RobH - Numidian Field Force Part A (140 Points)

 I finally got around to working on both the crewmen for my elephants and the Victrix Miniatures pack of Numidian cavalry that I picked up. These is part of a new project to build an Art de la Guerre Numidian Army. This is part A as only the cavalry component is ready today. I still need to apply decals to the elephants.

State of project last Friday afternoon

Points 

12 @ 10 Points 28mm Mounted Figures = 120 Points

20 Points - Under Construction (Next door to Black and White Studio)

Minion Miles: love 28mm ancients!

From TeemuL: Black & White Cake (25 points)

"I'm sorry, I need to leave for a moment. The production management wants to meet me, there's something about releasing straight to VHS and making budget changes! I have no idea, what VHS means, it sounds retro, but is probably something new and innovative, which will make our profits higher - and our budget, too! I'll be back, as they say, in the meanwhile you can take a self service tour to some of these nearby studios, they have been empty for a while. Can you think of movies being Black & White? Me neither, I want all the colours of the Technicolor on our great dwarf movie!"

It seems that we are not seeing this cake presenting fox in the Movie-You-All-Know, but I'll present it here in the blog instead. This a ModelBox exclusive model from the YourModelBox, which I participated in for a year some time ago. Sadly, the project has now come to an end, Brexit and all. In short, they sent a monthly surprise box to all subrictors and it contained minis and equipment from smaller companies (I guess anything else than GW was ok) and there was usually (or always?) a ModelBox exclusive mini included, not available from anywhere else.

Two Challenges ago I painted a similar fox from the same source: Challenge XI Fox - in greyscale as well. This one was trickier, I had already put my standards high, since I had painted something like this before. But not only being non-humble, this mini was trickier, I was quite sure that apron, cake and many other pieces should be white. Not very hard on Black & White, but I had to shade them somehow, make them look different and have some other areas quite dark. I managet to get somewhere there, I think. It could be better and neater, but I can live with that. I hope you can, too. :)

The New Fox and the Old Fox

I first painted the mini with Wraithbone spray with bunch of other minis. Then painted it black... I gave it a light drybrush of dark grey to get the texture visible. Then I painted the mini dark grey, just leaving some black here and there in the recesses. Then I did the same with lighter grey, but more gently and only drybrushing some areas. And then the scary part, paint pretty much everything white. So I painted pretty much everything white, some areas more heavily, some only very gently or drybrushing. I made some corrections with darker grey in the end and painted the cobblestones to the base.

He/she/it is quite tall, eye level at 30mm from the top of the base, but still closer to 28 than 40, so I'd like to claim 5 points for the mini and 20 for Black & White studio, for total of 25.

The mention of VHS might hint that we are heading towards the Retro studio, but let's see how the script evolves...

Wednesday - From PeterB - The future of Law Enforcement and some crazy squigs - Black and White + Under Construction - 132 points

 

Most of my inspiration for purchasing or painting toy soldiers tends to come from the movies, I watch Zulu so I want to paint Victorian redcoats, I watch Band of Brothers and feel a need to investigate some WW2. Therefore this challenge map jumped out at me as great fun, I love movies. I do have the problem though that most of my movie taste is post 1977 ( we hear the hum of lightsabres a lot in our household) so when it comes to painting something black and white at first I was a little stumped. 

Of course there are modern black and white movies, Sin City springs to mind, of course I have already painted Marv as I mentioned on TomG's post with the excellent model from Hasslefree minis (it comes with a choice of heads and arms). Then there is the excellent Clerks from Kevin Smith, but not really a movie in the toy soldier world. Then I glanced at my to do tray and realised I had something that needed painting in grey scale even though the movie was colour:

 

ED209, such an iconic image.

Ever since I first played Space Crusade and then collected Space Marines, I had wanted one of these in miniature. Yes the GW dreadnought was obviously inspired by this design, but I really wanted something like the original. Last September at Colours wargames show my first visit of the day was to the Crooked Dice stand to pick up brand new Military Robot and Cyborg Enforcer

I really couldn't decide on a background for the photos, so I put the green background in on my lightbox in case anyone has any green-screen skills and they want to add a suitable Future Detroit background. I will have to admit to once again using the magic of Nuln Oil for both these models. Painting wise I really didn't have to do much to them, the sculpt does all the work.

