From GregB: Director Krennic and Death Trooper Bodyguards (49 points)

Director Krennic and his Death Trooper body guards - figures from Fantasy Flight Games

For my last submission today (sorry Stuart!) we have the antagonist from the film "Rogue One" - Director Krennic, accompanied by his bodyguard squad of sinister Imperial Death Troopers. These are all figures from Fantasy Flight Games range for Star Wars "Legion". 

One of the many things that made "Rogue One" so awesome was the non-supernatural nature of the protagonists and antagonists. Clearly, it was a sci-fi setting of course, with all that can entail, but Ben Mendelsohn's portrayal of Director Krennic, leader of the Death Star development program, was so well done. Thankfully, the Death Star or the Galactic Empire do not exist in the real world (at least, not yet), but Director Krennic types are everywhere in our increasingly futile-o-crat bound society. Krennic is a pencil pusher, a super bureaucrat, adept at navigating and climbing in the bureaucracy of the Galactic Empire. Never mind The Force, he has a Program with a Budget. Never mind Order 66, Krennic could have simply buried the Jedi order with TPS report audits. 

Director Krennic, prepared to sort out a few bureaucratic SNAFUs personally...

Sure, he is working on a genocide-level terror weapon, but for him it's all about getting the credit - even after Vader nearly strangles him! Will the Emperor be told I did a good job? Switch out "Death Star" and replace it with "Winnipeg Regional Health Authority" or "Competition Bureau of Canada" and his movie dialogue is depressingly close to real-life. Death Stars and Sith Lords are products of our imagination, but there are Director Krennics all over the place, right now, in our world, accumulating a defined benefit pension obligation that your taxes will have to somehow fund.

So look, he makes an awesome character for a Star Wars game! And Fantasy Flight did a great job on the miniature, although having his pistol drawn is a touch aspirational - I would have preferred him to be holding a stylus or a file folder. But the sculptor captured Krennic's near-constant annoyance with his subordinates, and for that, deserves praise!

The Imperial Death Troopers, on the other hand, are thankfully NOT a common feature of our real world. I believe the idea for these Troopers came from one of the Star Wars FPS video games from the 90s? I'm not certain on that, but they sure looked cool in "Rogue One".

No need to panic! The Death Trooper are here!

Not only is their armour black, sleek and sinister, but they are festooned with all sorts of different blasters - which they carry with them everywhere! The "Rogue One" film handled them brilliantly - I mean, sure, a small child DID manage to out-whit them (they didn't seem too intent on burning up calories to search for young Jyn Erso, did they?), but notice how the Death Troopers never have any silly Stormtrooper-esque dialogue (i.e. "they're over there!" or "get them" or whatever). Rather, when they are present you catch the faint audio snippets of some kind of closed-channel radio chatter, and that's it. They are communicating with each other, but the only message they'll send to you will come from the barrel of a blaster. I find it makes them more sinister.

I love these poses - Curt described them as having a real "special forces" look, and I think that description is perfect.

Finally, when they are sent to combat, they actually hit pretty hard, exacting a heavy toll on the brave Rebel's making the raid on Scarif.

A handy DLT-19D blaster on the left, while the fellow on the right prepares a grenade...they are going to clear that room...

Great firing poses - they might actually hit something!

Once more, I have to hand it to the sculptors employed by Fantasy Flight Games - they really nailed these models. The blasters, the grenades, the grenade launchers, the harnesses, the cool helmets, it's all there.

Now painting these all-black sinister SOBs was a bit of a head scratcher....how to capture the look? Maybe this called for some grisaille? Hah! Hell no. In the end, I did my best with grey highlights and a lot of black washes. Thankfully GW's new "Nuln Oil" is not as f*cked over as its new "Agrax Earthshade", and so still has applications on subject like this. I also added some red for the eye lenses and scopes, and touch of green on the helmets. I considered attempting some kind of gloss varnish, but decided against it in the end. 

The garrison deploys...

So, these seven 40mm figures should be good for another 49 points - and should also bring today's journey through the Star Wars setting to an end. Thanks for reading - if work travel allows, I should have something next week, but if not, well, we'll catch up on another Saturday after that. Keep up the great work everyone!

