From RaulM: Black Seas USS Constellation, Sloop-of-War, and Bomb Ketch (80 Points)

Yup, you guessed it. More Black Seas. I've got another 3 ships done. The USS Constellation from 1854, a British ship-rigged sloop-of-war, and finally a a generic bomb ketch. 

The USS Constellation is one of the named ships that comes in the US Navy starter fleet from Warlord Games. The intent was for it to be one of the original six frigates of the US Navy, but the supplied bits were for the later version from 1854. I did a fair amount of conversion work to the stern to integrate that piece, as Warlord does not make a frigate with a rounded stern. 

This Sloop-of-war is an even heavier conversion, albeit a common one in the Black Seas space. I fused two of the smaller brigs together to make this 3-mast ship. I also took a plastic stern plate from the frigate, and molded it to the back. Finally, I raised the stern deck to create a raised quarterdeck. I did all of this conversion work a long time ago, and I finally decided to paint it so that'll be my exit from Limbo and into the larger world of Dante's Inferno. 

Finally, the Bomb Ketch. Nothing special was done to this vessel, other than that I didn't give it a nationality. I only have 3 of these, and instead of limiting each one to a nation, I decided to keep it generic so I can use it with any fleet in any scenario. 

 For the final points tally, I have:

USS Constellation: 15 points

Sloop-of-War: 15 points + Limbo 20 points

Bomb Ketch: 10 points

For a total of 60 points. 

---------

What a treat you've sailed in again Raul! You are really doing some fantastic work with these Black Sea ships. The rigging, rat lines, sails and pennants really are top notch. Please take a bunch of bonus points for the great eye for detail in your modelling

I'm hoping you do a USS Constitution during the challenge too: I've been aboard 'Old Ironsides' on three occasions including being "rung aboard" formally, and my name is inscribed on the protective copper hull sheeting under the waterline :-)

- Paul

From TomL: Dredd, Pulp Figures & Knuckleduster - Gluttony and Greed (60 points)

 Escorting us to the Third Circle of the abyss is another well armed Pulp Figures Gangland Gal:

For our Gluttony entry we present two experts at speed and volume eating.  First up "Fatbo" the self proclaimed expert on rebellion:

Followed by "Fat Ram", the designated Judge line breaker.  No doubt he is regretting some life choices as he closes in on the Judges...

These militant members of the “League of Fatties” and their block mates fight for their inalienable right to overeat - famine and war shortages be damned. An extra shot of their entire gang rolling down hill... 

 Continuing on to Greed, the Fourth Circle of the abyss, I submit the Carpetbagger:

This Knuckleduster figure fits the caricature of a opportunistic Northerner, who post war packed a few clothes in a cheap carpet bag and strutted his way south for economic or political gain.  All of these figures were painted using Vallejo metalics and Foundry & TTC acrylics with a few GW washes.   

Points are 6 28mm figures plus Guttony & greed for 70 points.  The extra Fatties were painted before this challenge. Hope to finish some ACW CSA units next week.

----------

Well those, errr, cholesterol changed individuals have been reaching for my gym bag! Quite the overly engaging sculpts they are too! :-)

I make that 7 x 28mm figs plus 20 bonus points for a total of 55. I'm going to round that up to 60 for all those fabulous details of the fatties (including 2 'pushers'!)

- Paul

From DallasE: Bolt Action Soviet Weapons Teams and Support Group (Violence)(70 points)

Continuing with the winter WW2 Soviets project, I just finished the Winter Weapons Teams from Bolt Action. The box contains six models - a sniper team, a flamethrower team, and a light mortar team. 

Last up first, here's the mortar team. Warlord says this is the 50mm mortar but there's no bipod as you'd usually see. Hmmm.

There's a sniper team in the pack. The models are the new Warlord Resin (tm?) and are actually pretty good. No warping or flexibility to speak of, fortunately.

The team includes a sniper with an M1891/30 scoped rifle and a spotter with a PPsH-41 submachinegun.

Lastly we've got a flamethrower team, just the thing to stay toasty on a cold snowy battlefield! The uniforms on these guys are Vallejo Model Color 70.988 Khaki, pretty much an exact match to GW Zandri Dust. They were washed with good old Agrax Earthshade and re-highlighted Khaki.

