'Toy Story' from Barks: Run and bare it

I was able to examine the archives for pics of your humble servant as a child with toys, and I found a few of me with bears. Also bare. Which was the perfect excuse to paint this bear from Great Escape Games, and this child from Gripping Beast.

A child, running, pursued by a zombie bear.

It's all downhill from here, Baby Barks.

Decades later, I traumatised myself by watching Game of Thrones S7E6 'Beyond the Wall' (2017), and also that scene from Annihilation (2018). I tried some UHU on the mouth and then Army Painter Glistening Blood. 

Two figures, shall we say 10 points?

+50 for Childhood trauma/ Toy Story theme

'Toy Story' from DavidB - Star Wars

 StarWars-Bohemian Rhapsody

I still remember when Star Wars was first released. I was just starting American Football practice and the internet and viral was school gossip and actual sickness. Summers were spent outdoors with swimming and movies being an escape from the heat and as a 9 year old boy in the summer of 1977, Star Wars left an impression.

I still love that galaxy from far away and a long time ago. I have no idea how many times I have seen the movie now. Luke, Han, and Leia with all the plot armor then future Christmas and birthdays where Star Wars toys topped my list. I never did get all the toys I wanted from that movie. I have a nice collection of action figures, but never did keep them locked away and my children were able to have adventures with them as they grew old enough to understand to be careful with them. Now they are back on the shelf or in boxes waiting for grandchildren to have new adventures with them.

I used to collect anything Star Wars related until I seen an article on a collector that has spent over 300,000 USD for Chewbacca only collectables....Since Vader inspired more fear and awe in a young boy, Darth Vader and Stormtroopers are where I decided I would focus. Honestly the best part of Rogue One was seeing just how terrifying Vader could be, and his Storm troopers were relentless.

I was very excited for Star Wars Legion as I could amass a force of Stormtroopers that would be very envious of my 9 year old self. I have purposefully avoided the clone wars as that would be too much and with 3rd party and official releases I can have that massive force of action figures I never did get as a child and now use dice to game with them

Annnnnnnnd boy is painting storm troopers very rough!

besides the shore troopers, the scouts are my favorite...and very ironic as I became a scout as an adult.

They were primed white then hit with apothecary white with Army painter white triad to tidy them up. I used black, blueblack and grey on the black undersuits.

I still want a real jetbike and as an adult I am horribly disappointed that we do not have them yet

However, since like the fellow aiming behind and as Return of the Jedi shown, traffic accidents and tree fires would rise!

Hopefully they will do better than the movie counterparts on the table.

The true pain of this post...16 stormtroopers is a lot of same same.

One Squad was primed black and the other primed white

They are hard to pick out except the black wash on the apothecary white made wider grins and the layers of white and grey paint was exhausting on the black primed models. they also seem to be a tad yellow, but not as yellow as the limbs on those old action figures. They just seem off white when compared to the squad that had apothecary white and the white triad paint.

Unless you look very close, they are hard to determine which is which, but the apothecary white over white primer was way faster as that squad only took a day. 

the errant scout joins an officer and heavy weapon specialist from the stormtrooper expansion.

I had to add color to the backpacks to keep my sanity.

 So I have twenty-three new troops and 2 biker scouts to add to Vader's 501 They will join the other two squads of stormtroopers and the two squads of shoretroopers. I have completed them just in time to determine if I will get the new addition and new sculpts of stormtroopers...but this time I will start with white primer...It is cheaper than buying more star wars collectables and more action figures, but I am still looking for the Ralph McQuarrie Samurai inspired stormtroopers and Vader.... If you can find it, besides the x-wing books there is one called the Band of the Hand in which some Stormtroopers quit the Empire to purge it of corrupt Empire officials, they encountered Mara Jade who was a little miffed about their name as she was the Emperor's Hand.Hopefully the new Star Wars boss will look at the good books for new scripts!

23 troopers for 115 points

2 bikers for 20

then 50 for the theme round -May the Force be with You

'Toy Story' from JohnB - Duke of Berwicks Irish Regiment

My submission for the Toy Story theme is about a book I discovered in a library when I was about twelve or thirteen. In those days I had a childs library ticket and the book in question was an adult book. Fortunately the village librarian on a Saturday was usually my sunday school teacher and she took pity on me. Back in those days kids did not get to take out Adult books - simple as that.

So I came home with a pristine copy of "Charge of How to play Wargames". I had never heard of wargames and although I had airfix figures I usually played these with my model railway just making up stories involving the "hand of god"(my mit) swiping soldiers and vehicles randomly. Then I suddenly had this book that said you needed to measure movement and throw dice to play with your soldiers. Crucially the book was full of narrative and story telling which is what really hooked me. The battles of Blasthof Bridge and Sittangbad have had many admirers over the years.

