From Sarah & Curt for Martijn - Renaissance Baker - Gift Shop (30 Points)

Hello Everyone

As I was talking with Curt about my next entry, which would be the Library Gift Shop, we had an Eureka Moment! and decided to collaborate on a vignette to honour our Tuesday Minion.

Martijn’s commitment to educating us on all the tempting Dutch/Belgian baked goods has been a wondrous addition to our Tuesday mornings.

I found a terrific figure of baker and oven on MyMiniFactory then a quick Google search of 17thC Dutch Paintings for inspiration.

Jan Steen, 1658, The Baker Oostwaert and His Wife

Steen has painted a very happy and prosperous baker - those loaves of bread look fresh, delicious and made with skill and care.

The vignette that Curt and I have created depicts baker Oostwaert working hard at the ovens, this is the action shot “before” the Steen portrait.

We decided that I would paint the oven and the body of the baker, while Curt would do skin tones, the baking tray, highlights/effects, basing and clean up any messy bits left by me. 😇

(Full disclosure… soon after beginning painting Oostwaert, I dropped him and broke off the bakers peel … yes, there were tears and graciously Curt printed off a second figure with stern instructions to be very, very careful.)

I really wanted to replicate the muted tones of the bakers clothing in the Steen painting. We used Vallejo paints - pale grey, silver grey and pale blue. This was my first attempt at using such a soft palette and I’m really pleased with the results!

Our hardworking baker is wearing a head wrap and chin wrap … I suppose to absorb the sweat from the ovens heat … though he could also be quite health conscious and ready to mask up if necessary.

The brick oven was a relatively quick paint job. After some black primer, I then used a dove grey craft paint, followed by a nice red/brown Curt mixed up using the dove grey layer as the mortar between the bricks. Curt assisted in painting the scorch effect on the brick which looks very cool.

This is the Gift Shop entry and will soon be packed up and sent overseas to Martijn … Curt and I hope the baker Oostwaert and his never ending supply of stroopwafels keep good company with Martijn and the rest of his toy soldiers!

___________________________________

I’m not sure how to score this …

1 28mm figure = 5 points

Oven = 1 point

Gift Bonus = 20 points

Total = 26  30 points

Curt suggests we simply split the total score between us (13 each). but we leave final adjudication to Martijn’s more than capable assessment.

Thanks for visiting and seeing our work!

- Sarah & Curt

Wow, Sarah and Curt, what a wonderful surprise! The vignette is a great find by itself, and very fitting to represent the Jan Steen painting. And then the painting is awesome too, you have worked together so well to create this little masterpiece. From the oven itself  to the baker in his plain and simple working cloths it is all very well done. I am very glad that you have liked my little stories and I am truly deeply honoured to be gifted this remarkable vignette. Thank you both!

As the scoring goes, your suggestion is reasonable but modest. Let's award a couple of extra points for the oven and for sheer awesomeness to make it 30, split between the both of you. Excellent work!

Martijn

From SanderS: Post 2 - A Gift of sorts! (90 points)

 Hoi,

Now don't keep me up on this, but I am 99% sure this will be my last Library post. With the end of the Challenge well in sight I think I might have one more post after this one in me, but that will not be a Library post. As my first post today has seen me enter the Wilds and do some tree-hugging I am now ready to enter the Gift Shop and have painted something up for my good friend Martijn. 

While on holiday in Norway he bought a Dungeon Bowl expansion featuring the team of Elves and Halflings I have shown you all earlier this Challenge but also a mixed Undead team. I finally got round to painting it. 

That isn't all, at the school where I work we have a laser cutter, and on it my mate Mark and I designed and made a wooden box that takes a Feldherr foam tray for the Blitz Bowl game. So now we have a convenient way to carry a team, cards and dice. We made an extra box and so I can present Martijn with this team in a nice box.

There's 14 figures in the team and that should be good for 70 points, I am not counting the nick-nacks like the markers and ball tokens. With the gift shop bonus that's another 90 points for the counter.

