AHPC XI Wrap Up - Reilly

AHPC XI was my first proper solo attempt at a painting challenge and my did it breeze past. I initially set the goal of  "yeah I suppose I'll put some paint on that big box of goblin's I've got stashed away in the corner" and now I'm coming away with the better part of a new 2.5K point army made up entirely of goblins and their 8 legged friends. Pretty hard to say I'm not happy with my efforts.

For my favourite unit of the whole challenge, its hard to go past my final entry of the Arachnarock. For proportionately large time and effort I put in, I couldn't be happier with it. I still find that everytime I look at it its hard not to get the creeps.

Last but not least, (bar Leonidas) these are the few non-greenskin contributions that managed to make their way to my painting desk. Khazrak One-Eye of course was the addition to a certain Beastmen army you may have seen around.

A fantastic project to be apart of, so it'd be amiss if I didn't give a warm thanks to Curt and all the minions who slaved away to make it all possible.

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2021/04/from-reillyog-ahpc-xi-wrap-up.html

AHPC XI Wrap Up - Paul

It was great to be back for my seventh Challenge and to help out as a minion for the fourth time. For me it was a Season of two halves: a highly productive first period (while working from home in COVID quarantine) and then steady but stalling progress.

Not bad, but it always seems more at the time I find...

I set myself a target of 750 points and completed 863 points with key projects being Caesarian Romans and Warhammer Fantasy Beastmen. I set myself a 1k stretch goal but fell short at the end as I was renovating my grungy garage into a new gaming studio. Timing could have been better but the outcome is great!

All new lights, wall panelling, insulation, carpet and cabinets!

Overall my Minobus was probably my best single unit but I am most pleased with the way I started and completed the core units of my Caesarian Roman Army.  My most surprising project was my unplanned  monochrome Ninja experiment. Side challenge wise I was well down on skullz this year but still posted 159 noggins, and it was fun to grab 5th in the GW duel.  

Best of all it was wonderful to complete the Challenge alongside Reilly and to encourage eachother along the way and share modelling and painting ideas.

Blood for the Blood God!

Ready to Fight for Caesar!

I've now amassed just over 6000 lifetime challenge points and I'll definitely be back to add to that tally! Thanks Curt, fellow minions and everybody who contributes to the wonderful AHPC community.

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2021/03/from-paul-og-challenge-wrap-up.html

AHPC XI: Kragg the Grim

For my last entry of AHPC XI, I present my Curtgeld: Kragg the Grim, a character Dwarf Lord from Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

Kragg is an ornery old Runelord, whose age and temper are almost beyond measure. While he has made great breakthroughs in runecraft during his life and can do amazing things, he sees nobody else worthy to inherit his knowledge and refuses to share his inner secrets with others.

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Kragg_the_Grim

I stayed rather faithful in palette to this portrayal of Kragg

So for my Curtgeld this year I present Kragg and suspect he will be most welcome by a certain young Dwarf general of my acquaintance, who recently met his target in his first proper solo AHPC. This leaves me a touch shy of my 1k stretch goal but for good reason, as will be shown in my wrap up post next week.

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2021/03/from-paul-og-miles-cantankerous-25.html

AHPC XI: A Snarl of Minotaurs

I've been working on this entry since Christmas but its been slow going. In fact, its taken me a few years to collect these 12 old metal GW Minotaurs and its great to get this elite unit of Monstrous Infantry completed.

This massed metal Monster unit has quite some heft!

This phalanx of 12 Minotaurs is a brute shock unit - just the thing for my Beastman Army! Led by Taurox the Brass Bull, it includes a Doombull, a Bloodkine Champion, a Banner Bearer and 8 Minotaur warriors. In Warhammer terms thats around 1250 points - almost a whole army it itself. Wonderfully indulgent - cant wait to try it out on the table.

I submitted Taurox previously this challenge, so thats 11 big bad monsters at 10 points apiece for a total of 110.  That takes me across my challenge target for this season!

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2021/03/from-paul-og-snarl-of-minotaurs-110.html

AHPC XI: Ungor Radiers

Despite another busy week in Man Cave central, I have managed to finished these 20 Ungor Raiders for my Beastman Army.

