Sunday, 19 February 2023

from Paul O'G: SciFi Terrain (31 points)

Due to popular demand* my submission this week is devoid of root twisted freaks and upsetting visages. These will return sooner than anyone wishes... 

* including a number of nefarious visitors, all of whom went home bemusedly clutching a slightly moist bag of turnips

Instead, this week I present a small offering of terrain for our 40k/Kill Team/Necromunda table. Nothing special, just some cheap sprues that I picked up at CanCon last month. I tried not to just make them the typical dull grey and think overall I did give them a lighter tone in which to face a grim dark future.


At the risk of igniting yet another TerrainGate (TM) incident- the furore of the last has only just dimmed after all, I did get to thunking.. For 20 points, a 6in cube presents an external painted surface area of 6x6 x5 sides (excluding the base) which is 180 square inches. Thats 9 square inches per point, though civilised types would correctly suggest that is slightly more than 56 square cm per point. And yet, for terrain in this style vice bulk volume, pigment application occurs on BOTH sides not just the external facing. So while this pair represent a Volume equivalent of 1.5 Terrain standard cubes, the painted area is in fact equivalent of 3 in terms of square inches painted - its a bally outrage you know! :-)

These are the sorts of musings one can make in the more refined and chill Sunday Crew (when not thinking about Turnips, obviously).  Anyway, more some terrain for the table and 30 points for my tally - have a great week everyone!

Behave, it's hard enough keeping the Snowlord calm at the best of times. What about painting trees, that would explode everyone's maths ability. I will give you an extra bonus point cos it's pretty

From DallasE: Commissar Snow White and Six Squats (55 points)

Back from a week in Florida and back to the Challenge! Here are some models I've just finished for my "vintage" Warhammer 40K Squat army. If you like, you can read all about the origins of this crazy project here

Anyway even though I painted a Squat Commissar, I felt like a human female commissar would be a great addition to this army, kind of a Disney vibe right?

The model is a 3D print I got off eBay... I really like the "Anneka Sage" model from Victoria Miniatures, as well as the "Severina Raine" GW model, but they are both crazy expensive. Maybe someday.

I also painted six "command-type" Squats for the army - these are (Lto R) Grom Atchison, Vollmer Adams, and Lisle Sterling, all from the ancient GW metal range.

They're Perry sculpts if I recall correctly, and really nicely detailed. I added a moustache to Lisle with greenstuff as I didn't care for the neckbeard look.

The giant power fist and packs are great too.

The other three are Colt Stoner, Roth Bergmann, and Mauser von Dreyse.

Strangely, Roth (centre) had a stud in the middle of his back, like there was supposed to be a backpack there. So I added one from the bits box.

Sooo... I score this as seven 28mm figures (35 points) plus 20 points for a sneaky ride in Lady Sarah's Limo for Commissar White.

Till next time!  

Love these and there is a positive Disney vibe going on here. Great work


From StuartL - Arts and Crafts House - Arthouse (60 points)

Hello again,

So, after blitzing through two studio sections, it is time to hit my fourth, thereby clearing the way for a run at the Director's Chair.

Of all the sections of the studio, the Arthouse was the one that gave me the most pause, so I decided to take it literally and paint a house. Luckily, I had one to hand that I had built prior to the previous challenge, but that had sat on my shelf for the past year. The plan is to use it for Saga: Age of Crusades as I have some Arabs and Crusaders on the go for that.


Like a lot of folks, my finances took a hit during Covid and things like terrain have become a bigger financial burden to sort out than I would like. As a way of getting round that, I tried my hand at putting some terrain of my own together. I started with two wooden boxes I got at the local dollar store, and cut some foam board to match their size, cutting holes for doors and windows. Gluing everything together gave me a basic structure. The boxes are upside down, the base of each forming the roof of the building. This means that the interior isn't accessible, but I don't need to worry about it collapsing if anything heavy is put on it.


I then cut up some coffee stirrers to make the doors and some bamboo skewers to add some beams to 'support' the roof. I used an old pen to score some brick work into the foam and covered it all in textured paint to provide a harder wearing surface. (The bricks got a layer of PVA instead). Everything got painted in dark brown and then I went over it with a beige using a cut up piece of sponge to dab the colour on. The base is foam covered with Vallejo White Stone and some sand sprinkled on top.


One of the problems with terrain is scoring it, especially when it is not a regular shape.
The main building is about 5" high, by 4.5" wide and 4.5" deep.


The smaller section is roughly 3" by 3" by 3.5".


Overall, this should be 132.75 cubic inches.

That's great, but I kind of need more terrain to fill up a table, so...


This building is from Renedra. I got it cheap off a friend who had tried building it and got fed up with it. The kit doesn't fit together all that well, even with some Vallejo plastic putty, there are a LOT of gaps between the panels. It is nicely detailed though.


Size wise, it is roughly 5" by 3.5" by 2.5", or 43.75 cubic inches.


That's probably enough buildings for now, but how about some natural features?


I had a large piece of blue foam left over from a previous project, so I cut it into a rough shape, added some smaller ridges on top and glued down some tree bark to be used as rocks. Then I decided to add the same texture that I used on my buildings and minis. This thing took half of the tub of Vallejo White Stone, making it quite expensive given that the rest of it is just scrap material.


