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!

From MartijnN: Celtic Bowmen

Well, no sign of an invitation for vaccination yet, so here we are again. Last week I painted some medieval bowmen, so this week I thought I'd do some Celtic ones. These are 3d printed 28mm figures from the March to Hell Rome series; you guessed it, another Kickstarter. They are simple figures, with a somewhat cartoonesk flavour, but I like them a lot and they paint up fairly well. For some reason I printed only four of them, so a few others will follow to make up  something representing a unit. Mind you, I do not really have a purpose for them as yet; I plan to do something of a skirmishing type of game, perhaps Infamy, Infamy or SPQR. The MTHR range is fairly extensive, the Kickstarter had Imperial Romans, Republican Romans, Celts, Germans, Carthaginians and sundry fun items such as gladiators, so all options are open really. 

Next up some figures I painted up just for fun. From the Scourge of  Valtan Forest comes this leprechaun. The concept completely eludes me, but it is a fun figure and painted up easily.

Finally, two figures from Ian Lovecraft's Viking Legends Kickstarter. Lovecraft projects are always fun and of very good quality, and this was no exception. These were among the very first figures I printed, and thus details are not always crisp and clear and I really didn't know how to  remove the supports easily; but the figures were still too good to chuck them into the bin. The final result is not too bad, I would say. These are Brynhildr (after the snake lady in Challenge XI the second female figure I ever painted), who surely looks suitably ladylike but definitely seems to know her business, and Eric Bloodaxe carrying some very compelling arguments.

Seven 28mm figures make 35 points. At least one more post to go, but I'm not holding my breath.

From SanderS: Corona Survivors (20 points)

 Hoi,

 

WhenCovid had just started rearing it's ugly head a 3D printer designer made a STL for a group of Survivors gathering that most precious of commodities: toilet-paper.

 

 I had a set printed by the ever obliging Perikles.be people and finally have found some time to paint them up. 

The figures are really nicely detailed and paint up a treat. The bases are all resin scenic ones from an unknown brand and the building in the background is my TT Combat comic store with Greenstuffworld posters on the walls.

Cheers Sander

From GregB: Ork Dakka Jet & Ground Assets

Ork Dakka Jet and ground assets - plastic models from GW.

Hi everyone - glad to see there are participants in the Challenge getting their jabs! Here in Northern Ontario, Canada, I expect it will be quite a long wait for me, so I hope you don't mind these random submissions. You will see that further efforts on my WW1 painting have been delayed by this sudden lurch back into GW territory. This is an Ork "Dakka Jet" and set of Ork "ground assets" for GW's 40k-themed air-combat game Aeronautica Imperialis. These have been sitting on my painting desk for months, and when I finished those 10mm Roman Auxilia a couple of weeks ago, I thought I might as well finish these bits too. 

The dakka jet is the basic fighter for the Orks - can be upgraded with extra rockits for air-to-air combat, or given bombs for ground attack missions.

Aeronautica is a fun game - obviously the setting won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoyed the original version of these rules that Forge World released many years ago. The re-booted version, with nice plastic models, is a lot of fun too. The rules are not complicated, and it is fun to have these little combat aircraft from the grim and dark future zipping around, blowing up stuff, and each other. 

A bunch of random colours and patterns...fun little models to paint, although it can be slow going.

The initial model range focused on the Imperial Navy and the Orks, but it has since expanded to include Imperial Army (Valkyries) and the Tau (really cool!). I started painting my initial sets last summer, with the expectation that I would finish all of the models in short order...but hobby squirrels run around in my brain and I get distracted. This is a particular issue when trying to paint Ork subjects...they don't really have a uniform look to their gear and kit, and so each model is something of an individual effort for me, which makes painting Ork stuff a slog.

And so this poor Dakka Jet has been sitting even longer than the Roman Auxilia from my last submission. Probably since last November, when I had been last working on Aeronautica stuff...this one Dakka Jet was sitting there at the corner of my painting table, falling on to the ground occasionally, with a couple of base colours already on, waiting for me to finish it. But for months I just could not find the inspiration - I didn't feel like painting check patterns at the time, and besides, I had momentum with some other projects - but I finally just picked up the brush last week, and now it is ready.

Ork ground assets...a bunker of some kind, and assorted flak batteries to protect it.

In the Aeronautica game many missions involve bombing runs. You need something to bomb - that is where these "ground assets" come in. The bunker-looking thing serves as a target for the incoming bombers...the same pack came with an assortment of Ork flak emplacements which would protect this and add to the fun in the game.

Another view of the ground assets...these are in the same "scale" as the models for "Adeptus Titanicus"....

So there we are...my first GW and first sci-fi models painted in many months! Thanks for reading, hope you are all doing OK out there. Cheers.