Hi all,
Finally I have managed to get these miniatures photographed and hopefully this post finished in time for a Monday posting!! Several of these minis have been painted for a few weeks now, but the slow moving post production team here has caused delays in the release schedule. Still it is expected from the sales department, that these films might do well as they are coming out in at the end of the February doldrums.
First stop is at the place beloved of all the 10yr olds still sitting within us...High Adventure!!
High Adventure
These minis are all Copplestone 10mm minis and I'll be honest I bought these on a whim last year when ordering from a local shop. The order was just under the minimum for free postage (or at least that is the tale I told the better half, and my bank manager) and so I just had to add in a one or two small things. Those were a couple of packs of 10mm minis. It is not a scale I play in, or have/had any other minis in. But these sculpts just jumped out and I thought they would likely come in handy for this, or future, challenges :) I am happy to be proven correct! All these minis are painted with a mixture of contrast paints and normal acrylics.
First up is my attempt at Conan the Barbarian! All ready to fight his endless list of enemies with his trusty sword, shield, and loin cloth. After all no self respecting barbarian wears armour!
Next up are a pair of fantasy adventurers off to fight Monsters and collect loot. One an axe wielding Barbarian, the other an axe wielding Dwarf. Obviously they have found companionship over their shared love of axes!
Finally in the world of High Adventure(!!!) we have a futuristic knight, standing on a alien world, who knows only good and how to combat the dark side. He is a converted mini, with his original sword swapped out for a small piece of brass rod. I am a little sad that my attempt at OSL has ended in an unsightly splotchy mess, but from a good gaming distance the mini doesn't look too bad. So I decided to cut my losses and get him based and posted!
That wraps it up for the Adventure part. Hopefully the viewing audience can get their breath back in the interval. A final shot of all the main characters for this lot:
The next studio along the pathway is Historical Drama. I hope everyone is excited, as this one is drawing on an oldie but a goodie!
Historical Drama
It has been touted to the production company, that the best way to have a safe bet is to go for a re-make of a re-make. Therefore it has been decided that the minis to pull from the lead pile for this stop were to fit Robin Hood!
As everyone will know, Robin Hood is a historically accurate and totally real life character, whose jolly japes against the usurper king of England John, ended in victory and the return of the true king Richard! Hurrah!! The origin of these minis is lost in time, as I have no idea of the manufacturer of either. Both are 28mm heroic scale, so perfect for this piece.
For the Robin mini, this actually arrived in the box of things from my Grandfather's estate when he passed away a few years ago. It seems that he had played with and collected some toy soldiers a long time ago. I was therefore really happy to be able to put paint on this mini, and it will forever be a nice reminder of a wonderful man, who I never knew I shared a hobby with!
In addition, as Robin is never alone, I also found a Friar Tuck mini to go along with him. I will admit, this is one of the more martial Friar Tucks I have seen. But I think the character change will suit the cleric fine.
The final release for the schedule today, is coming from the next stop along the studio lot journey. We are off to the Ancient Orient, with a Chinese epic!
World Cinema
On the Sunday that I am writing this post, I was originally planning to be playing DBA with this army! It is our 6mthly DBA day event here in Hamburg. Sadly, a mixture of an ill wife, and a lingering cold on my side means that this time I am having to sit it out on the sidelines with the half time oranges.
But, I am able to write this post, so that is a wonderful sliver lining!
This is an army built from Essex 15mm minis. It is based on the DBA I/42c army list. Which has the wonderful title of "Other Chinese 700BC-480BC". It is an army that is based around the end of the Chou empire and the start of the Warring States period. Sadly, the Essex mini distributer here in EU (at least the one I use) did not have all of the correct minis in stock in December. So these minis are a slight mixture of Chinese periods. Still I hope that this can be forgiven and the button counters out there won't post too many mean comments!
All of the minis have been painted with a mix of contrast paints and normal acrylics. I find it is the easiest way to get a quick result!
As Essex minis come in packs of 8, and the numbers needed for a DBA army are reasonably small, I did end up with several minis spare. I therefore have taken the heretical decision to add extra minis to the bases where they fitted. The prime example is my 3Pk elements (supposed to have 3minis on as the name suggests) where I have place 5 minis on each of the four bases!! It means these bases are probably not technically competition legal...but they look a lot cooler and who cares anyway. As long as the opponent can tell which is which I don't for sure!
The army is a fast moving mixture of heavy chariots, dagger-axe wielding hordes, handpicked swordsmen, and then archer levies. I have also painted the camp element, and the camp guards to go with them (again more 'spare' minis!). To top off this Chinese epic, I have the mini that is based to represent my army on the campaign map which is used for the DBA day event!
That concludes my backlog of releases. Only remaining task is to work out how many points everything has scored!
4 x 10mm foot miniatures = 4pts
High Adventure location bonus = 20pts
2 x 28mm foot miniatures = 10pts
Historical Drama location bonus = 20pts
4 x 15mm vehicles = 32pts
13 x chariot riders (15mm foot) = 26pts
38 x 15mm foot miniatures = 76pts
Terrain points for the tent = 40mm x 40mm x 15mm = 1.57in x 1.57in x 0.59in = 1.45in^3 = 0.0067 cubes = 0.134pts
World Cinema location bonus = 20pts
Total = 208.134pts!!
Which added to the previous entries should put me just over my target, with just under 1month to go!! I hope to be able to get at least one more submission done and in before the end :D
Also a final thank you for all of the kind and wonderfully supportive comments on the previous posts. Sadly my normal method of keeping up to date on the Challenge (my phone on the underground on the commute to/from work) does not allow me to post comments or replies to comments. I have no idea why, but it doesn't want to allow me to do it. Very annoying as I would like to be able to respond and also add my own comments to the amazing works of art from you wonderful people! I hope you all have a great Monday, and a brilliant rest of the Challenge!
Cheers!
Ed
A real set of treats here Ed. First up I absolutely love those 10mm fantasy figures. I thought they were 28mms but just photographed from too far away. I am really tempted by the Copplestone 10mm range but must be strong. Good work on the Robin Hood and Monk too. I am not getting into a religious discussion with that Friar any time soon.
I know nothing about ancient Chinese Warfare except that I know that the armies look really cool. Heavy Chariots and heavy chopping weapons- YES! I am fully on board with mixing figures from different eras, at this scale you'd need a PhD in the appropriate era to know the difference. I also agree with the denser figure count. DBA elements may have a nominal 28mm figure count but they look way better with more figures as long as you keep the proportions between Pikes and Psiloi elements. Really like the dude with bodyguard out front of his tent.
Much as I admire your dedication to precision calculations on terrain volume, I am applying a minion's minimum of 5 points on the tent and then rounding you up to 215 for the parasols etc on the chariots. Congrats on breaching your Challenge target and looking forward to more.