From Curt - First Group of 10mm units for The Empire (I of VII) (138 Points)

Hi All!

I've been puttering away at this project since the start of the Challenge, and while it's certainly not 'done', it has progressed to a state where I'm happy to start posting it. So I'm going to show what I've been up to at a slow drip, with an entry a day until the close of the Challenge. Stuart has been kind enough to allow me to sneak in at the last minute, so my hat's off to him not only for this, but also for his excellent work as our Saturday Minion this Challenge. Thank you again, Stuart - we could not have done this without you.

I've always been a big fan of Warhammer Fantasy's 'Old World'. This goes way, waay back to the 80s with my first introduction to the setting. While the rules themselves could often leave me cold at times (depending on the edition), it was the Old World that I always drew me back. The gritty, ersatz Renaissance aesthetic ticked off so many boxes for me - the heady mixture of plate armour, crazy magic, puff & slash uniforms and early gunpower weapons - it was just so cool.  I won't even start on my opinion on GW's inexplicable decision to blow up their own IP and replace the Old World with The Age of Stinkmar, other than to say it was an atrociously bad one.

Anyway, the Old World is wonderful source of nostalgia for me, and I always enjoy visiting it from time to time, either through role-playing (we had a fun time last year playing the 'Enemy in the Shadows' campaign), the occasional mass figures game (using the excellent 'One-Page Rules'), or just painting scads of 10mm stuff like I'm showing here today.

I really enjoyed Warmaster when it was released, as the figures were so innovative, and the rules brought a breath of fresh air to GW's stable (they are the fountainhead for Warlord's 'Hail Caesar', 'Pike & Shotte' and 'Blackpowder'). My interest was renewed a few years ago when I came across some old unopened blisters in storage. After re-reading the Warmaster rules, I decided to instead follow a different path, using a fantasy variant of  'To the Strongest' as the basis for my reboot. One of the selling features of using TtS are that the rules allow for large single bases for units which I really enjoy as it gives room for mass and creating little vignettes. Over the past two Challenges I've managed decent inroads with my Wood Elf and Tomb King armies, but now I have a new force to add: The Empire!

For me the Empire is the quintessential Warhammer Fantasy army. It has that wonderful mix of traditional units such as knights, halberdiers and spearmen, along with some esoteric oddities such as flagellants, volley guns and steam tanks. It really has something for everyone.

I have a bunch of stuff completed, but I'm going to show what I've been up to at a slow drip, with an entry a day until the close of the Challenge. 

First up is our General and two units of doughty Halberdiers. 

The casting of the General is quite impressive, astride his faithful Griffon, issuing orders to his troops. 

Nonetheless, the overall model wasn't quite as imposing as either my Tomb King or Wood Elf generals on their dragons, so I printed off and rescaled a ruined tower from Hagglethorn Hollow for him and his mount to perch on. Much better, I think.

Like the General, the Halberdiers are venerable GW metals. With my larger bases, I have the room to place the equivalent of two standard Warmaster units on them. I really like the massed look that this conveys. I also LOVE the heft of these things when compared to resin models. It really appeals to my lizard brain. :)

One of the blisters had been opened and I was short two strips of figures. To make it up I decided to use my terrain cheat and include a small structure to make up for the loss of space on the base. 

Again, I like doing this from time to time as it adds a bit of visual interest and gives players something to grip on to when moving the base around the tabletop.

For points, the two Halberdier units have 132 figures between them for an equal amount of points. For the general, I ask our esteemed Minion Stuart to indulge me by scoring it as a vehicle as it's a fairly large piece, especially with the addition of the ruined tower. If he is amenable with that, this group should give me a total of 138 points. 

I'll have another Empire unit up tomorrow. I hope you stop in for a peek. 

Thanks!

- Curt

Amazing work on this army, Curt. I totally agree on the draw of Warhammer Fantasy, as a setting it was very rich and had so much to offer. The Empire really represent what was great about the aesthetics, with a wide variety of units to choose from. I never found the rules to be to my taste, as I have commented on in my own posts before, but the range of figures was superb. At 10mm the units start to look like regiments of soldiers ready for battle. 

Well done on getting this new project started, hopefully we will see it develop further in posts to come.

From Barks: The Death of Gothmog (Director's Chair)(45 points)

Where has the time gone? I had a bit of a slump in my painting mojo, my lamp gave up the ghost, Captcha is playing up and I haven't been able to comment on all your inspiring posts*, I blinked, and suddenly the end is careering towards me.

Here's my Director's Chair entry for the Snowlord's consideration: The Death of Gothmog. I said Gothmog would be back!

• 1955: Tolkien publishes The Return of the King, and does not specify Gothmog's fate
• 2003: Jackson releases The Return of the King, which also doesn't show Gothmog's end
• 2004: Jackson releases The Return of the King: Extended Edition, which includes the blink-and-you'll-miss-it Death of Gothmog:

• 2008: GW releases a vignette 'The Death of Gothmog'. I like to think this is a Perry.
• 2023: I paint said vignette.

