From SteveA: Hagglethorn Hollow Ruins (40 points)

Three pieces of "Hagglethorn Hollow" ruins, 3D printed with black filament in scale suitable for 28mm gaming.  While filament was indeed the best choice for cost and durability, the downside is the many many layers of print lines that form small surface ridges meant a simple dry brush paint job would result in very little suspension of disbelief that these were the shrunken stone ruins of a once great and maybe somewhat real castle 

So I took a "two thick coats" painting approach, using a ~ 4:1 mix of Artist Loft craft paint mixed with baking soda, aiming for the thickness of craft paint and the add texture of baking soda would obscure the print lines. 

First coat dark grey stippled on with sponge ensuring total coverage, second coat a lighter grey focused on the upper and outer areas, resulting in the desired "I cant really see the print lines unless I am looking for them" effect I was seeking.  However,  small snag in my paint plan was encountered after I performed and dried my first paint wash, when the science of exposing the Baking Soda(Sodium Bicarbonate) to a very watery paint bath resulted in some of the baking soda from stippled on paint dissolving into the paint wash and then later forming a undesirable clumps of white crust on the paint surface after drying.

So a third coat of stippling with an old craft bush became necessary to conceal the white crusty bits, but in the end was to positive effect as it did lend to more subtle colour texturing.   A craft quality paint brush to anoint miscellaneous bricks with the liquid talent of Agrax Earth shade or Nuln Oil, and then some line work with thinned black craft paint to fill in the spaces between bricks completed the application of pigment, with the last step an application of a few ground level brown grass tufts, achieved the effect I was looking have in my future table top adventures.

I'm looking forwards to using these pieces for games such as Burrows and Badgers,  Frostgrave and maybe a return to Mordheim.

Dimensions of these pieces is roughly 6"x6"x3,  6"x5"x3",  "5,2",10".

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Hmmmm, Let's try this again, shall we???  I commented and scored this yesterday and then published and got a message from Steve today asking about points and comments....  No clue what happened, I blame the big dumb Ukrainian (me!)... so here we go again!

Great work Steve,  I despise the print lines as well, but doing multiple layers of paint and baking soda is a whole level of insanity beyond even me...  It works and looks very effective, so I like it, but not sure I would do it myself.  I also really like the look of multiple different shades of stonework which really help to bring it all alive. Great work.

As for points, I am going to go with just over 13 points each as I feel the probably would take about 4 hours each to get done as they are quite massive (having printed them for you).  I know this doesn't count the stippling time, but I view that as assembly/priming which we are not rewarded for for miniatures, so the same applies to terrain.  I am rounding it up to an even 40 points though.

- Byron 

From Sarah: Two Sweet Wee Buildings Started Last Year (Limbo) (20 Points)

Hello Everyone

These two buildings have been primed and patiently waiting for colour since at least last Challenge. Me thinks they are "seasoned' and now ready for their close up!

My foray into painting  buildings in an "Impressionistic Style" a la Monet continues with these two slightly eccentric villas. 

I've chosen a coastal colour palette of muted earth tones -  to reflect the windswept environs of the Holiday Beach Villas. I think the lavender and pale blue shutters add both a whimsical touch and a holiday vibe.

Here is a group shot with some buildings from last years Challenge. I really like the sense of whimsy and fairy-tale quality of the wee buildings. I've had a lot of fun with these and I hope Curt will indulge me and let me paint more buildings for him. :

I know that buildings/terrain have no Challenge points, so I'll be claiming the 20 bonus points for fulfilling 'Limbo'  and this entry will start my descent into the Abyss. 

Next week ... Lust! 

20  more points for me!

- Sarah

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Hello again Sarah - so nice to see more work from you! 

Ah, terrain...you are so fortunate to enjoy painting it! Personally, I struggle with painting terrain. Not that I never do it, but rather that it always finds a way to sit at the very, very bottom of whatever painting queue I might have in my mind. 

But enough about my hobby-mental-hangups! This is about your work, and your work here is tremendous - at once warm, whimsical, and tuned to just-the-right sense of otherwordliness. Such is the power of well-painted terrain, it helps us set the mood and adds so much more not only to a display, but to a great game!

Well done - that will be another 20 points for your total. 

