Tuesday, 28 January 2025

From GregB - Hospitaller Banner Bearers & Infantry (44 points)

Some 28mm Hospitaller knights - figures from Footsore, sculpted by Paul Hicks.

For my first submission today I have some figures which have been sitting in the queue for over a year...here we have some members of the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem - the Hospitaller Knights. These are 28mm metal castings from Footsore Miniatures, received from a Kickstarter I backed a few years ago. The figures were sculpted by the amazing Paul Hicks, and the flags are from Little Big Man Studios (now available through Victrix). 

Banner man and fellow warrior - I particularly enjoy the Knights who have some mix of cloth in their headgear...really sets the "period" for me. 

The Crusades are a period of history that has fascinated me for years. I love reading about this era of history, and as you might expect this interest has naturally merged with my hobby mania such that I am keen to run games set during the period. So you would think I probably have a well-organized collection for the setting, right? LOL. 

"Prepare to believe!"

My intense interest in the Crusades has often floundered on the kinds of mental rocks that often wreak havoc and limit or stop any useful progress among wargamers. Mostly I have waffled between hoping to play skirmish games like "Saga" and then suddenly wanting to do larger games like "Hail Caesar", and then struggling with how to base the figures...inducing paralysis via analysis and causing me to go paint some more 30k stuff instead :) Over the years I have managed to paint what amounts to a pair of large war bands that would work for "Saga" - not nothing, but hardly great progress.

More awesome poses from Paul Hicks...man I love his stuff...

These Footsore figures were meant to jolt me out of this stasis, but instead have been a prime example of this unfortunate tendency...at first I was using the round bases to paint them - you can see some of the initial figures back in Challenge XIII. Since that time, I have come to my senses and re-based those original figures on more traditional square bases to allow for their deployment in a game like "Warhammer Ancient Battles" or "Hail Caesar". Moving houses last year didn't help with progress on this effort, but in the summer I did get a second bunch of Hospitallers based up and primed and...well, you know how the rest goes...

Love how his hood hangs over his brow...adds to a menacing air...

Another view of the mounted banner man.

But here we are in AHPC XV, and I can make a bit more progress again! These sculpts are just amazing to paint - beautiful, proper metal sculpts created by the talented hand of Paul Hicks...what else could a hobby squirrel want?? The colour palette for these warriors is fairly basic and muted, but still fun to work with. The shields are hand-painted, not my preference, but it didn't turn out too badly. 

For scoring purposes we have six 28mm foot figures and a single mounted 28mm figure, which should account for 40 points. Hopefully some more Crusades-era figures will join this lot on the painted shelves before this edition of the Challenge concludes. 

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One of my favourite periods also Greg, and lovely Hospitallers they are too! If you want to play some smaller scale games with them, check out the rules "Outremer" in the Osprey Blue Book series. Lots of fun, RPGlite skirmish level gaming fun to be had, and you've got all you need already painted in this submission. Take a few bonus points for the banners too :-)
- Paul

From TomL, Wrath & ACW CSA troops (185 points)

To start is my first complete CSA regiment of the AHPC - the 44th Alabama.


I like this look better than the previous stands I painted pre-AHPC so some repainting will be in order for those.  From what I have read many CSA regiments didn’t carry the state flags in battle but I have flags & two flag bearers so..mine will have a state flag. Might just be me, but adding flags at this scale is almost as painful as painting horses.

Continuing our path through the Abyss we move from Greed to the 5th circle of the Abyss - Wrath.  There we find some Pulp Figures Coweled Cultists (#2) up to no good.




These scorned angry women hunger for vengeance.  EMaking a deal too terrible to contemplate they have summoned demons from beyond as the embodiment of their Wrath.



Though for one of them this will prove to be her final favour...


The demons are from Crooked dice. All the 28mm figures were painted using TTC & Foundry acrylics and a few GW washes. The universe conspired to keep the large demon from completion with figure issues and my airbrush dying while applying the base coats.  Hopefully I will get back to him later in the challenge but no points for him today. 

