From KeithS: Non-human Missile Troops (98 points)

A week of work travel, followed by a very fun week at Garycon in Lake Geneva WI, really cut into my painting time at the end.  However, I did eke out two last projects to cap things off.  First up is a trio of Bakshi-style Orc archers from Heritage I picked up on eBay a few weeks ago.  I've painted plenty of these ones before, but one can never have too many.

I painted them the same as previous chaps so they'd blend in seamlessly back at the Orc Hovel.  They even got the same orange wyvern design for their shields.

They're old and perhaps not the most stylish of figures, but I still have a great fondness for them.  In fact, I'd say they're probably my favorite monster.

These are followed up with a force of 16 Dwarf crossbow (14 pictured here).  They're by Ral Partha and quite nice.  They are intended to be heavy archers for use with a larger Dwarf army the next time I get a chance to play Chainmail.

For no particular reason, I decided they'd get painted as Zouaves, which makes them perhaps a bit brighter colored than the average Dwarf.  But, what the heck.

The detail is nice on them and RP definitely did a good job with them.

 Another angle.

When I started to actually paint them, I quickly realized that two of them were not like the others.  They're still Ral Partha, and very similar, but there are some differences.

 The helms are far more pointed than the other group, and their other kit is a little bit different, as well

They're also excellent figures.  I think I'll just call them platoon leaders or some such, as they might be a touch fancier than the rest of the lot.

So, that wraps up this Challenge for me.  It's been a pleasure and great motivator, as always.  Thanks to Curt and Minion Michael for a great time!


I count 19 25mm chaps for a total of 95 points.

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p.s.  While at Garycon last weekend, I played two outstanding miniatures games run by the inestimable Kevin Cabai.  The first was "Beren and Luthien: Escape from Angband" from The Silmarillion. I played on the side of Morgoth and had command of two large Orcish regiments. Also on our side was a force of Trolls, wolfriders, and Carcaroth the great wolf of Angband.  Our goal was to find the Silmaril stolen by Beren and Luthien, and defeat the forces of King Thingol and his Dwarf allies.

It was quite the spectacle.  Sadly, my Orcs were crushed by Elves and Dwarves quite handily. However, Carcaroth managed to slay Beren and Luthien, among others.  And, worse, it turns out that player had his own, personal secret victory conditions which he met.  He ended up with a total victory, while the forces of Angband were annihilated. A bloody mess, made worse by the fact my brother was playing the wolf!

 The other game was Orc's Drift, a fantasy riff on the cinematic version of the battle from the movie Zulu.  I was on the British side, in command of the Boer Ardendorf and a section of riflemen.  24 British figure against 200 Orcs.

Dropping Orcs at range with a Martini-Henry seems fun, but they just keep coming!

We had multiple lines of defense, which we certainly needed!

At the end, we were overrun.  But, unlike the movie, when we fell back into our final redoubt, the Orcs managed to kill a third of the remaining Brits in one fell swoop, and we were at last destroyed.  Sad, but I did get a Victoria Cross (posthumous) for the gallantry of Ardendorf at the end.

Good times!

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From Curt: 
Awesome Old School work Keith! These venerable Heritage castings are terrific and completely remind me of Ralph Bakshi's '78 rotoscoped Orcs. I also really like the hand-painted wyvern shield device you've given them - very cool. Same goes for the Ral Partha Dwarves, very much of a time and style, whimsical and perhaps a bit naive.

Those games at Garycon looked brilliant, especially the 'Escape from Angband' scenario. Mr Cabai was definitely tapping into some hardcore JRRT nostalgia with that game.

98 points, including a few more for the shields, for your last post this year. It's been great having you with us again this edition and I hope to see you name on the roster next time we roll out.
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From KeithS: Another hodge-podge (160 points)

Well, time for the latest pile of miscellaneous stuff I want to finish off!

First up is a Treant from Otherworld.  This is a big guy at around 95mm tall - almost a decimeter for you metrical people!  It's a great figure, though perhaps too big for use with most of my 25mm chaps.  But, it's a gorgeous sculpt, as is usually the case with Otherworld.

