AHPC X (5) - Post Challenge Check In

As everyone is aware at this point, the Tenth Annual Analogue Hobbies Paint Challenge is over. I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk a bit about the challenge and outline my plan of attack for the next few months.

I've harped on this over and over and over throughout the challenge that I'd like to paint and play a few different games. In particular; This is Not a Test, Necromunda, Age of Hannibal, and Poseidon's Warriors. Shortly into the challenge I also made the point that I'd love to play through War in Rohan before the next book comes out and as a result I think I mostly painted towards these goals.

The vast majority of my points this time around came from Necromunda. I finished the plastic box sets for Cawdor, Delaque, and Goliath as well as started on a lot of terrain. I now have 3 full tables worth of terrain for these games and in particular I finished and entered the Death Ray Designs Armageddon table into the challenge.

This being done will now give me enough terrain to totally play a game of necromunda with totally painted everything which for me is a rare feat. I found some lists for the plastic box sets so I figure I'll be trying it sooner rather than later and because it was all painted in the challenge I'm counting this as a win.

I also managed to finish all of the boats for the roman naval game. I'm not smitten with the rules yet but because I printed everything I really didnt waste a lot of money on the project and will be trying it again.

Now, in the not so great news, I've completely stalled out on Age of Hannibal. I knew painting 10mm figures was a bit of a chore and I just completely sidelined the project. The original hope was to get the game cracked out and playable but I think I'll just chip away on it here and there. Everything I've painted so far for it was posted in the previous post on this blog.

This is Not a Test is an interesting one. Once I have enough stuff to play this game, I'll be able to try out 7TV Apocalypse as well so its definitely high on my list. I even went as far as to prep a bunch of figures for it. The only thing that I painted unfortunately was the shanty building but I now have a absolute pile of stuff from crooked dice and a bunch of stuff primed and ready and will be simply rolling this project into the next wave.

On the Lord of the Rings front, I painted a dozen riders of Rohan, 10 Beserkers and a few characters. I've been given the go ahead to showcase a big diorama piece in the shop so it is in my best interest to get moving on this and my plan now is to paint up all my dunlending figures before tackling the Warriors of Rohan. They announced a hobby book for LoTR so I think I still have a bit of time before the next book in the series comes out.

Going Forward
I think one of my major motivators was structuring my painting into specific games. I'll be continuing this trend going forward and picking 3 or so specific projects to focus on. I really want to begin thinning my hoarde this year and I think its a good way to motivate myself. That said...

This next wave of painting's projects includes:
This is Not a Test
This is a no brainer. I own such a pile of stuff for it and have been printing more buildings for it. I have some giant ants and some mutants by Crooked Dice on the table now and after that I think I'll make some lists and try the game out with some basic terrain. This is also going to open the table to games like 7TV Apocalypse and Zone Alfa.

Game of Thrones
I bought heavily into this game while I was at Cold Wars and got a chance to try it. So far I love it and am in love with the figures and cannot wait to play more and start painting. I've basically got enough stuff for 4 factions now and am probably going to start painting that soon.

Sisters of Battle
I'm really into painting these figures and would like to finish the ones I have at least and get 500 points or so ready for some games we have planned this summer. I just finished the first squad of Seraphim in the challenge and ordered one of the new characters to paint. I haven't bought too crazily into the army yet so I'd like to get ahead of it for once.

Blood and Valor
Finally WWI has been on my radar for a long time and I'd really like to get a game of it on the table soon. I have a pretty big pile of the amera vacuform trench already done and a platoons worth of british painted and ready to go (though I may rebase just to match my more modern basing sensibilities.)
I put together a 150 point German list and am eagerly awaiting a test game.

So there you have it. In no particular order there are a few projects that didnt make this "work on immediately" cut or that I'll probably chip away on including but not limited to;
Oak and Iron, Age of Hannibal, Zone Raiders, Infinity, Crisis Protocol, Batman ect
Additionally I'd really like to take a short break from wargame painting to finish a bust or figure kit just for my display case. In the wake of all this Covid-19 crazyness I have no idea if I'll be entering in shows this year so I think it's important to me to continue to crack out projects like these.

Some stuff to look forward to for sure!

