DougM - Last Minute Terra, Altair IV & Lune (177 points)

Final effort - it's been fun and I have made my points target.. My final planetfalls will be Terra, Altair with old robots, and a quick Zoom back to Lune.

Old Robots..  well folk will be quick to point out that these aren't actually robots..   demented pepperpots only... And printed and painted as the classic movie Daleks from 1966 and the Dalek invasion of Earth (Terra)

But these are definitely robots, and the wreck on the left s very much the ancient version... more 3d prints, of Bender, for a bit of fun.

Then the final troops for my Sepoy forces...  and changing tides was very much the experience of John Company in India in 1856, these are 3rd Bengal Cavalry, among the earliest of the mutineers at Meerut, qualifying these guys for Lune.

Unfortunately, I have run out of bases for these, so can't claim the full 10 points each, 8 perhaps?

So that's me done..  for points 

7 x 28mm Daleks = 35 (and  Squirrel Point!) even I'm not cheeky enough to claim these as 28mm vehicles for 20 points each...  

2 x 28mm Benders = 10

9 x 28mm Cavalry @ 8? = 72

3 planet bonus = 60 

A total of 177 for the last submission..  

Final squirrel points = 14

1/200 WW2 Japanese Aircraft

1/200 WW2 US Aircraft

1/200 WW2 British Aircraft

1/200 WW2 German Aircraft

1/144 WW1 British Aircraft

1/144 WW1 German Aircraft

28mm German Armour

28mm Japanese Armour

28mm 12th SS Panzer infantry

28mm Indian Mutiny Sepoys

28mm Dr Who

28mm Daleks

28mm Austrian Napoleonic

28mm (and larger!) Fantasy

phewwww....it's been a blast.

___________________________

Haha! A great final dash within the home system. Well done Doug.

- Curt

 

 

From TashaH: Travels Through the Inner Ring [Lune][Star Yacht][Altair IV] (70 points)

I’m almost at my goal to finish all the planets. 

I’m currently on the planet of Lune. I can’t imagine a better fit for the theme of ‘Witchcraft and Sorcery’ than an alchemy table. 

 

This table is slightly modified. It is a print from Great Grimoire on myminifactory. It is available as part of the Welcome Pack for their Tribes. It is a 3 piece print. I broke one of the legs taking it off the build plate. Fortunately, I did have this nifty trunk printed off (sorry, I can't figure out where I printed it from) and, as luck would have it, the tabletop fit perfectly on top. I do plan to build the table appropriately, but for now, this works!

 

I’m going to ask for Lady Sarah’s Star Yacht to take me to Altair IV.  

 

This villager is also a print from the Great Grimoire Tribes Welcome Pack on myminifactory.  I’m still learning the intricacies of my new printer and have noticed I’ve messed up a few prints. Unfortunately I didn’t realize how blank her face was until I was almost done with her. She still looks decent from 2 feet! 

 

 

Landing on Altair IV, I happen across this old robot. How fortunate, one more check off the planet list!

 

 

I found this free file on Cults3d. It also came with the fancy, stylized base. It printed very nicely. I utilized my typical painting style of ‘just keep adding more paint until it looks moderately ok’. 

 

We are now heading back to Terra to finish our Challenge journey. 

The points:

Alchemist Table/Trunk - 1/2 a point?

20mm figure - 4 points

28mm figure - 5 points

Planet bonus - 40 points

Star Yacht - 20 points

Total 69.5 points

and one skull (that's 201 for me)!!

I like your alchemist's table, it looks very realistic (and skully). 3D printing is modern-day alchemy... Your robot has wonderful oxidation effects. I'm rounding you up to 70 points. Almost there on the planets! 

Barks

From PeteF: None Shall Pass (25 points)

My third Monty Python's Holy Grail miniature of Challenge XII is the Black Knight before he picks up a a scratch and a flesh wound. 

I don't have any games in mind for my Monty Python figures yet - the Black Knight would be good as some kind of hero or champion - maybe in SAGA or he could fit in a Lion Rampant army.

I'm in a mad rush to get to the center of the Challenge XII Quadrant before our rapidly approaching deadline as well as to meet my 1,000 point target - hence the shameless points grabbing with single mini entries! 

1x28mm foot figure = 5 points + 20 for Altair IV (Forbidden) = 25 points

Sadly, three minis isn't enough for a squirrel point.

