From TeemuL: 7th Cavalry and old Elementals (35 points)

I had a quite nice week last week, I was healthy, I was not travelling and other hobbies didn't take all the time. So I managed to complete quite a lot of minis, these were supposed to be published on Sunday, but I didn't have time to write the texts.

Here's a group of 7th Cavalry, Black Sheep Miniatures from Warbases. Nice metal minis, varied poses, equipment and clothes, good for skirmish games in Old West. I guess some mounted minis would be nice to have, too, especially for Cavalry.

I painted them following the marketing photos and I'm rather happy with them. Trousers could be lighter blue and jackets darker blue, but there's a difference and they look quite nice - at least when there are no comparisons. I based them like my other Old West minis and dusted the boots and trousers a little bit. I like the yellow scarfs, they are not too bright.

Then something from the previously mentioned second hand bargain box I bought earlier this year and painted the Black Drake from earlier in the Challenge. These are Earth and Fire Elementals from Games Workshop, 1984.

Solid metal minis of course from that era, they even have 25mm round metal bases built in, so I didn't glue any additional bases on them. All in one piece, I like it! C34 is the code for them, stamped on the base and introduced in GW's Spring 1985 Journal.

So the left one is Earth Elemental and is very stony. May be some green moss would have made a nice detail, but I went with a simple approach. But to make it a bit more interesting, I tried to paint "supernatural" eyes to him, glowing blue... The eyes look ok, but I'm not sure do they look glowing. :)

The right one is Fire Elemental. The fiery part worked ok, but the elemental itself is a bit bland? I had a plan to paint him bright white and reflect some of the fire, but white is such a difficult to paint. From the side you can see the lizardy eyes I painted, and it/he/she looks much better from the side or back than from the front.

That's 7 28mm minis in total for 35 points. I have something for the paradise coming up and if I manage to paint something more, I'll combine them all on the final post on Wednesday.

From Millsy:

Lovely brushwork Teemu! I really like the way you have highlighted the face on the Earth Elemental and the blending on the flames/smoke on the Fire Elemental is amazing.

For me the pick of the post is the US Cavalry even so. The blue you have chosen with really pop on the table and the desert themed basing really looks the part.

Great work all round mate and another 35 points for your tally!

Cheers,
Millsy

From PeterB - Are we the good guys? Skull Duel entry (5 points)

I felt like this model needed a post by itself. 

Starting last challenge and continuing through this year, I have been repainting a whole load of 2nd edition 40K Space Marines and Orks. This model I had to save for this challenge, for one reason only, Skull Duel!

I have been going through my Spam collection and any metal models, specifically ones that came out 2nd edition and before, I have been stripping in biostrip and repainting in an old school style as Blood Angels.

When I saw this Captain emerge from the biostrip I decided he would have to be painted during the challenge for the sheer number of skulls he is adorned with.

Counting them all was a challenge in itself and it was only once I had all the old paint stripped off that I saw exactly how many they were. A careful retro repaint and I a transfer on the shoulder and he is done. (Thank goodness for Micro Set and Micro Sol, sticking transfers on curved shoulder pads is no longer an exercise in futility.) 

So, points-wise is an easy count, just a whole 5 points for the 28mm model. But we are all about the skulls here.

Front 6

Top 4

Left arm 5

Right arm 3

Back 2

Sword 31 (I struggled to count these, but I think I got it right.)

Grand total, 51 skulls. Skulls for Skull God!

Bonus picture - Some of the models I have painted last challenge and between, with a picture for inspiration in the background

Well, not much for me to say here! He is a fine model, and you have done a fine job with him, but as you say, it's all about the skulls. And that's not really my department. I applaud your ingenuity and your perserverance in counting all those skulls, though! I'll leave that to our Head Skullmaster, but for now it's another 5 points for you.

Martijn

From TeemuL: New Wave of British (and American) Heavy Metal [Rare and Antique Books] (142 points)

Snowlord being the avid fan of heavy metal music (including Anvil from Canada) he asked me to dig up some old metal minis from my collection and paint them as the Rare and Antique Books entry. And here we go, starting with the rather fresh British metal minis. Warmaster was released in 2000 and these minis are from that time, they are not necessarily antique for some, but they are quite rare as the whole game and the miniatures have been long gone without new prints or reprints or relaunches. Which is kind of strange, because I have heard that the ruleset is generally quite well liked, being in the top 3 ruleset by GW with Blood Bowl and LotR.

