From Kerry T - Old Iron Boots - or A little man tries to set a high standard!- Avatars of War Dwarf standard (30 points + Limbo)

 Morning, afternoon and evening all.....

Its great to catch up with you all once again and also say hello to some new faces. Thanks once again to Curt for allowing me to take part in this my fourth challenge. For me, it has to be the highlight of the wargaming year and not only have I benefited from and been enthused by the wonderful support from the participants here but I've also now caught up with a few in the flesh meeting several of the guys on my trip to Parizan wargames show last year. I've also been fortunate to make new friends in Millsy and Kent Galpin and though we've never met in person we've been meeting online most Tuesday nights for a paint and chat.

I've got off to a slow start this year and this is my first entry. I've set myself a target of 2,500 points this year simply to try and gain entry to the 10,000 career points club. To that end I've spent much of the holiday period painting a multitude of horses in the hope of making the challenge of producing weekly entries less onerous. If only the challenge went on for longer - I'm due to retire from work the week after the challenge ends! Hopefully I'll get there with a mix of figures that reflect my butterfly tendencies and wandering ill-disciplined brush. My plan is to knock off a decent chunk of my unpainted ECW cavalry leadpile, add to my Italian Wars and Reconquista projects and hopefully shoe in some Napoleonics, WW2 and make a start on my main 2025 target, a 100 Years War Medieval project. As always I'm likely to jump from one thing to another in the hope of keeping productive and I suspect some figures that didn't make earlier challenges may push their way up the painting queue.

This was the state  of my current Limbo entry this time last year

A dwarf standard bearer from Avatars of War

I really struggled to get to grips with this having bought it a few years ago. My intention was to have it lead my Dwarven hoard into battle. Fortunately in the past few days, despite the hot NZ sun, the Vallejo hasn't dried on the brush and I've managed to get it finished

Here's the man accompanied by a few Oathmark dwarves just painted

I'm not sure how such a little man is going to handle such a high or big standard, the standard bearer himself seems to be wearing a huge amount of metal which I assume must be a deliberate attempt to make him him as heavy as possible . When he unfurls that huge banner, its obvious, like it or not- the slightest gust of wind is going to turn him into an involuntary kite surfer and drop him off in the next valley!

From a practical perspective he's going to struggle to stay on the table so I felt it was necessary to make him his own base

He's even got his own base

I also painted a few hangers on from some plastic Oathmark figures to keep him company 

In reality, for the tabletop I think he's probably best grouped with some Oathmark metal command figures I painted last year and shown below

Better still perhaps the Dwarf King's banner even

The Kings banner

My Dwarven army is growing - pun intended!

Couldn't resist the group shot - to be clear its only just 5 Oathmark figures and Old Iron boots the standard bearer that were painted for the challenge

In summary

6 x 28mm foot Figures at 5 points each = 30 points

Limbo bonus  at 20 points

Total points = 50 

1 Squirrel

Many thanks and Happy New year to you all

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Lovely to have you back with us Kerry! 

I always enjoy seeing your various project as not only are the fantastically realized but they're all something I'd like to play. Such eye candy.

Love this standard bearer. Like so many things in the world of fantasy this is over-the-top silly, which of course makes it completely awesome. I like your new blue variant much better than the original red, so good choice there, but better yet is the mini-diorama you've made for it. What a terrific centrepiece for the army. As an added bonus I'm sure these guys get great 5G reception. :) I'm going to give another 5 points for that great, honkin' standard as it's the size of several dwarfs in of itself.

A great opening for your fourth Challenge Kerry. Keep them coming!

- Curt

From Kerry T - Not little Gingerbread men and a bunch of guys all called Norman (420 points)

Morning, afternoon and evening all

With apologies to Miles Millsy! [Whilst Miles is a decent enough chap his Aussie "accent" is truly horrible] for my late post I have once again reminded myself that I have not learned from last year's challenge - again I've left it until the last minute to finish an entry, thinking I had sufficient time to complete this a few days ago only to re-discover that the finishing touches take much more time than I normally allocate. Maybe next week I'll bite off less and finish an entry in good time.

This is my second entry  so I've tried to keep it simple (my minion after all is an Aussie so I better had 😁- couldn't resist - wonder how many points he'll knock off for that😟!)

Below the belt eh? Yep and so are these...

Dwarves - Dwarf slayers from Avatars of War to be precise

See yoo Jimmy, you may be made of metal and GW but I'm bigger than yooo

The Dwarf Slayer Regiment

I rediscovered my old GW Dwarves last year and have been rebasing and tidying them up and decided I needed some more slayers and because of the unavailability or prohibitive costs of the old GW sculpts from the 90s looked around for an acceptable and affordable additions. These came in the shape of this Avatars of War plastic regiment which I think are quite affordable at 35Euros for 20 figures (for some reason mine were 4 short but with their GW cousins this will give me a regiment of 24 figures

second from left figure shows some "one upmanship"!

A reasonable match, the middle figure is from GW 

These 16 dwarves make up my Fantasy entry for the library

Next up some unimaginatively named blokes called Norman

These are my new acquisition entry, having  been purchased only recent from Victrix

Plastic Norman Crossbowmen

 

There are 36 figures in the box, 18 armoured and 18 unarmoured giving a reasonable variety of poses that are quick and easy to paint - just as well as you can'y have too many Cross Normans

As usual I can't make up my mind about basing

12 are based singly in case I want to play a skirmish game

Finally the reason the post was late- as usual the cavalry arrive just in the nick of time...

