From TeemuL: Black & White Cake (25 points)

"I'm sorry, I need to leave for a moment. The production management wants to meet me, there's something about releasing straight to VHS and making budget changes! I have no idea, what VHS means, it sounds retro, but is probably something new and innovative, which will make our profits higher - and our budget, too! I'll be back, as they say, in the meanwhile you can take a self service tour to some of these nearby studios, they have been empty for a while. Can you think of movies being Black & White? Me neither, I want all the colours of the Technicolor on our great dwarf movie!"

It seems that we are not seeing this cake presenting fox in the Movie-You-All-Know, but I'll present it here in the blog instead. This a ModelBox exclusive model from the YourModelBox, which I participated in for a year some time ago. Sadly, the project has now come to an end, Brexit and all. In short, they sent a monthly surprise box to all subrictors and it contained minis and equipment from smaller companies (I guess anything else than GW was ok) and there was usually (or always?) a ModelBox exclusive mini included, not available from anywhere else.

Two Challenges ago I painted a similar fox from the same source: Challenge XI Fox - in greyscale as well. This one was trickier, I had already put my standards high, since I had painted something like this before. But not only being non-humble, this mini was trickier, I was quite sure that apron, cake and many other pieces should be white. Not very hard on Black & White, but I had to shade them somehow, make them look different and have some other areas quite dark. I managet to get somewhere there, I think. It could be better and neater, but I can live with that. I hope you can, too. :)

The New Fox and the Old Fox

I first painted the mini with Wraithbone spray with bunch of other minis. Then painted it black... I gave it a light drybrush of dark grey to get the texture visible. Then I painted the mini dark grey, just leaving some black here and there in the recesses. Then I did the same with lighter grey, but more gently and only drybrushing some areas. And then the scary part, paint pretty much everything white. So I painted pretty much everything white, some areas more heavily, some only very gently or drybrushing. I made some corrections with darker grey in the end and painted the cobblestones to the base.

He/she/it is quite tall, eye level at 30mm from the top of the base, but still closer to 28 than 40, so I'd like to claim 5 points for the mini and 20 for Black & White studio, for total of 25.

The mention of VHS might hint that we are heading towards the Retro studio, but let's see how the script evolves...

From TeemuL: Grey fox, Chamber of Darkness (25 points)

S.N. Owl-Ord was not sure how Sararwen managed to get him to this door, the port was probably playing tricks on his head. She had spoken something about the Grey Chamber, Shellington was not sure they had mutual understanding about his destination, but at least this Chamber (of Darkness) was not having a pest problem. It was having a problem with lights, everything was a bit grey. Even the bard in the corner looked grey with his lute and his face didn't look good. He had a foxy grin when he followed S.N. advancing through the room. "This is not the Principal's office and I'm getting hungry", Uggla thought as he moved on.

Continuing in the Chambers of Challenge, the Chamber of Darkness was quite difficult at first. I have never done anything in greyscale, but I have given it a thought or two in the past. I was thinking, that yes, I can paint a Ringwraith or some statue like thing, but then again this is a challenge... I remembered the soldiers in camouflages painted in grey, but that was may be a bit over the top. But I was thinking different colors, maybe a sport figure, Blood Bowl or something, with stripes and so on? You know, that the figure itself should have colors, but it is painted with greys - not a grey model painted in grey.

Luckily(?) I have lots of stuff in my lead pile, lots of miniatures, which I'm not intending to use in any games, just paint for fun, for example lots of different models from YourModelBox subscription I had for a year. I decided to pick up Rox the Bard from the exclusive Model Box range. And grey fox was something I just couldn't resist, even though Rox is a red fox originally.

I started with white primer, as always. Old habits die hard, I usually start with white undercoat, because if I draw or paint something, the paper or canvas is white, so why would miniature painting be any different? Starting from white is bit difficult when aiming for greyscale, so next I painted the whole thing with old Citadel Black Ink. Now I could see the details, there were some dark shadows etc. Then I opened three grey paint pots, Light Grey, Mid Grey and Mechanicus Standard Grey, which was the darkest. I painted the face and hands first with the Light Grey, leaving the recesses black. Then I started to paint the different clothes, lute and stuff with different colors, adding highlights and layers. The watered down Black Ink helped a bit. I was thinking about going to the white, at least on some areas, but then decided not. It looks quite nice now. I continued the greyscale in the base, painting a simple cobblestone pattern to follow the Chamber theme. This was a nice experiment and after the Black Ink had dried, it took about 30 minutes to be ready. Much faster than with different colors... The lightning and shadows are not correct, but it looks good enough for me. I might paint even more in the future.

5 points for 28mm miniature

20 points for the Chamber of Darkness

25 points total, no skulls, no GW models.

 

 

From SebastianR: Making it ashore (35 points)

We sighted land in the early morning, the island rising out of the sea mist on the horizon and rapidly growing closer.

In the shelter of the the large bay I could see a number of larger ships, cruise liners, tall ships, ironclads, junks, hydrofoils, even an aircraft carrier. I was late.

"How do I get ashore?" I asked the captain of the ramshackle craft I had called home for the past week.

"We can't get into the shallows, you'll need to contract one of them." He indicated a number of smaller boats ferrying adventurers and their gear ashore.

Getting the attention of one of these ferrymen proved more difficult than expected. Many of them had already filled their boots with fees from other adventurers, or saw my solo expedition to be just to small to be worth their while.

It was getting dark, and we had been riding at anchor for hours when the fox pulled up.

A veteran of a long forgotten war and a person of few words, his sampan seemed unsuitable for the choppy waters of the bay, but I wasn't in a position to argue. With the help of the crew I lowered my sparse equipment into the boat - the maguffin magnet, the phlebotimiser, the badger repellent - and we set off towards The Island, my heart in my mouth and breakfast in the sea.

***

I'm actually quite proud of the paint job on this one. This is the first mini I've completed in a year. 

The fur/flesh was my biggest worry, but I seem to have pulled it off.

The figure wasn't originally going to be for anything - beyond getting me a beach head, but now I think he's going to form the gunner for a new post apocalyptic gang.

***

Points wise, I think that's 5 points for the model and 30 points for landing at Douglas' Shallows for a total of 35. I'm not counting the Sampan as I haven't actually painted it, just constructed it. I quite like the aesthetic of unpainted foreground-esque models.


Welcome to the Challenge, Sebastian! That's a great paintjob on a truly bonkers miniature - he certainly looks like he means business. He'd certainly fit in nicely as an NPC-type (or even as a PC) for a bonkers Vietnam/sci./fant mashup game. Or maybe for a modernised version of Burrows & Badgers? If you're including humans, this cunning fellow could be a "Kitsune" (a Japanese shapeshifter - think werefox). 

TamsinP