First Post of AHPC XVI - 'Simon, Sophie and Anonymous': Three Unfortunate Trolls

 

Hello everyone! 

Happy Holidays and Welcome to the Challenge!

As per tradition, I open the Challenge with our first entry of the season. This year I present to you Simon, Sophie and Anonymous, three hapless, grumpy and now calcified trolls who now provide shade for travellers, corners and crevasses for moss, and a nice place for the birds to nest and tend to their ablutions. 

These models are 3d prints from Myminifactory. They turned out a little ropey here and there, but being trolls-turned-to-stone I figure they can be a little rough around the edges. 

As their current state is, um, well, stone they were a pretty quick paintjob. A few passes with the airbrush, some drybrushing, washes, LOTS of tufts and BOOM, done.

The first-post hobby flurry was made even better as it was spent with the Antipodean crew who had set up a Paint & Chat to ring-in the Challenge. Thanks guys for keeping me awake as I cracked on with this lot!

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Each of these trolls are roughly 54mm in scale, so we'll go with 10 points each, giving me 30 points to break the duck (and a Squirrel Point no less!).

Again, welcome to AHPC XVI. Let the fun begin!

- Curt

From QuinnM: Just Variety and The Inconstant (205 points)

I took 2 weeks off painting as I was feeling burnt out but I came back strong this week. I have a number of different things from stormcast to skaven and the last batch of elves.

First we have the last few Stormcast I have unpainted. A lord relictor and a unit of reclusians. the paint scheme for them is really simple silver armor with blue, purple and red accent colors. they are painted differently for the rest of my stormcast as they are part of the more religious sub faction and i wanted to differentiate them 

Next we have a clawlord on Gnaw-beast from the Skaventide box. I wanted to try source lighting from the gnaw portal on the base but the little bit I did wasn't great so I left it at that as this is a commission piece for a friends Skaven army. 

On top of the clawlord I painted up a acolyte globadier for them and it was real fun as I got to paint up a glowing orb for the first time. It is not perfect but they are happy with the final look.

For the inconstant i panted the last of the space marines from my friend and in all honesty i'm a not sure about this one. he is panted up as the space marines 2 fan chapter the crayon eaters. where every panel of armour is a different color and to rely show this the clock is painted in a rainbow camo(yes i know that is a oxymoron) that a washed with a black speed pant. a lot of the colors turned out great most of them are hiding behind the gun. but the pink i had was not blending so i ended up mixing my own and got more of a salmon. so there is a before and after.) i could not think of something more inconstant than someone that can't stick to a consistent color. 

I did also pant up 2 more of the old goblin trolls. I used slightly different oranges as highlighting colors but you can't really tell in the photos. 

and lastly I have the last of the elven spearmen. I painted them in one batch over the whole week and boy do I hate batch painting. but they are done for now. we are not going to look at the 150 night goblins sitting in the to-be painted box. next i have the heroes and some horsemen for the elves and it will be my second fully painted army. 

35x28mm footman@5 points=175 points

1x28mm cavalry@10 points=10 points

The Inconstant= 20 points

205 points total

Sylvain: Sorry I missed this post from last week. It's really a feast for the eyes that you are offering us this week. Your painting style in general, but especially this week, brings out the grim and dark aspect of some of the miniatures.Great work!

From FrederickC - Some Lord of the Rings Bits and Bobs (107 points)

 No big points bomb this week as I have been down with a cold for a few days. I decided to work on clearing away a lot of loose ends to make room on my desk for some large projects that are coming down the pipe. What we have today is a mix of Uruk-hai Berserkers, Mordor Uruk-hai, some Dwarf Heroes, a trio of Trolls, and a collection of Mines of Moria terrain and dead.

The three Uruk-hai Berserkers are metal figures from Games Workshop that were mixed in with the secondhand Uruk-hai Scout that I was given. The paint job left much to be desired, so they got stripped back down to raw metal and then were primed black with a rattle can. Vallejo acrylics were used for most of the colors - Cavalry Brown for the skin areas, Leather Brown for the loincloth, sandals, and gloves, and Gun Metal for the helmet and sword. They were then given a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone Quickshade.

