From SanderS: A futuristic take on the Maritime Theme (33 points)

 Hoi,

And so we wander into the Maritime Department of the Library. Now I do not have any real blue navy vessels to paint in my collection at the moment, but I did have a few space SHIPs to paint as part of a commission.  So I guess these will have to do, even if it is only a small entry this week while working on a bigger entry for next week. 

The vessels you see here are part of the Space Dreadnought 3000 range made by Kalistra. The game is a very strategic game rather than the usual tatcical games, there's a big part of the game in which you have to deploy your fleets (= nautical term) and supply vessels etc, before fighting out big battles in space. 

The pictures below show a Deep Space station which I have painted (as per instruction of the client) in a generic way so it could belong to either faction or be neutral. 

 Next up are 3 pirate vessels which are rather "organic" in nature (think Tyranid Bio-ships) and I painted them in the colours specified by the client (i.e. green, yellow and white). 

I must confess that I like the space station best and really had fun doing all the lights, glass domes and other bobs and bits. 

Regarding to points I have no idea what to score them, my browser doesn't show the lables for Challenge entries on the righthand side of the main page anymore so I couldn't look them up. But I guess I would go for 10 points for the station and 3 each for the smaller craft so 19 points together. That coupled with 20 bonus points would make 39 more to add to the roster. I guess it's up to our masterful monday minion to decide! 

Cheers Sander

Not really your usual masterful minion, but it's Monday Martijn for you I fear. Those spacecraft look fabulous, Sander! The yellow is great, and the all the little details on the Space Station really pop. Excellent work and your client should be well pleased with them. However, I feel the link with the Maritime section is just a little too tenuous for me. There is very little wet or offshore about these models, in the spirit of the Library section, and placing these on the shelves here would definitely get me a reprimand from the Head Librarian. To soften the blow a bit, however, having checked the dimensions I will score the smaller craft as 10mm vehicles at 6 points each and the space station as a 20mm vehicle at 15 points for a total of 33 points. Well done Sander!

Martijn

P.S. don't forget to mark your draft post "Monday", in case you get to deal with a replacement minion who could easily have overlooked it ;-)

From SimonG: 28mm Roman Legionaries Throwing Pila (Local History, 60 points)

For my next submission I am pleased to offer my first stand of classic Imperial Roman Legionaries -- in this case all in the act of throwing their pila as they approach on the hapless barbarians (or in my case more likely a horde of rebelling jews!).

These are very nice multi-part plastic figures from Victrix with shield transfers from LBMS. Perhaps the only criticism would be that they all seem to have the same face! Clearly consistency in appearance was a big deal for this legion.

The figures have been based on a 120x60 2mm base for Impetus -- these nice big chunky bases really give you room to set up a nice mini diorama. I especially like the fellow that is leaning forward having released his pilum.

I do tend to find that strict uniforms such as these really take a lot of time, to which adding the challenge of doing faces in recessed galea -- still it was a lot of fun and the finished effect paid off well! And I do love a nice manicure (surprisingly hard to photograph hands and feet and bring out the nail details!)

Always keep your nails clean!

For those of you that want to get this look at home I offer the following link 😅💅 !

With last weeks submission we took a lift on Sarah's library cart to the local history section -- which is quite apropos as this group of legionaries have just been posted to Judea after a long cold winter shivering off the Isle of Thanet at Rutupiae (Richborough Roman Fort). I can just about see the fort from the roof of our house here in Sandwich and so I think qualifies well as local history!

Points wise I have eight 28mm figures plus the location bonus for a total of 60 this week. Next week we should encounter the enemies of these Romans for the first time in this challenge!

More excellent painting on these Imperial legionaries, Simon! As their faces look rather alike, I suppose this is a Roman band of brothers? Primus, Secundus, Tertius, Quintus, Sextus, Septimus and Decius with their dad? Gotta love those imaginative Roman first names.  Anyway, they look very good together. Speaking about imaginative, the ancient historian in me flinches just a tiny little bit at the Local History connection, as I think we know very little about the actual garrison of Rutupiae (still a very impressive fortress, I have been there and loved it), but hey, who am I to argue with fingernails like these? So, 60 points for you.

Martijn

From PeterB: 2nd Edition Spam and Orks - 145 points

The mission to recreate an experience from the 90's continues. I am abandoning the library stacks for the week and just concentrating on painting some models. Some nice primary colours on some nice repetitive units. So, firstly I present to you 20 Goff Orks from the 2nd Edition starter box set. A close friend donated most of these to the cause. He had a large stash of them hidden in his loft and was quite willing to let me have a bag full. (Handed over to me in a plastic carrier bag at a wargame show last year like some underhand deal.) I am still keeping a good eye on ebay for an old style dreadnought but to no avail (I did used to own one but sold it to buy more Space Marines). So for now I have custom made my own base out of a slotta base and some sprue cut offs and printed out a replica of the original starter set cardboard dread.

