From GeoffT: A mixed bag (55 points)

Hello Challengers,

This week I have a mixed bag of miniatures.  11 x 28mm foot.

Three pulp figures, looks like gangsters.  One has a pig under his arm for some reason.  Six cave men for primeval Cro-Magnon faction, and two pygmies with blowpipes for Ghost Archipelago.

 

Figures with blowpipes were surprisingly scarce.  These ones from eureka.  Cavemen from slave2gaming.  Pulp miniatures from pulp miniatures oddly enough.

11 x 28mm infantry = 55 points, and a squirrel for the Cro-magnon faction.

Kind regards

Geoff.

From Millsy:

This is certainly a mixed bag Geoff!

A gangster, a pygmie and a caveman sounds like the start of some sort of weird joke but there's nothing funny about the quality of your work. That saturated blue is amazing and just the thing for your more dapper mob boss to step out in. Please tell me you have plans to run games using all these miniatures together!

55 cracking points added to your total mate.

Cheers,
Millsy

From JezT: Post 6 - Studio High Adventure (35 points)

Dear All

Just a minimal post as a single Pulp Miniatures figure entry for the Studio tour High Adventure studio - think this character fits the bill for a desert type adventure .......

A late starter to the Studio so this is just the the second spot I have reached so far .............

I also managed to paint another single Cavalry figure related to last weeks Ancients Successors post. When I reviewed my Successor army for a game, now with its its new Elephant and Thracian Foot Light bases I realised the Persian cavalry base was supposed to be "Medium" cavalry and I only had a Light cavalry style base with two figures on. I suppose I could of used a bow armed Persian medium cavalry base and said "ignore the bows" but instead decided to do this with an odd cavalry figure I had.

Can add and easily remove single figure to switch between Medium and Light Cav base

The single cavalry figure was a Foundry Miniatures Thracian with a head-swap and painted to match the other Persian's on the base. It was stable enough to play with on the table though. How did the unit perform on the table in a weekend Successor Basic Impetus clash? Pretty poor for this unit - it rode down some skirmishers but got badly damaged in the process and then got hit by javelin missile fire  and routed off the table!

So overall 25mm infantry figure (5) plus studio bonus (20) and a cavalry figure (10) so just 35 points from me. 

Cheers JezT 

From TeemuL: How do they say, an army is never finished, and this post proved it again, kind of - at least. A nice addition and option for your cavalry. The adventurer looks nice, sun is shining in the desert and clearly something is after her. Well done, Jez!  

From MartinC - Running out of ways to describe Random Painting. So. Stuff. (302 pts)

 I've done some painting, no messing about, here it is

Moorish Black Guard, a 2nd hand buy and no clue who made them. They are fine, in the English style meaning OK.

I have quite a few Moorish types but they are a bit colourful so needed some in standard black. Even then I couldn't keep them all black.

Moorish shields are intricately patterned. Struggle to paint intricate random shield designs and hate transfers. So in such cases I write in Arabic script (or Sanskrit for my Indian elephants). I think it looks cool. These shields say "Sinner" which works both ways.

Next up a Reaper bones Were-Gorilla. Not a fan of these soft plastic figures but it was £1. Also got a new phone and working out how to use it

I have a large back of beyond collectionm and we have started playing very large battles with Russian Civil War, Turks and Brits. This is an Empress British radio mule

Will use it to control off map artillery

Couple of mules and a couple of converted Wargames Foundry figs as Anzacs

Final stretch. Dave and I are planning a gangster campaign and I fancy a few masked investigator types. These are from Pulp, so are great figures.

This masked Venus is my Perelandra entry. Tried to give her a tattoo but it looked rubbish.

And finally Crash Callahan, ace reporter. She, her dog and motorbike sidecar combo are fab, again Pulp.

Scores, hang in there Tamsin I think I've got this.

Arabs = 36 figs x 5 = 180

Gorilla = 1 x 40mm fig = 7

Back of Beyond = 5 men @ 5 each and 3 mules also at 5 = 40

Pulp = 6 figs + 2 dogs (2.5 each) + vehicle + Perelandra = 75

Total = 302 pts.

