Painting Challenge: March of the Dead

This post originally appeared on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

I had high hopes for this year's painting challenge, but I wasn't able to carve out the time to make much of a dent in my leadpile. With a paltry few hundred points completed, I expect these undead figures to push me over my self imposed minimum threshold of 500 points, alleviating my shame a bit.

I've wanted an undead army since spotting a fantasy scenario featuring a skeletal horde in Battlesystem 2nd Edition, nearly 30 years ago. Manufacturers never seemed to have the same vision for the undead that I did though. Game Workshop took a decidedly Egyptian feel with their Tomb Kings, and many of the more recently released undead miniatures have been too dynamic in pose and expression for my taste.

When I saw these figures based on the 1562 painting "Triumph of Death" by Bruegel the Elder, I knew I'd found my guys. While an undead shambling horde represents our own inevitable mortality, I also think they are a metaphor for the unfeeling, unsensing march of time, scouring all before them. These staid, emotionless automatons marching in their perfect ranks, with halberds and javelins at the ready don't slay out of hatred, but as part of the entropic machine that will inevitably collapse all of man's creations, grind mountains to dust and darken every star in the sky.

That's a bit dark, but don't be glum. This skelly brought a giant fish to cheer you up. What a whacky guy!

All 83 of these 28mm figures will likely be my final entry in this year's Analogue Painting Challenge.

 For my Curtgeld I've donated to Veteran's K-9 Corps, an organization that provides service animals for veterans and first responders. Thanks to Curt and the minions for managing the challenge, and loosening the entry rules to allow some decidedly non-historical figures into competition.

Painting Challenge: This and That

This post originally appeared on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

I spent a lot of my hobby time over the last few weeks preparing and running our club's first local game convention. Despite a busy schedule, I managed to sneak in a bit of painting. No giant point bombs today, but at least I polished off a few more figures.

I added machine guns and a new matte black finish to this 20mm scale car for Gaslands. I intended to paint it in some sort of garish silver or purple, but it simply called out to be painted black in homage to the 1989 Batmobile. It's hit the table a few times and has proven especially deadly!

Luke Skywalker has been fighting in my Monday night Star Wars Legion battles for months in a simple brown primer coat. I rushed a quick paint job on him, good enough for tabletop play and maybe a few points for the challenge.

Finally I finished up my collection of Astropolis krogloggs. The intricate sculpts and detail warrant additional painting time which I've enjoyed, but certainly slowed my progress in the challenge.

That's it for this week! Four 28mm figures and a 20mm vehicle.

Painting Challenge: A Plethora of Krogloggs

This post originally appeared on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge

I adore these goggle eyed kroglogg aliens and managed to boot several more off my lead pile and into active duty.

These chaps are labeled as "hunters" in the Astropolis line of miniatures and act as pest control aboard the enormous star cruiser that serves as their home, but in my collection they'll pressed into service as front line troops of a rebellious alien rabble. Kroglogg eyes are widely set on hammerhead shaped noggins. I assume the forward facing optical sensors on these ceremonial helmet give these particular alien soldiers binocular vision so they can act as sharpshooters for their depth perception lacking kin.

In so many science fiction series the aliens are part of a monoculture devoid of individual character. All klingons are warlike. All hutts are obese gangsters. I appreciate that many of the figures in the Astropolis line have individualistic characters woven into them through their sculpts.

This beverage sipper looks like a cranky old fart, while the mother and child are expectedly awaiting the arrival of a loved one.

Our dutiful papa is enroute, lugging his work parcels with him while this dimwitted attendant barely notices his passing. Love 'em!

I'm used to polishing off dozens of identical historical figures at a time, but these individual figures are requiring more attention to get right than I'm used to. My Painting Challenge point goal is looking increasingly overly optimistic, but I'm hoping that with just a few more individual sci fi figure to do I'll be able to drop some point bombs with mass units of uniformed figures soon.

In total these 10 figures should bump me up another 50 points.

