From KenR - 28mm Garabaldi Artillery (90 pts)

 

Hello everyone and welcome to the Big Yarkshire Gamer Project for this challenge and after all the white of the Allied Italian Legion I have steered away from that colour and towards a lovely shade of red. I always like to get a post in before Xmas and get some points on the board early doors.

This year I am tackling one of the more obscure European Wars and I am looking at the Italian Wars of Independence (Risorgimento)  in the late 19th century but more specifically I am trying to build up both forces for the Battle of Mentana in 1867 with the plan to put it on as a display game around the UK in 2022/3. It goes without saying that the Project is in 28mm (after all I have a reputation to keep 😄)

I will talk more about the Battle itself during the course of my posts this year, but the forces involved were those of General Garabaldi of around 10,000 men against those of a joint Papal / French Army of around half that strength. I'm a bit stuck waiting for the Perrys to release their Franco Prussian French range to do the Galic half of the Papal Army but I have a big chunk of figures prepped and ready to go over the next 3 months.

The first unit completed are the Artillery for the Garabaldi Forces, a three gun battery with 4 figures per gun, which by my calculations should be 30 pts for the guns (10 each) and 60 for the 12 figures (5 each) giving 90 points in total. 

The figures themselves come from an Italian company called Shako 64, they do a pretty comprehensive range of figures for the Wars, they are pretty decent quality too and as you can see paint up nicely. My only minor quibble with them is that they are very "flat" when you look at them sideways on.

So there you have my first entry of the Challenge, I'm already working through my first unit of Garabaldi Infantry which should appear between Christmas and New Year. Until then all the best for Xmas.

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Welcome back Ken! I remember chatting to you about this project during our podcast a few weeks back, and have been looking forward to seeing your opening volley. These figures look terrific. I really like how lanky they are, and your brushwork really does them justice. I'm keen to see some of Garabaldi's infantry next week!

- Curt

From SimonM - "Games Workshop" Epic Black Templars - Istavaan V (36 points)

These 6mm scale plastic models of a Conqueror Robot, three Rhinos, two Land Raiders and ten Adeptus Astartes all used to be produced by “Games Workshop” as part of their now long out of production (OOP) “Epic” range. I actually acquired most of these figures second-hand, and as they had already been predominantly primed black by their previous owner, decided to paint them up as part of the Black Templars chapter.

Resultantly, they were all glued onto small “Flames Of War” stands by “Battlefront Miniatures” or wooden sticks, and given a coat or two of watered down “Citadel” Abaddon Black. I then had to decide which areas such as the vehicles’ door were going to be ‘picked out’ with “Vallejo” White, and, perhaps more importantly, whether I should try to actually pigment the space marines’ individual shoulder-pad ridges.

In the end I decided that my sanity would not survive such attention to detail, and ended up ‘simply’ applying a couple of coats of “Vallejo” White and a splash of Pale Grey shade to the armour of both the ‘Beaky’ marines, as well as the more detailed (and slightly larger) Mark VII warriors. Furthermore, alongside the Adeptus Astartes’ bolters, I determined that the vehicles would have all their weapons, tracks, handles, and hatches painted using a combination of “Vallejo” Gunmetal and “Citadel” Nuln Oil.

Only on the Chapter’s robot did I spend a little extra time giving the automaton a noticeably “Vallejo” White and Pale Grey giant power-fist. The heavily-armed machine heavy bolter and auto-cannon were initially layered with some “Citadel” Abaddon Black, before receiving some “Vallejo” Gunmetal and “Citadel” Nuln Oil. Whilst the killing machine’s eyes were dabbed with “Vallejo” Heavy Red, washed with “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson, and finally spotted with a little more “Vallejo” Heavy Red.

I believe this first of several planned “Epic” deployments during the AHPC will provide:

3 x Rhinos –6 Points

2 x Land Raiders – 4 Points

1 x Robot – ½ Point

10 x Space Marines – 5 Points

Istvaan V – 20 Points

Total – 35 ½ Points 

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Ahh, it's wonderful to see some old school Epic stuff getting the love. Wonderful work Simon!  I like that you are using FoW bases as opposed to those hideous strips they foisted on us. I scored the Robot/Dreadnaught as 1 pt, same as cavalry. Are you doing several different 'Epic' contingents, or concentrating purely on the Black Templars? I look forward to seeing more of this project over the coming months!

Welcome back Simon!

