AHPC XII: Little Red Riding Hood for Perelandra

 This post went Live on the Challenge Blog on January 16th, so my time references are a bit off.  The got the test on the 10th, and result on the 11th.

I have a small post for this week as I've been down with COVID.  I woke up Monday feeling absolutely wretched and got my self off to the drive thru testing centre and got my positive result Tuesday evening.  I've been a much bigger than normal waste of space since then but had these minis pretty much done before hand.

One of the tags for Perelandra is temptation and that's what the Big Bad Wolf offered Red traditionally.

My version is a little twisted as Red is another female goblin.  I am not sure i want to know what's in that satchel of goods that she has for Grandma.  She was originally going to feature a drab cloak like the rest of her goblin gang, but I was working on the Winter Wolf at the same time and had a "you know..." moment.

I think in this case that Red is mischievous enough that the danger from temptation might be for the wolf.  A milk bone and a belly rub might be the long slippery evolutionary slope downhill to a Pug that can't get up on the couch without help and gets dressed in a new costume very holiday.

Both figures are 28mm and from Wizkds. Curt has been scoring the goblins as 20mms for 4 points but I don't know how to score the Winter Wolf, who is one big puppy.  Perhaps as a  equivalent to a 28mm cavalryman?  The base points can be added to my FantasySide Duel score.

Finally I thought I'd share a bit of my family lore about protecting your daughters.  In the mid-1950s my grandfather was English Department Head at Dalhousie University with two daughters (my mum and aunt) at home and finishing degrees.  As Head he hosted visiting guest authors and poets, including the likes of Irving Layton and Leonard Cohen (who was just starting out).  The works of these two were considered so scandalous that the two daughters were banished from the house the night that Irving and Leonard came to dinner.   

AHPC XII: Ruins at Arda

The planet Arda carries a Fantasy theme, so I've gone with this Giant attacking a tower in 28mm.  Just for fun note that the top two levels of the tower are removable allowing me to do this.

In an homage to this classic DnD module...

Ok let's break down the components here.  

First up is the Giant, who is a Wizkids Stone Giant in 28mm scale.  I will note that the figure is about 90mm from sole of foot to top of head and that the tower he's standing next to is 6" high (152mm) for comparison.  I will leave scoring him up to the Snowlord.  In the Beowulf adventures Giants are more generic than straight DnD, but I tried to keep to the Stone Giant Theme.  It's a nice sculpt with facial features midway between an Easter Island Moai and Grace Jones.

Backside view as I am thinking that's the view my adventurers want to see!

Next up are the human foes who are from the Gipping Beast Arthurian (mostly) and other ranges.  I painted the fighters up to represent the Comitatus of a local Warlord, using the red tunics and shields with double headed dragons to provide a unit theme.
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I will come back and touch ups he shields but wanted to get these posted today.

The seventh figure is the Merlin figure who has a lot of the age old mystery to him. I love the metal bird on his staff, is it the Eagle of the Ninth?  Seven 28mm figures is 35 points.

These are good solid Beastie boy figures, lots of individual differences.  They can serve in Beowulf adventures as friends, foes or neutrals as required.  I my also do some Sub-Roman Britain skirmish games using Lion Rampant or Dux B.   

Finally we have the Ruins which I am revealing in full glory below.  This is a Sarissa Ruined City set consisting of 8 modular bases that can be rearranged as suits the scenario or decided in to smaller ruins.  I figure it can serve as a Roman ruin in Beowulf, or a generic ruin for other RPGs os Moonstone for later period historical games.  The total set covers an area 8" by 16", and is mostly 3" tall except for the tower which is 6' tall.  My math makes this exactly 2 cubes of terrain for 40 points.

Arrangement 1

Arrangment 2

Arrangement 3

Points wise I cout up

• 35 points for the humans
• 40 points for the 2 cubes of ruin
• ? points for the Giant
• 20 points for the Arda location
• Merlin and the Giant should count against the forlorn hope of the Challenge Duel

Having completed four planets on the Outer Ring, I am ready to explore the Middle Ring and all step on one of the Warp Maelstorms either side of Arda to see where I end up. 

Female Goblin

 This female goblin archer wishes to book a trip on the Star Yacht arriving at planet Arda.

This is another pointy eared goblin figure from Wizkids.  There are lots of little details packed into these little sculpts.  This figure was being photographed last week to go live when I realized that she had a mail shoulder cape and needed to go back to the work bench.  It turns out that my iPad camera has sharper eyes than I do. 

I kept with the same muted tones and stony basing as with the other goblins.  Challengers in the know might have figured out that Wizkids packs these figures two per blister and that there may be another female goblin looking for passage late on..

That's 4 points for the 20mm figure plus 20 bonus points for the Star Yacht.  The 4 base points counts towards the fantasy duel not that it's going to help against Curt's paint bombs.  My journey through the system looks like this so far.

AHPC X11 Pointy Eared Goblins

 

I am continuing a clockwise orbit round the outer rim with a stop at Vulcan, with he brief of something logical or pointy ears.  Well nothing logical about this crew but lots of pointy ears.

I have 4 28mm scale Goblins from Wizkids.  These have a real old school feel to them and delightfully mischievous faces.  I kept the paint schemes muted and minimalist but there is a fair amount of detail on these little charmers.  They wouldn't pose a serious opposition to an adventuring party in an open fight, but they are not likely to get into to fair fight are they? They could be a major pain in the tuccus sniping from behind rocks or in a forest.

