From PeteF: Really The Last Post - A Mixed Bag of Chambers (164 Points)

 As I completed my "last" post yesterday I felt a gnawing disappointment that I'd not completely explored Curt's delightful dungeon. Five rooms remained empty and I was stuck with the thought...what if they could be finished in a day? So as I watched tv last night - and straight after breakfast I was painting individual bricks on La Haye Sainte - my entry for The Oubliette. 

I owned this model back in my youth as a result of an abortive day trip to Windsor Safari Park. Somewhere near Uxbridge the car blew a tire and we spent most of the day by the side of the road and in Uxbridge itself where toy shop was found and the Airfix Waterloo Battle Set was used to assuage my sadness (score, right?). That particular set has been lost in the mists of time but a few years ago I inherited an unbuilt Waterloo Farm House when my brother passed away. He never got around to assembling and painting this iconic piece of Airfix nostalgia and I've had it primed and ready for around 3(?) Challenges... my memory isn't what it once was.

I'm not sure painting the individual bricks was the most efficient approach to this model, especially in a time crunch. But there you go. When I prepped the model I used bits of Lego as jigs so two of the roofs can be easily removed to house soldiers. The whole thing is a bit big to use in a Black Powder game but the individual structures will come in handy along with my other Airfix houses for representing Belgian towns and villages.

Excluding the jutting wall the model is 12"x8"x3" which I estimate to be worth 27 points plus 20 for the room for a total of 47.

I'm going to write and upload photos as I go today. The clock says 9 hours and 40 minutes and there are four rooms left.

Next up is this shrine like object which is my entry for the Tomb. It was a generous gift from a fellow wargamer - I had mentioned to him that I was thinking about doing some fantasy mass battle gaming and he gave me some of his old stuff. I believe this is part of an old GW starter set (hopefully more of it later).

This is likely to see use in Kings of War as a Portal of Despair (mwahahaha) for my Nightstalkers army. I've put clues to various horror movies in the game pieces. This one might even get a second clue if I can figure out how to use LEDs to make the mouth area flicker like the TV screen in Poltergeist. It's a bit obscure but that's the idea.

At 100mm, This is quite a big object so I'm scoring it at 10 points (equivalent to a 54mm foot figure) plus 20 for the room bonus. Added bonus is 26 skulls!

The clock is ticking - AHPC page says seven hours to go - 3 more rooms to clear...

Now to the laboratory - this was the hardest chamber of them all for me to find a suitable mini. After digging around on the shelf of shame I came up short - but then remembered an old box of Heroclix I'd got for my son and which he had given back last time he cleaned out. 

The Hulk is the result of an experiment gone wrong and this version - some kind of robot hulk - is the result of yet more tinkering by misguided scientists. Not sure if I'll find a game for him but he was fun to paint - I enjoyed highlighting the green and will use some of the other Heroclix for practice. I broke out the Turbo Dork for his shiny green machine parts.

I'm scoring him as a 40mm figure (he's 50mm foot to elbow)plus room bonus. With 2 chambers to go the clock says 5 hours 39 minutes. But I have to take a break to cook dinner.

Sticking with the green skinned theme and knocking out another chamber - here are some goblins (night goblins?) from the same source as the shrine thingy. With time so tight I only did these three - I was given enough for a large unit of Saga levies or a regiment of bowmen for Kings of War. In Kings of War there's a goblin tribe - the Red Goblins - that help out the ogres so I gave them red hoods and slippers. Like the pope.

These are nice old school sculpts with lots of character - maybe I'll work towards a full green skinned army - they're fun to paint.

3 minis and a room bonus for 35 points. One room to go - I checked the clock and there's 3 hours and 48 minutes left of Challenge XI to finish the final room.

And here is the final figure for Challenge XI - a female paladin for The Kinght's Solar. She's an old school figure - I can't remember the manufacturer. Maybe Citadel. The pack comes with a mounted on unicorn version of the same mini which I'll save for another time.

