What I painted in January 2020

The new year has begun, and the first full month of the AHPC has been in full swing, causing my brushes to overheat.

Though the very first thing I finished this year, wasn`t part of the challenge planning I made.

This little figure, that I`ll be using as some scatter terrain in my 6mm games, was the very first thing that came out of my new Ender 3 printer.  And I liked it so much actually, I printed up a few more to finish the small test filament roll that came with the machine.

But then it was all back to the Challenge, and I managed some good points gains.

The first entry this month, for a bonus location, as a bunch of 6mm epic models to expand my FWC Marine Corps with.

In WarCry, GW at last released another Chaos Dwarf, so of course he got painted up as well!

The final location on the path had me paint something up with "floppy hats", so enter the 1st Picardie regiment in 6mm.

Before taking the balloon and travel to the next path on the island with the help of this Crisis figure from 2016.

Arriving there, a 15mm Godzilla was painted to fullfill a sci-fi requirement.

Before my first Middle-Earth models of the challenge made their appearance.

Next up was a bunch of deadline painting, as I realised on saturday evening I needed these guys the next friday... so they weren't painted for a specific location entry

And the same goes for this little fellow, he was just to cute not to print after The Mandalorian went a long way redeeming my Star Wars franchise feelings...

So, we kick off the year with no less then 71 models, good going!

Review: Perfect Six 6mm Sandbags

Some much needed barricades for BKC are looked at today, and once again they come from Perfect Six Miniatures in the UK.

Knocking you back a very modest 2.50 GBP for 12, the set contains 4 variants, and you get 3 of each.

Ordering them can be done through HERE.

Lord Ipsqueek's Adventures: Ready for napping!

Oh, thank you mommy and daddy!

I've seen you already prepared my lovely bedroom, and made my bed, so when I arrive soon, I can do what I like doing the most right now: nappies!!!

It's such a love bed you made, thanks grandma for giving it to me!  I can see myself spending a lot of time there, dozing off and dreaming of the wild adventures I will have enjoyed during the day.

I can`t wait until I`ll be with you in just a month :-)

AHPC10: Piper's Peak: The Watcher of Kharna

Reaching the Peak, one can see the Snow Lord's Mountain on the horizon...

And as such Tamsin's challenge has been laid down, paint models gazing to the horizon.

To that end, I dug up a model from my MESBG pile, namely The Watchers of Kharna, especially because one of them is actually holding his hand above his eyes to gaze towards distant places, making him perfectly suitable for the challenge laid down.

So this elite warrior from the Fallen Realms arrives in my forces, bostering the ranks of Harad and bringing wrath and ruin to Middle-Earth.

A total of a single 28mm figure painted as such, yielding me 5 points and the challenge bonus for this round, totalling 35 points.

Another Life

Starbuck is back in space!  Or at least Katee Sackhoff is... and again as a hard as nails, but inherently flawed character.

In this Netflix Original series, the typecasting is a bit a precursor to a series full of "I`ve seen that before" moments.

An alien artefact lands on earth, and a special ship, the Salvare, is dispatched to the coordinates they believe it hails from.  While researchers try to decipher the artefacts secrets on Earth, an accident occurs onboard, causing it to have to make a detour.

Along the way, Niko must face the problems of a crew not really trusting her (yet), and they loose friends during the journey... but however, in this series you just open another soma (cryostasis) pod and replace him or her with another equal specialist... detracts a bit of the feel of loss to be honest.
And of course, the aliens turn out to be an evil race, that only wants destruction as the crew learns... by landing on a wrong planet.

Okay, so far so good, and a pretty basic storyline for most science-fiction series, but then we get a couple of events that gave me the above feeling.  A virus that makes you cough up your nervous system, erupting in the way of a chestburster (okay, by the back in this case), alien insect like beings that attach to the brains to communicate (hello Independance Day) and make one of the crew the "bad guy", an AI developping emotions and feelings... you see, nothing revolutionary there to be honest.
Perhaps the most "stunning" thing about the series, is that it is gender- and sex- transistent as it advertises, but then again... Star Trek Discovery anyone?

It has been renewed for a second season, but to be honest I won`t be counting down the days until it airs.  I will be watching it, eventually, but so far it is all to "clichee" for me...

AHPC10: Bromley's Butte: Lothlorien Elves

Making way around Challenge Island, one has need for good intel as the area needs to be reconoitred.

And that is exactly the task set upon us, brave explorers, in Bromley's Butte: scouts, hunters, light infantry... those that know the terrain and sneak around it...