This should fill up a large chunk of the table and block some lines of sight. It is 7" wide at it's narrowest point, roughly 16" long and 1" high (2" on the two ridges). At a rough calculation it is 7"x16"x1" or 112 cubic inches.

Ok, nearly done, just a few bits of greenery to brighten up the table. 


I found these palm trees at the dollar store and bought out their entire stock. I then went back the following week and bought out their restock and then again a few weeks later. The clerks must have thought I was mad. This lot represent about a third of the trees I bought. The bases were done with the same method as the building above. I drybrushed and washed the trunks to make them look less like cheap plastic, but the leaves just wouldn't take any paint at all. I don't know what they are made from, but they are essentially paint-proof.


The whole lot measures roughly 6" square, but there are some gaps between bases that I couldn't fill up.


The trees stand between 3 and 4 inches tall, plus a bit of extra height where the leaves stick up. Going at 6"x6"x3", that gives the trees a total of 108 cubic inches.

So, all told that comes to: 396.5, or 1.83 challenge terrain cubes. That is roughly 36 points plus 20 for the studio, though I suppose I should take some deductions for the dead space between the trees. I'll leave it up to my fair-minded and all knowing Minion to decide. As he just finished off some terrain himself, I am sure he can appreciate the way points and volume are calculated.

Final score ??? 56 points???

Hopefully, I score over 25 for the terrain, which will then qualify for a Squirrel Point. Too late I have realised that I should have stuck a skull somewhere on one of the bases to get a point for the Skullz duel too. Drat.

My side duels
Squirrels +1 = 28
Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Dwarves, Fire Giants, WW2 Polish, Daemons, Viridians, Vasa, Junkers, Turnips, Necrons, Tau, Genestealers, WW2 Japanese, Teutonics, Lizardmen, Gnolls, Arabs, Space Marines, Kung Fu Chinese, Wolf's Dragoons, Merfolk, Fishmen, Fish, Mummies, Greek Myth, Peasants, Desert Terrain

Skullz - 200

Turnips - 115 Points


And that means I have finished the minimum to qualify for the Directors Chair! See you all next week.

Love the building, terrain can be a pain to score or a positive bounty of points. You fit in the middle. I'm doing to score it a 2 cubes so you don't get trippy decimal points on your score

From StuartL - Go limo, go! - Lady Sarah's Limousine + others (155 points)

Hello all,
I noticed the clock counting down towards the end of the challenge and decided that I had better get my skates on. I only just entered the Blue Section of the Studios last week, and I want to make sure that I have enough time for whatever horro....er I mean blessings the Show Lord bestows upon me for the Directors Chair challenge.

So, to that end, I have a few stops to make this week, and to get me to those stops I need to pay for my Limousine ticket.


To save me repeating myself, ALL of the models in this post are from Reaper's Bones range. They are cheap (when you back a kickstarter anyway), cheerful and fill a few gaps in an RPG collection. This maiden should pay for me to nip over to the Superhero section of the studio lot.


Despite being a big fan of comics and comic based movies, I don't own any real comic book minis. Digging through my stash of figures, I dragged this out. I'm pretty sure that Reaper never advertised it as Hellboy, but with the sawed off horns, big gun and even bigger magic fist thing, the similarities are probably not a coincidence.

Time to dash on though.


Another female model for another journey in the limo. This time the Swords and Sandals section.


Luckily this hydra is made out of the newer Bones material, so it is pretty rigid. If it had been from the 1st wave of minis they did, the heads would have been flopping everywhere.


The central figure is supposed to be Hercules, the others are Spartans or Greeks of some sort, though obviously with a fairly fantastical bent.


The Hydra is pretty large, but it is mainly the base and a long body that makes it up, so I'm going to suggest that it is scored as a 54mm model as opposed to a 28mm scale monster. That plus the three regular minis should be a Squirrel point too.

No time to dilly dally, I have one more post today and I want to pay for my ticket in the limo.


This should clear me for a ride over to the Arthouse stage. It also means that over the past two weeks, I have 5 painted up NPC women, aka 1 Squirrel Point. 


So for the scores.

7x28mm minis = 35 Points
1x54mm mini = 10 Points
2x Studios (Superhero, Sword & Sandals) = 40 Points
3x Limo rides = 60 Points
Total = 145 Points

My Side Duels
Squirrels +2 = 27
Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, Dwarves, Fire Giants, WW2 Polish, Daemons, Viridians, Vasa, Junkers, Turnips, Necrons, Tau, Genestealers, WW2 Japanese, Teutonics, Lizardmen, Gnolls, Arabs, Space Marines, Kung Fu Chinese, Wolf's Dragoons, Merfolk, Fishmen, Fish, Mummies, Greek Myth, Peasants

Skullz - 200

Turnips - 115 Points

See you all at the Arthouse!

That is a cracking whistle stop tour of the studios. Hellboy is my personal favourite, I love the 1st 2 movies. Top work. The Hydra is too big for a 54mm infantryman so scored it as cavalry

Sunday Minion checking in

 Morning all. Today is the 35th anniversary of my 21st birthday so I'm away until later. Posts will be done this evening. Hope you all have a fun day