From MarkE: Romans and a Lady for Sarah's choice (45 points)

Squeaking  in under the deadline and before running out the door for another fun filled night at work, I present my last couple of submissions for the challenge.

A base of 25mm Old Glory Romans and a 28mm Dark Sword Miniature.

These Romans continue a project I started way back in the '90's  Here they are beside a base I completed somewhere before the century turned: New work on the left, old stuff to the right.

I had actually forgotten about this project until I started scouting out my lead mountain for the challenge.  If I recall correctly I was basing them for dual use for the old Chipco Fantasy rules and Classical Hack.  So a real blast from the past.  I've got at least 1.5 more bags of these to clean up, prime and paint so it will be Romans for a while on the bench.  It will help be get more of my brush skills back before moving onto some Perry Napoleonic that have been hanging around getting dusty for at least 10 years.

Last but certainly not least for this year's challenge is my submission to Lady Sarah.  She's a 28mm Dark Sword mini from their Elmore line that I purchased for the first time I entered the Challenge back in 2012.  Life intervened at that point and I failed to get one entry in.  I had to complete at least one mini from that failed effort.

I've always loved the artwork from that classic era of TSR.  I grew up with posters from Elmore, Easley, and the rest of that studio on my walls, and their evocative art fueled many a weekend D&D session with my high school friends. She was going to be my submission for the Toys theme round but I didn't manage to get her done by that deadline.

I'll be making my Curtgeld contribution to Doctors' without Borders.  I've worked with several physicians who donated their time to that organization over the years and they truly do great work.

Points:

8 x 25mm Romans @ 5 pts  = 40 points

1 x 28mm Lady      @ 5 pts =    5 points

                                            total = 45 points

It brings me to 229 for the challenge so a bit short of my 300 goal.  

Well it's off to work.  Unfortunately my night shifts don't afford me time to chip away on my hobby like (I think it was) Ray's epic nightshift challenge year.

Cheers,

MarkE

____________________

A fabulous final entry Mark! Those venerable Old Glory Romans look the business (and the mentions of Chipco rules takes me back!). That being said, the female dancer takes the cake here. Wow, what a lovely job you did on her. Well done Mark. Also, thank you for the donation to Doctors' Without Borders - a very worthy organization doing important work.

- Curt

From Paul O'G: Miles the Cantankerous (25 points)

For my last entry of the Challenge, I present my Curtgeld: Miles the Cantankerous Kragg the Grim, character Dwarf Lord from Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

Any likeness to real AHPC personages is entirely deliberate (beard is artistic licence)  

Miles Kragg is an ornery old Runelord, whose age and temper are almost beyond measure. While he has made great breakthroughs in spreadhseets runecraft during his life and can do amazing things, he sees nobody else worthy to inherit his knowledge and refuses to share his inner secrets with others.

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Kragg_the_Grim

I stayed rather faithful in palette to this portrayal of Kragg

So for my Curtgeld this year I present Kragg and suspect he will be most welcome by a certain young Dwarf general of my acquaintance, who recently met his target in his first proper solo AHPC. I request 25 points being 1 x 28mm figs plus the Curtgeld bonus. This leaves me a touch shy of my 1k stretch goal but for good reason, as will be shown in my wrap up post next week.

Thanks everyone for another great AHPC - still the best online hobby community there is!

From JamesM: 28mm W40k Ur-Ghul - Curtgeld (40 Points)

Hi folks,

In a change to my usual posting, these are not green. As I knew I would have limited in time this challenge, I decided that my Curtgeld should be relatively quick and simple. I picked up a few Blackstone Fortress models which I figured might fit in a range of settings. 

These are 28mm plastic figures from Games Workshop, and represent 'sci fi' ghouls - unfortunately with fairly limited poses. I've put them on Necromunda bases, which I also painted as being pretty grotty and scuffed up. 

These should net 20 points for the 4, with an additional 20 points for Curtgeld (I think?)

From JonathanO: Georgia Ranger Trooper - Curtgeld (30 points)

 This is my challenge entry fee figure.   I have been progressing slowly with quite a few models and finally have some ready to post.  This figure is intended to be for ScottM, who should be approaching the Altar of the Snowlord very soon.

I was scouting around for something to paint that might be useful to Scott and thought this could good for his FIW games.

This Trooper of the Georgia Rangers is actually an extra figure from my planned unit for the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion.  

