From: PaulS - Highway to... somewhere? (90 points)

As you saw in the last update, I've been making modular tables during lockdown as it's been fun creating little vignettes on a single hex to drop into tables. In February I have a 7TV event coming up and challenged myself to take two complete setups with me for people to use. The first was the swamp you saw, the next one is a fantasy(ish) village that has... well. I'll leave that for a later one for a surprise. One of the things I wanted for the layout is a wide country road that would allow carts to go side by side, rather than the thin footpath that was through the swamp. So that's what this lot make when they are laid out properly. There are enough road tiles to do a wide road across a 3x3 layout, which pleases me. There are also some additional grass and mud tiles to flesh out the rest of the table layout.

Scale figure this year is a GW ghoul so you can see how large one of the hexes is. Each hex is a 3d printed ridged plate that fits into a riser to form a modular gaming table. This makes for really easy additions to the table and easy storage/transport of basic tiles. Each hex is then treated with various basing techniques scaled up a bit and industrialised for batch creation. Each ridge and scuff of the mud is carefully sculpted to give that perfect earthen effect... or not.

Out the back you can see the graveyard that was build about a year ago. There are some extensions to this for later in the challenge so we'll come back to that later!

And this is the layout that I'm working on for the event. The road and grass tiles can be seen just to the right of the first house. The three houses on the right need painting/basing over the next couple of weeks, along with making all of the missing/blank hexes. This needs to be finished by the 4th of Feb... so there's a bit of work to do... wish me luck! The below photo is from before I finished the other half of the roads to take it all the way across, but the photo above shows the full road in all it's glory

Each hex is 86x100mm. There are 22 tiles to add, 19 are roads, 3 are grassland/grazing. Scoring depends on how you want to lay them out. After a debate on Facebook with some of the Minions, I decided to follow PeteD's decision (rather than AdamC's grab as many points as you can!), which was that it should be if they are laid out for use, rather than put away. If I put them out in the most compressed form (rather than Adam's gaming the system and laying them all end to end, for a 96x4 inch layout) it comes out as a more reasonable 19x16 inches... so that's just over 9 cubes (180 points), but they are flat and pretty basic, so I'll go for 90 points please! Feel free to downgrade if that seems ridiculous!

From DaveD

Oh boy , i may need to call on a mathemagician - the minions favouraite how much is this terrain worth ploy eh... I am happy tp go with the general minion consensus as per the FB chat - so its 90 points on hexagonal goodness!

From: PaulS -Stormcast strike (75 points)

It took a while to finally get paint to figures this year as we actually went away to see family, losing precious painting time! Anyway, better late than never (or so they say). 2021 has mostly been about terrain, so the lightbox (and the photography skills to go with it) are a little rusty and may need time to pick up again :D

This year's opening shot is a small batch of GW's new Stormcast Eternals. The proportions on these feel a lot better than the original short, very wide design. They still have the derpy death masks though, so I've been through and replaced all of these with 3d printed sallet helmets from Reptilian Overlords. I've also added lots of devotional streamers to them to give a little bit more interest. They have clearly been somewhere sunny as all the writing has faded off the scrolls ;)

Given that Stormcast are all resurrected heroes from across the realms, this seems to fit nicely into the Glorantha segment of the Outer Ring

The basing is to go with the swamp table I spent the year making.

Froma points perspective, that's 11 28mm-ish sized figures, plus the Glorantha points, making a total of 75 points iirc

From DaveD

I like how they have turned out Paul the streamers add a nice touch of extra colour too 75 points it is.

For Simon: The Altar of the SnowLord

Altar of the SnowLord (brought to you by the kids of Kinsmen Park South)

  

Simon, I hear tell that you have a rather nasty fellow impatiently awaiting your attention. In fact, one could say he is THE nasty fellow. So, let's not keep him waiting any longer. Once he's sated with a lick of paint and a few souls, you can claim your prize.

Simon' Prize: PaulS' whacky 'Chicken King & Giant Rooster'

PaulS: Snowlord's Altar: Cops vs Cannibals (180 points)

 When Curt reached out to ask what I needed a specific push to complete for the Snowlord's Altar I had to think about it for a while as there are so many things I need to get around to painting. Eventually I settled on the personal challenge I had set myself; to try and complete one of each Necromunda gang. I'd already done two this challenge, so it made some sort of twisted sense to try and do two more gangs for the culmination of the dungeon crawl. It just so happened I had a paired set of gangs lined up in the queue that work well as opponents... to the point that they come together in the Dark Uprising box. Just to fill it out a little bit more there's also a selection of scatter terrain added too. Everything you see is new for this.

