From StuartL - Random Robots - Death Star - 70 Points

Hello again,

My painting recently has been slowed down a little due to that most precious and special of events... no, not Christmas, Gaming! I have managed to get three full days of rolling dice in over the past week, which has been awesome after roughly 18 months of avoiding most social contact. It has certainly been a nice way to finish off the year. 

I have been painting though and I finished these robots up the other day. 

(Sorry the picture isn't so good, we used the camera over Christmas and the settings got all messed up.)

These 9 robots and androids will be forming the core of a new warband for This Is Not A Test (TNT), a post-apocalyptic skirmish game. All of the minis are from Reaper's Bones range and come from various kickstarters. All of them were painted in a similar fashion, metallic silver followed by a black wash and then some spot colours and highlights. Only the two androids in the middle got any other colours applied.

For my Challenge Sector entry, I looked at the Death Star's requirements of "Of Questionable Design" and found a suitable mini, also for TNT, and a kit-bash just like my entry for Skaro. Introducing the Party Bot.

As the entry in the TNT supplement states: "Party Bot is here to party. Amaze your friends, annoy your neighbours, have the best time everrr!" The Party Bot is not a normal part of a warband and is a hired freelancer for any faction. It doesn't have any guns or physical weapons, but comes equipped with 'Raucous Noise' and 'Blinding Disco-Tech' forcing all models nearby to pass skill checks or suffer some large penalties to their skills.

The Party Bot is a kit-bash from some 40K Imperial Guard (nope, still not using their daft new name), kits; a wheel from a tank, some binoculars, speakers from vox casters and heavy flamer nozzles. The top half of the robot is a repurposed cheap Christmas bauble, carefully cut and glued on top. I'm not sure how effective it will be in game, but I intend to download some disco songs and play them at full volume whenever it attacks. 

So, that's a total of 10x 28mm minis for 50 points, plus an additional 20 points for the Death Disco Star. See you all next time.

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Now, if the Imperials had only sent the Party Bot to Hoth instead of the boring Probe Droid. Really, it would have been so much more fun, yet terrifying. I now have burned into my psyche visions of tauntauns moonwalking and wampas Doin' the Locomotion... 

Wonderful (and fun) work Stuart!

From IainW: Essex ECW/War of Three Kingdoms shotte - The last of the Blax Bequest! (35 Points)

About three years ago I was visiting the blog of a fellow AHPC alumni SimonM aka Blax aka 'The Nuln Oil Kid' and there was some star trek figures on his blog, I mentioned I had some 25mm citadel star trek miniatures from about 1980 knocking around in my loft if he wanted them, it took me some years to mine them from  my lead mountain and together with some citadel spacefarers and 15mm citadel Traveller figures and some other 15mm scifi figures from about 1980 I finally sent them off this summer. In response he suggested I have his second hand collection of painted 28mm oop Front Rank ECW figures that there were sitting in his loft,but there were so many of them he'd have to drop them off. I  have cleaned up and rebased 4 units of cavalry, 2 units of dragoons, a number of command stands and with the addition of these 7 1980s Essex shot figures I can field a 6th pike and shot regiment from his figures.  So thanks Simon!

This gives me a regiment of the London trained bands (hence the buff coats)for the battle of Cropredy, so I wanted a bit of variety with them, it also meant I could dump various left over figures in too, to make the numbers up! Apostles in green to match the  existing shot, I haven't copied the original style but I think they do. As you can see I have moved over to six /seven figures on a stick to speed up production, ammunition quality painting but not too bad for an evenings work. 

This is a photo of the unit together with all the figures I have from the Blax trade (a Jacobite cannon and crew have skedadled across the Atlantic)

So 7 x 5 28mm figures is 35 to start me off, I'm not planning on doing planets (I've still got a half built dockyard from a few years ago!)  so even though they came via Vulcan (in a convoluted manner to be sure!) I'll stick with that, obviously not Napoleonic which I hope to stick to with laser accuracy this year, oh well!

All the best, Iain 

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Fabulous first entry for you this year, Iain! Welcome back to the Challenge, mate.

These harquebusiers for your pike & shotte unit look terrific - I especially enjoy your high-contrast style. I like that they still have their 'swinefeathers', showing them to be from the first battles of the war. (I suspect that, by the later years, these were probably being used more to roast sausages and dry laundry than to keep firearms propped up.) 

