Monday Minion Signing Off

 

Sad to say but we've less than one week left in the Challenge.  It looks like we've got almost all of the Monday crew making an appearance this week.  So far we have:

• Adam taking a break from "Pimp My brig" to go back to his Colonial era roots.
• Darrell bring us more Byzantine Epics
• Ed has an epic scale fantasy
• Iain has another Napoleonic costume drama
• Ken has a salty adventure and hopefully a Renaissance bodice ripper
• Matt presents a tale of seven grumpy dwarves
• Richard enters something in the short film category
• Ross adds to the mystery
• Sylvain has a Central European tragedy

Based on my Pulp magazine title, you may be expecting some dreary Euro-metal musical accompaniment, but I've got something different planned.  I've been concerned with the anti-vegetable sentiment present in certain vocal Challengers' rhetoric and I've decided to leave you with this plea for kindness to all vegetables and Peas on Earth from the Arrogant Worms.

Monday Minion and a Confession

 

Back in the Frozen North and mostly caught back on sleep after my sojourn to the Big Easy.  We are by my count approximately 1/2 though our Yearly Challenge.  We also seem to hitting a bit of the February doldrums, at least I am.

Also I need to fess up on an error that I made last week.  With Miles apparently sucked into the Vortex of Time and unable to perform Minion Duties on Wednesday, Curt asked me to suit up and fill in.  I am not sure if I actually identified myself in my guest posts, so if you're wondering who to blame it was me.  More importantly JamesM had a truly impressive post with more points than I've racked up this Challenge which I neglected to record in the Spreadsheet of Doom.  This error has been rectified by my superiors and my apologies to James.

So far this week for Monday's offerings we have the following tipples on offer.

• The ever reliable Sylvain brings us a tray of micro-armour amuse-bouches.  If only he was as reliable as an allied commander on tabletop....
• Darrell brings us more early Medieval delights, this time with a Spanish flavour.
• KenR promises us the catch of the day, unless it's the big one that gets away.
• Richard offers some Tex-Mex and more exotic flavours.
• Other chefs promise us exotic flavours from York(?!?) - I can feel my arteries hardening even now.

Monday Minion Drops the Ball

So apparently, while any one can post this week the regular minion is supposed to shepherd stuff along on the scheduled day.  This was one of the many balls that I dropped this weekend and I only realized it just before my morning swim.  I'll finish towelling off and get some posts up shortly.

Monday Monday

 

It looks like there some good stuff up coming from the Monday Crew.  I hav become a COVID statistic, but hopefully I can muddle through my day of Minioning.

From PeterD The Lair of the Great Spider (30 points?)

 

Another day another chamber and this one will finish off my journey on Level III.  Challengers may recall that two challenges ago I painted up some mice heroes from the board game Mice and Mystics.  For the Lair of the Spider I have gone with two enemies for these stouthearted rodents to battle in the form of a spider and a centipede.

These beasties are not strictly speaking Giant but compared to the mice they are pretty freaking damn big!  The Mice and Mystics figures are quite nice and paint up  nicely, even though the plastic is a little softer than I would like.  I did some trauma inducing googling of giant spiders and giant centipedes to get ideas for the colour schemes.

I'm quite happy with how the Spider turned out.

I opted for a glossy black on the centipede and I not quite as pleased with my results.

I'd say that these figures are about the sizer of 28mm foot figure and with the room bonus that gives me 30 points.  And I've now laid myself prone at the foot of the Snowlord's altar in anticipation of the fearsome task in store for me.

From PeterD Gallery of Ancestors - The Scrap Iron Flotilla (35 points)

I had an abundance of choices for this chamber.  My dad served in the RN in Korea on shore bombardment, my material grandfather fought with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force on the Western Front in WW1 and my paternal great grandfather fought in the Tirah Campaign on India's NorthWest Frontier.  However, I went with this set of five elderly Australian destroyers for my WW2 project as they are professional ancestors of our esteemed Minion du jour as Paul is a High Mucky-Muck Brass Monkey in the RAN.

