From ScottM: Lair of the Great Beast (40 points)

The last room in level 3 is the Lair of the Great Beast, so I needed something reasonably large. I went with the Dark Elf War Hydra from Games Workshop. 

I was originally going to go with a much darker paint scheme, but that apparently didn't happen. And that should do it for level 3.

Now our brave hero slowly creeps into the final room: the Altar of the Snowlord! What will be in store for our brave hero?

So that should be:

1- 28mm monster (vehicle??) + Chamber bonus = 40 points

From SidneyR: Pack Baggage for the "Oubliette" (30 points)

 

The Oubliette is a place for lost and forgotten things.  Miniatures which have been in the painting queue for longer than anyone can remember.  And I felt that the idea for this Challenge XI Chamber was to resurrect such miniatures, emptying the Oubliette and getting some paint on the last year's (or the last decade's) "Big (but forgotten) Thing".

I've had this lovely pair of baggage animals for years and years.  Possibly a decade, and possibly even into the early 2000s.  That's a very long time to be undercoated but not painted.  So this Challenge XI, it was their turn.

And in the hour it took to paint them (while making a coffee and watching Netflix), I did wonder why it had taken me so long.  They're a lovely pair of 28mm miniatures from Wargames Foundry, which should fit in perfectly for all kinds of periods and battlefields.  

I tried to paint them with a limited palette - no one wants the baggage horse and baggage donkey to overshadow the cuirassiers, after all.  And the dusty ground could be anywhere from the foothills of Extremadura to a Muscovite summer.  Easy to fit in anywhere, in other words.

In short they were just fun to paint, and painting forgotten figures is what the Challenges are all about, right?

So, for the points.  Two 28mm miniatures at 5 points each (I think horses score the same as two-legged chaps!), plus 20 points for the "Oubliette". Totalling 30 points to the score.

******* 

From TeemuL: Knights of all kinds, Knights Solar (35 points)

The kind gunslinger(ess) guided Shellington to the correct path after sharing some of the contains of the bottle with herself.  Correct path, at least that was what he expected and hoped for. "Oh No!", he screamed after the lady had left him in to a new room and quickly disappeared. "Oh no! Not these people again", he continued. This time the small people seemed quite calm, they seemed to be practicing sword fight and spoke of tobacco and paid no interest to our professor. "Lady Stone, come back!", he yelled and was surprised to hear a polite voice next to him:"I beg your pardon, but lady in distress is what I'm looking for, can you help me?" Uggla turned around and saw a knight in shiny armor. "I'm not sure if I know any ladies in distress, I think I'm the distressed one. The ladies seem to be the only ones who seem to help me, but they are not very helpful in the end." He sighed, Lady Stone had mentioned a knight in a shiny armor and there he was. "This place is a mess and I can't get my thoughts right, but I'm quite sure my laboratory is just behind the corner, follow me please", he said to the knight. But the knight grabbed his arm and went to opposite direction, "I'm sure there is Lady in Distress somewhere here, come on!"

Knights of all kinds and their knightly deeds was asked and that I have delivered. At the end of the last year I posted my remaining Rohans, but there was one Rohan warrior, who wasn't painted. Actually he was not a Rohan, but fought for Rohan (and Shire) and was knighted later on for his actions. I also painted his companion, who was knighted as well. I actually kind of forgot these miniatures when I was planning for Level 3, or at least I forgot their knightyness. So I picked up this ole metal knight, stripped the paints of the previous owner until I remembered the hobbits. In the end I decided to paint them all for this Chamber.

Merry, Knight of the Mark, is painted mostly with Contrast paint to blend in to my other Rohan forces.

Pippin, Knight of Gondor, is painted with traditional paints, mainly black. I don't have other Gondor miniatures, so this is a start of an army, where Merry was an end of one, in a way. I guess I could have painted the cloaks green to make them more Elven cloaks, but I guess in this case the Elven cloaks help them to hide among the ranks. Makes sense, right? These are GW sculpts.

The third knight is mostly metallic paint, but the colorful parts are Contrast painted. He is a Grenadier model from 1987. I got him in a mixed bag of other painted metal miniatures from different manufacturers some time ago, painted by the previous owner. I glued him on a 25mm MDF base so he fits in with other fantasy miniatures I have.

3 miniatures in 28mm, 15 points

20 points for Knights Solar

10 points for GW side challenge, no skulls

P.S. I have not been commenting many posts this year, I have tried, but since at the moment I'm reading the posts from 20th February, I don't think many people will see my comments. Yep, I have about 140 posts to read and the last crazy two weeks are still to come.

From JonathanO: Georgia Ranger Trooper - Curtgeld (30 points)

 This is my challenge entry fee figure.   I have been progressing slowly with quite a few models and finally have some ready to post.  This figure is intended to be for ScottM, who should be approaching the Altar of the Snowlord very soon.

