Wrapping it up for Lorenzo - AHPC14 - a great challenge!

Well back in December 2023 as I mulled over whether to join some online painting sessions I went and joined two at the same time, having never done these before. No regrets though. My painting capacity was stretched so that was a good thing and in more ways than I thought - I had assumed it would be just volume or rate. First up - the other event - Dave Stones "Paint what you've got" was meant for my existing paint queue. Well I managed just two lots - for 1848 - Pickelhaube Prussians and some Danish Volunteer Kepi Cavalry. I have been a bit naughty and slipped the Volunteer Cavalry into the "Final Collection picture". Its just a shameless plug for the the First Schlieswig Holstein War (which started on 24th March 1848). Hopefully Curt and my minion Sylvain will forgive me. Turning to Sylvain I must say a big thank you for his Musee des Fossilles backdrop to our Monday Crew. And I have really enjoyed discovering AHPC. Thanks to the Monday crew and all the comments people kindly left for me. The big story for my AHPC14 was I encountered the library challenge. This completely derailed my 1848 army painting plan. So the Lancers, Hussars, Cuirassiars, Dragoons, and more Artillery remained in the paint queue. In the event I managed..... 8 Danish Riflemen 8 Schlieswig Holstein Chassuers 12 Danish Guard Infantry 1 Danish Artillery piece I am happy with that, not to mention that at least another 5 units have now been started. Now back to the library challenge - this was fascinating - I got lost there. Which is at it should be. I then descended into fantasy courtesy of Doncaster Christmas Toy Fair. A venerable 1980's Games Workshop Cyclops was found hiding unloved at the back of one trade stand, who along with a Partizan freebie Empress Matilda 1140's era, made up my first non 1848 entries. Second up was a reconnaisance Spitfire from 1939 in "Camo Mint". A five quid snip at the same toy fair. I had then envisaged doing pink and then blue versions but I simply took too long on other entries that now demanded my attention. Suddenly Nissen Huts invaded my mind - apparently my first library trip was to one in a Nissen Hut. So this hut took a lot of time as it was built from scratch including the whole idea generation - Truly out of the blue: However it was the "more satisfying" for that creativity moment. Then another Partizan Freebie took my eye in the great figure heap - General Sikorski. He was duly painted up and some more DIY gave him a suitable plinth. Then it was back to 1848 with some Schlieswig Holstein Chasseurs. To complete the challenge I offered up a "figure bashed" sci fi character (magazine freebie ww2 german + bits and bobs) plus another toy fair bargain (1/32 ww2 soldier) who morphed into a cute monster - idea courtesy of the Wargaming Pastor. And last but not least was Noggin the Nog in 28mm from the little soldier company. Next here are some pictures.

As you can see a nice varied collection and Noggin the Nog sends his apologies but he is already gifted to my friend who suffers from dementia and was just delighted with him. It simply remains for me to thank everyone from Curt, organisers and minions right down to anyone who painted and presented - I really enjoyed this challenge both through my contribution and seeing what others created. thank you!

From LORENZO: Wladyslaw Eugeniusz Sikorski (25 points)

So I have finally got some items over the line.

First up is General Sikorski as he is best known. The General was Prime Minister in Exile of Poland during World War 2. He died in an unexplained (assumed technical failure) aircraft crash with his whole family when leaving Gibralter in 1943. This hero of Poland independence in the 20th Century was born in 1881 in what was the Austro Hungarain Empire (it having part of modern Poland), he joined the short lived Polish Legion of 1914 against the Empire before taking part in the Battle of Rarancza 1918 in the Polish Legions where the Polish victory against the Empire was then turned defeat at the hands of the Germans at the battle of Kaniow. Sikorksi lived to join the Polish Army of the Second Polish Republic from 1919 - he became the 9th Prime Minister of Poland in December 1922. Before that the Poles had to fight a war with the Soviets between 1918 and 1921 where Sikorski fought in the three battles. From 1939 after the German invasion of Poland Sikorski became the 29th Prime Minister of the Polish Government(in exile) as well as 3rd General Inspector of the Armed Forces. You can find out a lot more via Wikipedia. The figure I painted was a 2023 freebie issued at the "Other Partizan". You might wonder why General Sikorski appears amongst the likes of more famous Military characters in Partizan's annual giveaways?

Well that seems to be geographical. Partizan hold two excellent wargame shows every year at the Showground in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, UK. During World War 2 Newark along with Scotland saw a concentration of Polish forces training to fight in the war. Biggar and Upper Clydesdale Museum has a section on Polish Soldiers. In Newark there were many Polish Airforce Squadrons based nearby and hence there is an RAF cemetery in Newark. Also General Sikorski was buried here after his death in 1943 until 1993 when his remains were returned to his homeland.

