From SanderS: First Jab in and Curtgeld! (10points)

 Hoi,

 

Yup it happened, I have received that first jab everyone is talking about. It came sooner then expected and the second one is planned already. This means that I now have to drop out of this Challenge and I thought it fitting to paint up a figure I would be able to sent to the Far North as a tribute to our great leader: his Curtship himself. 

That means it needs to be a yello-purple coloured Landsknecht figure and I had a good look around. While I have found several sets of figures that would suit the bill, I think for now this figure will suffice. Last Challenge wasn't complete without my partner in Landsknecht-crime the esteemed Lord Michael of Awdry Towers, so I decided that I would paint him one of the self same figures as well. Now the figure might be a bit cheeky, saucy or even racy and so I texted a photo of one of them to Michael to ask him whether Curt would take offense at being given a lady dressed like this... his opinion was that Curt could probably appreciate the sentiment. "Good" I said "because guess who's getting one too?" Well gentelemen I hope you like them because they will soon be travelling the waves towards Awdry Towers and the Blue Ice Caves in Canada.

They are figures from the Beltfed range from Colonel Bill and they are reasonably well sculpted.The bases I made myself with grey-stuff and texture rollers from Greenstuff world, inspired by Sidney of course.

I would like to thank all of you for all your support and comments and Curt for letting us post them here on his blog. I will be hanging around till this Challenge ends or the next Big one starts again ;-)

Cheers everyone and stay safe!

From TeemuL: Reanimates, over and out (40 points)

Yes, I got my first jab yesterday and in the evening I glued the tufts on these bases, when the basing was dried. These are Reanimate Archers from the FFG's Runewars Miniature Game. Local store had the starter box on 65% discount, so the game including 48 miniatures cost only 42 euroes. I couldn't skip the offer and I bought one box to share with a friend. That is very cost and space effective way to purchase games, you can use this if you have issues with other parts in your family. It might not be a bulletproof, if you tell that after buying the initial box you bought a second one to split and some extension boxes as well... Anyway, we quickly assembled to the first box and played two learning games and decided, that it is nice fun for the afternoons, quite a boardgamelike miniature game in the end, very much X-Wing.

The miniatures are soft boardgame plastic and require super glue to be assembled, but on the other hand there were no mould lines (I could see) and assembling was rather easy. There were several poses as well, for example this unit of 8 archers has 4 different poses. A bit of bending and gluing into different angle hides the duplicates quite well. By the rule book, the miniatures are not glued to the trays, but removed as casualties. Anyway, we are playing this game in relaxed mode and decided that we can glue them and use counters, dice etc. The bases looks much better this way. I just need to hide the rings better on the next batch.

I wanted some quick and simple paint schemes, so I decide to use Contrast paints. They worked very well on these skeletons. Each area has just one coat of Contrast over Wraithbone spray, no highlights, no shades, inks, drybrushes or anything. Only the arrow tips are painted in metallic. The bases are Agrellan Earth with some Army Painter tufts. As you can, see they look quite great for such a speed paint job. I'm looking forward to paint more of these and play more with these.

This is my final post for this Challenge, the XII will start (hopefully) in about six months, so not too much time to change all the plans. This post is 40 in total for 8 28mm miniatures. See you in the next Challenge, stay safe, have fun and act responsible!

Frrom MartijnN: I'm out (5 points)

Well, I have been vaccinated. As a matter of fact almost two weeks ago, and I have been struggling to get some painting done. As a typical Belgian autumn has suddenly turned into a typical Belgian tropical summer my painting mojo has slipped below the horizon, however, so the planned out-with-a-bang post has turned into a rather disappointing sizzle.

Still, I have this rather interesting figure for you, advertised as a Fly Trap. I'm not sure yet whether is a plant or an animal, it has a bit of both. It is once again from the Scourge of Valtan Forest Kickstarter. I painted it using Citadel Contrast and Scale75 Instant Colours. 

So there we are. As it is technically a 28mm figure I will award myself 5 points for it, which brings my total of the Vaccination Challenge to 276 points. Not as much as I would have liked, but still mildly satisfying.

Obviously, I will keep following the Vaccination Challenge. Thanks to all who looked at my posts and commented on them; much appreciated! I hope that numbers in the Vaccination Challenge may dwindle swiftly as we all get our vaccines. I look forward to seeing you all again at the end of the year in the "proper" Challenge! As much fun as the Vaccination Challenge has been, I would rather that it be a one-time experience. Take care!

From StuartL - Unleashing the 3D Printed Demons

Hello again.

I'm steadily (and very slowly) pushing on with my to do pile. There is still no chance of me getting the vaccine anytime soon as the roll-out here in Japan is incredibly slow.

In the meantime I have painted up my first 3D printed minis. A friend of mine recently bought one of these modern marvels and printed up some figures for me. I have to say that I am impressed by the quality of the minis.

I'm trying to put together a collection of Samurai-era Fantasy models to use for Saga: Age of Magic and saw these Oni figures online. My friend was kind enough to print them out for me. They are from a designer called Artisan Guild and they are very nice indeed. The two headed chap above is on a 50mm base, as is the black fellow below. The red boys and girls are all on 40mm bases, so you can get an idea of scale.

These figures have all been printed on a resin printer, so I was dubious at first as I really, really don't like working with resin. Thankfully my friend had done most of the clean-up work after the printing and I just had a few odd supports to trim off. The detail is really good and the figures went together perfectly on the first try. Unlike traditional resin casting, there were no bubbles and no warping to be seen. A couple of the models have very faint lines where the printer didn't quite line things up perfectly, but they are barely noticeable once painted.