And for that entry, I selected to paint up some more MESBG figures, because, well, I have a mountain of lead, resin and plastic for the game rivalling Smaug's pile of gold.

More precisely, the unarmoured troops of the Lady Galadriel's realm, Lothlorien.  Elves are already stealthy guardians of the woodland realms, but these even take that to a higher level, all equipped with their elven cloaks, to sneak through the underbrush and hunt intruders into their lands.

Produced by Games Workshop, the entry contains six of these elite hunters, which are all plastic models.


I also printed five "spider cocoons" to go with the models, to make it all look just that bit more threatening and grimm on the tabletop, as the Elves hunt the large spiders in service of Sauron.

So that makes a nice total of 6 Wood Elves for this entry, while I counted the cocoons as a single 28mm model as well seen their size and bases "footprint" , tallying me 55 points in addition to the 30 points for the location.

The Haul Report 214: Let's get ready to ruuuumble

Yush, because my Chaos Dwarf made to order "Christmas gift to myself" arrived this week.

And they will be going to the front (or well, near front) of the painting queue as they must be ready for the Blood Bowl league over at TSA this year.

But I also obtained the missing White Dwarf from november, which came with a heap of goodies (some I`ll be giving away through my YouTube channel or so), but the seller also send along a free issue, the oktober 2015 one, always nice for a bit of nostalgia reading.

But now to assemble that team first...

AHPC10: Space Pikachu

Inspiration can come from the strangest of places, and for this (unplanned) entry it came from... a meme.

While I like The Mandalorian (offering a lot of redemption to the franchise after the recent three movies), and Noshi is going constantly like "ooh", "aaaah" and "it's so adoooorable" when Baby Yoda comes into view, that wasn`t the reason for this entry.

It was this meme...

I laughed so hard at the nickname of Space Pikachu, I just needed to print one for a stander by in Star Wars Legion.  A game I`m not actually playing (yet), haven`t bought models for (yet), let alone painted up something for (yet).

Except then this little guy...

The model was printed on my Ender 3, but the ears where to wide and thin on the STL to come out decently without breaking during clean-up.  So to that end, I sculpted some new ones on him using greenstuff.

Now to explain to Noshi you can`t actually PLAY him in the game (again, yet, I guess FFG is going to jump on the hype wagon soon)...

And that adds a 5 points to the tally for a 28mm scale model... and the start of journey to a galaxy far, far away...

On the Painting Desk 127

The AHPC thunders on, especially if like me your on a deadline, but I`m nearing the half-way mark of my goal as we speak.

Now to puch through heavily to complete some bigger entries and as such get that goal sorted hopefully around half of february.

This zeek has been productive, with two entries uploaded on the page, and a third ready to be done as well.  So we now move to the final two entries of the current Path, as well as go on the adventure for the fresh one that opens... and make work of that Infernal Dwarf army for a bit.

That will mean a lot of red tones will be painted the coming weeks...

Lord Ipsqueek's Adventures: making mommy shine

Hey everyone, it's me again, and let me tell you about something gorgeous that happened to me.

While I`m still growing strong, preparing to show the world my face and my name in just a few weeks now, I went on a photoshoot!

Thanks to a good friend of Mommy, namely Kim of Happy Feet, I can all give you a look how good me and mommy are matched together.  I know mommy that I at times inadvertently cause mayhem by kicking your stomach or punching your blatter, but don`t you agree that we make a great pair!

My mommy looks so lovely in this picture :-)  I already love her very much!

And daddy?  Lets keep this a little secret between us, but he often spends the nights just looking at me and mommy sleep, guarding us from the monsters under the bed.

He's a hero who will always protect me from the boo-boo's!

Well, that was me for now, I`ll be back soon with more of my wonderous adventures!!!

AHPC10: Fran's Fjord: The King of Monsters

In this dastardly adventure on the Challenge Island, I visited Fran's Fjord.

Home of the Lord of All Things 15mm, the subject had to be sci-fi or imagi-nation, and I rummaged through my stack of unpainted figures to find one suitable.

Enter Khurassan Miniatures 15mm Godzilla, suitably wading through water as well as it makes it's way across the fjord to the other shore.

Even submerged, the King of Monsters still stands the size of a 28mm model, ready to rain nuclear flames on those that oppose it!

And this should allow me to scratch off Fran's Fjord of my places to visit list, granting me 30 bonus points but I honestly have no clue what to score the beast itself?  Is it 8 points for a vehicle or 2 for infantry?

Review: Perfect Six 6mm Graveyard

Today I'm turning my eye to a Graveyard set, produced by Perfect Six Miniatures in the UK.