 Secondly this week I have also finished off an old project, therefore moving on to the Under Construction studio I have painted up a unit of GW Squigs. Last summer during a week off work I buckled down and painted what I though would be an entire army of goblins in a week. The army was made up of car boot finds over the year from plastic starter sets that parents had obviously bought their children and then subsequently interest had waned. I added a proper leader from Ebay (Skarsnik and his pet Gobbla) and thought I was done, however I felt there was a distinct lack of cave squigs in the army for a Night Goblin horde. This Christmas my sister kindly gifted me a box of the new squigs:

Thus the army now feels more complete:

 

Oh and on the subject of construction, I guess this would cover that same brief, I also painted this mdf kit from Blotz this week.

So to points:

28mm Cyborg Enforcer - 5pts

40mm Military Robot - 7pts

10 Squigs at 28mm - 50pts

2 goblins at 28mm - 10pts

28mm scale loader vehicle - 20pts

 Black and White studio - 20pts

Under Construction studio - 20pts

Grand Total -  132pts

Minion Miles:

Very sci Fi here but even a grognard like me can approve of that - nicely done!

From BruceR: One Million Bayonets; Lady Sarah's Limousine; Sci-Fi; (117 pts)

Had some free time over the holidays and made use of the time.  The weather did break a bit, which means the CSM was due his walks.  

1st up is a ride in Lady Sarah's Limousine from the Historical Drama set of the Bulge to the Sci-Fi set.

For the last game of 2022 we played Ravenfeast and used a Little Wars TV scenario to save King Harold from raiding Vikings.  As usual I'm drawn to what we are playing.  I had some villagers primed and the need to spice up the table I gave them my new signature contrast paint job. So, here are the 3 villagers, the chicken boy, the beggar and the maid.  The maid is the tithe for the Limo ride.  The figures are Wargames Foundry.  

Over head of the table with village and settlers first on the board.

Grog Ard'Nogg, Ogre Veteran:

For the Sci-Fi set I present a Victoria Miniatures figure.  Trenchworx carries this line and he and other sci-fi figures I hope to complete are fabulous.  His slug thrower is huge and his blade vicious.  Like my little AFV heads in an earlier post a joy to paint.  Grog can be used for Stargrave and I did get Xenos Rampant for Xmas so maybe.  I again tried a bulk of contrast paints and was satisfied and regular acrylic for the rest.  Fun to paint a larger figure as well.

Package Illustration for a guide

I placed Gorg on a diy base to match a few sci-fi crew figures I did last year.  

For the base I use wire mesh and a piece of zip tie for grating.  

Next distraction is a project from Great Escape Games and Iron Cross miniatures.  A couple of gaming compadres are Russian fanatics.  Both collect and paint Russians, with the undertone to play a number of Stalingrad type scenarios.  As I have 3 German BA forces I was not up for more Germans, but can't help being drawn into a project.  So why not East Front Italians. I have 4 squads with support troops and a few AFV's.  Here is my start of one squad.  I again wandered down the contrast road.  My pallet is limited, yet I did have Space Wolf grey so why not.  I like how they turned out and will help in completing them in a somewhat expeditious fashion.   

I didn't add snow to the bases.  For some reason if I play with figures with snow on the base they just look wrong on a non-snow table.  So I gave these the tundra look and to me they can be seen on a snow table or not.  My brain on miniatures.  Scary thing. 

A bit of a run around the studio. 

 

Potential points.

13 x 28mm             = 65

1 x 54mm               = 10

Limo ride                = 20

Sci-Fi set                = 20

Total                        =115 pts

plus 2 bonus points! = 117

Thanks for looking.

Minion Miles: Wow great job - especially for Gorg, who earns you a bonus point for the basing.  Plus because your are obviously a person of supreme erudition and taste - as evidenced by your use of the Ravensfeast ruleset we put out at LWTV, another bonus point has been awarded.  May others follow your most admirable example.

From KyleC - Rebel Alliance - [Casting Couch & Sarah's Limo] - (145pts)

So another squirrel project and one I got from my partner for Christmas. The Star Wars Legion starter boxset with the Empire Vs Rebel Alliance. And have started with the 'easier' side being the Rebels... But only because I am not sure how I want to tackle the white just yet for the Stormtroopers. 

Since it's just 2 sets of the same models I painted their headbands red and blue to differentiate them when on the board. Outside of that they are identical however. 

It was a bit of a trial and error here to get it to work with so much brown tones without looking terrible overall. I should have put more white/cream into them but we got there in the end. Especially the alien heads. 

And since we got the category, thought this chap would do well for it. 

