From RobH (HerrRobert/RobertH): Señor Oliverios' Retainers (50 points)

Señor Oliveros crouched down in the scrub, waiting. El Borracho sat nearby, drinking straight from a green bottle with one hand, checking the cylinder of his revolver with the other. In all the years he'd known El Borracho, Oliverios had never seen the man without either whiskey or weapons to hand. His pet iguana, El Guapo, crouched on his shoulder. Men from his hacienda dotted the rough ground nearby, ready for the signal.

Señor Oliverios' Retainers

So begins my second entry into the 15th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Señor Teodoro Oliveros leads the men from around his hacienda to confront someone, be they the French, the Yankees, banditos, Villistas, Federales or perhaps even Spaniards or Cuban revolutionaries:

• Teodoro Guerra, Raúl Luna, Luis Aguirre and Loco Sanchez (remember him?) have armed themselves with machetes
• Martin Reyes carries a large scattergun or blunderbuss
• Octavio Montoya and Luciano Peña have muskets
• Javier Solis carries a repeating rifle, perhaps a Winchester
• El Borracho and El Guapo have a six gun

Señor Oliverios leads from the front

Eight of the ten figures (all but Solis and El Borracho) are Wargames Foundry figures from the Old West pack OW161 - Mexican Peons. I'd bought them years ago off ebay, and they'd been sitting cleaned, washed and ready to paint for at least two years now. After our last Legends of the Old West game of the exchange, they called out to paint.

El Borracho is a Reaper Chronoscape figure marketed as Lobo Sanchez, Bandito. My figure's package came with a smudged label which read more "Loco Sanchez." Since I already had Loco Sanchez, I needed a new name. Given that the figure is carrying a hefty bottle of something alcoholic, El Borracho, The Drunkard, seemed appropriate.

The figures weren't too bad to paint up, although the sandals and El Borracho's serape and inner thigh had some trouble spots, as did his hair and Señor Oliverios' cummerbund - the red kept bleeing onto his white shirt.

Three of the figures were painted to test a khaki color combination for the Spanish-American War: Delta Ceramcoat Terretorial Beige for shadow, Khaki for main, and then a wash down with Army Painter Soft Tone. It works for rough cloth, but is too dark for a khaki. I will probably try using a pale gray wash next time, and see if that is lighter.

Rear view of the party

The rest of the figures had the same white I did for Loco Sanchez as a prisoner in my previous entry. Señor Oliverios' pants and hat, along with El Borracho's hat and serape, were both done with Territorial Beige as main and Vallejo Cork Brown as a highlight, then washed down with Strong Tone. It makes for a good medium brown. I switched up my straw hat mixture, highlighting with Reaper Buckskin Pale after the Soft Tone wash, instead of before. It worked much better than doing the Soft Tone wash last, so I went back and touched up the prisoner's straw hat from my last entry.

Before and after capture, showing the touchup on the hat

I label all of my 19th Century colonial figures on the bases, with the yellow, green, blue, red or black of the label indicating skill. It's something I picked up playing a homebrew set of rules for gaming the Indian Wars in my teens/early twenties, and since I started basing my figures for that rule set, it has persisted. Figure names are written in with either white gel pen (0.3mm tip, brand new for the challenge) or 0.005mm artist marker.

The band from overhead, showing the labels

I'm a little more satisfied with the photos this go around. I got a slightly better camera app for my phone, which allows me to control the focus point, exposure and light balance better than the usual point and click of an iPhone. I also bought an attachment for my tripod, so I can use it with the phone. They're not as crisp as the black background photos Curt shoots, but they look better. I may switch to a white background though.

Springing the ambush on some French invaders (the French I bought at a con and need to rebase)

Scoring this entry is:

• 10 28mm foot figures @ 5 points per figure = 50 points.

That's also my first Squirrel Point, and 50 more points in the Colonials duel.

 

 

Sylvain: Not only are your miniatures very colorful, the characters you depict are also very colorful. I like how you add stories to your post,as it makes looking at your figurines a lot more interesting. I also find inspiring the way you coded your bases. All in all a great entry. Excellent work!

