From Barks: Post-apocalyptic homages (Romance)(Statue of a famous person)(61 points)

In this library, the Statue of a Famous Person is of Buddy Holly.

Sort of.

Buddy

This is an homage to Buddy, the guitar-wielding ronin of Six-String Samurai. In the post-apocalyptic far future of 1997, Elvis has died and Buddy must travel to Lost Vegas to become the new king of rock 'n' roll. On his journey, he is accompanied by The Kid.

Buddy and The Kid

The Kid

Trailer:

Who says you can't have a meet-cute after the apocalypse? Turbo Kid is the story of Turbo Kid and the aggressively upbeat and quirky Apple. This film comes from the made-up imagi-nation of 'Canada'. Preposterous.

Apple and Turbo Kid

Turbo Kid

Apple

Trailer:

I also painted some skullz, to get my foot in the door for the Skull Duel. These are from a Mantic Terrain Crate. Each has twenty-seven skullz.

Skullz!

4x 28mm 3D prints from Imitation of Life (20 points)

Terrain 3x (2" x 1" x 0.5") (1 point)

Statue of a Famous Person (20 points)

Romance (20 points)

Skull Duel (Skull-o-meter™: 81 skullz)

__________________________________________________

Okay, I love this entry.

That Buddy Holly mini is pure awesomesauce, especially the work on the six string (ie katana scabard), the hair and the flesh tones. That being said, I also really admire the super vibrant colours of the Turbo Kid and Apple (especially her trippy hair). 

I had to watch both movie trailers and I'm know what I'm watching tomorrow. Side-by-side I think Turbo Kid will take it, but I'm Canadian, so I'm biased. 

The takeaway from all this is that Barks watches some very weird sh*t. 

- Curt

PS: The skull 'terrain' is criminal - you should be ashamed. (Printing some now...)

From MikeW - Opening Gambit! Warhammer Fantasy Orcs and 40K Tau (Fantasy, Squirrel, Skullz) - 75 Points

Hello again,  Everyone!

I thought I ought to open this year's challenge account with a taster of things to come... As well as my usual flitting between subject matters I have decided to try and build a 40K Tau Army and to continue to supppliment my Warhammer Fantasy Greenskin Army.

As ever, the opening couple of weeks of these challenges is a sparse time for painting for me, too many family commitments and pulls on my time in other areas. Hopefully, I will be able to ramp-up the production line as we move into January & February.

So on to this post - first up is a small batch of 5 x Orks, I have been evolving the way in which I paint these guys over the last year or so and this is largely due to watching too many YouTube videos on painting techniques and being easily influenced. 

These Orcs were undercoated black then drybrushed grey and finally drybrushed white, then using watered down green, I blocked in their skin before 'dressing' them with various muted browns, greys and blacks to give the look I was aiming for.

My new best friend in the painting world is Games Workshop Black Templar - when applied over a dry-brushed surface it gives a great 'shaded' black effect. I have used other speed paints form Army Painter & Citadel on these guys as well. 

Once the base colors are blocked in I can then beging on the shading and details that make the figures come to life. I used Army Painter Green Wash all over the skin areas and then suitabe 'regular' paints to add highlights where applicable. 

My other new painitng friend is Games Workshop's Air range of paint for airbrushes - I use these with a normal paint brush straight from the pot, their more 'watery' consistancy allowing for quick, easy coverage. This is how I painted in all the metal work, followed, when dry, with a dark wash to give shading.

For me the key to a good Ork is getting the mouth & teeth right - get them detailed and bold and it enhances the rest of the figure! Dark red mouths, pink lips and grimy but somehow bright teeth make a good start in this area.

I based these guys in my normal manner, fine sand with electrostaic grass.

Second up are a small group of 6 x Tau. I have long wanted to try my hand at these guys but it was only in the run up to this challenge that I decided that I'd give them a go!

I opted for a white armour with accentuated Orange panels, reason being I like the contrast between white ond orange plus I've always been worried about trying to paint white armour, no better way to learn how to paint it - I thought.

What also draws me to the Tau is their 'For the Great Good' ethos, very un-Warhammer 40K, this appeals to my perverse nature of things. Also the other fun thing about theTau is their high tech culture and their willingness to integrate alien life forms into their society and armed forces in an incusive manner.

