From PeteF: Really The Last Post - A Mixed Bag of Chambers (164 Points)

 As I completed my "last" post yesterday I felt a gnawing disappointment that I'd not completely explored Curt's delightful dungeon. Five rooms remained empty and I was stuck with the thought...what if they could be finished in a day? So as I watched tv last night - and straight after breakfast I was painting individual bricks on La Haye Sainte - my entry for The Oubliette. 

I owned this model back in my youth as a result of an abortive day trip to Windsor Safari Park. Somewhere near Uxbridge the car blew a tire and we spent most of the day by the side of the road and in Uxbridge itself where toy shop was found and the Airfix Waterloo Battle Set was used to assuage my sadness (score, right?). That particular set has been lost in the mists of time but a few years ago I inherited an unbuilt Waterloo Farm House when my brother passed away. He never got around to assembling and painting this iconic piece of Airfix nostalgia and I've had it primed and ready for around 3(?) Challenges... my memory isn't what it once was.

I'm not sure painting the individual bricks was the most efficient approach to this model, especially in a time crunch. But there you go. When I prepped the model I used bits of Lego as jigs so two of the roofs can be easily removed to house soldiers. The whole thing is a bit big to use in a Black Powder game but the individual structures will come in handy along with my other Airfix houses for representing Belgian towns and villages.

Excluding the jutting wall the model is 12"x8"x3" which I estimate to be worth 27 points plus 20 for the room for a total of 47.

I'm going to write and upload photos as I go today. The clock says 9 hours and 40 minutes and there are four rooms left.

Next up is this shrine like object which is my entry for the Tomb. It was a generous gift from a fellow wargamer - I had mentioned to him that I was thinking about doing some fantasy mass battle gaming and he gave me some of his old stuff. I believe this is part of an old GW starter set (hopefully more of it later).

This is likely to see use in Kings of War as a Portal of Despair (mwahahaha) for my Nightstalkers army. I've put clues to various horror movies in the game pieces. This one might even get a second clue if I can figure out how to use LEDs to make the mouth area flicker like the TV screen in Poltergeist. It's a bit obscure but that's the idea.

At 100mm, This is quite a big object so I'm scoring it at 10 points (equivalent to a 54mm foot figure) plus 20 for the room bonus. Added bonus is 26 skulls!

The clock is ticking - AHPC page says seven hours to go - 3 more rooms to clear...

Now to the laboratory - this was the hardest chamber of them all for me to find a suitable mini. After digging around on the shelf of shame I came up short - but then remembered an old box of Heroclix I'd got for my son and which he had given back last time he cleaned out. 

The Hulk is the result of an experiment gone wrong and this version - some kind of robot hulk - is the result of yet more tinkering by misguided scientists. Not sure if I'll find a game for him but he was fun to paint - I enjoyed highlighting the green and will use some of the other Heroclix for practice. I broke out the Turbo Dork for his shiny green machine parts.

I'm scoring him as a 40mm figure (he's 50mm foot to elbow)plus room bonus. With 2 chambers to go the clock says 5 hours 39 minutes. But I have to take a break to cook dinner.

Sticking with the green skinned theme and knocking out another chamber - here are some goblins (night goblins?) from the same source as the shrine thingy. With time so tight I only did these three - I was given enough for a large unit of Saga levies or a regiment of bowmen for Kings of War. In Kings of War there's a goblin tribe - the Red Goblins - that help out the ogres so I gave them red hoods and slippers. Like the pope.

These are nice old school sculpts with lots of character - maybe I'll work towards a full green skinned army - they're fun to paint.

3 minis and a room bonus for 35 points. One room to go - I checked the clock and there's 3 hours and 48 minutes left of Challenge XI to finish the final room.

And here is the final figure for Challenge XI - a female paladin for The Kinght's Solar. She's an old school figure - I can't remember the manufacturer. Maybe Citadel. The pack comes with a mounted on unicorn version of the same mini which I'll save for another time.

1 figure on foot plus a final room bonus for 25 points and the end of a fun day chipping away at the shelf of shame. Apologies if this has been too many pictures! Left with 3 hours to spare... maybe there's another mini?

Grand Total: 164 points

La Haye Sainte: 47 points

Portal: 30 points

Laboratory: 27 points

The Orcs' Pit: 35 points

Knight's Solar: 25 points

And then I got some help

A Big Thank you to Curt and his minions as well as everyone who has participated in Challenge XI. We only get one shot at this journey of life and I'm grateful to have spent some of it painting alongside this merry crew.

From SidneyR: Winter Adventurers in the Orcs' Pit (90 points)

 

Following on from my last post of a couple of Midlam Miniatures Curtgeld dwarves, this post features a few more of the Midlam Miniatures range, plus some Oldhammer treasures.

But before revealing all, how on earth have I got from the improvised 'Armoury' of "Count" Konrad von Hetzendorf in the Grote Markt of Laarden in 1688 to the Orcs' Pit under Challenge Mountain?  Lady Sarah - please grant safe and speedy passage for the journey with this Adventuring Sisterhood...

I very much enjoyed painting these Midlam Miniatures female adventurers.  There are three fighters and a cleric, the latter brandishing a holy book and a mace for any un-convinced parishioners.  I painted them all much faster than normal using Army Painter washes, which (if you have not tried them) are really nice to use and 'pool' and 'flow' very well indeed on a painted figure.  Not my usual technique, but - who knows - maybe trying new things is what the Challenge is all about.

