From FrederickC - The Battle of Waterloo, and the Hero's Journey [World Cinema] [Fantasy] (121 points)

 We are going to take the long walk eastward to the World Cinema studio for the production of 'Waterloo' which was definitely a world cinema event involving British, Canadian, French, Italian and Soviet actors, directors, and producers, plus 17,000 soldiers of the Soviet Army to act as extras in the battle scenes. The figures are old school Miniature Figurines which I have painted up as the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers and the 79th Cameron Highlanders. The Fusiliers were a gift from a student who had gone to England on holiday and brought back a box of 'toy soldiers'. The paint job was pretty sketchy, including painting the drummer in reversed colours, something that 'Royal' regiments didn't do. The Highlanders were picked up at Keystone Hobbies in Winnipeg back in the early 1980s, and at one point I thought I would do a small diorama with them. So the sketchy paint job got stripped off, and then all twelve minis were primed black with an airbrush before painting them with Vallejo acrylics. The Fusiliers were quite easy compared to painting 'Cameron of Erracht' tartan and diced hose on the Highlanders. Once they were painted, I mounted them on 40mm x 60mm pieces of Masonite and completed the ground work.

Waterloo from 1970

 

Part of Wellington's Army

23rd Regiment of Foot, 4th Brigade, 4th Division

23rd Regiment of Foot, 4th Brigade, 4th Division

79th Regiment of Foot, 8th Brigade, 5th Division

79th Regiment of Foot, 8th Brigade, 5th Division

'Yours truly' at Waterloo 200

 That completes the sixth green studio, and we will now move on to the blue studios with our first stop being Fantasy. We give you 'The Hero's Journey' starring Aragorn as he progresses from Ranger to Captain, and finally to King in 'The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King'. The figures are three different versions of Aragorn done by Games Workshop depicting him in the Attack at Weathertop, at his encounter with the Army of the Dead, and before the Black Gate.

 

The Return of the King from 2003

 

The Ranger, the Captain, and the King

Strider the Ranger

Aragorn the Captain

Elessar the King

The points being claimed are as follows:

14 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points = 70 points 

1 x 28mm mounted figure @ 10 points = 10 points

2 x Studio lots @ 20 points = 40 points

 

We had arrived at the Blue Studios

Minion Miles: As a Napoleonic Francophile, I feel the urge to deduct 1,000 points for the side you chose at "Waterloo 200" but, apparently, the Minion rules manual prohibits me from being an overt jerk - covert is fine but overt is strictly forbidden.  Your discretion aside, these are some wonderful minis and I'm giving you a bonus point for the kilts.  Superb work.  Of course, if they were Imperial Guard it would have been 1,000 bonus points..... 

From KyleC - Star Wars Legion - (335 Points)

A quick shot of what is now a full listed playable force for Star Wars Legions. Had some feedback online but also realized that just cause a box of models appears, does not mean all the models can be used... Which is sad.. but also lessons learned! 

But some close ups of bits I have painted this past week, although not as many as in the past due to having a nice night out with the Mrs to celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary and 20 years together. 

So apologies in advance for not a massive paint bomb like normal here 😏😅

But I did focus a lot on some Star Wars models as I might have done some therapy shopping as of late. 

So one of the best duos happening right now being Cassian and K-2SO. Partially due to the success of Andor but also from the Rogue One movie where the bot shows his chops. Really like the fact that they are true rebels at heart even if they don't want to be.. 

Though need an iconic duo to go with them so.. 

Who better than Han and Chewbacca. We all know who shot first but doesn't matter as he can be gone in 12 parsecs if needed.. 

This batch I bought cause I like the models but then found out that they are just unit upgrades more than a specific unit. Personal upgrades to add flair and options to a unit. No idea how I will use them but I had a blast figuring out how to paint them. Espeitthe dark droid in the back there as it and K-2SO were experiments in different metallic styles. 

These commandos were the first departure from the browns and I began to really lean into the ragtag colouring. Something I normally loath when painting an army but for the rebels I believe it fits all the more for them. 

Rebel Pathfinders. Bought more out of wanting the cards so that I could print more variety for them later but I ended up liking the Bistan with his heavy gun more than I anticipated. Though I struggled a bit with the colors here and am still not fully sold on the blue jackets. 

Veterans. Every force needs some veterans and again I bought these more for their cards than the models. As they are in extreme weather gear for Hoth it doesn't really fit the theme here... But I have found a nice scheme if/when I do get around to painting such a side force there.. 

