TomL: Fantasy (165 points)

 

My original Hasselfree Fantasy sorceress was summoned to another plane of existence after I primed her but before she was painted. While this caused me quite a bit of consternation, one must accept this sort of behavior from sorceresses. So, we have called upon another primed Hasselfree fantasy miniature, young Sarah, to summon the library cart. This sculpt was the winner in an amateur sculpting contest.  Coming out from the dark and cold woods, this pale, slightly green looking child clutching a lovingly worn effigy of Cthulhu stands ready to escort you to a grimmer, darker Fantasy section of the library.

This week’s unit has been waiting for paint for a long, long time. Long ago these new plastic figures were a huge upgrade on the horrendous out of scale mono-pose plastic Skaven clan rats I had. Bought, assembled, and primed in record time upon release, I painted only one of 3 boxes before work derailed me. My gaming group stopped playing WFB next and the units were relegated to sitting on the shelf for over a decade.  Well for some of them that wait ends this week.

These were painted using mostly contrast paints. I plotted my colors from light to dark and mostly ignored small mistakes.  Covering up a multitude of slips, details such as bandages & armour were painted in last using Vallejo Metal color and foundry paints.  Then the entire model was given a coat of Vallejo Game wash to tie everything in, hide mistakes and generally dirty up the models.  A clean bright Skaven just does not look right. To break up the look a little more I used “Dirty Down” Rust on some of the weapons and armour. The Enginseer was painted before except for a final wash and basing so he is not counted in the points.

For points I have 165.

25 28mm figures * 5 = 125 points.

Sarah’s cart = 20 points.

Fantasy bonus = 20 points.

These would apply to the “The Old World” challenge as well.  

From Millsy: I think these are the most colourful Skaven I've ever seen and I have to say I like it! The wash does enough to make feel verminous without taking away too much of the colour variation. Nice work mate. Young Sarah is also a treat and the way you've photographed her is brilliant, framed by the woods like she's been on an adventure. Love it! 165 points added to your tally sir.

From StuartL - Dashing Through Section 3 - Gift Shop, Art, Nature and Library Cart - 175 Points

Hello all,

    Work has really been hitting me hard this week (and will for the next few weeks at least), so I haven't been able to get an awful lot of painting done. I was able to knock out a few entries for the Challenge Library though, so I'm mainly relying on bonus points to do most of the heavy lifting this week.

    To begin with, I have an entry for the Gift Shop. In early February last year, my wife found some hedgehog shaped garden ornaments that she wanted me to paint up for her, which I did in my entry for the Gift Shop last year, here. Since then, she has been back to the same store repeatedly to see if they had anymore of the same ornaments. The shop had other pieces in the same style, but not hedgehogs (which she adores). After 10 months of fruitless searching, the store finally restocked one of the two ornaments, so my wife immediately bought it and gave it to me along with detailed instructions for the colour scheme. 

Tyrant's Legion troops stand valiantly against the rampaging xenos beast.

    I painted this in the same style as last year, mainly applying a wash over the top and then wiping over the top with a piece of paper to pick up the majority of the wash. The eyes, nose, ears and feet were all painted in normally.

        With the quick stop to the gift shop out of the way, I need to move over to the Art section, so here is a mini from the old, old, old game Void to pay for my trip on Sarah's Library Cart.

    For the Art section, I decided to go for some Street Art. As I am in the process of trying to build up a collection of scatter terrain for all of the games/genres I play, I have been asking a friend of mine to print some odds and ends on his 3d printer. I don't know where he got this file from to be honest, but it came out looking great. 

    As I want to use this in cyberpunk themed games, I went for bright vivid colours, using a garish blue alongside a bright pink.

    And here is a shot with last week's Blade Runner for scale.

    Moving swiftly along, it's time for a trip over to Nature and therefore a mini is required for the cart once more.

    A second Void mini pays handily for my trip. The Void range is quite simple, which makes them quick to paint up. There are loads of female sculpts in the range which is ideal when you are scrambling for as many bonus points as possible. 

    Over in the Nature section of the library, it is time for more scatter terrain, in this case quite a large terrain item from Reaper.

    This tree and the attached prisoner are from one of Reaper's many Bones Kickstarters that I backed. The tree is a lovely piece of kit and is very detailed. The tree is attached to a CD for the base to give it some sturdiness on the table.

