From AndrewG: The Last of the cultists and other bits (69 points)

 

To paraphrase a famous oil painter, my Frostgrave Cultist warband project this past winter turned out to be a ‘happy little accident’ of this year’s AHPC. It was never on my deliberate list of things to get through, but after painting the first few over the holidays I was simply hooked on these figures for some reason and really enjoyed getting them all done.

With these ten new additions I have now built the entire box, bolstering them with a necromancer and apprentice from the Frostgrave wizard’s set to give me several options for getting them on the wargames table.

Pretty much everything was built straight out of the Cultists 1 box, with the odd bit from the bits box here and there to give them some variety. The crusty rusty shield on the champion, for example, is a very old plastic Warhammer chaos shield which I augmented with a boss made from greenstuff. After priming I hit it with some AK corrosive texture and Army Painter dark rust effect, then let it dry before adding a wash of Warpaints Verdigris. I was very happy with the final result, and imagine this is some cursed item that has welded itself to its current bearer.

And here is the whole group, 22 baddies ready to spoil some do-gooder adventurer hero’s plans to make the world a better place.

With the Cultists done and dusted, I had just enough time left to finish off a couple of other miniatures for other games. First up, a couple more gunfighters to join the cowboys I had been posting at the beginning of this year’s challenge. These two Vaqueros are Copplestone castings metal miniatures and will eventually be joined by 3-4 others I am halfway through getting done.

Next up, I got roped into playing in a friend’s D&D campaign in which we were to play unconventional characters, so I opted to play a Dwarven Rogue (IYKYK). Thankfully, Reaper miniatures had produced a couple of these in their metal figure line, so I bought one from a second hand dealer and gave it a quick paint job.

Last but not least, I wanted some cool objective markers for my games of Frostgave and Five Leagues from the Borderlands and found these in an old Warhammer Black Skull Pass starter box set I had sitting in storage. If I recall these were originally Troll skull markers for the Goblin army, but they’ll do just fine for any number of fantasy skirmish games. I painted the cloth on each one a different colour so they can be distinct on the table as needed.

All in all, some good progress this week. Thus, we’re looking at:

13x 28mm figures = 65 points

4x 28mm objective markers = 4 points

Great work here Andrew.  Loving those despite desperados and your Dwarves rogue. However, ,my favourite is the Cultist with his book of forbidden lore.  Well done.

From HerrRobert: Dragons Dancing at the Black and White Ball (40 points)

Deep in the frozen northern wastes, the young white dragon Othimmalaeagkar stood proudly on a hunk of rock staring out over a frozen sea of ice. Whisps of cold escaped her nostrils as she surveyed the domain she would make hers, establishing a lair and asserting dominance, contemplating the treasure soon to be mined by her captive deep gnomes and hordes of succulent caribou to feast on.

Meanwhile, deep in the fetid swamps hundreds of miles to the south, a young black dragon Thriingaulzundae snorts in deep satisfaction over his acquisition of a ruined and flooded chapel, sacred to gods long gone. Having secured the loyalty of a pirate band and the fealty through fear of a tribe of orcs, he contemplates the riches he is sure to amass, the magic to hoard, and ancient knowledge to covet.

For my third entry to Challenge XVI, I take you on a trip back down memory lane, to the Analogue Hobbies Studio of Challenge XIII. While my progress through the studio was extremely limited, I did amass several projects for the various themes throughout the studio. One of these was the "Black and White" section, which seemed eminently suited to digging something out of the pile of shame.

Black & White: Paint something in grey-scale, with black and white being your colours of choice. Reconjure the elegance of the silver screen! 

What could possibly be more suitable than some chromatic dragons?

From D&D Beyond, we have the necessary descriptors:

Black Dragons: Black dragons dwell in swamps on the frayed edges of civilization. A black dragon’s lair is a dismal cave, grotto, or ruin that is at least partially flooded, providing pools where the dragon rests, and where its victims can ferment. The lair is littered with the acid-pitted bones of previous victims and the fly-ridden carcasses of fresh kills, watched over by crumbling statues. Centipedes, scorpions, and snakes infest the lair, which is filled with the stench of death and decay.

