From ChrisP: 28mm Greek Hoplites for SAGA (60 points)

Chris sends in this great group of 28mm Greek Hoplites for use with his brilliant mod for SAGA.

From Chris:

'Here we have 12 Greek Hoplites from Immortal Miniatures. Transfers came from Immortal too, and were an absolute pain as they had to be trimmed to fit (naturally I realised this after trying to do a couple at once)

They were really good to paint, lovely miniatures. I really like the whole Greek golden age- I did a whole uni degree in Classics because I liked it so much! The Odyssey and the Illiad were read many, many times during the degree!

I have based them up for the SAGA ruleset, a local guy here has written up some rules for using SAGA for the Trojan War, we think that it will represent the Warlord with a warband style rules quite well. (rules are here http://roughwotr.blogspot.co.nz/2012/01/saga-trojan-war.html and here http://roughwotr.blogspot.co.nz/2012/01/saga-achaeans.html). I am really looking forward to getting into it, we have 3 factions prepared so far, Myrmidons, Trojans and Ithacans. I will be using the Myrmidons, the famed warriors of Achilles. So what I have here is 1.5 points of Warriors, the next 12 are already on the painting desk! After the next unit of Warriors, then it will be time to paint Achilles himself, as well as his retinue of elite hoplites!

These guys are the "green" unit- all tied together with a green colour so I can tell the units apart on the battlefield. I am also preparing some sabot bases so I can use these hoplites in Impetvs.'

Very creative modification, Chris, and a great looking unit of hoplites as well. I look forward to trying your ideas out.


These 12 hoplites will give Chris 60 points. Nice one!

From RayR: 15mm French & Indian Wars Limbers, Caissons, Wagons and Guns (678 points)

Ray sends in this very large and impressive assortment of caissons, limbers, wagons and artillery for his French and Indian Wars collection.

The 15mm wagons, carts and caissons are from Hallmark.

Ray is missing three guns from this British artillery group. He's wondering if Fran is somehow behind them having gone AWOL...

Here is the French artillery with their distinctive red-painted limbers and guns.

All the 15mm limbers and horses are from Essex whereas the guns are a mixture of Essex, Frei Corps and QFR.

There is no doubt about it, this was a HUGE submission from Ray. There are 86 horses, 46 limbers, wagons and caissons and 24 guns. All tallied this give him 678 points! EEP! Wow, excellent work, Ray! This firmly places Ray in second place - well done!

From DaveD: 28mm Napoleonic French Mamelukes (175 points)

Dave sends in this brilliant unit of French Mamelukes that have benefited from his exhaustive and painstaking conversions.

From Dave:

'These are 28 mm Bicorne Miniatures - a little know gem of a figure. The horses are by Bicorne, Connoisseur and Firing Line. Another of my full OTT converted units. check out the IMG1223 B4 image against 1229 , of the rearing horse and guy with a pistol in hand and sword hanging from his wrist.  Before and After the soldering iron the dremel & the brush!

IMG1223

IMG1229

Each rider is unique with arm and head repositions with soldering and twisting. Each set has reins added into the riders hand. The banner on the trumpeter is from brass sheet soldered on . The standard is made from milliput and solder. In addition these guys had extra detailing o the horses as they had tassels added from the chest straps of the horses - these again are created with the soldering iron. All together it took me 3 full days just to convert the castings before any painting. - Phew...' 

'Phew' is right! These are beautiful, Dave! 

These Mamelukes will give Dave a base of 100 points, but like his last heavily converted unit I am awarding 75 extra points for the extra effort he's put into them. Well done Dave!

From GregB: 28mm Napoleonic Austrian Infantry IR#23 Salzburg (155 points)

Greg has been very busy adding to his Napoleonic Austrian collection and so sends in this fresh regiment for the French meatgrinder. This unit depicts Infantry Regiment #23 'Salzburg' which historically strived to stem the tide of defeat at Austerlitz by attempting to hold a defensive position on the Pratzen Heights (short synopsis: it went very poorly for them).

These are 28mm Wargames Foundry castings.

All of Greg's previous units are in marching poses so he quite enjoyed doing these who are in the midst of delivering volley fire.

I love the officers in this unit - such great personality and animation. Greg's done a super job with them.

These 29 infantry and 1 mounted officer will give Greg  155 points. Beautiful work, my friend! I look forward to seeing these on the table next week.

From JohnM: 28mm Napoleonic Prussian Cavalry, 6th Neumark Dragoons and 4th Kumark Landwehr (240 points)

John sends in this excellent entry featuring two regiments of Prussian cavalry, the 6th Neumark Dragoons and the 4th Kumark Landwehr Cavalry.

All of these 28mm castings are from the impressive Calpe range of models.

I commented to John saying that I think he has his Army Painter technique perfected as these look beautiful (he gives a great tutorial at his site). John responded, elaborating:

'For the horses I use airbrushed Vallejo Brown Ink on a white base. I liked how they came out. I did vary the saddle cloth from regulation, it should be dragoon blue, but when I saw the red pinstriping on the black, I just could not resist.'

The lance pennants are from GMB and the colours are 'FlagDude'. 

These 24 cavalry will give John 240 points for the Challenge. Wonderful stuff, John, well done!