Painting Challenge: Astropolis Bots and Aliens

This post originally appeared on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

Despite a concerted effort by Real Life™ to disrupt my painting progress, I managed to squeeze in a little painting time and finish up a handful of sci-fi figures this week.

All of these are from the Astropolis Kickstarter, full of character, chunky detail and a delight to paint.

I particularly liked this archivist and his two minions laden with dusty tomes. Not exactly a typical subject for a sci-fi wargame, but they'd make a great objective to capture or escort to a waiting escape transport.

I have a host of these hammerheaded kroglogg aliens. Before committing to a color scheme for the others in my lead pile, I wanted to test out a few palettes on this pair. Although most of the aliens are covered in thick hair, a few have a less defined surface pattern, more like the skin of an elephant. I'm not sure if the sculptor just chose to portray their fur in a different style or what, but I decided these "wrinkly" aliens must be wearing skin tight space suits. I gave the gray suit a few emblems, and while I think she's hideous, I'll bet her form fitting coverall drives the kroglogg boys wild.

That's all for this week. I know a few of these figures a bit diminutive, but I'm hoping these eight 28mm figures give me another 40 points.

Space Zombies (Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge)

This post originally appeared on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

With the holidays in full swing and our house host to a variety of out of town friends and relatives, it was a challenge to sneak away and get any painting done. With everyone back at work and things falling into their usual routine I managed to polish off a small set of intergalactic undead for the Painting Challenge.

I picked these up from Tim Prow's Diehard Miniatures Kickstarter last year and I've been dying to get some paint on them. Perhaps it was my desire to get them "right", but I wound up repainting them with a few different color schemes before I was happy.

These undead astronauts started unlife in dark blue space suits with orange and white accents, a color palette I stole from the Netflix "Lost in Space" series. Unfortunately, with their bulbous helmets and dark blue colors they looked more like undead deep sea divers than wayward spacefarers. Repainting them in a classic white spacesuit made them seem more prone to wandering a derelict spacecraft or irradiated moonscape than the Marianas Trench.

I decided on an unnatural yellow/green for the flames licking out of these Infernals, and snuck the same hue into the visors of the other star zombies to give the whole gang a unified feel.

I adore these sculpts. Classic, chunky, with plenty of detail but not the baroque monstrosities that seem to be the rage from more recent ranges. They'd be perfectly at home on a Rogue Trader battlefield, but I'll be using these for the homebrew rules I've been noodling on for the last few years.

And with that I should be on the board, only an insurmountable number of points to go!

Fighters, Lancers and Layabouts

This post originally appeared on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

Like many of you, I jump from project to project and this week's entries represent miniatures from three of my current projects.

Star Wars Armada

One of my goals for the Challenge was to get my Star Wars Armada ships finished off. I play Armada regularly, and we're gearing up to try a campaign this Spring. I couldn't field unpainted forces, so I've steadily been adding paint to these tiny ships as a break from 28mm figures.

These E-Wings were recently added to the pool of Rebel forces, while the brown Moldy Crow is an older release that I've finally managed to paint up. I enjoyed adding paint to the Armada scale X-Wings, Y-Wings and other squadrons seen in the films, but these E-Wings (designed for the comic books) lack the character and detail of the classic ships.

I don't tend to play Imperials, but for those rare occasions that I do I'll bring these bounty hunter vessels since they are sporting fresh paint jobs. Bossk's Hound's Tooth is a big garbage truck of a ship that gets deadlier as it receives damage, while Dengar's Punishing One has proven annoying when I've faced it in enemy fleets.

Blood and Plunder

I've recently returned from a family vacation to Disney World, and a visit to "Pirates of the Caribbean" has fired my enthusiasm to complete my Spanish forces from the recent "Blood and Plunder" kickstarter. Hoping to get all of these figures done so I can get cracking on their ships and some terrain.

Astropolis

Finally, I completed just two figures from the Astropolis kickstarter. I have a dozen, primed and ready to go, but each is so unique and full of character that I wind up spending far more time on each individual which has slowed my progress. Unlike the weak sculpts and soft detail of the "Blood and Plunder" figures, these detailed Astropolis figs are a joy to paint. I can easily picture these two slack jawed wrench monkeys banging on the innards of some huge, decrepit space freighter.

