From: TomL, AHPC 16 final call

Time for the AHPC 16 final roll call.  Had a lot of fun as always painting and looking at everyone else's work.  Managed to get quite a jump on the Battletech plastic mountain:

 

The only mech's I didn't paint were my lone Gothic battletech box.  Maybe this summer or next challenge.  Hopefully this eliminates much of the grey from our club's battle fields.

Completed only few units from my ACW Warlord Epic boxes. I actually managed to partially paint 4 CSA sprues on vacation and was thinking I would crush my objective. Alas getting time to complete the details after vacation proved difficult. Luckily the theme rounds made up for that. 

 

Thanks again to Curt, Sarah, Sylvain and the entire Minion Team for their time in running this.  I shall miss looking at all the painted miniatures everyday.   Hope to see you all again next year.

Tom 

 

From: TomL, CSA & the High Priestess for 210 points

I partially painted several confederate sprues of Warlord Epic while on vacation leaving the fiddly stuff for home.  This is the last of those that will make the challenge. This is the 5th Texas:

 

 

Eventually I will dig up another metal command strip and paint up a second command stand in this uniform and split this large group into two regiments.

Painted in a similar way to previous regiments, this currently larger unit of 100 figures * 2 points is worth 200 points.

I realized I hadn’t painted a single Bob Murch Female Adventurer this challenge.  Obviously the only thing to do was to grab a few from primed pile.  So I present some misunderstood, often underestimated female cultists.  The High Priestess and her equally evil assistant:

The dagger was painted with a dark purple/green color shifting paint that obviously does not like an overhead led light. Two 28mm cultists for 10 points.  Duels remain unchanged. 

Skulls - 21
BSRoD - 42
Squirrels: 8 

Thanks again Sylvain for your attentive and supportive minioning as well as the others on the minion team who bounced all over as needed, and of course Curt & Sarah.  All the work that goes into organizing and supporting the challenge is deeply appreciated.  It was fun. 
Cheers,
Tom 

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A great final entry, Tom. While I very much admire your Reb infantry, I have to say my heart is with those Bob Murch female cultists (those sculpts are so characterful). Such a tough gig, being a cultist, but you've made them quite glamorous here. Well done! 

Until next time! 

- Curt

From TomL: The final Lances (60 points)

I will be back for one last post this challenge but this is the last stompy robot post.  Squeezed more painting time in last weekend than expected and finished the remaining lances of Battletech I was given to paint.  

First off is another unit of Bluestar Irregulars:

Followed by a generic inner sphere scout lance:

 

Finally a Stormhammer lance for the Lyran Rangers:

 

Since all these mech's will be heading home to their owners this weekend, I figured a AHPC16 class picture was in order:

 

Score:12 Mechs @ 5 for 60 points.

12 points for the Stompy robots of death duel.

I have not been tracking Squirrels but for fun I figured I would look back and count (Cartoon Pulp Figures, BT Innersphere factions (Steiner, Grey Death Legion, Olsons Raiders, Somerset Strikers), ACW Union, ACW CSA, SF TV Pulp).

So my duels will end here: 

Skulls - 21
BSRoD - 42
Squirrels: 8   

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Sylvain: Another great bunch of robots. All your mechs look awesome in their respective house "livery". I can understand your satisfaction of having completed your painting objectives. I'm glad you had a great challenge. Bravissimo!

 

 

From TomL: More Strikers (20pts)

You guessed it, another Battletech unit.  This is my second painted in the Steiner Striker colors - red with an vague inverted triangle shape in white. 

 

A black wash over the base Vallejo Italian red followed by a TTC red triad highlights. The inverted triangle areas were painted grey, then titanium white with contrast basilicom wash. 

Hoping to finish at least one more CSA ACW unit but painting time has been consumed by unexpected work this month.  

Score:
4 28mm figures @ 5 for 20 points.

4 points for the Stompy robots of death duel.

