From RayR - Nature - Moooo!, Highland Cows 50pts

 

For my last post in the Challenge Library my I present some Highland Cows.

Nature: The great outdoors, or perhaps underground. Maybe outer space!

Definitely the great outdoors, not so much underground or outer space??

These fine specimens all the way from the Highlands of Scotland are brought to you from those great chaps and chapesses at Iron Gate Scenery.

They're a fairly new company, and have featured in many of my posts over the last few years.

If you haven't checked them out before, please do so, you won't regret it.

Two of the cattle are from a different company called Disain Studio, but I couldn't find a link to their site?

As you can see they were an easy paintjob, only 3 colours!

To the points!

30 points for the Cows

20 points for the bonus round.

For a total of 50!

________________________________

I'll keep this brief and simple: Nice cows Ray.  Well done. :)

- Curt

From SteveA: Gaslands, KoW, Terrain (121 points)

Heya painting peoples!

I am chasing challenges with this post,  going for 3 Library Challenges as I wander thru the AHPC library seeking to slay the gray...and chip away the pile of unpainted shame...

Ever since ByronM got me hooked on the table top visuals that 3D printing can bestow upon a Kings of War  table scape where upon the minis were shrunk to 10mm scale so more minis fit within the units bases, thereby making the battlefield appear more epic....I have continued to add more units to my Army and craft more terrain for the KPW 10mm battle field.

A unit of 10mm Trolls will now bolster my KoW army building options, and and a dollar store Halloween Skeleton-snake decoration converted into an "ancient bones within the hill" terrain piece will now provide an obstacle for unit movement and block line of sight  for some upcoming KoW battles

To further complement my "scrubland"  terrain for 10mm KoW battles, I also crafted and painted up a couple hills and some smaller clusters of trees.

If you were pondering over ideas about how to create some variety of scatter terrain with some low-profile base that were both cheap and not a collection of square corners.. I can suggest trying an idea I found when viewing war game hobby yootoob videos - use old CDs as bases for some of your custom terrain pieces.

Hills, Trees and old bones are rather Nature-ish. . so these pieces I think will enable me to check out a "Nature" book from the AHPC challenge library.

Shifting creative gears and jumping across genres......

Music is Art, Art is Music...the creative forces cannot be stopped, nor can they be 'shushed' into quiet submission by beleaguered AHPC  librarians. .. Thereby the risen dead Bone Heads band rocked out in the AHPC Library and grabbed me an "Art" book from the shelf  .  

The Bone Heads are 4 minis created by Ral Partha waaaay back in 1985 as part of there Imports line..  These guys are from the same blister pack of  2 skeletons on guitar, 1 Skeleton drummer, and 1 skeleton dood strapped into the drum kit to hold all the drums together.

The Gaslands car is a converted toy matchbox car - a $2 child's toy reimagined via the power of DYI mini-craft--  with some parts from NorthstarFigures 'Implements of Carnage' bitz sprues and a healthy application of trash bashing with plastic I saved from the recycling bin and reworked with files, knives and glue...

Also painted up for this week is a smattering of scatter terrain - piles of oil barrels and car tires that can used to pretty-up a Gaslands table, and can also to suggest where car lanes exist before collisions and weapons fire alters the flow of game traffic.... and I suppose these barrels an tires could also lend well to other games where there was still shooty-shooty-bang-bang, but less vehicular explosions ..

Considering all the  Terrain I painted for this post simply as a pile of terrain stuff to store between days when the dice are not rolling,  and imagining  if converted it all into a liquid, this assortment of terrain could fill a 6x6x6 inch cube cup..  Hmm ..  not a brew I'd drink nor a cup shape I'd recommend as best design to avoid chin drenching spills...  so I will leave these terrain items intact and ready for game, and give into my feeling there are 20 points of terrain here.

