From BruceR: Epic ACW Warlord Union sprue (216 points)

I bounced back to the 2nd Warlord ACW sprue my fellow gamer presented to me and decided to move forward.  Actually, I've more than decided to move forward as I've purchased a box set at a reasonable price and the project is born.

Painting is a grind with these little fellows, and I continue to try and find short cuts I can live with on the tabletop.  

I used a very light grey spray paint (again sprayed out side in February, the world is on its a-- weather wise).  From there I use contrast paint for the face, blue overcoat, light blue pants, black for the floppy hats.  Brown, metal, brass for the muskets and belt buckles, khaki for the few bedrolls.  Sand applied, painted, and grassed.  I feel the contrast goes on quicker than ordinary paints and leaves a certain highlight.  I'm sure if you look closely, you can see smaller items I've skipped.  Again, not seen on the tabletop and I'm happy with the massed look.  (and the time I am able to paint them in).

So, another set of the wee men to fight my battles.

The figures come with sets of flags from Warlord and I've taken the 20th Maine for this one group.  I will add two command stands to use the excess 4 stands for another two regiments as we are going to use 3 bases per regiment.  I see Little Round Top in our future when we have a few regiments done to give the figures a test run.  

Points:

These were scored as 15mm by my minion and history so I'm using this as my calculations.  If I'm off please adjust.  

104 15mm (13.5mm I'm told) @2        =    208

1 15mm cavalry @3                              =       3

1 15mm artillery @3                             =        3

Total                                                       =    214

Gratuitous photos of another ranch sitting holiday for me with my son off enjoying himself prior to calving season.  To my surprise as well as getting some painting done over the 3 day weekend, I also delivered an early first calve of the season (I watched and crossed my fingers I would not need to jump in as this was not part of the deal).

Plus tired doggos.

Enjoy the weather if you can wherever you are in the world and thanks to Teemu the Thorsday minion for herding us along.

Bruce

TeemuL: 15mm cavalry and guns are 4 points a piece, so two more for you. They look great, Contrast paints on some miniatures make wonders and you have found a good project here. Good looking mass and congratulations on the new born! :)

Thor's Day in Northern Finland

A bit different post this week, because I'm on vacation. I'm spending this week in northern Finland with my son, about 1000 kilometers north where I live, in order to see more snow. Makes sense, right? Here it is easily one meter of snow in the forest or on the hills so we have been using our brand new snowshoes (thanks Santa). Instead of an emoji, here's a photo from Monday when we walked over a small hill on a snow shoe trail. It was sunny day, so the views were great, not too much wind and nice -10 degrees or so. The end of the week should be around zero, so not that nice - snow is nice, but wet snow is not. The downside is that I didn't take any hobby stuff with me, but I guess this is a vacation from both work and hobby, so it is ok. I hope to paint a lot in March after I have been recharging my batteries here. :)

I have been able to do my minion duties and today we have at least three nice (and point heavy) entries from the Thor's Day crew:

• BruceR continues with ACW Epic sprues
• RayR continues with Haitian revolution
• JamesM finishes three BFG fleets

Let's see what more we get, I'll keep you updated! At least we got some "vaque promises" again from MartijnN and SteveA. ;)

From AndrewB - Orcs and Craters! On Mars? Children’s Book! (105 points)

Smaller week than normal this Wednesday, but after my haul seven short days ago, I’ll let it slide.  

First, to go along with my Martians I painted last week, fleshing out the terrain for a wonderful game coming up, I ran through a load of craters for some good scatter terrain on the Martian surface!  

I’m not 100%sure these won’t get some tufts or somesuch into the future, but for now they’re ready to rock, and performed sterling service in a full test and lay of the scenario yesterday!   Turns out, getting some textured grit on really takes away from the visual layer lines from where I 3D printed these bad boys!  I tossed in a ruler this time, and some are just over, and some are just under 6 inches   I couldn’t get them to all stand up on top of one another, but at somewhere around 3/4” tall, they stack right up to about filling a 6x6x6” cube!   More of these are probably in my future!  I make a large mat to play this game on as well, but I have no idea how I’d score that, so it’s a wash   

Next, as a bit of a breather, and straight out of 11-13year old AndrewB’s favorite book series, Lord of the Rings!  Some old GW orc models, as well as some I 3D printed from Medbury Miniatures on myminifactory!  Tolkien had a huge impact on my childhood with his writing and the later movies, and it’s cool to get a crack at these minis, which are a long-term (can check previous AHPCs).  

They’re wild figures, but so like them, and they get me one step closer to fielding a massive host of Orcs!  

In terms of points this week, I have 20 for the terrain, 12 28mm figures, including one mounted, for 65, and 20 for the Children’s Book section!   Total of 105, but I’ll come back next week swinging!  See you then!

 

***

Hi Andrew - that does seem to be a LOT of craters, but when I look at those crazy cool photos of the Martian surface that NASA releases courtesy of their various rovers, it seems like a good idea to have plenty of them on hand if you want a Martian gaming table.

