From TeemuL: Valhallan Imperial Guard (50 points)

These fine gentlemen are metal Imperial Guard from the Valhalla, sculpted 20 or so years ago by Perry Twins, if I'm not mistaken. I believe they sculpted all of these guard figures from different planets. For me they are not really Valhallans, they are more or less fine gentlemen from the Imperial Reenactment 7th. For those who don't know, they are like theater act or LARP players in the 40th century, they are used to rise the morale of the citizens, advertise the military for the new recruits and provide some entertainment for the people. Some of them are civilian volunteers, some are actual guardsmen on leave, on punishment, on reward, on commission, retired or misplaced. This nice background allows me to play different games with these, I can fight Armageddon over and over again, fight any enemy anywhere, since it is actually just play.

But it is not all fun, this is the grim dark future. Several time Imperial Reenactment 7th (and others like this) have been incorrectly ordered to real battlezones - the administration of the Imperium is not very clear, efficient or correct in many places. So sometimes they arrive on real warzone, they even might have some live ammunition. Sometimes they have blanks. Sometimes they have live ammunition when performing a play... Since most of the troopers are or were soldiers they can handle the situation quite well - others soon learn or die. This allows me to play real battles and real campaigns, like the Argovon Crusade on the White Dwarf magazines. I can even play against unpainted armies, since they are just poor special effects or holograms on the play. :D

Their reenactment role also explains their rather impractical uniforms, they have very bright colors, the primary colors to be exact, so that the spectators can see them easier. That applies to real enemies, of course, but you can't win every time. They are painted with Contrast paints, except the bases, the eyes and the sword of the sergeant. If you take a closed look at the guns, you will see why I like Black Templar paint - it is perfect for guns. It is not really black, so don't use when you want black, but use it on guns instead, all the guns have just one coat of Black Templar and for the time and effort, they look great. Please steal the idea and use it.

One more thing, this reenactment allows me to use all kinds of different Imperial Guard troopers in my army, Cadian, Catachan, Valhallan, Mordian etc and it is just to show, that Imperial Guard is for everyone and it doesn't matter where you come from and what you like, you are good enough (for cannon fodder) just as you are. While writing this, I'm wondering, should I paint some rainbow flags for them?

Here's a closeup of two fine gentlemen, as you can see they have nice mustaches, which (if I remember correctly from the Challenges past) means they are truly painted and ready for war.

10 28mm troopers, each 5 points, so 50 points in total.

When adding these to my previous Rohans, I have now 125 points total and 125 points total in GW side duel.

Next I'll finish my Entry Fee and start my journey in the dungeons...

From SanderS: Battletech testfigures (15 points)

 Hoi,

On my to-do-pile for this Challenge are quite a lot of Mechs for Battletech. This game remains my go-to wargame since pretty much 18 years ago when I started out seriously gaming. The game has been transferred from producer to producer over the years and has now been into the hands of Catalyst Game Labs and they have recently re-issued the line with some top-notch sets. The new beginners box and basic boxed set both have full plastic figures which are absolutely excellent figures that even have a decent heft to them for those who like their mechs in metal (as I myself do). Even more recently CGL has put up a Clan Invasion Kickstarter and wave 1 of said crowdfunder has arrived to provide me with loads of excellent miniatures. The first of these I have now painted up for some of my factions.

So without further ado here are a trio of testers. 

First up is an Archer painted in the colours of the famous Northwind Highlander Mercenary regiment. I think I will do the base military drab colour a bit lighter to better show off the patches of tartan that are on there. 

 

Second is a Sky Tiger Stable Solaris VII Valkyrie mech. These are not combat units but a "stable" is a sports-team that fights in the Arena's of Solaris as part of the great Mech-gladiatorial games.

 Last is a Clan Jade Falcon Assault Executioner mech. The Jade Falcons are my favourite faction but I am swithcing paint scheme with these new figures by adding the yellow spot colours. For those of you who know the game: my period of interest for the game are 3025 up to 3070 ish. I do not like the Johad era and neither do I like the latest Il-Clan period in which the Falcons are portrayed as the ultimate bad guys. It appears to be my lot in gaming to choose the faction that's must picked upon in many games: Dark Angels for 40K/ CJF for Battletech.

But nevermind that here's the mech.

Now points-wise these chaps are huge robots in 1:285 scale but in real life resemble a 28mm

figure in height so let's say 15 points?

Cheers Sander

 

 

 

 

 

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?

From SanderS and ArthurS: Chamber of Traps (25 points)

 Hoi There,

When I asked Curt to help motivate me to get all my Heroquest stuff done this Challenge I could not have imagned he would put the bonusrounds in an entirely Heroquest theme for me! ;-P

No seriously, this Chambers of Challenge gives me an excuse to paint up all the stuff I have lying around for Heroquest. At the last Crisis event in Antwerp I obtained a Terrain crate Dungeon thingy with loads of cool pieces for a dungeon terrain. There's a few traps in there as wel so lucky me.

Arthur wanted to paint something as well so I let him choose on of the traps. He ended up with the spear trap and just had to include a bit of his trusted brick red in there hence the red skull.