 

 

From HerrRobert (Robert H): Skeletons Skewer Earth Elementals in the Golum's Haunt (55 points)

Pomponia Valeria Exuperantia sighed again; sighs were becoming her most frequent expression as her reduced company shepherded Brother Lazarus and Siszter Hazel into a clearing in the Chambers of Challenge. Tall, snow-covered pine trees rose from what she had thought was a cavern, or some kind of chamber with cobbles and pavers to floor it. 

A loud crash rose ahead; shards of rock and earth bounced off the trees, walls and through various skellies. A giant earth elemental burst through the chamber's floor and emerged from a pile of rubble as if solid rock had not been there before.

The company responded with well-oiled precision, reanimation magics of a necromancer long gone giving magical sinew to bone picked clean by misadventure in the Frozen City. Archer skellies fanned to the flank, plucking arrows from quivers and drawing longbows to pulls far greater than mortal muscle permitted. Khopesh and dagger whirling, Kreirdgeinek Tundreirtmum, once a barbarian come to Felsted for adventure and profitable rage, surged forward to render earth, fossil and rock asunder once again.

 

For my next entry, I present more undead adventurers for Pomponia's company, and an earth elemental summoned by the dastardly yet sartorially eloquent mind flayer, Bathalian D'Kuhl. As it says on the tin for the Golum's Haunt:

“..IT WALKS…!!”  Paint something re-animated, stitched-together, bolted-together, re-created from steel, clay, earth, etc.

Well, skeletons are by definition reanimated by magic, and this earth elemental is certainly assembled from earth, clay and even a skeleton. 

First up is the earth elemental. It's a Reaper Bones product, available here. Mine wasn't the white plastic, but the grey. It's a lot less fiddly, detail is clearer, though ti does have problems with rubber-like mold lines.

 

I put it on my usual Renedra paver base, and built up the rubble with railroad ballast and river rock shards from Michaels. I think it worked rather effectively to create rubble. Painting was relatively easy, with German Camouflage Black Brown, Charred Brown, Heavy Siena and Flat Earth from Vallejo, washed with the extremely useful Army Builder Strong tone. The skeleton on his shoulder was picked out in Army Builder Skeleton Bone.

 

Inspired by some of Sidney's work in "A Demonstration of Armes" in Laarden, I decided to go a bit bolder on the cobbles and pavers. I've always liked the look of green slate, and so I tried it here. It was really simple, just Dark Angels Green contrast paint from Games Workshop on top of the now usual Charcoal Gray and Hippo Gray from Delta Ceramcoat. It all got a black wash to fill it out. It's not perfect, but getting there.

 

The skellies are all kitbashed. I started with bodies from Games Workshop, the same box of five I used for other members of Pomponia's company. Instead of the spear and shield that came in the box, I picked up some later Tomb King archer bits off Ebay. That gave me four archers. The barbarian skelly I took two khopeshes from the bits, one of which had the blade snapped halfway. That became a dagger.

 

I'm rather pleased with the conversions. Painting was very simple. I primed them with Army Painter's Skeleton Bone. The bows and armbands are a dull red triad of Vallejo Burnt Cadmium Red, Craftsmart Burgundy, and Delta Ceramcoat Barn Red. All the leather is Vallejo Red Leather with Army Painter Strong Tone to wash. Finally, I used Games Workshop's Skeleton Bone contrast to ink the bones themselves. The photos give a yellow tinge to the GW contrasts, especially Skeleton Bone and Aggaros Dunes, but I like how they look in the flesh, so to speak.  

 

 The best part is the cobbles. Again inspired by Sidney, I decided to be a bit bolder. I picked out a few in Delta Ceramcoat Stonewedge Green and Barn Red, Apple Barrel Sky Blue, and GW Dark Angels Green Contrast. Then I washed it heavily with black to ink in the recesses, and blend it together. I really like it, and will use it both on further expansions of my Undead, but may even go back and update some of the earlier ones.

 

My favorite of the bunch has to be Kreirdgeinek Tundreirtmum. He's not technically a barbarian per the Frostgrave rules, since they use a single two-handed weapon; he'd more accurately be classed a tunnel fighter, since they do use two handed weapons, but he's reasonably put out with anger management issues and dispatching foes with quick brutality is probably workable. If pressed, bad pun there, he could be a "barbarian tunnel fighter" per the Forgotten Pacts supplement. It's the GW sculpt I used for the body, especially that very expressive skull.

