From Curt: Elven Squirrel Raider vs Bell Sentries! (75 Points)

Hi All!

I'm back with a few more figures from the marvellously creative and quirky CobraMode. 

This time we have an elven female fighter, astride her giant battle squirrel, facing off against a quartet of enchanted bell sentries whose mist-like forms carry monstrous war hammers. 

I know, it's all completely mental, but I love 'em.

All of these figures were great fun to work on. The squirrel rider turned out to be quite a delicate model with lots of nooks and crannies to contend with, requiring me to paint most of the component parts before final assembly. 

Still, all the bits went together without a hitch. I decided to pin her mount's leg to the base as everything is balanced on that single limb. 

On the other spectrum, the Bell Sentries were one-piece models and a complete doodle to paint up. As I kept the colours pretty straightforward, they cracked off fairly quickly. I decided to do non-metalic metals for these as I found the anime style seems to work well for them.

As to points, the elven rider and her steed are 40mm figures so I'll count them as cavalry (15 points), and the four Bell Sentries are around 54mm + so 10 points each (for another 40). I'll use the female elf as my passage to Noel's Comet on Sarah's Star Yacht, which will give me another 20 points. So, 75 points total.

Thanks for dropping in!

- Curt

From Millsy:

Completely mental or not these are wonderful Curt!

There's a terrific dynamism to the Bell Sentries which your grey-blue colour choice really emphasises. I get a real sense the bells are floating, hovering and darting about, as hard to get a handle on as smoke. Good choice with the NMM for the bells themselves, I think a proper metallic would have seemed understated for these.

The squirrel is a great expression of how I imagine they are able to scamper up and down vertical surfaces. I can't imagine its easy to stay in the saddle when that's happening but if anyone could it would be an elf. I think you've done a wonderful job with the paintwork, especially given how complex the miniature is, full of hard to reach parts.

These are another great addition to your collection mate. I never paint these kinds of things but I am always tempted when I see work like this. You've made me want to watch The Sorcerer's Apprentice again (the Fantasia one, not the Nick Cage thingy).

Cheers,
Millsy

BenF: 15mm Hellenistic Ancients (Istvaan V) 164 Pts

Well, I've not managed to post anything for the last few weeks, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been productive. Besides finally contracting the dreaded lurgi and being isolated for 7 days along with my wife and 3 year old, I've actually managed to paint up quite a few 15mm and 6mm figures, even a few aircraft! For this entry, I include the last (for this challenge) of my Hellenistic Ancients for my Impetus 2 forces. These are a mixed bag of light troops and mercenaries.

First off, the javelinmen. These are a base each of Illyrians, Kappadokians, and the Agrianians. The shield designs are all hand painted, and the Kappadokians are headswapped. All figures are from Forged in Battle's 15mm War and Empire range. 

Kappadokians

Illyrians

Agrianians

Next, its a horde of Thracians. These are a ubiquitous mercenary unit which served the Persians, Macedonians, Successors, and others. While the shield patterns on this lot are the excellent LBMS offerings, the geometric patterns on the cloaks are hand painted. These are seen often in Greek pottery and funerary paintings, as well as being described by Herodotus. The armoured lot are armed with the terrifying rhomphaia, a mix between a war axe, spear, and sword. As mercenaries, Thracian troops would often look after themselves, betraying their employer when unpaid.

Thracians with Rhomphaia

Thracian Peltasts

Next, it's the last bits of my Late Achaemenid Persian host, the infantry. These took me a long time to get the nerve up to attempt, not only because of the ornately decorated pyjamas, but also because they are, shall we say, not the highest quality troops you would find on an ancient battlefield. First the Kardakes and Takabara, light foot, the Takabara appear to possibly have been some kind of imitation hoplite, armed with javelins. To represent them, I ground the peltast shields of some Kardakes and added hoplite shields with LBMS decals.

The Kardakes were more akin to Greek peltasts, though they may have been some kind of cadet corps of light infantry. I hand painted the shield designs on these as LBMS don't make any decals for the peltast shields. Very pretty in the end, but the slingers are probably the most effective warriors of the lot of them! 

Takabara.

Kardakes

Slingers

Finally, it's a bevvy of Greek and Macedonians. The cavalry are Greek mediums, which can serve as Thessalians, though when I painted them I was inspired by the Hippeis of Kineas of Athens. This is the mercenary cavalry formation of Greek outcasts and warriors commanded by the Athenian exile, Kineas, to whom they owe absolute loyalty. Kineas is the protagonist for the first two of Christian Cameron's excellent Tyrant series.

The books describe their blue cloaks and some silvered armour, so here you are. I also drilled out and replaced the short javelins on the Forged in Battle figures with longer spears to represent the kontos used by Greek and Macedonian cavary during the period. I've also painted up a generic Macedonian command stand, perhaps representing Alexander's doomed general Zopyrion who was defeated by the Skythians and Olbians. I've also created a command base for Antigonos I Monopthalmus, or 'One-Eye', one of the greatest of Alexander's successors. I sculpted the eye patch on to represent this old war hound. One-Eye lived a remarkably long life filled with a remarkable amount of violence, and when he finally died in combat at the Battle of Ipsus in 301BC, he was 81 years old!

The Hippeis, led by Kineas of Athens.

The unfortunate Zopyrion

Antigonos I Monopthalmus. Annoyingly, I just noticed the flock on the standing commanders face!

That's it for the Ancients this entry. Next challenge I aim to focus on building up my 15mm Ancient forces more, most likely either on Carthaginians, or to make a start on my Nikephorian Byzantines. 

