From TeemuL: Retro in Two Acts and More! [1980s or Retro] [Limo] (105 points)

"Aren't those black and white movies boring? Nothing to see. I see you wandered to our 1980s or Retro studio, they not much better, they are colourful and often have nice explosions, but they are old and not very HD. Yes, people like new movies, that's why we are here, make great movies and grand profits, this is an industry after all! Some of this old stuff can be used as a base of remake, but who actually watches these oldies, I have no idea. Of course our new movie has nothing to do with this oldness, it is brand new in every possible way and here you can see some of the new extras, dwarf warriors, come on, now..."

Here are two sets of quite retro minis, they are both from Crooked Dice, so retro is almost granted. Originally I had an idea to post one of them as Sci-Fi and another as 1980s or Retro, but I didn't know which way. Then I had that idea of Genestealer Hybrids for Sci-Fi and decided to put all these to 1980s or retro.

These ape-like creatures are called Simians, there is a Simian Elder and Simian Leader with two Simian Minions. They have a strong resemblance to 1968 film Planet of the Apes, but of course they really aren't them, they are Simians. I hope they still count. :) I have painted other Simians in the past and during the previous Challenge I found out that Crooked Dice has created this kind of set, too, so during the summer I made an order there and made sure to include this pack.

I tried to emulate the colours used in films and Crooked Dice page. I used mainly Contrast paints and I had to use all of my brown(ish) colours to have enough variation - I almost mixed two paints together to create an unique tone, but I resisted myself. Who knows what horrors that kind of heresy might let loose?!?

The other set is 3/4 of Galactic Villains set and they have enough retro feel to satisfy my conscience to include them here. I have no idea, if they are inspired some movie, but they don't look familiar to me. Please enlighten me, if you know something of their origin. I used pretty much every non-brown(ish) Contrast colour on them to mimic the feeling of 1980s and some gold.

They are Alien Tyrant (painted like human, since I didn't do any research), Ruthless Lieutenant and Diabolical Fiend (which is painted almost like the Crooked Dice even though I didn't do any research). Last year I played couple of games of "Five Parsecs from Home" with my six year old son. The game is a solo game, but I was like an umpire, letting my son to do the decisions, remining him of rules and options of course, but letting him decide, while I was going through the rulebook and kept the world running and enemies moving. It was very nice, although very random and included lots of bookkeeping and quite heavy between-scenarios mechanics. We used almost exlusively Crooked Dice minis and if we play again, these three make great characters there.

I have been wandering in the Studios, but I have not forgotten my main project, that one Ikea box. This time I present you five more Dwarf warriors to support the previous six. One frame makes 12 dwarfs, but since these were a second hand purchase, I'm missing an archer. I used Contrast paints on these and kept to the chose colours, they look pretty nice.

One thing that amazes me, is how GW can create these Lotr models. 12 different models in one sprue, almost all have only one part. But if they create minis to other games, the whole sprue is made of identical figures or if they are different, the models consist of 5 or more parts. I really like the simplicity and variety of these models, even though they might not be fully 3D from every angle.

With the 1980s or Retro studio visited, I have gone through 4 green areas and I'm ready to move to the blue zone. I need a Limo ride to Swords and Sandals and I hope this Sword and Sandals wearing Amazon called Rania from Bad Squiddo Games provides me the lift. Yes, I could have used her as the film location entry, but that would have been too easy...

Rania is one of the (random) female minis, which I picked up and primed prior the Challenge, since I knew I need them for taxi service. This was a nice mini to paint and fits the scheme. I got her as part of YourModelBox subscription some years ago and I don't have any game specific use for her. Now she is painted and hopefully sees something else than insides of brown Warchests...

She is a mix of Contrast and traditional paints, most of her is covered in metallics. Skin and hair is rather dark so I chose quite pale colour for the small areas of cloth. Quite a lot of girl power in this post, Rania, two Galactic Villains and female Simian Minion, so I have tagged this with "Sarah's Choice."

