From TashaH: Last Minute Planet Scramble [Babylon5][Xanth][Lady Sarah’s Star Yacht] (75 points)

Well. 

Here we are on Babylon5. This figure is the first one I assembled myself. Yikes! When I got it in the mail, I contemplated putting it in a drawer and just forgetting about it! 

 

Overall, it was easy to assemble. I should have paid a little closer attention, as I clipped the pegs off on his legs, so he is just sitting precariously on his shoes! 

This is Zo! - a Starfinder Miniature. As with most of the figures in the Challenge, I know nothing about him. I chose him for this planet for his microphone. He will be given a place of honour in my husband’s music room, where many a song is sung and while perhaps not quite operatic, he can hit some pretty amazing notes!  

 

As I’ve completed 4 planets on the outer and middle rings, I understand I can drop directly to the inner ring. I’m going to head to the planet Xanth. 

Here I have another Elf Cleric from WizKids. As you can see, he clearly has the unique talent of being able to conjure fire in the palm of his hand!

 

I had planned to have a figure completed for Lune, but I do not. I would like to call on Lady Sarah’s Star Yacht to take us to Terra. 

This is the last of the Heroclix figures I have from WizKids (thank goodness).  Psylocke is from the Xmen and that is about all I know about her. I do know I didn’t paint her outfit properly, but I did use four different shades of black to try to make her look cool. 

 

I ordered my new 3D printer today and I am soooo excited. I just wish I had some more time to use it before the end of the Challenge. 

The points:

3 - 32 mm figures - 15 points

2 Planet Bonuses + Star Yacht - 60 points

Total - 75 points

(I redid all the photos with a lighter background as the originals were incredibly dark)

That's a lovely trio of figures, Tasha! 

Tamsin

From DallasE: Roadkill Garage BBQuda for Gaslands (Babylon 5)(37 points)

Presenting... the BBQuda!

There's a bit of a story behind this... one of my other enthusiasms is old cars, and TV shows about them. One of my favourites is "Roadkill Garage", broadcast on the Discovery Velocity channel. Roadkill Garage follows the misadventures of its hosts David Freiburger and Steve Dulcich as they play around fixing up old cars on the cheap, and as they put it, "doing the wrong things the right way."

They give their project cars fun names too - "Stubby Bob" the cut-down wheel-standing pickup; "General Mayhem" the clapped out big-block Dodge Charger; "Crop Duster" the beaten-up old Dodge Duster; "Vanishing Paint" the rusty Dodge Challenger (inspired by classic '70s car movie Vanishing Point); and the subject of this post: a 1968 Plymouth Barracuda called "BBQuda".

The story of BBQuda is rather sad - apparently it was a decent car owned by host Dulcich, who loaned it to a friend who intended to use it to design an engine-swap kit for the car. Unfortunately the friend lived in the way of the California wildfires... and the car burned to the ground. So in true Roadkill fashion, Freiburger and Dulcich decided to fix it back up on the cheap - low-budget fun for sure. 

The project started with trying to find a suitable donor car for the BBQuda. Fortunately Hot Wheels made a "1968 Plymouth Barracuda Formula S" in metallic green and one was duly ordered from an ebay vendor in Saskatchewan.

The car arrived two days ago and I wasted no time in getting to work. First thing was to take the body off the chassis by Dremeling through the melted plastic "rivets" in time-honoured fashion.

Once the body was off I took out the glass, as the BBQuda ran without it.

I also removed the wheels and replaced them with resin "mag wheels" which look so much better.

A driver figure was placed in the car to represent Steve Dulcich, of course wearing a scary skull mask. He doesn't usually do that on the show but... artistic license was exercised. I stuck on a gas can from my spares box - it's from battlefront's 15mm Team Yankee range but I think it looks OK.

At that point the weathering really began. I painted the car body flat black with Krylon spray, followed by a coat of watered-down craft black as the finish was a bit sticky (!) - that solved it.

At that point I stippled soft Mechanicus Standard Grey in various places, and added the lighter parts in light grey. I also traced the panel lines in Nuln Oil. Lots of surface rust was also added with GW Doombull Brown and watered down Rust Effects wash.

To make the car suitable for Gaslands, I added a minigun from the excellent North Star "Implements of Carnage" sprue. Since the car body is non-magnetic, I superglued a magnet to the underside of the hood and that allowed be to magnetize the minigun for the hood top.

Here's what we started with...

Now for some gratuitous burnout pics...

I love the burnout pics... basically half of every show is just the guys doing burnout and donuts... their tire bill must be extravagant.