I particularly liked the "winter" feel of the adventurers, with some of the sisterhood muffled up in cloaks, fur hats and gloves against the fierce seasonal snows.  The only figure which I thought was slightly unrealistic was the adventurer with the studded boots.  Please, fellow Challengers, no sniggering...  

If I was adventuring in a dungeon, they'd be my first choice of sensible footwear... possibly.  But, 'in for a penny, in for a pound', as the saying goes - I ended up painting them with Vallejo 'Dark Vermillion' with gunmetal studs.  Footwear such as this is all the rage in the Village of Hommlet, I've been told.

The male adventurers are also from Midlam Miniatures, and are also realistically proportioned and clothed.  More quick painting with Vallejo basecoats and Army Painter washes for these chaps.  I tried to keep the colour palette consistent with the female miniatures.

I particularly liked the bald adventurer.  He had a look of a nightclub bouncer about him -  though, thankfully, he's not employed at my regular favorite nightspot in 'Town'.  

I added a selection of winter-y tufts on the bases.  I wasn't sure about this, as I had intended the adventurers to be dungeon-delvers.  But the bases looked a little sparse without any tufts or grasses, and I liked the look of dry-brushing the tufts with yellow ochre (for the winter dead-grass feel) once they were glued on.

And once in the Orcs' Pit, we need some orcs.  WAAA-aaaaaaa-AGGHHHHHH.  

(Apologies, dear Challengers - I just felt the need to offer that scream to the Hobby Gods).  

The Orcs are a mix.  The smaller ones are three Midlam Miniatures orcs and one, the small guy with the spiked club, is a vintage 1998 orc from somewhere which I cannot remember.  Mr. Spiked-Club is a truly lovely figure - does anyone know which manufacturer made him?

The two larger orcs are from Midlam Miniatures (the rat-catcher orc) and an old Chronicle Hobgoblin, sculpted by Nick Bibby in the 1980s.  Shamefully, the hobgoblin has been in my painting pile since 1985.  Welcome to the party, Sir - finally!

Also in the Orcs Pit, no doubt causing trouble, is an old GW Chaos Demon.  He's another refugee from my 1990s collection which has never been painted.  He has a brother in my fantasy Samurai army which caused mayhem in some of the Samurai games we played 'back in the day'.  And now, there's two...

And, as I've mentioned before, pink and violet are (at least to me) always going to be the colours of Chaos! 

The dungeon paving slabs were easy to do.  Just cut plasti-card, and glue it to the base.  Not perfect, and not Golden Demon standard, but it works well enough I feel.

And so, on to the points.  Seven adventurers, six orcs and a nasty demon at 5 points each gives me 70 points.  And add in 20 for the 'Orcs Nest' Challenge, and that's 90 points in total.  

And, more to the point, more than a few hours of fun with my kids in lockdown as we explore the world of dungeon-delving after hours of Zoom Home Schooling!

*******

From SimonG: In Honour of Curt's First Submission - A PigMan for the Orc Pit (27 points)

Inspired by Curt's very first submission, and bringing back memories of the pig-faced-orc Army I used to own 40 years ago I offer the following delightful pig man!

Once again this is a Black Rose Wars/Novo Aetas 38mm PVC figure from Ludus Magnus Studios and like the harpy he again seems to be in service of the Madonna (how odd?) -- painting her face was one of the most enjoyable parts of this paint job. He's a good 38mm tall but almost as wide and certainly that deep!

Overall this was an exercise in working flesh tones, which is certainly practise I needed. Thankfully he's not complete anatomically but I'll spare you a shot of his undercarriage! He does seem to be a bit of a dandy with his spiffy hair so I hope the colours I chose do him justice.

I did start off trying to use my brand new airbrush and had some success blending different tones but soon reverted to more traditional brush techniques.  I did however have success using the Vallejo Model Air paints applied via brush as their super milky consistency made them very easy to mix and blend to get smooth gradations. I also learned the value of a deep purple for outlining and shading -- a great lesson!

Once again lots of fun painting in ways I would not normally try so thanks again to the Chambers of Challenge for pushing us out of our normal comfort zones.

I think that adds another 27 points to my total which is getting surprisingly close to my target. Maybe time to finish off my 10mm GSFG force next so I can move on to the Brits (airbrush time again for that camo scheme)

From Barks: Down, down, to the Orcs' Pit (220 points)

These goblins has been a real albatross around my neck- I primed these many Challenges ago, but it took the Pit to give me the impetus to get them done. These are goblins from GW's Hobbit range.

They're pretty straightforward to paint. The skin is the main feature: Fyreslayer Flesh Contrast, then drybrush Army Painter Elven Flesh and Corpse Pale. The boils get a thin wash of Vallejo Red Wash. The goblins are wonderfully grotesque, making a good low-tech mutant rabble.

Goblintown High Command

The Great Goblin doesn't have a lot of texture to his skin, unlike his wonderful minions. I had to build up the skin with milk-consistency strokes of the above colours in lines and dapples, with a stippling of pale brown as well. I painted the irises and pupils, to make up for not painting any of the eyes of the horde!

38x 28mm figures: 190 points

1x Great Goblin: 10 points

1x Orc's Pit: 20 points

GW Side Challenge: 200 points

Skull-o-meter™: 1