Saturday, January 11, 2014

From Millsy: 28mm OldHammer Kemmler's Undead Army of the Cairns (514 points)



When Millsy first sent this submission in I was about ready to kill the f*cking git. But I consider him a good mate and since he's flying us down to Australia for a visit I thought I'd give him a pass. ;) Anyway, Millsy starts the escalation of what I'm sure will be the beginning of the huge, two-fisted entries of the Challenge.

From Millsy:
Name dropping and a challenge of sorts
Last Thursday was supposed to be our fortnightly D&D session. Vinnie Jones and Rutger Hauer had already cancelled (man flu and crochet club) but it still left us with our minimum of three plus DM. At the last minute the Dalai Lama rings and says Hauer has been ragging him all week on Facebook, going on about now that Mandela is gone HE has to be the cleric cause that's for pussies and nobody else will do it. Anyway, long story short and the Dalai says he isn't playing any more. He's going to play X-Wing with Di Caprio and the Beckhams instead. What a big girl's blouse.
So I've just hung up and I hear the door slam. In walks Mr T and Clint Eastwood all ready to play. What do I say? I skirt round the issue but after T puts me in a headlock I eventually fess up (I can call him "T" cause I've know him for ages, don't you try it). Fortunately the lads are pretty ambivalent about the whole thing and before I know it we're doing shots and watching Ferris Bueller.
Eventually conversation turns to the painting challenge and T wants to know who's dropped the biggest points bomb. I answer someone did a 350ish I think and he just snorts. He turns to Clint and says "Yo C, tell Millsy what you think of 350ish." Clint doesn't answer, he just looks at me like this...
T responds "Ha! Nuff said. Millsy, you need to set an example brother. Do something impressive. 500+ or nuthin!" Anyone who knows T knows you don't argue with him after the third bottle of tequila, and well, the rest of this submission is history.
My good friend T wants to know if any of you have the cojones to try and take me down (his words not mine). Anyone got a bigger points bomb in their locker? T says not...
NB. Some of this may be a slight exaggeration. It was only two bottles of tequila. Plus I don't really know Rutger Hauer either. I wish I did though, he'd play an awesome Fighter/Magic user multi-class.
Submission info
Right, that's the bant over, time for some facts. This "rather large" submission represents the remainder of my Undead Army of the Cairns project, plus some stragglers that have been hanging about clogging up my painting desk. If my Mathhammer is correct it's 510 points worth. Woot(!) plus apologies to Curt, I reckon this might finally slay Blogger. :-)
First up we have four additional command stands for my 28mm Royalist ECW army. These are intended so I can field some of my muskets as units of commanded shotte. I can only count 12 of the 16 towards my point total though as the other 4 already had a couple of colours on them. They're a mix of Renegade and Wargames Foundry miniatures.

Next up we have a unit of 5 knights for my Warhammer Dogs of War army. These are Empire plastics with old skool Empire plastic spearmen shields as I wanted a lion motif. I've named them the Regimento Los Liones de Lustria (please bear with me and my bad Lustrian-mock-Spanish). I made the banners myself in Photoshop to finish them off.
Now we move onto the remaining units of my Undead army, starting with another unit of 20 Skeleton Warriors armed with spears. These are mostly plastics with a metal command from the Cursed Company Regiment of Renown. These will be one of my standard core regiments in the army list.

Rolling along we have a rare 20 figure unit of Glooms. In the WD article these were represented by Spirit Host miniatures but they are flipping expensive figs to buy so I've used a combination of Empire skirmishers and undead bits instead. With the weapons clipped out and their hands still clutched into fists it looks like some sort of ghostly pub brawl. Awesome! Not sure how much use they will get but hey, they're in the list so they get painted.

Following on we have 10 figure unit of Unquiet Horsemen. These are the older Black Knight miniatures commanded by a Wight King. The Wight Kings is possibly the single most badly cast GW model I've ever built and he required oodles of green stuff to line up the two halves of his steed. Things worked out OK in the end though. They're rubbish stats-wise in the list but I've got 10 and I needed something quick and mobile in the army.

Lastly we have a 20 figure unit of Barrow Guardians, a kind of elite infantry formation. These were built using Empire state troop torsos and skeleton weapon hands and heads. I've continued the red skull shield theme on these guys too. I will eventually replace these with decent metal figs of some description but they are fine for now and clear another pile of plastics off the paint pile.

So that's it. Kemmler's Undead Army of the Cairns is complete at a total of 108 infantry, 10 cavalry, 2 monsters and 1 chariot, all done as part of the challenge. I have to admit I'm rather chuffed with it overall, especially the character figures and the Winged Nightmare. Now to get a game or three. Thanks for the inspiration Curt!


I know, what a ultramaroon, eh? 

Seriously, Millsy, this is amazing. I can't believe you got this whole freakin' army completed in under one month - that is an astonishing amount of work and they look brilliant. Bravo to you!

Okay, points wise, what do we have here? Hmm, I make it at a whopping 514 points, which includes a few points extra for the nice ECW banners. Awesome work Millsy, that puts you in third place (for now). Best of luck with your first time out with these lads!