Nice detail on the flamethrower. All of the models are one-piece with "puddle" bases - but I cut the base off the flamethrower operator.

From the Support Group there's the 82mm mortar team. Not enough room for 'em all on the round base so I put one on the square.

These models are metal of course and are quite nice.

Lastly I painted the radio operator from the Support Group, also metal.

As for the Circles, I'm gonna grab the low-hanging 20 points bonus for "Violence". Pretty self-explanatory I guess, all of these models are pretty much violence-oriented!

Points:

10x 28mm infantry = 50 points

Violence Circle = 20 points

Total = 70 points

--------

Your Rooskies are really coming along Dallas! Yhey will be a force to be reckoned with when completed. Looking forward to seeing what comes next (I have some small side bets with myself going....hope I win!)

- Paul

 

from Mike F - Cyberpunk Police - 50 Points

 Continuing on with my Exploit Zero project, I’ve completed a set of 10 models to represent wave 2 adversaries. These are the local police and they’re highly militarized! Armed with assault rifles, grenade launchers and sniper rifles, I don’t think they’re here to take anyone’s report! I went with a brighter blue and white  for the uniform as it’s a force that still wants to be seen as approachable and a positive influence on the community. In reality however, they largely serve their corporate masters and try to barely keep a lid on civil disorder. Miniatures are from Seb-Games Void line and are in metal.

 10 x 28mm miniatures for 50 points.

Thanks for visiting!

----------

"Iso Cubes for you Creep, and I'll take 50 points as a fine" 

Nice work Mike - I'm enjoying seeing your project come together!

- Paul

From GregB - Let Slip The Dogs Of War! (150 points)

The Alcatani Fellowship march forth, accompanied by the beautiful and dangerous Lucrezzia Belladonna. These are all old metal figures from GW's "Dogs of War" range. 

Very excited for this week's submission, as this kicks off a project which has been "in the works" for quite a while! Here we have the mercenary pikemen of The Alcatani Fellowship accompanied by notorious hireling sorceress Lucrezzia Belladonna. These are all old metal figures from GW's "Dogs of War" figure range for Warhammer Fantasy Battle. These are very, very old figures, more than 20 years old. 

The "Dogs of War" were a faction GW released for their Warhammer Fantasy Battle game, comprised of mercenary units and characters from the region of Tilea in GW's Old World fantasy setting. Sculpted by the amazingly talented Perry twins, the "Dogs of War" were one, in my opinion, of the most creative and most fun factions that GW ever released. GW came out with a wide assortment of Mercenary regiments and characters which could be added on to offer a creative twist to your existing army or could come together on the table as an all-mercenary force. The Dogs of War were the first Warhammer Fantasy army that I ever collected and painted. In fact, I was playing that army at a tournament in Winnipeg when I first met Curt back in 1998/1999.

The classic army book!

Later, I sold that old army and moved on to other things. How foolish of me! But the fond feelings for this old collection never left me, and with the help of, and inspiration from, Dallas, I started to hunt down these old figures on eBay. Not the easiest or most economical endeavor...but by late 2023, I was ready to go! In fact, I thought it would be a primary project for AHPC XIV. But there was just one problem...I moved house mid-Challenge...and so the project was postponed...

But the AHPC is back, and I was careful to put all of my carefully assembled Dogs of War bits aside, ready for this edition of the Painting Challenge...and here we go!

The Alcatani Fellowship

A 24-figure pike block ready for action! Many thanks to Byron for the awesome tray...

A group of farmers who lost their crops and livelihoods (presumably with no Tilean equivalent of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy to help them) and were forced to turn to the mercenary life to earn a living, the Alcatani Fellowship represent the more communal, lower-cost end of Tilea's mercenary service offerings. They are lightly armoured, of middling fighting capabilities and the character leading the unit, Rodrigo Delmonte, is a fairly average fighter. For all that, they have one attribute that sets them apart on the Warhammer Fantasy Battle tabletop...they have pikes!

A view of the ranks...nice variety of poses, but it makes assembling a larger unit a bit tricky as you need to find some specific poses...that was easy in the late 90s, but is trickier on eBay today.

