From BruceR: Birdmen of Catrazza, Giantess, and Wyvern (45 points)

Despite being gone for 4 days and hosting a game this past weekend I managed to complete a couple of units for my growing Warmaster madness.  

First is Helga the Giantess.  She is a 3d print and is listed as a Dogs of War figure.  In Warmaster a Giant is a beast with 8 wounds and 8 attacks, with the draw back it will not join other units and if it fails a command check a random roll is made for its action that turn.  Always fun.  You can take two in a 2000 point force for Orcs or Dogs of War so she may be joining Mad Mick as you can brigade giants.

I did a slap chop and used Army Painter speed paint.  Then acrylics to add highlights where needed.  Haircut covers her eyes and a bonus is the little fangs I tried to pick out to give her a flesh-eating vibe.  I did use multiple colors for clothes figuring she would take pieces from victims to remain modest in appearance.  Model a 3d print by Varus Miniatures and printed by Resinfilamenthunter.

Helga

Next up is a Wyvern ridden by an Orc Shaman with a savage orc vibe.  This was a fun little effort.  I again used slap chop and for the Wyvern Gilee Dew from army painter seemed the perfect fit and I feel it worked.  I used a flesh speed paint with highlights between the wing joints to give some other color.  Added some paint to the Wiz and done.  This is a 3d print from Green Skin Miniatures printed by Filamentresinhunter.  

The Dynamic Duo

Next was a project for a unit of flyers.  The flyers for Dogs of War are the Birdmen of Catrazza.  The background has a craftsman in the city of Verezzo discovering manuscripts of Leonardo da Miragliano and started his journey of flight.  A long story in the WHFB DOW book, but it worked and a mercenary unit was born.

Background from the WHFB Dogs of War Book.

Now these gave me some fits.  I struggled to figure out how to paint the slats on the wings without brushing each on.  So, I tried a dry brush of brown over a black undercoat.  This resulted in the lighter colored slats.  I was not really happy, so I tried a dry brush of white and speed paint the whole wing and go back and hit the fabric with a grey white.  A little happier with this effort so moved on.  I kept both versions to reflect the fortunes of war as I'm sure given how these things look there are mishaps galore and differing wood sources would result in differing structures being used.  They turned out okay, again using my blotch painting method for 10mm. 

Best looked at using the 2-3 foot rule.

Like my pikeman these appear fragile and might not survive the gaming table.  Here they are swooping to attack.  These too are from Varus Miniatures and printed by Filamentresinhunter.

 

Points:  Searching again I found the Snow Lord had submitted the same unit I believe last Challenge and the points tallied was as a mounted figure.  I approve as I do not enjoy painting horses and these fit the same bill.  So, 3 points per figure.  The Giant and Wyvern large at this scale so I figured vehicle points of 6 points each for them.  Our Wednesday Minion, Sylvain, can award or take away as he deems appropriate.    

11 mad birdmen @ 3  = 33 pts

2 large creatures  @ 6  = 12 pts

Total = 45 pts

The cold has set in so below zero most days.  With snow forecast when above zero.  Good painting weather.  Be well and safe all.

Bruce

 

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Sylvain: Even though these miniatures are tiny, you were able to pick up tons of details. You giantess speaks volume about your mastery of the brush and color techniques. And your basing on all these figurines is just perfect. Excellent travail!

 

From BruceR: Leopold's Leopard Company (10mm x 108 and 2 cats + 5 = 115 pts)

I've returned to the paint desk after 7 days gone over Xmas and 4 over New Years.  Oh, the trials of retirement.  Holidays were great and I hope all are well in the AHPC.  After Percy, Melvin, and Mad Mick as single entries I sat down to some actual work.

Gratuitous Holiday post:  Me and some friends doing a crab etc... boil and drinking on New Years Day in Minnesota with temps at -4 F.

In my Warmaster journey I have turned to Etsy (don't 3d print) for models and oh the options.  I'm adding some bits to an orc force and decided my Later Byzantines can be used for empire and with additions Dogs of War.  So, I broke out my first battalion of little fellas.  I do have a few DOW 28mm but never tried to create an army when I was playing WHFB.  

The first force is one I always was drawn to: Leopold's Leopard Company.  The Leopard skins just too cool.  From Little Wars TV I discovered the guys use a printer who actually removes supports (What?) so I ordered a few bitz and I'm hooked.  Filament Resin Hunter is the Etsy store, the creator is Varus Miniatures and I've had great luck with this store.  

In preparing I decided the white pike tassels and black shafts would have to be replaced with red and a lighter color for the shaft.  With this in mind I did a test run using my wee method of painting small things "blob painting".  Black undercoat and simply hitting spots with the chosen colors.  2' rule for 10mm.  

My test strip and it is full steam ahead.

Even at this scale I paint the same, inside out.  So, flesh, armor, Leopard head, and then the other odd bits.  Most infantry in Warmaster are set along the long edge of the base, with pikes the rules require the unit to be set along the short edge of the base like cavalry.  Under the game system pikes treat cavalry charges as if they are in protected terrain.  Downside is you have trouble in terrain such as woods.  Duh, I guess carrying a 12 ft pike among the trees is a little tough.  The models are set with some pikes at 45 degrees and the rest as support.  The command stands are the flag carriers.  

