From BartekR: From Devil's Reef...Deep One (7pts)

Hi all, like a few challengers, its been a bit of a slow start for me - travel around the globe (back home in Australia for a summery Xmas and new year, before returning back to a snowy Kyiv). It has been great to see what everyone has been posting (however FOMO inducing :-)

Belated season's best wishes.

First up (and scraping me over the cut-off line) is a modest bit of Lovecraftian badness, the large Deep One from the "Masters of Devil's Reef" set (Bob Murch as part of the Cthulhu28s range, now produced by North Star). Ironically, this set was part of my aspirational goals for Challenge XIII (which I didn't get to - as is the way).

Painting process was: black undercoat, white zenithal spray and dry brush before speed and contrast paints then multiple washes. In hindsight a lot of those were overkill. The end result is a bit too T-34 than 28mm figure at arms length to my eye, but broadly in keeping with Lovecraft's descriptions of these amphib nightmares. One thing I really wish I had gloss varnish or wet effects paints here - to amp up the dankness. 

Points claim: this is an oversized figure for 28mm, so claiming a total of 7pts (notionally as a 40mm mini). 

 

Plans for the rest of the challenge are a bunch of squirrels to start with: sample Warlord sprues from various issues of WI magazine and a dragon that came with an Army Painter paint set. Once I get my eye in with those I'll have a go at some of the 'away' pile of opportunity (built since last April). Warlord Epic Revolution is top of list, but there is a smattering of Blood Bowl teams, some Horus Heresy and Warhammer The Old World, and Pendraken 10mm British and Scots for the '45.

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Sylvain: Bartek, I'm glad you made it before the deadline, welcome to the Challenge! I understand that your travels keep you busy, but I hope you are also able to keep safe and stay warm. On to your work: your Deep One is beautifully ugly and lovingly creepy. Even without a glossy varnish, the pose, sculpt and texture suggest a slimy creature. You have achived with the eyes a very spooky effect. Excellent travail!

From Curt: Mar-a-Lago Militia - The Boggs (25 Points)

Hey Y'all,

I return to my ACWII project with these colourful denizens from the dark, dank swamps of south Florida. I give you the Bogg family. 

In my wondrous, fictitious, fantastical and terrifying 'Merica they they are part of the local Mara-a-Lago Militia, fiercely loyal to Father Dagon and 'The King in Orange' (Yellow being so very passe these days). 

The Boggs (distant cousins to their Yankee Innsmouth relations, the Marsh family) are a spiteful, vain, and oily clan. They revel in their own stupidity, are selfish, hate outsiders and rarely listen to reason.

Yes, they very much have 'the Mar-a-Lago look'.

Cyrus

Cletus

Ruffus

Festus

Jo Lean

These figures are Deep One Hybrids, 3d prints from KLT Studio. I had fun working with their flesh tones, giving them a fishy look about them, but in the end they sort of have a Simpson vibe going on, which makes me smile as I can easily envision an episode where he Boggs cause chaos amongst the good folk of Springfield. :)

The Boggs will give me 25 points and one point for the Squirrel Duel ('ACWII Red Forces'). 

Thanks for dropping in for a look!

- Curt 

PaulS: Mixed bag of... stuff (27 points)

Unlike past entries where I've done separate posts... this lot can all be lumped together as there aren't enough to justify separate posts.

First up we have an inquisitor, 3d printed from Ghamak on MyMiniFactory. I just loved the bulky, no nonsense look to this guy and wanted him to join my new Guard force (more of that in a later entry)

Next we have some Deep Ones from the Crippled God Patreon (which is where the earlier cultists also came from), which should give my cultists some nice support when the 7TV mythos expansion comes out. I had to scale these down to as the original print size was about as tall as an ogre, which was pretty imposing, but not quite what I wanted. I'll have to see what is in the 7TV set as I'd like to have a larger one to accompany these

Lastly is a golem from the Smog board game. Smog is a steampunk world full of all sorts of weird and wonderful figures. There are others in the painting queue, but other projects are blocking their path to the table just yet... He's a beast of a model, standing about the same height as the ogre from the last post

So that is 4 28mm models (20 points) and the giant golem that I'm going to count as a larger thing at 7 points for a total of 27.

Two entries in a day? Lovely stuff. And this is a great mixed bag of it.

27 points it is.

Tamsin

From Curt: Deep One Rising (Warning: Yule Be Afraid!) - Entering by the Aquifer (25 Points)

I've decided to be crafty and enter the Chambers of Challenge via the Aquifer.

I could think of no better way to infiltrate this cold, watery portal than by using a creature accustomed to its inky depths, a beast not easily unsettled by unknown horrors, in fact a creature that is probably more frightening than most things it will encounter.

Behold!! Something rises from the deep! The water breaks and we see the Herald of Father Dagon, the Protector of Mother Hydra, the Great Deep One of Y'ha-nthlei !

This is a fun resin piece from the Strange Aeons range over at Uncle Mike's Miniatures. It's the companion to the full sized model which I did a few Challenges ago. These are such great figures with loads of character.

Just for a sense of scale, here's a shot of them with their Innsmouth relations. Yeah, not really a bunch of lookers, but they are very loyal, just not fond of strangers. 

The submerged Deep One is roughly the size of a 28mm figure, so I'll go with that for scoring. With the Aquifer location bonus this should give me 25 more points to add to my modest tally.

Thanks for dropping in folks!

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Next Stop: The Chamber of Darkness!

From JuanM - 'Spain Rules the Waves!' Conquistadores, Piranha Boy, Zombie and Pulp Adventurer (35 Points)

Hello!

Here is my third entry for "The Challenge". Step by step, at the moment, I´m winning my little "Side Challenge" with Phil so Spain is ruling the waves this time, at the moment...

Well, here are the figures I have painted:

First one, my entrance fee to "The Challenge". Last year, I left it for the last moment and then I forget all about this figure, so this year I have painted it in the first month. So here is my antihero, a 28mm English Sea Dog from Foundry Miniatures.

In Spain, these English adventurers have been, from ever, no more than pure pirates and opportunist smugglers but they were also very brave men, the builders of the British Empire. I´m not going to call them patriots (nor Drake, IMHO, was a patriot) but they were true Englishmen as our "Conquistadores" were true Spaniards.

So here is my rogue or person of dubious character.

2.- A 28mm (well, a very short 28mm) Piranha Boy from Four A Miniatures. A very nice model, really easy to paint I expect to use in some games of "Pulp Alley" I have planned for 2015.

3.- Another 28mm (this one, a tall 28mm one) figure from Four A Miniatures, Otis. One of their fantastic zombies I expect to use, too, in my "Pulp Alley" games. My wife says his skin is too healthy for a zombie and I, secretly, agree with her, but I wanted to test the Flesh pack of paints from AK Interactive and was unable to greenish it.

So he is a very healthy zombie...

4.- Another 28mm sailor from Pulp Figures. This one, armed with a rifle to be able to argument with the bellicose natives of Bolo Bolo Island. Another wonderful figure without castings problems and very easy to paint. A pleasure.

And this is all until the next year. In the end, I´m painting more Pulp figures than those I had planned, but I´m enjoying them a lot.

Cheers and a Happy New Year (with Spain ruling the waves, Phil...).

From Curt:  

All four of these figures are fantastic Juan. Thank you very much for the superb Conquistador Elizabethan gentleman.   Without the beard I think he may even look like Phil. Even though the 'healthy' zombie and the pulp adventurer are both excellent I must say I'm strangely drawn by Piranha Boy. 'Nice teeth junior, make sure you floss everyday!'  Yeesh. I'll have to get one of these little guys for my Deep One family...