From SarahHC: Ending with the Start - Galadriel (28 Points)

Hello Everyone!

Thank you all for the kind words of sympathy after I broke my wrist last week. This winter has been rough - your messages are very much appreciated and heartfelt. ❤️

As many of you know, I have been part of the Challenge in some capacity since its inception.
First as the resident Barista fuelling Curt’s espresso-induced painting madness, secondly as the instigator/cheerleader for painting Female Figures with the Sarah’s Choice Prize.

This year I was encouraged into actually participating despite having never painted anything smaller than a fence! Actually, that is a slight exaggeration, I did take a few art classes during University, but that was a million years ago.

The figure that I present for this final post is MY VERY FIRST FIGURE painted at the kickoff of the AHPC XII. (disclosure: it was a Curt-led tutorial)

Galadriel, Beautiful and Terrible, is a 54mm 3D print (I’m not certain of the provenance, but I’m sure the SnowLord will let me know). I chose this mini as my “first” because the flowing dress and simple details would be straightforward to paint. If it has not been obvious, I’m quite fond of the colour green and in particular the shade I chose for Galadriel’s dress.

I used Citadel Colour Contrast PlagueBearers Flesh over a black primer. For her hair, head-piece and dress trim I chose Vallejo Steel.

In hindsight, I should have used a more multi-tone hair colour palette - maybe a blonde/gold with silver highlights for more vibrancy, texture and depth, enhancing her ‘extra-powerful magickal’ look. I would have also chosen a different metallic colour or a groovy colour shift paint for her head piece, but at the time, I had not yet discovered all the treasures in Curt’s paint arsenal.

Overall, as a first ever painted figure, I’m pleased and it’s great to have documented my painting progress through the challenge. ( is it obvious I live with an archivist?)

My journey through the Quadrant has been sporadic at best, having never left the Outer Ring and was last stuck on Arda. Galadriel will definitely fulfil the requirements for Arda (Tolkien/Fantasy) giving me 20 points plus the 8 pts for the figure itself (reduced a bit as she isn't based).

Woo! If my maths are correct, that’s 28 points for me, for a grand total of 257 points.
My original goal was 100pts, then revised up to 250pts, and now thrillingly, I have bested my modest expectations!

Thank you to my marvellous Minion Tamsin, Team Tuesday and all of the Challengers.
I have had so much fun and learned heaps about painting minis.

😘 Sarah

 

***

 

Congratulations Sarah on besting your goal, and doing so with such a beautiful figure. The Lady Galadriel is indeed a stunning character, and more than fit for Arda. This is a great miniature...when I see this miniature, I picture Galadriel evaluating her options with The One Ring, declining to take it, and then declaring that she has passed the test...well of course she would! 

 

It is interesting to see her in green...the LOTR films had so fixed her with various elemental greys and whites to my mind. But the green is appropriate, providing some "elf" type warmth (and style, of course!). At the same time, your colour selection for her hair maintains the right air of unattainable ethereal beauty. Not too bad for a "first" figure!

I know I speak for many Challengers when I say it has been a real joy to see your painting and have you join the fray. It is always wonderful to learn of new perspectives, to share the views of others as they approach this hobby. And, of course, to have the chance to warn them off painting terrain...

Well done Sarah - 28 points for you. Congrats, and I hope your wrist heals up soon so you can enjoy the spring and summer!

GregB

From DougM - Krypton and a sudden weakness...(71 Points)

Don't you hate it when a post vanishes, and you have to redo it? Not as much as German pilots hated the weakness of the early Albatross Scout planes; a tendency to break up in mid-air..  so that's Krypton.

(Almost as much when you take a picture and spot a thousand errors in the paint job.. but enough complaints, it's time for the pictures.)

Some chap called Richtofen & some Recce also seems to have snuck in, so that makes a total of 17 x 1/144 aircraft, which are counted as 10mm vehicles @ 3 points each = 51 + 20 for Krypton for a total of 71.

