From ByronM - More 15mm Eldar (55 points)

Continuing on with my 15mm (20mm) Warhammer 40k project, I have a few more pieces finished this week.

First up is a unit of Fire Dragons, again these are 6mm models scaled up and printed as roughly 20mm scale (25mm to the top of the crests) from the excellent Lord Chronos on Cults. Even though these were meant to be 6mm scale, so much detail is there that I am pretty sure they would look ok even is scaled up to 28mm (they would be missing some detail, but still very usable).

The unit is made up of 9 Fire Dragons and the Exarch. Once again I kept the character on a different style base so that they are easy to spot at table distance in 15mm.  They are all painted in the traditional very bright yellow and orange paint scheme.

Next up is the transport to go along with them, again a 6mm model scaled up and printed to be huge.  This is done in the same turquoise type colour as the other 2 and features twin link bright lances to keep with the Fire Dragon theme of being able to kill any vehicle or monster type unit dead with heavy firepower.

As per the last submission of these models I am claiming the 10 figures as 4 points each and the tank at 15 points due to pure size and scale of this beast (just as big as most 28mm tanks).  That should put it at 55 points, but Millsy, please feel free to adjust or change at your discretion though as I really could care less about the overall points...

From Millsy:

I'm absolutely loving your small scale 40K stuff Byron. You've made me think about half a dozen different projects already. Stop please!

The transport is a lovely thing but the Fire Dragons take the cake. I know that's the traditional colour scheme but it doesn't matter that it's been seen before. That orange / yellow combo paired with the black weapons is an absolute cracker.

I see no reason to change your points mate. If nothing else, you didn't say "could not care less" which gives me the absolute you-know-whats and which makes you a top bloke in my estimation!

From DarrellH: Spanish Trastámara Italian Wars Ordinance - Army of Gonzalo de Córdoba, "El Gran Capitán" (32 points)

At last! My first post! Hurrah! :>)

Apologies for the slightly serious nature of this post. I've been a difficult time as I'm sure many of us are experiencing to one extent or another. 

Due to a serious medical condition I have been shielding since March 20th 2022! Unable to see in person another human being except when I got my three vaccines. Suffice to say this has been emotionally devastating in so many ways. It had take a heavy toll on my mental health. I was so ill/hyper anxious last year I was unable to take part in the AHPC. I have lived with quite a high background level of anxiety most of my adult life but this was something very new and much more intense than anything I had experienced before. I just couldn't find the strength within to paint anything. 

Gradually over time things did improve with the help of some serious therapeutic interventions etc. Still, there have been times when I have struggled to paint so I made a promise to myself that the AHPC starting in 2021 would be a perfect time to challenge myself, but more than just putting the brush to a miniature; to challenge myself mentally too, to challenge the hyper anxiety. The sense of companionship, humour and sense of community that the challenge provides will hopefully be enough to keep me going.

I started prepping miniatures for a Late Roman army way back in early November of last year  struggling a little through some quite rough castings, mostly pitted, lovingly cleaning them up and filled in the many gaps with ProCreate putty. Then primed. I had all the units ready for the go come December 21st and made a good start with the brush. Starved of the varnish I use all the time during the "Great Windsor and Newton Professional Matt Varnish Drought" I did some shopping around and was assured that a certain matt varnish spray was a "dead flat matt" by the vendor. That is where my troubles started. To cut a long story short, the varnish was far from matt and after spending two weeks painting up my first unit of Cataphracts, ready to make a "bang" with my first post, the final layer of varnish penetrated not only the solid brush on DIY Enamel Humbrol Gloss coat (left a week to fully cure which has never let me down) but down into the paint, blistering and cracking the finish. Along with the extreme frosting the paint cracked, then flaked and all my hard work went down the pan. Devastated does not even begin to describe my feelings. With the first unit of the project now ruined, and only large units to paint, I had no time to paint anything else up to reach the deadline so opted to box up all the Late Romans and save it for another year when I can face stripping the Cataphracts down again. 