Two Challenges ago I painted some archers and cavalry, this time I decided to paint the rest of the bowskeletons. I had minis for three command bases and for one regular base (I painted three regular previously), but that's what you get when painting second hand minis. I followed my recipe from the first batch, painting mainly with Citadel Contrasts. The red bows were of course a must and as green goes well with red, it has been used in banners and shields (and bases, naturally). What clothes they have are purple/pink.

There are quite a lot of skulls, both sculpted and painted. There are 32 skeletons in total and 29 have their head visible enough to claim it as a skull. There are six more sculpted skulls in the banner poles and shields, that's 35. And then 14 hand painted in shields and banners. I decided to paint 1, 2 and 3 skulls in the banners to differentiate them. What other symbol would the skeletons use other than skull? 49 skulls in total.

Some skulls

Let's get to the real era of NWOBHM, the 1980s! Here we have a Roque Trader era Space Marine Dreadnought Deredeo class from 1987, when they were modestly priced at £3,50. I paid a bit more when I bought this one in January, but I still consider it as a bargain.

I decided to paint this one as Howling Griffon to join my small force of 2nd Space Marines (I know some like to paint them as Blood Angels, but I decided to paint something more colourful). It was rather easy to paint (to this level), just blocking the base colours and then Reikland Flesh Shade wash before one or two highlights. Yes, it is basically just red, yellow and black. I could have gone wild and paint every detail in different colour, but I wanted him to be recognized as a Howling Griffon so decided not to.

The base is a "modern" size 60mm MDF base from Warbases, so I could actually use him in the modern games. I just need to find out what his guns are before devastating the enemy units. :)

The early design shows, the model is very round in every way and there are not really any places to add chapter heraldy. I found a small plate on his left shoulder and painted a logo there and another Roman 1 on the front to give him some details. I'm quite happy with the eyes, too. And no skulls...

Then we move over the pond. Grenadier miniatures was an American company, producing a wide range of minis. Here I present two oldies from their collection. First Grenadier Julie Guthrie's Personalities II 8120 Berserker in Wolf Skin, which I investigated, tracked and recognized after painting him, so he is wearing a brown spotted yellow wolf skin, typical for the fantasy land he is from...

Berserker and prince

Next one is a prince, who was available at least with two different codes, Grenadier A301 King and Princes Prince or Fantasy Lords Second Series 010 King & Princes Prince. A Prince nevertheless. I went with quite colourful outfit for him, a stylish prince.

Fighter, Thied and Third One

Ral Partha was another American miniature company, they made a huge range of RPG minis for AD&D and others. Here is a modest selection of them. The first two are Ral Partha AD&D Player Characters and I suspect the third one is as well, but I haven't found her anywhere from the online catalogues. The ones I did recognize are 11-001 Fighter with 2-handed Sword in Banded Mail (female) and 11-005 Thief with Shortsword & Sling in Leather (female). The third one is very similar in style, has similar base etc, but I haven't found her true identity yet.

Knight

And the last one for this entry is a Ral Partha knight, there's 1984 on his base, but unfortunately I have not recognized him either, although I'm quite sure he is a knight of some sort. I guess swords are quite popular weapons of knights in entertainment industry, but he has a mace. Probably quite handy bashing other knights in full armour. I chose a simple yellow cloak for him.

Six adventurers, very inexperienced - no skulls!

The problem with this entry is that I'm currently in the Sci-Fi section, so one of the three ladies needs to guide me by Lady Sarah's Library Cart from unfinished section to Rare and Antique Books.

32 10mm skeletons 32 points

1 28mm vehicle 20 points

6 28mm humnas 30 points

Sarah's Cart 20 points

Rare and Antique Books location 40 points

Total 142 points

49 skulls

The second to last map

_________________________________________

Haha! Brilliant work for your Rare and Antique challenge, Teemu. 

What's not to love about this post? Old school Warmaster, vintage metal 40K Deredeo dreadnought,  Grenadier stuff from Julie Guthrie and Ral Partha no less. Wow. It's like a walk down memory lane. So awesome. I have to say that of all of them I have to go with the Warmaster skellies - their riotous colours are just terrific (and I love the hand painted banner).