So Squirrel = 7 and Skulz = 1

I think the black background works better - but I thought I'd try out white for a change - what do you think?

Lovely work on this iconic figure, I like the groundwork.  I think in general the black background d works best, but for the black figure the white makes the details stand out better.  I agree that this figure could be useful in SAGA, Lion/Dragon Rampant or any number of skirmish games where one gets to go all Medieval on one's opponents. 

From FrederickC: Scratchbuilt Boilerplate (Altair IV) (40 points)

 

As the poet Robert Burns wrote, "The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men gang aft agley." The plan was to make to Altair IV by last Monday, but the engine decided to pack it in. It was probably due to those low quality fuel pellets we picked up on Arrakis. As a result, we spent a week sitting in the docks while a lot of the corroded valves were replaced. The extra costs are going to seriously cut into our profit margin for this trip. Aw, well. As my high school Physics teacher used to say, "You win a few, you lose a lot."

How I spent a month on Gethen one week.

Altair IV - the Forbidden Planet. It was visited by the United Planets starship C-57D to determine the fate of an expedition sent there 20 years ago. The theme is 'Old Robots'.

I didn't have any robot miniatures in my 'big box of shame', but I had some wooden figures from the local craft store that were designed to be painted up as nutcrackers. I also had the book 'Boilerplate - History's Mechanical Marvel', by Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett, and I thought I might be able to do a conversion to make an 'old robot'.

 

An image of Boilerplate from the book

My starting point

I rummaged through my boxes of collected bits and bobs that I use for building terrain features to find the right pieces to convert my nutcracker figure into an old robot. Doweling of various diameters, tubes from dry ink markers, old chopsticks, hollow plastic sucker sticks, thin copper wire, and some epoxy putty were all pressed into service. In the end, the only pieces from the original figure that were incorporated into the build were the arms and legs. The end product stands 80mm tall (pictured below standing on a hockey puck, the Canadian standard for both size and mass). If I were to do another, I would make his head a bit shorter  his helmet a bit wider, and his arms a bit longer, but I am satisfied with the final result.

 

The points being claimed are as follows:

1 x 80mm foot figures @ 15 points = 15 points(?)

Quadrant Challenge 'Altair IV' - 'Old Robots' - 20 Points

That makes 6 Outer Ring, 5 Middle Ring, and 4 Inner Ring locations of the Quadrant Challenge completed. Time to take the deep dive into the central star system.

"Send me in, Coach. I'm ready"

You've taught me something here Frederick as I'd never heard of Boilerplate before.  What a wacky steamy punky robot he is too.  I love the use of a wooden nutcracker for the starting point.  The end result looks great and I've added a few points for the scratch building.  I'll be in touch about your challenge shortly.

From GeoffreyT: Mystery miniatures for identification (Altair IV)(50 points)

Hello again fellow painters,  

This weeks painting effort includes this bunch of mystery miniatures I would like identified.  Hopefully there are some folks of knowledge out there that can help.  Now they are painted and based that will not be quite so easy.  

They came as a group in a bulk lot, identified by a number of possible manufacturers, but I have not been able to get a positive ID on any of them.  All are in white metal, and don't look all that weathered, but are all true 28mm scale and probably recent castings of old miniature lines.  No base markings on any of these unfortunately. 

This is the heinous half dozen of them.

The first two are practicing the forbidden arts of voodoo (Forbidden, the theme for Altair IV!). 

These are really nice sculpts, quite lightly built and good detail. Superfine detail on snake tongue and needle in voodoo doll, initially I thought it was flash.

Of course, no self respecting voodoo practitioner would leave home without a zombi.  And as we all know Z is for Zombi.  That indeed is not only the last letter of the alphabet, but completion of the alphabet soup challenge.  A list of the claimed words is attached below.

This looks like different sculptor, an older simpler sculpt and quite 2D. 

These two crackers look like another sculptor again.  The "Warren Zevon" werewolf in 70's attire is great.  Check out the big lapels and flares. 

Sculpts pretty simple, look like early 80's lack of smoothness that was evident in old lead-pewter ranges.  Humongous hairy wolf hands.

Side on view to show warewolf flares

Last in this set is a lion, licking its lips at some tasty mortal.  I have based in on Arena sand, for you know what comes next.

The base here was a relatively thick oblong without sharp edges.