The bigger Veteran unit. One that I printed and of course didn't place on official sized bases. But for friendlies I have been told they are fine. Better fitting style and colors to my original troopers though so I suspect they will see some heavy game play. 

More printed bits here. Not sure what they are to be or could be used for. Likely can be basic troopers for again extreme weather after escaping a down fighter or transport perhaps? 

And then a trio of random troopers. Possibly from a desert planet perhaps hence the cloth wraps over the heads. But I do really like the white style I was able to begin to achieve overall. A simple white primer with a heavy coating of Contrast Apothecary White helped to achieve this followed by a quick dry brush of Pallid Wych Flesh by GW. And maybe a dot of white in the end. Really enjoyed these ones though but again no idea if they are game playable.. but maybe they will be ransoms or just background models then. 

So a heafty 44 models and 2 artillery pieces here. 

But wait.. there's more! I couldn't post this last week as it was a surprise for our DnD game that we had on Sunday.. 

Having most of the models painted in the last week's being used.. we also gifted the DM with his own dice tower! 

Although 3d printed, I did not print it this time.. shocking I know.. but one of the other lads in the game, and a good friend to the DM, did it up on his work printer. And then I offered to give it a once over for painting. This thing is quite huge standing over 20cm tall, but I guess it has to in order to accommodate regular sized dice through the eye sockets to pop out in the mouth cavity. Funnily one of the players didn't hear what it was when we gave it over, and commented later on it would hold candies nicely.. you could even play with them by popping them through the eyes lol.. 

Again I leave the points of such a piece to the minions.. but I also now kind of want to print a dice tower for myself for future events... let's see if that happens.. 

Chatting with the Snowlord himself, I have been given my marching orders for the Director's Chair assignment. So will begin to work on that this week. But I do believe I will be slowing down on the painting side for this month as work has begun to ramp up.. so will be interesting to see what I can get finished now over the remaining weeks.. 

Points for this week:

44x 40mm Figures - 308

2x 40mm Artillery - 30

Large Dice Tower - ???

Total - 338 + tower

Minion Miles: Only 332 points - what a slacker!  We all expect better next time.  But, more importantly, congratulations on your anniversary - thats a wonderful achievement - congrats.  Oh wait, you've asked me to think about how to score something and you've provided only one measurement in that arcane and likely soon to be abolished metric system (how quaint).  OK, lets do some math - 20cm /2.54 equals 7.87 inches high - we'll round that to 8 because I'm a generous guy.  I'll guess the other 2 dimensions are roughly 4 inches each  (or 10cm's for you archaic metric people).  The gives a total volume of 128 cubic inches (8x4x4), which is 60% of the 216 cubic inches that embody our Holy Scoring Cube.  So thats 12 points right there.  

But wait there's more.....

My lovely yet fierce wife is an oral surgeon (she replaces jaws) and was aghast at the poor oral hygiene on this dice tower and demands I deduct one point, plus the whole candies interlude was held against the model.  So now where down to 11.  The base is really nice so you get 1 bonus point back.  Lets go with 12 (net)

whew. that was a lot.  I am going to adjust your score down to 1 artillery piece rather than 2 as they are very simple and not the large cannons that the original points were set out for- its what I do when I have machine guns and mortars and such.  Still 335 points is not a bad total.

From PeterB - From the Sabbat Worlds to Star City, via a Limo Ride - 112 Points

 Last week I finished my post at the Westerns studio with just two more lots left to visit. So, a quick nip across the road to the Books Studio for a trip into the oh so familiar 41st Millennium, but bear with...

Now, last year one of my early posts was an unexpected Christmas gift from Mrs B that I painted up of a McFarlane Toys Space Marine. I chose to paint him up as an Iron Snake Space Marine as I am a fan of Dan Abnett's books (as are a few of you lot including Curt and Barks I now know). So, this year for our book theme of course I had to paint something from the Library of Mr Abnett and who better than Warhammer 40,000's answer to Sharpe, the Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt and a couple of his "Ghosts" from Tanith First and Only. 

Gaunt and "Try Again" Bragg

I cannot recommend this series of books enough to anyone who enjoys a bit of Sci-fi mixed with their military fiction. I would be the first to say that Games Workshops' Black Library press can be a bit hit and miss sometimes with some of their titles not quite Booker prize material. Dan Abnett however is an exceptional author and I think the Gaunt is his best work. I will warn you thought there are 15 books so far and no sign of Abnett stopping.

