From AdamW: A little tank for Lt Gruber (Treachery) (28pts)

I initially struggled to come up with an idea for the Treachery circle.  The few I thought of involved way to much time making and painting things I would never use. Although I enjoy the distraction of these side challenges, I did join the challenge with the intent of painting some useful things!

Then I decided the description of the 'back stabber, the turncoat, the faithless friend' could apply to a once cherished piece of military hardware that had been captured and pressed into service by the other side.

A hunt through the spares drawers and I found the below.  A ww2 Dutch pantserwagen M38 armoured car.

I had already painted up three of these beauties complete with orange triangles, when I picked up an unfinished army that included this one. This made this one a spare, so it has been languishing ever since.

So, an hour or so with a paint brush, this afternoon, some decals and a base and here we are. I'm sure it can be pressed into service at some point.

Quickest and simplest entry so far!

Points

1 x 15mm vehicle = 8pts

Treachery bonus = 20pts

Total 28pts

Although it breaks my heart to see one of the few Dutch armoured vehicles being taken over by the oppressor, I cannot fault your logic, Adam. Nice to see one more of these fairly rare vehicles, and a good choice for the theme. 28 points more!

Martijn

From PeterB: Leaving the Abyss (Treachery, The Inconstant, The Ambitious, The Lovers, the Wise)(135 points)

Another week, another fast paced dash through the challenge map. Last time I left off at Fraud with a Mimic disguised as a treasure chest. So next stop Treachery.

In the world of Warhammer, there are no more treacherous than the Skaven race. Ratmen scurrying about in tunnels under the world, the sneakiest of them being Clan Eshin, the Assassins.

Not a hugely complicated paint job, especially due to most of the model being black cloak. You can barely see it in the photo, but there is actually some green in the cloak to avoid just being a grey drybrush on black that tends to look more like leather than black cotton. 

So, we leave the Abyss having visited all stops and head over to Paradise. First stop Inconstant, or falling short.

“Fool of a Took!” Gandalf growls at Pippin. “This is a serious journey, not a hobbit walking-party. Throw yourself in next time, and then you will be no further nuisance. Now be quiet!” And poor Pippin is given the first watch, “as a reward”. - Lord of the Rings. Fellowship of the Ring

The hobbits in the Lord of the Rings are mostly quite heroic, there is one of my favourite moments in the first book though, when they are in the Mines of Moria when Pippin throws a rock into a well, possibly being responsible for awaking the Balrog. (In the movie he accidently knocks a dwarf skeleton down the well.) From this point on Pippin grows as a character, leaving behind his mischievous reputation as a member of the Took family.

Here I have painted Merry and Pippin, Pippin is on the right. (Like Ant and Dec they tend to stand in alphabetical order) The models are from the GW range, the original metal sculpts. Last years challenge I started with Legolas and Boromir. This challenge I am hopefully finishing the fellowship.

Next stop, Ambitious. So, over to the 40K universe and to arguably the most ambitious of races, the humble Ork.

This particular Ork is particularly talented at building weapons and has been so ambitious his gun seems to be bigger than he is. The Shokk Attack gun is a very traditional weapon, dating right back to Rogue Trader days (not this model though). The technology relies on vacuuming up unsuspecting snotlings, then teleporting them in the distance at a location the weapon is pointing at. With any luck the snotling is teleported inside the armour of an unsuspecting Space Marine and thus calamity ensues.

I presume the bit at the front rotates when it fires and it makes lots of noise

The gun has been built using natural talent and natural instinct. The Ork doesn't really know how it works, he just knows it does and enjoys using it. (Until it malfunctions and blows up)

Next stop, the Lovers. So back to the Fellowship. The greatest friendship and some might say the deepest platonic love in the book is between Frodo and his gardener Sam. I don't think the film quite makes it as clear that their relationship starts out as a Master and Employee dynamic (albeit with friendship as well). They bond together in their adventure like an officer and his batman during the first world war. The following quote could be describing the trenches of the war.

Sam struggled with his own weariness, and he took Frodo’s hand; and there he sat silent till deep night fell. Then at last, to keep himself awake, he crawled from the hiding-place and looked out. The land seemed full of creaking and cracking and sly noises, but there was no sound of voice or of foot. - Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King

Last stop this week, The Wise. Well, no prizes for guessing what I chose to paint for this category. Staying with the Fellowship, we can only choose Gandalf the Grey. Again, the metal model from the first wave from GW, Gandalf seems to have lost his hat, possibly he is about to confront the mighty Balrog. (Luckily I painted the Balrog last challenge.)

 

And there we shall leave it for this week. To total up:

5 locations = 100 points

7 x 28mm models = 35 points

Total = 135 points.

