From ScottC: World Cinema - Insurgents and Hero figure (115pts)

Off to the World Cinema!

I decided to paint some unrelated but relevant figures to complete some projects that I have had lingering for some time.

First up is Reptilian Overlords 3d printed Commander Ze who I purchased not only to represent such a historical modern hero but all proceeds went to support the country's Red Cross.

Next up are my insurgents designed by Quartermaster 3d and 3d printed. These were included in his modern kickstarter a year or two back and have been waiting for a paint job. They've finally been given some justice!

A personal favorite: The Shopper

Some figures designed to go in the back of vehicles

A Canadian Armed Forces medic unit, (metal) bought from Assault Group

    

And lastly, two middle eastern police units, purchased from Spectre Miniatures (metal)

Admittedly, it has been an absolute blast jumping from genre to genre, looking forward to the next project!

Points: 

9x 28mm foot infantry = 45 pts

2x 28mm "mounted" infantry = 20 pts

Challenge bonus = 20 pts

Total pts = 80 pts

From TeemuL: Second post from Scott today and brilliant painting continues. It is stunning, but I still think my math is correct. I can see only 8 foot infantry, but I'll count the second rider as one, since there is only one "mount." So 9 infantry and 1 "cavalry". Then there are 4 crew served guns, worth 10 points a piece. And then the Challenge bonus, so it will be 115 points.

From AndrewB: Great White Fleet pt1! Retro! (80s)(35pts)

Wowza, there’s a distinct lack of posts from me this week, sorry folks!   Have a bunch of stuff that just needs to get based, then I’ll get the posts written for next week and we’ll be back up to steam for next week, and we’ll finish the first month strong.   

This week, the model I wrapped up which thankfully requires no basing, is a 1/600 scale USS Texas from Old Glory’s Age of Ironclad line.  I absolutely misread the studio room as ‘80s’, which is when this bad mama-jama was designed and laid down.  Not these most recent 80s, but the ones before that.  It certainly fits the ‘retro’ aspect though, so no harm, no foul.  

I intend to put together a ‘floor’ style game for these models, using a modification of a rule set written by Chris Arnold over at Not Jay’s Table Top Gaming on YouTube.  If anyone’s around the Midwest, I should have the game running at the March to Victory convention in Kansas City on March 22, immediately following the closing of festivities here.  

I’m not sure I’m entirely sold on the grime/coal dust effect I was going for, but that’s how it goes sometimes.  The search for the better method continues. 

I decided to go with the US Navy’s Great White Fleet scheme here, even though it wasn’t in place across the fleet at the time of the Spanish American War.   It’s just looks fantastic, and incredibly distinct compared to the grays I’m used to.  The Spanish black scheme should be fun as well. 

I’m not entirely sure on how to score this big girl, but it’s bigger than 15mm vehicles, smaller than 28mm, but still sorta simple    I was going to run with 10pts like a 15mm vehicle, if that’s ok with Teemu and the high mucky mucks.  That would bring me to 30pts with the bonus for the room, as well as leaving me with only one remaining room in the green zone!   We’ll be through the blue soon!

From TeemuL: 15mm vehicles are worth only 8 points, but there is 20mm vehicles category, too, worth 15 points. There is scoring for Black Seas Ships, too, and 1 category there is worth 15 points. I know nothing of ships or their rates, but I'll book this one as 3rd rate Black Seas Ship, worth 15 points. Naval experts, please give your opinions, and I make corrections if needed.

Anyway, that ship looks nice, the white colour is eye catching. Looking forward to see your next post next week.

From ScottC: Historical Drama and Yellow Brick Road (80 pts)

 Well howdy ho partners,

Next up on my studio walkthrough was my yellow brick road submission. None other than Boromir of Gondor!

I would have asked of no better compatriot to accompany me across my path towards historical drama.

Model is a 3d print from TPGEO.

Now for my Historical Drama submission, after doing a little bit of research many old time western films are in fact.. Historical Drama's! 

I painted up 6 gunfighter ball figures from the Avenging Angels set. I always love painting the knuckleduster figures because they always seem to have so much character.

Points:

6x 28mm infantry = 30 pts

1 x 28mm (40mm base) cavalry figure = 10 pts

Challenge bonuses = 40 pts

Total: 80 pts

Now onwards and upwards I go!