***

6 x 28mm miniatures = 30 points

planet bonus +20 for Altair IV

Z is for Zombi

The completed Alphabet soup side-challenge.

So, thats it for this post.

If your recognise any of these miniatures can you please drop a note in the comments, I would be quite interested to know their origin.

Cheers

GT

I do like a good mystery figure. The wisdom of the crowds should be able to help you out- I think they're from the Dracula's America range. Those voodoo practitioners are great, and I like the tones on your lion. Congratulations on completing your alphabet!

Barks

From StuartL - Jumping To Lightspeed - Xanth to Krypton - 142 Points

Hello all.

For my second post today, I present the last five planets in the Challenge XII sector before my final approach to the Challenge XII Star.

Unlike previous years where I blitzed through the Challenge areas to reach the centre as quickly as possible, this year I have tried to take my time completing each section. However with just four weeks left on the clock and no idea what herculean task my minion might set me, I figured that I should get cracking and finish off the outstanding planets. I still need to submit an entry for Lady Sarah's Star Yacht too. 

So, without further ado, the next port of call after Lune is Xanth, where I have looked at the Unique Talent part of the conditions. Most of the models I have for most of the games I play are generally focussed around killing the enemy with bullets, blades or bombs, so finding something unique was not so easy. Luckily for me, I play a game called Malifaux, a Weird Wild West skirmish game, and a lot of the minis for that game have some downright bonkers abilities. In my collection for the game, I have a faction of Performers. Essentially can-can dancers, singers and the like who use their stage shows and props as cover for a smuggling operation. Within than faction, there are a set of models called Ice Dancers. However, unlike more traditional figure skaters, these dancers are able to form ice themselves and then use it to move around the tabletop. The models come two to a box, but are generally considered to not be all that great, one usually being more than enough should you wish to use them.

 I imagine that skating through a desert on a pillar of ice should count as a fairly unique talent.

From Xanth I head off to Mars (surely that should have been after Lune??), and a meeting with a mysterious neighbour. For this mini, I head back to the Warhammer 40,000 universe where Mars is synonymous with the machine worshipping Adeptus Mechanicus. In the setting, the Ad-Mech have very strict doctrines and beliefs about what technology they can use and what is tech-heresy. However, there are also rumours that an ancient, evil, alien star-god is trapped deep within the planet and that it is tied in with the mysterious Necron race of sentient robots. So what would happen if one of these Mechanicus priests were to stumble upon some crypt of hidden alien tech while exploring the depths of Mars? Why he'd immediately report it to his superiors and they'd destro.... 

...Oops.

One of the problems with the Ad-Mech box sets is that you can quickly end up with duplicate Tech-Priest models that you don't really need if you aren't careful. Having a couple of these guys spare, I decided to convert one up as a Heretek using a bunch of spare Necron parts I had lying around. The head, shield, upper torso and right arms all got added to create this monstrous fusion of Martian and Alien technology gone awry. 

I usually paint my Necrons with green power cores, so to show that this guy was different, I went for an orange colour scheme along with paler colours for his robes instead of the standard Mechanicum Red.

Speaking of Necrons, Altair IV is my next stop with the theme of Old Robots. 

This lanky fellow is a Canoptek Reanimator, a giant machine that strides across the battlefield reanimating fallen Necron Warriors as it goes. The model is mounted on a 60mm base to give you some idea of it's scale.

The model came in the Indomitus set that was launched at the start of 40K 9th edition. I have no intention of ever playing 9th, but the Necron models in that set were all fantastic. This one was quite fiddly to paint with all the hanging wires and pipes, but I'm happy with the end result.

Onwards we go to Gethen were things are Icy and Cold. My next model fits both of those, (but I think I can't claim the Androgyny part). As I mentioned above the Malifaux Ice Dancers come two to a box, but you only really need one. Luckily?? they can work in 2 different factions in the game, the Performers and the Cult of December, both of which I collect. 

The Cult are a bunch of cannibals who live high up in the snowy peaks of Malifaux's mountains. So, it seemed like a good idea to paint up the second dancer to match that faction.