Next up are some Terminators I rescued from my collection.(Or for their full title, Space Marines in Tactical Dreadnought Terminator Armour) I have spent a big chunk of this week stripping off multiple layers of paint off old models in my collection instead of painting. In the previous millennium I would paint models as quickly as possible to get them on the table to play, so my painting quality was terrible. I would change my mind on a paint job and just paint over it. So, these models had a good thick layer on them and had lost a lot of detail. These models definitely needed a strip and a repaint.

I had forgotten how skulltatstic all these models are, at final count the sergeant has sixteen skulls on him if you are including the four atop his banner pole. (One either side in the middle and one either end).

Finally some tactical marines and an Apothecary. I had to strip these as well and rebuild them. These metal models had plastic arms glued to them from later kits that I had added to make them match the look of my later plastic Space Marines. Luckily I never throw out any spare bits and so had a good delve through my Space Marine bits box and fitted them out with proper old school backpacks, arms and weapons to give them that old school back cover image of 2nd Edition rulebook look.

Scores on the doors (I will endeavour to actually get it right this week)

20 x 28mm Orks. 20 x 5 = 100

5 x 28mm Terminators 5 x 5 = 25

4 x 28mm Spam 4 x 5 = 20

Total = 145 points

Ha, seeing the word spam in the title I didn't really know what to expect, Peter... and it still took me a minute to discover what you meant by spam! However, needless to say I was pleasantly surprised. There is a special charm to these retro models, and you have certainly done them proud. I must say though, that I admire your determination in getting these ready (again) for the tabletop! A very fine job. I agree with your score total for your entry, earning you another 145 points.

Martijn

From TeemuL: Undead Cavalry (40 points)

No Library topics this week, but I managed to empty one miniature box again, hurah!

These are Death Knights for the RuneWars miniature game. The game itself is (close to) dead now, born in the aftermath of Old World collapsing, but minis are still available here and there, often in discount. I bought the starter box some years ago with my friend to see how it works. We played two games and decided, that the game is ok, we ordered more minis, split the starter and started painting minis. I think it was 2021 and the third game is still in the future... Anyway, with these I have managed to paint all of my Undead minis for the game, so the excuses are few now.

The colour choices are the same as the other units, bright blue rags and purple/violet/pink shields and protective plates. And these being knight, lots of metal and some bone colour here and there. I painted the horses yellow, because why not? These are skeleton warriors from a fantasy world, so I don't have to worry about how the horses look in the real world. And I think yellow horse is not that far away from the reality anyway. Naturally blue and yellow work well together, so no issue with that, either.

I used Citadel Contrasts for the most part except Citadel metallic paint for the metal parts. Quite quick and easy, especially when I'm not aiming for the perfect neatness with this army - originally I opted to go with Contrasts, because I wanted quick results so I could game more and not worry about every mistake. The base is Agrellan Badlands, drybrushed with bone colour.

I should have fixed the base edges, but I do that next... The minis are soft boardgame plastic and I have often had difficulties to paint them, because the paint doesn't stick to them, but I had no issues with these.

The fourth emptied box, this one quite large, so good progress. I guess I should be painting the Space Marine Heroes boxes if I really want a good finished miniature vs box size ratio.

These are 28mm cavalry models, so four of them should give me 40 points. There are 5 skulls per model, their head, weapons and breast plate of the horse, so 20 skulls in total.

Rather small entry, but I'm writing this on Friday, because I'll be travelling the next seven days. Thus the entry of next Monday will be quite small, too...

These are very nice indeed, Teemu! I agree that the colours work very well together, and the yellow horses are a nice if somewhat unusual touch. But, hey, they are undead, who knows what happened, right? Good to hear that you have emptied yet another box! I don't know the game, but it sounds you are ready for your next one. Well done! Have a safe journey, and that's 40 more points in the bag.

Martijn

From Mike W: 28mm Marian Wars figure, Tau Ge'Vesa [Lady Sarah's Library Cart, Biography] (52 Points)

 Real life has intervened this week, impacting my painting prodction line, resulting in me travelling for three days this week, leaving me with little time to paint and prepare this post.

Hopefully this means a bumper post next week as I get the backlog cleared but as a stop gap gere are a couple of figres that I have painted, photographed and written up for this post.

So first off this week, I submit a new female Tau, Ge'Vesa. She is a scout, armed with a Longshot Pulse Rifle and holding a device to enable her to control Drones on the battlefield. This figure is based upon a Wargames Atlantic 'Eisenkern Stormtroopers', with GW Tau weapons, comms device and arm pad added.

Female Tau Gue'Vesa with Longshot Pulse Rifle and hand held Drone Controller

Painted as per all the others in my rapidly expanding Tau Army.

Another view!

Lady Sarah's Trolley will transport me to the Biography section within the lilbrary and here we find a figure from the Elizabethan age - namely John de Quitfurd & Milntoun, a distant ancester of mine who participated in the Marrian Wars, siding against Mary Queen of Scots.

