From PhilH: When the Last Tetsubo is Hefted at Fantasy (49 Points)

 With apologies to Sidney for the title.

Flitting like a butterfly from the new project at World Cinema, back to an old project at the Fantasy studio. 

One of many skirmish games I’ve dabbled in, Bushido by GCT Studios is a fantasy samurai game that’s been around for a while, I was painting these about 2018-19 time. Alas it’s one of those games full of nuance that you need to play week by week really, and I haven’t had chance for that so haven’t painted any for ages. 

But aha, I gather one of our hobby luminaries and fellow challengers is developing a quite intriguing samurai skirmish game, ‘When the last sword is drawn’, which tempted me to dig out these ashigaru sentries. 

They join the rest of my Minimoto clan: ashigaru, an armoured samurai and a shugenja witch with a summoned kami elemental. Their schtick is they like in mountain strongholds and mostly wield massive tetsubo, and heavy armour.

But that’s not all! A local gamer was offloading some early Bushido minis to anyone that would collect them, so took a handful of the ‘Savage wave’ faction of oni and bakemono. I couldn’t resist painting one up straight away, and had a blast doing so. 

Of course I was delighted when Sidney’s post last month incorporated fantasy elements into his ruleset. 

 

A giant demon wielding a vast mallet isn’t something one would like to stumble into after a few saki.

Scoring, the ashigaru are 35mm scale, so 5 points a piece? 7? I leave it to the minion to decide on the oni, but he’s pretty big. 10? 15? Then 20 for the studio. 

Here I am entering the blue security zone, en route to the Director’s chair. 

These are beautifully painted and I love the demon chap. Well done

From PhilH: The Fall of France at World Cinema (110 Points)

For the World Cinema studio, we are making a French war film to honour the valiant (if doomed) French resistance to the German war machine.

These open a new project for me, some early war Chain of Command. With a SCW project under my belt, I have a fondness for the dorkiness of early war armour, particularly French, without an overengineered compensating big cat in sight. I’m looking forward to having a go at some of the French armour schemes, though will get the infantry done first. 

Here are eighteen French infantry from Crusader miniatures, a full Group de Combat and a bit, and the platoon’s V-B rifle grenadier team. This is about half of the core platoon. One Group de Combat, 11 men:

These are first line troops in 1935 regulation kit. Shout out to @pilpol75 on Twitter for sharing uniform details and colour references, they were a great help. I don’t think mine are perfect colour match, but I’m satisfied with the result. One of my hopes for this project is that I can work through each force fairly rapidly (relatively, on my timescales), using some new techniques. I used to be quite set in my ways with my methods, but it is good to try new things (or I just drank too much of the ‘growth mindset’ kool-aid). I did a couple of test models late last year, which were promising and helped refine a method to push this big batch through in one go. My batch painting usually stretches to 5 models at a time, so 18 was ambitious (ok, I know these are rookie numbers to some of you but I’m chuffed).

Using Trello to track my progress, I know the painting took me 10 days where I didn’t work on them every night: lightning fast for me. Some bits were a slog, like blocking in all the leatherwork on the satchels and straps, but overall they were a smooth and satisfying process. So much so I am enthused to get on with a second batch straight away and smash though the whole platoon. I shan’t at the moment though, because there’s only a few weeks of Challenge XIII left and I have other studios and projects to stop in at. 

The method uses drybrushed base and highlights on all of the brown greatcoat and legs, then green satchels, before blocking in other colours. Then I hit them with AK interactive enamel washes streaking grime (greatcoat) for the lovely rich brown tone, and NATO dark brown (satchels, legs), before wiping off the excess with makeup sponges. Allowing that to dry. I just had to highlight the flesh, weapons, straps and helmets. I think the enamel wash gives them the grizzled look I was after. 

Eighteen 28mm figures is 90 plus the studio for 20 is a tidy 110. And more to come!

These are fantastic, I have a French army, and they are great fun.

From DallasE: More Squat Bikers! (70 points)

More Squats! These are some resin bikers from Curtis Fell of Ramshackle Games. 

