From JP: Border Reivers Continued and a touch of Heresy (80 points)

Happy Friday folks,

Pushing on with my Border Reivers, I present a dozen figures which includes a Sarah to get me to Heresy. My Heresy figure is a dour Preacher who believes in forceful conversion by the sword.

As ever, the figures are the lovely castings from Battle Flags and the angry mule (I am very partial to painting mules for some reason) is an Otherworld Miniatures.

I am therefore requesting:

12 x 28mm  figs   = 60

1 x Heresy            = 20

Total                     = 80

As ever - thanks for having a squiz and any comments/advice are welcome!!

Your border reivers look great, JP! I also like the angry priest, a great figure carrying a compelling argument for his beliefs. The children on their stick horses are quite delightful, as is the peddler with his backpack showing his wares. Another 80 points for you!

Martijn

From JP: Final Post Fantasy 28mm (38 points)

Well, they were on my painting table for the past two weeks eyeing me dolefully… so what else could I do?

The first three are by Artizan, a pair of trolls and a goblin shaman. I love the figs but the trolls turned out more difficult to paint than I expected. Lots of nooks and crannies and an absolute pain to properly undercoat (I only brush undercoat). Still, I’m fairly pleased with the outcome. As for the shaman, I decided he should be a bit of a dandy, by my standards anyways.

Then there are the Otherworld male and female owlbears. Getting these two to remain assembled was also a challenge, even with pinning arms and tails in place. I have tried to follow the conventions of nature in that the male is brighter coloured than the female. My only regret is the inability to vary the arm poses. There's also a basic statue...

 

As I end my last entry for this year, I will lean on a little nostalgia.  A very long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a small group of university students started playing a game called Dungeons and Dragons. A member of the group designed a logo, based on our favourite cartoon at the time – he is a painter in this year’s Analog.

The year was 1976 and yes, that’s your drawing skills Frederick Carsted. 

I still have my original rules, in their wood grained box, and I still wax lyrical about the nostalgia of those days.

A couple of years ago, I managed to buy Foundry’s wonderful range of Ogres and Goblins. I was so enamoured I eventually picked up almost all of it. It also led me to paint this little vignette, well in keeping with my twisted sense of humour. No - no points, did it a few years ago. but wanted to share it with fellow painting enthusiasts:

Almost forgot:

6 x 28mm figs (though 4 are well over 32mm) = 30 points.

Thank you again. Hope to see you at the end of this year!

Cheers,

JP

_________________________________

Wonderful work JP! What a great bunch of classic D&D monsters. I realize the Owlbears took a bit of work to get done but they look terrific (with their pose they look like a Motown duet!). Wonderful bit of nostalgia as well (love seeing that early edition of the D&D rules - brings back good memories).

I'm going to award you some extra points as several of these models look well over 40mm.

Thank you for pitching in with us this year, JP. I hope we see you out in the ranks the next time the Challenge sails.

- Curt

From RustyP - Logical Beings on Vulcan - (35 points)

I managed to get a few individuals painted over the weekend.  Not much, but I do hope in the next few weeks to finish some items that I've started.  

First up I have a logical being from the Necrontyr.  This one is a Cryptek.  I won't get into all the details of what they do but in short they do a lot of 'busy work' for their overlords.  The green resurrection orb in his hand is for well... resurrection of destroyed Necron buddies.  Kinda handy in a scrap!

GW Fine Cast Resin Model

Rear View of Undead Robot. lol

Side View of Orb... Let's fight again BOYS!

Next I finished a couple of unique logical beings.  Both 28mm minis are from Otherworld Miniatures.  I really like their dungeon miniatures range.  The Mind Flayer is especially intelligent and looks down upon everything else.  The other miniature is a doppelganger (he even has pointy ears).  Dangerous being that is worth looking up and reading about if one is not familiar.  There's one in the Netflix series The Witcher!

Front View

Rear View

Points:

3 ea 28mm Miniatures @ 5 pts = 15 pts.

Vulcan planet bonus = 20 pts.

Total =35 pts.