- Curt

From StuartL - A Mammoth 1st Post - Skaro - 117 points

Hello everyone.

As this is my first post for this challenge, a quick introduction (for the newcomers to the AHPC) and a quick recap (for people who have been around for the last couple of challenges), seem in order.

My name is Stuart, I was born and grew up in the UK, but I emigrated to Japan about 17 years ago. I have been working over here as an English language trainer for various corporations and businesses for most of that time. After Covid came along, a lot of businesses started to work from home and stopped providing training to their staff, so this time last year I found myself with a lot of free time. I was able to get some more work this spring and I am now teaching part time at a Junior High School. It's not what I want to be doing, but it pays the bills. Japan was a little slow with the vaccines, I got both of my shots in October. No plans for a third jab yet, but that might happen next year as Omicron has been found in a couple of places over here. 

And now, on to the painting. 

As I have the opportunity for gaming again (at least until Omicron spreads and shuts everything down again), I plan on trying to get armies/warbands/crews etc. done so that I can A) play the games I want to play, and B) put on demo games to get my local group to try them. I also have a mountain of Reaper Bones minis from their various kickstarters that I need to make a dent in. So for the most part I will be focusing on these two goals. Plus the Challenge XII sector of course. I've also been asked to take on the role of Squirrelfinder General after having decided that I didn't need the distraction of chasing squirrels myself. And to round things off, I'm participating in the Skullz Duel this year. I'm hoping to function as a 'pace car' and not get too carried away.

To start off my Challenge XII, I have painted up this set of demons/devils from Reaper. They were all simple enough to paint and I made use of GW's contrast paints to do their skin. Some of them are in strange poses, (check out the guys flexing their muscles in the back row), but overall they'll do for D&D or similar games. All of the models have a skull icon on their belts for those of us who care about such things.

More Reaper minis here, a set of gorillas including one wearing armour. No contrast here, these were all done in a mix of standard Citadel colours and Vallejo. One of the many things I'm working on is a couple of armies for Saga: Age of Magic. Unlike the more historical versions of Saga, Age of Magic allows you to take pretty much any minis you want and fit them to one of six themes. These gorillas will be Biped Creatures for the Lords of the Wild theme. Saga: AoM is definitely worth checking out if you like mini-agnostic skirmish games.

And here we have the mammoth from the post title. This was part of the most recent Reaper kickstarter and it is absolutely massive. It stands about 13cm tall and is 20cm from tusk to tail. Its base is an old CD. One of the best parts of the Reaper KS's is the price. This gigantic chunk of plastic only cost $14. While some of the smaller minis are a bit bendy (see the gorilla's sword in the picture above), their big models are amazing, and very sturdy.

For the fur, bones, tusks and the armour, I used GW Contrast paint, followed by a metallic drybrush on the metal plates. The skin, chains and harness were all done in regular paints. For things with a lot of texture Contrast works well, but sadly Bones minis tend to be a bit hydrophobic and need a couple of attempts to get the paint to sit correctly. The model is still a bit glossy, so I might have to hit it with another coat of varnish before putting it away.

To help give you a sense of scale, I have enlisted the help of Jarl Hvat-Skael to show the sheer size of this beasty. The Jarl was painted years ago, so isn't part of this entry. There are two skulls hanging on chains on the side of this monster and its leg armour also has large skulls on it.

And finally, on to the Challenge Sector. My destination? Skaro.

Now, I grew up watching/being terrified by Doctor Who on a weekly basis. (Mainly Peter Davison and Sylvester McCoy), but I don't really have any Doctor Who themed minis. Luckily our most generous Snow Lord left a little room for manoeuvre with the theme of weird robots and I do have a few of those.

This model is a kit bash for a game called This is Not a Test, or TNT for short. TNT is a post apocalyptic skirmish game which has a bit of a Fallout feel to it if you are familiar with that series of PC games. The model consists of a vending machine scenery piece from Reaper, with added legs and cannons built from spare GW Necron parts.

Sadly, just as I finished painting this, I dropped it and managed to sheer off three of the four legs. Originally, the legs all had plastic pins on them that allowed me to assemble the robot in an upright pose. After the break, I had to drill out all the holes again and insert metal pins. Getting the correct angles was nearly impossible, so the repaired model is slightly more wonky. 

