From MartijnN: From Cybertron to Lady Sarah's Star Yacht (70 points)

Last week I mentioned that I had not had a clue what to paint for Cybertron. However, on closer inspection I think I have found a figure fitting its theme of "transformative". So, I present to you the impographer!

Impography (or iconography) is sort of the intermediate technology between traditional (portrait ) painting, on canvas or otherwise, and the even more advanced science of photography. Through the almost magical power of impography, it first became possible to capture an event as soon as it occurred, rather than having to paint it afterwards from memory or rough sketches. Very much a transformative technology, therefore, propelling both art and journalism into a new age. We see here a famous impographer with his very talented imp.

A wealthy merchant is offering him a handsome sum to have his portrait imped.

These are both 3d printed figures from Iain Lovecraft's The Frost (I think the merchant bears more than a passing resemblance to Iain himself). What I particularly like about Iain's projects is that he explicitly asks his supporters to suggest figures or models for the stretch goals for his Kickstarter projects. The Frost was a project with something of a Terry Pratchett inspiration to it (in the unlikely event you have not come across Pratchett before I highly recommend checking him out) and I suggested a figure making (moving) pictures. As a result, Iain came up with this fantastic Impographer!

Obviously, impographers can also record landscape impographies. Luckily, I was also able to finish the slopes of The Lonely Mountain from my Battle of Five Armies set. These can be joined in two ways, and with the two pieces of a second set can make up a large hill. I think the hill came out nicely.

 

Leaving Cyberton for Arrakis I rather would use Lady Sarah's excellent Yacht service to get me there rather than planet hop again. I offer this old lady as my fare:

Once again a 3d printed figure and once again designed by Iain Lovecraft. A very simple model but still rather characteristic I think.

So here we are. The figures as printed are nearly 40mm, but I will claim them as 28mm. I will however claim the impograph as a figure as well,  rather than as a crew served weapon or suchlike. The two pieces of the hill are 8" by 15" and 2" at the highest point, perhaps just under 1" on average. I'd suggest half a standard terrain cube for 10 points?

So 4x 28mm foot = 20 points

Hills = 10 points

Cybertron planet bonus = 20 points

Lady Sarah's Star Yacht = 20 points

For a total of 70 points. Just short of a squirrel, alas. On to Arrakis!

From DaveD 

I like that interpretation all right . The bright colours somehow seem just right . A good job on the hill to. 70 it is 

From MartijnN: Ruins, Wargs and Goblins (220 points)

Last week I had to undergo some very minor surgery; nothing much, but enough to prevent me from providing an entry on Friday. However, I hope to make up for it by this Friday's post! Alas, I have not found a clever way to tie this to my next destination, Cybertron, so no planet bonuses today!

First, we have a ruined keep. It is a 3d printed model. It's FDM printed, and it suffered somewhat from stringing. However, I tried to take some advantage of that by making it appear as vegetation or damage to the building. Gave it a heavy wash, drybrushed with green and ivory, some green to simulate moisture near the apertures, some tufts and there you go. I'm actually quite happy with it.

It's a 28mm model, printed at 75%

Old Minifigs 15mm figures for scale only

Next, I have been working on my Battle of Five Armies set. There are three units of goblins, two of Wrgs and two of Warg Riders. Once again, I tried to paint the units rather than the individual figures, so they are not going to win any awards but the overall effect is nice. Incidentally, as I am a firm Tolkienist I will not have green goblins or orcs in my armies. Apart from Space Orks, that is.

Here are all my models from the BOFA set so far; the Men of Dale certainly look to be in a rather tight spot!

"Would that night came, or the Prussians!"

Still five units of Goblins to go. And one of Wargs. And two of Warg Riders. And the Elves, the Dwarves and the characters. And the Eagles. And the terrain. And then the second set, of course.

Anyway. 

Pointswise:

The ruin is more or less a 6"cube, so I'd like 20 points;

The goblin infantry are 126 x 10mm foot = 126

The Warg Riders are 24 x 10mm horse = 48

The Wargs are 24 x 10mm foot = 24

For a total of 220, which smashes my target!

These are two of the armies of the Battle of Five Armies so I'd like to claim two squirrels (one for the goblins and one for the Wargs, along with the 12 points of Wargs in my previous BOFA post), but as always to the discretion of the Squirrel Master.

That keep looks superb - I particularly like that you've gone with brown hues for the stonework. And very nice little Tolkien minis too.

Yours maths was slightly out - the total comes to 218 points, but I'm adding a couple of bonus points to round it off!

Tamsin

From MartijnN: Of Wargs and Men on Corsucant (116 points)

Finally able and authorized to proceed to the Middle Ring we find ourselves on Corsucant. This planet is hotly contested between Good and Evil. That is why I present to you some perfidious Wargs and some stalwart Men from Laketown.

Besides wargaming, my other great passion is Tolkien. I have been taken by Middle-earth ever since our teacher read us The Hobbit in 6th grade when I was 10 or 11 years old. I have a fair collection of books and games centering on Tolkiens work, and I daresay that every fantasy figure or ruleset I ever bought was ultimately meant to recreate the great battles from the War of the Ring of even from the Great Wars of the First Age. However, I never succeeded in advancing those dreams beyond that - dreams and plans, that is (although that is half the fun in wargaming, isn't it).

Come 2004, and Games Workshop brought out what was meant to be the first in a series of boxed games based on Tolkien's universe: the Battle of Five Armies!

Of course I had to buy it (two sets, even). But then they sat on my shelf for the next 15 years or so. Looking around my hobby room for something to get into for this Challenge I saw the box and decided to finally start painting this set.

The set contains some terrain (representing the slopes of the Lonely Mountain and the ruins of Dale), and two armies: Good, consisting of Men, Elves and Dwarves, and Evil, consisting of Wargs and Goblins. There are also a bunch of characters, like Bilbo, Gandalf, Beorn, and of course there are Eagles. These are nominally 10mm figures, although they are on the small side. The rules for the game are really the Warmaster rules, somewhat adapted, and thus units consist of three stands each. I started by painting up a unit of Wargs and the two units of Men, one each of spearmen and archers. I went for a simple yet recognizable colour scheme, mostly using Contrast paints and finishing off with a heavy wash of Agrax Earthshade. Since there are hundreds more of miniatures to paint I cut corners where I could; I painted the units, not the figures, so don't look too closely! I am moderately satisfied with the end result; they have however turned out a bit darker than I thought, so I may return to them and add some highlights later. For now I consider them done though!

GW did release some metal figures as add-ons to the game, but unfortunately I never acquired any of these. Apparently the game was not a great succes as GW never produced any subsequent titles, and of course they scrapped Warmaster altogether not very much later.

So that is 72 infantry and 12 Wargs. As the Wargs were really simple to paint I will claim them as infantry.

Points therefore:

96 10mm infantry @ 1 points =  96 points

Corsucant planet bonus = 20

Total 116 points. And a squirrel!

From DaveD

"I had to buy two sets" - right out my playbook alright :-)  . Great to see these well seasoned lads get some TLC. Though i think the oldest in the lead pile record was something like 38 years IIRC