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 Guy B: [Knights Solar] Scottish Knights [60 points]

I made it to the Knights Solar and with a few hours to spare! Sadly, no time for any more painting, so I'll post what last few models I have. Firstly, there are some knights...

Pictured here is a hybrid model with parts from the Conquest knights with parts from the Fireforge Knights and a single head from the Wargames Atlantic plastic Irish. 

He is the first of several mounted knights or serjeants to finish off my Scots. Alas, the rest wait on the side waiting for some more paint.

Next are two Knights from the excellent Antediluvian Wars of the Bruce range. I like how these dismounted knights are properly armed with spears. 

Here are two more from the range. These will eventually be a unit of six (for Lion Rampant) with a few extras to make a larger unit for other systems.

Finally, we have two left-overs from my Scots. These Islesmen models weren't quite finished in time for my original posting.  So that's one mounted, and six foot figures. I estimate 60 points.

From JonathanO: Steam Knight - Knight's Solar (25 points)

 Another figure from the Empire of the Dead range.  This time it is the Steam Knight.

This comes with separate pieces for arms, claws and chimney.  It is a lovely model and very crisply cast as with all the Westwind miniatures.  I decided to use one of the resin bases instead of the slot base that came with the figure.  

As I mentioned in my last post, I have lots of figures from this range, mostly acquired during the EoTD Requiem Kickstarter.

For points:  5 for the miniature and another 20 for the location bonus.  It all helps!

Cheers,

Jonathan

from SidneyR: Oldhammer Chaos Knights from "The Knights' Solar" (30 points)

 

And so the final week of Challenge XI begins... A time of frantic painting, brush-wielding and  a collective finishing-up of the grand plans which we all made, way back in mid-December.  Am I the only Challenger to have fallen "a bit behind schedule" with the painting tasks and Chamber-completion?  

I doubt it, fellow Challengers.  I doubt it... but fear not - your secret is safe with me, dear friends.

So after "The Guardroom", I've passed through "The Orcs Nest" (which I painted some orcs and a demon back in February) and I've arrived, finally, at Level 3 and "The Knights' Solar".  A place for knights and their knightly quests...

I prepared these two Oldhammer Chaos Knights in December.  I felt it was very much time to finally get these guys painted.  I can't remember when I bought them.  Perhaps at some point in the early 2000s, or maybe even earlier than that.  They're lovely figures, but quite chunky and from the heyday of Citadel Miniature's "Realm of Chaos" figure sculpting style.  One of them seems to be wearing some chaos-inspired samurai armour, with - horror of horrors - a broken and blunted katana.  I thought he, or indeed perhaps she, would look good in Khorne red (though, sadly, no skulls, Barks).

The other Chaos Knight looked much more Elric-esque to me, with a splendid dragon crest on his helmet.  I decked him out in Slaanseh purple and a deeply insane shade of yellow - good contrasts, I thought, to his Khorne-worshipping samurai friend.  

One of the things I like about fantasy figures is that you can get away with the figures being slightly differently sized.  I very much doubt anyone will be saying to me - "Come on Sidney, your broken-katana wielding demonic samurai looks a bit over-scale to me.  And look at that unhistorical lamellar armour..."

After weeks of late-seventeenth century painting fun, it's been a real pleasure to paint something different.  And so, on to the points:  Two 28mm figures, at 5 points each (10 points total), plus 20 points for "The Knights'Solar" making a total of 30 points.

....and finally, the Altar of the Snow-Lord is just about in sight.  Will I make it there in time...?

******* 

Sir Manfred, Knight’s Solar, Mark Backhouse (25 points)

 Into the third floor of the dungeon at last! For the knight’s solar I decided on yet another classic miniature. This time it’s a Foundry 28mm knight from the Baron’s War range. Originally it was a Citadel figure from the Feudal range.

I decided for my Realms of Chaos warbands I would create a crusading force of Imperial troops as a non-Chaotic warband. The rather outrageous purple robes look rather Papal, but are in actual fact based on the old 3rd edition artwork from Warhammer Armies. The shield is a later edition but had the same motif and I think gave the figure a nice fantastical feel.

Sir Manfred will captain a small group of men-at-arms and archers that will come from the same range. I might add a few old Essex knights as well for good measure. Whether they’ll stand any chance against the Chaos Warriors, wild beasts and monsters I’m not sure, but they will add a bit of colour to the proceedings.

So a single 28mm figure and Knight’s Solar completed. That’s 25 more points to the tally.

