From AaronH - Star Wars Imperials x 13 (65 points)

This week I managed to finish 12 Imperial Snow Troopers and 1 Imperial Officer for Star Wars Legion. I'm waaaay behind this year as my work decided that I needed to travel for the last two months. As you'll see at the end, I have not made a lot of progress against my goal this year.

First off are 12 Snow Troopers. These are a mix of the official, soft, bend, terrible official sculpts and 3D prints.

The three in the center are official sculpts. The guy on the left, being all dynamic and stuff, is a 3D print from Squamous.

The rear view. These are set to get new hard plastic sculpts in the next few weeks. The new releases have been great, so I'm looking forward to the replacements.

The two heavy weapons. You can see that the Ion gun on the left has a bit of barrel lift.

Next up is an imperial officer. She is the old, soft plastic and is, colloquially known as Becky. I have no idea why.

She stands up pretty well until you get to her face. The detail is very soft there.

I was aiming for a more grey-green. I can see it in my minds-eye but I just couldn't pull it off on the model.

She and six of the Snows are for Rhys to take to Adepticon in two weeks, where we'll be playing in the World's tournament.

That's 13x5 32mm models for 65 points.

Very nice work here Aaron, the Snowtroopers look ace. The ones with heavy weapons look suitably scary. I also like the subtle colour difference between the armour and the capes/cloth. I also quite like your officer. I suspect you were going for a bit more field-grey look here, that's how I've painted some of my Imperial officers. If that's the case might I recommend Vallejo German Uniform?

In any case it's 65 points for you!

Dallas

From AaronH - Iden Versio and two Orc APCs (17 points)

This week I'm finally getting some painting done after travelling for the last two months. I have Iden Versio in 32mm and two Marauder (Orc) APCs in 10mm.

I painted Iden up for my friend's son so he could use her in a tournament last weekend. She was a quick paint, being mostly black.

I just dry brushed a couple of different grey's over the black undercoat. Her face took the most time.

I had already painted her droid so it's not included here. I still need to paint the other members of Inferno Squad, which may happen this Challenge.

The trucks look like she's playing with Tonka trucks.

The two APCs are Mules, the ubiquitous transport in Mantic's Warpath universe, being in at least three armies.

I have six of these. I'll be doing two each in yellow, blue and red.

They are quick and easy to paint up. I used acrylic paint pens to do most of what you see.

I'm not sure why this is Mantic's vision for an APC but horses for courses I guess.

This is one 32mm figure for 5 points

Two 10mm vehicles for 6 pts each = 12

Total = 17 pts

Nice work here Aaron, I was unfamiliar with Ms. Versio so you sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole there. A pretty intense character, she was the leader of an Imperial black ops unit called "Inferno Squad" (!) and holder of the Imperial record for most verified kills in battle (!!) (I thought surely this would've been the Death Star gunner who pulled the trigger on Alderaan??) before she defected to the Rebellion. You've done a great job on her, especially the face... the sculpt is great too, it really looks like the actress who played her. 

Seventeen for your tally!

Dallas 

From RhysH - 28mm and 32mm Fantasy and Sci-Fi (30 points)

This week Rhys has models for four different games. Some are 28mm and some are 32mm and the Crisis Protocol is even bigger than that.

First up is a Bones dragon that my dad gave me. It doesn't stand up well.

I love all dragons but this one is another black dragon.

This is Bucky, the Winter Soldier.

The bases for Crisis Protocol are really big.

These are the customizable Jedi for Star Wars Legion

The double bladed lightsaber is the best in game. The third option is to have two lightsabers.

Last up is Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth. This is the new plastic model and is GREAT.

The layered way that GW builds models now is hard to put together but they look really good.

Imrahil is one of my favorite characters so I'm really excited about this new model.

That's 4 x 28-32mm models for five points each = 20 pts

1 x 28mm monster = 10pts (?)

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Hi Rhys - thank you for another varied submission, touching on so many different areas and themes! I too love Dol Amroth from Tolkein's setting, and I had not realized there are new plastic figures available for them. Your description of GW's approach to newer plastic figures is apt - they are indeed more "layered". I see this as a side-effect of using software for designs, but it also has upsides - the figures can be quite beautiful. 

Imrahil is my favourite here, ready to face the evil forces from the East!

I think 10 points for the Dragon is fine with me - that makes for 30 points for you.

GregB

From FrederickC: Early WW2 German Kradschützen and one more Circle of Paradise [The Wise] (285 Points)

Talk about sliding in under the wire. This morning I managed to finish off my last submission for this year's AHPC - two squads of German Kradschützen for a total of 28 men on 24 motorcycles or in sidecars for Bolt Action.

