From ByronM - Covered Wagons (10 points)

I thought I would get more scatter terrain done last night but did not, so here is my finally measly finished items for the event.  I am running a "What a Cowboy" game at a convention in a few weeks and needed some more scatter terrain to hide behind.  So I went to thingiverse and found some free covered wagon files and scaled them to the correct size and slapped some paint on them.

They are super basic, I airbrushed the covering with 2 shades of a linen/canvas type colour for some shading, and then painted everything else brown, inked it, placed a few quick highlights and called it done.  While bigger than figures, I am just going to claim 5 points each due to their simplicity, unless whomever posts it feels that is too much, in which case feel free to change it.

 

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These look great, Byron, and super handy for Wild West games for sure. Now you just need a Gatling Gun in the back of one for Josey to use. 

Well done and thanks again for being our Terrain Minion this year - it was very much appreciated!

- Curt

From ByronM: Total Battle 6mm Villages (28 points)

 I didn't think I was going to get anything else this challenge, due to a surgery I had to have about a month ago, however I have been able to sit at a table for small periods of time the last few days, so got something more done!  

I wanted something fairly simple and quick to get done in short periods of time here and there.  So I decided it was time to get these two cute little villages that Curt actually picked up for me from Total Battle Miniatures several years back (I am thinking between 6 and 8 as I know for sure it was in the "Before Times" meaning pre-covid) and have sat since then. These are awesome little 6mm resin buildings that come with a silicon village mat that they slot into, for a great looking little setup.

 

 

I was not sure on scoring as they are close in size to a 28mm figure and some are complicated and some are simple.  Easy solution (since I am the terrain guy and wanted to be fair and not score my own) ask my son QuinnM his thoughts.  He thought the same, but that some are simpler than a 28mm figure so suggested 3 points per, which I am fine with and then 2 points per base for a total or 28 points.  

These were a blast to paint and have a ton of detail to them, if I could have sat for longer I could have easily doubled the paint time on them as there is so much there to pick out.  For anyone interested in them, check out the company they do 3mm, 6mm, 10mm, 15mm, and 28mm versions of them and they are very nice.  Heck, in the larger scales they even sell pre-painted versions (pricey, but an option).

I should have at least one more entry before the end, but we will see.

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Sylvain: 6mm is my favorite scale so I am totally biased about your submission and totally agree with your proposed scoring. I find the slot in system pretty ingenious, so you can fit in your army just by removing a few buildings. You did a very nice job at painting this tiny village, it totally looks like what you would expect, without distracting the attention from the battle going on a few centimeters away. Brilliant! Bravissimo!

 

 

From ByronM - Kingdom Death Black Knight (25 points)

For todays post I give you all a very non-Kingdom Death, Kingdom Death model.  What on earth do I mean by that???  Well, this is a KD model that has no nudity, tentacles, testicles, vaginas, boobs, babies, extra hands/limbs, etc, etc, etc.  Meaning it is actually a safe for work, rather normal looking model which is really strange for a KD model!  So all you KD haters out there, might actually like this model!

I have had this model for at least a year or two and was never sure what to do with it, as I was a little leery about the huge as plain cloak on him. With such a big surface I was not sure about getting a smooth and realistic looking blend / shade on it, so he sat.  Then it dawned on me, why the F$#& am I not painting with oils and doing a complete wet blend on it???   So, I pulled out the red, blue, black and white oil paints and got to work.  20 minutes later and I had a perfect (in my not so humble opinion) blend on the cloak, and was left wonder why the F$#& I don't use my oils more often as it was such a fast and easy way to get silky smooth transitions.

With that in mind, I went on to paint all the blue inner jacket, fur, quilted leather, belts and bandages all with oils!  Only to find out there are limitations, especially with small surface areas.  The blue and quilted leather worked awesome, however the bandages and belts were very problematic and probably would have been better done with acrylics, but hey, I gave it a shot!

After all the oils were in place and sealed, I went on to painting all the metallic armour panels. I used the awesome vallejo metallic paints, then sealed them and washed them with a thinned down oil paint so that I could use makeup sponges to clean up everything that left the recesses.  This is a great process and I highly recommend everyone give it a try at least once.  Washing with oils is night and day better and easier than acrylic washes, if for no other reason than you can clean up any overflow super easily and cleanly.

