From ByronM: 28mm French Napoleonic Infantry Battalion (161 points)

From Byron:

One of the items I wanted to get done for this years painting challenge was a unit of Napoleonic figures.  It started a few years back with Curt and Greg’s lovely French and Austrian figures and seeing how great ranked up models looked.  After playing a few games with them I jokingly said to Curt that I would have to paint up a unit at some point so that I could contribute to a game.  I know, huge contribution…. one lowly unit, but hey, you have to start someplace.

So, when this years challenge came around I revisited the thought and decided to do a unit of French line infantry.  Having some French blood and since the Napoleonic period history wise was arguably the last time the French were a real world power, I chose them.  Also I can simply blame the French rather than my own inept gameplay or strategic choices if something goes wrong.  Sounds like a good plan, right? 

Anyway, here is my recreation of the 28th French Line Regiment.  It is made up of 29 foot infantry and 1 mounted officer.  All of the foot infantry are Perry plastics which were extremely simple to work with and like up and very easy to clean.  They are a little static, but being ranked up, thats probably a really good thing, since I still have nightmares from trying to rank up some Games Workshop Fantasy units.  The mounted officer is a metal Foundry figure.  I also shelled out for a banner from the Flag Dude, which is just amazing, I am so happy I ordered that rather than attempt to form one myself.  For the price, it saved hours of cursing at a banner.

I followed the same basing standard as Curt and Greg, mounting 4 to a stand and 8 (6 in this case due to a mounted officer) on the central stand.

They are not perfect, and some spots are a bit rough, and I know for a fact I probably made some mistakes on the uniform, I feel they are good enough for a solid gaming standard.  I may go back and clean up some of the brushwork at a later point, but for now…. They are done.

They took a lot of time and effort, being completely unfamiliar with the uniforms of the period.  All I can say is, why did the french have to be so vain?  Why not simple uniforms? All that piping and trim, what a pain….

Oh, and a big thank you to Curt, for putting up with all my questions about the uniforms.

Oh wow, Byron, this battalion is freakin' gorgeous. I think you're beating yourself up being too much of a perfectionist. I'd be absolutely delighted to have this battalion in my collection. 

The thing to remember about painting Napoleonics in large scale is not to sweat the details. Sure, it's wonderful to slavishly delve into the fetishistic details of the period's uniforms, but once you see these fine fellows along with 12-20 other battalions then it becomes the 'forrest, not the trees' which provides the greatest impression to the viewer. 

Like I said before, 'Can I have them?' ;)

Seriously, I look forward to them being brigaded with my lads next time we get together.

This wonderful battalion of Napoleon's Grande Armee will give Byron 161 points. Again, beautiful work.

From ByronM:15mm WWII Canadian Infantry & Churchill Tanks (110 points)

From Byron:

This week I decided to get a force together for Chain of Command, which I have played several games of with Curt and with the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts.  I had picked up a pile of 15mm WW2 British (Canadian) figures YEARS ago with the plan in mind to do a landing force for a Dieppe game using Flames of War.  I never got around to it, being stuck on how to actually do the terrain and the buildings of the town.  Therefore they sat.  

Once we started playing around with CoC I got interested in the idea of some Canadian WW2 troopers again and dug them out.  Only to find that all the British I had, were wearing shorts!!!!  Damn, I had picked up 8th army guys and they have sat here for probably almost 10 years!  

Well, I had to come up with something else so figured I would give the Plastic Soldier stuff a try.  So I found and ordered a pack of 5 Churchhills and a pack of British infantry a few weeks back to try them out.  I had heard mixed reviews, but figured at less than $60 for 5 tanks and 150 infantry I would give it a shot anyway.

So, with all of that long story out of the way, here is my first Chain of Command 15mm force.  

There is a platoon of Infantry made up of:
 - Platoon Headquarters with a lieutenant, sergeant, PIAT team, and 2” mortar team
 - 3x Infantry sections, each made up of a Corporal, Bren Team, and 8 riflemen

Overall, I really liked the Plastic Solider infantry, there are a few poses that could use some improvement as they merge the packs into the body awkwardly, but overall they are really nice.  It is 15mm and for the most part you probably won’t even see the few slight things that bugged me.  For 150 figs in a box at the price I picked them up for, they are way better than I expected.  All the detail is there, faces are good, and almost no flash.  Awesome!

