From Miles: War of 1812 US Regular Infantry (90 points)

After being first through the breach Miles comes back with his second entry to the Challenge. This time with 18 figures from his upcoming 1812 US Regular regiment.

These are 28mm Knuckleduster miniatures.  One can see my Viking on the right urging the 'Ghost Warriors' to get some colour and join the rest.


Great stuff Miles! Look forward to seeing the whole unit ranked-up ready to project their Manifest Destiny. This group will bring Miles 90 points.

From JuanM: A Roger's Ranger from the French and Indian War (5 points)

Juan has come in with another great entry, focusing again on the French and Indian War, with a soldier from the famous Roger's Rangers who were an independent Colonial militia unit in British service.

This is a 28mm casting from Galloping Major Wargames. Juan is 'auditioning' this line along with Conquest to see which he wants to concentrate on for his upcoming project. 

I quite like this fellow's lugubrious face - very characterful.

As a alternative suggestion, for a completely different style, Juan, you may want to check out Tom Meirer's Thunderbolt Mountain range of 1/48 scale castings. Its a very small range, but the sculpts are very beautiful and sinewy - I have a few and can attest to their quality. They might be nice just as stand-alone presentation figures.

Juan has been splitting time between this project and painting Sci-Fi stuff (heaven forbid) but says he has to start picking up the pace. This lad gives Juan another 5 points to his roster. Well don, Juan!

From ChrisP: 28mm Napoleonic British Artillerists and Wellington (70 points)

Building up momentum from his Spartan hoplite, Chris sends in this entry: a battery of Royal Artillerists and the Man himself, Christopher Plummer! Damn, I mean Stephen Fry, er, I mean the Duke of Wellington...

These are Victrix plastics that Chris has swapped out the heads from the artillery box for those from the infantry set (he found the stock ones from the artillery box too heinous to bear using). Unfortunately the guns were built and painted earlier so they do not for scoring but they look quite nice nonetheless.  

I like how the battery looks grouped all on one base. 

The Wellington figure is from the Perry's metal range of 1815 Napoleonics.

Nice work Chris! This group will net him a solid 70 points as we head into the holidays.

Next up for Chris is the 69th South Lincolnshires, a battalion of Hanoverian Landwehr and then on to Thirty Years War Spanish tercios. I'm looking forwards to seeing all of this over the coming months.

From KentG: 28mm Early Imperial Romans (155 points)

Those who have been following Kent's blog will know that he's taken a huge bite and has been labouring through around 160 Roman castings - all at one time. Whoah! Well, he wisely decided to break-out a smaller group so he can get some momentum on The Challenge scorecard. 

Here are 24 Praetorians and 3 Slingers. The castings are classic 28mm Foundry. I really like what he's done with his shields. All layered, freehand work - they look very, very good!

I also like the grey-tone groundwork contrasted with the grass and flowers as it really frames the figures nicely.

This group comes in at a base of 135 points but I'm going to award Kent with another 20 points for all the freehand painting on the shields and the nice groundwork. So, 155 points for the roster - well done!

General Lasalle's Pipe

This post originates from a comment Scott recently made regarding DaveD's General Lasalle figure which was submitted for the Painting Challenge. Scott was curious to find that the object in Lasalle's hand (and that of the famous painting by Detaille) was a pipe, thinking instead that it may have been a sword in a forced perspective. So I thought I'd quickly post this as some may find it interesting.

Since my earliest time in the hobby I've always found the life of General Lasalle to be fascinating. Lasalle was a larger-than-life personality who generated a very loyal following amongst his fellow cavalrymen - many who often tried to emulate him. One of the many vices that Lasalle was noted for was his love of pipe tobacco. It has been noted in several sources that he would often charge into combat not with a sword in hand, but instead be seen urging his men on, waving his long-necked pipe that he had received from the Governor of Stettin (a city Lasalle had captured purely by bluff, guile and bravado). In fact it is believed that this is what he had in hand while leading his final and fatal charge at the closing stage of the Battle of Wagram.

So, you can imagine my awe when I visited the Musee de l'Armee in Paris last year with my good friend Greg and saw not only his saber on display, but also his famous pipe. I was pretty stoked and so took a few quick pictures. 

So here you go, the pipe with which General Lasalle rode to his glorious doom at Wagram.