From SimonM: Sardaukar by "Big Mr Tong" (25 points) + 1980's Bonus (20 Points)

These five 28mm scale Sardaukar were sculpted by "Big Mr Tong" and can be downloaded for free as part of a ten-figure set of STL (Standard Triangle Language) files from his "Patreon" subscription service. Based upon David Lynch's vision of the Emperor's elite warriors as first seen in his 1984 American science-fiction film "Dune", the miniatures were produced using "Elegoo" Water Washable Resin on a Mars 3 Pro 3D Printer.

Each figure was undercoated in "Citadel" Abaddon Black, and heavily dry-brushed with "Vallejo" Heavy Charcoal. The super-human soldiers' belts were then 'picked out using a little "Vallejo" Steel Blue, and their firearms with Gunmetal. Finally, each model was entirely 'drowned' in "Citadel" Nuln Oil and the Sardaukar's distinctive green face-visor realised using a combination of "Scalecolor" White Alchemy and the "Citadel" Contrast paint Warp Lightning.

I thought these figures would be a great way to continue my journey through Challenge Studios, as "Dune" was one of my favourite films during the Eighties (and still is to this day), and therefore a suitable subject for the 1980's filming lot.

Five x 28mm scale foot figure = 25 Points

1980's Studio Bonus = 20 Points

Total = 45 Points

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Oh man, this is inspired, Simon. I think this is such an excellent 80's submission (frankly I wish I had thought of it!). I really like the colour of the belt and the green visor glass as a counterpoint to the black battlesuit. Even though I enjoyed the new Villeneuve version, I still have a soft spot for Lynch's baroque vision of Herbert's book (Kenneth McMillan's Vlad Harkonnen is a benchmark in creepy). Well done!

- Curt

MattW: 28mm Historical Drama - Wodens sacrifice (65 points)

 Historical Drama 

After the defeat of Publix’s Quinctilius Varus and his legions, his heart is cut from his body and sacrificed to the God Woden in the forests of Germania, his head along with various centurions are place upon stakes, and his horse is beheaded so it cannot carry him across the river into the afterlife….. and so it begins…..

The miniatures are from the Foundry range, the Woden idol is scratch built from wire and Green stuff.

Tally 

28mm miniatures 6 miniatures, plus heads and horse head, 1 x idol 5 x 8 miniatures 40 points 

Location Historical Drama.                                                                                            20 points

Total 60 points 

Cheers 

MattW

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Ooh, terrific entry Matt! Such great character and the composition is spot on (love the wooden idol and groundwork as well). This makes me want to watch the second season of Barbarians on Netflix.

Extra points for the wonderfully creepy idol! 

Well done!

- Curt

From PeterB - Mandalorian and Grogu (twice) - Sci-fi - 37 points

Wow you have all been super busy over Christmas. I must only apologize I have struggled to keep up with all the posts that have been springing up every day. I can only imagine some folks had their painting trays pushed aside at the last minute on Christmas day to make room for the turkey and trimmings, the volume and quality of painting that has been going on. I for one did manage to commandeer the dining table once the washing up was finally done and so with apologies to those not interested in Star Wars, but very quickly after GregB presented this pair of adventurers, I too present the Mandalorian and Child.

These are the official Star Wars Legion models, the Mandalorian is quite tall, pretty much the same height as a current GW Space Marine, so I am not sure exactly what scale the system is supposed to be! The set came with a choice of two Grogu's, using the force or eating a frog. Obviously I had a spare base in my bits box, so I painted up both. I love the gunslinger pose on the Mandalorian, a real throw back to those spaghetti westerns.

I don't have any other Star Wars Legions models (this was a random purchase egged on by my youngest who is a massive fan of the series) I suspect we probably won't be getting into the system due to the high price point. Also if we did we would need to use some Google translate for using Mando as the box and accompanying cards were all in German. The dangers of not paying attention when ordering from Amazon I guess!

They are mostly painted with Coat D'arms and then Grogu has a GW Sepia Shade wash and Mando, Nuln Oil wash on his Beskar. The sticky tufts of grass are from Bad Squiddo.