These ships were WW1 vintage destroyers, 4 V&W class plus a Scott class leader that were transferred to the RAN in the 1930s.  They served in the Med from 1940-1 and were christened the "Scrap Iron Flotilla" by Goebbels and derided as such in Lord Haw Haw's broadcasts.  However they served with great distinction mostly on the Tobruk Ferry Service shipping supplies to the Aussie garrison of that beleaguered port city.  The survivors were transferred east for repairs as their engines wore, coming back into service just in time for the Japanese onslaught.  They actually don't fit the timeline of my WW2 focus, but I just like the story of these old ships.  Of the five HMAS Waterhen was sunk in 1941 on the Tobruk run, Vampire by Japanese carrier planes in 1942 (along with the carrier HMS Hermes) and Voyager was lost in the Timor campaign in 1942.  

These are all 1/2400 scale CinC sculpts with modifications.  These ships were designed to fight a second Jutland agains the Kaiser's High Seas Fleet and ended up fighting an entirely different war.  The 4" gun in position (that's the mount at the very back fo the ship Greg) was replaced with extra depth charge throwers.  Similarly the aft (rearmost Greg) set of torpedo tubes was replaced with  a 3" AA gun.   My Xacto skills were up to removing the gun and tubes and I bodged together mostly reasonable facsimiles of the AA gun in its band box from GHQ leftover bits.  

As with earlier ships camp patterns are based on Mal Wright's excellent book and are mostly historical for the actual ships in 1941.

The ship's names were not originally Australian but have become part of RAN lore and  have been rescued.  There is a modern HMAS Stuart, a shore establishment HMAS Waterhen and the second HMAS Vampire is a museum ship in Sydney.

HMAS Stuart was a slightly bigger ship, but no 1/2400 Scott class leader exists so I used another V class.  She should be 20' longer with an extra 4" gun amidships.  I thought about bodging one together from two hulls but decided I'd like to maintain some use of my left hand.  The twenty extra feet is 1/10" at 1/2400. 

The history of these ships can be found in short form on Wikipedia and in long form here.  A musical tribute to the Scrap iron Flotilla can be found played by the RAN band below.

Points wise that 10 for the 5 1/2400 scale hulls plus 20 for the Chamber plus what ever brownie points I get from toadying up to the Captain!  

-----

This entry is a real treat Peter, thank you. The Scrap Iron Flotilla  has a special place within the RAN and there is an annual dinner in their honour. I understand a book of their history may be in the making too.  Several were also involved in the Battle of Crete by the way,  along with two of our N class Destroyers and the Cruiser HMAS PERTH (later sunk by the Imperial Japanese Navy at Sunda Strait along with USS HOUSTON)

Take your points with a few bonus for successful toadying as well as the madness of refitting ships in this scale!

From PeterD: Aunt Jane takes a Balloon Ride (15 points)

Aunt Jane is unarmed except for the Withering Stare and Tsk Tsk of Reproachment

I have a single figure here today, an elderly lady from Bad Squiddo's range of WW2  women.  I'd like to take her on a balloon ride to Piper's Peak.

Annie Norman of Bad Squiddo has a really nice range of women figures for the WW2 civilian and uniformed.  I've become a big fan of her work andI ordered a couple packs over the Christmas break.  I will be rolling these out over the rest of the challenge.  I also bought into he kickstarter campaign so expect to see more of them in the next Challenge (if there is one) if not before.

I kept the attire simple and basic but it's a nice cast and painted up well.

This figure comes in a pack of 5 representing members of the Women's Home Defence.  I've chrsitened her Aunt Jane after Miss Jane Marple, the angel of death of St Mary Mead.  (If Miss Marple arrived in your village to stay with a niece or nephew you knew that the bodies would pile up faster that at a quaint local festival in Midsomer county.)  I've seen various screen incarnations of Miss Marple  (Angela Landsbury and Margaret Rutherford each causing WTF reactions from me) but the best for me is Joan Hickson.  She caught the fly on the wall taking it all in aspects of the character perfectly.

My wife asked me what I intended to use these figures for and I haven't a clue yet, but they could have lots of applications in WW2 and pulp games.

That's a single 25mm figure plus 10 points for my third balloon ride.

I am very much with you on Joan Hickson being the very best of the Misses Marple that we have seen on screen. The style of the filming in that iteration also captures the feel of the period very nicely.

Very nice work on the figure. 

