'Fellowship' from HerrRobert: The Iannickgeld, or A Snow Goblin spy!

   

My original plan for the Fellowship Theme was a Pathfinder Party, highlighting figures of some of the NPCs I've introduced into my games over the last year and a half or so. However, the crunch of time and fate put the kibosh on that plan. So, instead, I decided the best Fellowship Theme entry harkens back to the Side Duels, and how Curt brought them on to keep us motivated. Way back in the mists of time, Challenge Ate to be exact, I challenged Iannick to a side duel on Oldhammer Games Workshop. You can see the Challengers meet on the Field of Honour below:

Needless to say, it did not end well for me:

When Curt called brushes down, Iannick had painted an entire Forest Goblin army, and I had painted a Dwarven Gyrocopter. I blame those stupid Warlord paratroopers, plus Squirrel! So I owed him a painted goblin figure. 

Digging through my available figures and hit upon the shaman pack:

As with the Curtgeld, I wanted Iannick to have a figure he could use in his collection. Since his army is all forest goblins, and these are night goblins, this required a bit of thinking. Now, I also have no desire to paint a whole bunch of black, so I decided long ago to make my Goblin army snow goblins, kind of like Night Goblins, but inhabiting the same snow and craggy realm as my Dwarves. Mixed pairs and all that.

So I went with gray robes and a terra cotta hat, which should blend him into Iannick's horde a little, while still allowing him to stand out a bit. Per the suggestion from Teemu way back in Challenge VII, the base is deliberately simple, so Iannick can finish him up to match the rest of his forces. 

This guy was very much an act of penance. There's just so many fiddly bits on him. All the bones, and the snotling grabbing his leg, and the stewpot/cauldron, and then his staff. So much work!

Here's the obligatory selfie. I'd been seriously tempted to use Barks' Kraken Skin and Soft Tone from the Mercenary Theme, but instead decided to use a more traditional goblin skin tone in Apple Barrel's Clover Fields. I toned it down with a green brown Military Wash from Army Painter. The bones are my standard mix, and the hat is a brick red triad of craft paints that I use.

So, once this atmospheric river/Pineapple Express clears out, I'll seal him and pop him off to Iannick. He can then report the doings of the Forest Goblins back to his chief!

So there we go. And, in the best traditions of Goblinhood, this little guy nets me 75 points: 5 points for himself, 20 for gift painting, and 50 for a theme entry. Sneaky lil git.

'Mercenary' from HerrRobert: Soldier of Fortune

So, I first happened on this fellow back in June 2017, at Origins. Reaper was repping Victoria Miniatures' line of resin miniatures and conversion bits, and I picked up this and a few other products. 

After ample discussion on the Facebook group, he was slotted in as Curtgeld for Challenge Ate. Making a monkey carry a pistol? Monstrous! While I didn't get to him during Challenge Ate (stupid paratroopers sucking up time and energy), he's clearly a Landsknecht, so seemed a perfect fit for the Mercenary round.

So, as you can see, quite a bit of trimming was needed to get him ready to paint. The miniature was resin, and so there was a lot of flakes and residue on both him and the monkey.

I decided on a pretty simple paint scheme, using a red and blue combination I've used for Altdorf (in the Empire of the Warhammer setting), and just alternating the red and blue. Red on his uniform is Vallejo Burnt Cadmium Red, then craftpaint Iron Oxide and Georgia Clay. The feather and the money's fez and vest are  Vallejo Burnt Cadmium Red, Game Color Bloody Red, Vallejo Red, then Vallejo Vermilion. Blue is craft paint Dark Prussian Blue, Vallejo Prussian Blue, then two highlights of a 50/50 mix of Vallejo Prussian Blue and Grey Blue.

So we have an arrogant Imperial officer, a down on his luck nobleman or rogueish fop? Either way, per the Victoria Miniatures advertisement, this fine fellow is always accompanied by his trusty pistol carrying monkey.

As Teemu suggested back in Challenge VII, Curtgeld figures should be something Curt uses in his collection. So I intentionally just painted the base black. That way, he can finish it to fit into the rest of his Renaissance collection.

The face was fun to paint. While the look on the advert is more a look of grim determination, I think this guy is wearing more of a smirk. I always paint eyes and lips on 25mm figures, but this was the first real use of eyebrows. I think the Spocklike raised single eyebrow sells the smirk.

And so there we go. Once the latest Pineapple Express clears (it being California's monsoon season), he'll get a dose of clear coat and anti-shine varnish to protect the paint, and get winged off to Curt, along with my Challenge VII Curtgeld, seen below:

So, that should be worth 7 or so points.

