From SylvainR: Zen In and After Chaos

 

Absorbing the positive "qi" energy of freshly painted miniatures. 

Note that seven (a very sacred number) "double trays" are lying around me in half circle, channeling positive energy towards a center point where I sit. This is an utmost satisfying place to be. 

A thousand thanks to Curt and Sarah, gracious hosts to the annual painting party. You are most generous with your time.

Thanks to the Minions, especially to PeterD, leader of the Tuesday Terrors, and to Miles, the patient spreadsheet guru.

Thanks to the Wednesday Crew for being so patient with me. Sorry I did not spend much time on Discord.

Challenge XVI is now over. I don't know about other challengers, but this year I found that time spent painting helped me stay "zen" in the chaos created by some people's "guts decisions". I will not elaborate. A few days ago, paint jars and scenery material were still chaotically piled up on my paint desk, but now I just finished cleaning up. This recovered state of order and balance makes me feel "zen" too. Enough introspection, let's see what new toys I got to play with:

2023: 12 trays of 6mm WW2

2024: 11 trays of 6mm WW2, 3 trays of 28mm D&D

2025:   7 trays of 6mm WW2, 4 trays of 28mm D&D (1051 points)

2026:   4 trays of 6mm WW2, 6 trays of 28mm D&D, 4 trays of 1/300 boats (1355 points)

I was able to paint all the miniatures I prepared. The D&D project is over, after three years, and I will certainly miss applying bright colors to cool monsters. I'll have to find another "colorful" project for next year. The completion of core Cruel Seas flotillas for the British, German and Italian makes me very happy. These sea bases are lots of work, but the final look is so worth it. I will now start preparing miniatures for the next Challenge.

Thanks for reading and see you next year! 

Sylvain

From SylvainR: 1/300 German Boats (96 points)

 

Another flotilla for Cruel Seas, to buff up the German Kriegsmarine. This will be my last entry of the Challenge.

 

First, a close-up on three of the five S-100 from the first picture, in simple basic light grey.

 

Two R-boats (Räumboote). Wiki says 424 were built and they were originally conceived as minesweepers but performed a wide range of duties throughout the war. They look stocky compared to the streamlined E-boats. They were fitted with directional propellers so, in Cruel Seas, they get an additional opportunity to turn at the beginning of their activation. 

 

A Vorpostenboot, also known as "flakship" or "VP-boat". It is very well armed with an 88mm and lots of 20mm guns. A good option to escort slow convoys and an excellent target for torpedoes.

An M-class minesweeper.  I've added some crew on the deck as I find it makes the miniature feel like a little diorama. I might have smeared too much rust on this model. Oh well. At least, it will make a good target for torpedoes.

So far, I have less than 10 games of Cruel Seas under my belt, and I feel that the most fun and satisfying part is to see your "carefully" launched torpedoes hit a target and detonate (you get to roll 16d6 for damage!) with a spectacular plume of water. However, in the game, tiny, small and even medium boats are immune to torpedoes because of their shallow draft, so to enjoy hitting something with torpedoes, you need to have large and huge ships in your collection. I find large models are lots of work to put together and paint but hey, you need to provide something for your friends to shoot at!

I am curious to hear other Challengers' experience with playing Cruel Seas.
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Points claimed: 
 
In past submissions, the Snowlord awarded 8 points to small and medium ships, and 20 points to large ones, plus points for the crew, but I will not claim points for the crew; I'm already over my goal of 1000 points.

7x 15mm vehicle @ 8 points = 56 points

2x 28mm vehicles @ 20 points = 40 points 

TOTAL: 96 points

Thanks for reading!

 
Very nice ships here Sylvain! These Cruel Seas models look great, glad you're having fun playing the game. I really like the dazzle camo on the Vorpostenboot. The basing is great too, I love the sea colour and how you've done the wakes.

Ninety-six for you my friend!

Dallas

 

From SylvainR: 1/300 Cruel Seas flotillas (104 points)

 

With the end of the Challenge only 10 days away, I'm trying to get as many Cruel Seas boats as possible done before the deadline. This week, I was able to finish some core units for the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine.

 

 Three Vospers Type I. This will bring my total to six boats. 

 

Three Vospers Type II, to join the three I already have. Again, I allowed my evil creative twin to sculpt some crazy waves, sideways this time. I guess it brings variety to the bases, but no captain in his right mind would take a torpedo boat to sea in such rough weather. 

 

Two Fairmiles D MTB 624. These boats were originally designated as MGBs (Motor Gun Boat), but when torpedo tubes were added, they were renamed MTBs (Motor Torpedoe Boat). These baddies are bristling with guns and, contrarily to the undergunned Vospers, could deal a significant amount of damage to enemy vessels. I'm sure PeterD would love a pair of these to protect his convoy against pesky enemy torpedo boats.

 

Here is a close up on three of the five S-38 I painted. The type of camouflage they are sporting was used in the Baltic Sea. Eventually, I will have to paint the Russian flotilla...

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Points claimed: 

 

In past submissions, the Snowlord has given 8 points to all these smaller ships, plus points for the crew, but I will not claim points for the crew; I'm already over my goal of 1000 points.