    If you look closely at the foot of the tree you will notice some skulls hidden there.

    Finally, I need to jump across the library to the Literature section, ready for next week's entry (I hope). So one final trip on Sarah's Library Cart and one final Void mini.

    And just so that I'm not accused of blatantly abusing the bonus points system, I have painted one other model this week. 

    This centaur is another Reaper Bones mini. I hope to put it on the table this weekend. This Sunday is my gaming group's monthly gaming day, and I am planning to run some more playtest games for the skirmish system I am working on. This fiery haired fellow is going to be a commander for one of the forces I'm taking along.

And on to the scores.

3 x 28mm minis = 15 points.

1 x 28mm cavalry = 10 points.

1 x large hedgehog = 10 points (they were scored as 28mm cavalry last time).

1 x tree with prisoner = 10 points perhaps? [Millsy - it's pretty big, lets call is 15pts]

1 x piece of street art = Can we say 5 points? [Millsy - sounds about right]

Gift Shop = 20 points

Art = 20 points

Nature = 20 points

3x Library Cart Trips = 60 points

TOTAL = 175 Points

 

For my duels:

Skulls (311) + 4 = 315

Legions 620 + 0 = 620

From Millsy: The world needs more hedgehogs! Pam Ayres was a big fan and that's always a good endorsement. Lovely to see you looking after your significant other Stuart. The VOID minis are really well done and will be great for any number of sci-fi games. I have a few and always wanted more but they were not easy to get down under. The pick of bunch for me is the centaur who looks wonderful with his ginger hair and Norse vibe, I hope he wasn't too much trouble to paint with the Bones plastic. 175 more Challenge shekels for you matey!

From GeoffreyT: The pinnacle of the library (Manga, Science Fiction and Library Cart (139 points)

Hello Challengers

The pinnacle of the library is manga and sci-fi, in more ways than one.  Much underestimated genres that continually push back the boundaries of literature, describing the human condition in innovative ways.

First is the Manga shelf, where I bring you Tintin, Snowy, Calculus and Haddock in 28mm.  These miniature are from 1st corp, and are very nice indeed.  Herge was a giant in the world of graphic novels.

My offering for sci-fi shelf is Alien Greys by Slave2gaming, an Australian brand.  These ten will be a fine warband for Stargrave, not that I am short of options.  They greys have outfits, which does not match historical records that show them as being nude.  This is why these minis are sci-fi, as the uniforms are fictitious.

Having completed the top level of the rotunda, I realised it is a very long walk down, so I hitch a lift on the library cart.  For this I have a female troll from Grenadier miniatures, sculpted some time late in the last millennium.  The troll wears a bikini, which proves bikinis were not invented in the 50s, but preceded them in the fantasy era.

The library as it stands.  4 wings complete.  The library card will drop me in the west wing, which I will tell you more about at a later date.

On the matter of points

3 x 28mm Herge infantry and a dog about 15mm = 3 x 5 + 2 = 17

9 x 28mm grey infantry and one crewed weapon = 9 x 5 + 10 = 55

1 x 40 mm troll = 7 

2 x library shelves and a cart ride = 60

Total = 139 points.

Kind Regards

Geoff.

From Millsy: This is a great mixed bag of stuff Geoff! I grew up with Tin Tin and Asterix graphic novels so this is a real blast from my past. I have to say you've got the colours of the clothing spot on and these are really well executed. The aliens are also great fun and your Grenadier troll is a lovely classic sculpt which is always fun to see even if the bikini should be made of chainmail :-P. 139 points added to your tally mate! 

Paul O'G: Pestigors in the Old World (50 points)

Those who study forbidden tomes know that within the dark forests of the Old World brood the evil  Beastmen, but some are dedicated to specific chaos powers. Those that choose the God of Decay and Pestilence are known as Magic the Gathering players Pestigors.

Pestigors: Baptised in Pus!

Amongst my stash of figs were these models begging for attention. These are metal 6th edition figures from 2003 and it took awhile to amass enough for the units size I desired under the old rules. I suspect that under the new system, small units may be more flexible so I will instead build them as 2 x 10 figure units.

Quite happy with the overall effect of the verdigris and rust effects!