TamsinP

From PeterD Yacht Race in Douglas' Shallows - 42 Points

I have a variety of naval projects on the go, and this is the first post from a new 1/2400 Anglo-Dutch Wars project.  I have 4 yachts which I am entering in my own Challenge Location Douglas' Shallows under the theme "Messing About in Boats".

These are 4 yachts from the Tumbling Dice 1/2400 Anglo-Dutch Wars range.  I have a couple of squadrons of these ships which I am aiming to complete over the challenge.  So far I have been very happy with the quality of these castings.

Leading the race we have two English Royal Yachts the Katherine and Henrietta skippered by two gentlemen who knew a lot about boars, and a lot about messing about too!.  Charles II and his brother James (Duke of York and Lord High Admiral at this point) were keen and skilled yachtsmen and Charles commissioned a series of yachts.  Charles yachts were used for pleasure and actively sailed and raced by the Stuart bros.  They were also armed and used as scouts and dispatch vessels in wartime and took Admiralty officials to inspect the port of Tangier.

I’ve selected two that served in the Second Dutch War as that’s my chosen niche in time.
By the third war Charles had two yachts some named for his mistresses (Cleveland and Portsmouth) one named for his mistress's anatomy (Fubbs being Restoration English for pleasantly plump) and one named Kitchen to provide victuals while cruising.

A Van de Velde painting of Charles arriving by yacht to inspect the fleet in 1672.

His Majesty’s yacht Katherine launched 1660, captured by the Dutch 1673.  Returned to the English but not  as part of the Royal Navy.  Armed with 8 guns.  49 feet long on the keel.

His majesty’s yacht Henrietta launched 1663 and sunk at the Battle of the Texel  in 1673.  52 feet long on the keel and armed with 8 guns.

On the Dutch side we the Windhund and Schiedam, both of which were attached to De Ruyter’s fleet for the Four Days Battle of 1666.  No royal connections here, but another good story.  The maritime artist Willem Van de Velde (sr) was given a galjoot and accompanied De Ruyter in battle.  He sketched from the decks of his small craft in the heat of battle, like an earlier Robert Capa  on  Omaha Beach.  His sketches are used to reconstruct battles given the inconsistencies in memories.  

The two dutch galjoots.  Not being royal yachts there is not a lot available on these vessels.

Two of Charles first yachts were gifts from the Dutch and design of these influenced later royal yachts.  The basic design had a single mast with square topsail and fore and aft sails elsewhere.  There would be leeboards instead of a keel.  I have seen similar craft used as pleasure boats sailing with my dad in the UK and French waters.

A Van de Velde sketch from the first day of the Four Days Battle.  I was tempted to use an umber wash over cream bases on my ships to replicate the two tone effect  in these wonderful works.

Detail of another sketch from the same action showing Van de Velde  on his galjoot.

As these were the first models for a new project I did some experimenting.  I wanted to replicate the greenish hue that Dutch maritime artists give the water in almost every oil painting.  It took several layers, but I am reasonably happy with my results.  I also wanted to use mdf bases ( these ones are 30mm square from Sarissa), but wanted to use the moulded bases supplied b6 Tumbling Dice on top of these.  This means using acrylic gel to bulk up my paint to smooth over the rough base edges, and it looks ok on these ships but I think that I’ve left myself room for improvement 

.

Canadian loonie and UK pound to show the size of these ships.

Points wise there’s 30 points for Douglas’ Shallows but I’ll leave the ships to the Snowlord to tot up.  1/2400 ships are typically scored 3 points a pop but these are very small. I’ll also point out that each of the four yachts has a flag added which I whipped up in photoshop.  

From DaveD
Ah lets sail into the new year with Peters little boats! Oh my they are small alright , but wonderfully done. I will go with 3 points a piece 

Monday Morning

Well it's Monday morning after the bonus theme round, and we're in the mid-Challenge doldrums.  I am certainly suffered from this syndrome.  I didn't have a regular post set to go for Saturday and I've had two epic failures in a row on the bonus themes.  I got the wrong type of foam for the Rock of Gibraltar (Defensive Terrain) and had a primer fail on my Mouslings (L'amour).

Fortunately we have some good stuff in this week's instalments from Team Monday as shown below.

My iPod gets in themes at times, and lately its been on a bit of an Alt-Country roll. So we'll end off with this bit of Can-Con from Kathleen Edwards.