Normally I put some foliage clumps on my bases but this lot might just as easily be found in caverns or dungeons as on the surface so went for plain rocky effects.  They are sold as 28mm figures but are vertically challenged, so I'll look to the Snowlord for points (maybe treat them as 15s?  he counted them as 28s)

Here's a shot of them surrounded Father Padraig to give an idea of scale.  Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

if we treat them as 15s, this is 8 points for 4 goblins plus 20 for Vulcan making a total of 28 points.  The 8 base points should count for the fantasy side duel.  That's four posts in the first 10 days of the Challenge, when I am normally hard pressed to get one in- a combination fo cancelled travel plans, frigid weather and staying healthy over the Holidays.

AHPC Pictish Bard

 The next stop for me is Bablyon 5 with a brief of Operatic or Low Budget Fun.

In my Dark Age RPG word there are no Operas, so folks made do with the local Bard, Skald or Scop.  If the story teller was good, it was a lot of fun and it was certainly low budget.  

This fellow with his Pete Townsend harp technique is another Gripping beast 28mm figure from the same Picitish command pack as the two competing religious types in my last post.  I think that he's grateful to be released from his internment with them!

Quite what he is singing is anyone's guess as the Picts are somewhat of a historical mystery and no one knows what their language sounded like.  The competing best guesses are "pretty close to the early Welsh spoken everywhere else in Britain"  and "a non Indo-European language that pre-dates the Celts by centuries".  The only written records that they left themselves are carved stones in Ogham. 

No mysteries about the figure however, a nice sculpt in typical Beastie Boy style and pretty nice to paint up.  Although labelled Pictish he's pretty much generic Dark Age Britain in dress and equipment.  The red cloak is a pushing it a bit historically, as dyes should be pretty much muted browns, yellows and greens - much like an over cooked dinner at your English Grandma's.  A continual challenge in modelling this period is to paint figures that looks right, but don't fade into the background. 

It being early days of the Challenge I am picking off a few smaller pieces while the bigger stuff goes on in the background.  Assuming that he counts as either Operatic or Low Budget fun enough to count towards the location, this is 5 points for the figure plus 20 for Babylon 5 for 25 points.  I will be using him in an RPG, but have taken Curt's point so won't count him towards the fantasy Duel.

AHPC XII Discussion in Pictland on Heresy

 I have these two 28mm figures from my Beowulf RPG game having a spirited discussion on the nature of Heresy.  In Beowulf alignments differ from standard D&D, as PCs and NPCs can be aligned with the Book (i.e. Church)  the Old Ways (Pagan religions) or be Neutral (undecided or decided that they are both full of it).  To represent the Book and Old Ways I have an Irish Priest and a Magus.  Both are by Gripping Beast and both come in the same Pictish Command pack.

Padraig is part of the Celtic Church which was very active at the time.  Lots of scope for Adventuring quests here with the likes of Saints Patrick, Columba and Brendan.  They prompted my all time favourite line fro the old WRG army lists:   Saint Columba was given the main credit by contemporaries for the Ui Neill victory over King Diarmait in 561 AD, decisively out-praying Saint Finnian on the other side. It turns out that the battle was sparked by a copywriter dispute between Finnian and Columba.

Clearly Patrick is outspoken on his views and the cast has lots of character.  With his pot belly, bald head and stringy pony tail I am pretty sure that I've been buttonholed by his doppelgängers who needed to tell me about their unbeatable Blood Angels army or the lyrics from some gawdawfull forgotten prog rock band from the 70s.

Oengus on the other hand is clearly of the Old Ways and not having Padraig's BS.  In my adventures he should do as a Pagan holyman, evil sorcerer or lead singer from some gawdawfull forgotten prog rock band from the 70s. He also needs to have that mold line trimmed on his left hand, not sure how I missed that until now. 

I will need official confirmation from a vet or the Skullometer, but I believe that's a horse skull that he's sporting as a hat.

That's two 28mm foot figures plus a Challenge location for 30 points by my math.  I am not sure if fantasy side duel is a go, but if so I'd like to claim the 10 points towards my total in it.  

(The fantasy side duel is a go, but Curt's not having me claim historical figures against it.  Oh well.)

AHPC XII 28mm Terrain

I’m again participating in this years painting challenge  https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/.  Here’s my first post.

I wasn't supposed to be posting today.  I was supposed to be in Halifax, NS staying with my mother in law and doing Christmas with family.  However, we cancelled our tip based on COVID numbers and so here I am.

First up for me is a couple of terrain items in 28mm.  These are 28mm scale and MDF kits from Sarissa.  I've had good experience with Sarissa and these were no exception.  The main piece is a barn or forge.  It is sold in their dark age range but I figure that I can use it for my Beowulf themed RPG games, my El Cid era games and my SYW games plus others.

The other bit is a piece of dock that should have been painted a while back.  I finished up some similar docks and a Viking town for a tabletop RPG game featuring Thigmund the Thea Therpent, but somehow missed this one.

Points wise these measure out to be about 1/4 a of terrain cube so that's 5 points to erase my duck.

We are in the midst of a Prairie cold snap so I'll be hunkered down like this fellow who took up temporary residence in our snow bank

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Be careful Peter, it may look cute, but I hear those have nasty, big, pointy... well, you know the rest.

Nice work on these mate! Sarissa makes great stuff, and these two pieces will be very nice additions to your picturesque seaside Dark Age village.

Well done and welcome back to the Challenge!

And stay warm!

- Curt