From TeemuL: Oldhammer time [Vogsphere] (90 points)

I have been slowly painting my WH40k Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard) army, which consist of some vehicles and metal-only infantry. I created some back story for them a year or so ago in Challenge XI: the Imperial Reenactment 7th. Here is a short quote from the original text: "For those who don't know, they are like theater act or LARP players in the 40th century, they are used to rise the morale of the citizens, advertise the military for the new recruits and provide some entertainment for the people. Some of them are civilian volunteers, some are actual guardsmen on leave, on punishment, on reward, on commission, retired or misplaced. -- Several time Imperial Reenactment 7th (and others like this) have been incorrectly ordered to real battlezones - the administration of the Imperium is not very clear, efficient or correct in many places. So sometimes they arrive on real warzone, they even might have some live ammunition. Sometimes they have blanks. Sometimes they have live ammunition when performing a play... "

Eagle-eyed from you will notice, that there is a small error, of course they are not from "40th century", that is a mistake made by me. Anyway, because of this backstory, I will propose a claim to the Vogsphere planet, which calls for Bureaucracy and/or Black Comedy. This entry probably fills both of the criteria. And since I'm currently located in the Challenge Star, I can easily use the Great Abyssal and move myself to the Middle Ring, where Vogsphere is right next to the Abyssal. Nice and easy.

So yes, these are metal miniatures from Games Workshop, 20 years old or so and most likely sculpted by the Perry twins. These are all Valhallan models, even though I do have other planets represented as well, Imperial Army is very open minded. I have painted them in bright primary colours, so that the spectators can spot them easily. I used Contrast colours over white undercoat. The basing is my usual method, glue sand over black base, wash with brownish wash and drybrush with grey, quite easy and quick (excluding the drying times).

Some might wonder why 8, why not full 10 and where is the heavy weapons team? Well, last year I painted couple of heavy weapons teams, which I can use as a unit of their own or use as part of the squads - giving me some flexibility.

And since we are getting closer to the Challenge end, I'll add another group (no planets this time) to this post. When I first joined this Challenge, it was Challenge V, and I mostly painted some LotR and Blood Bowl minis (before neither of them was rebooted) and Oldhammer (before the Old World was exploded). Lots has changed in the GW world during that time. Lots has changed in my world since that, too. I have painted some 40k minis and some Epic minis, but mostly I have been painting non-GW stuff, while I used to paint GW-only stuff. There are multiple reasons for that, but I have not abandoned none of those old friends - I have painted some Blood Bowl in this Challenge and I will give you some Lotr stuff too, but now I present some Oldhammer. These are Black Orcs to join my Orcs & Goblins army, which is slowly growing.

There are four identical plastic minis and one metal mini, maybe a leader of the group or something. I tried to follow the simple, bright and clear colours of the 80s and 90s so they can easily fit my existing units and I think it worked ok, all the way to the Goblin Green bases. Coat d'Arms provides nice selection of paints, identical to the old Citadel paints from the previous century - all the way to the thin reds and yellows which won't cover white, even straight from the pot! :)

I know Black Orcs should be black, but I have always liked them green and think Black just means Big... So they are rather green, with mostly red equipments again nodding to the their past.

This post gives me two more squirrels, 22 skulls (9 from Black Orcs and 13 from the guard) and 85 points (13 28mm miniatures 5 points each and 20 for Vogsphere).

Two of the skulls

My personal Squirrel count: 15

- 20mm Napoleonic

- 28mm Sludge

- 28mm Pulp

- 28mm Warhammer 40000 Xenos

- 28mm General (including Gloranthan) Fantasy

- 1:300 Cruel Seas

- 6mm Epic Imperial Fists

- 28mm ADD Boardgame

- 28mm Runewars Waiqar

- 28mm Blood Bowl

- 28mm Simians

- 15mm Mid War Germans

- 28mm Age of Sigmar Sylvaneths

- 28mm Warhammer 40000 Imperium

- 28mm Warhammer Fantasy Orcs & Goblins

From Millsy:

I never cease to be amazed by your bold and outside the box colour choices Teemu! In my wildest, cheese-fuelled dreams I would never have conceived of painting Valhallans in a colour scheme like that. It has made my morning so kudos to you mate.

I really like your orcs too and the hand painted checks (which I can attest are a nightmare on a compound curve) are awesome. Have an extra 5 points to go towards some therapy :-)