TNT is another model-agnostic system and consists of a base rule book and half a dozen pdf expansions, one of which includes robots. In said pdf, there is a scenario where both players are fighting to control a Quantum Cola Vendo - An advanced robotic vending machine. Rather than paint the mini in the colours shown in the PDF, I decided to model it after my favourite imaginary beverage Brawndo! What is Brawndo? It's from the movie Idiocracy and plays a central role in that film. You can see a commercial for Brawndo here: Youtube.

And for a final TL;DR recap.

All of the models were at least 40mm tall (50 in the case of the gorillas), so that should be:

11x 40mm minis = 77 points.

1x mammoth = 20 points?? I have no idea how to score it, it dwarfs most tanks I have.

1x Sector Planet = 20 points.

Grand total = 117 points.

Skullz Tally - 13

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Wow, great first post! That mammoth is an absolute beast - what an impressive tusked lump! I think my favourites are the ferocious apes, though I also really like the whacky vending machine/robot. Sorry to hear of your mishap with its legs. Reading it made me cringe. I've been there too many times, pinning shorn limbs, muttering unmentionable things under my breath - I feel your pain.

Finally, good opening volley on the Skull count. I need to get a wiggle on with my figures to try to catch up.

Welcome back to the Challenge, Stuart!

- Curt

From AlanD - Romanians from Uranus/Caprica (70 points)

 Hello everyone, and what a great pleasure it is to be back in your company for the Challenge! Thank you Curt and Minions for making this highlight of the hobby year possible.

One of my goals for the year is to paint a Romanian army for WWII, using the figures from Great Escape Games. With very few changes, I'll be able to use this for Battle Group, Bolt Action and Chain of Command, and against Soviets from 1941-1944, and Hungarians or Germans from August 1944 until the end of the war. Not the most visually exciting army, but I've tried to liven them up by placing them in early winter with snow bases to contrast with the Fifty Shades of Mud colour of their uniforms. I've gone for the look of snow when it's still melting a bit, and after years of mockery over failed attempts to make realistic-looking snow, I'm feeling good about this. I anxiously await 'Miss Smilla' Curt's judgement.

During the Battle of Stalingrad, while German troops were being constantly sucked into the fight to take the city, their flanks were held largely by Romanian, Hungarian and Italian troops. When the Soviets launched Operation Uranus in November 1942, the Romanians were rapidly overrun, lacking the artillery and armour necessary to hold a major Soviet offensive. As a result, I think we can consider the ill-equipped troops left unsupported by their German allies as doomed, and worthy of claiming Caprica on the Quadrant map. Really, with Operation Uranus, I should be claiming two planets - but is Uranus a planet anymore? I lose track.

Anyway- this first squad of 10 with the Caprica bonus should get me on the scoreboard with 70 points.

Merry Christmas everyone!

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Oh, that's very nasty, slushy, miserably looking snow, and I say that in the best possible way. Well done, Alan! I think it's great that you're doing one of the unsung Axis contingents of WWII. The Romanians, Hungarians and Italians often got the icky end of the stick, both from their opponents and their unthankful allies, so it's good to see them getting some representation on the tabletop. I look forward to seeing more of these in the coming months.

Welcome back to the Challenge, Dux!

- Curt

From TomG - "Tea, Earl Grey, Hot" Captain Picard - Modiphius - (Vulcan) - 25pts

Space, the final frontier, these are the voyages of my paint brushes. It's continuing mission: to explore strange new challenge planets, to seek out new life in my hobby and new painting experiences, to boldly go where no one has gone before! 

Hello all, I have returned for my 3rd challenge, and have been inspired by the challenge planets to kick things off with a Starfleet trip to Vulcan. Although not a pointy eared option, Picard always felt like the most logical of captains. 

This 28mm figure of Jean-Luc was a pre-release freebie from Modiphius that I received at the Warfare games show in Reading, WAY TOO LONG AGO, and he originally had a Captain Kirk companion, but he's nowhere to be seen... Sus! 

For the rest of the challenge I'll be trying to get as many 15mm ACW models done, whilst also smashing my way through the planets at warp 9. 

I don't have a great deal more to say really. I'm excited to be back, and can't wait to get some painting done after having nearly completely walked away from the hobby this year.

So points - 

28mm single infantry = 5pts

Vulcan Challenge Planet = 20pts

Total = 25pts

Be well all, have a great first week and until then; engage! 

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Oh, that's a very nice mini of Picard (one of the best Starfleet captains) and you've done a cracking job on him, Tom! The red is excellent and you've done a brilliant job on the blacks as well. Top marks!

