From ChrisW: This time with heroic deep sea divers! (190 points)

 

Heroic Deep sea divers [5x 28mm 25 points]

Last week I erroneously listed some Heroic deep sea divers, but failed to post any pictures. Well the truth of the matter is that I thought I would have them done in time for posting, after all they have been sitting on my table, nearly done, going on 3 or 4 weeks now. Well it works out that I hit a wall with them and just kept putting them off. Not this week, this week I decided to 'eat the frog' as some say and deliberately tackle them, but not until Sunday. (oh well the thought was there) 

These came from recreational conflicts some years back. Some assembly was required as each figure is made up of 5 parts (more if optional attachments are used) For the most part I used the arms with hands only substituting the tool arms on a couple of them. For paints I went primarily with the new Vallejo metal paints, except one of them that was painted with an army painter speed paint metal. For colours, I confess, I went a little overboard making them stand out quite a bit, emulating the old Major Matt Mason figures from my youth. 

VSF Free State armoured vehicles.    [2x 28mm vehicles  40 points]

These miniatures are from Ironclad miniatures, I believe they are now carried by Pendraken. I am using them for my Fenian Free Stater forces on Mars. They are painted in Martian Khaki shade (so reddish/orange shade) This was done with a black primer, followed by a spray of regular khaki then highlighted with some P3 khaki and Jack bone. Over this I applied a GW orange wash. As an example of my planning, I did not think about the orange wash until I stumbled upon it in a drawer. The wash was applied with brush and sponge alternately sponging the wash off and then on again. I also added a black brown wash to bring it down a tone. Finally some highlights of a craft paint Autumn brown and some Vallejo dust to finish. For the wheels I mixed up some dirt with the craft paint and some dirt effects.

The symbol on the side is courtesy of a request to AI to generate a flag and a decal for a VSF Fenian force on Mars.

Back of Beyond Muslim troops in British service    [10x 28mm 50 points]

These are Copplestone figures that will see some service with my BoB forces. I followed an LAF post for the khaki, and Sonic Sledgehammer for the flesh (it worked out well) I tell you, there are times where I just do not want to paint historic figures what with all their straps and pouches and difficult to reach areas, it is almost enough to make me not want to paint.

It does not belong in a museum! Guardians of Antiquities [10x 28mm 50 points]

A mix of figures here some from Old Glory (the dynamic poses) and the others are from Foundry. While these had been placed on one of my pile of potential figures for this challenge, they really were not in my sights. However while looking for inspiration for Minerva I stumbled upon a You tube video by Chris Abby. It suggested some speed paint combinations for some Arabic figures. Well I saw that vid Monday morning and had them painted up by the afternoon. While I did use most of the suggested paints I did use a different flesh paint and fixed up the yellow paint job with a P3 paint.

These figures will most likely show up as opposition for the Explorers of Egypt.

Minerva's Flying Circus            [5x 28mm figures 25 points]

These are yet more figures for the Pulp Alley games that me and my mates play. They are actually Pulp Alley figures and form up a league. 

So, my camera seems to be burst! It has decided to live up to my blog name and become unfocused! So Minerva and her crew were the best pictures that I could take and I even had to resort to using the wife's phone for the last few pics.

This is it for this post. I am on vacation as of Friday and will be out of the country, so there may be no post next week, but maybe I can finish off some stuff before I go and hopefully take pictures of them! 

Points this time

• 25  points for 5x 28mm Heroic Deep sea divers (the scourge of Evil minion deep sea divers)
• 40  points for 2x 28mm Free staters  armoured vehicles
• 50  points for 10x 28mm Muslim troops in British service BoB
• 50  points for 10x 28mm Guardians of antiquities 
• 25  points for 5x 28mm Minerva's Flying Circus

