From JasperO: Paras capture Hawkins' Hill (83 Points)

If you look on the WSS blog and you go way, waaaaay back, you might run into a series of blogs called "Project Platoon". Christy did well, but if I recall correctly, Guy and I didn't really finish with flying colours. I'd committed to building a British Airborne platoon and quickly collected bought most of the available Foundry and Warlord Games packs. Somehow, that part always goes quickly and easily...

I have since completed a full platoon for Chain of Command with some support choices. But a few packs (okay, there might be enough spares for nearly another platoon, I admit it) remained unpainted in a box. Until late January of this year, that is. Again, PolderCon proves to be an excellent accelerator. For our scenario, the Border troops in our scenario needed a 6pdr Anti tank gun, a medic and - at the very last minute - a PIAT Hero (see WSS 107 for what he can do).

I needed five crew and a commander for my A/T crew, and Warlord only supplies two of the former, so I added two crew from the Crusader version (I bought both, see below...) and a 'hear no evil'-para from the 3" mortar crew.

It required only a second's thought to come up with the right figure for the PIAT Hero. Wargames Foundry 'British Paratrooper Command' includes a figure running with his PIAT, an MP40 slung across his shoulder, a determined look on his face. He just needed painting, having been undercoated somewhere back in the Dark Ages.

The medic I have painted before. Sort of. I remember this pose from, originally, a Chota Sahib 54mm miniature I saw in the pages of Military Modelling. Then Verlinden produced a version in 120mm which I built in the early 90s (photo is not my version!). Considering how rare the pose is, I find it hard to imagine it didn't reside in some part of Paul Hicks' brain when he sculpted this figure. Arguably though, his is by far the best version. It's a very well designed figure. Not the most useful perhaps, but I like him better than the 'official' medic in the Warlord Games range.

The gun, finally, is the Warlord specimen. I have half a mind to pull it apart and replace the tiny wheels with the ones from the Crusader miniatures version (which is lacking in other Airborne 6pdr features). My relationship with the Airborne Museum started when I was 15 or so and asked to be allowed into their 6pdr diorama to take measurements of the gun. They kindly obliged and that trip, together with another session to the then still unrestored 6pdr at Heelsum, allowed me to draw up a set of drawings that gave me a very anal understanding of the piece. So, must do better. But for now, it'll suffice to get my Paras onto Hawkins' Hill, I think.

 

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Great work Jasper - the British paras of WW2 are always a formidable hobby obstacle, what with their bonkers camouflage patterns - to say nothing, apparently, of various issues with the model 6pdr AT guns out there now? :)

I am trying to count up the figures in this submission, and I think you have eight of them (plus a wounded fellow) and the AT gun - that works out to 52.5 points, but we all know that decimals steal food from starving children, so I'll round that up to 53 - and toss in 30 for the location (thanks to Tamsin for the reminder).  Nice work. 

GregB 

From TamsinP: Three...Errmm, Make That Ten Musketeers at Rousell's Sandhill (70 Points)

Extracts from the journal of TamsinP, Time Traveler, Society Girl and Adventuress

8th March, 1660ish, Paris

As Lady Sarah heaves another crate of empties over the side of the balloon's gondola, I gather my belongings and prepare to land at Rousell's Sandhill. The recently installed spa has been a godsend - all traces of the smell from those badly tanned furs and leathers is long gone.

I bid Sarah "Au Revoir!" and clamber down the rope ladder, reaching the ground quite quickly. Looking around I am surprised to see no sign of a hill. There are, however, several very large piles of canvas sacks. Curiosity getting the better of me, I decide to investigate them. 

Using my handy pocket knife, I cut a slit in one of the sacks. Sand pours out. "Hmmm!" I think to myself. "That dastardly Rousell must be up to his old tricks again!"

With the magnificent sight (according to my guidebook) of the Sandhill no longer present, I reach once more for my device. Selecting "Random" again I utter a prayer that this time it won't send me into Robert E Howard's erotic dreams. The rift opens and I step through.

"Thank goodness for that!" I exclaim. Looking around me, I appear to be in an old city market square. I hear some citizens speaking French and from their clothes determine that this must be the latter half of the seventeenth century.

The crowd begins to murmur in consternation and some measure of fright as two groups of soldiers (I presume - they do look to be in uniforms) enter the square from opposite sides.

"Make way for the King's Musketeers" says the man who must be the leader of the blue chaps.

"Stand aside for the Cardinal's Guard" sneers the leader of the ones in black.

"No, make way for the King's Musketeers!"

"Stand aside for the Cardinal's Guard!"

Clearly an impasse has been reached and the two bodies draw swords. I decide that discretion is the better part of valour and leave the market square by one of the other streets.