We have a lot of Enforcers; the police of the underhive. With the other gangs I'd just pulled together one 1000 credit gang but with the Enforcers I decided to pull together two as there was a juggernaut of a list put together on the Necromunday pages from Goonhammer.com that is pure beatstick with 6 heavily armoured Enforcers with riot shields and shock staves that looked fun. I'd already stuck together some as test models... so rather than 10-ish models I have 21 for the Enforcers.

The Enforcer judge was made to stand out a little... (ok, a lot) by adding the officer's coat from the Scions kit. Here you can see him checking up on the enforcer terminal

It looks like a local Cawdor gang has been defacing the terminal with graffiti... issue the arrest warrant!

And here's that beatstick squad. I don't think I'd want to face off against this one...

The most gruesome of the necromunda gangs released to date is the Corpse Ginder cult. This is made up of individuals that work in the Corpsestarch plants that convert the hive's dead into a starch like food for everyone. Over time some people start to hear the call of the flesh and start to consume the dead, rather than convert them into corpsestarch; turning to Khorne's embrace. There are some bits in the kit that I'm not ever so keen on, so there are some replacement bits dotted throughout.

I bought the stl for the middle character from Ghamak on MyMiniFactory as a nice boss. He's using one of the GW heads though as it looks slightly better than the Ghamak version. I'm tempted to reprint him a little larger though as he's skinny compared to some of the others...

I used heads as an identifier for the different levels of character within the cult. These skull heads are for Skinners. The hooded heads are for the Cutters.

The standard heads for the initiates are these weird caged things that just look terrible (imo), so they got replaced with some of the more crazed flagellant heads. One even seems to be licking blood off his blade, which was a nice surprise when it went together!

and here's all the terrain bits, except for the Enforcer comms unit gathered together.

All in all that is:

21 enforcers for 105 points

9 Corpse Grinders for 45 points

probably half a cube of terrain for another 10 points

plus the 20 for the chamber

Total: 180 points

plus another 30 figures for the GW challenge and a whopping 53 skulls spread across the bases, barrels, graffiti and all the iconography on the green jacket's clasps and medals. I'm not counting the 27 Enforcer logos even though they look skull-like

I just realised that this also tips me over my 1000 point goal... so I guess 1500 is the next target!

PaulS: gilded skull

 I have no idea if this fits for the challenge or not, but it has eaten up a chunk of hobby time this week and used hobby materials, so here it is! My wife likes all things natural history and witchy... So she got presented with a gilded 3d printed raven skull on wall plaque this morning for valentine's.

The skull is life size, so about 12cm from tip of the beak to top of the cranium and carefully covered in gold leaf that dad bought me for Christmas last year. He intended it to be used on wargames figures... But after trying to cover this large skull no way am I trying it on more detailed things!

No idea if it is worth any points but wanted to share ad it is likely the largest skull fir the challenge ;)

PaulS: Underworlds Skeletons (35 points)

I was part way through painting these when the Icelord threw down the Necromunda challenge, so I needed to finish these first before putting brush to the gangs. 

These are the Underworlds skeleton set and are some of the most characterful skeletons I'd seen, until the reveal last week of the new Warhammer Quest... now that is an immediate purchase to add to these guys for dungeon crawlers.

There are 7 skeletons here for 35 points.

They are all GW figures, so they can go towards that side challenge... and there are 10 skulls in here if you include those on shields and the gravestone

For PaulS: The Altar of the Snowlord

Altar of the SnowLord (brought to you by the kids of Kinsmen Park South)

  

Congratulations Paul on forging your way to the SnowLord's Altar. Complete this last challenge in order to claim your prize.

______________________________________________________

I understand you are needing to finish a few Necromunda gangs. Okay, let's see if you can get at least two of those done up for us. Once completed, you will have met the challenge and will receive your prize.

Paul's Prize: not-Master Chief from DaveV!

PaulS: Lair of the spider (30 points)

That Domerunner seemed like a nice fella, slightly distracted all the time... but who wouldn't be in a place like that. He'd muttered something about beware the amble. I'm not sure what he meant by that... maybe he means just don't loiter in this part of the tunnels and be quick about going through, maybe? The map said this was the spider lair so maybe it is just to avoid those...

