From JamieM - A whistle stop tour of the middle ring (136 points)

I had to leave this post until today’s minion had imbibed his first coffee (or other suitable morning beverage) of the day, as I didn’t want to chance him spitting it out as he read the "Supermarket Sweep" style bonus points gathering about to occur in this post…… let’s go wild in the aisles!

Anyway, first up - Coruscant. I’ve gone with “Good vs. Evil” here, with some more carnevale figures 

Here we see the Good Capo of the Guild (in the red) facing off against the evil Rashaar worshippers. The Rashaar are an evil race of fish people who want to take over Venice and some silly humans worship them. Here we have two such people and a lesser hybrid, although the less guessed about how hybrids come about, the better…..

The Capo is a leader in the Guild and this is an alternate female sculpt that ttcombat do which is brilliantly dynamic.

Next up, a trip to Perelandra and an Oceanic theme. This is a Barchyura also for Carnevale, which is a large crab beastie who wants to nip your toes as you go paddling in rock pools.

Ttcombat don’t do a figure for this yet, so this is an OOP figure from the Wrath of Kings range which I rather like, so I’m pleased to have found him a home.

For some reason, he has a belt of bags around his waist…. Perhaps his fellow Rashaar worry about thieves in Venice? In fairness, you wouldn’t want to pickpocket this fella….

After our stop at Perelendara, it’s off on Sarah’s Space Yacht we go for the first time and this is my offering for such purpose - a female Magi Rashaar

She’s a leader character for the Rashaar and is again an alternate sculpt with bags of dynamism.

She’s a mage, so is using the water to carry her as she delves into her magical bag of tricks. I tried to make the staff feel like coral, not sure how successful I was.

Anyway, we’ll be dropped off at LV426 I’m order to show these aliens off

These two are from Mantic games and will be used for Deadzone, a sci-fi skirmish game fought on a gridded table which looks ace but that I haven’t been able to try yet. These are a Judwan medic and a large fella (converted from a Dreadball figure) who will be an “Alpha Simian” in the game. His job is to run up and punch people with extreme prejudice.

I tried to make his armour look battered and chipped, but as ever I’ve been too heavy handed so the black parts look like metal….. but that’s ok as long as he duffs up plenty of his enemies.

So, to the scoring! As a recap, here they all are

There are:

5x 28mm figures = 25

3x 40mm figures = 21

One planetary visit through the warp maelstrom = 30 points?

Two further planets at 20 points each = 40

One space yacht visit = 20 points

For a grand total of 136 by my count. And I’m positively dripping in bonus points!

***

Well, Paul Ray Jamie, this is some fine painting here. "Carnevale" looks to be a very entertaining setting, and it must be a great feeling to get more characters - even if they ARE fish-worshippers - ready for a game. Barchyura - does he do canal rides? I assume the packs are for all of the tips he collects?

Very nice sci-fi figures. I enjoy any large sci-fi creature who has the job of running up and punching enemies with extreme prejudice. Awesome.

You certainly managed a fair bit of bonus points leverage on this one. Not quite Enron levels, mind you, but I was half expecting to see a blacksmith here for LV246 while you claimed "all of the space technology is alien to him"...nonetheless, it's all within the rules, and as inflation eats our economy alive, why not let our own version of modern monetary theory run wild in the Challenge scoring as well?

Fine brush work here Jamie! 136 points for you...

GregB

From JamieM - Mantic Deadzone Nameless (Klendathu 96 points)

Hello to my fellow challengers! It’s great to be back and seeing all of your diligent output so far and I’m pleased to present my first post.

Stop me if this sounds familiar….. a Kickstarter appears that looks great….. excitement builds….. you go all in with your mates as it looks like such a great game……. And then, when it’s delivered 6-12 months later; you’ve moved onto other games and you don’t get around to playing the Kickstarter game.

Well, that’s what happened with us and Deadzone from Mantic games. The internet tells me that the game was kickstarted in early 2014 and delivered in 2015. Yikes.

Anyway, cue lots of figures being shifted around various shelves of holding until I saw that Mantic were giving away digital copies of version 3 of the rules with a wargaming magazine. Deciding this was all the motivation that I needed, I swooped in and picked them up, found the old miniatures and set to work seeing if the game was any good.

Despite all that intro, these chaps were purchased a month or so ago to give me another crew as only had one and I painted it before the AHPC started. I justified this latest purchase on the basis of “I’m only investing so that I can use the things I’ve already bought”. Good money after bad, anyone?

But onto the figures!

The Nameless seem to be a pretty standard alien race in the Mantic universe. Normally peaceful, but with some fringe elements who think humanity should be destroyed.

There are a variety of sizes to the creatures and these are the little ankle biters.

These are the bigger, scarier ones. Chap in the middle is the boss (the “Spawn”) and the ones flanking him are tough as nails close combat fighters.

I used a variety of techniques including contrast paints, sponging, highlighting, etc. to get different textures on the natural surfaces and plumped for silver armour as I thought they fitted a 70’s TV alien invasion sort of vibe.

These are one each of the human sized models. Andy the assassin, Colin the Squibbly, Jonny longshot and two pistol Pete.

 

I thought they fitted the “bug hunt” theme pretty well, so I make it 11x 28mm figures, 3x 40mm figures and a planetary bonus for 86 points in total?

___________________________________

First, welcome back to the Challenge, Jamie!

Yes! I've totally been there with Kickstarter buy-ins, several times I'm ashamed to say. The most recent has been Solomon Kane and Ankh. The boxes were endless and I just did the starter pledge, honest!

Anyway, enough of that, these minis look brilliant. I especially like that nasty green you have for their chitinous carapace armour - it looks so suitably...angry alien. I also think your groundwork is very on-point, setting the colours of the minis nicely. The only thing that is slightly off is your scoring, as you've jilted yourself 10 this group (corrected for the sheet). :)

But where is the Moonstone stuff you told me of? Or are you waiting on that Kickstarter as well?

- Curt

...NOT 6mm!

I've hit a bit of a brickwall with my painting. I'm not sure if it's the new lockdown or just post Christmas funk. Anyway, I thought a change would be as good as a rest. Having painted nearly 2,000 6mm ACW over the last couple of months, it was probably about time for something different.

As well as 6mm historical wargaming, my other passion is sci fi and fantasy games, principally those produced by Mantic Games. Deadzone and Kings of War are two of their best selling games and I love them both!

I have large stashes of figures for both games and so dug into the to do pile. First up is a Strike Team for Deadzone. They are the Nameless, a strange and enigmatic race from beyond the stars. Their intentions within the 'Deadzone' universe are unkown. They're called the Nameless by virtue of the fact that no one is able to decipher the language that they speak! Anyway, these have been painted in the vain of the Geiger Alien artwork and was influenced by the excellent Midwinter Minis Youtube channel.

These are a Elves from Mantic Games, based as a Regiment for Kings of War and form the first unit of my next Kings of War army. I've tried something different with these as well. I wanted a sort of ethereal look to them which I'm npot sure I've pulled of to be honest. But they'll do. I used mainly contrast paints, inks and drybrushing and they were fairly quick to do. The snowy theme is to fit in with them fighting in the northern wastes. Not sure what I'll be doing next for them but I've got a ton of sprues to sort through for inspiration.

 Total 41 figures @ 5pts each = 205pts.

Most likely back to 6mm ACW next to finish off the first part of that project.

Kepe safe, play nice, and keep talking about six.