'Fellowship' from MilesR: The Earps

 My final bonus round submission is the "Earp Faction" from Knuckledusters "Gunfighters Ball" range.  The faction consists of the three Earp Brothers and there three close allies.  This submission should make all of you want to go and re-watch the movie Tombstone

 The first group consists of Doc Holiday, Virgil Earp and Texas Jack Vermillion (now that's a name, isn't it?).

The other three members of the Earp faction are Turkey Creek Johnson, Wyatt and Morgan Earp. The figures are cast as they were thought to appear on October 26, 1881 for the gunfight at the OK Corral.  Well almost, as Texas Jack and Mr Johnson were not present in that famous but very short gunfight (it lasted 30 seconds).  Those two joined the clan for the famous "Earp Vendetta Ride" from March 20th to April 15th of 1882.  The ride resulted in the deaths of most of the Cowboy faction under dubious legal grounds.

I do wish we used named like Texas Jack Vermillion more often in todays business world.  It would make the bland business meetings I endure just a little bit better.

The ride was caused by the wounding of Virgil in an ambush and assignation of Morgan while he was playing pool.

While the movie Tombstone is a great action flick, it does present a rather sanitized version of Wyatt Earp.  In reality he was a complex and somewhat shady character.  Prior to his becoming a lawman in Dodge city he dabbled on the other side of the legal system and had numerous arrests for misdeeds including (1) Stealing tax proceeds as a tax collector, (2) Stealing horses from Indian country (both of these were in Missouri.  Wyatt escaped from jail while being held on the horse stealing charges and that warrant remained open the rest of his life.  Upon leaving Missouri, he went to Peoria, Illinois were he was eventually arrested again but this time shared with operating a, ummm, house of ill-repute.  all of these deeds happened in the space of six months in 1872.

Well this isn't a Western trivia challenge site so I'll stop my rambling and end my submission here.  Thanks for reading.

'Water Feature' from MilesR: The Spawning Pool

After the disaster of the river resin pour, I abandoned my efforts on the water feature project and decided to resume work on my memoirs - it's something I know that I owe posterity.  I had left
off my writings during one of my famed jungle expeditions in the Amazon basin for the Royal Geographic Society.    Let's see where was I?, ah yes, queue harp music and......

My intrepid party was hacking its way through the dense jungle underbrush when I spied a strange structure through the vegetation...

As we exited the jungle the structure appeared both very ancient and somewhat disturbing.  The edifice emanated an aura of menace that made the less stalwart of my party swoon.

As I bravely approached the stairway which was cut into the rock, the air became heavy with a foul odor which grew stronger as I approached.  To be honest, it reminded me of my chief rival in the Society - Professor Challenger - good lord that man can clear a room after consuming a bowl of the Societies famous chile con carne.  In the name of all that is holy, NEVER fall for his "pull-my-finger" joke - but I digress.

Cresting the staircase, we discovered the source of the oppressive scent - a feted pool that was more slime than water and more alive than inert.

Yee Gads, we've* discovered some sort of spawning pool that still seems to be active even though the original builders have long faded into obscurity.  The water was teaming with deadly denizens of the deep.

* Of course when I say "we've", I really mean "I've"

Never one to be cowed by unspeakable horror, I quickly ordered my party to circle the spawning pool to get observations of all four sides.  I bravely elected to stay at the base of the stairway with the supplies.  It's a well know fact among jungle explorers that guarding the supplies is the most dangerous job there is - poking around the jungle teaming with unknown terrors pales in comparison.

They slowly circled the structure wary not to make any undo noise.  Who knows if any guardians of this foul pool lurk nearby.  I'm sure my presence way behind them provided the team with courage they needed to finish the survey.

As I was crouching behind a supply crate tying my shoelace, a member of the party stumbled on a loose stone, causing it to fall into the pool with a loud splash. That fool Took had always been a clumsy sort.  I thought maybe we'd be better off if he had just thrown himself into pool so we'd be rid of him.  The party froze for a few seconds and then began to breath a sigh of relief until the jungle was rent with the roar of a giant beast.