GregB

From Curt - First Group of 10mm units for The Empire (I of VII) (138 Points)

Hi All!

I've been puttering away at this project since the start of the Challenge, and while it's certainly not 'done', it has progressed to a state where I'm happy to start posting it. So I'm going to show what I've been up to at a slow drip, with an entry a day until the close of the Challenge. Stuart has been kind enough to allow me to sneak in at the last minute, so my hat's off to him not only for this, but also for his excellent work as our Saturday Minion this Challenge. Thank you again, Stuart - we could not have done this without you.

I've always been a big fan of Warhammer Fantasy's 'Old World'. This goes way, waay back to the 80s with my first introduction to the setting. While the rules themselves could often leave me cold at times (depending on the edition), it was the Old World that I always drew me back. The gritty, ersatz Renaissance aesthetic ticked off so many boxes for me - the heady mixture of plate armour, crazy magic, puff & slash uniforms and early gunpower weapons - it was just so cool.  I won't even start on my opinion on GW's inexplicable decision to blow up their own IP and replace the Old World with The Age of Stinkmar, other than to say it was an atrociously bad one.

Anyway, the Old World is wonderful source of nostalgia for me, and I always enjoy visiting it from time to time, either through role-playing (we had a fun time last year playing the 'Enemy in the Shadows' campaign), the occasional mass figures game (using the excellent 'One-Page Rules'), or just painting scads of 10mm stuff like I'm showing here today.

I really enjoyed Warmaster when it was released, as the figures were so innovative, and the rules brought a breath of fresh air to GW's stable (they are the fountainhead for Warlord's 'Hail Caesar', 'Pike & Shotte' and 'Blackpowder'). My interest was renewed a few years ago when I came across some old unopened blisters in storage. After re-reading the Warmaster rules, I decided to instead follow a different path, using a fantasy variant of  'To the Strongest' as the basis for my reboot. One of the selling features of using TtS are that the rules allow for large single bases for units which I really enjoy as it gives room for mass and creating little vignettes. Over the past two Challenges I've managed decent inroads with my Wood Elf and Tomb King armies, but now I have a new force to add: The Empire!

For me the Empire is the quintessential Warhammer Fantasy army. It has that wonderful mix of traditional units such as knights, halberdiers and spearmen, along with some esoteric oddities such as flagellants, volley guns and steam tanks. It really has something for everyone.

I have a bunch of stuff completed, but I'm going to show what I've been up to at a slow drip, with an entry a day until the close of the Challenge. 

First up is our General and two units of doughty Halberdiers. 

The casting of the General is quite impressive, astride his faithful Griffon, issuing orders to his troops. 

Nonetheless, the overall model wasn't quite as imposing as either my Tomb King or Wood Elf generals on their dragons, so I printed off and rescaled a ruined tower from Hagglethorn Hollow for him and his mount to perch on. Much better, I think.

Like the General, the Halberdiers are venerable GW metals. With my larger bases, I have the room to place the equivalent of two standard Warmaster units on them. I really like the massed look that this conveys. I also LOVE the heft of these things when compared to resin models. It really appeals to my lizard brain. :)

One of the blisters had been opened and I was short two strips of figures. To make it up I decided to use my terrain cheat and include a small structure to make up for the loss of space on the base. 

Again, I like doing this from time to time as it adds a bit of visual interest and gives players something to grip on to when moving the base around the tabletop.

For points, the two Halberdier units have 132 figures between them for an equal amount of points. For the general, I ask our esteemed Minion Stuart to indulge me by scoring it as a vehicle as it's a fairly large piece, especially with the addition of the ruined tower. If he is amenable with that, this group should give me a total of 138 points. 

I'll have another Empire unit up tomorrow. I hope you stop in for a peek. 

Thanks!

- Curt

Amazing work on this army, Curt. I totally agree on the draw of Warhammer Fantasy, as a setting it was very rich and had so much to offer. The Empire really represent what was great about the aesthetics, with a wide variety of units to choose from. I never found the rules to be to my taste, as I have commented on in my own posts before, but the range of figures was superb. At 10mm the units start to look like regiments of soldiers ready for battle. 

Well done on getting this new project started, hopefully we will see it develop further in posts to come.