With that the Black Knight was done and ready to terrorize the battlefield in Kingdom Death, I can not wait to face him!  I have included a picture with him next to a standard 40k model to show just how big the KD monsters tend to be.  I am once again claiming 25 points for him as a 40mm monster.

On a side note, this is probably my last post for at least a few weeks as I finished him last week, and by this time will have gone back in for surgery on my ankle and will be unable to sit at a desk for any length of time for a few weeks.  This is to correct some issues from a surgery earlier this year when I was hit by a car going 70, while on my motorcycle at a red light.  Hopefully this will be it and I will be back up and fully mobile in about a month (and back riding this summer)!!!

Byron - wow - this is quite a piece of work. I can only admire the blending with oils here as you will never catch me messing with that hell-spawned medium. This giant knight looks incredible, you've really done some awesome work here. Twenty-five points for your tally!

Dallas 

ByronM - Frogdog, Mole Preacher, and Stone Building ( 45 points)

Today I have a group of three submissions that are all vastly different.  Let's start out with my favourite and the oddest, most NSFW one, which of course means a Kingdom Death model.  This is one I have waited a while to get to and paint, the mighty Frogdog and her multitude of dogpoles. This is a huge model, being on a 100mm round base and towering a little over that in height.

This is one of the newer KD models and as is normal in KD, she is anything but normal.  This is a cross between what looks like a simian face and a frog/toad body.  To help add to the strangeness of the model, she has human breasts hanging underneath and 6 human faces on her back, each with a vagina for a mouth and is giving birth to more "dogpoles".  Only in the strange and inhuman world of Kingdom Death could this creature be a thing! 

In game, the monster likes hopping around the swamp from lily-pad to lily pad that it treats as trampolines, sending people flying through the air.  She also charges up her double sphincter before releasing the most noxious of farts (she even has a fart AI deck with various toxic odours ready to release) that cause you to pass out and potentially drown in the swamp.  All in all it sounds like a cool and different fight, which is what KD is all about (although definitely not for everyone!).

Next up I have a small addition for my Burrows & Badgers collection, a small mole preacher.  I call him Friar Tuck, since he reminds me of the outfit in the Disney Robin Hood animated movie, just not big enough or fat enough, but its all they have that is close in the line.  As with all my B&B stuff it is a pretty simple cartoony paint job, but looks good with all the other miniatures.

Lastly, I have a 3D printed stone house from the Greendale line that can be found on myminifactory (there is also an equivalent line called Grimdale that is the destroyed versions of each building).  I printed this on my Anycubic Kobra S1 that I got a few months back, and it did a great job for a filament printer.  

However it did really remind me why I HATE filament prints. The lines and textures are a pain in the ass to work with, and I would really rather have printed in in resin.  The only reason I didn't is that I have about 10 buildings to paint up in this line, and another 10 for the ruined versions, and filament costs about $5 a building to print while resin would be $30-$50 per building.  To be fair, once on the table and at arms reach you can not really see the lines, so while I hate dealing with them, its not really noticeable when you are playing a game with them. 

The building is 5.5" long, 3.5" wide, and 5" tall, making it fairly substantial.  I painted it a stone grey colour to start with, then went in with 5 different shades of tan and brown and started painting random stones different colours.  From there it was washed to mute the colours a bit and then onto the roof and all the details.  Honestly, it too WAY too long to paint and was not worth it in the challenge due to the huge time sink it was as I had to be careful to always wet-brush and not dry-brush for the print lines to show up.  It probably took me twice as long as the frogdog to paint!  I am still thinking of adding some flock and moss to the roof, but decided to leave it for now until all are painted and I decide if I am going to do snow or moss.

And providing a group shot with a standard space marine for scale.

 

Overall these models should give me a grand total of  45 points.  The Frogdog is equivalent to the King I posted earlier in the challenge and should count as a 40mm monster for 25 points.  The mole preacher is a 25mm model for 5 points. Lastly the building is equivalent to many others that I have awarded 15 points to, so am claiming the same for myself here. As always though, points don't really matter to me, I am happy to just be getting stuff done, so adjust as you see fit.