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Sylvain: There is no such thing as painting too many robots... By the way, good job with the paint brush. The colors are crisp  and neat. It has been an honor to be your minion; "à la prochaine". 

 

 

 

From TomL: More Legion of Death (25 points)

This is the second Lance of the challenge painted as the Grey Death Legion. This unit has no battalion indicators but we do have more decal skulls!

 

As before, base colors are from the Vallejo Model Air range, while the weathering and weapons were done with Vallejo metal & model colors. The cockpits were finished with Tamiya clear orange.  The tiny death head skull decals are from Fighting Piranha Graphics. 

Score:
25 points for 5 figures

10 Skulls
5 points for the Stompy robots of death duel.

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Sylvain: You are so consistent with the quality of your paint job when painting these robots that I would really like to see a picture of the whole collection, or maybe some robots in action during a game. I love the japanese banner (sashimono) on the back of one of  your robot. It elevate the style of your lance. Bien joué! 

 

 

From HerrRobert: Dragons Dancing at the Black and White Ball (40 points)

Deep in the frozen northern wastes, the young white dragon Othimmalaeagkar stood proudly on a hunk of rock staring out over a frozen sea of ice. Whisps of cold escaped her nostrils as she surveyed the domain she would make hers, establishing a lair and asserting dominance, contemplating the treasure soon to be mined by her captive deep gnomes and hordes of succulent caribou to feast on.

Meanwhile, deep in the fetid swamps hundreds of miles to the south, a young black dragon Thriingaulzundae snorts in deep satisfaction over his acquisition of a ruined and flooded chapel, sacred to gods long gone. Having secured the loyalty of a pirate band and the fealty through fear of a tribe of orcs, he contemplates the riches he is sure to amass, the magic to hoard, and ancient knowledge to covet.

For my third entry to Challenge XVI, I take you on a trip back down memory lane, to the Analogue Hobbies Studio of Challenge XIII. While my progress through the studio was extremely limited, I did amass several projects for the various themes throughout the studio. One of these was the "Black and White" section, which seemed eminently suited to digging something out of the pile of shame.

Black & White: Paint something in grey-scale, with black and white being your colours of choice. Reconjure the elegance of the silver screen! 

What could possibly be more suitable than some chromatic dragons?

From D&D Beyond, we have the necessary descriptors:

Black Dragons: Black dragons dwell in swamps on the frayed edges of civilization. A black dragon’s lair is a dismal cave, grotto, or ruin that is at least partially flooded, providing pools where the dragon rests, and where its victims can ferment. The lair is littered with the acid-pitted bones of previous victims and the fly-ridden carcasses of fresh kills, watched over by crumbling statues. Centipedes, scorpions, and snakes infest the lair, which is filled with the stench of death and decay.

Don't you just love that sense of satisfaction sculpted into his face?

White Dragons: White dragons lair in icy caves and deep subterranean chambers far from the sun. They favor high mountain vales accessible only by flying, caverns in cliff faces, and labyrinthine ice caves in glaciers. White dragons love vertical heights in their caverns, flying up to the ceiling to latch on like bats or slithering down icy crevasses.

Fizban's Treasury of Dragons gives even more options for customizing these antagonists, from a dragon naming table, to lair designs, personality traits, dragon goals and even adventure hooks. 

Both dragons are from Reaper. Othimmalaeagkar is a Reaper Bones Young Ice Dragon, while Thriingaulzundae is a much heftier metal Young Swamp Dragon. Both are multi-part kits, with the wings cast and provided separately, which made things a whole lot easier to paint.

Reaper Bones Young Ice Dragon

The metal swamp dragon

I went with a pretty simple paint scheme for both, which doesn't really befit their status as dragons, but which worked really well. Both were primed and painted in parts, wings painted separately, and only assembled after all basing was complete. For Othimmalaeagkar, I primed her black, then completely covered her in white craft paint, followed by Game Color Blue Wash, and then dry brushed with Mondo Llama Snow Flurry, while her claws and teeth were Mondo Llama Winter Clouds. Mondo Llama craft paints are all a satin finish, which worked well for this dragon.

