From MartinN: Hairy arsed Barbarians (70 pts.)

For my penultimate post for this year I've got a bunch of hairy arsed Barbarians for you to enjoy. The figures are a mix of Victrix and Footsore Miniatures and were a lot of fun to paint. They're based on my usual 10x5 cm bases for use with Midgard Heroic Battles by James Morris. As I couldn't be arsed to hand paint all the different shield patterns I decided to use LBM (nowadays available through Victrix) decals instead. Backdrop is by Handiwork Games as ever

Points wise we have 14 miniatures for a total of 70 points

Lovely looking barbarians Nick, although I’m a tad disappointed that they are fully clothed given the title of your post.  I envy painters who can achieve those rugby shirt stripes on tunics.  Your transfers work well, and mark these guys as veterans of Roman units.  Love the basing and backdrop.

Peterd

From MartinN: Sigurd - Fáfnir's Bane (17 Points)

Continuing on from last years theme I'm back, or better still painting away on my Middle Imperial Roman project for Midgard. My Romans are more or less done, so I've to do the opposition now it seems.

Last year I painted Brynhild, so I thought it only sensible to now paint Sigurd (Siegfried for us Germans). While the whole epic cycle around Sigurd probably refers to a later period than what I'm going for with my 3rd Century Romans, we don't really know and that's excuse enough for me.

The figures used are from Footsore Miniatures, Victrix and Armorum & Aquila Miniatures and go together quite well. Converting the chap mockingly holding up the severed head, was fun and indeed the reason to paint this whole little vignette. Sigurd and his banner bearer were collecting dust in my stash for over a decade already, but I couldn't think of a way to tell an interesting story with any of the figures I found. I love the defiant pose of the sculpt, so it had to be something special. And when I happened upon the Dark Age Archers set from Victrix I instantly knew I was on to something. Good thing I'll need archers anyway for this project, eh?

Points wise this will see me enter the roster with 17 points for 3 standing and a prone figure in addition to whatever points our Maximo Lider sees fit to throw in for the hand painted shields.

Cost of Entry

Since the beginning of the full scale invasion of Ukraine, I'm donating monthly to Ukrainian charity Come Back Alive Foundation who provide both lethal and non-lethal aid to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Also US based Renegade Relief Runners Foundation, who deliver aid to settlements as close and sometimes closer to the frontline as is safe(-ish), gets a monthly donation. Both do sterling work, so go and check them out.

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First, welcome back to the Challenge, Nick!

I love that you've completed the book-end to your Brynhild with this fabulous Siegfried vignette. As usual your brushwork continues to amaze, only to be outdone by your subtle conversions and additions. I find your fleshtones, fabrics and painted shields are simply incredible - a tour de force to be admired. Well done, Nick (and another 5 points I think is warranted for the work)!

Also to be credited is your donations to the two Ukrainian charities you mentioned. Those folks need all the help they can get. Very worthwhile.

- Curt

From PeterB: Literally stuck in Limbo and on to Lust (80 points)

Greetings all, welcome back to those previous participants and a hearty new welcome to those new. I think this is my third time participating, so hopefully some of you will know who I am by now. I sporadically blog over here normally, but I tend to run out of energy to post in both places during the analogue challenge. I am also normally quite good at getting something published before Christmas but this challenge it's all been a bit of a rush. With Christmas and work both keeping me super busy, I barely even had time to get models prepped before the start of the challenge! I did however manage to clear the hobby area (dining table) of anything Christmas related and start prepping models by early evening boxing day. I even ran out of mdf bases before the week was out so I hope my order from Warbases arrives soon or progress will grind to a halt again and I will be actually stuck in a hobby limbo.

I do try and complete the challenge theme each year and this one at first glance did worry me a little. Did I have enough to cover these themes? I like to plan ahead, so an evening spent delving through my massive to do pile and I think if I crack on, I can definitely get to paradise as it were. (I also have a stack of Bad Squiddo lady miniatures sat waiting from a kickstarter that I can use to skip a few steps if need be.)

So my first stop on my travels is at Limbo. Back in the first lockdowns in 2020 I, like many others, buckled down into my hobby to keep my sanity. I treated myself to a giant resin kit as a centre piece of a fantasy barbarian army. I had got myself a woolly mammoth. The kit came with a crew of dwarfs which were dumped in my bits box. The howdah itself was left empty so that I could use the piece for different armies, the space being big enough to put two or three models including their bases in there. This way the model would be multi-purpose. I always felt like I needed something specific though that actually looked like it was steering the beast in some way.

With some Christmas money I have purchased some Victrix Celtic Chariots. The sprues have some great looking crew models on them, more than is needed for the kit. A banner bearer is made up of various spare bits as well and I now have a crew.

The whole thing can be slotted in to the howdah ready for battle. I might tweak the reigns a bit at some point, but for now I am super happy with how it looks.

For my second stop for Lust I take a trip to Middle Earth. In my first challenge I had painted up a Balrog and two of the original Fellowship, Legolas and Boromir. The original idea was to try and collect enough models second hand from ebay and shows cheaply enough to play the entire campaign from the first book published by GW. Progress after the first attempt at finding the models however has been extremely slow. This year though some models have been found.

