Frost Witch and Ice Worm at the Snow Lords Peak

The air crackles with magical energy and distant flashes of lightning foreshadow the wrath of an imminent storm as it approaches the Snow Lords Peak. Arcane words can barely be heard above the building winds. The Thunder booms and rumbles across the landscape and for a moment it sounds as if there is an unseen avalanche about to sweep the mountainside. The moment passes and more flashes can be seen, closer now. A figure approaches, skimming above the fresh snow and radiating an ethereal glow. The woman appears to be whispering but her words build and echo across the landscape until they drown out the next rumble of Thunder. Then the earth bursts open sending rocks and snow cascading down the slope. A monstrous Ice Worm rears up from the ground and gives out an ear-shattering shriek. The beast has answered its summons and is ready to serve its bitter mistress.

The Snow Lord issued me a challenge to find and paint a figure that was bigger than my normal fare. I put on my climbing gear and started up the Lead Mountain. By the time I reached the snowline I was worried I wouldn't find anything, having climbed across a scree slope of unpainted 6mm figures on the way up. And then I saw her! I found a figure in my lead mountain that I have absolutely no recognition of buying! It must have been another "ooo-shiney!" moment at some past show but I genuinely don't remember.

The Frost Witch figure is from Crocodile Games and is laughably described as Heroic 28mm which means next to nothing really. The witch is 40mm foot to eye and 44mm overall, without taking into account the cape which brings the height of the whole model to well over 50mm tall. Just for good measure, I mounted it on a 'rock' outcrop that stands a further 50mm tall, so overall this figure is pretty big compared to my normal work. But I had this nagging feeling I could do better... I tightened my crampons and proceeded higher up the Lead Mountain...

Towards the top of the mountain, I found a weird mixture not only of lead but plastic figures from over 30 years of gaming. And then I saw the perfect accompaniment to my witch, a giant Purple Worm. This is an old plastic figure that was originally bought pre-painted but had seen better days. It's an old Wizards of the Coast DnD figure that I used in RPG's probably 10 or fifteen years ago.  It was looking a bit worse for wear having been bashed around in various boxes over the years so I decided it was worth giving it a brand new coat of paint. The Snow Lord wanted bigger than 6mm, well this beastie comes in at a cool 120mm tall. A bit bigger than my normal fare!

To paint this I made a few repairs filled in some mould lines with liquid plastic and then gave the whole thing a thorough new base coat of grey before starting the new paint job. Instead of repainting it as a Purple Worm I have changed the colour scheme so it is now a huge Ice Worm.

Right, points...huh? No clue. The witch is 40mm so I guess 7 points for her but I have no idea what arcane mathemagical calculations need to be made to score the Worm. At 120mm it's not exactly standard-sized! I'll leave that decision in the hands of the Snow Lord. Whatever it is, combined with the usual points for the challenge location, will give my tally one final boost before everything comes to an end. I'm happy with whatever points I get as this has already been my most productive Challenge to date and I'm just happy to have taken part.

Rousell the French Mercenary

Finding models to use in what used to be called the bonus rounds, has always been a fun side challenge to the main event. It has often been difficult to find the right figures but I think some of my best creations have been inspired by this part of the competition. So when I saw the Challenge Island options I was very excited at all the possibilities open to explore. One thing I knew for certain was that whatever route I took, it had to pass through Rousell's Sandhill. How could I miss the opportunity to gently mock fellow Reject and good friend, Ray?

Of course, the tricksy bugger did give us a tough brief, picking a period of 1660 to 1699 in which to find a suitable floppy hatted figure. Thankfully I've played this game before, and called on all my experience (and mendacity) with previous bonus rounds to creatively shoehorn this figure into the appropriate time period. Of course, I had to identify it first. I suspected it was English Civil War but wasn't sure and so I put a request out to the wargaming community hivemind via Facebook. A response took less than half an hour and I had its origins identified. This is indeed for the English Civil War and is a Redoubt figure of a French mercenary officer.

It is 1660 and the English Civil War ended nearly a decade earlier but Captain Rousell has rarely been out of employment since then. Time may have moved on but this battered and ageing warrior is still reliving his younger days, still wearing his old gear and still talking about the glory days. Of course, he could never go anywhere without his closest companion, the stalwart battle badger 'Stuart'. These two could certainly tell a few tall tales about their exploits. Rousell is feeling his age now though; a lifetime on the march, sleeping in muddy camps and all the rigours of the campaign have made him old before his time. Despite losing an eye (and a few teeth) there is life in the old dog yet.

Ok, ok, I know I'm stretching the boundaries of the challenge (and credibility) a bit here but he's literally the only floppy hatted figure in my lead mountain, so cut me some slack! This was a wonderful model to paint with some amazingly detailed casting, all perfect and without any visible flash or mould lines to contend with. The only flaw was a blemish on the right cheek where his eye should be. After some thought, I cut off the blemish and turned the defect into a feature, in this case, an eye patch!

This model should earn me 40 points I think; 5 for the figure, another five for getting a Badger involved and the usual 30 for completing the location. Next stop, the Snow Lords Peak. I'm quivering with fearful anticipation at the terrible challenge that faces me next. Wish me luck, whatever it is!

