From SanderS: Home Alone!

 Hoi,

Since I had a week off from work I finally had time to sit down and paint one of the many TTCombat Streets of Venice buildings I have lying around. This builidng is one I put together from several left over bits (hence the missing door) from other kits and I tried out some new weathering techniques involving sponging and washes.

 

 

 

If I learned anything from the process, it's that I need to go far lighter/ brighter in my colours prior to applying the washes as they darken down the whole subject quite a bit.

I am really pleased with how the building turned out and am going to use the techniques on my other buildings as well.

Cheers Sander

 

 

From GregB: Reaver Titan for Adeptus Titanicus

Reaver Titan from Games Workshop - standing with some alternative weapon options. This is a plastic GW kit.

Hi everyone! As ever, there is no vaccine in sight for me here in Northern Ontario, so I hope folks won't mind as my work continues to appear here on the blog! This submission is a little different from a lot of my recent hobby efforts - this is a Reaver Titan, a plastic multipart kit from Games Workshop, for their game Adeptus Titanicus. 

A closer view, showing the various energy weapons mounted on the Titan.

In Adeptus Titanicus, players take command of Titans - very large, city-smashing war machines, blasting each other (and the planets they happen to be standing on) to bits during the Horus Heresy, the great civil war of GW's grim and dark science fiction setting. The Titans move about the table, blasting each other with apocalyptic weapons. Void shields are shattered, reactors are pushed, overloaded and (often) cook off. Players must make some challenging command choices as they try to manage their Titans - it's a great time.

A closer view showing the "Volcano Cannon" on the left arm...a scary weapon, but one that tends to put pressure on the Titan's reactor.

The Reaver is a "medium" class of battle titan - still pretty darn big, but not the biggest machine available to the combatants in this setting. This Reaver is painted in the grey, yellow and blue colours of Legio Gryphonicus, the "War Griffons", loyalists who fought on the side of The Emperor during the Horus Heresy.

Another view, showing some alternate weapons - including a giant chainsword hand! Good times!

These kits are lovely, but there is one issue with them - the design of the model kit does not really allow for the use of magnets in order to swap out the various weapon options for the machine. But there are many determined and clever hobbyists out there - including my good friends Curt and Dallas - and they figured out some easy modifications to this model which allowed for the weapon hard points to be fitted with small magnets. I have copied this approach from them, and I am working to add more Reavers with magnetized hard points to my collection.

Another weapon option - a large calibre, multi-barrel cannon - good times!

You can see in the photos there are different weapon options available for this machine - picking a favourite weapon configuration is a great part of the game, and now players using this loyalist machine will have a choice of the weapons seen here, as well as some others painted previously. 

A "family photo" of my Loyalist Titan collection...Knights in the front, Warhounds behind them, then the Reaver Titans, including the newest one on the left, and finally the Warlord Titans at the back.

Adeptus Titanicus is a fantastic game, a great set of rules and models from GW. It has been fun to get back to this model range over the past couple of weeks, and I look forward to sharing more towering war machines from the grim and dark far future as they come off the hobby desk! Thanks for reading, and be well.   

From TeemuL: Some goblins (20 points)

Some very quick goblins, red this time. These are from the Legend of Drizzt boardgamee and my quick research revealed, that at least some of the goblins of that universe are red. So I painted them red, although they were green plastic. Very small 28mm scale models, very quick to paint with some Contrast paints. The cobblestone took as long as the figures itself, I think. Anyway these usually briefly appear on the board before slain by the adventurer, so even though they are numerous, they don't last long.

As you can, the Contrast paints are very effective on these. I even painted their eyes, evil yellow eyes. And something around the mouth area to represent the vicious teeth.

From MartijnN: Germanic bowmen and sundry

Yes! Invitation received. However, it will be two more weeks before I actually get my jab, so I thought I'd better get on with it. Strangely enough, I seem to be more consistent and faster now the "real" Challenge is over (although I remember struggling a bit too in the Quarantine Challenge a year ago).

Anyway, in keeping with the theme my painting seems to be taking on a bit here are six Germanic bowmen. These too are MTH figures which I printed myself.

To accompany these, and the Celtic bowmen I painted last week, is a unit of ten Celtic warriors, also from the MTH Rome series. I had a lot of fun painting these and I am quite happy with them.

Finally, a Celtic dog handler with two Irish Wolfhound-like characters. I would not much care to come across these chaps, neither on or off the battlefield! I promise to make a bit more of an effort with the next dogs.

