From PeterD: Badass Women of the Nordic Resistance (30 points)

You maybe noticing a theme to my 28mm posts this year...These are a set of 6 28mm female miniatures from Bad Squiddo, five from a WW2 Resistance kickstarter than I bought into.  Lovely figures, well researched, sculpted and cast.

First up, two Norwegians.  Anne Margrethe Bang had no formal nursing training beyond first aid, but served as a volunteer nurse to the defenders of Hegra fortress during a 25 day siege in 1940.   She lost several toes due to wet and cold conditions.  Captured and then released, she joined the Norwegian resistance.  Eva Klovstad joined the underground and from late1944 was leader of a 1,200 strong unit.  Both women survived the war and lived past 90.

Elsa checks out the scene while "fixing her sock", while Hedda makes sure that all it well with her dynamite.

Next two Danes.  Hedda Lundh was an explosive expert who ran an all female unit which included Elsa Marie Pade.  They relied on the Germans not bothering with a bunch of silly drunk girls (they were teenagers in 1940) while they planned sabotage attacks.  Else liked to use pulling her socks up as ruse.  When the group was captured, Hedda and her husband escaped to Sweden.  Later she became a journalist and teacher.  Else became a prisoner but after the war became a prominent electronic music pioneer.  Again they both lived past 90.

I like the pose on Vera, who is checking her compass to make sure that she's got her bearings straight.

The last pair are Vera Laska, A Czech and American photographer Toni Frissell.  Vera joined the underground in 1938 when she was 15, helping jews get out across borders.  She later sabotaged the V-2 program.  After the way she moved to America, got her PHd and became a college professor.  Toni Frissell was a well know fashion photographer who joined the Red Cross in 1941 and later worked for the War Department.  She took well known photos of the London Blitz and the Tuskegee Airmen.  Both survived the war and lived past 80.

For all of these figures I basically followed the colour schemes on the Bad Squiddo website where painted figures were shown.  I tried and bailed on Eva's argyle socks.  Doing the solid green for Toni convinced me never to do WW2 Americans.  Basing wise, Anne Margrethe was in a fortress and the two Danes appeared to be in an urban setting, so I tried representing a gravel ground scape for those three figures.  I'm not sure if I'll try it again. For the other three I used a more typical basing style.

6*28mm figures =30 points

I'll also claim a squirrel for the 5 figures (25 points) or Resistance fighters. 

 

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Sylvain: Again, the quality of your post is outstanding. You provide very lively information that add another layer of interest to your figurines. With your brushwork, you made each of these character unique and I hope you will find a way to integrate them in a game. Bravo!

 

From DallasE: More Winter Soviets and Cyberskulls! (Heresy) (75 points)

Continuing on with the Winter Soviets theme I'll start the post with one from Warlord Games and two from Bad Squiddo.

This is the "company commander" from Warlord's Winter Soviet support pack. It's an OK model but pretty lightly armed with only a pistol, seems to run counter to the current Bolt Action meta where command squads are used like fighting units and are pretty heavily armed. But I'm not one for "metas" in historical games (or any games really) so it's OK by me. 

(Paul - as a Soviet Officer, he only needs a pistol anyway, a key part of his mandated 'reinforcement by example' leadership style...)

The sculpt is nice but scales somewhat larger than the Warlord plastic infantry. It's no problem if your command squad is all metal, but once you add in the plastics it can get a little weird.

 

Bad Squiddo is of course well-known for their ranges of female figures and they have some cracking Soviets on offer. The last time I was in Fargo I picked up a pack of their excellent Traffic Controllers from FLGS Little Big Wars. LBW carries lots of Annie's stuff but unfortunately they didn't have the winter snipers or Lyudmila Pavlichenko packs in stock. But these are very nice models too.

 

This traffic controller carries a Mosin-Nagant.

Her companion is flagging traffic. These are very well-sculpted models, just full of character. They're somewhat larger than the Warlord plastic infantry too, though.

Anyway she's flagging us on to the Sixth Circle: Heresy.

For that Circle I've painted a group of eight 28mm "not-Cyberskulls" from a 3D printshop. I wanted some more floaty skulls to go into my 40K Sisters of Battle army, and to use in an Inquisitorial gang. And these are pretty nice.

 

I like how the one is sporting a Bishop's mitre, for Pete's sake. That must be heretical on some level...

The others are carrying weapons of various kinds.

The skull on the right is carrying a book. There's purity seals on it so it must be OK.

A couple skully dudes floating along trailing rolls of toilet paper they stepped on in the space-restroom.

The Bishop again. Love this guy.

