From Barks: Tommy Atkins's weird WW1 day (Limbo)(64 points)

I've been a little slow getting off the starting blocks for this Challenge, but I'm happy to be back.

My initial Limbo entry is this Martian scout tripod from Alien Dungeon, which I picked up from the good people at the War Library. I sprayed the whole thing silver and washed it black, and then hit a creative wall. Should I make it rusty and decrepit? What colour should the eye be? Should I make the details more defined? So it languished, until the Challenge inserted new life.

I decided to leave it un-rusty, and go for a red gem effect on the eye. I blended a deep red to black and orange, and then gave it a gloss coat. I'm not entirely happy, but it is done. The photos are with a previously painted PSC 15mm plastic soldier for scale. What else will poor Tommy Atkins encounter today?

I painted the tripod because I had been inspired by The Last War, a Forbidden Psalm/ Weird WW1 ruleset. My 15mm WW1 project had also been in a bit of limbo as well, and Last War has helped it approach completion. The tripod will be my 'Thing from the fog'. To add to my meagre Squirrel score, I've painted a few more gribblies.

First, I had a bag of transparent zombies from a board game. These made great ghosts, and also mud ghouls when liberally coated in mud effect.

Ghosts

Mud ghouls

I 3D printed some other figures at 50% size.

Trench maggots (Goonmaster)

Hounds of Annwn (Knucklebones)

Gas bugs (Goonmaster)

Trench rats (Duncan Shadow)

Some of these were barely painted (mud ghouls and ghosts) and others are small (15mm giant rats). So how about:

• 1 x 25mm vehicle: 20 points
• 24 x assorted 15mm gribblies: 24 points
• Limbo bonus: 20 points
• Squirrel (Last War) +1
• Can opener duel +8

From Millsy:

Great to have you join us again this year Barks! This is a great way to kick of your Challenge and I think you did the right thing sticking with the shiny finish on the walker. I've always thought part of the otherworldliness of tripods is they were made of unknown materials and wouldn't rust. I've scored it as a 28mm vehicle given the scale.

Nice work mate, a healthy 64 points to kick of your Challenge.

Cheers,

Millsy

From Curt - Figures for 'Forbidden Psalm' and 'Kill. Sample. Process.' (45 Points)

Hey there!

Though I've been a little quiet of late I've not neglected my brushes entirely - like Bilbo with toast and butter, I'm just spread too thinly over too many submissions (typical). 

While translating all this distraction into completed work has been a bit of a struggle, I do have a few things to show for my efforts with this small group of fantasy figures that I did up for a recent 'Forbidden Psalm' game, and a rather odd pantalooned chap for the sci-fi rules, 'Kill. Sample. Process.'

Morka Porkas are fairly common beasties in both 'Mork Borg' and 'Forbidden Psalm'. I find them kind of hilarious and thought I'd do up a few for a recent game with the guys.

While they are rather ferocious, they can be tamed, but at a steep price. A 'lost limb condition' typically sets you up with one of these cuddly fellas as a steed. Most find it's just easier to simply climb a tall tree and let them rumble past. 3d prints from Tytan Troll Miniatures.

This big chap is 'The Feasting Wendigo', another wandering horror for 'Forbidden Psalm'. 

The original 50mm print was a little small for my tastes, so I have him here as a much more imposing 85mm. Design from Yasashi Kyojin Studio.

Finally, here is a super characterful mini from Knucklebone Miniatures. He'll be a member of my crew for 'Kill. Sample. Process.' which is the sci-fi version of 'Forbidden Psalm'. His cube head cracks me up and I really like the various textures and surfaces of his clothes, cybernetics and gear. Very fun to paint.

That being said, he's been sitting on my hobby desk for the past few months while I pondered on how to paint him. Inspiration finally came to me at work the other day when I saw a colour test pattern on a video editing machine. Bingo. 

I'm calling him 'NoSignal'. 

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So, as to points:

We have three 28mm Morka Porkas @ 5 each for 15 points.

'The Feasting Wendigo' (85mm) for, say, 15 points?

'No Signal' (54mm) for 10 points.

Hmm, 40 Points total? I leave it to our worthy Wednesday Minion to provide final adjudication.

Thanks for popping in!

