Come and join us for another delve into the Projects to find the best of the best from the last week or so. We'll be getting stuck into lots of great-looking miniature wargaming painting and hobbying this week...

...always let us know what YOU have been working on and share it across the site.

Battle of Cynborough by athelstane

We start off this week with even more from the Dark Ages like we had last week. Here, athelstane has been diving back into their Dark Age wargaming with more solo wargaming as they delve into their own set of Waelstowe Rules. This time, we have the Battle of Cynborough.

In this particular conflict, we have the storyteller (I absolutely love that we get a great, in-world description of how the battle played out) telling the tale of how King Alfred clashed with Halfdane and the rest of the Heathen army on the tabletop. All of this uses the bespoke solo wargaming rules by athelstane which you can find out more about by checking out the project above.

athelstane has done a great job of breaking down the course of the battle through a few different narrative avenues. You have the neat captions which cover the action moment by moment plus the description of how the battle is unfolding by the onlooker who has come to see the fighting and record it.

I really liked that athelstane has used some of the more fantastical elements, like the ghosts, to show Divine Aid—Devotion in the game. It's the sort of embellishment that you'd get from someone who was telling the story, as if the ancestors had come to fight alongside those on the battlefield. Using the shields to mark wounds as well helps to keep the feel of the battle rather than turning it into "just a game".

If you're looking to dive into some awesome storytelling, painting and photography, then I would highly recommend checking out this project from athelstane.

SAND by elysium64

Next up, we're checking out a game and a range that I was particularly taken with when I saw it pop at Salute this year. SAND is a game and range from Crow Industries, which is a love letter to the awesome DUNE series of books and films. elysium64 has been working away on some of their miniatures.

In quite the turnaround from Salute, elysium64 has been working away on the miniatures from the Starter Set for SAND with the hope of turning this into a battle report later on down the line. I think that elysium64 has done a great job on both the Bad Guys (above) and the Good Guys (below). Classic old-school white and black that you might expect.

I think that elysium64 has done a fantastic job on painting up these miniatures so quickly and so cleanly. I particularly like the battered armour, the sand that has got into all of their joints and those shiny helmets that stand out nicely throughout the miniatures. Adding that sheen to the blades also works very nicely to make the miniatures stand out.

Whilst this is just a little snapshot of the collection, I am intrigued to see this game being played out with these miniatures and perhaps some of the heroes in the future. I always like seeing people get excited about a particular project, which then gets them intrigued to paint things up as quickly as possible. Well done, elysium64!

Arrakis Rampant by firelock22

Last but not least, we're sticking with the DUNE theme but from a different angle. Clearly, Spice has got into everyone's systems, as firelock22 is also working on painting up some DUNE-themed figures for use with Xenos Rampant.

The miniatures here have come from Wakes Emporium and were 3D prints in 15mm scale. The idea is then to use these as a test bed for playing games of Xenos Rampant but with a DUNE theme to the game. As they mentioned, Arrakis Rampant might be a solid title!

The miniatures have been mounted on one-penny bases with zenithal highlights and slapchopping to make the theme work. 15mm has been chosen for Xenos Rampant but the idea is that they could also be used for 15mm skirmish games of all sorts if you could find something fun.

Some iconic characters/troops have already been finished off by firelock22 and this should now make a great starting point for a full DUNE collection or perhaps something for SAND. firelock22 also mentioned that this could also be used for the 2D20 RPG if needed.

Whilst this might be a very early take on the project and these are only test miniatures, perhaps this will also fire up the need for some Spice and SAND in other wargamers?

What Are You Painting Right Now?

Every week, we’re absolutely blown away by the incredible topics that are put into the Projects; it’s getting more difficult to choose Community Spotlights! We love your work and we hope to see a lot more of it in the future!

If you fancy getting your hobby fingers out and showing off your newest paint job, terrain piece or even greatest gaming achievement, we want to know about it! We don’t mind if you’re a newcomer to painting or a veteran of the brush; everything you do inspires us to create more and more content together!

What do you think of the entries this week?