Great stuff here Byron and I'm glad that at least ONE of my Maniacs has a post for Monday! The Frogdog is suitably repulsive and disturbing, and we'd expect nothing less from Kingdom Death of course. I like your paintwork on it and how you picked out the veins in a lighter green, really nice work on a really gross model. The cute li'l mole preacher, what can I say, he is great. Holding forth on the principle that four legs are good and two legs are better, maybe? The Greendale house is a beauty, you've done a great job on the stonework!

Forty-five points duly added.

Dallas

 

From DaveV - 28mm Sedition Wars Space Station Doors - 10 pts.

 

For my first terrain entry for this year's challenge, I offer a set of doors for my ongoing Sedition Wars project. The geomorphic, double-sided board tiles in the game show various types of doors that the players must fight through: standard doors (white), airlock doors (red), and section doors (blue), with varying effects on movement and line of sight. For example, standard doors automatically open when models move adjacent and close automatically when they leave, but airlock doors require the payment of 2 movement points to open or close.

One of the more involved Kickstarter rewards was a plastic terrain set, which included several of each type of door, cast in a hard, somewhat brittle plastic. The terrain set can be found on the secondary market, on sites such as eBay.

I have run Sedition Wars at some conventions, and have one coming up (GAME-ITOBA). It's always a challenge keeping track of open/closed doors, so I decided to paint up some doors. Closed Door = model door on the table; Open Door = remove door model. Easy!

Painting

I selected 7 regular doors, and a couple each of section and airlock doors. The doors are detailed on both sides, with deep cuts, and pronounced lights/switched. The plastic is hard, and the mould lines were very pronounced. After cleanup with a very heavy file (it's almost a foot long with heavy teeth) and some touching up with sanding sticks, I decided the cleanup was "good enough". 

I primed all the doors with Chaos Black and did some zenithal highlights with Corax White on the regular doors. I used and White Scar on the airlock and section doors, focusing the latter two on the doors themselves, as opposed to the frames. The regular doors ended up a kind of light grey, which worked out. I used Army Painter Dragon Red and Ultramarine Blue to differentiate the airlock and section doors.  

I added some graffiti decals from Warlord Games' 2000 AD line, and several warning signs from Hasslefree miniatures. 

The game's board tiles show a damaged, war-torn space station. Empty cartridge casings, blood smears, and the like are rendered on the tiles. Accordingly, I heavily weathered all the doors with a selection of coloured pigments, powders, pigment fixative, acrylic paint, and panel line detailing liquids. Some final detailing with small lights, rendered with flat white followed by fluorescent acrylics, completed the doors. Testors Dullcote sealed it all in.

Below, standard doors:

After some coaxing, the graffiti decals went down with decal set and solvent solutions. Some of the graffiti decals broke apart; old decals.

Below, "No Firearms Beyond This Point"? "Caution Laser Beam"? By the time the game starts, these warnings are obsolete.

Below, section doors, which divide the board tiles:

Airlock doors, with General Warning (hazardous environment) and Cryogenic Hazard (low temperature zone) signs. 

Below, some of the doors on a Sedition Wars board tile, with some Sedition Wars figures I painted before. 

Scoring:

All 11 of the doors are around 2.5 inches wide, and around 1.75 inches tall. Cleanup was a pain, but the painting itself was not too difficult. Whatever my final post tally, I enjoyed painting these, and they enhance the game.

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 Beautiful work Dave and I am sorry that the challenge doesn't award points for quality, but just for getting things done.  That said, these are lovely, and I like all the extra details and work done to them to give them that gritty look.  They make a great addition to a great game, that I really wish more people would have given a chance.

Overall though, 11 doors are a pretty easy paint task for most people and would likely take about the same time to paint as 2 normal models.  I know you spent way more time than that on them, but I can only award what would be normal.  So I am awarding 10 points as I think an average paint job for them would take in the 3-4 hour range.

-Byron 

 

From ByronM - AOS Ogor Mawtribe Gluttons (84 Points)

Over the last few years a friend of mine has been de-cluttering since he moved way out in the middle of nowhere and that has been an amazing windfall for my pile of shame.  I think I just finished getting the last of his vast collection this fall, and it spanned over 30 tote boxes of stuff!  Most of it GW stuff!  He only gets to play games when visiting me, so it's now all here to be worked on and played with. Oh, and it has caused lots of in house fighting as my sons Riley and Quinn try to claim various parts of the collection for their own.

