From Dallas: LotR Army of the Dead (100 points)

More procrastination on the Adeptus Titanicus Reaver Titan I've been tasked to paint by the Snowlord, but I'm sure he'll forgive a lapse into Middle-Earth for a bit.

I'd mentioned in my Reaper Hill Giant post that I stopped at a local shop for a pot of Biel-Tan Green wash - well, this is why. It was to paint the 20 Army of the Dead models included with the Battle of Pelennor Fields box set that just arrived at Conscript Towers.

I'm sure this was the easiest 100 points anybody ever got in the Challenge - I sprayed the models Krylon Satin White on the sprues, then assembled them and stuck them onto the bases. I then applied BTG to taste and painted over the bases with craft black paint. Since the rest of my LotR models are based with sand, these got the same treatment. Paint base edges black and apply static grass, matt varnish, and done.

I actually quite like these plastic models even though they're getting on 15(?) years old? (I did some Googling to see if I could find out when they were released - and looking in my copy of the War of the Ring game from 2008 I see that pics of these models were included, so they must be at least that old)

One mild irritant is the scale creep though - maybe the Warriors of the Dead are supposed to be large and imposing? Or perhaps just well-fed? But they are noticeably larger than the Numenorean warriors of the LotR game...

...and are larger than King Elessar himself, even.

But notwithstanding this, I quite like the models and they really couldn't be any easier to paint. So chalk up another 100 points for me then please and thank you :-)

Stay safe!

From JonathanO: Shield Maiden Fanatic - Sarah the Sorceress (25 points)

 I need to ask for a teleportation to the Shrine.  Having completed 5 challenges on level one, I am stranded at the Aquifer location.  Unfortunately, I do not have my planned entry for the Adventurers' Landing started and my entry for the Larder is proving troublesome.  So off to the Shrine to pray for help in getting through the Chambers of Challenge.

This miniature is from the 4 figure "Shield Maiden Fanatics" set from Bad Squiddo games.  Annie certainly has a wonderful selection of miniatures available.

It is amazing what I notice from a photo that I somehow miss when I am painting!  As I review the photos for this post,  I see that I missed painting the base rim.  Oh well, that can soon be fixed.

That should be 25 points including the location bonus.

From MilesR: 2 More Chambers - The Lair of the Beast and the Treasury (66 Points)

 

Today's post has me clearing the final 2 rooms before ascending to the Altar of the Snowlord.

First, a trip through the Lair of the Beast.  In keeping with the familiar Stalingrad theme, one of the most effective and terrifying beasts in the German arsenal was their Close Air Support and nothing struck terror in the heart like the Stuka Dive Bomber and its awful siren.

The Germans entered Stalingrad in mid September but most of the city had been reduced to rubble by the constant air attacks of the German Close Air Support.  Historian David Glantz has made the point that reducing the city to rubble before entering it did more to fortify the city than the efforts of the Russians themselves in those critical early weeks of Fall'42.

These Stukas are 15mm models from Battlefront and a well needed addition to my German collection.

After clearing the Lair of the Beast, it was time to move onto the the treasury where my submission should look familiar as there have been several other much better renditions of the same pieces (Sanders in particular are wonderful but I suspect that's more Arthurs doing!).

At least this entry isn't some tortured and barely coherent shoe-horning of a Stalingrad theme to "fit" a room's definition!

These pieces are plastic casts from a Mantic terrain kickstarter and have been languishing on my lead pile for years.  There may be a "few" other terrain crate boxes in a similar state.  My club's official purpose is a fancy pants historical wargaming society, complete with historical harumps and a overly wrought you-tube channel but we play a surprising amount of D&D and D&D like games.  These pieces will find their way to Tony who runs one of the campaigns and does it "old-skool" complete with dry erase grid and mini's.

I had a lot of fun with these - I don't often get to break out the gold and silver paints or even (gasp) seal in GLOSS medium.  Heavens to Betsy.....

There you have it.  I am at the doorway to the Altar of the Snowlord.  I wonder what kind of adventure awaits?

Total Points are:

40 for 2 rooms

16 for 2 15mm vehicles

and 10 for the treasure piles

Grand Total: 66 Points

from RayR - Sarah the Sorceress - Molly the Dancing Girl - Sarah's Choice 30pts

 

For my second entry today I'd like to call upon Sarah the Sorceress to transport me from the SnowLord's Treasury to The Hall of Heroes

Please???