Pics of the varnishing disaster can be found at the bottom of my post. Curt suggested to me that I might include a few as a precautionary tale! I am not going to mention any names but the results are plain to see. I have never had such a varnishing disaster anywhere near as bad as this and I'm just shy of painting for three decades.

The composition of of the gun, crew and accoutrements were all worked out in the picture below. I wanted to emphasise the discussion between the Leonardo da Vinci miniature and the chap with the linstock as if discussing the maths of the matter at hand! I think that this was largely achieved. 

Now to the heart of the matter and the pictures of the gun and crew in action:

(Argh! I've just noticed that I've splashed some of the basing colour on one of the sleeves of the guy holding then linstock. I just want to get my fist entry underway at present so that error will be fixed tonight.) - Millsy: I'd never have known if you didn't say!

So, one cannon and four crew is 50 points? Maybe a Brucy Bouns for the vanishing disaster that saw six well painted cavalry models reduced to cracked garbage? ;>)

And the varnishing incident of doom! 

From Millsy:

I'm so glad you took the time to tell us the background to this post and what you've been through the last couple of years Darrell. It's a brave thing to talk so openly about the things that challenge us like this. Well done to you mate for fighting the good fight and getting yourself back to a place where painting is something you feel able to do.

I'm also stoked that you're back painting and sharing with us. I've always loved your smooth style with your absolutely gorgeous metallics. That gun is an absolute masterpiece! The crew are also really evocative of the period, especially that crazy yellow hat and the wonderful earthy tones across the group.

Good to know you were able to fix the varnish disaster. Living in Australia I've never had issues like this but I know plenty who have in the frozen north. Thanks for the warning!

Have an extra couple of points mate, one for the wonderful micro-sized notes and one for the warning :-)

Saturday Night... oo oo oo oo!

Evening all!

Happy weekend to all. Hopefully you're all safe and well and enjoying some extra brush time. I've been  cranking our more undead so stay tuned for those.

So I've just completed my Saturday (my time) evening run through all of the ready posts and WHAT A HAUL. We have minis ranging from 6mm to a space marine the size of a toddler! Have a gander and enjoy all the weird, wonderful and just plain brilliant stuff from the Saturday crew. I'll be back tomorrow AM to catch up on last orders from the frozen north.

Until then, enjoy Barnsey and the boys on me...

PeterB: Epic Chaos Space Marines + puppies [Coruscant] - (200 points)

Briefly, can I just say as a first time challenger I am really enjoying this. I didn't know what to expect but I am amazed by the vast variety of manufacturers and historical periods/fantasy worlds represented so far this year. Unfortunately as I commented yesterday on GeoffreyT's post, this just means that there are too many things already I want to buy and add to my lead pile (thus ensuring I will want to join the challenge next year to clear the pile again.)

Anyway, so consulting my star chart I believe I have already cleared 4 planets:

Arla - The Balrog

Vulcan - Legolas

Babylon 5 - The Dire Wolf

Quick yacht trip - Female Knight

Istvaan V - Iron Snake Space Marine

Therefore I shall be leaping into the middle ring on to the planet Coruscant with the theme Good vs Evil. Well what can be more evil than the armies of Chaos, in 6mm scale. 

Yep, whoever decided we should wargame in 6mm could be considered good, for we can now easily create massive fields of battle in the comfort of our own homes with just a dining table (possibly extended with the middle leaf folded out) and a green baize tablecloth.

Yet, they could be considered evil, for expecting us to paint details so tiny, it makes me weep, weep the tears of a man who has painted the pauldron trims on Space Marines in 6mm, or freestyled the symbol of Khorne on both sides of the banner flags on the back of  30 Juggernaughts of Khorne.

