From BartekR: Charging Conquest knights beating the cut in Limbo (155 points)

Greetings all, and glad you can join me for my first post of this, AHPC XV, which is my third attempt at the Snowlord’s dance-through-hell-and-heaven obstacle course of paint and banter.

If this was a sports documentary, there would be some line in this about how I have something to prove. After a decent first outing (AHPC XIII), I aimed high and dropped low and hard in AHPC XIV. So, this year, I’m aiming for a relatively modest 750 points.

With a busy work year, I haven’t much time preparing and indeed planning miniatures. Frankly, with a pile of plastic sitting dormant since last Challenge (and some from the one before), I expect I will be  spending a *lot* of time in limbo. That said, I’m hoping to get a few new things out there – maybe have a swing at some of Dante’s circles, and get out at least one bespoke piece before we wrap up.

So, first up, to get me out of the doghouse of the 21 Jan cut off: Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings Hundred Kingdoms Household Knights. 

In AHPC XIII, I started painting my brother’s Conquest: The Last Argument of Kings Hundred Kingdoms army. Two years on, I’m still going (well, to be fair, my brother has to downsize his armies – so this is an older sibling helping out with pre-sale prep!).

What to say about these? 38mm knights on horses. The figures are large (see comparison with a GW chaos warrior). Since my brother bought his Conquest army secondhand, a number of them were already  block painted using Citadel contrast or similar. While this, I believe, qualifies as putting me in Limbo, these were a focus of a lot of touching up. 

The process

The 'touching up' mostly involved bringing minis into the red/turquoise theme of the army, with a fair bit of work on the red on the cloaks and caparison to gain more depth, and shining up the armour. As it was, the paint work was a dull metallic (heavily washed, probably Nuln Oil). Overall, very dull. Not a bad look but not what I imagined for a resplendent household knight cavalry on the charge. This was fixed by hitting them with metallics again, and then a brushed-on gloss varnish.

Admittedly harder to see in photo, but the difference between dull and touched-up and glossed metal

The new build figures - including the standard bearer - followed the same process. Without the original recipe for the paint work, here the the challenge with was getting a good colour match. Needless to say, Citadel Carroburg Crimson wash was relied on to get the red of the cloaks approximate.

And more horse butts

A last note on the rider with the pennant. The command element for this called for a musician, but there wasn't any option for one on the sprues I had. So, to distinguish the figure, I used an open helmet from an infantry set and added the pennant – metal foil from a wine bottle top!

Process wise the I rediscovered (yet again) that despite having a  generous work space, after a few days of working on the bench the inevitable spread of paint droppers/pots effectively corners me on a hand's width rump of desk space to work on, before I'm pushed off the table completely. Trying to be better about keeping this aspect of the painting process under control! 

The result 

Standard question when I finish painting: am happy with them? Given the Challenge and these prompted me to pick up a brush for the first time in a year, yes. Sure, given their generous scale I would love to be more precise and bring out more of the detail, but happy enough. They were an opportunity to use up more of my legacy Citadel paints (particularly washes), having bought a set of the Army Painter Fanatic range - which i'm quite happy with. One aspect I am keen to try out is a new matt varnish - the brushed-on Vallejo matt (on the cloaks etc) was far too satin for my liking (despite vigorous mixing/shaking) so I will be keen to try out some AK Interactive Ultra Matt when it arrives.

The points

With Monday Minion Millsy's agreement, I have scored these as for 40mm:

9 x 40mm cavalry @15 pts each: 135 pts

Limbo bonus: 20 pts

Total: 155 pts

  ...in the background

Probably like most, music or audiobooks accompany my painting. Through he painting of these I was listening to the Joe Abercrombie First Law trilogy audiobooks, which I highly recommend - English actor Steven Pacey's narration is top notch.

From Millsy:

Lovely brushwork on the knights Bartek! I really like your colour choices and the basing sets them off very nicely indeed.

Great to hear that the Challenge motivated you to pick the brush up again, it's a wonderful motivator and hopefully the enthusiasm will persist beyond the end of March.

155 points to kick start your Challenge!

Cheers,

Millsy

From GeoffT: Fraud, The Dreamer (50 points)

Hello Challengers,

For the Fraud theme, I selected ‘The Dreamer’ starter box from Malifaux 1e.  The dreamer is not what he appears, seems like a cute little boy, but can summon hideous monsters from his dreams.  He isn’t really a human boy, he is one of the Neverborn, Malifaux native inhabitants.