From TeemuL: This is some fine brushwork, Scott! Shame that there are no more photos on them, one photo only. I'm sure we'd like to see more, I guess it is even in the rules. And Challenge map would make it easier to follow your tour around the studios. But like I said, very nice painting, the gunfighters are very characterful and I like your colour choices.

From PeterD Built Like A Hick Brit's House (20 points)

 

A terrain post for me in the form of three British Roundhouses.  This is a set of three houses sold by Sarissa as Irish houses but would work for many Celtic and similar Northern Europeans in the Ancient and Early medieval period.  They will also fit well in a TTG in my Beowulf DnD Campaign. 

The larger decogonal house.

One of the smaller octagonal houses.  I didn't paint the interiors except to blacken the floor her the door.

With the roofs removed, keen eyes will see that the houses are in fact not round but actually polygonal.  The two small ones are Octagonal and the larger Chief's house is a decagon.  Sarissa may have found that the regular polygons were easier to design and construct or they may have been attempting to estimate Pi by the Ancient technique of inscribing polygonal within a circle.

I had a hard time photographing these buildings and they look much less crappy in person.  I do need to give the roofs a trim obviously

As with all Sarissa kits, they went together easily and painted up nicely.  I added a bit of groundwork, Faux Fur thatching (narrowly avoiding having my wife add googly eyes to the unpainted fur) and smoke.  

According to the formula in text I am using for my MATH110 class they take up about a single terrain cube.  Math is as follows

I painted them in a variety of colours based on the photos from the Butser Hill Experimental Farm.  I have actually been to Butser Hill but it was long enough ago that it was showing off current technology.  I varried the terrascaping a bit for each house.  I figured that the head man's larger hut might be better tended and without weeds around it.

I realize that the attempted play on words may be lost on those who are not survivors of the 1970s.  However, in 1970s teenage lad speak the term "built like a brick sh*t house" was used to describe the figure of a young lady whose curves you admired.  Doesn't make much sense but neither do teenage lads or the 1970s for that matter.  The term hit its Cultural Zenith in giving the Commodores the inspiration for this classic bit of over top top 70s funk (note Lionel Ritchie sporting the Fro and blowing Sax in the horn line).  This video may give rise to many questions (particularly after the 3:00 mark), for which the universal answer is that it was 1978.

Link here in case Blogger doesn't like my insert.

No side duels or Theme Bonus on this, just 20 points straight up.

From TeemuL: Some fine houses here, Peter. I guess they are suitable for different battlefields. May be even something for those Lanciarii? Since I don't know the measurements of those buildings, I'm going to blindly approve your math, the results sounds about right, so I'll take it. "Build like a brick sh*t house" doesn't ring a bell, I was born 1978, so it might explain. I'm glad you explained it, since in my first Minion email I made it very clear, that when you native English speakers start to talk about "taking a butcher's knive" and "big girl's blouse", I'll be lost and confused. That bullet was dodged, thank you very much. :)

From GeoffreyT: I have no idea what this is (Arthouse)(65 points)

In the Arthouse studio, things are starting to get just that little bit odd.

So odd that I have no idea what this is, despite having I sculpted it.  if anyone has any idea what it could be please let me know.

It is 50mm tall to top of the head.  Normally a miniature is measured to eye height, but in this case it proved futile as it has no eyes.  Lets say if it did have eyes they would be about 40mm from the ground.

There is a group of you-tube creators that have an annual event called Monster bash, where they compile a list of 100 monstrous image prompts, then they randomly select seven each and make a monster that includes those seven elements.  The image cards are available online, so anyone can join the madness.  I made this thing from the 'Monster Bash 3' card set.

The elements were; an eyeless face with big grin and slit nostrils, insectoid wings, hooves, humanoid ears with spikes on them, scrawny arms with extra articulation, upwardly curving facial hair, and an enclosed helm.  The elements are all included here.

The enclosed helm was a conundrum, as there were 3 facial features it would wipe out, so I did the helm being held in the hand.  The curvy facial hear came out great, but somewhat disturbing as it is both facial hair and groin hair.  There was no directive for the butt, so I extended the hooves theme, to have horse hooves supplemented by a horse sized arse.

The you-tube channel where I first saw the use the monster bash cards is "Bill Making Stuff".  It is about Bill, and he makes stuff.  The thing Bill make that are most characteristic of his work is beadbots.  These, as the name would suggest are robot minis made out of beads.  I made some too.