It also gets me another Squirrel ..  for a total of 12

• 1/200 WW2 Japanese Aircraft
• 1/200 WW2 US Aircraft
• 1/200 WW2 British Aircraft
• 1/200 WW2 German Aircraft
• 1/144 WW1 British Aircraft
• 1/144 WW1 German Aircraft
• 28mm German Armour
• 28mm Japanese Armour
• 28mm 12th SS Panzer infantry
• 28mm Indian Mutiny Sepoys
• 28mm Dr Who
• 28mm Austrian Napoleonic

***

"A tendency to break up in mid-air" - so what? Quitters! Pilots are such a bunch of whingers, always needing everything to be perfect.

Anyway, the WW1 aircraft always bring out romantic notions of air combat (even as the reality of course was grim and deadly enough, even without your craft simply breaking apart on you). I quite enjoy the bonkers markings on the planes themselves, nods to the now-distant notions of chivalry in war. I'll throw in a few bonus points for the markings. Cheers!

GregB

From AngusW - Native American Indians (Pendraken) (116pts.)

Painting cavalry has seemed like a never-ending task since the start of the challenge. I had hoped to paint 100 US troopers and 200 native Indians as part of the AHPC. While I have managed the US troopers I've still 81 native Indians in the box to paint.

Here we have my final native Indians of the challenge. As usual, I blocked out all the colours, slathered them in Army Painter strong tone (and accidentally the living room carpet) then went back and added a few highlights. I had meant to paint 60, but I miscounted and only painted 59. So I only based 58.

The pictures never do them justice, but they look good on the tabletop.

58 x 10mm cavalry @2pts each = 116pts.

From Millsy:

These look great Angus! There's something about massed native cavalry that makes me hear the sound of hooves and the screams of the charging warriors. These are a fine addition to your previous posts and will give the US troopers no end of trouble I'm sure. Well done!

From EdwardG: Allez le Bleu!! (210pts)

Hi all, 

Another year, another Challenge. Wow! This one has gone quickly. Quite how or where it went, I am not sure, but I have luckily been able to (just) make my points total! This last week it has been a bit of a seat of the pants ride to get over the line. But with this, final, entry I am there.

So on with the minis. 

These are the bulk of my Gallic 28mm DBA army. They are a mixture of Victrix and Warlord plastics. Tbh, as miniatures, I am not really a fan of either. The Victrix are too detailed for my standard painting style, while the Warlord's poses seem more at home in an 80s bodybuilders only rave mosh pit than a battlefield. And I am rather worried about the level of dehydration within the army. But they mix reasonably well, and following my discovery that only half of the Victrix kit comes as shirtless minis, the Warlord minis were a nice alternative. The reason for shirtless, is mostly because I whimped out of having my Gallic warriors in the full buff. I wish to portray fast moving, hard hitting,  but brittle fighters. And so I was keen to not have any armour on show, bar the odd helmet (Gentlemen please, there are ladies present). However, now they are done, I feel like I have just completed a 2mth long life drawing class. So perhaps I should have shelved my prudish reservations. It certainly would have saved on trying to attempt stripy trousers.  

Still, I followed on my tradition from last year and hand painted the shields. Something that was fun but draining, and which I should probably learn my lesson and just do what everyone else does and buy transfers. Trying to come up with 40 random shield patterns that I could paint was not easy. But I am happy with the final outcome, even if some of them look a little odd. 

In an effort to keep the post short, due to the lateness of the evening here. I will jump straight on with the scoring. 

I have:

40 x 28mm foot @5pts each = 200pts

Before signing off, I would like to thank Curt and all the minions for their hard work keeping this challenge going. It is a great community and thank you all for posting such wonderful and inspirational works of miniature soldier art! I am already looking forward to next year :D 

Stay healthy, 
Ed  

 

***

 

From GregB

 

Wow, a little points bomb with hand-painted shields (the thing of nightmares - only painting terrain is worse). I apologize for the Minion confusion, as Millsy posted this while it is still Wednesday here in North America - but just wanted to finish my thought and to congratulate you on painting all of those shield. I threw in some extra points for that.

