From HerrRobert: Dastardly Daddies and Pistol Packin' Mamas (20 points)

Cornpone Junction is a dusty town bisected by the El Paso and Southwest Railroad, lured north from the dusty border crossing with Mexico by the allure of economic growth and wealth along the railroad line. Neatly bisected by the railroad in an old-fashioned arrangement, it's a dusty combination of Anglo wood-frames and Mexican adobe. And, naturally, home to all manner of desperate and dangerous creatures, most of them human.

Ma Baker, J. H. F. Mudd, Minnie the Moocher and the enigmatic Mr. Chen

Cornpone Junction is the Western setting for many of my Western games, mostly played using (heavily) modified Legends of the Old West ruleset, and I'm slowly building up my collection of figures. First up is Ma Baker, the grandmother and diabolical mastermind of the Hoss Posse (pronounced so it rhymes), a notorious collection of ne'er do wells infamous for bank robbing, mine rustling, kidnapping and wanton cattle murder. Ma Baker joins the ranks of the infamous Boss Hoss, Fancy Dan, Bat Masterson, and Gentle Nell.

"Freeze, I'm Ma Baker, put your hands in the air"

"Gimmie all your money"

Ma Baker is a 28mm Knuckleduster miniature from their Gunfighter's Ball line; she can be purchased either independently, as I did, or from their Pistol Packin' Mamas pack. 

My inspiration was the eponymous Boney M song Ma Baker, and the various Hollywood movies around Ma Barker, the supposed mastermind of the Barker Gang, though scholarship is quite mixed on her actual involvement and culpability in the gang's crimes. However, the various movie posters matched the figure almost exactly (just substituting the Thompson for a more prosaic double-barreled shotgun), so I based the paint scheme after one of the many movie posters of the time.

I think I did a pretty good job matching the purple dress, grey hair, and white apron. The dress was several thin coats of DecoArt Cranberry Wine, with a wash of Voluptus Pink contrast paint from Citadel.

Next up is Minnie the Moocher, another Knuckleduster figure available independently as a single figure. In the Gunfighter's Ball Universe, she's the head madam of Front Street. while in Cornpone Junction she's a less genteel and more nefarious character.

Paint scheme comes predominantly from the Gunfighter's Ball card, which I matched as closely as I could. The skirt and hat were fairly easy; it's the same paint mix as Ma Baker, but with a pinker coat between the two coats of Cranberry Wine. Her blouse was more involved, necessitating multiple different shades of pink before picking out the collar, cuffs, ruffled and buttons in white. It was finally all brought together with a light gray wash from GameColor.

She's also named from another song, this time Cab Calloway's Minnie the Moocher; though, with a derringer cheroot and her award-winning smile and personality, she doesn't need the King of Sweden to give her the things she's a needn. 

Though Roz from Monster's Inc might also be claimed as an inspiration.

Next is the enigmatic Mr. Chen, head of the Chinese Benevolent Association in Cornpone Junction. 

Many American cities and towns had Chinese brotherhoods, business associations and secret societies often known as Tongs set up to assist Chinese laborers, immigrants and residents across America. Traces of these smaller and more rural Chinatowns survive, especially in parts of California's Central and Sacramento Valleys.

Mr. Chen is a Great Escape Games miniature from their Tong set for Dead Man's Hand. Again, I stuck pretty closely to the box art for the faction. Black dry brushed with Delta Ceramcoat Pavement (lower robes) or Charcoal Gray (hat) formed the basic design, though the sleeves were painted in Reaper's Dark Elf skin triad. The central jerkin was Mondo Llama Whipped Honey, with Army Painter Soft Tone to take off the satin shine.

I was less satisfied with my choices for skin tone. I didn't have a good paint mix for Chinese skin tones the way I do for various Caucasian, African or Middle Eastern figures, so I had to whip something up on the fly. ChatGPT helped a little, but I'm not satisfied with the results. Since I have lots of Chinese and Japanese figures to paint up for various eras, I'll probably just buy the Foundry triad.

