From MattW - Napoleonic, ACW, Roman’s and Aliens oh my! (140 points)

 Napoleonic, ACW, Roman’s and Aliens 

Finally back from our 10 week vacation in Australia, I was keen to hit the painting desk and have been really productive over the last 14 days getting a lot painted. I missed last Friday’s  deadline as I went to wargames and forgot to take photos…..

First up eight Perry Plastic dismounted Dragoons, these have been in my stash for over 10 years now, great to finally get them completed. 

8 Napoleonic figures @ 5 points = 40 points 

I also painted some  ACW bits, a Confederate band and a farrier from Dixon minatures range. 

9 ACW figures @5 points  = 45

Back to my neglected Roman’s for my Gangs of Rome project, I still have a lot more to do with this collection, including buildings. The figure will be able to be a civilian, slaver or a gang member, and two camels. 

Three 28mm figures @ 5 points = 15 poinrs

Finally for Christmas I received the Aliens another glorious day for the corps board-game, I decided to paint the Xenomorph’s first, I elected for a green blue colour on my first batch, quite happy with the result. 

8 x 28mm figures  @ 5 points = 40 points

Totals 

Twenty eight 28mm foot figures @5 points  = 140 points 

Squirrel 4 points 

Napoleonic 

ACW

Roman’s 

Aliens 

Cheers

MattW

From Millsy:

In a rush with real life so I don't have the time to say something pertinent I'm afraid! Nice work mate, especially the dismounted dragoons.

Cheers,

Millsy

From JamieM - Wild West Exodus Greys (30 points)

Just a small submission from me this week - some grey aliens from the Wild West Exodus game.

I doubt I’ll ever play them in Wild West Exodus (although the rules are apparently getting a reboot, so you never know) and I’ve used the previous figures I’ve painted from this line in post apocalyptic games. Did they cause the apocalypse? Are they just taking advantage of the carnage? Or did they get shot down and, like ET, are just trying to get home? (I’m pretty sure everyone reading this of a certain generation just said “Phone Home” in their best ET accent…..)

Nice and simple colour scheme and they’re ready to abduct some cows. I’m not a huge fan of all of the sculpts (a little bit too much "Jazz Hands" going on) but I can live with it.

I think this is possibly the last scheduled Thursday round before the free fire starts, so I’ll take the opportunity to thank Greg the minion for being an absolute gentleman and a scholar whilst herding and scoring the Thursday crew’s work! It wouldn’t be the challenge without the minions taking time out of painting schedules to comment and publish the posts, so thank you.

Simple scoring with six 28mm figures for 30 points.

***

Cheers Jamie! Great to see you back with another batch of UK Labour Party MPs...I had no idea so many sculpts of them were available in 28mm...oh...wait...ah, I see, these are ACTUAL aliens! Brilliant! 

I enjoy the painting very much, but as is so often the case, is the casual sentiments about the hobby on the side that I relate to so much and are such a great part of the Painting Challenge. Figures for a game that one hasn't played, and may or may not ever play, but might be getting a reboot but...ah, whatever, they look fun and they fit with a different game, so away we go! I've no doubt many here will relate :)

Thinking back to the opening time of AHPC XVI, I seem to recall that you had multiple version of a plan in place - plan A, plan B, plan E, etc. And I bet these fellows were not even "plan F" - but you got them over the line. Well done!

It's been a treat to have you on the Thursday crew Jamie! Keep those brushes moving until things conclude! Until then, another 30 points for you. 

GregB

From BillA: 3D Printed Alien Monsters (20 points)

Mixing things up once again! 

With my wife being immunocompromised and the hygiene standards (or lack thereof) I've seen at some of the local game stores, a lot of my wargaming has shifted to solo play since 2020, and one of the games most often seen on my table is "Majestic 13," from Snarling Badger Studios. While it hasn't gotten the same level of attention that their offerings "Deth Wizards" and "Space Station Zero" have, it's been a very enjoyable game for me.

You play as a team of five "Agents" in a covert war against alien invaders, represented in most games by one big gribbly monster that can absorb and deal out a lot of damage. Each game is capped at five turns and you'll usually have a secondary mission attached alongside the primary mission of "kill the monster." It's built for campaign play, with agents improving skills, requisitioning improved gear, as well as developing PTSD and dying and being returned to the battlefield as clones of varying quality. 

