Wednesday 16 February 2022

From GeorgeS - GW 28mm LOTR - Eowyn - Ticket for Lady Sarah #2 (25 points)

 

Last moment's entry :) 

My second female figure for Lady Sarah and my space travels in the outer ring :) 

Here is a Games Workshop classic Metal figure of " Eowyn" daughter of Theoden.
Trying too much with layering on the face ,unfortunately  it ends up a bit textured. 
But sure she pays for my ticket to Lady Sarahs's Spaceship.
 
So, 25 points here for me :)
 









That's all for now.
 
'Till next time...

Keep Up The Brushes!!

***
Wow George, your brush skills continue to impress - this rendition of Eowyn is fantastic, and I have no doubt Lady Sarah will accept this figure as proper in return for passage on her Star Yacht. This continues the run of really excellent Lord of the Rings figures we have been seeing for many different Challenge participants this year. Well done!

GregB

From RayR - Donnybrook Ottoman Artillery (70 points)

 


A little carry on from my Ottoman project that I started back in Challenge 11. Warfare Miniatures hadn't yet released artillerymen.


But they have now!


And very nice figures they are too.


I decided on two artillery pieces for the Ottomans. Just because they just look cool.




Rear shot


This gun is from Trent Miniatures.


And this ones from The Assault Group.

As for the points
10 figures @ 5pts each = 50pts
2 artillery @10pts each = 20pts 

***

Wow, this is cool Ray. I have a lot of hangups when it comes to painting artillery - the spoked wheels, and in general, just not being too sure what is what on these old guns. But you can't argue with the final results, these cannons are so neat. It seems to me that it was a particular feature of Ottoman guns to have so much art and style on the cannons - as well as having just, in general, a whole lot of cannons? These look solid Ray - nice stuff. 

GregB

From RayR - Three in one Xanth, Mars and Sarah's Yacht (75 points)

  

For my visit to Xanth,(another planet that I had to look up) I'm using the tag, A Unique Talent.
During my 3rd spell with covid, when I was locked in my shed for a week, I re-watched The Last Kingdom on Netflix, amongst other things. 


I already had Col Bill's Aethelflaed figure, which I planned to paint as a gift for my Dad. So thought it'd be a good entry into the bonus round.


I used the colours in this stain glass window to paint her up, I was going to go for all white, but I think this colour scheme looks better?


Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians (c. 870 – 12 June 918) ruled Mercia in the midlands from 911 until her death. She was the eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex and his wife Ealhswith.
 
Æthelred's husband died in 911 and Æthelflæd then ruled Mercia as Lady of the Mercians. The accession of a female ruler in Mercia is described by the historian Ian Walker as "one of the most unique events in early medieval history". Hence the Unique Talent.


5pts for the figure
20 pts for the bonus


Figure 2 in this post and I've flown from Xanth to Mars, here I'll use the Tagline "Gods of War"


My original plan was to paint a figure of Ares, the Greek God of war, but Wargames Foundry had sold out of the pack. So I opted for a different Foundry pack and went with a Greek hero instead, Achilles.


Achilles was the son of Peleus, a Greek king, and Thetis, a sea nymph or goddess.

Zeus, the king of the gods and Poseidon, god of the sea, had both fallen in love with Thetis and were rivals for her hand in marriage. However, the gods were warned of a prophecy that Thetis would have a son who would grow up to be greater than his father. Worried by this, Zeus arranged for Thetis to marry a mortal man so that her child couldn’t challenge his power. In another version of the story, Thetis rejects Zeus’s advances and a furious Zeus decrees that she will never marry a god. Either way, Thetis ends up married to the mortal Peleus and Achilles is born.


5pts for the figure
20 pts for the bonus


My last figure in the post, I'm catching a lift on Sarah's Star Yacht from Mars to Krypton.


This figure comes from North Star's 1672 range and is one of their figures in pack GS43- Civilian Party


Lady Sarah will enter the giant Donnybrook civilian box, to sit amongst the other million figures I've already painted up, hoping that one day she will be used in a game........any game!!!



So I've only Krypton to go, then I can enter the Challenge XII  Sun.

5pts for the figure
20 pts for the bonus

So that's a total of  75pts
Not bad for 3 figures ah Greg?
 
***
 
Clearly I should open an accounting firm called "The Wednesday Crew", as they continue to squeeze multiple points out of hardly any figures! 
 
