From ScottC: Bell uh1n helicopter - Altar of the Snow lord Submission (40 pts)

 Here at last and what an amazing journey it has been.

I have painted almost half as many miniatures in this hobby challenge as I did last year. I am very proud to have been able to clean up a good chunk of my shelf of potential.

I have had this model in my closet for several years now waiting for an opportunity for it to be convenient to build and paint to pair up with my 28mm modern Canadian forces. 

This is an Italeri bell Un-1N model, 1:48 scale. This is my second model airplane assembled and my first was a 1:48 thunderbolt to use in bolt action. I must say that assembling has never been my cup of tea and my goodness was this a challenge indeed. I glued together large subassemblies so that I was able to paint the interior and somehow airbrush the exterior without getting the windows mucked up.

I regret not taking more WIP shots but alas, here is how I managed to airbrush the exterior. I assembled the hull as best I could with blue tac used to keep it all together. I have to admit, it worked a charm and I was able to paint everything cohesively. 

Here is the beast in it's prime: 

(Disclaimer - only the helicopter was painted as a part of this challenge, scenery and minis were painted approx last year.) 

I tried for the first time to use weathering Pigments on a model. I had initial issues with the pigment binder leaving behind an almost wet looking residue but I was able to pull it around with isopropyl. I think the end effect looked pretty good. 

All in all I had an absolute blast with this guy and look forward to continuing my painting streak. 

Cheers! 

Points: 28mm vehicle 20pts

Challenge bonus: 20pts

From SanderS: The Laboratory ( 45 points)

 Hoi,

 Creeping along dark and dank passages we travel from the Knight's Solar to the Laboratory. 

Now the term "Laboratory" conjurs up images of cackling demented scientists making genetically altered super soldiers or mutated monsters. I had a more classic Sword and Magic approach in mind. As I have several wizard'f study furniture lying around I thought I'd paint that up as well as one wizard and his guards to go along with them.

This furniture lot is a mix of 3D print/ Heroquest origin and Terrain Crate stuff.

 

 Below we can see two wizard's work desks, the are Heroquest toppers provided with 3D printed body's and legs. They both feature a skull...

 

Since I have a set of the game at home and one at school I thought it a good plan to paint them differently so I could tell them apart.

Next up is a Solar system thingamabob. It's from Terrain Crate and the soft plastic is really bendy, even with the hot water technique I was unable to get it to stay straight. So I came up with the idea of making it an old and damaged item in the study. I really liked weathering the verdigris on.

Next tow cupboards or closets. The left one is 3D bodywork with HQ topper, the one on the right is from Terrain Crate. Look barks: another skull!

Now I have quite a lot of old GW plastic wizard figures lying around and aim to paint one up for pretty much every Lore of Magic in the Heroquest (i.e. WFB universe) and this one will either be my Air or Earth wizard. I am not sure yet. He could also very well be a necromancer since he has that distinct Egyptian/ Khemri air over him.

 

 The wizard is from the old GW Talisman game but his guards are the old Advanced Heroquest guards.

Points count: let's say 10 for the furniture, 15 for the figures and 20 for the Laboratory? That's 45 right?

Skull count: 3

Cheers Sander

From ChrisF - The Hatchery entry OWLBEAR 15mm (22pts)

 So it's kind of a bird! This mini started out as a 15mm Twanax from Blue Moon , but since I had six of them I decided to modify one into an Owlbear. 

The body is the original sculpture, but I chopped off the head with a dremel and sculpted an owl head out of Aves epoxy sculpt.

I did about 10 practice sculpts with clay to get the patterning and process down before I mixed up the Aves.

I painted him in high flow acrylics and sealed with matte varnish. 

I am going to do one more but I may try to make a barn owl head and paint the body white. Kind of a snow owlbear. 

I'm off to paint a witch!

Bi-weekly Duels Update - Games Workshop Minis Duel - Update #5

As we approach the end of the challenge, it's time to see how things are going in the GW minis side duel. This will be the last update before the end of the challenge, so I expect that some of these totals will see some big changes over the next few weeks. 

As some of the duelists haven't posted anything GW related recently, rather than name and shame them, I have simply left them out of the update. Don't worry, I am still keeping tabs on your scores and will be tallying all your points in the final reckoning after the challenge ends. I'm not sure if the lack of entries is a sign of the mid challenge doldrums or rampant sandbagging, but I hope that all of our competitors are doing well and painting away like maniacs for some epic final posts.

To recap the scores from the last update:

As of 15/02/21

Barks - 355

Codsticker - 55 

DrQ - 375

GregB - 5 

Paul O'G - 308

PaulS - 219

Reilly O'G - 503

StuartL - 806

TeemuL - 227

The new scores are as follows.

Barks - 410 Points

Barks has recently completed some awesome looking vehicles for his Genestealer Cult forces. Despite his claim that he doesn't enjoy painting vehicles, I think you'll agree that he did a great job.

DrQ - 450 Points

DrQ's Age of Sigmar and 40K forces have seen some recent additions, with Kharadron Dwarves and Ork Boyz gracing the challenge. Some cool little conversions on the Kharadrons have produced this fantastic looking unit of Dwarven ladies. 

PaulS - 369 Points

PaulS has been working hard on his Necromunda collection. Since our last update he has knocked out two more gangs of underhive fighters, including these very imposing Enforcers.

StuartL - 1016 Points

StuartL has once again added a significant (and suspicious) number of points to his total. If you look closely at this group of skinks, does it look like he has simply painted two models and photoshopped them into a large unit?

TeemuL - 282 Points

TeemuL has been working on a lot of Dwarves for the Lord of the Rings. These colourful looking characters should brighten up even the darkest parts of Moria.

And that's it for this update. As usual, if you think that I have missed something, please comment below. I'll see you all on the far side of the finish line. Best of luck to everyone!

From DaveS - Servants of the Allshard (60pts)

 While I was waiting for the FLGS to restock its Wild West Exodus supply, to continue my Watchers, I decided to start on a second faction for them.  Looking through the models they did have available, and I came across the Order of the Allshard, a group of religious warriors, and, by pure coincidence, one of the factions that are actively opposed to the watchers.  These consist of warriors considered worthy encased in suits of incredibly powerful armour. (But not a Sigmar in sight)  The other half of the faction are more mortal warriors, but since painting them would involve going upstairs to get different coloured paint, they can wait for a little while.

The group shot shows all of the models that I have completed so far.  The four from the Posse box (the leader is coming soon), along with two additional models.

These four are from the "Divine Intervention" Box

And these are the additional "Zain and Oron" models.  Of note, one of them even has one of the Watcher Greys dead on the base, to tie the two forces together.

Finally, I based the two portals that came with the other Posse Set, since I had the stuff out. These will probably get used for several forces,since the Watchers can manipulate portals as well.

So I think that this is 6x10pts (For models about 54mm high, these really are giants).  There was no painting of the portals, just the bases, so I haven't scored those.