Let's hope that I get time to paint enough for one more post... See you next time!

 Sylvain: What a nice gift! I'm sure Martijn will be pleased. The carrying box really adds a personal touch. My gift to you is a very well deserved 90 points!

AdamC: More Egyptian Archers Gift Shop (100 points)

 

More Egyptians for my friend Arofan's Biblical Age armies.  

A few of them have the blue headdress to complete the last group others have a red brown a fairly common dye color.

Here are some close up of the headdress.

Close up of the two standards one green the other gold. 

There are 16 28 mm figures at 5 points each for 80 points and another 20 for the gift shop for 100 all together.

 

 

Sylvain: There is something old school about the sculpt of these figurines which I find interesting. Your palette sticks to warm colors, which perfectly suits an ancient Egyptian army. Marvelous paint job!

From SebastianR: Hello sir, welcome to the [Gift Shop] (24 Points)

Finally, I can post the first think I painted, way back in January.

These are a friend's sci-fi buildings that I offered to paint for him as he wasn't sure how to approach them, and I wanted to practice with my airbrush.

 

They're a bizarre bit of manufacturing though. As far as we can tell they were designed and 3D printed, then cast in resin, which I suppose might be indicative of an old school manufacturer trying to incorporate more modern techniques, but it means that they have the worst features of both techniques, being made of resin but still showing the 3D print lines.

While this is a fascinating piece of design for manufacturing in action, it does mean no washes for me, just a jump into the unknown with a series of airbrush blends to try and liven up flat surfaces. I'm pretty happy with the results.

The buildings have already seen battle, twice, in my friends definitely not 6 Days War IN SPACE hybrid wargame/RPG.

Points wise, I made impromptu notes on what they measured piled together but I appear to have thrown away the card on which I made said notes, and all I have is this photo suggesting that one axis was ~7".

Assuming it's roughly 7*3*2 that's about a fifth of a 6" cube, giving my 4 points, and with 20 points for the challenge I can rake in 24 points

All that remains if for me to clear up my little mistake with oversized books and the way is open to Rare Books, for only the second time in my time with the challenge!

These buildings look really cool - are they 15mm scale? Or even 6mm? In any case they do look really good and are a suitable entry for the Gift Shop.

24 points for you, and looking forward to seeing a BIG MODEL in the Oversized Books stack! 

Dallas

From TomL: Stompy Robots at the Gift shop for 70 points

Leading us to the AHPC Library Gift Shop is The Maharani from Bob Murch’s Daughters of the Empire pack.

Several friends of mine made massive investments in the recent KS Battlemech campaigns.  There was a bit of moaning about having so many mechs to paint when the waves of boxes started arriving. I suggested they bring me some units and I would help paint them.  For my gift shop submission I present the polarizing, loved or hated - Urban mechs.

For one friend we have a random scheme using his current unit palette and for the other we have a unit in my approximation of a blue digital urban cammo.  First was painted using contrast paints and washes.  The unit was painted using Vallejo paints and stippling.  Not quite as crisp as a true digital cammoflage pattern but overall I like it.  Both finished with a vallejo deck tan drybrush for weathering.

70 Points.  
I am assuming these smaller mech's are treated as 28mm so correct if needed.  

5 BattleTech Mechs @ 5 points for 25
Gift Shop for 20
1 28mm figure @ 5 points for 5
Library Cart for 20

These would count for the stompy mech's duel.

From Millsy: Lovely work on The Maharani Tom, especially the colour choices for the turban and tunic. Two lighter colours don't always work well together but you've really nailed it this time! Those walkers really take me back to the glory days of stomping about hex maps, heat sinks aglow and rocket pods blazing. 28mm seems about right so we'll score them that way. Another 70 points for your tally mate!

From JP - 28mm Afghan Cavalry and 1/600 ACW Naval (178 points)

I've slowed down a bit due to some travel, but I'm having another run at things this week.

First off, I have half a dozen Afghan cavalry from Foundry. I remain very partial to this range in spite of other, more recent manufacturers - maybe nostalgia, or just good solid sculpts by the Perry brothers?