Kings Musketeers

Cardinal's Guard

These chaps were good fun to paint. For the Cardinal's Guard, i looked for images to see whether they wore a "uniform" under their cassocks/tabards, and came across the red-on-black from the 2011 film (which I have managed to avoid) and decided that scheme looked much better than the traditional white-on-red of the 1970s movies.

The figures are 15mm from Blue Moon - they are actually all from the "Cardinal's Guard" packs, but as the range only includes the four famous Musketeers (plus Planchet) I decided to paint some up in Musketeer colours to even things up. I kept the basing simple so that they can be used on a variety of terrain.

I do have more figures for this project (including the characters and civilians), but they probably won't get painted for a while.

And my new, improved Challenge Island map as the old one was getting much too cluttered:

For Scoring:

20 x 15mm foot @ 2 = 40 points
Rousell's Sandhill = 30 points

Total = 70 points

Great work once again Tamsin - an entertaining brawl would indeed take shape in the Parisian market.  I think you've made a fine choice in terms of colours for the Cardinal's Guards, and I agree 100% that the 2011 film is best avoided...

That is another 70 points for you!

As for your Challenge Map...well, I agree it seems less marked up, but now we are confused by the lack of confusion. You can't win! :)

GregB

From PeteF: Cenobite Dream Hunter (35 points)

Mudry's Mesa is truly the newiest and shiniest location on the Path of the New Shiny. This chap arrived shortly after Christmas, along with some other horror themed nasties, to become part of my Kings of War Nightstalkers army.

Kings of War is great for miniature collecting - Mantic (the rules publisher) doesn't make models for all of the units in the game and players are encouraged to use what they like to represent the different factions.  My Nightstalkers army is built around a core of Mantic models but most of the units have some clue to a movie (usually a horror movie). Studio Miniatures make a bunch of look-alike minis, including this pinhead-esque Cenobite. He will be a Dream Hunter - a heavy infantry hero who can help your other infantry really get stuck in and who can deal out a fair amount of damage in his own right.

I vaguely remember being horrified by the original Hellraiser - and the Cenobites, creepy pain-loving creatures from another dimension. Main lesson: it is a Bad Idea solve strange looking puzzle boxes. The pins on his head made this guy quite a challenge to paint. The skin on the head is supposed to be sliced into squares with each of the intersections pinned. The pins got in the way of painting the grid of scars and required a very gentle touch to dab with metallic paint. I could do with some instruction on painting black robes - I'm not very comfortable with highlighting black. Happy with the end result though.

One 28mm foot figure and a new area explored (2 to go) for 35 points.

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By Paul- that is creepy as hell! 
That movie freaked me out as a young teenager too- take your 35 points and get the heck out!

From NoelW: Shippy McShipface : Docherty’s Dock: (18 Points)

At last – the sea! Our fleet should be nearby. Somewhere just over the horizon, we should be able to see their sails. And then just a hop, skip and a jump to be homeward bound.

Here’s a signpost: “To the ships!”

“Come on chaps, follow me!”

And here’s the beach. More sand. Sand! Nemesis of chain mail, arch enemy of plate. But today - a harbinger of happiness. Where are the ships, though?

“Roll up! Roll up! Real ships of the desert! Fifty pence a ride.”

Of course. Obviously. Should’ve known. Camels! And not a hint of real ships.

“Oh Lady Sarah!  Where art thou? We need your balloon to get away from the coast – er – to the coast.”

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These two camels represent the “ambulances” used by the French in Egypt, The models made by the Perrys, of course.

I think prone figures score half points, so the three figures in these cambulance baskets (one is empty) would score 7.5 points, plus 5 for each camel: Total: 17.5 points

(No bonus for location, as this is my second visit here.)

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Nicely done Noel.  I am constantly amazed at how complete the Perry Brothers can be when they tackle a setting...camel ambulances? I hope our pudding-brained Mayor never gets sight of this, as he would immediately declare it to be "innovation"...

I tossed in an extra half point to round things up because decimals harm souls.

GregB 

 

From TomM: Thorin Oakenshield... and baby Thorin (10 pts)

Okay, so this is a very special and dear model to me.

The reason?  Well, as you could see earlier this week, my son Thorin was born.

And especially for that, I painted up this model, from the Thorin's Company set by Games Workshop, for obvious reasons.

And he has already been reading up about his name-sake as well, now taking a nap...

So that makes for a single 28mm figure and 5 points, and more importantly a very happy daddy!

