From RayR - Last Post - Greek Mythology - Heracles & Chums!

 

Well I stared this years Challenge with some Jason and the Argonauts figures.....and I'm ending it with the same.

Well not actually the same figures, but more from Wargames Foundry's range.

I painted them up again, in the same black armour that Foundry painted theirs in.

Here we have the Mighty Heracles, who's a very large chap, in the middle its Canthus the Euboen and Ascalaphus.

Then we have Lynceus, Peleus the Myrmidon and Idas.

Then we have 5 more Children of the Hydra

Although I got a different figure in my pack, a left handed spearman!!

I'm pretty sure my Nephew Zac's gonna love them!!

Its his Birthday at the end of the month, I've bought him some Victrix Greek's, so look out for them on my blog soon.

I took a few shots of the figures having a fight....as you do?

So this is it, my final post of the 16th Challenge, the points are pretty easy to work out on this one.

11x 25mm figures at 5 points each will give me 55 points!

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Fabulous work, Ray! How wonderfully Harryhausen this bunch is. Your nephew is going to be over the moon to have these and think what an ace uncle you are! You know it will all come down to that left-handed skeleton being the nasty one of the lot... 

Same time next year, Ray? I hope so! :)

- Curt

From BruceR, Once more into the breach, (Pts 15)

I thought I was done.  I found myself with some free time this Thursday and these three Cossacks have been looking at me throughout my 10mm madness.  Oh well, quick session and done.

These characterful figures are from Wargames Foundry and are fabulous.  I believe they were an addon to a purchase our group was making due to the rule of cool. 

I had gifted a friend a Silver Bayonet Russian band I had painted, maybe last AHPC.  I decided they would make a great Cossack/Ukrainian band to fight the evils found in the Silver Bayonet.  My grandfather made his way from Ukraine, through Canada to the States during WW1, so playing some freebooting Cossacks from the steppes would be right up my ancestral alley.    

These three were the last to flush out the band.

The Officer of the band is "Sophat" the Well Dressed.

Next, is Uncle Petro.

Last, is Oleksander One Eye.

The rest of the band completed prior to the challenge.  A young St. Nickoli in the back.

Points:

3 28mm at 5@.                    15 Total

Hope you enjoy.

One more time, thanks for looking, thanks to Curt, Sarah, and the Minions.

Roll well and be well.

Bruce

From Millsy:

These are absolutely glorious mate. The colours are so vibrant and the backstories implied in their names really sets the tone. I love the fact you've picked something based on your family history too, such a cool way to inject a little more of yourself into a project.

Well done on these and the Challenge as a whole. 15 more hryvnia added to your tally!

Cheers,

Millsy

From GeoffT: WW2 British (140 points)

Hello Challengers,

These are WW2 British infantry in 28mm to supplement my existing collection for Chain of Command. The miniatures are a mixture of brands, War games foundry home guard, Crusader miniatures and Slave2gaming Bardia range.  They blend together pretty seamlessly.

There are 26 foot for 130 points, and a HMG for a bonus 10 points.

Kind Regards

Geoff T

From Millsy:

I'm not sure how you managed these alongside your other entry this week Geoff, especially given the high quality and consistency of your brushwork. You've painted them up beautifully and done such a consistent job overall you'd never know there's a mix of sculptors and manufacturers here.

Top work mate. Another 140 points for these stout Tommies! That should push you back above me and into the top 5 on the tally again. Boo!

Cheers,
Millsy

From HerrRobert: Dastardly Daddies and Pistol Packin' Mamas (20 points)

Cornpone Junction is a dusty town bisected by the El Paso and Southwest Railroad, lured north from the dusty border crossing with Mexico by the allure of economic growth and wealth along the railroad line. Neatly bisected by the railroad in an old-fashioned arrangement, it's a dusty combination of Anglo wood-frames and Mexican adobe. And, naturally, home to all manner of desperate and dangerous creatures, most of them human.

Ma Baker, J. H. F. Mudd, Minnie the Moocher and the enigmatic Mr. Chen

Cornpone Junction is the Western setting for many of my Western games, mostly played using (heavily) modified Legends of the Old West ruleset, and I'm slowly building up my collection of figures. First up is Ma Baker, the grandmother and diabolical mastermind of the Hoss Posse (pronounced so it rhymes), a notorious collection of ne'er do wells infamous for bank robbing, mine rustling, kidnapping and wanton cattle murder. Ma Baker joins the ranks of the infamous Boss Hoss, Fancy Dan, Bat Masterson, and Gentle Nell.

"Freeze, I'm Ma Baker, put your hands in the air"

"Gimmie all your money"

Ma Baker is a 28mm Knuckleduster miniature from their Gunfighter's Ball line; she can be purchased either independently, as I did, or from their Pistol Packin' Mamas pack. 

My inspiration was the eponymous Boney M song Ma Baker, and the various Hollywood movies around Ma Barker, the supposed mastermind of the Barker Gang, though scholarship is quite mixed on her actual involvement and culpability in the gang's crimes. However, the various movie posters matched the figure almost exactly (just substituting the Thompson for a more prosaic double-barreled shotgun), so I based the paint scheme after one of the many movie posters of the time.

I think I did a pretty good job matching the purple dress, grey hair, and white apron. The dress was several thin coats of DecoArt Cranberry Wine, with a wash of Voluptus Pink contrast paint from Citadel.

Next up is Minnie the Moocher, another Knuckleduster figure available independently as a single figure. In the Gunfighter's Ball Universe, she's the head madam of Front Street. while in Cornpone Junction she's a less genteel and more nefarious character.