I was scouting around for something to paint that might be useful to Scott and thought this could good for his FIW games.

This Trooper of the Georgia Rangers is actually an extra figure from my planned unit for the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion.  

Brigadier General James Oglethorpe (Governor of the colony of Georgia) was in England in 1745 recruiting for the Georgia Rangers.  The recruits were set to sail from Hull, but had to disembark and assist the government effort against the rebellion.  They saw action in the skirmishes at Clifton during the pursuit of the retreating Jacobite army.

I purchased this (along with quite a few more figures) at the excellent Battleground Show in England in November 2019.  It is from the lovely '45 Rebellion range from Crann Tara Miniatures.  Most of the range was sculpted by Richard Ansell.  Sadly, Richard passed away just last month. 

For points, I think that should be 10 for the mounted figure plus 20 for the Curtgeld bonus = 30 points.

From MikeF - The Altar of the Snowlord - Alpha Legion Glaive Superheavy Tank - 50 points

 For my offering to the Snowlord's Altar I was tasked with completing a super-heavy vehicle for my 30k Alpha Legion. By strange coincidence I had one sitting around! The Glaive is one of the many super-heavy tanks operated by the Space Marine Legions during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. In the fluff it was designed to fight the various alien empires that mankind sought to...make safe. It's armed with a Volkite Carronade or "Giant Laser Thingy." The chosen legion to operate it are the stealthy and deceptive Alpha Legion! It's true that a super-heavy tank doesn't really fit with the stealthy nature of the Alpha Legion, but that's exactly what they want you to think...or is it? So much mystery!

The tank took a few pots of sotek green to cover, but it came out well I think. The decals are Forgeworld as are the special Alpha Legion doors. For the carronade I attempted to paint the burnt metal effect that seems popular for heat based weapons. It's made by painting bands of seraphim sepia, druchii violet and drakenhof nightshade and blended together. It took several attempts to get it to where I was satisfied. I'd say the result is ok considering it's done with a brush. I can see where an airbrush would shine at this sort of thing. The effect itself is actually a bit curious. Painters like to add it to jet exhaust nozzles as well, but when you actually look at pictures of real jet engines, this dramatic blueing of the metal doesn't seem to be a thing. It sometimes occurs at the end of a blowtorch and when it does appear on an engine exhaust system it actually appears further up the system near the engine where it's the hottest and not at the nozzle. I'm not saying it never happens, but it seems to be extremely rare. Maybe it's more common in combat operations when the components aren't maintain to the same standard. If anyone has real world experience/knowledge with this affect on metal, I'd welcome your input.

For points I scored it as a 54mm vehicle because it's absolutely huge, so 30 points, plus 20 points for completing the challenge.

There are only about two weeks left in the challenge and I'm hoping to complete one final vehicle for the Alpha Legion.

Thanks for visiting

From GregB - More 10mm FPW Infantry and Command (45 points)

More 10mm troops for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Figures from Pendraken.

Hi everybody! To the surprise of nobody, my next submissions includes even more 10mm subjects for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. These are all metal castings from Pendraken. There are three bases of French line infantry, one base of Prussian line infantry and another command base for the French.

Deadly Chassepot rifles at the ready.

Firing lines will be the friend of any French player in the FPW period.

I've raved previously about how cool the French line infantry uniforms are from this period (and they are SO cool) so that makes painting these little regiments a lot of fun. The three bases together will represent an infantry unit. My planning is such that each base would generally represent a battalion, and thus the three bases together would represent a regiment, but there are a lot of different rules that give you different options on perspective - this could just as easily represent a brigade, or each base could represent a company etc. whatever. I really like rules that are agnostic about that kind of thing.

Senior command base for the French.

Actual senior commanders would have had smaller flags...but screw it.

He's thinking "how can I snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?"

The command base is meant to represent a more senior level of officer group - like many of you, the more figures on the base, the more senior the command. Here we have a mounted senior officer, with some flunkies, and a flag, so this would be something like a corps commander.

Prussian line infantry, ready to advance!

The Pendraken sculpts are just fantastic.

So far, so French. In AHPC XI my 10mm work has been on French troops - so why only this one single base of Prussians in this submission? Well, I had finished a bunch of Prussians and Bavarians already over the past couple years, and it made sense to focus on building up the French in this edition of the Challenge. With that said, I was doing a review of the little soldiers on my shelf (as one does), and I noticed that, for whatever reason, my Prussians were still a single base short of having an entire Corps' worth of Prussian line infantry (on the basis that one base = one battalion). This irked me (as these sorts of things do), and so painted these guys up to round things out.

One more look at the French lingards...