There is also a platoon of Churchills which is made up of 4 Mk III’s and a single MK IV.

The tanks impressed me even more.  I had heard that Plastic Soldier company had some issues with soft details, but I saw none of that here.  Everything was crisp and clean. While they were a little work to put together, having about 25 parts a piece, there was very little cleaning required and everything fit perfectly. So while they took a little time to get together it wasn’t really that much more time than a resin/metal kit.  Better yet, they worked out to just over $6 a tank, which I thought was pretty good value for what I got.

I had a lot of fun painting them all up, both the tanks and the infantry, but especially the tanks.  There is just something about 15mm vehicles.  They paint up so insanely fast, and look so awesome with so little effort compared to 28mm vehicles.  These were airbrushed for priming then base colored, then sponged for some chipping, some silver on the chips, a quick wash for some depth, a clear coat, then some pigments for weathering, and then another clear coat. Total time…. maybe 3 hours for all 5, and I think they look ok as is, but may go back and add some grime and rust drips, still haven’t decide. 

Now to get in a Chain of Command game with them!

You've really done an amazing job on these guys Byron. The infantry is excellent but those Churchills are completely brill. That airbrush and weathering technique you've used looks wonderful, especially with the minimal amount of time you put into them. Amazing. 

This platoon of Canadian infantry and their accompanying Churchill tanks will give Byron 110 points. Great job!

From ByronM: 28mm Great War Highlanders & Challenge Desperado (80 points)

From Byron:

Here are two more submissions for the challenge, first up is another unit of Canadians for my Great War project.  

This unit is made up of a rifle section of 10 brave men from the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) 16th Battalion along with their leader.  Also included here is the big man that I am using to lead the 16th Battalion in games, a level III big man, who very appropriately can be called the man with the plan, since the model actually has an attack plan on it.

The figures are a mix of the Great War and Musketeer lines as they fit together size wise wonderfully.

It still bugs me that I can not paint the kilts on these guys though as they are almost entirely covered by the kilt aprons that they wore into battle.  I did paint the tiny little patches that peak through as the 3rd of the 4 different regiments that went into making up the 16th Battalion.  This tartan is of theThe 72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada and is a dark blue and green tartan with white and red striping through it.  

The Seaforths provided almost 1/2 of the men that went into making up the 16th CEF Battalion, and as members of the 16th were part of almost all of the bloodiest battles in the war, including Ypres, the Somme, Vimy Ridge, and Passchendaele.  This holds true for all of the component parts of the 16th though, and is the reason that I chose to represent them as one of the Battalions in my CEF force.

The second submission included here is the miniature being used as my entrance requirement for the challenge.  It is a Foundry wild west figure that I felt had a very similar look and feel as the crazy old coot played by Edmond O’Brien in the 'Wild Bunch'. 

I know that the figure has an eye patch and that Edmond didn’t in the movie, but I still felt the figure worked and didn’t want to try and carve it off and try to sculpt an eye. I tried to keep the colours close to seen in the movie and from the side where you don’t see the eye patch, I think it looks pretty damn close.

I muddied him up a bit with pigments mixed with alcohol which provides a cool effect in person, but doesn’t show up well in a photo.  I was told about using them wet to get mud effects and they work pretty well, the only issue being that they go on wet and pretty much invisible….  hence using alcohol instead of water so that it dries faster so that you can tell where you applied it about 20 seconds later rather than a minute later.  I figured the alcohol suited the crazy old coot better anyway.

Hope you like him Curt.

Another excellent unit of Highlanders to add to your burgeoning force of Canadians - great job. Just as the others, these are wonderfully painted (very nice work on the Glengarry caps), though I feel your pain for not being able to paint the tartan on the kilts (I had the same reaction when I discovered that they almost always had them covered with the khaki apron). I really like the Jock officer with the iPad. 'How do we break through the Hun trenches? Hmm, I think there's an app for that...'

And Edmond is fabulous with his hoary grey beard and single mad, mad eye (even though the eyepatch is an indulgence he's definitely rockin' it). He will be a great addition to the 'Wild Bunch' that is gathering strength in my display cabinet.

