From AdamC - Brian Boru and more 52 pts

So I have had this vignette in my head since I saw the Boru figures from Footsore.  I'm very happy it came out as well as it did.

Brian Boru was High king of Ireland who stopped the advancing tide or Vikings/Norse-Gaules but died in the attempted.  He's a hero of the Viking Age in Saga but one who is pretty long in the tooth so he doesn't really fight like most warlords.  Rather he finds a good safe place to sit and give you certain bonuses while someone else acts as the Warlord.

Since He tends to find a piece of "difficult terrain" and just sit there I figures I should build a full terrain piece to go with him.  Thus I built this hill.  In this vignette the Irish Chieftain (who I sort of painted as a more athletic, long haired version of myself) is getting the battle plan he will have to execute on the field while Boru's Banner man and bodyguard looks on in the back ground.

 The hill has magnets to I can can remove the figures and replace them with rocks or trees as I wish.  Pretty clever if I do say so myself.  I did paint the rock but the trees are out of the box.

 The hill is about 6.5 inches by 7 inches in its base dimensions...

and about 1.5 inches at its highest point (very rough estimate not well shown by the picture.) Doing some math 6.5"x7"x1.5"= 68.25 cubic inches (being quite generous as moss of the hill is lower than 1.5").., Divide that by 216 Cubic inches (6x6x6)  and you get .315 (ish) x20 = 6.3 points and possibly an explanation of why I was a history major in college. I'll call it 6 Points... (assuming my math is right which it may not be!)  This cheeky fellow throws it to Ray to judge and hopes he'll be generous. (and not make too much fun of my math if I botched it completely)

 Boru is in creamy white robe with purple fringe is out fit is pretty unpretentious for a king, but creamy white cloth is actually pretty hard to make and purple is an expensive dye that would have had to be imported to Ireland.

I'm pleased with the look of the fur cape Boru has against the cold.

 The Chieftain is a special footsore miniature figure of the month I as I mentioned above I sort of did him up to look a bit like I imagine my Irish ancestors might have looked.

 I kept his colors relatively muted but green dyes (mixes of yellow and blue) were fairly expensive and a fur lined cloak and jacket of mail mark him as a high noble. I feel there must be someone off stage holding his shield and helmet.

The banner man is dressed in gray but his cloak is green and his robe has a little purple fringe at the bottom. 

 This as well as the gold on his helm, belt and sword mark him as high born even if he doesn't have shoes.

The banner is one I found on line on the O'Brian Clan Society website ... I don't know if its historically accurate (I may also have made it too big) but I am going rule of cool here.  So there is the "command team" of my Irish Saga army.  On to Norse-Gales!

 Another Footsore figure this is Brodir another hero of the Viking age "the man steel cannot bite." supposedly he had a magic hauberk that made him invulnerable. I'm disappointed in the shield.  I did hand paint it but its not what I set out to do... sometimes you just have to fall back on simple designs.

While not part of the Irish Army Brodir could fit in with its palate. Brodir is said to have killed Brian Boru and then was killed (rather gruesomely) by Ulf. Footsore has the details if you want them.

 Next we have what Footsore calls a Irish hero but I'm using him as a Norse-Gale. Clearly this fellow has just pulled off a successful "who's next!" challenge (for those familiar with this faction in Saga) and is waiting to see if someone else steps forward.

 I'm not a big fan of the guy holding a head figures because when you have too many of them it looks like you have a "head collectors convention" rather than a battle going in. I'm very pleased with how his mail and his wolf hide cape came out.

Next we have a trio of miniatures I call the casual Ax brothers.  I think are all based on the same core figure and and then dressed in a different fashion (I'm positive this is the case with the two on the right)

 This another special figure of the month form Footsore I plan to use him as my Norse-Gales Warlord because hey his stance and gear just sort of shout "boss."  Footsore calls him Arnvid Ale Sinker.

I did his cloak in purple because clearly he at least aspires to royalty which is why he's in Ireland not back home in Scandinavia.

 These other two are from the Footsore Irish line.  The one on the left is part of the same hero pack with the guy holding a head.  The one on the right is form the Brian Boru set.

