From Curt: The Final Post of AHPC XI - 'A Sword Day, A Red Day!' (168 Points)

My last entry starts yet another project for me. Really, can we ever have too many hobby projects? Heavens, I hope not.

Ever since I first read 'Lord of the Rings', I have been enthralled by Tolkien's description of the Battle of Pelennor Fields, always wanting to see it arrayed on the games table in miniature. So after spending this past year reading Tolkien's work, I've decided to start the journey to see if I could achieve this.

For me, one of the highlights of the battle was when Theoden looked upon the mighty enemy host in front of Minas Tirith, turns to his Rohirrim, and calls out:

Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!

Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!

Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,

a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!

Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!

With this in mind I thought I'd start this project with Theoden and some of his riders of Rohan.

Okay, with a subject and some figures in mind, what rules would I use? Well, thankfully GW has their excellent 'War of the Ring', which has a small, but dedicated fan base still supporting it.

While 'War of the Ring' is a great set of rules, I have a couple criticisms. First is with GW's  extortionate pricing, as the cost in figures for two good-sized forces is prohibitive for most hobbyists, except perhaps if done as a club project. 

The second is that I just don't like how cavalry formations look in the game. Sure, it allows people to fit their existing LotR cavalry into sabots, but due to the large circular bases, they only can fit two models per sabot base. While I quite like the large basing for LotR skirmish, it really doesn't translate well for massed ranks of cavalry. 

So after giving it a bit of thought, I decided I'd use the same base dimensions provided in the game, but I'd use 10mm figures in order to give a greater sense of mass.

These models are from the excellent Copplestone Castings range. I absolutely love them as they capture all the Tolkienesque spirit, while also being rather minimal in their design, and so quite easy to paint. I've put them on large acrylic bases as an experiment to see how it works with massed ranks - I think I like it.

I know these are not that much of a 'battle host', as trio of bases represents just one formation, and I want six for the entire Rohirrim contingent. I have a suspicion I will be serving this out to commission painters to finish up for me...

I've decided to put the various heroes on separate bases, so here is Theoden on his mount, Snowmane, riding with his household banner bearers. 

The Mumakil were a bit of a problem to source at first. A have a few different variants as test models. One you see here is a mastodon from Eureka miniatures, another (not shown as I didn't get him done) is a 3D print of a Chaos mastodon, which has a good look as well. I'll have to post him up later. 

Finally, the pick of the litter is this Mumakil from Eaglemoss magazine. This was part of their long out of print LotR chess set series. He's quite hefty, being in white metal, and is an almost perfect fit for 10mm. His stock paintjob wasn't bad, but I wanted him to blend in with my other figures, so I primed him up and gave him a fresh lick of paint.

These Eaglemoss Mumakil are rare as hen's teeth, so if you ever come across one for sale, please let me know as I'd like a few more. Sorry, I have no crew for the howdas as they are still coming in from Pendraken (Persian archers). Sigh, another task for another day.

As to points, each base of cavalry has 24 models and Theoden's base has 4, so there's 76 figures in total. The Mumakil are about the size of a 15mm vehicle so I'll claim 8 each for them. That will give me a grand total of 168 points, just getting me over 1K for this year's outing. 

_______________________

So, here we are at last, with the close of the eleventh edition of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. For my part, it was a wonderful way to spend the winter, providing me a much needed distraction from the troubles and drama of the outside world. 

I wish to thank our minions, Greg, Tamsin, Paul, Miles, Nick, Phil and Byron for helping me keep the Challenge clipping along. I simply couldn't have done it without the you folks. Again, *doffs cap* thank you so much!  

Last but not least, I wish to thank all of our participants who laboured at their hobby desks, made submissions and left encouraging comments for their fellow Challengers. It is our friendly, open-hearted community which keeps me coming back to do this each year.

As per tradition, I ask all participants and followers to email me their top 3 picks for Challengers' Choice. From that list I will put up a poll in a weeks time so we can vote for our favourites. On April 18th I will post up the top three selections for Challengers' Choice, along with my Judge's Choice and Sarah's Choice.

Finally, I invite all the participants to submit picture of themselves along with the work they managed to get done over the three months of the Challenge. I think it's always nice to show off what we've managed to accomplish and to be able to put faces to names.

Thanks again everyone for making this another excellent Challenge!

- Curt

From JonathanO: The SAGAS of Noggin the Nog - At various locations of the Chambers of Challenge XI (150 points)

 I did not intend to do a really late post, but I realised that I still had time to make my points target.  I finished off a few figures that were in progress and completed a few more.  This is a bit of fun to finish off with and I hope you won't mind if I visit 5 additional locations in the one post.

I present some miniatures from the Little Soldier Company that were based on the characters from the children's books and TV series "The SAGAS of Noggin the Nog".

