From TeemuL: Hero Ducks with Runes on a Quest [Glorantha] (45 points)

Quickly leaving Klendathu and arriving in to the more peaceful Glorantha to find some heroes and here they are, a bunch of ducks! In fact they might not be much less hostile than those Genestealers, but at leasts they are smaller and some of them know how to behave.

Ducks are rather unique fantasy world race, there are not many bird people in the main fantasy worlds, but they do exist in Glorantha. Most of them are outcasts, thieves, bandits and rogues, some of them create small clans and behave like human clans near Dragon Pass in Sartar, southern part of Genertela continent in the world of Glorantha. They usually worship Orlanth pantheon (like these ducks, some of them even have the Storm rune on their shields) and get along with the other righteous barbarians on the area fighting against the invading Lunar Empire and their false gods. These ducks follow Orlanth the Storm God, others might follow his companions, like Humakt the God of Death or Urox, the Chaos fighting Storm Bull, or perhaps the Lhankor Mhy the Knowing God.

Glorantha is the rich and detailed world, where the RPGs RuneQuest, HeroWars and HeroQuest take place as well as some others probably and the great computer game King of Dragon Pass. I like the world a lot and surprisingly have bought these duck miniatures years ago just because I love the world even though I haven't played the RPGs on this millenia.These miniatures are from Mongoose Publishing (Duck Adventurers), they are made of metal and are in 28mm scale, so about 20mm tall.

Wears robes, has a stuff and a skull, a magic user perhaps?

I tried to keep my palette limited to get unified feeling

All these have painted eyes, it felt pretty easy this time!

There are 10 ducks in the box, here is the first half. The second half might came later in this Challenge or not. Anyway, since these are smaller ones, they score only 4 points a piece, so 20 points in total (not enough for squirrel). May be I have something planned - or not. I have painted these in traditional way (as I like to paint my older minis), basecoat, wash and drybrush. The exception is the feathered parts, which are basically watered wash or Contrast over white undercoat. Simple, but works. And as you can see, I have painted them in few different colors to make them even more different.

Rune of Storm or Air

So these ducks are from Glorantha, so they should be suitable for this planet. Just to make it sure I painted those two storm runes there to meet the Rune requirement. They might not be super heroes, but they are adventurers and they are usually called heroes in the RPGs (at least in the good old days). And they most likely are on a quest, since that's what people (ducks included) do in Glorantha - they are HeroQuesting, travelling to the other dimension to re-enact the actions of gods in order to gain knowledge, power, treasuers or nothing, if they fail and gods are not pleased. All this should be enough for the Glorantha planet, and since this is the fourth one on the Outer Ring, I'll dive (pun intended) on to the oceanic Perelandra planet on the Middle Ring.

Right between the eyes

So, 4 20mm ducks for 20 points and 20 points for the Glorantha planet for 40 points. And one skull!

My journey so far...

From Millsy

Runequest ducks are awesome in so many ways. They are so very iconic of Glorantha and the weirdness it has packed into it. Lovely brushwork on each and every one of these mate, but I think my favourite is the chap with the Storm rune on his shield.

Despite their small stature these are 28mm scale so I have scored them accordingly. Keep the Gloranthan stuff coming Teemu!

From Peter B: More Lord of the Rings - [Vulcan to Babylon 5] (55 points)

My continuing adventures travelling among the planets starts at Vulcan this week thanks to Sarah's yacht giving me a quick shortcut last week. Therefore, my pointy eared entry of course had to be the Tolkien Hero, the stair-surfing, Mumakil dispatching, triple arrow firing elf, Legolas (yes I know these feats are film specific, but the model is based on the film likeness). As mentioned last week, these are original metal models I picked up recently.

Legolas is joined by his Fellowship companion Boromir, both dressed pre-Elven cloaks, so ready for the Mines of Moria (and that Flaming Balrog).

I used mostly GW and Coat D'arms acrylics then the base has a layer of Vallejo mud with just a light drybrush over it.

The one thing I found tricky with these models was the restriction on the pallette. As they are based on the films I felt I had to paint them the same colours. My time was therefore spent constantly referring to reference photos and mixing colours to match. (It was like painting accurate historical miniatures, although less repetitive, luckily!  ;-)  )

Continuing on my journey, humming the opening bars of Peter and the Wolf (can I get away with that as an Opera?) my operatic entry to take me to Babylon 5 is a wolf from Bad Squiddo Games that I bought mainly for games of The Silver Bayonet from Osprey, a historical skirmish game set in the Peninsular Wars that involves vampires, hobgoblins and wolves among other things.

