From ScottC: Casting Couch and Yellow Brick Road: Bandobras Took and Heroes of Helms Deep (65 points)

I have a double whammy today, 

For my Casting Couch submission I present the creator of Tolkien golf!

Model is a 3d print by Medbury Miniatures to represent Bandobras Took. 28mm scale

To continue my circuit around the cinema I had to cross another yellow brick road on the way to my 1980's project (completed, I just need to tidy up the bases) and I have had this character in my pile of potential for about 15 years. Aragorn (GW) as he was depicted in helms deep, and Haleth (3d printed Medbury), son of Hama.

Points:

3x 28mm infantry = 15 points

1x 40mm cavalry (lol) = 10 points

Challenge bonuses x2 = 40 points

See you next time in the 1980's!

From TeemuL: Ah, great Lotr goodness, Scott! There are some big and small heroes here, all excellently painted. And lovely bases, too. Efficient point grab and fits nicely to themes. Actually you don't need to use Yellow Brick Road to get from Casting Couch to 1980s, but I guess it is not against the rules, either.

From GeoffreyT: Gift Troll (Gift Shop)(27 points)

DON'T LOOK A GIFT TROLL IN THE ...

Oh, its too late, you have already done it.

This lovely she-troll is considered very attractive in trollish terms.  She desires to wear a chainmail bikini as worn by brave adventurers, as it would really accentuate her hot-bod.  Unfortunately, her claws are not dextrous enough to do up the laces. 

The sculpt was inspired by the classic D&D art from the 1st edition monster manual, but the female version.  I liked the pointy nose and hollow eyes.

I gave her to a gaming buddy of mine.  She will be a very handy miniature to expand his collection of monsters for games like Frostgrave and the Silver Bayonet.

I gave her big monstrous shoulders, like a swimmer.  Probably a bit too wide, this means she has huge lateral muscles and therefore didn't have the scrawny ribs I planned.  Nevertheless, is a good gift I think.

Points:

She is 40mm from foot to the eye = 7 points

Gift shop bonus = 20 points

Total = 27 points.

That finishes my journey this week.  It appears going to the fantasy studio has unlocked the coveted director chair !

Geoff.

From TeemuL: And last but not least, today we have a second post from Geoffrey, where he reaches the steps of the director's chair! We all wait in awe what Snowlord asks him to do (a Snowlord perhaps?).

It really looks like the troll in book, very nicely sculpted, Geoff! Your gaming buddy is one lucky buddy, the group might not be that happy to meet this troll looking for chainmail bikini!

From PeterD: Roman Watchtower (10 points)

 

A cohort of Tungrians mans the ramparts 

I was travelling for 4 days this week, so only a small offering in the form of this 28mm Roman Watchtower.  As with most of my BUAs it is a Sarissa pdf kit which went together nicely and painted up well.

It's not as substantial as a Saxon Shore fort or Milecastle on the Wall, but should be useful in scenario applications or as table dressing.  The whitewash with red brick trim comes from Osprey books on the Saxon Shore forts and the Wall, but is also confirmed by serious history books written by respected academics. 

The interior space nicely fits one of my 60mm square bases.  The top floor removes so that you can access the first (UK) or second (rest of the world) floor.

Interior view.  

I added some minimal ground cover, except that under the stairs looks like a place blackberries would grow.  I also added some grammatically correct graffiti to the back wall.  See this following link for a reference (incidentally when my daughter was having trouble conducting verbs int French immersion I used this clip as a teaching aide)....

Points wise this measures out to about 1/2 a terrain cube. I'd give the math but I don't want to cause pain to Greg, so we'll go with the "here's where the miracle occurs" method common among my students when approaching proofs.

From TeemuL: A Very nice roman watchtower with grammatically correct graffiti, I like it. Some fine sand with white glue here and there might give the tower more texture or some greens or browns to the very bottom to mend it to the ground more. These are choices of course, it is fine as it is, but if you like to make it look a little bit more non-mdf, there are some quick and easy methods. 10 points it is, more Romans next week?

