Friday, 17 January 2025

From AdamW: Carry on up the Khyber (Heresy) - (40pts)

 

I'm not sure if anyone apart from the Brits will recognise this one.

This entry in 15mm, is for the Heresy circle.

Curt's notes say 'Something that breaks with the accepted code'.

The classic comedy film 'Carry on up the Khyber' bases a lot of the plot on the tradition of the highland infantry, and Scots in general,  to wear nothing under their kilts.  In the film Private Widdle was caught wearing some underpants. This resulted in an inspection parade where it was found all the soldiers were wearing them.  The wife of the governor Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond was standing by with a camera to take a photo.

My take on the heresy theme is that the wearing of underpants broke with the code.

Extract from film

This is my homage in miniature to this famous scene. Various 15mm figures from the spare box inlcudes some Essex or Irregular officers.

The privates on parade are 15mm Peter Pig figures. They are flashing highlanders with head swaps, and also removal of some.....umm..extraneous parts to enable the pants to be painted on!

Lady Ruff-Diamond hides behind the hedge with a roughly constructed camera.



















10 x 15mm figures @ 2pts = 20pts
Heresy bonus = 20 pts

Total 40pts.

That's hilarious, really! Oh yes, even this non-Brit gets this. The Carry On series epitomises the best and worst of British humor, I'd say. The whole idea is brilliant, and the execution rather flawless, including the fabulous scene setting and photography. I don't know how you keep coming up with these things, but please... carry on!

I'm topping up to 45 points as soon as I stop laughing.

Martijn


From PeterB - A gluttonous points bomb (Gluttony) (373 points)

My progress through the Abyss continues slowly. For the layer Gluttony I have found a model that is a monstrous creature that is a nightmare for those that overindulge. I present a Mimic from Archon Studios.

You feel peckish, you want a full fat fizzy drink full of sugar, some crisps and a chewy chocolate bar. You put your money in and a giant tongue slithers out of the collect slot and grabs your arm. You are the next victim of the Mimic.

The Mimic is 28mm scale and was a fun little distraction to paint.

Now to the bulk of the weeks painting. Firstly some of you may remember my Zulu War project from last challenge, well I have added some Natal Natives to give a bit more choice in army selection. Friendly natives who lived in Natal under British rule were conscripted into the British army to fight against their foes the Zulus. They were equipped with outdated weapons and minimal ammunition, some preferring to still use their native assegai and shield.

They would have been formed into regiments and companies as normal, but their only uniform was a red rag tied to their head or arm. Estimates are that about one I'm ten actually carried a firearm, I have increased that ratio somewhat, just so I have choices for wargaming purposes. 

We have been playing a lot of the Old World at our local club, my Orcs and Goblins army and Khornate Chaos Warrior army have both been reasonably successful. A chance opportunity to purchase second hand some Empire Knights and a Steam tank however that could not be passed up has led to the start of a new Empire army. I can't imagine I will have as much success gaming wise with this army as I will probably need to use tactics rather than just charge forward. I have had great fun painting it though and the latest work done is two units of infantry. Finding vintage GW models at a reasonable price has been tricky, so for Christmas I asked for some Warlord Games Landsknechts with zweihanders. This box combined with a box of Wargames Atlantic Landsknecht Ogres is enough for two units. One core infantry with halberds and a unit of Longswords.

The Ogres are unit fillers and game wise will just count for 4 normal men. It makes painting the unit easier and makes for an interesting looking unit.

For the longswords I chose all soft caps with feathers to identify them easier. Oldhammer rules mean you need larger bases now and instead of rebasing everything I bought these movement trays with slots from Warbases. At first I thought it would cause an issue with the Ogres, then I came up with this ingenious idea:

They slot snuggly in and don't shift about.

Finally, I have also over some time, been making a barbarian/viking/marauder army, not historically accurate, but useful for a Chaos marauder army, or Midgard or Dragon Rampant. I already have plenty of foot troops and horse riders, I felt like they needed some chariots. Victrix do a great set of three chariots in plastic (parts of which were used in my last post for the Mammoth crew. This week my large bases from Warbases arrived, so I could finish off the chariots.




They are fiddly kits with individual reigns to glue on, but I think they are worth it. Yes, technically the kits are Celtic Chariots but I think they still fit in as I have avoided the shields and helmets.

To the points.

One 28mm Mimic - 5 points
One location-  20 points
32 Natal Natives in 28mm - 160 points
20 Empire human troops in 28mm - 100 points
4 Empire Ogres (counts as 40mm troop) - 28 points
3 chariots in 28mm scale - 60 points.

