From BurkhardS: 28mm Napoleonic Austrians, Prussians & French (100 points)

From Burkhard:

These minis were painted over the last two weekends. Essentially these are meant to fill some of the gaps I still have for my Völkerschlacht von Leipzig project.

Up first were a couple of Östereichische (Austrian) Jäger. Now while my Allied force for the scenario is Prussian, it also includes four Austrians. These represent a company worth of Jäger that got lost earlier in the day and attached themselves to the Prussians. The minis are Front Rank. They should fit in well with my Calpe Prussians since they are roughly the same size and heft. They are marvelous sculpts to paints. The only slight reservation I had with these was that they were a bit boring in their colour choice with their Hechtgraue uniforms and mainly balck equipment... wish Front Rank had sculpted a few Haversacks on for a little colour!

Up next are a few Prussian officers. In a recent game we played I had to use some British officers as stand-ins which resulted in some jokes that I needed more Prussian officers to prevent the Brits from stealing the glory. One is a pair of artillery officers representing Oberstleutnant Schmidt who commanded von Yorcke´s artillery reserve that day. Both minis and their Horses are from Calpe. I really enjoyed their businesslike simplicity. While it might not show on the photos, I enjoyed painting the reflection of the sky into the telescope lense. I  felt this gave a great counterpoint to that simplicity and serves as a good eyecatcher.

The other one is a Prussian officer (Perry) meant to represent the officer who commanded the second detachment of the avant garde. Unfortunately his name is unknown, but this also gave me the opportunity to choose his facing colours. I went for silesian yellow, since there a lot of units from Silesia in the force and since it gave a nice contrast with the blue of the uniform and the red of the turnbacks. Also on the base are a French artillery casualty and broken gun from Offensive Miniatures. I feel that piece has lots of character and they both serve to distract from one another therefore creating lots of action on the base. The only mood point is that I arranged them in a way that it looks like the Prussian officer is shouting to get that dead Frenchmen moving again.

Up next are the French officers. I also had some gaps there. Not that I do not have enough French command stands, but a lot of those are very high ranked and it looks strange to have Napoleon lead a brigade. ;-)

First is a French colonel from Victrix. And I have to say... for me this is one of the top five Napoleonic minis around if not the best. There is so much character in that minis especially if combined with the prancing horse from the set, you just have to love that mini! It just screams smug aristocratic officer. And I love it. It is meant to represent a French General de Brigade for my Möckern project. Yes, I know this is a colonels uniform, but I simply had to realise I I did not have enough minis with the right uniform around so this will have to do. I also added a Grenadier Porte Fannion (Perry) to the base to make sure he does not look too alone.

The other base is a French General de Division and his aide. His is meant to represent Général de division Count Joseph Lagrange who commanded the French 21st Division at Leipzig. The minis is actually a Marechal painted up to represent a GdD. Both he and his aide are Perry Miniatures.

I really enjoyed painting these Frenchmen. One thing I really love to do is paint NMM gold. Now over the past few months I only painted French Légère and Prussians and while those have a lot of silver in their clothing... no gold. But about no one sports more gold than French officers so this was a great remedy! 

Last up is another French artillery casualty from Offensive Miniatures. I have not really decided ow to use him, But I wanted to paint him in one go while painting his mate so he is here as well!

Up next on the table is a battery of Prussian horse artillery. The four guns are already painted, but I have not started on the crew yet and next weekend is filled with social functions... it will be a a though challenge to get these done before the deadline.

Wow, beautiful work Burkhard! I have to admit have a great soft spot for Napoleonics so I love seeing submissions such as this. I really like your non-metalic metal effect - I've been trying much the same thing lately and am sorely missing the loss of GW's Bubonic Brown as it gave a great base shade. Anyway, again, lovely stuff.

These Austrian, Prussians and French will give Burkhard 100 points (and I see you are just one foot figure short of your target...). 

From ChrisP: 28mm Early Imperial Romans (455 points)

As we see here Chris is not sitting back to see first place slip from his grasp.