If only the world rewarded/punished all of its bureaucrats based on their actual performance, maybe the world would be a better place. Sadly this is not the case and we probably aren't that far off having our first Sith Lords (minus the magic powers) running the place.

These figures make a nice icing on your Imperial cake, hopefully they serve you well on the tabletop and the Emperor will be pleased.  

From RayR - 25mm Border family - 15 Points

 

We leave the sunny hills of Portugal and head for the grey rainy weather on the Border of England and Scotland for my third post of the day.

Any show I attend I always try to pick up a few figures from Col Bill's Wargaming Depot  as do the rest of the Rejects. I'm not 100%, but I think I picked these up last year at one of the Partizan shows.

These are 3 figures from Col Bill's very own Border Reiver range. They are a Border family, minus the Mum!

I do like a few civilians, so thought these would be a good addition to my Donnybrook collection. 

Now I'm not gonna paint up an army, Postie already has 25mm Border Reivers, so I don't need them.

They are beautifully caste figures and almost paint themselves!

The 3 men of the family will earn me 15 points.

Mum will turn up later in the Challenge, I'm sure of it?

Models that can paint themselves could explain those challengers who can manage scores in the 3000+ points range, but I think you may be exaggerating. These minis do look great, civilians are a fantastic way of making any miniature battlefield look more interesting. I like the natural earthy tones you have used for the figures, I doubt the folks living along the border were well off for the most part. Nice work.

From Millsy: Oathmark Human Cavalry (150 points)

G'day All,

This submission is the penultimate one for my Oathmark Human army as things stand. I've got one last centrepiece model to go but the primer is taking forever to dry on the weird-ass plastic it's made from so it will have to wait.

First up five heavy cavalry kitbashed from the Fireforge Games Northmen Cavalry and the Oathmark Human Cavalry boxes. There's no official Oathmark models for heavies so I made my own. I really love the FF kits so it's a shame they are so expensive comparatively. The horses are especially nice.

The other ten are 95% Oathmark Human Cavalry with a few head swaps and some Fireforge Games Folk Rabble arms to provide burning torches, etc. to give them more of a "raider" vibe.

The Oathmark horses are a bit on the weird side IMHO, reminiscent of the old Warhammer Elf mounts looking more like cartoon horses and with a couple of distinctly odd poses. They're the weakest models of the Oathmark line which is a pity given how good everything else is.

These seemed to take an age to paint but I'm happy enough with them in the end. Cavalry are expensive in game so I don't imagine all 15 being on the field at once except in very large games. They look good en mass though.

I've got another 15 due to an order mix up but it'll be a while (if ever) before I paint them. I've an idea to make Rohirrim proxies from them using the shields from the Oathmark Heavy Dwarven Infantry box which might work.

That's it for today. 15 x 28mm minis = 150 more points getting me close to the 2/3 mark of my target. I'm heading off to paint historicals for a bit now for a change of pace.

Cheers,
Millsy

Great looking kitbashes, gamers really are spoilt for choice with the number of compatible plastic kits that are on the market these days. I like the 'raider' style you went for with the light cavalry, just switching a few small pieces around gives a kit a whole new look. 

I'm looking forward to seeing your centrepiece model, and with it the whole army, done.

From GregB: Shoretroopers for Star Wars "Legion" (106 points)

Shoretrooper Squads for Star Wars "Legion" - figures from Fantasy Flight Games.

We continue with the "Star Wars" setting, and more figures for Star Wars "Legion" - here we have a detachment of Shoretroopers. They're like Stormtroopers, but they are, you know, for service near the shore - the specialist tropical climate infantry (I suppose) of the Galactic Empire. 

One of the Shoretrooper squads.

I first observed the Shoretroopers in the movie "Rogue One", and I loved them right away - and I can hardly be the only one, as these things seem to be popular! They are a very cool alternate infantry for the Galactic Empire. Given that you first see them as part of the garrison on Scarif, I suppose it might be inferred that they are a cut above the (highly theoretical) fighting quality of the average Stormtrooper. I'm not sure their actual combat performance bears that out - either as observed on Scarif, or at the remnant Imperial refinery base seen in the second season of "The Mandalorian". 

Some view of the rear detail.