So on to points then:

2 x 28mm Lotr models = 10 points
Vulcan Bonus = 20 points
1 x 28mm wolf = 5 points
Babylon 5 bonus = 20 points

Total points = 55 points

From Millsy

Lovely brushwork Peter! Boromir is my favourite character from both the books and the movies so it's great to see him getting some proper love and attention. Legolas look very much the part too and you've done a good job bringing him to life. 

The wolf is very nice but perhaps would benefit from a little shading in the ears and eyes? Or maybe that's just the exposure of the photo. Certainly threatening as he stands regardless.

A great 55 point haul including the bonuses. Well done mate!

From ForestP: 70 20mm (1/72) Early Imperial (1st - 2nd Century BC) Roman Infantry [Istvaan V] (308 points)

Hello, all! My name is Forest, and well, this is my first foray into the Analogue Painting Challenge. It's honestly been quite some time since I've done any painting, so I figured this would be a great way into getting me back into the more creative side of the hobby.

I suppose a little introductions are in order before getting to the niceties of the photos and so on, since I'm an unknown here. I've been wargaming since the late 90's, early 2000's when I first discovered the hobby at a gaming convention while going to college. I initially just painted the odd fantasy figure to go with playing role-playing games, but got bit hard by the historical bug after meeting Doug Kline (of Battlefield Terrain Concepts) while I was in graduate school in Virginia in 2004. I've been gaming horse and musket ever since.

Fast forward to today, and I'm an Army psychologist in the Kansas City area that rarely gets a moment to take a breath between work and home responsibilities. Realizing that self-care is something that I teach my patients, but rarely engage in myself, I decided the hypocrisy needed to end. So, long story short, this challenge has given me an excuse to take care of myself... and paint some miniatures from my pile of lead and plastic. My goals are modest this year, with an intent to finish 500 points worth of figures and terrain/scenics. 

Today, I bring you my first painted miniatures in a few years. Daunted by the thought of diving headfirst into my pile of unpainted 15mm Napoleonics I decided to polish off some 1/72 Italeri Early Imperial Roman Infantry that I've had laying around in boxes for about a decade.

One of two boxes that I've had languishing on a shelf for a decade.

I started off mounting them on craft sticks and priming the lot in black before working on a simple paint job that won't win me any contests, but I figure they'll look just fine on the table.

Simple blocking of colors because I intend to use a wash.

I forgot how meditative this whole process can be.

I actually primed the lot on New Year's Eve, and started painting around 0900 on New Year's Day as part of my resolution to do more wargaming this year. I had intended to just do a little each day until finishing the lot next weekend, but next thing I knew it was early evening and I was nearly done with the blocked colors, with some smaller details picked out.

After dinner, I decided to push on and complete all the painting minus the wash I would put on the following morning. Below are the miniatures with the wash on. I finished around 2300. Now that's a good day of painting.

I had no intention of finishing painting in a day and a half, but here we are.

After simple basing (for Warhammer Ancients Battles), flocking, and sealing with a matte sealer I present to you my 70 Early Imperial Roman Infantry.

Two sets of command elements (8 foot, 2 mounted).

Half of the infantry (30 figures) ready to advance with pila at the ready.

The other half (30 figures) holding shields aloft in a testudo formation.

Close up of my two mounted officers (please provide suggestions for names)

Close up of one of the command elements

A better view of the individual infantrymen

So, there it is. My first entry to the challenge is done, and it was far easier than expected to get back into that meditative painting state. I chose to start at Istvaan V because I associate 1st to 2nd Century BC with the assassination of Julius Caesar (a betrayal if there ever was one). In summation, my points are calculated as follows:

68 x 1/72 (20mm) foot @ 4 = 272 points

2 x 1/72 (20mm) mounted @ 8 = 16 points

Istvaan V (Outer Ring) bonus = 20 points

Total = 308 points

Well, now that I've gotten over my initial trepidations of returning to painting, it's time to dive headlong into this challenge. I think I'll work on a regiment of 15mm Grand Duchy of Warsaw infantry next, and may if I decide to go hog wild work on my 15mm Alamo (it's huge). I may have underestimated what I will paint with the 500 points... Of well, but to underpromise and overdeliver, right? Oh yeah, Happy New Year!