The base is where I took a lot more risks. I used a Reaper lipped base, and filled it with Realistic Water. I was sadly disappointed since I was unable to get the water to fog up or look like ice the way I wanted it to. Despairing a bit, I turned to AK Interactives Snow Sprinkles to cover the base of the miniature, and Ice Sparkles to try and create the ice effect over the realistic water. I was afraid I almost ruined it by putting watered down mod podge on the base to lock everything in, but when it dried it gave a very nice blending. I'm quite pleased.

For Thriingaulzundae, I used Mondo Llama Fresh Pavement over a brown primer. His scales were picked out by drybrushing Folkart Metallic Black over them, while I used Delta Ceramcoat Charcoal Grey for his skin. His claws are Mondo Llama Misty Grove.

I also used this as an opportunity to experiment with swamp bases. I started with my usual drybrush of Mississippi Mud and Teddy Bear Brown fraft paint, followed by a wash of Ghille Dew speedpaint. More realistic water followed, tinted using Woodland Scenics olive drab and brown tints to the realistic water. At first, I was concerned that I'd poured too much in, but it gave a really great effect of wet ground surging up on to shore. I then added Army Painter Swamp tufts, some Woodland Scenics foliage clumps, and lichen cut and torn to size. 

So there we have it, two young dragons ready to establish themselves in their new territories, and some solid celluloid from back in the vault.

Scoring is a bit difficult. Both models are a bit larger than a mounted 28mm figure, and comparable to an armored car I posted in a previous entry. However, a full 20 points seems a bit much, unless I can eke out 5 points per for the bases, so I'm going to claim 15:

Scoring:

• 2x 28mm dragons @ 15 points per = 30 points

That puts me at 70% of my very modest 100 points goal, with most of a month to go. I might just make my goal!

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Sylvain: Very nice paint job on these dragons. The work you did on the bases really makes them come alive. The description of your painting method is really instructive. Since I scored 20 points per dragons for my own submission yesterday, it's only fair to grant you the same amount. This will also get you closer to your 100 points target. Bien joué! 

 

From TomL: BattleTech Steiner Strikers & 19th VI (142 points)

First up is another Battletech unit.  These are painting in the Steiner Striker colors - red with an inverted triangle in white. 

These were 3D printed to plug the gap in a friends Catalyst KS collection.  Some of the details were a touch shallow so I did a black wash over the base red followed by a red & slightly orange highlight. The inverted triangle areas were painted grey, then white with a final contrast basilicom grey to add some depth.

Finally got a chance to finish one of the ACW CSA units I started while on vacation. This is the 19th Virginia:

 

As before, the base colors are done with contrast paints, details and highlights used Vallejo & TTC acrylics with a final coat of Vallejo Game wash.  

Score:140
4 28mm figures @ 5 for 20 points.

60 epic figures @ 2 for 120 points. 

4 points for the Stompy robots of death duel.

 

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Sylvain: You are consistent and productive. I have seen your robots and your ACW many times already and can only reiterate how impressed I am with the attention to details and the look on the table. I will add two points for the flags. Extraordinaire! 

 

From TomL: Grey Death Legion (20 points)

This is the first Lance of the challenge I plan to paint as the Grey Death Legion.  The green (mostly round) circles indicate this is the second battalion.

 The base colors were from the Vallejo Model Air range, while the weathering and weapons were done with Vallejo metal & model colors. The cockpits were finished with Tamiya clear orange.  The tiny death head skull decals (11!) are from Fighting Piranha Graphics.  

 

Score:
20 points for 4 figures

11 Skulls (assuming decals count)
4 points for the Stompy robots of death duel.

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Sylvain: Tom, your camouflage on these miniatures is just well balanced, just a few small spots of darker color but it immediately says: "military". The decals add a nice touch and your golden color cockpits give the feel of a scifi world. Bravo!