Juggernaughts of Khorne

Tower of Skulls and Cauldron of Blood

Minotaurs and Khorne Space Marines

Space Marines Dreadnoughts

Chaos Space marines, including a sorcerer at the front

I have also been working on a project that I should have actually been painting instead of swanning around the planets painting random things from my lead pile. I am actually currently working on a fantasy halfling army for Dragon Rampant and fell in love with these guys at Salute this year:

I am not claiming these for any particular planet. Just their points. They are pretty tall for halflings if I am honest, so I am hoping Millsy will allow me to claim 10 points a pop for them.

For the points then:

30 x Juggernaughts of Khorne in 6mm scale. 30 points

2 x vehicles in 6mm scale. 4 points

12 x minotaurs in 6mm scale. 6 points

20 x Khorne Space Marines in 6mm scale. 10 points

4 x Dreadnoughts in 6mm scale. 4 points

80 x Chaos Space Marines in 6mm scale. 40 points.

10 x Halfling dog riders in 28mm scale. 100 points.

Grand total = 194 points.

From Millsy:

Some great Epic scale Chaos stuff here Peter! I'm both horrified and seriously impressed that you hand painted (!) all those Khorne symbols at 6mm scale. Crazy stuff mate. I honestly can't decide which unit I like best from the Chaos stuff, it's all just wonderful.

I've been unimpressed with the Mantic hobbits to date but I really like these. Which is bad news. First time challenger and you're already suffering from Challenge Temptation Syndrome (CTS) and giving me a good dose too.

A cracking entry mate. I'm rounding it up to 200 points because of all that Khorne symbol craziness. Belter!

From TeemuL: The Good and the Bads of Menzoberranzan (27 points)

Today I present you another squirrel from my collection, some drows (dark or black elfs) from the Forgotten Realms, one of the fantasy worlds of ADD. These are from The Legend of Drizzt Board Game, a simple dungeon crawler from FFG. Drows are basically bad guys, forced to live underneath by the noble elfs. They are bittered, murderous, selfish etc. However there is one (at least) good guy, the legendary Drizzt Do'Urden, who escaped the dungeon city of Menzoberranzan after murdering one of his kin. He has conscious, which makes him different from other drows. He has few friends, a dwarf, a halfling, couple of humans, magic panther and so on, but because of his race, he is usually not trusted and people like to keep distance.

Most of them have purple eyes (the middle one has blue eyes)

From left to right, Drow Wizard, Drizzt and 3 Drow Duellists. The Duellists are similar with strange clothing, which I couldn't figure out, so I just splashed some colors and made them look a bit different. I tried to use dark, sinister and dramatic colors, the evil guys usually like that sort of thing and they are game pieces, so they need to be easily seen.

The backside of the bad guys, the blue guy has all blue overall, the other two have different colors in front and back. Wizard has fancy fur cloak. All have similar white hair, which I achieved painting Leviadon Blue Contrast over white and then heavily drybrushing with white. Simple, but it works.

The bad guys

Here is an angled view and Duellists have quickly rearranged themselves. The cobblestone effect is rather nice and easy to achieve as well. This time I painted the base black and then used dark grey (Mechanicus Standard Grey) to paint irregular roundish shapes. After that dried I took a lighter grey (Light Grey from Coat d'Arms) to paint a narrow line on one of the edges on the each stone, all in the same edge to create illusion of 3D stones. Sometimes I paint the base dark grey and then separate the stones with black lines before the light grey edge. This is easier, I think, and looks better and not that systematic. Painting tiles would work that way, I believe.

In couple of sources it is said that Drizzt has green cloak, so I painted the cloak green. That is just two layers of Contrast paint, so all the shadows and edges come from the paint pot, not from my skills.

Drizzt Do'urden

Just the metals (like the scimitars Twinkle and Icingdeath of Drizzt) are painted with metallics and the base with regular paints, everything else is Contrasts.

That is 5 ADD Boardgame 28mm minis, so 25 points total

My personal Squirrel count: 8

- 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

From Millsy:

You're a painting machine Teemu! Three posts in one day, all from completely different subjects and scales is quite something.