And finally, we come to the last planet before the big finale. Krypton. Way back in the 90's I got into comics, particularly the various X-Men series. At that time, one of the more well known artists was a guy called Rob Liefeld. He is generally considered to be a source of division among comic book fans. He was involved in creating the very popular characters of Deadpool and Cable and his comics generally sold very well. However, his art style was unpopular among a lot of readers (he has no idea how perspective and anatomy really work) and he tended to draw a lot of pouches and equipment on all of his characters. So in homage to the comics I started out reading, I found a model with strange anatomy from my Reaper Bones stash and some glue....

Rather than my usual method of Paint>Wash>Highlight, I went for a different approach. The model was base coated black then given two coats of each colour, leaving some of the original black showing through to give it a more 'comic book' feel. The original model had no pouches on it, these all come from various 40K kits.

So, that's the final five planets done. Points wise, I have 3x 28m minis, 1x 40mm mini and a 28mm vehicle for a total of 42 points, along with 5 planets for a 100 point bonus and a grand total of 142 points.

The necron walker has 3 skulls on it's base to add to my Skull Duel tally. 

Skullz Total: 108

Before I finish, I would like to add the Ice Dancers to the Sarah's Choice category. I usually have a hard time choosing colour schemes for individual figures, so for these two, I based their colours on two popular characters from a Disney movie with a very similar theme to the models. While their clothing doesn't exactly match up, I think I captured the colours.

Next stop, the heart of the challenge sector!

Congrats Stuart on being the first of the Monday crew to the centre of the system.  I'm not sure if there are other challengers who have hit every planet in this years' challenge.  Most of us are opting for the faster (sic?) 4 planets and on the the next ring method.    I'll be in touch to discuss your FINAL CHALLENGE!!!  

I like the ice dancers lasses, nice blue palatte that you've used.  I would wouldn't know the difference between the Ad-Mech stuff and a Necron if one nipped me on the backside with a claw, but those are fine looking buckets of bolts your've assembled.  I also really like the effects that you've achieved on the Big Red guy, is he named Clifford perhaps?

From ChrisW - Altair IV via Sarah's yacht, 2 more Super, Robots & Eldar Titans! (297 points)

 

I was a little out of sorts this week, unable to focus, unable to act. Not a painting wall, thankfully, just too much of the real world impacting on my life. The hobby, that I rely upon to keep me in my happy place, failed me this week, and my output has suffered. The up side, while painting eluded me for most of the week, I was able to direct some energy towards cleaning up my painting area and I was able to plan out next weeks projects. Hopefully those will advance beyond the planning stage.

Thankfully I was able to work on some of the items that I was unable to complete for last weeks posting. So before we leave Krypton I will submit a few more supers, then we are on to Altair and some robots!

Krypton (part 2)

Dr Argos and his tripod [25]

A bit pulpy but I think I will use him against superheroes, I present Dr Argos and his tripod! Almost finished off a few weeks back it was placed on the back burner when other more pressing projects came to the fore. I already painted up most of his robot minions, but just never got around the the big guy himself. A straight forward figure, not much extra detail, no real reason for him not to have been done much sooner, but there you have it, you can never say what will happen.

You can tell by the bronze paint on the lower legs that I started this figure around the same time I was painting some AQMF tripods. The paint scheme was inspired by the photos at Crooked Dice and the use of two tones does break up the monotony of the metal finish. 

Giant Tess is my ticket for Lady Sarah's yacht! 

Now from Krypton we move onto Altair IV.>>>>>

Altair IV [Old Robots]

Robbie the robot

Robbie himself! A while back I bought a model of the rocket ship from Forbidden Planet. The kit contained a number of crewmen and this clear plastic robot figure. Not much of a figure and sadly lacking any detail inside his head, so there was not much to do but give it a simple paint job. The model was base coated black, leaving the face plate clear, which was then washed with a Vallejo grey wash. The body was painted with army painter metallic paint Night Scales. 

 

 Odd bots

These are multi part, assemble yourself robots made by  Old Glory. They come in a pack of 13 single cast torso/legs, with an assortment  of many more heads and arms than there are bodies. So lots of choices, which is a curse to me as I spend far too much time trying to figure out what to build. Analysis paralysis is a curse of mine, be it in the assembly of figures or making a decision about what colours to paint. Maybe I should just stick with historical figures!

Dr Who - Robot

The robot and 5 UNIT troops. I have many more UNIT figures, but I am uncertain which colours to use. These are the first five off the line, more than a test, but not certain yet if they are the right colours. So, even with historical figures, well 1970's TV military, I still have challenges with paint colours.Anyways, I needed something to pose with the robot to make it more dramatic! In the show, the robot is pretty basic, all shiny metal with a dash of colour on the helmet and the shoulders.

