From Curt: The Final Post of Challenge XIII - Méliès' 'A Trip to the Moon' (22 Points)

Well after 800 or so posts here we are at the end of Challenge XIII, and what a wonderful time it's been. This is the first year that I largely stepped back from taking part in the posting and scoring and I have to say that it allowed me to enjoy the event all the more. Of course, this meant that I had to rely on a full roster of helpers and, as I knew, I was not disappointed. So my cap is in hand when I say thank you to Peter, Tamsin, Miles, Teemu, Phil, Stuart and Martin. You folks were absolutely brilliant in maintaining your individual crews, while also promoting the Challenge's open and welcoming character. Also, a big thank you to Millsy for keeping track of the Duels, Barks for his ever-entertaining 'Skull Challenge', and to Miles for making sure the Spreadsheet of Doom did not blow apart into its constituent 1s and 0s. 

Arigato, Kiitos and Cheers to you all.

As is customary, I close out the Challenge with our final entry. I usually try to stretch out a bit and do something ambitious, but I have to admit that my spirit was just not there for it. This past week, Oscar, one of our two beloved dog companions, passed away, leaving Sarah, Felix and I completely heartbroken, dearly missing him, and his place in our lives. Nonetheless, I know spring is in the air, and time will heal - just not for awhile.

So, with this recent loss weighing heavy on my heart, I wanted to do something that was simple, but also still captured the spirit of our 'AHPC Studios' theme. 

As a little backstory, Sarah and I were fortunate enough to visit Lyon, France this past autumn, and as a part of our wanderings, we visited the Lumiere Museum, which showcases the art, craft and process of early film making and photography. Highly recommended.

One of the films referenced in the museum was George Méliès' 1902 adventure, 'A Trip to the Moon' - the first sci-fi film ever created. 

I loved 'A Trip to the Moon' as a kid as it seemed so whimsical and weird. As it was inspired by Jules Verne's 'From the Earth to the Moon', Méliès' work was the start of my love of pulp science fiction which moved on to 'War of the Worlds' and 'John Carter of Mars' and of course, 'Star Wars'. 

Anyway, on Cults3D I found this wonderful 3d design by Printorama3d of the iconic image of the Moon's face with the space bullet in its eye. I thought it would be a great excuse for me to drag out my monochrome paints to try to give it a greyscale treatment.

As with my old 'Great War in Greyscale' project, I tried to incorporate both warm and cool grey tones to differentiate the face, the surrounding moon, and the crashed spacecraft. Thankfully, I keep an old Moleskin notebook that has all my paint recipes in it, so I could reacquaint myself with how I did these things in the past. I'd be totally lost without it. 

Even though it's a small and relatively straightforward piece, I found it nice and comforting to return to this style of painting after all these years. Again, it's a modest piece, but I hope you like it.

I'll claim 22 points for this. Two for the model, and 20 for the Black & White Studio.  

________________________________________________________

I want to thank all our participants for their fevered industry and good natured humour. The Challenge is characterized not by me or the minions, but by all of you who participate in it. So again, thank you for the wonderful experience. I can't think of no better way to spend the winter months.

In a week or so I'll post a poll for 'Challenger's Choice', and a little after that we'll have an awards wrap up which will include the Challenger's Choice selection, the Minions' Choice, my SnowLord's Choice and Sarah's Choice. Stay tuned for those announcements.

In the meantime, if you will indulge me, I ask that everyone submit a post featuring a picture of themselves along with their Challenge efforts this season.

Thanks again, and I hope to see you all next winter for Challenge XIV!

- Curt

From StuartL - Not In Living Colour - Black & White (25 Points)

Hello all,

After my bout with a mystery illness last week, it is back to business as usual for me, which of course means another stop on my tour of the AHPC Studios, GmbH. Last week I paid for my limo ride to the Black and White stage of the studio, so here is my entry.

The target for this stage was to paint a model in grey-scale, which I have tried before and not felt particularly pleased about. So rather than try to figure out how to convert all of the various colours I would be using into various shades of grey, I instead opted for something different. I have tried to do something approximating OSL in grey-scale. portraying the model with a light source slightly off to one side of the front of the figure. I painted the figure using only Vallejo model colour black and Vallejo model colour white. All of the greys are a mix of the two paints.

