From ScottM: F&IW British Militia (60 points)

This post is a just a small quick one. These 28mm metal figs are from Galloping Major and their French and Indian War range. These are British Rangers/Backwoods Militia.

So that should be:

12 - 28mm foot figs = 60 points

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Brave chaps these are, going out to face those savages and their French Canadienne overlords. 

I hope they keep their scalps!

Cap'n Wednesday

From Millsy: Chambers of Challenge Level 3 (230 points)

Hi All,

It's fair to say I don't much enjoy taking photos so I often end up doing "check out this whole X in one go" type posts. Ofttimes this has amused and occasionally bemused our frosty overlord and I guess this is potentially another of those times. Here we have my entire collection of kit for the Chambers of Challenge Level 3.

Graveyard Beach (120 points)

I think I may have misread this one. Apparently it's the GraveYARD Beach but to me it's definitely the GraveGUARD Beach. These guys are an upgrade for the "Barrow Guardians" from my Warhammer Fantasy Battle army based on the White Dwarf articles depicting Heinrich Kemmler's Army of the Cairns. I wasn't able to get the minis I wanted at a decent price at the time so I went with a home baked version of Empire soldiers and skull bits. It was OK I guess and looked like this...

They've since been sold and used in part to fund replacement as follows. These are the first edition metal sculpts with the shields replaced by the current version plastic shields. Scored as 20 x 28mm miniatures plus bonus.

Hall of Heroes (25 points)

This chap arrived as a free miniature along with some half-orcs I purchased recently. He's be ungraded with a clenched fist on his right hand replaced by a sword because, well, it's clearly more heroic right? Scored as a single 28mm miniature plus bonus.

Lair of the Spider (Beast) (60 points)

I didn't have any unpainted arachnids lurking about (apart from the inevitable live ones) so I had to look for something else. These are Red Box Games similar to but legally distinguishable from Games Workshop Lord of the Rings armoured trolls.
A snip at USD$17.95 + postage for EIGHT in four different poses. Painted up I have to admit I would be hard pressed to tell them from the original article and given I didn't have to sell a kidney to buy them I can have a drink to celebrate... Scored as 4 x  54mm miniatures plus bonus.

If you're still paying attention you may have started to join the dots on a bit of a theme now. More of that shortly in another post.

The Snowlord's Treasury (25 points)

Lastly this one was a moment of [ahem] "genius" when I was starting a pile of sprues left over on the side of the desk. I'd already painted all my treasure chests in a previous post so needed something else treasurish and what better than a pallet of gold bullion? Just the ticket for Pulp and/or VBCW games. We can't go chasing after the Arc of the Covenant every time after all. Scored as a single 28mm miniature plus bonus.

So that's me finished on Level 3. Not sure if I will have time to complete the Altar of the Snowlord but we'll see.

Cheers,

Millsy

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Warhammer figs? On St Patrick's Day? You know how to warm a Cap'n's heart you do! Take your 230 dubloons and another 5 for the banner and the Old World pun

Cap'n Wednesday

For Dr.Q: The Altar of the SnowLord

Altar of the SnowLord (brought to you by the kids of Kinsmen Park South)

 

Congratulations Dr.Q, for battling your way to the SnowLord's Altar. Okay, for your task, I challenge you to come up with... a Blood Bowl team! I know, that sounds a bit random, but I know you've been wanting to finish your Human team so let's get those guys done and on the gridiron before Sunday. 

Dr.Q's Prize: Herr Robert's D'Kuhl Mindflayer (now, how Kuhl is that?!)

From Ian S - Odds and Sods (28 points)

 So I am now aiming to post every day till Saturday using what figures are left on the painting bench.

First up some more ancient Indians, I keep finding more figures in spares box every I time I look, again these are from the new Z range from Museum Miniatures.

Next the last independent company from the British Canadian army 1812.  Figures from Lancashire Games.

So 14 x 15mm figures at 2pts each gives a grand total of 28pts.

For next years challenge I will get some photograph lessons.

A small entry of small figures to end my shift. Nice work Ian - don't worry about the photographs.

Tamsin

From Guy B: [The Armoury] Bruce era Scots and Islesmen [170 points]

Facing the Medieval Norse (from my first entry) are the brave Scots from the time of Robert the Bruce. While designed for the 1300s, they'll do for 1263 well enough... and possibly onto the early part of the Hundred Years War.

The vast majority of the models are from the excellent Antediluvian Miniatures range. I have mixed in the odd Crusader model and even a Foundry (old Baron's war range). 

Some of the Antediluvian Miniatures have wide stances so don't fit on my preferred base size of 20mm square. I wanted to have multi-based units, however, as ranked up it makes the unit look less ranked and more irregular.

I also painted some Islesmen, with their great axes ready to wreak havoc. I used a combination of contrast painting over a white undercoat followed by highlights on some parts, where needed. 

The army will be designed for Lion Rampant, so will consist of many Spearmen, with a few mad axemen! I will have some knights ready soon, but we're not at the Solar yet... I also have banner bearers on the go... but not ready in time... 

These were fun to paint, although now I've photographed them, I note a few mistakes... oops! The shield motifs is all based on Scottish heraldry of the time.

The model on the left is a Black Tree. He's quite big compared with the rest... It is entirely coincidental that I find myself painting a whooole pile of Scots this time...

