From ChrisW Pax Dwarven [500 POINTS]

This week we take a nostalgic ride to the late 1980's to some figures that I bought back then from RAFM. So, for 33 years, more or less, these have been languishing in a M&M box. Oh they have emerged from time to time had a limited amount of paint slapped on them (all vestiges being removed prior to this challenge), but really they have been out of site, though never entirely out of mind.

Limo ride 

She should pay for this ride. She is an Alternative armies 28mm Dwarf rogue. You are allowed one rogue in your Fantastic Battles army.

[1 x 28mm Dwarf rogue]

 

1980's retro studio [81 x 28mm dwarf warriors]

Recently, a few of us have started to play Fantastic Battles. The game uses multi figure bases with no figure removal for casualties. So far I have been using my WH based figures on 60mm by 60mm movement trays. However I decided it my be nice to have purpose based figures and I thought about these guys. They are markedly different from any other Dwarf figures that I own and were not likely to ever grace a WH table. Therefor affixing them to proper bases is not likely to cause future problems.

They are straightforward figures, not a lot of extra or extraneous details. This was really my first attempt to just sit down and paint 'regulars', three sets of 24 figures plus command. It went better than I thought it would, I manage to stay on topic, I did not get distracted just kept plugging away. Maybe I really could actually try my hand at painting more rank and file troops of a more historical nature.

So I now have 18 bases of Dwarf Roman style troops in 3 different styles/colours. In the game, a unit is composed of from 1 to 4 bases, so there is some flexibility in each of the groups of 6 bases. There are 24 rank and file, and 3 command figures per style/colour.

Waaaay back in the old days I had planned them to be three separate colour coded units: red, blue and green. These days I saw no reason to revise that plan. I did change the shields a bit, as they were originally going to match the uniform and while the red unit does the others do not so much.

 

At any rate I am quite happy that they are done. This was a Monday to Friday project that by Friday had become much more of a chore than a fun time. Thankfully that thrill of nearing completion reinvigorated me so that I could tackle the basing. A note on the basing, I am still working out how I want the bases to look, so for now they have just been flocked. I think some outcrops of rock, some loose stones and of course tufts will get added, just have to decide what style to use.

So I was going to leave it at that for this weeks entry, a focused entry with only one topic. However, I finished painting them early Friday afternoon and being who I am I just had to try to finish off a few more items. I started on some scuba figures, but found that after a week of painting those Dwarfs I just could not bring myself to start another project. So, I went to my grouping of done/nearly done figures. One figure, Otis, had actually been painted in week one, but I wanted to place him in a group of like minded figures. At any rate here is some more lunacy from me...

FREE RANGE CRAZIES [5 x 28mm escapees ranging freely]

That's Otis in the back center.

I believe they are mostly West wind figures, though I do not know where Otis came from, maybe RAFM. So, last week I  posted up some institutionalized inmates, this week some escapees will grace my post. It may seem odd that I have so many crazy figures (maybe it does not seem that odd) but I should add that these are not the only figures I have in straitjackets, that is  probably a bad thing..

HATCHET WIELDING MANIACS [5 x 28mm figures]

There is a theme to my posts of late. There were times this week that these figures really spoke to me, perhaps I should rephrase that...😕 A mix of figures here, 1 West wind, 2 RAFM and the guy in plaid is from a board game, maybe Mansions of Madness. It was my first time trying plaid, I think the best I can say is that one gets the sense of plaid.

Points total this time

• 20 points for the Limo ride
• 20 points for the Studio 
  
• 405 points for 81 x 28mm foot 
• 5 points for Dwarf rogue
• 25 points for 5 x 28mm roving lunatics
• 25 points for 5 x 28mm hatchet wielding crazies

Total of  500 points

Oh yes almost forgot, how does the directors chair assignment work? 

Squirrels this time around [+3]

1. Dwarf Roman style troops
2. Hatchet/axe wielding maniacs
3. Free range lunatics
   

 New squirrel total 35.