Anyway, part of that collect was a huge pile of Warhammer Fantasy era Ogres, or Ogors as they now call them so that the GW legal department can ensure that the IP they stole from past companies and authors can now not be re-stolen from them. Man do I hate modern day GW...

 Both of my sons have been bugging me to play Age of Sigmar with them, and while I consider the rules complete SH*T it is a chance to play games with them, sooooo....  I went looking for bits to make as small an army as possible so that I don't have to paint a whole ton of stuff for a game I don't really care about, and I decided on the Ogres, er I mean: Ogors.  The whole 2000 point army will consist of just 24 models, so that's a bonus!

This week I focused on getting the first of two units in the army together (yeah, really just two units and then a bunch on monsters and characters.... what a dumb game), a reinforced unit of 12 Ogor Mawtribe Gluttons.  Most of these were already assembled and primed, some even had some colour on them here and there (that I just painted over!) so while there are some mould lines still on them, I was not about to go and clean them up and re-prime them so they got left as they were.  Do you start to understand my level of caring for this project? :-D. 

These models have been painted to simply be done and table ready, they are nothing special, and are pretty rough.  I think they look good enough to be on a table at a store event though, so stopped at that.  I will probably put more effort into the characters and monsters, but the base infantry can suck it! 

I tried to have several different shades of flesh on them so that they do not all look the same, I also did them with various different colours of pants and boots since I really doubt the Ogors have an army tailor and uniform standard.  

For basing I am going for a dry fall / early winter Steppe look with scrub and sand base, and then patches of snow.  However, despite having at least 3 different types of snow flock, I can not find ANY of them (we moved 2 years ago and I do not believe I have used them since and they are probably still buried in my storage trailer someplace) so I had to drop the snow part of the base until I can either find my snow flock or much more likely order in some more.  I will make sure I post an updated picture when I do get the bases fully done with other Ogors in the near future.

From looking through the painting challenges history I have found that people have been claiming ogres and trolls as 40mm infantry models so I will do the same here for consistency.  So these should give me a total of 12 x 7 points = 84 points.   

These look great Byron and I applaud your efforts on several levels - getting models painted for a game and recycling someone else's giveaways! Seriously though the models look pretty cool. Like you I was "out of the modern GW game" some time ago but the price looked to be right for these models and you've done a great job in painting them! 84 points for your account.

Dallas

Sunday Welcomes back Terrain to the Challenge!

Good Morning everyone (Or whatever time it is you are reading this),

Here it is, the first Sunday for terrain posting in Challenge #16! It is a balmy -16 degrees Celsius here in Winnipeg with a clear warm day of -10 projected which is a nice change from the more wintry -28 it was a few days ago and the yet more snow we got yesterday.  Oh well, there is a reason that Winnipeg painters are known to be pretty good and damn prolific...  we have 6 months a year of this stuff to hide from inside!

The view this morning from the kitchen getting my coffee

Just a reminder that there are no hard and fast rules for terrain points this challenge so everyone is subject to my evil machinations! <insert evil villain laughing>. If anyone is not up to date on the basis for my dastardly plans on how to deal with terrain and points please check out the entry post here: Terrain Submissions and Scoring for Challenge XVI.

Anyway, on with the show!  With the challenge now in full motion and handed off from Curt to the Minions we have at least 2 entries of terrain this week with maybe more to come later? 

- Minion Byron

P.S. Oh, and I know Christmas is over, but I wanted to pass on a Christmas tip for all you parents out there for next year to help keep the kids in line over the holidays. It worked a treat here... 

From ByronM - Kingdom Death: The King in Yellow (25 Points)

It was a busy Christmas so I didn't get much painting done, but I did manage to get some base colours on a bunch of models and at least this one model done, so I am posting it alone this week.  It is a figure that has caused much consternation with the wife, as she despises the colours I am using.  However, how could I not do an evil demonic king in any colour other than yellow?  So, I present to you my version of the Kingdom Death (KD) king as the King in Yellow.

I wanted to do him yellow since I first got him a few years ago, but delayed and delayed as painting anything in yellow sucks!  It's such a hard colour to work with, and its so easy to get it wrong (which unfortunately I probably did as I am not super happy with it but nothing I did made it better so I just left it). Over all though, despite the yellow being a bit muddier than I wanted, since I was looking for more of a shade of ochre through yellow, I think it suits the model.  It makes the fleshy bits a little harder to see and they blend in a bit, but overall I am not un-pleased with the result, just not thrilled with it either, if that makes any sense.

