From BartekR: A red dragon (25 points)

My next submission is a bit of a throwback to a smattering of early me hobby nerdness. The miniature: Archon Studios "Durkar, the Sovereign Serpent".

This was included with an Army Painter paint set, so another one for the squirrel challenge! I didn't actually know who Archon are but turns out they make minis for a range of tabletop games including  Masters of the Universe, Trench Crusade, and Dragons & Lasers(?!?), which range this belongs to.

There was the question of which colour to paint the beast. The booklet that came with the paint set showed a red dragon (aparently part of AP's learn to paint series), while the Archon Studios page for the mini shows a gorgeous gold paintjob. In the end, red got my vote -- sealed by that most intoxicating of drugs: nostalgia...from and for:

- Every illustration of Smaug I remembered from childhood (especially those by the brothers Hildebrandt, Michael Hague and Tolkien himself);

- Every piece of artwork from the original Dragonlance series of modules and books with a red dragon; and...

...the one, the only...

- D&D Basic red box cover art. This set - borrowed at that - was my first real intro to fantasy gaming (circa 1983), at about the same time as gamebooks (the gateway drug of Choose Your Own Adventure through Fighting Fantasy, Wizards, Warriors & You, and the wonderfully light-hearted Grail Quest series).   

Painting process: Black undercoat, white xenithal and drybrush. Started with a red contrast paint (ivory for the claws and chest) before highlighting and washes. The base is part of the mould so a lot of metallics and washes. 

Comparison photo against some Warlord Games minis (28mm and epic)

Scoring: The miniature is 165mm tall (Archon Studios webpage) so I have no idea where this falls in the points matrix. This is where I have to seek Saturday Minion Sander's wisdom for adjudication. 

"Do you see?"

 

Oh dear, now I have to decide what amount of points to give this beasty? Well I have checked the Challenge annals and most precedent seems to hint at scoring it as a 40mm vehicle which is 25 points, I do hope you are happy with that? As to the painting and the story behind your creation: those are truly awesome! I have seen these models up close and know you have really done it up admirably!

Cheers Sander 

From PeterB - Horror, Spam and a monkey! - DIY, Literature and Manga (215 Points)

 

February already? This analogue challenge really does help these cold winter months fly by. Before I know it, Salute will be here and I shall be refilling the lead pile!

This week I am taking a bit of a ramble about the stacks. I do have some concrete plans to get some rank and file troops painted for some points bombs, but this week I seem to have been drawn towards painting up characters.

Last week I finished at "Famous Person" so to begin with a quick jump on Sarah's Cart over to the Rotunda. (Maritime is still to tick off but I'm still thinking on that, nobody wants to see me painting boats.) To pay the toll for the journey I present to you from Bad Squiddo Games, Poppy the Head Vampire.

Yes, Poppy is the pug. I don't know the name of her owner (servant?) but I'm sure Poppy treats her well.

Over on the Rotunda I move to DIY. For this category I present the rock stacks I have been making for Gaslands. 

They are made from packing foam cut and stacked, then liberally painted with texture paint. I also realised I haven't measured them, but these photos looked so nice I had to share them, so then I fished them out again for measuring. There are seven of them, six are 3 inches tall the other 4 inches. I've no idea on points, although I think they would probably fill the six inch cube for 20 points?

Next up we move to Literature and that classic from Bram Stoker, Dracula. Although I don't think this Vampire is going to be around for a while with two vampire hunters ready to introduce him to a stake.

All three are from Bad Squiddo games also.

Another trip on Sarah's Cart up to the first floor, paid for by another Bad Squiddo miniature, Zombie Annie. Here she is accompanied by a cowboy zombie I have kitbashed from various parts of my bits box. (I am working on a set of rules to add the undead to a Wild West skirmish game) Annie here is also accompanied by one of her pet guinea pigs, seems the peeg has also succumbed to the need for the consumption of flesh.

For my next stop today at the stacks of Manga comics, I give you a samurai monkey. A pretty dangerous looking monkey from Archon Studios, they produce a great set of animal companions, some sci-fi, some fantasy all in one box set.

Finally this week I have continued the 2nd edition 40K inspired Blood Angels project. For my visit to the sci-fi stack we start with a classic Dreadnought. This beast is completely metal and has some heft to it. (It makes for an interesting job of painting the vehicle with a steady hand.) It is an old one from my collection that I have stripped with some Biostrip and had another go at painting. Back in the 90's no-one introduced me to micro-sol and micro-set. I guess GW didn't mention them as they didn't sell them. I always therefore struggled with transfers back then, now that I can properly do them I have enjoyed making this model look proper accurate to how it was meant to look back in the 90's.

I have also painted these four Space Marines. Two classic Veteran Sergeants

A Company Standard bearer and a Techmarine. this time with suitable transfers added. I finally have managed to work out how to add a flat transfer to a curved shoulder pad.

The Points

7 x 28mm characters = 7 x 5 =  35 points

4 x stack visits = 4 x 20 = 80 points

2 x trips on Sarah's Cart = 2 x 20 = 40 points

1 x 28mm vehicle = 20 points

4 x Space Marines at 28mm = 4 x 20 = 80 points 4 x 5 = 20 points

Rock stacks (1 cube 6x6) = 20 points

Total = 255 points 215 points

 

Sylvain: What a lovely set of diverse miniatures! Bet it vampires, zombies or space marines, your brush work really highlight the essence of what the model represents. Your monkey was probably sculpted as the Monkey King, a popular character in Japanese and Chinese legends. Very impressive work!