Totals for scoring: 13 28mm miniatures, 13 * 5 = 65

2 locations, 1980s or Retro and Sarah's Limousine, 2 * 20 = 40

Total 105 points.

Minion Miles: Love the planet of the Apes theme!

From MikeF - Gamma Wolves - Bolschev Arcology - 28mm - (120 Points)

 My second entry is another faction for Gamma Wolves. This group is from an Arcology called Bolschev and is made up of the remnants of Eastern Europe and Asia. That's a pretty wide range, but it's obviously meant to depict the old Soviet Union and satellite states. This Arcology borrows from the usual stereotypes of Eastern Europe using more rugged and less sophisticated machinery. These models reflect this well and I added lots of weathering and rust. I was originally going to add red stars as insignia, but didn't feel right doing that. Instead, I added what I think are British Army insignia. As coincidence would have it, the main insignia I used has the same colors as the Polish flag!  I managed to make 6 units consisting of 1 heavy, 3 medium and 2 light walkers. I added two 28mm figures for scale purposes.

2 Medium

2 Light, 1 Medium

1 Heavy

Last post I mentioned one batch of models I ordered that arrived despite international sanctions. I ordered these models in early January 2022 from Souldark Miniatures based in Russia. It doesn't really sell miniatures, as their products are more like toys for action figures. However, their toys made decent mechs for super cheap. In hindsight, my timing was laughably bad. One of those "what were you thinking?" moments. I assumed the order would never be sent and I didn't even bother reaching out to the company or asking for a refund (can't imagine what the response would have been). To my surprise, sometime in March, a package showed up at the post office. About half the order was not as advertised and were of no use (a much smaller scale despite being the same price as the larger models). The other half was the right size, but needed lots of work to make serviceable. Oh well, at least they were cheap!

6 x 28mm vehicle for 110 points. I knocked 5 points off for each light walker.

Thanks for visiting.

Minion Miles: A vehicle is a vehicle - I scored them at 20 points each.  Rules is Rules and these are very nicely done.  That's 120 points for you Sir!

From PeterB - From Adventurer to Spam - 82 points

 

Another week, another trip around the the studios. I'm making no promises here, but I seem to be on course for a full house here. (Something I did not intend to do when I started.) As I have said in my previous post, most of my toy soldier purchases tend to be movie inspired, so this has been quite easy just paint from my leadpile and cruise around Challenge Studios. (With apologies to the excellent service I am sure Lady Sarah's Limousine service I am sure is providing, I promise I will probably make use of which at some point before the challenge is out.)

So, after last week stopping at Under Construction studios, I discard my hard hat and stroll down down first to High Adventure where a lone figure stalks through the dead of the night in the spookiest of graveyards (are some of those gravestones wobbling?) Is he stalking a vampire, or is he a graverobber on a nefarious scheme? Well, in reality he is a a Frostgrave plastic that I have converted up to use in Dungeons and Dragons, surely the greatest of Adventures.

 

Yes, I know it isn't dark, but then you wouldn't see the miniature.

  Next, we cross the Yellow Brick Road and stop off at Historical Drama. Over on my blog some time ago I posted conversion rules for using the Warhammer Historical rules Legends of the Old West in a WW2 setting. As the original rules were very cinematic, my WW2 version also had a cinema leaning including Hellboy, Russian Werebears and Captain America. I had wanted to include the Howling Commandos, but I could not find any suitable models. Well, the first of the Howling Commandos has now arrived, meet Dum Dum Duggan.

 Duggan is made up of a simple plastic conversion using a head from the Great Escape Games Cowboys sprue and the rest of the parts are from Warlord games WW2 range. I had been holding out until I found a suitable bowler/mustache combination.

Then we wander over next to World Cinema and the plains of Zululand. Some of you may remember from last year I painted up two plastic Perry sets for the Zulu war (Like anyone can remember a single post from the hundreds from last year!) and so at Colours in September I had to buy this from Wargame Illustrated's Giants in Miniature range, Shaka Zulu.