13x 15mm vehicle @ 8 points = 104 points

TOTAL: 104 points

 

Thanks for reading!

 

I case anyone hadn't figure this out, Sylvain doesn't do things by half!   I've seen the backlog of Cruel Seas ships in his basement and I'll be interested to see how many of them that he cranks out before the end of the Challenge.  As also ways, wonderful work on all of these ships mon ami.  I really like the basing and camo, but your anvil twin should be put in a small boat in steeps seas.  Your crazy waves remind me of the time that my nDad tried to go through the Alderney Race with wind against tide.  I'm not bothering to count figures from your photos, so I'll go with your points suggestion. 

From SylvainR: 28mm Big and Huge Monsters for D&D (200 points)

 

Our little reference heroine in a horde of big monsters, hard to spot like Waldo, can be found in the red circle. 

Because I was so close to complete a big project, I put the pedal to the medal last week and was able to finish the last of my D&D miniatures. There are lots of pictures in this post and I would forgive you if you want to skip to the end to see the photo of the whole D&D project finished. But let's get the ball rolling...

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Batch 1: an owlbear, a winged gorilla, a unicorn and a cockatrice. Since the unicorn doesn't have a rider, let's count it for 5 points. Let's count all the monsters here for 5 points each for the sake of simplicity. You will note that the owlbear is drooping, touching the ground with its arm, but the miniature was supposed to be standing on one leg. That's what happens with vinyl; the effect of gravity makes the models, especially big ones, droop over time. I used gloss varnish on the big eyes of the owlbear, increasing its "cuteness" by a factor of 10!

 

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Batch 2: a bulette (or "land shark"), a slaad, a war troll and a gorgon (or "brass bull"). Let's count the tall guys as 54mm figurines (10 points) and the 4 legged ones as 28mm cavalry without riders (5 points). I decided to paint the land shark as if it were construction equipment, kind of yellowish. For the gorgon, I used "patina" wash to enhance the brass look. I used the same recipe for the brass dragon that you will see later on.

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Batch 3: two ugly ogres (one is two-headed), a stone golem (or "earth elemental") and a treant (or "ent" or "wood spirit"). Let's count them all as 54mm figurines (10 points). I glued some flock on the stone golem and the treant to simulate moss. 

 

  

 

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Batch 4: a griffon, a wyvern (or "jabberwocky"), a black dragon and a chimera. Let's count them as 54mm models for 10 points each. I decided to use blue hues for the "feathery" parts of the griffon and I think it turned out OK. Again, the weak vinyl is causing the model to droop heavily. Eventually, I might have to add a little nail for support, as I did for my river troll. For the jabberwocky, I wanted to achieve a "weird" look with raspberry and pink colors while highlighting the teeth and claws with coral white.

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Batch 5: the heavies, a silver dragon, a gold dragon and a brass dragon. I would like to count them as 28mm vehicles for 20 points each. Note that, because dragons are known to cause devastation, I created bases with scorched earth and burned tree trunks.  It also helps emphasize the dragons themselves since there is nothing else to look at. No, I haven't become lazy with my bases (sweating heavily). For the brass dragon, I used the "patina" recipe trialed on the gorgon. It creates the effect that the dragon seems quite ancient.

 

 

 

 

 

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The completion of the 3 dragons also means that I have finished my D&D project. I want to thank again JeremyM for the great exchange of models, a few years ago. Above, you can see the whole collection of heroes, NPCs and monsters, most of them were featured on the painting challenge over the last few years.

 

Before I sign off, I just want to showcase a model from the collection that is special to me because it was a retirement gift from the bargaining team of which I was part. We were negotiating a new contract for our colleagues but my retirement day came before we could reach a final agreement with the administration of the university. My team knew that painting miniatures was my hobby and that I was a D&D player, so they bought me a "Nightwalker" from Wizkids. On the box, over the name of the miniature, they put a sticker stating: "Human Resources" (because we were negotiating with HR for the new contract). Ha ha! Very funny! Anyway, I wanted to paint this huge demon in a unique way, as if it was from a "negative" universe. The painting scheme looks weird and if you look at the base, it seems dirty, but a "negative" image reveals the expected normal colors and shading for the demon and the base. Just another fun way for me to spend my retirement... 

 

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Points claimed: 

Batch 1:  4x 28mm foot @ 5 points = 20 points

Batch 2:  2x 28mm foot @ 5 points + 2x 54mm foot @ 10 points = 30 points

Batch 3:  4x 54mm foot @ 10 points = 40 points

Batch 4:  4x 54mm foot @ 10 points = 40 points

Batch 5:  3x 28mm vehicle @ 20 points = 60 points

TOTAL: 190 points

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 Wow Sylvain, you must have most of the whole Monsters Manual by now.  What a fantastic collection of DnD foes.  Love those dragons, excellent work on the metallic tones.  I also love hoe batch one appears to be taking some demented aerobics class "give me 300 reps".  I also love the HR figures, although I've found that HR can sometimes be tamed and become an ally if you approach them properly.  I in a generous mood so I've round you up to an even 200.