Paint scheme comes predominantly from the Gunfighter's Ball card, which I matched as closely as I could. The skirt and hat were fairly easy; it's the same paint mix as Ma Baker, but with a pinker coat between the two coats of Cranberry Wine. Her blouse was more involved, necessitating multiple different shades of pink before picking out the collar, cuffs, ruffled and buttons in white. It was finally all brought together with a light gray wash from GameColor.

She's also named from another song, this time Cab Calloway's Minnie the Moocher; though, with a derringer cheroot and her award-winning smile and personality, she doesn't need the King of Sweden to give her the things she's a needn. 

Though Roz from Monster's Inc might also be claimed as an inspiration.

Next is the enigmatic Mr. Chen, head of the Chinese Benevolent Association in Cornpone Junction. 

Many American cities and towns had Chinese brotherhoods, business associations and secret societies often known as Tongs set up to assist Chinese laborers, immigrants and residents across America. Traces of these smaller and more rural Chinatowns survive, especially in parts of California's Central and Sacramento Valleys.

Mr. Chen is a Great Escape Games miniature from their Tong set for Dead Man's Hand. Again, I stuck pretty closely to the box art for the faction. Black dry brushed with Delta Ceramcoat Pavement (lower robes) or Charcoal Gray (hat) formed the basic design, though the sleeves were painted in Reaper's Dark Elf skin triad. The central jerkin was Mondo Llama Whipped Honey, with Army Painter Soft Tone to take off the satin shine.

I was less satisfied with my choices for skin tone. I didn't have a good paint mix for Chinese skin tones the way I do for various Caucasian, African or Middle Eastern figures, so I had to whip something up on the fly. ChatGPT helped a little, but I'm not satisfied with the results. Since I have lots of Chinese and Japanese figures to paint up for various eras, I'll probably just buy the Foundry triad.

Last up is not a resident of Cornpone Junction. The rapskallion J. Harcourt Fenton Mudd is for my Darkest Africa scenarios. Much like his descendent in the 23rd Century, he is trader of ill repute who will buy, sell, trade, dabble or deal in virtually anything, though he's somehow become an erstwhile representative of Her Majesty the Queen, or so he claims. Though one's choice for consul in deepest Tangayika is quite slim, if he has any official standing beyond sheer presumpton, gumption and the largest whiskers in East Africa.

What wouldn't you buy from, or sell to, a man with a moustache larger than most Frenchmen?

Mudd is a Wargames Foundry figure from DA012 - A League of Exceptional Gentleman in their Darkest Africa line. I picked up a primed and based figure in a cheap figure bin easily fifteen years ago, though he was sitting in the primed to paint pile of shame for at least the last two Challenges.

I went with my usual British Army blue mix for the trousers, leather for the mid-calf boots, a Reaper or GameColor khaki for the helmet cover, and Whipped Honey again for the jacket. It was a fun mix to paint.

Figures were done on Sunday, when the first round of photos went very bad. Unlike my last submission, the black background resulted in blown photos, and the white background was horribly overexposed. After another long session with ChatGPT, I ended up building a riser for my painting studio, putting in a neutral grey foamcore background, and still not able to get a clean background deletion for that crisp black look. I'm not happy with the photos, but I just need to get these posted and on the board.

My photography booth

Scoring:

4 28mm foot figures @5 points per = 20 points

So I'm now 40% of my very modest goal, and ready to dive into some Villistas, and maybe score my first squirrel point.

 

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Sylvain: With your passionate description, your painted miniatures become alive before our eyes. And your paint job is fabulous, based on thorough pop-culture research. I especially like your basing, an evocation of the dry climate of Western country. Bravo

From ErikP: Horse & Musket Civilians in the fields, Wargames Foundry 28mm (25 points)

 Hello Everyone, 

This is a set of 28 mm Wargames Foundry, 18th century civilians bringing in bundles of crops.  These are for my 28mm Napoleonic games, mostly I use Sharp Practice rule set, and have done a few small games of Black Powder too. 

These five (5) foot figures with a few bundles of wheat, the sack is from another pack, I think it's also Wargames Foundry. They were a lot of fun to paint, as well as the few bits of bundled crops for a little scatter terrain, so I did these too. I'll submit the separate Terrain Post for the couple of points they might be worth.

For Sarah's Choice consideration, two farm ladies.

:

"...I hope you saw her petticoat, six inches deep in mud, I am absolutely certain;"  

Probably, no one will get the quote, but that's okay. 

Painting these I use several different types of paints; Army Painter Speed Paints 2.0, Vallejo, Army Painter Quick Shades. I used the Speed Paints to get started, then add layers of regular paints, and dry brushing, use quick shades, then more dry brushing, and touch ups. 

One on the funniest challenges of painting these civilians was the water in the buckets.  I wanted to get a good water effect, and I am pretty happy with the results.  

I used Speed Paint 2.0 Tyrian Navy and added more Speed Paint about a 2/1 mix to dilute it.  Then once dry used gloss varnish, about three coats. I also used it on the wooden spoon and the lower face of the guy drinking, but it doesn't show up as well. Might need a couple extra coats for varnish.

I enjoy adding extras to my game tables, even when it has nothing to do with the scenario objectives.  Scatter terrain, animals, and civilians of course.  Just to add a little something to make things more interesting.  

With these done, I'm off to finish some more Prussians.

Summary of Points:

5 x 28mm foot @ 5 points = 25 points.

Total = 25 points.

Squirrel Points = +1 [Prussian Epic (13.5mm), Napoleonic Civilians 28mm] 

Total Squirrel points = 1.

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Sylvain: Lovely farmers' figurines. I like how your bases evoke a wheat field. They all look so rustic and the extra bits add a very nice touch. Bravo!