From JamieM - Moonstone and Necromunda, natural bedfellows….. (190 points)

Gosh it’s been a while since my last post. Classic story of getting a bunch of things 90% done and then the basing that I had planned out just didn’t work at all like I thought it would….. so instead of being a grown up and working out how to change it, I instead decided to sulk, throw myself on the floor and roll around whinging until it magically fixed itself and worked like it had in my head instead of how it did in reality.

Funnily enough, it didn’t fix itself, so I did carry on with some other things and I think I have the basing plan sorted now, so that stuff should be in my next post. As it is, I’m going to start with some of the other stuff I did.  My first batch is for the entry area with a “Fantasy” offering, some delightful Moonstone figures. These figures are amazing and are just great fun to paint (apologies for the photos, I couldn’t find my light box batteries….. maybe they were knocked off the table when I had my basing related tantrum?)

They consist of a limited edition version of Diana, Queen or the Faeries. As far as I know, the story goes that the faeries were all messing about a bit too much and went so far, so Diana went berserk. As faeries are all magical, their anger can really lead to some fun times, hence the swirling magic energy. I managed to drop the model at one point, but thankfully only one of the magical bolts broke and disappeared into the carpet, so I got very lucky indeed…..

The second of the bunch is the Jackalope. A huge bunny rabbit. You’ve seen a couple of these painted previously in challenges I think, so I decided to make mine a black and white rabbit. Pulling up some images on google, I tried to match it as best I could.

Third of the bunch is Friar. He’s a slightly dodgy looking holy man who hits people with his club. And has a golden codpiece, so that probably tells you something about his chief motivations in life…..

Next up is my necromunda gang. My club is starting a necromunda campaign and I’ve never actually played necromunda, despite being old enough to remember when it started out as a game called “confrontation” and it had the rules printed monthly in white dwarf!

Looking at all the gangs, I was drawn to Cawdor….. they’re religious nut jobs who try to overwhelm their opponents with waves of poorly trained fighters with such wonderful weapons as Blunderpoles (a blunderbuss strapped to a halberd) and giant crossbows.

My leader has a Great sword. Not a good sword, a greatsword. He plans to use it to encourage people towards the one true faith.

Others wield grenade launchers and the aforementioned blunderpoles and a giant crossbow. The unwashed masses just have a gun and their unswerving faith to see them through the terror of the underhive.

And now for something a little different…… as I’m planning to play in the campaign I wanted to contribute some scenery. I’ve had really some really big boats from ttcombat sitting about for ages after I bought them in a rush of excitement one day. They were originally sail boat things with two masts and were for carnevale/pirate games. But I decided to take the masts off a couple of them and convert them to something that might well prowl the seas under the hive.

I started by sticking corrugated cardboard all the way around them to disguise the windows and fancy stylings. I then added more rivets that was healthy and stuck all sorts of gubbins on them from my collection of GW spares.

The first one I envisage as a fishing vessel, although quite what swims in the vast sumps under the hive is probably best left unseen….. still, the hivers must eat somehow I suppose. I left harpoons and things strewn around the deck as I didn’t want to get in the way of using it as a gaming piece.

The second one I made more generic. Both have funnels made from the GW WH40K pipe set that they produce. They’re magnetised for ease of transport/survivability once in contact with gamers.

They’re big old boats, being 22 inches long and 6 inches wide. 6 inches tall at the back bit (Stern? Port? Aft?) and so are around two 6” cubes each. I’d also like to claim them as “maritime” now I’ve entered the main lobby area as they trawl the underhive seas…..

I take my own advice in that “more is more” when weathering and I’ve gone a little overboard (geddit?) with them, but I figure the underhive will create more than a little rust and wear.

In summary then

3 moonstone figures plus 11 necromunda gangers are 14 x 28mm figures for 70 points

4 cubes of terrain at 80 points

Fantasy and Maritime bonuses for 40

Total 190

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Well, now THAT is an interesting assortment Jamie! What an entertaining bunch...from tantrums, to golden codpieces, to primitive guns on sticks, and swords that are GREAT, to the totally nuts conversion of these ships!

Fine work all around - that is 190 points for you!

I'm going to return to my own tantrum, hoping that if I thrash on the floor enough times, that Plains of Abraham project will re-start...

GregB

From KenR : Condottieri, Castles and Hills (226 points)

 

A mixed bag this week, I didn't post anything last week as I was preparing for the first outing of the Mentana Game at York (more later) lots of things like sorting boxes for transport etc that are important but not exactly good for scoring 😁

I have to say that this post felt more like a maths exam than a painting competition but we got there in the end ! In the background you can see the part of Mentana Town which I built over the last couple of weeks for the game, first up, the hill.

