From AaronP: Ok so here is the story of these space marines... (30 points)

Ok before I get into it, me and my family are back from the hospital. My daughter is doing really well following her surgery. It was a shitty, stressful month, but now I am on parental leave for another 13 or so weeks with my family and it all seems like a bad dream. :-) 

Thanks to everyone for the support and well-wishes, it genuinely helped.

OK so the story about these space marines. When the Leviathan box came out I was like, "You know what, I haven't painted a space marine in a while. I am going to buy it."

I clicked the purchase button and while I waited I considered what chapter I would do. I wasn't going to use these models for Warhammer, no no no, so the decision would come down to what I thought was cool, not what was going to not going to suck to play. 

I thought it would be cool to have a group of space marines that had landed on a planet controlled by a corrupt governor. They had to operate in the shadows and arm the local human militias to do most of the fighting as there was still some political tensions as the governor was very influential in the Terran Court. 

I thought it would be cool to have the tactical marines (or whatever the primaris tactical marines call themselves) to be loaded up with gear they were transporting to the militia. There was going to be a whole kitbashing of medieval minis for the militia and I ended up deciding that Ravenguard best suited what I was going for.

I grabbed one of the minis, the fella in the middle pointing to the word "space" (at least on my screen he is) and painted him up like a Ravenguard... and hated it. Every step, EVERY part. I hated painting black armour, I hated the highlights. It was a whole lot of ick. So they ended up in a box...

...until last week.

I was digging around looking for things to paint and I found these guys. Ugh, I thought. UUUUGH. I don't want to paint Ravenguard. I should have just painted them red, I like painting red, but they have all these feathers on them... wait a minute. Blood Ravens are red, and are Ravens. They could have feathers. But what about all this crap they are lugging around...

Oh Blood Ravens like to steal stuff (so says the memes). OK, Ok I can work with these. 

BEHOLD my blood raven tactical guys who stole a bunch of stuff including a charcoal chicken.

I really wanted to move away from the standard poses you see with Space Marines, so I chopped and glued these guys into some more interesting positions. I think my fav is the guy stepping over the metal bar thing.

Anyway, That's 5 "28mm" space marines for 25 points. Not heaps this week, but its not nothing.

Thanks all.
Aaron

From Millsy:

The best part of this post is the first couple of sentences letting us know your family is doing well mate. Our little warriors matter to us but not nearly so much as the little real life people in our orbits. Such good news on a Friday.

Given everything else that's been going on you'd be forgiven for letting standard slip but you've done quite the opposite here. The red armour has amazing depth and is backed up by some wonderful secondary colour choices and brushwork. That white arm on the medic is superb!

I love the way you've added all the extra clobber to their backs to riff on the theme of supporting the militia. I can't remember ever seeing anything like it on a Space Marine before and it's awesome.

Cracking effort all round. Now you have some more time to yourself hopefully we'll see more of this kind of stuff. I've added 5 points for the backpacks for a tidy 30 total for this effort. Nice work!

Cheers,
Millsy

From AaronP: Gnomes! (100 points)

Hello again,

I am running out of things to paint... especially things I have brought with me to my current home away from home. 

My 15mm ECW project for ADLG-R (I think I got the letters in the right order) is going well. I am going to wait to post them until they are finished mostly cause I haven't done their bases. I need to bring some static grass from home.

I am returning home on Friday, so I'll dig around and see what else I can find to get paint onto. 

Enough preamble

Gnomes

I have been sitting on these since they came out; the Gnome Bloodbowl team. Also, who know Gnomes were part of the Warhammer Fantasy deep lore??? 

Anyway, I though the minis looked fun to paint, and I love playing stunty teams for their ridiculousness. There are probably enough Stunty teams now to run a Stunty only league and have some variation. 

So points,

I assume the Gnomes still count as 28mm despite their diminutive size?

14 x 28mm platers = 70 points

2 x trees (54mm?, they are like 80mm tall but also super easy to paint) = 30 points [Edit Millsy]

So 90 points? Does that work?

Also I keep forgetting to do labels, so sorry about that. I did some this time.

Thanks

From Millsy:

You can't fail to love a gnome! Blodbowl is such a great game, still going strong and the whimsical nature of it combined with absolute mayhem is part of the appeal. Stunty teams are the prefect example of that.

Really nice work all round Aaron. I like how you've varied the bark colour on the two treemen in partciular. 20 points seems a paltry return so I've thrown another 10 in to make them 15 each. Your numbering on the bases is a great solution to remembering who is who vs. trying to write a name.