What better example for a visit to the Sci-fi studio than something from the most well known of Sci-fi franchises. Next stop, Black and White. I don't think they make Kevin Smith's Clerks characters in 28mm.....

 

To the points:

 1 and 2 half 32mm scale figures - 10 points

Sci-fi studio bonus - 20 points

Total - 30 points

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No worries, Peter, I can't get enough Star Wars stuff, especially the more recent Disney ventures. You did an excellent job on these three, especially with the tone of Mando's armour (Nuln oil is pure witchcraft). Your youngest must be over the moon with the set! If you have a chum with a resin 3D printer you can tap into the HUGE amount of cheap figures being produced for the franchise (frankly many of the fan sculpts are better than the official offerings). 

I scored Mando as a 40mm figure, as that seems to be the scale they're using and I put the little guy at (a generous) 28mm. 

I look forward to seeing what you come up with for Black and White!

- Curt

From PeterD: Late Roman Cheiroballistrae For 80s Retro (60 Points)

It always takes a while for me together my first post on the Challenge no matter how small I make it.  My last uni exam was written on December 22nd and by the time I had it marked it was late on the 23rd and then there's Christmas, etc. whine.....

Anyway I have two Late Roman cheiroballistrae (sp?)with crews for my first post.  I am not intending to focus too much on the Studio map but will take the theme lot points when and where these are available so I will count this as 80s Retro.  Back in 1980 Halifax, 18 year old me took a windy route home from my first year Philosophy Class (Death and the Mind) to stop in at a new Hobby Shop.  Turned out that this was run by Ross MacFarlane of gameofmonth a regular gaming partner for the next 18 years before I moved very far west.  One of the games were played back in the 80s was WRG Ancients 6th Edition using Ross' Late Romans and then later Greeks and Persians.

The models are 28mm Gripping Beast metals.  The ballistas went together easily enough once I downloaded the picture from the GB website and the crews were nicely cast.  I like the age old trope of the grunts doing the heavy work on the coffee grinder winches while the officers kneel around and look important.  I free handed shields to match two of my infantry units.  The bolt shooters themselves would be more use against elephants or cataphracts than against unarmored Celts, but do give a longer range and with some punching power.

Exculcatores Iunores Britanniciani

Legio Secunda Britannica

I also found six members of my first ever 25mm ancients unit.  Greek slingers for my Spartan army of Agesilaus II in Asia Minor.  Slingers are Ral Partha, the flautist is a Minifig. They were painted 42 years ago but have seen action on table in the last 10 years.

Points wise I make it 

• two crew served weapons @10=20
• 4 foot figures @5=20
• 1 theme lot @20
• Total =60 points

The non-theme points will go against the SPQR and Carausius Emperor of Britain side duels.

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It's good to have you back with the Challenge, Peter, and now on the points roster too! 

Great work on these Late Romans and a nice walk down memory lane with the Greek slingers (Stacy would be proud). I remember seeing the artillery in one of your preparatory photos, so it's nice to see them in all their painted glory, ready to pin the enemies of Rome like wayward lab specimens. Also, very nice work on the painted shields. All those radiating lines and wings can prove to be tricky brushwork, so well done with that. 

Now my friend, gird your loins for your minionship this Monday. You have a rough and tumble mob to manage. ;P

- Curt

From TeemuL: A Look in to Galadriel's Mirror [Sci-fi] (65 points)

"After Gimli visited Galadriel and became friends with Legolas, Galadriel has been thinking dwarfs in a less hostile view. That's way our heroes Murin and Drar are able to visit her in the sacred forest and take a look at the mirror. We hear the classic line "The things that were, the things that are and..." but then we cut the audio to Metallica's "The Thing that Should not Be"! That will be one of the shocking moments of the movie. Yes, I know the song doesn't have that line in the lyrics, it is just the title, but I'm sure we can negotiate somekind of alternative lyrics with those chaps and create our master piece. And yes, when they look in to the mirror, they see these space monsters (which should not be). That's the second difficult part with the scene, there is this British toyshop, who seems to be overly jealous of their IPs even though a blind man can see they are just poor Alien rip-offs. Well, we just need to send an army of lawyers there or buy the whole shop..."