Eldar Titans

Old robots? Well for me you can't get much older than these titans from the 1990's. So this blast from the past consists of 8 Eldar Titans! These have sat largely untouched for 20 to 30 years in a big box with a bunch of other stuff. Well before this challenge started I had pulled out all of my titans, Imperial, Eldar and Orc and placed them on one of my shelves, and there they sat for another year. 

Incidentally, from here on in I will stop talking about how long I have had a given model. I will only mention time frame if the model has been acquired recently, otherwise assume that anything I paint has been sitting on my self for many years yadda, yadda, yadda... I think about 80% of my stuff has been around for a long time without being painted. Nuff said!

So thanks to Curt, the Analogue Challenge and a planet of old robots! I have 8 of them, plus 2 smaller ones,  which have finally managed to migrate over to the painting table! Most of them were not even fully assembled and there are 2 more still in their original packages.

The big question is, how many will I get done this week?

Well the answer was... 8

I have used a variety of colour schemes to paint these as I just prefer variety on the tabletop. I also experimented with colour shift paint on one of the Warlock Titans, still not certain about it.

 

 Adeptus Titanicus styrofoam buildings

Kind out of left field, but in keeping with the epic titans, I decided I needed some scenery for the titans to interact with. These are the styrofoam buildings that came with the original Adeptus Titanicus game back in the 80's. A couple of years ago I was able to pick up a near mint copy of the game at a local bring and buy, doubling my collection of buildings and titans. They promptly joined the originals languishing in a storage drawer, until now. The original plan was to spray them grey and then dry brush them to reveal the details. Dry brushing did not work so well and in the end I painted most of them in a variety of colours.

They actually were fun to paint despite the large number of windows and it was fun to select the colours. 

Now maybe some pics of the titans rampaging through the city!

Dystopian wars FSA John Henry robots.

More stuff that I did not finish in time for other posts. These are the flying robots that are the progenitors of the robots used by the Dominion of Canada, but with fully functional flying jets. These are the all the John Henry robots that I own, in fact two of them were re-primed just for this challenge. They had been 'painted' really badly before, actually one was pretty much just silver primed and the less said about the other one the better. So those two were added into the pile, meaning that once done all models would be in the same paint style if not the same livery. 

Like many of my projects the main barrier to starting/finishing a project is determining what colours to use. It took a while, and a lot of internet searching to try and find something I liked. I finally got some inspiration from Gundam models and my own idea of keeping the colours muted and in line with a post Confederacy victory America, so browns and greys, not Yankee blue!

 

 

Points tally

• 65 points for 13 x 28mm foot 
  
• 20 points for 28mm vehicle/Tripod
  
• 05 points for Giant Tess (gets me on the yacht)
  
• 20 points for Sarah's yacht 
• 20 points Altair IV
• 64 for 8 Epic Eldar Titans
• 40 points for 16 Epic building scenery
• 63 points for 9 x 40mm robots @ 7 points each
  

 Grand Total (new) 297

 

When stacked, they are two 6" x 6" cubes

Squirrel points

I have been very remiss in labeling my squirrel entries. Well that ends today! I doubt my addition to last weeks post was in time to be counted towards the squirrel so I might as well start fresh.

1. Super heroes
2. Epic 40K
   
3. Sci-Fi Robots 28mm
   
4. Dystopian wars
5. Dr Who
   

 

Yoiks! So that was a slow week for you? Yes folks, another points-bomb from Chris. I was certain I saw it marked as "Ready" this morning when I made the list for my post, but when I went to do the minioning it was marked as draft. Either I was mistaken, or Chris decided to return and add some more bits...

Chris - I'm assuming that Giant Tess is a 28mm figure from the points you are claiming for her.

Tamsin

Edit:

It's been pointed out to me that there is precedent for the scoring of Epic Titans - Samuli's Ork Gargants were scored as 15mm vehicles at 8 points each. I've adjusted the score accordingly.

 

EDIT

Thanks for the information and update. Error was based on answer to an earlier question, no harm or foul intended!😳

Sorry, yes she is 28mm, actually taller than 28mm but who;s counting...😀

Almost made it without mitakes! Also forgot my alpha challenge...