Pendraken 2021 Painting Competition Entries

 I'll complete the text around this later - but for now I'll just upload all the photos I want to use.

Firstly the 2 photos I am allowed for the single Fantasy unit - a hard choice from the entire army, but in the end I chose the General (Daimyo) base - which I buy as 1d6+2 with Fierce (+5pts) and Powerful (+5pts):

Daimyo - 1 d6+2 + Fierce & Powerful

Rear view

Just the commander on his own without his body guards - and of course the guitarist is playing "I'm a believer ..." what else would you expect !!!

Next on the list is the full Army

This is as follows: 

Diamyo (back centre), flanked by 2 units of Warriors (one on the left is upgraded to Powerful) and a converted Drummer add-on in front 

2nd row from rear has Primordial Ones (left), Water Elementals (center) and Temple Guardians (right);

3rd row has Samurai Tiger Riders (left), Kraken - magic users (center) and Spirit Tigers (right);

the 4th (front) row are 3 units of Samurai Ape Archers - classified as Defensive, Formed and Shieldwall (because they are behind their rice-straw bale pavices)

Some additional images to add to the main army image:

Kraken (magic-user) in their protective enclosure

mounted Samurai Ape riders on Spirit Tigers

Temple Guardians

Water Elementals

Some of the core army troops - Samurai Ape Archers behind their pavices

And finally some Primordial Ones ... I might be tempted to model a few more of these, and see if I can make them look a bit more ferocious! 

I'll add some more photos as this project progresses, but I am also now digging out my part-painted 28mm Orc army and the Wood Elf and Taurian force I had started and put to one side. Images of all of those to follow.

Spirit Tigers and Samurai mounted archers riding Spirit Tigers

Rear view

I am tempted for the next batch of Tigers and Tiger mounts to vary the colours of the Tigers - blues, greens, reds, pinks, browns - but still with the tiger patterns - as these are, after all, mysterious, magical and mythical beasts

Primordial Ones - for a 10mm Pendraken Samurai Apes Warband Army

 Primordial Ones - for my 10mm Warband Samurai Ape army

Whilst going through Covid-19 lock-down - I thought I'd have a go at a 10mm Warband fantasy army, and as I have a couple more conventional Warband armies on the go, in 28mm - an Orc and a Wood Elf  (& a Taurian in the metal pile)- I thought I'd go for something that only Pendraken produce - a Samurai Ape army in 10mm. I was also going to enter it in the Pendraken 2021 painting competition for fun, and to act as a focus for me to get it completed.

Whilst I ordered the rest of the army from Pendraken, I started immediately on the creation of my Primordial Ones base (more may be required later, but this was the starter) - and I had the idea of sculpting them out of filler - which is what I use for basing. 

The description of a Primordial One in the rules is as follows:

"Primordial Ones are barely formed elemental creatures, often little more than sentient oozes." 

So here are a few pictures of how I ended up with what I did in the end ... I had originally envisaged them as being slightly sinister - a mix sort of aggressive mud and the worm-like creatures from the Promethius Alien Covenant movie. 

However, it all turned out a bit Moomintroll and Disney (although as a kid I'd always found the Hattifatners in Moomin more than a little sinister): https://www.moomin.com/en/characters/hattifatteners/ 

So here (in photos) are the stages of construction:

1. the basic 100mm x 50mm base + the dice holder squares (NB: I have 3 as it give me the option to play different sets of rules other than Warband, including an experimental Fantasy rules set I am working on).

1)

2 & 3 the first stages of the sculpts - you get the idea - adding the eyes (pin-heads*) and gravel 

2)

3)

4 - 7 and starting the basic painting - using GW Steel Legion Drab - watered down quite thin to start with, and building up in layers. Then adding tufts and static grass to complete the effect I wanted of these creatures being summoned out of the ground.

4).

5)

6) Rear view

7)  the final finished unit: 

I might add some some gloss varnish in places to give it a more damp and slimy look (especially as slime trails behind some of the bigger ones), but the basic sculpts have been heavily matt varnished, to provide stability (after they have been painted) - but even so I'd not recommend you get them too damp or they might just melt back into ooze!

It was an interesting experiment - once I have the hang of the army I might well make a few more bases of Primordial Ones, as whilst they are not hugely effective as units, they are cheap and a lot of them might cause an enemy real issues. 

I will also use the base sculpting approach on my other Elemental units, as the Samurai Apes can use Earth, Air, Fire and Water elemental as choices.

Cheers

(* with the pin head - cut about double the amount you think you are going to need - they are really fiddly to get into the drilled holes - even with tweezers - I lost at least half of them as the 'pinged' off and disappeared into the carpet and holes in the floor boards!)