The big purple monster is ‘Lord Chompy Bits’, and is really big, so worth 10 points I reckon.

Points,

4 x 28mm foot = 20 points

1 x 54mm foot = 10 points

Fraud circle of hell bonus = 20 points

A squirrel score for Malifaux Neverborn.

Kind Regards

Geoff.

From Millsy:

Malifaux is one of those games I hear a lot about but have never owned or played. Maybe I should correct that omission. The miniatures are gorgeous and stand out in a market with so many offerings. You've done a wonderful job on these Geoff, especially the giant purple beastie.

Another 50 points added to your total!

Cheers,
Millsy

From Curt: Five Denizens from Mork Borg (33 points)

Hi There,

Kawe from Westfalia Miniatures has been a Challenge supporter from pretty much the beginning, in fact he was a participant himself, creating some terrific work for visitors to enjoy. As many know, Westfalia began focusing exclusively on Napoleonics, then moved on to pulp subjects, and now concentrates primarily on dark fantasy and sci-fi.

I always try to jump in to support each of Westfalia's Kickstarters and these five figures are from one of their earlier releases. They're lovely boutique minis sculpted by Boris Woloszyn and themed around the wonderfully strange and creepy world of Mork Borg. For a few years I've been GMing some out-of-town friends using Mork Borg and the Roll20 app. We've been having a lot of fun with it as the system is very rules-lite, encouraging on-your-toes creativity, which often makes for some very funny (and bloody) game sessions.

Anyway, here are five denizens from the grim world of Mork Borg:

The Gutterborn Scum

'C'mon my pretties! There's work to be done...'

The Heretical Priest

This fella looks like he's been huffin' a bit too much from the 'mystical censer'.

'Skelly Jo'

'What? The horns are too much, eh?'

Wrat

'Come now, let's all sing the chorus together...'

Wretched Royalty

'The world may be descending into rack and ruin but I'm still on the top of the heap.'

As to points, four of these five are over 40mm so I'll claim 7 points for each of those, giving me a total of 33 points.

I'll use the 'Wretched Royalty' to move from Gluttony to The Ninth Circle: 'Treachery'.

I'll also claim a Squirrel Point for this crew of degenerates.

Aaaand 5 skulls for Barks.

Thanks for dropping by!

- Curt

From Millsy:

Yikes! These are weird and creepy enough to keep John Blanche awake at night!

They're all spectacular mate but if I had to pick a favourite it would be the Wretched Royalty. I love the saturated blue/greens paired with the muted palette on the rest of the miniature and the face is just packed with character too.

33 Challenge points for your total! Keep em coming...

Cheers,
Millsy

From KentG: 28mm Napoleonic Russians, Hun cavalry and two tavern maids (375pts)

Next up we have a wee mix of figures first of which of is Two regiments of Pavlova Guard, 24 figures per Regiment. The figures are from Wargames Foundry and I think some of their best Napoleonic range these two complete the 20th regiment and last which I started Five years ago.

Really love  the way they look all shiny, must have been a great target.
Spent a lot more time on these guys than I was expecting but wanted to get them looking their best.

Did a couple of command stands to go with the regiments

Then for a wee change a bar maid for my limbo entry  I put the first layer of skin on her just over a year ago and the Gypsy dancer for my lust entry as she dances for the men. 

Lastly Hun cavalry archers from Gripping beast

So to this weeks figure count

 49 x 28mm Pavlov Guard infantry 245 pts

2 x 28mm ladies 30 pts (Dante’s journey)

2 x 28mm Russian command cav 20 pts

8 x 28mm Hun cavalry 80 pts

Total 375 points

From Millsy:

Another chunky haul of points Kent!

The Pavlov's are an absolute cracker and something I've been waiting for a while now to see. There are few more iconic infantry units of the Napoleonic wars and despite being a nailed on Francophile I actually think they're cooler than French Old Guard. Heresy I know, but you just can't ignore the hats!

The ladies are also beautifully painted, as are the Huns. Brilliant work all round and very well deserved 385 points to boost your tally even further.

Cheers,
Millsy

From Barks: Tommy Atkins's weird WW1 day (Limbo)(64 points)

I've been a little slow getting off the starting blocks for this Challenge, but I'm happy to be back.

