From TeemuL: Resistance - The Missed Opportunity (0 points)

A little snack to keep one going during the last 24 hours of the Challenge. There were three bonus rounds this year, I had a clear and cunning plan for one of them (Resistance) from the beginning. The other two I managed to invent something during the course, but the one I planned never made it! I was too busy hunting squirrels and skulls, that once I realized the Resistance deadline was close, I already knew I couldn't make it. But here's something I planned for that round, finally somewhat finished.

These two are modular map pieces from the Mighty Empires campaign set Games Workshop released several years ago. I bought one second hand a few years ago and even painted some of them during the previous AHPC (curiously the previous AHPC was named AHPC X: Previously painted map tiles). I'm quite sure these would have seen much more action, if they were coloured cardboard hexes like Settlers of Catan, but sometimes everything is made from plastic. I used Contrast colours on these again, simple and bold colours, something you expect to see from a map for example. They are double sided and of course the one with the mountain range doesn't look too good when turned over (the ocean). One more reason for cardboard tiles, I guess.

And what do these have to do with resistance, then? Well, I'm taking this to the meta level and this entry resists the lack of map for theme rounds. There are pros and cons, but naturally there is some level of resistance and this entry keeps that voice alive. I might not be personally resisting the lack of map, but this entry does - in a same way as our armies on the tables don't always match our own ideologies or agendas. Another level of resistance of this entry is that both of these were partially started before the Challenge, the greens on the first picture were already painted years ago, but then I run out of the Green Contrast paint and forgot these. For couple of years there has been a bonus theme for finishing previously started minis during the Challenge, and this entry resists that, too - in a same way as it resists the lack of map. Scoring these would be difficult, but since they were already started, they count for zero points - simple!

P.S. I was planning to paint more of these for the Bonus round and use tiles which were not started, but then I got too deep in all the levels of Resistance, that I couldn't resist any longer. I hope this post has at least bought a grin on your face, if not laugh. :)

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When reading this I resisted not to laugh, but failed. I find your meta-level reasoning entertaining, Teemu AND I also really like these tiles, with their bold colours and contrasting hex-edge. I have something similar that I 3d printed, but I still really like the design of these Mighty Empire tiles. I hope you return to them for a future Challenge to show us an entire map!

The Map is Dead - Long Live the Map! ;)

- Curt

From FrederickC - Terrain - A Potpourri of Terrain from recylcled packing material (100 Points)

This will be my final post for AHPC XVIIII. With a mix of post-0p recovery and a bout of secondary infection that had me back in hospital again, my output this year has not been up to my usual standard. I had to beg the doctors to let me go so that I could finish off these final projects in time for the deadline.

So I present a collection a terrain pieces made exclusively for reused packing material, be it plastic, styrofoam, or wood. I often look at things that people throw out, and I see a potential bunker, Sci-Fi power plant, or some other terrain that could spice up the tabletop with a unique feature. So here we go.

 A) Vintage Garage x 1

This started as a small crate that came with a couple of jars of fancy fruit spread or marmalade. While not really useful as a crate, it had some potential as the framework for a vintage garage or shed. I built up the roof with blue styrofoam and filled in any gaps with spackle, before adding the final layer to the roof made of single corrugated cardboard to give it the look of corrugated sheet metal. The walls were painted light grey followed by a dry brush of white. The roof was painted gunmetal followed by a dry brush of silver. The final stage was some rusty browns and some vintage garage signs.

The measurements are 4" x 5" x 6.5"  

 

The original wooden crate still visible prior to painting.

 

 

Spackle makes a great filler of gaps, and sands easily when dry.

Some vintage Automotive signs

 

 

 

B) Improvised barricades x 3

 

These started out as some plastic bits  to which single corrugated cardboard was added along with various lengths of plastic rod or tubing. The final addition was some sandbags made from epoxy putty. When I use two-part epoxy putty I invariably mix up more than I need, so any left over material gets made into sandbags, which always find a use for terrain or some add-on for a vehicle. To give that material more strength, it got a coat of "Modpodge" sealer.The individual pieces measure  3" x 1" They were painted in the same manner as the garage roof with different shades of gunmetal and steel.

