From BruceR: More 10mm into the mix, Thanks to all (51 points)

At the end I continue down the road of 10mm.  

First, it's been a great challenge, and I've exceeded my goal by a considerable amount.   I again want to thank the minions (salute to Sylvain from the Wednesday crew) with great appreciation to Curt and Sarah.

My first entry for the end is a Forest Dragon Dogs of War hero on griffon.  I had previously painted a metal GW figure and didn't know what I wanted to do with this model to change it up.  While staring at it I thought of why not a parrot.  To the web.

So, with some help from web photos and parrot colors, speed paints I present Melvin the Magnificent on his griffon, Polly.

Not sure you can see, but Melvin has an eye patch "crazy"

Next, another wee wizard to flush out my forces.  I intend to run Warmaster Revolution at a monthly meet at Little Big Wars, Fargo, ND, in April.  Will need extra characters for the multiple 1000 pt factions I'll bring. 

The extra flames on this little folk help ID them on the battlefield.  

OOoo, 4 skulls, 2x shoulder pads, hat and staff.

While finishing up the next reinforcement was a bag of Chariot Miniatures from Magister Militum.  These were purchased sometime in 2008.  I have used their brothers as knights and light cavalry for Warmaster.  

Trapezilos, I'll have to work on the correct pronunciation.

I tried for bold shields to have them stand out at this scale.

While I have many projects on the shelves of opportunity I have seemingly run out of 10mm to paint.  I'll have to fix that problem.  

I did have some bits and bobs around so decided to add to the mix. 

Here are three more vampire counts characters from Forest Dragon.  

Black Coach (15 skulls) Vampire Lord, Necromancer (2 skulls)

So fun with the skeleton coming out of the ground with the 
magical mist swirling from the Necronomicon to the ground.

One bad ass vamp with a ruby ring

That looks to be it for me.  I do have a couple of small characters left, not sure if I'll get to them.  

Thanks to all for looking and comments here and in the past.

It goes without saying, but during turbulent times this zone of hobby and positivity really does help keep one well.  Plus, this is the first I've had the time to open and listen to music some of the "younger" minions have offered.  Good for the soul.  

Points:

Polly and the coach at 10mm I classed as vehicles       @6                        12 pts

12 "Trapezilos" cavalry @ 3                                                                         36 pts

3 characters @1                                                                                             3 pts

 

Total                                                                                                               51 pts                       

Skull Duel 21 skullies.  

Cheers, and be well.

Bruce

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Sylvain: I don't know what kind of magic there is in your paint brush, but you work on these 10mm figurines continue to amaze me. I love the shimmering colors you use to make your models stand out. All in all, a great project for us Challengers to follow. Bravissimo!

 

From MartijnN: 10mm ACW and the Four Circles of Hell (Wrath, Heresy, Fraud, Violence) (149 points)

Quite surprisingly, I have painted more or less only 28mm figures during this Challenge, apart from the one 6mm Blucher base of Napoleonic French last week. Obviously, that would not do, so here are some 10mm ACW. I have painted almost all my infantry, but I still have lots of artillery and cavalry lying around. So, I decided to paint up some dismounted skirmishing cavalry for both sides, and some horse holders. I really don’t know why I got those, for they are not necessary for Altar of Freedom, but they look cool anyway I think. I don’t think I will paint up all of them though 😉.

The skirmishing cavalrymen are Perrin figures, the horse holders Magister Militum (basically also Perrin, I think).

Then, this must be almost my last chance to grab some bonus points. I know it is preferable to do separate posts for each location, but in order to ease the workload of Curt and the Minions a bit during the mad dash to the finish I thought I’d better combine them this time.  Last week we were at Greed, so now it is time for Wrath. I present to you the unfortunate but very wrathful Gunnar Dingemansson.