 Previous squirrels

1. Back of Beyond
   
2. Mad figures (Top hat toffs and companions)
3. Greek skeletons
4. Sisters of Sigmar
5. Ancient Germanic women
6. ECW cuirassiers
   
7. Monsters large
8. Post apocalypse
9. Tekumel Palanquin
10. Empire Pike
11. Jazz Band
    
12. French Cuirassiers on Mars
13. Court of Dr Koo
14. Movie makers
15. Gothic/movie Vampires 
16. Gladiators
17. Women rocket corp
18. Supers
    
19. Forest scenery
20. Robin Hood
21. Gorillas 
22. Dr and his pets
    
23. Nuns
24. The flying squad 
25. Mechanical spiders from Mars 
26. The Gorgons
    
27. Cthulhu creatures
28. Mad gardeners and their plants
29. Pulp mummies
30. Pulp Egyptian skeletons
31. Jason and the Argonauts
32. Asylum residents
    

So far we have had: 'Mad people in hats,' 'Mad doctor making mad monsters,' 'Monsters of Madness' 'Mad people in a garden,' 'Mad people inside an asylum,' 'Mad people outside an asylum' and 'Mad people with axes.' I don't want to read too much into this but....

Great work on the dwarven force. Speaking as someone who really prefers batch painting to doing lots of individuals, you would probably have found it less of a drag if you had done one unit per week rather than trying to do them all at once. Batch painting 80 or so figures would feel like a chore for even the maddest among us.

As for the director's chair, I suggest that you get in touch with the studio head himself. The show lord will give you your assignment as you have finished enough of the studio to qualify.

From PhilH: Retro Space Combat (65 Points)

Staying on theme, we're back in a Galaxy Far Far Away for my stop in the Retro studio. Of course Star Wars itself is firmly Retro, and 1980s media, but as a child of the 90s, one of my fond memories and touch points for the franchise was the wonderful X-Wing (1993 on floppy disk!)  and TIE Fighter (1994 CD-ROM) computer games. My brother and I played these endlessly, dogfighting through outer space and taking down Star Destroyers in an X-Wing like true heroes of the Rebellion. 

In homage, here's a 3D printed TIE fighter from Thingiverse. 

I painted some detailing into the cab to represent the instrument panel and intimidating red glow / emergency lighting. 

It's Legion scale, about 1:43, so quite a sizeable piece. Duros for scale. Yes, it doesn’t fit in my light box, so here it is on the shelf. 

I spent ages trying to wrangle this onto a magnetised flying stand, but the 3D print turned out too heavy. I gave up on that, and instead ran off a landing platform (also Thingiverse) as a piece of terrain for it to sit on. It was designed for a different TIE model, so it only narrowly fits and I had to resize the cradle, and it doesn't sit perfectly. Serves the purpose though, I guess I’m building an Imperial forward operating base board now.

I painted the platform entirely by airbrush, I wasn’t getting the best consistency through it, but it was a pretty quick job.  

As far as points go, the TIE as a 40mm vehicle is 25 points.

The Landing pad is eight inches on its longest side, but less than six tall, so roughly fills a terrain cube, for 20 points

20 points for the Retro studio 

Totalling 65 points, a fourth studio and third squirrel (if terrain is its own category?)

Fantastic, love the Tie fighter, now I've got the distinctive doppler effect running through my head

From BenitoV: Dark Age Warband... and back to the 80's (67 points)

Two new set of entries this week. Firstly, a new unit of warriors suitable for almost any Saga warband of the Dark Age period. 

This project started as an Anglo-Danish warband for a campaign we played just before Christmas; but frankly speaking, these models can fit nicely in any other warband of the same period, Vikings, Saxon, whatever.

The models are from the Gripping Beast plastic Dark Age Warriors range, in this case just straight from the box, no conversions. The same models were used last week for my Late Roman army levies unit. The shields are transfers from Little Big Men Studio.

For my second entry, I walked my way to the past and visited the 80's studio, using for this purpose a model I found in the deepest layer of my lead pile.

 

Saruman and a glittering ball, not for the NY Studio 54 but for Middle Earth's Isengard. The Palantir was the predecessor of the mobile phone, alas heavier and with less mobility from what I saw in The Two Towers film.  The scene represents Saruman in the act of conjuring Sauron and I'm quite happy with the painting work of the eye in the Palantir (in this case, very much inspired in the Peter Jackson's films).

 

 

The model belongs to the older Middle Earth/Mithril range of models (produced when Peter Jackson was a very young man) and I found it at home packed in the original blister, after close to 40 years since buying it. I collected the whole Fellowship of the Ring at that time to be used with the LoTR RPG game; unfortunately the project never took off, as my gaming group's interests shifted to Warhammer Fantasy Battles.