While the resin was a real pain to work with at times, I may acquire another one to stick in a pike block of Empire or Tilean troops.

'Flight' from HerrRobert: Doomdiver Hunt

Way back in the mists of time, there was a goblin lord who announced he posessed "the most potent of all War Machines:" the Doom Divers! Needless to say, removing said puissance from the field was of vital import to the dwarves of the Grey Mountains. Fortunately, the dwarf arsenal has an ideal weapon to counter enemy war machines: the GYROCOPTER!

Armed with proven Dwarven steam cannon technology and at least five hand-thrown bombs, brave pilot Snorri Thunderbraids weaves his gyrocopter through the woods lining the slopes of the Grey Mountains, on a doomdiver hunt.

Snorri Thunderbraids

This model is the 4th/5th edition version of the gyrocopter (unlike the DH-2 looking one they debuted in 6th Ed), and I bought it sometime in 1998 (right about the time I got a driver's license). Being very young and inexperienced, I was barely able to glue the gyrocopter together and, given how fiddly the mounting bracket is, absolutely did not have it on a flying base of any kind. It was certainly one of my first dwarf models, after playing around with Empire (too fiddly for a sixteen year old to build well) and Bretonnians (no guns, agahst!), some of which you will see later. To give you an idea of my painting skill, here's my runemaster of that era:

Not bad for a teen, but very basic. Not part of the Challenge - yet.

 I blame the Challenge for inspiring me to get the Warhammer stuff back out, stripping it down, and repainting. So into the Simple Clean the gyrocopter went:

Gratuitous yet obligatory butt shot

As described in the Warhammer Armies Dwarfs supplement, dwarves of the Grey Mountains (known as grey dwarves) are poor and rather simple in their tastes, so I went with a relatively simple paint scheme for the unit. Naturally, I made grey the central color of the uniform. Sleeves and pants on Snorri, and all cloth on the gyrocopter (wings and main rotorblade) were done in my usual grey palate: Delta Ceramcoat Charcoal Grey, then Delta Ceramcoat Hippo Grey, then Vallejo Neutral Gray (70.992).

Good shot of the blade and wings

Because the Grey Mountains lie next to Bretonnia, and because my old dwarf paint job had a distinct Second Empire theme, I chose to do a French artillery green for the body of the gyrocopter. Since my Howard Hughes French Artillery Green I used with the original dwarves. 

The last GW figures I painted before the gyrocopter. You can see the homage. Not part of the Challenge

So, I leapt into the dark, and tried using Americana Light Avocado, highlighted by Americana Celery Green. My major concern was to make sure I brought out all the lovely wood grain detail in the gyrocopter body. I'm rather pleased with how that turned out, especially on the tail. 

I was afraid that going with a metallic chainmail over grey clothes would be too much, so I tried bluing the mail and axe blade with Vallejo Blue Wash 73.207 over Reaper's tarnished steel 09206. I'm not happy with how it turned out. I was going for the blue I got on this guy's armor, when experimenting at ConQuest Sac 2016's:

A Reaper figure, and a sweet paint job if I do say so myself - also not part of the Challenge

Next time, I think I'll mix metallic blue with a metallic silver and see if that works better. 

Gyrocopters come on Games Workshop's standard 30mm flight base, or the old clear hexagons. However, I was frankly concerned the mini would tip easier, and/or get damaged, so I replaced it with a big GW flight base, the 60mm round ones. Groundwork is glued railroad ballast, washed with Games Workshop Nuln Oil (not a success), then drybrushed with Delta Ceramcoat Deep Taupe, Apple Barrel Country Grey, and Apple Barrel Granite Gray. 

I tried adding additional rock to the base, but it got lost in the winter static grass and the snow. I've a few spots left on the base, so I might add a few winter shrubs if they arrive. I used Army Painter's Anti-Shine Matt Varnish to seal, which frosted up the flight stand. At first, I was not happy, but now I like it.

So there ya go. One Dwarf Gyrocopter, fifteen points for the vehicle, and another five for the pilot. Twenty in total. Not bad for my first entry, and one day of painting (I painted this all Friday, and finished the basework this afternoon). It also gets me on the board for the Fantasy Challenge!

Now to find Iannick's Doom Divers and steam them clean off the table.

Artist: Robert Miles

Song: Landscape

I had the Pandora Trance Channel on while painting and writing up the post, so I chose the last song playing.