190 Points Total

Squirrels

5 more squirrels for a total of 21

1. Gladiators
2. Epic Orcs
3. Epic Imperial
4. Warlord Chinese
5. Red Russians RCW Back of Beyond
6. Alien Invaders
7. Pulp US Marines
8. Urban Cultists
9. Egyptian cultists
10. VSF Japanese armoured vehicles
11. Tripods
12. Bugs!
13. Evil minion deep sea divers
14. Puritans
15. Explorers of Egypt
16. Jungle explorers
17. Heroic deep sea divers
18. Muslim troops for the British
19. Free stater Armoured cars
20. Guardians of Antiquities
21. Minerva's Flying Circus

Lady Sarah

Minera's Flying Circus 

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Sylvain: Reading your post is like watching an action movie, there are lots of extras, fun machines and cool heroes. What is there not to like? Thanks for explaining your painting processes, it might come handy. 190 points well deserved! Fabuleux!

From TomL: The Ninth Sphere [The Angels] (45 points)

 Guiding me to our last sphere of Paradise is the final figure from Pulp Figures Femme Fatales set:

When I first looked at the lead mountain for an Angelic character I thought of these:

But these are really more monstrous than angelic so looking at the mountain again I decided to go with a simple innocent child - Lillie Poots:

Once they were on the table being photographed I thought of a Pulp Alley Horror scenario...

The Weeping Angels are from Crooked Dice miniatures.  Lillie Poots was originally sold by Pulp Alley from Statuesque Miniatures.  All 28mm figures were painted with Foundry acrylics and some old GW washes. 

Points total: 45
Ninth Sphere: 20
5 28mm figures * 5: 25

The challenge definitely supercharges my yearly painting while giving me an excuse to postpone work on home maintenance projects until later.  It was really, really fun to look at everyone's projects, the interesting tables and incredible range of available figures being painted.  I will have one last ACW only post as soon as I finish basing the units & take a few pictures.

Thanks to my minion Paul, all the other minions, Miles, Peter, Barks and of course Curt and Sarah for all the hard work and effort to support the challenge, it was truly appreciated.

TeemuL: Your Pulp Alley Horror scenario looks nice, very interesting! Those Weeping Angels seem to be "regular cast" in AHPC, I think I have seen them once or twice before from different participants. Nice to see you finish your Femme Fatale set, too. Yellow and Green suit Lillie Poots very nicely. Good job finishing the Theme Rounds, Tom, looking forward to see your ACW post in the near future.

From BruceR Chamber of Challenges Graveyard Beach 5 28mm 25 pts + 28mm vehilce 20 pts + Chamber 20pts = 65pts

Muff McGillicutty has returned and assembled his royal marines to venture into the Graveyard Beach.  For this task the royal scoundrels have commandeered a tug and a good thing as well.  What else could you get through this cavernous stream in search of the "Red Casket" for Muff's benefactor.  Not sure what it contains just retrieve it we shall lads.  

The Royal Marines are pulp figures and are really great to paint.  The white uniforms are fun and the faces are great.  I picked these up to go with some pulp British army lads I had used for a Bolt Action force. So while in the subzero painting muse of the Challenge I grabbed the bag and knocked them out.

The tug is an Empress Miniatures Resin model.  I picked it up for those same pulp army brits I did thinking I would use on a show board to indicate my early war brits sat on the  Suez Canal.  Well the army was done but the board got tanks instead of a boat.  Again the Chambers Challenge had me grabbing it of the shelf, break  out the airbrush and go at it.  I base coated it rust brown and a light grey.  From there the brush hit everything else.  Not sure how it will play other than terrain at a dock.   Now to build a dock...............

Here is the crew landing at the Graveyard Beach and retrieving the "Red Casket".  Muff oversees the retrieval, while two sailors cover the other three.  

The Casket is a metal miniature from the lead pile.  Not sure where it came from and it has no markings on the back.  So I have painted the Royal marines, with the intention when purchased to flesh out an early WWII force for flavor.  I saw the water and thought, Royal Marines + Tug + Casket = Graveyard Beach.  So I hope the Chamber god's approve.

5 28mm Royal Marines 25 pts

28mm Tug Boat 20 pts

Chamber "Graveyard Beach" 20 pts

Total 65pts

Thanks for following the perils of Muff.  Thus ends the US 3 day weekend.

