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?

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 RayR: 15mm F&IW Canadiens & Generals (106 points)

Ray is trying to go for my heartstrings with this submission of a unit of Canadien cavalry that were formed during the French and Indian Wars along with some flash-in-the-pans types by the name of Washington and Wolfe.

From Ray:

'That's it I give up!!! If I painted and based for the rest of the day and night I'd have an extra 400+ points, but I'll just have to settle for these guys as my last post. Quite apt really as the last post are a small force of Canadians.'

'Here are 10 men of the short-lived Corps de Cavalrie, a light cavalry unit for the FIW consisting of 200 Canadian volunteers and 5 French officers, then we have the same unit but dismounted.'

'The Corps de Cavalrie are all from Essex minis, but I did a little conversion work on the riders, Essex don't sell mounted cavalry in bearskins with this uniform, so I bought normal French Dragoons and chopped off their heads and replaced them with French Grenadier heads, the bearskin is not exactly as it should be but hey they 15mm!!!'

'Lastly there are two famous General's from the war, Gen Wolfe and Gen Washington. They are both from Frei Corps.'

A supreme effort, Ray - bravo! These lads will give you a base of  96 points, but I'm awarding another 10 for the conversion work and the fact that they are Canadien. So even with an updated total of 4508 points that still places Ray a little behind Kent in the point standings. Nonetheless, well done!! Thanks Ray for keeping us on the edge of our seats these past few days! It certainly made the Challenge that much more enjoyable.

From RayR: French & Indian Wars Civilians (174 points)

Ray sends in another substantial entry of civilians for his ever-growing French & Indian Wars project.

These are mostly 15mm Freikorps figures with a sprinkling of unknown manufacturers.

Included are 16 armed civilians, 16 'men about town', doing various jobs, 18 ladies and 8 kids.

This group will give Ray a very tidy 174 points. Well done! Next for Ray is some Nine-Years War infantry so stay tuned for those.

From RayR: 15mm Native American Tribal Warriors from the French & Indian Wars (231 points)

Ray sends in two large groups of Native American (or First Nations) warriors for use in his French & Indian Wars games.

The first batch we see here are 15mm Peter Pig castings. Ray painted them to represent a variety of tribes so they could be used for either side of the conflict or for inter-tribal warfare as well.

The second group below are from Freikorps and QRF. These are 15mm as well.

These two groups will give Ray a tidy 231 points to add to his total. This will see Ray break through the 2K barrier. Very nice work, Ray!