1 figure on foot plus a final room bonus for 25 points and the end of a fun day chipping away at the shelf of shame. Apologies if this has been too many pictures! Left with 3 hours to spare... maybe there's another mini?

Grand Total: 164 points

La Haye Sainte: 47 points

Portal: 30 points

Laboratory: 27 points

The Orcs' Pit: 35 points

Knight's Solar: 25 points

And then I got some help

A Big Thank you to Curt and his minions as well as everyone who has participated in Challenge XI. We only get one shot at this journey of life and I'm grateful to have spent some of it painting alongside this merry crew.

From TomG - The Tomb - 25pts

A last minute reminder from a great friend that I'd stopped posting anything for my challenge entries, dragged me out of a malaise that I had slipped in to worry the last round of UK lockdown. Fittingly the post I had started to create was for the "The Tomb" challenge chamber. 

For this challenge I had dredged up this ghostly Guildball player, from a limited run team that was produced before the game was canned. Each player in the team represented a character that had died in the game lore, allowing a fantastic array of figures, including this one of Blackheart.

Painted using the Hexwraith paint from GW, this ghostly finish was achieved quickly, then came the fun job of getting the tomb stone painted up, which again was some simple drybrushing for a satisfying image. 

I hope you all like this miniature who scores me 25 points, with 5 from him being a 28mm miniature and 20 points from the challenge entry. 

TomG

From JonathanO: Egyptian sarcophagus and mummy - The Tomb (25 points)

 More items from Mantic Games Terrain Crate for this submission.  The Egyptian sarcophagus and a mummy seem appropriate for The Tomb location.  

Suggested points:  5 points for the pair plus the location bonus of 20 = 25 points.

The tomb - stone circle and Chaos Sorcerer! Mark Backhouse (27 points)

For the tomb I thought a henge or stone circle would tick the box nicely. This is another wee tiny 2mm treat on a 60mm x 60mm base. A stone circle with a few enthusiastic druids. 

I’ve also painted an inhabitant - albeit in a completely different scale! An undead Chaos Sorcerer!

This ugly wizard is from Heroquest! He’s been given a reboot paint job and a Nurgling for good measure just in case you didn’t realise his allegiance to Nurgle! His horrible pox was cured by Nurgle (see the scars on his legs) and therefore he seeks to serve the dark gods! He will be a nice addition to my Nurgle Realms of Chaos warband.

A few skulls there to keep the Oldhammer skull collectors happy too.

I’m claiming 5 points for the 28mm figure and 2 for the standing stones. 20 for the tomb challenge making a glorious total of 27 points.

Cheers

Mark Backhouse

 

From ChrisF - Chamber of Challenge The Tomb - 15mm tomb (25pts)

 I made this tomb a few years ago for my gaming table. I produced the original out of foam and clay, and made the silicone mold for repro. Not super detailed , but functional. Since the roof is a 2 part cast, it was always on standby to use up any extra resin, along with the baseplate and building, so I ended up with quite a few. 

After primer I painted the whole thing with white liquitex, and just used a variety of stains.

I've developed a much better way to make rubble, so I may make another one in the future, but as of now its a fun scatter piece for the gaming table.

Not counting any points for the 15mm mini inside as he was previously painted, but wanted something to show scale. Should have painted a new one, but I really, really like this vampire mini and wanted to use him. 

From SidneyR: The Tomb of Sint Jacobus for "The Tomb" (57 points)

 

For my visit to "The Tomb", I've painted a jumble of figures from various manufacturers.  They all have something to do with dead things, however....

The first thing I thought of for the Tomb was a praying guardian, perhaps one of the Brothers of Sint Jacobus from my fictional Laarden project for the late seventeenth century.  A member of a monastic order tasked with the sacred duty of guarding and observing the relics of Laarden's greatest saint - just in case, on the off-chance, a miracle might just... you know... happen.