The model is from GW's old Mordheim range and is a mercenary called Aenur, Sword of Twilight. I've had this figure for ages now and done nothing with it, so when I needed a model for this part of the studio, I had no hesitation in prepping it and using it here. It is a simple sculpt, and a better painter than I could probably use that massive cloak for some beautiful free hand or something. 

Sadly my attempt at OSL doesn't really work if you look at the model from different angles. Still, I am happy enough with the results, and it gets me one step further in the studio. 

For scoring:

1x28mm mini @5 points = 5 Points

1x Studio @20 points = 20 Points

Total = 25 Points

That's all from me for this post, but I should have some more for you all later today.

Very cool mini, you've done a fine job on him 

From Guy B: [Chamber of Darkness] Fifty shades of Scots grey? [230 points]

I have an odd disability for an editor - I'm mildly dyslexic. It means I have to be careful and generally read through things twice. So when I read the Chamber of Darkness initially, I thought "Great! I can get some Covenanter Scots painted!"...

The miniatures are a mixture of Warlord plastics and Perry Miniatures. I have some Foundry as well to mix in which will break up any uniformity with the Warlord poses. 

The command wasn't ready in time, so I'll probably post these later. 

The pikes are a mixture of metal and plastic, the Warlord ones tend to break but as pikes are in short supply, I'm still using them. 

So I did paint... a lot of them. 41 completed, with some shotte and command half finished. That was until a friend of mine suggested I read the challenge again and see what it actually said! So it meant using a grey scale only... Oh dear!!!!

So I decided to paint some rocks as well, so I met the criteria... these are 3D printed with Mr Smoother applied, to remove most of the graininess. The rocks are all greyscale, and even involved various Vallejo greys! Challenge completed, sort of!

I attempted to speckle one of the rocks to make it look realistic. This was quite laborious but the finished rock looks good (better on the table than in photography). If I paint any more, I'll add the odd bit of lichen in greens and browns.

So I estimate 205 points for the 41 Scots and 5 points for the rocks, plus a 20 point challenge bonus equals 230 points!

From EdwardG: A sprint through three Challenge Chambers! (78 points)

 Hello all,

I hope everyone is having/have had a great Sunday. Today is the first warm(ish) day of the year. The wife is already making long to-do lists for the garden in the coming weeks. So I can foresee hobby time taking a slight battering. So with this in mind I made a conscious effort to get the three Chamber entries that have been sitting around on my desk for a while finished off. 

First up, the Chamber of Darkness! I am sure everyone is now well aware that this is a grey scale challenge. I must admit, I have never tried painting in grey scale, but I found it to be a very interesting experience. There is something simple, yet tricky, when using such a reduced pallet. In hindsight, I am quite please with my entry, but tbh, he certainly is not the best grey scale figure I have seen. I am in awe of the skill of several of my fellow challengers. 

My entry is a strange figure, he is made by Foundry (I think) as part of their Gallic Priests/Druids pack. He is a short 28mm figure, nearer 25mm in size. When I first found him lurking at the bottom of the lead pile I thought I had a figure of a dwarf, which would have been most odd as I am purely a historical gamer! 

Next up on my sprint to get as far through the dungeon Challenge Chamber crawl as possible before the Spring time of the Garden. Is my entry to the Larder! I have to admit, I struggled with this one. I finally decided to take the larder theme and stretch it a little, in the hope that I could paint something that could squeeze in. 

My entry is a simple one, it is as a generic 15mm camp for one of my many DBA armies. In DBA the camp is something to be either defended to the last man or used to bait and switch an opponent into falling for an overly complex and totally flawed plan. I think it is a great, if poorly written and edited, set of rules and my gaming friends and I have a wonderful time playing it. The actual wagon is from a Mirilton set, that I bought with the idea to one day create a Communal Italian army complete with Carroccio. Sadly to say, that army has never managed to make it to the table. So in an attempt to bring some of the lead to life, I thought to use the wagon for this piece. I had misplaced the traces, and thinking back I am not sure if it ever came with them. So I improvised some with a tooth pick that gallantly sacrificed itself under the knife. 

I only took one photo, as it is a very simple vignette.  

Finally! I have made it to the Second Level!! 

