From FrederickC - Strolling through the Stacks [Fantasy][Children's Books][Maritime][Local History][Statue of a Famous Person][Romance] (331 points)

 I spent this week wandering around the shelves at the Challenge Library, as well as rummaging through my boxes of figures, kits, etc. to find suitable projects to fit the requirements of the various sections. I was able to complete six in time for Monday's Musée des Fossile, including a few with items that go back close to half a century. I hope you enjoy my meanderings.

For the Fantasy section I painted a group of twenty-two 25mm Games Workshop Easterlings consisting of a captain, a banner, four spear and shield, eight sword and shield, and eight archers. These were in the queue for last year's challenge, but the clock ran out before I could get to them. The miniatures were second-hand that need some cleanup and repair to get them ready to paint. They got an overnight soak in rubbing alcohol (2-propanol), followed by a scrub with a stiff toothbrush to remove the previous paint job. Two of the archers had the upper half of their bows missing, and these were repaired with pieces of florist wire. They were painted using Vallejo acrylics, plus a wash of Citadel Seraphim Sepia on all the armour, shields, boots, and gloves. Finally I went in with some 'Old Gold' to highlight the raised areas of the armour and shields.

A Shadow in the East

Complete group of 22 Easterling Warriors

Command and Spears

Archers (Can you spot the repaired bows?)

Swordsmen

Our next stop is Children's Books with a Rabbit Stormtrooper from Archive Miniatures. It was sculpted in the late 1970s by Neville Stocken after he produced a line of unlicensed Star Wars miniatures shortly after the first movie came out. (More on this in a later submission. 😉) He modified many of his original sculpts and released them as 'Star Rovers'. The majority of the figures stand somewhere between 33mm and 35mm tall, not counting the bases.

Here comes the Easter Stormtrooper

Hopping down the lane.

All the other Stormtroopers

Think he is insane.

Hiding thermal detonators,

For little children to find,

Is a dangerous thing to do.

He must be out of his mind.

 

 

 Moving on to the second room at the Challenge Library, we come to the Maritime section. It made me wish I had bought some Thornycroft LCAs for my Bolt Action Canadians. While hunting through the 'bits and bobs' box for something appropriate, I came across a white plastic sailboat from the Reliable Toy Company. The mast and sail were long gone, but the rest of the boat had potential as a naval longboat. Some scratchbuilding was in order to fashion seats, oars, and a tiller out of popsicle sticks, round toothpicks, and the rounded ends of coffee stir sticks. For the paint scheme I copied a longboat that ferried me and my fellow grenadiers from the frigate Rose to the docks in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The longboat measures 15cm in length, which makes it approximately 1/56 scale. It would be suitable for some of the Royal Navy landing parties seen in other challengers' submissions.

Halifax celebrated its 250 anniversary in 1999

20-gun frigate Rose in the background

 

 

After assembly, but before painting

Beached on the shore

With oars deployed

Our second stop in this room is Local History. In this case, not a history of Winnipeg, but some figures for a game produced by two hometown designers, Jeremy (of Black Magic Craft) and his friend, JP (not the one in the challenge). The game is called 'Idols of Torment' in which Heaven and Hell have collapsed into each other, and different factions try to harvest the Lost that wander through this region.

 

 Our local group of gamers, the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts, got involved in playtesting the rules and providing Jeremy and JP with feedback and suggestions on the mechanics of the game. The figures I painted for this submission are a set of eight 40mm 3D resin prints of the Lost that were 'test of concept' of the final design. They are now available on sprues. My inspiration for the paint scheme I used was the look of the 'Army of the Dead' from the 'Lord of the Rings' movies. Starting with black primer, I gave the figures a drybrush of white using a soft brush, followed with a wash of Citadel Biel-Tan Green. I think it makes them look very ethereal.

 

 

 

We'll now wander along the back shelves for a Statue of a Famous Person. While searaching for something nautical, I came across a 54mm figure of an officer with raised binoculars. If I recall correctly, this was a miniature that came with a 1/32 scale plastic kit of the M50 Ontos that my father had built in the late 1960s. The figure was still in its original brown plastic, but it needed some repair to fix the large void in the middle of the back. I originally thought about making him George S. Patton, but with my last submission being a unit of French armour, I am calling  him General Leclerc  de Hauteclocque, who commanded the French 2nd Armoured Division in Northwest Europe in 1944-45.