100 points it is mate. Bring on the stunty league I say!

Cheers,
Millsy

from AaronP - Assortment of Random - 360 points

 Hello, Hello. Its been a couple of weeks. The posting stopped but the painting did not.

Nestled here in the corner of my Ronald McDonald house accomodation I have set myself up a painting nook. A couple of days yet till my daughter is born, then her surgery will be about a week later. Until then we are sat here in waiting mode just passing the time.

That has left a lot of time to paint and so I have a few things I have completed from old projects as well as a couple of new projects, cause why not. 

OK so old projects first...

Here are three Swarms for KoW. I wanted to use files I already had, so I figured these dryads would work. Originally I was going to have them led by wizards, but it didn't make sense as they are going to be chaff units. So instead I painted them in the ghosty style and they are projections of the wizards controlling them. Not only did it make more sense theme-wise it also was easier to paint!

I can't remember what unit this was, but it is a regiment of infantry. I wanted them to look a little fancier then the other infantry I did so I put some more gold on thier helms. I am not entirely happy with the outcome, but ultimately they stand out from the other guys so it serves its purpose.

The last KoW unit I completed is a troop of Dragon Knights. Rules-wise they are the same as the Silver Helms, I think I just gave them a magic item to set them apart.

Ok, a quick-fire project next. I put these together so me and my wife could play some OnePageRules on the limited space we would have. These are all 6mm minis that have have scaled up to roughly 15mmish. The Space Marines sit closer to 18mm, but the Tau (Not pictured) are around 15mm to the eye.

These were super fun to paint and I am thinking this might turn into a larger project. Maybe 40k Armageddon? Or a portable 40k set? 

I have been sitting on the Leviathans marines for a while now. I had a grand vision when I built the models, but have really been struggling choosing a chapter. I painted up this guy the other night and I think I have finally decided on Blood Ravens. The scheme was easy to paint and I have been enjoying reading up on their lore, especially the meme stuff about them stealing everyones stuff. I'll work my way through the stuff I have and see if it sparks the desire to continue.

Appart from this, I have been working on some 15mm War of Three Kingdoms stuff for ADGL-R. A few of the fellas at the club I play at are ADGL players and I figured this would be a nice neat and in-expensive project. Unfortunetly I don't have the stuff to finish off the bases so I might post them once I have properly completed them, bases and all. I still have a bit of that to get through and I imagine the time between birth and surgery ( and potentially some time after that) I'll have less time to paint. So we'll see how we go.

Ok so points, a bit of a mixed bag.

28mm(ish)

34 Dryads = 170

3 Wizards = 15

14 Swordmen = 70

5 Mounted Dragon Knights = 50

1 Space Marine = 5

Sub total = 310

15mm(ish)

5 Blood Angels = 10

6 Grey Knights = 12

10 Bloodletters = 20

Sub total = 42

Total Points = 352

Ok well I think that is all for now. Hopefully I'll get some more done once things settle down.

From DaveD - that’s a decent little painting nook . I wish you well on the upcoming family events . As you say that is indeed a selection of random - though they are all the more attractive for it . I am such a sucker for things in red , they look excellent - it’s rounding yiu to 360 

From Aaron P: Surprise! Its the War of the Three Kingdoms! (275 pts)

Hello Hello!

The High Elves get some reinforcements and those hidden minis get revealed.

Its ECW/WTK, put your hands up if you guessed. 

Musketeers! Not much swashbuckling though.

These are the sleeves for an upcoming pike block. I based them in a Swedish Salve on two bases per sleeve. The kneeing and crouching fellas are on the front base and the standing fellas on the back with a couple of ranks lined up behind them for good measure. My thought was that I split the bases up and can place them around the pike block for some Hedgehog action and each side has a line of guns aiming. See below:

Ready for pikemen 

Unfortunately I was a little ambitious with the number of soldiers I could fit on these bases so I have another 8 ready for when I paint up the next battalion.

I am pretty happy with how the bases look. I wanted them to look full and I wanted them to have some animation. I think I achieved what I was after.

Next was the High Elf reinforcements. a Noble on Chariot and the Royal Guard.

These two round out the army a little more, giving me some smaller sized bases with some punch, but also something a bit different to paint. I only have one more unit (Silver Helms) left to fill out 1000 points for my High Elves, which is all I currently have printed. Unfortunately I am not sure when I will receive those reinforcements, my printer is currently dead. Hopefully those replacement  parts arrive soon. 

Prepare for lazy photo spam!