From Codsticker: Horsin' Aroun' (56pts)

Most war gamers I know don't painting horses, but I really enjoy painting cavalry. It may have to do with my career choice: 

So this entry is an all mounted affair:

First up are some 15mm Sassanid light horse archers:

The scourge of the Eastern Romans in the twilight of their empire; they are lots of fun for Sassanid commander; not so much for the poor Roman general 😈

I am not sure the make; they were part of a second hand batch I bought online. Fun little models to paint and I particularly like that the sculptor accurately portrayed the drawing fingers.

Next up are two Mounted Saxon Thegns in 28mm.

These are from Bob Murch's 1066 Kickstarter. I will be using them in either Saga or Lion Rampant.

Really wonderfull figures, great castings.

Last but not least another addition to the Variags of Khand; this time a chieftain in a chariot.

I actually prepped, assembled and primed this after starting the challenge which was a waste of precious hobby time when there is a points total to be met. 

I may do another one near the end of the challenge but at this time it is still in a shrink wrapped box; so probably only if there is no chance of me meeting my target (which, at this point, I am on pace to miss).

My point tally is based on the chariot counting as a vehicle (which it is... technically) however I recognise that may not be the case for AHPC purposes..

4 mounted 15mm figures at 4 pts each= 16

2 mounted 28mm figures at 10 pts each= 20

1 28mm vehicle at 20pts each= 20

Total= 56

From TeemuL: I'm the one, who didn't like painting horses, but nowadays with Contrast paints (or similar), they are not that hard. I guess the problem for me was that they were big and it was difficult to paint between the legs etc... And they have all those leather straps here and there, which I don't know what they are. :D But Contrasts have made my life easier. And I do assemble and prime during the Challege, those are the tasks I really don't like, so there won't be enough primed minis at the start of the Challenge to last til the end.

But enough of me, let's take a look the minis. Yes, they are all mounted, different scales, different themes. They are beautiful, very nice. I believe you like painting horses. Chariots have been scored as vehicles in the past, at least sometimes, so I'll go with that. Some say, that chariot is 20 points and each horse is 5, and the driver is another 5... But I'll include the horses in the vehicle section, so that is 20 points, but I give you 5 for the driver. Hand painted shields, banner, let's say 65 in total.

From SteveA: Black & White, and a Gnoll (32points)

Heya  tiny totem painters,

This week, from the array of partly painted minis strewn across my hobby desk, these few finally received their last dabs of long due paint. 

I think I picked up this lead mini (who I choose to call the  Lady of Deathly Shadows), a log time ago with a notion of using her as a proxy model for a Necromancer in an Undead Warhammer Fantasy Battle Army.  No idea the manufacture, but I recall this mini was sold to me in a little plastic bag stapled to a simple card board backing, which I had found hanging off one of the pegs at the back bottom corner of the miniatures wall at my favorite old hobby store.

I had several failed paint jobs attempted on this mini, bad color schemes and poor observance of paint lines resulted in this mini spending a few nights in a jar full of oven cleaner to strip away failure and make way for a new paint attempt.

Now at long at last, years later, in the AHPC 'Black and White' studio a silent short film was shot to tell the tale about how she escaped the clutching darkness deep within the old pile of abandoned minis. the color scheme she needed to find freedom was a scheme without true color.

Where one finds a path out of darkness, (or an old unpainted mini pile) others may follow, so it was  this Gnoll escaped the old mini pile and moved beyond the years of wearing only a black and white zenithal base coat to become  table top ready.

I think I bought the Gnoll for a D&D Monster Character campaign, which I think may have lasted two rough and bumpy game sessions at most, back when in my old game circle the DM's hat was getting passed around and there was a lot of home brew that went down like bad brew before a worthy story teller became the new king behind the DM's screen to reign over a long running campaign that has brew without the p-eew.

