From QuinnM: Warhammer Quest Cursed City (201 points)

For my first weekly post, I actually have a decent collection of different types of models. From rats to skeletons zombies and bats These all come from Warhammer quest:cursed city board game a revamp GW tried to do on their old Warhammer quest IP that flunked a while ago.

I picked up this game with the intention of painting and playing it with one of my friends. someone I played hero quest with over the course of covid. Now that he's moving out of province in a bit over a month, my plan of slowly painting these over the first month of the challenge has changed and I have been madly rushing to get them all painted myself so that we can play through the game before he leaves. So these are some very quick and dirty models. They're all done through the slap chop method. Which I have never used before.

I used three different contrast paints to give a bit of a gradient and then touch them up afterwards with a highlight. I went for a sepia tone look kind of inspired by The monochrome nature of old horror movies as all of the creatures painted could certainly be found somewhere in a horror movie. And ultimately, I am very happy with the final result. 

So for points this week as some of these models are collections of animals, they all work out to be about 28 mm models. Leaving me with 

37x28mm footman @ 5 points = 185 points

8x15mm footman @ 2 points =16 points(This is for the little tokens) 

Totaling 201 points. 

And I will finish this up with a some close-up shots of the individual unit types. 

 

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 Sylvain: You are truly a master of lighting. I can imagine a full moon shining bleakly on these foul creatures. Your photos are splendid and the dark background helps bring the ambiance of death and despair that you are conveying. Joli travail!

From TomL: Epic ACW Iron Brigade (207 points)

Running behind my original rather optimistic painting schedule but I did manage to finish my first ACW unit - The 19th Indiana Volunteer Regiment. These are Warlord Epic resin Iron Brigade figures.  

The command strip is a bit wonky as the flag bearers are on a separate sprue and are slightly larger. I cut the strip into 3 sections to line up the flag bearers. The figures have a lot of sculpted detail. Had to break out the Optivisor (with the newly attached LED lighting Christmas present) to pick out the details I did paint.

The single 28mm figure is a 3D print a friend asked me to paint up for our Alien RPG campaign.  His inspiration for this character is a middle aged, midlife crisis Johnny Bravo, grinding away as your average ship’s mechanic. 

 

I used a mixture of various manufacturers acrylic, GW contrast and washes.  Quite a few stompy robots on the painting table but nothing finished in time for this week. 

Points: 205
1x 28mm  for 5 points
100x Epic 15mm at 2 points for 200 points.

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Sylvain: Your ranks of ACW soldiers look deceptively simple, but I shiver at the thought of painting all these figurines one by one, but you did it and did a great job of it. I will add 2 points for the flags. I also like the disgruntled look of "Johnny", your typical sci-fi blue collar. Joli travail!

 

 

 

  

From BruceR: Leopold's Leopard Company (10mm x 108 and 2 cats + 5 = 115 pts)

I've returned to the paint desk after 7 days gone over Xmas and 4 over New Years.  Oh, the trials of retirement.  Holidays were great and I hope all are well in the AHPC.  After Percy, Melvin, and Mad Mick as single entries I sat down to some actual work.

Gratuitous Holiday post:  Me and some friends doing a crab etc... boil and drinking on New Years Day in Minnesota with temps at -4 F.

In my Warmaster journey I have turned to Etsy (don't 3d print) for models and oh the options.  I'm adding some bits to an orc force and decided my Later Byzantines can be used for empire and with additions Dogs of War.  So, I broke out my first battalion of little fellas.  I do have a few DOW 28mm but never tried to create an army when I was playing WHFB.  

The first force is one I always was drawn to: Leopold's Leopard Company.  The Leopard skins just too cool.  From Little Wars TV I discovered the guys use a printer who actually removes supports (What?) so I ordered a few bitz and I'm hooked.  Filament Resin Hunter is the Etsy store, the creator is Varus Miniatures and I've had great luck with this store.  

In preparing I decided the white pike tassels and black shafts would have to be replaced with red and a lighter color for the shaft.  With this in mind I did a test run using my wee method of painting small things "blob painting".  Black undercoat and simply hitting spots with the chosen colors.  2' rule for 10mm.  