Points:
CSA unit - 60 15mm troops for 120 points.
Wrath - 20 points
9 28mm - 45 points

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Nice Rebs Tom but I LOVE the cultists - our second submission of such committed team players this Tuesday! And how nice that the horned goat men have come to frolic with them in the fields. Dont see how that could go wrong at all...  185 points tallied!

-Paul





From MikeF - Droids and Robots - 29 points

 Droids and robots are a core component of any good cyberpunk setting.  Exploit Zero is no different and the services of drones are essential to completing the missions. Drones are typically operated by the ‘splicer’ agent type. They are the hackers/drone controllers. Drones have several uses such as combat, storage, drug dispensers, medical and skills enhancement. A splicer will operate several drones to fulfill roles best suited to the mission and I’ve painted up a bunch to represent the different types. I put them on clear bases as they are generally treated as equipment rather than models you can interact with, so I wanted them to look separate from other models on the table.

Cop is for scale purposes


Back Row: Northstar camera drones, 3d printed flying gun drone.
Front Row: Northstar robo-dog, Em4 drones, 3d printed gun dog, more Em4 drones.

The robots painted in red probably won’t serve a purpose other than as terrain. I painted them red because I like the idea of automated fire suppression drones - basically a fire extinguisher. Seems like an unnecessary product a tech-bro would develop and sell to a hapless municipality.

Points are a bit tricky. I figure 1.5 points for the 4 small flying drones, 3 points each for the two robot dogs, 2 points for the yellow trash can, and 5 points each for the flying gun drone and 2 fire extinguishers. That’s a total of 29 points.

Thanks for visiting.

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Great little remotes there Mike, they will really add the table tech to your cyberpunk vibes
Your Exploit Zero collection is really coming along! 
- Paul

DavidB - Lust (175 points)

I am diligently following Dante and doing my best to follow the path. It has made my hobby area a huge mess. I suppose my desk could resemble a hellous clutter of haphazard stacking, or a hobbyists nirvana of potential...like the duo above it is entirely perspective. These ladies are from TTCombat Carnevale. They are Sirens creatures that lure sailors to their doom with their enchanting song and beguiling beauty. Beyond the starter sets, these models were purchased as my first choice of miniatures to add to the starter factions of Guild and Rashaar. The Rashaar are human cultists and eldar gods and quite at home in the water. The Siren on the left did beguile me as she reminded me of the spirit from the movie"The Ring" just her quiet, still stance and unsettling appearance....I wanted to paint her. the other siren is a lot more extroverted and is a very fine beckoning pose. as I was painting them, It seems both are splendid specimens of  a woman saying fine. There is more clarity in the meaning of fine with the inflection and tone as it is spoken or texted. The one to the left will say Fine in a quiet way  perhaps a whisper or even just text 'Fine' as a one word response to a message. Plainly it is indeed not fine and you will find yourself in mortal peril. The one to the right will speak 'Fine' with a giggle and sparkling eyes or respond to your texted plans with "that would be perfectly fine" It was a ruse to entice you closer and lower your guard and you will find yourself later visiting your mother in law, going to a venue you would not otherwise, or purchasing something that is expensive but kinda worth it because it makes her smile. Fine is a word needing to be surrounded in black and yellow hazard stripes, strobing lights, and alarm bells because feminine fine is anything but!

They were painted in the new Army Painter Fanatic paints. They are a lot keener in life than in picture as I just couldnt get the purples and blues right without the picture being too dark or too bright. The vibrant colors in the fanatic range are just great though if you trust my word. I kept the left Siren in cooler skin tones painting the pale deep skin tones in thin layers over a pale blue contrast paint. The right Siren was done in warm skin tones over an orange contrast paint to make her more warm and lively suiting her outgoing tempermant.
TTCombat had these creatures as albino white, so I went with the paler turquoise paints to tie these merfolk in with the rest of the Rashaar crew. 

I went with black eyes on most of the monsters to give them even more of a creepy, other look.

