Following in the footsteps of my fellow entrants, I decided I had better find the time to create a portfolio of my LPL entries.
My main goal this year was to avoid purchasing any new miniatures for the League. I believe I was able to do that. I was concerned about the 'Explorers' theme because I have painted dozens of them already over the years. Luckily I had some Copplestone Castings Germans!
1. Pig Tickling These miniatures are for the game 'Pig Tickler' designed by Eureka. I've had these guys for years and just couldn't get the fire lit to get them done. I was pretty much tapped out of British figures from other periods so it had to be them! Luckily these particular lancer uniforms are pretty iconic and fit the theme. The game is pretty fun too!
2. Oasis of DeathZombie camel riders and Baluchi figures from Obelisk (now closed, they're available somewhere else now). These were meant to be included in the previous year's Army Painter challenge (Darkest Africa Baluchis) but they ended up sitting on the desk, primed and waiting. I enjoyed considering these as a desert climate parallel to the white walkers in
Game of Thrones. I thought this entry had a great chance of winning, but Keith's 15s were painted like 28s (and the photographer was better too
) and they went down.
3. Planet of the Worm Men This is another one that I was really happy with, but went down to a better entry. Pulper's Genestealers had some seriously impressive blending, not to mention the seamless converting! These are Retro-Raygun miniatures from Hydra.
4. Enemy Sighted! My third smackdown came from Blasphemia Blackwood. I thought I was done for this year's LPL, after three successive losses. At this point I was starting to realize my photos weren't showing off the painting and the figures were secondary to the large 'scene'. These continue to add to my Hinterland hussarette army, artillery and limber by Askari Miniatures. Like most of my other stuff in the LPL, this group was in the queue years ago.
5. Upside DownLike many others I really enjoy the 'Stranger Things' TV show and had been wanting to paint some miniatures related to the series. I've had the NBC troopers for years now and luckily I had an old Grenadier Demogorgon as well. The rift to the upside down dimension is a hole cut in foambaord, with puffy paint tendrils, followed by airbrush, them more puffy paint, and more airbrush to pull off the ethereal look.
6. Bakemono Banzai!Some more figures I've had for many years, which I chip away at each LPL. I bought these way back when Olley had his own site, maybe fifteen years ago! At this point the wolf riders are done, I think I have only a few orcs left- they'll probably show up next year
7. Meeting the MaasaiAfter rooting around in the miniature storage for a while I decided my only option that was faithful to the theme would be some East Africa Company Germans. After doing some research they seemed to fit the criteria. Again, I've had these guys for a few years. When a bunch of things disappeared from the Copplestone site I bought all the Darkest Africa stuff available
Copplestone has done some new Africa stuff for Northstar- which is both awesome and annoying, because I'm still not done with the Foundry range after working on it for over seventeen years. The young woman is one of the newer 'African Princesses'.
After painting some double sided flags in previous years, I vowed not to do it again this year- but I did anyway
8. Hunters or Hunted?I'd been wanting to paint some of the plastic Northstar orcs as well, and when I saw a little resin castle at the dollar store that looked straight out of an Ian Miller
Lord of the Rings illustration, the idea for this came together. The castle was the only thing I bought specifically for the LPL this year. The spiders are from Reaper Miniatures.
9. Bring 'em Back Alive!I didn't settle on an entry for the final round until the last minute. For some reason I was under the mistaken impression that I was knocked out and didn't have to submit a round nine
Anyway, I'd been planning a 'Xeno Creature Acquisition' crew for Rogue Stars/40K for months, but I wasn't sure how to do the cages. Once I decided to commit to the idea of an Ambull breakout, I laid out a bunch of pieces and discovered a fairly close compatibility between some parts from a Maki Games Kickstarter and some Mantic Deadzone components. All of this stuff was built, converted, and painted in five days. It felt like one of my 'all in' LPL entries from several years ago.
My blog actually has more detailed information on each entry.
http://miniatureextravaganza.blogspot.com/