Kradschützen, vorwärts!

These are all 3D prints using STL files purchased from MyMiniFactory of German motorcycle troops either as single bikes or bikes with sidecars. Of the various sources for 3D prints I have seen, I thought these did an excellent job of rendering the Mauser Kar98k rifles and the M35 helmets. Where they fall down a bit is in depicting the standard German ammo pouches, which look more like the German Army flashlight. A few figures even had them positioned where the flashlight was often hung from the Y-straps. There was also in figure that had pouches for MP40 magazines (yeah!) but was still equipped with a rifle (boo!). Also the motorbikes don't quite look like either a BMW or a Zündapp, primarily in the position of the muffler.

All the bikes were mounted on popsicle sticks using PVA glue. They were then primed with Vallejo German Panzer Grey Surface Primer using an airbrush. Painting was done primarily using Vallejo acrylics (Army Painter colours indicated by AP) as follows: faces and hands - Flat Flesh; jackets - German Fieldgrey; trousers - AP Uniform Grey; canteen covers - Flat Earth; gas mask canister - Luftwaffe Camo Green; helmets - Charcoal Grey; belts, jackboots, ammo pouches, and bike tires - Black; rifle stocks - Beige Brown; rifle slings - Mahogany Brown; metal weapons parts - German Grey; motorbikes - German Panzer Grey; motorbike seats, and goggle straps - AP Leather Brown. When all was done, the figures got a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quick Shade. Once the Quick Shade was dry, the bikes were mounted on bases that are either Warlord Games cavalry bases, or larger ones cut from old plastic restaurant gift cards.

The final figure for my final entry is an old school West End Games Star Wars figure of Obi Wan Kenobi to represent the Circle of Paradise - The Wise. This figure has been sitting primed black in a box with other Sci Fi/Star Wars minis along with Luke, Darth Vader and the Imperial officer I did for an early submission. He was painted with Vallejo acrylics (Flat Flesh, Dark Sand, Chocolate Brown, Stone Grey, White) followed by Citadel Reikland Fleshshade on the face and hands, Army Painter Mid Brown Wash on the robes and cloak, and Army Painter Blue Tone on a white base for the light saber. 

 “Who’s the more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him?”

             - Obi-Wan Kenobi

 

“An elegant weapon for a more civilized age.”

“Mos Eisley spaceport. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”

The points being claimed are as follows:

29 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points = 145 points

24 x 28mm 'mounts' (motorcycle or sidecar) @ 5 points = 120

1 x Circle of Paradise - The Wise = 20 points

Thanks for stopping by. See you at the afterparty.

 

Sylvain: Especially for me, because I have an acute interest in the period, it's always a pleasure to read your posts about early WW2. I like your precise observations on the accuracy of the models. And I also enjoy the final result, a neat little formation of bikes that will buzz around some helpless French or British (or Dutch, or Belgian, or Norwegian). And Obi Wan is just like the mythic character we all love. Excellent last (?) post!

 

 

 

 

From Millsy: Star Wars Legion Tusken Raiders (60 points)

G'day All,

Brown is the new black apparently. Having spent a fair chunk of the early Challenge up to my ears in black paint I've now spent the last six weeks or so painting mostly muted colours, including a lot of browns. So many browns. This post is 90% brown. To quote Eric Olthwaite... "Even the black bits are brown!" I stopped counting at eight different browns and that's without the highlights.

I encourage you to play the following whilst viewing my efforts for a fully immersive experience. Feel free to join in. I did.

Tusken Raiders aka Sand People are an iconic part of the Star Wars universe, featuring heavily in A New Hope and appearing on and off elsewhere. They made up a large chunk of the early episodes of The Book of Boba Fett too. I love the creepy buggers and think they are amongst the most interesting and believable races/cultures in the Star Wars universe.

These are more 3D prints as there's no official miniatures. Again, WHY NOT? They're beautifully detailed although on the fragile side given how slim / true scale their weapons are.

Painting them up was great fun but did present a challenge to maintain the drab look without making them uninteresting. The bandaged heads with all the gribblies took by far the longest and apart from maybe Napoleonic minis I can't think of anything equally detailed and more complex.

The bantha is a beast (literally) and really has a solid presence about it. In games it'll be fun, very hard to take down but also slow as a wet week. Kind of like a WWI tank sporting horns and a mohair coat. I'm treating it as a vehicle when considering the ROI given the size.

Point-o-matic...

