Sunday, 26 January 2025

Entering the Second Circle: Lust NSFW (25 points)

 Hoi,

Yes, well erm...now I usually try to stay away from unnecessarily unclad miniatures, but sometimes oopsies happen. In my search for suitable Mordheim figures I stumbled along Wargames Exclusive "The Mercenaries Collection". I would have loved to put up a link for you but it seems they're no longer selling the figures in this bundle. They were based on the Johan the Knife, Ulli and Marquand and a female Landsknecht figure. A 5th figure was included and at first glance this seemed to be a second female Landsknecht. Now I think women arehighly underrepresented in the fantasy lines of GW like figures so didn't mind getting two of them for use in my Mordheim Warbands. What I didnt notice, was that one of these ladies was the pin-up version...

Oh well, I have a good friend, Martijn, not our own "Minion Martijn"but a different one, who will like this figure a lot, he has a FLGS and the colours of his store's logo are red and white hence the colourscheme.  




The base is a 3D printed 25x 25 base and the texture is greenstuff with cobblestones rolled into it with a Green Stuff World texture roller. I am a little uncomfortable to post this figure but I am happy with the crispness of the painting and the colours. The resin WE uses for their figures is a joy to work with. 

Points are a no-brainer: 1x 28mm figure and bonus is 25 points

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Hey Sander

I totally understand your reluctance to post this NSFW figure, but she is more clothed than most of the 'pin up ' types available. And ... since it is the Second Circle Lust, she is appropriately dressed to display her ample attributes!

The colour scheme is great, I really like the saucy yellow feather

5points 28mm figure and 20 location points

See you next week!

Sarah

From TeemuL: Reinforcements for Delmonteland (50 points)

Continuing my project with imaginative Wars of Insurgency I come back to the first faction I painted in previous challenge: Delmonteland Warriors in AHPC XIV

"US Marine" next to his "German" friends

I'm not quite sure who these warriors really are and what they are fighting for, but they are definitely from the better armed and equipped end. But here they are casually sitting on the Open Blitz (painted before Challenge) and waiting for action. So they are originally Germans for WW2, but now "paint converted" to Delmonteland and fight with their "paint converted" US Marines. :) The same colour scheme for different warriors does wonders, doesn't it? I'm almost tempted to use these as an entry for one of the inner circles of Abyss, but I'm not that far yet.

Their camo is basically for desert, but Delmonteland is quite green  - basically a jungle. That might cause some issues in firefights, but these are professionals. Unfortunately their WW2 era surplus equipment doesn't fit the field of war they have gone. Actually I'm quite sure that most of these are just bullies and they don't expect to get any real fights (or at least any real opponents), they are just posing and looking dangerous and expecting it to be enough. We shall see, when I get to the actual gaming phase.

Freedom Fighters guarding their truck...

...only to be surpsised by the cargo!

Story behind these is that I got the Opel Blitz from Warlord Games Mystery Box and decided to use it for my Delmonteland Natives (the ones you saw last week), because it looked like a vehicle, which could have been used in the blood orange plantations after WW2. I was happily surprised, when I found these 10 passengers in the box. They do not work as natives, but I can field them as mercenaries (or whatever that faction shall be). And they can even hijack or "take in control" the Opel truck and travel with it undercover. Or I can use the truck to move the natives. Lots of options, you see.

Paint job is quite quick and dirty, sprayd yellow, then picked out the flesh, boots, guns and belts. Dotted some camo spots and then a brownish wash all over. The scoring is a bit tricky, since they are touching each other, but quite lightly - they are not prone or something like that. And I painted their bottoms and soles of their boots, so I'm asking for the full points. My minion is free to disagree.

Just to allow myself to sleep, here's the proof of rarely seen painted areas...

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Who am I to disagree with Teemu and the well-painted back sides and bottoms of his Banana Republic passengers? Full points it is for your soldiers of Delmonteland
I am intrigued by this project of yours.. it seems very versatile and a project that could easily morph into many diverse scenarios. Cool!

10 x 28mm figures = 50 points added to your scoreboard

See you next week
- Sarah

From Millsy: 28mm Arab Horsey Boys (160 points)

G'day All,

I'm back for a third time with another lot of 28mm Arabs for my SAGA / Oathmark project. This time it's fourteen cavalry, kitbashed from the Gripping Beast Arab Heavy Cavalry and Fireforge Games Black Guard / Berber Infantry kits.




As mentioned previously the Gripping Beast Arab Heavy Cavalry horses were a real PITA with the neck joints being very poorly aligned. Despite my best efforts to fill and hide the issues I am still unhappy with them. They'll do I guess, if I squint and kinda look at them out of the corner of my eye...




The riders on the other hand, I am very happy with. The banner bearers were all upgraded to give them longer poles and flags made from heavy art paper to match the infantry. I've also swapped all the heads (which required some careful shaving), the arms (which were an easy like-for-like swap) and some of the shields.




I'll need one more to fill out three units of five so will try and pick up a sprue at CANCON on the weekend. The amazing KerryT also sent me a care package of 10 camelry and another 5 cavalry which he'd 3D printed so I hope to have those painted sometime soon as well. 

Scoring:
14 x 28mm cavalry = 140 points
1 x cheeky "money for jam" bonus for the Seventh Circle: Violence = 20 points
Total = 160 points


Artist: Agnes Obel
Album: Citizens of Glass

Artist: The Offspring
Album: Americana

Artist: Massive Attack
Album: Mezzanine



Thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Millsy

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Hi Millsy
Great musical selections .. I'm particularly keen on  Massive Attack and Mezzanine is classic :)

Well, these 'horsey boys' look super, I really like your customization of the banners and the head/arm swaps. To my (very) untrained eye, the horses themselves look  great.  Can't wait to see all the Arabs in a group shot!