Last up is not a resident of Cornpone Junction. The rapskallion J. Harcourt Fenton Mudd is for my Darkest Africa scenarios. Much like his descendent in the 23rd Century, he is trader of ill repute who will buy, sell, trade, dabble or deal in virtually anything, though he's somehow become an erstwhile representative of Her Majesty the Queen, or so he claims. Though one's choice for consul in deepest Tangayika is quite slim, if he has any official standing beyond sheer presumpton, gumption and the largest whiskers in East Africa.

What wouldn't you buy from, or sell to, a man with a moustache larger than most Frenchmen?

Mudd is a Wargames Foundry figure from DA012 - A League of Exceptional Gentleman in their Darkest Africa line. I picked up a primed and based figure in a cheap figure bin easily fifteen years ago, though he was sitting in the primed to paint pile of shame for at least the last two Challenges.

I went with my usual British Army blue mix for the trousers, leather for the mid-calf boots, a Reaper or GameColor khaki for the helmet cover, and Whipped Honey again for the jacket. It was a fun mix to paint.

Figures were done on Sunday, when the first round of photos went very bad. Unlike my last submission, the black background resulted in blown photos, and the white background was horribly overexposed. After another long session with ChatGPT, I ended up building a riser for my painting studio, putting in a neutral grey foamcore background, and still not able to get a clean background deletion for that crisp black look. I'm not happy with the photos, but I just need to get these posted and on the board.

My photography booth

Scoring:

4 28mm foot figures @5 points per = 20 points

So I'm now 40% of my very modest goal, and ready to dive into some Villistas, and maybe score my first squirrel point.

 

------------------------------------

Sylvain: With your passionate description, your painted miniatures become alive before our eyes. And your paint job is fabulous, based on thorough pop-culture research. I especially like your basing, an evocation of the dry climate of Western country. Bravo

From HerrRobert: Quantity has a quality all its own (20 points)

The commander folded the paper with stiff fingers, aware that its phrasing allowed no appeal to weather, fuel, or enemy strength. Ahead, the forest line burned with intermittent muzzle flashes, and somewhere beyond it German guns waited patiently. The BA-20’s engine coughed into life, its tires biting into frozen mud. As the vehicle lurched forward, the commander understood that, not victory, not survival, but obedience, absolute and unquestioned is what mattered in the brutal winter of the Russian front.

My first entry for the 16th Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is a Soviet BA-20 armored car. It's a roughly 1/50 3D print I sourced off of ebay for a 1941 Chain of Command campaign several years ago. It sat in the primed pile of shame for years until The Cull warning approached, and I needed some quick points. So I picked it up, dusted it off, and got to work.

You can see a lot of the lines and layers of the 3d print in both the original and the photos, but I honestly think that works for Soviet vehicles in WW2.

For those of you wondering what a BA-20 is, Wikipedia provides a pretty decent summary, and several images of surviving BA-20s in various museums to use as inspiration. It's basically a Russian copy of a Ford truck, given a bit of armor and a 7.62mm machine gun. Since it was used in the Spanish Civil War, the Khalkin Gol incident in Mongolia, the Soviet invasion of Poland, the Winter War with Finland, and the summer and winter fighting of 1941/1942 against the Germans, I wanted a pretty universal color scheme for maximum versatility. Fortunately, I found a few good examples in the Wikipedia article to copy:

I think I did a reasonable job approximating the plain green:

Paint choices were pretty simple. Prime with Vallejo Russian Green, paint over the primer with Vallejo Russian Uniform, wash with Army Painter Quickshade Military Green and paint the tires. I used craft paints for those, first Mondo Llama Fresh Pavement (available from Target), and then dry brushed with Apple Barrel Pavement. The goal was to get as close to the worn look of rubber tires in actual service.

Comparing to real world examples - not too bad!

It was reasonably simple to put together. The only difficult part was getting the axels to fit into the chassis, since the slots to glue them in were narrower than the axel pieces. Fortunately, the axels are the same width as my very large file, so some elbow grease and a lot of unkind words eventually solved the problem. 

I admit to a slight bit of cheating on the photos. As many of you know, I've always been trying to get the pure black background Curt uses in his photos, and I think I have finally cracked it, by having Preview on my Mac remove the background, so the black of the blog shows through. It has worked on these photos, so we'll see how it works on more complex ones in future entries. 

