From TomC: Necromeowncer and skele-cats [Fantasy] (33 points)

 Hello hello again, apologies to reappear sooner than expected, behind schedule for the last studio and making up lost time for this studio, the Fantasy studio. It's been straight historical content for me so far, but the internet loves cats and so this is the place to get them in.

 These are from Steamforged Games's Cats and Catacombs / Animal Adventures series of feline (and canine) adventurers for D&D, in particular, two of the Kickstarters. The first we backed had a feline necromancer (the Necromeowncer / Nekomancer depending on how you like your puns) as a bonus, but you can't have a Necromeowncer without any undead to raise! Luckily the second Kickstarter we backed had animated feline skeletons to give the adventures some low level adversaries, so now the whole gang is back together! 

 I enjoyed painting these immensely, I think the miniatures are very characterful and have enough detail to bring some techniques to without becoming a headache.

 I wanted a black cat to establish villainous credentials but included the white patches as an homage to a childhood cat. I then tried to keep the various accessories quite colourful and textured so it wasn't too gloomy, although that was difficult with such stylish assistant-rats. The various bones I imagine are useful for distracting canine adventurers...

 Both the leather and gold are Andy Wardle recipes for NMM, the gold is VGC English Uniform, IJA uniform, then S75 Tenere Yellow and I used Citadel Ceramite White for the reflections (a prince amongst paints). The leather I modified a little (thus explaining my lack of critical acclaim) to Citadel Mournfang Brown, Tuskgor Fur and VGC German Orange. I hadn't tried either before but I'm glad I gave them a test, I can see myself using both more in the future!

  Another shot of the feline skeletons for completeness, it's just the one sculpt replicated, as often seems to be the way with Steamforged's D&D goons. They're my usual series of Citadel Gorthor then Baneblade Brown and Karak Stone which I employ for most bone: on the Necromeowncer I took this on to Rakarth and Pallid Wych Flesh for the croissant helmet horns, not required for low level minions!

 For the bases, I was aiming for a dusty dungeon theme, as appropriate for ne'er-do-wells, and hopefully suitably generic for a few locales.

 Now, points wise, they're about 20mm, give or take being on all fours, so I've taken the feline skeletons (3x) to be 3 points apiece, as they're quite bare bones (the end is nigh, I promise!), and the Necromeowncer as 4 points. They're all pretty fantastical, so all in with the studio bonus should be 33 points.

 I'm thinking Swords & Sandals next...

Friday Minion: How did you know I'm a cat person? Though I'm not sure these are the cutest moggies, they are very finely painted, I like the dark bones rather than bleached, and the Necromeowncer looks appropriately haughty. Fine work on the NMM too, was there a reason you went NMM? 

Very reasonable scoring bid, too, making my life easy. 33 Points to you!

From IannickM : Ysopé of Kuldan and another balloon ride...(5 points)

A small offering this week, the obligatory passage fee to take a ballon ride to my next destination, "Millsy's Millpond". This is another of those miniature representing an RPG character from my game of Fighting Fantasy, this time Ysopé of Kuldan, of the Cat people of the jungle of Silur Cha. My deal with my players is that they each get a painted version of their character, one that they get to keep once the campaign is over.

Ysopé is a warrior-priestess of Courga, the Goddess of grace and agility. An all-offensive type of gal, she fights with two swords and doesn't care much for defense! Good thing for her she has another priestess on her team, who's become quite used to healing the intrepid feline. 

She is a newly addition to the party, and fits quite well in the group. My friend Emmanuelle wanted to know what all that RPG fuss was all about, and oh surprise another convert! She's been really enjoying the game so far. 

The figure is from the D&D Nolzur's Marvelous Unpainted Miniatures range, my first time painting these. As anticipated, the details are a bit soft and the casting could be better, and as such the range would not be my first choice. However it was by far the most resembling figure I could find to match Emmanuelle's character. The two swords is a nice touch, she was very pleased with this! As usual, colours, etc. are a dead match to what my players described. It makes for an interesting exercise, as I don't get a say in the colours I use! She took a bit of careful work to get her soft details right but Emmanuelle is very happy with it, she got to use it last week during a dungeon crawl and here you go, another happy player hooked on that RPG shit for life. I would've made a GREAT missionary.

So...just 5 points for a 28mm figure, its my second use of the balloon so no extra points. Is she the first feline to enter Sarah's challenge? I hope so.

 See you on the pond.

By Paul: One balloon ticket coming right up!