Well done, Teemu. 

- Curt

PS: BTW, I quite dislike Anvil... ;)

From PeterB: 2nd Edition Spam and Orks - 145 points

The mission to recreate an experience from the 90's continues. I am abandoning the library stacks for the week and just concentrating on painting some models. Some nice primary colours on some nice repetitive units. So, firstly I present to you 20 Goff Orks from the 2nd Edition starter box set. A close friend donated most of these to the cause. He had a large stash of them hidden in his loft and was quite willing to let me have a bag full. (Handed over to me in a plastic carrier bag at a wargame show last year like some underhand deal.) I am still keeping a good eye on ebay for an old style dreadnought but to no avail (I did used to own one but sold it to buy more Space Marines). So for now I have custom made my own base out of a slotta base and some sprue cut offs and printed out a replica of the original starter set cardboard dread.

Next up are some Terminators I rescued from my collection.(Or for their full title, Space Marines in Tactical Dreadnought Terminator Armour) I have spent a big chunk of this week stripping off multiple layers of paint off old models in my collection instead of painting. In the previous millennium I would paint models as quickly as possible to get them on the table to play, so my painting quality was terrible. I would change my mind on a paint job and just paint over it. So, these models had a good thick layer on them and had lost a lot of detail. These models definitely needed a strip and a repaint.

I had forgotten how skulltatstic all these models are, at final count the sergeant has sixteen skulls on him if you are including the four atop his banner pole. (One either side in the middle and one either end).

Finally some tactical marines and an Apothecary. I had to strip these as well and rebuild them. These metal models had plastic arms glued to them from later kits that I had added to make them match the look of my later plastic Space Marines. Luckily I never throw out any spare bits and so had a good delve through my Space Marine bits box and fitted them out with proper old school backpacks, arms and weapons to give them that old school back cover image of 2nd Edition rulebook look.

Scores on the doors (I will endeavour to actually get it right this week)

20 x 28mm Orks. 20 x 5 = 100

5 x 28mm Terminators 5 x 5 = 25

4 x 28mm Spam 4 x 5 = 20

Total = 145 points

Ha, seeing the word spam in the title I didn't really know what to expect, Peter... and it still took me a minute to discover what you meant by spam! However, needless to say I was pleasantly surprised. There is a special charm to these retro models, and you have certainly done them proud. I must say though, that I admire your determination in getting these ready (again) for the tabletop! A very fine job. I agree with your score total for your entry, earning you another 145 points.

Martijn

From SanderS: A Mordheim Tale (55 points)

 Hoi there,

So after bragging I will be doing lot's of GW stuff this Challenge and mostly Old World stuff, I have to put my money where my mouths is don't I? Mordheim has been a favourite of mine for a long time but just like with the Bretonnians, I had a limited budget back in the day so couldn't buy what I liked. In recent years that has changed and I have been keenly collecting stuff for Mordheim games and with a burgeoning club in my direct region with a lot of people wanting to play Mordheim I decided it's time to get cracking.

Today's post brings you my Witchhunter band, I have quite a lot of bands at the moment but this one I wanted to try out on the table a lot.

There's 4 characters with the Captain Ernest Pügelmann leading them.

Two more witchhunters to get at the heretics and witches for real.

Last of the heroes is the Warrior Priest, this is actually the Warhammer Quest model

To complement the heroes I have two groups of henchmen; one of Flagelants and one of Zealots. Both are not beefed out yet and I want some warhounds too but have only played one game to date, so I need to earn some more goldcoins in order to get reinforcements.

Zealots:

Flagelants:

Last Friday we played a 3 player Christmas game from the excellent fan made Yuleheim supplement, for this I printed 3 Christmas trees and converted them (I will take pictures for a later post) 

As these are Oldhammer figures I will also enter these in the Oldhammer Side Duel and since there are 11 figures, I will enter them for 55 points. 

Cheers Sander

Sylvain: This whole post oozes passion for Mordheim and it makes for a pleasant read. I love the characterful miniatures and how you personalized each of them with vibrant colors. These new addition will hopefully prolong the social pleasure of gaming with your newfound club. C'est exquis!