These Highlanders along with 'Edmond The One-Eyed Coot' will give Byron 80 points, enough for him to meet his Challenge target of 1000 points. Well done and Congratulations Byron!! 

Do you have a new target for our last three weeks? 

From Byron: 28mm WWI Early War German Infantry (45 points)

From Byron:

Back on the WW1 project after finding that I need even more Germans thanks to the “Take the Farm” game hosted at the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts normal Thursday gaming night two weeks ago.

This is another group of the very nice Renegade Miniatures early WWI Germans. In total there are nine Germans made up of an officer, 6 riflemen, and 2 bombers.

As with my other Germans they are based up very simply with bits of board, planking, metal sheeting, and of course good old Flemish mud.  This was done so that they fit in any trench boards or terrain boards I use, and so that they show differently at a distance from the Canadians who are based as if they are crossing undisturbed fields as they march into the campaign.

Also included is another card for use in Through the Mud and the Blood.  The cards all have old WW1 posters and artwork that I have found online as the background.  

Anyone who wants a complete set of my cards feel free to contact me and I will share them via drop box.  

Lovely work once again Byron! I quite like your basework - the bits of duckboarding and shattered brick is very evocative. For a change you could do a unit or two based on turf or cobblestone to reflect the early campaigns in which the armies were still mobile and maneuvering for position. Just a wayward thought...

I definitely want a copy of your cards!

This squad of Germans will give Byron 45 points. Great job!

From ByronM: 28mm WWI Canadian Infantry (45 points)

Byron returns to his Great War project with this excellent section of Canadian infantry.

From Byron:

Hello again, here is another submission, moving right along on my Great War stuff

After deviating once again from my Great War project, this time to the far future of the 40k universe, I am returning the the fateful days of 1915 when the brave Canadians entered the war.

This section is another towards the composition of the Canadian 10th Battalion.  These figures are from my personal favourite WW1 manufacturer: Musketeer Miniatures.  While I know there are many other great mini companies out there, so far I have personally had the best luck with Musketeer, as the figures arrived almost completely free of mold lines, have crisp detail, great facial detail, and awesome packs and rifles.  

Don’t get me wrong, I like the renegade miniatures I have, I just wish they were a little smaller and less beefy, and I love the Great War miniatures company ones, other than their lack of facial detail.  Musketeer though, offers great detailed figs at a really reasonable price, about $10cnd for 4 figs!  When your used to paying GW pricing of $10-$20 per figure, that’s down right cheap! 

Anyway, the British themselves painted up really easily and quickly.  Not 100% sold on the faces as I ran out of my favourite skin tone and wash!!!  And since they were the GW colours from 3 generations ago…  I need to find something new and haven’t gotten it right yet.  I have all the vallejo’s and use them for almost everything else, but the flesh and flesh wash was my last true hold out from GW paint lines…..  That and, yes I know the packs are too dark for historical accuracy, sorry.  I realized that after I did the other section of 10th Battalion troops I did, and corrected it on my 16th Battalion troops, but then decided to leave the 10th with dark packs and the 16th with light so that they are easier to spot the difference between them at a distance (ok, lame excuse since the 16th is in kilts with glengarries but I’m sticking with that argument)

Also included is the card I made up for them for 'Through the Mud and the Blood'.

Beautiful work Byron. I feel your pain regarding using the last pot of a discontinued colour. I'm still desperately missing GW's Bubonic Brown and Devlan Mud (or perhaps it's just the smell of Devlan Mud I miss). I also agree that Musketeer Miniatures produces some of the best 28mm Great War models on the market today. I just wish the range had a little more breadth, but I know these things take time to develop.

This section of Canuck infantry will give Byron 45 points. I look forward to hearing of their debut with the Fawcett Avenue gang in the next week or so.

From ByronM: Warhammer 40K Dark Angels Space Marines Assault Squad (50 Points)

Byron takes a short break from his Great War project to get these Space Marines off his paint desk.

From Byron:

Here is another unit that is random cleanup from my pile of unpainted models just collecting dust.

These were put together at least 6 years ago, if not more, for a tournament list, then when play testing I found they were not worth their points (at the time almost 325 points for 10 guys) despite their mobility. They therefore got shelved before being painted and before the tournament, and I painted up something else. 

