From JohnS - Dwarfy Goodness - 60 Points

I stagger away from Historicals this week, back to fantasy. Dwarfs have been calling my name.

We have another Oathmark game coming up on Sunday so I have been inspired to add a dozen more Dwarfs to my Kingdom.

These four are more of the Kev Adams resin dwarfs I picked up a few years back.

I think they are fantastically characterful sculpts and take me back to the 90s when "Doofs" became my go to army in WHFB.

These four are actual Oathmark miniatures from Northstar Figures. I have the king too but he was painted pre-Challenge so remains temporarily banished!

They are slightly taller and slimmer than The big-headed KA dwarfs but there is room for all the Dwarfy types in my Kingdom.

I have gone with a "Dark Ages" feel with these guys, using some LBMS shield transfers on some figures.

These last four are from my "random dwarf" selection. The bald guy on the left is a Kev Adams I think, the pick wielder is a Citadel mini but I am not sure of the makers of the two right hand figures.

I particularly like the spearshaft as is is wrapped in wire like every good workman's quick repair of a broken tool.

Another fun week of painting, and chatting. Back to historicals next week. Probably.

PS I have started playing around with "flocked" movement trays for Oathmark, this is my first try using a Renedra movement tray.

12 x 25/28mm foot @ 5 ea = 60 points 

From Millsy:

More swagger than stagger if you ask me. These are jolly good John! I particularly like your choice of shield motifs. The norse theme really suits the character of the miniatures and your painting style.

I have quite a few of the same sculpts in my Oathmark dwarf army and they really are a joy to paint. One of the joys of Oathmark is the ability to mix a range of figures in a unit which you've done superbly.

Great stuff and a well earned 60 gold added to your tally mate.

Cheers,
Millsy

From KillianF - War in the Mountains (53 pts )

 Good day all,

Finally finished a variety of fantasy figures. These Orcs and Dwarfs are Medbury Miniatures(again, STLs 3d printed by myself. I would be remiss not to mention they can be bought in metal from Mr Medbury himself).

 

Firstly, four Orc archers. These guys were painted to be grungy and dirty, with lots of brown and desaturated colour. Indeed, after a zenithal prime of dark grey-grey-tan-white, they got a watered down umber ink wash to shade the entire model. Basecoats were then applied, leaving the brown in the recesses to make them dirty. Quite a few more brown washes followed.

 

The last orc is a banner bearer. The model is essentially a Roman legionary style orc, hence the wolf pelt, single greave and manica on the right arm.

The banner is tomato puree foil, covered with PVA soaked tissue to provide texture and an easily paintable surface. I freehanded another banner, because I like painting evil eyes in bright red on a backdrop of Payne's Grey. I added the traingle border on a whim, which was ultimately a silly idea. Painting that many tiny triangles is a recipe for insanity. However, it's an orc banner so I did not worry myself with making it neat.

Next are five dwarf rangers, also from Medbury. I enjoyed adding colour and texture to their clothing: I wanted them to look fitted out for running around a cold mountain. I really like Medbury Dwarfs, they're very serious, with clear (but not overwhelming) historical influences. I've got another 15 or so rangers, and a lot more heavily armoured dwarfs. I may dip into a few more before the challenge is over.

I've just noticed a few bits of kit I forgot to paint

Points:

5x 28mm Orcs: 25

5x 28mm Dwarfs: 25

Total: 50 points

2 Squirrels (5 total) 

From DaveD . Still the great work continues from you . The camera never lies does it ! Great work on the Tomato Purée foil banner . It’s a perfect media for it So it’s 53 points from me 

From SamuliS: Triad of Doom (15 points)

After a brief Napoleonic interlude I'm back to what I've mostly been painting for the last few years and that being Games Workshop minis and for the last couple of years stuff for The Old World. Like probably most I've originally  got into miniature games through Games Workshop and especially Fantasy Battle starting from the 5th edition. Over the years I moved to mainly historical gaming with some Oldhammer and Bloodbowl thrown in, but in the last maybe three years I've really gotten back into Games Workshop games having painted armies for Horus Heresy, 40k (90s rulesets mind you!) and The Old World. And especially The Old World has really been a big hit for me and also in the gaming scene here in Finland.

Since The Old World came out I've already painted several armies worth of Chaos from both Undivided and some of the gods, but felt like I need something from the good guys side as well and with a completely different playstyle. When the Empire got their own Arcane Journal it wasn't too difficult of a choice and I immediately bought a bunch of them and decided on a Nuln & Wissenland themed army to really focus on the shooting compared to getting into combat as soon as possible like you tend to do with Chaos.

 

Now you might wonder what have a bunch of slayers to do with Nuln, but there is a logical explanation! I've always been a big fan of Slayers in Warhammer, but never really got around to painting them as I always found Dwarves a dull army. Luckily for me by picking a Nuln list I can take Doomseekers into my army and giving me a perfect opportunity to paint a couple of Dwarves that are crazy even by Slayer standards! Three slayers to form the perfect Triad of Doom to go after any monsters that my opponent might want to field!

