From TeemuL: Terrify me, The Pit of the Pendulum (30 points)

"Uggla" continues towards the principal's office, he thinks when he hears something coming from the tunnel. Something big. Something many. After the previous dagger incident he starts to feel a bit nervous and checks that his badge is visible and moves closer to the wall. In the end the something is actually someone with many legs, she speeds past our brave Shellington, who has never seen this big a spider. "Tasty hobbitses" can be heard again from the direction where the spider queen runs. Shellington scratches his head and wipes away a tear of sweat and decides to continue his journey without worrying too much about the pest management of his university.

That was something terrifying, wasn't it? Huge spider queen running past you when you least expected it. Yes, S.N. Owl-Ord continues his walk in the Chambers and passes by Shelob, who is going to eat some tasty hobbitses (she thinks). She is a metal miniature from the Clutches of Shelob box by Games Workshop, sculpted by Trish Morrison, if I'm not mistaken.

On the post regarding Valhallans, I said don't use Black Templar Contrast to paint black and here I did exactly that! I painted the whole thing black, then gave it a light drybrush with medium grey. Then using Druchii Violet I painted the whole thing again, making the grey areas quite violet and black areas with a tone of violet, just to make her look more sinister and terrifying. I could have painted some eyes, fangs and whatever, but I like it how is now. Very happy. Assembling was a bit pain, but using superglue and greenstuff makes wonders and the legs are now firmly in the place. In short, super glue on the other part and a ball of green stuff on the other part and stick together. Green stuff keeps the parts together until the glue hardens the stuff and makes the bond strong. Hobby hint, please use and make it better.

Pointswise I would ask for 10 points for the cavalry sized miniature. She is not cavalry, but the size is pretty much correct. And then 20 points for the room. Total 30 points, my friend minion.

10 points to my GW side duel (total 147).

This one is a named character, clearly a she, so I'm labeling her as Sarah's Choice as well, this isn't a random werebear or anything.

From Curt: Work Servitors from the Grim Dark Future (50 Points)

 For 'The Golem's Haunt' I have six tireless (or is it forever tired?) work servitors for my 40K/Dark Heresy collection. 

MikeF scooped me on this theme (good one Mike!), but I thought I'd stick with it as I needed to complete these models as they've been balefully looking at me for the better part of a year.

These rather dolorous chaps are from Wargames Exclusive, an eastern European miniature company, whose products I've always really enjoyed. All their figures are made from resin, quite delicate and beautifully designed.

For those not savvy to GW lore, servitors are essentially cyborg slaves who's biological bits have been harvested from criminals, dissidents, and those poor souls thought to be undesirable. 

The reason for creating servitors rather than just building robots is that, in the distant past, the Imperium suffered a long, horrific war caused by rebellious machines benefitting from artificial intelligence (or 'Abominable Intelligence'). So now, they manufacture 'thinking' machines using repurposed cerebral cortexes and other bits grafted to machine parts. Yep, pretty horrific. In the grim dark future, Mankind has become a big supporter of 'social recycling'.

I really like that these figures are not combat orientated, but rather designed to set a domestic scene on some Imperial ship, or perhaps a compliant world. I especially like the fellow furiously polishing, perhaps the shoe of some dignitary, or maybe drying off a worthy's favourite pet; and the other servitor, pale in 'hand', cleaning a window, admiring his reflection: deus ex Machina indeed. 

These six fellas, along with the Chamber bonus, will give me 50 points AND my 6th Squirrel Point!

Next Up: Hmm. Not sure. Either a teleport, or a peek into the Chamber of Darkness...

- Curt

From Barks: Discworld witches (53 points)

Terry Pratchett’s witches are a crucial part of his rural communities. Each one brings her own style to their role of combined village doctor, midwife, veterinarian, and defender of the voiceless.

These 40mm figures are from Micro Arts Studio in Poland and can be used for the Witches boardgame. They represent teenage apprentice witches. I'm quite happy with the lantern- I used Iyanden Yellow Contrast then a little bit of white in the centre.

Tiffany Aching

Annagramma Hawkin

Dimity Hubbub

Petulia Gristle

I was going to eke these out for various Sorceress Sarah uses, but couldn’t resist getting them all out in one go.

4x 40mm figures: 28 points

Teleporter use: 20 points

Sorceress bonus: 5 points

JeremyM, Aliens: BugHunt

 Hi Again,

Back at work this week so my painting productivity has certainly plummeted. But I managed to complete the 4 colonial marine figures that come with the new Upper Deck Aliens:Bug Hunt game. Just in time to as I'm hoping to run it with our local group via zoom tomorrow night. Get ready to shout "They are coming out of the God Damned Walls!" Curt.