I'm hoping to sneak in a few more figures before the deadline, but with the Cold Wars convention approaching, that may be too optimistic.

Blood and Plunder Pirates: Indios y Lanceros

This post originally appeared on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

Just a handful of figures this week as I make the first dent into the Blood and Plunder Kickstarter package I received a few weeks ago.

After visiting the fort at St. Augustine and watching the first season of Black Sails, I decided to go with a Spanish crew to face off against my opponent's English sea dogs. I'm excited to get in some games of Blood and Plunder (their example game videos convinced me to back the project), and I was thrilled with the ships, dice, coins, cards and rulebook I got from the Kickstarter. The figures on the other hand aren't quite up to snuff.

From a distance I think they'll look great. I appreciate the variety of poses and ethnicities, but there's just something off about them. I'm chalking it up to the conversion of 3D renders to physical metal minis. I love chunky models like Mark Copplestone's, and I've even had some success with model's that were either created as 3 ups or 3D rendered (the Perry and Fireforge plastic figures for example), but these Blood and Plunder figures are both overly large and have a lack of detail. Features are indistinct, hands are tiny, and clothing ripples and wrinkles react strangely to washes. They're just... odd. Not terrible, but different from what I'm used to.

Lanceros, spear armed Spanish troops

Indios, native islanders put to work
defending Spanish outposts in the New World.

Despite my reservations about the figures, I did have some unexpected success with some Vallejo paints. Using the paints and instructions from the Vallejo Leather and Wood paint set, the deck planking of the bases came out better than I'd hoped.

I also did a quick paint up of an Imperial Assault figure as we're sharing the burden of getting our game master's set finished up.

All told that's 8 pirates and 1 medical droid for 45 points by my calculations.

Homer Jungle Statue

This post originally appeared on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

With all of the responsibilities that come with being an adult, I haven't had a ton of time to paint over the last few weeks, but I did manage to steal a glance at this weeks theme challenge. I was pretty surprised to see it had something to do with "Homer Terrain". That was sure to be a unique set of entries, and I wracked my brain trying to figure out something that would stand out from the crowd.

Naturally, most entries will likely depict a terrain feature from one of Homer's epic poems. There were sure to be plenty of Trojan Horses, Gates of Troy, and Greek Beach Camps. I thought we might even see something pulled from the Odyssey (maybe a Cyclops cave or two?), but I decided to go a bit farther afield. I thought I could get a more liberal interpretation of the "Homer" theme for my terrain piece, and I considered doing Fenway Park, with a 28mm outfielder unable to snatch a "homer" as it sailed the Green Monster. That seemed beyond my skills though (and wouldn't really lend itself to a wargame), but I spotted a cheap plastic knick knack depicting Homer Simpson as a snack food Buddha. Inspired by his zen-like countenance, I decided to base my terrain on the toy. A perfect start for a conversion into a mysterious jungle idol, carved by some long dead civilization of peculiar lemon colored tribesmen!

I built a small dais from wood and foamcore, and gave the whole thing a stippled coat of spackle/dry wall compound to mimic the weathered stone of the idol.

A dark gray primer gave the whole piece a uniform, stone-like base to begin painting.

I used a variety of grays and browns, with the faintest hints of yellow, green and pink (no doubt remnants of the festive paintjob the idol once must have sported).

"Mmmmmm.... soft pretzel......"

I used numerous brown and gray washes to weather it, and added quite a bit of flock and tufts to represent the encroaching jungle foliage that will one day engulf the statue.

I don't like to take all of my wargaming so seriously, and plan on using this idol for some tongue-in-cheek Rogue Trader or Fantasy gaming. A unique subject for a unique category! Altogether, I was pretty pleased at how it turned out.

"None shall defile the Golden Emperor!"

Wait....

"Home" Terrain????

Doh!