As a devoted Tolkien fan I heartily approve of this entry, Peter! An excellent choice for these themes. The hobbits are well done, with their gaudy clothes. Great photos of Pippin and Merry in Moria, and of Frodo and Sam with Mount Doom in the background! I must say that I really appreciate your Gandalf, the cloak and his beard came out very nicely. The ratling is also good, it may be a simple colour scheme but it is very effective. And the ork is quite hilarious, I could never dream up such a weapon! You have achieved a very good result with the almost fluorescent parts of the gun, and the metal is very lifelike. I'm not sure if carrying such a device is brave or simply stupid, but I would not really want to be an the receiving end of it. Nor would I care to be pulling the trigger, now I come to think of it, actually. This powerful stride to the end of the Abyss nets you 135 points.

Martijn

From Mike W: 15mm Warlord Epic Carthaginians, 28mm Arthurian Cavalry and AWI American Militia (330 Points)

A bit a a scrambled post this week as time has just flown by and getting this batch of little guys ready has been a challenge!

Lybian Heavy Infantry unit, 3 bases each of 20 figures.

Closer view of the Lybians

First up are two units of 15mm Warlord Games Epic Carthaginians,  ech unit of 60 figures. I have completed a unit of Lybian Heavy Infantry and a unit of Scutari.

And the other end of their line

The Lybians are Armoured in chainmail, with helmets, spears and shield. I painted them much the same way as the Romans in my recent post, however  I have given them a range of colours for their shields ( with free hand symbols on some of these) and given them either purple or blue tunics.

Rear view of the Lybians

The Scutari are spear and sword armed, with helmets and shields, their painting is simplified as they all wear cloaks. Again, I gave these guys a range of shield colours, but tried to keep the red, white and black theme going that I had with the Lydia's, albeit that these guys had some blue instead of purple shields and the Lybians had a number of brass shields.

Close up of the Scuari, with a variety of shield designs, all painted free hand

Another shot of the Scutari

And from the rear, note that a number of these guys have what appear to be covers to their helmets, much like teh 19th Century Havlocks, to protect the wearers nect from excessive sun.

Hopefully another two units for next week....

Next I present the overdue Arthurian Cavalry, 6 x Mounted guys, originally due last week, each wears mail and is armed with spear and shield on an Armoured horse. Again I have looked for a unit cohesion by using white & red shields to re-enforce  their identity.

Six Arthurian Heavy Cavaly with armoured horses.

Another shot of these fearsome guys

And a shot to get a better view of the shield designs - all white and red to give unit cohesion

Close up of two of the little guys

Another two horsemen

And the final two mounted guys

Finally, thanks to fellow club member Nigel, for gifting me a frame of Warlord Games 28mm American AWI plastic figures.

Completed group of five militiamen

I have taken five guys from this frame and painted up as Buckskin clad militia, armed with rifles. As with all of these ex Wargames Foundry kits, I find their assembly a bit fiddly but the resulting figures are OK.

Another angle

These figures were undercoated in a cream colour and then painted in a variety of browns to represent their buckskin dress. Skin was done in my usual manner and details of bags, guns, straps etc was added.

Look out for 5 x Continental Infantymen in the near future.

Next Week? Hopefully more 15mm Carthaginians, a small group of 28mm Landsknechts that I didn't finish this week and more Arthurian Infantry....

SQUIRREL                                                                +2 Carthaginians & AWI Infantry

POINTS

120 X 15mm Carthaginian Infantry    @ 2 Pts ea     240 Points

6 x 28mm Arthurian Cavalry    @ 10 Pts ea               60 Points

5 x 28mm AWI American Militia  @ 5 Pts ea             25 Points

TOTAL                                                                      325 Points

A nice varied submission, Mike! The epic figures are really nice, and you have done a great effective paint job on them. It is very impressive to see them drawn up in their serried ranks, ready to teach those pesky Romans a lesson or two. The armoured cavalry are looking good too. I don't know if they really were a feature of Arthurian armies, if such a thing existed, but who cares? They look as if they mean business, and will be a great addition to your army. Finally, I like the militiamen too, the colour combinations work really well and adding a colourful detail here and there brings them to life. Your calculations work out perfefcty, but I'll throw in a couple of bonus points for the hand-painted shields. 330 points added to your tally.

Martijn

From AdamW: Carry on up the Tigris (Fraud) (160 points)

 I'm currently living in chaos with a, long overdue, new kitchen being fitted. This means painting productivity has slowed to a crawl.  

I have managed to build three ships, two 'Fly Class' gunboats and Espiegle, a Cadmus class Sloop.

The 'Fly class' river gunboats are small, well-armed, Royal Navy ships designed to patrol the Tigris river during the Mesopotamian Campaign of WW1.

They were officially called small China gunboats. This was a deliberate act to disguise their real intended use. So for this reason I have chosen them to claim my 'Fraud' bonus (someone or something who claims to be something they are not).

These are designed for 15mm gaming.  I have been generally dissatisfied with the look of 'wargaming' ships.  Due to the problems with making things to scale the way most people have approached it is to make short fat ships that are all out of proportion.

My approach is a little different. 1:100 ships are very big and even on the large table we use it's just too much.  The compromise I have made is to make them at 1:150 scale, BUT, stretch the height of superstructure so that 15mm figures don't look too tall.  This gives the right overall shape to the ship and generally works well.

