From JamesM: Black and White, Books, Westerns, Fantasy, Arthouse, and some terrain (256 points)

Hi folks,

Having had to take a week off from updating my progress due to threats of a picket from Miles, as well as vague claims that he would seize the means of production and 'one out, all out' should I post multiple entries again - this week I've smooshed everything into one post. 

First up, a Black and White entry:

This is a 28mm figure from the Stargrave Mercs set. Slightly small for Necromunda, I build two of these models before passing the rest of the box on to MartinC. 

Just to prove he is painted in greyscale, here he is next to a colour model. 

I used the same slap chop method, as well as a all over coat of black speedpaint, some grey tones and the speedpaint white. Pretty impressed by the effect, might replicate it when I come to paint one of my gangs. This model has already seen the table - acting as a VIP in a Necromunda game at the weekend. Perhaps the harbinger of MartinC's bad dice luck?

One 28mm infantry model = 5 points, with the Black and White bonus of 20 points = 25 points. 

Next, a 28mm vehicle. Of sorts. Pictured with a number of other figures I will detail later.  

This tracked vehicle is equipped with a mechanical arm and a welding attachment. I've painted it up in a similarly decrepit manner to my terrain, as it will primarily be an objective/scatter/scenario object. However, it is a vehicle!

The model is from Games Workshop and came as a magazine freebie. I've added rust effects, including an attempt at verdigris on the serial number panel. 

One 28mm vehicle = 20 points

Then we move round the map into the blue zone - specifically 'Books'. In keeping with my other entries, I went with a famous author of the grim and distant future. 

Meet Han Ibal, 'slopper' extraordinaire. His book/dataslate entry 'How to Broil with the Guys: A cooks guide to corpse starch' sold millions of copies. Unfortunately, his follow up cookbook 'Your wife makes a lovely stew' saw him have to leave his uphive eatery in a hurry due to an Inquisitorial edict, and he now seeks work as a cook to whichever gangs will employ him - and is willing to risk an Imperial Kill Team hunting them down. 

Han, due to his various escapades and supply issues, goes through publishers quite quickly. His latest victim hire is pictured trying to give some constructive feedback on the third cookbook 'A food fight: Finding fresh ingredients and cooking in the underhive'. As a man who takes criticism poorly, Han may soon have a new dish to add to his repertoire. 

No doubt his story would make an excellent film, if not one you would want to watch prior to a meal. 

The 'slopper' mini is another Etsy offering, while the fellow with the datapad is another figure from the Stargrave mercs set. 

Two 28mm infantry models = 10 points, 'Books' studio = 20 points. Total of 30 points. 

Jumping from the Books Studio over to the Westerns one, I searched through my collection and found a model with the perfect item of clothing to represent a sci-fi western figure. A bandana. 

The only thing that would make this model more 'western' would be an appropriate hat. Perhaps whoever he is pointing at just shot it off. 

Another 28mm 3d printed figure from Etsy, this one acting as a proxy for a 'Dome Runner' in Necromunda - an underhive guide and scout which can be employed by gangs as a hanger on. 

One 28mm infantry figure = 5 points, Western studio entry = 20 points, total = 25 points. 

As the smell of sandals was putting me off, I decided to hail Lady Sarah's Limo again, this time escorted by a rogue doctor. 

Another 28mm Etsy model, as a proxy for a Forgeworld model which I can't justify spending on. Rogue Docs represent healthcare provides forced by chance or circumstance to ply their trade in the underhive. They help get fighters back in the fight between games, and help keep those who have been critically injured alive. 

A 28mm infantry figure nets me 5 points, with a Limo bonus of 20 points. For a total of 25 points. The Limo takes me to the Fantasy Studio, where I meet up with:

A gang of beastmen. Mostly equipped with axes, swords and the likes, but with a scattering of sci-fi weaponry. These guys represent a Khorne Chaos Cult and use the rules for a chaos tainted Goliath gang. The leader and champion are metal 28mm mini's I picked up at a show a while ago and did some basic conversion work on, while four of the gangers and GW beastmen from the Blackstone Fortress game. The other beastmen are conversions of fantasy beastmen with some Necromunda Goliath arms. 

