From SebastianR: A little chicken for Chicken Little [Childrens Books] (10 points)

Wait, there's still time!

Enough time to deliver on this bonus challenge, unknowingly set for me by Dallas.

I manged to hookwink a friend into buying a pack of 6mm chickens, so that I could have one to claim the award for most lopsided points to bonus points ratio this challenge has ever seen.

So why Childrens Books? Well, I'm hooking this entry onto 2005's Chicken Little, a Walt Disney flick that I would never have heard of* without a throwaway line from the preamble to Axis of Awesome's only hit song. Apparently it's loosely based on the European folk tale of Henny Penny. Sure. Ok. Children's Media! And he's a little chicken... Geddit?

That being said, he is a bit of a chonker when compared to my GHQ infantry. Maybe he's been on some "premium" chicken feed, or perhaps the infantry skipped torso day.

I'm not sure how many photos you want of a 6mm chicken, but there's a mandatory minimum of 3, so here he is, the smallest thing I've ever painted, perched on the biggest thing I've ever painted.

I claim 0.25 points for this figure, half that of a 6mm foot figure, and 20 for the challenge and immortalisation in the challenge hall of fame for most lopsided points ratio!

*That being said, I have extremely vague memories of the marketing.

_________________________________

Queue eyeroll from GregB... :)

Yep, that's a little chicken for Chicken Little, no doubt about it. Nonetheless, as per the story you neglected to model the sky falling on Chicken Little, so I'm going to reduced the total to 10 points for the grievous oversight. 

Good one Sebastian.  :)

From AdamC: Bear Cub - Nature (25 points)

Family health issues (nothing serious just persistent and annoying) have limited my painting but I have been making progress and did finish this little fellows.

He's the last of a set of a mother bear and cubs the others have been made into Christmas ornaments for my wife (these have appeared in other challenges). They are some of Annie at Bad Squiddo games excellent collection of 25 mm animal miniatures. 

This fellow is a bit cheeky with his tongue sticking out. 

My daughter Evie is starting an RPG with me, and another adult and their children. The Game is called "Perils & Princess" and the character has an animal companion and I hope this fellow might work.  For points, it's a 25 mm figure so typically 5 points it's a bit small so a reduction may be appropriate. Nature should get another 20 for 25 in total.

Sylvain: This week, you bring a cute little fella to the Challenge. It's an easy pun, but the animal and your name remind me of "Grizzly Adams". I am sure the games you will play with your daughter will be lasting memories. Nice work! 

From JohnE: 28mm Napoleonic Gothic Horror [Fantasy] (110 Points)

Well, here it is - the final post of this year, and I think I fell 5 points short of my goal. Not surprising, it's more stuff for The Silver Bayonet. There's a troll here in the mix so asking for Fantasy bonus points.

Cheers everyone!

Up first, a troll from Reaper. I have no idea how that lower mandible is supposed to function.

 

 

 

 

Next, the Bandits and Army Deserters packs from North Star. These were fun to paint. Lots of character here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Calling back to the beginning of The Challenge, here's the rest of my wolf pack. Most of these are from Bad Squiddo.

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, a pair of vampires from North Star. Love the hair.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As they say in the Challenge Studios, "that's a wrap!" Thanks to all for the lovely comments along the way, and I wish you all the best in 2023 and beyond.

Points Summary

17x 28mm foot @ 5 points = 85 points

Fantasy (Blue Pass) bonus = 20 points

Total = 105 points

Friday Minion troll bonus +5

Grand Total = 110 Points!

Friday Minion: Well that troll's a big fella, 5 points seems a bit stingy to me, if we score him at a more generous 10, that means you just squeak up to your finish line. Congrats John!

Great stuff once again, that pack of wolves looks scary, and the characterful bandits and deserters for Silver Bayonet came out brilliantly, even if the posies are a bit unimaginative.

Great to have you with us in AHPC Studios once again John, see you next year!

From DaveD - the BUFF and the chickens (207 points)

Keeping Tuesday Turnip Free! I have enlisted the help of General Cheeseburger . 

And what better to make roast vegetables than one of these bad boys - a B52 or a Big Ugly Fat F****r Carrying 30 tons of destruction. Oh this is a big boy. 

So big I had take it outside to get proper pictures !

Biggest decals I’ve ever worked on - at least they were decent quality . Nice big 2nd Airforce markings on the tail 

It’s painted up in South East Asia camo . With a black underside and tail .

Yes this is true madness - a B52 in 1/72nd - I had to compromise from 1/48th  in the end .I picked up the kit on  eBay with some bits missing hence it was cheaper than normal . I had to make the transparency for the cockpit from bits of yoghurt pot etc . Its a 32 inch wingspan , 28 inches long and 6 inches high . About the size of 12 normal 1/72nd fighter kits . Or if we apply the rule of Ken and multiply lots who knows how many points this is  ! So I will leave that with Tamsin to work out points .I certainly used a lot of paint through the airbrush !