The world of Warhammer Fantasy takes so much inspiration from late Renaissance-era Europe, but the pikes were oddly missing from the figure range. They had been in the rules, but you did not see them on the tabletop. The Empire had halberdiers, swordsmen, spearmen...but no pikes. The Dogs of War changed all that. Many of the initial wave of the "Regiments of Renown" were pikemen, and any Dogs of War army would be built around two or three of these pike-armed regiments. 

This one figure holding his helmet came among the blister packs...I thought it was nice to have one non-conformist in the ranks...they are mercenaries after all...

This was so fun because even very established players had seldom encountered pikes on the table. The rules reflect the effects of the weapon very well, but this would take even established Fantasy players by surprise. The pikes are particularly murderous against cavalry (as you would expect), and so it was always great fun to encounter Brettonian players, with their insufferable and unstoppable knights (which often have special rules compelling them to charge any target they can reach), have their faces fall off as their stupid noblemen charge right at the pike blocks and directly into oblivion. 

A solid core unit for a "Dogs of War" army. 

This solid 24-figure block of Alcatani pikemen is a great basic building block for a mercenary force - modest in their fighting ability, but murder with their pikes. You can try and wear them down with missile fire - and thus sparing other, more dangerous fighting units from that effect - or you can charge right at them...and see how you like eating 24 pikes before you ever get to strike a blow...these fellows will serve as an excellent foundation for my renewed Dogs of War collection. 

Lucrezzia Belladonna

"What a lovely day for a ride..."

All Warhammer Fantasy armies must wield magic in some way in order to be successful, and the mercenary armies of Tilea are no exception. While the rules allowed for you to simply designate any of the (at the time) widely available different human spell-casting figures as a hireling wizard for your mercenary force, the Perrys did sculpt one Tilean-specific figure - the alluring and dangerous Lucrezzia Belladonna. 

Lucrezzian rides at ease...but her magic skills are not to be trifled with. And say, does this drink taste a little funny....?

"The most beautiful woman in all Tilea, and some say even the Old World, is Lucrezzia Belladonna. She is also the most dangerous to know! Lucrezzia is a renowned sorceress and rumored to be an arch-poisoner and mistress of many assassins!" Lucrezzia has been married seven times, as suitors from across Tilea, and even the Old World, are drawn to her, um, significant assets. I think she should do the trick for the "Lust" bonus category. 

A super-fun sculpt to paint up!

Lucrezzia is a powerful wizard and fun special character to use as part of a "Dogs of War" army, and I thought it would be great to have her as part of this nostalgia project. This is a tremendous sculpt, with all sorts of great details. I took a fair bit of extra time with this figure in an effort to capture these details...I got some of them, maybe not so much others, but this is a fun, unique sculpt and I'm glad to have Lucrezzia Belladonna in this collection.

Scoring

Ok, for scoring we have:

24 x 28mm foot figures - 120 points

1 x 28mm mounted figure - 10 points

"Lust" bonus - 20 points

Total = 150 points

Thanks very much for reading. It has been a pleasure to share this project with fellow Challenge participants, and I hope a couple more "Regiments of Renown" will cross the painting desk before AHPC XV concludes! 

---------

Well these ARE a treat Greg - classic Old Hammer Dogs of War done up beautifully! Of all the Regiments of Renown they made, this was one of favourite sets of scultps - you've done them fine justice with your brush

And Lucrezzia Belladonna is quite the Lady of Renown to lead them too. I'm mean who WOULDNT want to follow her? 150 points well earned!

- Paul

From RossM: The First Post, 15mm Late Crusaders (40 points)

I am late to the party this year and there have already been some great entries posted. 

There are quite a few things in the pipeline, however, these three stands are the first completed for AHPC XV. In line with tradition, these have been painted from the "other choices" rather than figures specifically listed. Call it creative licence. 

These 15mm figures are from Gladiator Miniatures (Fightings 15s) and are an addition to an ever expanding ADLG Late Crusaders army.

Painted to represent Military Order, specifically the Knights of Jerusalem with a nod to artistic licence in the use of colour across the figures. 

From a gaming point of view it is enough to recognise the units on the table. 

These three units start my entries to this year's AHPC and will collect for me a few points as well as some motivation to keep on painting. 

9 x 15mm cavalry @ 4 points each totalling 36 points. 

