From PeteF at Piper's Peak: Snow Troll (45 points)

Piper's Peek/Peak/Pique put me in mind of the mountains, the Northern Alliance and their snow trolls - who also stand a good chance of being irritable, or piqued.

The Kings of War 2 Player starter set has models for two very different factions. I've already started on the Nightstalkers, horrific creatures from your worst nightmares. This is my first Northern Alliance mini. The Northern Alliance contains many races - including elves, dorfs, humans who look suspiciously like the Free Folk on Game of Thrones and trolls - all with an icy theme.

This snow troll has a colour scheme quite close to the official one - blue skin, white fur. I used colour shift paints (from Turbo Dork) for the metals and had to ask someone for help in choosing the loin cloth colour. Fantasy figures give me all sorts of colour choice problems - no Osprey book with the official uniforms. I ended up texting a designer friend of my wife, who used to teach colour theory.  Orange came back the answer so I tried it. It didn't come out as, er, orangey as I'd hoped. I might also come back with an orange colour shift and use it on some parts of the shoulder guards. The club is supposed to be stone with ice chips in it.

The troll is on a magnetized base in case I need to put him together on a metal tray with 2 more to make a regiment of trolls or 5 more to make a horde. On his own I think he can be used as a troll hero in Kings of War - or in Mantic's skirmish game: Vanguard (have the rules but no time to take on another game or friends that want to try it).

The troll was fun to paint - I find the larger figures quite challenging compared with 28mm  - I wish back in November I'd scraped off  all of the mold lines (he's made of that vynl-plasticy stuff) and hope the bits I missed don't show too badly. Mantic have come out with a ton of new models and some of them are quite nice, especially if you like the hunchback/head-halfway-down-the-body aesthetic.

The troll is around 60mm tall and is sitting on a 40x40 base so I thin k is worth around 10 points plus 30 for a new area explored.


Brrrrr! So cold! That's some lovely work on this snow troll Pete. I've scored him as a 40mm cavalry figure, which gives you some extra points; he's a big, chunky chap after all!

TamsinP

From JonathanO: Collecting Rocks at Cooke's Crevasse (40 Points)

Following the route to Cooke's Crevasse (my second point of interest on Challenge Island), the path started to rise gradually and also passed through some woodland.  Through the trees I could see another much wider path, but I was sure I was on the correct one.  In the distance there was a campsite by a river.  The tents looked very large and smoke was rising from a fire, perhaps a nice meal was cooking.  I decided to stick to my route as it led to the bridge I would need to use to cross the crevasse. 

As I was about to reach the end of the wooded area, the wind picked up and the sky clouded over.  A sudden, but brief, snow flurry followed and then stopped.  I heard what sounded like rocks being banged together and then a loud growl.  I froze in amazement,  there in front of me was a giant creature standing next to a pile of different coloured rocks.  He was holding a large dark rock in his left hand, and he looked very threatening.

Had he been sent by the Snow Lord to disuade me from heading to the Snow Lord's Peak before completing all my challenges?  Or perhaps getting past him was the challenge at Cooke's Crevasse.
Of course!  He was an Ice Troll guarding the bridge.

 

The Ice Troll growled and I was sure he was about to throw the large rock at me and my Challenge tour would be over.  Then he looked at his pile of rocks and said "I collect rocks".  He lowered his hand and held out the dark rock as if he wanted me to identify it.  When I did not say anything the troll again raised the rock, ready to strike.

The ice troll growled again, but his growl was drowned out by a louder call from the direction of the camp I had seen earlier.  "Al, your supper's ready!  I've cooked that fish you and your dad caught earlier.  The troll smiled, turned around and took off in a clumsy sort of skipping motion down the wide path towards the camp.  As he went he was actually singing!  "Something's fishy at camp Wiganishie".

I looked on in shocked silence and then turned and headed across the bridge, pausing briefly to admire the view of Cooke's Cravasse.  I was thankful to escape that encounter.

 _______

The miniature is the Reaper Bones Ice Troll (77344).  It is a good choice on the Path of the Forgotten.  I had started it in an earlier Challenge, but was not happy with it so set it aside.  I re primed him with Vallejo Silver Grey and decided he would be a good model to try out my newly acquired GW contrast paints.

Points estimate:
Ice Troll miniature (he is more like 54mm in size)   10
Bonus for visit to Cooke's Crevasse                         30

TOTAL                                                                      40

QUIZ TIME:
Fingers on buzzers, no conferring, and no use of the internet to find the answer!
There is a prize for the first Challenger to answer the following question:
Why is the Ice Troll called "Al"?

***
Very nice brushwork here Jonathan - it always interesting to see the character-packed offerings from Reaper Bones. You know, I may have seen this fellow in the parking lot at the local Sobey's this morning...

And we await the answer to the name of the Ice Troll!

GregB