HOWEVER, I'm submitting this one for Babylon 5 as the Roadkill ethos is really "doing things on the cheap", as any viewer will testify. Hence using used parts, cars from junkyards, and a gas can for a fuel tank.

Points:

20mm vehicle: 15 points

20mm 1/2 figure (driver): 2 points

Planet bonus: 20 points

Total: 37 points

Thanks and have a great week everyone!

That's superb work, Dallas- worth the wait! I really like your rusty burned out weathering, and the comparison shots with the real thing demonstrate how well you have achieved this. There is, however, a noticeable lack of weaponry for survival and victory in Gaslands...

Barks

From Phil: A whistle-stop tour of Babylon5 and Vulcan (54 Points)

Is it even February yet..? 

Sad to say I've been very quiet during Challenge XII so far. Not for a lack of minis to paint, just busy, tired, juggling too many projects and a sharp shift in enthusiasm to a new project putting the brakes on all of sapping the enthusiasm for the half-finished. What I intended to be painting isn't what I want to be painting. But I follow the Brush where it leads me!

On a related bright side, I'm actually getting some regular games in for the first time in goodness knows how long.  

Still, I should tick off some more planets, and a galaxy far far away has plenty I can use on my journey.

So for Babylon 5 'operatic, low-budget fun'. Star Wars itself fits the bill as a Space Opera setting and I plucked this random mini from the pile of 3D prints. It's a rather grand and rotund Twi'lek, apparently named Orn Free Taa. He's a corrupt and self-serving senator from the prequel trilogy. As I focus on the original trilogy/Galactic Civil War for my collection, he can serve as some VIP or merchant NPC. A long-lost sibling or cousin, perhaps. 

He's a resin 3D print from RavenX Studios. As can be the case with prints, I found the detail on him to be a bit soft, and had to mostly freestyle the detailing his robes. I kept to the brownish palate of the character, though liked the orange contrast with his blue skin. 

Onward to Vulcan, and pointy ears. No elves about these parts, but what's this...? Yup, another rubber-faced Star Wars alien. One of my favourites in fact, yes it's the low-rent Rodian bounty hunter Greedo. Outrageously maligned by George Lucas revisionism, for me he categorically did not shoot at Han first. No, he was gunned down in cold blood by a complete scoundrel, and don't believe any other version of the story!

Another 3D print, coincidentally also from RavenX Studios, much better detailed and a nice gunslinging pose.

I'm pleased with how his skin and googly eyes came out. I did him from a zenithal prime, tried to highlight zenithally and added some texture to the leatherwork. As Greedo only features in one scene, I used this from the Battlefront video game as a painting reference. I didn't get close to the right shade for his jumpsuit, but whatever.

Two minis scaled for Star Wars Legion 35mm, and two planet bonuses makes me a tidy 54 points, if I maths'd correctly. Next up: the new project should make an appearance.

It seems that "leveraging" has spread to Tuesdays now, but with great style! Those two figures are cracking, Phil!

Tamsin

From AlanD: Low Budget Fun (Babylon 5) (50 points)

When Paul O'G moved house last year, I bought him and his family a gnome. And because I am basically a hateful person, I bought a hateful gnome.

Paul's wife, being a better person than I will ever be, couldn't bring herself to let the 'Go Away' message stand, so added the second line to make unwanted guests feel a little better as they sadly left the premises. 

Anyway, I stole the gnome, obviously.

In the spirit of the low budget fun that positively abounds on Babylon 5, I repainted him as a border guard in the GnomeKVD, the little-known branch of the secret police raised in 1932 to protect Soviet toadstools and snails, and provide security around Stalin's dacha. I'm not sure about GnomeKVD rank insignia, but I think this one is a sergeant. I'm not sure what that is in Russian as I don't know the correct gnomenclature. 

Today, with the assistance of one of my kids, we undertook a stealth mission to return the gnome to the O'G household, where I trust he will undertake his guard duties diligently. Suggestions for his name should be put in the comments below.

As for points...wow, heaps, obviously.😊 Seriously, I have no idea, and any crumbs Barks throws my way will be gratefully received. Technically, he is a 300mm miniature, but the paint job was not exactly challenging. Something plus 20 points for the planet bonus will be ace.

Gnomenclature... have thirty points, and get out of my sight.