Finally, there's a Foundry noble and a Crusader peasant. So to finish off our visit to the armoury, we have a total of thirty 28mm Scots, which I make as 150 points plus the 20 point theme bonus. 

170 points as I'm about to close out my shift! Lovely stuff!

Nice set of Scotsmen, Guy.

Tamsin

From Dallas: Snowlord's Challenge Completed (50 points)

The Snowlord's Challenge is complete - I've finished painting my Legio Gryphonicus Reaver Titan for GW's Adeptus Titanicus game!

Here we see the Reaver equipped with Laser Blaster and Volcano Cannon arm weapons and a carapace-mounted Turbo Laser Destructor.

But wait - there's more! I painted all of the weapon options for the Reaver and magnetized them for easy swapping - here the God-machine is seen equipped with a Gatling Blaster, power fist, and carapace-mounted Apocalypse Missile Launcher. And a different head, to boot.

A close up look at the Reaver's heraldry on its shoulder pauldrons.

...and on the knee armour. Notice anything funny going on here?

A rear view. The Reaver was painted as follows: metal bits, Leadbelcher and Brass Scorpion; grey bits, Mechanicus Standard Grey with lighter grey dapple camo; yellow bits, Averland Sunset over XV-88 base. Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade washes, and sponge chipping with Rhinox Hide and craft black paint. Groundwork is Rhinox Hide - Mournfang Brown - Steel Legion Drab - Rakarth Flesh. 

Here's another weapon combo - Melta Cannon and Chainfist. It tickles!!

What a cracking model.

Here's the Reaver with its extra bits.

And broken down into its component parts, all magnetised of course. I'm going to claim 30 points for this model and all the extra components.

This one was fun to paint for sure, especially as it signifies completion of the Chambers of Challenge. It's satisfying to have three months of painting end off with a win of sorts, and a tally of over 1,000 points in the Challenge. While there may be some more painting to come, I'll be content if this is it for now. I'll just end with a heartfelt thanks to Mr Curt and Minions for all of your tireless efforts in making the Challenge fun for us!

Stay safe everyone!

That modular Reaver looks superb!

I've got absolutely no idea how this should be scored, so I'll go along with the 50 points total that you've suggested.

Tamsin

DaveS - Carefully Constructed (48pts)

 More work on the Enlightened for Wild West Exodus.  First, we have Kyle The Black, one of the leaders for the faction.  His theme Posse is built around fielding lots of smaller constructs as a meat shield, and when he has them nearby he is very hard to kill.

I've tried to get his gloves and apron to look like the orange, slightly rotted rubber that used to make up the tubing or bunsen burners at school.  Not sure how close I came, but I like the look anyway.

Nothing says Mad renegade carrying out experiments on people like an extra set of buzzsaw arms.

Following this, we have Unger, one of the larger creations.  A gatling gun, a bad attitude, and a commitment to the confederacy.

Finally, 4 Gun dogs, equipped with "Phonic Blaster".  2 of these came in the Thomas Edison box set, and the other two were given away free on the front of a magazine a few years ago.  (And were, unsurprisingly, in the easiest to reach box of shame, which also happened to be the last one that I searched through!!!!)

Almost all of the factions can use gun dogs, but only the Enlightened get the phonic blasters.  Therefore, I have attached them with magnets, so that I can replace them when I branch out into other factions with access to them (Sadly neither the Order or the Watchers who I have been working on can take them)

So that is 2x54mm models at 10pts each, and 4 Gundogs at 7pts each (I think, the bases are 40mm in width and quite deep, but the models are quick to paint).

That brings me to within touching distance of my 1000pt target (and possibly the first year that I achieve it)

What a gruesome bunch of constructs. Nice work, Dave.

Tamsin

From JamesM: 15mm Cromwells (yes, again!) - 24 points

Hi folks,

With the end date of the challenge rapidly approaching, I had a long hard think to myself about what the challenge really needed. I pondered over what it was lacking, what really wasn't represented enough, and came to the opinion that it was drastically short some 15mm Plastic Soldier Company Cromwells. 

I may have reached this epiphany at 3am while young Mr Alexander was doing everything he could to resist sleep. However, in my defence he didn't object when I discussed it with him. 

It just so happened that I have also just finished the 3rd troop of Cromwells for my C Squadron, 10 Pulk Strzelcow Konnych (10th Polish Mounted Rifles) project. Handy that. 

These form part of my 15mm Flames of War collection for the 1st Polish Armoured Division. As previously mentioned, this unit was the Armoured Recce regiment of the 1st Polish Armoured Division. I've painted and decalled them as they might have been found on 8th August 1944, when they launched the Poles daytime attack as part of Operation Totalize. As per usual, the open hatch will eventually have a commander figure added, which along with the two aerials marks the troop HQ vehicle. 

This troop is the fourth Cromwell related entry for this challenge from me. I've one more troop to complete and I'll have painted the full squadron of 17 tanks. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that I'll get the whole lot done before the end date, although I'll be most of the way there.

These three 15mm tanks should come to 24 points. 

Young Alexander chatting to daddy about Cromwell tanks, circa 3am. He has the same expression his mother has when I try to have these conversations with her. 

What could be better than a Cromwell at this late stage of the Challenge? Why, three Cromwells! Cracking work, James.

Tamsin