The Death of Gothmog

I got this off eBay, partially painted and broken. I had thoughts of making this into a piece with sabots for the figures, like my Sauron piece, but ultimately decided against it. I've got plenty of Éowyns and recently a plastic Gothmog. I stripped the pieces and reassembled it. I decided to place it on a nice oval MDF base from Knights of Dice. I bulked out a little bit of the groundwork with Milliput so that Éowyn and Gothmog are on solid ground.

Stripped and ready to go

Test fit. Note the narrower metal base before bulking it out a smidge.

I'd thought of doing the miniatures separately, but during a test fitting they got stuck in place so I painted them all together. It wasn't too hard. I started from black and then drybrushed browns and creams in the grisaille fashion, which the French call Le Slapchop.

I could have entered this as Black & White

My favourite part was painting the cloaks. The Rohirrim cloaks are from a Vallejo Russian Uniform base, and the elven ones are built up from German Feldgrau.

I was slightly disappointed with it, but then I flocked it. I used some pretty dry colours to match the film- the Pelennor fields have been somewhat abused by hordes of orcs and stampeding mûmakil- and it really came to life. I haven't varnished it and am pretty afraid to.

Gothmog (and an errant hair on his head)

Aragorn and Andúril.

Nameless orc #748. He's a dynamic dying sculpt,
his helmet is flying off and his sword leaps
from his open fingers.

Gimli dual wields and has a two-handed axe on his back

Éowyn desperately stretches for her dead comrade's sword.

The reverse of the scene

So, that's my Director's Chair entry.

6x 28mm figures (2 prone): 25 points

Director's Chair: 20 points

*also, my w key is sticky. Éoyn, Snolord, groundork

Great work on this diorama, Barks. I haven't seen the extended edition, so I was ignorant of Gothmog's fate. We're lucky that Peter Jackson felt brave enough to add his own details to the story and not just rely on the books. 

You have done an amazing job repairing and painting this set of figures, I shall have to look into that French painting technique you mentioned.

From GregB - Hospitaller Knights for Barons War: Outremer (81 points)

Figures for "Barons War: Outremer" - 28mm castings sculpted by the incredible Paul Hicks.

Once again, the brushes turn away from the 30th millenium and on to some historical subjects for today's second submission. Here we have a group of Knights from the Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem - the Hospitallers. They are accompanied by a priest and a Turcopole scout. These 28mm metal figures were sculpted by the incredible and prolific Paul Hicks, and were released via the "Barons War: Outremer" Kickstarter run by Hicks and Andy Hobday.

Mounted Hospitaller Master, accompanied by two Knights.

I wish I ordered more mounted figures. Or, just, more of everything, from this Kickstarter.

For 98.8% of hobby participants, the arrival of figures from a Kickstarter is hardly remarkable. However, my close friends will surely laugh, having endured endless rants over many years about how much I hate Kickstarter. With this in mind, let us imagine this group of figures represents a patrol on the highway to Damascus, escorting a Priest on his way to oversee a conversion...

Another amazing sculpt. A veteran commander - wise, and dangerous...

The prospect of acquiring figures for the Crusades sculpted by Paul Hicks was enough make my concerns over Kickstarter participation evaporate faster than Tony Blair's ethics around a 20 pound note. While the process certainly took a while, I can report that Andy and Paul ran a solid process. I did start to wonder a little bit as time went on whether the figures would ever arrive, but Paul and Andy kept in touch with the backers, and delivered 100% in the end. I also have to thank Byron for entertaining my multiple stupid questions regarding the general Kickstarter process throughout.

A look at some of the foot knights...great sculpting!!

When the box arrived, I handled it with my usual 10-year-old-on-Christmas-morning approach and was soon bothering Curt, Dallas, Byron and Jamie with pictures of this latest batch of toys. While my views of Kickstarter remain largely unchanged, the fact is that my only regret is that I did not order more stuff - or score one of the models of the Hospital in Jerusalem that were available to early backers! I invite all here to point, laugh, and take the piss at your leisure in the comments below.

You would need faith to fight in the heat wearing this get-up!

The sculpting of the figures is just...awesome. I love Paul Hicks' work, and wow did he deliver here! I thought I would start simple, working on some of the Hospitallers first, before moving on to the Saracen figures later on. I paused a little while to consider how I would base these, but in the end opted for the round bases for the foot models and pill-shaped bases for the cavalry. They came with the figures anyway, after all, and I have been inspired to at least give Andy Hobday's "Barons War" rules a shot using these figures, and those rules seem to work better with these bases.

Armed to the teeth and ready for battle in the Holy Land.

Painting was a lot of fun - sure, black is tricky, but the fact is that these figures are just SO nice, they are a joy to paint. Fortunately the symbols of the Hospitallers is pretty straightforward (although that did not always translate into "straight lines" on the shields...oh well) so all of the shields could be hand-painted with minimal trouble. 