Most of us know the tale of One Ring to rule them all, how Sauron could control the minds of the rulers of Middle Earth by feeding on their Lust for Power, (I even have been quite enjoying the Amazon show, although I do admit it has issues). The rulers of men were trapped by their own Lust and became the Ring Wraiths, cursed after death to walk the land searching for the One Ring to appease their master.

I will admit these models did not need a lot of effort to paint, there really isn't much to work with when a character is one big black walking cloak. I am looking forward more to painting some more of the characters and finishing off the fellowship.

To points, two locations, 20 x 2 = 40 points

Five Ring wraiths at 28mm and three Howdah riders at 28mm, 8 x 5 = 40 points

Total 80 points.

For the skull duel, the barbarian banner has two skulls and the druid has one skull on his staff (There is another on the staff but it still has flesh hanging off it!)

3 skulls.

A right hearty welcome to you too, Peter! Wow, that mammoth is absolutely fantastic. The crew you have painted seems to fit really well and it all makes for a very impressive piece! 

You have taken quite an unexpected take on Lust, but I can't find fault with it. The ringwraiths may have been simple to paint, but the effect is good nonetheless. Nice background picture too!

On a side note, please remember to resize your photos, it saves your minion a lot of work ;-). No points deducted for that though, so 80 points it is!

Martijn

From MartijnN: Barbarians within the Gates (91 points)

I think I first heard of the Battle of Waterloo when I was given a box of Airfix 1/32 scale Waterloo British Infantry at the age of 7. I think I still have them somewhere. This sparked a keen and lifelong interest in the final battle of the Napoleonic Wars. As a teenager, I wanted to learn as much as I could about it, and so I of course turned to the Public Library. Now in the early Eighties books on military history were not very popular in the Netherlands, and books in Dutch were rare (except on World War II, of course). However, our library did have a Dutch translation of David Howarth’s Waterloo: A Day of Battle. I must have read it a dozen times at least.

It is a gripping, very well written account of the battle, and I still find it one of the best books on it. History as it should be told. It is not a very well researched book that gives new insights or presents new facts, but it is a good account of the battle and I have found it a very inspiring read. So this is my recommendation for this week.

However, as it was originally published in 1968 it presents a very traditional and outdated view, focusing on the British and their part in the battle, dishing up all the stories about those bloody foreign so-called Allies who ran away before a shot had been fired. I think we may have moved on from that now. I am a “Dutch-Belgian”  and one of my forebears fought at Waterloo, so I think we might need a counterweight. So, by all means read Waterloo: A Day Of Battle, but also read Wellington’s Hidden Heroes. The Dutch and the Belgians by Victoria Baker-Smith!

For the occasion, I have painted up some 6mm Baccus French Napoleonic infantry. They are based for Blücher and represent two brigades in the game.

And what about those barbarians in the title, I hear you ask? No, those are not the French infantry. Those are these three 3D prints. 

I think they are Iain Lovecraft sculpts. They are prisoners, as can be seen from the shackles they are wearing, and I think they are meant to perform in the gladiatorial games. Well within the gates, I should say. I was experimenting with several methods of painting them, and I did have some problems getting the skin tone right, but I am reasonably happy with them in the end.

So, we have 112 6mm intantry and 3 25mm foot for 71 points. I think they also fit the historical section of the Challenge Library so I claim 20 points for that, and of course the 6mm are also for the Little Guys Duel.

112 6mm foot @ 0.5 = 56

3 28mm foot @ 5 = 15

History Section @ 20

Total 91 points

From TeemuL: Martijn and the book recommendation of the week, thank you! That's two nice brigades in 6mm, but I think you might couple of more of them for Waterloo? Those barbarians/prisoners/gladiators look good, too. It is a good idea not to paint them all in the exact same skin tone, looks more natural.

And by the way, please add the labels. And perhaps a map, too? :)

From PeterB Barbarians, Greeks and Cowboys - 322 points

 

 My journey last week stopped off at my first blue studio, Arthouse. This week, a swift journey around three more blue studios bringing me closer to a full house.

Up until now I have mostly been painting individual models to match the studios, now the groups begin. These have been in progress since the beginning of the challenge, my inability to paint large groups of models without getting bored means I was using the age old method of awarding myself with a character to paint if I made progress on a group project.

So, first stop Fantasy. During lockdown, I went a bit hobby crazy and went all out with the Frostgrave box sets. I built a human fantasy army for Dragon Rampant with the Soldiers 1 and 2 and the Wizards plastic sets. I also bought two boxes of Barbarians and combined them for the beginnings of a Barbarian army. So, when they released a Female Barbarian plastic box set, I had to get them. Dragon Rampant uses unit sizes of 6 and 12 and there are 20 Barbarians in the box. Luckily I had already 4 Bad Squiddo Shield Maiden Archers painted up which match up pretty well, so from the box I made up 8 Archers and 12 Barbarians with two handed weapons.

