From Seb: 15mm Chinese Heavy Chariots (82 points)

From Seb:

I suppose it was time for a break in my TYW army. Though I'm painting the last minis to finish this army, I felt I had to paint something else. Back in November, Chris, to whom I had sold my lucky Chinese army, had asked me if I could paint a couple of things more to complete his new army: a general and a battlegroup of heavy chariots. Fortunately, I had everything at hand, and I started priming them... Until I stared helplessly at them, not knowing how to paint them. So I put them back in the painting plan, still primed but otherwise untouched. I knew I had time, especially because I couldn't go to the club, my wife coming home very late, and I consequently had to take care of our little daughter. But then, she managed to complete her missions earlier than expected, and now I'm able to go back to my favourite place ;), meaning I have to paint faster to give them to Chris. So, even though I haven't finished the general (though now started), I've just finished the heavy chariots. 

I've named them the bright phoenixes. For those who follow my blog, I already had painted a unit of chariots called the phoenixes. But the latter ones were the "male" poenixes, whereas this new unit are the "female". Just have a look at the characters and you'll see the difference. The Chinese had then three ways of writing "phoenix": male, female, or a combination of the two. I chose to paint them as "female" for a simple reason: Chinese harmony. And, if I recall, when things are harmonious, they are lucky.

So, what you have here are four 4-horses chariots from Museum, with three crewmen in each. I added the the flagpoles and handpainted the flags.

Wow, those are brilliant Seb! I really like the dynamic poses of the horse teams and you've done a marvellous job on the banners. Your friend will be delighted with these additions to the 'Lucky Chinese'.

These four chariots will give Seb 82 points. Great stuff!

From ChristopherS: 28mm ACW 4th Texas (82 points)

From Christopher:

Next up my favorite theme.....ACW!

The 4th Texas regiment was organized in Richmond, Virginia in 1861 from various companies that made the journey from Texas to Virginia. Like the rest of the Hood's Texas Brigade these were elite rock hard fighting men from a brigade that can arguably be called the best in the American Civil War. 

They included some colourful companies like "the Robertson Five Shooters" and "the Lone Star Guards", and "the Mustang Greys" to name a few of the 10.

The figures themselves are from Redoubt which is my favourite ACW figure range in spite of the often arduous amount of clean up needed on some of them. I just really like the look of the figures and the extra touch of silver stars added to the hats of the models which the Texas brigade really did have and so is not a gimmick. I had a great time painting the figures and look forward to doing more.

I painted the figures using mostly Foundry paints and some Vallejo. The flag is from the wonderful GMB. I opted for the battle flag as the state flags usually remained in camp.

Oh btw never bother Texans while they are eating their first hot breakfast in days as the Union found out at Antietam(Sharpsburg)! Talk about stirring up a hornets nest! 

A stonkingly beautiful unit Christopher - really lovely work here. I agree with you regarding Redoubt's line of ACW figures, they do take a bit of work but they often pay dividends in their animation and character (as we can readily see here).

The 4th Texas will give Christopher 82 points.

From Burkhard: 28mm Napoleonic French Legere Battalion (88 points)

Burkhard sends in some lovely Napoleonic models, or as I like to call it: 'The Beautiful Game'.

From Burkhard:

Here is my next entry... the 2nd battalion of the 37eme Légère for Leipzig. 

17 minis in total, all from Perry. The command minis are metal, the rest are plastic. Not much to say about these, rather that these bring the 37eme to its full strength of 3 battalions, with this the 2nd being the smallest of them all. I have to say, now that I have painted three batalions worth of these, I slightly regret my choice. Being light infantry these would have been rather nice in skirmishing poses, instead of the marching that gets dictated by the Perry plastics. The good thing is, that while these already give me a good strong base for my Légère, I will eventually need more. When that day comes I will get myself some proper action posed minis.

There is one more thing I would like to point out with these. They were based on half bases like I always do with my lights. Now those looking at the details will notice that the order of the company colours is not right or in other words that some minis are on the rear half that should rather be on the front half. The reason behind this is that all three battalions are pretty small. I based them in a way that the 1st and 2nd ones (the smallest can be used together to form a larger one). Hope this will work out when needed.

I have also included a photo of all three battalions together, even though most of them were painted outside this Challenge.

If my math does not fail me, these should bring me to 415 points or in other words just 85 minis short of my target. Now we are not even at the half way mark and I think it defeats the idea of this challenge to be able to reach ones goal without problems ahead of time. I would therefore like to raise my target to 700 points now. Given the fact that I will not have as much time as I did over the festive season and that my Napoleonics usually take longer, this should be a though but reasonable goal.

700 points? You're on Burkhard - bring it! I think its great that you've neared your initial goal but wish to set a new target. That's what the Challenge is all about!

Back to the submission. This stuff really trips my trigger - brilliant job on the command stand in particular. I also really like the look of those bases with the curved corners, they give the figures a kind of bespoke 'playing piece' feel about them. 

This battalion will give Burkhard 88 points, including a little extra for the colours and the work on the drummer boy. 

You have a new target now Burkhard, so get back to work!