Just those traps on their own is a bit too small of an entry so I also painted up so doors I had printed on my Ender 3 (before it died on me) and more terrain pieces from the Crate depicting stuff that could function as a trap. Lift the crown from the pedestal and a giant boulder comes rolling down. Pull the sword from the stone and the ceiling comes down. Look in the mirror and get sucked into a different dimension and so on!

There's also two "blockage" markers for HQ you need a 1 square and a 2 square blockage and fortunately they were in the box as well.

To be honest I have no idea what amount of points this should gain me. 

 

Painting this lot was very easy and fast so I am guessing 5 points for the lot is enough together with the 20 for the Chamber. Perhaps Arthur could be awarded with 15 and myself with 10?

Cheers Sander

From TomM: The Larder: Farmer Maggot (41 pts)

As we prepare ourselves to decent towards the second level of the Chambers of Challenge, it is time to gather some supplies.

I had found a nice heap of crops, with pumpkins and cucumbers as big as an arm, when suddenly wild barking emerged out of the darkness...

For the next of my entries, the Larder, I painted up some more models from Games Workshop range of Hobbits.  Namely Farmer Maggot and his fierce dogs Grip, Fang and Wolf.

In game, they are as viscious as the forces of The Shire can get, and I thought him the perfect match for this chamber as he protects his crops from wary adventurers... or pesky Hobbits setting out on one!

I also printed up a piece of crop for this entry, just to round it all out a bit better with the theme.

And now, we are going to decent into the second level of rooms for this year's challenge!

 Points wise it are 4 figures of 28mm, so that being 20, with an added 1 point for the crops (I estimated they are about the same as the pittraps I did earlier this challenge), and 20 from the room for a total of 41 points to the tally! 

Not bad for a failed raid on a salad!

From AlexS: Cowboys (100 pts)

Hello everybody! My name is Alex, I am from Russia and like all boys I love zombies, cowboys and pirates. I've already painted 100 zombies during the event, it's cowboy time!

I really like this event, because during it I did a lot of interesting projects. In particular, last year and the year before last, I made miniatures and buildings for the Wild Wild West project (and even cacti). But as always, there are still miniatures and now there is an opportunity to finish them. I present to your attention 10 desperate cowboys who are ready to fight other cowboys or Cthulhu (there is Cthulhu in my wild wild west!).

Points:

10 cavalry miniatures 28mm - 100 points

 

From SimonG: "To Battle!" - HYW Men At Arms (67 points)

 Continuing my Impetus based HYW project I offer up two stands of English Men At Arms. The bases represent Lancelot de Lisle (the yellow and blue standard) and Richard Waller (the black standard).

de Lisle served under Thomas Montagu, Earl of Salisbury in the late 1410s and again in the mid 1420s which is my period of relevance. Waller was on the roll around the time of Agincourt and served at the siege of Orleans under Montagu. The source for all of this information (and my basis for selecting these characters) is the invaluable Soldier in Later Medieval England database from the University of Southampton. Sourcing of relevant heraldry is approximate based on the nearest best guess and where available family arms. In both stands the figure without a visor is intended to represent the Captain.

The figures are a mixture of Perry plastics, Perry metal and 1st Corps. This is one of those rare occasions when I felt it was OK to mix two manufacturers. The 1st Corps armoured figures are quite chunky unlike their archers and fit well alongside Perry, especially the Perry metals -- in fact their are a pair of figures that seem from the same hand (the right most two on Waller, first is 1st, second is Perry!).

For de Lisle I took a risk and based in more diorama fashion with closer spacing then I would normally use filling up the rest of the stand with a rock and bush. I think it came out quite well and adds some variety to the stands. I especially like the figure giving a "hand" to the standard bearer!

Anyway hope you like how these turned out -- there's even some jewellery in there (on a belt and on Waller's Orle) courtesy of Citadel technical paint 😊although not sure it comes out in these lower res photos. 

That should be another 65 points (13 x 28mm figures) towards my total. 

Up next another Japanese mythical being!

Minion Phil note: 2 bonus points for flags!

from Paul O'G: Scorpion and Legionaries (60 points)

Last day in quarantine today so trying to complete a few things. First up is some additions to my growing Caesarian Roman force. 

To oppose Alan's rebellious Romans I have build a third base of 8 Legionaries for my white shield unit and a small bolt thrower. The Romans were famed for their complex artillery, of which many types were carried in the legions' baggage trains including the large Onagers and Ballistas for siege work. This one was nicknamed the Scorpion and was one of the smallest, its primary purpose being to provide direct fire support to the Legionaries.

"I bet you a wineskin that you can't hit that big, naked hairy fellow over there"

I did their tunics in a brighter white, to reflect these fellows being occupied with their machinery and not doing all that dirty infantry stuff. I also wanted to try and tie in their colours to the white shields of the Legionaries. The red flowers on the base help tie them into the Legionaries' red tunics too. 

Unlike the rest of the army these are metal figs (Warlord)

These units complete this component for the Army for now. Next I will be progressing other supporting elements and the Army's command figures.

"Form Wedge!"

The army project thus far, all painted during this challenge (all Warlord figures)

Thats 10 x 28mm figs and a crew served weapon for a total of 60 points

One more experiment/project to finish up tonight before I break out of the house tomorrow.