From DaveD - Thwump, thwump, thwump. 1/48th Ch47A Chinook (65 points)

 Ok, so this must be todays bonkers post . I have spent all the last week working on one model to add to my Vietnam collection. We did a big game that JamesM and MartinC played in after Xmas where we used our full complement of US air assets - 4 Huey Slicks and a Skyraider and we (well maybe just me!) still want more -go big or go home being the group motto . Over the last year I have picked up a range of larger scale aircraft models one of which was an Italieri early model Chinook used in Vietnam . It’s a big beastie . I get these over my house and you always hear them before you see them . 

With these 1/48th kits it’s a balance between full on scale model nerdery and making it more wargame suitable where it needs to be stored , transportable and gameable . To do this the rotors and 20mm cannon  have been magnetised so are removable for storage and transport. The tail door opens and closes with magnets . It has a 50 cal and  gunner added to the tail door  again it can be removed when needed. There are two metal door /window gunners added. The kit came with plastic 50 cals for those and these were switched out for metal M60s (less likely to break} and gunners from The Assault Group helicopter crew set . This also supplied the two figures for pilot and co pilot figures. As ever doing these 1/48th kits I continue to learn and improve - its a bit of a different skill set , with more patience required .

You can just about make out the crew behind the windscreen 

As this wasn’t going to be a model that just sits on the ground I needed a heavy duty flight stand solution (it’s going to be needed for another of the stash too - no it’s not a B52 honest )  - this was created from an old metal shower rail tube and wall fixing that can be pushed up into the model and comes out of the base. There will be 3 height option , very low, medium (as shown) and high that will be cut from the tube . The base  is made from MDF from the stash and some milliput at the moment .I still need to add a load of extra weight to the base and then texture and foliage etc - but as that’s not being used for  scoring I will catch up on it when they arrive. 

 the rotors and guns removed and tail door closed for transportation 

It will soon be seen over one of our large tables - of course Bob from the group says I need to do a shot down version ! Jeez -it never ends 

Points :-

1/48th vehicle - 30 points I have gone for a 54mm sized vehicle for this as it’s mahoosive!

5 crew they are all full figures - 25 points 

I couldn’t fund a planet with big machines drat! 

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Wow! That is a tremendous bit of kit, Dave! After reading your description of its build and various modifications, I have to take my hat off to you mate.  I like your specially designed flight stand for this beast, but you and the missus must hate the lack of privacy and all the water on the floor. :)  I'm also admiring the shots with all the lovely terrain - that is some fabulous work by you and your crew.

Aaand, it's in proper 1:48 scale (y'know, just sayin').

I'm going to give you an extra 10 points for the extra work you've put into the build, Dave. Brilliant stuff!

Now, you just need to mock up a crashed version...

- Curt

From Barks: Dernhelm [Solaris] (50 points)

Then Merry heard of all sounds in that hour the strangest. It seemed that Dernhelm laughed, and the clear voice was like the ring of steel. 'But no living man am I! You look upon a woman. Éowyn am I, Éomund's daughter.'

JRR Tolkien, The Return of the King (1955)

Deception and illusion at Solaris! Éowyn masquerades as the Rider Dernhelm, pulling the wool over the eyes of Théoden, Merry and the Witch King. This is a gorgeous plastic kit. You get a mounted Dernhelm and Merry- and Merry is detachable. He sits solidly without pinning or magnets and is easily removable. I enjoyed painting the cloaks, with a more grey tone for Merry's elven one.

"... maiden of the Rohirrim, child of kings,
slender but as a steel-blade, fair yet terrible."

sans Merry

You get a dismounted Dernhelm and Merry.

"Her eyes grey as the sea were hard and fell, and yet tears were on her cheek."

I also had a metal Éowyn - if I'm already painting two Éowyns, what is one more?

"... the helm of her secrecy had fallen from her, and her bright hair,
released from its bonds, gleamed with pale gold upon her shoulders."

