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 JonathanO: Assyrian chariot - Oubliette (55 points)

 How about some 40 year old miniatures for the Oubliette location? 

The 25mm 2 horse ancient Assyrian chariot and supporting infantry are from Lamming miniatures.  I originally bought 3 of these chariots, but they never got painted.  A few years ago I acquired another 5, so I still have a lot to paint.  I had a few extra infantry figures so I included an archer and a spearman to the base to support the chariot.  The base is 120mm x 80mm.

As well as the rest of the chariots, I really need to get some of the cavalry painted.

Points:  For 2 horses, 2 crew plus the chariot, I think 25 points.  Add 10 points for the two infantry,  plus the location bonus of 20 = 55 points.

With 4 location challenges completed on level 2, I can move quickly down to level 3. 

  

From ChrisF Oubliette - Tasmanian Devil 25mm (25pts)

 "No passing through MY hedgerow!"

This is a 1977 Tasmanian Devil from Heritage's Der Kreigspielers Fantastiques (1100) line #1158 by Steve Bisset. 

This mini was purchased and painted by me around 1978 and had a few years on the gaming table with the White Box set before it was packed away when life changed. 

Here he is on the right ( with some pals ). I took these pics last year after I found the packed up box, still in my possession even after school, a stint in the military, cross country moves and quite a few years of regular old life. 

He was still in his Humbrol coating and in good condition, but I decided to repaint him, so stripped him down and he has sat on the shelf awaiting his new colors for a few months.

The base plate on this mini is great as it includes everything,  designer name, company name, copyright, date, and model number!

I hope he holds up for another 44 years!

From SidneyR: Pack Baggage for the "Oubliette" (30 points)

 

The Oubliette is a place for lost and forgotten things.  Miniatures which have been in the painting queue for longer than anyone can remember.  And I felt that the idea for this Challenge XI Chamber was to resurrect such miniatures, emptying the Oubliette and getting some paint on the last year's (or the last decade's) "Big (but forgotten) Thing".

I've had this lovely pair of baggage animals for years and years.  Possibly a decade, and possibly even into the early 2000s.  That's a very long time to be undercoated but not painted.  So this Challenge XI, it was their turn.

And in the hour it took to paint them (while making a coffee and watching Netflix), I did wonder why it had taken me so long.  They're a lovely pair of 28mm miniatures from Wargames Foundry, which should fit in perfectly for all kinds of periods and battlefields.  

I tried to paint them with a limited palette - no one wants the baggage horse and baggage donkey to overshadow the cuirassiers, after all.  And the dusty ground could be anywhere from the foothills of Extremadura to a Muscovite summer.  Easy to fit in anywhere, in other words.

In short they were just fun to paint, and painting forgotten figures is what the Challenges are all about, right?

So, for the points.  Two 28mm miniatures at 5 points each (I think horses score the same as two-legged chaps!), plus 20 points for the "Oubliette". Totalling 30 points to the score.

******* 

From ArthurS: The Oubliette! (27 points)

 Hoi,

After hitching a ride on the Lady Sarah's Nimbus 2000, we now enter the Oubliette. While I painted the entry fee to the Witching Service, Arthur had to do his bit for this room. Let's be honest, I have forgotton about half the figures still on the Pile of Shame so would not have a problem finding anything suitabel but the Lad has been so enthousiastic about finishing these rooms he almost certainly believes that these Chambers of Challenge ARE the Painting Challenge itself.

Anyway he found a Space Marine he was given as a freebie while we were in Canterbury 2 years ago...man that was pre-Covid and pre-Brexit, how times fly and change! He totally forgot he had that kicking around still on sprue.

 Also lying around in his modest "to paint bin" was one of my first 3D printing experiments: a Star Wars Landspeeder that I printed too small for use with Star Wars Legion.

Thinking up points for this entry is a bit of poser: the Space Marine is 5 points no sweat, but the landspeeder is difficult. Arthur and myself decided to ask for 2 points as it is rather small and the scheme is fairly simple. 

Together with the bonus that is good for 27 points.

Cheers Sander