This whole gang was painted in about 6 hours (a little longer with basing time), using speed paints and the 'slap chop' method. Probably the fastest I've ever painted an 'army'. As basic gaming models, they look pretty good and have already seen the table:

So a total of nine 28mm figures = 45 points, plus the Fantasy studio bonus of 20 points give a total of 65 points. 

From the Fantasy studio, a short trek takes me over to 'Arthouse'. 

Now, as someone who paints 15mm WW2 stuff almost religiously, this dive into 28mm sci-fi using speedpaints has been pretty artsy and unusual for me. I've learnt new techniques and I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of how the paints work and flow - as well as a better grasp of colour selection. 

These two very quickly painted Games Workshop 'Hive Scum' - done as extras for my Chaos Cultists and possibly the basis for another type of yet to be decided gang, represent my progress so far. Both of these models have been converted with plastic Escher weapons, namely a flamer and a heavy stubber. Yes, the flesh is a bit iffy - more white of skin areas during the drybrush stage seems to be the solution. But when it comes to painting the cloth and metal surfaces I feel like I'm making progress. And far far faster progress than I am used to. I've also started trying out different base colours under the speedpaint. 

I'll be interested to see if my experiences with this paint and painting technique impacts on my normal painting. 

This studio being completed sees me ready to visit the directors chair. 

Two 28mm infantry figures = 10 points, with the Arthouse bonus being 20 points, for a total of 30 points. 

Finally, some quick terrain done for my Necromunda board:

Consultation with Martin and Dave indicate these should be worth around 36 points, due to height and depth/length. 

Total points for this post should be 256 points. 

What a grim and dark looking bunch this is James.  I'll pass on dinner and I'm sure that problematic cyst will heal on it's own so need to bother the doctor over it.  Having Martin pass judgement on terrain points looks somewhat normal after this two experts so I'll go with what you've suggested on the terrain.

From KyleC - Arthouse - (120 points)

So more painting though less than previous weeks.. 

First off the finishing of some D&D bits for the forthcoming game this weekend. 

A pet spider for one of the characters. Needed to be scary and dark so this hit the spot. Model 3d printed from Loot Studios and painted with contrast and wash paints. 

For myself I painted a few variations of what my character would be. Have asked the group advice on which one to take to play with but will put it out to my fellow bloggers here in their thoughts also. 

The DM also requires an arcane object for the mission this weekend.. so I came up with this item from CastnPlay..

Very simple and easy to get done and should do the job there.. 

Then I also painted a small warband of English Civil War models in a test scheme for a London Brigade. 

Received these models last week from a friend alongside a model I bought from him. He figured it would be better in my hands than his as the likelihood of getting paint was higher here.. seems that was correct. I was trialing out a color scheme for my wider ECW army project from years ago that I plan to tackle this year. And I think it came out ok? 

Only issue here was no pike's for 3 models but as a trial I am ok with that. And also them being on round bases I figure I can also use them for some sort of skirmish warband styled gaming in the future also. 

Now the Arthouse Studio Entry. Was really enamored with PeterBs go at a Bust. And I haven't painted one of them for a while. So I thought I would give it a go. 

Have printed out this Zodiac Bust by Yedharo models and their KS. This is the Cancer sign in Bust format. Which is my Son's Zodiac Sign. Figures he is that sign considering how good he is at swimming and being 14 how cranky (crabby) he can be when he wakes for school these days 😏

I wanted to play around with the color blue. And try to make it feel like it's under water or water based? I had started with airbrushing blue tones on it from below and above. And then began to play with it some from there. Can say that a few trials later, some restarts and repriming, I finally gave up after several hours of painting and errors. 

So ended up slapping metal over a few spots instead of trying to finish up the NMM styled technique I had trialed on the helmet and armor sections.

But I am ok with it in the end, and my son thinks it's cool. So now to go and finish up one for myself and my partner. Being Sagittarius and Capricorn. 

It's not a massive bust sitting at about 60mm tall but packs enough details to make it interesting all the same. 

Points for this week;

16*28mm figures =80 PTS

60mm Bust = ??? PTS 

Arthouse Studio = 20 PTS 

Total 100 + bust

Ability for the Directors Chair Studio is available now.. What task with the Snow Overlord give me I wonder 🤔

Great stuff here Kyle that spider is nasty looking and I really like that Arcane Object.  I'm sure I could figure out what it does if I play with the various bits long enough....

