From JamieM - Moonstone and Necromunda, natural bedfellows….. (190 points)

Gosh it’s been a while since my last post. Classic story of getting a bunch of things 90% done and then the basing that I had planned out just didn’t work at all like I thought it would….. so instead of being a grown up and working out how to change it, I instead decided to sulk, throw myself on the floor and roll around whinging until it magically fixed itself and worked like it had in my head instead of how it did in reality.

Funnily enough, it didn’t fix itself, so I did carry on with some other things and I think I have the basing plan sorted now, so that stuff should be in my next post. As it is, I’m going to start with some of the other stuff I did.  My first batch is for the entry area with a “Fantasy” offering, some delightful Moonstone figures. These figures are amazing and are just great fun to paint (apologies for the photos, I couldn’t find my light box batteries….. maybe they were knocked off the table when I had my basing related tantrum?)

They consist of a limited edition version of Diana, Queen or the Faeries. As far as I know, the story goes that the faeries were all messing about a bit too much and went so far, so Diana went berserk. As faeries are all magical, their anger can really lead to some fun times, hence the swirling magic energy. I managed to drop the model at one point, but thankfully only one of the magical bolts broke and disappeared into the carpet, so I got very lucky indeed…..

The second of the bunch is the Jackalope. A huge bunny rabbit. You’ve seen a couple of these painted previously in challenges I think, so I decided to make mine a black and white rabbit. Pulling up some images on google, I tried to match it as best I could.

Third of the bunch is Friar. He’s a slightly dodgy looking holy man who hits people with his club. And has a golden codpiece, so that probably tells you something about his chief motivations in life…..

Next up is my necromunda gang. My club is starting a necromunda campaign and I’ve never actually played necromunda, despite being old enough to remember when it started out as a game called “confrontation” and it had the rules printed monthly in white dwarf!

Looking at all the gangs, I was drawn to Cawdor….. they’re religious nut jobs who try to overwhelm their opponents with waves of poorly trained fighters with such wonderful weapons as Blunderpoles (a blunderbuss strapped to a halberd) and giant crossbows.

My leader has a Great sword. Not a good sword, a greatsword. He plans to use it to encourage people towards the one true faith.

Others wield grenade launchers and the aforementioned blunderpoles and a giant crossbow. The unwashed masses just have a gun and their unswerving faith to see them through the terror of the underhive.

And now for something a little different…… as I’m planning to play in the campaign I wanted to contribute some scenery. I’ve had really some really big boats from ttcombat sitting about for ages after I bought them in a rush of excitement one day. They were originally sail boat things with two masts and were for carnevale/pirate games. But I decided to take the masts off a couple of them and convert them to something that might well prowl the seas under the hive.

I started by sticking corrugated cardboard all the way around them to disguise the windows and fancy stylings. I then added more rivets that was healthy and stuck all sorts of gubbins on them from my collection of GW spares.

The first one I envisage as a fishing vessel, although quite what swims in the vast sumps under the hive is probably best left unseen….. still, the hivers must eat somehow I suppose. I left harpoons and things strewn around the deck as I didn’t want to get in the way of using it as a gaming piece.

The second one I made more generic. Both have funnels made from the GW WH40K pipe set that they produce. They’re magnetised for ease of transport/survivability once in contact with gamers.

They’re big old boats, being 22 inches long and 6 inches wide. 6 inches tall at the back bit (Stern? Port? Aft?) and so are around two 6” cubes each. I’d also like to claim them as “maritime” now I’ve entered the main lobby area as they trawl the underhive seas…..

I take my own advice in that “more is more” when weathering and I’ve gone a little overboard (geddit?) with them, but I figure the underhive will create more than a little rust and wear.

In summary then

3 moonstone figures plus 11 necromunda gangers are 14 x 28mm figures for 70 points

4 cubes of terrain at 80 points

Fantasy and Maritime bonuses for 40

Total 190

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Well, now THAT is an interesting assortment Jamie! What an entertaining bunch...from tantrums, to golden codpieces, to primitive guns on sticks, and swords that are GREAT, to the totally nuts conversion of these ships!

Fine work all around - that is 190 points for you!

I'm going to return to my own tantrum, hoping that if I thrash on the floor enough times, that Plains of Abraham project will re-start...