So here on my last proper Thor'sday post before the AHPC Library closing time.. I run a  few more zig-zags around the map so I may ring more challenge bells, and (elder thing powers be willing)  I will have a few more items painted and posted before the  Free-Fire days within the AHPS library  shoots out all the important structural parts of the library walls and it all comes crashing down in a heap of well painted minie among bookish ruination wrought of the next few chaotic days that will conclude this fun challenge.

121 Total Points

15 pts = x1    Gaslands Car, Vehicle 20mm
10 pts = x10  Trolls(KoW), Foot Figure, 10mm (10x1pt)
16 pts = x4   Undead Skeleton Metal Band, Foot Figure 20mm (4x4pts)
20 Pts = x1 cube, 6x6x6 inch of Terrain cube
Challenge Library 
20 pts = S3 "Art" (Undead Metal)
20 pts = S3 "Nature" (scrubland terrain)
20 pts= S4 "DII"  (MatchBox toy car converted to Gaslands battle car)

TeemuL: Yes, old CD, a tried and tested method to have non-warped and rather strong terrain base. All those Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedias and installation CDs from the 90s have a new life! The second mixed of the day, let's see...

Terrain looks good, I like the snake skeleton and the skeleton band, too. I can imagine a skeleton band playing in the background of a Gaslands race. I guess all the terrain here could be used with Gaslands? The red car, nicely built, and probably very fast. Good job Steve! I hope you reach your target during the Free Fire time.

From SanderS: Post 1 - Some Nature anyone? (32 points)

 Hoi,

As We are nearing the end of the Challenge I think I have two more departments in the Challenge Library I would like to visit and the first one is the nature department. While I had big plans for this location, I only was able to get a fraction done. 

Since I have two FDM 3D printers (one's awaiting a new hot-end at the moment but okay) I have printed a bucket load of terrain I need to paint. Did I say I totally HATE painting terrain? Well I do! At the same time I am lacking some decent terrain and therefore I needed to get cracking. With the release of the Old World I wanted some trees done and printed quite a few from different producers, as I intend to mainly play Old World in 3 locations on the Old World map, I wanted terrain to match. These locations are Bretonnia/ the empire (mostly grasslands and woods), Lustria (jungle terrain and Aztec looking ruins) and Khemri (since a friend at the club plays Tomb Kings) I ordered two new terrain mats, predictably one deserty mat and one lush green mat, and started painting trees. Now most of these I wanted without a canopy to get that spooky looking Fangorn kinda look, but I also inluded one with canopy just to show how the rest will look when I get the chance to print some more.

There's also a lot of treestumps, all but one are misprints due to running out of PLA while printing and I filled them up with wood-filler to use them as difficult terrain. 

As you can see from this picture I also had planned on painting A Lustrian Temple and Spawning Pool as well as some more ruins for Mordheim, sadly I didn't get round to them. 

Painting these trees was really simple so I cannot see me getting any more points out of them than 1 point a piece so with the location bonus I gather them to net me 32 points.

Cheers Sander

Sylvain: Despite your reluctance to paint terrain, these pieces look very good. Great job!

From AdamC: Bear Cub - Nature (25 points)

Family health issues (nothing serious just persistent and annoying) have limited my painting but I have been making progress and did finish this little fellows.

He's the last of a set of a mother bear and cubs the others have been made into Christmas ornaments for my wife (these have appeared in other challenges). They are some of Annie at Bad Squiddo games excellent collection of 25 mm animal miniatures. 

This fellow is a bit cheeky with his tongue sticking out. 

My daughter Evie is starting an RPG with me, and another adult and their children. The Game is called "Perils & Princess" and the character has an animal companion and I hope this fellow might work.  For points, it's a 25 mm figure so typically 5 points it's a bit small so a reduction may be appropriate. Nature should get another 20 for 25 in total.

Sylvain: This week, you bring a cute little fella to the Challenge. It's an easy pun, but the animal and your name remind me of "Grizzly Adams". I am sure the games you will play with your daughter will be lasting memories. Nice work! 