The shield is plain white as on reading up, I discovered the whiter your shield is, the more important you are

   

 

And finally (as John Craven used to say for those of you of a certain age and geographical location) we stop off at the Casting Couch. Where the hero of my youngest sons army is waiting for his first starring role. Its a brief tale, so bear with me. My youngest asked Santa for something for his Space Marine army even though relatives were also purchasing him box sets already (unbeknownst to him) Now, Santa of course wanted to find something that would fit in his stocking, so Christmas morning the latest brand new Space Marine Captain in "something" armour appeared. (I honestly don't know what it is, after all Santa was the gift giver and the last time I paid proper attention to Space Marines armour was around 2002. In the post Christmas/pre new year period of time off work/school we had some time painting together but attention wandered and only some sniper marines were painted. So, he asked me to paint the Captain for him instead. I did, then he pointed out all the bits I missed, so I did some more. I'm pretty sure it is finished now. He is going to do the transfer himself (he is good at that bit).

So that is me done for this week and I have completed the green set of studios, so you all have to pay me double rent when you land on them now. ;-)

To the points.

3 x 28mm models at 5pts = 15

1 x 40mm model (Spam) at 7pts = 7

3 x studio visits at 20pts = 60

Total = 82 points.

Minion Miles: A most efficient studio tour!

From FrederickC - Units of the BEF (Balin's Expeditionary Force) (370 points)

This week's submission is a mix of units from Balin's Expeditionary Force for the reconquest of Khazad-dûm, commonly known as Moria or the Dwarrowdel, It consists of a box of 24 plastic Dwarf Warriors, a box of 24 Dwarf Rangers, 22 metal Dwarf Warriors, and three resin figures from the Dwarf Command set, all produced by Games Workshop. I had picked up the metal figures over a decade ago, and had used some to form a seven figure Battle Company. I later expanded this group into a larger force using additional plastic figures that were eBay rescues to form Nali's Household. The two boxes of plastic figures I had purchased new more recently, while the three resin figures were acquired in late November of last year.

In terms of detail, I liked the metal figures best. It is interesting that they were sculpted wearing chainmail, while the later plastic figures were sculpted wearing a coat of plates. The resin figures were based directly on earlier metal figures. They have the same detail, but are more fragile, and the banner pole was very warped.

The only assembly required on the plastic figures were the separate shields on eight of the Dwarf Warriors. I left these on the sprue until all the painting was complete, and then glued them in place with super glue. All the figures were fitted to their slotted bases, and some small pebbles and sand were glued to the base using PVA glue.

They were then primed black with either a rattle can or an airbrush. Painting was done primarily using Vallejo acrylics, although I used a few colors from some old containers of Partha paints that were still in good shape, specifically True Blue and Bronze Metallic. I also used some Citadel washes, especially on the Dwarf Rangers. Here is the end result.

A Host of Dwarves

 

Dain's Household 

Dain's Household consists of 8 dwarves with hand axe and shield, 8 dwarves with two-handed axe, and 8 dwarves with bow, plus a captain and a banner. Nine of the figures are metal, the captain and banner are resin, and the rest are plastic. The main colour I used for their tunics was blue, a few with yellow trim. I used the same blue on their shields, while the banner was painted with a combination of blue and yellow. 

 

Dain's Household

 

A closeup of the banner and captain

Dwarf Rangers

The composition of the ranger company is similar to that of Dain's Household, except none carry shields. Instead of hand axe and shield, 8 of the rangers wield two throwing axes. The ranger figures have nice animation in the sculpts, and were very enjoyable to paint. I gave them all green tunics and leather jerkins but used four different shades of green, and four different shades of light brown. Vallejo Leather Brown was used for all the boots, belts, pouches, and quivers, and a medium grey for the trousers. Vallejo Beige Brown was used for all the bows, ax handles and arrow shafts. I then applied a wash of Agrax Earthshade before painting the cloaks using a light grey.