I'm currently (as of this blogpost going live) four games into my current campaign, and have a small collection of painted monsters to use; the game offers stats for 26 monsters, each of which are described in the vaguest possible terms to allow you to use whatever figures feel most appropriate to the you. Most of mine are 3D prints from various designers, and here are two more newly painted for my collection. Both of these were purchased from TableTopTradesman on Etsy, who has been one of my go-to sources for these.

The first of these is a sort of generic "Cthulhu"-y humanoid figure with long arms ending in tentacled "hands" and a octopus-like head. I tend to keep my paint jobs on these monsters relatively simple, often with a main color and pops of contrast; they've also been good for me as practice for glazing and similar techniques. Here, I used a medium cool gray for a base-coat, washed it with some thinned down GW "Nighthaunt Gloom" contrast paint, and then drybrushed with a very pale blue-tinged gray, and a second drybrush using a 70/30 mix of white and that same pale blue-gray. 

I then went over the "hands" with "Baal Red" contrast paint up to the wrists; once dried, I gave them a light drybrush of a red-orange color, and then used a lighter red to glaze over the orange and carried the glaze all the way up to the...second wrist? There's a lot of extra joints in its arms. Hopefully that reads as a shift in the creature's pigment, rather than it being wrist-deep in gore. 

The second critter is marketed as a "Dire Bat," but those sure as heck ain't wings! The frills on the arms look more like fish fins to me, personally, but it was such an odd design choice that it drew me to this figure whereas I probably would have skipped over a more traditional "bat" design. 

I kept the colors fairly simple, an all-over basecoat of a dark red-brown, drybrushed with a brighter version of the same, and a final drybrushing of a rusty red-brown along the edges of the fins and the mane down its neck. In hindsight, I probably should have painted him *before* gluing him to the base! He's on a 60mm round from Renedra, by the way, while his paler companion is on a 40mm base. 

Since many of the monsters in Majestic 13 have energy-based ranged attacks, I painted the inside of the figure's gaping maw a strong golden yellow (3 coats), and then washed it with orange before going back over the middle with more yellow. Hopefully that sells the idea of it having a Godzilla-style breath weapon! 

ZZZZAPPP!!!

They're fairly large figures, but the paint jobs are not terribly complex, so I've been chewing over how best to score these. The gray monster is pretty close to 54mm in height, while the bat is probably not far off that in length. Here's a picture of them next to one of my Majestic 13 Agents for sale:

I'll leave it to Sylvain to make the final determination, but maybe treat them as 40mm figures to account for the simpler paint jobs, and call it 14 points for the two of them? I'm counting these as Modern Horror, so no new squirrel points for me.

===============

Sylvain: Those are some wicked monsters! Simple but effective game tools. Figurines are based on size, so you just completed two 54mm models. Extraordinaire!

 

 

 

From Barks: Fly the friendly skies (30 points)

Ferro & Spunkmeyer, the dropship crew of the Sulaco, and friends. I should paint the patches on their flight suits. I'm tempted to go and add reflections to Ferro's aviator glasses.

The xenomorphs get blue and black washes over gunmetal, then satin varnish.

30 points in the pipe, five by five.

From Millsy:

Poor Spunkmeyer, he never really had a chance. His last act was to look confused with a handful of snot. Not the most ignominious screen death ever but certainly a top 10 contender.

You've done a cracking job with these Barks. The flight suits are superb, just the right mix of shading and worn patches and Spunkmeyer's skin tone is really well executed too. The xenos have just the right black/metallic sheen too.

Lovely work mate. Not bad for a human!

Cheers,
Millsy

JeremyM - Wrath Aliens Another Glorious Day in the Corps [130 points]

I managed to fit in a little bit of painting this week in between craziness at work, tearing myself away from a video game (just one more level…just one more), and the NFL playoffs. Perhaps the -40 windchills helped a bit with that. But I have to admit my goals this week were pretty limited hence the pretty basic figures you’re about to see.

I’ve long been a huge fan of the Alien and Aliens films (and some of the others as well…yes I enjoyed Romulus…no I thought the AVP series is trash….but I still occasionally find myself putting that trash on). I of course had to go all in on Gale Force Nine’s board game based primarily on the Aliens film, Another Glorious Day in the Corps. It's an okay game, the mechanics aren't the best but do capture some of the feel of the film, but the instructions are really lacking and there are times it doesn't work that well. I may look at some alternate options on boardgamegeek. 

So given that we are starting in hell I thought the aliens are pretty fitting for the wrath theme…as bloody hell they are angry little bugs in the films. I decided to paint the aliens with a blueish hue. Apparently the original film and the dvd version in particular have a really strong blue tinge to them…and the aliens purists are a bit up in arms that they colour corrected the newer 4k versions to be more neutral. I still like the blue so the basic aliens get that.