 

 

 

C) Normandy Beach Bunkers x 5

 

These are made from styrofoam packing material that was trimmed down using my Proxxon hotwire cutter, pieces of blue sytrofoam cut to size with the Proxxon, metal doors made using pieces of plastic card from used up dining cards.  The bunkers measure 5.5." x 3.5" x 2". The 'concrete was painted medium grey with light great dry brushed on after, and the plastic card door painted gunmetal great. They will make a usefull addtion to the beach defenses  during Operation Overlord. 

 

"Flat Pack Bunkers from Ikea

                  

Assembly complete

     

  

Ready to resist the Allied landings

d) Sci-Fi Industrial units x 3 

The last of my 'structures from garbage' is a set of three Sci-Fi pumping stations, power generators, refineries, or hatever you need for the scenario.  All three started with the same dimentions of 2" x 2.5" x 12" but some of the add-ons have increased the length by 2" or the highest point to 4". They all started out as the cover from a Brother laser printer cartridge that was puilt up on a base of a 2" x 2" X12" block of Blue EPS styrofoam insulation, and then plastic straws, various tubes, plastic card panels, etc, etc, were added to get something that could appear in the engine room of a spaceship, or the generator powering a planetary shield, or whatever is needed for the scenario of 'Galactic Heroes' or some other choice of SciFi Skirmish rules. In the end I didn't use all the bits that you see in the photos, but you can get I good idea of how my thought processes work when looking at packaging, and deciding how it can be repurposed to create something unique on the tabletop.

 

The white domes are from the seal you pull from the plastic spout of a milk or juice carton, after the pull tab has been carefully sliced away to leave a usefull rounded dome. In the end I didn't use everything shown in the picture. 

 

 

 

I don't remember where the red 'tower' came from, but it added an interesting feature to the final structure.

 

 

So the total number of structures is 3 barricades, 3 industrial/power units, 1 garage, and 5 'Normandy' bunkers.
 

 Cheers,

Frederick C 

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Hi Frederick, I like the rough and ready nature you got with the stucco/spackle mixture on the garage and all painted up it certainly looks like an old shop (or a new shop in a 3rd world country). I am going to go with 10 points and another 9 for the barricades (3 a piece).

The WW2 bunkers certainly look the part and remind me of the old 80's / 90's GW painting and terrain guides that constantly showed  how to make terrain from stuff laying around the house and packing pieces.  While certainly large, they are relatively simple to paint up as concrete and I am going to go with just under 10 points a piece and award 40 points for the 5 of them.

Lastly the power units.  These are more great examples of turning junk into terrain and are quite large, but also very basic paint jobs essentially being black and silver drybrushing.  I am going to again go with about 10 points per simply due to the size.  If there were points for building them, you would end up with more as there is a bunch of cool ideas there.

That should give a total of 99 points, but I will round it off to 100 points and congrats on getting a lot more terrain done this challenge. 

- Byron 

 

 

 

 

From Barks: Tyranid terrain (60 points)

I felt bad seeing Challengers refusing to compromise quality over quantity. I, however, have just smashed these out, ignored mistakes, and may go back and add details later. These are tyranid-themed alien terrain pieces in my orange and bone theme.

There are fifteen gribbly bits here of varying size.

And ten skullz (total 238)

That's it from me!

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Hey Barks, even though you say that these are a a quantity over quality they still look pretty solid to me.  I also love the colour scheme as it really makes a lot of the details really pop.  These are a bit hard to score as they are fairly large but also fairly simple to paint (other than the bone effects which looks really good).  I am going to go with 60 points due to the number and size of the items here I figure it would take me about the same time as painting a unit of simple models. 

- Byron 

From Barks: Rusty Necromunda terrain and scenery 40 pts.

I painted a bunch more rusty scenery, with my Emperor for scale. Mostly it is brown stippled orange then washed with a orangey-brown. Mostly.

I made this table from bitz, and I'm really
happy with the aces and eights.

The Emperor and his Golden Throne.

Market stalls.

Enjoy some "Meat" or see a "Doctor".

Big centrepiece tower.

Simple platforms. I accentuated the ladders in yellow.

I'm going to see if I can get another post in before the end.

Skullz 36 (total 228)

From DaveD , jumping in for Byron. I saw this and thought I will take a look . We have been doing some Necromunda last year and it’s always nice to see some suitable tired terrain . I really like the market stalls area . No doubt there will trouble there soon. You may say it’s all relatively some browny orange and orange brown , but it’s effective . Love .it . And a title reminder for my mob to get another game in ! 