The figures are all very characterful and are great for skirmish type games. I would still prefer plastic for more rank and file, mass-battle games, but I'm sold on the benefits of 3D printing. Sadly due to the number of chemicals and the smell they produce I don't think my wife will ever let me get a 3D printer myself, which is probably for the best. Having the ability to produce armies of minis from home will eventually lead to me having to buy an extension (or two) for my house.

I'll keep plugging away at the lead mountain. Finger crossed there will be more to come from my painting table soon. 

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 GregB: One More Post - Sons of Horus Space Marines

A Veteran Tactical Squad for the Sons of Horus. 28mm figures from Forge World

Good day everyone! I am pleased to share that I received my first COVID-19 vaccine jab yesterday, and so this will be my last submission to the Analogue Hobbies Quarantine and Vaccine Challenge. The group of figures you see here in this submission is a Veteran Tactical Squad, clad in the colours and livery of the XVI Legion Astrates, the "Sons of Horus". These are resin figures from Forge World, part of GW's "Horus Heresy" setting, often referred to as "30k".

Trooper carrying a meltagun, flanked by Marines carrying fancy bolt guns.

Lots of intricacies on the power packs - you also can see the handy chainswords carried by the veteran troopers.

I am a huge fan of this setting, and I generally love how GW has, over the years, issued a huge variety of models and figures for the 30k setting. There are many different variants of power armour for the Space Marines, many different variants of weapons, and a large assortment of bespoke accessories, such as the shoulder plates featuring the symbol of the Sons of Horus legion. This huge assortment of components, broadly speaking, are all compatible with each other - this is an awesome feature, and for dorky fan like me, allows for many components to swap in to the different units.

Vox operator on the left, Vexillary on the right.

More detail on the backpacks - I quite like the bizarre little details on the communications pack.

The squad sergeant's ominous "power claws" and plasma pistol point, while in the background you see the trooper with the heavy bolter, a support weapon.

A lot of rivets and segments in the Mark II power armour...a bit of a challenge to paint, and I was pretty rusty in terms of painting these guys, but they still came out OK.

These particular Marines are wearing Mark II variant power armour - an "early" pattern of armour, but carrying "later" patterns of bolt guns, with box magainzes. The chainswords they are carrying are spares from the plastic Mark III marine figure set, as are the special weapons seen on the officer. The heavy bolter is a plastic accessory from the plastic Mark IV marine figure set. So a lot of different component packs came together here, which was great. Besides, I figure veterans would be the sort to keep the older armour, but ensure they got their choice of the nicest/newest weapons :)

Horus for hope!

You may note that the transfers are still quite glossy in these photos - it has not been "safe" to spray the final coat of matte spray on these figures, so that may wait for some time - that is something I will get to at a later time.

The embossed shoulder armour plates are great - not the cheapest thing to decide to like, but I do love them.

So that's a wrap for me! Thanks all who participated and shared comments. I look forward to seeing you all again in the next edition of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Cheers. 

From GregB: XVI Legion Moritat - Horus Heresy

"Moritat" in the colours of the XVI Legion Astrates - the Sons of Horus.

The wait for a vaccine continues in Northern Ontario. Hopefully it won't be much longer. So here is some more painting to share. This is a 28mm Space Marine "Moritat", painted in the colours of the XVIth Legion Astrates, known as the "Sons of Horus", part of GW's "Horus Heresy" setting. This is a resin figure from Forge World...which is part of GW, but still separate...or something...I really don't get that, but I digress.

Guns drawn, ready to fire...and the helmet of a previous victim lying on the base...

So what is a "Moritat"? Well, the "Horus Heresy" was a giant civil war which tore the Imperium apart. Space Marine Legions fought against Space Marine Legions, and the fighting caused the odd Space Marine here and there to crack up a bit, the nature of the conflict being such that it wrecked the careful mental/psychological conditioning/programming that was part of their creation. While still physically fit, such mentally damaged Marines could no longer be fully relied upon to fight effectively as part of their units, and so were pulled from the battle line. The Legions would never "waste" an asset, however - a Space Marine is still a Space Marine...and so such mentally fractured Marines are made in "Moritats", and sent to battle as one-man armies. Not suicide missions per se...just loners at the fringe of the battle plan. If they survive, great. If not...well, they will still have cause serious issues for the enemies of the Legion.

The cabling is a pain the @ss...some crude "green stuff" repairs were needed - I've got no skill using "green stuff", but you have to start somewhere? Practice is practice.

The Moritat seen here wears Mark IV power armour, with extra plating. He has fancy special guns - they are dangerous to use, but whatever - this guy is going into battle on his own, so who cares, right? He is equipped with a jump pack to get close to the enemy as fast as he can and start shooting. He has a variety of extra targeting kit to help his shots land more accurately.

For the Warmaster!

It has been almost a year since I last painted some 30k figures, and it was fun to dig into the packing crate and pull out some figures like this one. It has been waiting for paint for just over a year - I first assembled it during my previous burst of 30k output, in spring last year. There was a particular challenge with this figure - the cables running from the weapons to the backpack of the armour. Resin features like this are not easy to assemble, and even with careful use of hot water etc. the cables can break because they need to be bent/turned into position. That happened here, requiring "green stuff" to be used for repairs on one of the cables. I have almost NO experience using "green stuff" to do anything, so my repair execution was pretty crude...but it still worked enough to get the figure into the line.

Thanks for reading everyone - hope you are well!