Those idiots! they've drawn the attention of one of the Guardians.  I was faced with a terrible choice - rush to the aid of my party or leave them to their fate and return to the civilized world with the precious knowledge I carried.  It was a difficult decision but I quickly realized the depriving the world of my presence was a far, far  more unjust outcome.  I retreated into the jungle and made my way back to the Amazon River content in the knowledge I put humanity first and that idiot Challenger would be buying the drinks when I got back to the Society's barroom.

I think that's enough work on the memoirs for a today....

 This was a bit of a rush project and started out as some scrap materials 7 days ago.

The pool itself was a very convenient way to sore the bricks while building.  I used a rolled up ball of tinfoil to texture the bricks so they looked like a rock face.

 Once everything was hot glued in place, I put another heavy bead along the bottom seem - there would be no leaks of leaching with this project.

I based coated the project dark grey and then painted the bottom of the pool bright lime green.

 5 rounds of dry brushing later I added some fibers inked green to look like vegetation.  I soaked them in matte medium to hold them in place.

 Moment of truth - the first resin pour - the resin is tinted with the same lime green paint.  There were two more resin pours with slightly lighter tints and I added a few swimming beasties.  All in all I'm pleased with how it came out.

The project this week was interrupted by an unscheduled trip to London - here's a shot of the new US Embassy - it's the lighted cube on the left bank above Vauxhall bridge.  I was in London for less than 36 hours - ughh.  I will be back the first week of April and will be going to my first Salute ever!  I had planned to paint some figures to go with the spawning pool but British Airways continues with their barbaric policy of prohibiting passengers from painting minis while inflight.  16 hours of prime workbench time out the window.

In terms of points the "Spawning Pool" is 12x12x2.5 inches in volume which works out to 360 cubic inches or 1.67 of our terrain cubes or 33 points.  The dinosaur and jungle terrain were made prior to this challenge.

Sorry for the long winded post.  I was feeling a bit silly as I started typing and well things got out of hand.

'Mercenary' from MilesR: Barbary Xebec

My Mercenary Bonus round entry is a Barbary Pirate Xebec in 15mm scale.  How is this a Mercenary?  Well the Historicon game I'm putting on this summer if a based on a hypothetical invasion of Britain by Napoleon and the scenario is titled "To Catch A King". The British player needs to escort King George off the map and have hired a very fast Barbary Xebec to help with that effort.  More on that topic a bit later.  The Xebec model and Barbary crew are from Thoroughbred Miniatures and are very nicely done.

A closer shot of the ship.  She's armed with 12 nine pounder guns which will provide a nice punch both for long and short range encounters.  The ship will be crewed by 10 stands of blood thirsty Barbary pirates so this ship will be difficult for a single French Frigate to take on.  Perhaps that's why they'll have three in the game?

I really like the look of a Xebec and think she'll be a lot of fun to command on the table top.  As with the most of the previous ships models, the rigging has been left off until I finish play testing so I can figure how easy or hard it is to manipulate crew figures on the deck.

A close up of the crew.  The casting and sculpting of these figures are as good as AB so that's a very high compliment.  They were a lot of fun to paint and I may had said a few "Argghhhhh's" while doing so.

The Xebec fully crewed and ready for action.  Of course the ship needs a name - something suitably Barbary and Pirate-like.  I suck at this stuff so will open it up to this group (yes, even you PeterD).  I'll pick a name from those suggested in the comments.  Let's keep it family friendly as I usually have one or two kids playing in these convention games and would prefer not to deal with reproachful parental glares as little Timmy proudly exclaims "Dad, I commanded the Queens's $^%#& in that game".  Ray, that comment was meant with you in mind.