Lurking around these two mini  are three bits of Grave stone scatter terrain, each originally an extra scenery item that had been packed along with some manner of mystery brand undead mini.  These three grave markers served in many a game with no more than a blast of black spray paint, and on a whim of fancy are now painted to better serve on table top games in future.  

28mm figures,

Lady Of Deathly Shadows (Foot Figure)                            = 5pts 
Green Studio Pass 'Black & White'                                   = 20pts
Gnoll (Foot Figure)                                                            = 5 pts
Gravestones (Scatter Terrain) [~ 1/8 of a 6" square cube] =  2pts 
Total = 32 Points

From TeemuL: The Lady of Deathly Shadows is very athmospheric, well done! The gnoll is terrific, too. I added a label for "Sarah's Choice", since the lady is clearly a female.

From ByronM: Turnip 28 Fodder + Water Tower (70 points)

For this weeks submission I present a unit of Fodder for Turnip28.  Curt introduced me to this odd ball quirky game last time I was out there visiting, and I decided I had to do up at least one unit to play around with some of the cool looking 3d models out there.

Since I wanted to be painting and not converting during the painting challenge, I grabbed a set of the really cool models from Knucklebones over on Patreon, and got to printing.  I also printed a pile of mushrooms to go along with them and cut a base on the laser that can be found here: Northern Lights Terrain.

I wanted to keep these figures a little brighter than the normal T28 models (although not as bright as some of Curts figures) and having always wanted to paint up some British Napoleonics but never gotten around to it, figured I would go with some red coats.  I did grime everything up after painting them, so they are not super bright and clean, but hopefully kept enough of the colours to show details.  Being red, I figured I may as well go with the mighty Radish as the holy root vegetable for this unit.

After painting all the figures I got down to the extra little details like painting the mushrooms some off colours to add some pop (an idea again stolen from Curt), and then painting up a banner.  The banner is something I am horrible at, I am not an artist in any way and can not draw.  So I looked up some images of radishes and thought my best bet would be trying to do a water colour looking radish.  While not very well done as seen below in its base form, I think it looks ok once it has been all damaged and dirtied up.

Also for this submission is a piece of terrain that I printed a little while ago to fit into any number of games, a wood water tower.  This was super simple to paint using scale75 instant colours and some bronze and red from vallejo.  I then went looking for some art to slap on it and figured what better than a positive message for a change... so picked up some "Elon for President" posters (even though I hate Tesla's as soulless abominations of cars)!  It should make many appearances in games around here.

As for points, it should work out to:

12x 28mm models @ 5 points = 60 points
6"x3"x3" terrain = 1/4 of a cube = 5 points? seems low, but whatever, points don't really matter anyway...

From TeemuL: I guess this is the first Turnip infestation we have on our Thor's Day group, but since it comes originally from the Snowlord, we must accept it. I know this setting divides people in this Challenge, at least jokingly. I haven't touched them, I stand firmly in the Sludge camp...

But the models, they do look great! The mushrooms are a nice touch and the banner is worth some points, it may no be pretty, but it shows some courage to step outside of the comfort zone. The water tower is missing a base? Or is standing on concrete, perhaps. The terrain scoring is difficult, I'll give you 5, but add couple of points for the banner and mushrooms.

From AndrewB: More Spanish-American War Naval! (Books) (65pts)

This week I’ve been chipping away at more ironclad warships for my 1/600 naval floor game coming up at March to Victory in Kansas City at the end of March!  These Old Glory ships are delightful, even with the usual challenges of resin castings. I’ve got all these miniatures painted in 1/1200, but the size of these larger models really should give a great feeling to a game where we’re measuring ranges in yards!   The game was partly inspired by the book ‘The Splendid Little War’ by Frank Feidel, which is a fantastic piece of writing which will certainly lead the discerning wargamer into a multitude of scenario ideas.  

First, we have the Armored Cruiser Brooklyn, which is frankly enormous.  I’m still working on establishing a color I like for the works and deck of these American ships, but I’m liking these more than the first attempts.  

