From Sarah: ‘Leda and the Swan’ [Lust] (30 Points)

In Greek Myth, Zeus was infamous for his lust and the objects of his lust transcended gender and species.

Here we have Leda and the Swan in which Zeus, disguised as a swan, seduces Leda, wife of Spartan King Tyndareus. Later that day, Leda also has relations with her husband and consequently hatches either one or two eggs. The eggs are two sets of twins, Helen & Pollux and Clytemnestra & Castor.

Most of the paintings and sculptures depicting this myth are both violent, graphic and NSFW, however Leonardo Da Vinci’s sketches for an unfinished painting survive and show Leda with her newly hatched children and the Swan.

The Swan is a 3D print that Curt found on Thingaverse and the Noble Greek Lady was a figure that Curt had already printed.

Straightforward paint job on the Swan, though the black/orange markings around the beak were a little tricky!

Leda, in a simple white robe and pale yellow shawl, also a relatively easy paint job.

However, I really struggled with skin tones so I had to ask Curt for a bit of help. :)



Leda 28mm 5pts

Zeus/Swan 5pts

Location bonus 20 pts

30 points for me!


Thanks for reading!

- Sarah

 

Sylvain minioning for Greg: A very interesting choice of figurines. Despite the simplicity of the white paint job, details of Leda's dress can be easily distinguished, hinting at a Grecian pattern. Another great entry for you! 

 

 

From SimonG: Circe Transports us to The Snowlord's Treasury (32 points)

 Having finished up in the Hall of Heroes I now need to be in the Snowlord's Treasury so it's time to call on Circe the sorceress for the necessary ethereal transportation.

Circe was of course renowned for turning men into pigs -- so perhaps she is behind the PigMen I previously posted 🐷🐷! Once again this is a LMS Black Rose Wars 30mm PVC figure and perhaps my favourite of all I have worked on so far. The elevating pose and robe work is top rate and the snakes making their way up her leg really set off the piece. The piece was rather beset by tricky mould lines at least one of which is far more visible in macro photography then in the "real world" (at least that's my excuse!).

Clearly there were some judgement calls in how to paint a piece like this and how to not get an NSFW rating -- I elected to follow the Ruskin policy when it came to certain areas (probably quite appropriate for a classical greek figure in any case!)

For the detail on the dress I used a mix of classic patterns (albeit simplified) for the upper part and a detail inspired by Waterhouse's first iteration of Circe for the lower. The choice of colour for the dress was driven by a colour that would allow me to get that partly transparent effect without too much trouble -- something I think worked out pretty well on the décolletage (probably not a word that gets brought up too often on this blog!)

Once again much time was spent on the face, the green eyes just seemed to work, and if you look closely you may see some red eyes on the green snake!

I guess pieces like this help you work up techniques that can be employed in more normal wargame situations, but they're also fun in and of themselves plus I look forward to deploying her as my character in Black Rose Wars. For today however she should be worth 32 points (7 for a 40mm figure, 20 for the ride and an extra 5 as a sorceress I believe)

From Mark B - Diana and Ares (20 points)

For this post I decided to make a move quick sharpish! The target was the Snow Lord’s Peak and I was unsure if I could get there on time? Therefore I called upon the mighty balloon of Sarah once more and painted a female figure as my tribute for the ride.

I have a load of Ancient Greeks and wondered if I could add a mythical element to them. Therefore I painted up a female Amazon figure from Essex miniatures that I found in a whole bunch of other clobber as a rather curvaceous Goddess of the hunt to represent Diana. She is about 35mm tall and based on a 30 x 30mm base. I guess compared to my Greek hoplites she would look an impressive 7-8’! I’ve painted her in relatively natural colours and enjoyed using four shades of flesh colours to get a nice skin tone on her.

The bow string is made from a big paint brush bristle.

Up against her I found another old figure. This time a 54mm hoplite figure time represent Ares the god of war. He is an imposing warrior to dwarf mere mortal hoplites and strike fear into them! He is I think from Irregular Miniatures - although I’m less certain this time as he was purchased or swapped in a big box of junk figures. He is based on a 60mm x 60mm base and his spear is florists wire flattened out and attacked with an electric grinder to get the shape. 

Here he is fighting it out with Diana over some sort of disagreement that the gods will forget in a few dats time! You get an idea of he scale difference!

The part I was most pleased with on Ares was the hand painted shield. No transfers here just a steady hand and a Peter Connelly book as a suitable source material. It was also rather fun to add the extra decoration on his linen armour and under the crest of his helmet. I’ve a rather horrible obsession of making my shields and weapons look grimy with battle. In this case a few rather shocking blood streaks as he used the shield as a bludgeon to cave some mere mortal’s skull in earlier!

Please Sarah take me to the Snow Lord’s Peak in time to get in a final challenge! Please be quick as time is running out! 🤪

So onto points:

I’ve already used the balloon so no points there🙁

Ares: one 54mm figure = 10 points

Diana: big 28mm = 5 points

Total = 15 points

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By Paul: 

I do love me some classical Greek goodies, and these really tickle my fancy! LOVE your ARES, the bowstring and the hand painted shield with grimy remnants of some unfortunate. These are the details that makes such figures really pop!  

I have applied some upward adjustment to the points for the 34mm fig and added some bonuses for your great detailing. 