GregB

From PhilH: Mooning about the Fantasy and Children’s Sections

When I visited with the Snowlord, he kindly introduced me to the whimsical fantasy skirmish game Moonstone. Turns out he has solid taste in games and it’s super good fun: a surprisingly tightly-designed tactical game with deep gameplay, unique models, many of which are daft as a brush. There’s also a decent community at my local store and a good friend bought in, so I’ve been collecting the Leshavult faction, playing and painting quite a lot of it in recent months.

So, for my next two library locations, a couple of Moonstone characters. I expect you’ll see a few more from me before the Challenge is out.

 

First, the faun wizard Gloom. His signature is to Shadow Walk about the table, so I tried to work with the light of the lamp as the focus for the miniature, and the rest of him dark and shadowy. He’s my choice for the Fantasy section.

Second, the delightfully dorky Jackalope. Being fluffy and cuddly it will be my submission for the Children’s section. It’s also quite vicious on the table.

I leave it to my esteemed minion whether the Jackalope counts as a monster, Gloom as a 28mm foot miniature and two locations makes ?..  

Another fine submission, Phil! Gloom is great, and the osl effect is pretty convincing. I like the dark, muted colours and the contrast with the lighter parts. Well done indeed!  The Jackalope is very good as well, perhaps not the best gift to comfort a child of a nervous disposition, but a fine paint job. As I hear that it measures about 35mm to the top of the hump, I will not score it as a monster, but I’ll consider it a 40mm figure; so 7 points. You may be walking rather close to the edge here, but I suppose, with a little imagination (which is not something I am particularly know for), it might be seen as “something darker for the children”. Which brings you another 52 points.

Martijn

From Curt: Gnomish Airship for Moonstone (35 Points)

Hi Everyone,

I hope you all are enjoying the Holiday Season, taking in the treats and festivities, and perhaps managing to tuck in a little time with the brushes and paints. 

Last night out gaming group had a Christmas-themed game of Moonstone which, as usual, was a lot of great fun. I was hoping to have this entry done for the game, but it just wasn't quite ready for the tabletop, so I got up early this morning to properly finish it off. 

This is the 'Gnomish Airship' for Moonstone (one of our proud Challenge sponsors). It's a lovely little model, packed full of whimsical character and silliness (who can deny an pedal-powered airship, armed with a steam harpoon and bombs). I painted it up using fairly punchy colours, reasoning that Gnomes are a jolly lot and so would like their flying machines to be much the same.

I considered breaking out the airbrush for this little brute, but frankly I was just too lazy (rum and eggnog are good sandbags to activity) and the model actually seemed well-suited to straightforward brushwork. I used a mixture of VMC, Contrast and good ole craft paint for this. It was a lot of fun to work on (though it's a surprisingly delicate piece, so I had to be mindful).

The base was built up with foam bits, liquitex and tallus. I had some great mushroom prints on hand, which I glued in for a bit of additional whimsy.

The Airship will be a nice addition to the Gnome troupe and I hope to see it plying the skies, causing mayhem, during our next game.

Mama Grimble, her two Boys and the new Gnome Airship.

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As to scoring, I'll pitch it at 15 points, between a 28mm cavalry model and a vehicle, which seems about right. Since it is for a fantastical setting, I'll also be bold and claim an extra 20 points for the 'Fantasy Book' topic. So all together that's 35 points in the bag for this clever bit of Gnomish engineering.

Thanks for popping in for a look!

- Curt

From DaveS - Very Big and Very Small (37 Points)

Back to my fourth (I think) challenge, and my latest start so far.  Combine the situation in healthcare in the UK at the moment with my having worked basically every day over christmas, and it has been a delayed start to my painting adventures.

Despite this, and despite me having some very definite plans for my "big" projects for the year, I have nevertheless decided to start with something from the studio.

When it was first released, I was introduced to the game "Moonstone" by Goblin King Games, by a friend who subsequently went on to write a lot of their fiction.  This was pre-pandemic, and I bought a couple of packs of Fairies and a Troll for the game. The fairies I started experimenting with, trying out using inks over zenithal as a painting effect, applying it using my then new airbrush.  I was never that excited by the effect, and the models got put on a shelf and forgotten about.

When I looked at the painting challenge this year, and realised that there was an "Under construction" studio, I realised that I would have to go digging.  A bit of hunting around turned up the models, and I built the troll, and re-undercoated the Fairies.

