My entries in the LPL season 12, the first LPL for me. I put some comments under the pictures as requested.
One of the reasons I joined the Lead Painters League was that I sometimes need a kick in the seat of my pants to get out of my comfort zone and paint something different. I find that painting challenges such as the LPL really help to motivate me to get other miniatures than I normally paint done, as most of these minis I entered are good examples of. They would probably have languished indefinately in my Mountains of Minis where it not for this league.
1. BEF All Quiet on the Martian Front
Round 1 had the theme "British".
I did not have any historical miniatures at the time, and I did not really have any specifically British either. I do have a few Imperial miniatures from Warzone, but not enough to build a team. But then it dawned on me, I do have some 15mm British models for the WW1 Weird War game All Quiet on the Martian Front that have been languishing in my Mountains of Minis since the first delivery from the kickstarter arrived. When the creator Alien Dungeon subsequently went bust and never delivered the remainder of the Kickstarter, it was a major downer. I lost interest and packed them away.
So, I dug some Brits out of storage, prepping and painting furiously to meet the deadline, and here is the result of that particular painting spree.
These are “British Infantry” and “Monotank” -miniatures from the “British Expeditionary Force” faction for "All Quiet on the Martian Front" formerly by Alien Dungeon, currently published by Ironclad Games. The scale is a largeish 15mm. Infantry minis are metal, the monotanks are mainly resin with metal parts.
I mounted the infantry on ancient Norwegian tiøring coins that are 15mm diameter. For the game they are supposed to be mounted 5 to a strip that is 10x2cm.
(I have also made a 3D-printed strip with matching indentations so I can easily mount these on strips if I ever get round to using them in game. Feel free to PM me for the .stl-file if you would like it.)
2. Malifaux Hog Wild
These are the entire contents of the boxed set for second edition Malifaux called “Hog Wild” by Wyrd.
28mm scale, HIPS plastic miniatures, many pretty small parts and a bit fiddly, especially the bonus gremlin (to the left) that was included in the box. Even so, lovely minis with a great sense of both personality and movement.
The Hog is called “Old Major” but I have done him up as the tyrant Napoleon from the Animal Farm animated film (1954). How could I resist? He even has a medal!
“Old Major”, incidentially, is also the name of the old hog who starts off Animal Farm by holding an inspirational speech shortly before he dies, a speech that inspires the revolt on the farm and the rise to power of Napoleon. But I found this model to be much more Napoleonesque than the wise Old Major…as some animals are more equal than others.
I did Penelope the hound similar to a dog a friend of mine had many years ago.
3. Off to see the Wizard
I actually titled this team "Off to off the wizard" as they are all armed and look more like a hit squad than a lost little girl and her random travelling companions, but I expect old habits die hard and so they were on their way to see the wizard instead
The figures are from Reaper Bones KS3, “Chronoscope* Wild West Oz”. I based them on 30mm round display bases from Reaper, and I 3d Printed a 20mm round in a similar style for Toto. They are made in the slightly harder PVC material Reaper seems to use more often these days, and have better detail than several older Bones I can mention.
Since not only the Tin Man, but also the flying monkey are obvious metal robots, I think “Weird West Oz” or even “Steampunk Oz” would be a more fitting moniker than "Wild West Oz". ...And the cowardly lion looked so much like Hellboy I just had to, you know?
In this round I got Plynked
TM 4. Goblin Crooked Claw Man-Mangler
Round four had the optional theme of a support weapon with at least four crew. I like optional themes
This is a Goblin Man-Mangler by Crooked Claw miniatures, a small company specializing in producing new Goblins sculpted for them by Kev Adams, the Goblin King. So named because he sculpted the Warhammer goblins and orcs with his signature comic style that became so very popular back in the day when miniatures were lead and plastics were rare and resin unheard of.
The new goblins he sculpts are in the same Oldhammer style and a joy to paint.
Two of the goblins, number 2 and 3 from the left, are slightly converted from infantry to be crew, as the artillery set only had 3 crew originally. All are still Crooked Claw, though.
For this entry I 3D-printed a 16cm x 11cm oval base (which is about as large as my printer can make) and arranged the models around the artillery piece. I built up a small hill for the pointer using three misprinted bases and some plastic putty.
After painting, I found it was nessecary to fix the mangonel to the base as it kept sliding around. So I drilled a hole into a wheel and the base and glued it down. The goblins are individually based on 30mm lipped rounds and not glued down to the larger base.
5. Solomon Canine and the Faithful
Miniatures from the Burrows and Badgers line from Oathsworn Miniatures.