Claiming the "accession" being a "unique talent" is pretty spurious - in this case, she just existed in a unique place at a unique time, leading to a unique event - that is a coincidence, not a talent...however, the stained glass is pretty cool, and if there is a unique talent in this post, it is the aggravating, Clinton-esque justifications. Bonus granted.

Achilles looks super cool, I love the paint effect on the armour, well done. And your ticket for Sarah's Star Yacht is spot on. I imagine you must have an unmatched collection of civilians and vignettes to add those really neat extras to your games Ray - as Curt says, you have a unique talent for that too!

75 points awarded...for three figures...

GregB
  

From SidneyR: Paris Nightwatch 1622 (Caprica) (140 points)


Owing to various work-and-life-related 'bumps in the road', this sadly is only my second post of the Challenge.  But I've tried to assemble a fairly disparate collection of figures as some form of ambushing party, all of which are inspired by the ambush-y treachery of the planet of Caprica.


First of all, though, I need to get there.  Enter (stage left) a swashbuckling lady with a fancy  sword, accompanying (or being pestered by) a dubious night-stalker of the Paris alleyways.  

She's a really nice and versatile swashbuckling female figure from Brigade Games, in 28mm.  The male figure is from Midlam Miniatures in the UK, also in 28mm.  I had fun painting his skin in a unhealthy pallor, based on a purple base coat.  Plenty of opportunities arise with a figure like this in a game - Has he been over-doing the mercury powder?  Or is there a hint of plague about Monsieur Descartes?  Or... maybe he's just a cultist of Slaanesh...




Next, there are some more 28mm figures from my forces for “...with Flashing Blades”, a set of rules set in the historical Paris of 1622, which is very much inspired by Dumas’ novels of “The Three Musketeers”. During the course of last summer and autumn I painted forces for the Musketeers themselves and the Cardinal’s Guards. 

So what was left for the ‘Paris Collection’ (... see what I did there!...) was this group of figures which I have painted for use as the Paris Nightwatch.



There are ten figures for the Nightwatch in various stages of patrolling, guarding, commanding, directing and promenading - all with a suitably martial air (regardless of their actual ability). I tried to collect the figures as a group which would fit together well and could form a small detachment to prevent law-breaking, fisticuffs and general mayhem breaking out in the fair city of Paris.




The figures are collected from various ranges, mainly from Wargames Foundry’s ECW range which fit together perfectly, size-wise, with the Brigade Games musketeers and Cardinal's Guard. I converted some of the figures, adding green-stuff feather, and lace - but nothing too dramatic.  The fashionable Dalmatian is a hound produced by Simon Chick, which he kindly sent to me after the Salute show in 2018.  Of course, this shamelessly plays to our dear Snow-Lord’s love of dogs, but also reflects the seventeenth century fashion for Dalmatians in 1622 Paris (true...fact-checked!!...).


As for painting, I have again left the bases as plain as possible to allow the figures to be used in any environment, urban or rural. I painted the colours of the figures in muted tones - trying to distinguish the Nightwatch from the red of the Cardinal’s Guard and the blue of the Musketeers. I thought browns and greys would make good Nightwatch colours, and also added some green which might look suitably faded and worn on the table.




I also painted up a collection of ECW 'doctors' which can serve as medical practitioners in our games.  I have no idea if these chaps have any medical training, but that musket ball is in the patient's leg....somewhere.  Maybe one more poke around with the chirurgeon's knife will find it!

I added a head-swap for the 'helping' figure, and added some Green-Stuff feathers to his hat (the head being from Bicorne Miniatures).


I added a few small "terrain" bases as well.  I needed some for a game, but I wonder if they really qualify as Challenge XII-worthy "terrain" according to our scoring system?  There's a Hovels barrel with a cockerel (Parisian, of course), some hens and some bottles of Medoc in various stages of consumption.  And there's some scratch-built hay-piles and/or dung-heaps for Characters and citizens to jump, fall and slip into.  

And, because I'm British, and our culture celebrates the hilarity of people treading in horse poo, I made up some small piles of horse manure to add to the table as a "random event".  No sniggering at the back, please, ladies and gentlemen.

So, with the points:

20 for Caprica, and 20 for the female swashbuckler to get me there = 40 points
15 x 28mm figures = 75 points
One Dalmatian = 2 points (not 101 points, obviously)
Bits of scratch-built terrain, including fluffy chickens, noisy cockerel, bottles and a barrel = 20 points all-in?

Which, with a slight squint at the terrain point-age, would give the entry a total = 137 points





********
Great to have the opportunity to enjoy more of your outstanding brushwork Sidney! All of this is amazingly well done, as we have come to expect from you, and the lovely figures are accompanied by entertaining text and explanations. 
 