From Millsy:

Wow Ed. Just wow! That's a very tidy little points bomb, especially this late on. What's far more impressive is the the fact you hand painted the shields. Kudos to you mate and that deserves an extra handful of points!

From SimonG: A Seductive Sazae-Oni Out For Your Unmentionables ... (30 points)

 To bring things to a close I offer up another Black Rose Wars figure from Ludus Magnus Studios -- the (what I think is) Sazae-Oni, or snail woman.

Actually she's more of a slug woman as I cannot find her shell (perhaps it's under her kimono!). This certainly led to an odd set of references as you can see

The mythology of Sazae-Oni is that they are temptresses who lure seafarers and then cut off their testicles, or in colloquial Japanese the kin-tama (or "golden balls"!)

Anyway I wanted her to look smart and in keeping and really enjoyed working on the cherry blossom kimono -- lots of time to get a deep and richly shaded base red coat and then details with a fine liner pen for the branches and then impressionistic splotches for the flowers and leaves.  All other colours were picked to match the patterns in the kimono.

Brutal close ups show I messed up the beauty spot over the left eye -- need to go back in with my magnifier and fix this! 

Getting white makeup skin tone is hard work -- GW apothecary white makes a good fondation but unfortunately there's no easy way of correcting errors unlike in more normal skin tones where you can reapply the base and then wash over it -- base and wash in one mean this doesn't work as the contrast paint doesn't cover errors unlike a base coat ... 

I think this lady makes a nice match with Lune -- witchcraft and moody sorcery! So gives me another 25 points (call her a 28mm figure plus the 20 point planet bonus).

 

***

 

"Actually, she's more of a slug woman" - stuff I read during The Challenge.

 

Very fine brushwork on this challenging painting subject. I am adding extra bonus points for the complicated dress and makeup. Very nice Simon. 

 

GregB

From Mike W - 10 x Black Orcs (50 Points)

In this post (the last of this year's Warhammer figures) - I have been working on this unit on and off for the last 6 weeks, with a view to be enable me to go out with a bang as this year's challenge draws to a close!

These figures were purchased direct form my local Games Workshop store some time ago -  can't remember when - and were built to fill a gap in my somewhat extensive Greenskin Army. So far so good. Unfortunately I had a bright idea!

The completed group of 10 (Red) Black Orcs

I was in two minds about the colour to do the armour, options being black (as per Black Orcs) or Red, as I've always liked the Evil Suns, I opted for red as I had a can of red spray paint in the garage. So the idea was good 'un but the execution was bad - the spray paint was a can of Car Repair spray from an old red car of mine, the car was long gone but the spray was still there.

In those days I still undercoated black, which I did and then almost immediately sprayed the models with the Car Spray. Imagine my surprise when the paint did not dry as expected - in fact I think it took several days to fully cure and dry and when done it was not a bright red colour as I'd remembered my car to be - but a browny mauve sort of colour. To top it all, the paint was ultra glossy and almost impossible to get other paints to adhere to.

Close-up of some of the guys, including Musician with drum in centre

Thus it was the figures were consigned to the garage for years without a further look. 

However with this year's challenge and the need for even more figures to paint I decided to try and resurrect these guys. I painted on a white undercoat on the skin areas  of these figures and then started by painting in the Green skin, then a green wash. As these figures are heavily armoured, it made sense to get the skin done before concentrating on the armour. After all these years, the new paint seems to have adhered OK to eth figures.

More of the Orcs, Unit Leader to the right 

I then used neat Vallejo 'Flat Red' to paint the armour, as I did for the recent Squigs post,  washed it with Dark Tone, then added a second coat of Flat Red to make finish consistent, after a dry brushed with a brighter red, I then washed the amour with Sepia Ink to make it 'pop'.

There was a lot of bones, teeth, skulls, tusks and the like to complete and I did these as per previously described, fur that can be found under some armour panels was done in 'Fur Brown' (naturally) and highlighted.

