From StuartL - Nearly At The Finishing Line - Lady Sarah's Star Yacht and Arrakis (95 Points)

The clock is ticking and there are still minis to paint, however I do have time to post up a few minis while I wait for some paint to dry.

Continuing with finishing off minis that were being considered for the planets, I need to take a quick trip to Arrakis. As I need to keep racking up the frequent flyer miles for the Star Yacht, I have another female mini to pay for my ride.

This clerical looking figure comes from Reaper Bones and has been painted up in simple colours. To add some detail I painted a sun symbol on her back. In Dungeons and Dragons, one of the good deities is Pelor, God of the Sun. His clerics travel the world helping people and curing the sick.

So with payment made, it's time for my second visit to Arrakis. Following the theme of Desert this time, I have painted up some Arabian type warriors for Saga, Age of Crusades.

These minis are from Gripping Beast and were pretty easy to paint. Unlike their Viking and Saxon boxes, the Arab set is pretty plain as far as options go. That said, you can still put together a few different types of warriors, having choices for spears, javelins, swords and bows.

There are 14 of these in total. I had a lot more primed up, but these ones were the only models with the basing materials applied, so the rest will have to wait until a future challenge.

So, for 15x 28mm models I should score 75 points, plus an additional 20 for a trip on the Yacht.

One more post to go, fingers crossed I can get everything done before the deadline.

Nice lady and Arabs, Stuart!

Tamsin

From TashaH Middle Ring Sprint [Arrakis][Star Yacht][Noel’s Comet] (70 Points)

Hello Wednesday! I am here to steal earn as many points as possible with the fewest possible figures. I had hoped to make Greg twitch a smidge and mumble incoherently about no-good point grabbers. I’m certain he’d prefer all the point siphoning today to his household emergency!

 Here we are on Arrakis. Dreadfully dry planet. What is that? A tornado? 

 

 

This little wonder was a pain in the derrière to make. It is a print from Thingiverse. The file is an all in one with the base and swirl attached, but the twister is quite fragile and broke off from the base. It also cracked. Thank goodness I have an assortment of glues at the ready. I also had full intentions of covering this bad boy with sand, so no harm. 

 

 

I added an ivory craft paint to some white glue and mixed that into some sand and thinned it a bit with water. I applied the concoction over the twister, which I’d applied a beige base coat to as well. After that dried to a tacky finish, I sprinkled fine pumice on top to give it a fine sand look. I wanted the pumice to sit on top, rather than sink into the glue, which is why I waited. After everything dried, I went in with a few shades of brown and just did some light dry-brushing. 

 

 

That’s enough of this dusty place. I need to get aboard Lady Sarah’s Star Yacht. This Halfling (that’s right… a Halfling- not even a whole figure!) from WizKids is going to pay my toll for some well deserved libations on my way to Noel’s Comet. 

 

 

Hmm… this looks remarkably familiar. I seem to recall being here before. I won’t bore you with another of my rambling soliloquies… although from what I’ve read of Noel, he would approve. If you missed my previous ramblings, they are here… Tasha's Tribute on Noel's Comet

My last visit did not net any bonus points, as I did not provide a suitable figure. I have returned to rectify that. I give to you all a humble squirrel. No explanation needed as to its lore.

 

The points…

One 1x1x1.5 terrain - .138 point (using Tamsin's formula but math is not my strong suit!)

2 20mm figures - 8 points

2 planet bonuses - 40 points

Star Yacht Bonus - 20 points

Total points - 68.138 or 68 to keep the spreadsheet happy :)

Now... I could be really egregious with my points grabbing and jump into the maelstrom, but I will just scoot to the planet Lune, to initiate my final flight plans. 

***

Well done Natasha - perhaps not quite the true "Enron" level of points-accounting achieved by such luminaries as Ray (or Teemu!), but still worthy of an internship in the Finance Advisory Firm "AHPC Value Consulting". 

The work here is all lovely (and it is always hilarious to see a squirrel - I'm surprised my dogs did not start to bark). I've added a couple of extra bonus points in recognition of all of the nonsense you endured trying to paint a Tornado! Now do you understand why only insane people/PeterD squander their precious life force to paint terrain?

Thanks for posting on Wednesday, safe travels for the rest of your Challenge Journey!

GregB

From Martijn N: Arabian Nights on Arrakis (69 points)

That's a first for me, two posts on one day. We end today's journey on Arrakis, after a smooth ride aboard lady Sarah's Star Yacht. Now no Challenge can be complete without camels in it, I have gathered, so it is just as good that we immediately encounter this charming little market scene. We have a dwarf merchant showing his fine merchandise to some rather suspicious Arabs, while his camel train stands behind his stall.

Here is the dwarf merchant, a 3d printed figure from Iain Lovecraft. The stall is a 3d print as well but I really cannot remember where I got it.

These lanky Arabs are from Evan Carothers's Empire of the Scorching Sands.

As are these great pack camels.

There is also a little village on Arrakis, it seems. Designed by Evan Carothers too. These houses were printed at 75% of their designed scale, so more or less 20mm I guess. The well is not really Arabian but is a nice little model. Can't remember where I got it I'm afraid.

The houses are once again FDM prints and they suffered a bit from stringing and layer lines. Still, they were too good to toss them in the bin and I think they look sort of ok. 

So, Arrakis should net me 65 points:

- the terrain, the houses, the stall and the well, will fill about half a cube, so 10 points?

- 4 camels and three foot figures (counting them as 28/32mm, although they actually are more like 40mm) for 7x5 = 35 points;

- Arrakis planet bonus for 20 points

- and an Arabian Squirrel!

Middle Ring complete, let's see if there is time for a stop in the Inner Ring!

From DaveD 

Book ending the day with camels - most excellent! I will give an extra bonus for the camels 

From SanderS: To Arrakis we go! oh and Ancient Egypt... PICTUREHEAVY (355 points)

 Hoi,

Arrakis is next on my way to Noel's Comet and as it is a Desert planet some desert themed entries are required. 

Remember my friend Martijn? The one who owns a FLGS? Well he asked me whether I would like to paint up the figures from: "Ankh, Gods of Egypt" the boardgame done by the people at CMON games. If that's not deserty-themed I don't know what is. I could tell you quite a lot about how this set of figures got painted with blood, tears, sweat and more blood, in between house renovations and painting the other entries of this Challenge, but the monster project is done and I am mighty proud. Martijn has it at the gamingroom of his store now and people can enjoy using it and that makes me happy.

Let's start with the Gods, the core box comes with 5 factions, each led by one of the great Gods of Ancient Egypt. You have 6 footsoldiers for every god and some camels that represent commodities and supplies. There's also a batch of un-aligned "Guardians" monsters you can unlock and utilise for your own faction.

The Gods from l.t.r.  backrow: Ra, Osiris and Amun. Front: Isis and Anubis

 

The Gods with their footsoldiers:

The Guardians:

An Androsphinx:

An Apep:

A Giant Scorpion:

3 Satet:

Cat Mummies/ Spirit host

Farao's Mummies:

The camels:

Pointswise this bunch proves to be a bit of an headache:

- I am counting the Gods as 54mm figures so that's 50 points

- there's 45 figures of appr. 28mm scale so that's 225 points

- the camels are near 10mm figures times 30 that makes 60 points

- there's the Arrakis bonus (if Tamsin considers this entry Desert-like enough) which makes for a grand total of 355 points. For scale reference I have included the picture below showing a Space Marine in the middle for reference.

Cheers Sander

Well, that was an unexpected points-bomb! That's a great set of desert-themed figures for Arrakis..

Tamsin