Bill paints everything rusty, so I did too.

They are about 40-65mm tall, so lets say 40mm figure on average.  The Beads were handed down to me for modelling by my now adult daughter.  I am pleased with how the in-line-skate bot came out.

Finally I add in a tiny-tiny miniature I made.  Nominally 28mm scale, but is actually about 6mm.  It is a sentient voodoo doll.

In the excellent "Perilous Tales" B-test rules by Mike Hutchinson, one of the antagonists has a voodoo doll that moves independently from the practitioner.  So I made this, replete with inserted needles.

Points:

6 x40 mm miniatures = 42 points

1 x 6mm figure = not enough for a point

1 x Arthouse bonus = 20 points

Total gain = 62 points and some disturbed thoughts

From TeemuL: I guess this will be a common feeling, but I have no idea what I can see in this post, but I like it! The monster is great and those rusty non-vehicles are good looking, too. Tiny voodoo doll is a great addition and creates nice contrast. I can see him walking along those bead-robots like some kind of herder or something.

I'll round up that 6mm mini for one complete point and give a few extra points for the awesomeness of your building process.

From MIkeW: 28mm Apocalypse Survivors, Renaissance Foot & Horse plus 40k Orks (321 Points)

Left over from last week, as I ran out of time to complete and a batch of 3D 28mm Renaissance Cavalry, these are nominally Spanish but I have repurposed them to be able to be used as any nationality by swapping out the standard. A common trick I use to reduce the number of figures required to stave various battle scenarios.

Finally completed the Renaissance Spanish Cavalry

These figures were supplied with the riders and horses as one piece with their right arms separate to be glue din place using super glue. Assembly was simple - although two horses arrived with broken legs, one could be fixed the second is missing its lower leg but I have tried to disguise this by appropriate scenics on the base.

These are D printed with a huge amount of detail, best of all reasonably priced

All figures were given a lances lowered stance, except for the officer that had a sword hand from the spares box added and the standard bearer who simply has the lance pointing upwards.

Another view

Figures came without bases but were glued to appropriate cavalry bases and then undercoated white before various horse flesh colours were applied, followed by the horses' leatherwork and furniture. The riders were 'dressed' with various colours and Oily Steel was used for armour, then washed in watered down Dark Tone ink. Other appropriate ink washes were applied to horses and riders before the figures were bases with Sand, electrostatic grass and various tufts.

Close-up of the Standard Bearer, flag is a generic cavalry standard from the period,
taken from the internet and recreated in Windows Paint.

Next is a group of ten 28mm Apocalypse Survivors, these are from a frame of plastic 28mm Warlord Games figures (ex Wargames Factory), built with the aim to provide some additional opposition to the Zombie Horde that I created during last year's challenge.

A motley group of Warlord Games survivors

I'm a little disappointed with the build of some of these figures, maybe its my fault but I found issues with the interchangeability of the arms and heads on these guys and this left a couple of the models looking a little 'odd'. 

Left to right: A guy with two pistols, a juvenile with an Uzi
and an office worker with a crowbar.

That said, I'm reasonably pleased with the paint jobs on these guys, you'll note that they are all male survivors. All figures were sprayed white from a rattle can to undercoat, and the 'dressed' according to my whim. I have a frame of female survivors to work on next and these will hopefully provide me with a number of figures to 'power' Sarah's Limo around the Cinema Lots in coming posts!

Two more survivors, left a 'Matrix' like guy with a long leather coat and pistol
and right a gangster or government agent with an M16 

The weapons available on the frame were pretty limited, so the group is a motley bunch of nine adults and a juvenile. Six of the guys have firearms whilst the remainder have a selection of 'ad hoc' weapons. Of this smaller group I particularly like the guy with the chainsaw and the Office Worker with a crowbar and rather randomly a bow and arrows! 

Guy with Chainsaw and a 'Dad' with a baseball bat

The Cricketer, carrying a Bat & Molitov Cocktail, is one of the figures that I'm not overly happy with the pose it has, similarly with the 'Dad' figure carrying a Baseball Bat, the arm joints at the shoulders is not a great fit.

