From RayR: 15mm Napoleonic Hanoverian Hussars (48 Points)

From Ray:

My next entry is a unit of twelve 15mm Napoleonic Hanoverian Hussars for the Battle of Waterloo. (They are actually Baden Hussars from Essex Miniatures, but don't tell anyone!) These rather splendid looking chaps are the Duke of Cumberland's Hussars, unfortunately they were quite unfit to where their dashing uniform. 

During the Battle they decided they'd had enough before they'd actually done anything and fled the field, all the way back to Brussels. On arriving they spread the word that Wellington had lost the battle causing panic to spread across the town. Old Nosey quite understandably wasn't impressed, the regt was immediately disbanded and the Gentleman Volunteers were assigned to menial task duties!

Lovely work Ray. I'm not sure if I've ever seen you work on Napoleonics before but I'm sure you must have. This is a beautiful regiment irrespective of their rather chequered past. It would be great to have another rendition of these fellows, still dressed in the same uniforms, but post Waterloo, ie. chopping wood and digging latrines...

These Hanoverian hussars will give Ray 48 points. 

From GillesW: 15mm Libyan Infantry Command (74 points)

From Gilles:

Here they are!

Five command bases for my Early Libyan army. Thirty-seven figures from Essex and Chariot miniatures as usual, too many commanders you would say but a real Mexican army must have more generals than soldiers, truly a wild bunch!

Now it’s time to create an ink “ car wash “ after the jester’s bath for the 12 chariots and their teams.

Very nice work Gilles! Again, I really like how colourful and varies your troops are. The extra time put in for the patterns and headdress really pays off in the end.

These five bases of Libyan infantry command will give Gilles 74 points, enough for him to reach his Challenge target of 500 points. Well done Gilles and congratulations!

From KevH: 15mm ECW Earl of Essex Command Stand & Crusader Infantry (68 points)

From Kev:

Here is my current entry for the challenge. Not really had much time for painting this last couple of weeks. I have a lot of sculpting to do at the moment. First up we have a 15mm Essex Parliament command stand.

This is the opposite CinC for the Royalist Charles 1st I did earlier. This is the Earl of Essex and Staff. 3 mounted and 1 foot with another hand painted commonwealth Flag. (Jeeze, I hate how Essex sculpts the flag onto the figure!)

Also we have some more Crusaders. This time a mixed unit of Crusader medium infantry. Non Military order, a few French and germans. Warriors to the front with bows to the rear. Converted flag bearer with suitable banner.

This may well be the last of the Crusader force, I may add the odd unit at a later date. I will try to concentrate on the Saracens now. 1/72 Strelets figures.

Two wonderful entries Kev! Your high-contrast style is again making its magic with these fellows. Essex's banner is gorgeous and I'm very impressed with the shields of the Crusader front rank. Lovely, clean brushwork.

The Earl of Essex and this unit of Christian infantry will give Kev 68 points, which includes a bit extra for the finely wrought flags and heraldry. This entry will see Kev past his second Challenge points target of 2250 points. Great work and congratulations Kev! 

It looks like there will be a tight race right to the finish for all podium positions in the points standings. Many of us will be on the edge of our seats at we close in on the finish line in 23 days!

From RayR: 15mm NYW French Dragoons (94 points)

Today Ray submits a unit of Space Marines from the 'Imperial Hangnail' Chapter followed by a gaggle of unicorn-riding dryads playing harps... 

I know, not a bloody chance. Yep, more 15mm Nine Years War French donkey wollopers. 

From Ray:

I have been a busy boy with the brush and I've finished yet again another NYW unit, once again its a French Dragoon regt, the Royal Grammont Dragoons, who fought at 3 major battles of the Nine Years War, Walcourt,  Namur and Steenkirke. 

You'll all be very surprised to read that the figures are from Essex miniatures and the flags are from Maverick Models. i like this flags its not the colour of the unit, which makes a nice change for cavalry unit in the period.

My next entry won't be a NYW one, but don't panic, there'll be more NYW stuff on the way soon!!

Yeah right. I'll believe it when I see it Rousell.

Okay, so what's with that poor lonely nag in the background? Perhaps one of these poor Shining Sons of France fell off drunk a mile back...

Seriously though, this is beautiful work Ray. The buff facings of this unit are set off quite nicely with the vibrant red of the coat and trousers, very chic.  Question: Are you doing separate horse holder stands for your dismounted dragoons or just going to leave them as is?

This fine regiment of Grammont Dragoons will give Ray 94 points which places him within striking distance of his 600 point target. Nice one Ray!