Painting Challenge - Space Marines

This post originally appeared on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

Right! For the Armour Theme I knew I wanted to tackle a painting challenge that I'd been putting off for nearly 20 years. I'd always dabbled with Warhammer 40K, but the increasingly grim and humorless turn the game took after Rogue Trader always rubbed me the wrong way. Even in the mid 90's I had an idea to put together a custom chapter to fit in with Games Workshop's Space Wolves and Space Sharks (since renamed to Chapter Charcaradon). A brotherhood of power armored space marines fashioned in the image of the greatest late night talk show host of the mid nineties: Space Ghost.

I'll admit, it's not a great idea. My college roommates and I used to watch Space Ghost religiously, but the show's been off the air for over a decade. And yet, this dumb idea won't leave me alone. Whenever I read a blog post about Oldhammer games, or flip through the latest edition of Warhammer 40K in the game shop, a tiny voice whispers to me, "You should paint some Space Ghosts." Therefore my fellow painters, to exorcise myself of this nagging idea please humor me while I get this out of my system.

I based the paint scheme on the classic Space Ghost uniform, but since I'll likely be putting these on the table against my 8 year old son and he has no idea who or what Space Ghost is, I've tweaked the color scheme a bit closer to something he'll recognizes: Imperial Stormtroopers from Star Wars.

I'm retaining the overall white scheme and black mask/helmet, but only veterans get the red wrist bands. Space Ghost's flashy yellow cape will be reserved for the chapter master himself.

The Space Ghost emblem wasn't really doing it for me as a chapter symbol, so I cooked up one of my own and printed them on decal paper.

I tested the color scheme on three modern figures, but for the most part these are classic Rogue Trader beakie marines I've cobbled together from eBay collections, stripped, repaired and upgraded with current special weapons when they've been missing.

That's a total of 13 space marines for 65 points I believe. And hopefully just under the deadline... the paint is still wet on a few of these!

2016 End of the Year Wrap Up

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is helping me clear out this back log of lead!

We're nearly done with 2016 (and good riddance!) but before turning to plans for the new year, I wanted to evaluate what I've accomplished this year. My painting took a slump during the summer, but I still managed to finish up:

• 117 Foot
• 12 Mounted
• 5 Buildings

That's about average for me, although I'm fairly pleased I managed to make some progress on various terrain pieces that had been lingering for far too long.

My gaming over the last year was a bit spotty. I've been playing the FFG Star Wars games at a regular weekly session, but I finally gave up on getting my old game group together. While disappointing, 2017 looks extremely promising for gaming. 

Star Wars Armada

My weekly FFG group is going to start up the new Corellian Conflict Campaign. The regular Armada players are very excited and we're considering starting up a MeetUp group to make sure we have a consistent full 6 player game. We're furiously painting up the last of our squadrons in preparation. Can't wait!

Fantasy and Historicals

To get my fantasy figures out of their boxes I've been playing some Song of Blades and Heroes with another local gamer. We've also talked about giving Congo and Deus Vult a try, and I'm looking forward to teaching him some Lion/Dragon Rampant or Hail Caesar.

Rogue Trader

2017 is the 30th anniversary of Rogue Trader, the first (and only interesting) edition of Warhammer 40K. I've been on a Rogue Trader bender and I'm using the Analogue Painting Challenge to make progress on a number of figures I've picked up over the last few years.

My eight year old also had a blast playing RT and has been asking to try it again. I may be going on a tear to get some figures and terrain finished so we can have some proper battles. The rules may be a bit pants, but a wooly, sci-fi grab bag rules set really appeals to me, which the later editions lost in favor of a grim, standardized, cookie cutter universe that lost a lot of the charm I loved about the first edition. 

Blood and Plunder

We also have pirates and galleons on the way from the Blood and Plunder kickstarter, which I'm also eager to try. 

That is a ton of painting and gaming I'm hoping to do in 2017, and if I even get half of it done I should be happy. How about you? What are you looking to get done next year?

Another Batch of Fireforge Medieval Knights

This post originally appeared on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is swiftly approaching its deadline, and I'm trying to cram a few more figures in to boost my point total (gotta set a bar to hurdle next year!)