Total = 373 points.

"A chance opportunity to purchase..." Ha, I had never had that happen to me, surely! But I am glad you did not let it slip, for the Empire troops are the highlight from this points bomb for me. Excellent sourcing of "alternative" miniatures, and a cracking paint job. Very clever solution for the basing too. I also like your NNI, I think you captured the skin tone really well. And the chariots, well who doesn't like a good pair of wheels, Celtic or not? Last but not least, the Mimic is a great find. Better think twice before indulging! All in all a great post, and a major step on the road to your target!

Martijn

From MattT: Protect the Eagle (35 points)

With this post I am adding a few more bits to The Silver Bayonet Project.

First up is a trio of wolves that I painted in the same palette as the wolf pelts on my vampire. I'm not sure how they feel about him wearing their siblings but it ties the models together nicely.


Next are some additions to my zombie horde. After the first post I felt they needed an eagle, so i bashed on together with plastic Napoleonic and zombie parts. Also created a little guard to keep it safe.



Lastly a group shot.



7 x 28mm = 35 pts


Your Silver Bayonet project is really moving forward with these figures, Matt! The wolves look great, and suitably hungry. I find your Napoleonic zombies rather... disturbing, as a French Napoleonic aficianado, but also very creative and well done! The eagle and its guard will surely lead your hordes on to glory, if not honour. 35 points it is.

Martijn

From Mike W: 28mm Necrons, Elf Mage & more Arthurians. (Heresy)(150 Points)

For this week's post I'll start with a group of 3D printed 'Space Skeletons' that are obviously stand-ins for GW Necrons. For some added spice I'm claiming bonus points for Dante's Heresy - as one of the Necrons has had a Space Marine's 'Crainial Cognitive Unit' (Head!) grafted onto the otherwise robotic body - an Imperial Heresy if there ever was!

The completed unit of 18 x Necrons

Close-up on one seide of the unit

And the other side!

In reality the sculpted head had broken off and I decided to use the Heritic Space Marine head to replace it!

All figures were undercoated in grey, and then painted with GW Lead Belcher, the grey being a good base for the gunmetal metalic. I then used Bronze to add detail to each figure, on upper arm and knee pads, plus the banding on teh shoulder pads. 

Mithril Silver was used to add a highlight strip on the outside of each shoulder pad.

Deatil of the figures here - there are two types of weapon supplied with the group
 I painted the weapons with GW Ratling Grime, a 'noce' grubby, oily brownish black, once dried I painted the Plasma coils white - using Windsor & Newton White Ink - my new favourite medium for such work. I find this white ink incredible smooth, high in pigment and easy to apply.

More of the guys with the triple barrelled plasma weapon

A final shot of the heavier weaponed robo-guys.

Once the ink was dry, I used GW Frostheart Contrast paint to give the plasma coils the almost fluresent blue look. A similar process was used to do the Nercon helmets, giving a green glow where the eyes & mouth might be expected to be seen.

Necron guys with Plasma rifles, note the bayonet-like device on each
and the green glow on their helmets

Another group of Rilfle Bots

The final two figures, one of each weapon type, with the Heretic on the right!

Obviously the heretic Marine Necron is the simplest of all conversions - ironically I found the proper Necron head in the packaging when I came to throw this out - but decided the Heretic Marine was a good story!

Bases were painted using craft shop flesh acrylic paint mixed with wood glue, to give the bases an alien feel, before sprinkling with fine sand and adding some tufts.

Next up are some more Arthurians, these foot are Victrix Armoured Infantry who will be making up a unit of Close Order Heavy Infantry, once I source another frame of figures from eBay.

Another six Arthurians off the production line, these are all Victrix figures using black & white shield patterns - I must try and source / produce some additional colour combination!

The same process to paint these little guys was used as in my other recent submissions - so I won't repeat here. These figures are really nicely animated - more so than the Gripping Beast and Wargames Atlantic figures - in my opinion! Shield transfers are from Little Big Men Studios.

The unit commander has been given a gold scale armour to help him stand out

Same figures with the rear rank brought to the front to show them off!


Lastly we have a classic Elf Mage, mounted on his Elven Steed, I purchased this figure off eBay after completing the two classic elves in my first post of this challenge. I was keen to get the Mage to have long white robes but with blue ‘add ons’ to get the colour scheme to tie into the figures I’d just completed.

The Mage in all his glory!

The figure came undercoated white but needed a couple of repairs and a general tidy up, once repairs were done I gave the whole figure a coat of GW Adminstratum Grey, before a dry brush of white.