I’m gonna give ya 40 , because there is a lot of volume there to stipple and wash etc . 

Yes and crack on the finish line is still in sight 

Cheers

D

From DaveD . Terrain Russian buildings 20pts

 I have been looking at some geography specific terrain items for the Back of Beyond . I have picked up a Russian timber house and barn set 3d printed by Battle Honours3d  

I will create a proper base with fences etc in due course .

They were neatly FDM printed with only minor clean up . I started with a dark grey base and then a lighter overspray of desert yellow . Pretty much everything after that is various stages of heavy or light dry brushing in a fairly fresh timber colour with a light blue/grey for the door and window frames . 

The basecoat complete. 

Points , maybe 20 I think given the time it feels about right . 

Right now, time to finish the Bolos

Well I like these a lot, they look great with your figures marching past too.  I will pre-empt Byron's role and accept the 20 points that you suggest.  I see another post, but I'e had the pleasure of two of your posts today Dave so I'll leave that one for the next minion.

 

PeterD

From MarkG: 28mm Railway Tracks (50 Points)

My first, and rather mundane, terrain entry; a set of 28mm railway tracks.

These were part of my effort to create a Russian Civil War Armoured train set, though they will have much use for other WW1 and WW2 wargaming scenarios. 

2 Metres in length, composed of seven sections, each 28.5cm long and 6.5cm wide. In creating these I was very much inspired by an article that appeared in the Lardies 2014 Xmas Special by Pat Smith "Building the Deutsche Reichsbahn."

The tracks are from Sarissa Precision. I used model rail ballast to fill out the base, and then mix of cheap paints from the hardware store and stationary shop (all tones mixed from basic black, white, brown and beige bottles). Painting them was straightforward enough, but time consuming, starting from dark brown layers, through mid gray, to stone gray highlights, and rust for the tracks (a drybrush of Vallejo Cavalry Red). Ballast though is a devil to paint if you don't want to completely drown and warp the track and base.

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The tracks look awesome Mark, and having worked with ballast before I can sympathize with how much of a pain it is to paint!  Mainly because for model trains it is not usually painted, or even glued down a lot of the time, but rather just laid in, which obviously does not work for our uses.  

As for painting time, it sounds like you spent a ton of time on them, but I have to judge based on an average paint job, not the great job you did.  I am going to award 7 points per strip because I think if I was to soak these in glue first to make painting easier, each strip should take a bit more than painting a figure.  Not sure how you did them, but I would paint the ballast area quick and dirty and messy, then paint the ties and tracks after neatly.  Therefore 7 strips  would come out to 49 points but I am going to round it to 50 points.  Great work.

- Byron 

From Kerry T - A home from home (60 points)

Morning afternoon & evening all 

I've printed off a lot of terrain in the past 18 months and just stored it under the gaming table. Last week when I put a castle together I rediscovered something I'd printed off but forgotten about and thought it would be good get finished.

Its from the Printable Scenery King & Country range and is labelled as a Norman Garrison. I think I know who Norman was but I believe this garrison/fort will suffice for earlier periods including the Viking  & Saxon era and perhaps even a home for a Romano-British warband as its effectively a walled palisade

This is intended to sit on the table edge so there are no back walls

None of the figures or thatched houses were painted for this and have just been included for the setting and the pictures were taken quickly outside on a cloudy day

Can you see the block of wood holding up the backdrop? (doh)

The gateway

The STL files come with straight sections, inward and outward curves, a gateway and raised 2 story section. Ruined versions are also included allowing great overall variation and good value for money. I've only printed off a few pieces

This was a quick and simple paint job using my usual terrain recipe of Black undercoat, then Vallejo Flat Earth dry brushed with Iraqui sand then Pale sand and then flocked to match my terrain boards. The wooden bits were painted in various browns from Vallejo and dry brushed

Dimensions are 100cms in total length, 10cms wide and 7cms high

Many thanks and best wishes

Valleyboy

 

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What a great looking piece here that can be used for so many different games. The effect you got on the wood and the ground work are both great and very effective. I am going to guess it would take about 4-6 hours per strip here and I count 5 strips, with the middle one with the gate taking longer to paint.  With that I am going to award 60 points and say great work the final result looks really great!

 

- Byron