I really like how you've gone about painting your Drow. I always imagine them as drab and dark so it's a change of pace to see some painted in a more bright palette. It challenges my preconceptions which is great. The basing is great too, and worth another couple of points for the execution. Nice one mate!

From ForestP: 50 15mm Napoleonic Grand Duchy of Warsaw 4th Regiment of Line [Glorantha] (120 points)

Good morning from the cloudy middle of the United States! As I sit here under a Winter Weather Advisory for a paltry 2-4" of snow I find myself not in the slightest bit upset because it gives me a perfect excuse to stay in a paint. Truly the definition of the proverbial silver lining of the clouds above me. 

As the miniatures at hand though, I present to you the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 4th Regiment of Line of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw; or what could also be known as part of the Polish contingent of the Grand Army of France that fought in the Peninsula. They are one of the most heroic of the Polish units in the Napoleonic Wars, and were loyal to Napoleon even after he lost control of Poland. They were a decorated unit both during and after the Napoleonic Wars and so I shall also claim them for Glorantha as Heroes! As will be my style I will talk you all through a bit of my painting process. 

What I painted were 50 15mm figures from the Battle Honors line of Old Glory 15s aka 19th Century miniatures, specifically from the range BPO3 (Line Infantry Regiments 4, 7, or 9). The pack I had was an older one that I purchased from Campaign Game Miniatures during their recent holiday sale that had 50 miniatures in it, versus the new Battle Honors packs that generally have 24 figures. So, if you're trying to recreate this unit as I did, I suggest you order 2 packs of BPO3 from 19th Cent. Minis. As far as references for images I split between those in John R. Elting's Napoleonic Uniforms Vol. 2 (yes, I know they are quite expensive, but highly worth it for the Napoleonic enthusiast; by the way the link is for used copies of the 1993 edition, you can buy the 2007 re-issue here), Napoleon's Polish Troops (MAA45) by Otto von Pivka of Osprey Books, and Uniformology's "Uniforms of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw 1807-1815 Part 3" painted by Jan Chelminski. Since each source showed uniforms a bit differently I amalgamated the sources to create something that I was satisfied with as a compromise. It's not exact, but I'm not a button-counter, so there.

I actually started painting these miniatures last weekend, and were able to finish them up over the course of painting an hour or two per night over the week. First after cleaning flash I mounted the figures to craft sticks using a hot glue gun (my preference because of the ease of popping them off after painting) I primed the figures in ultra flat white (Krylon Colormaster 5131507) to reduce the need to paint white pants (because efficiency or laziness; take your pick). And with that I was done for the first evening.

That's not too many miniatures, sure this can't be too bad...

Night two I decided to knock out quite a bit of the blocking. Most of my paints were Vallejo Acrylics, so I will provide  reference numbers for those. I started with Dark Blue (70.930) as that would be pretty close to the primary jacket color I've found in my research, then Black (70.950 for the shakos and other hats, and Deep Yellow (70.915) for the jacket lapel/vest. I decided I would finish the night by painting poms and plumes (Deep Yellow again for Voltigeurs, Flat Red [70.957] for Grenadiers, Officers, flag bearers and drummers), cuffs (same Deep Yellow for Voltigeurs and Flat Red for everyone else), epaulets (ibid), and rifles and flag poles painted in Leather Brown (70.871).

Starting to look soldiery.

Poms and Plumes really do help make figures pop.

Night three I moved on to details.  I painted the drums with both Flat Red and Deep Yellow, then painted the Eagles, gorgets, and shako plates in Polished Gold (72.055). Backpacks were painted in Leather Brown, smaller pouches were in Flat Earth (70.983), and bedrolls were painted in Neutral Grey (70.992). Lastly I painted skin in a 3:1 mix of Basic Skin Tone (70.815) and Flat Flesh (70.955).

