From SimonG: One Final Post -- A Pixie and a Nobody (52 points)

Last stop I suddenly found myself stranded on Lune with my delightful slug lady. Having already visited Terra and Xanth I need to avail myself of Lady Sarah's Interplanetary Taxi Service once again and as payment offer up delightful young Rosa the pixie!

Rose is again a Black Rose Wars figure from Ludus Magnus Studios but very different in style from most of their offerings. Like the baby dragon and griffin I submitted last year this is in an anime style and presents a different sort of painting challenge -- naturalism need not apply! 

I did enjoy going to town on the big eyes (without any etched guides to work off) and freckles -- hope you like how she turned out.  Also thanks for the advice from Tamsin on colour selection off a prior post 👍

I'll be gifting this one to my wife Katie as she really liked the result. Anyway with Rosa's assistance we have jetted off to Gethen for one final touch down and the completion of my circumnavigation of the three rings. Arriving on Gethen we find that epitome of absence -- Davide Schaivon the Illusionist.

I think this is as good as one could hope for an execution of an invisible man figure. Some of the absences such as the one on the boot on the staff are very well done. The cloak is the biggest weakness of this figure -- it's just too big and bulky. The blouse is also rather fussy and was hard to detail. Finally all of the chalky masks were just a pain in the butt to manage -- oh well we have to take a shot at everything!

Once again he's a BRW figure -- as one of the main playable characters he's a sold 35-40mm scale figure (Rosa topped out at less than 25mm but with that big face lets call her a 28mm).  This means that my final total for this ultimate submission is another 52 points (one 28mm and one 40mm figure plus two bonuses).

While I've fallen well short of my target this time around it's been great fun coming along for the ride again and I've really appreciated all of the positive feedback received plus seeing everyone else's work. It's impressive in the diversity of subjects, styles and submitters and great evidence that this hobby is alive and prospering!

Looking forward to seeing you all again in nine months time!

__________________________

Oh, I love both of these figures, Simon. While the Invisible Man is terrific (I especially like his assortment of masks), I have to say that the Pixie takes the prize with that wonderfully rendered face. I'm sure your wife will be delighted with her.

Thank you for joining us this year, Simon, and I hope to see you with us again when the wind grows cold and the snow flies.

- Curt

From DougM - Gethen - Ice Cold but no Alex - (30 points)

Quickly checking the stash.. aggh.. the German winter grenadiers would take too long, but what's this.. another 3d print? A Storm Giant you say.. right, that's Gethen sorted. Not my normal stuff, and just lots of different colours, washes and overpainting. The Van Gogh of giants perhaps.  But cold.. very cold...  

This chap stands 65mm tall, so counting as a 54 mm figure = 10 plus 20 for Gethen = 30 by my maths. And I think that now adds 'Fantasy' as a Squirrel! Taking my total Squirrel points to 13.

• 1/200 WW2 Japanese Aircraft
• 1/200 WW2 US Aircraft
• 1/200 WW2 British Aircraft
• 1/200 WW2 German Aircraft
• 1/144 WW1 British Aircraft
• 1/144 WW1 German Aircraft
• 28mm German Armour
• 28mm Japanese Armour
• 28mm 12th SS Panzer infantry
• 28mm Indian Mutiny Sepoys
• 28mm Dr Who
• 28mm Austrian Napoleonic
• 28mm (and larger!) Fantasy

***

 

Very nice painting on this chilly fellow Doug. I can practically see his breath freezing in the air...well done.

GregB

From PeteF: Ice Elemental Horde (55 points)

Winter is Coming!

These are Ice Elementals from Mantic Games, based for Kings Of War - the, er, King of Rank and Flank massed fantasy battle games. Ice Elementals fight for the faction known as the Northern Alliance, a confederation of multiple races from the frozen North.

My Northern Alliance army is growing very slowly, this being its first finished unit. Quite a few more units are in the queue, but this is the only one that will be completed for Challenge XII. 

The Kings of War US Masters is coming to my neck of the woods (The Pacific Northwest) this year and I'm hoping to qualify for our team of 8 players - we don't have the best record in "Battle"(ie skill at playing the game) but we are (I hope) known for enjoying a friendly brew.

One of the drawbacks of Mantic's Northeren Alliance range is the lack of variation in the poses of some of the models - out of the box the Ice Elemental has only one pose - a friend 3D printed an ice elemental for me and I used its arms to do some minor conversions to break up the monotony. The paint job is a bit basic - I tried a few things and this blue with heavy drybrush looked OK to me.