Hence this small group incldes one drone as well as two Gue'Vesa (aka human helpers), I'll leave it to the reader to spot these! The Gue'Vesa were built from Wargames Atlantic figures, with GW helmets, weapons and equipment added.

So in painting these I undercoated in grey and then dry-brushed light grey and white coats on top of this base before using 3 or 4  glazes of thinned down white to try and give a smooth finish. Random panels on the armor were then painted orange to give a conterpoint contrast, before trying to panel line the armor with Aggrax Earthshade ink. any overruns corrected when dry with more white or orange paint.

The undersuit was painted with an Army Painter dark grey speed paint, and then details were applied to each figure such as the light blue lenses and computer panels in their helmets, weapons and armoured suits. Brass giroscopes were also added and other details appled as needed.

As with the Orcs the finished figures were coated with Matt Varnish. To give these guys a more alien feel , I have opted to use an orange poster paint to ahear the fine sand to on the bases, followed with an patchy ink wash, giving them an unearthly feel and dried grass tfts will be added to imply an arid environment.

Overall, I think that I can improve on the white armour finish, the next batch already seem to be going a bit better, in my opinion.

Apologies for the quality of the photos, the weather and light here in the UK is terrible at present, so I have had to rely on flash to get the required lighting and that is causing shadows elsewhere.... 

So there we have it, my first post of the challenge, points wise I have gone for 5 points per figure and assumed the drone counts the same as a person, please correct if this is wrong!

I have also claimed for the Fantasy section in the library for a 20 point bonus for the Orcs  and as both the Orcs & Tau about exceed 25 points I'm claiming 2 squirrels and 3 Skullz!

POINTS

5 x 28mm Orcs @ 5 points ea                        25 Points

6 x 28mm Tau @ 5 Points ea                          30 Points

Fantasy Section Bonus                                      20 points

TOTAL                                                            75 Points

_____________________________________

Welcome back to the Challenge, Mike!

Great looking Greenskins and Tau. I particularly like the demonstrative Ork standard bearer and tau wi-fi extender drone. A good opening volley, especially when caught up in the Holiday Season. I look forward to seeing your upcoming work!

- Curt

From BruceR: 12 Polish Voltigeurs 28mm, Overdues and Returns (80 pts)

I've headed into the stacks of the Overdues and Returns of the library.  In the past I painted some Napoleonic Polish infantry from Muraski   miniatures.  I'd ordered a unit special and when received there were no Voltigeurs.  Of course it took some time to finish the troops and when done I decided to place an order for those Voltiguers and I did.  Months passed and I can only imagine they needed to be remolded and were not coming.  Not being a patient person I ordered some Front Rank figures with Colpacks (very cool) and painted those (last years Challenge).  After many months the Voltigeurs did show and as I had painted the others in a box they went. 

This challenge, I did pledge (to myself) to paint some of the languishing figures I had collected and these would add more lights to my French forces scouring the hills for Spanish guerrillas.  

The figures are slim and the rifles slight in comparison to the North Star Spanish I first submitted.  The figures are full of character.  I love troops reaching for cartridges and some of the figures have bandages as well. I also like the side burns and mustaches giving them the veteran look. 

Weather in the plains has been crazily mild until Christmas night when we paid for the nice weather with rain or as the weather folk call it frizzle.  Rain and cold a bad mix.  The roads were shear ice and no travel, with work closed.  So, to the painting desk and here they are somewhat earlier than I expected.  I hope you enjoy.

Early stages

 

Group shot

Ready to invade

The squared shakos

Close up of cartridge grabber, forage cap (touqe up North) and head bandage

I did my standard black undercoat and proceeded to give the faces a dark brown coat.  I work my way out on the miniatures and when complete a wash.  Some highlights and a brush varnish.  Ready for battle.  I and some local friends enjoy Sharp Practice and these will fit in nicely.  Having a counter to the nasty 95th rifles I have will be a welcome option for the French player. 

Points:

12 28mm @5             =     60 pts

Overdues and Returns =   20 pts

Total                                   80 pts

_______________________________________________

These Voltigeurs look excellent, Bruce! I like the bright colours, but you've still given them a weathered, old-campaigners look about them. I'm also quite admiring the arid groundwork you've given them - it definitely evokes those battlefields in Portugal and Spain. Well done!

