From Curt: Commonwealth Figures for 'Moonstone'

I'm getting my first vaccination soon, so I thought I'd blitz along and get a few more submissions in before I have to bow out. 

While muddling around online this winter, I came across this wonderful boutique game called Moonstone. Being instantly charmed, I duly pulled out my credit card to snap up the base set (and well, perhaps, a few additional figures 'fell into' the order to give a nice round number).

The basic premise of the game has 2-4 competing factions battling each other over a 3' x 3' playing surface to dig up valuable moonstones which, true to their name, can only be found at night. The factions, or 'Troupes', are 3-6 figures strong, and are composed of humans, faeries, goblins, fauns, giants, etc. The scenarios last only 4 turns, which makes for a rollicking, fast-paced game.

The figures for the game are cast in very fine resin and are amazing in their over-the-top character. Charming, silly and sometimes grotesque, the figures definitely tap into the visual style of Brian Froud, Arthur Rackham and Jim Henson. When you look at them you can't help but think of creatures featured in Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal and Legend.

That being said, being a bit of a mutton-head, I'm debuting this project with the rather boring human faction first, whereas I should have kicked off with the much more whacky goblins. Oh well, you should be able to get a visual sense of what the figures have to offer, and hopefully it sparks you to visit me again over the next few weeks to see some of the other factions.

The humans largely compose the Commonwealth faction. They have a very Grimm's Fairy Tale, Renaissance German look about them. The four characters I present here are: 

Baron Von Fancyhat

Eric the Squire

Friar Flavius

Each figure has various abilities and a signature move during combat situations. Most of these are very much in-spirit of the character and often hilarious. For example, Friar Flavius' signature move is 'Spank'. It does no damage to the opponent, but he gets 'healed' for his efforts. It fits perfectly for this fellow in his S&M gear and spiked paddle (the pink 'combat slippers' were an inspired afterthought).

Flintlock

So there you go, four 'heroes' from the Commonwealth, ready to battle it out for some precious moonstones. I'm working on the Goblins next, so please feel free to drop by my blog to see how I'm getting on with this project over the coming weeks.

-Curt

From Curt: Fire Ember Kobolds for D&D

In my previous post I introduced our original party of D&D adventurers from 1980. From that, my friend Gary and I have decided to amuse ourselves by playing a small campaign which will serve as the prelude chapter for our doughty heroes.

So, for their first adventure, I thought I'd start them off with some classic, old-school, low-level dungeon villains in the form of, yes, you guessed it, Kobolds!

So, with Kobolds in mind, I had to find some figures that could fill the ranks. This was a little difficult as I didn't really like many of the dog-faced versions, preferring the more draconic look.

To the rescue came this boxed set from Epic Encounters aptly titled the 'Shrine of the Kobold Queen'. 

With this set, not only do you get a good sized batch of Kobolds, but you're also treated with an additional monster (a Basilisk!), an excellent adventure and a two-sided play mat - a terrific value! (I say in my best car salesman voice)

Out of the box, they came in bright red, moulded hard plastic. The sculpts are pretty characterful, well-defined and a pleasure to paint. Below is a sampling of the twenty miniatures from the set. 

Kobold warriors with bow and spear & shield. There are eight of these in the box, giving a nice base for the mob.

Fire Ember Snakes with Kobold rider. There are four of these in the set - Giddyup!

As I wanted to get them on the table for play, I didn't shilly-shally around with a lot of fine detail. Lots of contrast paints and a few highlights - Bam! Done.

Kobold Kleric

Kobold Champion

One of the two Kobold Assassins

Magma Belcher Basilisk(!) and Kobold handlers

Yep, a poster-child for mirrors and Pepto Bismol, this guy barfs lava AND can turn you to stone. So, definitely not recommended as a house pet.

Mother Krangor

As to points, I'm scoring the 14 rank and file Kobolds as 20mm foot figures and the Basilisk as the equivalent of a 20mm gun. Mother Krangor and the Fire Ember Snakes I think are around 40mm. So, that gives me a grand total of 99 points. This, added to the 30 points of my other two posts, will give me 129 points, enough to exceed my 120 point target. Hooray! This is especially good, as scuttlebutt has it that my age group is getting called up for the jab soon.

That being said I hope to have another couple of entries up soon!

- Curt

From StuartL - An Imperial Guardsman

Hi All,

I haven't posted anything for a while, so first off I'd like to apologise for that. Sorry. After AHPC XI, I thought that I was ready to get back to the painting desk straight away, but as it transpires, I needed a little time to refresh. Having previously painted up a single marine for the Vaccine Challenge, I have now painted up a single Imperial Guardsman. 

I started painting up a bunch of minis a couple of weeks ago, but I couldn't seem to get them looking right. In frustration I gave up on them and decided it was time for a break. Over the winter holidays, I had downloaded a bunch of PC games, so I figured that they would provide a bit of a distraction from the old painting desk. I got really into a game called Wargame: Red Dragon, a cold-war tactical simulator with US, Chinese, and Russian armies among others. I spent every free minute for the past week or so playing it until I finally got bored. I finally went back to my hobby room on Friday evening and started looking over the models I had started previously to see where I could pick up from.

There are a few more models in the works, but I did get this one guy finished and ready for photographing. I'm trying to avoid batch painting for a while, so there is just one lone guardsman here. I've added some insignia to the shoulder pads as well as some weathering on his armour and gun.

Hopefully you'll be seeing a lot more of my posts over the next few weeks. I've got my head back in the game and a stack of minis to paint up.