Since I worked on a Dark Angels character to replace a stolen / missing one lost at a tournament 2 years ago for my hero this coming week, I figured I should break out some more green marines to paint while working on the character, and hence this unit of 10 Dark Angel Space Marine jump pack assault troops.

Complete in the squad are 2 over-priced plasma pistols, and a sergeant with a similar pistol and an even more overpriced power fist.  Oh well, it looks cool, and thats all that counts, right?

Great work Byron. I really like the vibrant red of their various weapons set against the subdued green of their armour - very nice. Now your soon-to-be-revealed Dark Angels hero has some homies to roll out with!

These ten Space Marines will give Byron 50 points. Done and dusted!

From ByronM: 28mm Great War Canadian Highlanders (55 points)

Byron returns from his recent foray of the grim 41st Millennia to the warm, homey trenches of the Great War.

From Byron: 

Here is another unit for my Canadian WW1 force.  This is a section of Canadian Highlanders from the 16th Battalion, and more specifically a section that was amalgamated into the 16th from the The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada from Hamilton Ontario. While the other 3 regiments than went into making up the 16th Battalion were all from the Prairies, there was this one regiment from Ontario amalgamated in. 

The miniatures are mainly Great War figures, however I have a big man from Musketeer Miniatures in command of them. Again, as with the German submission earlier in the week, the Great War figures are great, lots of detail, good proportions, low flash, however have horrid facial details.  If I didn’t know better, a few of them, I would have sworn were cat people from a sic-fi game…  They really need to do something about that.  I guess, since the figures are so cheap, I really shouldn’t complain, but it does bug me that the faces wreck otherwise beautiful miniatures.

I continued this section in much the same colour scheme as my first section of highlanders, other than changing up the pompom on the top of the Glengarry to the red that the regiment used.  I also of course changed the tartan over the the Black Watch tartan, which is probably Curt's favourite since it is very close to the Campbell tartan. These figures have very little of the kilt peeking out from under the apron though so it does not show up that well.

Also included is a “beaver free” activation card.

I dunno, now I'm kinda missing the plucky little buck-toothed guy...

Beautiful work Byron. I continue to be amazed with your brush control. This is especially shown with your subtle work with the Argyll tartan (and it IS a lovely tartan - dark like by cold, cold heart. ;-> ). Wonderful stuff.

These eleven Canadian jocks will give Byron 55 points.

From ByronM: 28mm WWI German Infantry (50 points)

From Byron:

Here is a second section of Great War Germans which just happen to contain mainly figures from Great War Miniatures, along with a few more Renegade miniatures.  While I really like the Great War mini’s proportions and load outs there are a few that had facial issues. These will be soon getting field dressings to cover up some of the casting issues.  Maybe I am just spoiled by the normal insanely overpriced GW stuff I paint, but at least I never have to worry about important stuff like eye sockets or mouth lines not being properly there.  I now understand why so many historical gamers don’t bother with eyes and a lot of facial details.  It’s a shame, because other than that, the figures really are extremely nice.

This second section for my German force is a rifle section led by a “big man”.  Also included is an even “bigger” man, both in size and rank, to marshal my Germans on the table.

It was brought to my attention as well, that the helmets do have covers on them… hmm, so hard to tell as there are no fabric lines or textures.  At this point, I am just leaving them the grey helmet colour, even though it is historically inaccurate.  Maybe at some point I will make it right, but at this point, I like the look better this way than one test figure I did with the cover painted up the right way.  So, its a bit wrong, but too bad, they are mine :-)

One more section down, and my next section of Canadians is also nearing completion and should be sent in in a day or two.  Then back to distractions, and trying to get a vehicle done for the next fortnight challenge.

Lovely work Byron! I have a couple units worth of these Renegade castings and I really like them. They're not as fine in detail as the Great War models (which are still my favourites) but I love their chunkiness and they are very easy to paint.

I'll make sure to point out the lack of helmet covers on these guys the next time we play. Its the least a friend can do. ;P

This rifle section of Landsers will give Byron 50 points. Great job!

Top in Votes for Non-Combatant(s) Theme Bonus Round

Well, we had a very successful first Fortnight Theme Bonus Round with 36 Challengers sending in a submission for the 'Non-Combatant' theme. Of this illustrious group the following entries secured the top three places in the voting poll:

For 3rd place we had a tie with Tim's colourful 'Feudal Japanese Civilians'...