What also caught my eye was the cover photos - full colour pictures of Soldiers in action. Yet they were unlike anything I had. I did quickly switch to using my airfix ACW soldiers until I eventually bought airfix napoleonics. Strangely I did not use the AWI figures by airfix simply because I did not like them, even though these had the tricornes shown the pictures that I admired.

Several years later I bought Minifigs Seven Years war 25mm figures which in theory were just right for the period the book covered. They were never finished partly because I did not really like the squat nature of minifigs. I moved onto other periods.

Over the years I have often thought about doing something in tricornes. And then in 2008 after I had returned to the hobby after very long break I found Battle Games Magazine - I stumbled on the second edition in a station newsagent shop and of course the magazine was full of references to Imagination Wars, Charles Grant and of course "Charge".

I was still interested in other periods so left the idea to one side before eventually I decided I would use 1/72 plastics as a cheap way to test my interest again. Several units later and the figures were soon on a shelf gathering dust yet again. I had opted for Zvezda Great Northern War figures. They are nice figures but somehow I lost momentum on the period yet again.

Now you might be thinking - The Great Northern Wars? - thats way off the 1759 date reference in the book. However the book has pictures of british napoleonic artillery which don't fit the time line either. In fact the book was at pains to encourage a "fantasy" approach to gaming to head off the button counters! They encouraged gamers to paint whatever units they fancied to build an army or even make up their own uniforms. Finally we get to AHPC16 and the TOY STORY theme chimed with my memory of the book that launched my "toy soldiers become wargames miniatures" moment. Finally I have created some miniatures that I feel do justice to that book - the one that really launched my hobby.

This picture is just to show my Painting Portrait method - a simple background done in acrylics - it was fun to do. When Strelets brought out their Wars of the Spanish Succession range I bought a lot of boxes and promptly stored them away. Crucially I liked the sculpting. This years Toy Story theme sparked a thought - how about I replay that book cover. Now the front cover Pultava Guards have been seen on many an Imagainations wargames table over the years and fine they are too. The back cover though was the picture I always remembered. Redcoated soldiers with tricornes and a very nice large but strange flag.

So this is my theme entry - the Duke of Berwicks Irish Regiment - one of the "wild geese" irish regiments in French service in the 18th Century. The printed flag is by "not by appointment" blog - who offers a stunning selection of flags FREE TO PRINT. David Morfitt runs this blog. As with all my "charge" units they get the billiard table baize green base treatment and it works for me. Happy memories.

So my points calculation is 18 x 1/72 infantry at 4 points each = 72 points and hopefully 50 points bonus for the toy story.

'Toy Story' from MikeF - 10 x 28mm Brotherhood of Steel from Fallout

My entry to the Toy Story theme goes back to 1997-98. I was not technically a child, but I was a youth and the inspiration for my entry was much more formative than the Ninja Turtles of my childhood. In '97 the Fallout video game was released. A friend of mine had a fairly advanced computer for the time (which is strange considering he lived in a shack which was literally on the wrong side of the tracks). He had a copy of Fallout and the following year Fallout 2 and though he only let me play it occasionally (this was a real fulfilling friendship) I was captivated by the gameplay and the post-apocalyptic theme of the game. Most importantly I thought the power armour wearing faction, the Brother hood of Steel, were super cool and helped inspire my tabletop gaming for years to come.

  

The game coincided with my introduction to 40k and my first space marine chapter was actually based on the BoS. It was a pretty weak attempt and I repainted the army several years ago as the Minotaurs. I think this blog has a few entries of that effort.

In 2008, Fallout 3 was released and I purchased an Xbox 360 solely to play the game. Many hours were logged (wasted?) exploring the wasteland in my own T-51b power armour. Eventually time constraints would force me to choose miniature painting over video games. but I've always felt fallout would make the perfect setting for tabletop gaming. 

I was initially quite happy to see that Modiphius had acquired the licence and was making a tabletop fallout game. As I looked into it though, a few things turned me off. The size of the battles were fairly small, and the miniatures were expensive. IP's are pricey and the company needs to make a profit. The games low model count also reflects the high price, so I can't complain too much, but if I wanted to have a game involving several squads of miniatures, I would need to go another way.

Fortunately the tabletop miniature community came to the rescue. A seller on Etsy was selling heads that were exact matches for those used in Fallout (he most definitely did this under licence!). Another seller also had appropriate decals scaled for 28mm models. I wasn't sure what to use for the body, until Games Workshop released their MK II space marines for the new edition of Horus Heresy. These models looked like they would work perfectly, so I ordered a box. Mu goal was to turn the 10 man squad into something like this:

T-51b Power Armour from Fallout. Note the hand wheel on the back.