Major Elim Rawne and Colonel Colm Corbec

The First and Only are so called after their home planet Tanith was destroyed shortly after the founding of their first three regiments. Gaunt managed to evacuate enough survivors to form the one and only regiment. The Ghosts wear Cameleoline cloaks that shift colour to match their surroundings (think magical elven cloaks that Frodo and the Sam wear in Lord of the Rings) and they are specialists in scouting and infiltration.

Scout Sergeant Dan Mkoll and Master Sniper Hlaine Larkin

Mkoll as a scout makes the rest of the regiment seem like baby elephants running through the jungle (he could probably sneak up on Batman) and Larkin is the Regiments top sniper, learning his craft hunting in the forests of Tanith.

 These are GWs second attempt at a set of models to represent the Ghosts. I thought people might be interested to see a compare shot for two reasons, one to see the scale creep that GW have partaken of over the last twenty odd years and secondly, to see how badly I used to paint!

 

Our next and final studio to visit on our journey around the Analogue Hobby Challenge is Superheroes, but this final studio is not accessible from any other blue studios I hear you cry (must be a clever partnership between the studios and Sarah's Limo company to boost bookings) so I shall have to rest my feet in the plush interior of the Limo, crack open a diet coke for the journey and maybe snack on some M&Ms from the mini-bar. So to pay for this journey I present Peggy Carter (or a member of the Women's home defence from Bad Squiddo Games).

So, now we have made it to the last studio I need a Superhero. Not a problem I thought, I am a massive comic book fan/collector, I love Superheroes. One problem though, I didn't actually have a Superhero to paint. Confession time, I actually bought a model during the challenge. Yep, I added to the lead pile. I couldn't resist this character though.

I'm a big DC fan but was properly introduced to Green Arrow when Kevin Smith (yep that Kevin Smith, film director. That's twice this year I've mentioned him now?) brought the character back from the dead and started a new solo run with him. This model is from Knight Models and based on Oliver Queen from the Batman Animated series. I therefore kept the colours bright and kept the shading to a minimum.

Of course he has to have a boxing glove arrow, I'm sure he had one before Hawkeye did, but I shall leave that debate to wiser men.

So, that just leaves one Final Destination (movie pun intended) The Directors Chair. I defer to the Show-Lord if he would like to consider a task worthy of a visit.

To the points!

6 x Ghosts at 40mm. 6 x 7 = 42 pts

1 x Peggy at 28mm = 5 pts

1 X Green Arrow at 28mm = 5 pts

2 Studio visits and a Limo Ride 3 x 20 = 60 pts

Total = 112 points

Minion Miles: I'm not sure crossing the streams of the GW and DC universes is a safe thing to do (all those lawyers just chomping at the bit) but you seem to have done so without incurring any IP related legal bombardments - Must be the quality of your painting holding those hounds at bay.

From TeemuL: Bandit [Limo] (25 points)

"I mentioned Fangorn and Huorns earlier, didn't I? Unbeknownst to most, there are some bandits in the Fangorn, too. A bit like that jolly bunch in Sherwood forest. I can't imagine how Murin and Drar would not meet them and get into all kind of troubles and adventures there. This is an adventure film after all. She is one of the bandits, we will be travelling with her while we are moving to the "Blue" zone in the Studios and take some input from the Superheroes movies. Murin and Drar are kind of superheroes, aren't they? They will be, that's my plan. Superheroes is very profitable movie industry, rebooting every ten year or less, at least half a dozen movies for each sprint, couple of spin-off movies and TV shows. It is a gold mine, people just love familiar experiences feeded with supernatural speed to their brain and it will only make them want more!"

I've been rather busy recently, last week I rushed my minis just before the deadline and was left with practically no wip minis on the table. In addition I was away for weekend (traditional boardgames, beer and boys weekend event including sauna) followed by mandatory hang-over and tiredness and all the things I still do outside the hobby universe. So, only one mini this week, but at least I managed to continue posting something every week.

This miniature is a Mithril M194, Female Bandit from Fangorn range. I chose greens and browns and greys and other similar colours suitable for Bandits and Fangorians, a bit of purplish pink to spice her up. All done by Citadel Contrasts.

This should provide me a nice ride to Superheroes studio, I really tried, but according to my map, I can't get there by walking so another 20 point Limo ride is needed...

5 points for the 28mm model and 20 points for yet another limo location.

Minion Miles: Another great submission - I like the shading on the green cloak.

From JamesM: Battlefleet Gothic Storm Wardens Strike Group (60 points)

Hi folks,

Having enjoyed painting some Battlefleet Gothic models for last years challenge, I promptly put everything back in a box and didn't look at any of it again till this year. 