At the Hall of Heroes we have Noggin and queen Nooka:

Retracing my steps through rooms already visited, I get to the Hatchery.  Here we find Nogbad the Bad and his crows hatching a plan:

At the Armoury there are two Nog soldiers:

The Gallery of Ancestors features Noggin's parents King Knut and Queen Grunhilda:

Finally in the Guardroom, NOT keeping a close eye on the treasures of the Nogs are these two sleeping Nog sentries:

The whole group:

I had planned to complete all the figures during the challenge, but plans change!  At least I got most done for this final entry.

So 10 x 28mm figures = 50 points , plus 5 x 20 for new locations visited = 100 bonus points.  For a grand total of 150 points to take me comfortably over my target.  Hurrah!

Thanks to Curt for allowing me to participate in another enjoyable Painting Challenge.  Thanks to Sarah for continuing to support this madness!  This could not be so awesome and big without the wonderful Minions - thanks to you all.  Finally well done all participants and thanks for sharing your superb painting, interesting and amusing stories as well as for supporting each other on this journey through the Chambers of Challenge XI.  

Cheers,

Jonathan

From JohnS - Another Squirrel, Gobbos to Stumble Over the Finish Line - 45 points

 Early this morning I was catching up on reading the AHPC postings and realised that I had missed the post about the day's extension! To the brushes!

I have had these Gobbos on the backburner of the painting table for the last two months, putting a bit of paint on while waiting on Spaniards to dry. Part of my ENORMOUS GobMob, these teenaged hoody wearing green ne'er-do-wells like lurking around in the bushes doing Gawd knows what and shooting passersby with arrows.

Now that I mention it, I think some of them live down the road from me. Now, this really is my last entry for the Challenge. Thanks again Curt, Minions and Painters.

From DaveV: "Luke, it's too late!"

My final post is for another 3D print of a Star Wars character. Star Wars: Legion does not have a model for Luke as he appeared in the original 'Star Wars' movie. I saw that movie with my brother on its release day, and at least a dozen times that summer. By now, I have seen it 50 or 60 times. 

This newly released figure one of three different poses Order66 Miniatures makes for Farmboy Luke. It's a very nice print, with an iconic pose, good anatomy (check out those hands)  and almost completely unnoticeable printing lines. 

I did my usual black priming with Chaos Black, and airbrushed zenithal highlights with Vallejo white. Some acrylics, then oils for blending, especially the flesh tones and various neutrals and greys for the kimono style top. I added a couple of small tears to his top. I changed the colour of Luke's pants and undertunic a bit, and darkened his puttees and boots. Otherwise his legs from hips to toes would all be the same kinda off beige colour.

So, I have now painted versions of Luke Skywalker from all three of the original Star Wars trilogy.

All last year I only painted 12 figures. For this year's challenge, I am now on track to triple my output, LOL! Thanks to Curt and all the minions and fellow participants. This 40mm figure is 7 points, but worth much more to me for the impetus to get out and paint. Cheers!

  

From Barks: Last Skullz, no really this time (15 points)

Goaded by StuartL, I have been able to throw a few more skullz onto the mighty pile. This is a very nice statue from GW I have put on an 80mm base. The marble effect is Contrast Apothecary White over a white undercoat; chips and crack get a pale brown stain, and then veins are painted a watery grey. This is the hardest bit to get 'right'.

Here's a skullologist and his Skull-o-meter™ for scale:

"We're reading levels of Skulliness
that shouldn't be possible!"

She's 8" tall, and I claim 15 points for her. Or, if you prefer, she's about 3/4 of an STC: 15 points please!

+15 to the GW side challenge

But most importantly, she has 36 Skullz, which brings my really truly final skull tally to 502. Thanks for the motivation, Stuart!

And that's it from me this Challenge!

This entry has tempted Cap'n Wednesday out of retirement - a lovely looking lass, she'd make a great figurehead on my Flagship 'The Saucy yet modestly dressed Lass o' the Sea'. Great work on cracking half a thousand skullz too - have a tot o' rum to celebrate.

Cap'n Wednesday

From PeteF: Really The Last Post - A Mixed Bag of Chambers (164 Points)

 As I completed my "last" post yesterday I felt a gnawing disappointment that I'd not completely explored Curt's delightful dungeon. Five rooms remained empty and I was stuck with the thought...what if they could be finished in a day? So as I watched tv last night - and straight after breakfast I was painting individual bricks on La Haye Sainte - my entry for The Oubliette. 

I owned this model back in my youth as a result of an abortive day trip to Windsor Safari Park. Somewhere near Uxbridge the car blew a tire and we spent most of the day by the side of the road and in Uxbridge itself where toy shop was found and the Airfix Waterloo Battle Set was used to assuage my sadness (score, right?). That particular set has been lost in the mists of time but a few years ago I inherited an unbuilt Waterloo Farm House when my brother passed away. He never got around to assembling and painting this iconic piece of Airfix nostalgia and I've had it primed and ready for around 3(?) Challenges... my memory isn't what it once was.

I'm not sure painting the individual bricks was the most efficient approach to this model, especially in a time crunch. But there you go. When I prepped the model I used bits of Lego as jigs so two of the roofs can be easily removed to house soldiers. The whole thing is a bit big to use in a Black Powder game but the individual structures will come in handy along with my other Airfix houses for representing Belgian towns and villages.

