From RobH: A walk in the Sun (190 points)

Time flies. The month of February is the busiest month of the year for me at the office. It actually begins in mid January and ended last week. As a result I get next to nothing gaming related completed. But here goes.

1) This was a project I began on Thursday after I signed off work. Twelve Late Roman slingers, or a Saga Levy. This was 15 stages of work, completed at all hours of the day or night. From the first application of paint applied to the trousers (AV Game Color 72.037 Filthy Brown to the final stage of a coat of Mod Podge applied to provide a sealant for the Meadows of Purity Krautcover Scenics. I just wanted to see if I could push it throught in about 60 hours.

2) The second project was the completion of 10 Late Roman Cavalry.  This would be a Warlord and bannerman and a Saga Warrior Unit. This was the project that was start and go in the middle of the night during the long winter season.

3) Finally we have a walk in the sun. This was a freebie from Warlord Games showing off their French Line Infantry. I have some plastics but I prefer my mins to be metal. It had just the right amount of model work that appealed to me. Glue on a head, attach the backpack and roll. No fuss, no muss. I have never got into painting Napoleonics and I don't have a lot of knowledge of the period. This was an easy project simply because I thought, six figures and my Spanish Guerrillas needed someone to ambush. I went for a ragtag look. The greatcoat makes it an easy project.

18 25mm Infantry X 5 points = 90 points

10 25mm Cavalry x 10 points = 100 points

Total 190 Points. 

Very nice work here Rob and a nice variety of historical subjects! I have a large amount of 28mm Napoleonic British and French in a box, waiting for the right moment... I suspect they will be a retirement project. Your ragtag Frenchmen do look the part though!

One-ninety for you!

Dallas

From AaronP: Gnomes! (100 points)

Hello again,

I am running out of things to paint... especially things I have brought with me to my current home away from home. 

My 15mm ECW project for ADLG-R (I think I got the letters in the right order) is going well. I am going to wait to post them until they are finished mostly cause I haven't done their bases. I need to bring some static grass from home.

I am returning home on Friday, so I'll dig around and see what else I can find to get paint onto. 

Enough preamble

Gnomes

I have been sitting on these since they came out; the Gnome Bloodbowl team. Also, who know Gnomes were part of the Warhammer Fantasy deep lore??? 

Anyway, I though the minis looked fun to paint, and I love playing stunty teams for their ridiculousness. There are probably enough Stunty teams now to run a Stunty only league and have some variation. 

So points,

I assume the Gnomes still count as 28mm despite their diminutive size?

14 x 28mm platers = 70 points

2 x trees (54mm?, they are like 80mm tall but also super easy to paint) = 30 points [Edit Millsy]

So 90 points? Does that work?

Also I keep forgetting to do labels, so sorry about that. I did some this time.

Thanks

From Millsy:

You can't fail to love a gnome! Blodbowl is such a great game, still going strong and the whimsical nature of it combined with absolute mayhem is part of the appeal. Stunty teams are the prefect example of that.

Really nice work all round Aaron. I like how you've varied the bark colour on the two treemen in partciular. 20 points seems a paltry return so I've thrown another 10 in to make them 15 each. Your numbering on the bases is a great solution to remembering who is who vs. trying to write a name.

100 points it is mate. Bring on the stunty league I say!

Cheers,
Millsy

From FrederickC - Western Lumber Camp Buildings and Log Piles for 'What a Cowboy' (25 Points)

 Woohoo! A third submission already. 

Last summer my wife and I spent a week at Wasagaming in Riding Mountain National Park. While dropping into the local Dollar Store to get a jug of water, I happened to spot two dYI log cabins that looked like they had some potential for scenarios of 'What A Cowboy'.

They did need a bit of extra work, as there was a gap under the bottom log onthe sides of the building, an artifact due the the nature of the assembly. This was filled with a piece cut from a chopstick to ensure the wall came all the way down to the ground, 

I also decided that the roof would look better with shingles, rather than just a thin piece of wood. So strips of cardboard shingles were cut ad glued into place. That is as about as fancy as it got. Having assessed what would be needed to actually cut the doors and windows through the logs, I decided that is wasn't worth the effort, I did however cut a base on which to mount the cabins to give greater stability, and to make sure the structure would sit flat on the table.

