From JasperO: the Hatchery (35 points)

I'd switched back to the 18th century for the Larder, but the Hatchery requires going back in time quite a bit more. This one required a bit of thought again, until Christy suggested the obvious answer. To the editor of Ancient Warfare (apologies for the shameless plug), one bird is supreme, of course: the eagle. In other words, an aquilifer had to be the subject of this blog. Unfortunately, those are all in silver or gold (yes, we had an article about a possible live eagle carried by II Parthica in the early 3rd century AD, but I don't have an appropriate figure), but I hope that's forgivable. And besides, these Foundry Caesarian Romans are just a joy to paint.

Three figures plus the Hatchery bonus should get me 35 points closer to my goal.

From ByronM - Hatchery, Ravens, and a Ship (60 points)

I have a real mixed bag for my submission today that includes some ravens from Mierce Miniatures, a 3d printed Frog lady from the Mandalorian, and a 3d printed freighter for Cruel Seas.

First up are the ravens from Mierce miniatures.  These figures are really well detailed, even though it's hard to tell due to the colour of them.  Mierce does some amazing sculpts, so if you haven't looked at them yet, check them out, I will warn you though, they are expensive, not as bad as GW pricing, but pretty damn close.  They are so nice though I could not help but pick up a viking force, and these are the first unit from that force.

I painted these figures entirely with oil paints so that I could get a nice blue/black effect, and blend back and forth without worrying about drying time.  In person they have that iridescent blue tint that real ravens do, but it only kinda shows in the images.  I also highlighted the wing tips way more than they should be in real life, but it was the only way to not have them just look like blue/black blobs.

Next up is a figure for my return to the chamber of challenges, for the hatchery.  This is a 3d printed version of the Frog Lady from the Mandalorian show, complete with her container of eggs.  

I tried to paint eggs into the blue area, but they just kept looking like polka dots, so I eventually gave up and just left the container blue.... Maybe baby Yoda finished them off as a snack...  I plan to use this figure as an objective in Star Wars games, maybe both sides are trying to get the caviar!

She is pretty basic, but that is because I was trying out some new paints.  She was painted entirely with the new Scale75 contrast paints.  Which while interesting, I think is only really usable as base coats to setup for more detailed work with regular paints on top.  But they are another tool to have, and they came in a fancy wood treasure chest.

Lastly is a freighter that I 3d printed for Cruel Seas.  The game comes with a card stock token for use in games but it looks really lame next to all the other ships as miniatures, so thingiverse to the rescue and bingo, one freighter.  Well, actually 2 as Curt asked for one as well because its too big to print on the older resin printers, but I have one of the larger format new ones, so there is one here for you when we next get to game.  The print came out ok, not perfect as the model had some issues, but a little greenstuff and it was good as new.

I painted it up pretty simply, and looked up a name of an ill fated freighter from WW2 to name it as, and then glued in some brass rod as the mast and antenna and called it done.

This varied array of figs should work out to roughly 60 points.

I say roughly as I am not really sure on points. Sure the birds are technically 32mm figures, but are smaller so I counted the 5 as 4x28mm = 20 points.  The frog lady is 35mm so 7 + 20 for the hatchery bonus = 27 points. The Freighter is at least 3 times bigger than the other Cruel Seas ships, but is pretty basic so I put it in as worth 2 of them so 12 points.

From SidneyR: "Hatchery" - Turtle Dragon (30 points)

As its nearing the end of January, I thought it was time to post some more of my Challenge Chambers painting over the next few days.  Finally, I've reached the Second Level of Challenge Mountain - long after many of you, Fellow Challengers!!  

Not to worry. Maybe I've been slow because a Turtle Dragon has been blocking my path in the Hatchery.  

To be honest, I've been waiting for years to paint this old Citadel Miniatures Turtle Dragon.  I bought it in 2008 for my fantasy Japanese army which I painted up one summer when I had some time on my hands.  I think he (or she) dates from the 1980s - and quite possibly was meant to be the wee beastie at the bottom of an Albion loch in the "Tragedy of MacDeath" for first edition "Warhammer'.  I wonder what happened to those rules? ;)

I wanted to try painting something distinctive and colourful.  I enjoy making pink, purple and bright scarlet as the colour of magick in my fantasy games (.....go Slaanesh...), and the Turtle Dragon continues that theme.  

It was a lot of fun to paint.  Much of the work was done with Army Painter washes, with some highlighting afterwards.  The base is neutral so that I can use the beast in a dungeon, but could also place it on some terrible ash waste in habited by dragons and cold-drakes.  I added the stone slabs with plasti-card - again trying to reinforce the dungeon theme.

I thought this was a really fun project - as I am sure all of the fantasy-themed Chambers will be on my list of "Challenge XI projects to do".  

For the points - hmmm, I don't think Turtle Dragons are listed in Curt's points chart...  But he/she is a larger-sized beast, so may I suggest 10 points for the Turtle Dragon, and 20 points for "Hatchery".  So, in total, 30 points?

From NoelW: Hatchery (50 points)

“Well, I’m surprised to find it’s pitch black in here. Are you surprised? I’m very surprised.”