 

 Slayers in their natural habitat. About to die gloriously while taking down an impossibly large foe!

From a gameplay point of view they are quite interesting as if they manage to get themselves killed during the game your opponent gets 0 points, while if they stay alive they get 100% of the slayers point value. So a perfect speedbump to slow down the enemy and buy time for all the guns in the army to do their work!

 For the next few weeks I'll probably be going back to painting Chaos as we have a large tournament coming at the end of February and I wanted to bring a few new units to play with so need to start working on them soon! 

 Wow these are some excellent Doomseekers indeed Samuli! Those tattoos are something I am quite envious of: they look awesome. As to the lore of Dwarves in a Nuln army: plenty of Dwarves live in that great Empire city due to their affinity with black powder weapons and engineering both which prevail in amongst the forges and arsenals in Nuln. My Dwarf Blood Bowl team isn't called "The Nuln Arsenal Collective" for nothing ;-) 

 I am looking forward to your Chaotic painting next we meet! 

 

From TeemuL: More Slayers! (30 points)

As promised last week, here are the rest of the Slayer group.

POV: Opponent

So six more GW Slayers, one of them is a banner bearer, but since the original banner never came to me (these are all second hand purchases), I needed a replacement. The banner is a piece of Age of Sigmar Magmadroth, in the Old World the skin could be from dragon for example. Very simple solution and even simpler paint job! No fancy heraldy or unit numbers, just clear and brutal annotation that "We Killed A Red Dragon!"

POV: You

I experimented with hair/beard colours again, so here are two oranges again - one of them is familiar from last week (the darker) and one is new one, so there are now three different orange dyes in the group to bring up some variation. Some of the highlights are quite yellow, especially in the photos. In nature they are not that bright, I'm not sure if that is good or bad. The axes look good, there are two layers of different metallic paints, but I guess the lightning and photographing is what matters here more. One more additional detail of my tip last week, using similar colours and then one wash to cover them all helps hide small errors on painting, too. 

Photographing these is a bit annoying since it is difficult to figure out which side is front and which is not. The minis are from different sets, so probably some are meant for diagonal and some for horizontal slotta bases, but I just try to live with it. Yes, the common Old World problem, or is it First World?

My Squirrel mind is fighting my Hoarder mind, because I keep thinking of getting more of these, since they are so nice to paint and I don't have all the differents sculpts yet... Anyway, these six slayers should give me 30 points.

Participation fee: I decided to donate 20 euroes to WWF Finland for Finnish Nature. Our government (quite racist far right - we have gone far from that smart, young, female prime minister we used to have during covid) has decided to cut the benefits of people and destroy the nature "to save the country". I haven't figured out how harming both the land and the people will save anything (expect the personal benefits of the leaders), so I'll try to do something to save the land.

 

 

Another great bunch of Slayers, that vibrant orange for their haircuts really works out well! Good to see you bring something positive to the Wildlife of your country Teemu. 

 

Cheers Sander  

From JohnS - Late Romans and Dwarves (or is that Dwarfs?) - 115 points

It's so good to be Challenging again! I committed to sticking with two historical armies in the Challenge this year. Carthaginians and Carolingians. Therefore my first entries are Late Romans and Dwarves. Mistakes have already been made!

 I was introduced to To The Strongest by my AHPC and Odinian mates a year or so ago and I love it. So much so that I have decided to build several armies to play. AlanD already has 4th Century Romans (among others) so it made sense to do an opposing force.

 I bought a painted army as the core but it was legionary heavy so needs Lights and Cavalry to round it out. I chose to use a mix of Gripping Beast and Victrix miniatures.

 

  

 

 

My mat has 150mm boxes so Standard Units are on 135x60mm bases and Lights as here are on 125x50mm. They are actually based in smaller groups to allow use with other rules but saboted to those sizes.

 My catephractii are the first two test figures for this unit (ok, I haven't bought the rest yet but I know a guy..) and I am quite pleased how they are coming together. Gripping Beast figures.

 

 

 

As these will be one third of a Standard cavalry unit they are on a 60x45 base (or sub-base if you will)

Right, now I get to blame Millsy for the next lot of figures. Late last year we played a game of Oathmark. I have had a copy of the rules since they were released some years ago but not gotten around to them.

They are cracking good fun and scratch the "rank and flank" fantasy itch without being too complicated or hide-bound in lore. I saw an opportunity to use some of my many, many dwarves that are not quite right for WHFB or Old World.

 

 

 

 

I dug through my stash mountain and found some old Kev Adams, Marauder and Citadel dwarves plus a couple of newer plastics. I love the idea of Militia units. Ordinary folks called upon to defend their homes, armed with what ever comes to hand.

I present to you two groups The Smashers and The Slashers, Dwarf Militia. 