The first ships I did like this were card models I designed for the ACW. Since getting a 3D printer I am now doing the same process but in a different medium.  This particular model is a free download from Thingyverse. I have tweaked the design to suit my need. The railings are brass etched ones, as I only have a filament printer and it's not quite up to printing them.

Below we have HMS Espiegle, a Cadmus class sloop. A well armed vessel with 6 x QF 4in guns, 4x3-pounder guns (in the hull) and 3 machine guns.

It was used by Townsend as the flagship of the Mespotamia Campaign. It was one of the last British ships to have a figurehead.

In this model I designed the hull from scratch. The other bits were 3D kitbashed from other models and some parts designed by myself.

I find ship painting tricky for a few reasons.  Ships were generally kept in good condition to keep the sailors busy when not in combat, so generally they looked clean and not rusty. As this is a wargaming piece and not a military model I have tried to break up the monotone look with some shading and weathering. Overall I am happy with the result, although as always the close up pictures to me don't look as good as the model looks to my naked eye. The camera picks up the print line that you just don't see and where I have painted for an effect it looks more slapdash.

I also need to work out how to model decking, as the models currently only have a flat surfaces. This is much harder to paint as there are no grooves to run a wash through.

So points???? Well will have to leave that one up to you Martijn. At least you had an idea of what I was doing before I posted this.

The figures were all painted by me a while ago, so just needed a few touch ups. No claim for those. Figures are a mixture of navy chaps from various manufacturers including QRF and Peter Pig. I did head swaps on many of the peter pig ones to get chaps with Pith Helmets,

2 x  10inch 15mm gunboats @ 40 = 80 pts

1 x 18inch 15mm gunboat @60 = 60

Fraud bonus = 20pts

Total 160

Yes, you have given me fair warning, and yet the result surprises me. A great collection of gunboats, Adam, all the more impressive for being produced in  the midst of  that most horrible of  disasters that is a kitchen renovation. Ah well, it has to get worse before it gets better I guess. I love these ships. They are have a good amount of detail, and the brass railings really add to them. The figurehead is really nice! Also, the clever rescaling absolutely works I think. A fabulous job! Now, unique items such as these are always difficult to score adequately. Most often in the past, vehicle equivalents have been used so I will do that here too. Let's score the smaller gunboats as 4 15mm vehicles and the larger sloop as 6. That will give you a base of 32 points for the smaller ships and 48 for the larger one, which seems to give a result that is fairly consistent with earlier (though 28mm) ship entries. However, in recognition of your scratchbuilding and development skills, I will round them off to 40 each for the smaller gunboats and 60 for the larger sloop. So,140 points then, for a total of 160. Well done!

Martijn

From JohnB: Filthy Lucre or Wheres Theres Muck Theres Brass (Greed) (50pts)

So there I was minding my own business painting horse and musket chaps and then the bolt of lightning that is AHPC strikes and I am down in the rubbish bins.......more on that later.

Meanwhile near K2-18b (where a swim may vaporise you - its true!) a couple of nearby unexpectedly earthly planets offer shelter to our three rogue traders - escapees from the AHPC14 programme......

Yep I am back in space for some GREED - in my case I am soooooooooo greedy that rather than pay good money for a proper spaceship I made one out of junk and will be selling it for a few hundred bucks 'cos its unique! well 1 of 36..... At least someone has scrubbed the dirt from the side panel insignia.

To make your own version all you need is lots of red craft paint and some other colours plus PVA and a milk bottle including cap, tomato paste cap, a large liquid soap bottle top, clothes pegs, tooth cleaners including empty boxes, sim card frames, waste mdf building frames, food packaging clear plastic sheet coloured with citadel contrast paint, furniture corner packaging, paper and velux window installation only brackets (this last item might be tricky so go for any scrap that looks like roof level electro-mechanicals).

You can see K2-18b in the background on my latest Painting portrait back drop - also for sale - a pop at only £14 million.

I think seeing lots of bug eyed dragonflies in 2024 drove the cab design on this plucky freighter.

I guess this is my homage to Red Dwarf tv series where the space craft were exact copies of the real thing that flew all those years ago.......... Points calculation 28mm model @20points although the minion might add a 10% bonus for hydraulically opening hatches (sorry the video wouldn't load - you'll have to trust me ;)!). And 20 points for the abyss level of GREED = a total of 40 points in all. The eagle eyed might say - where does the covid tester unit go? It goes on the Police Chase vehicle of course!!!!!!!!!

Wow John, what a thing! I love how you turned "waste" into a very convincing and creative space ship. I am not sure if it's a compliment (it's meant that way!), but it looks every inch as good as a comercially produced model. I also like the red colour, and the battered look you achieved.  And furthermore your backdrop is awesome too. A pity that I am just about 14 million short at the moment. All in all a  great contribution, so I'll bump it up to 50 points. Good job!

Martijn