Another one of our intrepid space adventurers now charts a course to the Challenge XII central star system. Barks expects to rendezvous with a lost detachment of Sisters of Battle at the end of his journey, and hopes to convince them to abandon their lonely vigil and return to civilized space (in a painted state, no less).
Good luck Barks! Remember, no smart remarks about their armoured bustiers and high-heeled combat boots - that would be a very, very bad idea.
- Curt
But first, a few items left over from Altair IV, the robot planet.
Up first, 4 more All Quiet on the Martian Front tripods. Again it is 1 assault walker and 3 more scouts. This time around the assault tripod is sporting a rack of gas grenades and is even in the process of trying to throw one with it's stunty T-Rex arms! I tried out the colour shifter paint on this one, I think I am really, really going to need more practice with these paints. That or dust off my airbrush, read the instructions watch some videos and start using it! I had fun with the base utilizing some bring and buy ruins that I got some time ago for just such an occasion.
The scouts were done in the more traditional silver tone as opposed to my earlier tripod entry. More rocky basing, fewer rocks than last time. One tripod carries a targeting device useful for a bonus to shooting, go figure. Oddly it is the first scout that I have equipped this way, but more will be coming.
Even after painting up 8 tripods for this challenge, I still have a photocopier box loaded with more AQMF stuff. Something to sort out after the challenge. Models by Alien Dungeon [32 points]
Finally I have finished Big Red! I have tried to paint this up since the start of the challenge and it has been a challenge! I just could not figure out what colours to use, in the end it became a sort of Iron man Ape. It is a mess of a casting, with bubbles and not fully cast detail. I believe it was cast as one piece, or maybe the gun was an add on, bought it so long ago that I do not fully remember. I cleaned and repaired it as best as I could then primed it with army painter red (not certain which red)
Then it was a lot of blocking/base coating with GW paints for the colour bits and P3 for the metal parts. I would like to say I had fun painting it, but that would be a lie. I started and stopped so many times for many reasons from colour choices to just a lack of motivation. In the end I finished it out of sheer pig headed determination to not see it on my painting table again. It is done and ready for storage and hopefully to be played with in a super game. I still have the pilot to finish off, maybe next week. The figure appears to be OOP, but came from Old Glory. [20 points]
Pinky is the brain, yes Pinky is the brain...
This figure comes from Alternative Armies, who recently had a sale. Now, I have noticed that stats get calculated at the end of the challenge including how much money invested into the hobby this challenge has generated. Well, I believe once I add up my receipts I will find myself above the curve.
The figure is a giant brain, duh. Not certain why I wanted it, but I did. I am sure it will come in handy sometime just not too certain when that might be...It is scale agnostic, sold in the 15mm section but usable for 15 to 28mm, so I settled in the middle at 20mm.[15 points]
Time to finally leave Altair IV and make our way to Gethen!
Not using Sarah's yacht this week but that did not stop me from painting up another a women unit. This time it is Ilsa by Pulp Figures.
Frozen planet meets cold hearted PULP femme fatales! Painting black clad figures, with black accoutrements, including black boots, is not as much fun as it may seem. I really wanted to keep the black cloth looking black. In the past when I have tried my figures came out grayish. So this time around a kept the highlights, light, using Vallejo dark grey to contrast the shiny black leather. Not convinced it completely worked...I did paint the armband on the figures, but there was no way I was going to be able to paint on a swastika. Maybe I will search out some decals, but for now they remain red. So 17 Pulp Figure figures. [85 points]
Frozen world what better than the Martian Ice warriors! Certainly Mars is coming up on my tour, but I have something else planned for that planet. So 17 of these rather oddly posed figures have been done, my first fully finished faction for Dr Who. They are so quirky that I guess they are kind of cool. (sorry for the pun) Black Tree Design [85 points]
A mysterious macguffin has arrived and will draw adventurers like a magnet. No doubt this will become a major plot point in a Pulp Alley game. Sally 4th model. [20 points]
In keeping with the cold theme, and as a preview to coming attractions, I present the following creatures of the northlands.
First up the elusive big footed Sasquatch! Pulp Figures [10 points]
 | ||
| The typical blurry picture of big foot (feet) | |
or
 |
| The loping away picture... |
Distant cousins? A pair of Yetis for some intrepid explorers to encounter. Copplestone [10 points]
Final entry for this week, a couple of 28mm armored cars for the Back of Beyond.[40 points]
Points
 |
| Airfix tank for comparison |
Squirrel stuff
Last week
Alphabet challenge
New thing that I am tracking; the number of female figures painted for the challenge!
No special permissions required for this entry on Cybertron! I actually got this one spot on!
This is Bumblebee, from the WizKids Transformers collection.
I
had great vision for Bumblebee when I ordered him. In my mind he was
going to be a glorious yellow with highlights. It was going to be
magnificent.
I realized quite quickly that yellow is an incredibly difficult colour to master. This was further confirmed to me in a Paint and Chat session!
I further complicated my painting situation by deciding to try a little bit of contrast paint in an inconspicuous spot, to see if I could brighten it up. This figure is too heavy. I set it down to open the pot of paint. Bumblebee decided he wanted to transform and toppled over, dumping a brand new pot of Contrast paint all over my desk, onto myself, but most devastatingly onto Bumblebee. Having to incorporate the contrast paint into the rest of the figure brought it too orange. I threw up my hands and said "enough"! (actually I said a lot of bad words ...shhh) I did some highlights and blending to try and help the situation but I’m not sure there was any coming back at this point!
He is not magnificent but he is acceptable. My daughter is a gaming streamer online. She took Bumblebee for decor in her streaming background. She’s very particular, so I take it as a compliment!
From here we are going to take a little zip through the Great Abyssal, into the Inner Ring, landing on Krypton. I just happen to have a superhero at hand!
I am not at all up on any of the Universes. I know the major characters but other than that, I’m clueless. This is the Cannonball Heroclix figure from WizKids. I bought a few of these specifically for the challenge.
I don’t know anything about Cannonball, but he sure looks super fast!
Continuing with our superhero theme, we are going to bounce next door to Gethen. It’s mighty cold here and Emma Frost, another WizKids Heroclix figure, fits right in.
This figure is dreadful. If I were to do it over, I’d forego the clear bits and just prime the whole thing. Actually, if I’m honest, I wouldn’t buy this figure again! The WizKids figures are a convenient option, particularly for someone like me just starting out. Unfortunately, I find that they are hit or miss with detail quality and their pre-priming is iffy.
I’m not sure where we are going next, so we will chill here for a bit!
The points:
1 54 mm figure - 10 points
2 28 mm figures - 10 points
3 planet bonuses - 60 points
Total - 80 points
What a delightful set of minis! Yellow is a very difficult colour to paint, as the pigments are very translucent. I'm not sure if we shared our tips with you on chat, but my top one is to paint a different, more opaque colour (eg, yellow ochre, white, flesh, pink, light brown) underneath first.
Tamsin