The Smashers 

The Slashers

 

The dwarfs are based on 25mm rounds (except for two on 20mm square which will be used for a WHFB army) as they will be used with a sabot tray and be available for Dragon Rampant and other fantasy skirmish games too.

Thanks to the Antipodean crew for helping me get this far. Our paint and chats gave me a chance to relax during the hectic Christmas/NY period.


From Millsy:

LOL. Fair call. If I had a dollar for every sentence I've seen that started with"I blame Millsy..." I'd rarely have to fund my habit myself! Given how well the dwarves performed for both of us when we played I can see why you'd want to paint more. You've done a lovely job on them and they have a proper old skool feel John.

Seems like it is the season for Late Romans too. In some sort of weird tit for tat I am blaming you and Alan for getting me painting mine, although you've managed to beat me to the punch with getting some finished. I particularly like you variation of the helmet colours. I should have thought of that myself and will have to sneak that into my force later on.

Well done all round mate. I look forward to facing these sooner rather than later. 115 points it is to get you started.

Cheers,
Millsy

From TeemuL: 5 Slayers (25 points)

I try to keep up my tradition to keep up my Minion busy and post something every week. It got tricky, when this first Saturday was so soon after the Free Fire period. I had to make a compromise, though. There should be 11 slayers, but I had to choose and finish just five of them for today. The rest will come next week.

These are old metal slayers from 1990s or something, very much hair and beard, big axes and minimal amount of legs. Quite nice to paint, there are some details, but not too much. Being single peace casts, there are no hard to reach spots either.

The dwarf in the middle has a different orange on his hair and beard than others, a bit darker. I guess I use that for the rest, because it is more vibrant and easier to highlight than the other. They look bit pale. The bases are 20mm squares, some sand and Goblin Green - as it should be. These diagonal bases are bit tricky, really difficult to know which side is front - if any?

One trick I used with these was choose simple colours (dark skin, orange, red, brown and gold) which would all look good after a Reikland Flesshade wash. These are colours which look good after the wash, for example greens and blues can be used and you get uniform effect, but blue and green would look dirty. The colours I chose are brownish, so they look nice. Feel free to follow my (laziness generated) tip. After painting thousands of minis, one learns something. I haven't learnt how to paint good eyes, but this time luck was on my side and the eyes look quite nice. Of course the maniac look fits these minis well, being some other minis, the eyes would look horrible.

Thank you for this, next week more the same and then a theme entry for Sunday. 5 28mm minis for 25 points and 1 squirrel.

Squirrel total: 2; 28mm Napoleonic British, 28mm Fantasy Dwarfs

What a great bunch of Doom seeking Dwarfs Teemu!  I also like that you share some tricks for us to get the same levell of painting as you have shown here. Can't wait to see what you come up with next week!

Cheers Sander

From RhysH - More Thorin's Company

Posting for Rhys: This week's entry is three more of the dwarfs from Thorin's company. Bombur, Dwalin and Gloin. Rhys is not a fan of "stupid Bombur with his wooden spoon".

Bombur (left), Dwalin (Center), Gloin (Right)

More cave bases and dark weapons, though the wooden spoon is well lit.

He's close to wrapping up Thorin's company and is planning his next entries. In the mean time, he's been researching colors for the remaining dwarfs.

This is 3 x 28mm = 15 points.

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Hi Rhys

Great looking dwarfs,  and be kind to poor Bombur, I don't really think he's that stupid with his wooden spoon, I think he's mad that something or some one has interrupted his supper!

I'm looking forward to seeing a group photo of Thorins Company when completed.

15 more points for you!

- Sarah

RhysH - Gandalf and Balin from Games Workshop (10 points)

This is Rhys' second entry. In addition to Dunlendings, he received Thorin's Company for Christmas. This set includes all of the dwarfs, Gandalf and Bilbo.

The first two off the mark are Balin and Gandalf, based on ease of painting more than anything else. In addition to painting, Rhys also took the pictures this time. The Challenge is really expanding his skills in a lot of ways.

He went for a cave rubble base.

We worked on his flesh tones with these two. Balin is his first attempt to put into practice what we talked about.

He did the edge design free hand and tried for a dirty and distressed look to the jacket.

Gandalf is one of Rhys' favorites and a model he didn't have yet. With this acquisition Rhys has the entire Fellowship.

Gandalf's flesh had been washed into black obscurity so Rhys brought it back up after our lesson.

Dirty hands but you can still see that he made the top lighter than the bottom.

We also talked about edge highlighting and you can see some of that on Gandalf's had.

Rhys also remembered the advice from last year and painted his base edges.

This entry is only two models, for 10 points, but it shows Rhys putting in practice on the new techniques that we've been discussing, as well as bringing back classics from this group last year.

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Hello Rhys

I really enjoy seeing the results you have achieved ... you really embody what the Challenge is all about! And your Dad, Aaron is an excellent mentor.

 I know Curt gets a bit frustrated with me ... I listen to his advice and tips and then generally do my own thing!

10 points for you and I'm super excited to see your next entry

- Sarah