From KevH: 28mm English Civil War Cavalry, AWI Infantry & 54mm Knights (342 points)

From Kev: 

Well, here I have a mixed bag for you. First up are the 28mm Empress ECW Heavy cavalry (12 mounted figures). Mmmmmm, what can I say about these. I'll start at the beginning. Beautiful  exquisite, finely crafted miniatures. Very realistic, accurately proportioned, they look fantastic,

BUT!!

Assembly is a git, although these were part assembled when I recieved them. They fell apart during painting on a number of occasions. The swords are very thin, although this is accurate, they break really easy, really easy.

The horses are ok but if you remove the run throughs on the hoofs, the entire horse bends with the weight of the rider, I left some on after removing some and having this problem. Much of the detail is so fine, be careful not to obliterate if when priming.

The figures are very unforgiving when painting. Some areas are hard to reach when assembled, yet you must assemble to paint. All in all, I did not like painting these, they took twice the time and effort to paint. Overall, I think they turned out ok, I just hope my customer likes them.

I fancied painting something different for a change so I decided to do some more work on my Muskets and Tomahawks stuff. AWI and FiW came out again. First up are 14 x 28mm Foundry American Infantry with command.

I did these with green facings so I could tell them apart from my regulars, they will act as light infantry for the moment.

Followed by 10 x 28mm custom Militia/Civilians for M&T games. These are converted from various manufacturers, but are mostly Foundry & Front Rank.

Closely followed by 3 x 28mm Brits. The light infantry is a conversion from a bugler into an NCO. He was started before the challenge, so dont include him please Curt. These Two 28mm Brits bring my British infantry up to full strength. (24 figs, 2 x 12)

And Finally. 2 x 6 figure units of 54mm Knights. Once again these are Accurate Miniatures plastics. Basic paint job as before. I am about a quarter way through my Siege game troops. Charlie is slowly progressing with the missile units. 

Gorgeous stuff Kev. Even though you describe the ECW cavalry as particularly troublesome I think you've done a beautiful job on them. The horses are splendid and I really like how you've done their buff coats. I think your client will be very pleased indeed. 

This fine assortment of figures will give Kev a very respectable 342 points, allowing him to close-in ever closer to his Challenge target...

From RossM: 28mm Ninjas! (45 points)

From Ross:

These Ninja models are from Dixon Miniatures. 

There are 9 in total. 25mm but on the smaller end of the scale.

 I not pleased with the finish from the varnish, so they will be getting another coat shortly.

The features and posing of these figures are quite accentuated but I really like them. Great job on the grounwork, Ross, and I really like how they all fit together with the hex-bases.

This team of assissins will give Ross 45 points.

From RayR: 28mm Analusian Cavalry (122 points)

From Ray:

Another one of those long forgotten tucked away units...

12 Gripping Beast Andalusian Cavalry to add to my El Cid army.

I've tried to paint these like the rest of my El Cid army, its quite difficult painting down???

I do have another of these cleaned up and ready for a lick of paint, but I don't think I'm going to get the time to start them before the end of the Challenge, never mind!!!

Another excellent medieval Muslim entry! Beautiful work Ray, and, bestill my heart, in the proper scale no less! ;oP Is that one of your banners? Its very, very nice.

This cavalry of the Faithful will provide Ray with 122 points, allowing him to slip past Tamsin into 7th place. Again, lovely work Ray!

From ChristopherS: French & Indian War Compagnies Franches de la Marine (62 points)

From Christopher:

These gentlemen are my Compagnie Franches de la Marine for my French & Indian War project to be used for This Very Ground and Muskets and Tomahawks. I used round bases as I prefer that for skirmish games. I will of course be taking the role of the French and their Indian allies and my friend Mike's the British. I depicted the Marines emerging from the woods conducting a flanking attack or perhaps even surprising a British column or camp.

The models are from Redoubt and like their Indians are packed full of character that just really draws me to them. For me the Redoubt line gives a very intense and dangerous take on the French and Indian war that I really like. The flag is from the superb GMB designs. Colours are mostly Foundry with some Vallejo.

I think like many of us what drew me into the period was Daniel Day Lewis version of Last of the Mohicans that I've watched repeatedly over the years. The film for me ranks as one of if not my all time favorite non documentary war movie where the cast, cinematography and music where about as perfect as you could get IMHO. The music has already started in my head just thinking about it!

Stonkingly beautiful work Christopher! I really like the vignette shot of the figures emerging out of the terrain. 'Last of the Mohicans' is a superb film, but my memories of it always seem to get hijacked by enchanting images of Madeleine Stowe...

These dozen brave Marines, with their proud standard, will give Christopher 62 points. Well done!

From BurkhardS: 28mm Napoleonic Austrians, Prussians & French (100 points)

From Burkhard:

These minis were painted over the last two weekends. Essentially these are meant to fill some of the gaps I still have for my Völkerschlacht von Leipzig project.