I just realized will working on this that technically this is my 5th aliens themed board game, as I have the Legendary Encounters card game, Aliens vs Predator the Hunt Begins Version 1 and Version 2, this game and the new Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps. I love the film but perhaps that is a bit much...at least until the next one comes along especially if it has minis! Of all of them I think Bug Hunt has the lowest theme value but it seems to still be a reasonably fun simple game, good enough for zoom I figure so it has its place at least during the pandemic.

The figures aren't great to be honest. A bit smaller or at least thinner than the others I have in my growing collection and definitely less detailed. I started by replacing their bases with 3d printed ones so they fit the sci fi theme a bit better, and a lot less work than trying to add theme to their plain plastic ones. I was lucky that these ones fit the base rings, although they are a bit loose. I tried a few different skin tones and once again am not totally happy with the results but you have to stop somewhere and move on. The camo is also a fairly new thing for me surprisingly for a mini painter, but I think it turned out okay, certainly good enough for board game pieces.

The one figure I'm very happy with is this guy. He came with this blob of plastic that vaguely resembled a pulse rifle, and he's the only one of the 4 armed with one. Rather disappointing for the most iconic gun from the film. Thankfully I had a hasslefree miniatures version that I was able to swap. I also was able to use some hot water to bend his head back a fair bit and make his pose slightly more reasonable than the overly awkward one. Now it looks to me like he is firing backward as he kind of shuffles away from some horrible acidic bloody creature.

Here is his original pose where he is looking down at his boot laces or perhaps staring at what should have been pulse rifle. Seriously it is so bad some reviewers thought there was no pulse rifle mini included with the game.

I'll end with a quick thank you to my wife. I had a bit of an accident while finishing these guys and managed to spill almost an entire new bottle of Agrax Earthshade on my khaki pants. Somehow she managed to get the stain out, likely because we acted fast. [Insert joke about brown stains on my pants here_________]. Bloody hate those GW pots, I may have to decant it into some dropper bottles given how clumsy I can be. So 4 28mm figures is 20 more points to my tally.

Jeremy

...NOT 6mm!

I've hit a bit of a brickwall with my painting. I'm not sure if it's the new lockdown or just post Christmas funk. Anyway, I thought a change would be as good as a rest. Having painted nearly 2,000 6mm ACW over the last couple of months, it was probably about time for something different.

As well as 6mm historical wargaming, my other passion is sci fi and fantasy games, principally those produced by Mantic Games. Deadzone and Kings of War are two of their best selling games and I love them both!

I have large stashes of figures for both games and so dug into the to do pile. First up is a Strike Team for Deadzone. They are the Nameless, a strange and enigmatic race from beyond the stars. Their intentions within the 'Deadzone' universe are unkown. They're called the Nameless by virtue of the fact that no one is able to decipher the language that they speak! Anyway, these have been painted in the vain of the Geiger Alien artwork and was influenced by the excellent Midwinter Minis Youtube channel.

These are a Elves from Mantic Games, based as a Regiment for Kings of War and form the first unit of my next Kings of War army. I've tried something different with these as well. I wanted a sort of ethereal look to them which I'm npot sure I've pulled of to be honest. But they'll do. I used mainly contrast paints, inks and drybrushing and they were fairly quick to do. The snowy theme is to fit in with them fighting in the northern wastes. Not sure what I'll be doing next for them but I've got a ton of sprues to sort through for inspiration.

 Total 41 figures @ 5pts each = 205pts.

Most likely back to 6mm ACW next to finish off the first part of that project.

Kepe safe, play nice, and keep talking about six.

JamieM - post apocalyptic clown warband

Things were getting tough.... ever since things went totally sideways when the bombs started dropping and the world changed, we’d just been wandering. Every now and again we’d pick up another straggler, stumbling from whatever building they’d holed up in or had been searching for food in.

Wasn’t long before the cracks started to show..... none of us was ready for what happened and it showed as folk overreacted to everything. I really though the next argument was going to end up with someone killing someone else..... but then we saw it, in the distance. I don’t know why, but it galvanised us, gave us something else to focus on...... Clown Town!

Yeah, who would have guessed that the two bit carnival show that came through town every couple of years and just happened to be passing through when the bombs fell would help. Gave us something else to concentrate on and to think about. They’d abandoned it, so there it was, ripe for the taking. And take we did......

Jonny was always a bit unhinged. He demanded the tutu and cane. No one was going to disagree with him when he got that look in his eye.

Simon worked in steel as near as we could tell. He turned up the power on that flame machine they used to use when the acts were running into the big top and he just keeps giggling when he fires it now.

Ned was always a quiet one. Who knew that he could unicycle?

Judith found that rifle hidden under the outfit box. She’s got some skills with it too.

Bogdana worked for that chemical company just outside town as far as I know. She certainly knew her way around the flash bang grenades she found. Says she’s made them “more fun”, whatever that means.