Barks

From MikeF - Horus Heresy World Eater Legion Rampagers (Babylon 5) and World Eaters Tactical Squad (Istvaan V) - 140 points

My first post really came down to the wire this year. I can blame Manitoba's provincial government for that thanks to their decision to have one week of at home learning. The lesson on rock, paper, scissors was especially useful I thought. That was a real thing! That was a thing that happened.

 Like many in this challenge have already mentioned, plans had been made and subsequently dropped. I was going to spend the challenge working on Stargrave, but the likelihood of playing that anytime soon is slim. Instead I decided to start a new 30k Legion project: The World Eaters. First up is a unit of Rampagers with jump packs. They'll be invading Babylon 5 first! The description mentions low budget fun. This unit is made up of bits and pieces I had collected for other projects. The bacpacks were from Kromlech and were originally intended for another legion. The close combat arms are a combination of Kromlech and Mark III arms. The Mark III marines were sourced from eBay and the Forge World chain axes and pistols we're found while I was dumpster diving behind 7-Eleven! Lucky, eh! Far better than the $140 CAD Forge World wants for kinda crappy looking models.

Next on the invasion tour is Istvaan V! The World Eaters were both betrayer and betrayed at the battle. Because the World Eaters Primarch was such a douche his legion had the largest number of loyalists of any traitor Legion. Angron himself even had to get in there and slaughter his own men because it was taking too long. The World Eaters are the one legion that would have really benefited if their Primarch had been aborted while gestating on Terra. This unit is a simple Tactical Squad equipped with bolters and a chainsword for backup.

I'm fairly happy with the result, although I find the Forge World red transfers don't show up well on the blue. The blue is as light as I want to go, so I ordered some appropriate icons from popgoesthemonkey. I also will probably dial back the weathering on future units. I used the sponge technique, but find it a little hard to control. I think I'll go with the more subtle method I used on my Alpha Legion. I think it's fine for the rampages though, since they're all psychopaths with brain damage and probably aren't worried about the state of their armor. 

 That's 20 28mm models for 100 points plus two locations for 140 points!

Thanks for visiting.

From DaveD

Another scramble to the line sees a fine entry from MikeF - I really like the colour renditions and there is something about seeing a whole larger unit in the same paint scheme - welcome aboard! 

From DougM: A Mixed Bag Magical Planetary Spin Cycle... [Arda] [Vulcan] [Babylon 5] [Istvaan 5] [Glorantha] (242 Points)

Continuing my circuitous route round the outer ring, the next planet is Arda, Fantasy... or Tolkienesque. I have a few lurking fantasy figures in the Stash, this one I have no idea where from, was an impulse eBay buy along with another 11 mates. 

I hate close ups of single figures. They always show you all the flaws... sadly most of this post is single figures. 

 

Having just completed some complex colour schemes, (see below), I kept this one very simple, three shades of blue and various 'whites' plus metallics.

Next up a hop, skip and a jump to Vulcan via Lady Sarah's Star Yacht, with Jo Grant as the price:

Did someone say 'Pointy Ears'? Alternative Armies... this chap is more like 40mm and has splendid trousers. 

And now Babylon 5, and could there be anything more Operatic than the uniforms of Austrian Hussars? Hum the Radetzky March and enjoy the jingle of silvered bits and gloriously laced pelisse. The 7th Hussars. Perry plastic 28mm Austrian Napoleonic Hussars. I started these and kicked myself realising I could have spray painted and washed 18 WW2 GI in Greatcats for the same points..  30+ colours later.

Pretty happy with these. But no more Hussars for a while...  Where to next.. ok. Istvaan V - Loyalists...  and who could be more loyal than the ever dependable Sergeant Benton!

There's a bit of a theme developing here. I had better make sure there is something in the stash for Skaro!

Next up Glorantha, and not having any ducks or Broo to hand, how about this hero? My favourite Doctor.

 

Figure originally by Harlequin I think. Collected as part of a job lot over time...  and I think that's it for the time being...  Scoring - let's see.

5 x 28mm Single Figures @ 5 = 25 (Although big ears is more like 40) 

9 x 28mm Mounted @ 10 = 90

5 x Locations @ 20 = 100

Lady Sarah's Star Yacht @20 = 20

For a total of 235 I think? 

And 4 squirrel points to add to my previous 1 for a total of 5. 

From DaveD

Jeez I am dizzy with that whirl around the rim..thats a bounce around alright - I have topped up the lad with fine trousers for his mighty stature . I do like the Opera link for the Hussars i can almost hear them singing . Your favourite Doctor is indeed the correct choice - lights blue touch paper...

Altogether the Spreadsheet-O-Doom makes that a nice  not rounded "242"