A better view of the Leader and Standard Bearer

All Steel was given a Dark tone was after a Silver paint job, glyphs were picked out in brass or silver and all wood was washed with Strong tone ink to give depth.  I gave the armour a light dry brush of silver to suggest wear and tear on the kit and when dry all were given a matt varnish finish.

I spent some extra time on the standard and the musician's drum to add detail but these followed the same principles noted above. Overall these Black Orcs are VERY RED!

Basing was done in my usual manner with Electrostatic grass and fine sand.

POINTS

10 x 28mm Foot Figures = 50 Points

***

These are indeed the reddest...Black Orcs...I have seen. Perhaps they are Jeremy Corbyn supporters? Anyway, well done on resurrecting an old and stalled project. And it is lovely seeing fantasy figures on proper, square bases as the Hobby Gods intended. Seeing your points total, you cannot possibly have any figures left to paint? I guess we shall see...

Congrats on adding to the stonking pile of points.

GregB

From DougM - Gethen - Ice Cold but no Alex - (30 points)

Quickly checking the stash.. aggh.. the German winter grenadiers would take too long, but what's this.. another 3d print? A Storm Giant you say.. right, that's Gethen sorted. Not my normal stuff, and just lots of different colours, washes and overpainting. The Van Gogh of giants perhaps.  But cold.. very cold...  

This chap stands 65mm tall, so counting as a 54 mm figure = 10 plus 20 for Gethen = 30 by my maths. And I think that now adds 'Fantasy' as a Squirrel! Taking my total Squirrel points to 13.

• 1/200 WW2 Japanese Aircraft
• 1/200 WW2 US Aircraft
• 1/200 WW2 British Aircraft
• 1/200 WW2 German Aircraft
• 1/144 WW1 British Aircraft
• 1/144 WW1 German Aircraft
• 28mm German Armour
• 28mm Japanese Armour
• 28mm 12th SS Panzer infantry
• 28mm Indian Mutiny Sepoys
• 28mm Dr Who
• 28mm Austrian Napoleonic
• 28mm (and larger!) Fantasy

***

 

Very nice painting on this chilly fellow Doug. I can practically see his breath freezing in the air...well done.

GregB

From DallasE: 28mm Afrikakorps Infantry from Perry Miniatures (Perelandra) (65 points)

So, temptation is the theme of Perelandra, and this post represents further giving into it, and the start of the infantry painting for a new project - the Western Desert. First up is a 10-man section of Perry Miniatures DAK infantry.

The models are from the Perrys' plastic box, of course. I usually shun multi-part plastic models like a social disease, mainly because of the time and fiddliness in assembling the models. However the Perry stuff is only moderately time-consuming and fiddly... they come with head, torso and legs as one piece, and you stick on arms and weapon (usually as one piece), field gear (also one piece), and headgear. That's it, unless you need to assemble a machine gunner or NCO, then you need to also stick on a tool pouch or MP40 ammo pouches. So not a ton of work, and they're way more cost-effective than metal or even the Warlord/Bolt Action DAK box.

You can pick headgear from three variants - the early sun helmet, the steel helmet, or the iconic "Afrika" peaked soft cap. It's a good idea to trim a bit off the top of the model's head (ouch) before sticking on the cap, just to help it sit down a little lower over the eyes.

Once the dudes are assembled, it's time to paint 'em... I stocked up on shades of khaki for these guys. The trousers are all painted GW Zandri Dust with an Agrax Earthshade wash and re-highlight with Zamesi, and the jackets and caps are a variety of shades, including Vallejo Khaki and Yellow-Green, GW Rakarth Flesh, AK Deck Tan, etc... the webbing and helmets are Zandri Dust and breadbags are GW XV-88. Rifle stocks are GW Mournfang Brown highlighted with Skrag Brown, as are the wool covers on the waterbottles. 

Most of the poses are pretty good. In a few cases I had to do some greenstuff work around the joins between the arms and torso, but most were good.