It warms my heart to know that two Challengers got together and exchanged figures to be enjoyed again - how wonderful! I've been the happy beneficiary of your hobby kindness in the past, being a proud recipient of a Sisters of Battle force - keep an eye out for some more of those this year.

Great work Iain. I look forward to your upcoming Napoleonics. 

- Curt 

From PeterD Babylon 5: Operatic Pictish Bard in 28mm (25 points)

The next stop for me is Bablyon 5 with a brief of Operatic or Low Budget Fun.

In my Dark Age RPG word there are no Operas, so folks made do with the local Bard, Skald or Scop.  If the story teller was good, it was a lot of fun and it was certainly low budget.  

This fellow with his Pete Townsend harp technique is another Gripping beast 28mm figure from the same Picitish command pack as the two competing religious types in my last post.  I think that he's grateful to be released from his internment with them!

Quite what he is singing is anyone's guess as the Picts are somewhat of a historical mystery and no one knows what their language sounded like.  The competing best guesses are "pretty close to the early Welsh spoken everywhere else in Britain"  and "a non Indo-European language that pre-dates the Celts by centuries".  The only written records that they left themselves are carved stones in Ogham. 

No mysteries about the figure however, a nice sculpt in typical Beastie Boy style and pretty nice to paint up.  Although labelled Pictish he's pretty much generic Dark Age Britain in dress and equipment.  The red cloak is a pushing it a bit historically, as dyes should be pretty much muted browns, yellows and greens - much like an over cooked dinner at your English Grandma's.  A continual challenge in modelling this period is to paint figures that looks right, but don't fade into the background. 

It being early days of the Challenge I am picking off a few smaller pieces while the bigger stuff goes on in the background.  Assuming that he counts as either Operatic or Low Budget fun enough to count towards the location, this is 5 points for the figure plus 20 for Babylon 5 for 25 points.  I will be using him in an RPG, but have taken Curt's point so won't count him towards the fantasy Duel.

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This is a great mini, Peter. As you say, he's definitely channeling his inner Pete Townsend, or, who knows, maybe it's always been the other way around with Pete tapping into his inner Pict! :) 

As you say, it's often a challenge to paint Dark Age stuff without it blending into the terrain. You want it interesting, but not lurid. I think you've struck a fine balance here, and besides, he is a bit of a showman so a brighter colour should not be amiss. 

I look forward to seeing this fellow in our visit to the village in your RPG game. :)

- Curt

From SarahHC: My First Entry - Pilot Jenny of Sarah's Star Yacht (30 Points)

AHPC XII First Entry: Pilot Jenny

Hello Everybody, Sarah here!

I’m just going to jump right in and present my first entry into “The Challenge”.

Pilot Jenny is a Space Pioneers 3D print found on MyMiniFactory. Jenny is the pilot of Lady Sarah’s Star Yacht, and will be zipping throughout the quadrant picking-up and dropping-off passengers throughout the Challenge.

Star Yacht Customer Relations predicts that this year’s travel service will be the biggest & busiest yet. There is already a long queue, and more reservations are expected.

Pilot Jenny and Senior Flight Attendant Tamsin will need extra crew to stock the drinks trolley, organize the in-flight entertainment, and keep passenger shenanigan’s in check. Staffing requirements will be keeping my friendly purveyor of 3D printed figures busy!

Jenny is actually the second figure I have painted since the Challenge. The first, a sorceress (who will make an appearance later this challenge) was painted under Curt’s supervision, Jenny on the other hand was mostly left to me. 

Deciding to take up the Challenge is both exciting and intimidating. I neither draw/paint nor craft, so I find myself learning new skills … brush control is hard! What’s edge highlighting? Dry brush vs wet brush? Zenithal highlights!? So far I've had only one paint pot mis-hap, one broken drill bit, and some creative language from Curt (VERY creative language - ed.). 

Jenny’s lovely dark green utilitarian Space Suit is Citadel Contrast Warp Lightning with Leaf Green highlights, her armour panels (you to make it FASHIONABLE) was painted with Black Templar contrast paint with Vallejo’s metallic Steel on her mesh armour leggings and body armour. Her nifty data slate glows with an Ultra Blue Deep colour with ice white. Jenny’s combat boots have a very cool chrome trim, and her ‘lewk’ is completed with an edgy pink&purple hair-do.

I have a little painting area to call my own and have begun my Paint Journal chronicling my endeavours.

As Jenny is a 54mm figure she'll give me 10pts, plus another 20 points for Sarah's (!) Star Yacht.