My test strip and it is full steam ahead.

Even at this scale I paint the same, inside out.  So, flesh, armor, Leopard head, and then the other odd bits.  Most infantry in Warmaster are set along the long edge of the base, with pikes the rules require the unit to be set along the short edge of the base like cavalry.  Under the game system pikes treat cavalry charges as if they are in protected terrain.  Downside is you have trouble in terrain such as woods.  Duh, I guess carrying a 12 ft pike among the trees is a little tough.  The models are set with some pikes at 45 degrees and the rest as support.  The command stands are the flag carriers.  

The paint lineup, all star is Vallejo Silver Air Brush 

I did these in two batches.  With 28mm I tend to paint 8-10 figures at a time.  I don't army paint.  This worked okay, though my brain likes to see things done so I might go back to smaller batches and do a unit at a time.  

Work in progress shots:

On the paint sticks attached to beer tops

messy hobby desk

For the flags I used some ancient GW decals again, these from an empire sheet.  I'm amazed they still work.  I had a red, blue and yellow lion head and thought close enough.  The blue and red look good, the yellow could use some outlining.  I simply painted the red stripes over the white base and highlighted.   Another fun add is two of the command stands have leopards in the rank.  ( I admit I did not paint spots)

Here are the three units of Leopold's Leopard Company, ready for the field.

I'm very happy with how the units turned out.  A little concerned as I did snap three pikes while simply moving models around so could be a problem on the table.  Able to glue them back, but my Magister Militum metal model pikes just bend.  Oh, well I imagine pikes are lost or broken in battle in the real fantasy world.

Cheers everybody.  

Points:

108x pike men (10mm foot @1pt) =  108

    2x cats  (10mm foot @1pt)        =      2

Total                                        110

Calculating seems easy at this size.  

I will continue to thank all involved as we live in turbulent times and this hobby as well as this gathering helps me unplug.  So, stay well and do what makes you thrive.

My only poke at the world's craziness is that I have used Arial as my font for all posts.

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Sylvain: Bruce, Saskatchewan is not that far from Minnesota, maybe you could send some crab our way... I'm glad you went back to the painting station because the result is just astonishing. Even though the figurines are part of large unique, their individual features can be easily distinguished. It's a great demonstration of your talent. I will add 5 points for the flags and increase your total to 115. Joli travail!

 

 

From PeterD: Seeress and Graeae (20 points)

It's been a slow start to my Challenge and I don't imagine I'll get anywhere my 500 point target. I am a University Instructor and had 120 students write their Calculus exams on December 20th.  I finally got my marks posted on Christmas eve, my daughter arrived for a week and a bit on Christmas then we had family stuff crop up.

I have some fantasy types from Bad Squiddo games.  First up is a Seeress.

Next the Graeae sister trio from Greek myth.  They had one eye and one tooth to share between them.  They appear in the tale of Perseus, who managed to outwit them by stealing their eye.  I'm not sure what's in the pot but the skulls and femurs indicate that I don't want to know.  I'd avoid their Irish stew and shepherd's pie.

I've painted many Bad Squid figures over the past years and like many of them, these are nicely posed and cast and easy to paint.  I went for very drab clothing and basic accoutrements.  I rarely paint eyes on my figures as they end up looking like racoons or pandas.  However, I thought I'd better paint irises on the eyeballs that two of the figures are carrying.  

I have no firm plans to use these figures, but they could fit into the early medieval era in the Beowulf D&D games that I've run in the past.  They could also be fielded in Pict armies for Midgard games with a fantasy element.

That's four 28mm figures for a total of 20 points.  These will count towards my first squirrel (for D&D figures), but I won't claim that until I get 25 points.

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Sylvain: "You, Sir, are a gentlemen and a scholar" (Catcher in the Rye) These figurines are lovely but I especially like the academic description you provide. It gives a much deeper (and sinister?) aura to the Seeress and the Graeae. Joli travail!