PS: Remember to put in the Notes metada, if you can. Otherwise, I'll have to send Tamsin after you. :)

Welcome back to the Challenge, Tom. I look forward to seeing your upcoming ACW offerings soon!

- Curt

From SanderS: Christmas Truce (25 points)

 Hoi,

Here we go, my first post of this Challenge and I am happy to be back again. Since we have just done down into another lock-down here in the Netherlands, a lot of time last week has gone into preparing for online-teaching when the break is over. That left me only limited time for my first post and I really wanted to make something Christmas related but the only figures I had lying around for this were the two WW1 soldiers playing a game of soccer during the Christmas Truce of 1914 made for Wargames Illustrated. 

From the start I intended this piece to be a showcase vignette and not a wargames figure and so I made the scenics more to give the impression of nearby trenches and battlefield debris, rather then really recreating an actual battlefield with trenches and all. 

In the end I am very happy with how this piece turned out and it nets me my first 10 points for the two 28 mm figures.

Now on to some more point-heavy posts.

Have a great Christmas everyone, cheers Sander

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Wow, you've done fabulous work on this vignette, Sander! I'm gobsmacked, really. I've seen these figures several times, but think this the best treatment of them. On top of the excellent figures, I really admire the judicious use of battlefield scatter to set the scene - wonderful. I'm going to add a few extra points for your work on this wonderful vignette.  

Welcome back to the Challenge, Sander!

- Curt

From DaveD - ‘Nam 68 - various bits - 95 points

First post of this challenge for me is a a few items required for an upcoming ‘Nam game being run by myself and MartinC of this good parish . We did a play test recently and found we needed a few more items (mainly bad things for the US Forces ) so they have been fast tracked through the painting queue.

The ‘Nam project was born of a paint and chat session in the last challenge - where a few of use talked ourselves into “ooh shiney” - it’s coming along nicely now . 

Downed helicopter crew from Full Metal Miniatures 28mm x4 = 20 points 

I had completed the Helo last week as I knew these guys were on the paint list 

I

Casualties and corpsman medic sets from Gringo40s 28mm x “10” - 4 prone so 40 points 

Tunnel Rat and dog team -again by Gringo40s , one figure plus dog - 8 points

VC Sniper and VC team heading of with downed airman to the Hanoi Hilton - - x4 - 20 points 

Full metal miniatures these bits 

Some tunnel entrances from Full metal miniatures - x 6 

Scatter terrain from Too Fat Lardies from CoC x 4 

J

Now what’s inside the entrance ? Booby traps , tunnel, sniper , etc.. 

Not great volume on the terrain , but enough for 5 points I reckon .

Total -93 points 

Provided our dear leader allows some meeting up next week we shall have them on the table for Operation Turkey Dinner - more later . There will be a host of other green goodies along in due course . 

Post the holiday session I shall be hosting some more paint and chats which will be posted on FB page .

Points on the board - “Huzzah!” 

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Welcome back Dave!

Wow, you've been busy since the starter pistol shot! Fantastic work mate. That downed Huey is very impressive. I also like the VC vignette of them hauling off the wounded prisoner. Very evocative. I'm going to round off to 95 points for the submission. I hope that Operation Turkey Dinner can come off for you - we all need a little bit of levity (and good company) this season.

- Curt

From ManusH: British Artillery Crew for the 1798 Irish Rebellion (30 Points)

Hi everyone! My name is Manus, and I'm from Ireland. This will be my first time contributing to the Challenge. I've been enjoying the fine work exhibited here for a few years, so it's about time I took part myself!

This artillery crew is for my ongoing 1798 Rebellion Project. The rules I'm using are Sharp Practice. Quite a niche subject, but one which I find really interesting. It's a very important event in modern Irish history, and one which is omnipresent in the landscape of my area.

The figures I use are 28mm Trent Miniatures, from their Irish Rebellion range. I love their old school sculpting style, it's a bit "cartoony" . 

The crew's leader - I like the yeomanry-style round hat! 

In terms of points:

4 28mm foot figures at 5 points each

1 artillery piece at 10 points 

Total = 30 points. Not a bad start! 

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Welcome aboard the Challenge, Manus!

This gun and crew look absolutely terrific, such nice, clean brushwork, and I really love the subject - it's not a theatre we see often and I hope we get treated to more of it over the coming months.

PS: Remember to put in your labels on the right sidebar. It really helps the search engine. :)

- Curt