From StephenS: Spanish Scutarii [Caprica] (50 points)

 G'day,

My final post of the challenge isn't a massive points bomb that will see me hit my target for this year (the shame...) but another step on the road to completing a project that I have been working on (usually when the challenge rolls around each year) for the last 7 years. Only two units to go and it will be finished!

A unit of Spanish Scutarii that will be serving in my slow growing Carthaginian Army. These guys certainly gave the Romans a few nasty ambushes over the years, both under Hannibal and afterwards, but were ultimately doomed to be crushed and incorporated into the Roman Republic and Empire. So they meet both descriptions for the planet Caprica.

The basing has suffered from my attempts to get it finished on time, and I realised I need to go back and paint some designs on the shields to match my other units, but I'm calling it.

There are 6 x 28mm metals from Warlord Games and a planet bonus for 50 points.

A huge thank you to Curt and all the minions for putting on another fantastic challenge by giving up so much of your own time to look after us and our posts. As always, it has been an absolute pleasure to participate. 

Cheers,

Steve

From PeterD

Great looking Scutari Stephen, it's always nice to see some ancients.  Carthaginians in 25mm (showing my age there) were among my earliest wargaming projects.  Nice colours and stripes on the tunics and the basing looks great to me.  Hope to see you back next year.

From TeemuL: Outer Ring [Istvaan V] [Solaris] [Arda] [Caprica] [Death Star] (125 points)

Note to minions: I know it is free fire time, but I really like to have this entry to be posted on Wednesday, you'll understand. Yes, Tamsin, I know you are very efficient, but please leave this one for Wednesday. :)

After a quick visit to Vogspehere, we'll climb back to the Outer Ring, walk through the already visited Klendathu and Glorantha and arrive to...

Istvaan V, something for betrayal, howabout a Ringwraith from Middle-Earth, one of them is even named as Betrayer by Games Workshop for their excellent game Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. Once a king of men, then corrupted by power and Dark Lord, he betrayed his people (willingly or unwillingly).

Babylon 5 and Vulcan are familiar ground, so we move on to...

Solaris, which calls for something "Deception, Illusion". Ringwraiths are corporeal creatures, quite invisible, but often wearing black cloaks to give them form. When wearing the One Ring, they can be seen as they perhaps used to be on earlier days as King of Men. That is of course an illusion, because in "reality" they are invisible. We can of course speculate which is illusion and which is reality, but that could be very deceptive...

Well, we move on and arrive to...

Arda, something Tolkeinesque is asked for an I present one of the Ringwraiths in Twilight mode. Ringwraiths are creature of Middle Earth, created by Tolkien, so I suppose they fit the Tolkeinesque requirement, or at least the Fantasy.

Lots of these Ringwraiths here on the Outer Ring, we quickly depart and jump to...

Caprica, where we are not ambushed by invisible corporeal creatures, but those creatures are doomed to serve their Dark Lord indefinitely (or at least until the One Ring (not related to Outer Ring) is destroyed. Doomed to serve and be slave, they can be banished, but their spirits will stay and they will continue their grim service.

We leave the doomed one and move on to...

Death Star, sound like a home of big guy in black or bunch of recruits in white, but actually it is just hubris. I'm not a native in English, so I had to do some research on that. From wikipedia,  Hubris: describes a personality quality of extreme or excessive pride or dangerous overconfidence, often in combination with (or synonymous with) arrogance. 

To me, that fits most of the bad guys in literature and movies, but right now it screams Witch King of Angmar, overconfident and arrogant minion of the Sauron saying "You fool. No man can kill me. Die now." mere seconds before killed by a woman and a hobbit. Arrogant, overconfident, so hubris.

In the movies these are kind of a reversed black-and-white and I tried to do something similar, but more colourful. So I started from white, drybrushed with green, blues and black to get the strange and disturbing look, that something is not right. The colour transitions looked good, but from white to green the leap was too much. I should have started from off white, I guess, but it was too late. I decided to try to add some yellow ink to the white parts to create an effect of transition from white to yellow to green. It helped a lot, but I'm still not 100% satisfied. Of course they don't look "right", but they shouldn't look right, they are corporeal creatures, which you only see when under magical influence (the Ring), so may be they are right. I don't know. They are not exactly what I was aiming for, but at least they look different than my barrowwights (which is good, because these are not basically ghosts) and different to my Army of Dead (which is again good, because these are different kind of magic ghosts). They could be neater, I admit that, being nice metal sculpts, very powerful creatures in the game, they should look more finished, but that would mean to start all over again. I'll get a new set from the next MTO... :)

There are only 3 different sculpts, but I was able to make some variations, since parts of the crowns were separate pieces.

