From ChrisW ...Dystopian Wars and 28mm VSF (704 points)

So visiting two new planets today, but as we leave our last planet we get a quick look at the personal guards of the Princess of Mars. [Figures by The Tekumel project out of Kingston Ontario Canada.]

The journey this week will take us to Perelandra and via Sarah's Yacht onto Arrakis. 

Perelandra

Here you can see the newly arrived landing barges and the recently repainted ones that I have had for a while. The trick was to try and match the paint jobs. Oddly enough I wrote down what I had used, a rare thing and very strange thing to do since at the time I painted them I had no expectation of ever getting any more. Anyhow, it worked out, more or less, but the decks of the smaller barges did not come out as light, I must have used a different wash! [Spartan Games]

 

 

 and all of them together

Keeping with the water planet theme I also whipped up these Dystopian Wars islands, and fortress.

This was the inspiration for the islands. A co-worker had this on their wall and I asked to have it once we moved on to the next month. Note the date! It demonstrates the normal speed that I move at...

  By the time I got to the last island (the island to the right) I think I was getting pretty good at it, but none of them matched the inspiration.

 

Close up of the fortress [Spartan Games]

A size photo before painting

Yet another island, also could be used as an industrial complex. As well as painting up the 4 vacuformed islands I also painted up 22 drop on building, only 20 required but I wanted some variety.

As far as size goes, they would fit into an 18" x 18" box, with the 4th island resting on top of the 3 curved islands;

17" left to right

Very low rise

About 3-4" tall

Keeping again with water theme, I also finished off Queen Victoria's Women's Naval Brigade troops [Hinterland Miniatures OOP]

 

Onto Arrakis, using Sarah's yacht courtesy of the Martian guards. Please note the artillery piece was painted before the challenge and is only in the picture because it inspired the colour used on the jezail barrels, and because 3 crew were part of the painting done this week. 

A not so funny thing happened to the infantry on the way to the photo booth, they all came a tumbling down...!! When I finished scooping them up, I could only find 32 somewhat battered figures. Will continue to look, but felt this needed to get posted to the blog first. So apologies for come of the bare metal that can be seen on some of the bases. [Ironclad Minatures]

The points

• 40 points for the two planets
• 20 points for Sarah's yacht
  
• 70 points Women's Naval Guard [14 Hinterland miniatures] and or
• 70 points Princess's Royal guards (Tekumel unit)
• 180 points Sanwar 33  32 foot + 2 mtd [Ironclad miniatures] 
• 180 points for the 4 islands [17" by 17"]
  
• 20 points for the fortress
• 80 points for the 4 landing barges
• 40 drop on buildings (about 1" by 1" treating as 6mm vehicles)??

Grand total of 700 points

That's 28 figures that could take me around the map a few times, but one planet hop will do. I am truly looking forward to relaxing in a nice luxury yacht.

I am going to try and not do this madness next week, I hope to visit one planet, and keep the figure type to simple 28mm, easily scored items. Next week nothing weird sized or to strange (I hope)

 

Yet another huge points bomb from Chris!  You seem to be diddling yourself out of a few points - you painted 22 drop on buildings!

Tamsin

From MikeP: A Few Tiny Napoleonics (24 pts) (Glorantha)

 Hello friends:

I have a very tiny entry as one of Tamsin's Tuesday Tigers, tiny in both scale and points.   It's been a busy week and I'm working on the rest of my Germanic war band for next week, hopefully.

This Christmas Santa gave me an Elegoo Mars Pro 3 printer and I eagerly fired it up to print the test file that comes with the machine.   Alas, my first attempt produced a block of resin, and drained all the resin in the tank.   The best advice I got was that the LCD screen that shipped with the machine was defective and was just pouring light all over the tank.

Elegoo came through and sent me a replacement LCD screen, but the downside was that I had to remove the old one and install the new one, slow trembling step by slow trembling step, watching a YouTube video as I went.  It was nervewracking, because I'm not terribly technical, but I was successful and the test piece printed, so I felt quite heroic (hence the Glorantha part of this post - more to follow).

I know that there are some 3D printing veterans in this Challenge, but I'm finding it all new and exciting, so here are my first 3D prints, from Turner Miniatures.  Henry Turner is a prolific designer of 3D figures that can scale from 6mm to 15mm.  He's primarily known for his two Europe Asunder Kickstarters, the first being infantry and artillery, the second, which I've backed, being focused on cavalry.   

Here are two of Henry's free 6mm cavalry figures, an Austrian cuirassier trumpeter and a French cuirassier eagle bearer.

Until now the only 6mm cavalry figures I've painted are metal castings from Baccus.  I was pleasantly surprised by how much detail Henry packs into these little guys.  They were enormous fun to paint.