Again I probably use these mostly with my Norse Gales but they could see play with the Irish and parts of the Irish army will certainly see play with the Norse-Gales. This is why these fellows have the purple flowers on their base to tied them in with Boru and his crew.

 One last figure my BFG (acutely my second BFG the first is primed but unpainted at this time) I had stared him just because he was in with the other were beast. I didn't get him done due to family obligations so I present him here. My Big Freaking Gorilla.  I think a "weregorilla" is a rather odd concept so I will just call him a Gorillas.  One that knows how to use stone tools which many not be such a big stretch. 

I tried to get the silver back look right... I'm close but not there. This is another Bones figure about 40mm.  So we have 8 28mm figures for 40 points (unless Boru counts less being seated) One 40mm Figure for 7 points.  So that's 47 point for the figure... I think the hill comes out to 6 points (though I don't really trust my math here).  I'll simply ask Ray to score the hill at what ever he thinks is fair.

From Ray

Brian Boru is indeed a cult figure in Irish history and you've done him proud Adam. Who knows what his banner would look like so this is as good representation as any. As for your hill, this terrain business is as confusing as hell, I've worked it out as 5 points, so add that to the 40 points for the 8 28's and 7 for the 40mm Silver back and your grand total is 52 points!

From LeeH: umCijo Zulu regiment (96 Points)

My next regiment of Zulu's is the umCijo ("the sharp pointed" or "the sharpeners") and fought as part of the central "chest" at Isandlwana. This is an unmarried regiment, hence the black shields, made up of warriors with an average age of about 28. It Isandlwana the umCijo were very keen and actually launched an attack prematurely which had to be brought under control.

The leader of the regiment Mkhosana kaMvundlana then had to get them going again and keep them moving after their initial assault was stalled by British volley fire. He was subsequently killed in the charge but the umCijo were instrumental in driving the British back to camp, precipitating their collapse. The umCijo also fought at Khambula and at Gingindlovu so they will see plenty of action on the table top.

I'm rather pleased with these models as I 'discovered' a new technique for painting them. With all 6mm figures I use of ink washes to add shading and depth to the base coated figures. Baccus Zulu shields have a series of grooves in the surface for the straps that hold the central shaft, and rather than hand paint these contrasting straps on every shield I use ink washes to bring out the detail. For units with white shields a brown ink wash shows up the straps on the shields really well but for units with black shields I have struggled to do the white straps. For these figures I experimented with a 'white' wash, something that until now I didn't think was possible. I used Vallejo Thinner Medium in the ratio 5 parts thinner to 1 of white paint. The resultant thin 'wash' flows into the grooves on the Zulu shields where it concentrates the white paint enough to leave a clear white line but is thin enough that it leaves little or no white residue on the rest of the black shields.

These are the last of the Zulu's for a few weeks because I have run out of models! I've ordered some more figures but I don't know when they will arrive, or even if they will be delivered in time to paint before the Challenge ends. I've quickly rearranged my painting plan and I'll start on the British next, hopefully allowing time for more Zulu Regiments towards the end of the Challenge. Whatever happens I'm a happy painter as I am way ahead in terms of progress towards my target. I considered 1000 points a bit ambitious when I set it (considering I paint mostly 6mm) and it now looks like I was being timid!

From Ray

Excellent brushwork Mr Hadley! I've never used a white wash before either, it seems to have worked well though, I certainly wouldn't want to try and paint in the...... white lines (Vision dreams of passion, Blowin in my mind) Sorry getting carried away there! Its a tune from my youth, if any of you are wondering what I'm going on about ;0)

I for one am looking forward to a little bit of colour from your pallet Lee, a pot of red goes a long way in 6mm.

The umCijo will earn you 96 points!

From DaveD - 6mm Terrain - Cold War gone Hot - 23 points..

I have been covering a range of projects this week , one of them being some more terrain bits for the Cold War gone Hot era in West Germany. Having played a first game its got us looking the other bits we me need - more buildings was early shout out.