This big fellow was given neon green eyes like a bioluminescent predator of the deep.i painted the bulbs on its body similar like additional light...maybe more eyes


These froglike fish men were done with the same colors as their big brother, but i used pale flesh to paint their bellies and face to bring out their flabby faces and form

Everything else used the vibrant greens and blues except i made their eyes orange as black did not work to well.

For this one I went with olive greens to make the tentacles and barnacles on it pop more. He is the only one to have more muted colors although i used the vivid blue on its fins. 


The Rashaar brings in slaves that are a health potion for the monsters. You can restore wounds on the monsters by sacrificing one of these unfortunates

I kept them in pale muted colors so they do stand out with the grimy feet and cloth and their raw wounds 

a drowned one, an enforcer, an assassin, and the faction sorcerous leader

The Cult of Drogon is a faction gang with more human cultists and a pack of drowned ones will round out this faction in the future. I will keep using the vibrant blues and greens to tie them all together

They do make an impressive crew when put together and still have a nice individual look.



These are the Jade Obelisk from Games Workshop Warcry. They have not been used in a game yet, but they might soon as they are painted and will be quite different from my Corvus Cabal.There are few warbands I want to collect for Warcry. There are many to choose from weird, creepy, nightmarish, and I really want to paint those. The Jade Obelisk are in the camp of I-really-want-to-paint-those. They are obsessed with jade enough to have those unique masks.Their armor has a distinct eastern flair, so I had a lot of ideas. While I painted the swooping hawks from limbo, they jumped into the paint queue with some other bands and squads so I could get painting more with the fanatic turquoise range i like so much....kinda how my hobbyist OCD works.

the fodder show how I approached them as the various metal bits are as standout as the jade.

I decided the focal points would be the jade and the patches of  flesh. They have the cowl hoods and skirts with armor plates. I used all of the army painter metallic range to emphasize the metal over brown and pale fabric. The warm flesh tones and jade bits stand out really well.

The statue smashing heroes really showcase the metal armor bits, flesh, and jade quite well


I used some of monument hobbies jade and turquoise on their attendant creature

the glowing green eyes and tan beak are lost from the chroma of its body.

It wasnt until assembly that i discovered the champion has a levitating Obelisk of jade tied to him rather than carrying it on his back 

With his sharp jade swords, I gave him a red hooded mantle to make him look extra special.

The leader stands out just fine with the bloody heart and jade dagger.

Still, she is the boss and a pale lavender robe gives her an even more I am the boss vibe.

Moving back to Carnevale, I have the latest for my favorite crew the guild.

The Black Lamp or guild workers for hire. The black lamps shut down magic. Since anyone can hire them, I kept him dark with red in his slashed sleeves to show he is Guild.

And Yes that is more Fanatic turquoise used as OLS.

This fellow is the miniature I wanted most. When I first seen the game, I liked the Assassins Creed look of the miniatures. It was a model similar to this that I playtested at Adepticon. I leapt him from a two story building jumped a canal using a gondola and took out a Rashaar monster.
I was hooked and fell in love with the game, miniatures, setting, and terrain.
This lively lady is a thief. she comes with a couple of cutpurses .


These little tykes are a step up from their pickpocket companions and can do some damage 

browns, greens, reds for the little scamps. their tiny hands were shapeless blobs and seemed to have some casting errors which made it hard to keep painting them. I used them to try out the olive, brown, and cream color fanatic paints and that carried them to completion.


So this mix of miniatures is for lust. The Sirens fit the theme, but the warcry is the new hotness in my game time and Carnevale definitely has enticed me like a Siren saying "Fine".

16 Rashaar with two skulls 80 points
5 guild crew- 25 points
10 Jade Obelisk-50 points and 10 skulls
lust- 20 points
175 points total and 12 more skulls bring my tally to 93 skullz

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"Cult of Drogon" and Fishmen INDEED! - what kind of IP stealing after-school club is this? :-)

Thats said, I do love a collection of like-minded, focused individuals displaying excellent teamwork as they work toward their agreed KPIs (nefarious or otherwise)

-Paul