 The three Mordor Uruk-hai were from another blister of metal figures from Games Workshop that I picked up years ago, and they have been sitting in the pending box ever since they got mounted on their bases and primed black. Again, I used primarily Vallejo acrylics, but also some craft store acrylics that I still have in my paint box. I used a colour called Hippo Grey for the skin areas, and Charcoal for the cloaks. The leather pieces got painted a mix of Leather Brown, Chocolate Brown, and Flat Earth, while helmets, greaves, gauntlets, and weapons were painted with Gun Metal. Finally I gave them a coat of Citadel Agrax Earthshade.

 

 Next up are four Dwarven Heroes consisting of a Shieldbearer, a King's Champion, and two Heralds.These are resin figures from Games Workshop that were available at one time as metal miniatures. Like the Dwarves I painted for last week's submission, these were mounted on their bases, some sand glued down to the base with PVA glue, and then primed black with an airbrush. I used mostly Vallejo acrylics, but also some Partha paints for the True Blue and Bronze Metallic.

King's Champion flanked by two Heralds

A side view to show off the banner designs

A Shieldbearer is a Minor Hero bodyguard

A view from another angle to show off the shield design

 The three trolls are a mix of two Games Workshop Cave Trolls, one in metal and the other in plastic, and a Reaper Miniatures Mountain Troll that I am going to use as a Mordor Troll. The metal Cave Troll I purchased years ago, and like the Mordor Uruk-hai, it was prepped and then gathered dust. The plastic Cave Troll is the one that comes with the Mines of Moria starter box. Somebody bought it, but was only interested in the Moria Goblins and the Fellowship figures, so I ended up with the Cave Troll and the terrain. The Reaper Mountain Troll is a massive metal figure that has since been replaced with a plastic version of the sculpt. Again, Vallejo acrylics were used, followed by a wash of Citadel Agrax Earthshade. I had used Medium Flesh on the Mountain Troll as a base colour, and with the Earthshade wash, it came out looking a bit more orange than I expected, but it still looks pretty menacing. These all stand 55-60mm tall.

Reaper Mountain Troll, plastic Cave Troll, and metal Cave Troll

 

The backside of the trio of trolls

 Lastly I have two sets of terrain pieces from the Mines of Moria starter box. I got one set from someone who only wanted the Fellowship figures and the Moria Goblins, and the other from someone who just wanted all the figures, including the Cave Troll. So I ended up being given a total of 8 pillars, 4 trapdoors, 2 chests, 2 wells, 2 sarcophagi, and 6 assorted skeleton/skull pieces. These were all primed black using a rattle can, and then dry brushed with progressively lighter shades of grey. I used Iraqi Sand on the skeletons and skulls, Stone Grey on all the pages, Chocolate Brown on the chests and book covers, with Bronze Metallic and Gun Metal painted on various other bits. I then used a fine tipped Sharpie to put lines of dots and dashes on the pages to look like writing. Finally everything got a wash with Citadel Agrax Earthshade. I am not quite sure how this should all be scored, either just based on volume, or counting the 6 supine skeletons and two seated dead as half figures. The points claimed are for the mix of the two methods, but I will accept whatever adjustment Minion Miles makes.

Two sets of Mines of Moria terrain

 

An elevated view

A closeup showing the dead and skeletons and the detail on the pages

The points being claimed are as follows:

10 x 28mm figures @ 5 points = 50 points

8 x 28mm half figures @ 2.5 points = 20 points

3 x 54mm figures @ 10 points = 30 points

0.35 of a terrain cube @ 20 points = 7 points

 

Minion Miles: WOW these are great - especially the banners - top notch stuff.

From RustyP - Fantasy Creeps on Arda (72 Points)

"Colonel I think we're done for.  I don't think this 'Arda' planet is friendly.  That big troll thing seems really irritated by your yodeling!" Rusty said to the Colonel while keeping his eyes on the aliens.

"Rubbish Rusty! My yodel is foolproof to alien species.  It has worked time an again to win native species over."  Replied the Colonel while releasing one more gawd awful sound from his throat.

Just then three goblin looking creatures mounted upon large wolves shouted a war cry & charged the Colonel's landing party.

"Everyone back to the lander!" cried Rusty.

Everyone started running toward the lander except the Colonel.  He was looking up at the sky with his finger n thumb on this chin; deep in thought.

"Gadzooks Rusty... you know maybe my yodel isn't appeasing to the natives here.  I think we should head back to the lander.