To stand out amongst my Beastmen horde of mostly green and brown figures, I departed from the usual Nurgly greens. Instead, lighter sickly shades make the festering yellow and pink pustules look even lovelier. You're welcome!

Papa Nurgle's "Dream Team" take the field!

Just a small submission from me this week; 10 figs @ 5 points = 50 points. Sadly I've already used the Fantasy and Overdue bonuses but this will take me to my target, representing 8,000 points across the 10 AHPC seasons I've participated in.

And happy Australia Day today to all my fellow Aussies!

From Millsy: Happy Australia Day mate! Hope you avagoodun. Great looking Pestigors Paul, especially the rust effect and khaki shades on the clothing. These guys are properly intimidating. The Old World is getting a lot of existing lead painted up which is a positive if it achieves nothing else. 50 more points for your tally my friend.

From BruceR: FIW Companies Franches de la Marine and Huron allies [Maritine] (85 points)

Huzzah, this is the Challenge helping to finish projects.  We play Sharp Practice FIW, AWI and Napoleonic's.  Last year I joined the Lard Zone at Adepticon and ran a pirate SP game, with many of the figures painted during the challenge.  This year I decided on FIW and even though the locals would loan their figures I decided to add some additional French so I had both forces.

This is my second batch  of allied, Hurons, to assist my French in battling the red coats and rangers.  I didn't use contrast paints as I did on the others and I'm more pleased with these.  I did use a 3 tone action for the skin.  Close up looks choppy, but at distance stands out on the table.  I also highlighted the warpaint slightly after feeling it was a bit drab.   Again, the figures are Galloping Major, purchased as a starter  pack and getting the leader figure free.  

caution as we approach the settlement

leading and given the rank plate by the Francie  

Next up the group of  Companies franches de la marine.  I love skimming the internet to see paint schemes and to learn more about the figures I'm painting and playing with. When the call for troops came in New France the Ministry of the Navy (my submission for the Maritine Book Stack) was given the task of providing these troops to the colony.  Recruited in France and sent to Quebec in 1683.  They became their own organization and as the group grew would be tasked with raids, with their native allies, into the contested areas of the new world.  Usually at least a company being sent with their unpredictable allies on raids.  They became adept at brush fighting and were seen as somewhat lazy in garrison compared to regulars as they did not parade.  The Troupes de la marine became integral to  the areas they were in as they would be paid extra to assist in farming or road building due to labor shortages.  Again, the heft of the Galloping Major miniatures makes painting them a joy. I am struck as to the lack of facial hair  on these figures.  I would imagine, as they turned into a wilderness fighting force, the great French moustache or beard would have been rather standard.  Also, as they were under their own command so such an appearance would seem logical.  I've not located any source to say mustache or no mustache (and I'm not trying to model facial hair).   They units did grow and locals were not allowed to join, again due to the labor shortage and recruits came from France.  The marines took to wearing allied garb, which only makes sense as they were operating in wilderness areas.  The units grew to even battalion strength and were used in some of the larger actions.    

This completes my French force for the FIW scenario I'll be running at Adepticon.  I have 18 other figures from Old Glory already painted, the Galloping Major figures are more robust and I prefer them.  They will mix in nicely and are great troops under the Sharp Practice rules either as skirmishers or rand and file.  

Companies franches  de la marine: 

I imagine they started to work as skirmish pairs around this time, one firing the other reloading and searching for targets.  

Maritine Book Stack:

Raised by the French Ministry of Navy and I chose to "attempt" an anchor on their cap.  I've seen both the fleur de lis or the anchor depicted on their uniforms.   

Points:

13 28mm FIW @5                = 65 pts

Maritine book stack              = 20 pts

Total                                      = 85 pts

Keep painting and stay warm (heat wave here today at 27 degrees F).  

Painting Interruptus:  

Warning painting can be slowed by gaming, here is a quick shot of The Silver Bayonet (my troops painted last year in the challenge).  Four of us threw down this past Saturday.  The Spanish cannot be seen in this scrum.

French, English and Russian bands fight it out with a Revenant (Alternative Armies)

Cheers,  Bruce

TeemuL: What a wonderful set of minis, Bruce! And you have painted in such a nice way, I especially like the Hurons and their striking warpaint. The blue caps on marines are almost as striking. Well done. And nice to see you have seen some action outside the painting desk, even when it slows you down. All the best for your Adepticon game!