From TomC: Lylyth, Herald of Everblight [Sarah the Succubus] (5 points)

Hello again one and all, I hope everyone is as well as can be and very pleased to see everyone's progress to date, some great entries so far (and we're still only in January!). My entry today is a relatively simple offering to guide me between the locales of Limbo and Gluttony (like my pre-breakfast state) and is Lylyth (Lylyth1 to be exact, there are several iterations!) who was one of Privateer Press's warlocks for the Legion of Everblight faction within their Hordes / Warmachine game systems. I say was since she dates back to MkI / 1st edition and Warmachine is now up to MkIV, which involved an Age of Sigmar-esque purge of almost all their range, including this incarnation of Lylyth. Previews suggest she will be back as a sort of mecha-dragon though, so how's that for character development?

As with much of the pile of potential, I picked Lylyth up quite some time ago, around 2016 when Privateer Press were changing the starter boxes over between editions. Of course, one thing lead to another, with neither being actually getting round to painting what I'd bought! What eventually kicked me into action were these splendidly silly ice bases that Customeeple makes for the Malifaux game, I was very pleased to have an excuse to buy more things and even more pleased to actually use them... If you look closely, there are things under the ice as well, Lylyth here has some pseudo-Cthulu tentacles, but others from the set have fish, monsters, dead bodies and the other typical detritus of fantasy waterways... 10/10, if a little unusual to paint!

On the topic of painting, David Soper has been walking through his work on a wonderful piece of his with an interesting colour palette on his blog, and I was feeling motivated to try something different, so I broadly cribbed his hard work with the purple and cold NMM gold being the primary colours. I modified things a little to make my life easier, the NMM goes from VGC Heavy Black Green rather than VMC Dark Sea Blue (to VMC US Olive Drab then S75 Tenere Yellow, to white). I did use the Dark Sea Blue for the iron bow, to Citadel Stegadon Scale Green then VMC Russian Tank Crew (which I am overly fond of), although this is entirely my own invention. 

I haven't tried painting purple before, this was just the Games Workshop triad of Naggaroth Night, Xereus Purple and Genestealer Purple, all of which had been lying around unused. To try and keep a consistent tone, I used the Genestealer Purple mixed with VMC Old Rose as the basis for the skin base, aiming for a slightly unnatural look appropriate for the disciple of an evil demonic dragon...

Humble scoring for today but I owe Teemu for fixing my labels last time (thank you!), so just 5 points today for our 32mm antagonist, which will teach me to spend time on single character models! Next time should hopefully see something a little larger!

TeemuL: It is good to see someone paying attention to the Theme round, that's what Thursdays are all about? I have never really investigated the Warmachines/Hordes line, they seem so specific minis, that they don't mix nicely with others and since I don't know anyone interested in playing with them, I have mostly ignored them. But your Lylyth looks very nice and could be used in other settings, too. Your gold an purple look spot on, very royal look! The base looks interesting, too, never seen one of those before. Good luck on your venture to the Gluttony!

From StuartL - Crusaders again? (32 points)

My second post this week is a bunch of Crusaders. These ones have a slightly more fantasy take on the theme though. The models are by Privateer Press and are for the Menoth faction of Warmachine. 

The Protectorate of Menoth are the religious fanatics of the Warmachine world. Their aim is to spread the word of Menoth to everyone. That word is 'FIRE'. As a rule, they like burning things. On occasion they may smash something with a massive mace, and then burn it, but only if they feel that simply burning it isn't enough.

I'm not a Warmachine player myself, (though I played ages ago), these models were done for a friend of mine who plays fairly regularly. The Warmachine scene here in Japan is actually fairly busy. The straightforward nature of the rules means that they can be translated easily and big, stompy mechs are always popular.

I'm not altogether certain what these models are exactly, but I can tell you that they are Warjacks. 'Jacks are an important piece of the Warmachine game. They are capable of dishing out a lot of damage, taking a lot in return and can be powered up by having the Warcaster (leader) of their battle group handing over extra magic power.

Again, I'm not entirely sure on the names of these figures. The central figure is the Warcaster of the group and, as her base demonstrates, she loves fire. I think this would be a fantastic model to use OSL techniques on, but I'm not that great of a painter. All of the models have white marks on the sides of their bases to denote where their front/rear arcs are, in case anyone was wondering.

None of these models has any pure white on it. The armour was all painted with Vallejo's Light Grey mixed with White on a 1:1 basis. It's close enough to fool the eye and is far easier for painting. 

I'm not sure as to the points scoring. The three infantry models are roughly 28mm figures, but the two Warjacks are bigger. So, I will let my ever diligent minion handle the scoring for those. However, I believe that they do get me a Squirrel point for my tally.

__________________________________________________________________

It's a good thing I can detect how tall a figure is from a photograph, thanks to my having been visited by three good fairies in my infancy...