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Ok, all joking aside, these two small units were WAY harder then I thought they'd be. 😕 These two groups are from Games Workshop's Underworlds card/minis/boardgame.  Each is it's own faction and can play the game on it's own.  Which is cool cause you don't need a lot of minis to play the game.  BTW - it is a great skirmish game.  

So I really underestimated how much detail is on these models.  I mean how many skulls, coins, sacks, robes and rocks can be on one mini! 😵

Mollog's Mob - GW Underworlds

Mollog's Mob - Rear

Mollog's Mob - Side

Rippa's Snarlfangs - GW Underworlds

Rippa's Snarlfangs - Front

Rippa's Snarlfangs - Far Side View

Points Breakdown:

28mm Mounted x 3 ea @ 10 pts = 30 pts.

28mm Foot x 3 ea @ 5 pts = 15 pts.

40mm Foot x 1 ea (Mollog) @ 7 pts. = 7 pts. (he's huge but measured 40mm to his eyes)

Planet bonus for Arda = 20 pts

Total = 72 pts.

So I set out to try and use Citadel Contrast & Scale 75 Instant Colors all the way through.  Just to see if I could do it.  No way... I wound up using all kinds of paints and methods.  I could have honestly spent more time on some of the details but there comes a point where I say "That's enough"! lol

We'll see what the next planet brings.  I'm having a load of fun with this and thanks everyone for the comments.  Folks are really doing some fantastic stuff.

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How many skulls can you put on a miniature? Never put that question to a sculptor paid by GW...

I have a similar experience with Contrast Paints and their ilk - useful for specific supporting tasks, but in no way a replacement for actual painting. Besides, you cannot argue with results, and the results here are top-shelf, very nice work. 

Greg

From Millsy: Chambers of Challenge Level 3 (230 points)

Hi All,

It's fair to say I don't much enjoy taking photos so I often end up doing "check out this whole X in one go" type posts. Ofttimes this has amused and occasionally bemused our frosty overlord and I guess this is potentially another of those times. Here we have my entire collection of kit for the Chambers of Challenge Level 3.

Graveyard Beach (120 points)

I think I may have misread this one. Apparently it's the GraveYARD Beach but to me it's definitely the GraveGUARD Beach. These guys are an upgrade for the "Barrow Guardians" from my Warhammer Fantasy Battle army based on the White Dwarf articles depicting Heinrich Kemmler's Army of the Cairns. I wasn't able to get the minis I wanted at a decent price at the time so I went with a home baked version of Empire soldiers and skull bits. It was OK I guess and looked like this...

They've since been sold and used in part to fund replacement as follows. These are the first edition metal sculpts with the shields replaced by the current version plastic shields. Scored as 20 x 28mm miniatures plus bonus.

Hall of Heroes (25 points)

This chap arrived as a free miniature along with some half-orcs I purchased recently. He's be ungraded with a clenched fist on his right hand replaced by a sword because, well, it's clearly more heroic right? Scored as a single 28mm miniature plus bonus.

Lair of the Spider (Beast) (60 points)

I didn't have any unpainted arachnids lurking about (apart from the inevitable live ones) so I had to look for something else. These are Red Box Games similar to but legally distinguishable from Games Workshop Lord of the Rings armoured trolls.
A snip at USD$17.95 + postage for EIGHT in four different poses. Painted up I have to admit I would be hard pressed to tell them from the original article and given I didn't have to sell a kidney to buy them I can have a drink to celebrate... Scored as 4 x  54mm miniatures plus bonus.

If you're still paying attention you may have started to join the dots on a bit of a theme now. More of that shortly in another post.

The Snowlord's Treasury (25 points)

Lastly this one was a moment of [ahem] "genius" when I was starting a pile of sprues left over on the side of the desk. I'd already painted all my treasure chests in a previous post so needed something else treasurish and what better than a pallet of gold bullion? Just the ticket for Pulp and/or VBCW games. We can't go chasing after the Arc of the Covenant every time after all. Scored as a single 28mm miniature plus bonus.

So that's me finished on Level 3. Not sure if I will have time to complete the Altar of the Snowlord but we'll see.

Cheers,

Millsy

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Warhammer figs? On St Patrick's Day? You know how to warm a Cap'n's heart you do! Take your 230 dubloons and another 5 for the banner and the Old World pun

Cap'n Wednesday