ChrisW Gladiators, Supers & Rockettes [445 points]

So, this weeks post came up a little short of what I was aiming for, but I guess it just means more stuff for next week.😁 

A rambling note about how I get things done (and all to often do not get things done), my 'style' is chaotic, unfocused and always teetering on the brink of failure. Plans that I might have at the start of the week often change part way in, or even near by end of the week. For example, this week I only decided to work on the supers on Thursday which shunted other projects aside. The other aspect of my approach, not entirely premeditated, is that I tend to work on all projects, even those not scheduled for the current week, all at once. I rarely finish any project before the last possible moment before posting day. The Rockettes in this post is that rare exception, actually started and finished them in the first two days of this past week. 

It does keep me from being bored by any one project, but it does mean that my gaming room is cluttered with 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 finished projects. Teetering stacks of boxes and other detritus spill over from the gaming table and the prep tables. One must be nimble to navigate around my room! 

So, this week the dreaded deadline caught up with me. I have a number of projects that are almost done, and would just need a bit more time to finish but frankly I just do not feel like staying up into the wee hours of the night, again. 

Anyways on to this weeks post. This starts with a limo ride.

Limousine ride

Now that I have access to a blue pass it is time to visit the Sword and Sandals studio. However, first I will need to hitch a limousine ride. For this ride, I submit the following figure. 

Sword and sandal studio, those about to die [33 foot, 3 mounted 28mm figures]

Most of these figures are by Foundry with a few Black Tree Design figures thrown in. They were kind of fun to paint and educational. This time around I did a bit of research and discovered aspects of their attire that I did not know about. There are three mounted gladiators, 31 foot gladiators and two lions.

Now you might have noticed that some of the figures have no shields. Perhaps someone in the group can help me. I need someone who is friendly with the hobby gremlins that steal and hide small items. I had the shields with the miniatures, on my desk when I started painting these figures, but those damn gremlins snuck in and stole them!!! So, for now, the Black tree figures and the mounted gladiators are shieldless. No doubt the shields will be released back into my care as the challenge progresses. 

Limousine ride

On to another studio, this time the Superhero studio. For the ride to this studio, I submit the following figure. 

Superhero studio [16 x 28mm and 4 x 54mm)

Last minute idea to paint up some superheroes/villains. As such I was only able to tackle 16 figures, but thankfully that really cuts into the unpainted supers pile! There is a possible end to at least one genre.

 

The villains

Two skull headed villains

Scale shot, they are really large figures

These are almost all Old Glory figures, with 2 Pulp Figures thrown in and I am not certain who made the 'Black Widow' figure. Four of them are oversized 54mm figures while the rest are 28mm. For the most part I used contrast/speed/Xpress paints to establish a  shadow/midtone then finished off with normal paints. Some weird figures in this grouping, some very nice sculpts and some not so good.

 Independent feature looking for studio backing.

American heroes in the sky! The Rockettes! (WARCs) [10 x 28mm]

The rocket women are Eureka figures, while the other two are not. They are set up as a Pulp Alley league. 1 leader, 1 sidekick, 1 Ally and a gang (the 5 regular troopers). The bazooka team gets used when the league spends gear points for them. They all have fly, even those that are not wearing a rocket pack. I used Speed paints for the pants & leather. The shirts are contrast plague bearer flesh, while the flesh is Vallejo Xpress (as a base) then touched up with Scale75 assorted flesh paints.

Women's Army Rocket Corp (WARC)

Sidekick (Gauge), Leader (Angel), Ally(Rosie)

Weapon team

The gang

Points for this weeks entry

• 40 points for two limo rides
• 40 points for two studio
• 30 points for 3 x 28mm mounted
  
• 295 points for 59 x 28mm foot
• 40 points for the tall supers
  

Total 445 points

Skull duel [+2]

Squirrels this time around [+3]

1. Gladiators
2. Women rocket corp
3. Superheroes

New total of 18 for the challenge

 Previous squirrels

1. Back of Beyond
   
2. Mad figures (Top hat toffs and companions)
3. Greek skeletons
4. Sisters of Sigmar
5. Ancient Germanic women
6. ECW cuirassiers
   
7. Monsters large
8. Post apocalypse
9. Tekumel Palanquin
10. Empire Pike
11. Jazz Band
    
12. French Cuirassiers on Mars
13. Court of Dr Koo
14. Movie makers
15. Gothic/movie Vampires

 

Another spectacular batch of minis Chris, I don't know where you find the time to paint so many models. I am in a similar predicament with my hobby room and its state of (dis)organisation. It is just so difficult to stick to any one project long enough to finish it off. There is always something else to paint or a shiny new toy to buy.