Don't you just love that sense of satisfaction sculpted into his face?

White Dragons: White dragons lair in icy caves and deep subterranean chambers far from the sun. They favor high mountain vales accessible only by flying, caverns in cliff faces, and labyrinthine ice caves in glaciers. White dragons love vertical heights in their caverns, flying up to the ceiling to latch on like bats or slithering down icy crevasses.

Fizban's Treasury of Dragons gives even more options for customizing these antagonists, from a dragon naming table, to lair designs, personality traits, dragon goals and even adventure hooks. 

Both dragons are from Reaper. Othimmalaeagkar is a Reaper Bones Young Ice Dragon, while Thriingaulzundae is a much heftier metal Young Swamp Dragon. Both are multi-part kits, with the wings cast and provided separately, which made things a whole lot easier to paint.

Reaper Bones Young Ice Dragon

The metal swamp dragon

I went with a pretty simple paint scheme for both, which doesn't really befit their status as dragons, but which worked really well. Both were primed and painted in parts, wings painted separately, and only assembled after all basing was complete. For Othimmalaeagkar, I primed her black, then completely covered her in white craft paint, followed by Game Color Blue Wash, and then dry brushed with Mondo Llama Snow Flurry, while her claws and teeth were Mondo Llama Winter Clouds. Mondo Llama craft paints are all a satin finish, which worked well for this dragon.

The base is where I took a lot more risks. I used a Reaper lipped base, and filled it with Realistic Water. I was sadly disappointed since I was unable to get the water to fog up or look like ice the way I wanted it to. Despairing a bit, I turned to AK Interactives Snow Sprinkles to cover the base of the miniature, and Ice Sparkles to try and create the ice effect over the realistic water. I was afraid I almost ruined it by putting watered down mod podge on the base to lock everything in, but when it dried it gave a very nice blending. I'm quite pleased.

For Thriingaulzundae, I used Mondo Llama Fresh Pavement over a brown primer. His scales were picked out by drybrushing Folkart Metallic Black over them, while I used Delta Ceramcoat Charcoal Grey for his skin. His claws are Mondo Llama Misty Grove.

I also used this as an opportunity to experiment with swamp bases. I started with my usual drybrush of Mississippi Mud and Teddy Bear Brown fraft paint, followed by a wash of Ghille Dew speedpaint. More realistic water followed, tinted using Woodland Scenics olive drab and brown tints to the realistic water. At first, I was concerned that I'd poured too much in, but it gave a really great effect of wet ground surging up on to shore. I then added Army Painter Swamp tufts, some Woodland Scenics foliage clumps, and lichen cut and torn to size. 

So there we have it, two young dragons ready to establish themselves in their new territories, and some solid celluloid from back in the vault.

Scoring is a bit difficult. Both models are a bit larger than a mounted 28mm figure, and comparable to an armored car I posted in a previous entry. However, a full 20 points seems a bit much, unless I can eke out 5 points per for the bases, so I'm going to claim 15:

Scoring:

• 2x 28mm dragons @ 15 points per = 30 points

That puts me at 70% of my very modest 100 points goal, with most of a month to go. I might just make my goal!

=============================

Sylvain: Very nice paint job on these dragons. The work you did on the bases really makes them come alive. The description of your painting method is really instructive. Since I scored 20 points per dragons for my own submission yesterday, it's only fair to grant you the same amount. This will also get you closer to your 100 points target. Bien joué! 

 

From PeterD: Seeress and Graeae (20 points)

It's been a slow start to my Challenge and I don't imagine I'll get anywhere my 500 point target. I am a University Instructor and had 120 students write their Calculus exams on December 20th.  I finally got my marks posted on Christmas eve, my daughter arrived for a week and a bit on Christmas then we had family stuff crop up.

I have some fantasy types from Bad Squiddo games.  First up is a Seeress.