I primed the figure with Vallejo White before a complete coat of MC100 Black Green and then black for boots and uniform markings plus white for uniform piping and markings. Flesh and Hair was MC018 Flat Flesh over painted with Citadel Contrast Colours Nazdreg Yellow.

I assumed I would simply base the General up and job done. Then I thought a square podium would be appropriate and then I found a wood cylinder in my bits and bobs collection (packing from some perfumes no less).

I painted this up in 3 craft paints - dark grey, dry brushed stone grey final dry brush light grey. Having given the cylinder a 2p piece plinth for the figure I decided to finish it all with a square base. And then I did not like it - something was missing. Grass! Another bits and bobs item came to mind - a lid from a candle box.

A short while later and covered in static grass (no I don't use it as it should be) and I had what I wanted. So these are a lot of words for one figure but this guy deserves to be my Famous Person. Points calculation 1x28mm figure = 5pts Famous Character from the library = 20pts 

Sylvain: A very interesting choice for a famous character. You get my seal of approval. And thank you for the interesting description, I will feel less ignorant when I go to bed tonight. I also like how you describe your painting process in your description, there is always something new to learn. Great submission!

 

 

 

From ChrisW: Queen Victoria and some Egyptian cultists [135 points]

 

Up first is Queen Victoria and two companions, Abdul Karim and Muhammad Bakhsh (or at least my version of the trio) Not certain where the Queen figure came from (she was a slot based figure?) and she is a little simple with very subtle details. She is panted in many shades and highlights of black, black/grey and grey, with the overall outcome that she looks uniformly to be dressed in black...😑

For her two companions I sadly did not have any figures in proper uniform so I painted the two in somewhat fanciful outfits. One is from Pulp Figures (green) and I think the other is from Statuesque miniatures. I tried to make her look pale because she always looks so pale in pictures, but I think she may be a bit too corpse like.

Eureka Egyptian cultists

The red cloaked cultist were the easiest to paint as the colour scheme came to me very quickly. However the 9 other cultist took some experimentation and some thought before I was able to get them done. 

The Acolytes

The Anubis level

The inner order of Horus

The Great Leader

 

That is it for this post, I may have one more left in me for this Saturday.

So the totals

•   15 points for 3x 28mm figures Queen Victoria and companions
  
• 100 points for 20x 28mm Egyptian cultists
  
•   20 points for Famous Person bonus

Total 135 points

 Squirrels this post +1

Squirrels to date [14]

1. Hammers Slammers
2. Ikwen alien infantry
3. Hanuman (Alien) vehicles 
4. New Swabian league armoured vehicles 
5. Rats
6. Scarabs 
7. Mercenary Sci-fi vehicle
8. NAC Sci-fi vehicles 
9. Foo dog statues
10. Terracotta warriors  
11. NSL Bikes
12. Generic sci fi vehicles
13. Civilian sci-fi vehicles 
14. Egyptian cultists 
    

Third post of the day for you Chris and a nifty change of pace with some Victorian peeps and cultists! I like the cultists too, they'll come in handy for everything from Pulp gaming to Indiana Jones or even fantasy. Great work on these.

135 big points for you!

Dallas

From TomL: Art is everything, 55 points

Leading us to the Art section of the library via the cart is Oberleutnant Heidi Reitsch - the last Bob Murch Pulp figure from the Dangerous Dames 2 set.

I purchased quite a few figures from Hasslefree Miniatures for no particular project but just to paint. Definitely a “shiny” moment.  The painter “Matthias de Brum” is one of those figures. He is painted to evoke psychedelic fashion choices of the 60’s, sourced at random from catalogues and other pictures.  Two Thin Coat and Foundry paint triads were used.

Unlike the actual talented artist who inspired this figure, I imagine my artist as a bit of a cad, a poser, over the top in style & dress, slapping paint on a canvas in a vague impressionistic style to gain favor with his beautiful models.  Ah how he suffers for his art...

His damp, artfully posed model joins us from the depths of the painting table where convention miniatures are left to complete.  This particular model is from Dark Sword miniatures who sponsored a flesh painting workshop.  It was partially completed but slipped back into the shadows of the lead mountain.  Retrieving her for the challenge I realized I couldn’t match the original flesh tones so a quick prime of white and I started over.  I need more practice with translucent flesh tone painting but I am happy enough with how she turned out.   