Therefore, I present you Boulder the Troll

He was painted using mostly contrast paints over a zenithal drybrushed basecoat (So-called "slap chop" method), and then some of the details like the rocks were painted in traditional fashion.  I am quite pleased with the results,given that he didn't take too much effort.

Teetoe is the first of the repainted fairys.  Again, she was mostly done with contrast paint over a drybrushed undercoat, although in her case the skin was given a purple glaze and a highlight to change the tone slightly.  The wings are modelled (loosely) on real butterlies.

One of the things that painting her taught me is that the contrast paints are going to be really useful, due to their slight transparency when trying to paint things like tattoos, and patterns on skin where you want a little of the skin tone to show through (this was discovered painting the black veins on the wings.)

My my count, this is 5 points for a 28mm fairy, 10 points for a 28mm monster, and then 20 points for the under construction Studio, for a total of 35 points.

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Hey Dave, I saw your post in the queue and thought I'd pop it up so you wouldn't have to wait until next Wednesday. 

Great work on these two Moonstone characters! (Our group are big fans of Moonstone as it always seems to give a fun, close-fought and fast game.) 'Boulder' is terrific, especially his paler face in contrast to his darker body (nice horns too!). I also quite like the purple glaze effect on 'Teetoe's' skin - very apropos for a fairy I think. 

I'm scoring 'Teetoe' as a 40mm figure and 'Boulder' as a 54mm as I know he's a big lad.

Well done and welcome back to the Challenge, Dave!

- Curt

From EdwardG - A little last minute planet hop (Vulcan and Perelandra) (55 points)

 Evening all, 

I hope that although this is coming in late on the submission day, I can still slide under the slowly closing stone door and make it through while still wearing my hat! 

Within the lead pile I have managed to excavate a couple of minis that are useable for my last planetary landing attempts. After this I am planning on getting my head down and attempting to finish the main target project for this Challenge. While the last few weeks speed their way past in a blur. 

My first planetary port of call is Vulcan. Now this called for something logic (not a hope in hell), or with pointy ears (slightly more potential, but only slightly). I was inspired when a comment to a previous post of Moonstone minis was commented on that the Bunnies would have fitted the bill for Vulcan had I not already entered them for another planet. This got me thinking! So a re-visit to the moonstone stockist nearby, and I came away with another box of minis! Which of course I needed....This was the Malachite Mystics box set for anyone in the know. Within this box were a couple of minis that fitted perfectly the pointy ears requirements. I decided to paint the one with the pointiest ears of the bunch. So I present Raegan, Leshavult Priestess. She has some very useful powers and seems like she could nicely buff up Boris in his bunny summoning, so I am looking forward to trying to play the mini! I decided on a yoda-esque colour scheme, and was quite happy with the final result. 

Now I have managed to finally complete the outer planetary ring, I can finally start to take small steps deeper into the Quadrant. Even though I am very late in my ventures. 

For my next planet fall, I would look to land on the sea based planet of Perelandra. The Oceanic theme was a tough one for me, as I never normally paint naval or anything of that genre. However, I did remember that I had a mini which I had bought during the course of last year on the basis that it looked fun and might be useful as a Curtgeld or similar in this year's Challenge (I really like having this reason when explaining purchases...) Tbh, I cannot remember where I found him, or his make. But for me, there are few things more of the ocean, than a pirate from the golden age of sail! Yaharrrrrrrrr!

The final mini for my submission this evening sadly did not fit any of the available planets. He is neither Good, nor Evil, and certainly not a friend to any. The mini comes from the Medieval Marginalia kickstarter, which are some brilliant sculpts that I am sure will pop up in several future Challenges. It is crazy what people would draw in the margins of books! He is mounted as my 25mm Barker Marker (a 'technical' term for Zone of Control(ZoC) markers. The ZoC being a standard part of Mr. Barker's rules). I attempt to paint a new one for each 25/28mm DBA army that I paint. It is an odd thing, but I feel the Barker Marker is almost part of the army, although it is certainly not something I do for my 15mm DBA armies. But back to the mini. He is pleasantly playing a tune on his lute, but I fear for any of the opponents minis who can hear the tune. 

So down to the scoring:

3x 25mm foot miniatures = 15pts

Vulcan visit = 20pts

Perelandra visit = 20pts

Total = 55pts!