The Brothers missed out on being in my Challenge for last year, so it's been good for my soul to add one of the Brothers to this Challenge XI.

The Brother is a Bicorne Miniatures monk, from their 'War Correspondents" range.  It's a venerable sculpt, in the Peter Gilder/ Connoisseur style.  While it didn't look great out of the packet, like many older figures it's a joy to paint and starts to very effective on the table at the three foot range or more.  Striking, highly contoured, and with a 'mannered' style, I can see Prior Willem adding a touch of ecclesiastical pedigree to many of our games from the Dark Ages to the Napoleonic era.  

I added the same Milliput cobbles with my fancy greenstuff roller which I'd used for my "Armoury" submission earlier in this Challenge.  I also placed the Brother alongside a really strange miniature - something from Games Workshop which might best be described as a box of body parts.

There's a skull, a lot of bones, a non-decayed head (which is quite handsome for a severed head) and a steel gauntlet.  Could these be the Sacred relics of Sint Jacobus himself, dear Challengers?  

Perhaps so, which explains the Brother's dedication in committing his prayers to parchment.  I was taken by the idea, and I thought the Holy Saint needed a more striking and expensive velvet cover for his once-mortal remains. I made the 'velvet' covering with some wine-bottle foil and a greenstuff fringe, painted the velvet in deep scarlet and the fringe in Venetian Gold.  Fancy stuff indeed.  Nothing but the best for Sint Jacobus, my friends.

A few tufts of grass weeds, poking through the cobbled paving of the Tomb, completed the base.  I liked the slightly creeping feel of decay in the miniatures, even down to the rickety old wooden box which Sint Jacobus' remains are resting in, contrasted with the miraculous preservation of the Saint's hands and handsome head.  I doubt the bottle of herbal liqueur, warming Prior Willem in his arduous duties, will have the same longevity - though it might have miraculous properties all of its own.

Here's Prior Willem's ludicrous Character Card from the "Enemies and Allies of Laarden, 1688" Collectible Card Collection for Challenge XI....

Alongside one of the Brothers of Sint Jacobus, there's a Banshee.  I thought this went well with the Tomb, and she is also a female banshee - to transport me back, with the intercession of the good Lady Sarah, to the 'Hall of Ancestors' on the Second Level of the Challenge Chambers.

It's been a while since I painted a ghost (or a wraith or banshee).  But with a mix of dry-brushing (light grey) and washes (mainly blue, green and grey), the details picked out fairly easily on the Games Workshop miniature.

Finally, as this is "The Tomb", I thought I better add one.  Midlam Miniatures make a very fine tomb with a noble knight on the outer covering and a tiny skeleton inside.  Just the thing for placing in a spooky temple, church or monastery.

So, for the points, there's a 28mm Brother, and a Banshee (5 points each, adding to 10 points).  I hope to claim 5 points for the tomb (half points for the prone knight and the prone skeleton inside!), and then a couple of points for the bones of Sint Jacobus.  All of the bones in Sint Jacobus' box do, I think, complete an entire person, but he is prone - so just two points, dear Challengers.  That would collect 17 points, and with the 20 points for "The Tomb" gives a total of 37 points, and adding in the extra 20 points for a Lady Sarah Bonus (back to Hall of the Ancestors), brings that to 57 points.

I'm praying that's correct. (Yup.  Sorry.  That was a pun). If its not... the flagellation can commence in the discrete surroundings of the Brothers' dormitory...

So how am I doing with my creation of Character Cards for the "Enemies and Allies of Laarden, 1688" Collectible Card Collection for Challenge XI?    I am sure with whatever is happening in the real world, it's the question everyone is really asking this Friday morning.  So far, there's now seven cards with the addition of the Brothers of Sint Jacobus, with three more scheduled to appear.  

Maybe, just maybe, there might be even one more after that, if my prayers to Sint Jacobus are answered.  I better stare at his remains for another hour.  That'll help.  Can someone pass me the herbal liqueur, please?

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