Anyway, here's the points breakdown:

3x 28mm Winter Soviets: 15 points

8x 28mm floaty cyberskulls: 40 points

Sarah bonus: 20 points (I've clarified this with the Snowlord himself and unfortunately this Bonus is claimed exclusively through the Sarah Serephon/Succubus mechanic transferring you between themes. It can still count toward the Sarah's Challenge though - Paul)

Sixth Circle bonus: 20 points

Total: 95 75 points

Skulls: 8

Cheers!

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Nice Soviets to add to your force Dallas, and I LOVE the Cyberskulls - I'm sure Barks the Skull Lord will be impressed also! 

As you say the one with the mitre is just fab. Clearly he was an Ecclesiarch of some note, though unable to be cannonised because of those incriminating social media posts from the Dark Eldar pleasure palace on Eroticon VI - pity! Perhaps the other skulls are the remnants of his Ministorum crew back in the day too? :-)

- Paul

From PeterB - From the Sabbat Worlds to Star City, via a Limo Ride - 112 Points

 Last week I finished my post at the Westerns studio with just two more lots left to visit. So, a quick nip across the road to the Books Studio for a trip into the oh so familiar 41st Millennium, but bear with...

Now, last year one of my early posts was an unexpected Christmas gift from Mrs B that I painted up of a McFarlane Toys Space Marine. I chose to paint him up as an Iron Snake Space Marine as I am a fan of Dan Abnett's books (as are a few of you lot including Curt and Barks I now know). So, this year for our book theme of course I had to paint something from the Library of Mr Abnett and who better than Warhammer 40,000's answer to Sharpe, the Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt and a couple of his "Ghosts" from Tanith First and Only. 

Gaunt and "Try Again" Bragg

I cannot recommend this series of books enough to anyone who enjoys a bit of Sci-fi mixed with their military fiction. I would be the first to say that Games Workshops' Black Library press can be a bit hit and miss sometimes with some of their titles not quite Booker prize material. Dan Abnett however is an exceptional author and I think the Gaunt is his best work. I will warn you thought there are 15 books so far and no sign of Abnett stopping.

Major Elim Rawne and Colonel Colm Corbec

The First and Only are so called after their home planet Tanith was destroyed shortly after the founding of their first three regiments. Gaunt managed to evacuate enough survivors to form the one and only regiment. The Ghosts wear Cameleoline cloaks that shift colour to match their surroundings (think magical elven cloaks that Frodo and the Sam wear in Lord of the Rings) and they are specialists in scouting and infiltration.

Scout Sergeant Dan Mkoll and Master Sniper Hlaine Larkin

Mkoll as a scout makes the rest of the regiment seem like baby elephants running through the jungle (he could probably sneak up on Batman) and Larkin is the Regiments top sniper, learning his craft hunting in the forests of Tanith.

 These are GWs second attempt at a set of models to represent the Ghosts. I thought people might be interested to see a compare shot for two reasons, one to see the scale creep that GW have partaken of over the last twenty odd years and secondly, to see how badly I used to paint!

 

Our next and final studio to visit on our journey around the Analogue Hobby Challenge is Superheroes, but this final studio is not accessible from any other blue studios I hear you cry (must be a clever partnership between the studios and Sarah's Limo company to boost bookings) so I shall have to rest my feet in the plush interior of the Limo, crack open a diet coke for the journey and maybe snack on some M&Ms from the mini-bar. So to pay for this journey I present Peggy Carter (or a member of the Women's home defence from Bad Squiddo Games).

So, now we have made it to the last studio I need a Superhero. Not a problem I thought, I am a massive comic book fan/collector, I love Superheroes. One problem though, I didn't actually have a Superhero to paint. Confession time, I actually bought a model during the challenge. Yep, I added to the lead pile. I couldn't resist this character though.

I'm a big DC fan but was properly introduced to Green Arrow when Kevin Smith (yep that Kevin Smith, film director. That's twice this year I've mentioned him now?) brought the character back from the dead and started a new solo run with him. This model is from Knight Models and based on Oliver Queen from the Batman Animated series. I therefore kept the colours bright and kept the shading to a minimum.

Of course he has to have a boxing glove arrow, I'm sure he had one before Hawkeye did, but I shall leave that debate to wiser men.

So, that just leaves one Final Destination (movie pun intended) The Directors Chair. I defer to the Show-Lord if he would like to consider a task worthy of a visit.

To the points!