Brigadier General James Oglethorpe (Governor of the colony of Georgia) was in England in 1745 recruiting for the Georgia Rangers.  The recruits were set to sail from Hull, but had to disembark and assist the government effort against the rebellion.  They saw action in the skirmishes at Clifton during the pursuit of the retreating Jacobite army.

I purchased this (along with quite a few more figures) at the excellent Battleground Show in England in November 2019.  It is from the lovely '45 Rebellion range from Crann Tara Miniatures.  Most of the range was sculpted by Richard Ansell.  Sadly, Richard passed away just last month. 

For points, I think that should be 10 for the mounted figure plus 20 for the Curtgeld bonus = 30 points.

From PhilH: Zeitgeist Curtgeld, Din Djarin (30 Points)

Afternoon folks, Soooo, my challenge has gone a little awry, largely because 1). I was waiting a few weeks for a key component of my Pit of the Pendulum entry, and 2). I was loath to skip the room, as I have a great vignette for it, and the things I have been studiously painting while waiting have taken quite a lot of time. Thus, Every Point Counts for me to reach my target. Sooo, I've a few hundred points of stuff waiting in the wings, but haven't eeeeven started my Pit entry. I'll get there over the last few weeks, but whoops. In the margins I've painted up my Curtgeld offering, which is channeling the current hotness TV Show The Mandalorian. I hope it will fit pleasingly in some Challenger's SciFi collection.

Yep, i's Din Djarin, our dour but sensitive bounty hunter protagonist from the latest Star Wars hotness TV show. Unlike most Mandos you see, this isn't a 3D print, rather a traditional metal sculpt by Tim Prow of Diehard Miniatures, from a Kickstarter 18 months or so back. He's nicely scaled for 35mm Legion, so has a pleasing heft.

One of the things I've been trying to do recently, is try new painting methods by trying to add more texture, particularly here to the boots and cloak, rather than defaulting to my usual entirely smooth layered style. Part inspired by recent work on vehicles, Twitter inspiration and also by watching YouTube channel 'Not Just Mecha', by Marco Frisoni while working. Marco does wonderful work, usually on GW models, that's both inspirational and depressingly done in just a handful of hours. He draws a lot on the old masters and colour theory, so a good opportunity to learn along the way.

I have spotted a couple of bits in the photos that need tidying up, and of course he'll a few layers of varnish for transit to his eventual owner.

From SidneyR: Two Curtgeld Dwarves (30 points)

Adventuring in the chambers of Challenge Mountain is never easy.  No sooner than you're past the Hall of Traps, you need to negotiate the perils of The Pit of the Pendulum, avoid the temptations of the Larder, and move quietly through the Hatchery...  To say nothing of the perils which lurk in the lower levels of Challenge Mountain.  

What you need, fellow Challengers, is the company and assistance of a pair of Dwarvish brothers for the journey ...

Alongside more of my ludicrous seventeenth century painting, I finished up a couple of these Midlam Miniatures dwarves last week.  They are now destined to travel, with the blessings of our Snow Lord, to a couple of Challengers who kindly brought me a present of some books to a wargames show back in 2019 and who (even more generously) helped me with my ham-fisted "minion-ing" attempts a few years back in Challenge VIII.

Hopefully the Dwarvish brothers will help them both through the perils of this, and many future, dungeons.

I'm enjoying this Challenge, not least because it is forcing me to step outside of my comfort zone and paint a few miniatures I'd never dreamed of actually painting.  Both of these dwarves have been in the painting pile for some time, but I never quite had the motivation to paint them until now.

Like the Midlam Miniatures I've painted in other Challenges, these are fine sculpts, with hardly any flash or mould-lines.  They take primer, undercoating and paint really well.  They're also, in a word, "unfussy" - the figures are perfect for dungeon-crawling, but would also not look out of place in a battlefield.

I kept the bases very simple as their new owners will no doubt have their own ideas of what vegetation might grow in their particular dungeon.

As to the points - 5 points for each of the dwarves - they may be a little on the smaller size for 28mm miniatures, but try telling a dwarf they don't merit 5 points a-piece, dear Challengers!  And add in 20 for the Curtgeld, and that's a total of 30 points.

From PaulSS: [Curtgeld] Fervent Mullah (25pts)

I was going to enter this figure for "The Shrine" but instead decided to submit the Druids for that entry so this chap is probably my "smallest points entry" ever.

The figure was included in a give-away bag at a recent show and was from Badger Games and is part of the Afghanistan Personalities pack.

I do have some lovely Empress Miniatures insurgents buried in the lead mountain, maybe they will be painted to join him one day.

A 28mm figure will add 5 points to my total.