Ungors are the lowest class in Beastman society, brutalised (an often eaten) by the larger Gors. Nevertheless, they are used in scouting and raiding roles in the army. They form the skirmisher elements (though not very good ones) and provide some (though poor) bow units. 

So why bother taking them? They are useful in an ambushing role to take out enemy warmachines from behind, as well as screening the main Gor warrior units.

Even better, I got to put them into action today in a Warhammer game against High Elves. They did very well (for Ungors) but I did like seeing this:

which reminded me of this :-)

This unit takes my Beastman Army past 200 foot figures - most painted in the past year during AHPCs X and XI

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2021/02/from-paul-og-ungor-raiders-100-points.html

AHPC XI: Roman Auxiliary Archers

To add some ranged firepower to my Legionaries, I've added some Auxiliary Archers to my Caesarian Cohorts with these metal Warlord figures. With their long drooping moustaches I see them as last month's conquered Gauls, now sworn into service and fighting next to their new Masters to beat up on their old tribal enemies!

As missile troops cant form close order (in Infamy Infamy!), I've gone for more widely spaced circle basing rather than the closer packed squares that the Legionaries close up in. I think it adds to their personality.  I really like that they come in both standing and kneeling firing positions too.

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2021/01/from-paul-og-roman-auxiliary-archers-40.html

AHPC XI: Khorngors

After some solid Challenge productivity in quarantine, progress slowed when Mrs Man Cave checked for secret doors in the Chambers of Challenge. A mystery staircase went up to the hitherto unknown location: The Balcony of Domestic Distraction!  Cue the requested significant sanding, repainting etc With that out of the way, I got back to more entertaining scales of re-modelling :-)

Back in the day, hearty Beastmen Gor warriors could be given different marks of Chaos. Many know the erstwhile Pestigor (who also make fair Blood Bowl players on Nurgle teams) but those who follow the Blood God are known as Khorngors.

The Khorngor models were removed from production back in 4th or 5th edition so it took me a few years to collect enough of these metal figures to complete a full unit of 20 (including Command characters) but finally here they are in all their Oldhammer glory.

These will be one of the 3 elite troop units in my army, being screened into contact by the supporting hordes where they will (I hope) hit like a truck. Lets see how that goes.

In addition to the points these earn me, they boast an impressive number of skullz - as you would expect for followers of Khorne. In fact there are 127 of them amongst them!

Blood for the Blood God!

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2021/01/by-paul-khornegors-for-blood-god-101.html

AHPC XI: Beastman Army additions

Amongst the Caesarian Romans I have been progressing, I've worked on a a few Warhammer Beastmen submissions too and here are some I did over the Christmas/New Year period.  First up are five Centigors, twisted versions of the Centaur that are prone to drunkenness and fits of rage. Thus, they can be a bit fickle as the light cavalry component of the army. Then again, one doesn't play Beastmen to be super competitive... 

These are older, metal GW sculpts so provide some gratifying heft when picking them up

But 5 isn't enough to make one's enemies quail in fear! They join another 5 I did mid-year as a second hand stall rescue, as well as the Centigor hero Ghorrus Warhoof. 

Ghorrus wields his mighty Mansplitter club and his head is adorned with the skull of a Unicorn Lord of which it is said that: 

Atop his scalp Ghorros wears the broken skull of Arsil, the Prince of Unicorns, who had an unfortunate encounter with Ghorros in a moonlit glade centuries ago. It still harbours some of the protective magic of its former owner

which goes to show that silly headwear is everywhere really!

these boys should make a dent when they hit

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2020/12/from-paulog-centigors-50-points.html

Next up is a pack of savage forest boars that the Beastmen goad into attacking their enemies in battle. This pack of angry yet succulent and excellent with a nice apple sauce beasts is comprised of 6 tuskgors and one larger, angrier Razorgor.

I have no idea what they will be like on the tabletop but as long as they keep Reilly's Dwarf army distracted even for a little while they will be useful. The smaller beasts are plastic models while the big one is resin. The level of detail suited them to be painted with GW contrast paints and then highlighted in the traditional way.

