From BrianC A Mish Mash of this and that (155pts)

Ok. There's a bunch of this and that. I'm happy to return to my 3rd consecutive paint challenge season! I'm still not that great of a miniature painter, BUT since I'm more of a solo gamer, these will work just fine. Ha! Let's do this!

We begin with Wargames Atlantic Giant Spiders! Smaller spiders are 28mm and the bigger spiders are 40mm. I pretty much painted a black base and dry brush gray, then go over with Army Painter speedpaint of various colors.

We have some dogs from the game Song of Ice and Fire. I think they're the House Bolton's Bastard girls. Majority are painted with Army Painter Speedpaints.

We have some nasty Kings of War Undead ghouls/zombies. I was goofing around and added a head to one and call him, "Frank"

We have a Zombicide Survivor, James from the Rue Morgue Set. There will be much more Zombicide minis, soon. I love the game!

Here we have 2 lovely ladies from Old Glory Miniatures. I think they mean business! Watch out!

Hello, Mr. Terminator! The Warhammer 40K Terminator that is!

Well, there will be a lot more "Mish Mash" turn ins.

I think there's one squirrel point in this. Ha!

Ok to the points...

24 - 28mm = 120pts

5 - 40mm = 35pts

TOTAL = 155pts.

 

That is a miss mash of stuff Brian.  Love those spiders, as long as I don't have to deal with them in person.  I also really like the hounds and those ladies do mean business.  Great work all around.   Peter

 

From Barks: Sisters of Battle (Challenge Star)(115 points)

Oh, boy. What a Challenge from the Snowlord. I knew there was a reason I had let these figures gather dust for a few years. My miniatures are never finished, just blogged about- so here they are:

Sisters of Battle, or Adepta Sororitas, are militant nuns in 40K. I used to have the 1997 Sisters of Battle Codex (but no sisters), and sold it for a song many years ago. When GW released plastic Sisters in 2019 I was sucked back in and got a few squads. I liked the classic clean and vibrant look of the red, white and black triad, so these Sisters are from the Order of the Sacred Rose.

I first painted the Sisters Repentia, to get a feel for the strong themes in the detailing. Repentia are Sisters who seek absolution in battle for their transgressions. They have the famed Eviscerator chainswords. I don't like the sado-masochistic or mortification aspects of the Sororitas, but here we are.

Sisters Repentia

They are governed by a Repentia Superior who dual-wields neural whips. She allowed me to get to grips with the main power-armour technique I would use on the rest.

Repentia Superior

With my approach nailed down, I got to grips with the squad. The white armour was surprisingly easy with Contrast Apothecary White- highly recommended. Note the gloves and corsets are a warm white leather in tonal contrast to the cool white armour (why put a corset on power armour?!). I struggled with consistent outcomes for the black and red robes. I also struggled with blue-black silver. I like having blue tone for raven-black hair, and it stands out well against the black robes. I would like to highlight it up a bit more. I painted the heads and backpacks separately. I used 1mm plastic rod and sprue to make a painting support. Finally, I used transfers for some of the scrolls, books and robes.

I put nuns' heads on sticks so I can make them pretty.

Sister Superior

Flamer

Stormbolter

Battle Sisters with bolters

More Battle Sisters

"Behold! My skullz."

I also painted a Canoness with a power sword, Rod of Office, and bionic leg:

Canoness

The centrepiece of these ladies is this Sister, based on art by Anna Steinbauer. I did some light kitbashing to give her a tome and a combi-bolter-plasmagun. She's got this "Excuse me, some of us. Are. Trying. To. Read!" vibe. I really like this model. What do you think she is reading?

Battle Sisters. Anna Steinbauer (2013)

I'm glad they're done, but I have another 30 or so yet to do- maybe next year? They came out almost exactly as I foresaw, which was nice. But it took a lot of effort to get there. The effort-to-points ratio should not be examined...

17x 28mm figure: 85 points

Challenge XII Star: 30 points

Very efficient course, Captain.
I have donated to LSWR to celebrate

Skull-o-meter™: 80 (total 88)

Slowpainter's ABC: N is for Nunsploitation

Finally, here's a sister showing how brave she is with my huntsman lodger. 'Straya!

________________________________

Okay, full disclosure here, that last picture made me squeal in terror. You know, when I see images like that I'm okay with the nothing-can-survive-minus-a-zillion temperatures we have here. Good gravy, what a scary beastie.

Okay! Back to the task at hand! Your battle Sisters look terrific. I'm a big fan of GW's Apothecary White too, and was wondering when we were chatting about this challenge whether you'd make use of it. Great brushwork with this tricky colour combination. I also really like the extra time you spent on their faces as the models are so expressive (the blue-black hair is a nice counterpoint to the white as well).

As to the Sister with the book. I think she's reading Nosrat's 'Salt, Fat Acid, Heat' . 

Great work, Barks, and congratulations on making it to the center of the Challenge XII system!

- Curt

From StuartL - One for the Arachnophobes - Arda - 40 Points?

Hello,

My journey around the Challenge Sector has brought me to the planet of Arda, a Tolkienesque place, filled with all sorts of magical and fantastic things. 

