From KevH: 28mm Wars of the Roses & 54mm English Civil War (366 points)

Kev sends in two units in two scales from two English civil wars...

From Kev:

First up are more WotR. Oxford's bills retinue with command.  28mm Perry plastics. I decided to go with the Star Livery for the billmen. I will probably go with the blue boar for the Archer unit and maybe both with Oxford himself. 24 figures in total (4 ranks of 6 figures).

Followed by 54mm Heavy cavalry unit for the English Civil War. Another addition to my small collection. Their are 12 mounted figures in typical Cuirassier armour. The Armour is dark with only a metalic glint. 

All figures are plastic and by "A Call to Arms". The only modified figure is the rider with the cornet. He is from the ironsides set, but I think fits in well with the unit. 

Time to work on some infantry now, I think (Musketeers).

Excellent work Kev. I really like the dark armour effect you've achieved with both of these units - very nice. 

These lads with their attendent banners will give Kev 366 points and placing him within the top three. Well done!

From Nicolas: 28mm Russian Folk Hero Alyosha Popovich (10 points)

From Nicolas:

So here is the second of the Bogatyrs, Alyosha Popovich, an other charismatic russian folk hero who fought for the Tsar of Kiev. As for Iliya Mouromets, Alyosha is taken from the the painting by Viktor Vasnetsov. Again the figure is from Plastic Miniatures company, and the design is just top notch.

There is not so much to say about Alyosha than there was for Ilya, mainly because, I believe Ilya Mouromets slowly agglomerate the deeds of other around his rather archetypal person. Alyosha, as his name indicates was the son of Leonce the Pope. He was so strong when he was young, that when he played with other kids, he would often dismembered them by snatching an arm or a leg. 

So, when he became a grown up, he decided to enter the service of Prince Vladimir of Kiev. His strong arm proved soon useful against Tugarin Zmeyevich a dragon, or simply an infidel son of the tribe or the dragon (or the snake), who came at court, insulted the Prince and claimed his crown. Alyosha eventually kill the so cold dragon during a duel in the meadow right neer Kiev, during which God would help him to prevail, by getting wet Tugarin's wings of paper. Well, I don't really understand what the paper wings symbolise (maybe a weaker faith), but Alyosha surely did a great job by kicking this nasty vilain out of Kiev.

For that my friend Alyosha you have definitely deserved your seat next to Ilya and an extra effort to paint your shield. I kind of think it looks a little too overdone now, compare to Ilya's, but hell! I like it! Hope you enjoy it too! Next will be the last of the three Bogatyrs: Dobryna Nikititich... Now don't think I paint that slow. Painting those three horsemen separately actually allow me to "buy" time for something bigger to come.

Obviously as a child Alyosha was a bane to his daycare workers and had a hard time making friends (or at least friends that kept their arms and legs).

Great model Nicolas! I quite like how you did the shield and his spiffing green boots, though I do wonder about the rather heroic tails on these horses...

Mr. Popovich will give Nicolas 10 points.

From Curt: 28mm Spanish Civil War Italian L3/35 Tankette (15 points)

Though a member of the Non-Intervention Committee, fascist Italy was in fact a very active participant in the Spanish Civil War, ultimately contributing over 60,000 troops to Franco's cause. In addition to significant numbers of men, aircraft and materiel Italy also sent several armoured units to Spain. One of the most numerous Italian armoured vehicles at the time was the L3/35 'tankette'.

In this photo you can really get a sense of how tiny these vehicles were. A slightly piqued Ford Fiesta could run one off the road...

In truth the L3/35 was a rather unfortunate tank design and it was essentially rendered obsolete before the first models rolled off the assembly line. It was thinly armoured, had only two clip-fed machine guns for armament (these could only fire forward as the tank had no turret) and the engine was anemic, being only 43 horse power (there are garden riding mowers that are more powerful). Nonetheless, to the doom of many Italian tanker, around 2500 L3s were ultimately manufactured and put into the field.

Even when they were captured the Republicans held the L3s in such low regard that they were often relegated to towing artillery pieces. The photo below shows Republicans milling around a L3 that has had its machine guns removed and is probably being used as a common schlepper.

Nonetheless, I really like the look of this little guy and I thought it would be a great addition to the collection. Even though they were fairly weak, the presence of any armour on the scene will cause a bit of consternation for the Republicans - unless they have a T-26, then this poor bugger better find someplace to lay low!

I had a bit of fun playing with pigments around the exhaust.

This is a 28mm metal model from Empress Miniatures. I added some stowage to give it more of a lived-in look  (two boxes of pasta and a barrel of olive oil!). I haven't done-up a tank in years so you'll have to forgive me if this little guy looks a little rough around the edges, but I had a lot of fun working on it (thanks for the tips Greg!).

This L3/35 will give me 15 points.