; )

We'll say 5 points apiece for the smaller figures, and I'll take a stab and say 7 and 10  for the Warjacks, for a total of  32 points.

Well done, Sir!

Ev

From SeanM: A Little Bit of Everything (105 points)

Let me start with a tale of woe! Last week, on submission day, Eastern Canada was afflicted by some freezing rain. Now, Ottawa was on the edge of the system, but it was still of enough accumulation to deep six my satellite internet. So this week, it is time for some catch up.

First up, is a Blackclad Wayfarer for Hordes (28mm). This is not an overly complicated figure, but I find Privateer Press' (PP) newer figures are almost overburdened with detail. It kind of corresponds to when they adopted CAD sculpting...  Anyways, this druid with his over compensating cloak is not from that era.

Next up is a unit from the sister system, a minimum unit of Idrian Skirmishers. Fluff wise, this is a confused unit; they are like a group of Bedouin converts working as irregular troops for a Counter-Reformation Catholic Church. Oh, well. PP allows you to put either a minimum or maximum size unit on the table, there is no longer the granularity of their 1st ed. rules. The figures are pretty clean to paint, and they took to the "magic wash" much better than my earlier Celts did. I will hopefully have a command attachment painted by the end of the challenge.

This guy is my favourite of the bunch. A much more sensibly dressed chap than the rest, I think I'll order up some more of him when I expand the unit at some later date.

Here is a chestnut from the olden days, BattleTech (6mm). I see in the Armour entries I wasn't the firstest, but maybe I can have the mostest! What I've done here is a combined arms company, using 'mechs, armour and battle armour infantry. To delve into the fluff, there are a unit of the Capellan March Militia from the Federated Suns. This faction was widely regarded as BattleTech's Mary Sue. But this unit, is from a time period when it all started to go wrong for them, the end of the Fed-Com Civil War. This is one of my favourite parts of BattleTech, for the past 30 years, they have advanced the timeline over 120 years, and all of the factions have waxed and waned.

The 'mechs below are lighter, second line forces at this stage of the timeline. From left to right, these are the Jenner, Centurion, Clint and Javelin. The three on the left are from the latest plastic sculpts, and they have crisp details and very light mold lines. The Javelin is from a metal set, and is of very good quality. The biggest difference you can see in the finished product is the thickness of the cast on bases, with the plastic being much thicker than the metal.

Here are the vehicles, two scout cars and two Drillson hover tanks. The Drillsons are IMW metal sculpts, while the scout cars are from the MechWarrior Dark Age clicky set. They scale nicely, and give off the old "Mad Max scavenger economy" setting from the early '80s BattleTech.

The Battle Armour is all from the clicky-tech set. You might notice the bases are round rather than the traditional B-Tech hexes. Two reasons; first off infantry has 360 arcs, second, I was running out of hex bases. Rules + desperation = success! The larger of the sculpts, the Cavaliers, are actually smaller than the Hauberk assault suits in the game, but the vagaries of the sculpts lead one to use what is available. I was one Cavalier short, so you'll notice an on base victim to fill in the dead space.

Finally, I've been tempted to tip my toe back into 40K with a local gaming group. The Royal Table Top Regiment (RTTR) is holding a Kill-Team league, so I've stepped up and finished another long standing project - Adpetus Arbites.

So I'll admit from the start, four of these guys are not total new paints, but are partial repaints to conform to the weapon options. These guys below had their shotguns swapped out for riot shields and mauls, plus a melta gun for the fourth. They are just there to show the group scheme in full.

Next are the full paint jobs, painted to match the scheme from the guys above. This is a dog's breakfast of GW's models line. There are Rogue Trader Arbites from the 80's, 2nd ed Arbites from the '90s, Necromunda Enforcers from the '00s and the sniper is a converted Space Marine Scout. The first figure on the second picture is an attempt to make a female Arbites using an Eldar Guardian as a base, but I'll have to go back and fix the gorilla arms.

Overall, that is 15 28mm figures, 28 6mm infantry and eight 6mm vehicles. And here is a preview of what I've been working on for the East Challenge...

TTFN,
Sean.

Alan and Paul: Bedouin converts for a counter-Reformation Catholic Church?? The mind boggles! Nice work Sean - this is certainly an eclectic bunch. I like the Idrians, and particularly the kneeling sniper, but my favourites are your Arbites. The ones with riot shields look great, and you have matched their look with your latest painting really well. This little lot earns you 105 points.

From DavidL -28mm Warmachine: Scruffy Desperado Types (85 points)

January is a very busy month for me work-wise, but I'm still managing to put in a couple hours every evening, and here (finally) is my first significant accomplishment of the Challenge: a passel of figures for Warmachine.