Next the Graeae sister trio from Greek myth.  They had one eye and one tooth to share between them.  They appear in the tale of Perseus, who managed to outwit them by stealing their eye.  I'm not sure what's in the pot but the skulls and femurs indicate that I don't want to know.  I'd avoid their Irish stew and shepherd's pie.

I've painted many Bad Squid figures over the past years and like many of them, these are nicely posed and cast and easy to paint.  I went for very drab clothing and basic accoutrements.  I rarely paint eyes on my figures as they end up looking like racoons or pandas.  However, I thought I'd better paint irises on the eyeballs that two of the figures are carrying.  

I have no firm plans to use these figures, but they could fit into the early medieval era in the Beowulf D&D games that I've run in the past.  They could also be fielded in Pict armies for Midgard games with a fantasy element.

That's four 28mm figures for a total of 20 points.  These will count towards my first squirrel (for D&D figures), but I won't claim that until I get 25 points.

======================

Sylvain: "You, Sir, are a gentlemen and a scholar" (Catcher in the Rye) These figurines are lovely but I especially like the academic description you provide. It gives a much deeper (and sinister?) aura to the Seeress and the Graeae. Joli travail!

RhysH - Fantasy, super heroes and Sci-Fi in several scales (49 points)

 This week is a group of models from four different sources.

First off are two 32mm entries from AMG's Star Wars Legion Empire line. They are the customizable Officer and Operative.

These are a new addition to the game. The box lets you build two characters with a ton of options to customize them as you assemble them, but also as you add them to your army.

Rhys did some reflected glow off of the lava bases on the uniforms.

The character on the left is melee focused while the one on the right is a ranged support character.

Next up is a birthday present from Rhys' cousin, who also likes D&D. It's a cloaker, a nasty monster that inhabits dungeons and kills low level players.

It's mottled gray coloring helps it blend into the roofs of caverns where it hides.

This is a large model, easily twice as big as the Empire heroes above.

Next up are two Kings of War models from Mantic Games. The barbarian on the war-goat is for the Northern Alliance while the panther is from Basilea.

Rhys is finally ready to start learning to paint faces.

The models are fighting in the snowy north, where the Northern Alliance is from.

The panther is bendy soft plastic and was very difficult to get based, but he persevered and got it to stick.

Last up are two models for Crisis Protocol, AMG's super hero game. These are Beast and Mystique.

These are 40mm, with Beast coming in quite a bit bigger.

These models can be quite fiddly to assemble. AMG apparently thinks that bigger scale enables smaller attachment points. They are not correct. Rhys said the hardest part of Beast was figuring out that he had to attach the beam to the base first, then put Beast on it.

The heroes use character cards in game and Rhys was able to use those as painting guides for these figures.

This is 3 x 28-32mm figures for 15 points

1 x 28mm cavalry for 10 points

1 x 40mm monster for 7 points

1 x 40mm Mystique for 7 points

1 x 54mm Beast for 10 points

The two Empire characters are Rhys' entry for the first bonus round, EMPIRE.

Total points are 49 points, plus the bonus round when it comes up.

***

Hello Rhys - and Happy New Year! Thank you for sharing this interesting assortment of figures with us. 

Now I must confess - I'm not one for the super-hero genre from Marvel, so those are not figures I would be near myself, but it sure sounds like they were a pain in the rear end to get put together. I'm sure many Challengers sympathize with your experience, managing figures designed by people who don't ever actually put them together, much less game with them...

But congrats on sticking with it! You have some fine results here. I also salute your efforts to work on reflected-glow-effects...that is something I will NEVER have the courage to try myself! Well done!

That's 49 points for you - cheers!

Greg

From StuartL - Opening Volley, Wild Beasts and other things (130 points)

Hello all, it is good to be back.

After effectively dropping out of Challenge 14 midway through due to work and social pressures, and then being forced to drop out of Challenge 15 just before it started due to a family issue, I have been looking forwards to this year's challenge for a long time.