6 x Ghosts at 40mm. 6 x 7 = 42 pts

1 x Peggy at 28mm = 5 pts

1 X Green Arrow at 28mm = 5 pts

2 Studio visits and a Limo Ride 3 x 20 = 60 pts

Total = 112 points

Minion Miles: I'm not sure crossing the streams of the GW and DC universes is a safe thing to do (all those lawyers just chomping at the bit) but you seem to have done so without incurring any IP related legal bombardments - Must be the quality of your painting holding those hounds at bay.

From JasperO: Two female WW2 Russian PTRD crew and escorts for Sarah’s Star Yacht (45 points)

Having just visited the Caprica and the Death Star, the next destination isn’t immediately clear, so I figure we’ll just take a ride on Sarah’s Star Yacht. Hopefully we’re allowed to get off when I make up my mind.

There are two female figures here, though they’re well-wrapped up in their Red Army uniforms (Osprey tells me they often wore men’s uniforms as the Soviet leadership couldn’t keep up, or be bothered with, uniform production for women in the armed forces).

The figures are 28mm Bad Squiddo miniatures from their recent Kickstarter to expand the Russian Women of WW2 range. As I needed a PTRD anti-tank rifle team anyway, these fit the bill just right. 

Eagerly hoping to catch a lift are three Crusader Miniatures figures. I think I had enough figures for a complete Russian platoon already, but I figured I’d just paint them up and get the stock down as a participant in the Twitter Six Month Mountain Reduction Painting Challenge which overlaps with this Challenge (no points on that one though!).

Compared to the very lovely Bad Squiddo sculpts, these are certainly simple figures, but they fit the general image of the Red Army quite well. And as Comrade Stalin supposedly said “Quantity has a quality all by itself”, so more soldiers for the Red Army never hurts. With the Yacht bonus, this should net me another 45 points.

From DaveD

                     A great addition to the collection and a fine start to Friday. Taking on tanks with a rifle must have been a daunting affair!

From GeoffreyT: Adventurous Royals (Sarah's Star Yacht)(30 points)

Today we leave Noel's Comet and head off on Sarah's Star Yacht.  I acquired these miniatures as a part of a paint two keep one deal with a friend.  I believe they are from Bad Squiddo Games in 28mm and represent Princess Elizabeth changing a truck tyre whilst being admired by her mother (tyre not included).

Nice miniatures, and an interesting historical record.  However, they are not the most useful figs in wargaming, I think they are really designed for making a vignette.  Nevertheless, I will try and see what different genre's I can fit them into.

Perhaps the Royal ladies are taking a more front line role...

"Cop that Gerry"

Maybe they found a Police Box that was actually a Tardis.  Here is Liz and mum hiding from Daleks.

"Watch out mummy, the egg-beater gun is even more dangerous than the sink-plunger arm"

Or simply, Liz could just be in combat training.  Here she is leaning the art of fighting with empty hands.

"Ki-Hap"

Perhaps she is not combative at all, and they are just having a fun time at a picnic in the park

"Wheeeee"

Perhaps they are at home, dungeoneering in the basement of Windsor Castle

Look out, it's behind you!!!

But what I really think, is that they are trekking across the deserts of their mighty empire.  Here Lizzy is filling the water canteens at a desert oasis.

"Mummy, why are our Camels unpainted?" "One must go to Arrakis to paint desert creatures my dear" "Then we must alight to Arrakis at once, as it would be ghastly to trek unpainted".

And so, Princess Elizabeth and her mother boarded Sarah's Star Yacht and travelled off to Arrakis.

Princess Elizabeth and Mother in 28mm = 10 points

+20 points for Sarah's Star yacht

In the alphabet soup challenge, the letter E for Elizabeth

Cheers.

Geoff.

I clearly have no imagination- I would have put HRH in a vignette changing a tyre and that would have been that. I'm a fan of your bright and clean style.

Barks

From PeterD Another ATA Flyer for the Sorceress (25 points)

I need to make my way from the Hall of heroes to the Snowlord's Treasury.  I will enlist the aid of the local Sorceress and this ATA pilot from Bad Squiddo Games.

 I had previously posted the other ATA pilot.  This lady is less glamorous and looks equipped for a long flight, possibly a Trans-Atlantic one.  Another great figure, but differentiating the different earth tones was a challenge for me.  

Bags of character on these figures.  She like she's of a certain vintage and tough as nails.  I expect that she could drink Churchill's gallant few under the table.  The texture on her face looked a bit grainy in some shots.  I suspect that's down to my bad priming rather than casting issues and these packs were very nicely moulded and cast.

That's my first use of the Sorceress' services on the third level so I beehive that makes 25 points (5 for the figure plus 20 for the Sorceress).

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I love all the gear she is lugging - very thematic, and you've done a great job with the appropriately drab palette. Nice one Peter!

Cap'n Wednesday