Victrix plastic Norman Cavalry - a pack of 12 figures in a mix of mail and scale armour

Shields from LBSM

These are lovely figures to paint, the horses especially, my only concern is the passible brittle nature of the plastic lances, I broke two while painting. I've held off giving them a standard in case I end up replacing the spears with wire ones.

In Summary

16 x 28mm Dwarf figures @5 points = 80 points

36 x 28mm Norman Crossbowmen @5points = 180 points

12 x 28mm Cavalry figures @ 10 points =120

Fantasy bonus @ 20 points

New Acquisition bonus @ 20 points

Total 420 points

2 squirrels

From Millsy: Sneaking in at the last moment Kerry! Given you must have needed a week to photograph this lot I'll forgive you this time :-P

The Slayers are brilliant and I'd bet on them vs. a bunch of Normans any day, even ones painted as well as these. I think (speaking from experience) that you'll find the lances more robust than you think. I've bounced more than my share of plastic cavalry across the room with little in the way of damage.

This lot bumps you up to second place at least for the time being. Well done!

From AnthonyO: Into the dark realms and some Sherwood Archers (95 Points)

For the second week of the challenge I have pushed deeper into the dark realms with some more chaos to add to my ever spawning evil force for Kings of War. I am not really concerned as to where these particular units will fit in the force just yet, more that I have and like the miniatures and will find a way to fit them into a force list later on. I have also completed a quick unit of Sherwood themed archers for my Armies of Man force.

  

My first two units are a Chaos cultist who I imagine to be a powerful Summoner who has summoned this Demon to the realm of man and will  soon let it lose, so long as it doesn't turn on him first! The Cultist is an old GW metal and the Demon is from Avatars of War - 10 points.

 

Next up are my Sherwood themed archers, they are old GW plastics and are for my ever growing Armies of Man force for Kings of War. The Stag on the banner Friar Tuck is holding was a quick freehand job. Next up will be some Crossbowman to complete the ranged options for this force - 50 points.

The next evil creature is from the Zombiecide Black Plague game and I wanted to make it look like a a Forrest Demon straight from the nightmares parents tell their children to get them in bed at night. Being twice the size of the 28mm summoner I have given him 10 points.

Rounding off the evil denisens of the dark realm are some sort of demon dogs who would be sent off to hunt down their prey so they can slate their thirst for blood. These guys are metal and I am not sure where they originated having obtained them in a trade - 25 points.

So two weeks in and my tally should sit at 210, the pile is growing with a lot more coming on the horizon.

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Wow, terrific work Anthony! I really like your colour blending, especially on that forest demon - very, very nice. It's also great to see those veteran archer models getting some love. I've heard some good things about Kings of War and am looking forward to giving them a go with my old Empire collection. 

A very respectable 95 points to add to your tally, Anthony. Well done!
 

From BrendonW - Curtgeld Dwarf Berserker (25 points)

This Dwarf maniac is my Curtgeld. A Dwarf Berserker which is no doubt inspired by the Viking sagas that tell of men who threw all caution to the wind and would enter into combat either naked or only clothed in the skin of an animal. Shield biters that seemed immune to pain. Was a crazed state induced by the intake of certain mushrooms and/or large quantities of alcohol? Maybe.

".....the berserkers often wore special clothing, for instance furs of a wolf or bear, to indicate that this person was a berserker, and would not be able to tell friend from foe when in rage "bersærkergang". In this way, other allied would know to keep their distance."

".....This fury, which was called berserkergang, occurred not only in the heat of battle, but also during laborious work. Men who were thus seized performed things which otherwise seemed impossible for human power."

" ....This condition is said to have begun with shivering, chattering of the teeth, and chill in the body, and then the face swelled and changed its colour. With this was connected a great hot-headedness, which at last gave over into a great rage, under which they howled as wild animals, bit the edge of their shields, and cut down everything they met without discriminating between friend or foe."

"...a demoniacal frenzy suddenly took him; he furiously bit and devoured the edges of his shield; he kept gulping down fiery coals; he snatched live embers in his mouth and let them pass down into his entrails; he rushed through the perils of crackling fires..."

The Miniature is plastic from a box set made by Avatars of War. The set gets you twenty loonys with some extra bits for a standard, horn blower and champion. Options also include Mohawks but I prefer a shaved head. It's possibly enough bother for a Dwarf Berserker to maintain a beard let alone a hairstyle. I purchased this premium set for including them in my Kings of War Dwarf army but I have taken a long time to make any progress on them. The challenge though is great for motivating me to make progress.

The base has been left blank for Curt to make his own (I did glue a strip of paper over the slota hole though). The feet of these miniatures are flush so I cut some sprue about 1-2mm and glued to his soles to provide space for any basing material. Alternatively those could be cut off and he can be glued directly to a base. As usual my photography does not do justice to reality but you get the general idea of how he looks.

Gotta love that beard style he's rockin. Rumour has it that he consumes large amounts of MacRoyd special brew. It is said that is a contributing factor to his MacRoyd Rage.

Cheers and thank you from Brendon W.

There's something wonderfully crazy about your Curtgeld entry Brendon. I don't know if it is the massive moustachios or the ridiculously large axes but he's obviously compensating for something. 

Either way I'm sure Curt will appreciate all the attention you've lavished on both the miniature and the back story. Well done, that's a corker of a submission. Cheers, Millsy.