The paint lineup, all star is Vallejo Silver Air Brush 

I did these in two batches.  With 28mm I tend to paint 8-10 figures at a time.  I don't army paint.  This worked okay, though my brain likes to see things done so I might go back to smaller batches and do a unit at a time.  

Work in progress shots:

On the paint sticks attached to beer tops

messy hobby desk

For the flags I used some ancient GW decals again, these from an empire sheet.  I'm amazed they still work.  I had a red, blue and yellow lion head and thought close enough.  The blue and red look good, the yellow could use some outlining.  I simply painted the red stripes over the white base and highlighted.   Another fun add is two of the command stands have leopards in the rank.  ( I admit I did not paint spots)

Here are the three units of Leopold's Leopard Company, ready for the field.

I'm very happy with how the units turned out.  A little concerned as I did snap three pikes while simply moving models around so could be a problem on the table.  Able to glue them back, but my Magister Militum metal model pikes just bend.  Oh, well I imagine pikes are lost or broken in battle in the real fantasy world.

Cheers everybody.  

Points:

108x pike men (10mm foot @1pt) =  108

    2x cats  (10mm foot @1pt)        =      2

Total                                        110

Calculating seems easy at this size.  

I will continue to thank all involved as we live in turbulent times and this hobby as well as this gathering helps me unplug.  So, stay well and do what makes you thrive.

My only poke at the world's craziness is that I have used Arial as my font for all posts.

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Sylvain: Bruce, Saskatchewan is not that far from Minnesota, maybe you could send some crab our way... I'm glad you went back to the painting station because the result is just astonishing. Even though the figurines are part of large unique, their individual features can be easily distinguished. It's a great demonstration of your talent. I will add 5 points for the flags and increase your total to 115. Joli travail!

 

 

From SamuliS: The Pestilent Horde (Death Star) (132 points)

A short hiatus from painting for the challenge and finishing up quite a lot of half painted minis I had lying around, but I'm back and with somewhat of a horde. Our club has been bitten by a Warmaster bug last year and new armies have been popping up everywhere since the start of last year. There's quite a big hype going around with us and also elsewhere in Finland and we've actually had some Warmaster events with around 20 players playing in a single mega battle. Probably more than there ever were when Warmaster was actually being produced by Games Workshop.

 

A lot of the hype has been coming from the vast quantity of quality 3D files for Warmaster that starting popping up in the wake of Forest Dragons popularity. The first army I did when we started building armies was Forest Dragons Vampire Counts. Lovely models, but it was quite a chore building that up. I wanted to do another army, but this time instead of hordes of skeletons and zombies something much more elite. When I saw the first pictures of Varus Miniatures Demons I immediately knew that I wanted to paint them. Nurgle has always been my favorite of the Chaos  Gods and these models really look the part and are pretty faithful to the GW originals (some could even say almost direct copies...) The copying ties nicely into the Death Star quadrant theme of Hubris. With the inspiration being so clear it is only a matter of time before GW lawyers strike with a cease & desist letter like actually happened with Forest Dragon at the start. And of course you could argue that Nurgle's cures are of quite a questionable design at least if you are not a demon yourself. It might cure your pains, but there are quite a few side effects.

Before the challenge I had mostly tackled the elite part with cavalry, monsters and greater demons so now it was time to start building up the bulk of the army. This is the first three units of  Plaguebearers to the army. Three basic demonic infantry units are needed per 1000 points so I still need to do another  set to bring the army up to full size. I also painted up some more heroes in the form of a Demon Overlord to act as a general and two sorcerers to spice up the magic game. 

These are quite fast to paint with a violet brown and white zenithal followed by mostly contrast paints and some tactical highlights to bring out certain details. I find that the coloured zenithal basecoat really helps define the details as it forces some shadows and increases contrast between different areas. Really makes the contrast paints function much better.

Taking photos was a pain as I my mobile phone just doesn't seem to be capable of getting any decent photos of such tiny models. I really need to get my DSLR back in use so I can take better pictures. I'm unfortunately just unable to locate the battery and charger after our house move. Probably have to just give up soon and go buy a new set.

I also got around to building a proper gaming table for myself at our newish house. I have the attic mostly for my hobby and remote working space so there was plenty of room for gaming. I ended up building a slightly larger table with storage space below. Coming in at 240cm x 120cm it allows for plenty of space on the sides for beers and snacks when playing on a regular sized gaming area and I can extend it at least a bit for larger games. My joinery won't win any contests, but the goal was anyways more to do a sturdy table that would be fairly fast to put together. My wife has already taken over one end for puzzle building, but luckily there is still enough space to game on the other end!

Overall there are 108 Plaguebearers, two sorcerers and one larger demon. I'm going to count the big guy as a mounted figure so 112 points for them and a further 20 points for the Death Star quadrant "planet"

Those are lovely purulent prints! I'm enjoying this resurgence of 10mm fantasy and am sensing I will have to resist the siren call myself... I haven't mastered a consistent zenithal application myself, but yours works very well. I like your take on 'hubris' as the rebels take on the evil empire...

Barks