 

So, points. One Squirrel point, for having 5 models. I'm also claiming eleven skull points, one for the skeleton on the earth elemental, five for the skellies faces, one for the skull on the quiver sling, and four more for the Janus skulls on Kreirdgeinek Tundreirtmum's khopesh and dagger.

 

 

Finally, five 28mm foot figures are 25 points, the earth elemental is easily 54mm high for 10 points there, plus twenty for the Golem's Haunt, for a total of 55 points. Not a points bomb by anybody's standards but mine as a ridiculously slow painter, but I hope to have a few more entries in before the lid closes Saturday morning. 

From HerrRobert (Robert H): D'Kuhl and the Pit of the Pendulum (50 points)

 

Lights dancing down the hall ahead of them, the party moved through the chambers with some rapidity. Padded boots softly tapped on the greenish-gray slate, the air stale and musty. Dust, left undisturbed for unknown aeons, or perhaps only days, swirled into the air as they moved. Iolas stifled a cough, brushing dust from the fur lining his bolero jacket. He wished he'd thought to bring a cloak, or at least something with sleeves. Maybe one of those waistcoats halflings were so fond of.

He opened the door and moved into the chamber. Two wooden posts rose from what looked to be a bare wooden bed, perhaps the most uncomfortable bed Iolas had seen since that Orcish lass and her boudoir made from what had to be concrete. The two poles rose to a crosspiece, where a roughhewn iron blade hung from two pulleys. Dark though the iron be, the edge glinted in the purple light.

A figure in a pink cloak spoke. "At last, you have arrived at the Pit of the Pendulum . . . "

 

My next entry for Challenge XI is for the Pit of the Pendulum:

Paint something torturous, terrifying - or just something with a slowly descending pendulum-blade… swoosh… swoooooshhhh….. arrrghhhh!! 

I give you both: A not so slowly descending blade, and probably the most terrifying villain the D&D world can muster!

First up, I have the Reaper Bones Bathalian D'Khul. While Reaper calls him a Bathalian, we all know what he is, a mind flayer, or Illithid.

I picked up this figure sometime in 2019 and prepared him for the 2019 challenge, though he sat primed for a long time. For some reason, the primer ended up super sticky, and that probably contributed to not wanting to paint him for a while. I'm generally not a fan of the Reaper Bones, preferring the metals, and the cast was still somewhat bendy.

However, I needed a suitably terrifying figure, and, well, there's not much more terrifying than a mind flayer. Unless of course you don't mind your brains being eaten. 

 

Oddly enough, I picked the same color scheme - pink, blue and yellow - that I used for Iolas. Sometimes mind flayers retain vestigal memories and bits of personality from the host whose brain they ate as a tadpole. Maybe D'Kuhl had been an illusionist prior to changing his life priorities?

I painted D'Kuhl first, and so experimented with the yellows and pinks. I think they turned out okay. I used Games Workshop contrast paints, and really wasn't too fond of the yellow. I salvaged it by drybrushing Delta Ceramcoat Sunburst Yellow over the contrast. That did bring out a lot of details in his collar. 

 The robe is GW Volupus Pink over Vallejo Old Rose, and the long tunic is GW Terradon Turquoise. The absolute success was recreating the iconic mind flayer skin. I used Army Painter Gorgon Hide as the base, and then hit it with GW's Magos Purple. It really did the trick.

 The other bit for this submission is a Wizkids guillotine on a Renedra cobblestone base. A quick glance through the challenge archives indicates this is only the second guillotine submitted for the Pit of the Pendulum, so it's not as copycat as I thought. I saw it in my LGS and snapped it up, along with some other kinds of furniture. 

