From Steve K - Rohan Infantry 122pts

 Now then,

A bit late submitting my entry today, as I struggled to get them finished off! But never mind, here they are.

So 24 x 28mm Infantry have been this weeks efforts. I paint my Lord of the rings stuff in a slightly different way from my normal method, mainly because my forces are so big. So batch painting is the order of the day, where the mass is more important than the small details.

These all have an oil wash applied, which I have found saves a huge amount of time when getting them cranked out.

I have also painted up and finished the movement trays for the War of the Ring game system, which I prefer, as big armies and big battles is what its all about for me!

These are MDF movement trays from Warbases.

And finally, here are the three companies, 1 of Archers, 2 of Militia.

So, scores on the doors...

24 x 28mm foot @5pts = 120pts

3 x Movement trays.... I don't know....

That's it from me this week!

Steve

Great looking set of figures, Steve. Batch painting may not yield the highest quality minis, but as you say the mass is more important when fielding big forces. These Rohan troops look great all ranked up and ready for combat. I'll throw in an extra couple of points for the movement trays too.

One small point, please add labels to your post as it makes it easier for people to search for it if they want to come back to it, or to browse related posts on the blog.

From Ray R - Under Construction - Dutch Infantry Brigade 2mm 31pts

 

For my second trip in the AHPC Studios I'm visiting Under Construction....

Under Construction: Half-done, almost-done, or barely started. This is the studio for painting projects which are just not quite there yet.

And its the barely started bit I'm concentrating on. In my Hobby Desk & Painting Plans post, back in December I shared 2 units of 2mm Dutch infantry I'd test painted for my new Battle of Almansa 1707 project, so in this post, I've painted the rest of the brigade.

Dutch infantry regiments, Torsay, Kepplefox and the two new ones, Viscouse and Belcastel

regt Viscouse was actually a Dutch/Huguenot unit as was Belcastel

I've handwritten the names on the back of the bases, but I think I may change that and print it out instead, my handwriting is terrible! All the flags are from my collection I have for my 15mm NYW project. Some are variations on them too, as nobody knows the actual flags for any of these 4 regts.

Also included in the Brigade leader Dohna.

And just for size purposes a 25mm Native Indian 

So there we have it my first completed brigade.

Points

5 points per infantry base = 10pts

1/2 point per brigade leader

20pts for Bonus round 

So a pretty small total of 30.5 points!

I can see the appeal of this scale in being able to field an entire army on a regular sized gaming table with ease, but I don't think I'd be able to focus when painting minis that small. While I am not in a position to criticize anyone's handwriting, I think some printed labels would add a lot to the overall look. As I am still finding my way around the Spreadsheet of Doom and haven't been entrusted with the power to use decimals yet, I'm going to add 1/2 a point for the flags and round your score up to 31. I'm looking forward to seeing this project continue to grow, Ray.

From ChrisW - ECW, meets monsters & Sisters of Sigmar & Germanic women [308 points]

This week we take another limo ride, this time to the Historical drama studio for the start of my ECW journey. Better be a stretch limo as some nice German ladies have come along for the ride!

Lady Sarah's limo ride  [4 standing 2 kneeling figures]

The figures are foundry miniatures and I have based them for Infamy Infamy. I had started with contrast paints but really really needed to finish off with conventional paints. I have a variable success rate with the contrast flesh paints, I failed on these figures but succeeded with the Sisters of Sigmar below.

Historical drama studio ECW cavalry [12 figures]

At the historical drama I have started to work on my large plastic pile as I prepare to do my own Cromwell film. This is the first unit of ECW troops that I have ever painted. They are, of course,  Warlord games figures. I went with cuirassiers since they seemed to be the easiest/most straight forward figures to paint. I have done them up as Royalists and will give them a standard once I find them again.

Sisters of Sigmar [16 figures]

Up next are some figures that were not on the table for this week, but late Wednesday night I had a sudden idea for a paint scheme so instead of working on anything else that was due for this week, I instead spent Thursday painting these Sisters of Sigmar. They are old figures that I have owned since they first came out, nuff said. Not certain what I will do with them but I assume I shall use them in Chaos in Carpathia or some other skirmish game.

Monster most foul, large and small [4 large monsters, 1 smaller monster]

The Minotaur and the bull are both reaper figures. One of my back burner projects for this challenge is Jason and the Argonauts. This has got me thinking about skirmish gaming in ancient Greece so I figured I would need some big bad monsters for my heroes to fight.

I had been aiming for a fairly dark Minotaur when I started painting, but was running the risk of lightening him up too much as I applied several layers of brow. However when I washed it with reikland flesh wash it quickly returned to it,s dark roots but still maintained enough highlights, I think. I should have thinned out the wash a bit more. It certainly clung to the model when applied, normally I have a bit of wiggle room when I apply wash, but this time it just stuck on. 

Oh and I added three gratuitous skulls to the base just for the heck of it.

The bull has four layers of different bronze paints not that one can readily tell. He was a little warped so really needed to be glued down to a base.

This one is by Flying Frog Games

Not a great figure, but it will do as a swamp creature!