I like these models much better than the old GW bikes, for a few reasons. Not only are they much less expensive to buy (especially if you can take advantage of a Ramshackle sale - these were literally only a couple pounds each), but mostly I like 'em better because they look better! I really dislike the "Harley custom chopper" styling of the GW Squat bikers. If your army is gonna have bikers, much better that they're reasonable looking "kettenkrad" style half-tracked bikes that look like they can support a heavy weapon and gunner.

I selected a variety of weapons for these models, including a couple wicked-looking heavy flamers.

Here's a big gun of some kind, autocannon maybe?

Lascannon here for sure.

The second heavy flamer.

And lastly, a heavy stubber.

The models are all really good and scale decently to the old GW Squats. Sometimes Ramshackle's resin doesn't play well with superglue so a helping hand from some greenstuff or two-part epoxy is required, but they're nice models with very little flash. Arms and heads are separate so you can mix and match.

Here they are with the rest of my Squat army. I have a ton more bikers (just on regular cycles, not half-tracked ones) and a couple more metal models and exo-armour suits to paint, but what I'm working on now is bigger, much bigger... stay tuned :-) 

Scoring: Well there are a few options for these that I can see. They could be considered 28mm vehicles with two crew, that would be 25 points. Or you could say that they're "cavalry" with an extra crewman and weapon, I would count that as 15 points, or 10 for the lascannon bike. Or if you went really points squeezy you could say they are a 28mm vehicle with two crew and a crew-served weapon. Now THAT would score a bonkers 35 points each!

But I will be reasonable and count them as 28mm cav with an extra full crewman.

4x bikes with extra weapon and crew-Squat (4x 15 points) = 60 points

1x bike with lascannon (10 points) = 10 points

TOTAL: 70 points

Have a good week everybody!

Lovely work on these, although those guns defy the laws of physics and common sense. Top job

From StuartL - Counting Down the Days - Western, Gift Shop & Limo (289 Points)

Hello all,

I have quite a few things to post today, so let's get started.

First off, a trip in Lady Sarah's Limousine to an unplanned stop at the Gift Store. To pay for this, I offer this model is from Wyrd Miniatures' game Malifaux. Malifaux has 8 factions each with about 8 sub-factions (known as Crews) and this model is taken from the Showgirls crew of the  Arcanists. The Showgirls are illusionists and tricksters, running a smuggling operation from the basement of the Star Theatre in Malifaux city. This figure is the leader of the group, Colette DuBois.

Last week, my wife found some garden ornaments at our local dollar store (100 yen store actually), that she really liked. However, they were quite plain being mainly white clay with just a hint of colour. Knowing that I have a room stocked full of paints and other colourful substances, she suggested that they would look much nicer if they just had a tiny bit of pigment added. Figuring that these would qualify for the Gift Store bonus, I agreed to take time out of my schedule and paint them up.

Miniature Arab for scale.

So, after googling some pictures of hedgehogs and having my wife select one that she likes, I set to work. As the ornaments had a lot of texture sculpted on already, I settled on a 'wash and wipe' technique. I first applied some dark fleshy tones to the feet and mouth, then put Vallejo washes on the parts of the body that needed them. Before that had a chance to dry, I wiped a folded tissue over the figure, trying to remove some of the wash on the top layers of the fur. I then added a second darker wash over the top of the body and repeated the process. Finally, I painted the eyes a bit more, as the originals just had small dots of black in the centre rather than a fully black orb. Once everything was dry I varnished them and quickly grabbed some pictures before my wife could transfer them to the garden. 

With that quick pit stop out of the way, it is on to the next part of the studio, the Western stage, but to get there I need to pay my way in the Limo, so here is another Showgirl for Malifaux.

The Western stage is a tricky one for me as I don't have any real Western figures. However, I do have a lot of Weird West figures, or more accurately Wyrd West. Malifaux is a game set in an alternate world circa 1900, where magic is real. Using magic, people opened a breach between dimensions, linking Earth to the strange land of Malifaux. In this new land, humans have gone forth to settle and plunder, creating a new frontier of colonisation. Leading the way are an organisation called the Guild, they control traffic through the breach and maintain law and order in the most draconian ways possible. They maintain magically powered automata to bolster their forces as well as countless guards, undead hunters, monster slayers and more.