I like the let people choose which mini to represent your DnD character.  I'd go with Mr Non-Chalant under the lantern if I get a vote.  personally I'd never let my gaming buddies choose my mini out of fear, 

Nice collection of ECW types and that Bust is awesome, love the blue effects.  Good luck with the crabby 14 year old.   My experience with parenting is that the first 27 years are the worst.  Since Miles awarded 40 points on PeterB’s bust at 140mm, I’ll go with 20 points for your 60mm bust.

I'll need to figure out the points value of that bust and let the Snowlord work on an appropriate task (perhaps finding Miles....).

It looks like I've cleared the Ready posts for today, so I will sign off as temp and return you to your regularly scheduled Minions.

From TeemuL: Pipe-Weed in Middle-Earth [High Adventure][Limo] (77 points)

"Let's get back to the real issue and our movie of Murin and Drar and leave this European movie industry alone, nothing but bare breasts, "artistry" and sad endings really. We have some problems to cast the main characters, it is extremely difficult to find proper dwarfs these days and it would cost millions to digitally modify/create them. Let's focus on the humans and others for a while. Dwarfs live long so it is not totally unbeliavable that Murin and Drar lived during the time of Morwen and Nienor, so we have prepared to make some flashbacks. By the way, the story of Morwen and Niniel is sooo sad, something like from Finnish sagas*, if you ask me, not a proper plot for us, but we can use the characters, of course. It is rather easy to find pretty ladies, much easier than finding dwarfs. We have some old men auditing for a role of Gandalf, you know, he lived long so probably met our long living duo. And these orcs, orcs are everywhere and trolls are always handy in action scenes. It is quite easy to find orcs around the studio, too. Trolls are harder, we need to get some NBA or NFL players for audit. Did I say this is an action /adventure movie, a high adventure movie?"

*The Story of Kullervo

This is the full set of my Mordor Orcs, the one on the right was painted last year

Morwen and Nienor is a nice dual sculpt or how would you call it? Morwen is wife of Húrin and mother of Túrin and Nienor (also known as Niniel). These fine ladies will give me a comfortable taxi drive from World Cinema to High Adventure.

Gandalf the Grey fits the High Adventure in so many ways. He had many adventures of his own and he started couple of adventures of others, all being quite high in quality and also going over the mountains and flying with eagles, lots of high stuff. And then the pipe-weed, whose effects might make someone feel high.

To accompany Gandalf I have a couple of Orcs and a Troll, almost mandatory for any adventure. All of these are metal minis from Mithril and painted mostly with GW's traditional paints, usually a basecoat, wash and drybrush. Nothing too fancy, but not too simple either. The troll is Mithril M295, Mordor Black Troll. The archer is Mithril M311B Mordor Orc Archer, and previously painted is M311A. The standard bearer is Mithril M310, Mordor Orc Standard Bearer and the one with the shield and mace is Mithril M313A, Armoured Orc. I might have M313B somewhere, too. These came some years ago in a mixed bag, so I might have it or not.

They are very dark. I first made the decision to give them very dark skin, Rhinox Hide, and also paint the wooden parts black, like the bows etc. And most of the leather, too. They have some armour here and there, which I painted quite dark using Iron Warriors and highlighted with Leadbelcher. To make them something else than dark blobs, I decided to use Ushabti Bone to various ropes, rags and similar stuff to break the dark areas. There is a soft drybrush with brown on skin and some grey on blacks.

Gandalf is my favourite, it was a bit difficult to get different greys there, but I guess I managed. There is a soft blue wash on his clothes and cloak and light grey and off-white drybrushing. Beard is grey, drybrushed to white. The hat is light blue, drybrushed with greys. Somehow I managed to make transitions quite smooth, I hope I could do that more often. The one visible eye turned out ok, too. Gandalf is Mithril M228, Gandalf the Wizard.

Morwen and Nienor are quite simple. I guess I'm not alone, who gets confused with dresses and all accesorizies and things like that. What's wrong with chainmail bikini? Anyone, I tried to make them look classic and classy, single colour should do that. Some washes and drybrushes, little bit attention to faces, since they are so visible. The blue dress is basically a basecoat and wash while the orange one is basecoat and drybrush - the latter is very faint in the photos. Morwen and Nienor, Mithril M216.