The Domerunner appeares and yells "I said beware the AMBUL! Run!"

The Ambul is from Warhammer Quest: Black Fortress, but had rules in White Dwarf for use in Necromunda as a wandering monster. It's a fantastic reinterpretation of a really old figure that I recall really wanting at the time.

This is 7 points, with 20 for the bonus round... and that marks the end of the dungeon, with only the Snowlord's Altar in front of us. The end is near!

Last entry there were some queries about the walls and how I'd painted them, so here is a step by step using the Ambul's base as an example

Step 1: Undercoat black, then drybrush with Sons of Horus green

Step 2 and 3: Add a little bit of white to the green and drybrush again for each step.

Step 4: I made a useful weathering liquid by putting some VMC Chocolate brown into a full pot of GW lahmian  medium. This gives quite a nice brown wash that still has enough pigment to go over black to do mud, but when run over the green and wiped off with a fingertip, gives a nice dirty look

Step 5: After that, sponge on some very dark brown for chipping

Step 6: finally some rust weathering liquid is dabbed into cracks and joints to dirty it all up a bit more

PaulS: The Snowlord's Treasury (45 points)

 Having had our wounds seen to by the ever so creepy doctor (I seem to be turning a slight shade of purple and have this itching in my shoulder... as if something is growing there), we step on through into a grimy, technological world, full of boxes and crates with this scruffy man rummaging through the boxes...

One of the gang followers that you can hire in Necromunda is a Domerunner; someone that knows their way around the underhive and helps find all sorts of treasure to support the gang. This treasure could be a new hideout, some promethium or crates of food or weapons... it matters not. Anything new is likely to be treasure... or death. Lets pray for treasure!

The figure is a 3d print of a model from Imitation of Life on MyMiniFactory

These three pieces of GW wall are a colour test for the boards I'm slowly constructing in the background. I'm quite liking the greeny colour. It could be paint, or it could just be heavily tarnished metal... I'm still not sure but either way... nice background. To go with the walls we have a pile of boxes barrels and crates. Each type has been stuck together to make some better scatter terrain that won't go all over the shop if the table is knocked.

We have one treasure hunter (5 points), a bunch of terrain that probably fits one cube (20 points) and the bonus points for the treasury room. 

One more room to go, with the model currently on the painting table... so Curt. Get your thinking cap on ;)

Great terrain and treasure hunter. Is it my imagination, or has that treasure hunter liberated some Judge Dredd cosplay bits (the shoulder pad and knee pad(s)) for their outfit?

That's 45 much-deserved points for you.

Tamsin

PaulS: The Laboratory (25 points)

 Things have been a bit slow this week, but we're closing in on the Alter of the Snowlord!

The next chamber in the dungeon is full of bubbling... things. I cannot tell what they are for they are of strange hue and temperament. Within the chamber is a figure in a long white coat, with a mechanical backpack and disturbing complexion who seems to know things about the makeup of the body that one should not...

The Genestealer Biophagus is going to be the medic for my Necromunda Genestealer cult. I wasn't a massive fan of the original staff, so a little bit of cutting and he has somehow come into the possession of a slightly battered imperial guard medpack

PaulS: Mixed bag of... stuff (27 points)

Unlike past entries where I've done separate posts... this lot can all be lumped together as there aren't enough to justify separate posts.

First up we have an inquisitor, 3d printed from Ghamak on MyMiniFactory. I just loved the bulky, no nonsense look to this guy and wanted him to join my new Guard force (more of that in a later entry)

Next we have some Deep Ones from the Crippled God Patreon (which is where the earlier cultists also came from), which should give my cultists some nice support when the 7TV mythos expansion comes out. I had to scale these down to as the original print size was about as tall as an ogre, which was pretty imposing, but not quite what I wanted. I'll have to see what is in the 7TV set as I'd like to have a larger one to accompany these

Lastly is a golem from the Smog board game. Smog is a steampunk world full of all sorts of weird and wonderful figures. There are others in the painting queue, but other projects are blocking their path to the table just yet... He's a beast of a model, standing about the same height as the ogre from the last post

So that is 4 28mm models (20 points) and the giant golem that I'm going to count as a larger thing at 7 points for a total of 27.

Two entries in a day? Lovely stuff. And this is a great mixed bag of it.

27 points it is.

Tamsin