So, this will also serve as 10 points towards my Chocolate Cake Duel with Natasha (first to reach 50 points!)

Next Port of Call is Solaris…

- Sarah

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Lovely work on Pilot Jenny, Sarah! When you first described how you were going to paint her I knew you were subliminally channeling your reading of the Sharpe novels. Your choice of rifle green and black for her space suite is very on-point. :) I also like how you did her suit's metallic mesh panels, and think her rather lurid hair colour is suitably anime-adjacent for an edgy female space pilot. :)

I have to admit that I'm glad Tamsin will be taking over the helm for both Natasha and Sarah's entries going forward. I don't think I could take the strain of getting caught-up in the middle of scoring the results of The Chocolate Cake Duel (other than the obvious benefits of helping to eat it). This is going to be epic!

Sarah, welcome to the mosh pit of the Painting Challenge, I know you're going to have a blast!  

- Curt

From TashaH: Wizards, Druids and Witches, Oh My! [Arda] (34 points)

Hello! My name is Natasha (TashaH) and I live in Saskatchewan, Canada.

I am incredibly new to this hobby. I played my first tabletop game (Eldritch Horror) in July of this year with Sarah and Curt and I was hooked. Since then, I've played Moonstone and a few ECW games from a campaign. I am looking forward to expanding my horizons and trying more scenarios in the future. 

I'm incredibly fortunate that the group I have been invited to game with is well established and puts on all the games. As such, you will see that my contributions to this year's Challenge have no rhyme or reason and are not tied to any game whatsoever.  At some point, I will settle in on a theme, or perhaps not! 

For my initial entry, of my first Challenge, I will be landing on the planet, Arda. I’m leaning toward the ‘fantasy’ admission requirement for this planet.

My first figures are prints from STL Miniatures at MyMiniFactory 

The majority of my paint is acrylics. I have a few Citadel Contrast paints and a couple pots of P3. I am hoping to add to my paint collection regularly!

I started with the Wizard's Bookcase in this grouping that I've put together. It is 80mm long, 50 mm tall and 10mm wide. Initially, I highlighted with two shades of grey and then utilized Snakebite Leather Contrast by Citadel. This proved to be an unfortunate decision. The wood did not look like wood at all. After many layers of many colours and washes ... this is the final result. All of the accessories in the bookcase were done willy nilly, with no real pattern or intent. I kept adding colours and layers until I was content with the result.

Next up was the Druid Table. I tried to remember the process I'd employed with the bookcase. My memory is unreliable at best (I really need to remember to write things down in the handy, dandy notebook I was given for such things). For the table, I used the Snakebite Leather Contrast midway through the process and it seemed to work much better for a rich wood look. Having only one brown Contrast makes a person get creative! Also, isn't that stool adorable? The table measures 30 mm across and 10mm to table top/27mm to very top. The stool measures a wee 10 mm across x 5mm high.

I really enjoyed pulling the details out of the book on the table. Note the mushrooms on the tabletop, they come into play next!

These are the Druid Mushrooms that are harvested on the Druid Table. The caps are painted using Contrast paint (such a delight to use). I used a metallic white for some of the highlighting to help boost the shimmer of the mushroom caps. I tried to mimic the same wood tones in the undergrowth as in the Table and Bookcase.  The mushrooms were great fun to paint and measure at 50mm x 35 mm.

Lastly we have a 40mm, Nana the Witch from Printed Obsession at My Mini Factory. This figure was a challenge for me. I almost gave up on her. After following some sage advice to walk away and come back another day, I was able to finish her. The number of layers of paint on this miniature is a bit embarrassing. 

Because I won't be using these for gaming, but rather as display pieces. they are freestanding and not based. 

Now for the points total. I'm really unsure about this, so chances are I'll mess it up! 

If I understand correctly, furniture counts the same as terrain. I anticipate if you packed in all the furniture like you were loading a U-Haul, it would fit a 2" square, so that would be 6.5 points. 7 points for Nana, and 20 points for the Arda (outer ring) landing bonus would give me a total of  33.5 points.

Thank you for letting me play!

(13.5 points towards the Chocolate Cake Duel with Sarah!)

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First, welcome to the Challenge, Natasha!

I quite like this entry, your opening gambit towards your target. This is especially the case as I helped source the models for you!  This is also the case with Sarah's upcoming entires as well. Yes, I am very much 'The Enabler' here. :)

While it is true that you currently have a limited collection of paints, I think you've done an absolutely wonderful job on these models. I particularly admire the wood grain on the furniture, the shiny (and mysterious) accoutrements on the tabletop, and the charming colours of the mushroom grove (the metallic hue of the spotted blue mushroom is particularly eye-catching). 