From BillA: Maya Ajaw and Ah'kin (30 points)

 This was a project I didn't really plan on starting, until my buddy Chris gifted me a pair of figures he'd commissioned and had cast up - a Maya king and queen (whom you'll see in my Empire theme round entry). Well, now I needed to do something with them! Looking at my options for Maya miniatures, the options out there aren't as varied as there are for Aztecs. At Chris' suggestion, I ordered about a dozen packs of "Jaguar Tribes" and "Maxzans" figures from Lucid Eye Publications. Sculpted by Steve Saleh, formerly of Wargames Foundry, these figures are a little bit generic "Mesoamerican Fantasy" but work well as representatives of the Maya people, pre-European contact. 

Current plan is to paint up enough figures and terrain to put on a game at a local one-day show, six months from now; I'm mostly thinking Mana Press' "Tribal" ruleset for these, which uses units of five figures and a unique playing card-based mechanic, but I'm going to workshop this with Chris. 

I started with some of the more richly dressed and ornamented figures; these five I'm treating as ajaw, members of the noble class in a Mayan city-state, fighting for personal glory and social status.

I misplaced the shields for this group; if I find them or buy more (or more likely, buy more and then find them), I'll get them painted and glued on. 

I also picked up some 28mm Maya figures from Gringo 40s to accompany my Lucid Eye figures and fill in some gaps. One such is this priest, or ah'kin; He wears a Chaac mask, putting on the persona of the god of rain, agriculture and (sometimes) warfare, with a plume of quetzal feathers. 

This is one of two copies of Gringo 40s' priest figure I bought, so you'll see another one in different colors later on in the challenge. 

Six 28mm figures on foot gives me another 30 points, and I claim a second Squirrel Point for Maya.

Total Squirrel Points: 2 (Modern Horror, Maya)

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Sylvain: "Colorful" is the first quality I can say about your paint job. You are regaling us with a subject not seen much during past Challenges and I hope you will keep showing us more of this stuff. Joli travail!

 

 

 

 

From AdamC: Gunfighter, Chaos Cruisers, Anglo-Dutch Warships and Japanese warships (85 Points)

First up a lady gunfighter a 3D print from Bloody Scotsman Games for Devil in San Miguel. They aren't selling miniatures any more but you can buy at least some of their games.

I made her outfit vaguely US cavalry, perhaps a sutler or camp follower of even a woman scout. 

I'm please with how the skirt pinstripes came out.

A pair of Battle Fleet Gothic Chaos Cruisers. These are 3d prints, not the originals. 

I came up with theses colors purple and bronze with black, seemed like they would be striking.

Ships are sort of my thing. These are Anglo-Dutch wars vessels for the game "Mad for War" 

This first is a Dutch frigate 

Then we have two 50-gun English ships of the line

In this era the 50 gunner is a true line of battle ship not the awkward isn't a ship of the line isn't really a frigate it will be in the more familiar Napoleonic period.

We also have an English frigate.

I wouldn't call these my best work but they should be OK on the table top.  The print weren't as good as some I have worked with and there is less art for inspiration showing how individual ships looked in this period.  If anyone has a good source  I would welcome the info.

Two Kamikaze class Japanese destroyers 

These were state of the art in the 1920s but clearly second line units by the Second World War, 

Still they saw a lot of action in the war. Early in the war the Japanese tended to have red Hinomaru, often called "meatballs" by the Americans, for identification usually on the turrets but as these are open gun mounts I put one on the top of the bridge.  Such recognition is clear sign you fear friendly fire from your own aircraft more than you fear the enemy aircraft (rightly or wrongly).  Its a fun distinctive look even if it was sort lived. 

Points : 

1x 25mm figure for 5

2x chaos cruisers for 16 points (counted as a 15 mm vehicles I believe )

4x Anglo-dutch wars ships for 60 points (these are similar in size to the Black Seas ships I did in the past at 15x points each)

2x 1/2400 ships for 4 points (2 each I believe)

Total: 85 points 

 

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Sylvain: Adam, you offer us a very eclectic selection of models. I especially like your BFG chaos cruisers. Their esthetic is very unique and your paint job enhances their menacing look. You will definitely keep naval wargaming alive. Joli travail!