Scoring:

• 1 28mm(ish) vehicle @20 points per = 20 points

So that's it! I'm on the board and 20% of my way to my goal, and I now have a BA-20 ready to zoom off and scout, or maybe just get blown up. Only the dice gods know.

 ===================

Sylvain: Remarkable vehicle and paint job. The amount of research you did to find that "perfect color" is impressive. Excellent travail!

From RobH (HerrRobert/RobertH): Señor Oliverios' Retainers (50 points)

Señor Oliveros crouched down in the scrub, waiting. El Borracho sat nearby, drinking straight from a green bottle with one hand, checking the cylinder of his revolver with the other. In all the years he'd known El Borracho, Oliverios had never seen the man without either whiskey or weapons to hand. His pet iguana, El Guapo, crouched on his shoulder. Men from his hacienda dotted the rough ground nearby, ready for the signal.

Señor Oliverios' Retainers

So begins my second entry into the 15th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Señor Teodoro Oliveros leads the men from around his hacienda to confront someone, be they the French, the Yankees, banditos, Villistas, Federales or perhaps even Spaniards or Cuban revolutionaries:

• Teodoro Guerra, Raúl Luna, Luis Aguirre and Loco Sanchez (remember him?) have armed themselves with machetes
• Martin Reyes carries a large scattergun or blunderbuss
• Octavio Montoya and Luciano Peña have muskets
• Javier Solis carries a repeating rifle, perhaps a Winchester
• El Borracho and El Guapo have a six gun

Señor Oliverios leads from the front

Eight of the ten figures (all but Solis and El Borracho) are Wargames Foundry figures from the Old West pack OW161 - Mexican Peons. I'd bought them years ago off ebay, and they'd been sitting cleaned, washed and ready to paint for at least two years now. After our last Legends of the Old West game of the exchange, they called out to paint.

El Borracho is a Reaper Chronoscape figure marketed as Lobo Sanchez, Bandito. My figure's package came with a smudged label which read more "Loco Sanchez." Since I already had Loco Sanchez, I needed a new name. Given that the figure is carrying a hefty bottle of something alcoholic, El Borracho, The Drunkard, seemed appropriate.

The figures weren't too bad to paint up, although the sandals and El Borracho's serape and inner thigh had some trouble spots, as did his hair and Señor Oliverios' cummerbund - the red kept bleeing onto his white shirt.

Three of the figures were painted to test a khaki color combination for the Spanish-American War: Delta Ceramcoat Terretorial Beige for shadow, Khaki for main, and then a wash down with Army Painter Soft Tone. It works for rough cloth, but is too dark for a khaki. I will probably try using a pale gray wash next time, and see if that is lighter.

Rear view of the party

The rest of the figures had the same white I did for Loco Sanchez as a prisoner in my previous entry. Señor Oliverios' pants and hat, along with El Borracho's hat and serape, were both done with Territorial Beige as main and Vallejo Cork Brown as a highlight, then washed down with Strong Tone. It makes for a good medium brown. I switched up my straw hat mixture, highlighting with Reaper Buckskin Pale after the Soft Tone wash, instead of before. It worked much better than doing the Soft Tone wash last, so I went back and touched up the prisoner's straw hat from my last entry.

Before and after capture, showing the touchup on the hat

I label all of my 19th Century colonial figures on the bases, with the yellow, green, blue, red or black of the label indicating skill. It's something I picked up playing a homebrew set of rules for gaming the Indian Wars in my teens/early twenties, and since I started basing my figures for that rule set, it has persisted. Figure names are written in with either white gel pen (0.3mm tip, brand new for the challenge) or 0.005mm artist marker.

The band from overhead, showing the labels

I'm a little more satisfied with the photos this go around. I got a slightly better camera app for my phone, which allows me to control the focus point, exposure and light balance better than the usual point and click of an iPhone. I also bought an attachment for my tripod, so I can use it with the phone. They're not as crisp as the black background photos Curt shoots, but they look better. I may switch to a white background though.

Springing the ambush on some French invaders (the French I bought at a con and need to rebase)

Scoring this entry is:

• 10 28mm foot figures @ 5 points per figure = 50 points.