Forest

From Millsy

Welcome to the Challenge Forest! It's great to have another debutant with us this year, and what a debut both in terms of quality and quantity!

These are just awesome mate. You can't argue about the value of 1/72 miniatures but I often forget how good they can look when painted well, especially something like a Roman whose uniform and equipment looks so good en mass. Nice choice of theme for Istvaan V too, very appropriate.

Bring on 15mm Napoleonics please. I have a soft spot for the French and especially their allies so really keen to see what you bring to those chaps.

From StephenS: Mysterio [Solaris] (27 points)

 G'day Everyone,

It's great to be back in the painting challenge once again. Thank you to Curt and all the minions for your efforts in making this happen! This time I'm kicking things off with a visit to the planet Solaris, a fitting destination for my character today.

I present the supervillain 'Mysterio', master of illusion and deception. He apparently has no super powers, but worked once as a special effects engineer and has used this knowledge to become a criminal mastermind. I'm not sure why it takes a superhero to defeat someone whose super power is a smoke bomb, but it's probably best not to think too long and hard about any character from the world of comic books.

 

Mysterio was a recent birthday present from my 5 year old son, so he was thrilled to see it get painted up. My son loves the comic book characters at the moment, so it is almost plausible to say I'm buying the miniatures for him...

I gave it a red hot go trying to replicate the mist that floats around inside his helmet (from the Spider-Man movie), it looks better when held at arms length, like a lot of my painting!

The miniature is a 40mm plastic model from Atomic Mass Games for their Marvel: Crisis Protocol game That should hopefully be 7 points for the model and 20 points for making planetfall on Solaris. 

Cheers,

Steve

From Millsy

What an awesome paint job Steve! I don't normally "do" supers but this chap is wonderful, especially the swirling effect you have achieved on his... helmet? dome? Anyway, wonderful stuff and 27 points well earned.

From PaulOG: Stalingrad Apartment Complex (Klendathu) (140 points)

28mm soldat shown for scale, not scoring 

Making landfall at our next planetary stop of Klendathu, we find ourselves in the theme of "An Invasion Gone Bad". For this I offer the following themed terrain build for Stalingrad, an invasion that went as badly for the Germans and Klendathu did for the Humans in Starship Troopers. Its been a labour of love so please excuse if I spam with a few more pics than usual :-)

This 28mm scaled apartment complex building occupies a 1 foot square mdf tile and has 5 seperate (and detachable) floors. It was printed in small sections by Alan on his filament printer last year, after which I then spent some 30 odd hours glueing, chopping and drilling to give it that pristine Urban Combat look. Quite a labour of love in which I took my own modicum of injuries! Each floor was modified to make it quickly removable and allow skirmish games to be played just in this building alone.  

The building breaks down into five separate floors - I added framing to the underside of each so that it doesn't inadvertently revert to this state mid-game...

I wanted a balance of dioramic destruction vs playability, so tried to portray a holdout building in which defenders have cleared the worst of the internal rubble to keep their fighting positions effective. It took some time to do this sensibly (with obligatory research of actual Stalingrad buildings - Alan's high standards require nothing less than primary source evidence, which makes one really lift one's game!). All this modelling took well over a month (in lockdown, of course) so I quietly packed it away to enjoy painting it during the Challenge.

Undercoated in black, I then got my airbrush into action (with coaching assistance - thanks Marty!) to finally start adding pigment to the project. I really wanted to bring some colour to the table amongst all the usual urban grey wreckage, so went with a timeless brick red vibe with some coloured internal walls. I added floorboard beams and other detritus from scrap balsa. Final layers on the brickwork were traditional drybrush method, while internal floors and walls were stippled to give a bedraggled look.

Junkers-eye view of the building

Overall, I put some hours into this and am really happy with how its turned out.  It weighs in at six full 6" terrain cubes for 120 points, plus 20 planetary theme bonus points, for a total of 140. 

And finally, welcome back Millsy as our Saturday Minion!