In an attempt to keep this going, I managed to finish off my entry to the Hatchery as well this morning. It is another figure from Scythe, as I had no figures with any kind of bird in the lead pile. The figures in the game act as avatar character pieces for the players. Each one represents a faction and has some kind of animal. Luckily for me, the avatar for the Crimean Khanate has a falcon. The figure is made of a soft plastic, and was a struggle to paint compared to my normal metal figures. The details are not very well defined, but I think I managed to get an acceptable figure out it. The faction colour is yellow, hence the main colour choice for the mini. I have now painted 1/5th of the Scythe set (from two different factions), and so now I think I am required to finish the set although sadly I am not sure I will be able to do them all before the end of the Challenge! Possibly something for Challenge XII...

So as for points total. I think I have the following: 

3 x Challenge Chambers = 60 points

2 x 28mm mini = 10 points

1 x 15mm vehicle/camp = 8 points 

Total = 78 points! 

Stay safe and hope to post again soon!

Best,

Ed :D 

AdamC: Gravyard Beach the Ghost ship Banshee (35 points)

 For years I have have seen people do great work with Grayscale but have never tried it myself.  After trying it once(sort of) this challenge I decided I would try it again. Black Seas Box sets give you way too many brigs for normal use but that does give me a chance to be creative so I decided to do one a a Ghost ship in greyscale.  The ghost ship naturally isn't quite in fitting with the historically themed game of Black Seas but they have sea monsters so why not.

Naturally I couldn't resits giving my ghost ship a pirate scull and bones flag. It just had to be done, obviously, but please don't call her the Black Pearl. I think I shall christen her the Banshee in honor of my Irish ancestors. 

I decided to use the battle damaged sails I got as part of a painting contest prize over the summer. They seem to fit the look I think as going for. 

I am very pleased with how this my second effort at Greyscale came out hopefully others will like it as well. Brigs are worth 10 points and maybe an additional 3 for rigging and perhaps another 2 for sails and the flag. The room should add another 20 so 35 points in total. Mention was made the entries fitting the nautical theme might gain some additional bonus but I won't suggested how much extra that should be.

From GeorgeS - Sniper in the Moonlight - 30 points

       Wow! Never thought that this would take me so much time! This is my first ever try in greyscale , or to try painting something in the dark and thank you to give me that opportunity :) This guy took me a bit more than the normal colouring and the blending and layering was a bit tricky!

      So, here we have another Airfix 1:32 scale figure, from " British Paratroopers" set.

     The Sniper!

    I've painted this figure using the original colours ,as I would do with the normal figure but mixing all of them with heavy amounts of dark or light grey( sometimes black or white). I wanted to give the feeling of light from above by the moonlight. So a small idea of the original colour should be visible. 

   I don't know if that is well depicted in pictures. Hope you like him :)

     So , I believe this will take me out of the Chamber Of Darkness and I score 30 points for it.

 

 'Till next time

Keep Up The Brushes!!

From ByronM - The Chamber of Darkness (25 points)

 Today I venture into the chamber of darkness to explore painting in grey scale.  However, since this is supposed to be an actual challenge, and since I have already done hordes of zombies in greyscale in past challenges, I thought I should challenge myself in some other way...  yeah, I know, I am a glutton for punishment.  So, in addition to doing this figure in grey scale, I also did it with oil paints for the first time ever! 

I know, I know, oil paints on a 28mm miniature?  Madness you say, and you are not far off.  To be fair...

Sorry, I couldn't resist...  I love Letterkenny :-)

Anyway, to be fair, I have used oil paints in the past but only as super thinned down pin washes for vehicles, so using only oil paints on a figure is now to me (and maybe a new normal? more on that later). So, here is all I used when painting this figure....

I started by priming the figure black then a white zenithal highlight, and then mixed some black and white together to make a mid grey tone and applied it over the whole model.

After that it was simply putting dots of black or white where I wanted shadow or highlight and using a clean brush to blend it with the grey already in place.  It was an amazing experience, as it was so much easier to get smooth blends compared to acrylics where you need to wet blend with incredible speed to avoid drying or super thin layers.

While the images are ok, they really don't capture the tones of the model in real life, try as I might I just could not get them to show in images.  At first I thought it was due to the white background, but I tried black, blue, and green and they all did the same thing, so I think it's more about my lighting washing it out. Trust that in real life the tones are better than they show, sorry guys.