In "Andor" (another amazing Star Wars series) we see them shaking down and rounding up randos as part of a general Imperial crackdown - so I suppose the Shoretrooper is just a basic trooper with tropical kit. That said, they sure look cool - I like the lines of their helmets and the colours on the armour. 

Squad leader on the left, and I used the sculpt on the right as a second-in-command for each squad.

Not only to Shoretroopers have different coloured armour, but they seem to sport a marking scheme. Almost all of them seem to have a stripe on their left shoulder pads, and then varying combinations of red, blue and even yellow lines and pauldrons to denote various ranks and specialties. For my part, I have opted to be much more limited with the markings - while I did put a red armour section on the right arms of each Shoretrooper, and I decided against the "everyone gets a stripe day" - leaving those only for the squad leaders and assistant squad leaders, and only the NCO squad leader got any blue markings. 

Trooper rocking a T-21B blaster on the left, regular grunt on the right.

Fantasy Flight Games did a great job on these sculpts, I love them. And it is kind of nuts, each box comes with a mortar and a gunner. Like - how many mortars do you need? I decided I would only paint up one for now. 

I love the poses on these sculpts - well done by FFG.

Painting these was a bit tricky, as it brought me further into the realization that GW has utterly f*cked up its "Agrax Earthshade" wash. They issued a new formulation for this beloved and endlessly useful product last year, and the new formulation suck sh!t. It is glossy as f*ck (even though there is still a separate "glossy" version - can only surmise that one finishes so glossy you can see it from space), and has lost its tinting properties. I have no idea why GW chose to (yet again) fix something that was not broken, but the fact that I had to turn to some of its new "Contrast" paints as a possible solution points to some potential motives...

DF-90 mortar and its one-person crew.

Anyway, the usually straightforward process of achieving some highlights via recess wash was distended and challenging on these models, as I ultimately had to cave and try "Skeleton Horde" (a "Contrast" paint) after finally accepting that "Agrax Earthshade" under its current formulation is just not up to the job any longer. "Skeleton Horde" was better, but still too light...anyway, more experimenting will come in time...

Another view of the mortar and gunner.

On the plus side, my Imperial forces are now considerably expanded with the addition of two squads of Shoretroopers, supported by a mortar (or, I guess, a "space mortar"). I am scouring the 3D printing sites to get some more specialists kitted out in Shoretrooper armour, as I much prefer the look of these fellows to the basic Stormtroopers. Depending on shipping time, they may appear in this edition of the Challenge...

For scoring purposes we have 13 infantry, in 40mm size - should be good for 91 points. Thanks for reading! Just one more post to go...  

I haven't tried the newest Agrax Earthshade yet and from the sound of things, I don't want to. I've been using a brown wash from Vallejo for years now as they don't seem to reformulate their paints on a whim. 

These shoretroopers look great, but I think you have under-valued their score. 13 infantry plus 1 crew served weapon nets you 106 points. 

From ChrisW odds and sods [451 points]

Another trip to a couple of studios and yet another mix of genres.

Limo ride

 For this ride the mad gardener can grant us passage.

A visit to the Art house studio

So I went all abstract artsy fartsy with this, but in the end I do actually think it sort of works. Basically I grabbed 1/2 dozen Contrast paints and a spritzer, and liberally applied the paints in a random manner to the tall ans squat monster. The other four monsters were painted in a more conventional way with overlapping layers while the paints were all still wet.

Cthulhu monsters [6 large monsters][+1 skull]

The two pairs of monsters on either end are from the board game Mansions of Madness. The tall one in the center is by RAFM, a Flying Polyp, while the other squat one is a bones figure. (BTW there is a skull and skeletal torso rotting inside of it) 

Scale shot, figure does not count

Point wise not certain. These guys are at least as big as the Minotaur and bull that I posted a while back, so maybe at least 7 points each.

 

Dr and his patients (We all go a little mad sometimes) [7 figures]

 Figures by Statuesque miniatures, Three male and three female patients. All seem to have been experimented on at sometime (judging by the metal staples on some of their heads) 

Mad gardeners [60points for the set?][+50 skulls]

Not really certain what I am doing with these, but they are a continuation of a Flora gone bad theme that I seem to have collected. On the plus side, I believe these are the last ones that I have.