Molly's a great dancer, she and her brother Francis (yeh him) earn pennies dancing at village fairs all over the country.

But most of their income comes late at night, when villagers sneak into her caravan to have their palm's read. Her mother used to say Molly had the gift and should use it for other means, but Molly just loves to dance.

You could call Molly a witch, but nobody, even Francis would say it to her face....

Molly and Francis are from Black Tree Designs, who do have lots of weird civilian types

that always seem to fit into the Challenge somewhere, so I have a collection of other bods who every now and then pop up.

Points are easy on this enrty

2 x 25mm figures @ 5pts each

20 point bonus round

30 point all in all!

From ChrisF - Chamber of Challenge Shrine 15mm (28pts)

 A serpent priest has managed to waylay some lovelies from the nearby village.

Hopefully, they can break free from his magical sermon before becoming part of his permanent "congregation"!

The snake is from Son of Snakes (Splintered Light minis), and the ladies are Egyptian villagers from Blue Moon.

Minor chores this weekend, so should be able to get some more minis done quickly. 

On to the next room in the Challenge.

from RayR - The Chamber of Challenge - The SnowLord's Treasury - Smugglers 36pts

 

I'm getting close to the Level 4 and The Alter of the SnowLord. just wondering if I'll get there in time, to paint up whatever the Evil mind of Curt comes up with???

The Snow Lord’s Treasury: Your challenge in this Chamber is to paint a figure, unit or vignette featuring treasure of any kind. Go crazy with figures carrying gold, jewels, silver bullion, priceless artefacts, Elven-rings or strong-boxes with bundles of Confederate dollars!

I wasn't actually planning on painting anything up for this round, but routing through my upteen boxes of unloved figures I found the half a pack of Foundry figures.

The pack is their Civilian Smugglers from their 18th Century Civilian range.

Any loot the Smugglers managed to bring into any village or town could be described as treasure?

It certainly made them money anyway.

There was a little bit of conversion work, I chopped a tricorn and head off and replaced it with my preferred floppy hat for the chap holding the lantern. The head came from another Foundry figure, so anatomically it fitted perfectly.

Points mean prizes and these naughty boys with their loot should earn me...

5 points each for the figures

2 points each for the Treasure bases and another 20 for the Bonus

Making a grand total of 36. 

From LeeH - French Civilians for WWII

I recently purchased several sets of French Civilians from Peter Pig for use in various 15mm WWII games. I wanted a collection of refugees, farmers, and other non-combat figures to use as 'set dressing' in my games. I may yet devise some simple in-game rules for their use, such as roads being clogged with refugees (restricting traffic) or to represent resistance fighters.

As with all the Peter Pig stuff the figures are wonderful little sculps that rarely need much cleaning before the primer goes on. These were no exception with minimal flash and mould lines and any that were found were removed in a matter of seconds.

I have bought a few more packs of other civilians that I missed the first time around on the website, so hopefully, I'll have a few more ready before the Challenge is over. Lumped in with the civilian I have also included some Corn Stooks and Haystacks from Timecast. As terrain goes I'm not exactly breaking any records as I think this lot is about 12 cubic inches or just over 17% of a terrain cube! Rounding down that's 1 points worth of terrain 😆. Likewise, I think it would be a bit cheeky to count the carts as 'vehicles' so I think they should get half points or 4 each. 

(Scoring: 26x15mm Foot + 2 Carts + Terrain = 61 points)

100 years war chevaliers Matthew Williamson 80 points

 Finally completed some stuff of my own this week sone Perry 28mm chevaliers for my French Armagnac western HYW post Agincourt army,

8 mounted 28mm @ 10 points = 80

Cheers 

Matt

AlanD - Something different.... (48 points)

The release of the second edition of Sam Mustafa's Lasalle rules has had me digging out my stockpiles of 6mm Napoleonic figures. I think massive Napoleonic games in 6mm are a bit of a Holy Grail for me. I've never really found rules that make me think it's work painting A LOT of tiny figures, but I needed a break from painting Dacians, so thought I'd do a unit of little Austrians with shakos from the 1814 campaign as a test. 

I do quite like painting 6mm. Once you get the hang of it it's quite meditative, and often I've found myself gently levitating while painting belt straps. Well maybe not, but I do find I can get into a good routine with them. The figures are from Baccus, and there are 96 of them, so 48 points worth.

Feel free to suggest your favourite rules for using these below!