The hill is sat on my normal gaming board and has been specifically built to fit the Mentana Castle on. It's a 3mm mdf base, a xps foam core top which has been cut into a rough hill shape. This is then covered with modelling plaster and tile grout as a base. Once dry it's painted mid brown (or grey for the rocky outcrops) and to finish off I've added layers of static grass to blend it in with the base boards. 28mm Cavalry Base for scale.

Next up is the Medieval part of the Town walls. This is a plastic modular kit from Tabletop Workshop, OOP but still available from some retailers. It's been glued together then the hard work done with spray cans, before blocking in individual bricks, weathering and pin washing.

Finally we have the Renaissance part of the walls, now this is a proper mix mash. The core of the building is two Large Bastle Houses from Sarissa Precision which have had the roofs cut down and glued together end to end. After that I added the corner Turrets using toilet roll card and Rendera Bell Tents for the roof. Finally I've done my tried and tested stippled filler, sand and paint to get the final look. After the messy bit I've simply added some plastic card tiling to the roof and added some terrain juice to add some contrast.

Above is the town (with added pieces done pre Challenge) at the York Show.

Scoring (from my notes) the tower (I needed to invoke the power of pi for this) was 124 sq in whilst the walls were 71.5 for a total of 265 sq in.

The Renaissance Castle is 12.6 x 4 x 8 for 404 sq in

The Hill is in two layers (irregular so I've guesstimated for gaps etc) 35 x 23 x 1 and the top deck 15 x 18 x 1 for a total of 805 + 270 = 1,075 sq in

Grand total of 1744 sq in, there are 216 sq in in a 6' cube so dividing the two gives 8.1 cubes or 161 points, can I lie down now please !

That's one project done and back to another, top tip if you do Projects in the same scale in the same country you can use the same terrain ! 

Many of you will be familiar with my Italian Wars and bar diversions for Libary entries it will be back to my old favourite for the rest of the Challenge. Above is one of two units of Foundry Miniatures 28mm Condottieri in Service of the Papal States.

Above is the second one with colours of Julius II the Warrior Pope. Flags are Flags of War for the top unit and Petes Flags for the second. A little background on these, a friend past away last year and left me his entire collection, I'm still finding things in the huge amount of boxes I collected from his house. 

One thing I found recently were some painted Foundry Horses, which you see here, I've painted and added the riders and flags so I'm only claiming for those at 12 x 28mm "foot" at 5pts each plus four flags at a point each.

That's a total of 225. Hopefully I can get a ship done for next week while I crack on with a Pike Block in the background.

*** 

Hi Ken - another amazing post from you. Your terrain looks incredible of course, although I'm sure nobody will be surprised to know that my mind breaks the moment I read the words "foam core" and it all might as well be Klingon or something from there onwards...but it sure looks amazing. I cannot question your math - as I utterly lack the qualifications! If you say it is "8.1 cubes", that is good enough for me!

The best part are the mounted lads (yes, even though your terrain is utterly stunning, my mind always goes to the painted miniatures - I have a brain wiring problem or something). It is great to that you are honouring your friend by getting these beautiful figures completed and integrated into your own collection. Lovely stuff. 

The spreadsheet tells me this comes out to 226 points. I won't argue with the spreadsheet - so that is 226 points for you!

GregB

AndrewB - English Bad Guys! Literary! (175 points)

Hello everyone!   This week I completed some generic English bad guys, inspired by the costuming in Braveheart, and matching some mounted figures I painted in a challenge gone by!   

This first batch of 16 are a pack of the Sheriff of Nottingham/Prince John’s men from the literary classical lore of Robin Hood, along with a smaller pack of characters, who you can see in the front.  Looks like we have Guy of Gisborn, King Richard himself(ok, he’s a good guy), Prince John, and finally the depraved Sheriff of Nottingham.  Their twelve generic bad guys have a real flunky, and less organized feeling to them, and I’m a big fan.  On to the next group!

These fellows are certainly more along the lines of generic Norman bad guys a la Ivanhoe, but they should mix fine for generic bad folks in skirmish style gaming, when we’re not going for ultra accuracy, but a fun game in the highlands or Sherwood Forest!   Maybe I’ll get an Aethelstan or Gurm figure together to run alongside some noble Saxons, time will tell!  Quite happy with how the two separate periods of figures work well together, thanks to the unified paint scheme.  Let’s put them together for a group photo! 

I’ll be happy to see them on a table!  As for points this week, there’s 31 28mm minis for 155, plus the Literary Section, for a total of 175pts!  More next week!  