All the buildings are by Leven

Central town section - complete with adverts - the base is 6" x 5"

Central town with the car park view

One of the challenges for doing more modern stuff , is a proper road network - not just dirt tracks - and likewise into villages and towns. I used Powerpoint to create a road net markings and pavements etc. piece the same shape as the area required and stuck them on to the base mdf . I was particularly pleased with yellow hatched and parking area in the industrial sections. I even found myself thinking about street furniture , traffic lights etc... that's the perils of having been a railway modeller in my time too . I love these little detail projects

Industrial area  

For now I have left walls off while I sort out more buildings sections to make a larger join together type town. - Luckily I have a wargame show coming up!

Industrial area

Church and large barn building

Couple, of bridges

I am not over impressed (but they will do for now) with the actual bridge size as they seem a little on the small side - so i will be poking around some actual model rail ones for something more fitting...

Well that wil gave the NATO forces of Martin and James somewhere to hide their pesky infantry and ATGW sections - good job Comrade Docovich has some new heavy artillery on the way eh...

Altogether it all  pretty much fills a terrain cube unit - so 20 points

From Ray

Beautiful work Comrade. The detail in some of these pieces is amazing. I can see why you could get really carried away with the small details. I do like the box junction (hatching), very clever.
Just wondered being in logistics, how's are the poor delivery drivers going to drop of their cargo with nowhere to park!
Are you sure your buildings are not not in London! The Box Junction capitol of the world!
Nice to see Aldi making an appearance too, they seem to crop up everywhere nowadays!

I do feel a little stingy only giving you 20 points for all this work, its not a lot but I'm going to add an extra 3 points, making a total of 23 points

Parts 2 & 3 later today

From TomM: 28mm The Pink Phalanx (175 points)

Well, when it came to be known Ray would be my Minion in this challenge, he said he looked forward to rate my pink paintjobs... so who am I to deny him that pleasure.

In order to indulge him with lots and lots of pink, this weeks entry is a whole expansion for my Emperor's Children force.  And looking at them afterwards, they are actually enough to play a game with these alone for about 750 points or the likes.

Leading this band of excess seeking lunatics is a Lord in power armour, armed with the mandatory plasma pistol and powersword.

To accompany him, a sorcerer in terminator armour joins the fray.  I got no idea where the little naked elf in front of him is from, but she was an excellent representation for the Chaos Familiar stratagem.

Three raptors got painted in between (I mix loyalists and traitors in my force for visual diversity) to boost my unit a little as well.

Cultists are present as well of course, because everyone needs cultists galore to serve as cannon fo... loyal and important frontline shock(ed) troops.  I also used them in a way as a testbed for the Blood Bowl team I`m painting up with all the pastelly and girly colours.  So the Bronnie Brigade will march off in a quest for glory sporting their heavy stubber and flamer to bring the words of pleasure to the unbelievers.

The final part of the entry are the Chosen.  This 10 man squad of champions are the elite forces of a chaos army (though in the current rules, their roles can be better performed by more specialised troops) and a happy mix and match of all sorts of weapon load-outs.  I did some weapon swaps on them to make them fully fieldable in the current game.

Well, that`s the power of the pink for this week, 35 figures for 5 points each, netting me a nice 175 points in total...

From Ray

That's a hell of a lot of Pink Tom!!!!
Just how many pots of pink paint did you use for this post? 
Great work, I can't pretend to know what any of these figures are, or are supposed to be or do, but they look Prrrretty in Pink!

175 points of pink goodness coming your way Tom!

From Barks: Mansions of Madness 90pts

Not Star Wars, but still a Fantasy Flight boardgame offering: the figures from the latest Mansions of Madness expansion. The sculpt quality has vastly improved from the first edition, but there is still room for improvement.

First, our heroes. Tommy Muldoon is the rookie cop. He's got something of a young Peter O'Toole going on in his cheekbones.

Finn Edwards is a bootlegger. His face is great, but didn't photograph well. I tried to paint him carrying a bottle of illicit whisky, which was tricky.

Diana Stanley is the former cultist with a heart of gold. Her face is a little featureless, unfortunately. I gave her green details, as most of my Cthulhu stuff has green in it. I quite like how the candle flame and wax look.

Not all the foes they face are supernatural: the hired guns with their derby hats became some clichéd Irish hitmen under my brush. I enjoyed layering their trenchcoats.

The skeletons are suitably 19th century with their watch chains and waistcoats.