Excluding the jutting wall the model is 12"x8"x3" which I estimate to be worth 27 points plus 20 for the room for a total of 47.

I'm going to write and upload photos as I go today. The clock says 9 hours and 40 minutes and there are four rooms left.

Next up is this shrine like object which is my entry for the Tomb. It was a generous gift from a fellow wargamer - I had mentioned to him that I was thinking about doing some fantasy mass battle gaming and he gave me some of his old stuff. I believe this is part of an old GW starter set (hopefully more of it later).

This is likely to see use in Kings of War as a Portal of Despair (mwahahaha) for my Nightstalkers army. I've put clues to various horror movies in the game pieces. This one might even get a second clue if I can figure out how to use LEDs to make the mouth area flicker like the TV screen in Poltergeist. It's a bit obscure but that's the idea.

At 100mm, This is quite a big object so I'm scoring it at 10 points (equivalent to a 54mm foot figure) plus 20 for the room bonus. Added bonus is 26 skulls!

The clock is ticking - AHPC page says seven hours to go - 3 more rooms to clear...

Now to the laboratory - this was the hardest chamber of them all for me to find a suitable mini. After digging around on the shelf of shame I came up short - but then remembered an old box of Heroclix I'd got for my son and which he had given back last time he cleaned out. 

The Hulk is the result of an experiment gone wrong and this version - some kind of robot hulk - is the result of yet more tinkering by misguided scientists. Not sure if I'll find a game for him but he was fun to paint - I enjoyed highlighting the green and will use some of the other Heroclix for practice. I broke out the Turbo Dork for his shiny green machine parts.

I'm scoring him as a 40mm figure (he's 50mm foot to elbow)plus room bonus. With 2 chambers to go the clock says 5 hours 39 minutes. But I have to take a break to cook dinner.

Sticking with the green skinned theme and knocking out another chamber - here are some goblins (night goblins?) from the same source as the shrine thingy. With time so tight I only did these three - I was given enough for a large unit of Saga levies or a regiment of bowmen for Kings of War. In Kings of War there's a goblin tribe - the Red Goblins - that help out the ogres so I gave them red hoods and slippers. Like the pope.

These are nice old school sculpts with lots of character - maybe I'll work towards a full green skinned army - they're fun to paint.

3 minis and a room bonus for 35 points. One room to go - I checked the clock and there's 3 hours and 48 minutes left of Challenge XI to finish the final room.

And here is the final figure for Challenge XI - a female paladin for The Kinght's Solar. She's an old school figure - I can't remember the manufacturer. Maybe Citadel. The pack comes with a mounted on unicorn version of the same mini which I'll save for another time.

1 figure on foot plus a final room bonus for 25 points and the end of a fun day chipping away at the shelf of shame. Apologies if this has been too many pictures! Left with 3 hours to spare... maybe there's another mini?

Grand Total: 164 points

La Haye Sainte: 47 points

Portal: 30 points

Laboratory: 27 points

The Orcs' Pit: 35 points

Knight's Solar: 25 points

And then I got some help

A Big Thank you to Curt and his minions as well as everyone who has participated in Challenge XI. We only get one shot at this journey of life and I'm grateful to have spent some of it painting alongside this merry crew.

(From RossM) The Last Post - 28mm Macedonians (60 or 71 points)

 The final post from me this year and its been great to be a part of this. This is my tenth year running and I have enjoyed each one. The camaraderie shown here is what this hobby of ours is all about. Looking forward to joining you all later this year to do it all again, granted I'll not leave everything to the last minute next time.

Now on to the post and the beginnings of a Macedonian army in 28mm. 

Foundry Skirmishers

Have opted for brighter colours on the skirmishers than I would normally use although I did use some dun colours across the stands to reflect the nature of the unit.

A & A Miniatures Prodromoi

Another brightly coloured unit and the colours are based on the description of the prodromoi in Heath's Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars. 

Only the riders were started and finished in this year's challenge, the horses have been sitting painted for some time now.

This stand of Greek Light cavalry is a generic unit that will be able to be used in the Macedonia and Greek armies as needed. 

Foundry Greek Cavalry

The last picture is of the horses for the Thessalian cavalry although their riders languish next to the unfinished Spartans, Hypaspists and mercenary hoplites all started for this project during the Challenge. 

Thessalian Cavalry sans riders

 This brings me to the final scores and there are two possibilities for this:

The first is a sub total of 71 based on

2 x 28mm Cavalry - 20 points 

4 x 28mm cavalry riders only - 20 points

4 x 28mm skirmishers - 20 points

3 x 28mm horses only - 11 points

This completes the challenge at 600 points, the threshold set 

or the second being 60 points

2 x 28mm Cavalry - 20 points 

4 x 28mm cavalry riders only - 20 points

4 x 28mm skirmishers - 20 points

This complete the challenge at 589 points. 

The decision lies with the Snow Lord himself. 

Stay safe and thanks for looking