peter D Wrens for the Hall of Heroines (45 points)

For the Hall of Heroes I'm going with this set of Signalling Wrens from Bad Squiddo.   I've been mining my pledge figures from Bad Squiddo's Women of WW2 Kickstarter for a lot of my posts this year, and this is one of my favourite packs from the lot.  There's a lot to love in this range and it's given me the push to do some reading into the role of women in WW2.   The Woman's Royal Navy Service (WRNS) did invaluable work in many roles nd they count as heroines in my book.

These figures are very nicely sculpted and lovely to paint, or they would be except for the need to add depth to all navy blue uniforms.  The Wrens are clearly using the signalling equipment here and not just posing with it like some 60s cheesecake calendar you see in your local garage.  There's  lass with semaphore flags, one with an aldiss lamp, one reading signals from another team with her telescope and two scribbling down notes.

A really good read on the WRNS can be found i the book below, which I picked up from my FLBS last year.  It's the story of how the RN used a home brew war-game to develop the ASW tactics that helped win the Battle of the Atlantic.  The WRNS payed a heavy role in developing the game and GMing it while officers from the Western Approaches command came in for training.  Good naval history, good wargaming history, good social history.  A win all around, 

Points wise there are 5 28mm figures plus 20 for the room for a total of 45 points.   These mark two milestones for me the ear.  First I should give me enough points to get over my 500 point target.  Secondly I think that 45 points is a seasonal best post for me this Challenge.  While Miles and MartinC have been gorging themselves on 200+ point displays of gluttony, I've been sedately grazing my way through the treats on the h'or d'oeuvres platters. 

Nice nautical ladies, Peter!

Tamsin

From PaulSS - French Aide De Camps (15pts)

 

Victoria picked me up some more troops from Brigade Games for my birthday back in January and included in the presents was this pair of French Aide De Camps transferring orders.

This vignette will be especially useful for our General d'Armee games to represent two ADC assigned to a brigade.

A mounted and foot 28mm figures will add 15 points to my target.

28mm Napoleonics Duel Totalizer: 27 mounted, 118 foot, 3 guns, 1 boat.

More jolly Frenchmen, but surely they are "Aides de Camp" rather than "Aide de Camps".

Another 15 points for you.

Tamsin

from RayR - Chamber of Challenge - The Laboratory - The Doctor (25pts)

The Laboratory: From bubbling glass jars to smoking bunsen-burners, from Dr Frankenstein’s experimentation chamber to a alchemist’s study - laboratories and scientific figures, terrain and vignettes are the things created in this Challenge Chamber.

Who works in a Laboratory? A Doctor of course.

So I plumped for the first Doctor, who's from Black Tree Designs Dr Who range.

William Hartnell played Dr Who from 1963 until 1966.

Points are easy 5 points for the Doctor and another 20 for the bonus round. 

A good recreation of a classic gent. Nicely done, Ray - here, have the last orange crayon.

Tamsin

From PeterD Graveyard Beach (30 points)

It's getting to the last three weeks so I've got to get my skates laced up to make it to the Snowlord's altar in time.  Luckily I've managed to finish up anther bits and pieces to skate through some rooms on the third level.

First up is two Wizkids Zombies from my FLGS for Graveyard Beach.  I'll point out that I grew up in a town with a Hangman's Beach and misspent some of youth lounging on said beach.  I went with a monotone grey/brown effect on the zombies to represent sorta dead bodies that spent a long time in water and added some water effects to the bases to give the ideas of them shambling out of the shallows.

 

Two 28mm figures plus the room bonus gives me 30 points. I'm not sure if there is enough flesh come off of these guys to register on the Skull-o-meter(TM).

Well, if people will insist on burying the dead on sandy shorelines, this is exactly what you can expect!

Tamsin

From PaulSS: [Sarah the Sorceress] Vivandière (25pts)

I've painted up the second Vivandière from the pair I picked up from Brigade Games and like the earlier one posted a few days ago it's a really lovely sculpt by Paul Hicks.

Vivandière/Cantinière is an synonymous term for the ladies who accompanied the French regiments with their barrels of wine or brandy to sell to the troops.

I'd recommend this Wikipedia article for more information on their history and role.

I thought I should include a shot of the pair of them, ready to raise the spirits of the troops with spirits. I've also picked up a Eureka Miniatures Vivandière and hope to get that done before the end of the challenge to complete the group.

A single 28mm figure with the Sarah the Sorceress bonus will add 25 points to my target.

28mm Napoleonics Duel Totalizer: 26 mounted, 117 foot, 3 guns, 1 boat.

I'm sure that delightful young lady will raise the spirits (and the hopes) of the young men of the French army.

Tamsin

Republican Roman Command Matthew Williamson (45 Points)

 Republican Roman Command

Earlier last week I was getting a little jack of Medievals, tree renovation and Napoleonics, so I switched and opened up my project drawers and looked at my early republicans and decided to complete some more of my commands as I like to have spares in case of civil war etc for my early republican four urban legions. All figures are First corps figures except the dog who is warlord I think, decals VVV on the Roman shields, Impetus markers are Gallic pieces hand painted.