Victorian Photographers

As I cut my way through the jungle on Challenge Island I hear a noise up ahead. I hear muffled voices and chillingly the only word I can make out is "...cheese...". What manner of terrible arcane ritual is taking place this far into the forest? Despite my fears, my curiosity gets the better of me and I creep silently through the underbrush. As I get closer I can hear the occasional mechanical clicking noise. With rising trepidation, I part the final fronds of the bush in front of me and reveal.....two victorian photographers! One stands ready with fresh photographic plates in his hands while his companion peaks through the viewfinder.

The figures are 28mm foot to eye. The camera is cast as part of the photographer but the tripod is assembled separately and was a proper b----r to stick in place. 

This is my fourth location on the island and in the distance, I can see the mountain of the Snow Lord himself. But first I need to see a man about a badger!

My Analogue Hobbies Campaign

A little over four weeks have now passed in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge and I thought a little review of my progress would be in order. For me, the Challenge begins way before the Dec 21st start date, usually getting underway just a few days after the last challenge has ended. I'll start thinking about what big projects I want to get done and begin the long process of restocking my supplies at the next show I attend (usually Salute) and as I get closer to December the shopping reaches a glorious crescendo. The final month of preparation usually also includes a lot of construction and priming of models so I can hit the ground running, and this year I have been off to a fantastic start.

My personal target for Challenge Ten is to beat my previous personal best of 1307 points. I had a reasonably clear idea of what projects I wanted to complete but I went into the competition knowing that I probably didn't have enough points worth of figures waiting in the wings. The opening four weeks have seen me make excellent progress towards my target, indeed I am ahead of where I need to be at this point. As I have progressed I have identified additional projects and my estimated final points total is now within a gnats whisker of my aim point.

The chart shows that I am significantly above my week-to-date target but this is a bit deceptive as I am taking a few days off in February (for a short holiday) so I need a bit of headroom to cover that interlude. I also have several ideas for large Frostgrave buildings that I want to build from foam and these take a long time to construct and will naturally take time away from painting projects. So I expect the weekly points totals will reduce as we near the end of the Challenge and again, the headroom I have now will help significantly if I am to keep to my target. Overall however I am very happy with how things are going and as I have found in previous years the challenge is the perfect antidote to painting prevarication and inertia! 

Defiant RAF Pilot

My progress in the Painting Challenge continues to move forward at a pace and my latest entry is on my journey around Challenge Island. I'm now taken at Benito's Brook with my heroic RAF pilot definitely shooting at the enemy after being shot down himself. The brief for this location was "A figure or vignette related to some brave feat of arms, almost hopeless against impossible odds." and for me, nothing personifies that as clearly as the Battle of Britain.

This turning point moment has been much mythologised and has become embedded in British culture as representative of the bulldog spirit and all that. But I think the reality of that epic clash of airpower is much more impressive. Not only were our skies being defended by incredibly brave pilots but down on the ground, Britain's air defence network was probably the best in the world at that point. Despite being outnumbered, and at times overwhelmed, we were able to grind down the Luftwaffe and not only inflict more losses on the enemy, but more crucially, destroy their will to continue the fight, buying the country a much-needed reprieve from potential invasion.

I have a mental image of this chap calmly lighting his pipe while drifting down to the ground, completely unphased by the loss of his aerial steed. He lands, takes another puff of his pipe, pulls out his service revolver and starts plugging away and any Luftwaffe pilot foolish enough to come within range! The figure is from Warlord and try as I might I can't remember where I got him from. I expect he was another "ooo shiny" moment; one of many that have resulted in my Lead Mountain growing year after year!

The model came with a shaped base but I felt it wasn't big enough so I made a slightly bigger one from 2mm MDF that I think looks better proportioned. My next step on Challenge Island is Pipers Peak and a couple of Victorians. 

Ral Partha Sorceress

As previously mentioned I'm going to be playing a lot of Frostgrave with the Padawan this year and have largely been able to repurpose my old Dungeons and Dragons figures for use in this setting. However, she did note that my collection didn't include many (or indeed any) female wizard figures. I did wonder if this was a sad reflection on the nature of figure design in the 80's and 90's (ie lots of chainmail bikini's and little else) but looking back through old magazines I see plenty of female figures that I could have bought. So I guess this 'gap' in my collection says more about me than it does about the availability of figures when I was buying them!

Feeling a little stung by this realisation I decided to see if I could find some suitable female figures online and in particular on eBay (a wonderful source of old mini's) to correct the imbalance. I eventually bought several models, some of which will be featuring later in the challenge. This female sorceress, however, was not only the oldest model in the batch it was also one of the best looking sculpts. The base stamp shows this to be a 1977 Ral Partha figure and when stood next to other '28mm' figures its a perfect example of scale creep over the decades. This magical female is best described as slender, but despite this, there is plenty of detail to be found in the design making it fun to paint.

Given that I plan on using this for Frostgrave, I decided the character needed some additional warm weather clothing and so I added a fur stole across her shoulders. I was going to sculpt this using greenstuff but inexplicably I couldn't find it (must have been lost or misplaced when I moved into my Operations Room). In the end, I used a product I have not used before, Plastic Putty by Vallejo. It's not strictly designed for sculpting but for little details like this, it worked perfectly. I applied a thin layer across the shoulders of the figure and as it dried over the course of half an hour I shaped it with a small brush.

Now if my math is correct this little figure will net me quite a few points. A base 5 for the figure, 30 points for completing the location and a further 20 bonus points because it's a 1970's miniature. I'll leave it's to the umpire to decide if I have also earned the additional ten points for the backstory on how I acquired this figure. So this could net me up to 65 points, and all because my choice of figures from my early days of gaming was a little bit misogynistic!