I'm calling these figures 6mm, though from the base to the top of the head is almost 15mm.  However, they compare quite favourably to my 6mm Baccus figures and on the table I doubt I could tell them apart. Right, that's the test figures done, can't wait to start printing and painting these guys by the squadron and by the battalion!

So how do I justify Glorantha with this tiny entry?  Because heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and these two dashing cuirassiers are as heroic as they come (really, would you argue with them?), and because I took the 3D printing plunge and then fixed my machine.  QED, I am, to quote Lord Flashheart, a bally hero.

Finally, here's a bit of fun.   Henry Turner offers this free .STL file, "Caporal Frosty".   He's appropriate for this snowy cold day where I live.   I scaled the file up to 15mm before printing.

 Perhaps, before he abandoned the Grande Army in Russia, Napoleon asked for a body double so his troops didn't know they'd been abandoned, and this was what he got?   Or maybe it was bait to lure the Cossacks off the trail?   Hmm, that almost sounds like a Babylon 5 entry, but I'll refrain.

Two 6mm mounted (2 points), and 1 15mm foot figure (2 points) and Glorantha = 24 points, I think.

Cheers, 

MikeP

Smashing work, Mike! Somehow, I don't think Napoleon's troops were fooled for one minute by his body double! 

Tamsin

From MartinC - Cybertron Big Robot (Tuesday Ready 30pts)

So the Facebook group answered my question and I'm sliding down the Great Abyssal thingy to Cybertron. Wheee!

This is your basic walker robot, available at any Space port space marine outlet shop.

Painted it menacing black with a dry brush of black grey and picked out some "eyes" and rivets (don't tell James I've painted rivets). It from the Gates of Antares collection by Warlord (I think)

So it's a relatively big unit at 54mm so 10 pts and 20 for Cybertron

That robot is definitely black. And big.

Tamsin

From TashaH: Ferocious Dragons [Glorantha] (33 points)

 Glorantha - Planet of Quests, Runes and Heroes.

At the core of many a quest is a dragon. Residing on Glorantha are the Meadow Dragon, the Forest Dragon and the Snowy Mountain Dragon, all obtained from Dracokiro on MiniFactory As you will see, they are ferocious and should instill fear in every hero's heart at the prospect of engaging them. 

 

The Meadow Dragon embraces darkness and dread. Very fearsome.

Gloranthan dragons like to pose on rocks - we don't question it.

I used acrylic craft paints for the Meadow Dragon. I used a new one to me, a Colour Shift paint from Folk Art. I added a couple drops of Flow-Aid from Liquitex and that made it much easier to work with.

The Forest Dragon is a lively one and is known to attack with furor and frenzy. 

I used earth tone Citadel Contrast Paints for the Forest Dragon. After several layers and some blending, I dry-brushed Molten Bronze and Brass Balls to the dragon's wings and chest plate. I glued real crystals around the base of the dragon to cover up my poor attempt at removing a puddle base.

Lastly, the Snowy Mountain Dragon is the most fierce of all. Being trapped on the cold mountain has made him cranky and unapproachable. Oh wait, that's every person in Saskatchewan right now!

I got the idea for this base from a YouTube video. I apologize for not having the link. I was half paying attention and couldn't find it again. My lack of attention also means that my process is not the same as in the video. I'm certain theirs is much easier ha ha. I used white craft Gorilla glue on the stone, with just a touch of Talassar Blue Contrast Paint stirred in, sprinkled it with a hefty dose of baking soda and left if for about half an hour. When I came back, it was very puffy (like a cloud). I was a bit concerned and moved the mound around a bit, to make it look a little 'drifty'. I placed the dragon in the center of the mound, sprinkled it with more baking soda and left it for several hours. The white craft Gorilla Glue is not quick setting like the Gorilla Glue Super Glue. 

After a few hours, the mound was about 3/4 set. I decided I wanted to add some more snowy detail to the base and added a much thinner layer of the glue below the current layer and followed the same steps, minus adding the blue tint. 

The next day, I painted white accents into the snow and added a couple paw prints to mimic the pattern that is imprinted in the original base.

The dragon is painted using 4 shades of blue and purple Contrast paints, with a hint of Vallejo chrome as an accent. 

Points

2 x 20 mm figure - 8 points

1 x  28 mm figure - 5 points

1 x planet bonus = 20 points

Total - 33 points

If Tamsin would be so kind as to drop me into the Warp Maelstrom adjacent to this planet, I'd like a surprise landing please.

Those dragons certainly look cute, sweet and...errrmmm....that is to say, extremely ferocious! These very, very scary beasts will see you sail through the 50 points of figures for you "Chocolate Cake Duel" alongside Sarah. I guess you both have to bake each other a chocolate cake and then share them! You have my jealo...errmm...sympathies! 

I think I'll warp you to the Vogsphere, so something bureaucratic or blackly comedic next week please!

Tamsin