From SanderS: "A Romance of sorts" (30 points)

 Hoi,

So there's a surprise, I didn't plan on painting this vignette at all anytime soon, specially not today, but I found myself with some spare time and while rummaging through the unpainted leadpile I stumbled along this pair. 

On First sight this might not look very romantic, usually when we think about romance we imagine handsome young(ish) people having steaming romantic adventures of all sorts. But if I really think about what real love is, that's not it. I feel that real love is about commitment, acceptance and giving and taking. Personally I have had the enormous good fortune to marry a girl that is tolerating, perhaps even supportive of all my hobby endeavours and quirks, and I cannot say how happy this makes me. Granted it does mean I have to be supportive about 1000m2 meters of backyard and hedges, 5 chickens, 2 rabbits and a dog (yes since 5 months we have a Paint-Support-Puppy too!). That said I found this couple of Indian people from the Indian Mutiny range I have still waiting completion. 

I imagine this woman supporting her man in his fight to rid the country of the foreign oppressors, even in defeat. That my friends is true love! Not gallavanting off in search of treasure and jewels (Romancing the Stone or  Jewel of the Nile anyone?), no; real life persons sticking by each other through the bad times as well as the good! I also included a picture of the pup, officially named Spot by his breeder, but more commonly known as Fluffy MacFluffson by us. He's an Australian Shepperd if someone is wondering. 

So I gather these two 28mm figures as well as the location bonus should be worth another 30 points. Now I am off to paint some more GW stuff.

Cheers Sander

Sylvain: Ah, love... You prove with your post that French do not have the monopoly on this noble sentiment. Your vignette is simple yet powerful. A well deserve location bonus for you. And congratulations on your new furry companion!

From Sarah: Where is Elfio? Let’s look in the Romance and Art Sections (70 Points)

The AnalogueVille Librarians are very fond of Elfio, and he is usually quite diligent in his book shelving tasks….. However, there are reports of BOTH mis-shelved & dishevelled books in the Romance & Art Sections, and suspiciously, Elfio keeps disappearing.

Continuing from our last stop in Local History, I thought we’d pop into the Romance Section where shockingly!! We see… the fair maiden, Lady Annabelle swooning, and Elfio …. We close the door and tip toe away…

The Fainting Lady, or my Lady Annabelle is another great figure that I found on MyMiniFactory. To date, she is probably my most favourite figure that I’ve painted. The moment I saw the figure and since I already had painted Elfio, I knew I wanted to do a torrid Classic Romance Novel style post.

Lady Annabelle, resplendent in a lovely spring green gown, white flounces with pink trim, looks very much like Romantic Heroine, though there is a touch of whimsy too!

For fun, I thought I would quickly doodle a book cover to serve as a back drop.

As we continue through the library ….. we enter the Art Section.

Here we find the Great Master Painter, another terrific figure found on MyMiniFactory.

Unfortunately the first print failed and shortly after I began painting the second print, I dropped her and the paint brush in her extended hand broke. I literally cried, but decided to carry on.

I really like her pale blue dress, the colour turned out really well and since I wanted the painter to be exotic/bohemian I thought an elaborate purple hairdo and yellow head wrap would be fabulous details.

So, for this narrative, to explain the broken paint brush, the Great Master Painter has “snapped her crayons” because the wandering rogue Elfio is very late for his portrait appointment.

Again for fun, I did a few quick doodles of Artwork to have around the artist studio.

Points Scored (Elfio, piano and book stacks all previously scored):

Romance location: 20 pts

Lady Annabelle 54mm = 10 points

Art Location: 20 pts

Master Painter 54mm = 10 points

Easel = 5 points (?)

Total = 65 points

Thanks for dropping by

Have a great week!

- Sarah

Another very creative and fine contribution, milady! Your painting is excellent, and your choice of colours flawless of course. I really like the swooning Lady Annabelle, and you definitely achieved the Bohemian look you aimed for with the painter. I really like the little additions you created to depict these scenes, and the location bonuses thus are well-deserved. And I feel your pain with the broken paintbrush (although I admire the way you explained it and used it to your advantage!). 3D printing is a great thing, but the figures can be a little brittle and somehow you always drop them when they are halfway done or nearly complete... Still, all in all you managed quite well and these 65 points are certainly justified! I'll add a couple of bonus points for the creative doodling however. Well done Sarah!

Martijn

P.S. You would make me even happier by including an updated map next time!