 

The Orcs look very nice too - although it would be great if you could take some close ups so we could see them. Interesting to see 3D prints for the Tolkien setting (don't let GW's lawyers know!) - from what I can make out, I see a lot of looks that remind me of the Orcs as presented in the Peter Jackson films, but also some unique or more classical aspects too. Are those the reasons that drew you to the 3D option? Or was it price? Availability? All of the above, or none? Just curious. 

 

Another 105 points for you!

 

GregB

From KenR : 1/700 HMS Calcutta - Maritime Library (80 points)

 

When I saw the Maritime section in the Libary it wasn't too hard for me to think of a suitable entry, after all last years 1/700 WW2 Naval Project won the Challengers Choice ! I hadn't done much on the Project after last year's Challenge and I have been mostly working on the Mentana Game so it was lovely to get back on the water again.

This is a 1/700 scale model from Trumpeter representing HMS Calcutta, a C Class Light Cruiser of the Royal Navy as she would have looked in 1941 whilst serving in the Mediterranean.

The ship was built at the end of the first World War but was commissioned too late to see action. Calcutta served in Norway, at Dunkirk and in the Med where she was sunk by German aircraft on 1st June 1941 off Alexandria.

Initially armed with single mounted 6" Guns the ship was re armed as an AA Light Cruiser in 1939 and was fitted out with 4 dual QF 4" Guns as well as a quad 2 pounder in the front superfiring position (which looks a bit wierd !)

I've painted the ship in its dazzle camo pattern from the Med, rather than just go for a straight grey with a ship I prefer to go for a more interesting look and I'm getting to be a bit of a dab hand with the masking tape and air brush after a bit of practice.

Points wise I've gone for 60 for the ship. Last year I didn't do any Light Cruisers but was scoring 40 for Destroyers and 120 for Battleships so 60 is about right, added to that is 20 for the Library Maritime bonus, giving a total of 60. I've started a Liberty Ship as well as the Pike Block I have on the go.

***

Great to see your 1/700 naval efforts making a return to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge once more Ken! The model ship looks incredible, and as always it is fun to read about its service - although it seems depressing to be refitted specifically for anti-aircraft duties, and get sunk by aircraft anyway!

What I love most about these 1/700 ships is that you can really see them and get a feel for them - and your basing really adds to that sense too. I gather that this large scale throws a wrench in things when trying to have the models on a table of any sort of size...but wow, it looks great!

If you say 60 points for this, that works for me! Toss in the Maritime bonus, and that is 80 points for you. Well done!

GregB

From ShawnD - Tortured Tree from Fey Rift Forest and Cursed Oasis Pool (30 points)

These are terrain pieces from my FDM printer.  I didn't know if I could use FDM for terrain but I'm surprised and really happy with these pieces.  The painting was fun, I used an Army Painter Brush on Primer and the new Speed Paint 2.0.  Good fun here and starting to feel good about my painting skills. I built up the primer to eliminate as many of the filament lines as possible.  I am guessing this is around 20 points.  Dimensions 3" radius and 5" tall.

You will often find tortured hulks of once majestic trees all but consumed by the influence of the Pannithor rift.  Some say this is all that is left of a Fey army, sensing and ordered in place to help stabilize The Rift.  No race dared explore or investigate the massive forest, fearing not only the Abyssal races but also the 'enchantment of terror' that had been passed along by the ale bards.  The effects of which are rumored to be a mind fog, months of hearing the screeching wail of the Fey, and nightmares of being burned alive. The forest is impassable and most travellers give the forest a wide path.

This is another FDM print, I had to shrink it to 50% because of my printer bed size.   There are a lot of firsts for me in this model and paint.   This is the first time I've used epoxy to represent water.   It was not bad and it blends well with the FDM blue-painted ridges.  This is the first time I've used the dry brush technique.  It was a real learning session with that technique, in my opinion, it's not as easy as it looks.  I used a wash on the columns as well.  I'm not loving that part of the piece but I got the bleeding obelisk effect I was going for.  I would print another one of these and paint it.  I had fun for sure.  I think this is worth 60 points, but I could be wrong.  Dimensions: 6" x 6" x 3".

What is pictured is one of many Wicked Oasis located in Pannithor.  Scattered around Pannithor this particular oasis is located east of the Wailing Mountain range in the Wastes of Ophibia.  Placed centuries ago, but Elven Priests.  After the betrayal and murder of the priest Naiadriel by a General of the Empires of Dust, while bathing and refreshing (these oases weren't always cursed, they once were located across trade and travel routes) from a long journey.  The waters of the fountain and the priest's blood mixed causing all the oasis across Pannithor to bleed from the obelisk towers.  The waters remain the purest around, but the constant blood streaming down and fierce waking dreams the oasis is rumored to cause,  Many a traveler have skipped the oasis and eventually died to lack of water.  

***

Hi Shawn - some interesting work here, always fascinating to see what the 3D-printing people can get up to, and it seems to get better and better all the time. Great that you can work up some terrain and tie it nicely to a setting you are keen on (I think it is "Empire of Dust"? Apologies for my literary ignorance). Certainly looks very nice.