I decided against using the shoulder pads and backpacks of the space marines, as I felt they would look too much like 40k space marines. I had to source several bits from other sources to create the look I was going for. These included shoulder pads from Anvil Industry, special and heavy weapons for horus heresy and hand wheels from the new cadian artillery sprue. I also had to modify the backs of the models with greenstuff to make some oxygen or fuel tanks so they didn't look too plain. 

This is how they turned out:

Note the hand wheels and tanks on the back.

One of the weapons in the game is called a "shishkebab" which is a flaming sword made out of  scavenged parts including a lawn mower blade, motor cycle gas tank, MC hand brake and a pilot light. The leader on the far left has a kitbashed shishkebab.

I plan to use these guys in a game of Xenos Rampant.

For points - 10 x 28mm models for 50 points, plus 50 points for the theme. Total of 100 points.

Thanks for visiting!

'Toy Story' from PeteB - Giant - Cowboys and Indians

Ladies and gentlemen, these figures that you are about to see are 56 years old. I never painted a single one of them and they have been in a box for a very long time. Maybe to long, but they are in a very good condition. Better as I thought. 

The story behind this old figures

It must have been in the year 1971, the first year that I went to the big school, learning to read and write. And the older ones among us, remember maybe that you could buy this kind of figures in book- and toyshops for a very low price. It was in a bookshop that I saw them for the first time and I wanted to have them. This bag:

So I asked my mother and father if they could buy them for me, but they replied, only when I had a good end result at school that year. No problem because I had no problems with learning, so that was a piece of cake. And when I came back with the result they gave me the money to buy them right away. But as yo think that the story is at the end, it isn't. When I came home with them and I wanted to play, and I remember it very well, my dad told me to keep the bag closed because we were of for the summer holliday and my dad didn't want those small things with us on holliday. So they had to stay home for two weeks. It was a very wise decision of my dad (bless him) because we all know when playing with these little soldiers in the sand it is easy to loose them. And so now here are some of them painted, maybe a bit to honor my father. 

I've got more of them unpainted but the goal was to paint one figure of each pose, cowboys and indians, but only the cowboys are complete. The riding Indians are still on the painting table. I will show them later in the challenge when they are finished. The cowboys are paiinted as cavalry. I found that a nice addition to the fort. Enjoy the pictures.

I also painted three other figures. You might think that these are Airfix figures from the "High Chaparral" set but they are not. These are copies of them made by a brand called "Baravelli". I did paint them because I found them at the same time with the Giant ones. I used the same colours so they were easy to do.

Unpainted Giant figures

More info about these figures can be found here:

- GIANT

- Five and dime Cowboys and Indians

Thanks for watching!

Points:

- 15 x 20 mm foot figures      = 60 Points

- 3 x 20 mm mounted figures = 24 Points

- Theme round points             = 50 Points

- Total                                     = 134 Points

'Toy Story' from Paul O'G - Astronauts and Cosmonauts!

I grew up with my Dad explaining the Mercury-Gemini-Apollo missions and tales of him watching the moon walk (he still has the newspapers). In the middle of the night in April 1981 he roused me from bed to watch the very first Space Shuttle mission with Columbia, so I've been a space nut ever since too! I also had a 6 Million Dollar Man action figure - because, well, Steve Austin was an Astronaut! So this Toy Story theme round (and its Buzz Lightyear linkage) was the perfect excuse to build the Moon Walkers of my childhood imaginings, and here they are:

My game mat didn't arrive in time, so I made an AI background to put my figs in context

To be honest this has been a project I have long wanted to do, so this entry was just the excuse encouragement and push in the right direction I needed, and I had a ball with them.

The Right Stuff! Team USA

The models are 32mm scale Astronauts & Cosmonauts by Black Site Studios for their game Lunar. These are the new (2025) plastic models and very nice they are too (the old ones were resin). Decals are from District Miniatures, and the flags and logos really finish these guys off beautifully with splashes of colour. Each model is equipped and painted a little differently so all are unique.

Roscosmos Cosmonauts: Heroes of the CCCP!

Notably, this game is not a full blown Lunar War context and more a Cold War skirmish on the moon. Accordingly, guns are rare and most weapons are improvised but no less deadly in a vacuum. I particularly like Comrade Vasily's enthusiasm for "re-educating" Western Imperialists with velocity infused moon rocks!

Vasily cleverly redefines the phrase "We will bury you!".
Comrade Commissar is proud of him.

Between work trips I ran short of time to get to the cratered moon crater and lander. Regardless, I'm pretty happy how these guys turned out!

And finally, to verify my Space Geek credentials, today I'm visiting ARTEMIS II at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral! 

Pity today's launch got delayed but it was great to see her standing proudly at the LaunchPad 39B

Safe travels to the Moon ARTEMIS II!

So thats 10 x 32mm figs (70 points) plus the Bonus for a 120 points in total

Maybe I need to paint the next Lads in these colours!