High fives all round!

Saturday again! My how the time flies. With the regulation successfully meme dealt with and out of the way we can now turn our eager eyes to the miniature stylings of the Saturday Crew.

Today's veritable cornucopia of plastic and metal goodness consists of, but is in no way limited to:

• Men at work (no, not these ones!)
• Adventurers and spell casters
• Republican and/or Polybian Romans
• Scaly things
• Things with many arms
• Things with many appendages that aren't arms
• Tolkienesque things

And more!

It's time to GET IT ON. You better run, you better take cover!

Cheers,
Millsy

From DougM - Doctors & Planes - Klendathu, Skaro, Cybertron (90pts)

Continuing my thread of getting round the outer sphere, the next port of call is Klendathu, an ugly planet, a planet where an invasion goes wrong. And if you're a Dalek, well, this is where your invasion goes very wrong. Rose Tyler with a great big gun!

The lighting and camera work is appalling.. sorry! I claim it looks much better on table... 

And so on to Skaro, for Doctors. And the next Doctor in my Whovian ouevre...  A man who needs no introduction.

As someone else said, that scarf deserves bonus points. So Rose is a Crooked Dice temporal Traveller, and the Doctor originally Harlequin. So enough of the external ring and we are next to the Great Abyssal, so a hop skip and a jump..  and it's Cybertron. Transformational?

Well these guys are..  the Fokker Eindekker, 1/144 3d prints from designs by Jimbo, decals courtesy of Pendraken, and they transformed the war in the air with a forward firing synchronised machine gun. 

I have printed bases as well, pending the arrival of some clear hexes and rods from eBay. They are set up for the WW1 version of the TooFatLardies 'Bag the Hun' - 'Algy Pulls it Off'. Next, where would we be if we didn't have a few 'Heath Robinson'esque' Allied Scouts for the Eindekkers to tangle with? So here we have that masterpiece of aviation design...

The DH2. As we haven't figured out how to synchronise the machine gun to the propeller, we will just have to put the prop on the back.

Points wise.. ok

2 x Dr Who figures @5 each = 10, 

6 x 10mm 'vehicles' @3 each = 18

two uter ring planets @ 20 = 40

one centre ring @20 

a grand (ok not so grand) total of 88 points.. and the two Dr Who figures bring me to 25, this making  it a legal 'Squirrel' - 

 

From DaveD 

That is indeed a fine scarf on a classic Dr Who extra points indeed . O do like the Fokker , it’s on our gaming groups list to acquire for Wings of Glory. And a bounce around the galaxy it is too .

From JasperO: 1/56 Jagdtiger on the Death Star (40 points)

I mentioned before I was on vacation when the Challenge started. As it happens, there’s a FLGS nearby where I always like to drop in to see how they’re doing. This time around, I was more eager than normal, if only to hear their Covid survival story (fortunately it was survival). As these things go, I seldom leave the store with empty hands. Choice was a bit limited thanks to supply issues and my lack of interest in Italian WW2 armor. They did have the Warlord plastic Jagdtiger. Definitely nothing I needed for any project, I have to admit, but I think it is one of the best possible fits for the Death Star. Granted, there are many historical constructions of questionable design that smack of hubris, so it’s not alone.

 At nearly 72 tons with a 128mm gun, it was the heaviest armored vehicle in the war to see at least a small production series. The Spielberger Schwere Jagdpanzer book has one of those penetration tables listing about a dozen allied tanks that couldn’t penetrate its frontal armor at all, while the gun could take them out at over three kilometers. Of course, it was huge, underpowered, and with a fixed casemate, so any allied tank that took a detour could easily take it out from the side or rear. Not a small exhaust port, sure, but definitely Death Star-like.

The Warlord model is alright, though it’s not easy getting the upper casemate parts to fit well. The interlocking plates are nicely done, though the limitations of the plastic mould do show. I tried to extend them over the sides. Not sure if I’m really satisfied with the result, but it works. The very large side plates are perfectly smooth, so I painted them with very thin Vallejo plastic putty to give it some surface roughness. Most of the painting was done with the airbrush, followed by some washes, sponge-chipping, pigments, and detail painting.