That's also my first Squirrel Point, and 50 more points in the Colonials duel.

 

 

Sylvain: Not only are your miniatures very colorful, the characters you depict are also very colorful. I like how you add stories to your post,as it makes looking at your figurines a lot more interesting. I also find inspiring the way you coded your bases. All in all a great entry. Excellent work!

 

 

From Rob H (HerrRobert): The Border Exchange (5 points)

April 1898: The Trans-Pecos of Texas is a land of extremes, hot days, cold nights, desolate terrain, sparse population and barely suppressed lawlessness far from everywhere. American and Mexican garrisons soak in the beaching sun, attempting to maintain order as bandidos and Comanches cross the border as suits their own nefarious purposes. Those caught on the wrong, side of the border may yet still face what passed for justice in these parts - or be used as coin to trade for those caught on the other side. 

The prisoner waiting to be exchanged

So begins the setting for today's game of (heavily) modified Legends of the Old West. When I first began wargaming, about thirty years ago in the late 1990s, blogging was the province of self-created websites. Ian Croxhall's The Amazing Adventures of the Red Shadow was one of the sites I had bookmarked and routinely read through for new games featuring the Algerian Goumiere scout and the various misadventures of the French, Germans and Italians across the North African littoral. One of my favorite scenarios was The Red Shadow and the Salami Exchange, which featured the French and Italians attempting to exchange prisoners and the Mujahidine crash the party. Hilarity ensues, naturally.

Side profile, perhaps as a mug shot?

I've always wanted to adapt that to a setting that suits my collections, and the US/Mexico border was the best fit. However, the setting required an unarmed figure to serve as one of the prisoners being exchanged. Fortunately, I had just the figure, already mounted on the base and just needing primed, flocked and painted.

He's a 28mm Wargames Foundry figure from the Old West pack OW166 - Mexican Villagers (2nd from the right above), painted in about 2 hours Friday night after work. I went a bit lighter for his clothes, using Delta Ceramcoat Antique White and then Reaper Linen White, washed with grey and then rehighlighted. His straw hat was a Reaper triad (Chestnut Gold, Palomino Gold and Buckskin Pale), which I washed with Army Painter Soft Tone to bring out the details. He was the first figure I had painted since the last Challenge, and having caught Bargain Bob's Basement Bunker version of the various diseases circulating around California for Christmas and New Years, getting started painting anything was a real effort. It's not efficient by any means, but it was fun just working on a single figure.

I love how sullen his expression came out

Despite lint-rolling my photobooth to remove all stray flock and static grass and making sure my miniatures were well lit, the photos turned out rather disappointing, especially compared to shots from today's game. They have a yellow tone and colors are washed out, which does not usually happen when taking gaming photos using the exact same iPhone. The edge of the base in the photo above should be jet black, and so should his hair. Upon reflection, I suspect the problem may be that the black background and high lighting overwhelm the iPhone camera at standard settings and wash things out. 

F Troop, 7th Cavalry escorting the prisoner to the exchange on the bridge over the Rio Grande

For those interested in his fate, Loco Sanchez was duly handed over to the Mexicans, put in the prisoner wagon, and taken to the jail in El Paso del Norte. However, when negotiating the narrow streets, the wagon bucked dodging a small child. Gunfire from the Mexican garrison killed the wagon driver guarding the prisoner, probably by mistake. Sanchez jumped down from the wagon, made a run for it, and was then shot while attempting escape, bleeding out in a dark alley. 

He's making a run for it!

Life is cheap in the Trans-Pecos.

Scoring:

• 1 28mm foot figure @ 5 points per figure = 5 points

And 5 points on my side for the Colonials duel with DaveD! Yes, Mexico and the Old West counts as colonial, especially Mexico because of the Maximillian Adventure.

On the plus side, this is probably the earliest I've posted anything for the Challenge, so every modest bit helps. And we had a wild, freewheeling 6-player, 5-sided game, which is always good!

Sylvain: Great figurine! White clothes are always tricky to paint and you nailed it. The background story adds a lot of character to a humble model, he's not just a villager, he's "Loco Sanchez who was shot during a prisoner exchange". Thanks for the pictures of your game, it looks great with the scenery and people typical of the old Far West.