Cheers

BruceR 

 

BruceR Level 2 the "Hatchery" (27 pts)

 On to the next level in the Chambers of Challenges.  Hmm, looking for some monster or egg released dragon and coming up with nothing from the lead pile.  I spot an old Games Workshop familiar and it hit me "Alien".  So break out the milliput and the texture stamp for another base.  Instead of an egg the "it" has to come from a body and I'm not a big gore person so what next.  The Bob Murch Movember collection is staring at me so introducing Lord Lippenbrush from the collection.  and....

While the intrepet adventurers delve deeper into the chambers one of the members, Rashid, falls ill, after some rest and water all seems well.  All of a sudden Rashid collapses and eeck this litte creature of bone and fangs erupts from his chest and takes his head off, while scurring into the shadows. "Bloody Hell" Lord Lippenbrush draws his revolver to put paid to this little scurge lurking in the shadows.

Wanting to use Lord Lippenbrush in other games his base is given my standard basing.  The creature is coated in minwax for a slime effect and the base again is my Flagstone from Happy Seppuku Stamp. The head is from Wargames Atlantic Afghan Warriors.  (maybe I should be in the squirrel challenge) :)

Here is Lord Lippenbrush on his own.

Chamber Challenge (Hatchery) 20 pts + Lord Lippenbush (28mm) 5 pts + familiar (15mm) 2 pts = 27 pts?

[Wednesday] From PaulS: Wednesday Madness (Ready)

Much like previous weeks, we're going for another very mixed batch of games and manufacturers in this entry with no thought to consistency of theme, other than "That's weird..." and I suspect that will be your response to the selection too.

Starting with some bits that very nearly got finished for the last entry, but didn't quite pip the post. These are all for Bolt Action/Konflict '47 or the Achtung! Cthulhu skirmish. The first two figures are a german super  soldier and Canon from the A!C skirmish game from Modiphius. The figures are more true scale than Warlord's which makes the Canon a little small, hence him being on a thicker base than the other guy.

When I picked up the plastics for the last batch of Germans, it included some tanks (in the queue). One of which was a choice of SD.KFZ 251 kits. Rather than grabbing the normal one, I opted for the mortar carrier... but opted to build it as a normal 251 and made the mortar into a medium mortar team instead

There is also a lone flamethrower from the Pioneer box set. I still need to make his partner in crime to complete the team, but that involves getting out the green stuff, so rather than delay things further with more modelling, I'll leave that until after the challenge. For now a generic rifleman will have to do.

Next up we have two characters from the Pulp Alley range. These are some of the nicest models I've painted in a while. I think it is the clean sculpts and just enough detail to make them characterful, but not over the top so that it takes forever to pick out the bits and pieces

Pulp Girl has been done up as a German super soldier or mystic with a powered/magical gauntlet... not quite decided which she will be.

The other figure in the pack has been painted up as Lobster Johnson from the BPRD comics. What pulp/weird war setting would be complete without his appearance?!

After the deviation into Pulp, we return to the Weird West with three giant, two headed rat-type things from Shadows of Brimstone. Like most of the earlier sculpts, the detail is soft, but not as soft as the original sets. There are also less gaps caused by poor casting design and warpage or plastic, so I have some hope that the rest of the KS figures will actually be worth while when it turns up. Lobster Johnson is fighting these off to give you a sense of scale on these things. They are massive...

Last, but definitely not least, is a deviation off into 30K with 5 Custodes from the Prospero box set. These guys make Terminators look small and weedy!

This totals to 16 28mm figures to add to the totals so far. 

ByronM: Another great eclectic post Paul.  Everything here looks great, but my two favourites are the giant rats and the pinup.  The rats I really like as they could be used for so many different games and fit right it, and your neutral / normal paint scheme for them looks great and helps them be universal.

The pinup girl is my other favourite as I love the contrast from the grey uniform to the blue glove and back to the blond hair. Speaking of which blond hair is always so hard to pull off, but it looks spot on with her, and that is what helps sell it.

The rats look big enough to be considered cavalry, so you get 95 points for today's submission. Great work!