The Elven Stead was deliberately painted as a 'Grey'
but with a golden tail and mane to differenciate him from a regular horse used by humans.

I wanted to make sure that the Mage's mount was clearly not a regular horse, a somewhat unrealistic colour scheme was therefore used, with the Steed's mane & tail reflecting the hair colour of the Elves that will form my new Elven Army as I build it.

The scale armour was given a padded leather base - to make it look more 'realistic'.

Gems were picked out in red, which were gradually highlighted to orgage to give them a realistic effect, runes on teh Mage's sword were also treated in a similar manner.

Another view of the Mage

With such an old model there are some limitations, the bridle appears as a solid block and the base of the Stead's armoured barding is somewhat crudely shown. All you can do is embrace this - so I painted the underbarding as padded leather and the results of the work on the bridle can be seen below.

Final View, showing electrostaic grass on fine sand base,
that I use as standard for most of my models.

That's it for this week. I have a group of Arthurian Horse nearing completion and I'm looking to set-up to do a regiment of High Elf Spearmen for next week!

SQUIRREL    Necrons                                +1 Point


POINTS

18 x 28mm Necrons  @5 Pts ea                90 Points

Heresy Bonus                                             20 Points

6 x 28mm Arthurian Foot @5 Pts ea          30 Points

1 x 28mm mounted Elf Mage                     10 Points

TOTAL                                                      150 Points


A fine selection of figures, Mike! I like your necrons. Thanks for sharing your recipe, I think it works very well. The Arthurians are great too, I actually think the black and white shield patterns suit them. The mage is the piece de résistance of this post for me, however. The blue and white colour scheme is great, and the horse looks excellent. A very bright and lively figure! Well done, another 150 points on the board for you.

Martijn

From AdamW: Hell hath no Fury........ (Wrath)(30 points)


Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!  

Seemed a good way to represent the Wrath circle of hell.

This little vignette, set in the American civil war shows the consequences of taking a bunch of flowers to the pretty blonde in a scarlet dress.

To misquote a line from the film 'Love Actually',  Imagine your husband bought an expensive bouquet, and gave it to somebody else. Would you wait around to find out if it's just flowers, or if it's sex and flowers, or if, worst of all, it's flowers and love? Would you stay, knowing life would always be a little bit worse? Or would you cut and run?.

In this case the wife has decided to literally 'cut' and brought out the cleaver!...Maybe I should have kept this one for 'Violence' instead.....









15mm scale figures. The wife is a peter pig (pirate?) figure. The husband is an ACW gunner, but not sure where from, and I'm also not sure where the mystery Scarlet lady came from.

I'd like to claim the following points for this sad scene.

3 x 15mm figures @2pts = 6 pts

Wrath bonus = 20pts

Total 26 pts

What a great little vignette, Adam! Another very creative take on the theme. Great selection of figures, and well-painted too. I love it how you painted the "other woman" in seductive, flamboyant colours and the husband, visibly wincing under the threat of his scorned (and quite formidable) wife, is brilliant! For the sheer creativity I'm throwing in a couple of bonus points, so 30 points for you!

Martijn





 



 

Friday again!

 

I do not know how it is in your neck of the woods, but here in Belgium December has been uncommonly gloomy. With only 1/3 of the usual amount of sunshine (all of 17 hours for the month) it was very dark, and January has been a little better, but not much. So, the sunshine will have to come from our painting Challenge. Luckily, the Friday crew have prepared at least glorious contributions for you!

As you contemplate your journey through Dante’s Inferno, you might consider some true Belgian Beers for the next stages, which today are Gluttony and Greed.

For Gluttony, I propose Baccus.  Named after the Greek god of wine and drunkenness. Now I would not go that far, but enjoying a int of Bacchus might suit you. It is an old brown ale (oud bruin), which means that it is dark and sweet. Originally, Oud Bruin was developed to be able to sell beer that was, essentially, a failure. The beer was sweetened to make it drinkable. Usually, Oud bruin has a fairly low alcohol percentage of about 2%, but Bacchus is rather strong for an Oud Bruin with 4.5.




For Greed, I suggest Satan Red. It is an amber coloured beer  which is top-fermented. Top fermented beers have a wider range of flavours and aromas, whereas bottom-fermented beers tend to be milder in flavour and often cleaner and crisper. Satan is a relatively recent beer, developed  in the 1980’s. Satan red has an alcohol percentage of 8%. It is a fruity beer, with a sweet-bitter taste

 


As always, drink responsibly and enjoy today’s posts!