- Curt

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I know many Challenges will relate to the tribulations of getting the "figures started to figures completed ratio" fine tuned. Even so, you continue to impress and amaze with your brushwork my friend, on a variety of unique and interesting figures and games. These are all fascinating sculpts - while the "Morka Porkas" certainly look the fear part, they also cause me to crave BBQ pork chops, so I see that as positive. The leopard-style spots on the pelts (?) are really well done.

As for "No Signal", not only is that a hilarious sculpt - brilliantly painted - but I just see that figure and name as a perfect symbol for so much of our current political moment...

That leaves "The Feasting Wendingo", which looks utterly terrifying, and I'm sure will not, in any way, show up in anyone's dreams offering a walk in the forest...I love/am horrified by how the varying flesh/skin/bark(?) tones come together from the different angles, really accenting the horror, and how whatever Psalm this thing is associated with should absolutely remain forbidden.

For points, I think Wendingo should step up a little bit more, to 20 points, just for the size, the sheer terror factor, and the fantastic paint job. Plus, I'm hoping the extra points will keep it away from me! 45 points for you!

Great work as always dude.

GregB

From Curt: Fantasy figures for 'Forbidden Psalm' (92.5 Points)

Hi All,

We had a rollicking game of 'Forbidden Psalm' this past Friday for which I blitzed a few figures for the scenario. Being jazzed on the fun I managed to get a couple extra done this weekend.

First up are three 'Disembowelled Ghouls'. These marvellously manky mooks are from Knucklebone Miniatures. I regret to say that no fancy lotions or skin serums are going to help these lads.

Three 'Sock Goblins' from Westphalia Miniatures. I particularly like the guy with the dirty sock pulled over his honker, taking a big snort.

A group of poor deaduns from Vae Victus Miniatures. An admittedly fast and choppy paintjob. *cringes* In my defence, I figure they're dead and aren't really meant to look their best.

Three doughty adventurers ready to go dungeon traipsing. We have: 'Tim the Torchbearer', 'Cathcart the Cat Catcher' and 'Gundalf the Fire Wizard' (with his trusty 'Wand of .45 Magic Missiles'). I really enjoyed working on all these figures, especially the pink boa for Gundalf (I envision him as a fearless, fashion-forward kind of guy). Tim and Gundalf are Knucklebone designs, while Cathcart is from Collective Studio.

And finally the big punchline to last Friday's adventure: 'The Corpse Collector'! His jam is that after he slaps you around for a bit, he swipes you up and impales you up on his Thule Corpse Rack (TM). This way he keeps you fresh for future road nibbles. I know, eewww! This big boy is from PrintYourMonsters.

As to points, we have nine 30mm figures, eleven 30mm half-figures and a 90mm boss monstie. The 30mm stuff should come to 72.5 points, and as to the 'Collector', let's equate him as a 28mm vehicle for 20 points (a precedent we've used in past years for these larger models). If that seems right with our esteemed Minion then this lot should give me 92.5 points, or thereabouts. 

Oh, and 17 skulls! :)

Thanks for popping in for a peak!

- Curt

Quite the electric mix of models for a games night! I quite like the wizard and his .45 magic missles.. reminds me of a barbarian who can cast fist and smash 😅 And the dead bodies look the biz even if run through the slapchop method (not that it's that clear this was the case!). 

And will give you the benefit of the doubt on the 'Collector' there as he does seem rather large! 

Great work Curt!

Kyle

From Curt: Adventurers for Mork Borg/Forbidden Psalm (45 Points)

Hi there!

I apologize in advance for monopolizing the blog with my submissions these past few days - I have a bunch of stuff that I was working on over the holiday break, but didn't get around to posting while I was minioniong, so I'm shamelessly taking advantage of the Snowlord's prerogative of being able to post on any day. 

In addition to all things root vegetable and vehicular, I've also been bitten by the Mork Borg / Forbidden Psalm bug, and so have here five hapless and homely mooks to fit that setting.

For those not in the know, Mork Borg is a Swedish designed RPG set in a comically grim, circling-the-drain, Scandinavian death metal world (in fact, there is a mechanic in the rules to count down the game sessions to its doomsday). The small format hardcover is a real treat, whose cutting edge design and layout has allowed it to scoop up eight Ennies this past year.

The Mork Borg mechanics are VERY minimalistic (only 4 stat lines for characters, and probably less than 10 pages of core rules) and as such are a doodle to get into. Character generation only takes a few minutes (which is a good as they usually get chopped up and/or eaten in fairly short order), and if you're too lazy to put in the time, you can simply use their online character generator (aptly titled, 'ScumBirther') to do the heavy lifting for you. At its core, Mork Borg is an open system, where the GM and players are encouraged to fill in the narrative with their own creativity.