 

Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque (22 November 1902 – 28 November 1947)

 

The last stop on our stroll today is the Romance section, for a love story between a princess and a pirate.

" Why you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder!”

 “Who's scruffy-looking?

- - - - - - - - - -

"I love you."

"I know."

 

The figures I painted are two old-school 25mm Star Wars miniatures of Han Solo and Leia Organa from West End Games. They were painted with Vallejo acrylics, with a wash of Citadel Reikland Fleshshade on the skin areas. In the background is a plastic model kit released by MPC for 'The Return of the Jedi' which is approximately 1/78 scale. A bit small for the figures, but it works well on the game table.

My Library progress thus far, with more stops in the queue already:

 

The points being claimed are as follows:

25 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points each = 125 points

 

1 x 28mm vehicle @ 20 points each = 20 points

 

8 x 40mm foot figures @ 7 points each = 56 points

 

1 x 54mm foot figure @ 10 points

 

6 x Library sections @ 20 points = 120 points

 

Just a quick note to all those who have left comments on my last two submissions, to which I have not replied. Early in the new year I fractured a bone in the little finger of my right hand. I have to wear a splint on it 24/7 until the bone knits back together. It has been a rather painful experience, especially in the first week of wearing the splint. It hasn't impacted my ability to paint as I am left-handed, but it certainly messed up my ability to type on a QWERTY keyboard. Typing my submissions is the best I can do for now.

Sylvain: Frederick, I feel exhausted running around the Library with you. So today you invented (unless I am proven wrong) the "Bonus Theme Point Bomb". I don't remember ever seen 120 points of bonus themes in one post.

You really bring us in many universes. I really enjoyed the bunny-trooper.

Should I hide in the basement next week dodging another point bomb?

Well done!!

From TeemuL: Middle-Earth extras [Limo] (55 points)

"As we all know, adventure movies don't really have a plot, or a beginning or an end, no theme, just lots of action and adventure to keep the audience busy and emotional. 'Wild Wandering Adventures of Murin and Drar during the time of Lord of the Rings' is exactly that, but of course there needs to be some kind of  a script and we have several! At least drafts. There will be flashbacks, so here we have an old dwarf king, there's Mardin with his huge spear and some more warriors for action scenes. There is also an Barrow-wight Lord, we know (and dwarfs know), that there are several treasures buried in Barrow-Downs and dwarfs love treasures. They have no problem with going underground, but they might be a bit scared of ghosts, but Murin and Drar will gather their courage and visit those treasure chambers. And yes, Easterling Shamaness for a sub-plot scene, let's see if she stays in the final production or not."

Five more dwarfs, but these are metal ones from Games Workshop, not plastic. I guess the regular warriors are from the initial release, when they had a very limited plastic support. As is noted in this same Challenge, for some reason they are wearing chainmails (2 out of 3 anyway), but none of the plastics are. Well, they were nice to paint anyway.

Then there is one Dwarf King, one of those to receive a ring from Sauron, I guess. There are four different sculpts and I painted three of them two Challenges ago, but now I have the full set painted. Kings don't wear the the green and blue like the regular warriors, they use much more colours. Actually there is no green on this king.

And then we have Mardin, bodyguard of Durin I, with a huge spear. Black eye patch marks him as a veteran. He wears green and blue. All dwarfs are Contrast jobs excluding the metallics. The chainmails are Black Templar Contrast and then light drybrush of Leadbelcher.

I guess that counts as a real skull, not just a bony face?

Barrow-wight Lord (Mithril M256) follows the paint scheme of GW Barrow-wights which I painted in 2016. Here he is flanked by two of those previously painted minis. He has less armour, so is not necessarily that interesting. The recipe for painting is similar to Dead of Dunharrow, paint in grey and blue wash. But these have green highlight. When I originally painted the GW wights, I thought that they looked better without the green, so painted the Dunharrow ghosts without the green. Now I'm not that sure. I like how these look. And these have real weapons, not ghost weapons, so much more colourful than ghosts. He is on 32mm mdf base and of course there are no specific rules for him in MESBG, but I can use him as a regular wight - as long as my opponent approves the bigger base. :)

Last but not least, Easterling Shamaness (Mithril M322), who doesn't look like anything like the Easterlings in the movies. Actually I made a small mistake, I thought she was a different model and painted in dirty and dark colours, but I guess that works for a shamaness. They don't usually wear bright uniforms. And no rules for her, of course. May be she could be used as a war priest...

