From Barks: Underhive denizens (65 points)

I have really misunderestimated how much painting time I have this Challenge, and am well off the pace. Anyway, here are some figures I've been keen to get some paint on.

The first batch are malstrain cultists- mutated genestealer cultists, what's not to like? They're all kitbashed and greenstuffed, which makes them nicely unique. The bodies are Stargrave Scavengers I & II, which are my favourite Stargrave kits. Speedpaints Noble Skin, Brownish Decay and Desolate Brown make up most of the khaki browns. By sitting the heads low with no neck you get this pleasing hunchback appearance. I've left two with empty hands so they can more easily pass as harmless civilians in my Guards of Traitors Toll reskin.

The next is a Delaque informant, also from the Scavenger box. I liked this hand pose that looks like he's using a wrist communicator. I carved off pockets and extra webbing straps to give more of a Matrix trenchcoat look.

These two are based on 30K Mechanicum Thralls, which is a fun kit. I was inspired by Kill Sample Process's cyberpunk malfunctioning murderous cleaning bots, and used some peasant bits for the arms. The cleaning rag is a ponytail. Servitors are shaved during the servitorisation process, but I thought the braided hair on the sweeper added to the body horror.

I have no mouth and I must clean

13x 28mm figures (65 points)

3x skullz (total 44)

Big Stompy Robots +2 (Three lies in one!)

From Millsy:

Wow, these are just wonderful mate! I'd not considered making 40K-esqe stuff from Stargrave kits but it really, really works! Your cultists aren't just cool, they have a real old skool vibe which is just brilliant. I've got some metal tech gangers and I'm now imagining how I might give them arms and weapons without selling a kidney, plus building some mates to support them. Brilliant!

Your skin tones, saturated blues and pinks/purples are the perfect counterpoint to the muted greys and metallics. They just feel right.

Wonderful stuff Barks. More please!

Cheers,
Millsy

From Barks: Journey through the spheres (Wise, Warriors of Faith, Just Rulers, Contemplative) (130 points)

I have a selection of figures today to propel me around the last of the spheres of Paradise.

To get me there, I summoned Sarah with these Sci-fi civilians I made from assorted Stargrave kits. I love putting these together and matching bits, and then experimenting with colours I don't often use. The fifth civilian is made with a Fireforge zombie body (hence the unhealthy legs). I think she lives somewhere in the ash wastes protecting her claim.

My favourite is the surrendering one in green...

Sarah Connor vibes.

The Wise

You can tell this person is wise, just look at the size of their brain! Surely it won't implode and release warp daemons everywhere. He's made from the excellent Frostgrave wizard sprue, with a spare head I had.

The Warriors of Faith

Hot on his heels are these two thugs warriors of faith. The photos make me think I should redo the robe highlights.

1998 metals

The Just Ruler

Faramir. What a guy. Briefly the Steward of Gondor before some smelly ranger waves some jewellery about and claims he's the long-lost king.

2003 metal sculpt

Contemplative

I liked painting this Genestealer Cult character, who is Contemplating the plan of attack on this awesome hovering holo-map. I used Contrast Aethermatic Blue for the hologram. I'm thinking of adding somemorehighlightsand glow, but don't want to ruin it. The building complex is based on Warhammer World in Nottingham- a little Easter Egg.

That completes my journey though Hell and Paradise!

10x 28mm figures (50 points)

4 x locations (80 points)

Side Duels:

Squirrel +1 (sci-fi civilians)

Skull Duel +6 (total 18)

From Millsy:

What a great collection of painted miniatures and I love how you have aligned them to the various spheres mate. I've been very tempted by that Genestealer character myself for some time. It's a great sculpt with loads of interest and the composition is excellent. There's so much story telling going on there.

The warriors of faith are really cool too and I'm pleased to see you sticking with canon by painting hazard stripes on the chainsword. If ever there was pointless and redundant safety labelling this is it!

130 pointeriffic points for your tally sir!

Cheers,
Millsy

From TeemuL: A Look in to Galadriel's Mirror [Sci-fi] (65 points)

"After Gimli visited Galadriel and became friends with Legolas, Galadriel has been thinking dwarfs in a less hostile view. That's way our heroes Murin and Drar are able to visit her in the sacred forest and take a look at the mirror. We hear the classic line "The things that were, the things that are and..." but then we cut the audio to Metallica's "The Thing that Should not Be"! That will be one of the shocking moments of the movie. Yes, I know the song doesn't have that line in the lyrics, it is just the title, but I'm sure we can negotiate somekind of alternative lyrics with those chaps and create our master piece. And yes, when they look in to the mirror, they see these space monsters (which should not be). That's the second difficult part with the scene, there is this British toyshop, who seems to be overly jealous of their IPs even though a blind man can see they are just poor Alien rip-offs. Well, we just need to send an army of lawyers there or buy the whole shop..."

The things that should not be or three hybrids of my genestealer cult for WH40K. I started a small Kill Team couple of years ago and it has been very successful, it just keeps on growing...

Yes, on my last post I said that it will be the last before 2023, but I was wrong. I was left alone unexpected on Friday night and then mind starts to wander. I did ask couple of friends to come and play with me, but they didn't have time. I was there, some half painted dwarfs and a few hours of time. As one does, I remembered these primed hybrids (plastic Genestealer Cultists from Games Workshop) and started to paint them while painting the dwarfs, too.