P.S. =I adjusted your point calculation, as you can see above. 

From PeterB: Fantasy and other shizznizz - 85 points

 

Its a bit of a mish mash post this one. I genuinely couldn't think of a large group of models that I had left to cover the category of fantasy (obviously I have lots of fantasy models but they cover lots of other categories I want to cover on my journey). So, its a single model covering the category and what could be more fantasy than a dragon. This one is from Archon Studios. (Slightly smaller than the last of their dragons I painted.)

Also this week I have been painting a few odds and sods. Firstly, I saw this lonely truck in the charity shop the other day and it looked so tattered and worn with wobbly wheels, I felt it would never be loved again in its current form. So, what better than to give a new lease of life in Gaslands! Yep, one for for the fleet. Some added armour and a gun toting punk were all it needed. (As well as the paint job obviously.)

Sometimes I paint a model just to test a colour scheme before using it. (Last year I painted some hormagaunts in multiple reds and washes before selecting one for a dragon, if anyone remembers that.) This vintage Eldar was a practise for yellow. I couldn't decide whether to drybrush over brown or orange. This one is orange. It looks good for this chap, but I won't be using it for the other model later. (You'll have to wait a week or so to see what that is.)

Another practise model. This is a vampire hunter from Bad Squiddo Games. I really just wanted to know what a brown wash looked like over various different browns and whites. I actually washed him with a darker brown first, took some notes, then dunked him in water to clean it off quickly. I then gave him a sepia wash and got the result I wanted for some of these colours. I shall be using them again later.

Finally this trio also from Bad Squiddo. It was only when I started painting the werewolf that I realised the "rags" were actually a dress. I am therefore submitting her as an entry for Sarah's choice, although I am taking a natural route up to the next floor anyway.

Points

6 x 28mm miniatures at 5 points = 30 points

1 x 20mm vehicle at 15 points = 15 points

location bonus = 20 points

Sarah's cart = 20 points

Total = 65 points

 

Sylvain: A lovely submission. When I looked at the dragon, the word "cute" immediately sprang to mind. Thanks to you and a spiffy paint job, a toy was saved from the trash,a good deed that will not be left unrewarded, I am sure. Your lycanthropes and other  sci-fi/fantasy figures look very crisp.

P.S. Don't forget to add the Library Map 😁. 

From PeterB: Animal Companions (20 points)

I thought I was done, then I had a brief surge of painting energy and finished off these. They are from Archon Studios (same peeps that make the Masters of the Universe range) and are in a similar hard plastic. Like the rest of their models these multi parts go together really well. They are from the Animal Companion set, 24 various models of creatures for fantasy or sci-fi, including dogs, cats, mimics and monkeys. 

They come with their own various scenic bases which are specific to the model (No switching around unfortunately) sometimes the feet of the creature is part of the base.

I painted up the sci-fi dog as a tribute to Gus, Miles' dog. So I shall use this opportunity to say thank you to Miles for his hard work being my minion for this year.

So, that's four 28 models at 5 points. That takes me over the 1000 points mark, an acceptable result I think, considering I really thought I was only gonna just make my 500 point target.

From TeemuL: What a nice bunch of animals, Peter! I'm sure Miles is delighted to see these. And it was nice to be a companion to you on the Wednesday for Lotr crew. :) And next time you know to aim higher!

From PeterB - The Power of the Evil Horde! - 60 points

 And so we come full circle to a project I was working on at the beginning of the AHPC. During the challenge the next Wave of miniatures from Archon Studios was released for their Masters of the Universe - Battlegrounds game (That is a mouthful). So, I of course I ordered them, constructed and undercoated them during the challenge and got the set finished today.

This set is a new faction for the game, the Evil Horde. They may not be familiar to some, if at all to any of you. They are in fact the bad guys from the planet Etheria where Adora lived after being kidnapped by their leader Hordak. Adora of course being He-Mans twin sister known to most as She-Ra. (Fingers crossed Archon eventually release a model of She-Ra atop her winged unicorn Swiftwind)

Shadow Weaver and Hordak

A previous enquiry asked what the strange white bits on the front of the bases were of these models. They are a facing indicator as the rules take into account which way the model is facing at any one time. I therefore wanted to make them nice a clear in a clean white.

Horde Troopers

As per before, I have painted the models quite loyal to their original colour schemes, which as they were toys (and cheap filmation characters) are in a limited palette. I have shaded and highlighted a bit as otherwise they really do look dull.

Horde Wraiths

Catra and Grizzlor

The set also came with two pairs of matching trees for extra terrain pieces in the game. These were painted up with some simple layering of browns, highlighting up to a final tip of white to try and make them look like dead wood to match the aesthetic of the Evil Horde.

So, to the points,

That is 8 x 28mm characters - 5 x 8 = 40 pts

The trees take up the same space as 4 characters, but they aren't complicated to paint, so 10 points each? So another 40pts

Total = 80 points. (Maybe 60)

Minion Miles:  Those trees are pretty nice but they seem like terrain to me and I'm guessing they fill out a 6 inch cube so 20 points for them - sorry