Final group, left a guy in combat trousers and tee-shirt with an automatic rifle, centre the cricketer with a Molotov cocktail and right a cop with an M16

Of the armed group, we have a guy in a long black leather coat, carrying a pistol, a mafia or maybe Government Operative in a grey suit carrying an M16 Rifle, both pretty nice figures in my opinion. I did a policeman, again with an M6 and a holstered pistol plus a juvenile and another guy both with some type automatic weapon. Finally there is a guy with two automatic pistols and wearing jeans and an orange vest. Unfortunately on this figure the right arm/shoulder joint isn't that great. 

The bases on these figures are simply painted grey to represent concrete, black lines added to show the cracks between the slabs and then a wash of sepia ink is run along each black line to indicate dirt. When dry I varnish and sprinkle a mix of grey and black flock to represent detritus on the uncleaned streets and finally a few small tufts of grass between the paving slabs to further drive home the uncared for look of a post apocalypse city!

Then we get on to the Orks! Part of the reason I ran out of time on the Spanish Horse was due to having two batches of Orks on the go, they're just such fun to paint. So this is actually two batches that have merged together to be completed this week, 18 figures in all.

The Warboss 'Goldtooth', named for obvious reasons.

There are 10 x Boyz almost all with Choppa and hand Blasta, plus 5 Boyz with Heavier Blasta plus 2 new Grechin and a mighty Warboss.

Two Grechin to add to the army

I won't go through the painting methodology of these guys as I've described elsewhere, I'll leave you with the photos and commentary to see what I have done with these figures. By some fluke I have a number (4) of Ork Heads in this batch that have all got scars on them, so I have painted this regular (pinkish) flesh colour and then run over this with a line of red ink, to make it slightly more vivid than their lips.

Five Ork Boyz with Heavy Blastas

The gretchin with the sword is clearly cut out to be some kind of leader, he is an old metal figure and I gave him distinctive red hair for the fun of it.

Five Boyz with Choppa and Hand Blasta

And another Five Boyz with Choppa and Hand Blasta

All of the new batch together

And maybe a slightly better view

Finally the two Boyz with skulls on their Choppas for this week's Side Duel

Last but not least we have a group of 13 (unlucky for some) Landsknechts, six pikemen, 4 two handed swordsmen, two more handgunners and a crossbowman. Seemingly a random lot but really I wanted to add 2 handgunner's to last week's batch - allowing me to field these are 2 x 6 figure wings to a pike block. Additionally I wanted to add another rank of pikemen to a pike block of 20 figures I completed last May, see <here>. Then I just wanted to see what the Two Handed swordsmen would look like, deployed in a forlorn hope in front of the pike block, chopping away enemy pike heads as they advance. The crossbowman was just for good measure and again to see what it looked like.

Thirteen completed this week Landsknechts

Painting technique was exactly as described last week, adapted for crossbowman and swordsmen. The two handed swordsmen, musketeers & handgunners come in only two poses, albeit you can swap arms and heads about to your whim. Again I'm pleased with the results.

Two Handgunners plus a Crossbowman

with a rear view!

Four Two-Handed Swordsmen

and their rear view...

Six Pikemen, five of these are Warlord Games figures,
one is a Wargames Atlantic Conquistador, pressed into German Service!!

Wargames Atlantic figure is front right

Why am I showing the rear of all these guys?

Here is a photo of the new 25 man pike block, with flanking handgunners and wo handed swordsmen out front.

My first completed pike block and supporting arms,
I'm now thinking that I need to increase the hand gunner wings to eight figures each

Another view, bulk of the pike men were panted earlier in the year
but supplemented by this week's and last weeks Landsknecht figures

Final view

So to the points tally, bit of a points bomb today...

... Next week more Orks, hopefully a Marian Wars Scots Pike block and some more survivors - fingers crossed!

POINTS

10 x 28mm Renaissance Horse  @10Pts ea                        100 Points

10 x 28mm Survivors                  @ 5 Pts ea                        50 Points

18 x 40k Orks & Grechin            @ 5 Pts ea                        90 Points

13 x Landsknecht                         @ 5 Pts ea                        65 Points

TOTAL                                                                                305 Points

SIDE DUELS

+1 Squirrel Point

+165 Codpiece & Feather Points Assuming I can count the Cavalry in this section!

+2  Skull Points

From TeemuL: This definitely counts as a points bomb, lots of points from four different sources. Is that a points grape bomb then? The Landsknecht look very good and I really like the light green skin of gretchins. The Orks are a bit tall to count as 28mm minis, so I'll give you couple of extra points from them.