Cheers

Mark Backhouse

From ChrisF - Knights Solar 25mm mounted Rohan Standard Bearer(30 pts)

 This is a Heritage casting done for Elan Merch in 1980. It is listed as part of a diorama set " On to Helm's Deep" #1713 - d for the Lord of the Rings line.

He is listed as Guthlaf, Standard bearer to the King, and perished at his King's side in the Battle of Pelennor Fields.

I studied back a bit on previous posters that painted horses as I don't do a lot of mounted figures. I think I need to consider contrast when painting a miniature like this. A few areas come out good, but the right side in particular really muddled together. 

I'm off to paint my last witch.

From KyleC - Knights Solar - 10mm Halflings - 117 pts

Hi ho silver.. Away!!! Or something to that effect..

So as the undead force almost wiped me out, we switched gears to a scale I haven't done in over 20 years... 10mm! Not since warmaster was first released and I helped our local club by painting some of the display stock (which was a big deal for me at the time!) have I painted something this tiny.

These are the new files by Warploque Miniatures in their digital range. And I thought why not give them a go.. And these knightly chaps fit the bill for the Chamber as well I reckon.. 

So we have 9 bases worth of Spearmen (with a messenger on goat with the captain).. Hailing from the southern regions of their lands, known for their Pils beer and yearly beer festivals in tents.

Never one to turn their back on a good meal and a strong ale, but always there in groups cause safety in numbers (especially for Simon.. He is a bit of a lightweight and probably could use a hand getting home). 

And then the Cavalry.. Or the ones that get to the beer first during festival times as their mounts needs to clear the fields for the tents.. 

But nothing strikes fear into the enemy much like a thunderous sound of hoofs and baying cresting a hill with tiny children holding toothpicks coming at you... Always a good fright with that there!

So was a nice different style of bits and bobs to do up this week. 

35 figures = 35pts

31 cavalry = 62 pts

Chamber bonus = 20 pts

All in = 117 pts.. Points match the models.. Both are small! 😂 😂 

From TeemuL: Knights of all kinds, Knights Solar (35 points)

The kind gunslinger(ess) guided Shellington to the correct path after sharing some of the contains of the bottle with herself.  Correct path, at least that was what he expected and hoped for. "Oh No!", he screamed after the lady had left him in to a new room and quickly disappeared. "Oh no! Not these people again", he continued. This time the small people seemed quite calm, they seemed to be practicing sword fight and spoke of tobacco and paid no interest to our professor. "Lady Stone, come back!", he yelled and was surprised to hear a polite voice next to him:"I beg your pardon, but lady in distress is what I'm looking for, can you help me?" Uggla turned around and saw a knight in shiny armor. "I'm not sure if I know any ladies in distress, I think I'm the distressed one. The ladies seem to be the only ones who seem to help me, but they are not very helpful in the end." He sighed, Lady Stone had mentioned a knight in a shiny armor and there he was. "This place is a mess and I can't get my thoughts right, but I'm quite sure my laboratory is just behind the corner, follow me please", he said to the knight. But the knight grabbed his arm and went to opposite direction, "I'm sure there is Lady in Distress somewhere here, come on!"

Knights of all kinds and their knightly deeds was asked and that I have delivered. At the end of the last year I posted my remaining Rohans, but there was one Rohan warrior, who wasn't painted. Actually he was not a Rohan, but fought for Rohan (and Shire) and was knighted later on for his actions. I also painted his companion, who was knighted as well. I actually kind of forgot these miniatures when I was planning for Level 3, or at least I forgot their knightyness. So I picked up this ole metal knight, stripped the paints of the previous owner until I remembered the hobbits. In the end I decided to paint them all for this Chamber.

Merry, Knight of the Mark, is painted mostly with Contrast paint to blend in to my other Rohan forces.

Pippin, Knight of Gondor, is painted with traditional paints, mainly black. I don't have other Gondor miniatures, so this is a start of an army, where Merry was an end of one, in a way. I guess I could have painted the cloaks green to make them more Elven cloaks, but I guess in this case the Elven cloaks help them to hide among the ranks. Makes sense, right? These are GW sculpts.

The third knight is mostly metallic paint, but the colorful parts are Contrast painted. He is a Grenadier model from 1987. I got him in a mixed bag of other painted metal miniatures from different manufacturers some time ago, painted by the previous owner. I glued him on a 25mm MDF base so he fits in with other fantasy miniatures I have.

3 miniatures in 28mm, 15 points

20 points for Knights Solar

10 points for GW side challenge, no skulls

P.S. I have not been commenting many posts this year, I have tried, but since at the moment I'm reading the posts from 20th February, I don't think many people will see my comments. Yep, I have about 140 posts to read and the last crazy two weeks are still to come.