Painting went really quick, since it was pre-primed. All I had to do was glue it to the base and get cracking. I initially hit it with Vallejo German Dark Camouflage Brown, then a 4:2:2 mix of Charred Brown, Neutral Gray and Vallejo Dark German Camouflage Brown to give it a grayish tint. Finally, I washed it with Army Painter Strong Tone to bring out the woodgrain. The ropes were GW Skeleton  Horde contrast over Delta Ceramcoat Bamboo. The stone cobbles are my usual Hippo Grey, but I washed it over Charcoal Gray instead of dry brushing. 

Yes, I hear you fellow DMs wondering why the Big Bad reveals himself to the party so early. Well, mind flayers are right sadistic little gits, so they like toying with their food.

So, there we go. I am offering D'Kuhl as my Curtgeld for Challenge XI, so snap him up in the comments. With that, It's five points for D'Kuhl. I'm rating the guillotine five as well, since it's roughly 25mm figure sized. With the bonus points for chamber and Curtgeld, that's a total of 50 points.

 

From HerrRobert (Robert H): Iolas Paxina and the Hall of Traps (25 points)

As you may or may not know, when not creating stunning miniatures, my day job is a public health epidemiologist and disaster response guy. So while many of you have spent much of the last year chained to the painting tables in lockdown and quarantine, my year was spent fighting a real live war against a ruthless and deadly enemy, who neither gives nor asks quarter, for a less than grateful public.

It has, without question, absolutely sapped my ability or desire to paint. While I tried my best to contribute to the Isolation/Quarantine Challenge, my mojo died mid June, and pretty much everything but the buying of miniatures stopped. 

So, the threat of the cull has finally seen the first paint on brushes in a good seven months or so.

With that, I descend into the first chamber for Challenge XI: The Hall of Traps:  

A figure or unit which is trapped, stuck in a trap, snared, or lying in wait.  Watch your step, Challengers!

They rounded the corner and entered a chamber illuminated by a light, silvery glow. There insolently lounged an elf, a smirk upon his face. Faerie fire rose from his right hand, his left hand poised on his left hip, right behind his dagger. His long, blond hair was drawn back in a pony-tail, tucked around a scroll strapped to his turquoise open vest. Tight pink breeches, loud yellow boots, green bracers of defense and a silver ring at his belly button finished the ensemble. He was, without a doubt, the most foppish, the most outlandish elf they had ever seen.

 

 "Iolas Paxina?"

"But of course. Con su permiso, mon capitán? The hall is rented, the orchestra engaged. It's now time to see if we can dance."

My first entry is a 30mm custom miniature from Heroforge for the Hall of Traps. HeroForge has a pretty sweet, if expensive, custom miniature generator. I like playing with it for D&D characters, because the right miniature can really bring into focus what you want to do with the character. And Iolas Paxina is a great example.

 

Most fantasy settings have elves as unbelievably stuffy and stuck up, at least according to other races (cough, dwarves, cough!). I often like having my fantasy worlds play against type at times, so not everything is as cut and dried as many a rulebook will have them be. Playing with the miniatures generator, I quickly ended up with a smug, if not absolutely lascivious, elf. Clearly a fun-loving, all work and no play makes Iolas a dull boy kind of guy. 

The insouciant, devil-may-care pose and the smirk was absolutely perfect for the Hall of Traps, though whether he's laying in wait for the adventurers, an assignation or just a barmaid with the next round is yet to be determined. 

While I'm usually the DM, I prefer to play illusionists when I play mages. Blasters are boring, and while so many people see illusion as underpowered, they lack sufficient imagination. Given a good DM, illusion can be as powerful, or more powerful, than a good fireball, but without all the fuss and bother of all that destruction.

Illusionists tend to be flamboyant (my AD&D 2e Wizard's Handbook is packed up, so I can't quote the relevant paragraph), so I needed a suitably flashy color scheme. Lacking inspiration, I hit up the Austrian Hussars, and decided to go with sky blue for the vest, and pink for the breeches. Yellow boots were mandatory.

At 5 points for a 25-30mm figure, and 20 for the Hall of Traps, I'm on the board and avoiding the cull with a grand total of 25 points. 

So, there we go. One elf illusionist, ready to throw down in the Chambers of Challenge or carouse through all the bars, pubs, brothels and manor houses of your city of choice. Or both!