These are some Guild riflemen backed up by two Wardens, machines designed to apprehend and detain possible suspects using grappling claws. These five will form the start of my Guard crew. The Wardens can also pull double duty in one of my existing crews as well, so that is a bonus. Malifaux figures are usually in the 32mm range, but the constructs are bigger, standing around 40mm+.

With my main studio visit out of the way, it is time to see what else I painted up this week. I've been on a bit of a Bolt Action/WW2 kick this time and so I present the following, in 5-man Squirrel sized squads.

Some African soldiers to fight for the British against the Japanese in India and Burma. Models are from Warlord Games with heads from Gripping Beast.

Some Frenchmen, equipped by the Americans to fight the Germans in Italy. Models are from Warlord and Artizan (or Crusader, I forget) with heads from Gripping Beast.

Some Germans to fight pretty much everyone in Europe. Models are from Warlord Games.

And some Russians to fight for the Motherland. Models are from Warlord Games.

And some Death Korps of Krieg, just because I was painting Germans and thought the colours would be a good match for these models. The figures are from Games Workshop and are part of their Kill Team range. Being GW Imperial figures with a name like Death Korps, they obviously bear a lot of skulls. 1 on each helmet, belt and backpack and 2 each on most guns.

So, with that, I just have to pay for my trip to the last section of the studio before the Director's Chair, the Fantasy Studio, which I will be tackling next week. One more Malifaux model should do the trick.

Ok, on to the scores.

31x 28mm models @5 points = 155 Points.

2x 40mm models @7 points = 14 Points.

3x Limo Rides + 2 Studio areas @20 Points = 100 Points.

Hedgehogs = ? These were really fast and simple and I didn't paint large sections of the lower body. If my minion feels like giving me some bonus points, that's fine, but it was mainly just splashing on two layers of wash.

Total = 289 Points

My side duels.

Squirrels + 6 = 34

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, Guild, WW2 Africans, WW2 French, WW2 Germans, WW2 Russians, DKoK

Skullz + 24 = 224

Turnips - 115 Points

That's a lot of squirrelling. Great work, love the western ladies. I'll count he hedgehogs as 28mm cavalry, just for cuteness.

From SebastianR: Moonshinin' [Westerns] (25)

Not much to say about this figure, it's mostly a challenge location un-locker scooped up from a friend for that purpose.

That being said, paints up rather nicely.

I'm not really into the West as a theme or topic for wargames; I didn't really have any suitable miniatures. I'm quite a big fan of Hunt: Showdown, an extraction shooter with delusions of live servicehood, but this fellow is nowhere near grimy or dark enough.

My friend bought into multiple of the Reaper Bones kickstarters and has slowly been parceling them out over the years as he realised he would never paint them. The collection he handed off to me when answering my call for suitable miniatures were more 1920s than 1880s, particularly with the female minis, and have that distinct Reaper Bones bendy plastic on some of the weapons, but this one in particular probably represents a fairly timeless stereotype of the moonshinin' hillbilly. Give it 40 years and that beard will be grey and he'll be warning partying teens away from the spooky cabin/woods/local murders hang out while being mildly threatening for no good reason.

That's 5 points for the mini and 20 for the challenge for 25pts.

And that, is the end of my posting splurge. I need to knock out something for the Swords and Sandals location so I can link my locations and be ready in case my halflings (the other large project I hoped to get done this challenge) turn up before the 20th, but otherwise I think I'll linger in the Under Construction challenge to pointsify as many unfinished projects as possible.

And Seb personally completes an entire posting day on his own. I'm going for a lie down

From SebastianR: Can't beat a good book [Books] (25)

I think this is probably the easiest and most literal challenge spot I've even done.

This pretty fun miniature is a book golem; an animated swarm of books, probably animated by a poorly stored Necronomicon or bad application of the Dewey decimal system.