From ByronM - Hagglethorne Hollow Terrain (70 points)

Hagglethorn Hollow is a set of terrain designed by one of the WETA workshop sculptors.  His terrain was first launched as a kickstarter for cast pieces and then later on as a kickstarter for the STL files, which I picked up a few years back.  You can see the sculptors personal setup in this cool video with Adam Savage: Weta Workshop Sculptor's Tabletop Miniature World!

I then went about doing the crazy thing of printing them in resin rather than filament that most people did due to their size.  It took a LONG time and was done in pieces that then had to be filed and fitted and greenstuffed together.  Even done as hollows they still used up a ton of resin, but I think they look great (way better than filament printing with lines all over them) so was well worth it. I printed the two buildings over 2 years ago and then never got around to painting them.  

First up is the wizards tower, complete with crazy roof that is removable.  Actually the building has several internal areas that could technically be used, but I didn't want to deal with stacking and separating pieces so just glued the whole thing together (the insides were not really big enough to be usable anyway). 

I kept to a pretty standard colour palette other than a very fantasy coloured blue roof.  Grey for stone and brown for the wood.  I made sure to add a little colour variation to both the stone and roof for a more natural look and think it worked out well.  The tower is pretty massive, as shown by a 32mm scale Dwarf next to it, it is 7" x 7" x 14" tall!  The top is a bit narrower than the bottom, so I am going to call it 1.5 cubes of terrain.

Next up is a simple cottage, which I did in much the same colour scheme as the tower, but added the stucco in as a light tan for some contrast against the stone and wood.  Again this had an interior, but was not very large or useful so I just glued it all closed.  It is 7" x 6" x 6" so 1 cube worth of terrain.

I wanted to paint them to use in games like Frostgrave so will probably end up flocking the roofs with some snow effect, and almost did it already other than 2 issues.  First, I was out of snow flock and havent been able to find anyone with stock of the stuff I like, and secondly the wife pointed out that it could limit their use on the table, so I really have to think about that for a while.  That said they are technically done anyway, so here they are for scoring.

Last up is a set of four Hagglethorn Hollow barricades.  Each one is a fairly large piece by itself with a ton of detail on each.  Therefore while not technically filling a 6" cube, I am claiming each as a figure (due to size and complexity) and calling it 5 points per for 20 points for the 4.  Tamsin can adjust as she see fit, but I feel its fair scored that way, but in the end, points schmoints who really cares....

These were both a lot of fun to paint, and a pain in the ass to paint.  I mean they are so dense with little details, that I just kept getting stuck on what to paint next and what colour on them.  I started these the first week of the challenge and kept getting stuck on them and setting them aside.  Eventually I just gave up and kept to about 6 main colours and just "got them done".  You could literally spend DAYS picking out each pot, jar, piece of wood, coin, rope, etc and I just kept getting overwhelmed by them.

Total I have this as 3.5 terrain cubes so 70 points, but again adjust as required.

That terrain is amazing, Byron. There is a trick I've discovered for hiding the layer lines on filament prints - a couple of coats of matt Mod Podge (larger layer heights will need more coats than smaller layer heights); that would save the time, hassle and cost of hollowing out the STLs and then resin printing them.

Tamsin

From Sarah: Three 10mm Fantasy (Fantastical?) Buildings (70 Points)

Hello Everyone,

Great to be back in this years Challenge and I’m very relieved to have submitted a post before the dreaded 'Director's Cut'.

During last years Challenge, I painted my very first-ever mini as well as terrain/buildings. Of the three buildings I intended to paint last year, two were finished and the third one sat neglected and sad, lost in the lead pile.

Conveniently, the Snowlord has given us Challengers opportunity to re-visit partially painted figures with the Under Construction Workshop on the Studio Map. Yay!

The two buildings from last year, Sunset Tower and Dusk Hall, were painted in a style I call ‘Monet has lost his mind and is painting small buildings instead of Giverny’

That’s right, behold the mash up of pointillism and impressionism as interpreted by me on the canvas of these wonky, whimsical buildings.

First up, and the entry for the Under Construction, is The Ochre Arms.

Here is The Ochre Arms, unfinished and neglected in the Spring of 2022

...and now finished in all its ochrey glory.