From Chris:

I have been doing my best Kent impression, painting a whole lot of Romans at once! This entry is made of Romans, Romans and more Romans. All from Warlord Games. There is...

3 Bases of Legionaries

1 Base of Praetorians

4 Romans who will make up numbers on other bases

1 Base of Baeleric Slingers

3 Bases of Auxiliary Cavalry

1 Carroballista (complete with donkeys)

1 Generals base, complete with Russell Crowe (good New Zealander that he is!)

I spent so long painting them, I can't think of anything to say about them. Except to say that they are done! And that I am bad at photography. And I have just seen that some flock has attached to random places. Sigh. But, they are pretty cool now that they are done!

Anyway, enough from me. I am not done yet for the competition, there is still a bit more to do...

Excellent work Chris! You definitely are channeling the Kent mojo this year - bravo!

These soldiers of Rome will give Chris 455 points, giving him enough not only to vault him back into first place in the points standing but also to achieve his second points target goal. Amazing work and well done!

From SebG: Ronin #38 and His Two Compatriots (30 points)

From Seb:

My new entry is about the long awaited ronin! Since I didn't have any in stock, I bought a set of three from Black hat miniatures, and they look pretty good. They have characterful faces and I enjoyed painting them, even though I really don't like 28mm. I kept the painting quite simple. 

After all, they're supposed to be ronin, and according to the story, they had to stay low. So, too fancy a dress, and Bob's your uncle. 

Curt's ronin will the red one. 

The thing, I really don't know what to do with the other two. If someone has an idea ;)

Lovely stuff Seb! You've done a great service to a wonderful set of sculpts. I really like how you painted the kimonos on each of the three models, they work so well together. In fact, it would be a crying shame to break them up...  

Just sayin'.  ;-P

Ronin #38 and his two bow-armed pals (as opposed to bow legged) will give Seb 30 points. Thanks so much, mon ami!

From Greg: 28mm King's Royal Rifles for the Sudan (120 points)

From Greg:

More Sudan figures for the Challenge Gods.  As before, these are 28mm sculpts from the Perry Twins' Sudan collection. These lads will represent the 3rd battalion, 60th regiment, King's Royal Rifle Corps, on the table. 

The KRRC fought with General Graham's force out of Suakin in 1884 as part of General Buller's brigade.  They saw action at both El Teb and Tamai.  

Their uniforms were consistent with the other British units of the time and theatre i.e. grey(ish) khaki and stained helmets with a pugree   But they are still rifles, and of course rifles always have to be DIFFERENT somehow, or they will go over to one side of the table and pout the whole time.  

In this case, the difference was slight - the webbing and all of their gear was black leather, not buff or white clayed.  It does not confer any extra range for their shooting on the table top :)

There are 19 "advancing" rifle figures, two NCOs, a musician and an officer.  I find the Perrys do an incredible job with their sculpting, such that 20 guys with the same pose still manage to look slightly different enough that the clone-wars look is avoided. 

On to more Sudan stuff as the deadline approaches...

Beautiful work on these Rifles, Greg, and not a mullet amongst them, amazing... Seriously, these guys are fabulous and I can't wait to see them on the tabletop. Is the idea to to put them into sabot trays for larger 'Black Powder' games? 

The KRRC will give Greg 120 points to add to his tally. Great stuff!

From RossM: 28mm Vikings for SAGA (66 points)

From Ross:

First up are 2 points worth of Vikings for SAGA. The figures are 28mm from Gripping Beast and have been great to paint. The warrior base are shown mostly saboted for Impetus, but on this occasion will also be used for SAGA. 

The Ulfhednar are going to be used for Berserkers in SAGA and were great to paint. Lots of character in these guys and they owe a lot to DeanM of the WAB Corner for inspiration.

Excellent work Ross. This is a suitably fierce lot and I especially like their groundwork and sheilds.

These two Viking units will give Ross 66 points. Well done!