Greg, please select a planet for me to venture in the middle ring since I completed 4 in the outer ring.  It'll be fun to see if I can match something to it!

That's it for this week.  Hope to do a little more for the coming weeks.

***

Very nice Paul. I am a 40k fan, and I do like how GW have evolved the Necron figure line into these sort of undead-machine-bad guys. The figures for that range get nicer all of the time, and you have done fine work on your Necron here. Finecast is sure a let-down, though, is it not? I bet it was fun trying to sort out his staff...

Your submission covers off the "logic", and also the pointy ears! Very nice Mind Flayer and Doppleganger!

Choose a planet? Hmmm...let's go with LV426 as your next destination. Many folks traveling there have rattled on and on about "aliens" - but I'm sure your visit will proceed smoothly, with almost no trouble at all, right? Good luck!

GregB

From DallasE: LotR and Otherworld City Guardsman on Arda (35 points)

Having missed last week I really wanted to keep some momentum going with my painting, so I cranked out some fantasy figures for a trip to Arda (fantasy, Tolkienesque) - I figure they score on all counts.

Of course the models in the centre and right of the photo are Armoured Pippin and Merry from the GW Lord of the Rings range. The model at left is a City Guardsman from Otherworld Miniatures. 

Anyway here's Pippin, painted pretty much as seen on the GW website.

Quite a nice little model all dressed in Gondorian battle kit.

The other half of the set is Merry, equipped as a warrior of Rohan.

Another very nice model, again painted per the GW website.

Here's the Otherworld City Guardsman - a superb model that's sure to come in handy in any urban fantasy setting. I really like this sculpt.

So there's three models for the fantasy/Tolkien theme. Fun and easy to paint.

Points:

3x 28mm models = 15 points

Arda bonus = 20 points

Total = 35 points

Cheers!

Very nice, Dallas. The guard does look the part, and your hobbits are spot-on. After much consideration, I'll allow this for Arda.

Barks

From Dallas: Hobgoblin Chieftain, King of the Dead, Death Worm (20 points)

Having completed the Chambers of Challenge and offered tribute at the Altar of the Snowlord, all that remains is to post the last few models completed before the end of the Challenge. First up is this Hobgoblin Chieftain on Dire Wolf, from Games Workshop's old Warhammer Fantasy Battles range.

The first army I ever painted for WHFB was a classic "big hat" Chaos Dwarf force, which still maintains pride of place in my cabinets. An important part of the army was a large contingent of Hobgoblin Wolf Riders, which engaged in some "creative reimagining" of battle reports we posted on our blog.

In sniffing around for something to paint at the last minute, I noticed that I had this model that had been waiting for paint for nigh-on 15 years or more. So I got at it!

Makes me want to get the Chaos Dwarfs out again for some old-school WHFB! Barks - take note - I counted 15 SKULLS on this model alone! Must be some kinda record...?

Next up is the King of the Dead to accompany my recently-painted Warriors of the Dead. The King is a metal model which arrived yesterday from an eBay transaction. It was new in the blister, having originally accompanied an issue of the Eaglemoss "LotR" collector's magazine.

As before - simplicity itself to paint. White spray and Biel-Tan Green wash. That's it!

Lastly, another postal arrival from yesterday - a very cool "Death Worm" from Otherworld Miniatures (currently on sale at their site for 4 quid!!)

This monster is a sorcerous construct and not, strictly speaking, undead - at least according to its entry in the Fiend Folio under "Necrophidius". Conscript Brian H. instantly recognized it when I showed it off on our Zoom call last night and directed me to the FF entry. Good knowledge Brian! 

It was obviously another super-easy model to paint and brings the total skull-count for this post to 16 SKULLS. WOW!

So barring a super-human effort to paint a Chaos Dwarf Sorceror on Lamasu, that's probably it for my Challenge entries this year. And as I've got a haircut, doctor's appointment, and icetime booked to play hockey today, it seems unlikely much more Challenge painting is in the cards. But it was fun! 

Stay safe everyone and we'll see you at the after-party!