• 7 x 28mm infantry = 35 points
• 1 x 28mm vehicle (?) + driver = 15 points

Total =  50 points

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Millsy

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This post is nuthin' but a bunch of "Bantha poodoo!" :-)

What a fab submission mate- Who doesnt love the Sand People? So misunterstood...

With all that Brown done you'll be ready to paint a bunch of North African DAK and 8th Army next surely? Great job though, its really hard to get good contrasts when operating at a limited end of the palette but you've nailed it. I think its your use of texture, both sculpted and implied, that really bring these to life. 

Great job Millsy - I assess this as a fulsome 60 point submission. 

Now you need to put this sign on one of your buildings now! :-)

- Paul

From Millsy: Even More Star Wars Legion (141 points)

G'day All,

Having finished all my Kruleboyz I decided to see how much more Star Wars Legion stuff I could jam in between now and the end of the Challenge. This week I've been working on a number of fluffy factions for my Mos Millsy project, along with some of the Shadow Collective starter box.

Black Sun Enforcers

These are plastic miniatures from the Shadow Collective starter box and are one of the two major crime syndicates in the faction. They're quite large, with the smallest topping out around the 40mm mark. They took a lot of time to get right, mainly due to the gold trim everywhere which needed a burnt umber undercoat and then two coats of gold plus a 50/50 gold/silver highlight.

Blue Man Goons

Jawas!

A bunch more 3D prints to give me the first of several unaligned factions that I can use as spur-of-the-moment allies, enemies or just to sow chaos where it'll add to the fun. Quick to paint and a real "must have" from my POV for any collection based on Tatooine.

Desert Troopers

Another batch of 3D prints to add some extra muscle to my Empire forces. There are no official Desert Trooper miniatures (WHY NOT???) and although I painted and based my starter set Stormtroopers for Tatooine I've always felt there was a gap that needed filling. Quick to paint once again, in fact so quick it's tempting to add even more!

Odd Characters

Three more characters for scenarios, skirmish games, etc. Leia in disguise on her way to rescue Han from Jabba, good old Greedo who has possibly the most memorable cameo in all of Star Wars and a random female that came with the seven Jawas, apparently named "Sandi Gold". Think about it, and don't blame me when you work it out...

t

Points-wise these are...

• Black Sun: 8 x 40mm infantry = 56 points
• Jawas: 7 x 25mm infantry + 1 x "vehicle" = 45 points
• Desert Troopers: 5 x 25mm infantry = 25 points
• Characters: 3 x 25mm infantry = 15 points

Total: 141 points

Next up... Tusken Raiders!

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,

Millsy

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Hello Millsy!

  Your Mos Millsy Project has definetly been a highlight of the Challenge. 

Time well spent on the Black Sun Enforcers .. the gold trim looks awesome, I may have to "borrow" your recipe (I do like the shiny-things!)

My favourite is Leia in disguise, but that just may be a girl-thing :)

Looking forward to your Tusken Raiders next

I'll have Curt add another 141pts to your scoreboard

- Sarah

From Millsy: Another Batch of Star Wars Legion Stuff (69 points)

G'day All,

It seems to be the case at the moment if I'm not painting Kruleboyz then I am painting Star Wars Legion miniatures. Here's another batch of (mostly) bad guys to add to the collection. Truth be told these were not much fun. Too much black and I'm getting pretty tired of that now. Still, they're done now so there's that!

Moff Gideon and Dark Troopers

There was a temptation to give Moff Gideon the dark sabre but it was shockingly flimsy and I wanted to give it to Maul so he'll have to make due with a bad attitude and a blaster pistol. And a bunch of evil, robotic offsiders with rocket boots.

Moff's skin tone gave me all sorts of problems for some reason and at the third attempt I gave up and accepted it is what it is.

• 1 x 28mm miniatures = 5 points
• 7 x 28mm miniatures = 49 points

The Rest...

Maul (yet to be "upgraded" to Darth), Lando Calrission and Rook Kast (a Shadow Collective character I'd never heard of until I bought the starter box!)

Poor Lando is crazy cheap to buy in real life. I don't think he's particularly effective in game so nobody wants to grab him off the shelf. To be honest I only bought him for the sake of completeness.

Maul and Rook Kast are both pretty dynamic poses which is fun and beats the standing/walking poses most of the miniatures in the line seem to affect.

• 3 x 28mm miniatures = 5 points

Total for the whole post? 69 dude!

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,
Millsy

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Hi Millsy

I do love all the Star Wars stuff! I especially like the evil  robots with the rocket boots. (How do I get a pair?)

Thanks for sharing these 

-Sarah