 

He has been confined to a wheelchair ever since a sneaky orc shot him in the backside at the Battle of Grubenhavnor-in-the-Fields-on-the-Garf when he was a wee lad. His brother, who is something of a do-it-yourself guy, made this wheelchair for him. He is still working on a self-propelled version, but has not really got the hang of steam power yet, so in order to keep his remaining limbs intact, Gunnar has to make do with his arms to get up to speed for the time being. As you can see, he is quite capable of doing so, charging filled with wrath and at full speed at any orc that comes into sight. He is, unsurprisingly, a Lovecraft figure, 3d printed.

Next stage is Heresy. This is personified by Brother Johann. Johann was a boy tending his father’s sheep when one night he received a vision. It was revealed to him that the only True God was Baa, the chief sheep. It was his duty to go out in the world with his woolly  Disciples to spread the Word of Baa. Here you see hem reading from the Book of Baa to his flock. 

What is good enough for his sheep, is good enough for Johann. Thus, he dresses in shades of black and grey. 

Johann is again a 3d Lovecraft figure. I think the sheep are from Great Escape Games for Dead Man’s Hand.

Next, we arrive at Violence. According to the famous dictum of the British bard, Hell has no fury than a woman scorned. I do not know if this lady was scorned, but she is clearly prepared to dole out some violence and I would rather stay behind her.

 

She is also a 3d printed figure, this time by Join or Die. She is part of a ladies’ warband for Dead Man’s Hand, but the others will have to wait a while yet.

Finally, we arrive at Fraud with another 3d printed Lovecraft figure. In one of his projects, Iain Lovecraft did a bunch of figures “inspired” by Terry Pratchett characters. This his Cut-my-own-Throat Dibbler, accompanied by the only one who really appreciates his sausages:

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say of him:

Claude Maximillian Overton Transpire Dibbler — usually known by the epithet "Cut-Me-Own-Throat", CMOT Dibbler, or simply Dibbler, or even sometimes as just "Throat" — might be described as the Discworld's most enterprisingly successful unsuccessful entrepreneur, no-one has failed at success more times than Dibbler. A 'merchant venturer' of Ankh-Morpork, and the master of selling the 'sizzle' over the steak, Dibbler is most famous for selling meat by-products to unsuspecting passers-by, and also suspecting passers-by who have gotten sick from his sausages before, thus demonstrating that he is indeed a very good salesman.

So that’s that for now. I hope to finish some 6mm Napoleonics before the Challenge ends, but we will have to wait and see if I succeed in that. As to scoring, I am going to a be a little cheeky here and score the six horse holders as 10mm cavalry @3 points. However, if the Minion of the Moment decides that’s shaving it too closely and scores them as 12 foot figures @1, I think I can survive. I’ll score the sheep and the little dog as 10mm figures to, so 1 point each.

We have then:

24 10mm foot @1 = 24

6 10mm cavalry @3= 18

7 animals as 10mm foot @1=7

4 28mm foot @5= 20

4 Challenge locations @20= 80

For a total of 149 points.

Which sees me shooting past my target after all!

_____________________________________________

Geez, you present to us to a tremendous potpourri of wonderful miniatures Martijn. The 10mm dismounted skirmishers, with their attendant mounts and minders, look excellent. I also really like Gunnar who makes it very clear that it takes all types to make a successful adventuring party (I look forward to the steam-powered version in a future Challenge). I've never been a Terry Pratchett fan, I but like the background story (and hopeful pup). I think my favourite is the sheep and the Prophet of the Book of Baa. Excellent work (and I love the 'Sound of Music' background you used). Well done sir, and congratulations on exceeding your Points Target!

- Curt

 

 

From MilesR: A Little Slow Off The Blocks This Year (575 Points)

 I had great plans for the first few weeks of Challenge XIII but fate had other ideas for me.  On the morning of Dec 19th, I was on a board call with a UK company when there was a knock at my door.  It was a Maryland State Trooper informing me my wife had been in an auto accident and that I needed to come with her.  My lovely yet fierce Dr wife was taken to the county ER after her car crashed while driving into work.  The car spun around, rolled and the air bags deployed.  More importantly, the car did it's job protecting her as the trooper thought it was going to be a much worse outcome when they first rolled up.  She did have a concussion, a back injury plus some cuts and bruises and stayed in the hospital for that night. I was told by the ward nurse she was a difficult patient as she wouldn't let the nurses work on her until they had seen to their other patients and she could treat herself.  All I can could say was "tell me about it".

