AHPC XVI : From Mike W - Various 28mm Sci-Fi Figures (130 Points)

 Well I managed to get some time together to do some painting between Xmas ad New Year's Day and this post is my baseline in the sand to get things moving for this year's challenge. Given that I had limited time to do anything, I opted for some simple figures to get going, hopefully I'll be able to tackle some more challenging subjects in the coming weeks!

The start of my Zombicide Invader Xenos Brood.
10 x mysterious aliens, determined to destrroyeverything in their way. 

A closer view of some of the Xenos.
Bases were painted to tie in to the game components,
anything outside the protective buildings is an arid, orange desert!

Here you can see the relative size of the Xeno Drones, Hunters and Tanks

I start by presenting 10 x 28 mm Zombicide Invader Xenos, hopefully many of you will be familiar with this game - basically a remote mining station ion some far flung planet that has been attacked by a mysterious alien race, helbent on destroying all human and other alien life fto be found there....

So the Xenos are the baddies in the game, they com ein many shapes and sizes but here we have just three forms - the Drones/Workers, the Hunters and the Tanks!

Three Xeno Drones or Workers

I approached painting all of these in a similar way, attempting to stay true to the artwork in the original game. All figures are undecoated in a cream basecoat to which is applied a coat of Army Painter Runic Grey speed paint. This dries quickly and I then drybrushed the figures' heads, hands, chest and feet with the cream & somewhite paint to bring out the highlights.

Four Xeno Hunters, much speedier than the Drones and Tanks.

These areas were then given a watered down black wash to pick out contrast details before painting the tenticles with a purple speed paint, to make these stand out even more. Further details such as boils are picked out in yellow, where exposed brains are on show I have used green for these areas and finally after a matt varnish, red ink is used tto cover hands, claws and teeth to give a suitably horric finish.

Three Xeno Tanks, massive, powerful beasts with tenticles and claws....

Next we have 10 x 28mm Dr Who Weeping Angels, these figures were embarrassingly easy to paint and complete, I almost feel bad claiming the points but on the up side there are no more of these to be painted now!

The group of 10 x Weeping Angels, basically animated statues!

The weeping Angels are one of Dr Who's many adersaries who basically maifest themselves as statues until looked upon by their victims, at which point the Weeping Angel animates its-self and takles control of it's victim's mind.

Close-up of some of the group

These figures were all undercoated medium grey before taking a watered down black ink wash. When dry the figures were drybrushed with a lighter grey and then varnished and based - as simple as that! 

And the other end of the line

My final contribution today is a group of 6 x 28mm Daleks, now some older challenge readers ay remember back in 2019, I painted a number of Daleks for the challenge at that time. I was sure that the guys at my local club would see the light and join in for a few Dr Who games. Sadly, I was wrong and the games never materialised so a couple years ago I sold all my Dr Who toys.

The group of 6 x Daleks. Eagle-eyed readers will see that the front two figures are from Warlod Games (now discontinued), others are from Dr Who Moster Army packs, originally supplied on magazine covers in the UK.

Imagine my surprise, 6 years after I blazed the trail, the club decided the next new period would be Dr Who! Hence I am re-acquiring and painting a whole new set of Dr Who figures....

The six Daleks in line

So these Daleks are undercoated in gunmetal, before black bumbers are then added and black ink used to add definition to the gratings around the Dalek heads. All the silver work is then drybrushed bright silver, before adding details for the orange head lights, sky blue domes and lenses in theis viewing devices.

A final view!

The figures were then varnished and based.

So that's it for my first post for this year's challenge, what else have I on the go? Well more Daleks, some renaissance crossbowmen, Korean War & Arab/Isreali tanks and lots and lots of Orcs!

Friday Night Games: Galaxy Wars

On Friday 12th December we met at Rupert's GAff to play Mark's Galactoc Wars game, based upon the old 1970s Tabletop Games rules 'Galactic Wars'.

All models were supplied by Mark and are based upon various commercially available die-cast spaceships for Star Wars, Star Trek etc, all repainted and put into Mark's Galactic Wars universe.

The game was an encounter game with Mike W, Mat & Rupert trying to track down a cargo ship that had stolen property in boad, with John, Steve, Phil, Jake and Dave on the defensive side.

Much fun was had by all, the photos below shoe the game better than words can tell.

The tabletop suitably prepared for outer space action

Three nice mdels for the Galactic Police

Space station and the dodgey cargo ship

Close-up of eth Cargo Ship commanded by Jake

The Galactric Police enter the table

Planets provided by Temu! 

Another planet

Another planet and another space station, home of some pesky Drones

Scally Ally, threee drones to the front, various other vessels behind

Yet more aliean spacecraft

And more...

And more!

Minefields appeared - which was a surprise!

Steve's 'Little Pink One'...

Fighting rages through the evening

Drones and the 'Little Pink One'

Most popular wargames played during 2025

By John S.

Yes, it’s that time again; the long awaited league table of most popular gaming periods and players who hogged all the gaming time for their own ego’s (includes me mostly BTW!)

No surprise really I’d guess but first place with 10 games goes to ‘skirmish games’. So, it seems we have now evolved into a skirmish gaming club! Probably the weight of whole armies even in 6mm! I have lumped WAT, Wild West, Whoniverse, Smugglers, Pirates and Space Ships into this category as they all have the common feature of one playing piece equals one man etc. Now, this may not be to everyone’s accounting model but I think it’s representative of our activities this year.

Silurians appear out of the Tin Mine, figures by Mike W

Back to the old ways now, in second place was ‘Medieval’ with 8 games, so pretty close really.

After that it pales out into just a few games each although ‘Ancients’ did manage 4 games with Dave and Rupert sharing those.

Player who put on the most games……..Drum roll please………Steve with 6 games, followed by a posse of Mark, Rupert and Yours Truely with 5 games a piece in joint second. For the record Matt only just missed out with 4 games. Everyone else only managed 1 or 2.

Officer and shield detail

So there you have it 2025 almost completed. Well done to us all I think 🤔 Now, we do need games for 2026 urgently as I only have Matt’s Hussite game so far………

A closer view of the Hussite Laager

Friday Night Games: Dr Who & the Sea Devils

Friday 28th November saw Mat put on his Dr Who & the Sea Devils scenario for the club's ongoing Whoniverse infatuation....

Figures were supplied by John, Mike W, Mark & Mat and the humans were played by Steve, Rupert and John,  whilst Mike N. played the Sea Devils, Mike W. commanded the Daleks and Mark the Sontarians.

Friday Night Games: 15mm Medieval

Friday 14th & 212t at saw us playing a 15mm Medieval game which saw a force of German Nurembugers trying fighting off a force of Austrians

The figures were from John's collection and he umpired the game using his version of Rupert's rules.

Austrians we're commanded by Dave, Rupert and Mike N. whilst the Bavaruan side were commanded by Mat, Steve & Phil.