***

Well, we definitely have a lot of "bad guys"....not sure about the literature connection, but these certainly are some pretty famous characters, and I certainly don't have the intellectual credibility to tangle with anything that might be connected to Piers Plowman, so I guess this can work. Very nice brushwork on these associated denizens of Sherwood Forest Andrew - 175 points for your total. 

GregB 

From GrahameH. Cold War US Battlegroup (232 points)

Its not been a great start to the challenge this year, as I had to work through Christmas and things have only just slowed down. 

Nevertheless, I have managed to do some painting. This year I decided not to go so mad as I did last year, as I knew work was going to be an issue and I am half way through sorting out and rebasing my Italian Wars armies and finishing off my Napoleonic Poles. However, I thought I would try and complete something different this year and decided to finish off some of my Cold War Battlegroups (BGs). 

I use Rapid Fires "Able Archer" rules, which contain some small Battlegroups that are ideal if you only have a 6' X 4' table. After all these years of painting large armies I have decided I should really only paint what will fit on the table (yeah right). I had already painted most of the infantry for these BGs so it was just a matter of painting the vehicles. So if I was disciplined and didn't go off at a tangent it shouldn't take me too long 😟😟.

I chose the date of 1984 for my BGs, that way I could avoid the NATO camouflage. Totally forgot about the US MEDRC camouflage. As NATO was considering changing their camouflage scheme at this time newer US vehicles were left green, hence the green M1s and Bradleys. The models are either Battlefront or Army Bits. 

US Battlegroup 

This BG consists of 

7 X M1s. There are three more of these than the BG requires as the rules allow you to add a Tank Coy and remove a infantry coy to make the BG an armoured BG. 

4 X M113 for the infantry coys. The infantry figures were painted a while ago. These represent HQ Coy and 3 infantry coys.

4 X M113ish  in the support role. L to R 2 X M901 with TOW, M113 ACAV and a M106 with 120mm mortar. 

The HQ M577

The second half of the US BG. 

5 X Bradleys. These take the place of the M113s for a later 1984 BG.

The Artillery Battery

2 X M109 and a M981 FIST-V Forward Observer

AA Battery - 2 X Vulcans

M60 Bridging Unit

Armoured Recovery Vehicle 

MLRS

So that is it for this BG. 29 X 15mm vehicles = 232pts

***

I have loved the "Cold War Gone Hot" setting for many years, but seeing these is a little chilling these days...nonetheless, it is well painted. I recognize many of the Battlefront models from own long-dormant "Team Yankee" painting, but I am curious about the recovery vehicle and the bridgelayer...those could be so cool and make for some very interesting scenarios. Who makes those models?

Very nice work on the MERDC cammo pattern...I really struggled to paint that, and I think you have achieved an excellent result here. Great work. 

GregB

BrianC: I missed 2 weeks! Life Happens. Greeks, Zombicide, Reaper Miniatures (240 points)

Oh boy! It's been a couple of weeks since my last submission. A lot of work and life in general happened. Anyways! Here we go! I have some Zombicide, More Greeks, yes more! Ha! A Reaper Miniature, scatter terrain, 15mm terrain, and some 15mm Werewolves! 

 

Warlord Games Greeks (28mm) (21)

More Greeks are on the way!

15mm Werewolves from Blue Moon Miniatures (15)

They're well-detailed, too.

Now some more Zombicide minis!

Women of the night and runners (6)

Zombicide Toxic City Zombie Walkers & Runners

You came at me like a Wrecking Ball! Zombicide 2nd Edition "Billie" aka Miley Cyrus.

This will be for the "Famous Person" category.

Another Zombicide Survivor, Kyoko aka Lucy Liu

This Zombicide Survivor, Louise, is from The Rue Morgue core box. 

Next is Zombicide 2nd Edition Supernatural TV Series Vampire

For my Children's book topic (Paul Bunyan), I will use Reaper Miniature Lumberjack.

Here are 2 Zombicide runners from The Undead or Alive Core Set.

Next are more 3D printed terrain and scatter terrain. I uses the "cube" method for scoring.

15mm Sci-Fi desert buildings and 28mm log piles.

There you have it! That's all I have done for now. 

SCORING:

34-28mm x 5pts = 170pts

15-15mm x 2pts = 30pts

Terrain = 20pts

Children's Books Topic = 20pts

Famous Person topic = 20pts

TOTAL = 240PTS.

***

So...like...I have questions...did Paul Bunyan survive the Zombie Apolcalypse? Did they hide out in a lumber yard, and overcome some werewolves and a...vampire...did the Greek infantry form a phalanx and keep the zombies at bay? A lot going on here...

For scoring, I detected one bonus, but not a second...I'm pleased to count Paul B as a "Famous Person" - it is not clear to me from this post how it (or the other elements) would count as a "Children's Book". So with that correction we have 240 points - well done. 

GregB