I'm going to round up your scoring to an even 14 points.

I know Sarah has her post waiting in the wings, so the battle for the chocolate cake should be a fierce one. :)

Terrific work Natasha!

- Curt

From AlanD - Romanian Infantry (125 points)

Despite the traditional post-Christmas torpor, I've been pushing on with my first Challenge project and painting more Romanian infantry from Great Escape Games. I'm quite enjoying painting these, and like the slightly motley appearance of different headgear and winter uniform contrasting with the snow. 

In addition to another 20 infantry, I've also finished a machine gun team, manning a very nice model of a ZB 53 medium machine gun.

I had some nice comments about the snow bases for my last entry, so here's how they are done. I've been mixing Woodland Scenics snow 'flock' into Liquitex acrylic 'Resin Sand'. This is a really nice acrylic medium that I use to give texture to bases. It dries clear, so with the snow flock it ends up still looking a bit slushy.

So with 23 x 28mm figures and a crew-served weapon, this should add 125 points to my total. Happy New Year to you all, and may it bring more games and time with friends than the last couple of years.

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Fabulous work Alan! I love seeing these outliers (and their not-very-common gear, such as the ZB-53). I'm a huge fan of the various Liquitex texture mediums - they are such a time saver when basing figures. As a suggestion, also try Golden's 'Heavy Gel', as it gives a great hard crust ice effect - something to mix with your Resin Sand method.

Happy New Year Alan!

- Curt 

From SimonM - "Games Workshop" Epic Black Templars, Space Wolves & Dark Angels (16 points)

As with my opening submission, these 6mm scale plastic models of a Conqueror Robot, Rhino, fifteen Assault Space Marines, five Terminators and a five-figure Adeptus Astartes Command stand all used to be produced by “Games Workshop” as part of their now long out of production (OOP) “Epic” range. As a result I obtained the vast majority of them second-hand, and subsequently have had to paint some of them up as Black Templars owing to the tiny softly-detailed miniatures already being primed in a distinctly thick black paint.

This decision meant that both the Sergeant’s squad and accompanying Terminators simply received a couple of licks of watered-down “Citadel” Abaddon Black, before having their shoulder-pads all ‘picked out’ with a little “Vallejo” White and Pale Grey. In addition, all of their bolters (as well as the sergeant’s cybernetic eye) were treated to a combination of “Vallejo” Gunmetal and “Citadel” Nuln Oil, whilst the sergeant’s hair was daubed with a dollop of “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna and some “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade.

Fortunately, I was able to find fifteen Assault Space Marine figures which hadn’t yet been ever touched by a paint-brush, so promptly decided to give them some coats of “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey and Dark Green so as to represent the Space Wolves and Dark Angels respectively. All of these tiny warriors were then shaded in “Citadel” Nuln Oil before being carefully dry-brushed in their appropriate base colours. Finally, I picked out their chainswords and boltguns with “Vallejo” Gunmetal and “Citadel” Nuln Oil.

Alongside these fine fellows, I decided to try and rescue one particular poor-looking Rhino transport vehicle I found, which had been badly glooped with black at some distant point in its past. As aforementioned, I have been using such models for my Black Templars, but on this occasion felt the sculpt’s details might just survive two passes of “Vallejo” Dark Green, a wash of “Citadel” Nuln Oil, and a thorough dry-brush of (more) “Vallejo” Dark Green. The end result was a semi-successful Dark Angels Rhino to accompany the Chapter’s Assault Space Marines.

Lastly, I added a Robot to my burgeoning Dark Angels force by following precisely the same process as I had for both the Rhino and Assault Space Marines. However, I did pick out the automaton’s eyes with a dab of “Vallejo” Heavy Red and “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson.

Hopefully this second of several planned “Epic” deployments during the AHPC will provide:

1 x Rhino – 2 Points

1 x Robot – 1 Point (as per previous submission’s scoring)

15 x Assault Space Marines – 7.5 Points

5 x Terminators – 2.5 Points

5 x Space Marines – 2.5 Points

Total – 15 ½ Points

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A great set of reinforcements for your existing Epic force. I really like how your brushwork distinctly features the various Space Marine Chapters (the livery for the Space Wolves I find particularly brilliant). I've rounded up to 16 points for this detachment.

Keep them coming, Simon!

- Curt