Anyway I lost week or so of painting time doing the more important tasks of caring for my wife and handling the insurance and related matters.  We are now life long fans of German Engineering and Audi's in particular and my wife has a shiny new 2023 A8.  I doubt we'll buy any other brand of car going forward.

My nursing duties are now done, which is good because I look horrendous in those white nursing outfits - here's a picture of me in "action".  I know, I know it screams "care-giver".

Anyway, now that MB is doing better, I've managed to sneak in some painting time and have the following submissions for your perusal.  These will be organized as part of three green badged studio tours.

High Adventure:

For the High Adventure Studio I have this groups of 28 WW1 Anzacs from Brigade miniatures.  These are intended for one of my silly game concepts called "Anzacs and Aztecs" which involves some WW1 Anzacs getting lost on their way to Egypt and running into all sorts of trouble in the mystical jungles of central America.  The concept is a follow on from my previous convention games of "DAK and Dragons" and "SOCOM and Sorcery".  There will, of course, be dinosaurs involved and a large model of a Mayan Pyramid which you may see later in the challenge.  There may be some Germans from a U-boat involved too but those were done in during Challenge X

The figures are from Brigade games and where painted use Army Painter "Speed Paint" I liked using the product but did find the color palette a bit limited.  There were two test figures painted a slightly different shade prior to the start of the Challenge which I'll repaint at some point.  To be honest my first foray with speed paints were a pre-XIII disaster and I stripped these figures to redo them.  There is a large 25 pound cannon, a machine gun and nice grenade "tosser" - Since they're small I'll combine the machine gun and tosser into a single gun submission for points.  So thats 28 figures, 2 guns and 1 Studio for 180 points.

Historical Drama:

Next up are some some 10mm Byzantines left over from last years big project (Manzikert).  These are a mix of Magister Militum and Pendraken figures and represent the the last of the lot I had primed from Challenge XII.  Don't worry there a good number of bare metal Byzantines waiting in the wings - there are ALWAYS more Byzantines.

The lot include 8 medium infantry, 32 slingers and 24 Buccelari (my favorite).  That's a total of 108 points including the Historical drama studio bonus

World Cinema:

OK this one is a bit of a stretch but its an homage to those rather awful Hobbit movies and the Dwarven armies at the Battle of Five Armies - here is the start of my 10mm Dwarven army project, which starts with a core of 18, 8 figure infantry bases plus some Human allied light cavalry archers.  Don't worry, you'll see some Dwarves mounted on Rams (assuming I get my resin printer working again)

The figures are metal casting from Copplestone and may be some of the finest 10mm figures I've ever painted.

Opposing them are some test paints of some Copplestone Orc and Warg riders

I am still debating what is the right color for orc skin and tested a variety of tones on the 3 infantry stands.  I'm leaning towards green but that is not aligned with the Peter Jackson canon.  

Oh yes, the Orcs brought along some trolls which while 10mm figures are actually 28mm tall - they're big fella's

The studio tour consists of 9 28mm figures, 174 Infantry and 24 cavalry in glorious 10mm plus 1 room bonus which nets out to 287 points.

So that's it for my first submission - sorry to be a little late this year but it was unavoidable.  I'll help my minion, Phil, by providing a summary of all the scale to make it easier to put in that spreadsheet which surely was created by some lunatic.

28mm

37 Infantry

2 guns

10mm

214 Infantry

48 Cavalry

3 Studios Toured

I believe that sums to a nice total of 575 points

So what's next?  I think we'll be making a detour to the South Pacific for some really tiny miniatures and a  rather large terrain project.  

Minion Phil: Welcome back to your twelfth (?) Challenge Miles. I was sorry to hear about MB's awful accident before Christmas, but am very glad that she is on the mend and spared more of your tender care. 

I like how you say this is slow off the blocks, but two week's work is higher than many challengers' winter ambitions. I do not know how you manage it but your quantity has a hugely impressive quality of its own, let alone your tidy brushwork. 

