From JonathanO: Viking longships - Adventurer's Landing (24 points)

 I found two more 1/1200 ships from Navwar to use for this location.

There is only a slight breeze as these two ships glide gently ashore with their sails still up.  Who knows what adventures await the Viking warriors as they land?  Have the local inhabitants fled to safety, or do they have a surprise waiting for the travellers?

The base is 80mm x 60mm. 

For points I think 2 each plus the 20 location bonus = 24 points.

From SidneyR: On a Winter Shore : Adventurers' Landing (29 points)

 

Hopefully you'll not need to adjust the settings on your screen, dear Challengers, to see my next submisison for the "Adventurers' Landing".  These are 1/4800th scale Napoleonic Naval ships, being a frigate and three unrated vessels, together with the hex terrain for a snowy, ice-bound coastline.

Hold on.  What's that, Sidney? 1/4800th Napoloenic Naval, did you say?  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the very same - ships which would neatly fit onto the surface of a coin (see below), and which could be used to fight Trafalgar on your coffee table.

So, what on earth is going on here?  Last year (which seems an age ago), in 2020, I wanted to create a set of hex tiles for a 17th Century version of the old Games Workshop game, "Mighty Empires".  I blogged about that project HERE and since last autumn I've been adding more scratch-built hex tiles to my collection.

I thought a set of small ships, moving along the winter coast seeking a suitable place to make landfall, would be a good candidate for the "Adventurers' Landing" chamber in Challenge XI.  I already have a couple of port hexes, but I wanted the ships to depict locations on the campaign 'map' where a naval landing, or a 'descent' on the coastline, was being made.

"Wait Sidney.... are those....ice floes?  Off the coast of Flanders?"  

Correct - here's part of an account of William III's journey from England to Holland in the Royal yacht, Mary, in January 1691: "...After four days at sea pelted by snow showers, dodging floating ice and fog-hidden privateers, the convoy finally reached the shallows off the Dutch coast...." .  

OK, OK, so the ice floes might not have been quite as large as these ferociously sharp ice-shards, but... a little artistic licence goes a long way, I hope!

After weeks of painting 28mm figures, the tiny 1/4800th ships are just a sheer joy to paint.  And for any non-Jack-Tars out there (like me - sorry, Peter D!), the absence of rigging - and the inability to even try and add rigging on the ships - is a blessing and a liberation.  

The ships didn't take long to paint - just an enamel basecoat/ primer, a wash with Army Painter 'strong tone' wash and then some highlighting on the sails, with some careful brushwork on the hulls.  I added a dash of red for the fighting tops on the Frigate and some dabs of Vallejo brass for the sterns of the frigate and the larger merchantman to complete the look of the tiny squadron.

The sea effect was done with PVA-soaked toilet roll tissue.  It's a very easy technique to use and forms very durable and realistic waves, which can then be painted.  I chose a dark, cold blue for my sea, but I am sure a Caribbean azure would have been possible as well.  

Here's the sea and shore tiles matched up with the other hex tiles in the set, which I painted last year.

I made the ice with thin slivers of styrofoam, glued onto the waves using PVA.  There's no science here.  Please can I apologise to any geographer, marine biologist or iceberg specialist?  I wanted to get the 'feel' of the ice floating dangerously close to the shore - I am a little doubtful that the ice would really look like that.

All that being said, when using the campaign hexes, having the ice depicted on the sea tiles is a nice way of letting the players know that the rivers might be frozen and passable.  A visual cue to a game effect, if you like...

And here's the scale of the unrated merchantman with a United Kingdom new 50 pence piece.  And yes, I am probably certifiably insane, dear Challengers, for wargaming in what is really a micro-miniature scale.

But there might, just, be some method in the madness.  As I was painting the squadron (which took, in total, about one hour), I did notice the range of paints I was using.  There are hardly any colours needed for the ships and the sea, and in this scale you hardly need any paint.  The Tumbling Dice ships are very nice and work out to be about 50 pence each.  Which if you're planning Copenhagen, The Nile or Trafalgar, is not to be sniffed at.  

As I mentioned, its a form of method in the midst of wintry madness, fellow Challengers....!!

As for the points, I'm a bit lost, to be honest.  

Looking at other splendid, recent micro-ship entries from Miles and Peter (among many others), the going-rate seems to be 2 points a ship.  That might be a bit high for my smaller sized squadron, but to complement that, I'll just add a single point for the terrain tiles I prepared with the ships.  So, 8 points for four ships, plus one point for terrain.  Plus 20 points for Adventurers' Landing, giving 29 points in total.  

I hope that would work?

******* 

Well, Sidney, I don't think my brain could cope with trying to come up with a scoring scheme for these tiny ships in comparison to the scores for other ships, so I guess I'll just have to go with your suggestion.

That PVA-soaked toilet tissue does a very good job of simulating waves.

Tamsin

From BruceR Chamber of Challenge, 3 25mm 15pts + Adventurers Landing 20pts = 35 pts

 

Moving from the Shrine the party enters the Adventurers Landing.  Here the party returns to the FIW with Rangers Hal and Will moving through still water looking for the supply island.  As they approach what they think is the correct spot they see movement and Hal drops his paddle and sights his musket in case the Huron or some Frenchie has stumbled upon their supplies.   The figures and canoe are AW and will work great as a Sharp Practice 2 moveable deployment point.  I used a 60mm base and painted it green.  Next I used Vallejo Still Water, a product I had, yet never used.  After pouring over the painted surface I dropped a couple of tufts in the goop.    