That is 5 metal miniatures by Games Workshop in 28mm scale, 5 points each so total of 25 points. Planet bonuses from Istvaan V, Solaris, Arda, Caprica and Death Star totals to 100 so 125 points. Add one squirrel for MESBG Army of Mordor. I could have done something else, but that would not have been very Wednesday-way to put it, right? This should see me crash my points target, too.

My personal Squirrel count: 16

• 20mm Napoleonic
• 28mm Sludge
• 28mm Pulp
• 28mm Warhammer 40000 Xenos
• 28mm General (including Gloranthan) Fantasy
• 1:300 Cruel Seas
• 6mm Epic Imperial Fists
• 28mm ADD Boardgame
• 28mm Runewars Waiqar
• 28mm Blood Bowl
• 28mm Simians
• 15mm Mid War Germans
• 28mm Age of Sigmar Sylvaneths
• 28mm Warhammer 40000 Imperium
• 28mm Warhammer Fantasy Orcs & Goblins
• 28mm Lord of the Rings Mordor

Really? Claiming five planets from five very similar figures? Really? That is stretching things somewhat - I think I can see why you wanted this held over for Wednesday, but as Greg has an emergency at his cabin you've got me minioning it after all!

It's definitely a stretch, but I think that you have justified the planets and might have got away with it apart from a slight hitch that you seem to have overlooked - to get from Istvaan V to Solaris would require a trip on Lady Sarah's Star Yacht and there's no female figure (or Yacht trip claim) in this post.

Tamsin

Edit to Update: I'd missed Curt's reply to a query on the Quadrant Map post saying that you can skip planets that you've already visited. Points for the other four planets have now been added.

From Phil: T’Challa’s Ambush at Caprica (27 Points)

We land at Caprica, where I’m back to my new Marvel Crisis Protocol project with another Avenger: T’Challa aka Black Panther. And one who got a way better film, a fun romp with some great afrofuturist design and in my view one of the best of the MCU.

I tried out a new method on the black, using a ‘chromatic black’ technique from mixing Liquitex artist’s inks to make a heavily pigmented black-purple and airbrushing over a zenithal base. I picked this up from the ‘NotJustMecha’ YouTube channel and wanted to give it a try. I thought the purple as a royal colour would be great for this King of Wakanda.

The detailing on the bodysuit was a bit soft, and something of a pain to pick out. It’s also my first real try at non-metallic metal, a choice I might regret if I keep it up over the range (looking at you, Ironman). 

That’s another 27 Points to my tally and I’ve nearly finished my trip around the Outer Ring. 

That's a great looking super, Phil. The airbrushed inks over zenithal priming is a handy technique and I think you've nailed it with this figure.

Tamsin

From Tasha H: Final lap around the Outer Ring [Caprica] [Istvaan V] (57 points)

Because I don't have a lead pile to draw from, descending to the Quadrant Hub is not part of my Challenge journey. However... my brand new, sparkly 3D printer arrived last week, so my goal of completing all the planets may be achievable!

I'm currently on Terra, but my submission for this planet is not even close to ready! I am going to leap from Terra, into the Great Abyssal and fall, zoom, vaporize (?) myself to the Outer Ring. Flying past Skaro and the Death Star, as I have already paid my dues there. I find myself now on Caprica.

Caprica's requirement for completion is 'Doomed or Ambush'. A bit melodramatic, no? Ha ha!

 

 

I submit to you a Lightning Elemental. She is a force to be reckoned with! You would not want to be ambushed by her, as you would certainly be doomed on the tabletop! (See what I did there?!) i did look up what a lightning elemental can do and, played correctly, they can bring about some serious devastation. Cool.

 

This figure is from Printed Obsession on My Mini Factory. I know it isn't painted in a typical colour scheme for this type of figure, but I was trying to mimic the colours of a prairie sky during a lightning show. I used Aethermatic Blue Contrast an added Vallejo Model Metallic Air in Steel (71.065) to it with a heavy hand of water.  This created a nice shimmery wash. Over the bodice of the figure, I utilized the same technique, substituting Shyish Purple for the blue. The base and tips of the figure are coated with Dragon Glaze topcoat from Folk Art.