Hope everyone stays healthy and looking forward to getting one final entry in to close out this year and with any luck, just make my points target!! 

Take Care!

Ed

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"And I came away with another box of minis! Which of course I needed." - the story of our lives. Well said, and well-painted.

Also - squeezing 55 points out of three figures. Now THAT is what we call "Wednesday"!

GregB

From EdwardG: Corps de Chariot, a mad man, and a trip to Solaris (97points)

Bonjour tout le monde!

For the 12th Challenge, I have decided to organise myself slightly differently compared to last year. Towards the end of the 11th Challenge I dropped a large points bomb, that was my  28mm DBA Sub-Romano British DBA army. This year one of the, if not the main, projects for my challenge painting time is again a DBA army this time of the Gallic variety. I have decided to do the honorable thing and post up the elements as they are completed. 

The first elements completed (and possibly a motivational mistake on my part) are the Corps de Chariot. These chaps are all Victirx figures from their nice Gallic range. I must admit I have a few gripes about this set. Firstly, when supplying a pack of 3 chariots, I am at a loss as to why they only supplied 2 variants. I understand the prices of tooling etc. But it seems it would have been a much better move to scrap the Budicca figure, and allow for a third driver. The number of heads supplied is nice, but I am finding not a fan of the heads and faces of the Victirx figures. I am finding that the sculpturing is far too fine and detailed. It does not really suit my style of painting. I prefer to be able to have a little bit more freedom when painting faces. But, apart from this, I do like the minis. The plastics are very easy to put together and there is a reasonable amount of variability.

 

The chariot with the cloaked rider will be my General's element. I decided against a large banner or anything like that this time. I found that the banners I did last year were a pain that I did not wish to repeat! That said my attempt to paint plaid material isn't the best, and was so frustrating that I have decided to only go as far as stripes for the rest of the army! :D 

This next figure was a little bit of a disappointment in the way he came out, but as I painted him, I felt it would be a waste to not base and present him to the CurtGod for a few unashamedly needed points. 

He is from the Victrix chariots pack, and originally he was intended to be my General figure. The idea was that he would strike fear into the tribal opponents, by displaying the heads of their relatives on the way into battle. I had originally planned to paint the majority of this army with Contrast paints and that is how I began this figure. But as I progressed, I became less excited by the figure. I am not sure if it the colour scheme I ended up with, or the rather (in hindsight) ridiculousness of the figure itself. But which ever it was, I ended up building a new General figure, with cape, as seen above to replace him. 

After the annoyance of the figure above, I decided that the contrast paints are best suited to smaller miniatures. This lead me on to the next figures on my painting desk. The furry friends of Boris, who was recently posted. These small fiends are my submission to Solaris...as I can think of nothing less deceptive as a small fluffy bunny, with large POINTY TEETH! I managed to paint all three of them, and I am quite pleased with the outcome. I hope that they do well in their first game of Moonstone, which will be this Sunday coming!  

This trip to Solaris ticks off the third of my planetary visits. I now just need to think of some figures that might suit Vulcan!?!

 As for scoring, I am taking the chariots as 28mm vehicles (after all they have wheels!) and the bunnies as 15mm mounted figures as they are about the same size despite being 28mm scale. I calculate the following: 

3 x Chariots = 3 x 20points = 60points

1 x Madman with a poor choice of fashion = 1 x 5points = 5points

3 x Bunnies with POINTY TEETH! =  3 x 4 points = 12points

Visit to Solaris = 20points

Total = 97points

For those of you who are interested, below is a picture of the bundle of fluff which has (along with a busy job) been the largest factor distracting me from my painting table! His name is Squirrel (Yep, for real, he is the same colour as the red squirrels here), and he likes shoes, and shoe laces, and most things that he can chew. But he is a very Good Boy! 

Hope to catch you next week!  

Cheers,
Ed

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Hi Ed - very nice work on these chariots. They seem like finickity kits, but you should be pleased with the results. They look great, and I can picture the rumble and hear the shouts of joy as they charge into battle against the Romans! As for your adventures with your general, I would say you adjusted nicely - and who wouldn't want a mad man - either in charge, or just handy - with their army on the table?

And you are correct - bunnies with sharp teeth are just evil! Call in the flame throwers...

GregB