From MartijnN: The Enlightenment and Romance [Romance] (78 points)

As the Enlightment was followed by the Romance period, it seemed fitting to combine the two in today's entry. So, first I have the second batch of vessels for my Dystopian Wars Enlightenment fleet: three Lovelace Class cruisers and three more Merian Class frigates:

I stuck with my recipe, even though it is rather much work for the effect. I am, however, fairly happy how they came out eventually, and at least they stand out relatively well on the seascape.

Just to prove that I did paint three more frigates here's a picture of the fleet so far. Only the two large battleships to go, and then I can start on the Commonwealth (Russian) fleet.

For last year's Challenge I prepped some figures but did not get around painting them. However, I think they fit admirably into the Romance section of the Library. Here is a romantic couple, perhaps dancing at a Ball at Versailles during Louis XVI's reign, or going out for a stroll in the gardens. They are 3d printed Iain Lovelace figures. I do not really have any purpose for them, but they were nice to paint. Perhaps they will come in handy for a Pirate game or suchlike.

And just to show our Minion that I do in fact paint the backs of my figures:

I struggled a bit with this week's book recommendation, for war is seldom romantic. However, at the very end of the Romance Period there was a war that definitely had some romantic overtones to it. The French call it the Guerre d'Orient, but most people know it as the Crimean War. Fighting the Russians in the mysterious East, on behalf of the Turks, which were still ruled by an Ottoman Sultan with a harem, with soldiers wearing gorgeous colourful uniforms inspired by  Arabian dress, it definitely struck a romantic chord in Britain and France. It is a special interest of mine, but information was hard to come by in the days before the Internet. I was thus very pleased to discover this book in a branch of a now nearly defunct chain of second-hand and clearance books, De Slegte, as a schoolboy back in the 80's. It's Lawrence James' Crimea 1854-1855. The War with Russia from contemporary photographs.

There is something fascinating and melancholy about these early photos of war, even though for the most part they are very posed. In this book, James collected photographs mainly by Fenton and Robertson. Most are readily available on the Internet today, but is still nice to have some background information. There is also a very brief outline of the war itself, and of the history of photography up to that point (when it was of course a relatively new technology). I would not go out looking for this book, it will be long out of print I guess, but if you can pick it up on Ebay or in a second-hand bookshop for a good price it still is a nice addition to your library.

Time for the map:

As for points, the previous frigates scored 6. I have no idea about the cruisers, 10 perhaps? I'll be happy with whatever our minion decides.

2 x 28mm foot @ 5 = 10

3 x Merian frigates @ 6 = 18

3 x Lovelace cruisers @ 10 = 30

Romance library bonus = 20

Total of 78

TeemuL: I was about to my hair when I started reading this entry: first Bruce trying to get Romance bonus for guys in red and now Martijn claiming Romance points for "Lovelace class" cruisers... Well, I soon got corrected, and the Dystopian War was not connected to Romance at all. Martijn nicely shows, that he is not trying to claim points for the same ships again and even shows, that he has painted the backsides, too. The couple fits the Romance section perfectly, no questions asked. I'll score the cruisers as "frigates and other" category, which is exactly 10 points as you hoped for.

The Crimean War is almost local history here in Finland, even though it mainly happened elsewhere. But there was Åland War, which was linked to the action on Crimea: Åland War in Wikipedia. Finland was part of Russia back then (although autonomic country) and those pesky British decided to bombard Finnish islands and coast trying to destroy Russian ships located here and convince Sweden to join their alliance. Interesting side story (from my point of view) and perhaps not that common knowledge to all.

From SimonG: The Death of Romance - 15mm Cathar Knights and Spearmen (48 points)

"I would rather go to Hell, where there are fine clerks and knights, who have died in tournaments and noble wars, brave soldiers and noble men. These are who I would go with. And there, also, are the beautiful and courteous women who have two or three lovers in addition to their husbands." (Aucassin et Nicolette)

 

The Albigensian Crusade had implications that went well beyond the military, religious and political -- in fact it can be argued that the crushing of the culture of Occitania marked the end of the high age of Medieval Romance. Thus for my submission for the Romance section of the library I offer a stand of Cathar Mounted knights and a stand of heavy infantry.

Cathar Mounted Knights

Heavy Infantry Spearmen

The figures are once again Khurasan 13th Century and after my leader bases a few weeks back these are the first couple of full unit bases. One of the great things about Impetus as a rule set is that it requires the use of large, often vignette like, bases. In 15mm these bases are a manageable size and it is good fun to try close basing and creating little scenes within each base. 

Bertrand de Porcellet

Cute Pigs!

