From TobiasK: 28mm Ork Kill Team (60 points)

Hi guys,

I am Tobias from Germany, and this is my first entry to my first painting challenge ever. My entries in this Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge will mostly feature fantasy or modern wargaming stuff.

I decided to paint an Ork Kill Team from the Octarius Box by Games Workshop for this week's entry.

My personal count: 

12 x 28mm miniatures = 12 x 5 = 60 points

______________________________

First off, welcome to the Painting Challenge, Tobias! I think you're going to have a wonderful time over the next few months - we have a wonderful group of people here to keep you entertained and enthused about the hobby.

Great work on this Ork Kill Team! I very much like the vibrant colours you've went with, and the arid basing will be very versatile in many terrain environments.  Festooned with all that weaponry, I anticipate that these 'Ard Boyz will give you good service in your upcoming games. 

Well done Tobias!

- Curt

From DallasE - Nazgul on Fellbeast and 1/48 Pzkpfw III Ausf M [Caprica] [70 points]

Last year (related to the Challenge!) I picked up the Battle of Pelennor Fields box set from Games Workshop, with the intention of painting this Ringwraith on a Fellbeast. And less than a year later, here it is already!

The paint scheme is pretty straightforward - tones of grey with the leathery bits washed (repeatedly) with GW Reikland Shade. The clever bit about this ain't the painting though - it was the construction of the model...

See?!? The kit comes with two "necks" for the Fellbeast, as well as two riders - both a standard (!) Ringwraith and the Witch King!

Here's the Witch King with his flaming sword. I used magnets to facilitate easy back-and-forth swappery. 

I countersunk a pretty big magnet into the body of the Fellbeast. Not too hard to do.

Then, I cut off the pins on the necks and superglued on 5mm magnets. They hold the necks on pretty securely and I'm happy with that. Nice of GW to provide two different necks as well as riders.

Next up was a Bandai 1/48 Pzkpfw. III Ausf M. While still equipped with the venerable KwK39 L/60 main gun, there were 250 examples of the Ausf M produced between October 1942 and February 1943, and they were deployed mainly to replace frontline losses - including at Kursk.

I painted the tank in an early-'43 camo scheme taken from the Panzer Colors book - yellow over dark grey. The grey is Mechanicus Standard Grey and Dawnstone washed with Nuln Oil, with Zandri Dust as the yellow overcoat. Decals are from Pedinghaus and the decal folder.

The Ausf M had a modified exhaust valve to facilitate deep wading, as well as the triple smoke dischargers. 

I did a bit more weathering on this model than I did on the previous Pzkpfw I models... some sponge chipping and dust application with Steel Legion Drab drybrush. 

I like how the yellow and grey camo turned out on this one. It'll be a good addition for mid-war gaming and it's in the correct 1/48 scale :-)

So that's it for this post:

    Ringwraith and Witch King on Fellbeast (30 points: 20 for the beast, I'll take 10 for the two riders        and necks)

    Pzkpfw IIIM (20 points for a 28mm vehicle)

    20 point bonus for Caprica (Doomed, Ambush: Of course, the Men of Rohan ambushed the forces of     Mordor (including the Witch King) by using the secret road through the Druadan Forest... so the            Witch King essentially perished in an ambush. Certainly you might consider that the Witch King was     "Doomed" to perish at the hand of Eowyn!)

Happy New Year!

____________________________________

Great work Dallas. This is a wonderfully varied entry, with models from two completely different genres of the hobby. Eaaxcellent.

That Fellbeast and rider(s) is brilliant. I remember Barks doing something similar with magnets a year or so back, and I think it's such a great way to get additional variations to an already terrific model. You've done a brilliant job on him, especially the leathery wings. I'll have to mark down that paint recipe when I tackle mine in the future. 

I also really admire that 1/48 scale PzIII, especially the yellow and grey camo - it's very distinctive and striking. This variant was a real workhorse for the German army, so I'm sure you'll get a lot of use out of it in future Bolt Action scenarios. 

Wonderful stuff Mr. Dallas! More please. :)

- Curt

From Millsy: 40K Death Guard Deathshroud Terminators (Istvaan V, 41 points)

Hi All!

Happy New year everyone, I hope you're all safe and well! It's great to be back amongst you wonderful Challengista's for another year. This is my 9th Challenge and I enjoy them more every year.

My first submission is a unit of 40K Death Guard Deathshroud Terminators for my fledgling 40K / Kill Team force. I'm submitting these as a Challenge Quadrant entry for Istvaan V, reasoning that there's nothing more heretical than Heretic Astartes! For those who don't know the lore, the Death Guard were the 14th of the original 20 legions raised by the Emperor, but defected to Chaos and became devotees or the god Grandfather Nurgle after the "betrayal" of their leader Mortarion by the Emperor. Papa Nurgle is the god of corruption and his minions are carriers of every disease imaginable.