He's got a very serious face.  No happy-go-lucky Treebeard type guy, this one.

I like the details Otherworld included, such as the mushrooms growing on him and what not.  They give him a lot of character.

He does seem a bit grabby.

Next up are a pair of newer Displacer Beasts from Wizkids (their Nolzur's Marvelous Unpainted Minis line).  They're also somewhat larger than I prefer -- I bought them to compare scales and see if I could use some of their stuff to supplement my old school collection.  They'll get used, as the sculpts are quite nice.

This is an oldie, a Carrion Crawler from Grenadier (I think).  I've had this one since around 1981.  I recently stripped it as the old paint was sorely battered.  Nothing special, but lots of nostalgia for me.

Here's trio of random guys.  The left is a Reaper Bones; the middle is old school Ral Partha the right guy is...not sure what he is, but an oldie to be sure.

Flip side.  The Bones are too big for my usual tastes but, with monsters, having an off-scale isn't the end of the world.

Up next, a pair of pack horses from Reaper Bones (I think).  Nothing special, but they will get use as part of a pack train in a game of Chainmail.

Going firmly back to my beloved Old School now, we have three Goblin Warg Riders from Heritage.  They're all the same sculpt, though that's OK as I have a larger force of Heritage and other Warg riders that they'll blend into.

 Another angle.  The Wargs are a bit lighter color than most of my other ones, but I kind of like the variation.

Continuing with a theme of non-human cavalry (to go with the above and my dwarf-bear cavalry of last week) is a force of six goblins mounted on spiders.  These are from Ral Partha's recent Kickstarter.  Definitely a force of low-riders.

There were three sculpts for each rider, two spear, two sword, and two with darts.  They were a pain to glue on as they don't easily sit atop those spiders.

Goblins with scimitars.  It's their thing.

Last up is another Heritage model from days gone by, this one a Troll.  I've had it for a little while and finally got to him.  It, too, is from their Lord of the Rings line of figures.  I gave him a goblin/orc style green-brown skin tone

From the back.  Perhaps not the most elaborate sculpt of all time, but then again not bad for the late 70s.  He'll see some use one of these days, I hope!

That's it for the week.  Alas, I have work travel coming up, plus a much-anticipated trip to Garycon in Lake Geneva WI to follow it, so my painting will drop off precipitously.  Hopefully I'll get some free time right at the end to push out a final point bomb!

Pointwise, a confusing group.  I'll throw this out and let the wise judges make the final call:

Treant (95mm) - 15 points?

Displacer Beasts x2 (40mm) - 14 points

Carrion Crawler (60mm) - 5 points (10 makes no sense for that simple guy!)

Serpent Guy (45mm) - 7 points

Cockatrice+Ogre - 10 points

Horses x2 (25mm) - 10 points

Warg Cavalry x3 (25mm) - 30 points

Spider Cavalry x6 (technically all 25mm but the Goblins are pretty small so 5 for mounts and 4 for riders?) - 54 points

Troll (40mm) - 7 points

That would be a total of 152 points and will easily put me over my goal for the Challenge!

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What an amazing post Keith, chocked full of monsters and fantasy goodness - absolutely tremendous.  You seem to have a knack for unearthing wonderfully nostalgic miniatures that are then lovingly painted, splendid work Sir.  As for the points, I am going to concur with your guidelines apart from the cavalry units, they can be a full 10 points for each.  I am going to count the Treant as two 40mm beasts and add in a few bonus points to round the entry off to 160 in total.  Bravo Sir and a jolly well done for reaching, and surpassing, your target score. 

From KeithS: More 25mm Fantasy (192 points)

As the challenge enters approaches its final month, I find myself thinking, "holy smokes - I need to get moving!"  Thus, I've started to paint all sorts of things in the little free time I seem to ever have.  This lot is a perfect example of that.  The first big batch is 24 various figures, all 25mm, in a variety of styles and from a bunch of different manufacturers.  Some came from eBay, some from grab bags at cons, and so on.  All of these guys got dungeon basing.