They are meant for the cut down version of The Sword And The Flame (by which I mean units of 6 horse and 10 foot vs 12 horse and 20 foot). I have slowly built these up after getting out of the Indian Mutiny as I am still attached to the NWF.

 

Having completed the Section, I will walk over to Maritime. These are 1/600 STLs of ACW vessels by David Manly, from the Wargames Vault.. The detail level is astounding, with areas you can literally look through. I collect ACW naval in 1/1200, my buddy here collects them in 1/600. So I decided to paint these up for him as a gift, which he collected this weekend. My son-in-law printed them in both scales. I highly recommend them, though the masts and flagpoles are fragile and should be replaced with fine (read very fine) hollow copper tubing.

I was not sure how to count them, due to size. I am tentatively counting them as one mounted 28mm fig each, and one foot 28mm for the small vessel. The last photo contains a 28mm pack mules for scale. Please correct if necessary.

 

I have used Sarah's taxi to take me to the Gift Corner and another one to come back. These are Otherworld Miniatures - and you already know they are my favourite manufacturer of fantasy figs. 

So, points wise, if I am doing this right:

    6 x Afghan horse             =  60 points

    4 x large 1/600 ships       =  40 points

    1 x small 1/600 ship        =   5  points

    2 x 28mm fantasy foot    =  10 points

    Maritime                         =  20 points

    Gift Shop by taxi            =  20 points

    Total                               =  155 points.

Thanks for looking them over. All thoughts for improving them are welcome!!

***

Great to have another submission from you JP! Lots to enjoy here, but for me the standouts are the Afghan cavalry. As you say, the Foundry sculpts are great classic figures, and I do find myself in a somewhat odd situation in a couple of the historical periods I collect where I get 28mm from the Perrys' current company, and supplement it with sculpts from Wargames Foundry which were...sculpted by the Perrys! 

Naval scoring is always the worst, and makes me long for all naval submissions to just be banned from the Challenge, but based on my research into other 1/600 precedents this morning, I would rate your larger ships at 15 points each. So all in you have another 178 points toward your total.

A reminder to please include labels in your draft post, to help with the data for the site and the Challenge!

GregB

From PeteF: Waterloo’s Fightin’ 44th in The Gift Shop (236 points)

One of my gaming buddies unwisely purchased Warlord’s Epic Waterloo (and many of the add ons).  I, also unwisely, asked him if he had anything that he wanted me to paint.  He said Highlanders – I countered with regulars.  I’ve never painted British Napoleonics so this is my first foray into Les Rosbifs.

Here is the 44^th East Essex regiment, a rifle company, foot artillery and mounted officer.  This is what you get on one regular sprue in the Waterloo box - a whole lot of troops!  YouTube furnished a speed painting recipe - using a combination of contrasts and AP Speed Paints (which I really like).

Maybe a little too grasshoppery on the green

Even though this was speed painted (with some highlighting) it took a while  – despite being fused together in strips these 13.5mm ish fellows pack in quite a lot of detail and there are numerous opportunities to accidentally paint outside the lines (don’t look too close).

I didn’t really know what I was letting myself in for with this entry – I think NickG will be happy he has one less regiment to paint himself (and there are so many).  He got flags with the kit and will be adding those in due course. I’m looking forward to seeing the epic armies on a nice big table.

I think we score these as 15mm scale – 2 points per foot, 4 for mounted and  the gun.

104 foot = 208 points

1 mounted = 4 points

1 artillery piece = 4 points.

Gift Shop Bonus = 20 points

Total= 236 points 

Amazing work here Peter! I have only thought of the idea of picking up this boxset, let alone the effort required to paint them up. And after doing 8mm space marines in large numbers, I am not sure I could stomach such a mass of models in double that scale. 

So to see this, done so well, for so many models, and for a friend... wow.. such a great gift/assistance provided here! Hopefully he gets many more of them painted up, and offers you a game with them all. 

Great job all around, and a very hefty 236 pts for you here!

Kyle