1x 28mm mounted figure: 10 points

4x 28mm figures: 20 points

Location bonus [Solaris]: 20 points

Slowpainter's ABC: R for Rohan

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One of my favorite passages from the books, captured brilliantly in film, and here in miniature! Lovely work Barks. I really like the colours and shading you've done on the mounted set (I had no idea that the Merry figure was removable - an amazing bit of sculpting, that). The dismounted set is excellent as well and I'm very much admiring how your basework matches your table surface. Nice.

That nasty Witch-King is in for a big surpriiise...

- Curt

From Millsy: 28mm Republican Romans (300 points)

Hi All,

Time to start cranking out some points as I return to work on Monday morning [sob!]. Once that happens painting time will be much curtailed so I needed to make a decent dent in the prepped mini pile beforehand.

This is the start of an army for both SAGA: Age of Hannibal and To the Strongest! These two (in progress) consular legions will eventually be joined by at least one, probably two, allied Italian legions. These fine fellows are Victrix plastics and are based singly for Age of Hannibal, however will be supplied with movement trays for To the Strongest! in future to preserve my sanity. The Allied legions will be multi-based only as I won't need them for Age of Hannibal.

Each consular legion will ultimately have the typical organisation of 1 x triarii, 2 x hastati and 2 x principes, plus an allocation of velites. The red legion is currently missing only the principes, whilst the yellow and missing both the principes and the velites. I'm waiting on more miniatures to arrive (the ones in pectoral armour) to build the missing blocks for these two legions. Finally, there will also be some equites romani and equites latini to and maybe a ballistae round things out.

The eagle eyed amongst you will notice 72 miniatures, however 12  of the velites were painted prior to the Challenge starting as a test. That means in total this submission is 60 miniatures for a tidy 300 points.

Hope you like them!

Cheers,
Millsy

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Wow! What a terrific paint bomb Millsy! Such nice, clean brushwork. Those vibrant shields just shout out, 'Look, we're Romans, just come try and stomp on us with your big elephants, you nasty Carthaginians!' Well, that's what they shout in my mind anyway. 

I look forward to seeing this legion grow with your coming reinforcements, Millsy!  Happy belated birthday and I hope you have an easy first-day back at work.

- Curt

From SimonG: A One Eyed Giant plus my first trip on Sarah's Star Yacht (60 points)

A little bit of a mixed bag this week with two very different sets of figures. Firstly landing adjacent to Caprica we arrive at Arda and deliver something fantastic and Tolkeinish -- Bronte the Cycolopean Norse giant!

Bronwen is a Black Rose Wars figure from the Stator expansion set (I've used a lot of these figures last year) and is a 50mm or so plastic sculpt. Quality is pretty good with plenty of interesting detail to work with.

I especially liked how the flames and glowing effects came out this time, I'm continuing to work on this sort of thing. Plus eyes which really pull a figure together.

Leaving Arda we hitch our first trip on Lady Sarah's Star Yacht courtesy of these two medieval sisters -- you can almost hear the conversation with the younger "lady in red" insisting that yes she is going to go off on Lady Sarah's caravan to the stars despite her elder sister wanting to stay and help look after her cousin!

These are Wargames Foundry figures -- a smallish 28mm but work well as table decoration for my Hundred Year War project. Nice work on the hair this time, plus my first time painting on nostrils (somehow they seemed necessary although not sure how many will be inspecting the figures from below)

Anyway I hope this carries me on to my next stop Glorantha where we should find some of Muninn's brothers and sisters!

Points wise I make this 10 points for Bronwen (54mm size figure) plus 20 points for the stop on Arda, then two 28mm figures makes another 10 points and 20 for Sarah's Star Yacht for a total of 60.