Ok so, 

40 x 28mm Musketeers (200pts)

9 x 28mm Royal Guard (45pts)

1 x 28mmChariot (30pts - yes, it's a vehicle + two infantry - Millsy) Does a chariot count as a vehicle?

So 275 points.

I need to make a start on the pikemen while I have this momentum. I am not sure I can sustain this for the full three months.

From Millsy:

Lovely brushwork Aaron!

Are those the Warlord Games ECW minis? I think so but I always thought they were a bit weedy and lifeless so if they are you've managed to add a level of animation I didn't think was there.

The Elf Chariot is a cracker and I live the teal/red combo, really striking mate. It is definitely a vehicle to worth 30 shekels when you include the crew.

Cracking work all round and 275 points well earned.

Cheers,
Millsy

From Aaron P: Who knew... - (65 points)

Who knew that having the painting paraphernalia set up on a folding table, with dozens of models all primed and ready to go, in front of the TV would be conducive to painted miniatures. I probably could have guessed I suppose, and thankfully I have a supportive partner who tolerates my hobbies occasionally spilling out into common areas (only fair I suppose as I move the crochet off the record player for the second time today). 

My Kings of War army has sat unpainted in take-away containers for roughly a year. The painting challenge has been just the motivation I needed to get to it and get them painted.

 

So here are some elven archers ready to join the ranks of some spearmen I painted about 4 months ago. If you've never played KoW I recommend giving it a go. It has become a fairly tight set of rules, that gives the feeling of big armies battling it out, but since every unit is one base, you are only really moving like 10-15 "models" around, so the game moves quick. My wife and I love it as we can actually get a game finished even with a three-year-old running around.

Most of the games I have played of KoW have been with pieces of cardboard or MDF cut into the appropriate sized rectangle (or occasional square). I am pumped to get this army sorted so I can actually play a game with miniatures, even if its only 1000pts. Also in case you are wondering all my opinions of KoW are based on third edition. I currently have zero interest in 4th. 

Ok, so 13(28mm Archers) 

13(5) 

13*5

 =65 Points 

Quick math!

 

So long for now!

__________________________________________

Great to see you forging ahead, Aaron!  Great unit of elven archers. The turquoise and white work really well together and the snow/slurry bases are very evocative of a harsh climate. Kings of War is a great set of fantasy rules - very fast, easy to pick up, yet giving players interesting tactical choices as the games unfold. I look forward to seeing more units roll off the line over the coming weeks Aaron!

- Curt

From AaronP: Keep It Simple SkullForge (40 points)

Hey everybody. Long time lurker, first time poster. I wanted to get out of the gate with a quick and simple project. 

The Front

I quite like the game BlkOut. If you've not played it its a 28mm(ish) sci-fi spec ops game. Its quick and easy to play, is easy to list build for and has some cool official models. The best thing, of course, is that the rules are free to download from their website so you can try it yourself with some proxies. 

The worst thing about it is its a niche American game and I live in Australia. For whatever reason the postage costs from the US to Down-Unda are ridiculous; cost of American farmed toad mucus for the stamps maybe. This means that beyond the starter team I picked up at Cancon from a company that used to stock it in Australia (and now doesn't exist), it is expensive to get here.

The Back

So I have done what any self-respecting Aussie does when the price is too high, I pirated it.

Kidding, kidding (I always think 3d printing feels like piracy).

What I actually did was print myself some proxies from SkullForgeStudios that I though looked BlkOut enough to qualify for Task Force Boon. Their standard military-esq uniforms made them super easy to paint, and the fact that I don't do anything fancy with my BlkOut bases made them easy to finish.

Task Force Boon Assaulting my next project, with a second secret project half hidden on the left.

Now that I have some points on the board, I can look at finishing off some elves for my KoW army.

So Task Force Boon should get my 40 points if I understand correctly (5pts x 8 28mm models).

Thanks all, have fun.

_____________________________

First, Aaron, welcome to the Challenge! 

I've not heard of BlkOut, so I'm very curious to give it a peek. I definitely will not cast stones on printing proxies as I'd have to bin most of what I've collected these past four years. Shipping is getting ridiculous and we won't even start on the knock-on effects of the Orange Man's tariffs. So, well done on you. 

The squad may have been a quick job, but they definitely look the business. Is that some sort of drone/droid with them? I like the boxy profile and the desert tan is a good look for it. Well done!

40 points it is! A nice opening volley as you head towards your target. Looking forward to the upcoming 'Secret Project'! :)

- Curt