Edited by TamsinP on 08 March:

Paul has now made this his Curtgeld entry, so that's +20 points for him.

From GregB - Curtgeld Figure: "Tolerance", Inquisitorial Public Affairs Specialist

Meet "Tolerance", Inquisition Team Member.

We are well underway with this edition of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, and I am late with my entry figure, the so-called "Curtgeld". This is pretty shameful on my part, but to Curt's great credit he only reminded me gently and didn't use the word "moron" even once while doing so! Lucky for me, I had already set aside the figure in question well in advance of this edition of the AHPC, and the theme lined up well...MikeF has been painting up a fantastic Inquisitorial band for his 40k collection - and has arrived at the Altar of the Snow Lord Himself - so to hopefully inspire him further, I thought I would paint this figure for him, to join the retinue of his terrifying 40k Inquisitor Grayfax.  Thus I present "Tolerance", Inquisitorial Assassin Public Affairs Specialist.

Plastic figure from GW's "Elucidian Starstriders" set.

This is a 28mm plastic figure from GW. I believe it was part of some kind of Kill Team set...the Elucidian Starstriders. I was never into the background of any "Kill Teams", but I thought these figures were so cool so I picked some up, as there are many neat character-types that will be fun for 30k and 40k gaming. This specific figure is a member of a Death Cult Local Climate Justice Awareness Council. Given the spirit of our times, and hers, I am ditching the GW name and designating her as "Tolerance" instead, as she would appear to capture the spirit of this sentiment in her times...and increasingly ours. 

Not sure what is up with that body suit, but I assume that provides...lumbar support?

When painting a one-off figure like this, it is fun to experiment. So for this figure, I thought I would give GW's new "Contrast" paints a try. Oh, I've used them here and there on small, specific spots (like coloured hoses for Titans etc.), but this is the first figure I have painted where nearly all of it was done with Contrast Paints. Or, I should say, it was supposed to be...I find the effect of the Contrast Paints can be interesting, but also terrifically underwhelming in some ways, so there are a few spots where my more standard painting techniques were used. Still, it was fun to try something new - it is a painting "Challenge" after all. Many folks are coming up with some pretty neat results using these new paints...I just need to practice more!

Good luck with the Snow Lord's Challenge!

So Mike, I hope "Tolerance" here can inspire you to complete the Snow Lord's Challenge, and then help Inquisitor Grayfax impose the Emperor's Social Justice on wargaming tables set in the grim darkness of the far future. For points, this will be five points, plus the Curtgeld bonus. 

Cheers everyone - thanks for reading! Stay sane!

KenR : Curtgeld : 28mm Napoleonic French Lancers - 40 pts

 

With a big 15mm Napoleonic figure collection i have avoided going big and upscaling to 28mm, there are so many lovely figures in the scale and with plastics its so much cheaper. Over the years I've picked up the odd sprue and the Curtgeld is a good excuse to paint one up.

These figures are from Warlord and came free on one of the magazines a few years ago. Detail wise they are pretty good although the face on the sword guy was a bit poor, I prefer Perrys stuff personally but these do paint up well.

The two figures are painted in my usual style, oils on the horses and acrylic riders, they make a nice Skirmish  / Scouting or Command Base. The horses didn't have their own bases just a couple of extra bits of plastic under a couple of the legs so it could be interesting getting this to its new owner.

I've suggested a new owner to Curt, let's see if he agrees and they make the grade 😁 I would really like them to go to someone who will use them on the table, it would be great to see them in action !

Points wise it should be 20 for 2 x 28mm Cavalry plus 20 for the Curtgeld so 40 in total.

It was a nice change from the Allied Italian Legion Project, but its back to the grindstone with the white paint now, I hope to have the first 32 Principes done over the weekend.

Whoever gets these is a lucky person Ken - they look lovely indeed. Always good to mix up your painting as anything gets rather samey, and a change is a good as a holiday they say! Now get back to those Italians!

Cap'n Wednesday

From PeterD LumberJill Curtgeld (25 points)

I need to pay off my entry fee, so I am offering up one of Bad Squiddos Lumberjills as my Curtgeld.  I've had two Challengers offer me up reward figures so I better off up one myself.  

As with the rest of this range it's a lovely figure and really nice to paint.  I encourage allChallengers to find something to but on the Bad Squiddo site, Annie does terrific figures and is highly worthy of support.  

