From TeemuL: Sheriff's office, heavy weapons and an aeroplane (90 points)

Here's my second last post. I'll get my first dose on Wednesday and I have some unfinished minis on the table. I'll finish them and post tomorrow, I hope.

But in the meanwhile I have been cleaning my table of half-finished projects. Here's a Sheriff's office from Warbases. I started this during the main Challenge and I was hoping to finish it for one of my Wild West entries, but time run out and it went to the backburner. It is ready now, not super pretty, but functional. I didn't really think about the colors when I painted, I was kind of "in the character" of the wild west house builders... It was easy to assemble and the roof can be removed, so the interior can be seen. Excellent for jail break scenarios.

This one is a Nieuport 17 biplane for WW1. I started this scale model during the Challenge 10, continued during the Quarantee Challenge, worked a little after that, did something during Challenge 11 and it is now ready. I'm not sure if it actually fits in the puritan view of the Challenge, but it is kind of toy and I painted it, so why not. :) Now, any 1/32 scale WW1 dogfight rules anywhere? Empty sheds? Anything? This is from Academy Hobby Model Kits bought six years ago from an Event. Do you remember those? I'm not superhappy with the decals, the big ones are a bit too big and I'm quite sure I could have painted some of the freehand anyway. On the other hand, they were much easier to put in place than the GW decals for example, very easy to use. The paintingi is from the insctuctions, although I didn't have the exact paints and not all the necessary hues, but it looks pretty in the photos. In the real life it is not that pretty, but it will do. Oh, and this was the first time I glued strings to represent various cables and stuff. Tricky business that, not perfect, but looks better than without.

And finally three heavy weapon squads for my Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard) Imperial Reenactment 7th. More bullets and laser bolts for the various theathers of war, painted mostly with Contrast paints again. I usually keep my 40K bases quite clean, but these were so empty, that I glued some tufts on them. There are two heavy bolters and one lascannon team, not a perfect mix for a heavy weapon squad, but in the Guard you need to fight with what you have.

The house is about 6x6x3, so 10 points. Biplane is roughly a 28mm vehicle, so 20 points. 3 crew served weapon teams, each with a gun and 2 crew, so 20 points a piece, 60 in total. 90 points total for this post.

Yes, one more post from me coming up, I don't know if there are others still participating or not, but I'll keep my eye on this blog for a while anyway.

From Curt to Nick: Fausto Rodriguez - Rogue Trader

That's it, I'm out of the pool. I received my first vaccination (hooray), so this will be my last post for the VC.

For quite some time now, Nick and I have enjoyed exchanging painted figures to add to each other's collection. For those familiar with Nick's skills with the brush, you will know that I am definitely the greater beneficiary in this arrangement. :)  Anyway, I muddle along and try do something for him that I think he'll like.

This year, Nick had mentioned that he'd like something Warhammer Fantasy themed, so I dug up several items from my stores that I thought might fit the bill. The thing is, I just couldn't find the mojo to get them done (I know, I'm such a princess). 

While all this was (not) happening, I found that this 40K Rogue Trader kept drifting across my desk during the Challenge, slowly getting worked on in fits and starts. It's the classic story: While beavering away on other projects I would put down a colour here, and add another a week down the line. Slowly he came to life. The figure is from the excellent Artel W. I have tons of their stuff for my Dark Heresy collection and always love working on their models.

We'll call him Fausto Rodriguez.

I asked Nick if he would be okay with a 40K figure instead of something from WH Fantasy and his response was typically accommodating, saying, 'ScFi is just Fantasy in Space, isn't it?' 

Well Nick, here you go. A burly Rogue Trader for your 'space fantasy' collection. Cheers mate, I hope you like him.

My thanks to all those who visited the blog and commented on my posts, its very much appreciated. I won't be that far away as I will continue my participation as moderator and cheering participants on in the comments. 

Be excellent to one other and have a great spring.

- Curt

From Barks: 40K ruined statues

I did these four ruined statues together, with some cultists for scale. The marble effect is GW Contrast Apothecary White over a white undercoat, then Army Painter Soft Tone into the crevices, and finally a thinned AP Uniform Grey to create subtle veins across any big bland areas in particular. I'm pretty happy with it.

This is my first time with Contrast and it was- OK, I guess. It is offensively expensive, extrapolating out to well over $A600/ L. I feel I could have thinned down some paint and got the same effect.

Skull-o-meter™: 13

I'm going to try and squeeze in one more post later.

From Barks: Genestealers

I'm trying out the 'new Blogger interface'. Hmmm, change.

Anyway, here are eight 40K genestealers coming to steal your jeans. I primed these in December 2018...

I'm a fan of the classic indigo-violet scheme, and have my technique down pretty well now. I'll put up a recipe on my blog along with a group shot of my cult.

From Barks: Grimdark tractors

These accompany my supply dump. I struggle painting vehicles, but these were somewhat fast to get the basics done with a yellow rattle-can spray (AP Daemonic Yellow) and a homemade wash of craft paint and detergent. I then sponged on some brown rust, and I'm pretty happy with the results. There's a lot of grimdark details that took me a bit of time to get done- it is very easy to fall into a rabbithole of decreasing returns with painting all the details.

Crane rotates on its trailer

The Claw!

I added a bit more brown and a little water before sloshing on liberally.

