From SebG: 15mm Spartacus Army (82 points)

From Seb:

I started my new projet: a Spartacus army in 15mm, first for Art de la guerre, and then , if motivated enough, I'll upgrade it to a FOG format.

I know it's a project that will require a lot of minis, but I also want a Kubrick feel about this army. So, I've cheated a bit. I need 12 bases of untrained slaves/ desperate peasants. I've started looking here and there, and opted for a mix of Corvus Belli and Xyston.

So, first, you have 6 bases of 5 minis each, with 7 shields and a floating hand-painted banner. All the minis are different! For the floating banner, I cut a piece of paper, painted it, including the highlights, and then glued it on the pole. I chose purple because I'm quite sure the slaves would have found a rich villa and taken everything valuable. A purple cloth would be very useful, easy to spot in a battle.

And next, the piece de resistance: Kubrick's Spartacus is famous for the final battle scene, and the fiery rollers! To cheat a bit, and paint a bit faster, I've made six fiery rollers, from cleaning pipe and some metallic stuff whose name escapes me at the moment. For an Hollywood effect, I added desperate/ dead Romans: 2 Corvus Belli, + 3 dead from Freikorps and Donnington.

I love this submission. The figures have such great colour with their varied sheilds, the basework is excellent and the 'burning rollers' are genius. Well done Seb!

This emerging project of slaves and gladiators will give Seb 82 points. Great job!

From FranL: 28mm ACW & Wild West (415 points)

My favourite Irish lad, Francis, is the poster child for the Wheels of Industry as you'll see below.

From Francis:

Here's some more challenge shenanigans.... Dismounted Confederate cavalry, Wild West Ladies, Poker and a little Victoriana!

Finally finished the confederate dismounted cavalry with horse holders, I added some Foundry kepi boys to the perry mix for variety, 

We also have some western ladies (a mixture of Foundry and Dixon) for some local colour, the taller ladies are from their Victorian range (ladies of the night or day). 

The Lovely Ladies... 

We also have some Dixon bank robbers and casualties (I know more dead and dying), there's also a Victorian dumping the body set (no idea why but it appealed to me), there's some western characters including dancing and coffee, cows, coffins, prospectors and chuck wagon guys and finally some poker players, drinkers and a piano player!

Dixon Bank Robbers and Casualties

A Victorian vignette of 'Dumping the Body'

Now moving on to Apaches and Union cavalry.......

Wowzaa! Again, another incredible whack of figures from Fran. Amazing. So many of these are brilliant. I love the decorous ladies, the saloon set is fabulous (that dancer just kills me) but the 'Dumping the Body' is my hands-down favourite as it warms my black, black heart.

This smorgasbord of Western figures will give Francis a very impressive 415 points. Well done young man!

The Great War in Greyscale: Early War Highland Infantry & HMG Team (85 points)

Here is another unit of greyscale troops I managed to get done while I was away. This time it's the Jocks.

The battle of Mons is relatively well known in the english histories of the Great War but few realize that there was another fierce engagement fought only a few days later, on the 26 August, near the small town of Le Cateau. The British II Corps, under the irascible Horace Smith-Dorrien, decided to halt its retreat and give battle to the oncoming German tide. 

The British fought tenaciously, and inflicted serious casualties amongst the attacking Germans, but at a fearsome cost. Many of the Corps' artillery pieces were lost and most of its units were badly mauled. The most notable losses were amongst the 1st Bn Gordon Highlanders who, for a variety of tragic reasons, did not begin their withdrawal until very late in the day. They bravely covered the retreat of their brigade but were subsequently overrun, fighting on until it was useless to continue and so were forced to surrender.

These excellent 28mm sculpts are from the Great War Miniatures range. They depict the Highlanders in their early-war uniform which was quite smart, though a little impractical.

Similar to my previous work on this project I've differentiated the NCO by painting his glengarry in colour and mounting him on a hex base. He seems to stand out quite well with his cap's red-and-white dicing and distinctive red toorie.

The HMG team was a lot of fun to work on even though the gun itself was a bit fiddly. I added a couple twigs sourced from our garden to serve as a shattered tree and a fallen timber dragged in front for makeshift cover.

This passel of wee laddies will provide me with 85 points towards the final run-in.