Priest and Turcopole guide.

Tried to be a bit fancier with his shield.

The priest and turcopole guide offered a chance to use some different colours, and it was fun to have a go at a fancier design for the shield the guide has strapped to his back. That said, the search will be on for decals that work on the shields of the Saracen warriors to come...

Onward along the road to Damascus...

So we have a total of 10 foot figures and three mounted figures, all 28mm size. This should be good for 80 points - which, in turn, should put me past my target of 800 points - yay! Happy Saturday everyone, and I hope you are all excited for the manic final run of AHPC XIII. 

Say, it seems Paul Hicks has another Kickstarter brewing...hmmm...

Those are some really nice minis, I regret not backing that Kickstarter, I will have to look at that link you posted. You've done a great job getting these fine pilgrims ready for their journey. I have thrown in a bonus point for the hand painted shields. Well done on hitting your target.

From ChrisW - Return to Innsmouth [215 points]

Well, holidays really took a toll on me, production wise, even if it was only 1 week. 

Originally I was opposed to going away, but as winter dragged on I sort of started to look forward to some heat and sun. Beyond winter and all the fun it brings, there was also the push, by me, to get as much stuff done as I could in this challenge. That insanity started to wear me down somewhat. On top of that I also started to get distracted thinking of other projects not related to the challenge. So a long way to say that once I actually landed in Florida I truly began to understand just how much I needed to get away!

Now that I am back I just have not been able to do all that much. I started off with some gangsters, worked on about 16 or so before putting them aside, no real drive to work on them. Thankfully my collection of Deep ones and hybrids had been pulled out and were ready to go. The nature of the Deep ones meant that I could use some contrast on them to speed the process along. It was an easy fix, something I could see quick results. So that got me going again, unfortunately that was Thursday, not much time for a Friday/Saturday deadline. But with them done I could get going on the hybrids and maybe, just maybe some more stuff...

Deep Ones [14 figures] 

These are a mix of companies, not really certain who is who. I did have fun with the bases trying for a swampy water base mixed with some swamp grass tufts. The 'water' is by AK, pre-mixed small tub. Now that these have been painted this way, with contrast I will have to go back and repaint the 16 or so other Deep ones that I painted years ago.

 

 Hybrids [18 figures]

Some Black Cat bases figures, maybe some other figures too. They have a nice decayed look to them! I tried to keep away from bright colours and dirtied them up some to represent the general shabbiness of the town folk.

Scuba divers [6 x 28mm figures] FINALLY!

Crooked Dice figures painted like the good guys from the James Bond film Thunderball. The orange suit is one of the more recent GW contrast paints and come out very very orange. I find that some of the newer contrast paints do not seem to have all that much of a contrast finish to them. These are not the best figures to show off contrast as they are rather smooth but still my comment stands for this colour and a few others. I should note that I found a 'normal' paint equivalent in the Army Painter range, Lava orange, which was used for touch ups.

 

Wild West hooded thugs [5 figures]

 I believe these are from Brigade Games. They are kind of small, and low in detail, but not bad to paint and add some different character to the table. Hopefully their eye holes are in the right place...

Points total this time

• 70 points for 14 x 28mm foot Deep Ones
• 90 points for 18 x 28mm foot Hybrids
• 30 points for 6 x 28mm foot Scuba divers
• 25 points for 5 x 28mm foot Wild West hooded thugs
  

Total of  215 points

That is it for my last official Saturday post. 

Thank you Stuart for your minioning!

Squirrels this time around [+4]

1. Deep ones
2. Hybrids
3. Scuba divers 
4. Wild west hooded thugs
   

 New squirrel total 59

 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 
25. Mechanical spiders from Mars 
26. The Gorgons
    
27. Cthulhu creatures
28. Mad gardeners and their plants
29. Pulp mummies
30. Pulp Egyptian skeletons
31. Jason and the Argonauts
32. Asylum residents 
33. Dwarf Roman style troops
34. Hatchet/axe wielding maniacs
35. Free range lunatics 
36. Gunslingers
37. Hill Martians
38. Martian artillery
39. Lizard infantry
40. Tekumel monsters
41. Failed experiments
42. Dr Frankenstein and monsters
43. Cold hearted mad scientists 
44. Mexican civilians
    
45. US cavalry
46. Cowboys
47. Town folk
48. Lawmen
49. Hired guns 
50. Royal Martian marines
51. 18th century naval
52. Fritz & his Igor mates (lab helpers)
53. Abbott & Costello meet the Mummy
54. Men of Faith
55. Torture chamber
    

 I hope that you enjoyed your holiday, you certainly hit the ground running on your return if this lot is anything to go by. 

Normally, bright orange isn't a colour that looks good on a mini, but for your scuba squad, it looks really good. Great work on all of these figures.