 

Sadly, about a week before the starting whistle, I was involved in a small accident and hurt my back. In the run up to Challenge 16, I had really bad sciatica and was unsure when I would be able to make it to my painting desk, and even if I could make it to my painting desk. If you have never had sciatica, it is where a nerve in your lower back gets nipped between bones and muscle. The lower back pain isn't so bad, but it feels as if my leg has been broken in a dozen places, while also being on fire. I do not recommend it.

    

Luckily, by Monday this week, the meds the doctors gave me started to kick in, and I was able to stagger to my hobby room. I am still limping around and can't walk for more than a couple of minutes before the pain knocks me sideways, but I am able to sit and hold a brush, and that is what really matters.

So, with all that out of the way, I figure I should show off some models.

First of all, I painted up some random beasties for Dungeons and Dragons games. They aren't for anything specific, but it is always good to have a broad selection of low level critters on hand to throw at the party.

In the front row we have a hunting dog, a 6-legged fox creature and a two-headed wolf. In the back row there is a dire wolf, a wyvern and another dire wolf. The wyvern was painted using the 'slap-chop' style and I hate it. No matter how many times I try it, I always find that I don't like how contrast paints turn out on my models. With a couple of exceptions (below), the models are from Reaper's Bones range.

This dire wolf is actually a friend's model. He got it out of a Gachapon machine (A common machine here in Japan that you put a coin into and get a random toy out of). He asked me to paint it like Gmork from Neverending Story, but as far as I can tell, Gmork looks just like a wolf except for the green eyes. So, I painted the eyes green.

This is an old GW model from Mordheim. As a GW model it is unnecessarily grim-dark and has a metal ring affixed to its hip. It is also wearing a collar with a skull embossed on a tag. 

    All of these should score me 30 points, which is enough for a Squirrel, and also 1 skull.

    But wait, I am not done.

In addition to these animals, I have also painted some Imperial Militia for the Horus Heresy. In the Horus Heresy, most armies are Space Marines. The genetically engineered super soldiers designed to conquer the galaxy. Armies that are not the Space Marines are either daemons, giant robots, or the cream of the crop as far as baseline humans go. Not so the militia. The militia are the regular human populations of planets that have the privilege of being where the other armies fight massive world-ending battles. They are the dregs. 

    

That said, I wanted to have a somewhat survivable core for my army, with a life expectancy longer than the time it takes for a handful of dice to come to rest after being thrown by my opponent. So, I went with some 'elite' stormtroopers. Basically dregs in slightly better armour, that might stop an incoming bullet if they are lucky. 

These models all come from GW's Tempestus Scions range. I have no idea what they are like in 40K, where they originate, but this will be my 10-man command group for my 30K force. The officer (just left of centre) is on a slightly larger base to show that he is more important than the rest.

And to accompany the command group, a 10-man squad of stormtroopers. (Sorry, I think the camera was a little out of focus for this shot). All of my 30K forces are on the same style of basing, torn up cork and sand painted to look like they are fighting in the middle of the most hellish warzone possible.

And a group shot of all twenty together. These models have a lot of trim on them and were quite fiddly to paint. That said, I am very happy with how they turned out. I had initially thought to give them quite dark armour, but as they are going to die to a stiff breeze, I thought that they should at least look somewhat glorious as they dash valiantly into the teeth of my enemy's guns. 

I don't normally like doing close ups, but I thought I should point out the sheer number of skulls these guys are packing. The buttons for his great coat are skulls. The straps for the buttons end in skulls. There are skulls on his coat cuff. The insignia on the shoulder includes a skull. These models are festooned with the things. 

Altogether, these should add 100 points, 1 squirrel and (checks notes) 138 skulls, with 25 coming from the officer alone.

    For this post, that brings my totals to:

130 points (26x 28mm minis. The wyvern is a little bigger, but one of the dogs is a bit smaller so...)

2 Squirrels (D&D animals, 30K Militia)

139 Skulls

I hope to see you all again by the end of the year. I'm off to lie down for a bit before I hit the brushes again.