140 points for the figures and 20 for the Location bonus points
Looking forward to your next post
- Sarah


From SanderS: Enter the Stompy Robots! (55 points)

 Hoi,

This far into the Challenge it is about time I start making progress in the Stompy Robots Side Duel. As I have a huge amount of unpainted Battlemechs for Classic Battletech laying around I grabbed the spray can and basecoated a bunch of them. Today's entry brings you 8 mechs (2 lances) of mechs in the colours of the 5th Sword of Light a crack unit of the Draconis Combine ruled by the Kurita family. One of my favourite Inner Sphere factions. 









Decals I used are from Fighting Pirannha Graphics

I also painted up some jump infantry for my Clan Jade Falcon. These elementals are vat-bred huge superhuman warriors making use of superior exoskeleton armour to fight their enemies, 


That just leaves working out the points and that's bit more difficult than my other posts today. Officially Battletech is a 1:285 (or 6mm) scale. The elementals are indeed more or less 6 mm high so I am counting 30 figures which comes down to 15 points. The mechs are far larger, akin to a Space Marine or in any case a 28mm figure and have been counted as such elsewhere in this Challenge so that's 8 figures in 28mm and that adds another 20 points. Together that makes 35 points methinks. 

Back to the painttable which is stacked with more Mordheim, 20mm Napoleonics and 30K figures.

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Big stompy robots are always a crowd pleaser, imagine the noise a cohort of these makes! The orange armour is a standout and screams "danger ahead" to their foes!

I'll take your math on the points and add another 35 to your scoreboard.

(Math is hard (I know cause I often have to take off my socks for the big stuff): 8 x 5 = 40 for the mechs and 15 for the infantry makes 55 points. - Curt)

- Sarah

From SanderS: Finally Entering Limbo! ( 90 points)

 Hoi,

Finally I have finished my entry for the First Circle of Hell: Limbo. I decided at the start of the Challenge that Paradise is boring (and I had no really appropriate figures for most circles) and therefore would only submit entries for Hell! As Satan clearly states in Milton's Paradise Lost: "It's better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven!" 




After Teemu's bonus post last week I stole his idea of visualising these circles in a picture and inaptly made a graph in Paint. Feel free to use it yourself and thanks Teemu for the idea that helped me get my head round the locations I am "visiting".

So what did I paint for Limbo and why? Well, you may remember I was given a huge Brettonian army last year which I started painting for the last Challenge. 80 % of it is still unpainted today and therefore I think it applies to the English meaning of the word "Limbo". Now in Dutch the word "Limbo" has a totally different meaning and that is a derogative denomination for the people living in my home province of Limburg. We are officially called Limburgers and the province is called Limburg, but some of our compatriots from the West call us Limbo's and the province Limbabwe. Seeing that I had planned to paint a unit of Knights of the Realm with coats of arms from towns in my province I chose this as a double layer behind this post.

It was kind of hard to choose out of all the awesome coats of arms of the towns and cities in my direct surroundings but I settled on those I actually have lived in or visit a lot.

First up is the unit's champion who bears the arms of the Province Flag (not the actuall coat of arms since that is far too complicated to even try and not suiting for a KotR).



The bugler is dressed in the colours of the province as well. It is my theory that the bugler of each unit is a squire of the unit's champion and so I will try to paint each bugler in the same colours as the champion. 



The bannerbearer wears the coat of arms of my city of birth Roermond. The flag itself has the provinces flag on a blue and black field which are the colours of my army's general the Duke of Montelor.






This knight has the coat of arms of the township of Vlodrop, which I like to visit.




The next knight proudly shows the coat of arms of Posterholt a small township were we resided during our home-makeover.




And the last one is the one I like best, the coat of arms of Sint Odiliënberg. That's the town directly next to mine and I can see it from my study's window. 




To tie all these chaps together as a unit I did a few things: all lances and other poles are painted red, something I will do througout the entire army. All flags are done in the blue and black of Montelor and all the tilting shields of this particular unit bear the arms of Roermond where I was born and now work. When I was finally done painting these chaps and sitting back feeling pretty smug with myself, Arthur pointedly stated that the knights did not have any regular shields... A frantic search amidst the stuff making up the army given me, showed that I do not have enough shields for all the knights I now own since I had glued a number of them to foot-troops that were also lacking shields. I have ordered some seperate shield sets from a 3rd party supplier and they are on their way here. 

Extensive use of decals was made and for this I used regular GW decals (both brettonians and Sisters of Battle transfers) a lot of decals from the excellent Mighty Brush and a few from Green Stuff World.

Points are easy: 6 x mounted 28mm figures is 60 points together with the 20 points for the Limbo Circle makes 80.

As an encore I would like to point you into the direction of this excellent Youtube Channel: Miniature Realms. Stuart is a great painter and has many tutorials and other videos regarding the Old World and other games like Bolt Action and the like. Give him a try you will not regret it! 

https://youtu.be/7om3_Bh96Eg?si=qLZs16RmJl612tNM

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Well done!

Using your neighbouring towns coats of arms colours is a genius idea to figure out who to paint what colours! Nice clean crisp painting and bravo on using decals successfully. This Brettonian Army is looking awesome and hopefully we'll see more in the next few weeks.

You've gone through Limbo ... cant wait to see what the next circle will bring!

28mm mounted x 6 = 60 points

Location limbo 20 points

(Plus 10 bonus points for the  helpful maps - Curt.)