51 comments:

  1. Wow - amazingly great painting by Michael - in such an incredibly short span of time too! Well done, and well-deserved awarding of points! Dean

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  2. Tagged with "An Idiot in Paradise"? I'm touched. No, really I am. Even if you did call me a "f*cking git" and then demand an airfare and accommodation. Regardless of that, if you venture down under to God's Own Country you'll need to learn to swear properly or you'll be mistaken for a Pom or worse. "f*cking git" indeed...

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    1. As they say, 'You only hurt the ones you love'. ;P

      Seriously, 'An Idiot in Paradise' is truly a great honorific. Like getting Oak Leaf Cluster to your Knights' Cross.

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  3. Beyond words really, in both speed and quality.
    This should keep us Aussies up there on the tally board!

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    1. Can't let the cricketers have all the glory now can we mate?

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  4. All I can say is holy crap! That is some speedy painting and the results don't suffer at all!

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    1. Thanks Phil. I'm quite please with the blue/green on the Glooms.

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  6. Wow , oh my that is an amazing entry and the painting skill man is top notch really you have some skill there, so I wonder whats next, can't wait to see, well done Michael

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    1. Thanks Galpy. Persistence was more important than skill in this case!

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  7. That's a stupendous entry - beats my Swiss pikes of last year but 2 points!

    Great intro as well.

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    1. So it does. This may well be the current points record for a single entry in that case. At least you didn't get abused for it! To be fair to you I'd still rather paint these than the pikes. As you might know I once painted 144 of the same pike in one go as a birthday gift. Never again!

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    2. Nah mate , your still in second place... I dropped 545 two years ago

      http://analogue-hobbies.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/from-daved-mahdi-horde-545-points.html

      Working on their mates now!

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    3. Awesome stuff Dave! Before my time unfortunately, being a relative noob on my second go round. Odd that so many of us are into the same periods. I've got 120 of these beggars as well.

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    4. Actually, it may be 3rd. I seem to remember that MikeW dumped about 100 28mm Parthian cavalry in one go during last year's Challenge....

      ....and set to drop even further when James B submits his NW Frontier figures

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    5. I was right: http://analogue-hobbies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/from-mikew-28mm-parthian-cavarly-950.html

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    6. My word. How did I ever forget those?!?! They are EPIC.

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    1. Thanks Ray. You know the sad part? I estimate that decreased my unpainted lead/plastic mountain by < 1%. ;-)

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  9. Boom! What an entry.

    I'll try and topple to off your perch. I suspect I'll be painting until 2050 to do it though!

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  10. Stunning job. It's really great to see a mass completed in such style.

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  11. Gosh! Lovely stuff. I particularly love the glooms.

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    1. Me too which surprised me. I normally dislike these figs are the poses are a bit odd and there are too few variations with the weird flared coat. Cutting it down on most of them seems to have helped.

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  12. Cheers Andrew. "Love the ECW stuff though!!" Stay tuned mate!

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  13. Great Job Millsy some truly stunning work

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  14. I really like the green ones. Great job, great figures, what a lot of work.

    John

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    1. The green seems to be people's fav. You never can pick it! Cheers John.

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  15. Bleedin hell.
    What a haul and great stuff Millsy.
    I'll have to fight for my slot back.

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    1. > I'll have to fight for my slot back.
      Bring it on mate! :-)

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  16. That is some serious painting. I feel that next year there may be a side challenge for the biggest single entry among some of the big hitters. Not me you understand I'm a wimp. A joy to see such an out put in such a short time.

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    1. I don't really consider myself a "big hitter". Maybe I should now :-)

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  17. Millsy

    Great stuff. I'm not a GW fan, but your units are wonderful. I like the ECW figs best of all.

    Curt, I'd be willing to fly to the antipodes to teach the bounder a lesson if you'll foot the bill. His buddies talk tough but they don't scare me.

    Cheers
    PD

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    1. The spare room is ready to rock mate. Make sure you bring something to play though...

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  18. Damn, that's impressive! Both the quantity and the quality!

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  19. Absolutely outstanding work! The whole army looks most impressive.

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    1. Thanks Moiterei. I'm very happy with them and not just because they're finished either. I've liked the idea of the army since i first read about it. I was worried it might not come off as I envisaged it but thankfully it has. Can't wait to get them on the table.

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  20. Well done and an impressive amount of work! This is bound to scare your opponents to their very....bones!

    Christopher

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  21. You played a blinder, lad!

    Lovely work, and good to see them up for the Challenge. If I know you, you've still got a few more shots in the locker!
    ; )

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  22. That is an amazing amount of figures and so well painted as well

    Ian

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  23. I have no words. All of this in an entry? It is a really nice paimnting work!!!

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  24. This is a nice army however strictly you shouldnt have "Empire" style models in this army as they are supposed to come from ancient sites more or less contempory with the Tomb Kings or even "pre-historic" buriels.
    Of course once you fight a battle with them there will be more modern corpses around but they would more accurately be represented by Zombies summond in-game. JUST SAYING.

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Thanks for your comment! As long as you're not a spam droid I'll have it up on the blog soon. :)