"I'm in pieces, bits and pieces."

Assembled cabins (still without pases.)

Showing the 'lift off' roof.

 The dimensions for the two cabins/bunk houses/lumber camp office are 5" x 6" x 3.5" 

These were painted with water base latex paint from the 'Oops' section at Home Depot.

Pop Up Roof to show interior

 

 

The final group of items are five log piles which would be handy cover from bullets. Here I painted some doweling different shades of brown, and using a jig, sawed them into standard lengths. They were then glued on a base until I thought it looked like the right height. Eventually I produced 5 log piles, each 1" x 2.25" x 1.75". 

All the bases got a thin layer of sand glued on them, with some sporadic bits of greenery scattered here and there. Once again, what Byron says it's worth. 

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What a great little find Frederick.  I agree they needed something with the roof and the shingles make a big difference and look great.  As a suggestion to fit even more into that really rustic look, you might want to try gluing some flock onto the roof in patches as well, as a lot of old cabins get that moss growth on them and it could look good, but if your thinking of these as a new build then I wouldn't.  

Overall, the colour choices overall are really good as well, the cabins look suitably aged and the logs being different colours look great as well.  I might even be stealing the idea for some of my own western terrain.  Points wise I am going to say about 10 points a building as they are pretty simple, and then a few more points for the logs piles.  I would say about 5, but am going to go to a total of 30 between the buildings and the log piles.  Keep it coming Frederick.

- Byron

From FrederickC - Sci-Fi Command Outpost with Turret (10 Points)

 

Finally, my second piece of the challenge is complete, which is also my first post-op submission.  it consists of a roughly cylindrical base with a dome on one side with radar dishes, an a twin gun turret that can sweep the space through an arc of approximately 127°. This is another structure that I bought from Scotia Grendel that was prepped to last year's challenge but not used.

I originally thought I shouldn't have any problem getting this done, but I have found that the fine motor skills in my painting hand are still a bit rubbish. It felt like it did when I first started painting Airfix ACW infantry with a cheap plastic bristled brush and a tin of Humbrol enamel.

 

eight of the structure is 4 inches with a height, not including radar dishes of 4 inches as well. Points claimed: Whatever Byron says.

 

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Nice to see you painting already Frederick!  This is a nice little terrain piece and choosing it to fit in with stormtroopers makes it look even better, I like the simple colour scheme as it makes it look like it would fit right at home on Hoth.  I am going to guess at a few hours to get something like this done and score it at 10 points.  Keep up the good work Frederick and hopefully the fine motor skills return quickly for you.

- Byron 

From Frederick C - Ranging Shots - SciFi Medical Station, and Scatter Terrain (20 points)

Following the end of AHPC XV I thought I would work on the various terrain pojects that I had prepped or that challenge. I did complete some Middle Earth/Osgiliath ruins, but after that things came to a crashing halt. In the run up to AHPC XVI, I had a hard time making any progress on prepping any new figures for the challenge. When registration opened up in Nvember I saw a lot of comments from past participants saying that they had lost their 'mojo', and they would not be participating this year. I confess that I could strongly relate to those feelings, but I thought that unless I had he push from the challenge, I would get nothing done. I have dropped my point target to half of what I have achieved in past years, and at the moment I feel I may be hard pressed to achieve that. So no opening salvo this year. Just some ranging shots to see how my terrain projects might fare in order to  decide if it's worth continuing with the leftover projects from last year that got shelved. 

For my first submission for this year's challenge I present some pieces of SCi-Fi terrain from ScotiaGrendel. long with some 35mm Figures for size comparison only

Scotia Grendal Sci-Fi Scatter terrain with a meter stick in the foreground 

 

Six Sci-Fi shipping crates L 25mm x W 20mm x H 20mm 

Sci-Fi Shipping crates

 

Ammo and Fuel cache L 100mmxW50mm x H 30mm

Fuel/Ammo cache view 1

Fuel/Ammo ccache view 2

Diagnostic station L 74 x W 33 x H 40

Diagnostic station and medical bed View 1

   

Medical bed L60 x  W 25mm x H 20

 