- Curt

From Rhunt - Marines, Elves and a Steward - Overdues and Returns and Fantasy (85 points)

My name is Rhys and I'm 19 and special needs. This year I really got into painting, I love it so much. I'm super excited to be part of the Challenge this year.

My first entry is three Space Marine snipers from Games Workshop. My dad tells me these count as 28mm even though they are bigger than they used to be.

Space Marine snipers.

The rear, showing the camo - ghillie suit.

These are big models and easy to paint.

I love the tufts but the glues gets everywhere when I'm putting on the flock.

The next mini is just a standard space Marine. I have more of these that I'll work on later. I did not enjoy painting this one as much as I did the snipers.

Next up is Denethor. My dad and I play a lot of Lord of the Rings (MESBG) together. We also play at the local game store. I love Gondor and I didn't have this model. This is the metal model, which is very hard to find. My dad's friend Tim gave me this as a birthday present.

Denethor, Steward of Gondor

My dad is really jealous that I got this old, classic model. I'll use this for the Overdue and Returns desk since it is a really old model.

I really liked painting this model because of his cape. All of the folds are really nice to paint in metal.

My next entry is four of the new Games Workshop elves (or whatever they're called now - I'm too old to play name games with IP - Dad). I got these for Christmas last year but dad just put them together for this Challenge.

I liked painting these because they can go in a bunch of different armies. I also really like the back flags on the sword elves.

I'll be using these four elves to hit the Fantasy desk, which gives me two desks in the first room.

I have eight more spear elves. I don't like painting these very much, especially the long spears.

That gives me two locations in the first room. Now I can move on if I want to.

9 x 28mm foot @ 5 points = 45 points

Overdues and Returns = 20 points

Fantasy = 20 points

Total = 85 points

________________________________

First, Rhys, welcome to the Challenge! 

This is a solid first entry to the Library. The Space Marine sniper trio is great, especially the groundwork and the use of foliage to provide better camo. The white bolt rifles is a bold choice, but I like it. In the future you may want to try a wash of dark grey or perhaps thinned-down black to give the weapons a bit more sense of texture and definition. 

I hear you on GW's creation of silly names to 'protect' their intellectual property. These elves look great (I particularly like ones with the yellow cloaks). For the spear shafts try GW's Snakebite Leather Contrast Paint. It works terrific with one coat, especially over a white or light grey primer.

85 points for your debut on the scoreboard which is a great start to you 500 point goal. Well done!

- Curt

  

From KyleC - Death Guard LI Vehicles - 'New Acquisitions' (110pts)

So first post of a new year and it's going to be this new fandangled scale from Games Workshop. Though this was all 3d printed in prep for the challenge and also cause the boxset was sitting under the tree waiting to be opened. 

So I have been playing with the color scheme a bit on a few other bits before tackling this mad batch of more usable bits. 

I figured after talking to the local club members that Rhinos would be useful. So here are 20 of them waiting for their riders to get done. 

Was the first time trying to put decals on such a small scale and I think they came out decently. 

These were fun mostly cause I have recently tried to bring flyers back into my other games with less than stellar results. So hopefully these flyers will do better in bulk and give me some new playing opportunities.. 

Now this is the flyer I tried in Horus Heresy (HH) 28mm and it failed horribly by being shot out of the sky first shot as it came on the table. I can honestly say I had to take 5 to recover from that as it was my newest painted model and really wanted to make pew pew and vroom vroom noises with it on the table. Sad picaku face when seeing it crash and do nothing...

So now I have 6 for the epic version of HH and am curious on how they might play out now. 

No idea how these will do but I know that they don't have files for them yet. But the Deredeos seem to be decent so though a unit of 5 would be cool. 

And the last model type are the Sicarians. This gives me 2 units of 4 which should be fun. I like using them in the HH 28mm gaming. But again I have no idea how they might fare in LI now. 

So overall this gives me 45 vehicles in 6-8mm scale, scoring some 90pts to kickstart the challenge with. Now to begin to prep for my minion duties come January! 

_________________________________

First, welcome back to the Challenge, Kyle, and thank you for serving as our Sunday Minion!

I was wondering when we'd see the first Legions Imperialis entry as it's one of the new shiny things to come out of GW recently. These Death Guard look fabulous (the 3d prints are awesome). I especially like your use of the vibrant green accent and ace vehicle decals to give them some visual interest. Smashing work!

- Curt