Up first were a couple of Östereichische (Austrian) Jäger. Now while my Allied force for the scenario is Prussian, it also includes four Austrians. These represent a company worth of Jäger that got lost earlier in the day and attached themselves to the Prussians. The minis are Front Rank. They should fit in well with my Calpe Prussians since they are roughly the same size and heft. They are marvelous sculpts to paints. The only slight reservation I had with these was that they were a bit boring in their colour choice with their Hechtgraue uniforms and mainly balck equipment... wish Front Rank had sculpted a few Haversacks on for a little colour!

Up next are a few Prussian officers. In a recent game we played I had to use some British officers as stand-ins which resulted in some jokes that I needed more Prussian officers to prevent the Brits from stealing the glory. One is a pair of artillery officers representing Oberstleutnant Schmidt who commanded von Yorcke´s artillery reserve that day. Both minis and their Horses are from Calpe. I really enjoyed their businesslike simplicity. While it might not show on the photos, I enjoyed painting the reflection of the sky into the telescope lense. I  felt this gave a great counterpoint to that simplicity and serves as a good eyecatcher.

The other one is a Prussian officer (Perry) meant to represent the officer who commanded the second detachment of the avant garde. Unfortunately his name is unknown, but this also gave me the opportunity to choose his facing colours. I went for silesian yellow, since there a lot of units from Silesia in the force and since it gave a nice contrast with the blue of the uniform and the red of the turnbacks. Also on the base are a French artillery casualty and broken gun from Offensive Miniatures. I feel that piece has lots of character and they both serve to distract from one another therefore creating lots of action on the base. The only mood point is that I arranged them in a way that it looks like the Prussian officer is shouting to get that dead Frenchmen moving again.

Up next are the French officers. I also had some gaps there. Not that I do not have enough French command stands, but a lot of those are very high ranked and it looks strange to have Napoleon lead a brigade. ;-)

First is a French colonel from Victrix. And I have to say... for me this is one of the top five Napoleonic minis around if not the best. There is so much character in that minis especially if combined with the prancing horse from the set, you just have to love that mini! It just screams smug aristocratic officer. And I love it. It is meant to represent a French General de Brigade for my Möckern project. Yes, I know this is a colonels uniform, but I simply had to realise I I did not have enough minis with the right uniform around so this will have to do. I also added a Grenadier Porte Fannion (Perry) to the base to make sure he does not look too alone.

The other base is a French General de Division and his aide. His is meant to represent Général de division Count Joseph Lagrange who commanded the French 21st Division at Leipzig. The minis is actually a Marechal painted up to represent a GdD. Both he and his aide are Perry Miniatures.

I really enjoyed painting these Frenchmen. One thing I really love to do is paint NMM gold. Now over the past few months I only painted French Légère and Prussians and while those have a lot of silver in their clothing... no gold. But about no one sports more gold than French officers so this was a great remedy! 

Last up is another French artillery casualty from Offensive Miniatures. I have not really decided ow to use him, But I wanted to paint him in one go while painting his mate so he is here as well!

Up next on the table is a battery of Prussian horse artillery. The four guns are already painted, but I have not started on the crew yet and next weekend is filled with social functions... it will be a a though challenge to get these done before the deadline.

Wow, beautiful work Burkhard! I have to admit have a great soft spot for Napoleonics so I love seeing submissions such as this. I really like your non-metalic metal effect - I've been trying much the same thing lately and am sorely missing the loss of GW's Bubonic Brown as it gave a great base shade. Anyway, again, lovely stuff.

These Austrian, Prussians and French will give Burkhard 100 points (and I see you are just one foot figure short of your target...). 

From ChrisP: 28mm Early Imperial Romans (455 points)

As we see here Chris is not sitting back to see first place slip from his grasp.

From Chris:

I have been doing my best Kent impression, painting a whole lot of Romans at once! This entry is made of Romans, Romans and more Romans. All from Warlord Games. There is...

3 Bases of Legionaries

1 Base of Praetorians

4 Romans who will make up numbers on other bases

1 Base of Baeleric Slingers

3 Bases of Auxiliary Cavalry

1 Carroballista (complete with donkeys)

1 Generals base, complete with Russell Crowe (good New Zealander that he is!)

I spent so long painting them, I can't think of anything to say about them. Except to say that they are done! And that I am bad at photography. And I have just seen that some flock has attached to random places. Sigh. But, they are pretty cool now that they are done!

Anyway, enough from me. I am not done yet for the competition, there is still a bit more to do...

Excellent work Chris! You definitely are channeling the Kent mojo this year - bravo!

These soldiers of Rome will give Chris 455 points, giving him enough not only to vault him back into first place in the points standing but also to achieve his second points target goal. Amazing work and well done!