 

Cue Major Kong - is that a major root vegetable site down there?

I might just have to throw it off the shed roof to “to destroy” it . 

Now what’s it for I hear you say . Well it’s for Nam , but not obviously as flying playing model - the flight stand would be worth all the challenge points in the world on its own . Well I have two options at the moment . Having dug around there is scenario fodder in that while these were based in Thailand the VC did do some commando raids , destroying some other aircraft on the ground  . That will all look cool, so  I have the wheels kept separate to use for that if need be . The other option which I had originally intended is to wreck it up into multiple parts to make table dressing and for scenario fodder for special ops etc . This is the most likely next step , but for now it’s left complete as can be .Time to raise the communist airforce - or a least a SAM2 battery or 7  . 

Just to prove what a bonkers week it has been at the paint table - here is the opposition air force . 

Now we go from the ridiculous to the other end of the scale - here we have 40 x 28mm chickens . Pendraken has a great range of animals (Link) in a range of scales and these are just the thing to have running around the villages . Now I’m not sure there is category they fit in at 28mm - as 200 points at 5 per chicken is a great bonus! So again I will leave these to Tamsin . I won’t count the chickens to Never Ending Cold War .

That is a totally bonkers model, Dave! I think you need to get yourself a second one though to do as wreckage - that way you can still do both scenarios you mentioned. 

Now for the scoring. There is a precedent for 28mm chickens - set by me, I think...ahh, yes, here's the post linky-link. They got scored as 2 points for a base of three chooks plus one chick so let's say 27 points for your 40 chickens (13x3x2 = 26, plus one for the 40th bird).

As for the B52, I'm not sure I should really be the minion setting precedent for scoring huge models, given that I'm working on a huge 28mm spaceship. Nevertheless, I'm happy to go with it being the equivalent of twelve 20mm vehicles as you suggest.

Tamsin

From TomC: Necromeowncer and skele-cats [Fantasy] (33 points)

 Hello hello again, apologies to reappear sooner than expected, behind schedule for the last studio and making up lost time for this studio, the Fantasy studio. It's been straight historical content for me so far, but the internet loves cats and so this is the place to get them in.

 These are from Steamforged Games's Cats and Catacombs / Animal Adventures series of feline (and canine) adventurers for D&D, in particular, two of the Kickstarters. The first we backed had a feline necromancer (the Necromeowncer / Nekomancer depending on how you like your puns) as a bonus, but you can't have a Necromeowncer without any undead to raise! Luckily the second Kickstarter we backed had animated feline skeletons to give the adventures some low level adversaries, so now the whole gang is back together! 

 I enjoyed painting these immensely, I think the miniatures are very characterful and have enough detail to bring some techniques to without becoming a headache.

 I wanted a black cat to establish villainous credentials but included the white patches as an homage to a childhood cat. I then tried to keep the various accessories quite colourful and textured so it wasn't too gloomy, although that was difficult with such stylish assistant-rats. The various bones I imagine are useful for distracting canine adventurers...

 Both the leather and gold are Andy Wardle recipes for NMM, the gold is VGC English Uniform, IJA uniform, then S75 Tenere Yellow and I used Citadel Ceramite White for the reflections (a prince amongst paints). The leather I modified a little (thus explaining my lack of critical acclaim) to Citadel Mournfang Brown, Tuskgor Fur and VGC German Orange. I hadn't tried either before but I'm glad I gave them a test, I can see myself using both more in the future!

  Another shot of the feline skeletons for completeness, it's just the one sculpt replicated, as often seems to be the way with Steamforged's D&D goons. They're my usual series of Citadel Gorthor then Baneblade Brown and Karak Stone which I employ for most bone: on the Necromeowncer I took this on to Rakarth and Pallid Wych Flesh for the croissant helmet horns, not required for low level minions!

 For the bases, I was aiming for a dusty dungeon theme, as appropriate for ne'er-do-wells, and hopefully suitably generic for a few locales.

 Now, points wise, they're about 20mm, give or take being on all fours, so I've taken the feline skeletons (3x) to be 3 points apiece, as they're quite bare bones (the end is nigh, I promise!), and the Necromeowncer as 4 points. They're all pretty fantastical, so all in with the studio bonus should be 33 points.

 I'm thinking Swords & Sandals next...

Friday Minion: How did you know I'm a cat person? Though I'm not sure these are the cutest moggies, they are very finely painted, I like the dark bones rather than bleached, and the Necromeowncer looks appropriately haughty. Fine work on the NMM too, was there a reason you went NMM? 

Very reasonable scoring bid, too, making my life easy. 33 Points to you!