From HerrRobert (Robert H): Exfiltrate the island (15 Points)

Finally, my last post! I'm escaping Challenge Island via Sarah's Balloon:

For the fare, I have a suitable espionage themed entry:

This is yet another Spectre Miniatures figure, their Task Force Nomad undercover operator:

Unlike others, I painted her exactly as she is depicted in the catalog, though her headscarf is a more vibrant purple:

As a "special figure," I stole Curt's basing idea and put her on an octagon. That way, she will stand out on the tabletop.

So, another five points, bringing me to my target, almost all of which was done in the last 48 hours!

To celebrate, we will be serving mimosas on Lady Sarah's balloon, for it is morning somewhere.

___________________________________

Oh, you humbugged me on this one. I have this very mini and have been dying to paint it. Such a great pose. Great job Robert! I especially like her headscarf. (I also really like those buildings with the great archways - where are they from?)

As this was your third trip on Sarah's Balloon I've given you another 10 frequent flyer points. Also, as I added all your locations you have actually exceeded your target - Congratulations!

Wow, that was an amazing whistlestop tour if there ever was one! I'm happy I could minion you through it all Robert. Thanks for taking the time to put all these entries together! Hope to see you for the next edition.

-Curt

From HerrRobert (Robert H): Hey Doc (35 Points)

Next stop, Bromley's Butte:

As you must know by now, it is always wise to consult the guidebook when venturing about Challenge Island:

Recon, Surveillance, Target Acquisition (RSTA) was my first job in the the infantry and is still the most exciting and best experiences I've ever had. A job held by small teams of light infantry and scout snipers that are experts on stealth and stalking. Moving unseen, hidden when halted, and deft with all infantry skills as well as radio and camera use. Some of the best are are hunters, native born tribesman, like Tommy Prince. 

In homage to the light infantry, skirmishers and recon: 

An individual figure or squad of tactical stealth troopers. Any period, any scale, extra 5 points for hiding a warpaint Amer-Indian in a Napoleonic regiment. :)

For this, I present an undercover operator, the very definition of tactical stealth and recon:

This figure is another from Spectre Miniatures. He's one of their Undercover Operators (second from the left).

I found this figure quite spooky. With the exception of the pistol, he's wearing my usual "Dr. Herrick" uniform, when I have to look professional, but not full-on suit. Even the cut of the hair is right. As I said, spooky. So I painted him in my usual "look nice" garb - brown sports coat, blue polo, khakis, outrageous shoes.

The shoes are modeled after a pair of red Penguins I just bought. They're not the most outrageous shoes I have worn, though:

So, five more points!

__________________________

You're right, those are outrageous shoes (I'm more of a Fluevog man myself). I'd want to shoot him just to stop his fashion sense. 

Nice job Robert!

-Curt

From HerrRobert (Robert H): The female of the species is more deadly than the male (10 Points)

Now, a future entry to be posted in ten minutes would work for Sander's Sand Dunes, but everyone has been there. So, instead, I shall summon Lady Sarah's Balloon and Airmobile Assault Service to carry my agent to Bromley's Butte.

For my fare, I present two no-nonsense ladies, Sarah Connor and Ellen Landry:

Both ladies are from Spectre Miniatures Undercover Operators line:

Both were still just primer as of noon. I wanted to go with a similar color scheme as the Spectre Miniatures line, but reversed it due to fading memory.

While painting, the facial expression reminded me of Linda Hamilton in Terminator, so I went with Sarah Connor for the figure's name. Paint job was relatively simple, though I did elaborate on the running shoes. I'm not happy with the base, so I may fix it later.

The ponytail on this figure reminded me of CDR Landry in Star Trek: Discovery, so that was the name. I used Gryph-Charger Gray contrast paint on the pants, and I'm pleased with how it worked. Should be good for Civil War Union troops, which I needed.

So, another ten points.

Hopefully Lady Sarah will not mind having beer aboard for this voyage. It seems to suit the passengers more than champagne.

________________________________

Great work Robert. I have these very same miniatures and I agree they are wonderful sculpts (and the one DOES look like Sarah Connor). :) Thanks for the inside information for using Gryph-Charger Gray for faded jeans. That will come in very handy, Cheers!

-Curt