________________________

First, welcome back to the Challenge, Stuart. While it's great to have you with us again, I am very sorry to hear of your health issues. I hope things get better for you soon.

You managed some great work here in the says since the start of the Challenge. Of your beasts, I have to say my favourite is that venerable Mordheim hound. So awesome. I really like how you did his teeth and muzzle.

Your Tempestus Scions, though essentially tarted-up cannon fodder, definitely look the business. I admire the green-grey armour chased in bronze. It has a nice baroque feel to it without being too fussy.

Great opening volley (and a LOAD of skulls!). Well done!

- Curt

From TomC: Rataclysm! [Gluttony] (40 points)

Hello again everyone, it may have been some time since my last entry but it has been great to see all the entries so far, particular thanks to my fellow Thursday crew members for keeping the day's momentum going! Today's submission is a slightly unusual creature, the Rataclysm from Steamforged Games's Animal Adventures Gullet Cove Kickstarter. I'd painted one of the wererats from the set previously, but the Rataclysm is a materially more substantial prospect for any adventurers!

As you can see, life in the sewers has not been so unkind to this giant, three-headed rat-creature! Having broken free of its bonds, no shortage of culinary delights have clearly been available as our chap is now quite portly! I therefore thought this might qualify as a little too much Holiday feasting and so have offered it up for Gluttony.

As is probably evident, I used Citadel's Contrast paint to get most of the beast done, the body is Goregrunta Fur, which seemed the most suitable of the various tones I had to hand (most of which I picked up with a view to Flames of War miniatures, none of which have yet to see any Contrast paint, of course!).

This is my second trial of Contrast, I also painted a Beholder a while back, but I'm pretty happy with the results for the time taken and have tried to broaden the application, blending a little in with Vallejo Medium Sea Grey and Cadian Fleshtone to get a fleshy tone on the tail. Originally, I tried to use Basilicanum Grey for the stomach, but this did not work, it's much too dark! It is instead another blend of the Goregrunta Fur to Medium Sea Grey, with a little Dead White added towards the very centre. The veins had a little Genestealer and Xereus Purple blended in and the Basilicanum Grey was instead used for shading, where it was much more successful (to my eyes!).

Various details were picked out in the traditional manner: the claws and teeth were Vallejo Flat Earth, Heavy Goldbrown and Ivory in varying ratios; the eyes were going to be red, but I pushed this up to yellow as I enjoyed the contrast, I used Two Thin Coats Yellow Flame over Vallejo Orange Fire in the end. I particularly like painting rusty metal, the various manacles go all the way from Dark Rust to Orange Fire and now look thoroughly corroded! I did also try adding scratches with Russian Tank Crew (and then with added white) but kept these quite limited, to the point where it might be a little difficult to know they're there!

In terms of points, our beastie is quite generously sized, being in the realms of a 28mm monster and about the size of a light tank. I think 15 points is a fair claim as 28mm vehicles can be much bigger, but will defer to my Minion's wisdom! The location bonus is 20 points, so in total I have submitted 35 points, which should get me over my target for the Challenge! This is probably for the best as we are currently moving house and my wife is also now expecting so this may well be my final post and, if so, I would like to thank Curt for organising the Challenge (as always!), Teemu for bearing through my antics, the wider Minion team (without whom the Challenge would struggle!) and my fellow Thursday crew for doing all the heavy lifting!

TeemuL: I hope your not asking Thursday crew to do the heavy lifting of your move? Congratulations for your new home and the coming family member, I hope everything goes well! If you can, I belive you can post a voluntary wrap-up post after the Challenge to show all your painted minis in one post. It is always nice to see how much participants have actually painted.

Then the miniature. Goregrunta Fur is a very nice, strong brown colour and as Contrast paints work very well on textured surfaces, it would have been difficult to pick some other paint for this monster. The browns (and other colours) look great! I saw the comparison photo you sent me and this is a big one. To make it simpler and spreadsheet friendly, I have scored this as a 28mm vehicle - some vehicles are smaller and some larger, so I guess this one fits the category. 40 points in total, well done!