All of your figures look great, but I love the bright costumed adventurers and villains in the Supers batch. They remind me of the numerous comics and publishers that sprang up in the 80's/90's with a whole host of new characters. 

From MartijnN: Saving the Union in 10mm (World Cinema/ Sarah’s Limousine) (125 points)

From the Historical Drama Studio we make our way through the Studio Park to the World Cinema Studio. Now, it may not be known to all of you that there actually are quite some movies made outside of the Netherlands and Belgium (or even AHPC Studios GmbH). Sometimes, these are almost on a level with famous Lowlands epics like Michiel De Ruyter (2015) or Redbad (2018). Surprisingly, then, some quite entertaining movies are made in a small town in the US called Hollywood. One of those is the 1993 drama Gettysburg,  starring young, upcoming and promising actors like Martin Sheen and Tom Berenger, from whom we may hear more in the future.

 

Obviously, the battle of Gettysburg was quite important in the Civil War that raged across the US in the mid-19^th century, between the Union and some breakaway states (which are something like provinces in our area), forming the Confederacy. Although not much of it is known in these parts, it was quite a large thing at the time, even our local press covering it extensively. To honour this period, I present you some Union troops in 10mm scale.

 

All joking aside, one of my many projects is putting together the forces for, not really Gettysburg, but the battle of Champion Hill for Altar of Freedom. AOF was written with 6mm figures in mind, but as they are base-based rules they will work just as well with 10mm. I put 20 10mm figures on a base, so we have 80 10mm figures here. A base represents a brigade, and with these four completed I have five Union and one Confederate brigades to go. However, for now I think I have painted enough little blue-clad soldiers… Perhaps later in the Challenge!

 

I used mainly contrast paints and experimented a bit with the trouser colours, not always successfully. Also, I cut quite some corners here (painting black leather on a dark blue coat on a 10mm figure really isn’t always necessary), but I think the end result looks sort of ok. These are Perrin figures, now sold by Magister Militum. The flags are by Pendraken.

 

As I have not the faintest idea what to paint for the Casting Coach yet, I will ask Lady Sarah to drive me to the Black and White set. As payment I offer this vivandière or cantinière in 28mm. This is one of the very first 3D figures I printed, and as such is it not very crisp or detailed, but it’s a nice figure and she came out nicely all the same.

 

So, there we have it. Progress so far:

 

Scores:

80 10mm foot @ 1 point = 80 points

World Cinema bonus = 20 points

1x 28mm foot @ 5 points = 5 points

1x Lady Sarah’s Limousine bonus = 20 points

Grand total = 125 points

And a squirrel point!

While Hollywood may not have the appeal of mass market European cinema, I am sure that the few movies produced in the US will have their own cult following. One day some of these American actors may well become a household name. Only time will tell. Bravo though, for picking this little known area of history as a topic for wargaming.

Your little brigades look great, and as you say, you don't have to paint in all of the details at this scale. The vivandière looks very bright and cheerful, just the thing to help motivate the men.

From Millsy: More Star Wars Legion (54 points)

G'day All,

Another couple of Star Wars Legion minis that arrived midweek and which I couldn't resist painting amongst everything else. I'm having so much fun painting these at the moment.

This submission covers another studio location (Stormtrooper sniper for Black and White) and Leia Organa (for a ride in Sarah's Limo, going nowhere, just for the heck of it!).

2 x 40mm models = 14 + 2 x studio bonus = 40 for a total of 54 points.

Cheers,
Millsy

I'm not entirely convinced that orange fits into the black-white scale, but it looks like other challengers have gotten away with odd dots of colour here and there. Mind you the idea of a stormtrooper sniper is frankly hilarious given the usual stormtrooper levels of accuracy in the films, so I will let it slide.

Both figures look great as always, Millsy, hopefully we'll see more Legion figures from you later in the challenge.

From Barks: Warriors of Minas Tirith (Books) (80 points)

Controversial opinion, but I think The Lord of the Rings would make a decent film. Here are my first Gondorian soldiers. They are not my favourite design, but they are clean and recognisable and nice sculpts. I painted over the embossed shield design in pale grey, as I felt white was too stark. The hardest bit was painting the faces after painting the helmets.

A dozen defenders of Denethor

Spears and shields

Swords and shields

Bows

12x 28mm figures (60 points)

Book studio (20 points)

We really should have had a Lord of the Lord of the Rings side duel.