20 points in total Mark- great job. Now get cracking onto that final challenge!

From EvanH: The Riddle of the Sphinx - Awdry's Atoll (45 points)

Greetings, Challengers and Challenge Fans! I've taken a balloon trip to the azure waters and pristine beaches of Awdry's Atoll, where the locals venerate shiny discs which are used in a multitude of ways.

Hoping to blend in, I have secured one of these discs, and here is the result.

But wait a minute, who's this young fellow in the travel-stained tunic? And why is he looking so apprehensive?

It's Oedipus, Prince of Corinth, on the road to Thebes. He's had an eventful journey. He accidentally killed a nobleman in a road rage incident, and fought off the man's retainers, barely escaping with his life. It's understandable that he's feeling a bit rattled. But this is something else...

On the road outside Thebes, with the tombs of the citizens on one side and a sheer cliff on the other, a monster has taken up residence; the Sphinx. Beautiful and terrible, she demands that all who approach the city answer her riddle. The bones of those who have failed rest among the grass and cobbles of the neglected road.

Oedipus composes himself. A prince of Corinth should not show fear, even if the smell of blood and musk around the monster threatens to overwhelm him.

She lazily stretches her wings, surreptitiously extending her claws. This will be easy, she thinks, he looks so tasty. She asks her riddle.

"What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?"

Oedipus considers his answer. The Sphinx is crafty. Her riddles will be anything but literal.

He speaks.

"The answer is... man. He crawls on all fours as an infant, walks upright on two legs in his prime, and uses a stick to support himself in old age."

The Sphinx stares at Oedipus. The moments stretch into an eternity as the prince stares back, his heart pounding. But he knows he's answered correctly, or the Sphinx would have leaped upon him by now...

The Sphinx screams in rage. She leaps over Oedipus' head and over the cliff behind him, folding her wings and plummeting to her death on the rocks below. The curse of Thebes is lifted!

Oedipus enters the city and is acclaimed as a hero. The widowed Queen Jocasta notices the young man as well, and the Fates begin weaving new threads to snare mortals and drag them to their doom...

That's enough of the story for now. Let's look at the component parts of this vignette. Firstly, the base; a disc of foamcore was glued to the CD to give it a bit of depth, and the edges roughly chamfered back. The cobbled road was made by gluing a strip of textured paper to the base.

As you can see, the paper is perfect for the job. I picked it up at an art supplies shop in Sydney.

The groundwork was laid down with Vallejo White Pumice Paste and a mixture of sand and fine gravel. Pebbles and skulls were strewn about to emphasise the desolation of the Sphinx's lair, while Tajima Tufts provided the finishing touch. The grass tufts were drybrushed with light brown to give them a sere, dried-out look.

Oedipus is a Crusader Miniatures Apulian Spearman, given a head tilt and a bend to the leg so that he can prop up a foot and look the beastie in the eye.

The Sphinx is a Reaper Bones monster, painted in leonine colours to bring home her bestial nature. Make no mistake, this is a dangerous man-eater!

So points-wise, that's 5 points for Oedipus, 10 for the Sphinx (based on my previous lion hybrids such as Challenge IX's Griffin and Manticore), and 30 points for completing Awdry's Atoll, for a respectable 45 points.

Not sure about where to go from here, so we'll just have to see what grabs my attention next. Earth Goddess worshippers? More monsters? Floppy hats? Who can say?

Stay tuned...

Ev

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Wow, what an excellent little diorama here Even, really top notch.  While I have never been a huge "bones" fan as I find a lot of them pretty cartoony and some of the sculpts are pretty weak detail wise, there are ones like this that make me wish I would have backed some of the kickstarters.

Excellent choice of colours and composition here, please keep stuff like this coming!

-ByronM

Voting Results for the 4th Theme Round: 'Myth'

Another fortnight, another gallery chock-full of wonderful thematic submission from our talented Challengers. This week the theme was was 'Myth' and we were treated to subjects ranging from Minotaurs to Mumaks, Cthonians to Cave Trolls - a veritable smorgasbord of creatures and personalities of mythic legend. 

The voting statistics speak volumes in of themselves. It was another incredibly tight race with only 7 points separating the 10th position from the 2nd (the reason why we have seven runners up this round) AND we had a tie for four of those positions. Amazing work people!  

Anyway, not to tarry, I'll move on to announcing the runners up.

SanderS 'The Reason Why'

PaulS 'Werewolf'

AlanD 'Fate is Everything'

RichardC 'Jason Battles the Skeletons'

AaronH 'Mumak'

Millsy 'Pegasus'

MartinN 'Merlin'

In Third Place (and 25 bonus points) we have ByronM's wonderful 'Steampunk Little Meremaid'.

Second Place was a tie between BrendonW's 'Valkyrie and Norn' and StefanK's 'Thor, The Mighty God of Thunder'. Great work guys, you'll be both awarded another 50 points to add to your tally.

 

And finally, in First Place for the second consecutive week we have MichaelA with his fabulous 'Jabberwokky'!

Congratulations Michael! On top of your well-earned 75 bonus points you'll be receiving a gift certificate from the ever-awesome Kawe over at Westfalia Miniatures. Again, thanks for giving us a glimpse of the dreaded 'frumius Bandersnatch'!