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By Paul: thats 5 points for the fig, doubled for the mega cuteness factor! 
Hearty congratulations on the arrival of your son and future tabletop nemesis :-)

From SanderS: "Throwing Rocks at Cook's Crevasse." (40 pts)

Hoi,

Geology? Seriously? What do I know of rocks? I really had to think hard about this location and it's demands for an entry. But the answer was lying on my paintdesk staring me in the eyes for quite some time, dare I say it: years?

Some time ago I bought some AoS objectives or endless spells and amongst them was a floating rock bound to the ground with chains. The reason I hadn't painted it yet was twofold: firstly I didn't know how to base it, not having any decently sized bases. Secondly I was unsure of how to use it. In the end it was Awdry's Attol that brought the solution: base it on a CD and therefore use it in regular games not for Heroquest where a different base size was needed.

Pre-painting WIP shot.

Painted the thing looks like this:

At first I wanted it to be purple, it's evidently Choatic in nature and I think purple suits Chaos magic very well. That said I have an idea of playing Mordheim again in one form or another and really would like to involve loads of Skaven. So in the end I chose to go with Green Warpstone. What would any Skaven Grey-seer not give for such a large piece of clearly highly magically charged Warpstone? So mister Cook let's have your analyis on Warpstone eh?

The base is fairly simple and devoid of race specific items so I could use it in quite a lot of different scenario's. I did add some skulls to one of the small offering stones, because every self respecting sorcerer needs some skulls right?

Also on my table were some pebbles from the garden. These I had gathered to use as Dwarven Oathstones when Warhammer was still Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Now I had the perfect opportunity to paint one up. So I started making an oathstone with some left over bits.

Painted the Oathstone looks like this:

The Dwarf Lord is only there for scale purposes and because he looks good. I wanted this Oathstone to look as if it's a long time abandoned and forgotten. Perhaps it's somewhere high up in the Ramtop Mountains... ergh... World Edge Mountains of course where the Dwarfs have been driven off their ancestral lands by Greenskins or Skaven and this Stone has stood there long since abandoned, the bronze images and offerings gathering a layer of verdisgris and the Stone itself a thick layer of moss and creeper plants.

These two will be very nice additions to my battlefields as soon as I get to playing any reall game again.
As to the points, well I guess they qualify for the 30 points bonus from the Crevasse but I have no real idea what to award for the stones themselves. Might I suggest counting them as 28mm foot figures so 5 points each for a total of 40 allround? I'd be happy with that.

Today's Challenge Tune is a funny story: for the Heroquest Schoolclub I always try yo find some suitable ambience music and while browsing Youtube for some Viking themed music (like Dannheim or Skald) I stumbled along this hilariously bad BAD "Dwarven Metal" for lack of a better word. To my great amazement 2 of the kids from my club actually knew the song and we 3 boisterously sang along the refrain that will stick in your head for ages to come if you're not careful.

Oh well I am off to painting Camels for Humpday!

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By Paul: a nice bit of thematic terrain building Sander- 40 points it is!

From MilesR: 15mm Field Entrenchments (50 points)

 I'm running a campaign at the club and the first tabletop encounter will be played out tomorrow (Monday March 9th) and I need some field fortification.  Rather than just make the 12 inches that is required, I made more (66 inches) as one can never have to many field fortifications and these are designed to be used for just about any era.

 Each section is 2 inches wide and I've put in enough pieces to give a good deal of fort design flexibility.

I threw in a redoubt as an after thought but am very happy with it.  Here you see a photo of it in it's natural state - teaming with Russian guns.

The build process was easy but a bit tedious as I built each of the retaining walls and cut some EPS foam for the earth works.

 I then glued them together - the pieces are backed by a very thin sheet of polystyrene to ensure they're durable.  You can see the beginnings of the redoubt - it was planned and measured out to fit 4 artillery stands

 But I am an idiot and measured poorly - at least three stands fir nicely!

 I filled in the gaps on the corners with a little sculptamold and then covered the embankments with my goto ground texture - pre-mixed flexible tile grout, which conveniently comes in an earth shade

The final step was to base paint the planks and dirt, add a black wash and then dry brush a light tan.

The campaign I'm running is a super hypothetical invasion of the US by Napoleon and tomorrow battle has a combined US and British force of 4 divisions attacj Davout's III Corp with 2 divisions.  Soult's II Corps is nearby and will be marching to reinforce III Crops - will they make if in time?  Tune in next week to find out.

As for points, this is definitely terrain and also definitely does not fill a full 216 cubic inch.  I think there's less than 100 cubic inches.  I shall leave the pointalogical machinations up to the minion that adjudicates this entry.

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By Paul: 
Sounds like a great campaign, and thats quite an impressive scratch built fortress! 
Noting the handiwork and modelling effort overall, I am awarding 50 points for this entry.
I hope the campaign goes well!