Back when the LotR trilogy came out, I went to watch the movies with some of my friends, one of whom is both a huge Tolkien fan and also a huge arachnophobe. Sitting through the Shelob scene in Return of the King was a lot of fun. So, when it became apparent that I needed to paint up something that fit the theme of Tolkien style fantasy, I knew exactly what I wanted to paint. 

This lovely looking eight-legged monstrosity is another figure from Reaper Bones. It came complete with a sculpted base that is strewn with skeletal remains. My wife refused to come into my hobby room while I was working on this.

The spider's front half and legs were painted up in light grey with some white highlights and then given a covering of contrast black. For the large abdomen, I went with a layer of vallejo silver and then a blue wash, which I think gives it a strange, yet menacing appearance. The eyes were done in a similar way with a green wash.

Here we have Jarl Hvat-Skael (a 28mm Viking model, not part of the entry) to help showcase just how large this gribbly beast is. The model's original base has been mounted on an old CD for added stability. 

So, for scoring, I'm guessing 20 points as this is easily the size of a vehicle, plus an additional 20 points for Arda, for a total of 40.

There are 4 skulls on the base that can go towards my noggin count.

My god Stuart that is a big spider!  I got a chuckle out of your arachnophobe stories, my wife has tales of me jumping out of my skin when we watched the Aragog sequence in Harry Potter.

Nice paint work on this arachnid although I am glad that it lives in Japan and that I won't be getting any closer to it.  There is Challenge lore regarding counting spiders as vehicles, but we'll save that saga for another mead hall.  40 points you shall have sir on my scoresheet and hopefully Barks has the Skullometer fired up.

From SidneyR: The Spider Demon for "The Lair of the Great Beast (35 points)

 

"Come into my parlour...."

So, dear Challengers, I have finally arrived at the Altar of the Snowlord, with just the final  Chamber to go.  When Curt suggested a creepy-crawly for the Chambers of Challenge XI map, I had in mind to paint a guardian spider-demon as my last Challenge to face before arriving at the final Chamber in the dungeon.

Maybe that's because I have had this magnificent sculpt in my lead mountain since I bought it in 2006.  I had originally purchased Him/She/It to complement my Japanese fantasy collection, but somehow - why oh why? - I'd left it until just about the last piece to paint in that collection. 

With the result that, as no collection is ever finished, I never painted it!  Not until now, that is... 

It is a wonderful sculpt, from Citadel Miniatures.  It comes in two parts, the body and legs as one casting and then a separate, malevolent head.  And its just incredibly.... brrrrr.... I don't now but it looks just - poised and ready.

Spiders are incredible creatures, and I have no problem in seeing this spider-demon as a fitting and cunning adversary for any brave adventurer getting this far into the dungeon. 

This Challenge I have loved painting ...pink.  What with the pink Book Golem leading the way, the pink Demon facing down the adventurers, and the pink Turtle Dragon all being painted, there was only one colour for this creepy dungeon dweller.  

A truly Slaanesh spider, then - enticing, cunning, exotic and chaotic - in the lurid pink shades of the Prince of Pleasure.   

As with so much in this Challenge, the non-historical sculpts have taken me back to the Village of Hommlet, to Starstone, to Cirith Ungol and to the adventurers in hundreds of dungeons of my youth in the Realms of Chaos.

Somehow, giant spiders seem so very AD&D - which to me, is another way of saying "they're so 1981"!

I'd painted up this female bard for a teleport within the Challenge, but I've not needed her in the end.  So, it's long overdue that she now is able to join her fellow adventurers in fighting their way into the Altar of the Snowlord.

She's a Midlam Miniatures sculpt, and - like all of the Midlam figures - is very cleanly cast and sculpted.  

I've had a thing for bards of all kinds for decades.  No, not the ludicrously over-blown bards of 1st Edition D&D, but the far more useful, rogues of later editions.  I always was entranced by their fighter/ thief/ magic-user/ Swiss Army Penknife skill-set - which is all a bit silly, but is the kind of thing which fits into so many fantasy settings.  

So here she is, plucking her lute and charming the spider-demon - well, at least she hopes so...

I added some additional green-stuff tresses to her hair.  I have no idea why I did this!  She had enough hair to start with, but now has lots more.  No doubt that strange fashion detail can come to the fore in some adventure.  Maybe she uses her hair to string her lute...?

And, because every adventure is better with friends, here's both the spider demon, the bard and her fellow adventurers from the Second Level, finally arrived at (nearly) Journey's End!

And for the points, there's one 25mm figure - the female bard - for 5 points, and then there's the sipder-demon.  He/She/It is quite large, so can I claim 10 points for the spider as a cavalry figure?  Miles can set me straight if that's 5 points too many (although, Miles, dear friend, be careful before you start any argument with a giant pink spider!!)  

And then there's 20 points for "The Lair of the Great Beast", totalling 35 points for this entry.

******* 

It is a very nice pink spider but ten points well.... oh hell I'm feeling generous but you'll need to let me interview you on the LWTV podcast sometime!  35 Points it shall be!

Miles