Another great aspect to the rules is that their licensing is very permissive. The creators actively encourage adaptations and spin-offs of their core system. This generous licensing approach has created several creative spinoffs already, including 'Cy-Borg' (cyberpunk), 'The Last War' (Great War horror) and 'Forbidden Psalm' (Mork Borg tactical).  

Both 'The Last War' and 'Forbidden Psalm' are not true RPGs, but rather figure-based wargame-adventure systems similar to 'Rangers of Shadow Deep' and the ever-popular 'Frostgrave'. These Mork Borg spinoffs are great rules for a light, but frenetic night of gaming (and a low figure-count of only 5 in a party/faction). I've been running an online Mork Borg RPG campaign for some out-of-town friends, and hope to get some Forbidden Psalm games in with our local group soon. With this in mind, here is a faction for FS - five misbegotten adventurers, all destined, I'm sure, to come to a quick, nasty and sticky end. 

Nick the Pick

Witnail the Flail

Gavin the Glaive

Wesley the Weaver

and, Ishmael the Pickerel 

Knucklebones Miniatures has done a terrific job in capturing the oddball, comical and weirdly grotesque nature of the Mork Borg universe. In the setting, the 'heroes' are typically homely (if not hideous), but in an interesting way, and it gets even 'better' when you come across the baddies. Hopefully I'll have more Mork Borginess over the coming months.

Sorry for the rambling post! Hats off to those who persevered to the end. :)

Five adventurers for 25 points, plus another 20 for the Fantasy Set. 

- Curt

From TeemuL: As a Challenge Veteran, this post probably doesn't even make the Top 10 list of rambling posts, so it was easy to read. Partly because the game system sounds interesting, I guess I need to do some further investigation, simple rulesystems have their place and small figure count, too. The miniatures themselves are tried and tested Snowlord style, lots of colours, very smooth, but lots of contrast. It was a joy to have the master producer join our Thor's Day team.

From PaulO'G: Last War Trench Squad

The Living will Envy the Dead...

The battleground of the Last War is inhabited by the despairing, entirely without hope. Former causes have now been extinguished by an endless struggle for pointless survival. Equipped with the failing relics of industry produced by once proud nations, these scavengers now scrap over the dwindling remains of this once proud world...

I enjoyed making this base and its mysterious signage...

The Last War system has players controlling small bands (5-6 figs) of Trench fighters in narrative style scenarios to fight battlefield horrors in a desperate bid to win resources to enable their continued existence. Encounters can be head to head, coop, or solo, which provides a lot of great play options.

Posed in front of the pdf rules cover

My first trenchers are styled after the Kaiser's army but now reduced to desperate survivors.  Models are by Knucklebones miniatures and I have added some extra bits (stick grenades, Grenade satchel, backpack, trench shield) to customise them. The dog came from another sculptor on 3dcults.

I've painted them in a thematically Grimdark style, experimenting with adding textures and using some Abteilung 502 oil washes.  I also spent far more time than usual scratch building each base and liberally applied Vallejo water gel effects to give it all a sodden, miserable vibe.  

The glow from the gasmask lenses and complete lack of visible flesh tries to convey their devolution and reduced humanity. But I could be overthinking it.  On the bright side, they have a puppy to keep their spirits up! ('Trench companions' play a valuable role in the game).

Love the tattered rags adorning these models

In their bunker they have a damaged pianola, salvaged from a long destroyed Chateau and now haunted by a powerful but unknown spirit.  And if one wishes to hear it play, homage must be paid to the duck with the curiously bleeding eyes inside its rasping gasmask...  (Piano also by Knucklebones)

Yes, in my obsessive madness I painted each key individually; what was I thinking...

I had a lot of fun obsessing over these models, so yes it was (yet) another of those 'sweat all the details well beyond any points efficiency which is irrelevant' projects. Thats 6 x 28mm figs plus one more for the piano/duck combo - call it 35 points if the festive spirit endures :-)

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Wonderful work Paul! I love all the thought and effort you took in bringing these figures to realization. I have a bunch of Knucklebones stuff waiting in the wings, including some variations on some models seen here, and now I'm very inspired to give them a go.Your grimdark style looks amazing combined with these models. Well done sir!

- Curt