Hmm, that is an interesting idea, the Lord of the Rings as a film. I think if you were careful with it, you could probably even make it a two-parter. Personally, I think that Daniel Radcliffe would make a reasonable Frodo. You'd need to get a jolly good director in to really make the project work though. Someone who could be trusted to remain true to the source material and not just milk the books for all they were worth. 

Your Gondorians look all set to take to the field against the forces of Sauron, the light grey on the shields suits the dark look to the armour and uniforms.

ScottR 28mm Hail Caesar Greek and Celt (70 points)

 With litlle time left before work cuts into my painting time I have been using all my spare time to get things painted.  My goal for the Analogue Painting Comp this yeat was 700 points.  Well happy to say i ahve already met and passed my goal.  I have about a week left before I start travel with work and therefore will lose the next 3 and half weeks.

Now enough of my woes.  Yesterday i managed to build and paint two 28mm large models.  

The first is a Warlord Games Elephant for my Hellenistic/Successor Greeks.  Sorry no special requirements for this.  Just straight out of the box with Javelin thrower in support.  Javelin thrower is from Victrix.

So here is the elephant finished off.  I used the same basing materials as I did for the Phalanx posted earlier.  This will be the 'Mediterranian' scheme for the Greeks.  The bushes give a nice contrast to the yellowish base colour.

So at the same time I worked on my Celtic Terrain piece.  This could be used as an objective, baggage or even a command base at a pinch.  The Cross I picked up at Colours in Newbury in 2018.  It has been sitting around waiting for me to do my Celts.  The Female figures are from Stuart at Colonel Bill's.  Again, I have had this since Colours and would be a part of the Cross piece.  The General is either a Warlord or Black tree Design figure.  Not sure honestly.

I did do a bit of scratch building with this.  I took the heads and staff being held from the Victrix Chariot box to make the Totems.One head, the Roman legionaire with bandage was taken from the Warlords veteran box.  This just required a bit of cutting and gluing.

The flagstones around the base were a plan in the making for some time.  I had picked up one of the Green Stuff World rollers a few years back from my local store.  Using DAS clay I rolled out a set of patterns.

The roller
is easy to use and a bit of water sprinkled on the clay stops it from sticking.

Once this was dry i could cut them up into paving blocks, break them, etc for a more realistic look, well sort of.  They were then laid down onto the basing surface while it was still very wet.  The surface was manipulated with a brush to partialy cover, andget in between the stones.

These wre then painted, washed, drybrushed.  Then once the base was dry a bit of grass and foliage was added.  Again, keeping with teh same style as the rest of my Celt Army.

Once this was done the Totems were then glued into place and the terrain piece was finished.

So here are some close ups.  Sorry the colour from my camers is a little off and a little out of focus.  not the best for Macro shots.

Ok so there we go. A nice days work.

I have a week left. So trying to get as much in as possible.  Next up on the bench I will be going back to my 15mm Australians.  This time to get the Vehicles done and out of the road.

As for points. well Curtis this will be up to you.

Hellenistic Greek Elephant

28mm Vehicle (Elephant @ 20 points.

4 5 x 28mm figures @ 5 points for total of 20 25 points

Total 40 points

Celt Terrain/Objective Piece

Celt Cross and flagstones terrain piece...... ?  5 Points

4 x 28mm figures @ 5 points for a total of 20 points

Both projects are 60 points plus whatever Curtis wants to add. 

Those models all look great, Scott. I like the basing effect on the cross you used, I think my local hobby store carries those rollers, I may need to go and take a look now. The heads on the spears are a great way to get some use out of the bits left on sprues after finishing a unit. I really like the elephant and its crew too, the metalwork on the armour is very smooth.

Points wise, I am not sure how large the cross is exactly, but I figure 5 points should cover it. I also counted 4 crew and the javelin thrower on the elephant, so I have increased your score accordingly. 

The Saturday Sensation

    Has this week been drab and dreary? Has work been getting you down? Well fear not dear challengers, the Saturday crew is back to brighten up your weekend with a whole range of sensational minis. This highly trained cadre of paint-meisters is all set to dazzle your senses and mesmerize your minds with their output for the week.

    This week's eye-popping treats include:

A fantasy army and a well known princess from Millsy,

Some heavy armour, both new and classical from ScottR,

An artist extraordinaire and an interesting take on an old novel by Barks,

Some troops for a little-known skirmish from MartijnN,

A massive mix of miscellaneous miniatures from ChrisW 

And more to come throughout the day.