I will leave the destination for this year's Curtgeld up to the Snow lord himself as long as he finds her a good home.  Ideally it would be someone who could use the figure on table either in her original homefront role or in a pulp setting.  There has tone a good home for a fine lass with a big heart and trusty axe that she's not afraid to use.

Thats's 5 points for the figure plus 20 for the Curtgeld.  I could also use her to appease the Sorceress and have her teleport me but I'm knee deep in female figures and my next destinations are in easy walking distance.

Annie does sell some lovely female miniatures, and her WW2 home front models are a particularly good range. 25 points it is.

Tamsin

From HerrRobert (Robert H): D'Kuhl and the Pit of the Pendulum (50 points)

 

Lights dancing down the hall ahead of them, the party moved through the chambers with some rapidity. Padded boots softly tapped on the greenish-gray slate, the air stale and musty. Dust, left undisturbed for unknown aeons, or perhaps only days, swirled into the air as they moved. Iolas stifled a cough, brushing dust from the fur lining his bolero jacket. He wished he'd thought to bring a cloak, or at least something with sleeves. Maybe one of those waistcoats halflings were so fond of.

He opened the door and moved into the chamber. Two wooden posts rose from what looked to be a bare wooden bed, perhaps the most uncomfortable bed Iolas had seen since that Orcish lass and her boudoir made from what had to be concrete. The two poles rose to a crosspiece, where a roughhewn iron blade hung from two pulleys. Dark though the iron be, the edge glinted in the purple light.

A figure in a pink cloak spoke. "At last, you have arrived at the Pit of the Pendulum . . . "

 

My next entry for Challenge XI is for the Pit of the Pendulum:

Paint something torturous, terrifying - or just something with a slowly descending pendulum-blade… swoosh… swoooooshhhh….. arrrghhhh!! 

I give you both: A not so slowly descending blade, and probably the most terrifying villain the D&D world can muster!

First up, I have the Reaper Bones Bathalian D'Khul. While Reaper calls him a Bathalian, we all know what he is, a mind flayer, or Illithid.

I picked up this figure sometime in 2019 and prepared him for the 2019 challenge, though he sat primed for a long time. For some reason, the primer ended up super sticky, and that probably contributed to not wanting to paint him for a while. I'm generally not a fan of the Reaper Bones, preferring the metals, and the cast was still somewhat bendy.

However, I needed a suitably terrifying figure, and, well, there's not much more terrifying than a mind flayer. Unless of course you don't mind your brains being eaten. 

 

Oddly enough, I picked the same color scheme - pink, blue and yellow - that I used for Iolas. Sometimes mind flayers retain vestigal memories and bits of personality from the host whose brain they ate as a tadpole. Maybe D'Kuhl had been an illusionist prior to changing his life priorities?

I painted D'Kuhl first, and so experimented with the yellows and pinks. I think they turned out okay. I used Games Workshop contrast paints, and really wasn't too fond of the yellow. I salvaged it by drybrushing Delta Ceramcoat Sunburst Yellow over the contrast. That did bring out a lot of details in his collar. 

 The robe is GW Volupus Pink over Vallejo Old Rose, and the long tunic is GW Terradon Turquoise. The absolute success was recreating the iconic mind flayer skin. I used Army Painter Gorgon Hide as the base, and then hit it with GW's Magos Purple. It really did the trick.

 The other bit for this submission is a Wizkids guillotine on a Renedra cobblestone base. A quick glance through the challenge archives indicates this is only the second guillotine submitted for the Pit of the Pendulum, so it's not as copycat as I thought. I saw it in my LGS and snapped it up, along with some other kinds of furniture. 

Painting went really quick, since it was pre-primed. All I had to do was glue it to the base and get cracking. I initially hit it with Vallejo German Dark Camouflage Brown, then a 4:2:2 mix of Charred Brown, Neutral Gray and Vallejo Dark German Camouflage Brown to give it a grayish tint. Finally, I washed it with Army Painter Strong Tone to bring out the woodgrain. The ropes were GW Skeleton  Horde contrast over Delta Ceramcoat Bamboo. The stone cobbles are my usual Hippo Grey, but I washed it over Charcoal Gray instead of dry brushing. 

Yes, I hear you fellow DMs wondering why the Big Bad reveals himself to the party so early. Well, mind flayers are right sadistic little gits, so they like toying with their food.

So, there we go. I am offering D'Kuhl as my Curtgeld for Challenge XI, so snap him up in the comments. With that, It's five points for D'Kuhl. I'm rating the guillotine five as well, since it's roughly 25mm figure sized. With the bonus points for chamber and Curtgeld, that's a total of 50 points.