From SanderS: Robin Hood in Children's Books (65 points)

 Hoi,

Since my last post two weeks past I only managed to finish 9 figures, life threw quite a few spanners in the works recently. I will spare you the details and get going. 

Let's be honest okay? My main focus this Challenge will lye on my Bretonnians and I am willing to bend the rules to get them in anyway I can. Now since I got hold of quite a lot of the old school miniatures and characters as well I decided I was going to do the Brigands of Bergerac, with the characters:  Bertrand the Brigand (aka Robin Hood), Hugo le Petit (Little John) and Gui le Gros (Father Tuck). Now back when I was a kid, we used to read decent books after bedtime like the one shown here which is a Dutch translation of Ivanhoe (by Sir Walter Scott) in which  Robin Hood has a small Cameo and since I do not have the actual Robin Hood book this will have to do. 

I painted up some white metal squires to use as the Brigands of Bergerac because I didn't have enough to make a bigger unit.

As a painting reference I use Pinterest where I make folders filled with all kinds of inspirational pictures and one of them had a Bertrand figure wearing a brilliant checkered  pants so I had to try that for my figure and I am really happy with it. 

Here are the full command squires:

Some regular grunts shooting bows:

Now pointswise there are 9 figures in 28mm good for 45 points and that together with the Library bonus should net me 65. Sadly I was unable to finish a unit of Knights Errant so they will show up next week.

Cheers Sander

Sylvain: I am sure many Challengers will fondly remember Robin Hood from their childhood. Great entry for this theme! The band is very characterful and you did a great job at expressing the personality of each sculpt. I'm sure these little figurines will bring joy to the gaming table. Thanks for indulging us!

From FrederickC - Strolling through the Stacks [Fantasy][Children's Books][Maritime][Local History][Statue of a Famous Person][Romance] (331 points)

 I spent this week wandering around the shelves at the Challenge Library, as well as rummaging through my boxes of figures, kits, etc. to find suitable projects to fit the requirements of the various sections. I was able to complete six in time for Monday's Musée des Fossile, including a few with items that go back close to half a century. I hope you enjoy my meanderings.

For the Fantasy section I painted a group of twenty-two 25mm Games Workshop Easterlings consisting of a captain, a banner, four spear and shield, eight sword and shield, and eight archers. These were in the queue for last year's challenge, but the clock ran out before I could get to them. The miniatures were second-hand that need some cleanup and repair to get them ready to paint. They got an overnight soak in rubbing alcohol (2-propanol), followed by a scrub with a stiff toothbrush to remove the previous paint job. Two of the archers had the upper half of their bows missing, and these were repaired with pieces of florist wire. They were painted using Vallejo acrylics, plus a wash of Citadel Seraphim Sepia on all the armour, shields, boots, and gloves. Finally I went in with some 'Old Gold' to highlight the raised areas of the armour and shields.

A Shadow in the East

Complete group of 22 Easterling Warriors

Command and Spears

Archers (Can you spot the repaired bows?)

Swordsmen

Our next stop is Children's Books with a Rabbit Stormtrooper from Archive Miniatures. It was sculpted in the late 1970s by Neville Stocken after he produced a line of unlicensed Star Wars miniatures shortly after the first movie came out. (More on this in a later submission. 😉) He modified many of his original sculpts and released them as 'Star Rovers'. The majority of the figures stand somewhere between 33mm and 35mm tall, not counting the bases.

Here comes the Easter Stormtrooper

Hopping down the lane.

All the other Stormtroopers

Think he is insane.

Hiding thermal detonators,

For little children to find,

Is a dangerous thing to do.

He must be out of his mind.

 

 

 Moving on to the second room at the Challenge Library, we come to the Maritime section. It made me wish I had bought some Thornycroft LCAs for my Bolt Action Canadians. While hunting through the 'bits and bobs' box for something appropriate, I came across a white plastic sailboat from the Reliable Toy Company. The mast and sail were long gone, but the rest of the boat had potential as a naval longboat. Some scratchbuilding was in order to fashion seats, oars, and a tiller out of popsicle sticks, round toothpicks, and the rounded ends of coffee stir sticks. For the paint scheme I copied a longboat that ferried me and my fellow grenadiers from the frigate Rose to the docks in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The longboat measures 15cm in length, which makes it approximately 1/56 scale. It would be suitable for some of the Royal Navy landing parties seen in other challengers' submissions.

Halifax celebrated its 250 anniversary in 1999

20-gun frigate Rose in the background

 

 

After assembly, but before painting

Beached on the shore

With oars deployed

Our second stop in this room is Local History. In this case, not a history of Winnipeg, but some figures for a game produced by two hometown designers, Jeremy (of Black Magic Craft) and his friend, JP (not the one in the challenge). The game is called 'Idols of Torment' in which Heaven and Hell have collapsed into each other, and different factions try to harvest the Lost that wander through this region.

 

 Our local group of gamers, the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts, got involved in playtesting the rules and providing Jeremy and JP with feedback and suggestions on the mechanics of the game. The figures I painted for this submission are a set of eight 40mm 3D resin prints of the Lost that were 'test of concept' of the final design. They are now available on sprues. My inspiration for the paint scheme I used was the look of the 'Army of the Dead' from the 'Lord of the Rings' movies. Starting with black primer, I gave the figures a drybrush of white using a soft brush, followed with a wash of Citadel Biel-Tan Green. I think it makes them look very ethereal.