The two are painted as British Rangers in FWI.  One has his ranger frock still on, the other working hard has packed his coat.  The canoe has seats, a bag, paddle and a couple of additional muskets.  Hoping approaching the landing with the canoe is acceptable for the chamber.  

5 pts for the 28mm figures = 10 pts

Canoe I took 5 points as well, adjust if too much = 5 pts

Adventurers Landing Challenge = 20 pts

Total 35 pts

Stay safe and sane.  Tomorrow the weatherman says
it will break above zero.

BruceR

From PeterD Adventuress' Landing (25 points)

 

The chamber says Adventurer's Landing and the Blurb references boats but I'm pushing the boundaries on both fronts.  This is a Bad Squiddo figure of a member of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), female pilots who performed ferry duties bringing warbirds from factory to airfield, who's just come in for a landing.

As with all of the Bad Squiddo Women of WW2 figures its a terrific sculpt and painted up very nicely, even for someone like me with limited knowledge of WW2 flight gear.  The pose is taken from a wartime photo of the famous aviator  Maureen Dunlop.

I did a bit of research on the ATA, and it turns out that one of their bases was in Hamble-le-Rice Hampshire which is very close to my dad's place.  Dad passed away of COVID in the fall but we plan on seeing the family this summer (travel restrictions flowing) and the short ferry ride across the Hamble to the memorial will be on my to do list.

The ATA is a great story- see the links above or watch the Midsomer episode.  I make the points tally 5 for the flyer and 20 for the Chamber.

From Dallas: Adventurers and a Landing (Craft) in the Adventurers' Landing (70 points)

Throughout this Challenge I've been avoiding painting boats. I know I pulled a cheeky move posting my Gaslands Porsche 928 in the Aquifer, but the "Adventurers' Landing" really requires an actual water-going vehicle, so here it is.

This is a 1/56 Italian Motolance ML landing craft from Barrage Miniatures, which Alf kindly included as a freebie when I ordered a terrain mat from him several years ago. Nine examples of this craft were built for a planned invasion of Malta.

You've no doubt noticed that the boat is packed full of British Commandos... since my theory is that one landing craft very much resembles another (and more to the point, I have no Italians in my 28mm WW2 collection, nor do I have any desire to paint any), I figure I can use this model for generic landing craft duties in pretty much any theatre.

 

It's a decent model, cast in resin, although the artifacts of a 3D-printed master are evident from the small lines in the casting. Fortunately the cargo area is precisely 40mm across so it perfectly fits my 20mm-based models two abreast.

There's some nice detailing on the deck.

A pretty neat model all in all, if you want a smallish landing craft for a game.

So that takes care of the "landing" part of the Chamber... now for the "Adventurers"! This lot is again from the Casting Room, plus one old Wargames Foundry figure.

Foundry "Elven fighter" (so called because he's a bit smaller than modern Heroic 28s) and a Casting Room Thief. Both nice models although the eyeholes in the thief's mask seem rather awkwardly placed for regular vision... perhaps he prefers giving the "side-eye"...

Foundry model is well-equipped for dungeon delving with backpack, rope and potions. Shield is GW I think, from my bag of shields.

 

Two models here that strike me as mercenary/hireling types, both from the Casting Room. Dude at left was cast with a ridiculous full visored helm which was swapped for the bare head.

Last two fellas here, again from the Casting Room. I'm a bit indifferent to the fighter at left but I REALLY like the guy with the lantern.

Again, the figures are heavily armed and equipped for adventure.

Now the math... 20 points for the Motolance landing craft, 30 for six 28mm adventurers, and 20 for the room bonus. Next I think I will circle around to the Lair of the Great Beast before clearing the Hall of Heroes, as I'm waiting for a special base to use on the model for the Hall. Getting closer to that Altar and the end of the Quest!
 

Stay safe all!

From PeteF: Adventurers' Landing - Antifa June1944 (70 points)

The US contributed 73,000 of the 160,000ish troops that landed in Normandy on D-Day. The size and scope of the largest naval/air/land operation in history  is mind boggling. This Bolt Action/Chain of Command Squad represents just a few of the many anti-fascists who took part in Operation Overlord.

For this challenge I tried a different, faster, painting style based on a Pete The Wargamer video for painting GIs. It's a block and wash technique - I usually do layering and add a fair amount of detail. For these I went for something that looks OK from 3 feet away - they aren't going to win any awards!

In the Before Times thanks to Facebook marketplace I scored a large lot of WW2 minis from a guy who was giving up on the hobby. He even threw in his paints and brushes. It made me sad to see someone leave wargaming but happy to restock The Shelf of Shame with WW2 figures after finishing off my Blitzkreig Germans in Challenge X.

The figures are from Warlord and to be honest I don't love them. I threw them together a little too quickly when I was scrambling for something to enter for Adventurer's Landing in the preparation phase of the challenge. Not only did I do a poor job on the gluing and mold line removal, I screwed up the priming. As an experiment I went with a cheap auto primer and it came out very grainy on some of the minis - either wrong temperature or spray distance or both. I'm becoming a fan of brush on primers!

 

However, Pete the Wargamer's guidance is great for getting figures on the table quickly and with desaturated WW2 uniforms it works well. I learned a lot about US uniforms in the process - there's a surprising amount of debate about the variations in the colours. As usual the Osprey has too many pictures of specialists and not enough of the ordinary infantry.

Ten 28mm figures and a room bonus for a total of 70 points.