The first base is five 15mm mounted figures -- actually Bertrand Porcellet Comté de Provence and Lord of Arles and his retinue as I couldn't resist painting a pig as heraldry! While the heraldry on the other figures is made up  I really enjoyed working on them, especially the harlequin like caparison and the red and green quartering (which turned out a really great colour combination). My one SNAFU was to varnish two of the figures in gloss -- I've tried to damp it down with several matte coats but they're still rather toy soldierish, especially when photographed!

A Shiny Pair of Knights!

Boar to the Rescue!

Seriously? You fought dressed like this!

My Favourite Colour Combination

The second stand is more prosaic - 14 heavy infantrymen, twelve spearmen plus a commander and signaller. These figures actually required more work then the knights with exposed flesh, need for hand painted Cathar Crosses on every shield and general need for a consistent approach across them all. I chose to paint them in the colours of Raymond VII of Toulouse so represent one of the units in his service.

For this project I have selected 3mm thick bases (courtesy of Warbases) and I think this really adds a nice heft over the 2mm I was using for my prior 28mm HYW Impetus project (and which the command stands previously submitted were on). It also helps the colour coding for Cathar (red) vs Crusader (blue) stand out. Anyway I'm pleased with the result and the little scenarios created within the base.

En Garde!

Rallying the Troops

Do You Know What's Going On?

As far as points go that should be 14 15mm figures for 28 points plus 5 15mm mounted for another 20 and the 20 point bonus for the romance section for a grand total of 68 points -- my target vanishes further into the distance but I'm enjoying working at this scale!

Sylvain: Aucassin et Nicolette was part of the curriculum in my Medieval Literature class during my time at the university. Indeed, a great love story. However, I have to rule that charging knights might not have love on their mind and disqualify your claim for "romance". The miniature or the project, by themselves, should say: "romance". Your knights are super detailed, especially considering the scale is 15mm. And your colorful spearmen look ready to join their "Seigneur" in battle. Great job on these minis!  

From PeteF: Sea Nymphs in the Romance Section (35 points)

 

At first glance, The Pile of Potential didn't seem to have anything for the Romance section. Then I found this sculpt at the bottom of a box of odds and ends bought as a job lot a few years ago.  I purchased the lot for some eagle riders and tree men, never thinking I'd have a reason to paint these sea nymphs. Nothing says Romance like The Baroque.

Flesh/nudes are super hard to paint and I'm no expert - I watched 3 or 4 You Tube videos for ideas and had a couple of false starts.  I'm reasonably happy with the end result - it's not great but it's given me the desire to keep working at it and do better next time.  I think thinner paints and more glazes are called for.

As long as they don't offend I can use these as a playing piece in Kings of War - there's a faction known as Trident Realms who have various magic users that could be represented by these nymphs.

3 x 28mm nymphs plus bonus for the Romance section for 35 points(?) 

With 3 sections done in room 2, I'm ready to move to an adjacent room... or perhaps skip one using Lady Sarah's Cart.

 

Wonderful interpretation of the section here Pete, and a great piece for it as well. Agreed that skin can be very difficult to get right, especially on female sculpts. Being that if you shadow too much, you can overage the model. If you don't do enough it can look so simple. Glazes, and the like, are the way!

Great piece, and 35 pts for you
Kyle

From TomL: Romance, Library cart (55 points)

Flo MacShane

Leading us via the library cart to the Romance section is another Bob Murch sculpt from his "Daughters of the Empire" pack.  Flo is here to help these star crossed lovers decide if hanging out in an ash wasteland is really a great life choice.

Tank Girl & Booga

 

 

 

Sadly its all a wasteland.

Tank Girl and her nuclear enhanced main marsupial squeeze are doomed freedom loving fighters struggling against the man in all his self-serving ways. Booga and TG were sculpted for a charity event and sold via Frothers UK. The background is an actual coal ash waste area in Illinois. 

This rare second post of a week is for 55 points.

3 28mm figures for 15 points.

Library cart for 20

Romance for 20

From Millsy: A rare second post and certainly worth the effort Tom! I particularly like Booga who looks great in his Quadrophenia t-shirt. Bob Murch stuff is always fun to paint and the Frothers minis look great alongside. I'm fascinated by the background you chose too, really evocative and likely a first for the Challenge!

From MilesR: More 10mm Russo-Japanese War and a Romantic Surprise (320 Points)

A moderately sized swath of 10mm Russo Japanese War figures.  These are the new sculpts from Leon at Pendraken Miniatures and I really do love the line.