Feel free to add more.

Kaboom! Let's start the reports off with a MartinC-shaped points-bomb! That's a great mix of figures. And another odd lycanthrope added to your tally.

Tamsin

From SarahHC: Lilly, the Glamourous Society Dame (25 Points)

Hey Everyone!

This week I had planned to paint terrain, however, the terrain which magically appeared in my paint nook was a turnip field. The Snowlord would not permit me a creative colour palette, the intent was for me to match with his previously painted fields. Boring!! (Well, I tried... Ed.) Instead, I chose to paint another 28mm figure as a gaming piece for a pulp adventure.

This model appeared awhile ago in my painting nook and had already been primed and based by Curt. Provenance unknown to me.

I was annoyed at trying to paint her shoes as they are more cement block than footwear. The base was going to be changed out to a clear one and I knew I’d have to do touch ups.
Despite all this, I feel that I’m getting the hang of painting 28mm. With Lilly, I was inspired by the super fancy GreenStuff World colour shift paints that Curt had acquired recently. My paint skillz have improved enough that he trusts me with these treasures, and I was even allowed to use his most coveted 35yr old paint pot of Citadel Shining Gold!

I wanted Lilly to really “shimmer”, she is a glamorous society dame, dancing from one charity function to another all the while listening for gossip and juicy tidbits. One never knows what information might come in handy. I quite like her pose. Obviously Lilly has just had her bottom pinched, and she’s deciding whether to be outraged or flattered …

The GreenStuff World colourshift paints are magical, the colours really do seem to dance! I used Nebula Copper on her dress, with Burning Gold at the hem, neckline, shoulder straps … hopefully creating a sort of ombré effect. The rosette and flouncy ruffles were painted in Citadel colour contrast Plaguebearer Flesh, and highlighted with Curt’s ‘Very Special Citadel Shining Gold paint pot, circa 1986’. ( his words, not mine….)

Lilly has accessorized in Terradon Turquoise wrist cuffs, earrings and shoes. I kept her hair-colour relatively simple gunmetal with dry brush of Vallejo Steel, emphasizing the finger waves with a touch of Nuln Oil. (Little known fact about our benevolent Snowlord: Many years ago, when I met him, he worked as a hair dresser in a fancy salon, and so was not shy to express his opinions about Lilly’s hair do. 🤷‍♀️) (No comment. Ed.)

Points wise? 1 x28mm figure for 5 points. I will also use Lilly as a ticket to summon the Star Yacht to whisk me away to the planet of Istvaan V, so another 20 points for that. Wow! I'm already well over my original 100 point target, so I think I will increase my target to 250 points. Wish me luck!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

- Sarah

I can't say that I blame you, opting to paint this instead of trying to match Curt's previously-painted turnip fields. I haven't tried colour-shifting paints on 28mm figures before, but it looks as though it works well for shimmery dresses - I'll have to remember to give it a try for some of my Pulp ladies.

By the way, we all want to know how the chocolate cakes that you and Tasha had to bake for each other were, hopefully with photos of the cakes and you sharing them!

Tamsin

From MartinC - Pit and Pendulum (32pts)

 After hurtling through the Hall of Traps our intrepid band of adventurers kick down the door to find the Pit and the Pendulum and a poor damsel in distress

Normally women in this position are worried abou there virtue. Here I suspect she is more worried out her kidneys.

The female victim is from Pulp Miniatures and is supposed to be strapped to a circular saw but I can't find the saw. The zombie I've no clue about but i suspect that came in a Northstar Lucky bag, I miss Northstar Lucky Bags - started many a collection with a random figure from them.

Scores on the Doors

10 +20 = 30

Weren't two visits enough for you? Back for a third #13?

Nicely composed entry Martin. I'll give you a couple of extra points for the diorama basing.

Tamsin

From DaveD - The Savage Seas! (54 Points)

Ok I think i really should have been in the squirrel nutkins challenge - as here is something else very different. Martin C , James,M and I are running a participation game at the upcoming Hammerhead show - so we have gone for something Pulp based  in the South Seas. So here is my contribution of 10 native islanders with pointy sharp weapons! The terrain here I already had and Martin has the rest of the nasties - some of which you saw this week

the table is coming together... 