 

From DaveD\

Well you don’t see many of these in this scale - so yes I agree a perfect Death Star entry . .It’s also  another fine camo scheme done too .

From JeremyM: 10mm Chaos Fantasy [Caprica, Arda] (245 points)

 Moving on to my second painting challenge post I'm heading from the Death Star to Caprica. I have to admit that between work, winter, and covid fatigue I've struggled to get into the hobby lately. But thankfully I managed the time to fit in a decent size number of figures in 10 mm scale. I've never painted guys this small, and it was my first real kick at the can with contrast paints. They worked alright and saved time for sure, but I keep feeling like I should have done more...then again I wouldn't have completed as many as I managed in a little over a weekend!

My first figure is a little vignette for my chaos troops. Its a 3d print by Onmioji I think called 'the sacrifice' or 'the ritual'....either way the poor fellow chained to the chaos symbol is certainly doomed...just like Caprica!

From there I decided it was time to get some troops. Given the fantasy setting I think they fit in with the theme for Arda for sure. These are more 3d prints this time from forestdragon. He put 5 figures on a stand and there are 180 of the little buggers in the photos above. I managed to take the photos and then promptly dropped a couple stands on the floor. I somehow managed to find most of the little weapons that broke off but unfortunately not all. Those guys might get hidden in the back ranks from now on. It also reminded my of one of the things I hate about most 3d print resin, it shatters. I'm hoping to address that with my new prints as I've been adding Sirya Tech Tenacious (for a little flexibility) and Sirya Tech Blu (for strength) to Elegoo standard. It seems to have helped a fair bit but I'm also hesitant to really test it...if I do it certainly won't be with painted figs!

Curt had suggested trying to play these using the To the Strongest (TTS) ruleset. But I'm also aware that warmaster is still the most popular 10 mil fantasy rules. So I decided to base each figure for warmaster. I put magnets in the base and created a larger base for TTS using a 3d printed movement tray glued to sheet metal. I made sure to file the sheet metal down so hopefully little risk of cuts...although a little blood on the table when moving figures does kind of fit with the chaos theme!

And no army is complete without a general so here is a 10mm hero with some chaos warhounds. I made a 25mm circular 3d print base for him, and once again a larger 10mm movement tray with sheet metal underneath. Magnets sure make things versatile.

Last but certainly not least was likely my favourite of the bunch. Here is a female chaos sorcerer. I really liked how the contrast red and yellow paints made the fire she is summoning pop. Looks pretty good on these tiny little figures. She has the same size base as the hero above. And with her I'm hoping to hop on Sarah's yacht and head to Skaro. There are some weird robots in my future!

    185 x 10mm figures @ 1 point =                185 point

    Caprica (Doomed) @ 20 points                  20 points

    Arda (fantasy) @ 20 points                         20 points

    Sarah’s Yacht @ 20 points                           20 points

    Total                                                             245 points

                                                                                                      

From DaveD

For a first go they look mighty fine to me , they also give a real good mass impression too - great work  . That is also a decent spin around the planets too well done. 

From MartijnN: Of Wargs and Men on Corsucant (116 points)

Finally able and authorized to proceed to the Middle Ring we find ourselves on Corsucant. This planet is hotly contested between Good and Evil. That is why I present to you some perfidious Wargs and some stalwart Men from Laketown.

Besides wargaming, my other great passion is Tolkien. I have been taken by Middle-earth ever since our teacher read us The Hobbit in 6th grade when I was 10 or 11 years old. I have a fair collection of books and games centering on Tolkiens work, and I daresay that every fantasy figure or ruleset I ever bought was ultimately meant to recreate the great battles from the War of the Ring of even from the Great Wars of the First Age. However, I never succeeded in advancing those dreams beyond that - dreams and plans, that is (although that is half the fun in wargaming, isn't it).