The first five are Heritage Kriegspielers Fantasy figures and are, oddly enough, knock-off Lord of the Rings figures from days gone by.  These guys are "Men of Ruin" (AKA Men of Rhun), though I think they look like over-sized gnomes or something.  They are cool, in any case, with their big conical helms.  Lots of personality.

Although all have similar axes, several of them have bows in cases.  I'm not sure why, but I really like these guys.  I painted them in standard attire though I'm not sure what they'll get used for.

These two guys are, I believe, from Minifigs.  They are not terribly exciting-looking Russians or Cossacks.  The detail is lacking in them, but whatever.  I tried doing an onion dome shield for the one guy..it turned out OK (at best).

These two are elves from Ral Partha.  Not sure how they got in the mix, but they are good quality sculpts, with interesting detail.  I always was a Ral Partha fan and that is reinforced every time I paint their stuff.

A larger group of men-at-arms.  They are fairly standard guardsmen types.  I'm not sure of the manufacturer(s).  The middle-ish guy with huge shield - he ended up with one probably too big for him.  I think it might be for 28mm guys!

From the back.  For some reason, the yellow-brown and blue color scheme really appeals to me.  As for the guy on the right, no pants and no shoes seems a bit of an odd fashion choice, but hey, who am I to judge.

There were three knights in the mix.  Each got a shield to paint...I like the left-most and hate the right-most.  However, I was too lazy to redo it.

From a different angle.  Why the middle guy has both a sword and a spear is beyond me.

These two guys really caught my attention.  They reminded me of something you might expect from a Conan story.  I'd love to find more of them and try some variations.

A mixed bag here.  The dwarf in the middle had two very open hands and didn't seem to be meant to be holding anything.  That seemed odd so I gave him an extra axe and shield I had lying about.  The wizard is Ral Partha, I believe, and the archer on the right screams Minifigs.

Another angle.  For the shield on the right guy, I tried to more or less match the previous knight - maybe he's a page or his huntsman.

The next batch is a group of seven dwarves mounted on bears.  This is my dwarf heavy cavalry for use with Chainmail.  They're from Ral Partha and I absolutely love them!

There are two style of riders, one in plate with an axe and one in chain with a polearm.  All were supposed to get shields, but they did not quite fit right on the platemail guys so I ended up painting them but not gluing them on.

The bears are also heavily armored and I love their scowls.

They are well-detailed figures and I will probably buy another batch one of these days.  They will definitely see some action in a future game!

That's all for this week.  38 figures for 190 points.  That puts me right on track for my goal of 1500, even with some work travel looming.  Considering how busy real life has been, I'm quite pleased.  However, maybe next year I can shoot for 2000.  We shall see.

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Wow Keith!  What a post, you really have got cracking on the lead pile this week.  Amazing miniatures with bags of character, but those bears have to be my favourites - wonderful stuff!  I am going to add a couple of bonus points for the hand painted shield designs taking your tally for this week to 192 points.  

From KeithS: Ral Partha spellcasters (75 points)

This week it's more 25mm goodness from Ral Partha.  These are also from their most recent Kickstarter and are a group of 15 spellcasters of varying types.  I decided to base them for use in my (hopefully) upcoming games of Chainmail later this year; thus, all got the outdoor look.  Here's the group:

For convenience, here's a close-up of the lads first.  They're an eclectic mix.  Several of the figures are the same as ones I painted a few years ago.  In hindsight, I should've matched the paint scheme so I could use them in a D&D game both in a dungeon and on the battlefield.  The sword the guy in the foreground has is...a little big?

The first group of females.  They are a bit of a mix between what I would call tribal spellcasters, witches, and more typical sorceress's.

Three more females.  They seem to not dress sensibly for battle, but I guess I never had any sense of style, so who am I to say.

The last one was the Kickstarter's star, The Vampire Queen.  It's a nice figure, though the sword seems a bit huge to me, but what are you gonna do.  Her fangs are hard to see, but they are there!

15 figures at 25mm for 75 points.  I have an even larger batch mostly done, but I'm not sure if I can squeak it under the deadline!  We shall see.

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These a smashing Keith and what a great variety of poses and styles - a witch for all seasons! Cracking work Sir and a well deserved 75 points to your tally.