Coming in at a modest 3.00 GBP for the set, this is what you get:

Like it?  You can order it HERE.

The Hungover Games

What... did... I... just... watch????

Okay, bar an excessive amount of the "assets" of Sophie Dee and Kayden Kross.

The Hungover Games is a 2014 spoof movie, putting together The Hangover and the Hunger Games into a 90 minute trip of absurdity.  In the future, so much garbage is produced in Hollywood, that every district (aka, archtype of movie genres and jokes) has to deliver warriors to fight it out in a battle to the death.
The Depp's, Middle Earth, Avatar, Gratuitious Nudity (a plenty in the movie)... and a bunch of hungover bachelorparty blokes that ended up there because they where looking for their friend.

What follows is a heap of lame sexual orientated, drugsrelated and alcohol infused silly jokes, which are clearly aimed at the puberescal adult male... like me?  because i did laugh quite a bit, to the amazement (and scrutiny) of Noshi.

No, this is actually a terrible movie, but well, it just is so stupid it becomes funny... to the never growing up male.

With a lot of gratuitious nudity.

AHPC10: Flying to Fran's Fjord

One of the fun things of Challenge Island this year, is you can get to any grid by making use of Lady Sarah's Balloon Service.

And as I have completed the Path of the New Shiney, I`m doing just that, and taking an airlift to Fran's Fjord.

But to make use of the Balloon Service, there is a fee: paint a female figure entry.  My first fee, as I`ll be making use of the balloon quite a bit, is one of our Crisis wargame show entrance figures: Queen Mathilde van Vlaanderen, wife of William the Conqueror.

Sculpted by Paul Hicks, she was handed out to the first 1000 visitors during the show's 2016 edition.

Now, for those intrested in obtaining a copy of her, she is still available on my ebay page, as the responsibel board member of TSA, tasked with selling the older figures to help pay for the new editions, and can be found HERE.

And so we take to the skies, and prepare ourselves for the next Path of entries in the challenge, adding these 5 points to our tally for a single 25mm figure, as well as the 30 points for making use of the service for the very first time.

White Dwarf Januari 2020

It has been a while since I did these overviews of the most recent White Dwarf, but I missed out on november (it's in the mail as we speak) and only got the december issue last week, two days before this one appeared.

To say it has been busy the past few months is quite an understatement, but now life is slowly settling down (until, well, the baby arrives in 1.5 months that is) so I found time for a new overview... and with a renewed intrest in Games Workshop (which is something for a later post).

And this months issue is number 450, not bad for a magazine dedicated to a single product...

After the usual regulars like the Editorial and the Contact pages, we jump to Worlds of Warhammer, in which Phil Kelly takes a look at how stories surrounding characters and armies are born.

The first set of new rules this month are Kill Team Dispositions, allowing to tailor your teams to a specific way of operating in their warzones, and comes with a heap of narrative scenarios.

Last of the Silent Kings is a 40k article looking into the mysterious Necrontyr.

Urban Battlefields says it all, a look at creating forces that look as if they are going into cityfights all the time.

We jump to the Age of Sigmar section next, with the short fiction piece Red Prospect, following a Kharadron Overlord salvage effort.

The second part of new rules for Skies of Slaughter, aerial battles in Age of Sigmar, is up next, bringing scenarios and a campaign for this special form of warfare, as well as a heap of warscrolls.

In Rules of Engagement, Jervis talks (repeats actually) about the three ways of how to play Age of Sigmar: matched, open and narrative.  By far the least intresting article this issue...

A Tale of Four Warlords looks at the progress the Stormvault warlords made over the past weeks.

In this months Battle Report, the new Ossiarch Bonereapers fight it out with the Ogre Tribes.

In Glory Points, the monthly feature for Underworlds, we take a look at how to prepare for tournaments and what you should need to consider building your force.

With Fates Intertwined, we also get a piece of Beastgrave fiction this issue.

Blackstone Fortress receives new rules as a series of scenarios is presented to free some captured explorers from the evil madman.

Basing Masterclass takes a look at how you can tailor your bases for greater effect, both for single models as for armies.

New Year, New Army is a look at four pretty good looking collections that might wet your appetite to start one yourself.

Raising the Westfold is all about the new, gorgeous Rohan house kit, and the possibilities it offers to make your Rohan landscapes.

Finally, in Blood Bowl we get the chance to replay one of those "matches to remember" with all the historically present players, before ending this issue with the In the Studio feature.

A decent magazine once again, with a nice variety of articles and rules.  And no new "armies" this time though as that space is taken up by the excellent aerial rules article.