I finished up another set of Fireforge Medieval Knights, this time painted in largely yellow heraldry. Most of these are knights who served in the Scottish Wars, so I've cribbed a few helmets from a set of Teutonic Knights (snipping off some of the more fanciful horns) to represent gear from the latter half of the 13th century.

I selected what I hoped were easier heraldic devices to paint. Little did I realize that "straight lines" are pretty tricky to pull off.

Gilbert de Clare and Thomas de Clare

This is the leader of our merry band, Gilbert de Clare, the Earl of Gloucester. Gilbert de Clare "the Red" (so named for his red hair) fought in the 2nd Baron's War and pledged service to Edward I on crusade. His son (also named Gilbert, and conveniently bearing the same heraldry) also fought in the Scottish Wars. Here he is joined by Thomas de Clare, bearing a banner bearing the de Clare arms.

Piers Mauley and Robert Mauley

Next up is Sir Robert Mauley and Piers Mauley, veterans of the Scottish Wars. Yellow with a black stripe was fairly simple to pull off, but the tiny birds decorating that stripe were pretty fiddly. Props to those who can pull those off!

Robert de Vere and John/William de Vescy

Finally a pair of knights, Robert de Vere and John (or William, they used identical arms) de Vescy. I put off de Vere until last, hesitant to paint the star that adorns his arms. I even tried to find a decal I could borrow from a 15mm WWII Sherman, but without luck. I finally bit the bullet and attempted those daunting stars only to find they were dead simple. Easy! I was worried for nuthin'.

That completes this set of "yellow knights", ready for some skirmish battles.

And also fills out a complete 12 base cavalry unit for mass battles.

That should give me another 60 points. Here's hoping I can squeeze in a few more before the deadline to hit 500!

Fireforge Medieval Knights

This post originally appeared on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

When I started the Analogue Painting Challenge, I had written off some Fireforge Mounted knights stashed towards the bottom of my lead pile. I vacillated on which heraldry to use and was intimidated by trying to hand paint teeny tiny crosses and birds in 28mm. I figured they'd be too tough to deal with during the speed painting of the competition. After painting up my medieval foot though, I was hooked. I took the "challenge" portion of the painting contest to heart and decided to tackle some medieval knights.

When looking for a period to run Lion Rampant I settled on the reign of Edward I. He was mixed up in internal strife with the 2nd Baron's War, a brief stint on crusade and clashes in Wales and Scotland, providing lots of variety from which to pull scenarios. I collected heraldry from knights in his service, cross referenced them against the number of conflicts they engaged in and picked half a dozen knights and earls who appeared in multiple battles so I could paint a figure once and use it in scenarios throughout the later half of the 13th century.

Then I realized nobody I play against will care, so just got started on painting and didn't sweat the details. So here are my guys!

Antony Bek, Bishop of Durham

First up is Antony Bek, the Bishop of Durham. I know it's pretty common among medieval fantasy games (hence the bludgeoning weapon I gave Tony), but I'm fascinated by the idea of a holy man going to war. Antony served Edward on crusade and in his Scottish wars. I gave Antony an attendant with simple cross heraldry (painting that curley cross with ermine pattern was enough the one time).

Thomas de Berkely and his son Maurice

Next up is Thomas de Berkeley, a grizzled veteran of numerous battles. He fought at Evesham, Falkirk, the siege of Caerlaverock, and Bannockburn. His son Maurice (indicated with the extra blue label on his shield) also served in the Scottish wars, and later served Edward II. Those teeny tiny crosses? Such a pain.

Robert de Neville and retainer

Finally it's Robert de Neville and a member of his retinue. Robert de Neville was involved in the 2nd Baron's War and also has a really simple heraldic device. I love you Robert de Neville.

Six mounted knights completed. Painting (and repainting) the heraldry took longer than expected, but I'm happy with how they turned out and I'm looking forward to finishing up the next six mounted figures from the boxed set. I'm still getting my bearing with the period, so if you have any tips or info to help correct any mistakes (either painting or history) I'd be happy for the advice!