From DaveD - Normandy buildings - 20 points

 Next job off the workbench are 6 buildings to add to the Normandy town collection . It’s growing nicely with the aim of getting one that about 6x6 . 

These are all by Stephan at Tiger Terrain. Again I took the opportunity to pick up some bombed out pieces. For that classic Normandy look .

All together , around 20 points I reckon 

Progress on the town building so far . More to do on gardens , a cemetery a railway station etc . 

from RayR - The Chamber of Challenge - Golam's Haunt

Another step closer to the Alter of the SnowLord....

The Golem’s Haunt:

 “..IT WALKS…!!” Paint something re-animated, stitched-together, bolted-together, re-created from steel, clay, earth, etc.

Well If anythings made out of nuts n bolts its CP3O?

This is my first venture into the land of Star Wars and may not be the last???

I bought an unpainted selection of Star Wars figures from a friend Tony over the summer, just

incase I fancied doing something different.

C3PO Is a 54mm Hasbro Star Wars Command figure and like I said I do have more to paint, can I fit anymore into the Challenge??????

The Golden one should earn me 10 points as a 54mm figure and another 20 for the Bonus round!

From MartinC The Pride of the Ottoman Army and a Trench (213pts)

 Evening all, hope you are all well. I been cracking on with my Turks, I need to as I keep buying some more of them.

A 10 man infantry section

Another one

Couple of Machine guns

Command stand with an Iman blessing the standard, nice figures

Finally another 9 man infantry section. THe officer is a cavalry officer (he has spurs). i know what you are thinking - I miscounted. Well you would be wrong. i squeezed out too much paint and had to apint extras. So there.

Finally a length of trench. The reason I'm doing a Caucasian campaign is the lack of trenches, the things that make WW1 rubbish to play. However you must have some so I built this test piece using foam and sand the lollipop supports

Overall I'm pleased with the outcome and some make a few more sections, although not to many.

Scores on the doors

39 x 28mm infantry  = 190

2 crew served weapons = 20

1 standard = 1

1x 12cubic inch trench = 2pts (rounding up)

From MartinN: The Pit of the Pendulum [75 points]

As we step into the chamber, portentously named Pit of the Pendulum, we stop dead in our tracks. "What's that? That's no bloody pendulum!" we mutter to ourselves as from out of the dark comes a trio of men in camouflage smocks. Their faces, half hidden beneath their helmets, curiously distorted by the dim flicker of a flame not bigger than a candle. It's only when they stop just a few feet away that we realize with horror it's no candle but the pilot flame of a flame thrower...

Well, admittedly it took me a moment till I found a way to somehow shoehorn my current project into the Pit of the Pendulum. But honestly, I can't think of many things more terrifying than be burnt alive. The flamer is a support choice for British Paratroopers in Chain of Command (and probably any other WW2 platoon level ruleset) and has a crew of three. One man carrying the blasted thing with two others probably busy staying away as decently possible from their unfortunate fellow in case he might somehow attract the attention of their intended victims.

Second part of todays submission is another squad of Paratroopers as yet another support choice for the platoon. With these done I think it's on to a little bit of AT-capability to round out the force. 

Two of the figures were started before the challenge, so that makes for 75 Points for this submission.

11x Standing figure = 55 points

1x Themed Bonus Points = 20 points

From GregB - Byzantine Cavalry Encore (100 points)

Byzatine Kavallroi on maneuvers in my kitchen.

Things move along slowly at my painting table, but they are still moving. This submissions continues with my 28mm Byzantine project - here we have even more cavalry to add to my small-but-growing forces. These are 28mm metal castings from Gripping Beast - there are six "Heavy Kavallroi" troopers and four "Hippo-Toxotai" (mounted archers). Four of the figures have shields with LBMS tansfers, and two of the shields are hand-painted - no issues with the transfers here, I just can't count, and didn't have enough transfers on hand...so I whipped up an easy shield paint job for two of them that matched the colours of the LBMS transfers.

28mm castings from Gripping Beast's Thematic Byzantine line. The figure on the right has a hand-painted shield.

These troops carry the long "kontarion" spears common to the Byzantine forces.

