Monday, January 21, 2013

From JaccoK: 28mm Mexican-American War Cavalry & ACW Union Mortars and Command (175 points)


The last holdout of the Dutch Waterbicycle Detachement sends in his first submission and a cracker it is.

From Jacco:
First are figures that are part of a larger unit I painted near the end of December for our US - Mexican game.
To bad I started the other 4 to soon. Figures are from Boot Hill and are an absolute delight to paint.

My second submission is a Union mortar battery with command
The mortars are from a small company called T A Miniatures. The figures are from Redoubt, I had the same problems as Rob with these figures.
This flag, and as a matter of fact all my flags for ACW are from the Flag Dude (Rick O’Brien), excellent stuff.
The 13” Union Seacoast Mortar saw action in many different theaters in the ACW. This Mortar was also very popular with Grant. He used them at Vicksburg.

The 13” mortar had a maximum range of 4,300 yards and where more accurate than their smaller counterparts.
Wow, brilliant stuff Jacco. All of these figures are great but those mortar vignettes are tremendous.  Beautiful work.

This submission will give Jacco a base of 150 points but I'm adding another 25 for the artillery vignettes and overall composition of the bases. Well done Jacco and welcome aboard!

From MichaelA: 28mm Mahdist Tribesmen (40 points)



From Michael:
The arrival of snow meant a nice quiet Sunday keeping warm by painting furiously!  As a result I've finished off this little stand of 5 Mahdists with an additional 3 individually based. 
I was playing with the idea of mixing up the plastics with a couple of additional metal miniatures. 

Pretty pleased with the overall effect, but felt that there were some that were just too relaxed to be included on the stand.  Hopefully more by the end of the week!

Lovely work Michael. Those three at rest do look very good based individually. I could also see how they might add narrative to a larger vignette as well (alongside Beja armed with rifles or the captured gun for instance).

These eight tribesmen will give Michael 40 points. Well done!

From KevH: 28mm Wars of the Roses (120 points)


From Kev:
More of Oxfords Retinue for the WotR. 20 x 28mm Perry's. The Earl of Oxfords Retinue Bowmen with command.
This time I did a mix of the Blue Star & Blue Boar livery.
All the bows are strung. I used polyester cotton for the bows at it is I think it looks better. Its a bit more fiddley than wire but you dont need to paint it after, lol.
I am currently working on some more 54mm ECW, (Green Shotte) to to with my new pike. Also nearly completed a couple of WotR foot commanders.

Nice! I really like the poly thread for the bowstrings as it gives a great touch. I remember being so chuffed when I first saw that the Perry's included sheaves of grounded arrows as part of their boxed set - its so evocative of the period.

These archers will give Kev 100 points as a base and I'm adding another 20 for the extra  work on the bows and the banner. Congratulations on being the third Challenger to break the 1K mark!

From JameB: 28mm SYW French Skirmishers & Dark Age Arthurians (203 points)


From James:

I have a couple more entries for you. Please find attached pictures of 12 French light troops these are from Front Rank and are half of a regt pack, the other 12 will be based up to act as lights for our SYW French army. These 12 are on round base's and will be used in our F&IW games.
Next I offer you 24 Athurian Romans, these are a family commission and are the last unit of the infantry, one unit of Cav to go. I painted the shields separate and stuck on before applying dip. These figures are once again Foundry (seems most of my stuff is from them or the Perry's)



Beautiful work James. If quite like those helmets on the French light troops - are they a type of casquette?


These two units will give James 203 points which includes a little extra for the nice shields and the Romano standard. 


From MilesR: 28mm ACW Confederates & Ronin #29 (152 points)


From Miles:
I have two submissions:
First is my entry fee, a mounted Perry Samurai General from a very special clan.  There's another flag if Curt prefers to have the mini adopt a more "traditional" clan allegiance.


The second submission is a third 24 figure confederate infantry regiment. Again, these are the new Perry plastic confederates and I can't say enough positive things about them. This unit id the 18th VA regiment. I chose to use one of the flags that came on the painting guide in the box.


Awesome stuff Miles. Clan 'Go Go Gojira!' - very, very cool. I can definitely get behind that (now I can't get BOC's song out of my head...).

Ronin #29 and this regiment of Rebs will give Miles 152 points. Well done and thank you!


