From StephenS: Comic Capers (29 points)

 G'day Everyone,

Cyclops, Rhino and Warmachine

My final post of the challenge are three more characters from Marvel: Crisis Protocol. A villain known as 'Rhino', who first appeared as a foe for Spider-Man in 1966. He is a Russian thug who underwent an experimental procedure and emerged with an artificial skin and superhuman strength.

Cyclops and Warmachine, are probably too more well-known characters as they have also been featured more prominently in the cinematic universe. Cyclops made his comic book debut in 1963 and has been a feature of the X-Men ever since. Warmachine didn't grace the pages of comic book stardom until 1992/1993, but the man behind the suit has been in Iron Man comics since 1979.

I got re-invigorated this challenge for the game of Marvel: Crisis Protocol after seeing some fabulous teams and terrain during a trip with my son to Cancon (Australia's biggest tabletop gaming convention) in January.

These are plastic miniatures in 40 mm scale, and I have scored them at 15 points for the big fellow and 7 points apiece for the smaller two. Not sure if large figures are still scored higher, and you will hear no complaints if the points are lowered.

That will be it from me this year. It has been an absolute blast as always, and I have loved seeing each day's releases, even if I have been quieter with the comments this year. I didn't make it to my target either, which I am disappointed by, but the last three months have still been my most productive of the last 12 (since the last challenge...).

Thanks to Curt, Millsy and all the minions for all their work behind the scenes to make this happen. I can't imagine the time and effort it must take to curate all our posts on top of their own painting, commenting and non-painting life commitments.

All the best until next time.

Steve

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A fabulous final post, Stephen. I can't claim much knowledge on the superhero oeuvre. but am always entertained when reading the enthusiastic posts from those who do. Your brushwork is crisp and the colours nicely saturated. I especially like Rhino, but that may be due to nostalgia from him being frequently featured in the animated series when I was a kid. Memory lane aside, I applaud your fine work - bravo! Until next year, Stephen!

- Curt

JOHNB: tuesday terrors: IRREGULAR VIKINGS in 40mm (25 points)

Squirreless again! The Vikings failed the test..... First though you get a sample of Irregular Miniatures 1848 Range! of course repurposed from their other ranges! Enjoy Danes, Romanians, Tuscans, Modenanians and Parmese oh, and a cafe selling wargame figures......

In March Ian Kay who runs Irregular Miniatures will be retiring and his business will cease production. As someone has said he cast a million figures in 45 years and they travelled to wargamers all over the globe.

Ian Kay represents that era of the metal miniature where sculptors often were manufacturers as well. I met Ian at wargame shows where his stand was an extension of his workshop - it was not flashy but a veritable mine for figures piled in recepticles with the ranges laid out on shelves above.

A far cry from todays pre packed and branded ranges on offer.

I have even met the man at his home when I collected some figures but wanted to do a size comparison check first. He said just pop in when I was passing. He was just so accommodating and I thank him for that and his service which I found to be excellent.

All the best Ian for your retirement.

For some people Irregular were or are marmite - the rugged nature not loved or the style unappreciated.

In years to come people will recognise that these figures were an artform in the same way that a printed digital STL file is an art form of sorts - at least if it gets painted!

The cast metal figurine is most definitely a piece of sculpture and the mere fact that flames, heat and sweat are involved means its a very human creation.

We should celebrate the metal casters even more so as their kind diminish. As it happens I bought these 40mm Vikings at a cafe in York - back in 2022!

It is a pity the sets came in threes...............

They have since sat in a corner but in pursuit of squirrels I suddenly thought - their different. Only after painting them did I consider the 25 point cut off. Its hilarious as this AHPC I have done quite a few items for squirrels without considering their below the points threshold. heyho.

Whats more I had a varnish disaster with these figures - a first for me.

I had decided to play around with some washes and super diluted some colours to create bland cloaks on two figures. Two days of drying before varnishing did not prevent the vallejo matt varnish reigniting the washes. However I stopped and actually decided I had just made them a bit more timeworn!