The models are 50mm tall - I'm calling them 40mm for scoring. Going to try and finish the inner ring this week...

5x7 (40mm foot) = 35 points plus 20 point bonus for Gethen = 55 points  

+1 Squirrel (Total 7)

+0 Skulz (Total 1)

Nice work on these Ice Elementals, loving the icy blue tones.  Regina has been in the deep freeze this winter with tons of snow (I am running out of room to put it).  Therefore I will be more than happy if these things stay in your neck of the woods.

From TashaH: Tiptoe Through The Planets [Cybertron][Krypton][Gethen] (80 points)

 

No special permissions required for this entry on Cybertron! I actually got this one spot on!

 

 

This is Bumblebee, from the WizKids Transformers collection. 

I had great vision for Bumblebee when I ordered him. In my mind he was going to be a glorious yellow with highlights. It was going to be magnificent. 

I realized quite quickly that yellow is an incredibly difficult colour to master. This was further confirmed to me in a Paint and Chat session!

 

 

I further complicated my painting situation by deciding to try a little bit of contrast paint in an inconspicuous spot, to see if I could brighten it up. This figure is too heavy. I set it down to open the pot of paint. Bumblebee decided he wanted to transform and toppled over, dumping a brand new pot of Contrast paint all over my desk, onto myself, but most devastatingly onto Bumblebee. Having to incorporate the contrast paint into the rest of the figure brought it too orange. I threw up my hands and said "enough"! (actually I said a lot of bad words ...shhh) I did some highlights and blending to try and help the situation but I’m not sure there was any coming back at this point! 

He is not magnificent but he is acceptable. My daughter is a gaming streamer online. She took Bumblebee for decor in her streaming background. She’s very particular, so I take it as a compliment!

 

 

From here we are going to take a little zip through the Great Abyssal, into the Inner Ring, landing on Krypton. I just happen to have a superhero at hand! 

 

I am not at all up on any of the Universes. I know the major characters but other than that, I’m clueless. This is the Cannonball Heroclix figure from WizKids. I bought a few of these specifically for the challenge.

 

 

 

I don’t know anything about Cannonball, but he sure looks super fast! 

 

Continuing with our superhero theme, we are going to bounce next door to Gethen. It’s mighty cold here and Emma Frost, another WizKids Heroclix figure, fits right in. 

 

 

This figure is dreadful. If I were to do it over, I’d forego the clear bits and just prime the whole thing. Actually, if I’m honest, I wouldn’t buy this figure again! The WizKids figures are a convenient option, particularly for someone like me just starting out. Unfortunately, I find that they are hit or miss with detail quality and their pre-priming is iffy.

 

 

 

I’m not sure where we are going next, so we will chill here for a bit!

 

The points:

1 54 mm figure - 10 points

2 28 mm figures - 10 points

3 planet bonuses - 60 points

Total - 80 points

What a delightful set of minis! Yellow is a very difficult colour to paint, as the pigments are very translucent. I'm not sure if we shared our tips with you on chat, but my top one is to paint a different, more opaque colour (eg, yellow ochre, white, flesh, pink, light brown) underneath first.

Tamsin

From StuartL - Jumping To Lightspeed - Xanth to Krypton - 142 Points

Hello all.

For my second post today, I present the last five planets in the Challenge XII sector before my final approach to the Challenge XII Star.

Unlike previous years where I blitzed through the Challenge areas to reach the centre as quickly as possible, this year I have tried to take my time completing each section. However with just four weeks left on the clock and no idea what herculean task my minion might set me, I figured that I should get cracking and finish off the outstanding planets. I still need to submit an entry for Lady Sarah's Star Yacht too. 

So, without further ado, the next port of call after Lune is Xanth, where I have looked at the Unique Talent part of the conditions. Most of the models I have for most of the games I play are generally focussed around killing the enemy with bullets, blades or bombs, so finding something unique was not so easy. Luckily for me, I play a game called Malifaux, a Weird Wild West skirmish game, and a lot of the minis for that game have some downright bonkers abilities. In my collection for the game, I have a faction of Performers. Essentially can-can dancers, singers and the like who use their stage shows and props as cover for a smuggling operation. Within than faction, there are a set of models called Ice Dancers. However, unlike more traditional figure skaters, these dancers are able to form ice themselves and then use it to move around the tabletop. The models come two to a box, but are generally considered to not be all that great, one usually being more than enough should you wish to use them.