* commercial stl files by WOW Buildings, here: https://wowbuildings.net/

Hail Hydra! (Red Skull was my AHPC VII Character bonus round submission :-)

From Millsy

Crikey, what a monster building! It's an gorgeous piece Paul and you've done an amazing job on getting it ready for the table. The colour is spot on, a perfect match of muted earthy tones. It almost looks like it has been lifted straight out of recoloured period footage. I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time fighting over it for years to come. Good to see Alan is keeping you honest on the history side of things too!

6 cubes worth of terrain plus the location bonus is a well earned 140 points. Nice!

From TeemuL: Bunch of Sludge and a Hard Rock Orc (50 points)

Here's something from the world of Sludge. I finally received my army commander and painted him with his bodyguards. I also painted three dragoons to get some variety and mobility to my force, there's at least three more to come.

The commander is a metal figure from Warbases, Captain de Travaille from their Mousquetaires range. He is accompanied by two WR foot knights from the Perry plastic box, just their heads taken from the WR light cavalry box to those nice looking feathers.

These three dragoons are plastic Perry WR light cavalry models with musket arms and heads from the ACW Zouaves box. They fitted very well, the poses might not be ultra realistic, but I like their bit uncontrolled look.

On the top picture you can see, that the horse on the left has an army symbol painted on his "head guard", a simple wheat icon. The other horse has a white star on his head (I don't actually like painting horses, but I do like to paint them individually like this to have all kind of details and markings on them).

The army colors are basically yellow and brown, as mentioned in one of my previous posts. There is some green as well, especially on the more senior stuff (and feathers and so on). The brown means dark soil and yellow means golden wheat, while the green is for the grass - the good old times, before the World went Wrong and it is just mud pretty much everywhere.

The commander and bodyguards are the same size, so no problem mixing these. And since this is not a historical game, it is easy to add fancy looking officers and heroes with funny hats and such and get away with it.

All of these are on 40mm round bases, 2mm thick (or thin), which I started to like more than the bulkier 3mm thick ones. It makes the models look bigger, doesn't it? On the bases there are Stirland mud from GW and small stones, cuts of twigs and pieces of vine, useful left overs from eating grapes! And some orange sand from Hasslefree, it can represent rust or fungi or whatever you can think of.

The stripes on the other bodyguard are hand painted (as you can see), small details which make them more life like. I tried to paint eyes to all of them, with varying results, and mustaches on some of them - again with varying results. The rest of my gaming group are having a game night today to try out Sludge (2 has played one game, other 2 none), but I had already booked myself to another group event, cook and eat and probably play some boardgames while drinking wine type of thing. It was a difficult choice, you understand, but first booking is a first booking.

Second part of this posting is this Hard Rock Orc from Widkidz prepainted range.

You might be astonished by the level of the painting, but there is an easy explanation. It is not actually painted by me, but my 6 year old son. During the last autumn (or fall) he started paying more interest on my painting hobby (probably because my painting desk was temporarily located to the living room) and wanted to paint something himself. He first painted some Stormcast Eternals, which I had primer long ago, but he soon finished those. I was running out of primed models I could let go and the weather outside didn't support outdoor spraying. I went to the local game store and bought some of these prepainted plastics for him to paint.

This has been completely painted during the Challenge XII and the flag is a freehand as well. I was creating a flag for my Sludge force and he wanted a flag for his monster as well. The front side says "LORDI ÄRR" and back side "KISS ÄRR", where the "ÄRR" part roughly translates to "ARR" (like pronouncing the letter R like a true pirate. LORDI and KISS are two hard rock bands which my son really likes (he doesn't understand English, so it must be their appearance and show - check out on youtube, if these are unfamiliar to you).

I'd like to claim 5 points from this Orc to my (family) tally, since it is basically my miniature, it has been painted using my brushes and paints and using my time - he needs help opening the Contrast paint pots and cleaning the brushes, fixing mistakes and reaching the tricky parts.

No planets on this post (or new squirrels or skulls), so just basic points:

4 28mm miniatures on foot = 20 points

3 28mm mounted miniatures = 30 points

Total 50 points

From Millsy

Some super kitbashing here on your Sludge miniatures Teemu! They really come together as a cohesive whole and your commander looks suitably imposing backed up by his guards. You colour choices reflecting the background of the world is a great touch too.

It's great to see you supporting your son as he takes his first steps into the world of miniature painting and gaming. The Challenge is slowly growing a cadre of fresh young blood to take over when the rest of us are too arthritic to paint!