From TeemuL: Faramir's Ranger (5 points)

Hello fellow participants and followers! I'm back for my... umpteenth(?) AHPC and my first ever mini for AHPC was a Ringwraith from GW's LotR range. I have quite often started my Challenge with GW LotR minis and this time it is not different!

This is one of the Faramir's rangers, a metal mini which I got from one of the second hand loot boxes I have acquired just in case... I first thought he was an elf and primed him a while (year and a half) ago with "other elfs" until recognizing him. Apparently he is the only ranger I have, but he was nice to paint so who knows if gets company...

I really like GW's old LotR range. The minis are not that heroic and almost like scale models based on the movies. So there are not insane amount of skulls or other megasized small details, but there are lots of layers of different cloths, like this ranger proudly shows. I went through my collection of greenish and brownish paints and mixed them trying to separate each layer.

I have often used basecoat, wash and drybrush method, but recently I have tried to make the results better. Instead of drybrush I have highlighted the raised areas once or twice instead of drybrushing and surprisingly it is not that more time consuming, but looks a bit better. Nowadays the wash is the last step, just need to be careful not to use too dark wash.

I lost the number of times I fixed the bow, the upper part fell of so many times. Maybe it was already broken before priming, I can't remember. It looks ok now, but don't touch it! Some sand and couple of tufts to finish the model, brown bases are my choice for Middle-Earth. This should give me my first five points for the Challenge! Looking forward to collect some more during the Christmas time.

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First, welcome back to the Challenge, Teemu!

I always enjoy your LotR entries and this one is no exception. I do like your new approach to your highlighting. The colours seem more vibrant and the raised relief more distinct. Well done! My vote is for you to get more Rangers as this fellow clearly now needs more comrades to keep him company in the wilds of Middle Earth. :)

5 points to you for your ascent to your target. Well done!

- Curt

From TeemuL: Three Passengers (12 points)

I am one of the volunteers of a local Scout Movement group and it would be boring, if there would be no fun for adults. So yesterday we had one of the fun evenings only for adults and we practiced painting miniatures... The organizer had bought some scale railway miniatures, which were available in Finland. She ordered some actual scout minis from UK, too, but the difficulties of Royal Mail are still unsolved. These are from the Preiser set "Passengers, passers-by,travellers", which in in 1/43 scale, very close to the O scale of railway models. These were white plastic and mostly one piece, the suitcase of the gentleman required gluing. They were not primed, just straigthly painted over the plastic (this might horrify some of you), but were nice to paint. I used my own Citadel paints and even some washes on the skin and other areas while others used some acrylic paints from tubes. These three were painted in one and half hours while trying to give some hints to the others, so they are by no means neat. There's an event next week, where these (and others) are hidden here and there and one activity is to locate them. I don't know much of that, yet.

The gentleman and elderly lady have a blue scout neckerchief painted on them, but the lady on the right doesn't. It just didn't look good on orange dress and green hair. The green hair is intentional to give a message that scout movement is for everyone and it is not any old and conservative organization.

The models are roughly 28mm in scale, but they lack the bases, so I suggest 3*5 points for the models and -3 bonus points for not having bases, making it 12 in total.

Minion Miles: What Model Rail Roading creeping into the challenge - BLASPHEMY!!!!!  Well maybe not, I'm thinking of something Scale next year