From HerrRobert: Dragons Dancing at the Black and White Ball (40 points)

Deep in the frozen northern wastes, the young white dragon Othimmalaeagkar stood proudly on a hunk of rock staring out over a frozen sea of ice. Whisps of cold escaped her nostrils as she surveyed the domain she would make hers, establishing a lair and asserting dominance, contemplating the treasure soon to be mined by her captive deep gnomes and hordes of succulent caribou to feast on.

Meanwhile, deep in the fetid swamps hundreds of miles to the south, a young black dragon Thriingaulzundae snorts in deep satisfaction over his acquisition of a ruined and flooded chapel, sacred to gods long gone. Having secured the loyalty of a pirate band and the fealty through fear of a tribe of orcs, he contemplates the riches he is sure to amass, the magic to hoard, and ancient knowledge to covet.

For my third entry to Challenge XVI, I take you on a trip back down memory lane, to the Analogue Hobbies Studio of Challenge XIII. While my progress through the studio was extremely limited, I did amass several projects for the various themes throughout the studio. One of these was the "Black and White" section, which seemed eminently suited to digging something out of the pile of shame.

Black & White: Paint something in grey-scale, with black and white being your colours of choice. Reconjure the elegance of the silver screen! 

What could possibly be more suitable than some chromatic dragons?

From D&D Beyond, we have the necessary descriptors:

Black Dragons: Black dragons dwell in swamps on the frayed edges of civilization. A black dragon’s lair is a dismal cave, grotto, or ruin that is at least partially flooded, providing pools where the dragon rests, and where its victims can ferment. The lair is littered with the acid-pitted bones of previous victims and the fly-ridden carcasses of fresh kills, watched over by crumbling statues. Centipedes, scorpions, and snakes infest the lair, which is filled with the stench of death and decay.

Don't you just love that sense of satisfaction sculpted into his face?

White Dragons: White dragons lair in icy caves and deep subterranean chambers far from the sun. They favor high mountain vales accessible only by flying, caverns in cliff faces, and labyrinthine ice caves in glaciers. White dragons love vertical heights in their caverns, flying up to the ceiling to latch on like bats or slithering down icy crevasses.

Fizban's Treasury of Dragons gives even more options for customizing these antagonists, from a dragon naming table, to lair designs, personality traits, dragon goals and even adventure hooks. 

Both dragons are from Reaper. Othimmalaeagkar is a Reaper Bones Young Ice Dragon, while Thriingaulzundae is a much heftier metal Young Swamp Dragon. Both are multi-part kits, with the wings cast and provided separately, which made things a whole lot easier to paint.

Reaper Bones Young Ice Dragon

The metal swamp dragon

I went with a pretty simple paint scheme for both, which doesn't really befit their status as dragons, but which worked really well. Both were primed and painted in parts, wings painted separately, and only assembled after all basing was complete. For Othimmalaeagkar, I primed her black, then completely covered her in white craft paint, followed by Game Color Blue Wash, and then dry brushed with Mondo Llama Snow Flurry, while her claws and teeth were Mondo Llama Winter Clouds. Mondo Llama craft paints are all a satin finish, which worked well for this dragon.

The base is where I took a lot more risks. I used a Reaper lipped base, and filled it with Realistic Water. I was sadly disappointed since I was unable to get the water to fog up or look like ice the way I wanted it to. Despairing a bit, I turned to AK Interactives Snow Sprinkles to cover the base of the miniature, and Ice Sparkles to try and create the ice effect over the realistic water. I was afraid I almost ruined it by putting watered down mod podge on the base to lock everything in, but when it dried it gave a very nice blending. I'm quite pleased.

For Thriingaulzundae, I used Mondo Llama Fresh Pavement over a brown primer. His scales were picked out by drybrushing Folkart Metallic Black over them, while I used Delta Ceramcoat Charcoal Grey for his skin. His claws are Mondo Llama Misty Grove.

I also used this as an opportunity to experiment with swamp bases. I started with my usual drybrush of Mississippi Mud and Teddy Bear Brown fraft paint, followed by a wash of Ghille Dew speedpaint. More realistic water followed, tinted using Woodland Scenics olive drab and brown tints to the realistic water. At first, I was concerned that I'd poured too much in, but it gave a really great effect of wet ground surging up on to shore. I then added Army Painter Swamp tufts, some Woodland Scenics foliage clumps, and lichen cut and torn to size. 

So there we have it, two young dragons ready to establish themselves in their new territories, and some solid celluloid from back in the vault.

Scoring is a bit difficult. Both models are a bit larger than a mounted 28mm figure, and comparable to an armored car I posted in a previous entry. However, a full 20 points seems a bit much, unless I can eke out 5 points per for the bases, so I'm going to claim 15:

Scoring:

• 2x 28mm dragons @ 15 points per = 30 points

That puts me at 70% of my very modest 100 points goal, with most of a month to go. I might just make my goal!

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Sylvain: Very nice paint job on these dragons. The work you did on the bases really makes them come alive. The description of your painting method is really instructive. Since I scored 20 points per dragons for my own submission yesterday, it's only fair to grant you the same amount. This will also get you closer to your 100 points target. Bien joué! 