The things that should not be or three hybrids of my genestealer cult for WH40K. I started a small Kill Team couple of years ago and it has been very successful, it just keeps on growing...

Yes, on my last post I said that it will be the last before 2023, but I was wrong. I was left alone unexpected on Friday night and then mind starts to wander. I did ask couple of friends to come and play with me, but they didn't have time. I was there, some half painted dwarfs and a few hours of time. As one does, I remembered these primed hybrids (plastic Genestealer Cultists from Games Workshop) and started to paint them while painting the dwarfs, too.

They were rather easy to paint, just following the old minis as a guide. I don't keep any diary about the colours I use, I find that this method gives natural variation to my minis... These are painted with GW acryls, the traditional ones. After blocking the colours I washed the whole mini in Druchii Violet to set alienish tone. There was not much highlightning except yellow on green. These are creatures of dark underworld, working under the dim lights. That's why it would feel wrong to highlight them neat and bright. The yellow highlight gives impression, that they are not under white day light, but something artificial, making them even more disturbing (I know they have three hands, claws and blue tongues). The grey pipes are plastic straws, enhancing the not-so-perfect feel of environment, ideal for these lurkers in the dark. The guns are painted using Black Templar Contrast, but otherwise traditional.

Then there are the other dwellers in the dungeon, the good guys, the dwarfs. When making a movie about dwarfs, you need lots of dwarfs. There are plastic Dwarf Warriors from GW for Lord of the Rings game. I had a little issue with these, since I didn't know how to paint them, what colours to use. That is part of the reason starting to paint the above hybrids. I painted one colour on hybrids, then jumped to these and painted one colour I knew, like brown leather etc. Maybe the blue and green of hybrids looked good, since I used mostly blue and green on these, too. Maybe the colours of Murin and Drar (blue and green) were hounting by subconsciousness.

These are second hand minis, they were already painted, I just decided to use Wraithbone spray on them and paint over. Originals were quite dark and like I said, I didn't really know how to paint them. But these look very different than the original and I'm positively surprised, the colours are very bright, strong and they have good "cohesion" in lack of better word. I used only Contrast paints on these, there are no highlights or anything, just straight from the bottle. These have very different look than those hybrids, these are creatures of daylight or well lit mines. I really like these guys, happily I have more of them to paint.

As for scoring, Genestealer hybrids are bit larger, if hunched minis, but I'm happy to score them as 28mm minis. That means 9 minis for 45 points and 20 points for Sci-Fi location, total of 65.

Now I bust to paint something for next Wednesday, I don't have anything started, just some primed minis and no idea if I should go to 1980s or Black + White. With these 9 minis painted I have now one less unpainted mini than January 1st... In couple of thousands of years I'll be without unpainted minis. Oh, horror!

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If SAS: Rogue Heroes can have AC/DC then I don't see why LotR can't have Metallica. 

You made good use of your free time, Teemu. Great work on these Genestealers and Dwarves. I like the vibrant colours you've achieved, and agree that some of the effects you can achieve right out of the bottle with Contrast Paints is quite something. The thing I find is not to let the colour 'pool' too much, or to brush it over large flat areas (although it goes on marvellously well with an airbrush). Anyway, these are a great result of a Friday night at home! :)

- Curt

From MartinC Colonial Marines (SciFi Studio) (70pts) (READY)

Starting to get into the swing of it now. These Copplestone Colonial Marine jobs in jungle gear were part of a mystery box (love mystery boxes and lucky bags). The selection was great with 10 blister packs and other bits for £40 (basically <1/2 price). Only 1 blister was not obviously useable - 28mm 7YW Austrians - which is ironic I have tonnes10mm 7YW.

So I got 2 boxes of these to give a 10 man squard. As always they are excellent figures - love Copplestone, in fact Northstar are my favourite manufacturer. Other manufacturers have better figs but Northstar are a style that appeals to me - great gaming figs.