“Shut up, Elbow. If you can’t say anything useful, then - “

“Woof!”

“Well, I wouldn’t quite put it like that, Scruff. Let’s just say he’ll bite your kneecap. Or Titchy will. There’s not a lot of difference.”

“You go first into that goodnight, Gnawbone, see if you can find a lever.”

“What’s that dimly perceived nestlike object in the corner there?”

“This nestlike object?”

“Yes.”

“It’s a nest. But there’s nothing in it.”

“So,” muses Getrude. “An empty nest. Something has recently hatched. Let me see. We’ve a hatchery right next to a larder. And beyond the larder…”

“Grimvizaj’s slightly suspect reconstructive Surgery.”

“Beset by overwhelming outsiders armed with nasty weapons and not very nice intentions.”

“Who are prone to build impenetrable barriers.”

“Who like making things difficult for y’r ordinary adventurer. So, how would you get over such a problem, Titchy.”

“With a ladder.”

“Or…”

Clerihew begins rapidly flapping his arms.

“Yes,” agreed Getrude. “Fly. Now, if Grimvizaj was going to build flying creatures.”

“Oh, he’d never do anything like that,” blurts Merlissa. “I imagine.”

Getrude continues: “…he’d need wings. He’d need to breed something with wings.”

“Would it be something flapping and vicious and full of teeth?” asks Titchy. “Because there’s four of them clinging to the roof. Oh – I stand corrected…”

“You mean you’re not actually standing?”

“What I mean is, they’re not clinging. In fact, they’re descending. In fact, they’re descending very quickly. In fact, they’re descending very quickly with glinting eyes and glinting teeth and sloppy, drooling jaws. Ugh!”

“Borrow my handkerchief.”

“Dragons!”

“Quick. Through here. Wherever it leads, it can’t be as bad as a Bother of Dragons.”

 ***

I wasn’t really sure what might need to hatch here. Searching my son’s Reaper Bones Kickstarter from I think, five or six years ago, I came across this empty nest, from which something must recently have emerged, and the four small dragonets.

I painted them primarily using Contrast Blood Angel red. I find the dramatic Contrast colours can work very well on animal surfaces, like scales and fur. Sometimes a little highlighting like here, can add flavour, but sometimes it’s enough to let the Contrast do its job and then pick up one or two details – eyes, horns, claws etc.

These four baby dragons are each between 35mm and 50mm tall, depending a bit on how you measure. Maybe an average of 40mm is reasonable, so 7 points each – 28 points.

Is 2 points too many for the nest?

Plus 20 points for the Hatchery : Suggested total of 50 pts.

Plus 1 more Squirrel point.

From MikeF - Bretonnian Lord on Hippogryph - Hatchery - 30 to 35 points

 The first chamber to complete in the second level is the Hatchery. This requires the model to have an avian theme, so I painted a Bretonnian Lord on a Hippogryph. The selection alone should give you some idea of how long this model has sat idle, since it's been several years since Bretonnia has even been a thing! Age of Sigmar has created rules for them, though its far from being a competitive list.

This model does not have the original rider. I "converted" it a long time ago in order to place a different Bretonnian lord on it. This was mostly successful despite having far less skill than I have today or the appropriate tools. I'm pretty sure I used just a file and hobby knife. This is all the more impressive when one considers that the model is metal and the riders legs are fully molded to the body of the horsy-bird thing. Unfortunately the rider I chose to replace the original just won't sit up straight on the horsy-bird. The riders legs also weren't wide enough which resulted in the rider sitting too high off the horsey-bird's back. This meant that there were too few contact points to glue the rider to the mount without turning to green stuff. That caused further problems because I knew I needed to paint the rider and mount separately. My solution was to sink a small magnet into the back of the mount and then ram a metal screw right up between the riders lags (oh, the horror!). This created a strong enough bond that the rider would remain on the mount even if held upside down. Naturally, after all this work Warhammer Fantasy was blown up and Bretonnia was kicked to the dustbin. I threw the remaining models in a cardboard box and moved on to other things. Thankfully, this challenge inspired me to finish it because it was a fun model to paint and I think it turned out better than it would have if I had painted it all those years ago.

The cape on the back helps disguise the fact that only his knees and feet touch the mount.

For scoring purposes this is a 28mm mounted model so normally 10 points. However, its slightly more substantial than a normal horse mount and I appeal to the minions for final ruling on point value. And of course 20 points for completing a chamber.

PaulS: The Chicken King cometh (50 Points)

 I hope you all had a good Christmas and are having as good a new year as is possible when locked down (for those in the UK at least). It seems I've been pushed further down the rankings, so I need to pull my finger out and claw my way further through the dungeon and back up the rankings!

The next pair are the Chicken King and his giant rooster, George. I found these on MyMiniFactory and just couldn't help but make this my entry for the Hatchery as he seemed ideal for a crazed wizard or villain in an RPG. He also gave me massive flashbacks to Chicken Kicking in the Fable games :D

Given that I can easily print more, this is also my Curtgeld for the year too, so that should bring him up to 50 points for the duo