Next, the first Armored Cruiser commissioned into the US Navy, the USS New York.  I really like the midships wing guns on this ship, and how you can really start to see the pre-dreadnaught design elements!  

Lastly, we have the heroic flagship of the Battle of Manila, the USS Olympia!  This delightful small Armored Cruiser sports the same twin 8” gun turrets as the previous two ships, crammed into a hull that doesn’t give away such a powerful main armament.  

Next up for this particular project will be the Spanish ships, so stay tuned for them in the coming weeks!  

As for points, I believe we were scoring these as Black Seas ships at 15pts each, with the Book studio bringing the total to 65.  I’m only a couple rooms away from the Director’s Chair, so here we come!

From TeemuL: More of these bulky ships, Andrew, but could we have more photos from different angles in the future? I'm sure some evil minion would give you only half points after assuming you have painted only one half of the ship! :) You are making a great progress at the Challenge Studio and in your personal point Challenge, keep going!

From LeeH: Another Stanley, Sir Peter Leigh and Sir George Holford (75 Points)

These are the last three nobles and their retinues for my Lancastrian/Tudor army for Bosworth. The only extras are a few French and Scottish units that may have taken part but for which I am still hunting down details (and flags!). I’ll leave those till the end of the project…which is considerably closer than it was a few weeks ago.

Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe was the 2nd son of Sir John Stanley. He was an indentured retainer of William Lord Hastings by 1974 and the Duke of Buckingham in 1483. He was for a time Sheriff of Staffordshire and after fighting for Henry at Bosworth was Knighted.

Sir Peter Legh of Lyme and Haydock was the eldest grandson of Sir Peter Legh of Bradley and keeper of Rhudlan Castle. The younger Legh was knighted by Edward IV and made a knight banneret by the Duke of Gloucester in the Scottish campaign of 1482. Despite this apparent close connection to Richard III, he fought for Lord Stanley at Bosworth.

Sir Gorge Holford of Holford was knighted in 1482 by Thomas, Lord Stanly, and fought for the Stanleys at Bosworth. His banner was a Sable Greyhound on an Argent (white) background. I couldn’t find a suitable flag so I made this myself from the description of his Arms.

The Array was the peasant levy raised in a time of war and would have been a lot more varied in quality and equipment than retinue troops. Different rules seem to treat them in different ways (and call them different things!) but for my army, I will be referring to them as Array and they represent the lowest grade of infantry on the table. Many of these men would have been peasant farmers and therefore unarmoured, except maybe for a quilted jacket, a helmet, and any armor their parents and grandparents may have handed down. They would have wielded a variety of weapons, mostly farm implements such as billhooks fitted with longer shafts to give them better reach in combat. For most poor rural folk the dynastic civil wars of the 15th century (that became known as the Wars of the Roses) would have had relatively little impact on their day-to-day lives unless, of course, they found themselves recruited into an Array.

Before I work out my points estimate for these I thought I would show a picture of the ‘completed’ Lancastrian Army for Bosworth. There are still a few French and Scottish nobles to represent but I’m going to come back to these later when I have more information on them. So what you see in the picture below are the mounted Knights of Henrt and Jasper Tudor and the main body of troops under the command of the Erl of Oxford. Behind these are the two independent commands of Thomas Stanley and William Stanley.

I'm roughly at the mid-point for this project so next week I begin work on the Yorkist army of Richard III. More Billmen, more Archers, and lots more flags!

Points Estimate:

Sir Humprey Stanley - 24 Retinue Bllmen and 24 Archers - 48x6mm Foot = 24 Points

Sir Peter Leigh - 24 Array/Bllmen and 24 Archers - 48x6mm Foot = 24 Points

Sir George Holford - 24 Array/Bllmen and 24 Archers - 48x6mm Foot = 24 Points

Total = 72 Points

From TeemuL: The army looks great on a table, it must have been a great feeling to see it as a whole group! I'll give you a few extra points for the flags. You are on a good pace with this project and your Challenge target, there is more than half still to go. Let's see how far you get.