From HerrRobert - The ballistae cull a fearful toll [History] - 50 points

The library book sale is an annual event, held the first month after the annual opening of the Analogueville Public Library. Librarians silently and swiftly identify august tomes collecting dust and authors no longer in demand by Analogueville patrons and move them to the consignment sale. Warned of the impending fate of From Dura to Ctesiphon, stories of the Roman-Persian wars, a retelling for modern audiences was in order.

Although famous for the quality of their cavalry and (due to scurrilous and vile reputation smirching by the scholars of their enemies) infamy of their infantry, the Sassanid Empire also operated an artillery arm for siege and pitched battle work. Jauntily attired in brightly colored tunics, pants and especially fashionable domed hats, we see examples of three Sassanid ballistae, ready for action at Dura, or attacking any of the numerous fortified Roman cities in the Levant.

My first submission for Challenge XIV is three 15mm Sassanid ballistae and crews. All are from the Sassanid Bolt Shooters And Crew pack in Old Glory's Ancients Sassanid line, now sold by 19th Century Miniatures. 

These are the first 15mm miniatures I have painted in a very long time (almost a decade now), and are mounted on the standard WRG/DBA basing of 40mmx40mm for artillery. 

I tried something new, going for a zenithal prime (Krylon black, followed by Games Workshop Corax White). I'm pleased with the results, the zenithal giving a nice shade to some of the craft paints used for pants and hats. I also was able to get a nice mix of unbleached linen and wool, using either Reaper 09063 Ghost White for the grayish tones, and 09061 Linen White for the cream tones. I'd not been a fan of cream tones for white in the past, but it works well here, I think.

As you can see, my basing style for 15mm troops is much simpler and faster than 25mm, with just painting the base in Americana Mississippi Mud, and then dipping it in a flock mix. It works much better than thinned down white glue, as figures flocked two decades ago will attest. I also put triangular labels on the corners of 15mm bases, which really helps with telling what a given stand is. While artillery is pretty obvious, a lot of other DBA troop types can be very confusing. 

For those who wish to copy them, the labels are really easy to make. I just use a triangle shape in Powerpoint, and 6pt Calibri font. For my SYW troops, I'll use a fancier font. I used to make them in Illustrator, but honestly Powerpoint is a lot simpler now.

Sadly, neither DBA nor the standard Might of Arms list (my favorite Ancients to Medievals wargame rules) for Sassanids allow ballistae, so they may be destined to sit on the shelf and look pretty for a long while. 

Entering the library, I snuck past the collections desk and their pesky fines (what's this wanting their books back, on time, stuff!?) and made a beeline for History. Obviously, the Sassanid Persians are a sadly neglected (and colorful) period of history, but also a major piece of my personal wargaming history. My first forays into DBA twenty years ago (or more) with 2.0/2.2 were with a Sassanid Persian Army, and I've always been a fan of the Sassanids - especially those awesome hats. Sadly, the army has sat half-finished and neglected for a while now, but I am hoping to revive it as part of a general bringing my DBA armies up to 3.0 composition.

So why a full month for nine 15mm figures? Several reasons. COVID hit me hard for Christmas, and then I got seriously stuck on some 25mm Old West figures. They looked an easy paint job, but for some reason they sucked away all my painting mojo. I'd also noticed a hard time seeing the details, both on the ancients and the Old West figures. Missing and then seeing things was a real demoralizer. I'm scheduled for a cataract replacement in February, and hopefully that will make it a lot easier to see. Meanwhile, I'm going to switch gears to something more fun and hopefully that will get the mojo back. 

Add in the obligatory photo complaint, but I think I have figured out why they're so washed out. I also don't have near that many pieces of static grass and flock on my photo background, but the iPhone sees everything (especially mold lines I didn't see and thus didn't file off before priming).

Scoring:

• 9 15mm infantry figures @ 2 points per = 18 points
• 3 15mm artillery pieces @ 4 points per =  12 points
• History section of the Analogueville Public Library = 20 points
  

For a total of 50 points! 25% of my quota!

_______________________________________

First, welcome back to the Challenge, Robert! Sorry to hear about your peepers. I hope the coming month sets you up well. Still, there is nothing to apologize for with these figures as they look terrific. I especially like the arid basework. Well done!