I estimate 67 points for this entry, including  a couple of points (?) for the Palantir:

8 x 28mm warband models @5 points = 40 points

1 x 28mm Saruman @ 5 points  + 2 points for the Palantir = 7

Bonus 1980s Studio = 20 points

Subtotal = 67 points  

Nice generic dark age warriors and that's a great old school Saruman! With four Green zone studios under your belt, will you now be moving into the Blue zone? Straight to Superheroes or will you hop along the yellow-brick road or take a limo ride?

Tamsin

From AndrewB: Great White Fleet pt1! Retro! (80s)(35pts)

Wowza, there’s a distinct lack of posts from me this week, sorry folks!   Have a bunch of stuff that just needs to get based, then I’ll get the posts written for next week and we’ll be back up to steam for next week, and we’ll finish the first month strong.   

This week, the model I wrapped up which thankfully requires no basing, is a 1/600 scale USS Texas from Old Glory’s Age of Ironclad line.  I absolutely misread the studio room as ‘80s’, which is when this bad mama-jama was designed and laid down.  Not these most recent 80s, but the ones before that.  It certainly fits the ‘retro’ aspect though, so no harm, no foul.  

I intend to put together a ‘floor’ style game for these models, using a modification of a rule set written by Chris Arnold over at Not Jay’s Table Top Gaming on YouTube.  If anyone’s around the Midwest, I should have the game running at the March to Victory convention in Kansas City on March 22, immediately following the closing of festivities here.  

I’m not sure I’m entirely sold on the grime/coal dust effect I was going for, but that’s how it goes sometimes.  The search for the better method continues. 

I decided to go with the US Navy’s Great White Fleet scheme here, even though it wasn’t in place across the fleet at the time of the Spanish American War.   It’s just looks fantastic, and incredibly distinct compared to the grays I’m used to.  The Spanish black scheme should be fun as well. 

I’m not entirely sure on how to score this big girl, but it’s bigger than 15mm vehicles, smaller than 28mm, but still sorta simple    I was going to run with 10pts like a 15mm vehicle, if that’s ok with Teemu and the high mucky mucks.  That would bring me to 30pts with the bonus for the room, as well as leaving me with only one remaining room in the green zone!   We’ll be through the blue soon!

From TeemuL: 15mm vehicles are worth only 8 points, but there is 20mm vehicles category, too, worth 15 points. There is scoring for Black Seas Ships, too, and 1 category there is worth 15 points. I know nothing of ships or their rates, but I'll book this one as 3rd rate Black Seas Ship, worth 15 points. Naval experts, please give your opinions, and I make corrections if needed.

Anyway, that ship looks nice, the white colour is eye catching. Looking forward to see your next post next week.

From TeemuL: Retro in Two Acts and More! [1980s or Retro] [Limo] (105 points)

"Aren't those black and white movies boring? Nothing to see. I see you wandered to our 1980s or Retro studio, they not much better, they are colourful and often have nice explosions, but they are old and not very HD. Yes, people like new movies, that's why we are here, make great movies and grand profits, this is an industry after all! Some of this old stuff can be used as a base of remake, but who actually watches these oldies, I have no idea. Of course our new movie has nothing to do with this oldness, it is brand new in every possible way and here you can see some of the new extras, dwarf warriors, come on, now..."

Here are two sets of quite retro minis, they are both from Crooked Dice, so retro is almost granted. Originally I had an idea to post one of them as Sci-Fi and another as 1980s or Retro, but I didn't know which way. Then I had that idea of Genestealer Hybrids for Sci-Fi and decided to put all these to 1980s or retro.

These ape-like creatures are called Simians, there is a Simian Elder and Simian Leader with two Simian Minions. They have a strong resemblance to 1968 film Planet of the Apes, but of course they really aren't them, they are Simians. I hope they still count. :) I have painted other Simians in the past and during the previous Challenge I found out that Crooked Dice has created this kind of set, too, so during the summer I made an order there and made sure to include this pack.

I tried to emulate the colours used in films and Crooked Dice page. I used mainly Contrast paints and I had to use all of my brown(ish) colours to have enough variation - I almost mixed two paints together to create an unique tone, but I resisted myself. Who knows what horrors that kind of heresy might let loose?!?