 

Rangers with eyes of hawks and ears of foxes

The Remnants of Lóni's and Frár's Households

 I was left with 13 metal figures, 10 plastic figures, and 1 resin figure which were 4 dwarves with two-handed axes, 7 dwarves with hand axe and shield, 12 dwarves with bows, and the war horn. The backstory I created for them is that they are all that is left of two households involved in the defence of Durin's Bridge and the Second Hall. As the Dwarf forces fell back from the bridge, Lóni's Household was surrounded and overwhelmed with only 4 dwarves with bows managing to escape. With the number of goblins growing ever larger, Frár asked for four volunteers from those in his household armed with two-handed axes to defend the entrance to the Second Hall and buy time for the rest to fall back to safety. Neither Frár nor his volunteers survived. They are painted in a similar style to Dain's Household but I used dark green on the tunics of Lóni's four surviving bows, and red for Frár's household.

 

All that remains of Frár's and Lóni's Households

A closeup of the war horn

The points being claimed are as follows:

74 x 28mm figures @ 5 points each = 370 points.

Minion Miles: Thats A LOT of Dwarves and very nicely painted ones to boot!

From BruceR: Marauder Mercenary Ogre: 28mm Eastern Front Italians: 1980s: Studio Challenge: (78 pts)

Time again for the Wednesday production.  I feel somewhat owing to our Wednesday Minion Miles.  Between Millsy and I thought a couple challengers named Miles I didn't realize, our very Minion was renowned TV host direct from Youtube, Miles of LWTV.  Without knowing, I garnered an additional point ashamedly referencing a game played using LWTV's Ravenfeast. Simply to show the use of table dressing figures.  Oh, the pain, the chagrin, the shame.  Cheers Miles and thanks for the point. 

Oh well back to Wednesday offerings.  

I have to admit the challenge seriously helps me get things done.  What it also does is tempt me to look at miniatures I have not touched, used, or even intend to use.  This due to the offerings by all the participants bringing forth such a diverse selection of hobby.  Isn't it great!!!! (I'm still on the fence about vegetables) Ha. 

So, I didn't want to grind out another section of Italians as they sat looking at me primed and ready to go.  Instead, looking around the dungeon my eyes fell on a Flouncy Marauder Ogre Mercenary primed on my wall of opportunity (some completed and some not).  Well, why not, this bugger has sat on my shelf for many a year and I don't know if I purchased them all in a boxed set or separately it's been so long.   During my WHFB days (which started in 1988 Ft. Carson. CO) I would take one to jazz up a unit and fill four empire soldier slots with a similarly armed Mercenary Ogre.

Judging from the many renaissance figures to come before me someone can better educate me on the proper way to paint cut cloth as denoted on this friendly beast.  He was primed a sand color from days gone by and I now highlighted him with some dry brush white.  From there I used contrast paints to start.  I used Dark Oath Flesh, Blood Angels Red (thinned with medium) and Aethermatic Blue for the major colors.  The hat was Black Templar highlighted with black grey Vallejo.   Some white, some brass, and yellow (Iraqi sand with the old GW yellow ink I still have from yes the 80's).  Once completed I felt he needed a touch more, so I blacklined some of the clothing items to set them apart and this seemed to help. 

Enough blathering here he is for your review.  An Ogre about town, seen in all the fancy places, and dressed to kill.

I did want to show him off more than the old unit fillers, so he got the base treatment.  Milliput and wood plank From Happy Seppuku base texture stamp.  Quick paint and wash.

Here are his mates painted over the years to fill those empire slots.  I still have one more setting on the ledge of opportunity, who know.

Flouncy and his mates (who do not count) upon research appear to be from the late 80's GW Marauder figures.  So my 1980s Challenge Studios Set.

After his flaunciness I did the grind.  10 more Eastern Front Italians (poor saps).  The poster read, "come and sun yourself on the black sea, rest, relax......"  

These again are my project of Great Escape Games Italians from the eastern front.  

Avanti, Avanti:

Points:

Base to feather Flouncy is 50mm.  He is in that 7-10 point range.  

One Flouncy call it      8 pts  

1980s Studio               20 pts

10 28mm x 5               50 pts

Total                            78 pts

Minion Miles: Mention another LWTV product and you get more points - yes it's shameless self promotion.  The Ogre is fantastic!