Cheers for now
-------

Better late than never Ross! And Crusading Knights are always worth waiting for :-) 

They look great in their Jerusalem surcoats and livery!

15mm is a wonderful scale to get the massed look on the table and the flurry of banner help achieve that effect, so enjoy some bonus points for those as well

- Paul

From NickY: The Daughters of Har Ganeth [75 points]

The year was 1995 and I was until then a pure elven son from the ten kingdoms of Ulthuan. My soul was unscarred by the allure of dark seduction, and never had I tasted the bitter spite of our dread cousins. But that was to change when a book was placed in my hands, a book whose cover was devilishly designed to tempt the unwary with images that were 'da bomb'. A dope lizard riding elven dreadlord and a scantily clad vixen warrior and sorceress looked at me accusingly. 

11 x 25mm Dark Elf Witch Elves from Games Workshop

11 x 25mm foot @ 5 points = 55 points

Limbo bonus = 20 points

Total = 75 points

"Why had I allowed my pitiful mind to be deceived by the treacherous lies of false Kings?"

Had I? Was it all a lie? Had the true Phoenix King been betrayed and denied his rightful claim to the throne? How could a dinosaur, I mean lizard, riding elf and his oh so attractive entourage be wrong? 

I had not the courage or the time back then to sate my desires. Well, it is 'high' time I find out the 'dark' truth for myself.

With the hope that maybe I can play some fantasy battles in the Old World or in another fantasy setting, I am endeavouring to fulfill that promise I made to that dreadlord and his seductive retainers. 

--------

Nice work Nick - always so satisfying to finish off an old project and realise it. Feels like some kind of redemption from the unrealised pile of partial potential They certainly are a collection of dynamic ladies - I trust get to see some table top action soon!

-Paul

From SteveA:Frostgrave 28mm , Greed (40 points)

For the theme of Greed I dug into my pile of grey and dusty minis to find what I could paint up to hint at a moment from a story telling of those who crave the gleam of gold, those who Greedily  hoard treasure and those who wish to permanently borrow that same hoard.

A mini of a Beholder looming over a couple treasure chests sparked my inspiration for the theme of Greed, and 4 gold chest objective markers and a couple of loot topped tables I felt would help support convey the sense of "mine all mine" to go along with the beholder's Mohahaha face, as it encountered the two wandering adventures who had been vacuuming up loose loot and gear on their way down into the dungeon depths.

I used a combination of Army Painter speed paints and regular paints for these minis. I am a pleased with how the Army Painter's 'Blood Red' speed paint over a grey/white dry brush quickly established satisfactory slap-chopped  red flesh tones for the beholder flesh.  I find the Army Painter 'Hardened Leather'  speed paint also serves well for dark wood tones, perhaps more so than for leather.  After stocking up on more Army Painter speed paints this year, I now find myself using their 'Pallid Bone', 'Sand Golem' or 'Boney Matter' where in past I would have typically relied on GW's Agrax Earth shade for liquid talent.

The Beholder is a 3D print ByronM provided, yet again a case of me having a few too many spare moments on a game night to poke thru his works in progress and backlog of minis on deck, resulting in me asking him "how much $ to print me a copy of this mini you have here".  While FrostGrave does not actually have a Beholder with the game's Bestiary,  I think as a "Major Demon" old one and ten-eyes here is fit for purpose.

The other minis are from the mists of time when Mordheim was new and in its prime.  The chests of gold if I recall correctly are from a sprue of Mordhiem minis, the tables are from a blister pack of scatter terrain impulsively bought from my favorite 90's local hobbyshop.   

The two loot laden 'Men At Arms' I will use for Frostgrave, are conversions I crafted about 20 years ago -  both to use when playing Morhiem, and also for use in a Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play campaign I was game mastering back then  (where I wanted some minis that could somewhat represent the loot laden players). The loot and gear on these minis was a combination of some crude green stuff sculpting and a raid on my bits box.

Total 40 Points

x1 Beholder (28mm Artillery) = 10 pts

x2 Man At Arms ( 28mm Foot Figure)  = (2x5) =10 Pts

x2 Tables scatter terrain, x4 Gold Chest Markers = 0pts

Theme GREED  = 20 pts 

--------

ahhhh, who doesn't love the iconic Beholder? And using one in Frostgrave is an inspired idea Steve!