The other set is 3/4 of Galactic Villains set and they have enough retro feel to satisfy my conscience to include them here. I have no idea, if they are inspired some movie, but they don't look familiar to me. Please enlighten me, if you know something of their origin. I used pretty much every non-brown(ish) Contrast colour on them to mimic the feeling of 1980s and some gold.

They are Alien Tyrant (painted like human, since I didn't do any research), Ruthless Lieutenant and Diabolical Fiend (which is painted almost like the Crooked Dice even though I didn't do any research). Last year I played couple of games of "Five Parsecs from Home" with my six year old son. The game is a solo game, but I was like an umpire, letting my son to do the decisions, remining him of rules and options of course, but letting him decide, while I was going through the rulebook and kept the world running and enemies moving. It was very nice, although very random and included lots of bookkeeping and quite heavy between-scenarios mechanics. We used almost exlusively Crooked Dice minis and if we play again, these three make great characters there.

I have been wandering in the Studios, but I have not forgotten my main project, that one Ikea box. This time I present you five more Dwarf warriors to support the previous six. One frame makes 12 dwarfs, but since these were a second hand purchase, I'm missing an archer. I used Contrast paints on these and kept to the chose colours, they look pretty nice.

One thing that amazes me, is how GW can create these Lotr models. 12 different models in one sprue, almost all have only one part. But if they create minis to other games, the whole sprue is made of identical figures or if they are different, the models consist of 5 or more parts. I really like the simplicity and variety of these models, even though they might not be fully 3D from every angle.

With the 1980s or Retro studio visited, I have gone through 4 green areas and I'm ready to move to the blue zone. I need a Limo ride to Swords and Sandals and I hope this Sword and Sandals wearing Amazon called Rania from Bad Squiddo Games provides me the lift. Yes, I could have used her as the film location entry, but that would have been too easy...

Rania is one of the (random) female minis, which I picked up and primed prior the Challenge, since I knew I need them for taxi service. This was a nice mini to paint and fits the scheme. I got her as part of YourModelBox subscription some years ago and I don't have any game specific use for her. Now she is painted and hopefully sees something else than insides of brown Warchests...

She is a mix of Contrast and traditional paints, most of her is covered in metallics. Skin and hair is rather dark so I chose quite pale colour for the small areas of cloth. Quite a lot of girl power in this post, Rania, two Galactic Villains and female Simian Minion, so I have tagged this with "Sarah's Choice."

Totals for scoring: 13 28mm miniatures, 13 * 5 = 65

2 locations, 1980s or Retro and Sarah's Limousine, 2 * 20 = 40

Total 105 points.

Minion Miles: Love the planet of the Apes theme!

From SimonM: Sardaukar by "Big Mr Tong" (25 points) + 1980's Bonus (20 Points)

These five 28mm scale Sardaukar were sculpted by "Big Mr Tong" and can be downloaded for free as part of a ten-figure set of STL (Standard Triangle Language) files from his "Patreon" subscription service. Based upon David Lynch's vision of the Emperor's elite warriors as first seen in his 1984 American science-fiction film "Dune", the miniatures were produced using "Elegoo" Water Washable Resin on a Mars 3 Pro 3D Printer.

Each figure was undercoated in "Citadel" Abaddon Black, and heavily dry-brushed with "Vallejo" Heavy Charcoal. The super-human soldiers' belts were then 'picked out using a little "Vallejo" Steel Blue, and their firearms with Gunmetal. Finally, each model was entirely 'drowned' in "Citadel" Nuln Oil and the Sardaukar's distinctive green face-visor realised using a combination of "Scalecolor" White Alchemy and the "Citadel" Contrast paint Warp Lightning.

I thought these figures would be a great way to continue my journey through Challenge Studios, as "Dune" was one of my favourite films during the Eighties (and still is to this day), and therefore a suitable subject for the 1980's filming lot.

Five x 28mm scale foot figure = 25 Points

1980's Studio Bonus = 20 Points

Total = 45 Points

_______________________

Oh man, this is inspired, Simon. I think this is such an excellent 80's submission (frankly I wish I had thought of it!). I really like the colour of the belt and the green visor glass as a counterpoint to the black battlesuit. Even though I enjoyed the new Villeneuve version, I still have a soft spot for Lynch's baroque vision of Herbert's book (Kenneth McMillan's Vlad Harkonnen is a benchmark in creepy). Well done!

- Curt