First up is a mounted Equites with his faithful dog, as a commander of my foreign and mercenary cavalry

10 points mounted 28mm and 4 points for the dog? =14

A Simple legion commander base 

three 28mm figures @ 5 points = 15 points

A foreign legion commander

two 28mm figures @ 5 points each = 10 points

Impetus disorder markers (as I like to do some every time I paint Ancient figures......)

6 markers 1 point each = 6 points 

total 45 points

cheers

Matt

Two submissions in a row - you have been busy, Matt! Nice work on these commanders and a good use of spare shields.

Tamsin

WOTR Mounted MAA part III Matthew Williamson (40 points)

 WOTR Mounted MAA

another four off the desk yesterday, I can see the end of the line for these chaps, then onto foot ! Again Perry Miniatures

cheers

Matt

Nice MAAs, Matt. And nice bay horses. I'm sure you'll have spotted by now that you missed the leather on the stirrup straps on a couple of them.

That's 40 well-earned points for you.

Tamsin

Tamsin's 2T-FruT Tuesday

 

"Good morning Ladies, Gentlemen...and Ray. It seems that my gentle cajoling last week might have had some effect as we have ascended by nearly 7,000 points since then. Snowlord Airways flight AHPC-XI out of challenge, Blogland is now cruising at 60,074 points and should at this rate reach our target altitude on 67,900 points before my next shift."

"The fact that we are so close to reaching our target altitude with more than two weeks left to the end of the flight is emphatically not an excuse for slacking off. Keep going you brush slaves!"

"For those confused by the title of this announcement, it is a Judge Dredd reference. Quite early in the strip's history, there was the Cursed Earth saga in which "Old Stony Face", accompanied by an outlaw biker and a few Judges had to cross the Cursed Earth (the irradiated, mutant and outlaw-filled wasteland of America) to take a shipment of vaccines to Mega City 2 (the West coast equivalent of Mega City 1) as they were suffering an outbreak of the alien virus named 2T-FruT which turned victims into flesh-eating living zombies; one of the first signs of infection was the victim declaiming "Tutti Frutti". Along the way they encounter various criminals, get mixed up in the war between the Burger King and the MacDonalds, meet a Green Giant (several actually), escape the attentions of a genetically engineered T-Rex (years before Jurassic Park was a twinkle in Michael Crichton's eyes) and eventually stagger into MC2 just in time to save at least some of the population."

"You might be wondering how BK, Maccy D and the owners of the Green Giant brand reacted. Well, they sued for trademark and copyright infringements which resulted in those episodes of the saga being omitted from reprints for many years until "fair use" laws came in."

Tutti-Fr...Toodle-Pip!

Tamsin

From PeteF: Monsters of Avalon for the Snowlord's Altar (90 points)

The Snow Lord wanted it to be a challenge - so instead of the usual Minifigs Napoleonics he gave me a Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon project. This was a Kickstarter game that I backed last year. It's from Awaken Realms, a group out of Poland with a great track record of producing story driven games. Tainted Grail appealed to me because it is co-operative and can be played solo (important, as I am the only one in my family that really likes board games). The full pledge included a whole bunch of plastic minis - twenty monsters in this Monsters of Avalon box alone. There are heroes and menhirs in the main box and more monsters and more heroes in the other expansions.

Wyrmtangle and Underbrush Wyrm

I haven't got very far in the story yet - it is a sort of souped up choose your own adventure. I've failed a few times playing solo with one character  - and subsequently found out through the Facebook group that picking two or three gives you a better chance. I haven't met any of these six monsters yet. 

Wolfwalker - some skulls for the count

The world of Tainted Grail is a kind of post apocalyptic Arthurian place with many twisted monsters such as the wolf with exposed insides and the Wyrdbear - with all its insides on the outside. Spot the liver. Mwahahaha. Plenty of Blood for Blood God technical paint was used.

Wyrdbear

The wyrding is a mist that can only be kept at bay by various menhirs dotted around the landscape. Where the menhirs fail, the wyrd produces these strange distorted creatures. Creepy.

The Slaugh

I went for a white walker look on the Slaugh - as  it reminded me of snow zombies and had all the disembodied hands reaching out of the ground. I've not yet found out why the Hammerbeak is stuck full of rusty weapons and arrows - but it was fun to paint - the photos (sorry about the focus) haven't done the drybrushing much justice. Maybe I should do some more.

Hammerbeak

This shelf started out empty on December 20 - and there isn't much space left on it. I was hoping to do one entry for every room... but time is short so I may have to settle for less than a completed dungeon. 

The shelf of self esteem

Nevertheless - I made it to the Altar of the Snowlord and claim my prize - twice, as this puts me over my Challenge XI target. Thank you Snowlord for the challenging project - with no Ospreys to draw on, and limited monster experience, I have a lot to learn about colour and techniques for larger models. I'll enjoy painting the rest of the Monsters of Avalon - in Challenge XII or beyond?

6 monsters ranging in height from about 50-80mm so I'm scoring them at 10 points a piece plus 20 for the room.

Fantastic beasts, and now we know where to find them*. You've done a smashing job on these big monsters - I particularly like that Wyrdbear.

I've scored these as 54mm foot, plus a few extra points to cover those that are a bit bigger.

Tamsin

* I haven't read the book, nor seen the film, but do know the title!