On night four I wanted to finish up the primary coloring on the figures before moving on to a wash. I mixed up a 3:2 of Gunmetal Grey (70.863) and Chainmail Silver (72.053) for bayonets and rifle barrels and slapped that all over. Swords were painted in pure Chainmail Silver, with officers' sword hilts painted in 1:1 of Tinny Tin (72.060) and Old Gold (70.878), and any other sword hilts in just Tinny Tin. Sheathes were painted in 1:1 Bright Bronze (72.057) and Tinny Tin or Chainmail Silver. Drum heads were painted in thinned Honeycomb (942) from Folk Art paints (a crafting quality paint). I completely forgot that my Voltigeurs needed some green in the plumes and epaulets so I painted on some Flat Green (70.968) appropriately. Lastly I painted crossbelts and other straps in White (70.951), and for some reason I'd totally forgotten to paint hair so I used a 10/0 brush to add a little thinned out Apple Barrel (another crafting-quality paint) Brown Oxide (20511) knowing full well that my wash will ensure any gaps would be covered.

Decent little command element.

They don't look too terrible, right?

On night five I took my wife out to a concert at the symphony, so the only thing I had time to do after we got home was splash on a wash and call it a night. I used Flesh Wash (73.204) all over knowing full well that I would be touching up the figures in the morning to bring out the brighter colors. Also, I didn't mind the fact that the figures overall would look a little "grimier" as I'm of the mind that soldiers get dirty and sweaty (can confirm: I'm a soldier). Uniforms aren't perfectly pressed and cleaned in war. That being said because I was finishing up the wash later into the evening I didn't take any photos. Oh well.

The following day I was (as I am typing this, still am) stuck in a two day-long Zoom training where I don't have to talk much, and don't need to be on camera. So naturally this gave me the opportunity to finish up the figures. So, next I touched up the whites, yellows, metallics, and some areas of black. I also realized I'd forgotten to paint up the drum sticks, so I mixed up a 1:1:1 mix of Folk Art Honey Comb with Apple Barrel Brown Oxide and some water using leftover paint on my wet pallet. My next steps were basing the figures up on Wargames Accessories #10 Metal Base Stands (3/4" x 1") and one Litko 1.25" x 1.25" plywood base for the command stand (these had previously been spray painted green with Design Master Basil [676]).

The next step was putting down some flocking. So I mixed up some PVA glue with Apple Barrel English Ivy Green 20756 in order to cover up the white leftover on the individual figure bases, and slapped it on.

Not pretty, but it does the job.

After that it was swishing the figures around in a BTC Open Flock Mix created by my good friend Doug Kline at Battlefield Terrain Concepts.

This stuff is so nice it almost feels like cheating. Almost...

Et voila, we have two battalions and a command stand!

Regimental command stand.

Close up of 1st Batallion.

The Regiment thus far.

My paint job is what I would describe as just slight better than tabletop quality (meant to be seen from 3' or more away). I'm not very good. More often than not, to be honest, I actually pay someone else to paint my minis nowadays. However, I'm starting to enjoy the process again, even if my miniatures are a bit rough-and-ready, and wouldn't win any contests. I did order some wonderful fabric flags for them from Maverick Models, but they have not arrived. Please accept my humble apologies for sending forward units sans flags.

Anyhow, this is my entry for the week. Not too shabby I hope. In summation, my points are calculated as follows:

50 x 15mm foot @ 2 = 100 points

Glorantha (Outer Ring) bonus = 20 points

Total = 120 points

Until next time where I think I may try for diving headfirst into the Warp Maelstrom that I skirted to travel from Istvaan V to Glorantha. Millsy, what challenge do you lay before me?

Forest

From Millsy:

You're a man after my own heart Forest. I love 15mm Naps and I love the French and their allies even more!

I'm not sure what is more impressive in this post, the miniatures themselves or the depth of detail you put into the words wrapped around them. Either way, its a cracking entry and well worth the 120 points. I've not painted any Battle Honours stuff myself but they look pretty good and your paint job is better than you seem to think yourself. I'd be happy to have them grace my table any day!