These Heavy Kavallroi troopers are as central to any Byzantine army as blocks or spearmen and archers - the Thematic Byzantine forces generally live and died on the strength and capability of their cavalry, and these riders would have been key to the force. These troops are much lighter than the lumbering Kataphractoi, but by any reasonable standard these fellows are still heavy cavalry - the riders are wearing a mix of chain mail, lammellar, plate and heavy cotton armour, and carrying the long "kontarion" lances. They can charge home, hit hard, withdraw and charge again because very disciplined and well-trained riders. They can pick their moment on the battlefield and have a decisive impact, and they are much more mobile, and therefore more flexible, than the heavy rumbling Kataphracts.

Mounted archers ready to ride & shoot in support of their Kavallroi colleagues.

Sometimes mistakes happen when packing miniatures - oh well - and that is why one of the riders is missing his quiver.

It is a common thing in the Thematic-era Byzantine armies to blend archers into the formations, and this cavalry unit will be no exception - again, the amour on these mounted archers is a little less than on those who accompany the heavy Kataphracts, and there is no barding on the horses, so they can keep up with their colleagues, providing a "sting" for the Heavy Kavallroi force.

As always, lots of character in these metal sculpts - although some of the riders look a touch "stiff" in the saddles...lighten up fellas, you'll never catch the Turks riding like that!

Less armour than the Kataphractoi, but still armoured and heavy by any reasonable definition.

Consistent with all of the Byzantine models I have painted so far in AHPC XI, these models are all based individually so as to allow for maximum gaming flexibility - for example, the six Heavy Kavallroi riders would represent a unit of cavalry in skirmish games "Lion Rampant", and once I add some command figures to this group, it will comprise a unit for Warhammer Ancient Battles, Swordpoint or Hail Caesar.

Thanks for reading - hope you are staying safe, and please stay sane. Cheers. 

From PeteF: Minifigs Marines of The Guard (40 points)

The Aquifer presented a bit of a problem. I don't play any nautical games and I painted my free-from-Warlord Jack Aubrey last year. Trawling through the lead mountain looking for something seaworthy, not holding out much hope, unearthed these fine fellows.

The Marines of the Guard were naval infantry who served Napoleon as part of his Imperial Guard. One battalion (made up of five "crews") saw action in some of Napoleon's major battles including Austerlitz and Eylau. After being all but wiped out in the Peninsular the unit was reformed with eight crews for the Russian campaign from which only 85 officers and men returned. A single crew of 3 officers and 104 men fought at Ligny and Waterloo.

These are Minifigs - but an older casting. I'm a little shaky on the different versions that Minifigs went through - these casts are somewhere between the original 1970s (thinner, shorter figures) and final casts (chunkier, taller) - they have the same numerical designation as the ones still sold by Calivers - but they're holding their muskets on the other side.

I really enjoyed painting these. I tried a new recipe from the Painting War French Napoleonics Magazine/Book for the gold thread and it turned out nicely. Maybe I'll have to start collecting for the Russian campaign so that I have a reason to paint a whole battalion.

First level complete

That's all the rooms on the first level completed! Four 25mm figures plus a room bonus.

PaulS: Touchdown! (5 points)

 Every year some friends get painted Christmas presents as it feels more personal. You saw some of them earlier in the challenge with the Mando and Indy figures. This one just got finished to a standard that I'm happy to show off. 

This friend used to play pro American Football here in the UK, goes by the name Bear and also ran an online Blood Bowl tournament during last year to keep us all entertained, so what better than a blood bowl playing bear in his favourite US team's colours, with his number on :D

The model was put together on Hero Forge and printed at home. My friend is now wanting to buy the rest of the team to go with this one :D

Looking at the photo there will probably be a few minor touch ups on the number. I also seem to have missed the teeth!

Zulu Warrior that started it all DennisC ID 25 65points

My Entry Fee model, a plastic Zulu warrior that I've had sitting in a sprue for a while now, started off as a lark:  A good friend of mine, when I suggested whilst working, that I should do a weird wacky model as my last model of 2020.  I had been working on my 15mm Persians but had been wondering what to do for a Prize Model, and since the plan was to get my good friend Scott Roach the prize model (since he lives in town) the Zulu warrior was a perfect idea.  I had him built and basecoated within the hour, then painted and Strong Toned before 8pm, Dec 31.    Here he is:

The reason this model works perfectly for Scott Roach is because a few years ago at Historicon, I bought the Rorke's Drift box set, and I kept the British and he went with the Zulu's.     Of course, because I had snipped off the shields from the Zulu sprue (intention was to use them on bases for my officers) I had to find the shield.. and came across my Brits.    I had a few painted, but then spent the next few days with Dave Docherty, Martin Cooke, and Bob Falcetti's aid, sorted out my entire force and rebased them all, fixed the bayonets and chipping that had occured on the half painted ones, and below are the fruits of my labour thus far:

Figures are a mix of Warlord plastics and various metals.   I've painted them the red coats from Zulu / Zulu Dawn..