The stock aliens and their 'little brother' eggs.

The game also comes with an expansion to add 4 different types of alien warriors. To help very subtly differentiate them I painted more in a greenish hue, and used fluorescent green for the text on the bases. Hopefully they stand out enough on the board now.

The 4 special aliens

I also have the queen expansion “Get away from her you bitch!” and decided a more royal purple was appropriate for her. Two face huggers complete the photos. They are pretty small, so I think maybe I’ll count the two as being a single figure for challenge purposes. I should note I am not counting the eggs. While they are alive and have a pretty crucial role to play in the game as well as the films, they don’t really move at all so terrain seems more appropriate to me.

The queen, a couple facehuggers, and a few eggs

The whole 'happy'....rrr 'angry' family all together

Well now I’ll have to turn my attention to the far more detailed painting for the marines which might involve a big excuse to rewatch the movie for the 80^th time!

22 28mm figures x 5 points = 110

Wrath circle   =     20 points

Total = 130 points

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey Jeremy!

Your Aliens are awesome! Great choice on the blue-ish hue - really helps evoke the  space alien-ness of the creatures. I get scared even just just thinking of the face huggers.

And you don't need an excuse to watch the movies for the 80th time, just .. remember, In Space No One Can Hear you Scream

130 points added to your score board

-Sarah

JamieM - Grey Alien Warband (67 points)

A second post of the day (or possibly first of next week if I don’t get it finished in good time!) and it’s a slightly random one.

I have a lot of rulesets. A lot. It’s a bit of a standing joke at the club that someone finds a game and I’ve already got the rules and either have a force or two or have bought a force, painted it and since sold it. A lot of my rulesets are miniature agnostic, which is great for buying a bunch of unusual miniatures that take my fancy. On the downside, this gives me licence to buy a bunch of unusual miniatures that take my fancy.

And in this vein, enter the Alien Grey warband

The miniatures are from the Wild West Exodus game system, but I decided they would work as adversaries in my budding post apocalyptic games.

This is the leader fella, scary looking big chap with a standard grey for scale.

These normal fellas come with two weapon types for the most part, standard rifles and larger rifles.

There is also a grey with a heavy weapon and a slightly different alien who probably sings the cows to sleep before they are taken away by the look of him….

I couldn’t resist the box when I saw it and I’m not sure whether it’s a good thing that a mate of mine bought me an expansion and the rules for Wild West Exodus for Christmas as a present/punishment for my lack of willpower.

12 28mm figures and one 40mm figures nets me 67 points I believe.

***

A second post in one day! Another veteran tactic by a seasoned AHPC participant...thankfully you appear to be done with the naval nonsense, and must resort to more honest work. For now...

I salute your commitment to ensure you never commit to just one rule set! After all, there are so very many rules out there, and your "comprehensive consideration and collection" (CCAC) approach to gaming rules is one I have no doubt many Challengers will relate to. Hobbyists such as yourself are essential cogs in the psychological ecosystem of gaming - when we see rules we might like, and take a chance on them, we can still tell ourselves "well, at least I'm not as crazy as Jamie!"

My shelves (and storage) heave with piles of rules I have tried, or want to try, and the cycle of rules-meaning-I-should-buy-figures-which-is-a-good-reason-to-buy-these-other-rules is nothing other than...a perfectly normal, healthy approach to this great hobby!

The Grey Aliens here looks wonderful - ready for a military skirmish, or perhaps to snag a few subjects for some, er, probing research back at the base, all to determine what is going on - post-apocalyptic setting or otherwise!

67 points for you, and a great start today to your Challenge!

GregB

From PeteF: Legions of Bloodworms - Overdues and Returns (169 points)

These units were started many moons ago - my friend ShawnD acquired a 3D printer and it seemed like a good opportunity to expand my Kings of War Nightstalkers army.

One of the units available to this faction is Bloodworms.  Mantic has not produced any official models so the sky is the limit for deciding what to use.  My army has a lot of horror/sci fi references in it so chestbursters seemed like the right choice.

Shawn found some stls - 4 poses and printed them in 3 different sizes.  I painted some, stuck them to my two legion bases (the largest base size in the game) but there was still plenty of room for a vast, seething mass.

Not until now did I finish the project - Shawn had printed me a bunch more medium and small baby aliens - all they needed was some contrast, Blood for The Blood God and touching up of their pearly whites.