Of course, no project is ever actually "finished", these figures do represent something of a waypoint for my 10mm FPW efforts - I have enough stuff painted to stage the Battle of Wissembourg as described in Bruce Weigle's awesome "1870" rule set - I even have enough French finished to play the alternative versions of the scenario he offers! That works out to 65 bases of infantry, 20 bases of cavalry, 28 bases of artillery, and 18 different command bases. I'm not about to stop there, but this a nice point to pause and smile a little. Now I just need to get them on to the table...but my thanks to all AHPC participants and commenters - it very fun to share all of this with you, and your encouragement, as well as your work on your own projects, has been a great inspiration. 

In terms of points, there are 43 foot castings and one mounted casting, all in 10mm, which should equal 45 points...at least I think it does...there is a reason I am not trusted for mathematical tasks...anyway, thanks for reading, and stay sane out there! Now I must turn my brushes toward some "Bavarian Content"....stay tuned...

from RayR - Revolutionary Wars Wheelwright 7pts?

 

Just a small entry for today.

I picked this Eureka Miniatures Revolutionary Wars Wheelwright up from Col Bill's last month. I thought It'd be a great addition to both my Donnybrook and Haitian Revolution periods.

I do enjoy painting up these various bits and bobs for my armies. They add a little personality to them, even if they rarely make it onto the table. 

To make the base look a little more interesting I added some MDF wheels and planks of

wood, out of my leftovers box.

As for the points its 5 for the figure and I guess another 2 for the bench, wheels and planks??

so a total of 7 points?

From SanderS: The Snow Lord's Treasury! (45 points)

 Hoi,

 

You can see I have been busy painting a lot of my Heroquest themed stuff for this Challenge. Nothing is less true for the Snow Lord's Treasury as I had literally heaps of gold lying around.

They are pretty much all from the big Dungeon Terrain Crate and I really like them.

Amoung these piles of gold and jewels is a small heap painted by the Lad, see if you can guess which one. As he's at +200% of his points target already, he has graciously conseded all the points for this entry to his old dad... erm yeah...okay ;-)

Since I wanted to add some more figures to my painted HQ stash, I painted up my Battlemaster Halbardiers, the same ones Arthur painted for his Guardroom entry. I had initially intended to paint these chaps for the same entry into the Guardroom with Arthur but the schedule got derailed and therefore they are now here guarding the Snowlord's treasure for him wearing Icy Blue and white livery of course.

Now I reckon this should be 15 points for the Halbardiers, 10 for the treasure (?) and 20 for the locale is another 45 points.

Cheers Sander

From Mike W, 20 x 28mm Late 17th Century Ottoman Irregular Azabs (100 Points)

In have previously produced Ottoman Azab units by converting the Gripping Beast Arab Infantry plastic figures by mashing them with Warlord Games WSS Infantry. Whilst I was pretty pleased with the end results, I was looking for something a little more irregular looking.

The Finished unit, 5 bases each of four figures.

I recently go hold of a box of Wargames Atlantic's Afghan Warriors, which allow the modelling of these hardy fighters over a period of several hundred years.

What I wanted to try was combining the Gripping Beast Arabs with the Wargames Atlantic Afghans, with a splash of parts from various other plastic kits to give a full range of arms and hands that  needed!

The Command Stand, Officer in cloak, Standard Bearer and Musician

The main benefit of the Wargames Atlantic boxed set is the number of muskets, shields and jezails that come with the frames and allow a musket armed unit to be easily formed.

Most of these figures are based on Afghan torsos,  with eight based on Arab torsos. I used the Afghan heads but also included a half dozen Arab heads in turbans plus four bear heads from the Wargames Atlantic Irish set!

Anyway the figures were built, all in different poses, the command stand featured an officer in a cloak, again taken from the Wargames Atlantic Irish set, a trumpeter using a Gripping Beast Arab piece and a guy with a spear for a standard, taken from a Gripping Beast Saxon Warrior set! 

Two stands of the Azab Irregulars

Figures were undercoated white, various muted linen, pale colours were used to block in clothing and appropriate details added for equipment and hair etc.

Another two stands

Flesh ink was used on skin areas to give toning, a watered down wash of light brown was used on clothes and dark wash on equipment before applying matt varnish.

Overall the figures are OK, they will blend in on a large table-top battlefield, last night I say a set of 28mm Ottoman heads on eBay, all in typical, although simplifies Janissary headdress. I have purchased a set of these and may repeat this build using these heads to give a much more Ottoman feel to the figures...

Bases were covered with fine sand and then electrostatic grass.

POINTS

20 x 28mm Foot Figures @ 5 Pts ea   = 100 Points

Morvan Lez-Breizh Matthew Williamson (10 points)

 

Morvan Lez-Breizh

Thought to be the first King of a unified Brittany in the Middle Ages, his rule last a short four years after the death of Charlemagne. He will lead my Bretons against the Franks on the table for the late 8th and early 9th century. The king figure is Morvan lez Breizh from Footsore, unsure of the priest but I did add the cross from a plastic set. 

Two 28mm foot @5 each = 10 points 

Cheers

Matt