Mithril minis come with their own bases. I glued them on MDF bases (various sizes) from Warbases and then used some Vallejo Earth Texture to hide the metal base.

3 Orcs, 1 Wizard and 2 Ladies in 28mm for 30 points.

1 Troll, 40mm, for 7 points.

Limousine and High Advanture for 40 points.

The Map

Karwansaray had a Christmas Day sale and I pressed the button to buy couple of rules I have been thinking about for some time. I had some issues with the package tracking, but eventually these arrived on Monday. It seems I might get into some historical skirmishes in the future...

It's a bit of role reversal here as Teemu is my regular minion and it's nice to give some kudos back.  Nice collection of LoTR stuff teems and I'm enjoying your tour of the Studios.  I really like Gandalf and the ladies are lovely too.  The Orcs and Toll are neither nice nor lovely, nor are they meant to be.

From FrederickC - Defenders of the Riddermark (180 points)

 This week's submission is a force of Rohan warriors and commanders consisting of a box of 24 plastic Warriors of Rohan, three metal Rohan Royal Guard on foot, Merriadoc Esquire of Rohan from the 'Heroes of the West' boxed set, King Théoden in full armour, a dismounted Captain and Banner from the Rohan Mounted Commander set, four resin figures from the Rohan Commanders set, and a converted Gamling figure, all from the Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings line of miniatures.

Defenders of the Riddermark in front of Helm's Deep

 

All these figures were cleaned up, assembled where necessary, mounted on their bases, and some sand was glued on with PVA. They were then primed black with an airbrush since it is too cold to go outside to use a rattle can. As with the Dwarves I did earlier in the competition, I left the shields off until all the painting was complete. All the figures were painted with primarily Vallejo acrylics, along with a few craft paints. I used a variety of browns (Chocolate Brown, Leather Brown, Beige Brown, Cavalry Brown) and a selection of greens that aren't usually associated with fantasy figures (Camouflage Olive Green, Camouflage Luftwaffe Green, German Feldgrau). Once all the basic colours were applied, the figures got a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quickshade. The easiest to paint were the plastic Warriors of Rohan, followed by the various commanders. The hardest were the Royal Guard, Théoden, and Gamling due to the insanely detailed armour that is covered with horse-related iconography. At least the metal figures are more durable that the resin figures. The resin banner got snapped off as I was packing the figures up after taking all the photos. 😝

 

Group 1 of the plastic Warriors of Rohan

 

Group 2 of the plastic Warriors of Rohan

Set of resin Rohan Commanders (front view)

 

Set of resin Rohan Commanders (rear view)

Metal Dismounted Rohan Captain and Banner (front view)

Metal Dismounted Rohan Captain and Banner (rear view)

Metal Dismounted Rohan Royal Guard

Metal Gamling, Théoden, and Merry (front view)

Metal Gamling, Théoden, and Merry (rear view)

 

The figure of Gamling with the banner is a conversion of the original miniature released by Games Workshop. The figure has since been re-released with him holding the Rohan Royal Banner in his left hand and his sword in a lower position. I had two minis of the early version, one which I painted up a few years ago. I decided to convert the other one to give him a banner since I have a mounted version of Gamling where he is carrying one. To make it easy on myself, I just replaced his left hand with one fashioned out of fine wire wrapped around a length of florist wire that forms the pole and some epoxy putty to build it up a bit and form the thumb of his hand. The pole itself is anchored to a hole drilled into the base with super glue. The banner is from an image plucked from the internet, tweaked to make it two-sided and printed off on my laser printer. Once the figure was all painted, I applied some PVA glue to half of what would end up on the inside, wrapped it around the florist wire pole and shaped it while the glue was still wet. Here is a comparison of the two versions.

 

Original and 'New Improved' Gamling

The points being claimed are as follows:

36 x 28mm figures @ 5 points each = 180 points

Thanks for reading. Next stop - The Pelennor Fields

 My goodness Fredeick you are pumping out the LoTR goodies this year.  Tremendous quality and quantity.  Really nice work all around.