From ScottM: French & Indian War Indians

I've been slowly plugging away on these figs the past few weeks and finally got them finished yesterday. These figs are all 28mm metal. The first group are from North Star Military Figures' Muskets & Tomahawks line.

The next group, with the exception of one of the figures, I don't remember who they are from.

The second figure from the left is from Warlord Games and came with the A Dark and Bloody Ground book. The other three, I'm not sure where they're from. They're either from Warlord, North Star, Sash & Saber or Galloping Major. No idea. Anyway they're pretty nice figs to pad out my Indian units.

So that should be an additional 50 points for a total of 190 points.

From SanderS: I blame Curt and Sidney! and some Germans (50points)

 Hoi,

 2021 just keeps on giving... While I thought I was able to get some more painting done, here I am correcting papers again. 

In the few moments of spare time I have managed to finish 10 WW2 Late War Germans that I had started already but wasn't able to finish during the Challenge proper. The Stalingrad Collectors edition box from Warlord games that I am painting as a commission, has sooooo many plastic Germans that I promissed my employer Martijn, that I'd paint him a squad of late war troops for use in his store demo-games. 

The fun part for me was getting to try out the Valhallan Blizzard snow effect from Games Workshop. Now and then they actually get something useful done and this is some awesome stuff indeed! It is so easy to use and gets a really good and rather realistic effect of snow on the bases. I am going to try the snow on some of my SW Legion Snowtroopers next, when grading permits.The pictures are rather dark due to a lack of light over here and with artificial light on they were too over-exposed even for photoshop to get right.

In the catergory "Other News": a round of calling 3 different Public Health Services during 2,5 hours of my day off last week, I found out that I MIGHT get a summons to be shot, eeeehh get a shot somewhere in May. So it's possible I get the summons in May but probably later and the actual shot will be set even further away because I was set up to get Astra Zenica, which due to the Trombose thingy is now on-hold for people under 60 years of age, lucky me. That means I will be here a while longer which is great since there's two gentlemen from the Challenge that have gotten me in trouble. 

First up is our beloved Snowlord Curt; I asked him what glue he used to stick metal figures to clear acrylic bases without getting the haze on them due to the super glue fogging over. Greenstuffworld says he, the result may be guessed:

And than there's mister Roundwood who has done such an awesome job of creating the Laarden Project. I read Arthur his posts and the Lad has now persuaded me to visit Laarden in the future so quite a lot of orders have gone out. One of those was to Colonel Bill's shop and has arrived over here by the time of writing.

There's a lot of prepped figures left over from the Challenge and I will get as many of those done during the coming weeks but first I have to get all the papers graded so I am off!

Cheers Sander

 

From MartinN: A premature end to my Vaccination Challenge [108 points]

I wouldn't have thought to be one of the first to drop out. But apparently miracles do actually happen as After a single entry to the challenge blog I already had my first jab. Long before schedule. 

Originally I had big plans of "finishing" my 20mm Soviets, getting the opposition to a playable size as well as doing lots of other things that now will have to happen elsewhere. But in this case I certainly will not complain.

So first for my final submission we have some more Soviets to go with those I painted earlier. Again these are lovely sculpts from AB Figures. 

Then we have the first squad of German Infantry to oppose those above Soviets. Again these are AB Figures. For flexibility I painted up enough men to either field them as regular Infantry with just one LMG or as Panzergrenadiere with two LMGs.

While I went with a completely different paint scheme with my Soviets than in 28mm, for the Germans I very much stuck to my standard recipe .

26 upright and 2 prone figures in 20mm make for 108 points to add to my total. So 611 points this year thus far.

Apologies for this rather short post but I don't really feel very talkative today. So I hope all of you stay safe and get vaccinated as quickly as possible.

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 MartijnN: Another mixed bag

The fact that I am happily printing away means that the stack of "things to be painted sometime" has been growing rather than diminishing lately. Still, I have managed to get some things done. It is not really much, but I do expect to receive an invitation for a jab soon, so best to get a post in while I can!

First, here are three 15mm Essex Companions for my DBA Bactrian Greeks. I had originally intended these for the Knight's Solar but I have never even been in the vicinity! I know that a DBA  army is hardly a challenge in figure count, but since this one has been in the works for the best of three decades there's no need to start hurrying now. One more element of Companions with general and four elements of pikemen to go. I may get there yet!

Next up is a brigade of 10mm Perrin Miniature ACW Zouaves for my Altar of Freedom project. I'm not even sure if there were Zouaves at Champion Hill but they made a nice change from the standard Union infantry.

Then here are two wood golems from the Scourge of Valtan Forest Kickstarter. I intend to use these as Ents for Warmaster or something similar. They are nice figures and the prints came out fine. 

Finally,  a potions shop printed in more or less 10mm scale from another Kickstarter, the Architecture Medieval Set (yeah, I know, I tend to go overboard a little when embarking on something new, like 3d printing) . In spite of its rather unimaginative name this set actually contains some very nice and creative fantasy mediaeval buildings, and this quirky potions shop is a fine example. I rather enjoyed painting it up and look forward to doing more of the buildings.

So, there we are, 3 15mm cavalry for 12 points, 20 10mm infantry for 20 points, 2 28mm figure for 10 points and a 10mm building for 1 point (80/3375 cm3 of a standard cube or 0,023 point, generously rounded up). 43 points!

From GregB - 10mm Roman Auxilia Unit

10mm Roman Auxilia...figures from Pendraken.

I am pleased to share a slight diversion from my recent WW1 efforts...here is a unit of Roman Auxilia in 10mm. The figures are from Pendraken, and they are based for "Warmaster Ancients" - although they could, of course, work with any number of other rules.

View showing some of the detail from behind the line...

The Roman Empire is a recurrent hobby interest, albeit one that never seems to make it very far in terms of painting efforts. I fascinated by the era, but for whatever reason, I get almost nothing painted, and the meandering course of these Auxilia figures beneath my brushes are a fine exhibit of this many-starts-but-more-stops when it comes to Roman subject. 

Not so many command figures with this bunch - just an officer and a musician.

During the recent AHPC XI I completed a small group of Roman Legionary infantry. Yay! I had finally made a bit of progress towards something Roman on the gaming table! These Auxilia figures were "up next" in the painting queue at that time, and I was certain that I would keep rolling along...I had finished 20 of the 30 figures for the Auxilia unit - and the remaining 10 figures were primed, base-coated and sitting on sticks, waiting for a couple colours...but...SQUIRREL! I decided suddenly "hey, maybe I'll finish some of this other 10mm stuff" and before you know it, the inspiration had moved on...

Ready to move out!

So these Auxilia have been sitting for just about three months, nearly completed, on my painting desk, but I just would not get around to finishing them. I guess they finally spoke to me or something this past weekend, as I settled down and finally finished the last of the little guys and got the group based. Here they are!

As always, the Pendraken castings are lovely and I really recommend their 10mm products. I now have four units of 10mm Romans painted - oh my! That's hardly anything, but still a massive increase over the "zero" number painted prior to AHPC XI...who knows when the Roman bug will bite again, but watch for more! Anyway, back to WW1...thanks for reading, and stay safe everyone!

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