...along with Sidney's excellent vignettes of 'WWI Journalists'. Tim and Sidney will be awarded another 25 points to each of their totals.

AnneO'L claimed 2nd place with her wonderfully vibrant 'Guinevere' and will get an additional 50 point bonus.

And 1st place was taken by ByronB with his fabulous 'Old Queen from Snow White' who will get 75 points along with... 

...this characterful non-combatant vignette from Westfalia Miniatures!

Thanks to all the Challengers who entered and congratulations to the winners! The next Fortnight Theme is 'Villain(s)' so be sure to check back to see what The Wild Bunch has dreamt up for their entries.

From ByronM: 15mm WWII German 88s, PAK 75s and HMG Platoon (120 points)

From Byron:

Here is another batch of 15mm Flames of War Germans, that continues my “pile of lead” cleanup attempt.  These, as with the last were cleaned, based, and primed probably 8 years ago and then sat…  After doing up the 88’s last week I figured I would finish off a bunch of the rest of my primed 15mm’s.  This pretty much cleans the ones that I have together, so after these it is back to work on my 28mm WWI project. 

Here are the 88 carriages, with guns in transport more, that I couldn’t find in time to include in the last batch of painting. 

Also included are a pair of PAK 7.5 cm guns with crew, and two command squads with transports.  I know there should only be one, but I came across two and figure, why not paint them both.

Also rescued from the pile of lead in my closet are 4 HMG squads and their command squad, along with 5 half-tracks as transport and support for them.

OK, back to work on finishing a squad of 10th battalion Canadians and a squad of Germans.  Should be done those in a few days.

Lovely work Byron. I really like the subtle weathering on the vehicles and its nice to see some 88s on their carriages for a change - very cool.

This group will give Byron 120 points, enough for him to slip into third place in the overall points standing to date. Well done!

From ByronM: Uncharted Seas Dwarf Fleet & Flame Spirit (30 points)

Byron changes pace again and submits to us this great Dwarf naval fleet and a very interesting looking Flame Spirit.

From Byron:

Part of my reason for entering this painting challenge was to reduce some of the clutter of unpainted items kicking around in my supposed walk in gamer closet, I say supposed because the mountains of lead and plastic usually prevent me from walking into it.  With that in mind I have two submissions that help clean up my to be painted list.

First up is a Dwarf Starter fleet for Uncharted Seas from Spartan Games.  It is a fun game, and simpler than the more popular Dystopian Wars, but one that both my kids prefer due to its simplicity.  This is one of the fleets that they play with, but has never gotten painted, as I can not convince them to pick up  a brush.  The pictures on the game mat just didn’t want to colour balance properly, so I have included an image to show the real colours against a white background as well.

Since these are gaming pieces, and generally played with by my teenage sons, they are quick paint jobs.  Just enough to add some colour to them and not have them pushing around white resin pieces.  I hope to get to the elf and human fleet sometime later in my cleanup process, but we will see.  

For anyone that hasn’t played a Spartan Games ship game, you really should give them a go.  Fun, fast, and massively destructive.  In them any 6 you roll for a hit, counts as 2 hits instead of 1 and lets you roll another die!  It’s called exploding 6’s and allows mass destruction to occur quickly at any time.

The second part of my cleanup is a single flame spirit figure from the Ten Thunders Clan from Malifaux.  I painted up his master over the summer (so do not give me points for her Curt) and I believe she came out pretty well, however, painting flame is not something that I think EVER works out well. Therefore the flame spirit has sat primed up waiting for paint since the summer.  I finally broke down and figured I would give it a go.

  

While not thrilled how it turned out up close, as a gaming piece from tabletop distance it does look pretty good and portrays the correct look.  Maybe I will figure out a better way to do flame someday, but until then this is it.

Lovely work Byron. We've played a lot of Dystopian Wars and quite enjoyed it but have not tried Uncharted Seas but I understand that they use pretty much the same core mechanics. May have to give it a go.

I really like your Flame Spirit as well. For the furnace-like 'Balrog look' I'd suggest adding both black and white to the base and highlights respectively.

This eclectic entry will give Byron 30 points. Nice job!