These are 28mm from Bob Murch Pulp - very nice and clean to paint. I have one more big piece to do for this before the end of Feb

_________________________________________

Yes Dave, you should have signed up for the Squirrel challenge. I must say, this strays a little from your usual path, but still possesses all your usual talent and spirit. Lovely work here. Bob Murch's sculpts are so fun to work on and we can clearly see that you had a great time with these figures. The skin tones are excellent and I really like the design motif on the shields (and I've added a few points to reflect this). I look forward to seeing more work surrounding this project. 

Curt

From PhilH: Doing My Bit (45 Points)

Final day of the sixth AHPC, and here I am at 2300 tapping out my last post. It's almost enough to make one teary-eyed. And that's nothing to do with the paint fumes. As were short of our collective points target, it was full steam ahead is evening to do my bit to make up the shortfall. 

First up, a SCW Schneider m1908 70mm mountain gun, to provide some heavy firepower for my Nationalists. A squat little thing in a fine Empress kit. 

Each Spanish infantry battalion had one of these, and unlike many support weapons there were actually enough for the Peninsular army to receive their allocation.  They were typical detached and brigaded together into batteries. I couldn't find that much about them online, nor many pictures of either real ones nor painted miniatures. The camo is conjectural but a saw a B&W photo of one in a camo scheme and the green/khaki colours seemed most likely to me. It received a heavy dose of chipping and more weathering pigments than the photos give me credit for. 

This has been a real bugbear on my painting desk. I blitzed through the crew while on holiday at the start of this month. But the gun took me ages, working at it on and off. The hassle of basing it up after painting, not my favoured method. But I'm pleased with the result and hope I can give it a run out soon. 

I finished this earlier in the week and cast my eyes around for something to quickly work up for the finale. I received these Pulp Miniatures 'cowled cultists' for Christmas. As my Secret Stana got me 'evil hooded' cultists as well, I settled on doing these in a colour scheme of grey robes, and will save the classic purple for the hooded cult. I feel like these nee a decal of some kind to break up there robes, and will keep an eye out for something suitable. 

I imagine that and the other half of the group will form a 'not-necessarily-evil' cult, that may work to aims that aren't so blatantly nefarious as global domination, annihilation or the attempted summoning of elder beings. Perhaps they like knitting or something. 

It doesn't feel like my best challenge in terms of my entries, as with many fellow challengers, real life took its toll. But on that front, I can delightfully report that redecorating was finished this weekend, as well leaving mere odds and ends to do over the rest of the year. And the garden, that rather needs some attention. So I'm look it forward to a relaxing Easter not having to worry about full-size paintbrushes. It pleases me that the 1:1 project was kicked off, and also finished within the challenge. 

With that, I'll just say a massive, heartfelt 'thank you' first to Curt, who is generous enough with his time to organise and shepherd us through the challenge over the winter months. It's a great pleasure to be able to participate once again. Also to Curt's fine helpers, whose amusing commentary and enthusiasm was appreciated by all, no doubt. And to Resident Statistician Miles, because what isn't improved by a resident statistician (even with Curt's gremlins at work. Talking of statistical gremlins, my counting puts my points tally 10 short but what's 10 points between friends, eh? These entries and the last theme round points should be enough to put me well past my target). And finally to my fellow challengers, whose outstanding work keeps my enthusiasm and creativity up across the whole year. 

Beautiful work Phil! That mountain gun is brilliant. I like your take on the camo and also how you've based the crew tightly around it - those gunshields must have felt pretty darne small under fire. Your cultists are ace as well - I'm particularly taken with the grey-blue you've used for their robes - it's slimming, traditional and yet so chic. :)

I know you've been pretty pegged-out with 1:1 scale project so I appreciate the effort you put into the Challenge with the time that you had - and hey, you managed to recover the honour of Britannia with your duel with Juan. That's gotta be worth a heap of street cred there in Blighty, right?

Until next time Phil. Take care.