I do hope that this Shamaness grants me a ride to World Cinema.

In total 7 28mm minis for 35 points and 1 Limo for 20 points, 55 in total. And then my first skull for Skull Duel.

______________________

Haha! I'm loving reading the production woes of 'Murin & Drar'. I really hope it all comes together and it makes it to the big screen, or at least to a streaming service.  :) While the GW dwarves are great (that spear is immense), my favourites are still these wonderful models from Mithril miniatures. The Barrow-wight Lord is excellent, and with your paint scheme, fits in nicely with the GW offerings. The Easterling Shamaness is very characterful as well, though I'm somewhat puzzled with her blue oven mitt right hand. She reminds me of Julia Child tentatively reaching out to a hot soufflé.  :P

Grand work, Teemu! Bring us more of these, please.

- Curt

From NoelW: The Red and the Black: Sander’s Sand Dunes: (550 points)

We climb these sandy sand dunes and gaze to the beyond.

Well, there’s the sea again. Hello, sea. Long time no sea.

Yes, we’re all getting a little sea-sick – sick of seeing the sea, that is, when we’re aiming to be at the top of that mountain that seems to recede even further every time we make a decision. Like my hairline. Or life. (Life! don't talk to me about life!)

From the top of these dunes, it’s hard to tell which sea we’re seeing. There’s certainly a sea of something milling around. Is it the Red Sea?

Or is it the Black Sea?

It’s neither, of course. We’ve found two more armies. What a surprise! Were you surprised? I was surprised.

Here they are battling away directly in our path, blocking the beach and any prospect of boat-based rescue or even a little sandcastular architecturing. If we try crossing that strand we’ll be trampled to death like ants under a pirouetting pachyderm. What we need is the unexpected arrival of interventionist aerial transport…

And lo! from above there descends upon us a melodious voice, lyrical as the sound of a karaoke angel: “Would you like to fly in my beautiful balloon? Way up in the sky, in my beautiful, my beautiful balloon?”*

Would we? Would we ever! All this sand is way too much for us delicate warriors - let's away out of here! Where are you heading, Lady Sarah? 

Rousell's Sandhill.

Oh. Great.

---

None of my planning for the Challenge involved any Lord of the Rings figures at all. However, I ambushed myself in a previous post by submitting some Minas Tirith Gondorians and so now I'm committed to working through as much of my backlog of LOTR figures as I can during this challenge. Like an idiot! (No thanks, I've already got one).

I'd been working hard on more Gondorians, but Sanders’ requirement for “red” was a good reason to work on the Easterlings, too. So here are both. This creates a long post, photo-heavy, so I've tried to keep the text down, and only included one photo per topic for most of them.

The main aim here was to get figures painted suitable for the tabletop - so artistic creativity is not much in evidence. The only figures I've given particular attention to are the Gondorian Citadel Guards and the two Easterling command figures.

Even so, the red and gold combination for the Easterlings is rather effective, I think. Essentially I undercoated them white, used Blood Angel red Contrast paint for all the cloth, painted the armour and shields black, varnished the lot, drybrushed the black with gold, gave all the gold a flesh wash (which makes it more bronze-like and dulls the shine) then highlighted some of the red with Foundry British Red Coat Light, and the “bronze” with touches of gold. A little more colour for weapons and quivers, and that was about it. Although a simple approach, I like the results, especially in the mass.

The archers:

Sword and shield:

Spear and shield:

And command:

The Gondorians more or less follow the GW colour scheme: black, white, silver; though I’ve kept the decoration of the specialist units relatively simple. The bulk of the troopers, hand weapon and spear:

Archers

Command figures and three crew to man a trebuchet (yet to be painted)

Citadel Guards

Guards of the Fountain Court

All in all, that's a tidy 104 figures. Almost certainly, that's going to be my biggest post of this Challenge.

*(A popular music reference to tease anyone who can remember the 60s.)

Scoring: I’m not sure if the two flags are scorable, as they’re integral to the figures. Otherwise: 104 x 28mm figs = 520; Sander’s Sand Dunes: 30 pts: Total 550 pts

I feel a little sick. This is a monster entry and some really nice work on these guys. Couple of point for flags as well Top effort that man, now please stop and take up chess