This is a huge model at almost 6" tall as shown with the already fairly tall KD survivor next to it!

 

As with all KD models he is full or strange, dark, twisted details.  For KD that usually means tentacles, penises, extra body parts (normally arms and hands), and babies and the King does not disappoint. While there are no tentacles or penises, the whole King appears to be made up of human arms and hands and babies.  No idea why, and really not sure I even want to question or know.  All I know is that it is creepy and disturbing to many people, but I love it! Heck, he even has a flowing chain of babies around his neck and back.  I normally don't paint pupils on models as it always looks like they are shocked with wide eyes, but I felt in this case that look would work on the babies, as it gives them a confused "why the F am I here" look to them, so I went with it.

 

Anyway, since we have always counted KD as 40mm scale, I am submitting him as a vehicle/monster of 40mm scale for 25 points.  Please feel free to adjust as required if that is incorrect. 

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Yes, Kingdom Death figures are typically very strange and disturbing, and this one certainly does not break from the norm. That being said, as a study in yellow, I think you hit the mark, Byron. It has depth and warmth while the grey bits provide a nice contrast. I also find that the colours benefit from the high definition of the figures details. Very creepy but well painted. Mission accomplished!

I'll go with your points assessment and mark you down for 25 points. Great work Byron!

- Curt

From ByronM - Burrows & Badgers - Stoats (Weasels) - (15 points)

For my first entry of this years challenge I painted up three more models for my Burrows & Badgers collection of figures.  These are three Stoats to add as mercenaries to any force I would like, and I affectionately refer to them as Larry, Darryl and Darrel.

 

 

I try to get something painted on day-one of each challenge every year, and usually succeed.  I see that Quinn (my son) beat me to the punch this year by getting up super early before work to paint something.  I had to be a bit slower this year as these are the first models I have painted since June when I suffered a pretty bad concussion and have not really been able to focus much since then. It's been slowly getting better recently, but it still took pretty much all day in small breaks going back and forth to them to get them done, and some of the brush work is a little rough, but hey at least they are done and table ready! 

 

 

These are official figures from Oathsworn Miniatures for their awesome game called Burrows & Badgers which I raved about last year.  Since they they have released a second edition and the game has gotten even better!  For anyone who has not tried this game yet, I can not recommend it enough.  Sure, it borrows pretty much all it's rules from other rule sets and there is little "original" about the game, but it just works!  This is the game I describe to everyone as "being better than it has any right to be".  It borrows the best parts of Mordheim, Infinity, LoTR, and so many more games, it really is brilliant, and the figures are top notch as well! 

As with the figures I painted last year, I am trying to go for a low detail, high contrast, cartoon type look with them.  I am not trying to do too much detail work on them, I just want them to stand out and look good at table top distance.  That said I am pretty happy with how these turned out, especially since I have not touched a brush in 6 months. 

These are all 28mm figures that stand a bit taller than normal that should net me 5 points each for 15 points on day one.  Not that I will be able to keep that up everyday, but it's a good start.

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First, welcome back to the Challenge, Byron, and happy holidays!

It's wonderful to have both you and your son, Quinn, breaking the duck together to get your first entries in on the first day. Bravo to you both!

Terrific trio of stoates here, Byron, with lovely punchy colours and excellent basing. I particularly like the little fella in blue, winding up with his mallet. I agree, Burrows & Badgers is a terrific game. In fact, our group here have recently started a campaign using the system and are enjoying furious battles with bats, mice and otters. I think both Peter and myself will have some our warbands featured in the Challenge in the coming months.

These three weasels will put you on the board with 15 points. Great work!

- Curt

Terrain Submissions and Scoring for Challenge XVI

'Under the Eye of Byron'

Hello Everyone, Byron here!

As Curt mentioned in his opening post for the year, I have been roped into volunteered to being the terrain minion for the year. Many of us were upset last year by the exclusion of terrain painting since terrain is such a big part of miniature gaming and painting.  There were several reasons for it, not the least of which being that certain submissions of terrain were: A) scoring huge points for very little apparent effort and B) the points scored were based simply on volume and not any relationship to the amount of time/effort being applied. 