This is a Black Cat Bases model that I bought on an impulse, and turned up some time later, long after I'd forgotten ordering it. Don't impulse purchase miniatures, kids.

Also another use of Vallejo Wood Grain. Still not 100% sure about it.

That 5 points for the figure and 20 bonus points for 25

Seb is hogging the limelight with his 4th post of the day. I've got this figure, it's fun to paint and you've made a great job of it

From SebastianR: Bustin' (out the) Ghosts [Black and White & Limousine] (85)

It’s about the get spooky up in here, but first, I need to take a quick trip in Lady Sarah’s Limousine. At first I thought that I had no female figures to paint this year, and my mobility around the challenge map was greatly limited. Then I realised that one of the first figures I completed was in fact female.

After my first few passes over my Finns I realised I was going to have to paint something on the side in order to break up the monotony. Thus I embarked on a series of ghosts following a scheme I found on Gardens of Hecate. I found this scheme so chill that I started searching for more ghosts in the lead pile and eventually made a few bids on eBay for Age of Sigmar "chainrasp hordes" (which failed).

Which brings me to the Black and White studio and the miniature that started it all, an Age of Sigmar wraith (I think). In order the achieve this scheme I had to import Secret Weapon Dark Wood from the States at vast expense, the range being effectively unknown in the UK.

I then went onto strip my old Warhammer wraith and banshee in order to repaint them.

I particularly enjoyed the directional rattlecan highlighting.

The original orange hair was a tribute to a high school classmate who was… well… if you know what a wee Glaswegian wifey sounds like… An adolescent jab now consigned to the past.

This lead to the search through the lead pile which unearthed 5 ghostly naginata armed samurai from the Kensei Undead kickstarter I backed years ago. At some point I’ll multibase them for Kings of War/Warhammer.

I’m rather worried about the storage of the miniatures. The weapons are made of extremely soft metal, they bend to the slightest touch; it’s a matter of time ‘til they break.

Finally, if the Typhus Corrosion is too colourful for black and white (I know it isn’t, others have used actual colours!) this sarcophagus was painted using only black and white.

(Ok and some stains on the inside in Seraphim Sepia)

So that’s the whole ghostly gang.

That’s 8 28mm figures at 5 points each for 40 points

One tiny piece of terrain 1" by 1" by 1.5" worth ~1 points

And 2 challenge locations at 20 points each for 40

For a total of 81 points

Seb goes for the hat trick of post with a beautiful set us spooky stuff. You've got black and White nicely covered with these horrors. Well done. THe coffin look smore like an objective marker than terrain so i'm going to score it 5 pts

From SebastianR: Freelance Knight [Casting Couch] (35)

Now this is how you AHPC properly. A single mini. A single location. Ok, it’s 2 minis, three if you count the horse, which as we all know, in Warhammer (and Mordheim) is the most deadly force on the battlefield.

This is a classic Mordheim Freelance Knight who will be pulling duty as a… um, Freelance Knight in our game of Mordheim. From the off he’s been a fixture of my Halfling warband, providing some much needed fast moving melee power in a campaign which already features a rat ogre and a croxigor. I think he justifies the casting couch position on the challenge map, not only for the above, but because, in my head at least, he’s the point of view character for my Halfling warband as they tear up the map, and the ale cellars of any publican unlucky enough to find himself in their way.

This is a model from my childhood. I could have sworn I took a picture of him pre-stripping of paint, but alas, that does not seem to be the case. Honestly, I don’t think my painting has improved that much since then (he came from the tail end of my initial wargaming life, right before I went to uni). But I have discovered washes, which cover a multitude of sins, and I’ve learned techniques for the painting of horses (deployed to mixed results here). I’ve definitely chosen a more neutral pallet than last time, but I’ve been more adventurous with, say, the field on the shield.

5 for the dismounted figure

10 for the mounted

And 20 bonus points for 35 all in

Lovely work, shame you didn't you complete the bases but I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by the number of posts you have so I'll let it slide this time