 

We have one planet left in this ring! Off to Istvaan V!

I had no idea what I was doing for this planet. I looked up about 100 things. I actually have two other figures printed, but I just felt 'meh' about them.

It is no secret that I don't have a clue about most of the gaming world, or the majority of science fiction references in the Challenge. I'm also not a history buff. I accept this about myself and thank the universe for google.

For this planet I went religion literal, rather than gaming lore literal.

"Heresy in the Catholic Church is the formal denial or doubt of a core doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church."

I present to you an altar of skulls. Barks, this one is for you! Even though I'm not in the Skull Duel, I wanted to finish the Challenge with at least one skull entry. Here are 200 skulls in heretical wonder!

 

One would have to think that worshipers at an altar of skulls would be in denial of at least one doctrine of the RC church. Also, I'm 100% sure that many of these skulls were obtained for the altar by some means of betrayal.

The altar is from Cults3d, as are the torches. The torches were not an easy print. Of 6, these were the best 2 and they aren't that great. I made them work, because I had a vision in mind and dammit, it was going to happen! I used a lot of Skeleton Horde contrast paint for this altar There are many layers of contrast, Nuln Oil and assorted shades of dry brushing. I picked out random skulls and added some lighter tones to give some depth. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. You may recognize the cultist from a previous entry.

 

Because this altar is printed with smoky black resin, if you hold it to the light, it appears to glow. Nifty.

 

Points:

Lightning Elemental  - 80 mm (I didn't scale it - oops) - 10 points

Skull Altar - 2.75x.75x1" - 4 points ... terrain scoring is a science unto itself. Please adjust as necessary!

Planet Bonuses - 40 points

Total - 54 points

From here we travel to the middle ring with our sites set on Arrakis.

Those two pieces look fantastic, Tasha! I'm going to treat the skull altar as a 40mm figure for points - scoring it as terrain would come to nought-point-two points {20 x [(2.75*0.75*1)/(6*6*6)]}.

Tamsin

From SidneyR: Paris Nightwatch 1622 (Caprica) (140 points)

Owing to various work-and-life-related 'bumps in the road', this sadly is only my second post of the Challenge.  But I've tried to assemble a fairly disparate collection of figures as some form of ambushing party, all of which are inspired by the ambush-y treachery of the planet of Caprica.

First of all, though, I need to get there.  Enter (stage left) a swashbuckling lady with a fancy  sword, accompanying (or being pestered by) a dubious night-stalker of the Paris alleyways.  

She's a really nice and versatile swashbuckling female figure from Brigade Games, in 28mm.  The male figure is from Midlam Miniatures in the UK, also in 28mm.  I had fun painting his skin in a unhealthy pallor, based on a purple base coat.  Plenty of opportunities arise with a figure like this in a game - Has he been over-doing the mercury powder?  Or is there a hint of plague about Monsieur Descartes?  Or... maybe he's just a cultist of Slaanesh...

Next, there are some more 28mm figures from my forces for “...with Flashing Blades”, a set of rules set in the historical Paris of 1622, which is very much inspired by Dumas’ novels of “The Three Musketeers”. During the course of last summer and autumn I painted forces for the Musketeers themselves and the Cardinal’s Guards. 

So what was left for the ‘Paris Collection’ (... see what I did there!...) was this group of figures which I have painted for use as the Paris Nightwatch.

There are ten figures for the Nightwatch in various stages of patrolling, guarding, commanding, directing and promenading - all with a suitably martial air (regardless of their actual ability). I tried to collect the figures as a group which would fit together well and could form a small detachment to prevent law-breaking, fisticuffs and general mayhem breaking out in the fair city of Paris.

The figures are collected from various ranges, mainly from Wargames Foundry’s ECW range which fit together perfectly, size-wise, with the Brigade Games musketeers and Cardinal's Guard. I converted some of the figures, adding green-stuff feather, and lace - but nothing too dramatic.  The fashionable Dalmatian is a hound produced by Simon Chick, which he kindly sent to me after the Salute show in 2018.  Of course, this shamelessly plays to our dear Snow-Lord’s love of dogs, but also reflects the seventeenth century fashion for Dalmatians in 1622 Paris (true...fact-checked!!...).