I even painted the clump of static grass with thinned oil paint as I only had coloured tufts.  You can not imagine how hard it is to paint static grass until you try it.... OMG, not my best idea, but at least it turned out ok.

I always take this challenge as an opportunity to try something new each year, either a new era, a new scale, a new painting technique or tool, just something new.  After all experimentation leads to learning and growth (even if the experiment fails you learn something, sometimes you even learn more!). This year the plan was a new era (coming soon) and playing with oils, and I have to say that so far, I loved the process of painting with oils so much that I will be trying a few more full colour oil painted figures over the course of the challenge, so watch for more to come.  

I am assuming that working with colours is going to complicate the process vastly compared to just black and white, but it's a new chance to learn.  Also due to the drying times involved, it is not something I would consider for everything, but for characters or special models or even just for effects, I think I may just have a new tool in the toolbox!

Oh, and this is a 28mm French Great War infantry model, I am sorry I do not remember the company though.  It might be a Renegade figure as it is pretty chunky.

Victim #11, I presume!

Grey-scale and oil paints? My word! I must say you've done a great job on this chap. So, 25 points for you.

Tamsin

From Dallas: "26mm" Foundry WW1 German in the Chambers of Darkness (45 points)

Greyscale... this is something I've never done before. I think I first became aware of the concept from an article in Wargames Illustrated, years ago. It was a convention report from Crisis I think, that included pics of an amazing 28mm "Nosferatu" game, with the models and terrain all done in greyscale. It looked amazing, but didn't really appeal to me for "everyday" painting or gaming - owing mainly to the need to use specific greyscale terrain as well!

Of course, many dedicated hobbyists paint entire projects in greyscale, including our own host Mr. Curt! So I decided to give it a try for the Chambers of Darkness room on level 1 of the Dungeon.

This, of course, is a "26mm" Dave Andrews sculpt from the old Foundry Great War range - "GW44 Sergeant pointing" to be exact. He painted up very quickly indeed but I have to say he hasn't instilled any burning desire in me to paint more greyscale models... however I will happily donate him as a Challenge prize to anyone who achieves their points goal and wants him. I figure there must be some of you out there who have greyscale Great War armies and maybe someone can use him :-)

Cheers and stay healthy! 
 

Edited by TamsinP on 08 March

Dallas has now updated this to be his Curtgeld entry as well, so that's 20 more points for him.

From SimonG: Braving the Chamber of Darkness -- Greyscale HYW Knight (30 points)

 For my next venture into the Chambers of Challenge I present a mounted 28mm Front Rank Miniatures Hundred Years War Knight. Specifically this is Sir William Clinton, 4th Baron Clinton of Marstoke who fought at Agincourt. I believe it could also be his son Sir John Clinton the 5th Baron who was captured and held for ransom by the French -- however as the style of barding and armour is older best assume it's the old Baron!

This was an interesting exercise in technique. I actually used two approaches. The barding is a more traditional approach, albeit using Citadel contrast Apothecary White as the base coat on top of a white undercoat. The horse and knight were all undercoated in black and then basically dry brushed up to this finish. The coat of arms is all hand painted (the Mission Crosses) or hand drawn in fine liner (the stars).

All in all I'm quote pleased with the result and it's surprising how quickly you can operate when you are not so fussy about colours! By my reckoning that's good for another 30 points -- 10 for the figure and 20 for the chamber.

From LeeH - The Chamber of Darkness - Greyscale Adventurer with Lamp

I knew when I read the description for this room, exactly what I wanted to do, but I didn't know if I could pull it off. I've never painted greyscale before but I really enjoyed working on this figure. I've also never tried to paint lighting effects before so this figure was a double challenge for me. I may do some more like this in future, I'm sure I could improve on the technique with a little practice. 

The figure is a Northstar plastic figure for Frostgrave that I prepped for last years Challenge but never got round to starting. Nine (eventful) months later and, seemingly in the blink of an eye, its back on my desk demanding to be painted. Once again I'm trying to make as many of the bonus round figures usable on the games table (as opposed to being display figures only) and have based this as per my Frostgrave theme. 

As for points scoring it ought to be straightforward but I understand the inclusion of the lighting effect means this isn't 100% greyscale. I'm happy to accept a points deduction if this is deemed outside the brief, I know I'm pushing my luck a bit here. 😉

(Scoring: 1x28mm Foot + CoC Bonus = 25 points)