What?

Points for this entry would be: 55

3 28mm figures @ 5 = 15

Library Cart = 20

Art section = 20

On our way to the final room of the AHPC library we shall stop back at the Famous Person stacks.  There we will present our version of Lincoln The Debator.  The original of this statue resides in Taylor Park, Freeport, IL. It was erected in 1930 by sculptor Leonard Crunelle and scanned by a local historian for free download. My library allows local residents to order 3D prints for a nominal cost.  All jobs are set up and processed by staff which I figured would work out best as I have no experience with 3D printing.  Sadly our library printers are older and the file was of low resolution. I had some fun with the verdigris and moss effect paints though.  

Here is the acid rain etched and pitted post apocalyptic Lincoln statue in an abandoned empty park.  

I claim no points for the pit stop in Famous Persons.  

From Millsy: This is probably my favourite of your Library Cart entries so far Tom. I can almost hear Oberleutnant Heidi Reitsch insisting she be painted "like one of your Bob Murch girls". Really entertaining stuff and I particularly like the striped pants and blonde hair on your artist. Nice work mate!

From RayR: Famous Person/Statue - El Cid 25mm (35 points)

 

For this post I'm dipping my toes into Section 2 of the Challenge Library and landing on........

Famous Person: The plaque says it all.

I searched through my unloved leadpile to see what I could use for a statue and found a few suitable figures, but needed some kind of plinth. Then at Cavalier last Sunday I saw some for sale from Iron Gate Studios, a swift purchase was made! 

Irongate also sell a range of  very nice looking figures El Cid and the Reconquista. So another purchase was made, and the unloved figures from my pile of shame were put back in the box! 

If you're gonna paint of figures for the Reconquista, why not go straight to the man of the hour Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, himself!! Of course otherwise known as El Cid.

Iron Gate's version of El Cid

Not really sure on the points for this one?

Its definitely 20 Bonus points and 10 for 1 x 25mm mounted figure

then its whatever Teemu wants to give me for the plinth?

TeemuL: Excellent statue, Ray! I really like the patina effect you achieved on the statue. I agree your definitions on the points, they are definitely correct. I think I'll give you 5 points more for the plinth and the very nice effect (including the hand painted shield). I have been quite strict with bonus points this Challenge, so I have plenty of them left. :)

From PeterD Saint Germanus of Auxerre for Famous Person (60 points)

 

I missed a week last week, but caught up on some painting during my Uni's Winter Break.  My first post is of Saint Germanus of Auxerre which I am attempting to claim under the Famous Person Category.  There's a bit of ambiguity in the title here, with the Map indicating a Statue and the Library Catalogue just indicating a Famous Person.  However, Big Lee got his painted Patton under this category on the weekend, so I will use this and the ambiguity to claim my points. Also I happened to know that my minion is an archeologist whose speciality is Rome and I'm hoping for brownie points!

Who is Saint Germanus you ask and why is he famous?  He is a Bishop from Roman Gaul who came to Britain c 429 CE to defeat the Picts and Saxons at the Alleluia Battle, where the barbarians were so put of may the vocal chants of the Romano British that they figured that they were badly outnumbered and buggered off.  You can read his Bio here.  Germanus is one if the few named leaders from 5th century Britain whose existence can actually be verified since most of the names (Vortigern, Arthur, etc) seem pretty mythical.

I based my version on this lovely illustration from a recent Osprey offering.

The figures are from the Victrix Late Roman Armoured Cavalry kit, which is excellent.  I didn't have a cross so swapped in a Chi-Rho vexillum for Germanus to wave.  I never liked the jumping jack hold two weapons up pose, so gave him the shield carried by the infantry man in the foreground.  His body guard is a Roman Cavalry officer, who gets a proper helmet instead of his Smurf Hat Phrygian Cap.

Germanus' visit(s) to Britain came after the "withdrawal of the legions" in 407CE, but what happened afterword is very cloudy.  I plan on using him as a standard bearer or general for my Late Roman Defenders of Britain.

Points wise that 2 28mm cavalrymen @10 points =20 plus 20 for the Famous Person bonus for a total of 40 points.  I will claim the figure points under the legions Side Duel. 

Germanus of Auxerre! For many people perhaps not that famous a person, but you have definitely made my day, Peter. What an original choice, and very fitting for this section of the Library I should think. These are some lovely figures, and the brushwork is great. Germanus and his companion look more than ready to put the fear of God in some heathens! I am happy too that you decided to ditch the smurf hat, a helmet is so much more elegant. 40 points added to your total!

Martijn