I figured why not finish the Defenders of Rorke's Drift first

John Chard, leading the defences.

I submit the following:  8x British 28mm foot models and 1 Prize 28mm foot.

(the mounted officer Melvill, Bourne, Bromhead and Chard plus 3 regulars were already painted and therefore not being submitted for points)

Dennis 'Matt Varnish' Campbell  ID 25

From TeemuL: Professor S.N. Owl-Ord, Entry Fee (25 points)

Shellington Nils Owl-Ord, a professor of chemistry at the Miskatonic University, Swedish-English origin, which explains his strange name. Shellington, as any good professor, is absent-minded, which might be his salvation, since he seems to be lost in time and space, although he himself believes just to be lost in the lower floors of his beloved university. Also, he likes initials, so his badge reads S.N. Owl-Ord, but his colleagues call him simply - you guessed it - "Uggla".

 

 

Shellington is a Crooked Dice miniature and my Entry Fee for this year's Challenge. I painted a similar miniature last year and since this is a duplicate, I can send this to some one else. I painted him mostly with Contrast paints, but I tried to be neat and clean. I even painted a striped tie with bold colors to make him really look like a professor.

 

 

From this angle the bottle looks almost like a transparent, better than I hoped for. The basing is rather simple, just paint it black first, then use some white wooden glue and dip in to the sand. Let dry and soak with dark brown(ish) ink/wash, whatever you have, and once dried, drybrush with medium grey. Paint the trim black to cover all the mess. There are some drying times here, so I usually paint the boots quite soon, so that I can then start working on the base (I do glue the miniature to the base before painting it, old habits die hard).

 

 

I deliberately positioned him to the other edge of the base in order to create "artistic" appearance. It might not be that handy during game time, but miniatures in the middle of the base look some time very boring. Now it is almost like a mini diorama, the focus is more on the bottle, what kind of mystic (err scientific) liquid is there in the bottle, will it explode in the Hall of Traps or is it just for refreshment?

In the following entries we follow Uggla as he descends to the Chambers of Challenge, we even might learn a thing or two about the liquid...

One 28mm miniature for 5 points

Entry fee for 20 points

Total 25 points, no additions to my GW side duel from this

If Uggla confuses you, just refer to your Swedish-English dictionary...

From StuartL - The Start of a Teutonic Saga - 45 Points

 Hello again. Having cleared Level 2 of the Chambers of Challenge in my last post, I venture down to the darkness of Level 3. The air seems to grow colder as I get closer to the Alter of the Snowlord, so I need some allies who are familiar with battling in freezing conditions.

The Knights' Solar is the first chamber on level 3, so I have painted up some Teutonic Knights from Fireforge Games. These dauntless fellows will eventually get used for games of Saga, once I get round to painting the rest of the force and some opponents for them. Perhaps in next year's challenge. 

This figure will be my Warlord for Saga, hence the slightly larger base. Historically speaking, I don't think the wings on the helmet are at all accurate, but then again, Saga is only barely an historical game. On top of that, my local gaming group knows next to nothing about real history and will expect to see these odd shaped helmets if I put on a game.

Four brothers of the Teutonic Order will be making up part of the hearthguard for my Saga force. In Saga, hearthguard are the elite troops in a warband, capable of dishing out a load of damage in combat.

And a shot of them all together. The white cloth is actually a very pale grey, only the shields have plain white on them. The black crosses on the shields were drawn on with a marker pen. (The crosses on the robes were painted on though).

5x 28mm figures earns me 25 points, plus the 20 for the chamber, adding another 45 to my total. These also represent another Squirrel for that side duel.

My running Duels totals:

GW Points - 287

Skullz - 143

Squirrels - 7

From ScottM: Adventurers Landing - F&IW Canoe (30 points)

As our hero ventures deeper into the Chamber of Challenges, we arrive at the Adventurers Landing. This one was kind of a stretch for me. I went with a pair of frontiersmen voyaging into unknown territory. This 28mm figure (figures?) is a Frontiersmen in a canoe set from Warlord Games French and Indian War line.

Simple enough and painted up easily and quickly.

So that should be:

1 - 28mm mounted figure (?) + Chamber bonus = 30 points