The mad gardener herself is a Pulp Figure miniature, her companion is by  Footsore, not certain about the rest. Those trees really pack a lot of skulls, 25 skulls each, insane for a non GW model! In my story line the two gardeners raise a very unhealthy crop mobile flora, The Birnum trees are active participants in the macabre activities and their offspring are also mobile and more agile. The slugs, originally a bane are now herded by pops as another method to cultivate their schemes.

Point wise I have no idea, I just kind of averaged out the figures the trees are big, the slugs smallish. Please feel free to adjust as required.

On to the fantasy studio via another limo ride.

Limo ride 

Jane will allow us to ride the limo this time.

Visit to the Fantasy Studio

Some of the earliest fantasy stories that I remember were the various Greek mythology tales.

The Gorgon sisters (& their cousin Jane & victims) [6 figures]

These are Foundry miniatures with the addition of a Reaper Bones (reaching for an arrow) figure. This is all part of a Greek mythology project that that I am slowly working on during this challenge. 

Jason and the Argonauts [25 x 28mm figures]

 

This was the big project for this week, 25 Foundry figures. These have been worked on for the last few weeks, for some reason I just could not stay focused on them I have 29 sailors that I am also unable to finish, maybe next week) Anyways, nothing special here just followed the pictures on the Foundry site with some variations.

Mechanical Spiders from Mars [5 x 28mm figures]

These are old Parroom Station figures that have long been OOP, but are soon to make a reappearance. I was originally going to paint them in a fairly plain manner but the opted to go crazy. (something of a  theme in this posting) They are weapons used by Rouge Noir (the purple terror) in his quest to conquer Mars, and ultimately Earth (circa 1899)

Scale shot - Rouge Noir does not count towards points

Pulp mummies [6 x 28mm figures]

Fairly certain these are Reaper metal figures, at least they resemble some reaper bones figures that I have. They came with separate heads, weapons and shields. These will soon go up against some tomb raiding adventurers in a Pulp Alley game.

Pulp Mummy rulers [2 x 28mm figures]

 

 Crooked dice figure on the left Reaper(?) on the right

Pulp Egyptian skeletons [25 points][+5 skulls]

Really fragile Eureka figures, these guys bend and warp just by looking at them! They are good old fashioned lead, no pewter here and I believe they were trying to get 'proper' proportions which makes the limbs very thin.

Points total this time

• 40 points for two Limo ride
• 40 points for two Studios
  
• 280 points for 56 x 28mm foot
•  42 points for 6 large monsters?
• 60 points for the gardener vignette
  

Total of  462 points

This also means I have now done 5 blue studios. 

Skulls this week +56.  

Squirrels this time around [8]

1. Mechanical spiders from Mars 
2. The Gorgons
   
3. Cthulhu creatures
4. Mad gardeners and their plants
5. Pulp mummies
6. Pulp Egyptian skeletons
7. Jason and the Argonauts
8. Asylum residents
   

 New squirrel total 32.

 Previous squirrels

1. Back of Beyond
   
2. Mad figures (Top hat toffs and companions)
3. Greek skeletons
4. Sisters of Sigmar
5. Ancient Germanic women
6. ECW cuirassiers
   
7. Monsters large
8. Post apocalypse
9. Tekumel Palanquin
10. Empire Pike
11. Jazz Band
    
12. French Cuirassiers on Mars
13. Court of Dr Koo
14. Movie makers
15. Gothic/movie Vampires 
16. Gladiators
17. Women rocket corp
18. Supers
    
19. Forest scenery
20. Robin Hood
21. Gorillas 
22. Dr and his pets
    
23. Nuns
24. The flying squad 

 As always, there is so much going on in your posts it is hard to keep track. We have Egyption undead, ancient greeks, mad doctors (seems to be a theme given Squirrels number 13 and 22, do you have an issue with health care professionals?), gorgons, gribbly beasts and strange flora. I love the purple mechanical spiders, they look hi-tech and creepy at the same time.

I am scoring the Cthulu Monsters and the skull trees as 40mm models, basically 7 points a shot. The Greeks, gorgons, Egyptians, doctor, patients, gardeners, spiders and plants as 28mm minis and the slugs as 15mm as they are pretty small. This gives you a final score of 451 Points