These fellows (along with a Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew I painted a long time ago) are sufficient to field a good medium-sized force by the standards of the game. To be honest, the core concept of the force is meant to tweak the nose of my regular opponent, who usually fields the Cygnar faction. So here we have Magnus the Warlord, a traitor to his homeland of Cygnar, now a scruffy mercenary generalissimo conspiring to bring down Cygnar's current king.

He brings with him two Warjacks: the heavy Mangler and the light (and appropriately-named) Renegade. Although these are normally considered "mercenary" designs, Magnus has painted them in Cygnar blue--deep down inside, he still thinks of himself as a patriot--but life out in the swamps and badlands is tough, and the paint is peeling and chipping, the iron beneath beginning to rust.

To help in his plotting and endeavors, Magnus has contracted the services of the notorious bandit gang, Croe's Cutthroats. Armed with crossbows and "murder blades," these desperadoes are in it for the gold and plunder and couldn't care less about Magnus's political ambitions.

Even though my Warmachine/Hordes rules mastery remains woefully lacking, I'm looking forward to fielding these guys, and hopefully soon.

If the 'jacks are being scored as 28mm vehicles (as with ChrisH's entry), then that's 15 points each, plus 11 regular figures for 55 points.

David, great post!  I know approximately zip all about Warmachine, but these have a nice Rube Goldbergian steampunk feel to them.  You painted them up very nicely, I especially like the blue on the big machines and your weathering and rust work.  Is Magnus riding some Steampunk Segue?

From ChrisH - The next few figures (80 Points)

The first couple of minis follow on from the Warmachine ones I submitted in my first post. These two are called light Warjacks, steam powered and magic infused mega robots from the Warmachine universe belonging to the faction known as Menoth.

Redeemer

Revenger

Next up are some of the Reaper bones fantasy characters. I really loved the price point but I am finding it hard to paint them all. Some are great and take paint well others I am struggling with as the detail varies and the ability to hold onto the paint somewhat odd. So I am not really trying to go for top of the line paint jobs (I can't really do this anyway if I am honest). Finally some Reaper metal thieves and a couple of modern/Sci-fi Zombie Hunters.

Blacksmith

Bones

Reaper Metal Thieves

Pink the Zombie Hunter (don't know who the manufacturer is?)

Different Angle

Bones Zombie Hunter with CHAINSAW how cool is this mini!

So going by the normal points that's 12 X 5 or anpther 60 but as the Light Warjacks are 3 times the size of a standard 28mm mini I plan on milking Curt for a few more..................please.........

Very nice work Chris. I like the bone base colour of your Warjacks, it gives them a very stylized look about them. 

Your character figures all look great but I think my favourite has to be the Blacksmith (thought I do like the zombie hunter with the pink bangs as well).

I've heard similar comments about paint adhesion with the Reaper Bones stuff. I wonder if it has something to do with the release agent they use. Would a good soak in a warm soapy dish prior to priming help? I often do this and then use an old toothbrush to scrub the figures down to make sure the release agent has been scoured away. It works the treat with my resin and plastic stuff and wonder if it might help here.

 As to the points, we've previously scored Warjacks as 54mm figures, but I'm thinking a 28mm vehicle might be more appropriate, so we'll run with that instead. That will bring your total to 80 points. Great job.

From ChrisH - Warmachine Khador (75 Points)

There is a nice little story about these miniatures. Around 18 months ago I went in a demonstration game at a convention called Winter Con in Canberra Australia.  I had a turn at a game called Warmachine and I thought “Wow I like the mechanics, the miniatures are nice and the chaps running the demo seem to know what they are doing. Alas I don’t really need another game.” Well a couple of weeks later I get an email saying that I had won the boxed set of Warmachine. 

Oh no this sounds like a slippery slope and sure enough.

What you see before you are my latest absolutely not needed purchases of Warmachine Khador miniatures, a solo known as a Manhunter (actually a Christmas present from my mother in law, bless her), a command set for the Winter Guard, two Rocketeer attachments and a full unit of 10 troopers of Winter Guard split into units of 5 for photographic ease.

Manhunter

Command

Rocketeers

Winter Guard

I think this nets me 5 points X 15 thus 75 points. 

Oh, and no, I have not played a game of it yet but plan on making 35 points for two of the forces that came in the boxed game and getting a couple of games in with these. I am only 3 points short for the Khador force but around 12 points short for the Menoth force. For those not familiar with the game please look it up it looks like fun.

First, welcome aboard Chris! It's great to have a new victim, er, participant for the Challenge!

You've done beautiful work on these figures. I really like their uniforms with the red against the dark blue-grey - very sharp. I'm not familiar with the game but I know it's quite popular around these parts, especially with those who wanted to move away from 40K but still wanted to stay within a Sci-Fi setting.

These are worth 75 points for your debut on the Challenge roster. Again, welcome to the fun Chris!