My favourites are the Star Vampires. These are invisible creatures which can be heard faintly tittering, and become visible by being filled up with their victims' blood. They're a chaotic mess of teeth and tentacles- perfect. I based them on 60mm bases.

Finally, the Lloigor. It is some sort of invisible reptile thing, and I'm not really fond of the sculpt- it is a monster designed by a gaggle of schoolkids. It's got two legs, four arms with claws, four arms with pincers, eight eyes, a pincer on the tail, armour on the back of it's neck, floppy looking spines- it really reminds me of the Black Beast of Arrgh! I persevered with multiple thin layers of grey, and am satisfied with the outcome. It's big- I based it on an 80mm mini-disc.

Keen students will note a missing figure- wait for a future theme round!


From Ray
Definitely not Star Wars! But still a great mix of figures, I unfortunately know bugger all about Cthulhu or Flight of Fantasy, but I still appreciate a well painted figure. I too can see the Peter O'Toole resemblance in Tommy Muldoon, its a great relaxed pose. I can imagine Diane Stanley starring in an old black and white film from the 30's, where the film and make up they wore kinda dulled facial features.....or am I talking a load of tosh?
The monsters look great especially the big beastie! So are we to expect an even bigger beast in the monster round? Me thinks so???
I'm not up with monsters so asked Curt to help out on their points, we've gone with

7x 28mm figures 35 points
2x monsters on 60mm bases 15 points each
1x monster on 80mm base. 25 points I've counted this large Monster as a 28mm vehicle but added a further 10 points for its size.
Making a grand total of 90 points,

From JamesM (Part 1): More guns, more firepower! German 15mm Quad Flak (42 points)

Hi Folks,

Last weeks rushed entry consisted of yet another battery of German Flak. Another load of Luftwaffe troops from III Flak Corps, care of Normandy 1944. The guns are quad mounted 2cm Flak38 AA guns, which were introduced in an effort to increase the hitting power of the 2cm gun. Each 'gun' had a theoretical rate of fire of 1800 rounds per minute, with each gun firing. Although I think this was effectively far lower in combat, normally around 800 rounds a minute.

These are Battlefront models (code GE535) and are 15mm in scale. I messed up slightly as I gave the limbers for these guns to the 3.7cm Flak I painted the other week... Again, I went with the large bases as the medium sized one shown on the web site just looks too cramped!

I'm sure you'll be pleased to know these will be my last 'light' German AA models - unless I decide to dig out the self propelled stuff...

Just to prove to Ray there are crew figures...

In keeping with the earlier Luftwaffe manned guns, I've gone with a similar style of camo on the gun shield and Luftwaffe blue trousers on the gunners. I only had 2 camo jacketed crew to paint for these guns, but I was much happier with how they turned out this time. Frustratingly, one of the plastic bases is somehow warped, but not much I can do about that now!

A week late as I didn't submit last week till later on the day, and it was not posted.

So these are 3 x 15mm guns and 6 standing 15mm gunners and 9 sitting gunners - for a total of 15 gunners for 30 points and the guns are another 12. A total of 42 points!

From Ray

Wonderful brushwork once again James, apologies for not getting these chaps out last Wednesday, but I was tucked up in bed, snoring my head off when you set the copy draft up. 
Anyhoos....I'm loving learning all these facts about German Luftwaffe artillery, that pre Challenge I never knew even existed! Love the camo work on the guns and of course the blue trousers. 
I definitely think you made the right decision on the larger bases. Sometimes Battlefront bases just aren't man enough for the job and you wouldn't have been able to add other scenery bits and bobs like the flowers. Top job James!
These like you said will earn you 42 points!

Yay....Its Wed-nes-day!

Oh yes its Minion Ray time again.

Yee haw!!!

So far we have 11 entries this fine day and no mention of a Badger anywhere!

Feeling slightly better today, it seems I just can't shake this bloody flu!

And I've gotta take a day of work, well work from home anyway and look after the

 littlest Rousell, Nieve whose off sick with the flu that I've given her!!

Me and Cartman are sitting listening to my fav Eddie Cochran, while I sort

all your posts out, trying not to fall asleep, do some work and keep Nieve occupied!

Sigh!

Just listen to Eddie, he'll make it all better........