However, I had reviewed my collection at some point, and decided upon a small Space Marine fleet. I had obtained a metal GW strike cruiser and some escorts at some point and added to this a couple of ships from Scourge Scenics with some conversion work, as well as an interesting conversion given to me by a friend a long time ago. 

The results are a slightly eclectic mix of vessels, as befitting a Space Marine chapter out on the verges of Imperial Space. 

For those not familiar with this particular Space Marine chapter, they featured in Fantasy Flight Games 40k RPG setting, being the Space Marine chapter associated with the Calixis Sector (mainly detailed in the Deathwatch RPG books, but mentioned in the other games set in the same region). They are a highly insular chapter that avoids where possible public acclaim. The chapter's lineage is unknown, due to an unfortunate incident with an enslaver psychic virus resulting in their entire 1st Company and all chapter records being placed in stasis 5,000 years ago. 

In keeping with my focus on the Koronus Expanse, I decided to build a fleet for them probably reflective of their efforts outside of known Imperial Space. 

First up, the 'Battlebarge' stand in for this fleet. Some of the Space Marine fleet lists allow you to use an Imperial Battleship, Battlecruiser or Grand Cruiser for an additional points cost, reflecting older vessels in the chapters service. This is a short term fix for this fleet, as I am likely to get a Battlebarge at some point, whereby this vessel will become a 'Venerable Strike Cruiser' using the BFGXR rules. 

In this case, I went for a conversion gifted to me some time ago by a friend, and repainted in appropriate chapter colours. This plastic GW cruiser hull had a metal broadside battery put in place, I believe from one of the early Grand Cruiser models. As such, it's pretty different from the rest of my Imperial Cruisers. I added an array of sensor towers under the hull, as well as some dorsally mounted turrets, and this ship became a Paragon class Battlecruiser 'Lamented Warrior'.

These ships, unusually, have bombardment cannons as broadside weapons - leading to them being yoinked from Imperial Navy service and promises made never to build more. How this vessel came to serve with the Storm Wardens is therefore unknown. 

Escorting this ship are Hunter class Destroyers of Ban'nokbrn Squadron.

Then we have two of the more unusual strike cruisers in my small fleet - likely unrecognisable by BFG aficionados:

'Pipers Glory', on the left, is my attempt at a Hoplon class Strike Cruiser with an unusual early Imperial prow. My head canon is that this prow is possibly a replacement due to battle damage in the ancient past, or possible an upgrade using a space hulk recovered STC component. I'd probably run this ship in my own games as having a prow mounted Lance weapon as per the Dauntless Light Cruiser rather than launch bays and torps. 

The other vessel (on the right), named 'Stir'ling Bridge' is my attempt at a Vanguard class Cruiser. These ships first appeared in the BFG computer games, and are long range independent cruisers designed less for planetary assault and more for ship to ship combat. My conversion of this vessel involved taking a Dauntless Light Cruiser from Scourge Scenics along with a Space Marine Strike Cruiser from the same place, and butchering both to swap prows. This gave a more 'stretched' and sleek look than the brawler looking Strike Cruiser hull. 

In the end, I gave the butchered Strike Cruiser a spare resin prow I had instead of using the smaller Dauntless one, giving me the Hoplon class. This led to the two ships featured here. 

Lastly, the Fal'kirk' Strike Cruiser and the Gladius class Frigates of 'DunBar' Squadron. 

These models are 'official' GW metal products, having been in my collection for quite some time. As such, they are fairly 'standard' additions to the fleet. 

Colours wise, I think I've gone a bit too blue - various shades have been used (which show up poorly on the camera), but I struggled to implement the paint scheme of this chapter without any visual clues as to what their ships would look like - the only ship based artwork is a poor angle with poor light. The artwork for marines shows dark and light blue, plus silver. The description is blue and light grey. I could possibly have used light grey on the ships more, however I was trying to avoid an 'Ultramarine' style paint scheme. 

I do have a few more bits to add to this fleet, to bring it up to the 1500-2000pt mark for games. To be added will be some 'regular' Imperial escorts and a few more capital class ships. 

Points wise, I checked last years entries and scored these the same:

4 cruisers (15mm vehicle sized) = 32 points

7 escorts (15mm gun sized) = 28 points

Total = 60 points

Minion Miles: I've never played Battlefleet Gothic but have always loved the look of the minis and you've done a marvelous job with these.  Im not sure I should cry out WAUGGGHHH!!!! or "FOR THE EMPEROR!" with these minis - it's all so confusing.  Perhaps just a very heartfelt "job well done".