They are a rough tough bunch

Gave them a 2 tone green uniform, these are jungle fighters not parading cockrels. The guy with the notepad will control a drone used for targeting artillery and drones

Overall these are fine, not my best work, but then again most of the painting so far has been a palette cleanser. Now I'm off to paint the rest of my 10mm ImagiNation 7YW Scots army

Scores on the doors 

10x28mm infantry = 50pts

Sci Fi studio bonus = 20pts

total = 70pts

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You did well on this mystery box, Martin! I love Copplestone figures. They are great sculpts, with just enough detail and so great to paint. Great job for 'a palette cleanser'! I look forward to seeing your ImagiNation and Scots.

- Curt

ScottR 28mm Selucid Phalanx for ADLG or Hail Caesar 24 figures (120 points)

Hi All,

Several years ago I started to amass a collection of Greek figures from Victrix.  Mainly because of a kickstarter for a skirmish game called Mortal Gods.  The game and all the miniatures have sat on my shelf for a couple of years now.  The exception was a greek Phalanx which i planned to build an actual Selucid Army from.  Thinking at the time it would be Hail Caesar.

I got as far as building the figures, and then undercoating them with wraithbone with the intent to try the new GW contrast colours.  I did a couple of test figures and was a bit mixed about the outcome.  

Now a couple of years have passed and I am a bit more used to playing around with the contrast paints.  Talking with my good friend Dennis Campbell aka 'Matt varnish'  we discussed playing Hail Caesar.  Now I have my Celts but as I was searching around for the extra chariots I found this unit all ready to go.

So this was a start yesterday at around 10 am to paint and base the unit before I go away on a weeks holiday.

Mission accomplished. 30 hours plus sleep and house chores and the unit is done.  I would be interested in peoples thoughts on the results of using just contrast paints.  Oh except the leather strap across the chest for the shields.

Sorry about the pics as well.  I have a new light box and trying to work out the best background for pictures.  Black next or any recommendations.  I can go back to pictures on the gaming mat if this is better.  please let me know.

The unit is two stands.  Each stand is a 60 x 60mm.  One stand represents one unit in Art de La Guerre (ADLG).  Both stands would be used for one unit in Hail Caesar.  We use a standard of 60mm frontages for Hail caesar so we can also do ADLG.  The total is 24 figures with 12 figures in 4 man frontage and 3 deep per base.

Pictures using gaming mat background.

24 x 28mm figures for 120 points.

Happy New Year everyone and may our brushes be ever busy and your miniature pile ever diminishing!  See you in a week.

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Oh wow, this beefy pike block looks fantastic, Scott! The blue tunics and shields are very eye-catching, and I really like the wood effect on the pikes.  Very impressive. As to photos, I'm always partial to a homogenous background so the subject stands out, but that is just my preference. The shots of them on terrain look excellent too.

Looking forward to your next entry!

- Curt

From KyleC - 40k Terrain - (80pts)

Well I can say, hand on heart, I did not enjoy this bit of painting. 

Plenty of airbrush work (priming, base coating, dust/diet application, OSL).. but it was a right slog and really not enjoyable. 

Which is a right shame as I need to get more terrain painted up this year. 

Mostly due to wanting to get more gaming in this year, and utilizing my newly renovated garage for said gaming! 

I did try a few different colours and trials to get a main color laid down but the weathering helped tie it all together. 

I still have a few bits of scatter terrain but I will sort that out soon enough. 

For now, back to other bits and bobs. Plus an injection of some D&D models requested for a live game happening in January. So that should fit the High Adventure quota soon...

4 blocks of terrain @20 PTS each - 80pts

Not ideal for points considering how long it took compared to the infantry models.. but hey ho.. it is what it is.. and a required evil at times. 

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Yep, I'm with you with terrain: You absolutely need it but you always feel like it's stealing time from painting figures. That being said, these walls and structures look excellent, Kyle. I particularly like the grimy lower sections and the lighting effects. Ace work!

- Curt