- Curt

From HerrRobert - Cutting the Camel Budget [Under Construction] - 95 points

 

Warned yet again that the studio executives were meeting to discuss budgets, and rumors that cuts, redundancies and the like were all possible, I rushed to finish yet another under construction project.

With the prospect of a camel corps in the offing, headquarters desperately needed an expert in the ways, care and feeding of camels, and Major Docherty was their man! Along with his trusty batman, Corporal Millsy, the good major booked passage on a fast steamer for Cairo in Egypt. There, he could use his knowledge to ensure the forces of the Queen only received the finest, most biddable, highest quality camelflesh. He found himself dining alongside a passenger returning from Afghanistan, the good Doctor John Watson, late from the battlefields of Maiwand and Kandahar.

Drawing a hard bargain in the streets and souks of the Old Quarter of Cairo, our hero manages to acquire another five camels for the baggage train. Loaded with supplies, goods, chests, and old terracotta amphorae, only the final arrangements with the camel herders must be made, to ensure they make their way to the Nile. 

Escorting the beasts is a detachment of the 2nd Essex Regiment, commanded by the redoubtable Captain Henry Percy, Baronet. Having packed away his purple facings and donned a tunic of less fashionable but more practicable gray serge, the 2nd Essex is mustering to travel to lands south.

It has been a very busy and hectic December/January, what with work, California trying to drown us all, power outages and both plumbing and roof leaks, so I have not had the energy to paint much. Not getting in under the wire was a serious possibility. 

My first entry for Challenge XIII is my own take on the long-running Major Docherty and Corporal Millsy vignettes. I'd planned for this to be my capstone for Challenge XII, but circumstances intervened, and they sat the entire year on the painting bench. Major Docherty is The Professor from North Star's Steampunk line, with a natty dressing gown and fez. Dr. Watson is also from that line, the Medical Officer. Corporal Millsy is a Foundry figure from the Zulu Line that has been sitting in the lead pile for a good twenty years. The camel herders/merchants are MENA Civilians - Foxtrot from Spectre Miniatures. These five figures were complete except for grassing the bases, so I am not claiming any points for these.

The camels are Camel w/ Pack from Reaper Miniatures. While I do like Reaper miniatures and have painted several for the challenge, I'm not terribly thrilled with the material they use for their Bones line. The camels suffer from the usual problems many Bones miniatures do; the legs are thin, and so they bend. The camel miniatures thus sway, as you can see in the photos above. I painted them in Army Painter Skeleton Bone, then washed with Citadel Contrast Aggaros Dunes. To get a lot of variety from the same sculpt, I painted the baggage in different colors.  The camels and the cargo frame was prepped for Challenge XII, and I finished up all of the baggage since.

Captain H. Percy and his detachment are Perry Miniatures. Captain Percy, Sergeant Hoge and Drummer Fred Lamb are from SB4 British Infantry command advancing, while Privates Clovis Goslan and Chris Gibb are from SB7 Infantry advancing. They were originally a much darker gray, but that didn't really fit the descriptions of gray (or is it grey?) serge. So I repainted them using Reaper Miniatures stone triad over Delta Ceramicoat Charcoal and Hippo Gray. Unfortunately, they're washed out in the photos, but it's a nice gray otherwise.

Starting our tour at Under Construction

 

I'm not very happy with the photos, despite a new photo booth, but I was a bit rushed on the photographs, so just used my phone. They don't do the figures justice, the photos are too washed out, but it gets the point across. Photography of my miniatures has always left something to be desired, but hopefully they will improve.

Here's the score:

• 5 x 25mm mounted @ 5 points per (I don't think the baggage counts as a full rider, but won't argue if others do) = 25 points
• 5 x 25mm infantry @ 5 points per = 25 points
• Under Construction (Green Pass) studio bonus = 20 points
• Total = 70 points.

I'm also claiming two squirrel points, one for the camels (since they can be used for almost any period), and one for the infantry. 

Obligatory group overhead shot

 

On to High Adventure!

Great post, and just in time. Generally we give full points for pack animals, so that is 95 in total, and you made the final directors cut