Two more Bones (reaper) figures (pun intended)

All monsters

Points for this entry

• 20 points for limo ride
• 20 points for studio bonus
  
• 120 points x 28mm mounted troops
• 110 points 22 x 28mm foot (includes weird wall of  bone creature)
  
• 10 points 3 x 65mm swamp thing monster
• 21 points for 3 x 40mm figures (bull/Minotaur/winged bone thing)

Total 301 points 

Skull challenge +14 for this week (the small skeleton wall has 10 skulls), for a total of 13 for the challenge 

Squirrels This week

1. Sisters of Sigmar
2. Ancient Germanic women
3. ECW Royalist cuirassiers
   
4. Monsters large
   

 Total of 7 points so far

  

Wow, what a great mix of models and genres, Chris. I think you've miscounted the number of 28mm minis by one, so I have increased your score accordingly. I've also added a couple of points for the multi-base on the German Fraulein's and the horse's head. I like everything that you've done, but especially the Reaper minis. I have a soft spot for the Reaper Bones line (almost as soft as the models themselves), and I know how bendy that skeletal wall thing is, it must have been challenging to paint.

Congratulations on your paint bomb.

From Millsy: Tyranid Genestealers Ewww! (Studio Sci-fi 60 points)

G'day All,

My second submission is a quick one, more of a "palate flenser" than anything, a tonic to refresh me from the two large subs I am working on at the moment.

These horrible little monsters have been lurking in my stash for a while now and scratch an itch I have always had to paint a few Genestealers without ever actually needing any. Recent enjoyment of Kill Team 2.0 means I've found a use for them so everyone's a winner (at least until you meet these guys in a dark corridor).

They're simple enough to paint if a bit laborious cutting in all the blue-black carapace. The scheme is a popular one and indelibly linked in my head to all things Tyranid, going all the way back to my Space Crusade days.

Give us a kiss then my lovely!

8 x 28mm minis + bonus = 60 points. Ka-ching!

Cheers,
Millsy

I like the bright, vibrant purple you've chosen to go with the deep, dark blue. The traditional look for Genestealers is pretty hard to beat. I still have nightmares about playing against the 'stealers in Space Hulk, one bad dice roll and they would quickly rend their way through a squad of terminators. Nice work, Millsy.

From Barks: Army of the Dead (105 points)

A quick 21 figures here. The Dead of Dunharrow are well sculpted, with cadaverous faces and animated sculpts flowing over the ground. 

I wasn't sure how to paint these: film-accurate greenish or a more pleasing verdigris-blue tone. I did a test between two different Contrast paints over a white undercoat, then drybrushed Army Painter Spaceship Exterior. I settled on blue-grey Briar Queen Chill over green Hexwraith Flame.

Hexwraith Flame vs Briar Queen Chill, both drybrushed grey

In The Return of the King (2003), the King of the Dead has a red hue to his cloak. I painted this with Flesh Tearers Red before the same application of Contrast and drybrush as the rest. It is subtly different and I'm happy with the outcome.

Before

After Briar Queen Chill and drybrush grey

21x 28mm figures (105 points)

Lovely work on these ghostly chaps, Barks. I agree that the blue-grey works better for them than the green. The king's cloak has just enough red showing through to stand out, but not enough to overpower the colour scheme as a whole. 105 spooky points well earned.

From Barks: Starship Troopers Brain Bug (Sci-fi)(40 points)

I wasn't a fan initially of Starship Troopers (1997) as I felt it veered wildly from the tone of Heinlein's 1959 novel, but I grew to appreciate it as satire. (I can't embed the appropriate brain bug video due to age restrictions, but here.)

This miniature is an absolute pain* and has been an albatross around my neck for at least fifteen years. The brain bug is five solid hunks of metal which don't remotely fit together. Mine is more Milliput than metal. It is carried by an entourage of chariot bugs. There is no clean fit of them to the brain bug, and I used two-part epoxy to try and get them to fit. The epoxy wasn't well mixed and turned into this frustrating tacky mess that has followed me on multiple house moves.

Picture from a keen eBay seller. Look at the flashing...

As I've found previously, however, AHPC theme rounds to the rescue! A bit of impetus has seen this bug finished. I was able to strip the tacky epoxy and used a MDF base to keep the chariot bugs in place. I drilled out a few holes in the bottom of the brain bug for pinning with nails into the base. Painting was the easiest part, using Army Painter Speedpaints Crusader Skin, Pallid Bone, Slaughter Red, and Grim Black.

Chariot bugs. Note the nails for pinning.

Gloss to the eyes

Anvil Digital Forge troopers for scale.

1x big fat smart bug and 6x small bugs (20 points)

Sci-Fi set (20 points)

*The authoritative Goonhammer history of SST says "... anyone who has assembled the brain bug is truly a hero of the federation."

I'm not sure how to score this, so I'll follow your lead and assign it 20 points as a monster including the smaller bugs on its base. I enjoyed the original Starship Troopers movie, though not enough to bother with the sequels. I had heard that there was a minis game based on the film/books, but I don't recall ever having seen figures for it before. If they all had as much flash it would go some way to explaining why the game died off.