The one-piece field gear is good too, there's a water bottle, breadbag, gas mask canister, entrenching tool and bayonet all attached. The tropical boots are cool too - I painted them with GW Doombull Brown and Vallejo German Uniform as seen here.

So points... as noted I'm gonna try and cram this into Perelandra as I've fully succumbed to temptation to start a new WW2 period. The DAK and Eighth Army will join my 28mm NW Europe British/Canadians, British Commandos, BEF/Home Guard, US paratroopers, US winter infantry, winter Finns, Soviets, German Heer, German Waffen-SS, German Fallschirmjagers, and early-war French in the cabinets. 

8x 28mm infantry = 40 points

2x prone 28mm infantry = 5 points

Perelandra planetary bonus = 20 points

Total = 65 points 

See you again soon!

***

I am very excited to see these Dallas! Some 28mm gaming in WW2's desert theatres will be a ton of fun, and will also look awesome. I totally support your approach to multi-part-plastic historical figures, but the results here are excellent. Even the prone machine gun crew looks awesome (although prone 28mm figures are always a bit of a tragedy). I loved the variety of shades you have used to achieve the "same-but-varied" look that fits so well with DAK uniforms. Great work dude!

GregB

 

From TashaH Middle Ring Sprint [Arrakis][Star Yacht][Noel’s Comet] (70 Points)

Hello Wednesday! I am here to steal earn as many points as possible with the fewest possible figures. I had hoped to make Greg twitch a smidge and mumble incoherently about no-good point grabbers. I’m certain he’d prefer all the point siphoning today to his household emergency!

 Here we are on Arrakis. Dreadfully dry planet. What is that? A tornado? 

 

 

This little wonder was a pain in the derrière to make. It is a print from Thingiverse. The file is an all in one with the base and swirl attached, but the twister is quite fragile and broke off from the base. It also cracked. Thank goodness I have an assortment of glues at the ready. I also had full intentions of covering this bad boy with sand, so no harm. 

 

 

I added an ivory craft paint to some white glue and mixed that into some sand and thinned it a bit with water. I applied the concoction over the twister, which I’d applied a beige base coat to as well. After that dried to a tacky finish, I sprinkled fine pumice on top to give it a fine sand look. I wanted the pumice to sit on top, rather than sink into the glue, which is why I waited. After everything dried, I went in with a few shades of brown and just did some light dry-brushing. 

 

 

That’s enough of this dusty place. I need to get aboard Lady Sarah’s Star Yacht. This Halfling (that’s right… a Halfling- not even a whole figure!) from WizKids is going to pay my toll for some well deserved libations on my way to Noel’s Comet. 

 

 

Hmm… this looks remarkably familiar. I seem to recall being here before. I won’t bore you with another of my rambling soliloquies… although from what I’ve read of Noel, he would approve. If you missed my previous ramblings, they are here… Tasha's Tribute on Noel's Comet

My last visit did not net any bonus points, as I did not provide a suitable figure. I have returned to rectify that. I give to you all a humble squirrel. No explanation needed as to its lore.

 

The points…

One 1x1x1.5 terrain - .138 point (using Tamsin's formula but math is not my strong suit!)

2 20mm figures - 8 points

2 planet bonuses - 40 points

Star Yacht Bonus - 20 points

Total points - 68.138 or 68 to keep the spreadsheet happy :)

Now... I could be really egregious with my points grabbing and jump into the maelstrom, but I will just scoot to the planet Lune, to initiate my final flight plans. 

***

Well done Natasha - perhaps not quite the true "Enron" level of points-accounting achieved by such luminaries as Ray (or Teemu!), but still worthy of an internship in the Finance Advisory Firm "AHPC Value Consulting". 

The work here is all lovely (and it is always hilarious to see a squirrel - I'm surprised my dogs did not start to bark). I've added a couple of extra bonus points in recognition of all of the nonsense you endured trying to paint a Tornado! Now do you understand why only insane people/PeterD squander their precious life force to paint terrain?

Thanks for posting on Wednesday, safe travels for the rest of your Challenge Journey!

GregB