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2021/01/by-paul-og-i-smell-bacon-40-points.html

One of my key AHPC XI goals is to add some Minotaurs to my Beastman army, starting with this character. His backstory is that he has some behavioural issues which incline him to embrace the "spill blood and harvest skulls" end of the naughty spectrum.  As a result he has been blessed by Chaos with a brass hide to protect him while he indulges in said behaviour.*  He also goes by the nom de guerres of Slaughterhorn and Bloodbeast, which is probably why he doesn't get invited to many parties.

There is no official fig for this character so I used an old school metal GW Minotaur which I think is rather cool and is a whopping 60mm tall (not including his raised axe).  I worked the brass up through 3 different layers and washes, and then did some detailing to break it up, deliberately avoiding contrasts other than red.

* If you want the long version of his backstory you can find it here:

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Taurox

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2021/01/from-paul-og-taurox-brass-bull-10-points.html

Out of Quarantine and...Ninjas!

This submission was totally unplanned but became quite an absorbing (and distracting!) experiment.  Recently I have been revisiting Samurai skirmish gaming with the Ronin rules. Back in AHPC VI I painted a small force of unarmored Sword masters and thought I might surprise Reilly but adding some Ninjas (surprise Lad!).  As I saw the greyscale entries for the Chamber of Darkness, I thought it might be a great opportunity to give this very different style of painting a try. Stealthy Ninjas by moonlight would be dark and monochrome anyway, right? How hard could it be? Boy did I learn a lot.

Lets just say it was lucky I had 10 figures in this project so that I had multiple opportunities to improve.  I think trying to keep the figures' dark and sinister look meant that I further reduced the available desaturated palette.  I started with a Grey Seer undercoat and then used the GW Black Templar contrast paint as starting point. 

I was challenged in thinking about light direction while also using highlights to achieve a pseudo metallic finish for weapons glinting in the moonlight - but I'm pleased overall with the effect. I also added a few discrete spot colours through bloodstains and red flowers on the leader’s base, thought the latter doesn't work so well as it distracts the eye from the figure (maybe it is a Ninja stealth technique!). These discrete bloodspots are quite different to the usual messy blood stains on my beastmen's axes!

Along the way I was heavily inspired by Michael Awdry’s fantastic Seven Greyscale Samurai from back in AHPC III (http://analogue-hobbies.blogspot.com/2013/02/from-michaela-seven-samurai-in.html) and Curt’s greyscale WW1 project (where I learned the term ‘chiaroscuro’!).

Overall, I did not fully achieve the look I was after but am happy enough. I appreciated the challenge of trying something new, which I wouldn’t have otherwise done, and I would welcome constructive comments and ideas.  This submission is ten metal 28mm figures from Warlord's "Ninjas of Iga" range.

I have now completed my mandatory isolation and this is what I have painted during those 14 day - the only TV I watched was the news and both seasons of The Mandalorian (how good is that!). Then again the whole ‘working from home’ thing really got in the way :-)

The Ninja look quite at home slinking at the back next to the monchrome wall!

AHPC XI: Caesarian Romans (III)

Some additions to my growing Caesarian Roman force:

To oppose Alan's rebellious Romans I have build a third base of eight Legionaries for my white shield legion, and a bolt thrower to provide ranged fire. The Romans were famed for their complex artillery, of which many types were carried in the legions' baggage trains including the larger Onagers and Ballistas for siege work. This one was nicknamed the Scorpion and was one of the smallest, its primary purpose being to provide direct fire support to the Legionaries.

"I bet you a wineskin that you can't hit that big, naked hairy fellow over there"

I did their tunics in a brighter white, to reflect these fellows being occupied with their machinery and not doing all that dirty infantry stuff. I also wanted to try and tie in their colours to the white shields of the Legionaries. The red flowers on the base help tie them into the Legionaries' red tunics too. 

Unlike the rest of the army these are metal figs (Warlord)

These new units complete this component of the Army for now. Next I will be progressing other supporting elements and the Army's command figures.

"Form Wedge!"

The army project thus far, all painted during this challenge (all Warlord figures)

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2021/01/from-paul-og-scorpion-and-legionaries.html