This grand and welcoming building that has stood for centuries. The Ochre Arms is so ancient that the structure itself appears to be part of the landscape.

The ochre tones of yellowish-orange is meant to imbue a warm, welcoming and bright feeling on The Ochre Arms. It’s a good spot to meet up with friends new and old for a pint!

Another wonderfully whimsical building is Moss Manor.

Like The Ochre Arms, Moss Manor is venerable and ancient, and perhaps through Fae Magick has acquired a hidden, secretive aura, blending in with the verdant landscape.

Nonetheless, my favourite of the three, is The WaterHouse.

Like its neighbours, The Ochre Arms and Moss Manor, The WaterHouse has over time taken on the characteristics of its location.

Deep blues turning to light blues& greens, highlighted with silver as though reflecting light off water.

But the coolest features are the small jolly boat hanging off the side, and the use of a longship as a tower!

These three buildings were given a coat of black gesso then a dry brush of a light grey craft paint, followed by a light sand or bone craft paint.

Then I literally gathered up all of Curt’s colour contrast paints, sorted by colour and channeled my inner mad Monet and dabbled paint in a seemingly haphazard fashion until I was done (enough)

I’m sure my carefree paint brush manner drives the Snowlord bonkers … but he was very encouraging and tried to not make too many suggestions. (I made many suggestions, but she ignored most of them. -ed)

Points wise, I think these three buildings take up 1/2 a cube for 10 points

The first building, The Ochre Arms, will give me 20 points for fulfilling the Under Construction criteria.

I’m using Moss Manor to move to the High Adventure area. Moss Manor looks like the home of adventuring Elves. High Fantasy = High Adventure for another 20 Points.

The WaterHouse (in fact all three of these buildings) will be ‘gifted’ to Curt for use on the tabletop, which fulfills the Gift Store criteria for an additional 20 Points!

That should put me at 70 Points in total. :)

Thanks for stopping in to look at my village!

- Sarah

Minion Miles: Well this is a wonderful submission - I especially like Ochre Manor and the line " my carefree paint brush manner drives the Snowlord bonkers" is both wonderful and earns you a whoping 5 bonus points - nicely done! 

From SarahHC: Sunrise Tower & Dusk Hall (10 Points)

Hello Everyone!

Since I did not/would not paint the turnip patch that had “appeared” in my paint nook, I took the liberty of raiding the treasure cave that is the Snowlords’ Game Studio and found some wonderfully whimsical buildings which I felt were more suited to my sensibilities.

I love the slightly wonky, faerie-tale look of these. Curt tells me they are 10mm scaled 3D prints from a Kickstarter called 'Hagglethorn Hollow'.

My imagination ran wild and I decided that I would paint in a very impressionistic style… as if Monet was dropped on his head and began decided to paint miniatures instead of on canvas.

The Sunrise Tower

I used a variety of craft paints in whites, ochres, orange & deep reds, Citadel Contrast Iyendan Yellow and Vallejo Bright Brass for highlights. The minis were both initially primed with black followed by a light grey drybrush.

I wanted the tower to look like it’s on a hill top and is catching the sunrise and reflecting all the colours of the morning light.

Dusk Hall 

Again, I used a variety of craft paints, contrast paints and metallic silver to look like the Hall is in a deep hollow and absorbing the gloaming of twilight; blacks, purples and silver metallic as if the moonlight was reflecting off the building.

I’m pretty pleased with the results and I have a suspicion that Curt will be printing off a few more buildings for me to paint in this style.

Looks like I’m stuck on Istvaan, planet of loyalty/betrayal… my creative thinking couldn’t come up with a plausible enough tale to turn this post into fulfilling the criteria needed.

Next week will provide another opportunity so stay tuned!

Points wise? These are buildings 10mm scale and so don't take up much of a 6"x6" cube, so let's say 5pts?

- Sarah

Those buildings look fantastic, Sarah, and must have been much more fun to paint than a boring old turnip patch!

Now, the thing with terrain is that it is very helpful to have some sort of guide to how big they are to help with scoring them - a ruler, a figure...

As I have some idea of how large those buildings must be and how detailed your painting is, I'm going to score them as being equivalent to 28mm foot figures.

Tamsin