 

 

 

We'll now wander along the back shelves for a Statue of a Famous Person. While searaching for something nautical, I came across a 54mm figure of an officer with raised binoculars. If I recall correctly, this was a miniature that came with a 1/32 scale plastic kit of the M50 Ontos that my father had built in the late 1960s. The figure was still in its original brown plastic, but it needed some repair to fix the large void in the middle of the back. I originally thought about making him George S. Patton, but with my last submission being a unit of French armour, I am calling  him General Leclerc  de Hauteclocque, who commanded the French 2nd Armoured Division in Northwest Europe in 1944-45.

 

Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque (22 November 1902 – 28 November 1947)

 

The last stop on our stroll today is the Romance section, for a love story between a princess and a pirate.

" Why you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder!”

 “Who's scruffy-looking?

- - - - - - - - - -

"I love you."

"I know."

 

The figures I painted are two old-school 25mm Star Wars miniatures of Han Solo and Leia Organa from West End Games. They were painted with Vallejo acrylics, with a wash of Citadel Reikland Fleshshade on the skin areas. In the background is a plastic model kit released by MPC for 'The Return of the Jedi' which is approximately 1/78 scale. A bit small for the figures, but it works well on the game table.

My Library progress thus far, with more stops in the queue already:

 

The points being claimed are as follows:

25 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points each = 125 points

 

1 x 28mm vehicle @ 20 points each = 20 points

 

8 x 40mm foot figures @ 7 points each = 56 points

 

1 x 54mm foot figure @ 10 points

 

6 x Library sections @ 20 points = 120 points

 

Just a quick note to all those who have left comments on my last two submissions, to which I have not replied. Early in the new year I fractured a bone in the little finger of my right hand. I have to wear a splint on it 24/7 until the bone knits back together. It has been a rather painful experience, especially in the first week of wearing the splint. It hasn't impacted my ability to paint as I am left-handed, but it certainly messed up my ability to type on a QWERTY keyboard. Typing my submissions is the best I can do for now.

Sylvain: Frederick, I feel exhausted running around the Library with you. So today you invented (unless I am proven wrong) the "Bonus Theme Point Bomb". I don't remember ever seen 120 points of bonus themes in one post.

You really bring us in many universes. I really enjoyed the bunny-trooper.

Should I hide in the basement next week dodging another point bomb?

Well done!!

From Lorenzo: 1848 Danish Artillery (Lates & Returns) + Marine Cyclops (Fantasy) + Matilda (Sarahs Library Cart) (94 points)

Well AHPC14 has brought out the erratic in me, gone are the plans to simply paint the Schlieswig Holstein armies piled high in my figure mountain. I got lost in the library.......

First up are some lates and returns and of course these are more Schlieswig Holstein Danish from 1848. A simple Artillery piece - yes I know they had machine guns but I have none ready. The base is using my standard method and I have added some photos of the stages as well as showing that for these 20mm chaps I base them on washers to get a height match with my 1/72 plastics. The figures are made and sold by Irregular Miniatures and from their Indian Mutiny Range - mid 19th century bell shakoes were the latest thing. These figures were lying with just red coats cast aside in the heap when AHPC14 rode into town.......

I reckon the 4 figures are worth 4x4 = 16 plus the artillery piece at 8 points plus the topic at 20 points gives me a total score of 44 points? Basing technique used is pendraken mdf 60x40, pva and bird grit (as per warhammer battles painting guide) then wet brush burnt sienna followed by dry brush ochre then highlight with a yellow white. I have found by trial and error the three colour shades that compliment each other. Then I grass the base - with my danish I tend to use gamers winter grasses as shown here.

Next up is a complete surprise. Between Xmas and New Year I went to Doncaster Racecourse and toured the Toy Show (80 odd traders). Its very planes, trains and automobiles but sometimes there is a bargain to be had. You have to be careful because the packaging often is more valuable than the kit so to speak. I bought some kits and told the guy I would be making them. A few punters nearby looked horrified :)

Anyway one trader had some lead in bags tucked by he's still making no effort to sell them. They looked liked fantasy figures. Needless to say they were old and grubby but at least bagged up. I liberated one figure that caught my eye. The base had FF14 on it and I had a sneaking suspicion they were citadel - early games workshop - a quick google showed they were actually 1980 Citadel fantasy catalogue figures and I had bought the Cyclops. A further search revealed on lost wikis that I had bought version 1 - that is the pre Michael Perry version. I made him my marine cyclops - just out the sea cave. I tried a new vallejo express contrast blue on him and was very disappointed with the contrast yet he actually came out ok colour wise so all's well that ends well. He had no weapon for the hand clearly intended to possess something. So I nicked a Perrys WOTR axe for him complete with gauntleted hand and added a touch of red to show the cyclops was in a hurry....... I reckon he meets the fantasy topic so that's 5 pts for a 28mm chap? plus 20 points for the topic? total score = 25pts Finally I have an entry for Sarahs cart which I might well need to use. I remembered I had some show figures buried in the mountain and decided I would have go at Empress Matilda. I took the colour scheme from a blog search for images. I tried some contrast paints from citadel which worked ok.

So I think that's 5 pts plus 20 points for the topic. total score = 25pts So the total should be 44+25+25 =94 if my math's is correct? 

Sylvain: A very interesting post. I like your shopping stories as well as your pictures showing how you work on your bases. Very informative. And your miniatures are fabulous as well. I am (not) sorry to hear that you were charmed by the chant of the bonus themes. It brought us some wonderfully painted miniatures. Where will you take us next week?