From PeterD: With View Halloo Pursue the Gnu (70 Points)

Second post from me today.  First up is a straightforward points grab for the nature shelves in the form of a 28mm Gnu (ok it's a wildebeest but Gnus are way more fun) from Ray Partha. This figure has been kicking around my spares bin for 20+ years and was picked up for a potential Southern African colonial project.

I think this needs a Wild Kingdom vignette with Marlin Perkins safely in the Landrover while his sacrificial offering assistant attempts to hog tie the gnu.  Sadly this was beyond my resources.

While others may look to use the Gnu as the basis for cheap puns, I instead will use it to reference a much higher art form, that of Poetry.  I present Good Gnu (A Vignette in Verse) by P.G Wodehouse.   This poem comes from the story Unpleasantness at Bludleigh Court in which Mr Mulliner's nice Charlotte (an animal loving poet) comes under a blood lust spell while visiting family friends.  She is most put out when Animal-Lovers' Gazette rejects this poem as seen at 18:00 of this clip Wodehouse Playhouse.

When cares attack and life seems black,

How sweet it is to pot a yak,

      Or puncture hares and grizzly bears,

        And others I could mention;

But in my Animals "Who's Who"

No name stands higher than the Gnu;

      And each new gnu that comes in view

        Receives my prompt attention.

 

When Afric's sun is sinking low,

And shadows wander to and fro,

      And everywhere there's in the air

        A hush that's deep and solemn;

Then is the time good men and true

With View Halloo pursue the gnu;

      (The safest spot to put your shot

        is through the spinal column).

 

To take the creature by surprise

We must adopt some rude disguise,

      Although deceit is never sweet,

        And falsehoods don't attract us;

So, as with gun in hand you wait,

Remember to impersonate

      A tuft of grass, a mountain-pass,

        A kopje or a cactus.

 

A brief suspense, and then at last

The waiting's o'er, the vigil past;

      A careful aim. A spurt of flame.

        It's done. You've pulled the trigger,

And one more gnu, so fair and frail,

Has handed in its dinner-pail;

      (The females all are rather small,

        The males are somewhat bigger).

In other gnus, I have another unit of 4 Pict Light Cavalry.  These are 28mm figures kit bashed from three Gripping Beast plastic kits. They are pretty much the same as the last two units that I have previously posted.

Note to self - I need to fix the labels which got lifted up during posing.

I think it's 5 points for the Gnu, 10 each for the cavalry and 20 for the Nature topic for a total of 65 points.

With two rooms ticked off today, my updated may looks like this.

First Germanus of Auxerre, and now P.G. Wodehouse! This day gets better and better, and I would almost think I'm being bribed here. However, there is absolutely no need for that with this second great entry for today, Peter. The gnu is very nice, I absolutely love the poem, and the Picts are on a par with your previous submission, a fine job! Again trying to be somewhat consistent I'll add a couple of bonus points for the kitbashing, the hand-painted shields, and a little carry-over from Germanus' vexillum, so we'll settle at 70.

Martijn

From PeterB - Yet more Spam and some bouncing Squigs - Nature - 145 points

 The 2nd edition project goes on. Another delve into the box of history and five more Space Marines have been stripped and re-painted. Not much to tell about these, they are mostly metal. I once again tried to keep the arms and backpacks as original as possible even if it means the poses look a little stiff.

The chap second to the left is a little stocky too. I like that though, a bit of character.

Next up some squigs. Specifically Cave Squigs being ridden by Night Goblins. At our local club we have been looking at the new Warhammer the Old World rules. So, I thought I would finish off my Night Goblin army. The one thing they were missing was some fun cavalry. What do Night Goblins like to ride? Cave Squigs. Big red balls of gnashing teeth found deep in the caves of the Old World. Night Goblins grow weird, exotic, hallucinogenic mushrooms in caves that also attract these Squigs. Hunting them is difficult due to the fact that most of the Squig is made up of teeth. If they do manage to net one, some Goblins like to try the dangerous pastime of riding these Squigs into battle. When the riders manage to catch a Squig without being eaten themselves by the creature, they can then climb on top and cling on for dear life. As long as they keep their toes clear of the mouth of the Squig behind and point their own mount in the right direction, they can be a dangerous foe on the battlefield.