From TimG: 1/72 scale Portuguese (!?) Mk IVF Blenheim (15 points)


From Tim:

This is part of a batch of very knocked about 1/72 models that I am tidying up for possible game use.  Or to help with the gathering of dust.
Having mended this monstrosity as far as I could - it now has paint and markings. The limiting factor in terms of the choice of nationality was the fact that the kit had been built as a Mk.IVF. This ruled out jollies like Finnish and Romanian. Yugoslav and French (the original kit included Free French markings) were also out. More internet research offered a solution.

Apparently a couple of Fs were interned by Portugal - and I just happened to have a set of Portuguese markings (from an incomplete Spitfire kit) in the decal box.
Last pic:  The underside - showing the 4-gun pack. Sadly it also reveals the mangled undercarriage and missing exhausts....

Good to see old models getting refurbished for future action (this one probably scheduled for Angola or Mozambique?). 

This Blenheim will give Tim 15 points.

From DaveD: 28mm Marshal Marmont, Napoleonic British & Cowboys (217 points)


From Dave:
So here we have some old school shineyness Napoleonics.
First up - Marshal Marmont and staff - Elite Miniatures I had to do some conversion work on the Marshal himself, adding a sash and badge from greenstuff, lanyards from copper wire , and adding in some in-hand reins.


Next - real old school Napoleonics for a regular client - British line battalion - 32 foot , 1 mounted (Connoisseur Miniatures). Plus a mounted Spanish General of unknown provenance (possibly Redoubt?). He has a bicorne so big he could us it as cover!


Then we have a recent commission for the Old West for one of the boys at the club. the Scott Mob, mainly Black Scorpion and one Artizan Designs (the one with reaching for the knife).
Lastly a 28mm 4 Ground general purpose wagon - this is an MDF kit - I have one already, but am in the process of acquiring a few more. I have done this one covered - Mrs D kindly donated an old handkerchief to make the covering, washed with PVA, it's set rock hard, and could be painted. I have have left this without a horse team as I wanted some flexibility to use it just parked in town. I will do some separate teams later. The figures are just to give the scale they were painted a while ago.

So that puts me nicely over par for a third of the way in - clears out a a raft of commission work, so i can start looking at giving James a run when I turn to my own Mahdists, 1000's of em!

Them's fightin' words - I'm looking forward to a points brawl at the top of the standings!

Lovely work as usual Dave. I have a soft spot for Napoleonics and that Marmont scratches it nicely. I particularly like the ADC getting ready to haul himself into the saddle...

This selection will give Dave a base of 205 points but I'm adding another 12 points for the conversion on Marmont and the chuckwagon cover so 217. Cracking job!

From StefanoS: 28mm Napoleonic Austrians & Dark Age Normans (255 points)

Stefano from Italy sends us his opening submission with an excellent unit of Napoleonic Austrians along with a warband of fierce Normans.

From Stefano:
Finally I am sending you pictures of my completed painting job.
26 infantry from the Karl Herzog Legion, Austria 1809.

...and 22 Dark Age Normans.


Will try to complete also the Italian line before end of the Challenge.

Very nice work, Stefano! I quite like your basework on these - they give a great rustic feel to the overall composition of the figures. 

These two fine units will give Stefano a base of 240 points but I'm adding another 15 for the banners and shields. Welcome along Stefano! We look forward to seeing your Italian napoleonics in the near future.

From Curt: 28mm Warrior Monk, 'Namon' (5 points)


Just a single 28mm entry today (It seems I'm going to nickel & dime my way to my 800 point target...). Another one for the samurai theme - this time a warrior monk armed with a naganata. This casting is from The Assault Group range of samurai (sculpted by Seth Nash). 



I had painted one of these guys several years ago to represent a character in a RoleMaster game set in medieval Japan. His name was Namon, and if I remember correctly he was a fairly righteous dude (and pretty kickass when he wanted to be). I couldn't find the original figure after our move so this one is in homage to Doug and that great game he ran.

Fairly straightforward paintjob. Again, I kept it to a minimalist colour palette which seems to suit the subject. 



I forgot how much I liked these sculpts - relatively chunky, but nice and clean with good animation. 



Namon the Warrior Monk will give me 5 points.