Luke to be the star for the Casting Couch. I did try a bit of OSL on his head there as the lightsaber is a bit close and ready to give him a haircut. 

And for Sarah's Limit, there were 4 female rebels within the group to be used for it. 

Some of the braver and more foreward fighters as 2 are carrying ion blasters. Ready to get up close and personal to tougher opponents. 

I haven't tackled the walker for the set as yet but I want to look at some options before tackling it. 

So points here would be: 

15* 40mm figures - 105 PTS

Casting couch - 20 PTS 

Sarah's Limo - 20 PTS 

Total - 145 PTS

Next stop with be high adventure with some D&D models needed for a live game coming. And some more terrain because some of it has been waiting for paint for what seems as forever! 

Minion Miles: superb figures but 40mm seems a bit generous for scale on the oversized legion figures but with such a nice paint job who could quibble, 40mm it its.  And 2 stages to boot!  Nicely done

From FrederickC - Ambush at Amon Hen (50 points)

 Continuing on with the whittling down of my stash of unpainted Lord of the Rings figures, I give you 'Ambush at Amon Hen'. This is a boxed set depicting that event released by Games Workshop consisting of ten miniatures. The set includes Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Boromir, Lurtz, three Uruk-hai scouts with sword and shield, and two Uruk-hai scouts with the captured hobbits, Merry and Pippin. Most of the figures are one piece metal castings with the exception of Boromir who comes with three separate arrows and two pieces of the broken 'Horn of Gondor', and Aragorn whose left arm is a separate piece.

Once all the miniatures were assembled and mounted on their bases, some sand was glued down with PVA, along with the occasional pebble for variety. They were then primed black with a rattle can. I used a combination of Vallejo acrylics and Citadel washes to paint them. Here is the end result.

Gimli, Aragorn, and Legolas

Lurtz and Boromir

Uruk-hai scout with sword and shield

Uruk-hai scout carrying captured Pippin and Merry

The Ambush at Amon Hen

At some point I want to build the Seat of Seeing, but that will have to wait for another day.

The points being claimed are as follows:

10 x 28mm figures @ 5 points each = 50 points

Minion Miles:  These are fantastic figures - I've always admired the GW LOTR line and you painting makes them even better figures 50 points to Mr C!

From FrederickC - Gandalf the White and the Black Riders [Black and White] (40 points)

 Strolling east from the site 'Under Construction', we have arrived at the 'Black & White' studio with two Black Riders and Gandalf the White. Gandalf and the mounted Ringwraith are both Games Workshop metal miniatures that I picked up years ago. The Ringwraith was still in its original blister pack and came as the three piece 'some assembly required' figure. The fit of the two halves of the horse and rider (the sword arm was a separate piece) was a bit off, and there were a few gaps that had to be filled with epoxy putty. The figure of Gandalf is from a 9-figure set called 'Heroes of the West' that also included Aragorn, Faramir, Éomer, Éowyn, Legolas, Gimli, Merry and Pippin from The Return of the King. The Ringwraith on foot (aka 'The Ninth Nazgûl), is a conversion I recently did from an old D&D figure from the 1970s that I found in my bits box. I have no idea who the manufacturer is, but it was originally some kind of spectre consisting of what looked like a monk's habit, but with empty sleeves and cowl. It was a bit smaller than the Games Workshop miniatures, so I built it up with epoxy putty and added armoured hands and a sword. I already had eight Nazgûl in my inventory, five that came with an 'Attack at Weathertop' boxed set, and three others that I purchased from my nephew when he sold off his miniature collection, so this one is the Ninth Nazgûl.

 All three figures were primed black with Vallejo Surface Primer using an airbrush. I then used Vallejo acrylics with a lot of dry brushing to apply the black, white, and various shades of grey to the figures. Gandalf's face and hands were painted with Flat Flesh and given a wash of Citadel Reikland Fleshshade. Finally gun metal and silver were used to paint the swords.

 

Gandalf flanked by Black Riders on foot and mounted

Black Riders deciding 'discretion is the better part of valour'.

The 'Ninth Nazgûl' with the other eight in the background

A Black Rider acquired years ago with the newly painted one.

 

 

 The points being claimed are as follows:

2 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points each = 10 points

1 x 28mm mounted figure @ 10 points each = 10 points

Studio lot 'Black and White' @ 20 points = 20 points 

 

Special Challenge progress so far

Minion Miles: Lots of LOTR today - and that makes it a good day indeed!