As for the scenario, it will be for 4-5 players per side with 1 naval commander and 3-4 corps land commanders, each with a Corps.  The British will be defending and their objective is to escort King George across the table, embark him on a ship and get him off the board.  The French are to prevent this.  It will be played on a 6x18 ft table with a 6x6 sea zone.  There will be about 3,000 miniatures involved so it will be a pretty big game.  Of course with King George being THAT King George and somewhat "Mad" he may move a bit erratically as he makes his way with his household to the harbor.  I know it's a very silly scenario but I really do enjoy making the historical purists heads explode at these con's.  It's one of life's simple pleasures.  

This submission does qualify for the nautical challenge and will be my last 15mm-scale ship to be submitted for this year's Challenge.

Points wise, as this is the largest of the ships I've done this year, I'm going to suggest 75 points - she's a beast and is 18 inches long. Points for the crew are much easier as 20 figures gets 40 points! As always, the final point tally is at Curt's discretion, hopefully he makes this momentous decision enjoying some high-end coffee...

'Sport' from MilesR: Blood Bowl Ogre

For the Sport Bonus round, I return to a new "old" gaming favorite - Blood Bowl!  My humble submission is a Blood Bowl Ogre painted up for my Human Team.

Blood Bowl is a favorite game but strangely it almost always is never the first choice of what to play but rather the one that springs to mind after one or two other options are dismissed..

This model is from the new incantation of Blood Bowl and is a plastic kit.  As it's a GW product the pricing is a bit stiff at $18.00 US but it's what I wanted to add to me team.  GW does know how to extract value from it's proprietary IP.  As an ardent capitalist, I tip my hat to their "Price Maximization".  Pricing aside, the figure is superb.

An Ogre in Blood Bowl is meant to do one thing - smash the other team.  However, what it has in strength it gives back in lower speed, so initial placement and careful planning is required or you'll soon see this giant point sink lumbering vainly to catch up with the action.

His number is, of course IX!

See - he is a big brute clicking in at just above 40MM.

Now I really want to play some Blood Bowl now.  I've got three team Humans and Orcs from the core set and Skaven.  I find the Skaven to be the most fun to play but they're tricky to win with.  Ehhh - winning who-cares it's "Blood Bowl" and silliness should reign supreme.

What is your favorite teams to play?

'Reconnaissance' from MilesR: British Staghound Armored Car

 My submission for the Recon Bonus Round is a rather simple model of a British Staghound Armored Car (model T17E1) in 28mm scale.

The model is a resin cast kit from Blitzkreig Miniatures.  The casting is excellent but I always have some trouble with Blitzkrieg models getting paint to adhere even after washing all the parts thoroughly.  I'm sure it's something I'm doing wrong but its enough of a hassle to get me to shy away from further purchases of the line.

 I went with a bog standard olive drab with some of my "special" mud mix for weathering.  I'm also trying out a new formula of black wash, which I like so far.

 Just under 4,000 Staghounds were produced by the UK during the war.  The original design was created by the American car company Chevrolet as part of a competition in the US for a new armored car design.  The M8 Greyhound won out and the T17 was offered to the Brits to be produced under lend lease licensing.

Originally intended for the desert, production delays meant the first real use was in Italy where the width of the vehicle proved very inconvenient on the narrow Italian roads.  The vehicle saw a lot of post war service where it proved to be more effective for anti-guerrilla operations.  26 Staghounds made their way to Cuba from Israel via Nicaragua in the early 80's.

This is my second staghound in 28mm.  I'll probably pick up another one down the line to complete a platoon.

'Monstrous' from MilesR: Spinosaurus

 I thought I should keep my Monstrous bonus round submission strictly historical, so I went with an Acheson Creations Spinosaurus in 28mm scale.

I also threw in 2, 28mm Ghost Archipelago character figures for scale - It's a big beastie.

 The model is a single resin cast piece and required a good bit of clean up - especially removing the mold release agent before I could paint him up.  As for color scheme, I looked up Spinosaurs in my hand Osprey Dinosaur Markings, volume 2.  I'm sure all of you have a similar copy that is well thumbed through also.

 The first Spinosaurus fossils were found in Egypt and then others discovered over what is now North Africa.  It's believed these predators could grow to 18 meters in length and weigh close to 21 tonnes.