Nice collection of terrain and Men at Arms too - 40 points well earned

- Paul

David B - Warcry- more skullz for the skull throne (60points)

I could have used this for lust, but I will save that for another entry. My wargaming buddies have been trying to get me in AoS by using the underworld game and WarCry. of the two Warcry is a great skirmish game, but the Sig marine knights were too strong and did not need a lot of effort to pilot in game. They are a great warband for new players to figure out the game though. The skirmish game is supposed to be small scale skirmish in the chaos wastes of competing warbands. The smaller chaos tribes sending out champions to build the next army under a new champion.

I bought a used box on ebay minus the starter warbands, but it came with books, compediums, extra cards, dice, and all the terrain. I did not care for the starter warbands so it was a good deal for me. The terrain was primed in a terracotta and in rough shape. it was also assembled a bit incorrect from recommended assembly which makes a little bother for setting up games.

I have been using up my version one army painter speedpaints and a boatload of craft paints as i worked shadows and highlights over these. Entirely brushwork with no airbrush and the bigger and sloppier the brush the better!

I spent a bit of time working the blues and greens on the terrain to match the included game board so that the terrain matched up to be more immersive.

I think I did get it close, but I still think I may use some black and grey on the tree timbers as the sculpt seems to lend to fire damaged timbers. for now I am happy with the effect.

The Corvus Cabal with a leader, a hero, and two champions with 4 standard cultists.

They are a lot more fun than the knight warband I have since there is only 4 heroes and even they can be eliminated quick if put in bad places.

This fellow is my favorite and has proved deadly with the right combos. A ninja that is quick and can fly from heights. In my game group he has a high price on his head.

All of them have feathers and bird skulls. I zenthial highlighted them over black then fully painted the feathers in blue with highlights and the cloth in purple with highlights. I then covered the areas in black legion contrast paint with gave them the blackened hue I wanted for evil ninjas. The feathers a cold black and clothing a warm one.

They were Primed since summer, but the leader needed repair and rebasing as she has been smashed in a truck door and later was stepped on.I fixed her many times and her bird now has a beak made from a plastic spear tip as the door or foot flattened the beak. 

She is a very capable hero and only has died twice...not including the two smashing incidents. but i had to use a slap chop to get the zenithal highlights after I based her again. I hope that she won't be smashed again now that she is painted. As a veteran of susch smashings, I made her skull mask nore aged than her underlings

A couple of champions to lead the rabble. one male and one female with a bit of red warpaint to seperate them from the others

I quite like them as some glass cannons.

some of the chaff cultists, they work best as pairs and with one of the four heroes. Sometimes as ablative armor, but quite capable in dealing damage with pile on attacks.

of this pair the one with the raven is a tracker that can aid in improving attacks.

I used the army painter deep skin tones which run from a cold umber to a very pale flesh tone. i wanted them to look like pasty skinned ninjas who work most in the night. I picked this bunch of cultists because of their dynamic look and they do remind me more of animated Naruto Ninjas than chaos cultists.I kept their basing simple to also tie in with the battle board 

I think  I spent a little too much time on the terrain than I should have.

it is some wonderful terrain though and will be used in other games as well

It was a lot of fun leaning into the damaged terrain theme with the weathering

I spent way too much time painting the damaged bell tower

with all the oxidation and rust and dust, the grime streaks. really nice terrain for such a small game and worth the price paid. I have found some 3d print terrain that can be added to it to make the card setup of the game closer. except for the barricade terrain only the bell had skulls. With the bricks, metal, timbers, and improvised repair, really evocative terrain with lots of different textures to paint.

so that is 8 chaos cultists for 40 points

a full set of game terrain for 0 points...but there was 49 skulls

add the avian skulls if allowed for another 25 skulls  plus the seven already in and I have a new total of 81 skulls in the skull duel! that makes one more skull than the points earned for this post!

----------

I feel that Warcry is an underrated game. Sure its got some shortcomings but I really like the fast paced, almost elegant way it compresses and speeds up the GW system from which it came.
 

I really like your Corvus Cabal warband and what you've done with the terrain, upon which the whole game relies. I'm awarding you bonus points for that on top of the figs - enjoy David!

- Paul