These forces of nature are fed gassy fungus to enable them to leap high across the battlefield. Young Squig Hopper riders in training very quickly learn to not try and ride their mount whilst still within the caves. After witnessing the most enthusiastic rider of their group being crushed against the cave ceiling (or skewered on a stalactite) and then promptly eaten by their mount, the rest soon decide to lead their Squigs outside before climbing aboard. Note the lack of any tack or harness. A Goblin has to just grab a flap of skin and pray to Gork or Mork that their grip will hold.

On to the map and the scores.

5 Space Marines. 5 x 5 points = 25

10 Squigs, 10 x 5 10 points = 50 100

Location Bonus = 20

Total = 95 145 points

Sylvain: Your description of the daily work life of a squig rider is very funny. Their "occupational health & safety" regulations are still quite crude, but progress is made. Nice work on re-painting these old school metal space marines. And fabulous job on these bouncing squigs. 

As for points, the justification for "Nature" ("The great outdoors, or perhaps underground. Maybe outer space!") is a little stretched, but the mushrooms you added on your bases helped you win the argument. I also re-calculated your squigs as "mounted". Great result fr you this week!  

 

From SebastianR: Rats! [Nature] (104 Points)

And our ghostly cart ride takes us to the the nature part of the library where we are surrounded by one of nature's greatest adapters, the rat, flowing into houses and granaries and scurrying up from beneath in an unending tide, to harry desperate peasants, and unfortunate adventurers in an unending swarm.

These figures are one part citadel Mordheim dire rats, and one part alternative armies rats.

The single based minis will be used for this year's Mordheim skaven warband and probably Pathfinder at some point. The multi based miniatures? Who knows. I had excess rats and wanted to paint them all.

Getting the plank texture was something of a saga. Turns out Element Games is perfectly happy to sell you something that they do not have in stock, and don't know when they will have in stock either.

My experiments with texturing milliput have borne fruit, but I definitely could have done a better job. Firmer, more consistent texture is required. I'll know when I come to make bases for the actual skaven.

 

While these are 28mm rats, they're much closer to 15mm figures; cavalry specifically, so I'm going to cost them at 4pts each, Dallas permitting.

That's 21 rats at 4 pts each for 84pts and 1 location at 20 points for 104pts.

There's no such thing as too many rats, and I say this as a former player of a Skaven army in WHFB and a Skaven Blood Bowl team. These little rodents look superb and I really like the textured bases, they look great.

I'll allow your math and allocate 104 points.

Dallas

From TomL: Nature is harsh for 90 points

Leading us to the Nature section of the library is Sylvia Trent from Bob Murch’s Daughters of the Empire pack.

 

 Not too far back Studio Tomahawk released the Congo rules with a selection of Wargames Foundry Darkest Africa figures.  I had quite a few other packs from the Foundry DA line so I enthusiastically jumped on board when a friend suggested we bring the game into our club. I painted up a few of the Congo DA figures plus a few packs from the lead mountain fairly quickly. Unfortunately, no one else was very interested and eventually it was relegated to the stalled project shelf. Here we have a Lion,  crocodiles and a pack of Dotted Hyenas from Obolisk miniatures. 

The wounded hyena originally came with 4 legs but one was miscast so...

I call organs.  No fair! You got them last time.

90 points.

10 28mm figures @ 5 = 50

Library Cart - 20

Nature - 20

From Millsy: Another lovely femme fatale Tom but the pick of this post for me is the hyenas. I really like the treatment you have applied to the fur and whilst I feel sorry for the wounded one that's the way nature works!