From RayR: 15mm 9YW French Cavalry (70 points)

Ray staggers us all by submitting something completely new: 15mm Nine Year War French cavalry... in light blue (GASP).

From Ray:

For my next entry of stuck with my French NYW army and I've stuck to the Cavalry but this time a Dragoon regt. They are once again Essex Minis with a great flag from Maverick Models. They're based up for Beneath the Lily Banners, using Warbases MDF bases. 

The unit represented is the Dauphin Dragoons mounted and dismounted. They wore an all blue uniform which again was a nice change from all that boring grey. I used a lighter brighter shade of blue than my previous Anjou regt, just to make a change.

Ray, you are like a dog with a bone when it come to the Nine Years War. Three Challenges and you've hardly ever wavered from The Cause.  I salute you! Seriously, these look great Ray (wonderful job in picking out the cording on the drummers) and that backdrop does a great job in setting the scene. 

The Dauphin Dragoons (with and without horses) will give Ray 70 points. Great job!

From RayR: 15mm Nine Years War French Cavalry (49 points)

From Ray:

I've been busy with the brush here's another unit for the Challenge. 

My next entry is another French Chevauleger (Horse) regt for the Nine Years War, but this time we have a little colour, not much I must admit but at least its not that boring grey again. 

This is the regt Anjou which I only chose because I had the flag for it and it wasn't a grey regiment!! They're Essex minis once again and the flag, like my previous unit was free from the old and defunct Venexia site.

Great work Ray. I'm sure it's nice to get away from the grey paint for a bit. I quite like that figure with his arm slung over his drum - very jaunty!

These 12 lads will give Ray 49 points. Lovely stuff Mr. Rousell.

From KevH: 15mm English Civil War Command Stands - Charles I (22 points)

KevH continues to crack on in pursuit of winning the 1000 point side-challenge between him and Andrew.

From Kev:

Next up are 2 15mm commands for my newly aquired ECW armies. The armies were based for DBR and have now been rebased for Pike & Shotte. I purchased some command from my local store (Emporium). 

This is the Royalist CinC (Charles I) and a cavalry commander. 15mm Essex miniatures. Hand painted royal standard, that was a bugger to paint.

Ooh! Lovely work Kev. That banner is lovely, marvellous stuff.

These two command stands will give Kev 22 points, with a few more added for the excellent hand-painted standard. There is still one more coming up Andrew... ;)

From RayR: 15mm Nine Years War French Cavalry (50 points)

Just in case some of you were beginning to wonder, Ray finally emerges from his sandbagged-entrenched paint-shack to enter the fray.

From Ray:

This is in fact my 2nd entry as the first was for the first bonus round, but I suppose this is my first proper entry.

So for my first entry is a unit of French Chevauleger , no, they are not Light Horse though. They are the same class of unit as an English or Dutch Horse regiment, it's just what the French called them at the time??

They are my usual Essex miniatures affair and are painted up to represent the St Germain - Beaupre regiment, who fought at 3 major battles during the Nine Years War, Namur, Steenkirk and Neerwinden. The flags are from Venexia's old website, before the company was sold, unfortunately you can;t access the site anymore!!

The French Chevauleger are a pretty boring bunch as around 95% of the 135 regiments wore a grey coat with red cuffs, there were some who wore other colours, and you'll be seeing them later......I hope?

Long Live the Badger!!

Badger... Badger? Wait, I thought it was Budgie? What am I missing here? Actually I think you need a coat of arms made up with a Budgie astride a rampant paintbrush with crossed Sandbags... :)

Great work Ray! Even though the grey and red was a popular colour scheme for the French at least it looks sharp. 

This fine group of horsemen will give Ray 50 points. Well done Mr. Rousell!

From IanW: 15mm Romans (52 points)

Ian sends us the first unit of his new15mm project: a Roman 'Dominate' army.

From Ian:

A great thing about the Challenge is the ability to get new projects off the ground and onto the table. I was given a Essex 15mm starter army by a ASL mate who was never going to paint it, that was about 18 months ago so I guess it's about time I started it and what better than the Legion's finest?

I bought the command figures at the Worlds this year as I wanted them not to just be the same old. But I don't actually have any command figures to boss round the army so need to pick up some of these before I can play with them.

This is just one basic battle group of six bases and I have prepped four of these but will have to wait till I get the correct Osprey (yes I bought the Principate one by mistake!) Also prepped is some of the Auxiliary and Bow troops which I plan to get done during the challenge as well.

Quite straight forward to paint really, and as you can see from the shields these are sponsored by Nike. Rebock of course have those in Britain covered. I have just started to use Tajima1 grass tufts and I have to say I will be buying some more of these when I get my next lot of funds

Great work Ian! The 'Nike/Reebok' comment made me laugh and I really like the red 'draco' - very cool.