The paint jobs are a mixture of citadel and vallejo paints regular and contrast even the odd one dating back a decade or more and still in great condition. However I also used some windsor and newton sepia ink wash over the initial white primer which while excellent for shading may have contributed to my varnish issues.

TOTAL POINTS are 3 x 40mm vikings = 3 x 7 points = 21 points.

First of all thanks for taking me down the Irregular Miniatures memory lane John.  For me if I was looking for that niche figure, or one that could be morphed into a niche figure, Irregular was THE go to place.  Looters with torches, wagons, odd animals, medieval bombards - check, check and check!  Love these old school vikings and the old school paint job that suits them to a tee.  I'm round you up to 25 for the nostalgia.

From GeoffT: More fantasy miniatures (68 points)

Hello Challengers,

Here are some more fantasy miniatures, and one historical one.

We have a French looking napoleonic officer, three ‘hue-eaters’ by grenadier miniatures and six harpies by reaper bones black.  The hue eaters and harpies are closer to 40mm than 28mm to the eyeball, so will round up in scale.  I got the harpies for ‘cathaka’ or buzzard men in ghost archipelago, but they really don’t look quite right for the role, so I had not painted them earlier.  However, they will be perfect as harpies for the impending game Warriors of Athena.  The hue eaters and harpies all had integral bases which I made bigger with milliput so they would be steadier in game.

Nine x 40mm figures at 7 points each and one 28mm figure for 5 points brings the total to 68 points.

Kind Regards

Geoff

From Millsy:

More lovely fantasy goodness from you Geoff!

I'm really impressed by the vibrance of your paintwork, in this instance the hue-eaters. It's giving me a great deal of pleasure getting to see plenty of old lead getting some love and such wonderful work it is too. Those harpies really look the business and would be right at home in any Old School Renaissance dungeon.

Cracking stuff mate. 68 beautiful points added to your tally.

Cheers,
Millsy

From ByronM - Kingdom Death Black Knight (25 points)

For todays post I give you all a very non-Kingdom Death, Kingdom Death model.  What on earth do I mean by that???  Well, this is a KD model that has no nudity, tentacles, testicles, vaginas, boobs, babies, extra hands/limbs, etc, etc, etc.  Meaning it is actually a safe for work, rather normal looking model which is really strange for a KD model!  So all you KD haters out there, might actually like this model!

I have had this model for at least a year or two and was never sure what to do with it, as I was a little leery about the huge as plain cloak on him. With such a big surface I was not sure about getting a smooth and realistic looking blend / shade on it, so he sat.  Then it dawned on me, why the F$#& am I not painting with oils and doing a complete wet blend on it???   So, I pulled out the red, blue, black and white oil paints and got to work.  20 minutes later and I had a perfect (in my not so humble opinion) blend on the cloak, and was left wonder why the F$#& I don't use my oils more often as it was such a fast and easy way to get silky smooth transitions.

With that in mind, I went on to paint all the blue inner jacket, fur, quilted leather, belts and bandages all with oils!  Only to find out there are limitations, especially with small surface areas.  The blue and quilted leather worked awesome, however the bandages and belts were very problematic and probably would have been better done with acrylics, but hey, I gave it a shot!

After all the oils were in place and sealed, I went on to painting all the metallic armour panels. I used the awesome vallejo metallic paints, then sealed them and washed them with a thinned down oil paint so that I could use makeup sponges to clean up everything that left the recesses.  This is a great process and I highly recommend everyone give it a try at least once.  Washing with oils is night and day better and easier than acrylic washes, if for no other reason than you can clean up any overflow super easily and cleanly.

With that the Black Knight was done and ready to terrorize the battlefield in Kingdom Death, I can not wait to face him!  I have included a picture with him next to a standard 40k model to show just how big the KD monsters tend to be.  I am once again claiming 25 points for him as a 40mm monster.