As for painting, I have again left the bases as plain as possible to allow the figures to be used in any environment, urban or rural. I painted the colours of the figures in muted tones - trying to distinguish the Nightwatch from the red of the Cardinal’s Guard and the blue of the Musketeers. I thought browns and greys would make good Nightwatch colours, and also added some green which might look suitably faded and worn on the table.

I also painted up a collection of ECW 'doctors' which can serve as medical practitioners in our games.  I have no idea if these chaps have any medical training, but that musket ball is in the patient's leg....somewhere.  Maybe one more poke around with the chirurgeon's knife will find it!

I added a head-swap for the 'helping' figure, and added some Green-Stuff feathers to his hat (the head being from Bicorne Miniatures).

I added a few small "terrain" bases as well.  I needed some for a game, but I wonder if they really qualify as Challenge XII-worthy "terrain" according to our scoring system?  There's a Hovels barrel with a cockerel (Parisian, of course), some hens and some bottles of Medoc in various stages of consumption.  And there's some scratch-built hay-piles and/or dung-heaps for Characters and citizens to jump, fall and slip into.  

And, because I'm British, and our culture celebrates the hilarity of people treading in horse poo, I made up some small piles of horse manure to add to the table as a "random event".  No sniggering at the back, please, ladies and gentlemen.

So, with the points:

20 for Caprica, and 20 for the female swashbuckler to get me there = 40 points

15 x 28mm figures = 75 points

One Dalmatian = 2 points (not 101 points, obviously)

Bits of scratch-built terrain, including fluffy chickens, noisy cockerel, bottles and a barrel = 20 points all-in?

Which, with a slight squint at the terrain point-age, would give the entry a total = 137 points

********

Great to have the opportunity to enjoy more of your outstanding brushwork Sidney! All of this is amazingly well done, as we have come to expect from you, and the lovely figures are accompanied by entertaining text and explanations. 

 

There are a lot great figures here, but my favourite has to be the purple-tinged fellow, with unhealthy intentions to likely match an unhealthy internal condition...much as I can see him causing problems in Paris, your mention of Slaanesh makes me nostalgic for the lost "Old World" of Warhammer Fantasy Battle (even though I know that is not the intent of this lot overall)...and he looks like he would fit right in that setting too. Great work. 

It is irritating when one-to-one scale gets in the way of the work we wish to do on the more important scales. My dogs always help me keep things in perspective, and so even though you were pandering to the Snow Lord (wisely), the effect of including the dog (fact-checked!) on me is inspiring such as to force me to include a few extra bonus points, and round things up to 140 points. Cheers.

GregB

From PeteF: Ambush! Arab Bowmen (80 points)

SAGA is one of my favourite games. To build an army for your faction the model count is in the 25-73 range and with so many "Ages" in play there are many factions to choose from. My wargaming group plays a decent amount of SAGA - we started with Age of Vikings, then Age of Magic. Three years ago I got the rulebook for Age of Crusades and even painted my first unit - Mutatawia Hearthguard on camels for Challenge X. Since then the pace has been glacial - Before this unit of bow warriors I've only finished a unit of 12 spear warriors. If I can get my act together I might even have a completely painted army when we play our first Crusades game in 2 weeks' time.

The figures are a mix of the official Gripping Beast metal Mutatawia bow warriors and Gripping Beast plastic Arab bowmen. I like the heft of metal but I also like the price and posability of plastics. It was fun to individualise these warriors - googling "Medieval Arab bows" turned up some nice colourful laquered examples so I went with that. 

The bases are supposed to be cracked earth/sandy desert. I used GW's Agrellan earth and painted/washed/drybrushed.   

They're going to ambush a lot of hapless crusaders so I'm entering them for Caprica. Just realized I'm still on the outer ring and we're more than halfway through the Challenge. Work and injury have certainly kept me behind the pace this year. I request  our Monday Minion to transport me through a warp maelstrom to the Middle Ring - let's see where we land.

12x 28mm = 60 points plus 20 points for Caprica = 80points

Squirrel +1 (total 6)

Skulz +0 (total 1)

My brain can't quite grip onto Saga asa set of rules, but I do like the period and the scale of action.  And having modelled El Cid era armies, I really like Arab bowmen.  Yours are just wonderful, love the research into bow colours.  Kudos on the basing too.