These guys are huge so I'm treating them as 40mm miniatures. They're painted in the scheme of the Pallid Hand chapter and are absolutely loaded with detail.
Every time I thought I was finished I found something else to do until I had to do. Ultimately I declared enough was enough at about 9 hours work I think.

Enough intro, enjoy the pics in all their purifying glory...

Filth? You're standing in it!

Smile for the camera!

My own grandfather would be horrified by that rust!

There'll be more Death Guard along soonish I think. Until then, happy painting!

Cheers,
Millsy

__________________________

Welcome back to the warm embrace of the Challenge, Millsy! (Here in Saskatchewan, ANYTHING warm is a good thing.)

Wow, these Death Guard look fabulous! From closely looking at the photos I can see what you mean about getting lost in the detail - gosh they're festooned with all manner of pox, pimples and tentacles and buboes. I particularly admire the corroded blades of their scythes and the icky (in a good way) groundwork.  A wonderful entry for Istvaan V. Well done Millsy!

- Curt

From Codsticker: 16 Warriors of Minas Tirith[Arda] (100pts)

Hello again, I am super pleased to be apart of the AHPC again - last year was my rookie campaign. I look forward to enjoying  and getting inspiration from everyone's work with my morning coffee and when I get home from work in the evening.

Over the last decade or so I have been (apparently) compulsively buying up second hand figures from Games Workshop's Middle-earth range. This past summer I realised I had two large rubbermaid roughnecks filled with figures so I finally sat down and took stock of what I had. I am a little embarrassed to say that I have amassed 1100 figures from the range, the vast majority unpainted plastics, though some are assembled and primed. So my main commitment this challenge is to knock a serious dent in that pile. However, there will be distractions of course.

So, with my primary goal in mind, my first entry is 16 Warriors of Minas Tirith from Games Workshop.

Honestly, pretty boring figures not particularly inspiring to paint but true to the film; this batch came assembled and primed in black (I recoated in grey). 

Despite the plain nature of the figures the sculpting is very well done; the proportions are realistic and the detail fine; it can actually make them a bit of a challenge to paint.

I stuck to the stock colour choices although the armour is darker than the GW paint jobs, it is not as dark as the armour as worn in the film.

So I have 16, 28mm figures at 5 pts each-  that is 80 - and as I am starting my cosmic journey on Arda another 20 for a total of a nice tidy 100. 

_____________________________________

Welcome back to the Challenge, Rob!

1100 LotR figures! Whoa. Well, you do have a challenge in front of you, don't you? I have a soft spot for GW's LotR range as it is so amazingly comprehensive and, as you say, generally wonderfully done (especially the early metal stuff). Speaking of wonderfully done, these Minas Tirith warriors look terrific. Such nice and clean brushwork, and the basework is excellent as well. 

Well done Rob! I look forward to seeing what else emerges from your vast LotR stocks!

- Curt

From PeterB: First post, a flaming Balrog - [Arda to Vulcan] (65 points)

 Greetings all,

Peter B here from that completely unknown blog Playing with Lead. Christmas is over, the Quality Street have nothing but toffee pennies and the dining table has been reclaimed for painting. This is my first time on the painting challenge and so I am excited, apprehensive and amazed by all the awesome entries already posted.

So, on to my first post. I am starting the Challenge map on the planet Arda with the theme of fantasy and Tolkien. If this wasn't my first time you would be thinking I had a sneaky peak at the challenge map, as I returned from Salute this year with a handful of old GW metal Lord of the Rings models. So what better way to start than the beast himself, a Balrog.

 

 

 

Standing 70mm tall excluding the wings, it was difficult to get a full shot of this model. Being second hand I also had to restore some parts with green stuff. 

My second entry is a model from Bad Squiddo Games Being a super-fan of this company, I have plenty of models I can use to take advantage of Sarah's Star Yacht.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The shield has an attempt from myself of painting a squid emblem, I can only apologise.

So, on to the points.

Points Summary.

28mm scale Balrog (stands around 70mm tall) = 20 points

Arda bonus = 20 points

28mm scale Rosetta the Knight = 5 points

Sarah's star yacht bonus = 20 points

Total = 65 points

____________________________

First, welcome to the Painting Challenge Peter!

I'm a big fan of Annie's offerings at Bad Squiddo too, and I really like your female knight. The brass covered shoulderguard provides an excellent counterpoint to the rest of her armour.