Paul’s always showing off. Picked that road sign off the street and nothing will make him leave it. Perhaps it was from the end of his road or something?

The second warband for my post apocalyptic skirmish (scuffle?) gaming complete and that gives me six more 40mm figures for 42 points.

From Dallas: Rebel Minis Beastmen (40 points)

Looking back at my Challenge entries this year, it's a bit surprising that most of them are fantasy-themed miniatures. Surprising mainly because as a gaming group, we haven't played a fantasy battle game for years. However, most of the stuff I'm painting is skirmish stuff - adventurers, fantasy monsters, that sort of thing. These models will certainly come in handy once we start gaming again - especially once I work up a multi-player Otherworld skirmish game for the lads. I'll have plenty of warbands and monsters to deploy - adventurers/murder hobos, orcs, beastmen, monsters... great stuff and all fitting with the OSR role-playing theme.

Anyway, these 28mm models from Rebel Minis have been in the Plano case for some time, and it's long since time they were painted. They went up pretty fast, all told, and will be good for 40 more points in the Challenge. No special theme room for these guys but I have some themed entries coming up soon. And by my count that should take me to 260 points and a shade more than halfway towards my goal.

Stay safe everyone!

 

Luftwaffe 20mm crews Matt Williamson

 20mm Luftwaffe AA crews & fallschirmjager AA, AT and mortar crews. 

One of my project list goals for 2021 was to add crews to my flak guns and AT guns, both Luftwaffe and fallschirmjäger batteries for my 20mm collection.

Quite happy with the results, I think the splittertarn variants may need a little work but overall happy. Good to get back painting 20mm again. 

47 ww2 20mm figures @ 4 points per figure = 188

Cheers

Matt Williamson  

Sassanid cavalry Matt Williamson

Hot off the desk this morning are some A&A Sassanid light cavalry. One of the Romans most consistent enemies  of late period. 

Based for impetus 

Total 9 mounted figs @10pts each = 90 points 

Side Challenge Rome and her enemies =?

Cheers

Matt Williamson

French Wargame Holidays 

From TeemuL: Trapped, tasty hobbits, The Hall of Traps (27 points)

Venerable S.N. Owl-Ord descends the stairs to the Level 1 of the Chambers of Challenge, although he doesn't know it himself. He feels a bit lost, but that is normal to him, so the little uneasiness doesn't bother him too much. Anyway, he starts to feel he took a wrong turn somewhere when going to the principal's office, when he hears a cry "Keep you hands of him!" from the corner of the dark room. There seems to be a small man or a young boy, mostly in greens, but a little bit difficult to properly see, he had a huge cloak, which seemed to camouflage him quite well. In a dim light he also noticed another young one, clearly trapped in some kind of wraps. The glowing dagger, real or fake, in the hand of the screamer was enough hint for our Shellington to quickly continue his journey, pardoning his interruption. Someone was whispering about "tasty hobbitses" in the shadows and the screaming guy said something like "I'm here, master", so most likely the principal's office was just around the corner.

Keep your hands off him!

My first step in the Chambers of Challenge. While I first went through the list of the rooms, I was thinking, it is difficult to get something for most of the rooms, may be I just skip the Chambers and paint what I like. But after re-reading the list couple of times, I started to get ideas and this was one of them. Frodo here is as trapped as a hobbit can, in the clutches of Shelob. I decided to paint the Sam as well, I wonder what I will paint for the Pit of the Pendulum, what could be there to terrify our Shellington?

These miniatures are metal miniatures from Games Workshop, released around the time of the Return of the King movie. I guess these are sculpted by Michael Perry and Trish Morrison is credited for the other stuff in the box. Frodo was quite a simple paint job, I tried to get his face quite pale and lifeless.

Sam was a bit trickier, since 20 years ago I painted my first Sam with dark green pants and light green jacket. This sculpt has elven cloak, which I have painted very dark green for other members of the Fellowship in the past. So trying to get different shades of green to different clothes was bit tricky, and I'm not 100% happy with the outcome. I played around a bit, I painted the cloak with Warboss Green and then painted it again with Ork Flesh Contrast paint, like a wash, to make it darker and have the shadows. Jacket and trousers are different greens washed with Biel Tan Green.and then highlighted with light greens and yellow. The flask in the hand is not very visible in the photos, but it is silver highlighted with white to mimic the Light (trapped) inside.

For the scoring purposes, 28mm hobbits have been scored 5 points a piece in the past, so I'll continue with that. Frodo is prone, so it would be half the points, but I'll be happy with 2, rounding down because of the hobbits.

7 points for the hobbits

20 points for the room

Total 27 points and 7 points for my GW side duel (137 in total now, I guess), I might jump in the top half for a while now...