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!

From PeterD: Late Roman Archers and Epic Halberdiers [Gift Shop] (120 points)

This is the first post from me this week, a unit of 12 formed archers for my Late Romans.  My wife flew off to Phoenix for the week yesterday and I've been left to deal with a blizzard with up to 40cm of snow expected.  So I am left at home with lousy weather, the Briar (national curling championship) on TV and some free time...

Shields are made up, based on pictures in the Notitia Dignitatum

This was not a planned unit, it just kind of happened.  I bought a pack of Victrix Late Roman Archers and Slingers over the summer mostly for the slingers, but also thinking that I could use the bow arms for Pict archers.  It turned out that the 2/3 of the figures are archers with composite bows that look out of place in the hands of Picts.  So there were 24 archers and I felt I needed to do something with them...

These are nice figures and there are lots of variant arms and heads.  I like the variety of loading, shooting and admiring one's last shot poses.  I included an officer and a musician who is likely over armoured but was fun to paint.   

My previous Roman archer units had been light infantry and I'd filled my quota under the TtS army lists, hence the formed bowmen unit.  I've given them the title Sagittarii Nerviorum. There are three units listed as Nerviorum under the Dux Britanniarum in the Notitia Dignitatum.  The name comes from the Nervii, a Belgic tribe from Northern Gaul as I continue to try and butter up my Belgic minion.  Other Nervii units served in Northern Gaul, Spain and even as an elite Auxiliary Palatina unit in the Eastern Empire.

The officer and musician come from the Armoured Infantry kit.

No Challenge bonus points, but I will claim the points on the Legions of the Empire Side Duel.

Also counting for the Legions of the Empire Side Duel are these Epic Empire halberdiers.  I am also going claim the the "Gift Shop" bonus points because Curt told me I could when I Voluntold me to paint these.

Curt has been running a Old World themed TtS! Campaign using these Epic scale figures and I've been running the Empire side.  More like the Sacrificial Offering giving my skill at these games.  One thing that I've finally figured out is that the bog standard grunts like these Halberdiers and pretty darn useful (and cheap to boot). 

Curt has a sizeable Empire contingent which looks lovely in a mostly blue and yellow livery.  To mix things up I went for a Crimson and White livery, which I believe means that these lad don't follow any of the Official liveries.  I will note that I've left their based un terraformed as Curt will want to base them according to his own system.

I had more fun painting these than I thought I would once I figured out a system.  By system I mean going with a wash technique and not worrying about the small details.  The flag and a couple of shields are free handed to kinda look like Imperial Eagles if you squint hard and have had enough wine.

Points wise I make it

• 12 archers in 28mm @5 pts each =60
• 36 halberdiers in 10mm @ 1 pt each = 36
• Giftshop bonus =20
• Total 116 points.

This takes me over my 500 point Challenge Target.

Finally since Martijn's been suggesting books, I have a book suggestion for him Buried by Alice Roberts.  it's a survey of archeology over the first 1000 years CE, looking at a number of specific burial sites.  She's got two others in the series dealing with the BCE and medieval eras (just out now in Canada).  The first two have some great history about the archeology in Britain and challenge a lot of ideas.

Well,  the first rule about buttering up minions is not to confuse Belgians with Dutchmen! However, as I am by now at least part Belgian, in mind if not by birth, I won't hold it against you. Too much. All joking aside, though, another fine post from you Peter! I like the variety in the archer unit, and I am sure Curt will be thrilled by those nimble halbardiers. Your method really works, and even without the wine the flag looks fine too. Well done! Thanks for the book suggestion, was it you who suggested it earlier? It is on my shelf now, I'm looking forward to reading it. Pointswise I agree with you, but will give you the by now customary bonus for shields and flag for a total of 120 points. Good job!

Martijn

From PeterD: Imperial Pretender in the Gift Shop (31 points)

Last post from me today, I swear.

I going to make a stop in the Gift Shop for a gift for that fine chap IainW.  During last year's Challenge Iain I received a beautiful  Landsknecht commander from Iain and I wanted to return the favour.  Of course Iain also gifted me a Jacobite artillery crew that I specifically said I didn't want and I'll reward that action too at some point.

I have a pretender Roman Emperor with standard bearer, both 28mm foot figures from Gripping Beast.  During the Later Roman Empire, Britain spawned Imperial Pretenders at a great rate.  The general pattern was that Pretender X got the support of the local army commanders in Britain, declared himself the true Emperor, landed in Gaul with an Army and got his butt kicked and his head mounted on a stick.  

Iain liked the Wolf Sock puppet shield designs on one of my cavalry units so I gave the leader the same design.

The less successful got murdered before stepping foot on the Continent (this happened twice in 407 alone).  The moderately successful stuck around long enough to get recognized as Co-Emperors for a while before the True Emperor got around to dealing with them.   The most successful went down in history as Constantine the Great.  

The problem was that every Pretender stripped the Province of troops which were never replaced.  Eventually the Emperor got tired of the Fractious Brits and told them to look after their own defences (or alternately the Brits got tired of sending taxes to the Continent and told the Empire to get stuffed). Some things never change....

I mangled the original GB Vexillum because the hands weren't drilled out completely and I forced things.   I subbed a wire shaft and Victrix plastic Draco (which I think looks the business).

