From BenG: 20mm Napoleonic Bavarian Cavalry & French Artillery (90 points)

From Ben:

When I bought the Bavarians, I thought I'd bought enough for the four regiments in IV Corps, but it turned out I was a regiment short! By the time I realized my miscalculation, it was too late to order another set, so my compromise was to use left over French chasseurs with Wurrtemberg artillerymen's heads. The horses are the UGLY (with a capital UG) ones that come with the chasseurs. The officer was an early experiment (he's the only one with sash and plume) and therefore can't be counted towards my Challenge total. All the horses and the rest of the troopers I painted in the Challenge, though.

Next, from butt-ugly to beautiful! This is the first of 2 Italian 12-pounder batteries which will provide some muscle in the firepower department for IV Corps. The figures are from Zvezda and are just superbly sculpted and come up a treat.

To round off this entry are 2 more regimental guns. One has a Zvezda gunner, the other a HaT gunner. Both have replacement heads from the beautiful range by Franznap. The Zvezda gunner is by far the pick of the bunch, so far, IMHO!

Lovely, lovely stuff Ben. I agree, that Zvezda gunner is the belle of the ball to be sure. I remember looking at both the Zvezda and Franznap stuff and almost wavering in my commitment to Napoleonics in 28mm. Beautiful work and I really like the Franznap head swap.

The Bavarian cavalry and artillery will give Ben 90 points, which includes a few more for the head swaps on the cavalry and gunners. Well done!

From BenG:1:72 Napoleonic Bavarian Cavalry (56 points)

Ben sends in his first entry from sweltering Australia, a wonderful regiment of of Bavarian Chevau-Leger cavalry from the Napoleonic Wars.

From Ben:

These are Bavarian cavalry for Eugene's IV Corps command using 1/72nd figures by HaT. We're fighting the battle of Borodino in early Jan, so I'm speedily finishing the last few units, hence the quality of this unit. I've just made them wargames ready without putting a lot of the detail l usually add on these chaps.

The fellow with the guidon (blowing in a very stiff breeze by the look of it!) originally had a little peg sticking out of the pole to hold which looked very odd, so I trimmed the peg and twisted the arm so that he held it at an anatomically correct position.

I toyed with the idea of putting a Bavarian blue diamond pattern down the white stripe of the guidon, but my skill level wasn't up to it. If I had more time, maybe I would have persisted, but I settled for a white diagonal stripe instead.

Ah, it's great to see our first Napoleonic entry - thanks for this Ben. While you say these are a rush job  I think they are very fine. I hope they do Eugene proud when they meet the Russians at The Moskova.

This regiment of cavalry will give Ben 56 points. Great job and welcome back to the Challenge Ben!

From DaveD: 28mm Napoleonic Bavarian Chevauleger Regiment 'Konig' (360 points)

Its been a while since we've heard from Dave but as you can see he's been a very, very busy boy. What we have here is a beautiful 24-figure unit of Bavarian chevaulegers from the Regiment 'Konig'.

These are 28mm 'There's No School like the Old-School' Connoisseur models with a sprinkling of Elite horses for variety. They have been based-up for the 'In the Grand Manner' set of rules.

This unit really sends me back to the 90s, when I used to look through 'Wargames Illustrated' and gawp at all those lovely colour photos of beautifully based units by Peter Moreby. 

Personally, I've always found the 'Grand Manner' ranges (Connoisseur and Elite in particular) to have very much their own style. Some may find them somewhat anachronistic in this age of slavish adherence to anatomic proportion and hyper-detailing, but there is something about seeing these characterful, almost impressionistic, models all ranked-up in massive units that makes them very dynamic and impressive. In fact I would not be surprised if they were designed to be integrated together in units as opposed to being regarded as individual models.

Dave has gone the extra mile with this unit by converting EVERY model and horse to make sure each pair is completely unique. Here is Dave's list of changes and modifications he made to the unit:

'Remove right arms and sabres and solder into new position, with soldered shaped flattened pins added to replace the swords. I really like the one turning and drawing his sword from the scabbard.

Reposition heads, some just turning, some removed and soldered back on. Turn the feet of the rider to dig in more to horse if rider position warrants it.

Make trumpets from wire and solder, solder to hands for those that will be blowing them and solder arms back into position. Add loose trumpets to those with swords drawn

Make falling horses for front squadron – cut from bases bend/cut, position and solder back to base. Model the falling riders – one trumpeter with splayed out hands to cushion his fall – and dropped sword attached to wrist by cords. Add loose flying trumpet ,scabbards . stirrups and billow out the saddlecloths.

For the horses match the riders and turn horse heads & tails to match the riders movements.

Solder flattened wire reins into riders hand. Once the horses are painted these are soldered onto the bridle.

Now all I have to do is paint the beggars!  Horses done in oils.

The blue lozenges on the shabraque edging were fun!

I don’t think a full matt finish at this scale always work, so once varnished matt the areas that should be shiny are redone in a satin varnish to give a little sparkle!'

Wow, tremendous work, Dave! Very impressive.

As a base this unit brings Dave an already impressive 240 points, but with the extra care and work put into the conversions I am awarding an extra 120 points. Well done!

A New 'Painting Challenge' Recruit - Paul from Scotland

We have a fresh new volunteer to add to our merry band of hobbists who are in pursuit of the vaunted laurels in the Spring Thaw Painting Challenge. Please welcome PaulP from Scotland (also known as Paulalba in 'blogspace')!

Paul has an excellent blog that documents both the progress of his 15mm Napoleonic collection and the gaming from his local group.  I really recommend you check it out - it can be found here:

http://napoleonicsinminiature.blogspot.com/

I'm quite impressed with Paul's painting style as it is smooth, distinct and clean - very, very nice stuff. We have a couple entries from him featured here. First up is a battery of Bavarian artillery. The castings are AB miniatures 15mm (though often referred to in the hobby as 18mm). Paul uses a mix of acrylics from GW, Vallejo, Humbrol, Foundry, and Coat d' Arms. His bases are MDF sourced from Warbases.

Next up is a late-period Prussian command stand featuring an infantry General and an officer from a Landwehr regiment. The General is a converted Battle Honours figure and the Landwehr officer is from Old Glory.

What I find particularly impressive is that Paul is just 3 years back into the hobby after a long hiatus. Pretty inspiring stuff. These two entries gives Paul a tidy eleven points. I expect we'll see much more from him in the coming weeks! Welcome aboard, Paul!