Great to see you're back at the DAK and Dragons series, I thought we'd lost you to teeny tiny scales. Those Anzacs look great and a mayan temple is something to look forward to. I'm sure it'll be hugely impressive as always. Who doesn't like more Byzantines, and a visit to Tolkien's world. All in one post - marvellous! 

Well, as you've done all the hard maths for me, my role as data entry clerk is done. Onwards!

  

From GregB - A Potpourri of Point Pandering (46 Points)

A random assortment of completed stuff as I scrape for points!

Holy crap! The end of AHPC XI draws nigh...all my glorious plans, my 1500 point target...alas...no time to dwell on my over-ambitious approach. I have all summer for that! No, now is the time to throw away pride, pull together the assorted random bits that I have painted-but-not-yet-submitted, and scrape every single point I can! Thus I present to you all a "Potpourri of Point Pandering"...

10mm WW2 German Panzers

Late model Panzer IIIs - 10mm castings from Pendraken.

These 10mm tanks were painted and based as German "test models" for my ambitions to (re)build my collection for the game "Spearhead". They are late-model Panzer IIIs from Pendraken, based on 50mm squares (to represent platoons) and one on a 50mm round (to represent a battalion command element). 

At these smaller scales I try and exaggerate the colours a bit so the contrast pops a little more.

Ready to roll out...but they'll need reinforcements first...

Obviously still a long way to travel on my 10mm WW2 efforts. I went into this edition of the Challenge so sure I would get more of these done...oh well. Next time, right? At least I have some starters to inspire me.

10mm FPW Command

10mm Prussian Command for Franco-Prussian War - figures from Pendraken.

In this edition of the AHPC I was able to finish a fair bit of 10mm stuff for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. These command figures - a senior command base for the Prussians, and a lower-level command for the French - got finished along the way, and I kept intending to add them in with another submission of a larger unit before the end of the Challenge. This "larger unit" will not happen before the weekend, so here we are...all figures and the flag are from Pendraken.

Having a flag on the base helps him stand out a bit on the table...plus flags are more fun.

The three-figure base, including a standard, will be used to represent a senior commander (i.e. corps command) on the table. 

Have to love those French uniforms from 1870...so lovely...

This individual French officer will likely lead a brigade, but of course there are all sorts of ways to scale rules up and down...bottom line, he will lead gloriously!

10mm Byzantine Cavalry

Byzantine heavy cavalry from Magister Millitum - based for "Warmaster Ancients".

When I love something in this hobby, I tend to paint it in multiple scales...but that doesn't mean I make progress, of course...oh well.  This unit of 10mm Byzantine heavy cavalry is comprised of figures from Magister Millitum, and they are based for use with the rules system "Warmaster Ancients".

These Magister Millitum Byzantines are lovely castings.

Perhaps in the next edition of the Challenge you will see some of the other figures that came with this impulse purchase back in the day?

28mm Arab Spearman

Ah, the poor test model, waiting for friends...28mm plastic figure from Gripping Beast.

I actually did manage to paint up a fair bit of 28mm Byzantine stuff during this edition of the Challenge. While my hope is to use these models to fight Dallas' Normans, I am also thinking of opponents for the Byzantines. That is where this figure comes in - a 28mm plastic figure from Gripping Beast, he is a test model for a unit of Arab Spearmen. The "test model" part happened during this edition of the Challenge, but the "OK, let's paint the rest of the unit" part did not. But five points is five points, right? Jeez...I feel like I'm in the naval part of the hobby or something...

So as you can see, having falling short of my target, I won't pride get in the way of trying to get at least a little closer to that target. This motley assembly includes four vehicles, fourteen mounted troops and one infantry figures in 10mm, and then a single 28mm foot figure...I think that is 46 points? Hey...it all counts :)

And my brushes haven't finished yet - the deadline is close, but it still not here yet. I have one more post in mind to cap things off...but for now, best to get the sweepings out of the way on the painting desk, to set the table for what I hope will be a more civilized final submission. Best of luck to all Challengers during the mad finish!