Since this challenge is really all about having fun and getting things from our mountains of shame actually painted and on the table I discussed with Curt about bringing terrain back into the challenge. Due to various different issues with any hard and fast scoring system for terrain, I came up with the idea of having one person score it for everyone so that a single consistent view was taken for adjudicating the score for each piece of terrain and Curt agreed to give it a shot this year and see how it goes.  

To be clear, please do NOT blame Curt for anything you do not like about the new terrain system.  While the old system had issues, and we all know that, Curt has been very diplomatic (as always) and has not wanted to throw anyone under the bus, so has not even told me the exact issues he had, or examples of the problems as he sees them. This is entirely my take on the issues of why terrain was removed and how I see making everything as fair and event to people that both choose to paint terrain and those that choose not to.

Now, please keep in mind a few things:

• Being a long time gamer and having painted WAY too much terrain for tournaments over the years, and being terrain designer and seller, I have a pretty solid idea of how much time/effort any given piece of terrain should take to get to a table top standard.

• As Curt has alluded to with his comments about my diabolical nature, I am harsh on everyone, but no more than I am harsh on myself and my own painting!  So, if you do not like the idea of me judging how long I think a piece should take to paint, please remember terrain is optional to paint! 

• I personally view points as superfluous to this challenge, as I view the idea of painting 10,000 points of miniatures just to win $50 or $100 worth of prizes kinda crazy. I get that points are important as a measure of how much painting we have each done, but I have never viewed them as anything other than that.  After all, this is a painting challenge, not a painting competition. All to say, I have never argued about points awarded to my figures (as I simply don't think they matter) and will NOT argue or even respond to comments about points awarded for terrain. 

• You are not forced to paint terrain, so if you disagree with the system outlined here, please just don't paint terrain and if enough people feel that way Curt will either chose to got back to no terrain or find a different system of scoring that addresses the issues in a different way. 

How will points be awarded? 

With all the warnings out of the way, here is the long and arcane way Terrain will be judged for points:

1. I will look at a piece and determine how long I believe it would take me to get it ready to an acceptable table top standard, meaning to a simple standard that you would take to a club or tournament game, NOT the insane levels that people go to for demo games or painting competitions. It's an estimate based on the size and complexity of the terrain piece to be painted.  
2. The time estimate will NOT be entirely for the paint job done to the model, for the simple reason that the challenge does not do that for figures. Case in point a crappy simple Necron painted by me that took 2 hours and is barely passable as tabletop quality gets the same 5 points that someone like Nick or Sydney gets for one of their gorgeous 40 hour plus paint jobs.  
3. While the paint quality is not going to affect the score the paint techniques and amount of painting will affect the time estimate. If I look at the same piece done by two painters and one is done with a single colour of spray paint and a little dry brushing and the other is clearly painted with great care and detail I will view that as more time spent (but again not in a direct correlation to paint job quality).
4. I will multiply that amount of time by the amount of time it takes to get a 28mm rank and file model to a decent tabletop standard.  Since most people paint a simple rank and file figure in about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours, I am going to assume a 2 hour period to get 5 points when painting figures. Therefore if I think a piece of terrain would take me 4 hours to paint, it will get 10 points so its roughly the same as painting normal figures.  

In theory this will work to be fair and even to everyone.  This allows things to be score appropriately for what they are.  Size of model will still matter but will be adjusted to ensure that it is not simply about how big the terrain piece is but how much painting is actually done to it.

Comparison of flat rate vs. adjudicated scoring

Examples of past issues and how they would now be scored:

• Someone could paint a super plain building (like one of the basic Infinity buildings I sell that are basically boxes with almost no detail and no interiors) that are 6" cubed of volume but they can be spray bombed or airbrushed in 2 minutes and then dry brushed the corners and put a little graffiti on it and spent a grand total of 10-15 minutes on the building and then villainously claim 20 points per building due to volume. Realistically you could paint at least 5 of these in the same time as a normal 28mm figure so it should only be worth a point or two.  
• Alternately someone could have a small pile of rubble (maybe 2" of volume) that is made up of chests, coins, books, rope, pots, pans, etc.  To paint all of the detail on this piece would take at LEAST 2 hours, yet under the old system 2" cubed would only only score 2 points.  Clearly it would take the same time as a standard 28mm figure to paint something like this and should score 5 points just like a figure.
• Some terrain is large but has no (or very little painting on it), for instance forest sections can be massive (2x 6" cubes per forest is not uncommon), but all that is normally being painted is the base work.  Previously a forest section with pre-made trees might score 20-40 points simply because of its size, yet clearly there was 10 minutes of painting done to the base, so it should maybe score a single point.  Now, obviously if the trees are GW or other brands of trees that are all plastic and need each and every leaf and trunk painted just like a figure, then it would score many more points, but if a submission is a bunch of model railroad trees stuck on a painted base, that's a point or two. 
• No distinction was given between a 6" cube of a building like the basic box described above or a 6" cube of a building that had brick and stone exterior, shingles, window frames, and a complete interior.  In the past both would score 20 points.  Under this system the super plain one might score 2 points, while the super detailed on would be viewed as needing 6+ hours to paint and score at least 15-20 points.

Hopefully the intent here is at least clear and understandable even if the exact details are left a little vague (on purpose).  This is being done to allow everyone to submit terrain as they would like, and I will be looking at it and making a time estimate and painting effort and score based on that.   

Terrain Submissions 

So, for the few brave readers that have not run away in tears of anger, frustration, confusion or dismay, here is what should be covered in a terrain submission:

• Size of the terrain piece: A rough measurement of the terrain for width, depth, and height.
• Pictures: There should be enough pictures to show the terrain piece from enough angles to see all the painted areas, which included the interior if it was painted.  If no interior pictures are shown then I have to assume it is not painted. There should also be at least one picture with a measuring tape and a figure of the same scale as the terrain by the terrain piece to help with the sizing.
• Title and Labels: Please ensure you have "Terrain" in the both the title of the submission and in the Labels section, this will make them much easier to find and score on time.
• ONLY include terrain pieces in your terrain submissions.  To keep things simple and separated your miniature submissions should be on your normal day to your normal minion, and terrain submissions with be separate from them and submitted for Sundays (but may be published over the course of the week if there are too many any given week just so that we do not flood out the normal painting submissions that day).  
• Standard submission information: Other than the few specific requests above, terrain submissions should follow the normal submission requirements (formatting, a bit of a story, history, or how it was painted, etc, etc)

 
That's it, hopefully a bit clearer than mud. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments. Otherwise, I hope to see a lot of cool terrain pieces being submitted over the Challenge!

- Byron

 

From ByronM - Challenge 15 sign off post

 Well, I made it to the end of yet another Painting Challenge, even if I didn't meet my target points.  This year was a lot of fun, and I finally felt good about my painting again now that I got some better glasses and light in my paint area, so that is a win.  Also, I could have hit my points goal, but made the concious choice to go work on some other projects that I really needed to for my company (NorthernLightsTerrain.com), which I will show off later in the post.

First up, the obligatory group shot of myself and all the models I painted, and even though I missed my goal by a little, I am really happy with how much I got done and the quality of most of it.

Next up is a shot of my still in disaster mode painting table...  I still have a ton of odds and ends kicking around that I never got to.

I also realized I never got back to post a group shot of all of my Burrows & Badgers stuff (which I did not get everything done, so there will be a lot more next challenge).  I love how these came out, as the sculpts are awesome with lots of detail, but not too much that you are left painting little bits forever.

And lastly, for the last few weeks of the challenge, I got sidetracked on getting a set of trenches and bunkers ready for sale on NorthernLightsTerrain.com for use with Trench Crusade, which we have been playing a lot of around here.  While I know you can make trenches easily out of foam and stir sticks, foam tends to break down over time, and is harder to pack as it is always the one size.  So, learning from my stacking basic Infinity buildings I made a bunch of stacking boxes with wood texture sides and flat tops that pack up easily for storage.  I sell them like that, but recommend people use whatever modelling compound they want for the tops to give more character, plus glue some random bits and bobs all over and it looks pretty sweet.

Textured and base painted trenches

20 Trench boxes stacked for storage

Unpainted and no top texture added

I also did two style of bunkers to go with them, which gives a complete set for Trench Crusade or any other WW1 style setting.  Are they perfect, no, as it's hard to create angled sections with MDF and a laser, but they work pretty well!

Well, that's it for this year!  

Thanks again to Curt and all the Minions for all the hard work, see you all again next year!