I love that Balrog figure, and you've done a terrific job on his ashen skin and fiery shoulders and mane. Scoring him as a vehicle is about right! He looks warm, which is more that I can say for us here at -46 Regina. I wish he'd come and visit - it would be worth the trouble.

Again, welcome Peter!

- Curt

From TeemuL: Bug part of the Bug War [Klendathu] (60 points)

Sarah's Star Yacht dropped us into the planet Klendathu, but it was a huge mistake. This was no longer logical as Vulcan or fun as Babylon5. This was hostile. If we were making an attack, our invasion would have gone bad. These bugs were all over the place and we had a bad feeling about pretty much everything.

Quite crowded corridor...

Once I was almost finished with the colorful group on Babylon5, I told my gaming friends, that here are the last minis from me this year (everyone was counting the played games and painted miniatures). Then I realized, that there were still couple of days left of the year, I had some days off (with my six year old) and relaxed work schedule, so I grabbed my Contrast paints and these Genestealers from GW (which were nicely primed by their previous owner), their Warhammer 40,000 universe. They will join the Great Beast from the last Challenge (Big Tyranid) and some spore mines, which I painted during the summer.

Primaris point of view :)

I wanted them to be simple to paint, look "real", scary, hostile, dangerous and a bit camouflaged. You wouldn't want to be in a jungle with these (which reminds me to paint my Lost Patrol and play it). All Contrast here, two shades of green, black, yellow and purple.

Yes, there are eight of them

If there are no point bombs lurking around, I might end up in the Top-2 - at least momentarily and if this draft would be published now, before the final details and photos. More importantly I'm on good speed to reach my target in time. This is a third planet so far, and Star Yacht, some quite simple minis and more than average of free time. Anyway, painting these Genestealers is not an easy piece, they have six limbs and are huge. Even with simple paint job with Contrasts takes a lot of time to cover all everything and everywhere, old Mithril miniatures are done in a fraction of time compared to these. At least it feels like that.

All over the place

I guess these are counted as 28mm miniatures for 5 points each, so this will be 40 points and 20 points for the Klendathu planet. Klendathu is not the place where we want to be. "I need a hero" can be heard from our space-time-radio Classic Runes FM station and we continue our Quest to Glorantha - to find a hero.

They were assembled with variety of heads

My personal Squirrel count: 4
- 20mm Napoleonic
- 28mm Sludge
- 28mm Pulp
- 28mm Warhammer 40000 Xenos (I'm not sure about the final ruling regarding different factions is WH40K and similar, but Squirrels or not, I'll paint several of them).

_____________________________

Great looking Stealers, Teemu, and a perfect entry for Klendathu! I really like the colours you went with for these nasty critters. The yellow looks perfect with those two tones of green. It may have taken a bit longer for coverage but the Contrast paint sure worked a jiffy with these guys. Well done!


- Curt

From Curt: Kalista, Leshevult Priestess (27 Points)

First, Happy New Year Everyone!! I hope 2022 brings the very best to all of you.

Okay, I've finished my tour of Arda and I now need to get to Skaro to meet a rather strange doctor, so I'm hailing Captain Jenny of Sarah's Star Yacht for a quick hop. 

Here is Kalista, a priestess of Leshevult in the whimsical game of 'Moonstone'. Our group as been enjoying a lot of Moonstone over the past few months, having great fun with all the varied characters and scenarios. Sarah and Natasha have been working as a team, often running this trio of witch sisters from the 'A Witch in Time' boxed set.

Zorya 'The Dawn Witch', Antonia 'The Noonday Witch', and Danica 'The Dusk Witch'

  
To be clear, these lasses are not for points as I painted them earlier this summer (and still need to properly write them up on my home blog), but I thought I'd show them off to you so you can see how fun the sculpts are.

These ladies use a lot of blood magic for their mischief, which, as you can imagine, is quite nasty as it requires a fair bit of self-harm and oodles of magical power. They often end up too weakened, and are then susceptible to other troupes' attacks later in the game.

Well, now we have Kalista who can ally to the witches, providing them with both healing spells and additional arcane energy. This will alter the dynamic of their troupe, and I look forward to how  the girls adapt their tabletop strategies to use her.

I found the raw casting of Kalista to be rather dull and not very dynamic, but, like many first-homely minis, I warmed to her as the colours went on. Being a druidic priestess, I thought I'd paint her in natural tones, perhaps amped-up for additional colour on the tabletop. 

Kalista, being nearly 40mm, will give me 7 points, plus another 20 for Sarah's Star Yacht to Skaro.

Thanks for dropping in for a look!

- Curt