Hmmm, perhaps it's just a coincidence that these creatures roamed around the same locations in Egypt where I've based by DAK & Dragons convention games.  I'm sure it's just a happy coincidence.....

There are dinosaurs in Ghost Archipelago and I'll be using Ole'Spiny here as the "Monarch" or top boss.  I really like the Acheson Creations line of prehistoric animals and have a few more to paint up.

 Painting was a lot of fun once I got down a primer coat that would wear off.

The two 28mm scale figures are from Northstar and have a lot of character.  I'm not sure if they'll end up as appetizers for Spiny, but they look good now.

Well there you have it - my final bonus round submission.

'Childhood' from MilesR: "Roma Victa!"

A childhood fascination with Roman history was one of the main contributors to my journey to this odd corner of the hobby universe.  I grew up in a very rural part of southern Alabama and access to information was limited to a few books in the Mobile County Library but I read those books many, many times.  So many times the librarians wouldn't put them back on the shelves and just held them for me.  One of the seminal works was Gibbons "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire".  I spent many a afternoon after getting off the shrimp boat reading and re-reading Roman history.

As I was casting about for a topic for the childhood bonus round, I zeroed in on the idea of building a Roman Army.  Also impacting this decision is the issue that there is a new kickstarter from Westwind for their 15mm War & Empire ancients line.  In a rare display of gamer frugality, I thought I had better paint up the Roman army I got from them in an earlier kickstarter before getting even more.  This act of gaming thrift has now fully sanctioned (in my mind) pledging for more minis - I think we can all agree on that is a fair and just resolution!

These miniatures are from Westwind Productions Forged in Battle line and are Early Imperial Romans - in 15mm scale, which is fairly rare thing for me.

Lets go down the line from Left to right.  Anchoring the left flank is a unit of scorpion ballistas and a Auxiliary cavalry unit.

The core of any Imperial Roman army are it's Legionaries and this force has six units ready to crush anyone foolish enough to challenge the might of the Emperor.

A few close up shots of the Legionaries - these figures where a joy to paint but there were a lot of them.

I made two command stands - a large one for the main general and a smaller one (pictured later) for a sub commander.

The right flank is a good bit stronger than the left as it consists of three unit of Auxiliary infantry, some Legionary archers and another unit of Auxiliary cavalry.

The cavalry with a sho of the sub commander.

Lastly, another shot looking down the ranks.  It took my two weekends to paint this group up and I really enjoyed the break from 28's.

An exciting "in-process" painting shot.  I've never done a rank and file army in 15mm (a lot of WW2 Flames of War stuff but nothing with close ranks).  I really found the painting to be fun and it's relatively easy to keep everything organized.  Will this mean I'll abandon 28mm? - no, but 15's are really starting to grow on me.  Of course I'll need to make a lot of terrain for them!

I've got a few more packs to build for the Romans and there might even be an opponent for them to fight somewhere in the lead pile.....

Here's a shot of the 15mm Ancients lead pile - A few packs of Romans (more Auxilia, some archers and such) plus a whole new army to be a foe.  The foe will have more cavalry - a lot more...

Lets just say Kickstarters are a wonderful horrible thing.









Here's the tally:

Infantry:
6 Units of Legionaires @ 24 figures each = 144
3 Units of Auxiliary Infantry @ 24 figures each = 72
1 Unit of Archers @ 24 figures = 24
1 unit of Scorpions with 12 crew = 12
2 infantry on the large command stand = 2

Total : 254 Infantry @ 2 points = 508 points

Cavalry
2 Units of Aux Cav @12 figures = 24
2 Mounted Commanders = 2

Total 26 Cav @ 4 each = 104 points

Artillery
4 scorpions @ 2 pts each = 8
(since the score's are really small I discounted the point value)

The ruined temple piece came as a free reward with the kickstarter and is meant to be used as an objective marker - it's too small to count as terrain so zero points for that.

Grand Total: 620 points