There are a lot great figures here, but my favourite has to be the purple-tinged fellow, with unhealthy intentions to likely match an unhealthy internal condition...much as I can see him causing problems in Paris, your mention of Slaanesh makes me nostalgic for the lost "Old World" of Warhammer Fantasy Battle (even though I know that is not the intent of this lot overall)...and he looks like he would fit right in that setting too. Great work. 

It is irritating when one-to-one scale gets in the way of the work we wish to do on the more important scales. My dogs always help me keep things in perspective, and so even though you were pandering to the Snow Lord (wisely), the effect of including the dog (fact-checked!) on me is inspiring such as to force me to include a few extra bonus points, and round things up to 140 points. Cheers.

GregB

From RustyP - Dangerous Illusions on Solaris (30 points)

Well, not much painting lately.  I have to admit I'm trashing out on the Olympics.  I get home and have good intentions but then I start watching and; well... it's fantastic!

I did sit down a bit and paint 2 individuals.  The first one is a she-devil and I must say you don't want to tangle with this one!  She is beautiful but naturally that's an illusion.  If could also be a deception!  As the song "Werewolves of London" states - '(S)he'll rip you're lungs out Jim'!  She's a Hastlefree 28mm mini and am happy the way she turned out.

 



The second figure is an Otherworlds 28mm.  He is a dedicated apprentice and serves his/her master well.  I wanted him to be very plain looking and blend in to which ever mini he may accompany.

 



Like High school, "would you carry my book, potion and lantern for me". LOL

So for the points breakdown:

2 ea. 28mm figures @ 5 pts = 10 pts.

Planet Solaris bonus = 20 pts.

Total = 30 pts.

So that's it for this week but I'm happy to score something in the middle of watching Super G stuff!

***

Hi Rusty - good on you for fighting through the distractions and still putting a few points on the board - although a reminder to PLEASE USE THE LABELS, in order to avoid Olympic-level wrath from the Minions :)

GregB

From SylvainR - 6mm WW2 Desert Italian Army (475 points)

Another project from the 6mm stuff I acquired a few years ago. If I already painted scenery from the lot, it took me a while to really start working on an army. After sorting everything, I organized all the miniatures into smaller projects that are much easier to handle. The WW2 Italians were one of the smaller projects, so I decided to start with them and use them for "practice" before tackling the bigger armies like the British and the Americans.

Before I started to assemble the Italian army, I had to make important decisions regarding organizations. I wondered for a while if I should base my armies on a specific set of rules like Flames of War or use the real unit OOB. My true interest in the period are the combined arms battles which, to me, are the essence of WW2. Finally, I decided that infantry units would be one squad per base and that the lowest level of officers would be captains or equivalent. First, here is a bird's view of the whole finished project, displayed in four trays. Everything will be presented in progressively more specific details. Sorry, I was just too lazy to put all the elements on the table for the typical family portrait.

Here is the first tray, with a full Italian infantry battalion. You can see the three infantry companies, each with three platoons of four squads plus a Captain and a section of 3 Solothurn AT rifles. There are also four sections of forward observers and two battle group commanders.

Here is a full Italian company. They had four squads per platoon instead of three, as was the norm for the German and the British. I decided to put 9 figures per squad, because it says "many men". I will also put 9 men per base for full squads for all my future armies. The command section has 5 men, but since then I decided to put only 4 men for "half-squads" sections because it better shows the reduced number of men on the base.

Here is a close up of one of the infantry squad. 6mm infantry looks rather crude in close ups. I decided that all armies (Italian, British, American, German) fighting in the desert would use the same desert surface as you see here. But the Italian elements will be distinguished by a green base contour, while the contour for the British will be beige, grey for the Germans and blue for the Americans. I painted the weapons black to make them pop out, but I will opt for dark grey with future armies. Most of the soldiers' miniatures are from Heroics&Ros. Their 6mm figurines ranges are stockier than their competitor and I prefer that.

Here is a close up on the command section (front), a Solothurn section (rear left) and an observer section. I know that it is not obvious which one of the two half sections is the company commander.

However, if you look at these units from the back, you can see the coding colors on the contour, which is not visible to the opponent. A long line is a company commander, a captain or major. Platoons use "dots", one, two or three. An independent section attached to a company is identified by a short line. Each company has a different color: blue, red or green. Reconnaissance elements use purple. A friend of mine, for a while, used standard military icons on his bases, but since I want to have games with players who are not familiar with theses symbols, I opted for a much more intuitive way of coding my units.