This unit of Rome's finest will give Ian a base of 48 points but I'm adding another 6 for the nice clean work he did on the shields, so 52 points total. Well done!

From RayR: 15mm English Pikemen, Demi-Lancers, FIW Canoes and Rafts & Danish Cavalry (648 points)

...and Ray drops his last sandbag:

In this entry we have 2 units of 16 figures of Henry VIII's English pikemen for the Battle of Pinkie.

Also included are two units of English Demi-Lancers. They're all Essex figures and the flags are all made by me. They were painted up at the same time as the Scots pike but I wanted to keep them separate.

Then we have my one and only post of French Indian Wars figures. A few canoes and rafts. Infact there are 32 canoes and 6 rafts, but 2 rafts and 2 canoes cannot be entered. 

I painted them before the challenge but had to base them up, so I included them in the pics. The figures are mainly from Irregular minis with a few from Matchlock, which are now unavailable. 

As you can see in the pics I based the figures in the canoes on bases (actually coffee stirrers), so you can take the figures out when they've landed on the beach. 

For my last entry, I've just managed to finish my first of 3 units of Danish horse for the battle of the Boyne. This regt is Donop's Horse, all figures are my usual fix of Essex minis and the flags were made by me! 

Thanks again Curt for hosting the challenge, me and Fran are knackered and need a rest from the brush.

Very impressive Ray! Those canoes are fabulous little models (I particularly like the crews). 

This huge lot of 15mm goodness will provide Ray with an astounding 648 points. His new total will pip him into 3rd place in the points standings. Well done Mr Rousell and thank you for keeping us all on the wire these past few weeks!

From Millsy: Franco-Prussian War Prussians, Clerics and Billman (80 points)

From Millsy:

This is my last batch. I really can’t fit anything else within the time remaining despite what I might wish. I’ve not quite reached my revised target but I’ve more than doubled my original one and painted just shy of 400 miniatures of various scales. Plus there was The Samurai Project. Not too shabby.

First up is 13 x Eureka Miniatures Prussians in 28mm from their Franco-Prussian War range. I’ve had these undercoated for so long I can’t put a date on when I bought them or why, which is both laughable and a sad indictment of the depths of my addiction. 

These are really quite lovely miniatures to paint, full of character and nice definition. The swords and flag pole are *very* thin and whilst they are correctly proportioned I fully expect there to be tears and super glue in their future somewhere. 

The paint job is sketchy in terms of historical accuracy, mainly because I don’t actually intend to use them for their what they represent. Instead, they will do stout service in games of pulp adventures or VBCW representing all sorts of weird and wonderful troops. Armed firemen springs to mind for starters. 

Finally and very last of all are three random 28mm miniatures from the lead pile which have been orphaned from their projects. I always seem to end up with a couple of these where painter’s block kicks in and they get put aside to await inspiration. The two clerics are Gripping Beast dark ages figs. 

The chap with the crazy assortment of weapons is a high medieval or early renaissance mercenary of some description. I think he might be Essex but can’t be sure. I do know I’ve had him as long as I can remember and this is his third time on the painting desk. 

That’s it! Hope you’ve enjoyed my offerings and thanks for the many positive comments. Til next year…

 We certainly have enjoyed your work, Millsy. The moustache on the fellow next to the standard bearer is awe inspiring. Very cool.

These lads of Millsy's rearguard will give him 80 points as a final volley. Well done! It has been a pleasure.

From RayR: 15mm Scottish Pikemen (546 points)

Well, we've all been waiting for our previous year's Champion to start his dash to the finish. So not to disappoint, here's Ray with his final run-in:

Its a big one!! Like Tamsin I've been busy painting pike units, not Swiss though, but Scots for the Battle of Flodden. 

There are 16 units of 16 figures. 15 represent King James IV's command at the battle and one unit the green flagged unit Lord Home's is from his command.

All the pikemen are from Peter Pig while the front rank troops are from a variety of manufacturers including Essex, Peter Pig, Donnington, Frei Korps, MY, Feudal and  Minifigs.

There are another 30 odd of these pike blocks left to paint, I've stared some, but don't think they'll make the Challenge! Unlike some other stuff waiting in the wings!!!!

Excellent work Ray. I imagine this is only the first sandbag to fall away from you as you dash in? Cheeky git.

These sixteen (!) units with their lovely banners all proudly flappity-flapping will give Ray 546 points. Yep, you read right. 546. That is a shed-load of points in anyone's books! Well done young man!  

Now, the question is: Does Tamsin have the 200+ points to bridge the gap?