Standard model count for an infantry legion is 60 - I'm really happy to have exceeded this with the all the extra wormies and I'm looking forward to getting these evil looking gribblies into battle some time.

I used a bit of foam on the bases to give it more of a three dimensional feel and to give the rivers of blood some higher ground to flow from.  Some of the worms are spawning from the blood rivers - mwahahaha.

Work has been distracting me from wargaming and other fun - hopefully Shawn and I can get a game in soon - bloodworms do have a taste for halflings.

I'm not sure how to score these - maybe 1 point for small and 2 points for medium?  They were a lot simpler to paint than regular 28mm figures.

If that's acceptable here's the summary

 47 x 1 = 47

51 x 2 = 102

Bonus points for a library section = 20

Total = 169 points?

This is the definition of nightmare fuel.. such great work! And I can whole heartily agree that things can get a bit overloaded once 3d printing gets involved. Very easy to go overboard, but also some great things can come out of it, especially with the rescaling aspect available. Great job on this, and I am happy to go with your point suggestions. 169 pts for you!

Kyle 

From RichardH: One Last Hurrah (475 pts)

I missed the last few weeks of posting, just due to being pretty busy with work and never leaving enough time to get a post written up. This last push before the gates close will just be a big old compilation of things, and a mishmash of genres. I've organised things in a way that better fits with the studios map rather than the order they were completed in (works better when I am walking around the map).

First up following on from the general space elf theme from the last couple of posts, I got the pointy ears army all finished up, just a few command units on show this time.

Glad to have these all out of the way now, and ticking off that final gem on the last guy was a lesson (don't paint stupid gems on an entire army).

Points for these are:

Four 28mm foot @ 5pt = 20pts

One 28mm mounted @ 10pt = 10 pts

Sticking with the theme of silly space robot men types, a friend asked if I could do up a few of their favourite space marine chapter. In this case that chapter being Minotaurs, compared to some of the others it is a pretty simple colour scheme with only a few detail points, it was easy enough to get these knocked out in an evening.

Scoring on these is:

Eleven 28mm foot @ 5pt = 55pts

Getting focus now back to the studio map and picking up from the last bonus points of B&W I moved to grab the under construction points. I made a start this week on a small diorama featuring a giant squig, just because I have never painted up a squig before, so it was a cherry that had to be popped.

Points on this are pretty straight forward as it isn't finished so I can only claim bonus points. 20pts

A few folks at the local gaming club have been really getting into Stargrave recently and along with doing up a crew for the game, I also knocked up an iconic piece of scenery (while waiting on layers to dry for the above minotaurs). So this little number is grabbing me the Casting Couch as it basically saved the day for the second film.

A single 28mm foot (granted it is bigger but the scheme is so simple it feels criminal to try and claim it as a vehicle), for 5pt and the bonus of 20pt = 25pts

So keeping with the sci-fi stuff and Stargrave as the focus we have the crew all dolled up and ready for some bug hunting action, sadly Ash isn't quite finished yet so has to sit this one out. All of these and the power loader are from the Humans v Aliens packs of 3D models sculpted by Papiskels, stunning little models that slot right into any game.

Scoring on these is ten 28mm foot @ 5pt = 50pts

Also the first mate of my crew being a woman is hitching us all a ride in a limo for the next stop on the studio tour = 20pts.

Having now ticked off five of the green locations I thought I would bag a blue also. This next one is actually a gift for someone (Feb and Mar are big months for birthdays around here and I tend to lean on the side of making something where ever possible). But given I have another couple of gift entries I wanted this one to bag me at least on blue studio location.

A relative is crazy about fairies and dragons so I figured combining the two has to be on a winner. Plus I had been itching to have a large scale practice of painting a galaxy style layer, and relished the challenge of having it split into sections. The model itself is a 3D sculpt from FotisMint and while great looking and full of character it feels odd sitting on a tiny base from the print, naturally the only option is turn it all into a chunky diorama, add in some drama and story and bang one gift ticked off and I am considered the best for another year. The final piece was put into an acrylic case to keep it free of dust, but it turns out that totally kills any chance for getting pictures.