Diagnostic station and medical bed view 2

Row of Cryochambers LL110mm x W 30mm x H 40mm

Cryochambers row & single
 

Single cryochamber L15mm x W 30mm x H 40 mm 

cryochambers View 2

 

Cryochamber controls

Row of Cloning/Bacta tanks L62mm x W25mm x H 40mm

Bacta/Cloning tanks view 1

Bacta/Cloning tanks View 2

 

Single Cloning/Bacta tank  L 30mm x W 25mm x H 40mm

 

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Thanks for the entry Frederick, I really like a lot of these pieces and while all fairly simple, they will add a ton of cool factor to a table!  I can see them being used in a ton of different skirmish games to spice up the table a bit.  The colours chosen keep them usable for so many different things.

As for points I am going to count each of the 3 major elements (vats, cryochambers, and medical station) as the equivalent of painting a 28mm figure, and then the same for the boxes and barrels together, so 20 points are being awarded to you for some great little items. Awesome work Frederick, keep it coming!

 

-Byron 

From MartinN: Sigurd - Fáfnir's Bane (17 Points)

Continuing on from last years theme I'm back, or better still painting away on my Middle Imperial Roman project for Midgard. My Romans are more or less done, so I've to do the opposition now it seems.

Last year I painted Brynhild, so I thought it only sensible to now paint Sigurd (Siegfried for us Germans). While the whole epic cycle around Sigurd probably refers to a later period than what I'm going for with my 3rd Century Romans, we don't really know and that's excuse enough for me.

The figures used are from Footsore Miniatures, Victrix and Armorum & Aquila Miniatures and go together quite well. Converting the chap mockingly holding up the severed head, was fun and indeed the reason to paint this whole little vignette. Sigurd and his banner bearer were collecting dust in my stash for over a decade already, but I couldn't think of a way to tell an interesting story with any of the figures I found. I love the defiant pose of the sculpt, so it had to be something special. And when I happened upon the Dark Age Archers set from Victrix I instantly knew I was on to something. Good thing I'll need archers anyway for this project, eh?

Points wise this will see me enter the roster with 17 points for 3 standing and a prone figure in addition to whatever points our Maximo Lider sees fit to throw in for the hand painted shields.

Cost of Entry

Since the beginning of the full scale invasion of Ukraine, I'm donating monthly to Ukrainian charity Come Back Alive Foundation who provide both lethal and non-lethal aid to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Also US based Renegade Relief Runners Foundation, who deliver aid to settlements as close and sometimes closer to the frontline as is safe(-ish), gets a monthly donation. Both do sterling work, so go and check them out.

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First, welcome back to the Challenge, Nick!

I love that you've completed the book-end to your Brynhild with this fabulous Siegfried vignette. As usual your brushwork continues to amaze, only to be outdone by your subtle conversions and additions. I find your fleshtones, fabrics and painted shields are simply incredible - a tour de force to be admired. Well done, Nick (and another 5 points I think is warranted for the work)!

Also to be credited is your donations to the two Ukrainian charities you mentioned. Those folks need all the help they can get. Very worthwhile.

- Curt

From JP - Early Germanic Foot (30 Points)

Well, I think this Analog will see me reach the end of my Cimbrian adventures, where the Germans are concerned. If you've seen my work the past two years, you know I have an obsession with fighting the Cimbrian Wars. My 28mm collection is made up for Victrix and Foundry figures. Earlier this year, I picked up a sizable order of Foundry's Copplestone Early Germans as I love his sculpting style. My Victrix are great, but metal is still my favourite medium.

WARNING: not everyone is clothed in this mob...

Without further ado, here are six Cimbrian skirmishers, mainly Suebi, looking for their first trophies, though one seems to have gotten a bit ahead of the rest (trophy wise). 

That's  6 x 28mm = 30 points

More to come... lots more... not to mention the Marians...

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Lovely work on these early Germans, JP. Like you, I really enjoy the sculpts from Copplestone. Such nice, clean lines, with just enough detail - easy to paint. Your basework and sabots look excellent as well, another unit for the barbarian horde! I look forward to more hairy Germans and the promised Marians. 

 - Curt