From RhysH - The Fellowship and a dinosaur (55 points)

This week Rhys has the Fellowship of the Ring in plastic from GW and a resin dinosaur from a new game that one of our local Colorado guys is developing.

All nine of them. I think this is some of Rhys' best work.

Aragorn, one of Rhys' favorites. 

Rhys loves this guy in a all of his forms. He's really good in game, as he should be.

The other four big folks.

I think Rhys nailed the shield on Boromir. I like his better than the one I painted.

The four hobbits. Rhys likes Pippin the best, perhaps because he can be taken in Minas Tirith but it's hard to say.

Rhys has wanted the Fellowship for a long time so getting these painted is a definite mile-stone for him.

Next up is a resin dinosaur from a game under development here in Colorado by Joseph Ritzer. He's had quite a few different creatures sculpted and cast in resin and is demoing it at local gaming conventions. I looked for a page for the game but he doesn't appear to have it up yet. Rhys was not really a dinosaur kid but he liked the game and loved the models, and Joseph is a genuinely nice guy. 

Swampy base and dirty dino.

As you can see these are nice, clean casts with good detail. 

I think I'll try to get Rhys to work with washes next. He takes advice better from our friends but we'll see how it goes.

I with I'd gotten a side-by-side with the Fellowship, but Rhys whisked the dino off to his room as soon as it was painted. It's the size of a 28mm monster so that's how we'll score it.

That's 9x28mm Fellowship = 45 points

1 x 28mm Monster = 10 points

***

Great work Rhys - your wok on the Fellowship really highlights the progress you continue to make in your painting, and there are some fine results here. Even better, surely, is that feeling of having completed one of those "oh, I have always wanted to get this!" sort of projects, such as the Fellowship from the "Lord of the Rings." I paint a lot - I love it, after all - but when you get one of those sort of projects finished, there is an extra charge, providing further motivation to keep painting, and just a nice little jolt when you see the models on a shelf - or, even better, a game!

That dinosaur is a large one, for sure - I hope things come together for your friend's efforts to develop a game!

That will by 45 points for you Rhys!

Greg

From JOHN B: ABYSS VIOLENCE: Oi their ours! (75pts)

Some more progress this week sees the culmination of AHPC14 (the idea of spaceships was born and the parts gathered in time to miss the 2023/24 painting window!!!) and AHPC15 actual homebuilds and more miscreants - of the small peoples this time round. It goes something like this...........the Surf Raiders scooted along the beach.

Suddenly they spotted some objects in the sands - LOOT!

Having landed Unbeknownst to them as they scoured the site for said LOOT they were not alone.

The Customs Militia Patrol Unit 404 (geddit!) skimmed the beach hunting for the miscreants better known as Surf Raiders. Finally they catch them.......

Caught red handed.

The Surf Raiders have no idea.........

Then out of the blue (actually - weird sunset) A Deep Mountain Bounty Unit appears - "Oi their ours" declare the DBM Unit.

There is a mutual stand off untill the Customs team agree to take the Bounty guys and the Surf Raiders to the local "Pen" for processing.

The Surf Raiders safely locked up in 404 the enforcement officials and bounty hunters pose for a "success shot".

It appears the Surf Raiders (from AHPC14) had not paid their dues on some dodgey acquisitions whilst having a price on their heads for various thefts. So ends the AHPC15 space adventures. Thats it for SciFi this year Folks! Over to the details. The Space vessel was conceived back during AHPC14! while this years figures have been acquired from magazine covers. One big blue space vehicle - a "Divoc" class unit for patrolling the extensive shorelines of Eraweb - an earthly planet orbiting the giant K2-18b (see the backdrop + see my previous spaceship post).

Needless to say, like the red vessel previously featured, this one started life as a milk bottle until covid spares and some transparent chocolate packaging joined up. Undercarriage are ubiquitous wooden clothes pegs. Lots of Blue Craft quality acrylics in various shades plus window wash of Citadel Nazdreg Contrast Colour.

The Customs Militia are a freebie of hobbits from Miniature Wargames while I think the Dwarves were free with Wargames Illustrated. I opted for bright clothing on the hobbits and used a mix of traditional and contrast painting. I had a bad moment with my current waterbased matt varnish. But then discovered Warhammer stock brush on water based varnish. So they got a coat of that. Still not happy though. I left the dwarves unvarnished and will need to investigate my varnish options again. With the Dwarves painting wise it was a wash of one of my many brown contrasts but diluted over a vallejo yellow ochre, then various odd mixes of which the pinky version I quite like but have no idea how I created it - hilarious. Basing are 1p UK coins with a 20 year batch of GW desert stones dressing. One last shot of the two freebie sets and the homebuilt space patrol vessel!

So although they are all squat they are technically 28mm scale.  Points tally is therefore:

Customs Divoc Class ship = 20pts 

Customs Militia = 4 x 5pts = 20pts 

Deep Mountain Bounty Hunters = 3 x 5pts = 15pts 

Lots of potential violence here - one careless trigger and its a three way blast! ABYSS Violence = 20pts Grand Total = 20+20+15+20pts = 75pts.  

 And still no steamy angles...... sorry Martijn.

I think we can forgive you the lack of steam power, John. These vessels are once again fabulous! I love your creativity in creating great models from "waste". It's been great to see your contributions throughout the Challenge, and I'll give you some scratch-building bonus points to bring you up to 80 points for this post. I hope we will perhaps see even more in the final week!

Martijn

From JP: Early Germans - big on Wrath and Violence! Abetted by stout lady hobbits... (100 points)

My Foundry Early Germans continue to fill my thoughts and my painting table and brought out an intensive effort this week. I suspect that by the end of the exercise I will have way more figs than I can use or need...  These are more of the character figures supplemented by war hounds to keep them company. It includes a foray into striped trousers, which I rarely try, but I had better get used to as Gauls will be the next project...

As I am running out of time , I dug into my trunk of unpainted figures and came up with this adventuring party of female hobbits, who should be enough to frighten off any troll... sadly, I can no longer recall the manufacturer. The firm started off in Germany and moved to Montreal. I bought a lovely 100 Years War Hobbit army from them and these were extra figures. They will get me into Violence and Wrath for my Teutonic Thunderers.

So, my tally is :

    6 x Germanic Warriors 25mm        30 points

    4 x War Dogs 25 mm                      10 points    (I have counted each as half a fig)

    4 Adventuring hobbit ladies           20 points

    Violence                                          20 points

    Wrath                                              20 points

    Total:                                             100 points

As ever, thank you for looking!         

  

Another great entry, JP! I absolutely love your meticulous painting and your choice of colours. The Germans are great, the striped trousers are very nicely done indeed and the complete base looks interesting and varied. A great addition to your army. The hobbits are little gems too, they sure are fantastic little models and another fabulous paint job. 100 points it is, then!

Martijn