[For those that take an interest in these things many of these photos are focus stacked macro shots, I use Focus Stacker on a Mac plus a Nikkor AFS 105 1:28G mounted on a D750]

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Lovely work Simon. The Cyclops/One-Eyed Giant looks very imposing with his single gazing eye (and two scary hammers!), but I have to say that the two sisters are my favourite of this submission. The grouping is spot on for their sibling conversation and I really like the groundwork as well. As hobbyists, we spend countless hours trying to perfect camouflage, heraldry and uniforms, but we rarely consider the importance of nostrils. I think you're onto something here, Simon. :)

Great work!

- Curt

From PeterD: Female Goblin for Sarah's Star Yacht (24 points)

This female goblin archer wishes to book a trip on the Star Yacht arriving at planet Arda.

This is another pointy eared goblin figure from Wizkids.  There are lots of little details packed into these little sculpts.  This figure was being photographed last week to go live when I realized that she had a mail shoulder cape and needed to go back to the work bench.  It turns out that my iPad camera has sharper eyes than I do. 

I kept with the same muted tones and stony basing as with the other goblins.  Challengers in the know might have figured out that Wizkids packs these figures two per blister and that there may be another female goblin looking for passage late on..

That's 4 points for the 20mm figure plus 20 bonus points for the Star Yacht.  The 4 base points counts towards the fantasy duel not that it's going to help against Curt's paint bombs.  My journey through the system looks like this so far.

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Wonderfully characterful gobbo lass, Peter.  I really like these Wizkids goblins as they very much have a fun, Jim Henson look about them (I love that her quiver is pretty much as large as she is). I totally forgot about the Fantasy Duel until you mentioned it. Sorry about the fantasy blitzkrieg, mate, I've got swords & sorcery on the brain this year. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Have a great flight to Arda!

From Barks: Ruffians [Arda] (145 points)

 I've started thinking of these wuffians as wascally wapscallions and it is hard to stop...

Ruffians

Being a LotR tragic, I really like the Scouring of the Shire. For the uninitiated (spoiler)- having returned lost jewellery, Frodo et al. return to The Shire only to find it has been taken over by bands of thugs. The stage is set for conflict between ordinary hobbits and these brutes.

These are eBay rescues. I was pleasantly surprised to find some Forgeworld characters thrown in, as well as two nicely converted Wildmen of Dunland. I really like the browns in the Contrast range, which did most of the work. It is no small effort to ensure no two figures are alike. I used Vallejo rattlecan matt varnish for the first time, and I'm pleased to find it is really good (but smells awful). Testors Dullcote is hard to source, and this will replace it for me. It is almost too good, as it dulls metallics to a grey.

Thugs

Blackguards

Scum

Villainy

Converted Wildmen

Forgeworld characters

25x 28mm figures: 125 points

Location Bonus (Arda): 20 points

Slowpainter's ABC: V for Villains

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Ah yes, I love those last few chapters of LotR, and it's great to see a skilled hobbyist such as yourself, Barks, to bring it to (miniature) life. 

Great eBay score, especially with those Forge World 'specials', and you've done an excellent job in making theme into a fine mob of rapscallions. I agree, the browns in the Contrast range are brilliant and thanks for the Vallejo matt spray endorsement. I still have a few cans of Dullcote left, but I will be needing to look for an alternative if I can't find a resupply. 

Again, excellent villains, Barks, but I'm sure our Hobbit heroes can handle them.

- Curt

Sunday's Thought for the Day: 'You Must Whip It'

 Hi All!

Now that we're into the close of the week, I get to treat you to the fine work of some of our new folk, along with our wonderful minions. I guarantee you, the day is going to be epic.

As a gentle reminder to all those who have not yet submitted an entry, you have until the end of January 21st (12 days hence!) to pose one before the 'Cull of the First Month' (TM). Bwahaha!!

Seriously, I want to see all 101 of us at the end of the Challenge in March, so open your paint pots, give your brushes a lick and get lashing. 

Now, on to our Sunday programme.

- Curt