The Archers

Barbarians with two handed weapons

I kept them all to the same limited palette of colours and then just mixed up where the colours went. They are all then covered in Coat D'arms dark brown Super Shader to give them that grimy unwashed look to match the rest of the army.

Next on our whistle stop tour, over to studio Swords and Sandals.  One of my other hobby addictions of late has been buying the blue book range of Osprey War game rules (including the aforementioned Dragon Rampant.) Another one of the books being Of Gods and Mortals. A game system where the various gods from history and mythology skirmish battle accompanied by their worshipers. A long time ago after being inspired by the film 300 (Yep, that long ago) I had bought some Spartan warriors from the War-gods of Aegyptus range but painted them up and did nothing with them. Now I could use them for a Greek warband.

So, I needed a God and few more Greeks. At the end of the last challenge I painted up the Greek archers from a Victrix plastics box-set. I have finally got around to continuing the project.

Zeus, from the North Star, Of Gods and Mortals range

Not including his wild hair, Zeus is actually about 50mm tall, so that he towers of mere mortals.

Unarmoured Hoplites

Yes, the shields are transfers, but I couldn't resist them. They look so good.

And finally for this week our last stop, the Westerns Studio. Well, I have been meaning to finish off the rest of my plastic cowboys from Great Escape Games.

Yes the guy on the far right has the same head as Dum Dum Duggan from the other week.

I promise that's it for this week. So, to the points.

20 x Barbarians @ 28mm. 20 x 5 = 100pts

1 x Zeus @ 40mm. = 7pts

24 x Hoplites @ 28mm. 24 x 5 = 120pts

7 x cowboys @ 28mm. 7 x 5 = 35pts

3 studio visits. 3 x 20 = 60pts

Total = 322 points.

You are whizzing about the studios on this post Peter.  I am loving the barbarians (does any one else sing the Beach Boys Barbara Ann when they say that word?). Using the limited palette but switching combinations works well.

I also really like Zeus with his wild hair -  but you got expect some static zaps when you chuck lightning bolts?  Nice work on the Hoplites and your shield transfers look awesome.  Plus a nice collection of Cowboys.

From TamsinP: Oscar And The Barbarians (30 points)

The Adventures of Oscar: Time Traveler, Slayer of Squirrels and Very, Very Good Boy

Chapter 13

In which our hero meets a legendary author...

Row-ray! I escaped from those fighting robots! Now, where am I? Seems to be warm, dry and a bit dusty, but there are grassy hills all around. No trees though, so no squirrels for me to slay. I wonder if there is any food here? Let's have a look!

Hang on - I think I can hear someone grunting over there...

Hmmm! He seems to be fighting someone invisible! Hello!

"Huh? My word, a dog - where did you come from my fine friend?"

Row! He seems quite friendly. Maybe he's got some food I can scrounge?

"You look rather hungry - sorry, all I've got is some beef jerky."

Did he say "beef"? I like beef! Row-ray! Oh, yes, this is beef, but very chewy. Should last me for a while.

"Now, what's that you're carrying in your mouth? Hmmm, I do believe I have seen that before. Is that Tamsin's time travel device?"

Tamsin? Did he say Tamsin? Does he know her? He must do! They must be friends! Row-row!

"What's that racket? Something seems to be happening over there."

"Oh, my. Such fine men. So muscular, so sweaty, so virile, so nearly naked...I'm afraid you will have to excuse me, my fine, furry friend - I must return to my bunk!"

What? He seemed excited to see those men. Why is he running away? I wonder if they have food? Better go and say hello!

Hmmm! They seem to be putting something into that tube. And now that man is putting a flame to the back end...

*BOOM*

Cripes! That was loud and scary - better scarper!

Phew! Safe! Wait, what's that I hear?

"Oscar! Oscar!"

"Oscar! Oscar!"

It's coming from that way - better investigate!

"Oscar! Oscar!"

"Oscar! Oscar!"

Getting closer - it sounds like someone calling out a name.

"Oscar! Oscar!"

"Oscar! Oscar!"

It is! And they're calling my name! And it sounds like one of them is Daddy-Curt! Row-ray! They've come to rescue me! I hope they have food! Better go and meet them!

Silliness ends for this post!

Barbarian Cannon and Crew

I bought this set to finish off the barbarians I painted back in AHPC X. There aren't any rules (that I know of) for artillery in Dragon Rampant, but it's nice to have the option anyway. Just don't ask where a bunch of Conanesque barbarians got hold of a cannon. Or gunpowder.

the figures are 28mm from Battlezone Miniatures. The boxer was painted way back in AHPC IX.

For Scoring

4 x 28mm foot @ 5 = 20 points

1 x 28mm crew-served weapon@ 10 = 10 points

Total = 30 points

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Barbarian artillery?! How wonderfully random! They look excellent, but I do hope they keep their parts away from the hot cannon. I also have to say I'm a bit confused to who Oscar met with the beef jerky, but I'm sure all will be revealed soon. 

- Curt

Well, you must have missed my previous post if you're confused about the author's identity! And forgotten who I met in my previous time travel excursions! *lol*

Tamsin