My initial Limbo entry is this Martian scout tripod from Alien Dungeon, which I picked up from the good people at the War Library. I sprayed the whole thing silver and washed it black, and then hit a creative wall. Should I make it rusty and decrepit? What colour should the eye be? Should I make the details more defined? So it languished, until the Challenge inserted new life.

I decided to leave it un-rusty, and go for a red gem effect on the eye. I blended a deep red to black and orange, and then gave it a gloss coat. I'm not entirely happy, but it is done. The photos are with a previously painted PSC 15mm plastic soldier for scale. What else will poor Tommy Atkins encounter today?

I painted the tripod because I had been inspired by The Last War, a Forbidden Psalm/ Weird WW1 ruleset. My 15mm WW1 project had also been in a bit of limbo as well, and Last War has helped it approach completion. The tripod will be my 'Thing from the fog'. To add to my meagre Squirrel score, I've painted a few more gribblies.

First, I had a bag of transparent zombies from a board game. These made great ghosts, and also mud ghouls when liberally coated in mud effect.

Ghosts

Mud ghouls

I 3D printed some other figures at 50% size.

Trench maggots (Goonmaster)

Hounds of Annwn (Knucklebones)

Gas bugs (Goonmaster)

Trench rats (Duncan Shadow)

Some of these were barely painted (mud ghouls and ghosts) and others are small (15mm giant rats). So how about:

• 1 x 25mm vehicle: 20 points
• 24 x assorted 15mm gribblies: 24 points
• Limbo bonus: 20 points
• Squirrel (Last War) +1
• Can opener duel +8

From Millsy:

Great to have you join us again this year Barks! This is a great way to kick of your Challenge and I think you did the right thing sticking with the shiny finish on the walker. I've always thought part of the otherworldliness of tripods is they were made of unknown materials and wouldn't rust. I've scored it as a 28mm vehicle given the scale.

Nice work mate, a healthy 64 points to kick of your Challenge.

Cheers,

Millsy

From GeoffT: Dante’s Arcade Games (0 points)

Hello challengers,

Whilst in purgatory I decided to paint these terrain pieces, themed for the inferno, purgatory and paradiso.

The purgatory arcade game is incredibly bland, and each level takes a very long time to load, giving you plenty of time to think.

Since terrain does not get points but is allowed to be posted, I felt it would be good if someone would do ‘a completely pointless post’. The score is on the screen of the inferno game. 

Kind Regards

Geoff.

From Millsy:

These are absolutely awesome mate! I love the painted effects on the cabinets and the end game messages on screen are brilliant. Any scatter terrain is good stuff but these are a cut above. Well done!

Cheers,
Millsy

From StephenS: Limbust! (Limbo and Lust) (50 points)

G'day All!

Submitting two weeks in a row, and hitting two circles of Hell, it might be time to check if we need to crack out the ice-skates down there.

My submission for the first circle of Hell is Darth Vader, in all his 32 mm plastic glory from Atomic Mass Games. This has sat in limbo on my painting desk since its release in 2018, as I find painting black a challenge and didn't want to stuff up such a signature character. I have done my best to differentiate between the materials of his suit by varying the shades and highlights for the black.

My second model is the character Rincewind, a failed wannabe wizard, from the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett. It is a 28 mm figure from Micro Art Studio in Poland. When I was a wee lad of 12, I remember walking into a local book shop with some birthday money to buy a specific book, and walking out instead with a copy of The Colour of Magic, after being mesmerised by the cover. 30 odd years later and I still love the world and writing of Mr Pratchett. Rincewind has always been my favourite character, and I have been itching to get my hands on a mini to paint up. It is great to have my lust for all things Discworld slightly sated by adding this figure to the display cabinet. I almost kept this miniature for the Inconstant Circle, but couldn't hold out. I think the miniature captures his belief that certain doom is only around the corner quite well.

Wizard spelt with two Z's. That's how you know he is the real thing...

The book that started the obsession...

2 x figures for 10 points and a 40 point bonus for the two locations, hopefully netting 50 points all up.

Cheers,

Steve

From Millsy:

I have the same Darth Vader in my collection but I think you've done a better job on the blacks Steve. I also opted for a gloss finish on the helmet but your pained highlights look more realistic which is weird but that's painting minis for you!

Rincewind is such an iconic character and you've packed him with every bit of it. The basing in particular is really cool and gives the mini a real sense of place.

Nice work! 50 more points.

Cheers,
Millsy