Carausius avoided the normal path by declaring himself Emperor of Britain after running afoul of Western Emperor Maximian over spoiled looted by Saxon pirates.  He was successful enough to declare himself co-emperor with Maximian and Diocletian and minted his own coins.  He held on to power for seven years until the Western Caesar Constantius Chlorus (father on Constantine) made plans for an invasion.  Carausius was killed by his Finance Minister Allectus, who was in turn done in my Constantius and Britain return to the Imperial fold.

Points wise that's 20 for the gift shop and 10 for the two figures for a total of 30 points.

I've updated my Studio map to show the three lots visited today, completing my Green Security pass and allowing me to move on to the Blue lots.  Since I bounce back to World Cinema after my spree in the Gift Shop I will need to do something Fantasy related or do another female figure to hop to another lot by Limo.

From TeemuL: True friendship is a beautiful thing, I'm sure Iain will be happy. It is all about giving and receiving, sometimes passing the misfortune (not sure about the translation of the proverb) truly shows that you do think and care. :) The models look good, I like the tone on the red cloak. I'll give you extra point from the hand painted shield - or is that a decal? :D But hey, three nice, turnip-free posts from you! Looking forward to your Fantasy post.

From MartinC: Another Bout of Randomness (235pts)

 I've spent the week painting random figures. I was supposed to be painting 10mm Janissaries, but I wasn't feeling the love. Luckily, as most of you know, I buy figures cos I think they look cool and would be fun to paint. So I had some lying around that needed work.

Let's get the admin out of the way first. This is where I am on the studio tour

So if I take a limo ride to Superheroes I can complete the required journey to go and see the Snowlord in his directors chair.

So to start with we have a 75mm female duelist from Mr Lees. I've loved this figure since the 1st time I saw it on the website and had to buy it when Kyle moved on to other things. She is a stunner but the hard truth is that she is beyond my painting ability to do her the justice I wanted to. She needs a better face and much more embroidery. Still I did enjoy painting her.

As I have now arrived at Superheroes, this is one of my favourites. Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy. This is a Hasslefree minitature (my favourite place for metal figures.) He was a joy.

Moving on the rest of the randomness and in no particular order

A Dr Robotnic type from Crooked Dice

Cool figure, no clue what to use it for. Will score him as a simple infantry man

Next another limo trip to the gift shop

These 2 cyberneticaly enhanced types are from Northstar and will add to the Sci Fi madness

really like the female figure in blue

Some of you may have heard of my legendary game of Necromunda, the one where I only rolled 1s for 4 hours. Well James is currently assembling numerous gangs to go with his excellent terrain. He has a motto of everything is Necromunda. With that in mind I thought I'd gift him this figure

It's a frostgrave engineer, but will work well as a tinkerer in any age

the cogs etc are bits of old watches

Next up some fantasy types, told you today was random

These 6 fawns are Footsore Resin minis, bought in a mystery box

Quite nice figs, the grass is very log as I forgot to paint the bases before I flocked them, so I had to use big tufts as well

A bit of normality now

Saxon archers and a huscarl, from the same footsore mystery box

And now I claim the prize for the weirdest figure in the challenge. Damn, turnip wars makes this look normal

I present to you a zombie camel. WTF!!

Yip, this is from a Northstar mystery box, why else would you have one, this counts as unmounted cavalry

Almost finished

These buildings are the Rorkes Drift buildings

I added coya matting for the thatch

They are to be used as colonial buildings in Vietnam, obviously. They are massive and between them add up to 2.75 terrain cubes

Finally a glimpse of future work

This dwarf is the start of me completing my Dwarf army from 1988

Not loads to do but many that need touching up and rebasing - should have done this as the Under construction project but wasn't planning to paint them in the challenge, but they are calling to me

Right, the complicated scores on the doors

28mm foot = 17 equivalent = 85pts

75mm foot = 1 = 15pts

Buildings = 2.75 cubes = 55pts

2 limo rides = 40

Superhero = 20

Gift shop = 20

total = 235

Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom! A veritable points-cluster munition bomb, Martin! 

Tamsin

From GeoffreyT: Gift Troll (Gift Shop)(27 points)

DON'T LOOK A GIFT TROLL IN THE ...

Oh, its too late, you have already done it.

This lovely she-troll is considered very attractive in trollish terms.  She desires to wear a chainmail bikini as worn by brave adventurers, as it would really accentuate her hot-bod.  Unfortunately, her claws are not dextrous enough to do up the laces. 

The sculpt was inspired by the classic D&D art from the 1st edition monster manual, but the female version.  I liked the pointy nose and hollow eyes.

I gave her to a gaming buddy of mine.  She will be a very handy miniature to expand his collection of monsters for games like Frostgrave and the Silver Bayonet.

I gave her big monstrous shoulders, like a swimmer.  Probably a bit too wide, this means she has huge lateral muscles and therefore didn't have the scrawny ribs I planned.  Nevertheless, is a good gift I think.

Points:

She is 40mm from foot to the eye = 7 points

Gift shop bonus = 20 points

Total = 27 points.

That finishes my journey this week.  It appears going to the fantasy studio has unlocked the coveted director chair !

Geoff.

From TeemuL: And last but not least, today we have a second post from Geoffrey, where he reaches the steps of the director's chair! We all wait in awe what Snowlord asks him to do (a Snowlord perhaps?).

It really looks like the troll in book, very nicely sculpted, Geoff! Your gaming buddy is one lucky buddy, the group might not be that happy to meet this troll looking for chainmail bikini!