On a side note, this is probably my last post for at least a few weeks as I finished him last week, and by this time will have gone back in for surgery on my ankle and will be unable to sit at a desk for any length of time for a few weeks.  This is to correct some issues from a surgery earlier this year when I was hit by a car going 70, while on my motorcycle at a red light.  Hopefully this will be it and I will be back up and fully mobile in about a month (and back riding this summer)!!!

Byron - wow - this is quite a piece of work. I can only admire the blending with oils here as you will never catch me messing with that hell-spawned medium. This giant knight looks incredible, you've really done some awesome work here. Twenty-five points for your tally!

Dallas 

From Millsy: Stormcast Eternals for my sins (28 points)

Hi All,

These are the last few minis from the commission job I posed about last week. Glad to have these off my plate.

I'm not a huge fan of the Stormcast, specially the overly large shouldered version 1.0 models. I also found the colour choices to be something I wouldn't do for myself  - too dark overall - but my mate likes them and he's the customer so it is what it is!

Photographed quickly as I was in rush to leave and drop them off...

4 x 40mm infantry = 28 points.

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Millsy

Well Millsy, I'm not really a fan of "Sigmarines" either, but you've done a cracking job on this lot. I like the lavender colourway and you style is quite clean. Hopefully for your customer they'll fight as well as they look!

Twenty-eight points added to your ledger!

Dallas

From Sarah - Lady and Gypsy Dancer (14 Points)

Hello Everybody!

Great to be part of this Thursday Crew!

Two more figures to add to the ever growing collection of Carnival/Venetian performers and citizens.

Here we have ‘Madam’, obviously a wealthy woman, but is she the wife of a local magistrate? A visiting Noble Lady? A courtesan?

I thought the deep metallic blue would emphasize wealth, power and strength and used the whimsical pink to soften & feminize the ‘armour-like’ blue.

I took as inspiration Boucher’s portrait of Madame de Pompadour which coincidentally was also the inspiration for this gown worn by Glenn Close in the film, 'Dangerous Liaisons'.

Neither of these women were to be trifled with … I hope I have done Madam justice!

For a stark contrast, here is a tambourine - playing gypsy dancer - travel weary but ready to dance & sing along the canals of Venice.

I choose sunflower yellow paint with some lowlight washes on her dress for a natural/rustic appearance (and yellow is tricky!)

Thank you Curt for printing and assembling these 2 minis ❤️

These two 40mm figures should give me 14 points.

Thank you for dropping by!

- Sarah

***

These figures look fantastic Sarah - what a tremendous fashion show. The sunflower yellow of the tambourine player's dress is definitely striking! I think you will find a lot of us all find yellow to be a particularly difficult colour to work with/work up on a figure, but you have done a really wonderful job here. 

The Madam, however, takes the cake! That dress looks stunning, and you should be really pleased with the result you have achieved! The different colours, and the contrast with the metallic blue (armour-like indeed) is fantastic!

14 points for you, and a wonderful way to wrap up a Thursday!

GregB

From StephenS: The Mighty Thor (7 points)

G'day,

In between working on the next themed round, I have been chipping away on a few other projects. This week it is another Marvel: Crisis Protocol character - The Mighty Thor.

Thor Odinson made his debut in the Marvel Universe in 1962 (the original Thor debut a little earlier than that, with the Roman historian Tacitus describing a Germanic god similar to the God of Thunder we all love) and received his very own comic in 1966. He has of course, been popularised by fellow Aussie, Chris Hemsworth, in a number of films from 2011 onwards.

The 1966 debut cover

This figure is a 40mm and plastic from Atomic Mass Games. I had put off painting him for a while, because for some reason black is one of the colours I struggle with the most, but I was happy with the way the new combination of blacks and greys turned out this time.

All up, a thunderous 7 points please.

Cheers,
Steve

From Millsy:

There's nothing like quietly chipping away at small stuff while working on the big ticket items. I'm doing the very same right now. Hemsy would approve mate. Nice work!

Cheers,
Millsy