Points on this one are :

One 28mm foot (giant spider so technically worth 8 feet right?) @ 5pt

One 28mm vehicle (the dragon itself is around the right size for this) @ 20pt

One 6" cube terrain piece @20pt

Bonus studio fantasy @ 20pt

Total 65 pts

So another game by the same designer as SG is Rangers of Shadow Deep, and it is equally great. I've played it off an on for some time, and finally wrangled, bribed, threatened a few others into playing it also. So we are getting things set up for a large campaign run. One thing I never really had made as swanky terrain was some nice big forested tiles and something specific for a scenario which is trees infested with giant spiders. The big forest tiles are currently about 5% through their first half life of drying time, so the only terrain I could squeeze in for this are the trees.

Used my normal method of an armature, glue on some seafoam, then using spray glue and handfuls of flock you cover the thing. This time I just beefed up the trunks, and finally got to play with some spider serum from GSW. You spray it with an airbrush and get instant magic spooky spider webs, the stuff is so much fun.

Points on these are:

One 6" terrain cube @20pt = 20pts

One final thing for me before it is back to the gift giving (damned folks expecting presents and thoughtfulness). The local club decided this was the right time to start a Blood Bowl league (not sure why now, but any excuse to get in games and I am on board).

I originally went looking for some nice dwarven sculpts to print off, but came across something magical. An absolute genius "Chih-Te Yu" on MMF designed an ogre team with a samurai/sumo theme, all the ogres are big bellied sumo types and the gnobblars are all dancing around with scrolls or picking noses, or farting (good healthy gnobblar activities). That was me sold, and decided I was winning no matches this season but would have a team that everyone would still envy. The green boys are still on the bench so just the big chaps for now.

Scoring on these is:

Five 40mm foot @ 7pt = 35pts

Ok so three more entries on this and I am spent, all three involve a trip to the gift shop (two birthdays and one anniversary). First up is a small person gift, they are someone who also likes fairies and the sort, but also loves reading and yet they don't have a night light. Obviously the only right thing to do is rummage in the big greeble box, and break out the pringles cans, some egg cartons, and a few LEDs. One wave of the magic glue stick and you got yourself some odd shaped tower light thingymajig.

The next birthday involved something small for someone with a total devotion to their dog. Rather than go all out on this, I figured keep it small, simple and fast, aiming for something they can put on any desk or shelf they want without fear of it being monstrous in side or delicate. Just a dry brushed mini, some sculpted background, and a quick dab of a resin pour was all that was needed.

The final entry then on this mammoth last post was also the biggest actual model, given to someone nuts about Harry Potter as an anniversary gift. There was a bunch of easy options on this one but at the same time I wanted something to have some practice on. Lately I haven't done a lot of detailed blending to try and simulate light (silly space robot men and their plasma guns don't count). so I jumped on the idea of a big old phoenix bird, I came across an amazing sculpt with a really dynamic pose and figured it was perfect. The print part was nerve wrecking enough as even though it is a multi part model, each part was still pretty big, and the entire thing took about 2 days to print out. To give some sense of scale the base I made up for this was around 160mm wide (anything smaller had zero chance to support the model), at the top of the wings is around 220mm.

Even with that base things just weren't sitting right, knocking up a 3D perch fixed the issue, it allowed the feet to be glued, and also three areas of the tail to glue straight to the base. It also gave the overall snapshot look of a bird coming in to land, which was a happy accident at the time.

Painting really was nothing complex, just lots, and lots, and lots, and lots of hours spent repeating the same patterns on every single feather (it felt like those damned gems again).

 But overall I am happy how it came together, and a little quick and dirty osl of the base helps sell the effect.

Scoring on these is:

Tower Light - two 6" terrain cubes @ 20pt =  40pt / bonus gift 20pt = 60pts

Dog Diorama = One 28mm foot @ 5pt & one 6" terrain cube @ 20pt = 25pt / gift bonus 20pt = 45pts

Phoenix = One 54mm vehicle @ 30pt (wasn't sure if this thing classes as bigger or not due the size) / bonus gift 20pt = 50pts

At the end of play my studio map looks like this:

I had grand ideas of what to do for at least 5 of the other locations, but as always things get in the way. Well they will at least be good projects for the rest of the year.

This leaves me as just over 1000pts total for the challenge and really puts things in perspective about expectations and how fast the points rack up. I'm glad I only started out with a low and realistic first time target (300pts), but now on wards and upwards for next year, thinking to set that target now at at least 1500 pts. It's been a blast.

_________________________________________________

I'm delighted you had a good Challenge Richard. You really pulled out all the stops on this final entry! I especially like the various gifts you did for your friends - those trees (in all their forms) are fabulous (the Pringle can treehouse is truly inspired).

Thanks for joining us this season. I hope you can make it out again for the next edition.

- Curt