Grand total is 164points for this lot by my calculations

15mm foot = 52 @ 2 pts

15mm mounted = 10 @ 4 pts

Istvaan V bonus (betrayal for the Thracians, or Loyalty for the Hippeis) = 20 pts

From Millsy:

Another utterly amazing addition to your Ancients efforts this challenge Ben.

Everything is so wonderfully colourful and at the same time cohesive. Your bold colour choices, composition and complimentary basing style make your work so tempting to try and replicate.

As a fan of Carthaginians myself I'm putting in an early request for some of them next challenge please mate!

Wonderful work once again. Kudos.

From TeemuL: Oldhammer time [Vogsphere] (90 points)

I have been slowly painting my WH40k Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard) army, which consist of some vehicles and metal-only infantry. I created some back story for them a year or so ago in Challenge XI: the Imperial Reenactment 7th. Here is a short quote from the original text: "For those who don't know, they are like theater act or LARP players in the 40th century, they are used to rise the morale of the citizens, advertise the military for the new recruits and provide some entertainment for the people. Some of them are civilian volunteers, some are actual guardsmen on leave, on punishment, on reward, on commission, retired or misplaced. -- Several time Imperial Reenactment 7th (and others like this) have been incorrectly ordered to real battlezones - the administration of the Imperium is not very clear, efficient or correct in many places. So sometimes they arrive on real warzone, they even might have some live ammunition. Sometimes they have blanks. Sometimes they have live ammunition when performing a play... "

Eagle-eyed from you will notice, that there is a small error, of course they are not from "40th century", that is a mistake made by me. Anyway, because of this backstory, I will propose a claim to the Vogsphere planet, which calls for Bureaucracy and/or Black Comedy. This entry probably fills both of the criteria. And since I'm currently located in the Challenge Star, I can easily use the Great Abyssal and move myself to the Middle Ring, where Vogsphere is right next to the Abyssal. Nice and easy.

So yes, these are metal miniatures from Games Workshop, 20 years old or so and most likely sculpted by the Perry twins. These are all Valhallan models, even though I do have other planets represented as well, Imperial Army is very open minded. I have painted them in bright primary colours, so that the spectators can spot them easily. I used Contrast colours over white undercoat. The basing is my usual method, glue sand over black base, wash with brownish wash and drybrush with grey, quite easy and quick (excluding the drying times).

Some might wonder why 8, why not full 10 and where is the heavy weapons team? Well, last year I painted couple of heavy weapons teams, which I can use as a unit of their own or use as part of the squads - giving me some flexibility.

And since we are getting closer to the Challenge end, I'll add another group (no planets this time) to this post. When I first joined this Challenge, it was Challenge V, and I mostly painted some LotR and Blood Bowl minis (before neither of them was rebooted) and Oldhammer (before the Old World was exploded). Lots has changed in the GW world during that time. Lots has changed in my world since that, too. I have painted some 40k minis and some Epic minis, but mostly I have been painting non-GW stuff, while I used to paint GW-only stuff. There are multiple reasons for that, but I have not abandoned none of those old friends - I have painted some Blood Bowl in this Challenge and I will give you some Lotr stuff too, but now I present some Oldhammer. These are Black Orcs to join my Orcs & Goblins army, which is slowly growing.

There are four identical plastic minis and one metal mini, maybe a leader of the group or something. I tried to follow the simple, bright and clear colours of the 80s and 90s so they can easily fit my existing units and I think it worked ok, all the way to the Goblin Green bases. Coat d'Arms provides nice selection of paints, identical to the old Citadel paints from the previous century - all the way to the thin reds and yellows which won't cover white, even straight from the pot! :)

I know Black Orcs should be black, but I have always liked them green and think Black just means Big... So they are rather green, with mostly red equipments again nodding to the their past.

This post gives me two more squirrels, 22 skulls (9 from Black Orcs and 13 from the guard) and 85 points (13 28mm miniatures 5 points each and 20 for Vogsphere).

Two of the skulls

My personal Squirrel count: 15

- 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

- 28mm Runewars Waiqar

- 28mm Blood Bowl

- 28mm Simians

- 15mm Mid War Germans

- 28mm Age of Sigmar Sylvaneths

- 28mm Warhammer 40000 Imperium

- 28mm Warhammer Fantasy Orcs & Goblins

From Millsy:

I never cease to be amazed by your bold and outside the box colour choices Teemu! In my wildest, cheese-fuelled dreams I would never have conceived of painting Valhallans in a colour scheme like that. It has made my morning so kudos to you mate.

I really like your orcs too and the hand painted checks (which I can attest are a nightmare on a compound curve) are awesome. Have an extra 5 points to go towards some therapy :-)

From ScottM: Perelandra & Terra (55 points)

For this post, I've managed to stop off at two locations in this Quadrant. First up is my last location in the Middle Ring: Perelandra. I went with the Ocean theme and have a Giant Octopus. This plastic figure is from Wizkids Deep Cuts line.

Simple and easy fig to paint. It does look a bit better in person. I've never been able to master the art of taking decent pictures.

And for my first location on the Inner Ring, I stopped at Terra. I went with the Earthbound theme and have a pair of Xorns. These plastic figs are also from Wizkids and from their Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures line.

And here am I so far. Hopefully I can scramble out one more post.

So that should be:

• 3 - 28mm foot figs = 15 points
• 2 locations (Perelandra & Terra) = 40 points

Total = 55 points

From Millsy:

I really like you colour choice for the Giant Octopus Scott. That iridescent blue is so saturated and vibrant. A great choice but I can understand why it was hard to photograph too. It's also the colour Aussie kids get drummed into them means BAD when you find it on the beach :-P

And what's not to love about a Xorn? All they want is hugs.