Come 2004, and Games Workshop brought out what was meant to be the first in a series of boxed games based on Tolkien's universe: the Battle of Five Armies!

Of course I had to buy it (two sets, even). But then they sat on my shelf for the next 15 years or so. Looking around my hobby room for something to get into for this Challenge I saw the box and decided to finally start painting this set.

The set contains some terrain (representing the slopes of the Lonely Mountain and the ruins of Dale), and two armies: Good, consisting of Men, Elves and Dwarves, and Evil, consisting of Wargs and Goblins. There are also a bunch of characters, like Bilbo, Gandalf, Beorn, and of course there are Eagles. These are nominally 10mm figures, although they are on the small side. The rules for the game are really the Warmaster rules, somewhat adapted, and thus units consist of three stands each. I started by painting up a unit of Wargs and the two units of Men, one each of spearmen and archers. I went for a simple yet recognizable colour scheme, mostly using Contrast paints and finishing off with a heavy wash of Agrax Earthshade. Since there are hundreds more of miniatures to paint I cut corners where I could; I painted the units, not the figures, so don't look too closely! I am moderately satisfied with the end result; they have however turned out a bit darker than I thought, so I may return to them and add some highlights later. For now I consider them done though!

GW did release some metal figures as add-ons to the game, but unfortunately I never acquired any of these. Apparently the game was not a great succes as GW never produced any subsequent titles, and of course they scrapped Warmaster altogether not very much later.

So that is 72 infantry and 12 Wargs. As the Wargs were really simple to paint I will claim them as infantry.

Points therefore:

96 10mm infantry @ 1 points =  96 points

Corsucant planet bonus = 20

Total 116 points. And a squirrel!

From DaveD

"I had to buy two sets" - right out my playbook alright :-)  . Great to see these well seasoned lads get some TLC. Though i think the oldest in the lead pile record was something like 38 years IIRC

From LeeH - Tents, Machine Gun and Berber Leaders - (31 Points)

Just a small entry this week as I am busy working on another batch of Legionnaires and taking my time over them. First off are some tents bought from Debris of War. They are resin and once cleaned and primed properly were pretty easy to paint up. For a wash, I used diluted contrast paint and a final drybrush with ivory to finish the faded look of these simple ridge tents.

Then I completed a French Foreign Legion machine gun team. Aside from the gunner, the team has two other crew and a commander to direct their fire. This is a small crew-served weapon but assembling it took almost as much time as it did to paint it. The Machine Gun Tripod comes in two parts with the gun on top. The quick option would have been to use superglue, but that wouldn't have lasted long with handling, so I opted for an Epoxy Resin. However, it doesn't set as fast as cyanoacrylate, and keeping it still while it set was ''Challenging'... suffice to say a lot of cuss words were used in its construction!

Lastly, I needed some Arab/Berber command figures for the foot soldiers I painted back at the beginning of the Challenge. Strangely Blue Moon didn’t have a command pack for the Berbers, so I hunted around for some different foot figures that I could use as unit commanders. These are from Irregular so are an exact match in terms of height, although they are a bit more ‘portly’ than the other figures. 

My batch of assorted bits and bobs for this week. 

Points Scoring:
Whenever I have something to score that doesn't exactly fit the matrix I hunt through the Challenge blog to find an earlier precedent for scoring that I can use. But in this case, I'm not sure and have erred on the side of caution and rounded down... what're a few points between friends!

10x15mm Tents = 5 Points (?? 1 point each seems excessive so score these 0.5 each??)
Small Crew Served Weapon (2pts??) + 4x15mm Foot = 10 Points
8x15mm Berber Leaders on foot = 16 Points
Total = 31 Points

From DaveD

More goodness to add to your growing FFL . I will go with your maths here i think Lee . The blue on the berbers is very striking - nice job

From DaveD - it’s that end of the week time

 How your week been people ? Real life has got in the way a lot this week I must say . So it seems for the Friday crew as so far it looks to be a quiet one . 

Time for my second coffee of the day and we will get the ball rolling