 I imagine that skating through a desert on a pillar of ice should count as a fairly unique talent.

From Xanth I head off to Mars (surely that should have been after Lune??), and a meeting with a mysterious neighbour. For this mini, I head back to the Warhammer 40,000 universe where Mars is synonymous with the machine worshipping Adeptus Mechanicus. In the setting, the Ad-Mech have very strict doctrines and beliefs about what technology they can use and what is tech-heresy. However, there are also rumours that an ancient, evil, alien star-god is trapped deep within the planet and that it is tied in with the mysterious Necron race of sentient robots. So what would happen if one of these Mechanicus priests were to stumble upon some crypt of hidden alien tech while exploring the depths of Mars? Why he'd immediately report it to his superiors and they'd destro.... 

...Oops.

One of the problems with the Ad-Mech box sets is that you can quickly end up with duplicate Tech-Priest models that you don't really need if you aren't careful. Having a couple of these guys spare, I decided to convert one up as a Heretek using a bunch of spare Necron parts I had lying around. The head, shield, upper torso and right arms all got added to create this monstrous fusion of Martian and Alien technology gone awry. 

I usually paint my Necrons with green power cores, so to show that this guy was different, I went for an orange colour scheme along with paler colours for his robes instead of the standard Mechanicum Red.

Speaking of Necrons, Altair IV is my next stop with the theme of Old Robots. 

This lanky fellow is a Canoptek Reanimator, a giant machine that strides across the battlefield reanimating fallen Necron Warriors as it goes. The model is mounted on a 60mm base to give you some idea of it's scale.

The model came in the Indomitus set that was launched at the start of 40K 9th edition. I have no intention of ever playing 9th, but the Necron models in that set were all fantastic. This one was quite fiddly to paint with all the hanging wires and pipes, but I'm happy with the end result.

Onwards we go to Gethen were things are Icy and Cold. My next model fits both of those, (but I think I can't claim the Androgyny part). As I mentioned above the Malifaux Ice Dancers come two to a box, but you only really need one. Luckily?? they can work in 2 different factions in the game, the Performers and the Cult of December, both of which I collect. 

The Cult are a bunch of cannibals who live high up in the snowy peaks of Malifaux's mountains. So, it seemed like a good idea to paint up the second dancer to match that faction.

And finally, we come to the last planet before the big finale. Krypton. Way back in the 90's I got into comics, particularly the various X-Men series. At that time, one of the more well known artists was a guy called Rob Liefeld. He is generally considered to be a source of division among comic book fans. He was involved in creating the very popular characters of Deadpool and Cable and his comics generally sold very well. However, his art style was unpopular among a lot of readers (he has no idea how perspective and anatomy really work) and he tended to draw a lot of pouches and equipment on all of his characters. So in homage to the comics I started out reading, I found a model with strange anatomy from my Reaper Bones stash and some glue....

Rather than my usual method of Paint>Wash>Highlight, I went for a different approach. The model was base coated black then given two coats of each colour, leaving some of the original black showing through to give it a more 'comic book' feel. The original model had no pouches on it, these all come from various 40K kits.

So, that's the final five planets done. Points wise, I have 3x 28m minis, 1x 40mm mini and a 28mm vehicle for a total of 42 points, along with 5 planets for a 100 point bonus and a grand total of 142 points.

The necron walker has 3 skulls on it's base to add to my Skull Duel tally. 

Skullz Total: 108

Before I finish, I would like to add the Ice Dancers to the Sarah's Choice category. I usually have a hard time choosing colour schemes for individual figures, so for these two, I based their colours on two popular characters from a Disney movie with a very similar theme to the models. While their clothing doesn't exactly match up, I think I captured the colours.

Next stop, the heart of the challenge sector!

Congrats Stuart on being the first of the Monday crew to the centre of the system.  I'm not sure if there are other challengers who have hit every planet in this years' challenge.  Most of us are opting for the faster (sic?) 4 planets and on the the next ring method.    I'll be in touch to discuss your FINAL CHALLENGE!!!  

I like the ice dancers lasses, nice blue palatte that you've used.  I would wouldn't know the difference between the Ad-Mech stuff and a Necron if one nipped me on the backside with a claw, but those are fine looking buckets of bolts your've assembled.  I also really like the effects that you've achieved on the Big Red guy, is he named Clifford perhaps?