In terms of scoring, we do this, as Curt says, using the "imperfect-but-it-works" cube system. The tree is large, but doesn't fill a whole "cube" - I'll give you half a "cube" for that, as a piece of nice scatter terrain. The fountain fills up a cube, and wow, using epoxy to create some water...talk about a hobby bridge I would be too scared to cross! Looks great too. All in that is 30 points for you.

Great work!

GregB

From PhilH: Commandos are Overdue to Endor (55 points)

Finishing up in the first room, a small submission at Overdue & Returns of these Star Wars Legion Rebel Commandos for this slow burn project. As I track my hobbying using Trello, I know I started these on 1 June 2023, got the base colours down and then moved house and didn’t pick them up again until the other week.

They’re doubly overdue as I should have knocked these out in short order, but some wider stuff has been hugely draining on hobby time and Challenge energy. I don’t hugely enjoy painting these Legion Rebels, so faffed about with them for halfheartedly. But it’s nice to get something off the painting desk.

The sniper team I finished shortly before the challenge, but they’re now reunited. I’ve also finished the first room of this mighty fine library, hurrah!

Five 35mm minis is 35 points plus the 20 location bonus for 55.

***

Regardless of how late they may be, the brushwork on these fellows is exquisite. It's been quite some time since I have perused the rebel figures for "Star Wars Legion", and I am curious - are these figures from the game maker (i.e. Fantasy Flight Games, or whatever-the-f*ck they are called now), or are they 3d prints, or are they a mix of both?

They look fantastic - and much for fun to imagine getting up to fight-for-freedom mischief on Endor than the ridiculous Ewoks...but should they run into trouble facing an "entire Legion" of the Emperor's "best troops", I'm sure a few log traps and bows will help get them out of trouble...

Greg painting Phil!

GregB

From DaveD - CSA Artillery - (125 points)

Following on from last weeks Union artillery top up I give you the enhancements for the Rebs. Not as many as the Union , but decent enough. My CSA batteries are 2 Gun models (for 4 actual guns). Figures etc are, as usual, 10mm Pendraken. They are again finished with thin coat of Satin Varnish 

4 limber teams and 8 guns added to my Reb force's

These take the Reb artillery park to 8 batteries only another 4 to go to get to the final tally 

Points 

8 guns = 24

32 gunners , 10 unridden horses = 42

4 vehicle/limbers = 24

10 mounted horse/riders = 30 

10 limber passengers /crew = 5 

Total 125 .to the total and the little guys duel 

***

Another fine artillery submission Dave. The Prendraken sculpts are the finest 10mm out there, and they look wonderful all done up here. 

Another 125 points for your ACW artillery park!

GregB 

From JP - 28mm Afghan Cavalry and 1/600 ACW Naval (178 points)

I've slowed down a bit due to some travel, but I'm having another run at things this week.

First off, I have half a dozen Afghan cavalry from Foundry. I remain very partial to this range in spite of other, more recent manufacturers - maybe nostalgia, or just good solid sculpts by the Perry brothers?

They are meant for the cut down version of The Sword And The Flame (by which I mean units of 6 horse and 10 foot vs 12 horse and 20 foot). I have slowly built these up after getting out of the Indian Mutiny as I am still attached to the NWF.

 

Having completed the Section, I will walk over to Maritime. These are 1/600 STLs of ACW vessels by David Manly, from the Wargames Vault.. The detail level is astounding, with areas you can literally look through. I collect ACW naval in 1/1200, my buddy here collects them in 1/600. So I decided to paint these up for him as a gift, which he collected this weekend. My son-in-law printed them in both scales. I highly recommend them, though the masts and flagpoles are fragile and should be replaced with fine (read very fine) hollow copper tubing.

I was not sure how to count them, due to size. I am tentatively counting them as one mounted 28mm fig each, and one foot 28mm for the small vessel. The last photo contains a 28mm pack mules for scale. Please correct if necessary.

 

I have used Sarah's taxi to take me to the Gift Corner and another one to come back. These are Otherworld Miniatures - and you already know they are my favourite manufacturer of fantasy figs. 

So, points wise, if I am doing this right:

    6 x Afghan horse             =  60 points

    4 x large 1/600 ships       =  40 points

    1 x small 1/600 ship        =   5  points

    2 x 28mm fantasy foot    =  10 points

    Maritime                         =  20 points

    Gift Shop by taxi            =  20 points

    Total                               =  155 points.

Thanks for looking them over. All thoughts for improving them are welcome!!

***

Great to have another submission from you JP! Lots to enjoy here, but for me the standouts are the Afghan cavalry. As you say, the Foundry sculpts are great classic figures, and I do find myself in a somewhat odd situation in a couple of the historical periods I collect where I get 28mm from the Perrys' current company, and supplement it with sculpts from Wargames Foundry which were...sculpted by the Perrys! 

Naval scoring is always the worst, and makes me long for all naval submissions to just be banned from the Challenge, but based on my research into other 1/600 precedents this morning, I would rate your larger ships at 15 points each. So all in you have another 178 points toward your total.

A reminder to please include labels in your draft post, to help with the data for the site and the Challenge!

GregB