Anthro miniatures are not my usual fare, but I have repeatedly backed Oathsworns many smallish kickstarters as I love the characterfulness all the sculptor Michael Lovejoy's miniatures are steeped in. These are the first Burrows and Badgers minis I have painted, but they will definately not be the last as I thoroughly enjoyed painting them.
Solomon Canine. Obvious pun there, based on the dour, black clad puritan witch-finder of Robert E Howard’s stories. I added a buckle to the hat with some green stuff to make him even more “puritan” like Solomon Kane. The rest were selected on the basis of "faith" to fit the team theme.
Alle the miniatures are metal apart from the praying mouse which is a resin KS bonus figure.
6. Lovecraft's Models
The lead up to the sixth round of the Lead Painters League was a bit of a time-crunch for me. I had originally intended the Deep Ones to have several colours like real fish, but ended up with a single main colour each and some barely visible stripes and spots. I barely finished the minis in time, and had to cut some corners to get them done as it was.
The team consists of H P Lovecraft himself, by Bear’s Head Miniatures. Bear’s Head miniatures is a small one man company run by the sculptor Philip Hynes. This metal mini is from the “Gallery Series” kickstarter where I pledged for a few of the character minis, including minis looking suspisciouly like Tolkien, Peter Cushing as Dr Frankenstein and Edgar Allen Poe. This is the first of them I have painted.
Next is a Thuul Mystician by Mantic. I bought this resin mini second hand here from the Lead Adventure trade forum together with some other Mantic minis. It arrived somewhat worse for wear, with ALL the facial tentacles snapped off. ARGH!
Luckily, the breaks were clean, and the reassambly with some superglue was not all that bad; mostly a trial of patience, what with fiddling around with very small bits and all, just a wee bit of putty needed to mend a couple cracks. I think I managed to put the tentacles back in the right order. This would most probably have been a sanity check inducing nightmare if this model was made of metal… I have a good impression of the resin material Mantic uses since they started casting themselves.
At any rate, I think the mini turned out well in the end. I chose a classic Cthulhu colour scheme to reinforce the Mythos-theme.
The three Deep Ones are actually first edition Malifaux Silurians in metal that were part of one of the first trades I made some time ago when I first discovered the Lead Adventure forum. Really characterful fishmen, but fiddly to assemble, being metal and all.
7. What did we drink last night?
This round had a compulsory Historical theme; Explorers, settlers and pioneers.
This was a bit of a problem for me, as I do not really have any historical miniatures to speak of, and certainly nothing fitting the theme. Luckily, I had ordered in some minis that would work (you know, just in case) right before the league started. I did not expect to get this far, but I am a better safe than sorry kinda guy. And I love buying miniatures. These were different and fun, and I was looking forward to painting them anyhow.
As I do not have a background in historical miniatures, I was a bit apprehensive going into this. I would not like to offend any history buffs with a historically inaccurate team with e.g. the wrong uniform colour or inappropriate equipment, people from different places or times in the same team, stuff that leaps out to the knowledgable by just being wrong and that I am unaware of. I do not know where the bar is set for this sort of thing, or if this even is an issue at all.
I would be grateful to hear the LAF members views on this.
So I opted for the humourous approach instead, hoping such things might not be too noticable by making a scene without any specifics at all. Judging by the comments, many people loved it!
Miniatures are NSA4001 – Hunters and Explorers and NSA4003 – Native Porters. Both in metal by North Star Military Figures. I based them on 3D printed 25mm round lipped bases. The Elephant is a plastic toy by Sleich, repainted and based by me.
To sum up, I enjoyed participating in the league, and have painted many miniatures for this that I otherwise might not have even started work on for a very long time, if ever. I placed much higher on the leaderboard than I thought would be possible, and even got into the quarterfinals! Many comments praised my painting and my ideas, which certainly is a boost to my painting confidence
I am looking forward to next years league, and will try to do better next time, and maybe even plan what to paint some time in advance and not do the one team – one week approach, which in truth was a bit stressful as real life gnawed at my available time and I barely just made the deadline more than once.
Now, one thing I will definately be looking into before next years’ league, is background scenery. I do not really have anything consistent enough to speak of (that is not packed away somewhere inaccessible and probably worse for wear). Many of the other participants made good use of scenery to set a scene and tell a story with their wonderful entries, and all the other quarter finalists did so. Maybe, if I had done the same, I might have scored higher? I felt the lack of scenery strongly here and even though I try to tell a story just by the title and placement of the minis it was not enough. Of course, my competitor’s entry was truly brilliant, so it might not have helped all that much anyhow