From TeemuL: Unknown adventurer (5 points)

Yes, I am alive and not vaccinated. I have also moved to a new home, unpacked most of the stuff and started a new job. I painted also the first mini at the new home and have only about 100 unread entries in the Challenge XI.

But you want to know about the mini. Unfortunately I don't have much to tell. I primed and glued to the base this fellow during Challenge IX, but he had a broken sword, so I didn't paint him back then. I glued a plastic sword blade (Numenor sword) on and painted him during the last few days. I have lost or misplaced my notes, so I don't know who he actually is, I believe him to be a Ral Partha or Prince August sculpt.

Earthly colors in general but some bright ones here and there to remind of his age.

Edit: He is a Prince August Half Orc Thief 2, CH29B.

From Christopher Sliter : Roman leaders, Deployment markers for Infamy!Infamy'

 

The Romans will need somebody to lead them so I present Centurion Maximus Ivicus(warlord Status III leader) and his supporting optios and attached Capsarius(medic), Musician, and Vexillarius(standard bearer) plus a couple Roman Deployment markers for my growing Infamy!Infamy' collection.

I seriously doubt a Centurion would ever be caught wearing purple as that was usually reserved for the Emperor and his personal guard, but I like to take liberties to enhance a theme and this case to further distinguish him from the other leaders on the table as the man in charge.

As if giving him a purple cloak wasn't enough I mounted him on 60mm base with attached musician and standard to further establish who is running things!

However I still wanted to retain some flexibility with the command base figures to either not include in the force, place inside units or move to separate locations on the table so made my own sabot base by building up the sand around where the bases fit in....perhaps a little messy to do but works in the end.

Next up is a independent Status II leader(Junior Centurion?) with a red cloak and another leader that can either serve as Status I leader or Supra Numerum. They are intended to lead the foot Auxilliary while Maximus leads the Legionaries.

Maximus needs an Optio to keep the men in line while he's leading the force and a medic to take care of the men when they fall and help get them back in the fighting. I'm not sure what the figure drinking from the cup is supposed to be, but I decided he would make a decent looking medic taking a quick sip before getting to work.

Romans are allowed to deploy from Deployment/ Ambush markers if they are Auxiliary troops, cavalry or Allied Barbarians just like the Barbarians lists although only have 2 to the possible Barbarian 6.

Deployment/Ambush markers are probably the most fun things to make for Infamy as you can let your imaginations go a bit and in this case I decided to use some Romans with their Barbarian guides that are helping them navigate the dark forests of Germania.

The figures are mostly A&A, Wargames Foundry and I think Warlord painted using Foundry and Vallejo paints and some Mig pigments that are now called Abteilung 502 pigments I believe.

Thanks for viewing!

Miniature Company- Wargames Foundry, A&A, Warlord

From GregB - German WW1 Jagers in 12mm

German WW1 Jagers, 12mm figures from Great Escape Games.

My "Guns of August" project continues - here is another unit for the German side. These are Jagers, "light" infantry of the German army. These are all 12mm figures from "Great Escape Games", based for their rule set "1914". Each base would represent a company of infantry, and so this would represent a full-strength battalion in the "1914" game.

MG08 gunner is on a 25mm square base - others are mounted on 25mm x 50mm rectangles.

The uniform of the Jager is different from that of the other regular German infantry of the era - they still wear a shako, and even though this had a cover, the pom at the top of the shako still showed. They also wore green (or, at least, I think most of them did, at the outset of WW1 anyway). As is common with "light infantry", they were thought to be elite, especially if you asked them. The green does not stand out as much as the green worn in 1870, but it provides a slight amount of colour variety for the German WW1 forces.

Nice detail on the kit and packs of the troops.

 

Jager battalions were attached at Corps-level in the German army, and in particular they seemed to accompany cavalry formations - or at least they did in terms of the OOBs of the game scenarios I am considering. I think they often had some troops riding bicycles to accompany with/keep up with cavalry units. I can't think of a way to represent this yet...if any clever Challenge participant knows someone who makes 12mm size bicycles, please let me know!

You might be able to pick out the officer, near the centre of the photo - "here we go, should reach Paris in no time at all!"

As before, these were very nice and fun-to-paint castings, and this project has still has a lot of momentum on my painting desk - at least for now! Thanks for reading!

AdamC: Royal Navy ship of Renown and last post.

So this will be my last post because I got my first shot today.

My second shot is scheduled for early May but I did just finish these last three ships so here they are.

HMS Revenge as ships of renown go she's not impressive. She did take part in Trafalgar and that along with her name seems to be why she is included. 

She was one of the first 74s to carry 24-pounders on her upper gun deck instead of 18-pounders so she has that going for her.

HMS Tonnant an excellent choice she took part in two of the main encounters of the Napoleonic wars the Nile (as French) and Trafalgar on the British side.

An 80 gun third rate she served as flagship for the North American Station in the second half of the War of 1812 and was active in the Chesapeake region. I gave her the spiffy there color banner so she can act as a flagship and he national color comes off so she can play a French ship if I need an extra.

HMS Bellerophon know as Billy Ruffin and "Napoleon's bane" she was one the best know ships of her class taking part in several major actions and she as in the thick of them all.

She had a reputation for giving hard blows and shrugging off the heaviest shot the enemy could dish out. 

She even gets some special rules and a unique card from Warlord.

Before I say so long until December here is a group shot six ships of the line in about 3 weeks is production any ship yard would be pleased with.