They were rather easy to paint, just following the old minis as a guide. I don't keep any diary about the colours I use, I find that this method gives natural variation to my minis... These are painted with GW acryls, the traditional ones. After blocking the colours I washed the whole mini in Druchii Violet to set alienish tone. There was not much highlightning except yellow on green. These are creatures of dark underworld, working under the dim lights. That's why it would feel wrong to highlight them neat and bright. The yellow highlight gives impression, that they are not under white day light, but something artificial, making them even more disturbing (I know they have three hands, claws and blue tongues). The grey pipes are plastic straws, enhancing the not-so-perfect feel of environment, ideal for these lurkers in the dark. The guns are painted using Black Templar Contrast, but otherwise traditional.

Then there are the other dwellers in the dungeon, the good guys, the dwarfs. When making a movie about dwarfs, you need lots of dwarfs. There are plastic Dwarf Warriors from GW for Lord of the Rings game. I had a little issue with these, since I didn't know how to paint them, what colours to use. That is part of the reason starting to paint the above hybrids. I painted one colour on hybrids, then jumped to these and painted one colour I knew, like brown leather etc. Maybe the blue and green of hybrids looked good, since I used mostly blue and green on these, too. Maybe the colours of Murin and Drar (blue and green) were hounting by subconsciousness.

These are second hand minis, they were already painted, I just decided to use Wraithbone spray on them and paint over. Originals were quite dark and like I said, I didn't really know how to paint them. But these look very different than the original and I'm positively surprised, the colours are very bright, strong and they have good "cohesion" in lack of better word. I used only Contrast paints on these, there are no highlights or anything, just straight from the bottle. These have very different look than those hybrids, these are creatures of daylight or well lit mines. I really like these guys, happily I have more of them to paint.

As for scoring, Genestealer hybrids are bit larger, if hunched minis, but I'm happy to score them as 28mm minis. That means 9 minis for 45 points and 20 points for Sci-Fi location, total of 65.

Now I bust to paint something for next Wednesday, I don't have anything started, just some primed minis and no idea if I should go to 1980s or Black + White. With these 9 minis painted I have now one less unpainted mini than January 1st... In couple of thousands of years I'll be without unpainted minis. Oh, horror!

_____________________________

If SAS: Rogue Heroes can have AC/DC then I don't see why LotR can't have Metallica. 

You made good use of your free time, Teemu. Great work on these Genestealers and Dwarves. I like the vibrant colours you've achieved, and agree that some of the effects you can achieve right out of the bottle with Contrast Paints is quite something. The thing I find is not to let the colour 'pool' too much, or to brush it over large flat areas (although it goes on marvellously well with an airbrush). Anyway, these are a great result of a Friday night at home! :)

- Curt

From Barks: Cult vehicles at the Snowlord's Altar (75 points)

The Snowlord Challenged me to paint two 28mm vehicles. I shy away from painting vehicles, mostly because of the variety of techniques I'm not comfortable with. There's a balance I can't achieve between my style, a realistic scale model style, and speed. So I've been putting off painting these vehicles for years.

These are civilian mining vehicles, weaponised by my cult for the coming uprising. The predominant colour is a utilitarian grey with some hazard stripes because safety. The kits are nice, with a lot of options in assembly. Because I don't know any better, I made a rod for my own back by trying to make as many of these options viable as possible. I literally chopped and changed several things during the assembly process. I did them in subassemblies, which made painting easier but it was more like painting two dozen models than just two.

Subassemblies before Army Painter Uniform Grey spray.
It took me days to get the models to this stage.

Achilles Ridgerunner

The Ridgerunner is a cool zippy little buggy, with a lot of options. I 3D printed some extra parts to give me all the options, and fiddled around with magnets and superglue and swearing. I experimented with pigments on the tyres (Vallejo European Earth)- I don't want too much weathering, but I still didn't quite get the effect I was looking for.

Missile Launcher and Spotter

Two Heavy Stubbers

The markings are decals left over from old scale model kits.

Spotter

I made antennas from stretched sprue. Two snapped during painting. Pennants were from stickers wrapped around the antenna.

Stretched-sprue antenna and pennant

I prefer grunts to vehicles. The kneeling character has legs from the Wargames Atlantic Raumjäger kit, which were a little too large but not criminally so.

Heavy Mining Laser and Flare Launcher

Heavy Mortar and Survey Augur

Goliath Truck/ Rockgrinder

The second vehicle I inflicted on myself was a Goliath I picked up at CanCon 2019. Again, I spent a lot of time prepping this so I could use all the options. This mining vehicle has two main choices- the Goliath Truck, or the Goliath Rockgrinder.

Goliath Truck

The Goliath Truck is a troopcarrier. I shaved a few bits away to allow three previously painted 25mm-based figures to fit inside.

Troop compartment

Twin-linked Autocannon

Commander has a Heavy Stubber

Goliath Rockgrinder

The Goliath Rockgrinder is a utility mining vehicle, and the back is covered. The mining arm has a dedicated operator, and the main attraction is the Drilldozer Blade. All of these are magnetized. I used some Tamiya 5mm tape for masking the hazard stripes on the blade, and freehanded the rest.

Covered tray

Drilldozer Blade

Heavy Mining Laser

Clearance Incinerator

Heavy Seismic Cannon

Operator's console

I'm relieved to have these vehicles done, but I didn't love the process. The effects I was keen to achieve seem to be done with airbrushes and specialty enamel products that I don't have. There are so many little details that I was quite fatigued by the end. Thank goodness no camouflage was involved! I am amazed at how some of you are able to churn out fleets of lovely big vehicles.

2x 28mm vehicles: 40 points

2 + (2 x ½) 28mm crew: 15 points

Snowlord's Altar: 20 points

GW side challenge: 55 points