In the past, I would use bases only for infantry, but I changed my mind since. Now I use bases for all my units in 6mm because it is a wonderful tool to quickly identify a unit. Under each base, I write the type of  unit (rifle, Matilda II, Lorry, etc.) This will greatly help me when I start loosing my memory :-) at an older age. I use the contour for national identification, as explained before, as well as coding for platoons and companies. I used the excellent mdf bases from WarBase.

Since I met Curt, I was always impressed by the way he would create a little narrative on his bases. So I decided to follow in his footsteps and put a little extra work in my battle group commanders. Names have been added on the bases and they are coded with the colors of the companies they command. There will be higher commanders in the future. Here I portrayed Batisco who, on his way to meet with Rommel, stopped his two staff cars to inspect a blown off Matilda turret by the side of the road.

On this next base, Cardona jumped off his Carro Commando to meet with the crew of an Auto Blinda 40, listening to the reconnaissance briefing, while looking towards the British lines. I'm quite happy with the result. Thanks again to Curt for the inspiration!

In the next tray, we have the support company for the battalion, a company of pioneers, as well as one section of 75mm field guns and two sections of 37mm anti-tank guns coded at regimental level.

Here is a close up on a heavy machine gun team, a section of light mortars (three per base) and a 81mm mortar team.

Here we have a 75mm field gun and a 37mm anti-tank gun.

In the third tray, we have the most precious assets for fighting in the desert, trucks! The Italian army, in proportion, had much fewer trucks than its British and German counterparts. I coded the trucks at divisional level, so if an Italian commander requires some urgent transportation, the rules will reflect the additional difficulty to get them. I find that larger scales, like 15mm, do not do justice to the importance of trucks in military operations, especially in the desert. Trucks are just soft targets for HMGs and mortars. I know trucks will be essential at 6mm.


Here is a close up of a Lancia heavy truck (GHQ), a Fiat truck and Lancia 90/53 mounting a large AA gun (both of the latter from Heroics&Ros). I like how the combination of wash and white drybrush brought out the details on the Lancia in the foreground. For vehicles, GHQ is my favorite manufacturer although I know many modellers criticize their exaggerated details. It works just fine for me.


 

In the fourth tray, we have Italian  armoured cars and tanks. There is one company of 16 Carro, one company of 16 Semovente mixed with Carro Commando, five platoons of four Auto Blinda and two odd Semovente.



For reconnaissance missions, we have, from left to right, an Autoblinda 40 (CinC), armed with two machine guns, than an AB-41 (37mm gun) one model from CinC and another model from Heroics&Ros. CinC is my second choice when it comes to vehicles, although their "spaghetti guns" too easily bendable, sometimes just drive me nuts. The H&R model is significantly smaller, but this still works for me.


Now we have, in the foreground, a Carro Commando (literally, a "command tank") from GHQ, then a Semovente 75/18 in the background, also from GHQ, with a M14/41 (by CinC), Italy's main tank during the first years of the Second World War. Again, the details on the GHQ models are just popping out nicely.

Lastly, I painted a small section of two Semovente 90/53, a very potent gun at the time. The only (and absurd!) drawback of that powerful weapon was that the fighting compartment could carry only 6 shells! That is why an armoured ammo carrier with a trailer had to accompany the 90/53 everywhere. Thanks to the base, I can keep both vehicles together. I know that this unit never fought in North Africa, but just for the sake of coherency, I decided to keep the same desert pattern on the base.

As for the tally, I counted 530 figurines (1/2 point each), 18 weapons (1 point each) and 96 vehicles (2 points each) for a total of 475 points.

The good news is that I now have a nice little army to play future WW2 desert scenarios. The bad news is that my next project is the British 8th Army and I will not be able to showcase my production. About 80% of what I have was already painted, and to a very high standard, by my friends, and that would contravene the Challenge rules. Basically, for most of the elements, I just need to put the miniatures on new bases with new coding. So I might not have another entry before the end of the Challenge. However, this Summer I intend to assemble and prime new projects for next year.

Thank you for reading and keep your brushes active!

***

Wow Sylvain, quite the points bomb you have for us today. As you say, 6mm is a terrific scale for providing players with a sense of the full sweep of a WW2 engagement, and it is nice to see the Italian forces getting this level of attention for a collection - well done. I also have to agree with you - GHQ's vehicles really are the best (even if, sadly, their infantry leave so much to be desired). This is a fantastic "kaboom" of a submission - 475 points well-earned. 

GregB