From GeoffreyT: Multi-planet mayhem (Solaris)(LV-426)(Perelandra)(Krypton)(Gethen)(161 points)

From Vulcan, we leave pointy ears behind us and move onto its neighbour Solaris.

SOLARIS - Deception

These two chaps came from a second hand bulk lot.  I have identified them as Copplestone castings Spies.  Both are wearing nondescript suits to blend in where ever blending is needed.

They don't blend in particularly well with the green grass base.

That is now the last location in the outer-ring

Solaris is adjacent to LV-426 in the middle ring, so onwards and inwards we go.

LV-426 - Aliens

My Stargrave crew consisted of various Apeonauts from the USSS Fossey.  With the untimely death of their leader, they are now drifting in space somewhat directionless, as the most likely candidate for a new leader was Bubbles.  Unfortunately Bubbles lacks leadership qualities.  This is because Bubbles is a chimpanzee.

Therefore, it is time to build a new crew, and a new crew means new miniatures.  These three are the core of the next mob.  Three Alien Greys (reaper chronoscope metals).  The greys are nominally 28mm scale, although they are a bit weedy, 24mm to the eye.

The greys have different types of equipment, which will be great for identifying them as various skill types in game.  However, I'm not sure an anal probe is equipment used in Stargrave. (I will check rulebook just in case)

Of course, in Stargrave you need random monster antagonists.  This wooly rhino fits the in game description of a "Horat".  28mm model from Reaper Warlord metals.  The Horat is also an Alien.

For some reason, this Horat has two horns and one ear.  The missing ear is probably a casting defect, but I have added gore so it looks like it was bitten off by a space monster called Mike.

The Horat is big.  This is it compared to the greys.

Now from LV426 we jump over the already completed Noels comet, to Perelandra, the final uncompleted destination in the middle ring.

PERELANDRA - Oceanic

This sculpt is a mer-bloke on a sea-horse, trumpeting on a conch shell.  very oceanic indeed.  This is a 28mm Ral Partha miniature, from their Shadowrun line.

Here he is on the reverse.  I didnt have anything oceanic, so grabbed him from a bin of old stock at my local gaming store in Perth city to match the requirement.  Probably been in the store for 25 years, as it dates back that far.

Here is his muddy cousin, that came in same pack.  

Now the middle ring is done, and I zoom around in circles till I reach the great abyssal and begin my final assault on the inner ring at Krypton.

KRYPTON - Superhero

I didn't have anything suitable for this location either, so the same old stock bin at my local store produced this beauty.  This is a Reaper Chronoscope 28mm metal miniature labelled 'Torrent - Superhero".  Leaping out of the water, it is apparent her super-abilities include having dry hair after swimming.

I don't know anything about the super-hero genre, so I could safely paint her any colour I choose.  I chose a yellow bikini, because Y is for yellow Bikini in the alphabet soup challenge.

My wife said I picked this model because she had big tits, although there may be an element of truth in that, like a dutiful husband that I am, I denied it.

The yellow bikini is not so evident from the rear shot.

Next door we cool down after all that excitement, on a planet of ice and snow.

GETHEN - Ice and Snow

These two ferocious monsters are denizens of frostgrave, from the 28mm Northstar line, designed for the game.  First, a snow leopard.

I wasn't quite happy with the leopard spots, so I thought I might re-paint them.  Then I realised a leopard doesn't change its spots, so I left it as is.  You basically just get one shot at it.

Next is an ice toad.  These guys have a nasty bite.

I wasn't happy with spots on this one either, but since it wasn't a leopard, I could change them and they are now better.

Finally a widget I found in my box of unpainted things.  Spider eggs from Wizkids.  The eggs were translucent, I painted them with a translucent paint to keep the 'Nemo's doomed siblings' egg effect.

***

Not many miniatures for lots of bonus points this week.  However, there are not many planets left for me to claim now.

10 x 28mm foot = 50 points

1 x 28mm mounted fig

1 widget = 1 point

5 bonus planets = 100 points.

Total = 161 points

Y is for Yellow Bikini.

Cheers

GT

A good variety of figures here, Geoff. Nice work on all those labels! I think I've been to that Perth store you speak of and found some antique figures there myself. Keep an eye out for your Challenge!

Barks