 

From ScottR: Final paint compilation - 28mm Pyrric Army figures for Hail Caesar (630 points)

 Hi all,

Pyrric Hail Caesar Army - Greek Component

Well I mentioned back in January that I would be out for a month as I travel the world for work.  I got back to Canada on the 18 of Feb with a month to go before end date.  I set my goal at 700 points and I had reached that before leaving.  My objective was to get my Celt Hail Caesar Army painted as part of the challenge and a couple of odd projects, Command stands, objectives and terrain.

So my Hail Caesar Celt Army deviated slightly and by adding Greek forces I could run a Pyrric Army which gave me the best of both looks.

So after returning on 18 Feb and taking a couple of days to work out my requirement.  I end up building several sets of Victrix packs.  This included two units of Pike Phalanx, including a unit of Agaraspids or Royal Pike, in this case I chose my version of the silver shields (Yes I know they were not Pyrric).

Silver Shield Phalanx

The next unit which I painted at the same time was another unit of Pike Phalanx.  Just standard 24 man unit this time.  My original Army for the Greek/Macedonians was going to be a Successor Army so I had a couple of sets of Selucid shield designs.  

I then had to make up some numbers of Greek Hoplites.  I already had a unit of 6 figures done before the competition started.  But these were done without any real plan.  So with Hail Caesar and Art de La Guere planned for gaming the old figures were set in movement trays and the new figures done on the standard 60 x 40mm bases we were planning to play with.  I finished another 18 in the same style as the first style to make a unit of 24.  These could also be used to add to my Clash of Spears Carthage Army.

So some random Greek mercenary bases were added.

New bases of 6 figures on a 60 x 40 .

The two right hand bases including the casualty taking a spear were the original sets done.  So from this unit of 24 only 12 (left) are during the competition.  Figures are on individual 20x20mm square.  These have been set inside a movement tray from Warbases in the UK.

The last infantry unit would be of course a Hoplite Spartan Unit.  They dont have any special values, but you cant run Greek hoplites without at least one unit of Spartans right????

I must admit the Little Big Man Studio Decals certainly make the figures stand out.  The base uniform is white Linothorac or Brass body Armour with red embelishments.

Spartan Command Stand.  

The  main infantry units were now done.  So next up are the light infantry which make up the smallest of the units for the rule sets with 2 figures per base.  I have some slinger and javelin light infantry units already painted.  I did base them for this rule set and didn't include them in the points claim as I was basing other stuff and well, the figures were already painted.

These are Cretan Light archers. I strung the bows using the stretch EZ Line used for aircraft and model ship rigging.  It is easy to do and is flex that if pulled it wont come away or break.  Adds a little bit of character I think.

The last part of the Army was to make up some command bases.  I will eventually make larger more elaborate bases for these but i needed some quick down and dirty bases as I have managed to get a couple of games in with Warlord Games new Hail Caesar II rules with my good friend Dennis Campbell (AKA in the painting Comp as DennsC).

My Command stands are a mix of warlord Games and Colonel Bills figures.  The two sub units are Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great.  The main Commander is the Goddess Athena which I will claim for the Lady Sarah's Limousine', I dont think I have claimed so far although I have posted  a wealth of figures with female characters mixed in.  This is the first as a stand alone.

Philip I of Macedon

Alexander the Grteat

The Goddess Athena

While this figure is painted and it suits the need for the command piece in the games.  I did paint it using contrast.  Its ok, but I will repaint this using normal paints I think.  

The last unit done was the second elephant.  I was lucky I picked up two elephnats while I was still in the UK.  The second elephant had some extra red trim added so they could be told apart.

Ok so there we have the last months painting complete.  Here is a Picture of what was done less two stands of six hoplites.

The last piece of work was a terrain piece.  I dont usually bother with terrain too much.  But I have had this MDF Barn for some time and too be honest its one of my favourite pieces.  So it was about time I painted and etailed it.  It was pretty quick using and airbrush to do a base dark brown foloowed by several layers of highlight.  The roof was done using a WW2 German aircraft blue underwing colour pallette.  I then AK interactives wet earth paste for the ground and stables area.  This was drybrushed with Camo Choc Brown and dark sand from Vallejo.  lat was a flock mix and some shrubs.  I used some dark yellow/ochre 6mm grass for hay and some yellow foliage for colour.

The Barn

The End!

So for this last months work I was lucky in I had a couple of weeks leave to catch up on the last of it.  So i managed to do a fair bit for my Greek, later now to become my Pyrric Army for Hail caesar.  To be honest 90% was done using citadel Contrasts, which work well for this period of figures.  I was confident the look would be good based on some Hoplites I hads done in the past.

So Here we go:

Pyrric Infantry

28mm figures - 109 x 5 = 540 points

28mm mounted figures 1 x 8 = 8 points

28mm vehicle - 1 elephant 1 x 20 points

28mm crew  3 x 5 points = 15 points

For a total of 583 630 points

Athena - Lady Sarah Chariot....  Although not sure there is any benefit as I dint follow the map anyways.... :)

So the total I think is 583 590 points.  I set my original goal as 700 points so at the end I think I have done ok.  Thanks to team who ran this.  It has been a fun challenge and forced me to get alot of my 'pile' of shame painted.  So my thanks to Curtis and all those invlolved.

My congratulations to all the painters out there as well that have done some amazing work.  Until next time!

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You had a terrific early Challenge, Scott, and you came back with a great flourish! I love seeing all these ancients, especially the Spartans (I'm re-reading Pressfield's 'Gates of Fire'). I've added points for your terrain and a few from your math. A great points bomb to end things!

- Curt