John de Quitfurd & Milntoun, he died in 1579

The figure shows John standing with his banner, waving his sword in the air to encourage his men! He is wearing plate armour, painted GW leadbelcher with an Army Painter watered down dark wash, the armour is highlighted with a bright silver.

The standard is based upon the Whitefoord coat of arms,
three diagonal black stripes with bushels of wheat on the wider, central stripe

Next week, not ready to be published this week is a return to some 28mm Medjai, last seen by myself in the AHPC XII Challenge - these will go in the DIY section of the library. Additionally there will be some more Tau, 10mm Scots at Flodden and maybe some Lizardmen....

Points

1 x 28mm Scots Noble                       5 Points

2  1 x Tau Figures @ 5 Pts ea      10  5 Points

Lady Sarah's Bonus                            20 Points

Biography Famous Person Bonus     20 Points

TOTAL                                                55  50 Points

Great work, Mike! Your T'au lady looks very impressive, I like the white and orange uniform. And the story about your famous ancestor is great too! A very personal addition to the Biography section (although I would have loved to learn more about him!) and that is fine. Also, your Ge'Vesa grants you a ride an Lady Sarah's cart. However, unless I am very much mistaken, there is only a single T'au figure, so the total comes to 50 very efficient points. I will throw in a couple of points for the nice hand-painted banner though. I am looking forward to the promised points bomb next week, and perhaps you can provide an updated map then as well!

Martijn

From Codsticker: Bloody Miniatures Unhorsed Cuirassier and A Couple More Orcs (30 pts)

In this entry I have a couple of Orc archers that I didn't quite get finished last week as well as the third pack of wave 4 from Bloody Miniatures.

Like the two from last  week, these orcs are straight forward archers.

I imagine they are pretty useless in-game if their rules reflect their performance in both the trilogy and the movies.

On the other hand... I would expect these unhorsed cuirassier would put up a pretty decent fight.

With their armour and melee weapons, they were often called upon to force breaches and lead assaults on defended positions.

The Unhorsed Cuirassier is pack BM 022, released in September 2022.

I had another crack at yellow with their sashes. Still a little too bright for my liking.

I love blackened armour but I saved it for this model, who I have chosen to be their colonel or major.

That is 6 28mm models @ 5 pts each for a total of 30 pts.

By Guest Minion Paul:

Very nice Rob - I do love the Bloody Miniature range- such wonderfully characterful and dynamic sculpts! Your unhorsed lobsters look great - I too love the enamelled black armour for officers. 30 well deserved points!

From PeteF Greater Air Elemental - Nature (40 points)

My first Kings of War army was Forces of Nature and I still have a soft spot for the faction - intending to go back to it for a few games... if only I get some more models painted.  To that end here is a Greater Air Elemental, one of the stronger units in the game.

The model is cast in resin and available from Mantic Games.  Having prepared poorly for Challenge XIV, I didn't take enough time to deal with the joins in this model - hope they are not too obvious!

This is my first excursion with an airbrush!  ShawnD leant me his spray booth, brush and accessories and I tried it out.  Having being unable to get more than a spatter from it I fiddled with some settings and on the next try emptied the cup in about 20 seconds.  So I guess this airbrushing thing might take some study to get it right.

After hand brushing blue, airbrushing gray blue, then white with a hint of blue, then blue wash it got a heavy drybrushing.  The result looks OK for the gaming table and I'm looking forward to improving my technique.

Scoring:  this chonky monster stands 100mm high.  Maybe score as a 28mm vehicle for 20 points plus 20 for the library section for a total of 40 points?   

This proved a tough model to photograph - in the first attempts it still looked like a grey lump of resin - there's a decent amount of painting here - honest!

By Paul the Guest Minion

Welcome to the wonderful world of airbrushing! May your experience see you join the legions of fan bois who loves theirs so much they want to be buried with it, rather than be one of the frustrated, cussing masses who complain about unclogging it more than using it (I refuse to confirm which camp I am in :-)

May this big fellah fight well for you and enjoy the 40 points!

From Rhunt - Elves and fantasy figures (65 pts)

This week I painted more elves. And some more fantasy Bones. These are Oathmark elves and I like them a lot better than the GW ones.

These are Oathmark from Northstar. I bought them and put them together all by myself.

My Dad had these red tufts and I loved them.

This box comes with 30 models in it. It is the Elf Light Infantry. It doesn't come with spears but Dad had extras and let me have them. I did ask him to help me clean the mold lines off, since that is really hard (and boring).

I am building these as 10 archers, 10 sword and board and 10 spear and shield. I had a couple of left over shields for the GW elves so I used two here.

These were way more fun to paint. They are simple with just enough detail to make them interesting.

The next three are Bones fantasy models that Dad gave me.

These are the first generation soft bendy plastic that hate primer.

I did these in the winter theme again.

All together this is 13 x 28mm models x 5 pts = 65 pts.

By Paul the Stand-In Minion: 

What a cracking job you've done with these Rhys! I like the Oathmark plastic figures too, and your mixing and matching have been very effective. The basing looks really good too - love the red tufts.
65 well earned points :-)