First up are 24 bases of Siberian Infantry.  I building my armies (and the accompanying rules) so 1 base equal a battalion.  Hence 24 bases equals 2 Divisions - only 22 more to go.  Most of the time in-game, these will be grouped on bases as regiments of 3 battalions, but every now and then players may want to detach a single battalion to grab an out-of-the-way objective or (more likely) as as a speed bump for a pursuing enemy.

Well if one does the "R" part of "RJW" one better do the "J" part too.  I've completed 12 bases of Japanese infantry in winter coats and a whole bunch of artillery - specifically 9 batteries of 75mm guns 3 batteries of heavy artillery and 4 of siege guns.  Don't tell anyone but the siege guns are actually WW1 British 9.2" howitzers.  Both sides had dedicated batteries of 75's for each division and the Japanese had some heavier guns in independent formations.

During the war, the Japanese field 13 divisions - yet I only have 9 division batteries completed - have my math skills deteriorated that much?

NO! I'm cheating.  I've learned for any Little Wars TV video project to send some of the miniatures out to be painted by somebody with some actual skill.  Those are the troops you'll see in the close ups.  My stuff, mercifully is held in the background where the focus is fuzzy.  I've gotten 4-5 division for each side painted that way and will eventually so you some side by sides so you too can laugh at my limited skills.

And now for the "Romantic Surprise".  So surprising that I put my pictures on the right side of this post!  We live in crazy times.  My lovely yet fierce wife really surprised my for Christmas and got my a Xtool S1 laser cutter.  I love this thing and have started designing some 15mm buildings.  First off the assembly line is a 15mm Norman themed church (you can also see a earlier "prototype" in the back ground).

Designing these buildings has been really fun and I've found it A LOT easier than 3D CAD - maybe it's all those years I've spent spelunking in spreadsheets.  I've got 4 other building designs to test out (a couple of houses, a Cafe and a replica of our wargaming clubhouse

. 

I'm also working on some gaming aids for the RJW/WW1 ruleset and just generally messing about

.

Overall I'm having a blast and will be happy to share any designs for those who want them.

The materials used is 3mm MDF for the structure and "Thunderbolt Paper" for the details like the window frames.  What is "Thunderbolt Paper"?  it's .02 inch think cardboard that I stumbled on for making detail parts like shutters and window frames.

I still have a lot to learn but have great expectations for my laser focused future.  At least now I can make my own bases in bulk!

Here's a look at the file layout - I still have a lot to learn on how to build these things.  On the file image red=cut, blue score (cut a thin line) and black is the engrave.  The black part didn't show up but it's for the hatch to the floor of the tower (center bottom of the image)

So what's the final tally?

10mm Infantry figures        144 x 1 Point = 144

10mm Artillery Crew 16 bases x 5 crew each = 80

10mm Guns 28x3 = 84

15mm Church - well its 6x3x5 inches so thats 90 square  cubic inches and the holy cube is 216, so 90/216 =42% lets round that to 8 points

And now I'm going to be a little cheeky and try to slip this church past the librarian as a "Romance" submission because the my wonderful wife surprised me with the laser cutter.  I think we can ALL AGREE that nothing says Romance more than a Laser Cutter - can I get a "AMEN"? 

I really don't deserve her and live in constant fear that one day she will realize she can do WAYYYYY better than the likes of me.

add 20 points for Romance and we get to 336 points

OK, enough rambling from me - Gus wants to go back outside and play in the snow!

What a great entry, Miles! First let me say (again) that I absolutely love your growing Russo-Japanese armies. As has often been said, 10mm and other small scale miniatures look great in their mass, even spaced out like your RJW formations. Now these are great, but your self-designed and built church is even greater! What a fine piece of handicraft that is. Well done indeed! Now, I have one or two surprises for your esteemed self. In the first place, I have re-positioned your photos to the centre as you have undoubtedly seen. It is all fine and good being a rebel, but we cannot have photos aligned to the left or the right. I am sure you will agree that that way lies the road to chaos and anarchy, if not madness. In the second place, although I will not laugh at any of your work, even (or especially) close up (would love to see some of those), and I am sure you deservingly love your spouse,  and the present she presented you with is extremely useful and a sign of loving insight into your wants and needs, I will not buy in your futile attempt to pass off the church as a valid entry for the Romance Section on that basis alone. Should you have adorned it with a newly wed couple (or one after many years of marital bliss for that matter), it might have different. So, 316 points. I will round that off to a still quite impressive 320 though, because that church is rather awesome!

Martijn