Next up are two 32mm thieves from the Arbiter Miniatures range. These are great figures, and supportless too which is quite a boon in my book. They printed without any problems and I like how they turned out. They can be used in a variety of ways, the painting scheme is a bit ranger-like I guess.

Then, there is an armoured polar bear from Wilds of Winterland by Evan Carothers. This is a wonderful 3d print file range with ice giants, snowfolk, arctic animals, yetis, you name it. Shades of Westeros, obviously. I think the bear is a great model.

Next, the only part of this week's output that was not 3d printed: a brigade of Confederate troops for my ongoing Champion Hill project using Altar of Freedom. These are once again 10mm Perrin figures. I try to give my Union troops a more formal character, but I like my rebels to be a somewhat more motley bunch.

Finally, two pieces of terrain. A bridge and a viking burial mound. The last obviously was to have been my offering for the Tomb in the Chambers of Challenge, but I never got there. Both are 28mm figure scale miniatures, but scaled down to somewhere between 6mm-10mm.

So there you have it. For me this is a record production, pointswise:

22 28mm figures @ 5 points is 110 points;

20 10mm figures @ 1 point is 20 points;

and as I don't feel like doing the complex calculations for the terrain pieces I am awarding myself 1 point for each for a total of 2 points;

Which yields a grand total of 132 points; a veritable points bomb for me!

From TeemuL: Blood Bowl accessories

Something small again, and I don't just mean dwarfes. These are the accessories, which come with the team. I bought this one several years ago and painted the team as well, but these took a long time. I had the generic plastic markers already and lots of balls, so these were not necessary. I started paiting these some time ago, a year or most likely two ago and finally finished these yesterday night.

The difficult part for me with these is to keep them tidy, sometimes the 3D effect is more time consuming than 2D free hand. And since these would not give me any points during the Painting Challenge(s), they have been on the back burner.

As you can see from this last photo, the colors match my blue-and-blue(-and-blue) dwarf team. I could have put some blue on the balls as well, but I decided to keep them leathery brown.

 

From GregB - More 12mm Germans for Early WW1

In this squinty photo are more 12mm early-WW1 German troops - nearly all from Kallistra.

Greetings all - here are some more 12mm Germans for my early WW1 project. There is a bit of a twist compared to my previous submissions on this subject - where my previous figures had been from Great Escape Games, nearly all of the figures you glimpse here in this submission are from Kallistra's 12mm WW1 range (the lone exception is the MG08 gunner - an extra I had found in one of my packs from Great Escape Games - always nice to get a surprise like that :) 

View of the infantry elements - the MG08 on the right is from great Escape Games - everything else is from Kallistra.

Most of the basing is consistent with the game "1914" from Great Escape Games, but there is one square base in the group - I intend to use this as a "Regimental Command" for games of "Great War Speahead". There is a unity of infantry, a command base, and a regiment of cavalry, both mounted and dismounted.

The Kallistra sculpts are very nice, and there is a bit more variety of poses available.

The Kallistra castings are a little thinner than the ones from Great Escape Games, but also have a bit more variety of poses and the range is a more established one with some extra variety. I recommend both Great Escape Games and Kallistra - they are excellent either way - but this gives some variety. 

German Dragoons - mounted.

For example, with the cavalry unit, these could/would represent some German Dragoons - either mounted or dismounted - to give some variety to go with the Uhlans. It's an example of how the Kallistra range is just a little more rounded out than Great Escape's (although, again, both are excellent - I recommend both). 

Side view of the Dragoons.

German Dragoons - dismounted. I might paint a base of horse-holders or something at some point...

It's been quite a dash to start this project. I have made a good start, and I feel a bit of exhaustion when it comes to this project, with my interests moving back toward other subjects for a time. We'll see where that goes - and at the rate vaccinations are proceeding in Canada, I expect you will see more of whatever that will be posted here...take care all, and thanks for reading!

From ScottM: Russian Infantry Final Post

So this will be my last post as I have received my first vaccine shot. So for a finale I've got a group of World War 2 Russian infantry. This group of eight figs are from Black Tree Design.

Nothing outstanding for these figs, just basic riflemen.

And lastly is Lady Death from Warlord Games.

So that will give me an additional 45 points for a total of 235 points to end the challenge with. 

Cheers to everyone and I'll hopefully see you all in AHPC XII!