Shanty Town (1) - Building Something from Nothing

Something I've mentioned before is my growing interest in post apocalypse gaming. I've long been a fan of This is Not a Test and back in November at Fall-in I picked up the 7TV Post-Apocalypse Starter Set (and a small fortune in figures from Crooked Dice) from my friends over at Phalanx Consortium. This have sat idly by while I've debated what exactly I wanted to do with the project. In the mean time, I've also picked up a bunch of the Lead Adventure Forum Stalker Figures and have decided it was time to get some terrain going. The stage is set, lets dive right into the content.

This article was also published on the Michigan Toy Soldier News From the Front Blog

Building a Shanty Town: Painting Tutorial


Every so often, I'll come across some sort of figure, terrain piece, vehicle, whatever that just screams "paint me!" While browsing thingiverse after game night one week, I discovered this amazing bundle of files to make a totally modular Shanty Town by Terrain4Print. If you have a printer of your own and want to follow along with my guide the files are available below. Here's the example photo that started it all.
Buildings
Barricades
Junk
Obstacles

Any 3D printing project is gonna start in the same place, at the slicer. I kept my settings pretty standard and opted for a .2 layer height using prusaslicers default .2(Speed) profile. Let's address something up front, Layer Lines. I don't deal with them. When comparing the costs, availability of models, ease of access, range, modularity etc etc etc between 3D printed terrain and commecially available stuff, layer lines are simply part of the equation. If you don't like the lines (and honestly, I don't love them) you can spend some time sanding, then finish with a primer like 3D Prime from Badger to hide as many of the lines as possible. You can also limit the lines from the beginning by printing at a smaller layer height but because of the sheer volume of stuff coming off my Prusa Printer, I almost always choose to opt for speed over detail. Once a part is loaded into the slicer, its off to the printer to wait.

In this particular pack from Thingiverse, you simply pick 4 walls you like, 2 short and 2 long, and print the roof that fits to that design. I chose 4 walls, 2 with doors and windows, found the correct roof and began printing. The total print time for the 5 parts for this building was around 20 hours and was printed in Prusament Vanilla White

I assembled the building in the usual way with super glue. There's a pretty easy system for making the roofs removable but I decided to glue the roof on for stability.

Once the building is assembled it's time to hit it with some paint. I usually prime all my 3D printed stuff. I decided to prime these with Army Painter Gun Metal spray. The majority of our building is this metalic corrugated metal material and this will save a lot of time in the long run.

The first step is pretty simple. Wash a handful of the panels with Black and a handful with dark brown. There's no right or wrong here just, vary the colors a bit so its not all the same shade of metalic.

Next up, I took the building to the workbench to basecoat all those non-metallic details (bricks, tires, wood, cloth) in what ever colors I felt like. I used my usual colors for these, Old Wood and Flesh Shadows from the Vallejo Panzer Aces line for the wood and bricks, Vallejo Black Grey for the tires and Brown Violet for the cans.

Once all the colors are laid down and we're happy with the general scheme it's time to do some weathering. I took the building back down to my game room, grabbed some Vallejo Acrylic Washes and Weathering Effects and a cheap flat AK brush and went to town.  I used the following washes to get the job done.

At this point you simply want to weather the model, I started by washing all of the "details" with black or dark brown depending on the material. The wooden bits and brick parts got a brown wash whereas the tires and washing machine got a black wash. The cans got both. Using the dark rust wash, I painted splotches (technical term) any where the metal was worn or I wanted to break up the color a bit, typically where two panels met but again there is no wrong answer. The Rust texture is "stippled on" roughly. over areas where the rust should look really bad. There's just a hint of texture to this one and I love the effect it leaves. Finally, I sparingly added some streaking grime near where the roof meets the wall in spots to show a gross build up.

At this point I'm calling the piece done. This is the kind of project you can pant in a day and with how quick these paint up, I'll be able to cover a small table in a weekend. I also think its a great first project for someone wanting to dip their toes into a terrain project because, believe it or not, this is actually only the second terrain piece I've ever finished painting. Most of the terrain I've done has either been pre-painted or I've had it painted by someone else.

Next up on my agenda for this project is to start doing some multi floor buildings, then its time to print and paint scatter terrain. Finally, I'll finish the project with a wall to defend the town.