From BillA - Post-Challenge Group Shot

So this was not as productive a Challenge as I'd hoped for, but here we are.  Caring for an ill partner took me out of the Challenge for part of January and the whole of February, so I think I can forgive myself for not reaching my (admittedly-high) points goal.

Here's this year's Challenge production; I'm still exceptionally pleased with the giant Blue Crab more than anything, but everything here shows how my skills have grown since I started painting again in 2014.

And here's my mug with them.  I even shaved for you guys.  I'm working from home going forward, and will hopefully have some extra painting time for the Quarantine Challenge.

From BillA - "I say, Jeeves!" (10 Points)

Been digging through my closet of shame and found a box of Pulp Figures I'd primed a year or so ago; I'd won a free pack through a trivia contest Bob Murch had had on his Facebook page, redeemable with my next order, so I ordered enough of the "Personality" sets to get two free packs, and one of them was "Upper Crust Swells." Among the tuxedoed fellows and society matrons was a stiff-backed valet and an enthusiastic young man with a loopy grin and an umbrella in hand.

I immediately recognized them as the long-suffering valet Jeeves and his charge, Bertram Wilberforce Wooster, from P.G. Wodehouse's classic series of comic novels and, of course, the ITV show starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry.

Please forgive the unusual backdrop - trying to take their picture against my usual backdrop kept resulting in them being ridiculously washed out.  We cleaned our kitchen this weekend though, and on a whim I took a picture of them with the side of our refrigerator behind them.  It left the details a bit more visible.  That's two more 28mm figures, for another 10 points.

***

"Upper Crust Swells" - love that title. Great work Bill - another 10 points for you!

GregB

From Bill A - The King in Yellow arrives in O'Grady's Gulch (37 points)

I had struggled quite a bit with O'Grady's Gulch, trying to find the right figure and the right person to gift it to.  When I pulled this figure (Reaper's "Crimson Herald," produced in Bones as part of the Bones 4 Kickstarter) I knew what to do with it instantly.  I'm not the first to see parallels between this figure and the mysterious, robed "King in Yellow" of the Cthulhu Mythos, but I'm quite pleased with how mine came out.

I'll be shortly sending him along to Oscar Rios, an author and publisher of scenarios and supplements for the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game.  Over the past few years, Oscar has taken me under his wing and taught me a great deal about writing for publication in the RPG industry, and has helped me enter the field for myself as I've transitioned from Oscar's apprentice to his colleague.  Appropriately, Oscar himself entered the field with a scenario relating to the King in Yellow.

He's 28mm scale, but 40mm-ish tall, and I've affixed him to a 40mm round base.  I kept him very simple, with a solid yellow robe, black-green skin with a minimum of highlighting, and only a little freehand, to draw the ominous and sinuous "Yellow Sign" into his book.  I'm thinking he should work out to 35 points?

MilesR:  Ahh maybe a bit more points wise 'cause he's a large lad - and scares me a bit - lets rate him as a 40mm!

From BillA - Spaceport Security Detail (25 points)

2020 is honestly shaping up to be my year for wargaming, at least on the skirmish front.  My friend Tom and I have been enjoying the heck out of the Fistful of Lead family of games from Wiley Games; originally designed around western gunfights, it's evolved into a family of skirmish games in a variety of genres.  Lately, we've been playing a lot of "Galactic Heroes," the science fiction variant, and demoing it at our friendly local game store.  We've gotten a couple of other people hooked, and had some very interested bystanders, so we're definitely looking at expanding our demonstrations, so I've been trying to get a bunch of "lender" crews together for people who'd like to try the game out.

This crew comprises a portion of the bureaucracy and security of a busy spaceport.  Leading this crew is Customs Agent Gilda Citlax, an overworked amphibian produced by Crooked Dice Games as part of their recent "Colony 87" Kickstarter.  I wanted some really bright colors for her to contrast with the more muted tones of her crew, and Vallejo's "Hot Orange" really hit the right note as the base for her skin.

Supporting Agent Citlax is this Impound Officer, a "Krogglogg Hunter" produced by Lead Adventure Miniatures as part of their "Astropolis" line of dystopian science fiction figures.  He's there to shoot out the power couplings on spaceships that have unpaid parking tickets.

Rounding out the crew are a trio of Security Officers (an-add on from Crooked Dice's Colony 87 Kickstarter).  In game terms, these are "Regulars," low quality troops that form the basis of any crew.  I tried painting urban camouflage for the first time on these fellows and think it turned out really nicely.

"No...no...damn you, look where I'm pointing, not at my finger.  

All in all, that's five 28mm figures at 5 points apiece, so this crew is worth 25 point.

Cool looking figures, Bill, and this post makes 10 submissions that I've had the pleasure of minioning today.

Tamsin