From Curt: More Pig-Faced Orcs! (With More Oink!) (34 Points)

The Orc's Pit. 

Well, as I promised from my first post of the Challenge, here are two classic Pig-Faced Orcs to join their venerable Minifig forebear.

These models are from Otherworld Miniatures. I think they're brilliant. They manage to convey the old school design of early D&D, while also possessing a contemporary grittiness about them. I'm really looking forward to doing more. The big fella with the flail is 'Chieftain FoulTusk', while the other, with the fancy snouted helm, is his Champion, 'BadBoi'.

I wanted to try a flaking paint effect on their shields, but I'm not entirely convinced. The yellow is not horrible, but I shouldn't have used red for the other one as it simply looks like it's spattered with gore (not entirely out of character, but not what I wanted).  I'll give it another try when I get a resupply from Otherworld.

Also, in the spirit of terrain amortisation, I have them stomping around in some of my kickstarter-acquired Dwarven Forge Cavern tiles (whose cost, by the look of their website, is almost equivalent in their weight in gold). I hope to be using these more as I just picked up 'Otherworld Fantasy Skirmish' and the 'Thud & Blunder' rules to try some dungeon adventuring.

As to points? Well, the chamber bonus gives me 20, the two lads are around 40mm tall, that'll  give me 14 points for them, so that gives me 34 points total. 

Now, after taking off my socks and mittens to do the math, I believe this entry will pip me past my goal of 800 points. Hooray!! I think I'm going to open a bottle to celebrate!

Okay, I have to get back to level 3 as I want try for the Laboratory, so off I go to dig for another female model for the Sorceress...

- Curt

From SimonM: "Wizkids" Dire Wraiths & "Otherworld Miniatures" Black Pudding (45 Points)

This 28mm scale pewter model of a Black Pudding is produced by "Otherworld Miniatures", and can be bought as Code DM7b from their range of Dungeon Monsters. Hand-sculpted by Paul Muller, the creature made its first appearance in the 1974 "Dungeons & Dragons" set and "resembles a bubbling, heaped pile of thick, black, pudding-like goo, roughly fifteen feet across and two feet thick."

As with the Hertfordshire-based manufacturer's Green Slime, I found the "nasty, oozing creature that haunts caverns and dungeons, seeking unwary denizens to prey upon" to actually overlap the edges of its accompanying "50mm round plastic slotta-base", so ended up super-gluing it to a 60mm circular base instead. I then applied a double basecoat of "Citadel" Abaddon Black over the "mindless, underground-dwelling scavenger" and heavily dry-brushed with "Vallejo" Heavy Charcoal.

Finally, I drowned the Black Pudding in "Citadel" Nuln Oil. I actually found this particular 'figure' rather underwhelming, as although it has some nice detail, it is incredibly flat for an underground creature which "secretes a digestive acid that dissolves organic material and metal quickly." "Wizkids" produced a far more dynamic-looking, almost swirling version as part of their Monster Menagerie Set 2, but I have been unable to source a reasonably priced one yet...

Speaking of "Wizkids" and their pre-painted plastics, I have also pigmented eight of their 31mm tall plastic Dire Wraiths. Still potentially available as number 010a from the "Marvel" Guardians Of The Galaxy "Heroclix" range, these shape-shifting aliens "are an evolutionary offshoot of the Skrulls from the Andromeda Galaxy" and were created by Bill Mantlo and Al Milgrom for the December 1979 issue of "Rom".

Once the models were removed from their clicky-bases and super-glued onto 40mm circular bases, they were all primed with two coats of "Vallejo" Heavy Red and heavily washed with "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. The extra-terrestrial opponents of Rom the Spaceknight were then dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Red.

Each Wraith's pair of eyes were 'picked out' first with some "Citadel" Abaddon Black, and then a tiny spot of "Vallejo" Heavy Ochre. As I wanted the "Skrullian Deviants" pupils to particularly stand out, I didn't bother shading them, and instead simply tidied their edges up with some additional "Citadel" Abaddon Black and "Vallejo" Heavy Red.

MilesR: wow lots of red today too.  Very nicely done