Skull-o-meter™: 11

From Barks: Arco-flagellants

I needed to paint something a little different, so pulled these Arco-flagellants from lead mountain. These are from the uncomfortable darker side of 40K- mind-wiped condemned citizens fitted with melee weapons and stim-pumps who can be unleashed in combat to achieve their death.

I can use them in Blackstone Fortress as well.

From Curt: Gregor and Cherubael

I'm a big fan of Dan Abnett's writing as I find that his treatment of the 40K universe being the best aligned to that of Priestly and Blanche's original dystopian vision. 

Of Abnett's many characters, my favourite is Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn. (Spoiler alert: The next few paragraphs give away some of the core bits of the novels, so you've been forewarned!)

Over the arc of the Eisenhorn books, the nature of Gregor's character, with his no-holds barred struggle with the enemies of Mankind, becomes irrevocably compromised as he slowly shifts from being a puritanical and dogmatic posterboy of the Inquisition, to something that is far more dark, ruthless and morally questionable.

Probably one of the most damning things that Eisenhorn does is his binding of the powerful daemon 'Cherubael' to an unwilling human host. He rationalises this act as a foul means to an end, a repugnant-but-necessary tool to assist him in his fight against the forces of Chaos. 

This decision ultimately results in him being excommunicated by the Inquisition, hunted as a fugitive by his former colleagues and forever haunted by his uncompromising decisions. 

Eisenhorn is a wonderfully complex, compelling antihero - a breath of fresh air in a setting which is often portrayed as a simplistic, binary struggle between good and evil. A rollicking good read, I recommend it to anyone who has a passing interest with things GrimDark.

The middle-aged Eisenhorn I have here is a 'Finecast' miniature from Games Workshop. While the Finecast 'recipe' has greatly improved over the years, it still has a hard time standing up to some of the resin offerings you can get from other manufacturers. Case in point is the model of the Daemonhost, 'Cherubael', which is from Artel W Miniatures. This model (essentially a 10-part minikit) is absolutely exquisite, with the resin needing virtually no preparation before assembly. While I typically prefer working with metal figures, I can see how the complex posing and intricate detail of this figure necessitates it being done in lightweight resin - like Eisenhorn's decision, it was a necessary evil. :)

Gregor and Cherubael will give me 10 points, putting me at 90 overall.

Thanks for dropping in to take a peek!

Curt

From DrQ: In the Drimgark Future There is Only Cute

A happy weekend to you all!

Having finished off the rank and file of my chibi Sisters of Battle 40k Kill Team, this week I've completed the character models. Here's a group shot of them all together:

And here are front and backs of each:

As mentioned before, the minis are from Impact! Miniatures' Sibling of Conflict kickstarter and are on Skull Forge Scenic bases. I just recently discovered that the whole line of minis can be downloaded as STL, if you join the Patreon of their creator Heriberto Valle at Capsule Chibi.

On the painting docket for this upcoming week is a swarm of chibi zombies, including a killer rabbit! 

Stay safe!

From DrQ: Chibi Sisters of Battle

So the problem with being a professor during a worldwide pandemic is that educating still goes on; but suddenly you are doing video editing, sound editing, and various other online tasks in addition to your regular lecturing, grading, and other professorial duties. Basically what I'm saying here is that time to paint is at a premium at the moment. 

Today I have for you all a trio of troops for my chibi 40k Kill Team.

I am painting the whole kill team based on Order of Our Martyred Lady, and getting the scheme right in this distorted format has been a big part of this past week's painting time.

The minis are from Impact! Miniatures' Sibling of Conflict kickstarter and are on Skull Forge Scenic bases.

With a little luck I might even get the rest of the squad done by next week....

From Barks: 40K Chaos Cultists

Like many of you, I'm feeling the post-Challenge slump. I'm going to use the Quarantine Challenge to push myself to get at least one completed model done each week. I've got an embarrassing lot of half completed bits around- including these cultists. I did the skin during the Challenge, but didn't finish them until now. I have reduced the volume of pink, since they're mostly cannon fodder and not worthy of more pink. There's still a lot of detail...

Skull-o-meter™: 0

This means I have finally painted all the figures from the atrociously named Assassinorum: Execution Force!

From TomM: T'au SEED Destiny: UMF/SSO-3 ASH

Well, I had hoped to present this post as my newest Kill Team force, ready to go to battle in Kill Team at the local club.

But once again, something new isn't embrased by the local player base (you should have seen the discussion about Beta Bolters back when those where published...) so well, this is just my newest entry in the slow building force of T'au, based on the SEED Destiny anime.

The Stealth suits are in my opinion nice little sculpts, and honestly, for Kill Team they have a great skillset.  The -1 to hit and the high armour makes them pretty resistant, the multishot burst cannons can wrack an opponent to high heaven, and the fly rule of the suits makes them mobile as heck.  Sure, you are heavily outnumbered, but then again you have the cheap markerlight drones to fill out the force, take hits for your suit, AND add markerlights on the enemy...

The Inspiration:

Seen in episode 13 of the anime, when the Freedom makes his glorious return to the franchise, the ASH suits are new high tech infiltration suits created by ZAFT.  Hence the SSO in their designation, being part of the Special Ops wing of the organisation.

While the anime version is well armed as well, with beam claws and missile pods, I choose to copy their colour scheme.  The burst cannons nicely represent the fast firing pods, while the fusion blaster is a good representation of the beam weapons.

So that's the fourth unit of my force now completed, maybe it's time to build more of the actual "mainstay" suits for the force, the Crisis suits, next...