From RayR: 15mm NYW French Dragoons (94 points)

Today Ray submits a unit of Space Marines from the 'Imperial Hangnail' Chapter followed by a gaggle of unicorn-riding dryads playing harps... 

I know, not a bloody chance. Yep, more 15mm Nine Years War French donkey wollopers. 

From Ray:

I have been a busy boy with the brush and I've finished yet again another NYW unit, once again its a French Dragoon regt, the Royal Grammont Dragoons, who fought at 3 major battles of the Nine Years War, Walcourt,  Namur and Steenkirke. 

You'll all be very surprised to read that the figures are from Essex miniatures and the flags are from Maverick Models. i like this flags its not the colour of the unit, which makes a nice change for cavalry unit in the period.

My next entry won't be a NYW one, but don't panic, there'll be more NYW stuff on the way soon!!

Yeah right. I'll believe it when I see it Rousell.

Okay, so what's with that poor lonely nag in the background? Perhaps one of these poor Shining Sons of France fell off drunk a mile back...

Seriously though, this is beautiful work Ray. The buff facings of this unit are set off quite nicely with the vibrant red of the coat and trousers, very chic.  Question: Are you doing separate horse holder stands for your dismounted dragoons or just going to leave them as is?

This fine regiment of Grammont Dragoons will give Ray 94 points which places him within striking distance of his 600 point target. Nice one Ray!

From GregB: Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader Space Marines, Command Team and Rhino (100 points)

From Greg:

Well this challenge has kicked me into sci-fi gear! Building on my recent submissions here are a group of Games Workshop Space Marines (and one non-Marine flunky) from the Rogue Trader era - late 80s, early 90s.  There is one tactical squad of ten Marines, and a collection of Marine characters, specialty functions found in each company of Marines.  They are enjoyable, and really reflect the grim setting of the Warhammer 40,000 future. 

The Chaplain - back in the time when GW was much more selective with skulls (now found on every surface), the Chaplain was the exception.  In theory a Chaplain is meant to bring spiritual comfort and guidance to the soldiers, but a Marine chaplain is a grim spectre of death, with skull everything - helmet, shoulder plates, etc. If this is what gives comfort to Space Marines, no wonder they are stuck in so many pointless last stands.  And of course the Chaplain is a kick-ass fighter, hammering the Emperor's enemies with his arcane weapons and motivating the battle brothers around him.

The Medic - yet another theoretically relatable role tortured into something grim 40,000 years from now.  Although the Marine Medic can sometimes treat wounded battle brothers, mostly he goes around the battlefield putting the wounded ones out of their misery with an "Emperor's Mercy" bolt to the head.  He then recovers genetic material so a new Marine can be created.  Ah - the Emperor's circle of life…

The Librarian - very telling that in the Warhammer 40,000 setting, the gathering, storing and organizing of knowledge (something we take much too for granted these days) is an activity that is regarded as mystic, arcane, dangerous and even grounds for suspicion.  Only the rare trusted psychics - who weren't fed to the Emperor, and were tough enough to become Space Marines - carry out these duties in the Space Marine Chapter.  And, as with the Chaplain, it's no staff function - this fellow can kick ass with his funky "force sword", psychic powers, and guns. 

The Techmarine - I personally find mechanics today to be suspicious and somewhat arcane; in the Warhammer 40,000 setting, who knows how weird they would be? This fellow mends the vehicles of his Company with a mix of prayer and a huge wrench-spanner thingy…

The Astropath - this figure, "Yerl" from the old Citadel range, is based on an image from the Rogue Trader rulebook.  Astropaths are the 4G-LTE wireless communication devices of the 41st millennium, passing messages back and forth through the warp and allowing the Imperium of Man to (mostly) stay in touch across the vast distances of the galaxy.  The Astropath lives a crummy, weird-genes-and-odd-looks, who-said-you-could-leave-your-chamber life in Warhammer 40,000, so I painted his skin tone to match. This figure will be a good objective marker or model for Rogue Trader games.

There are two command-type models, one with a communicator and the other with some kind of data slate.  I put an antenna in the one fellow, and see these two guys as either crew for an emplaced weapon, or maybe an artillery spotting team. 

The tactical squad is a 10-man unit, led by a hero with "Terminator Honours".  There is a multi-melta and a melt gun in the unit, and the rest have blotters.  There are five metal figures and five classic RTB01 plastics in the group.  They are my last old plastic marines from the eBay score I made two years ago…

Painting these old figures is a lot of fun, and highly addictive.  I'm hoping I can find a few more of these old figures on eBay, although it's getting a little harder every day. 

Being a big fan of Rogue Trader-era figures and models from GW doesn't mean all of the newer GW models are bad, and I'm a particular fan of newer line of Space Marine vehicles, particularly the Rhino APC and its variants. 

Space Marines may be genetically enhanced warrior nut cases, but like anyone else they still prefer a ride if they can get one. The Rhino APC is the workhorse of the Space Marine forces, ready to take a squad of 10 Marines into nearly any trouble. The storm bolter provides a little bit of covering fire for them.

One thing I like about using the newer model with the older GW figures is that the vehicle looks much more in scale.  I remember laughing about how the original Rhinos somehow held 10 Marines - the models were laughably tiny.  The Rhinos are a lot bigger now, but of course, thanks to scale creep, so are the Marines :) But combining Rogue Trader-era Marines with the newer Rhino gives the right look. 

The slow build-up of the Crimson Fists continues…

Fabulous work Greg. I especially love seeing those old Rogue Trader command figures again. I never understood GWs insistence on 'Librarians' in their command units when everyone knows it's the Archivists that do all the heavy lifting. Librarians, pfft, tres amateurs...

I also really like the mixture of the newer Rhino model with the older figures. The scale between the them seems to work way better than with the newer figures. Hey, didn't Forge World make a up-scaled version of the old Rhino? Or was that a Land Raider? I thought I remember Dallas selling a kidney and picking one up at Salute a few years ago...

This squad, its command team and Rhino will give Greg 100 points. Great stuff buddy!

From PeterD: 28mm War of 1812 Canadian Incorporated Militia Battalion (40 points)

Peter adds some additional reinforcements to his War of 1812 collection.

From Peter: 

It's been awhile since my last submission but I've had several units on the go. These are a 24 man unit from the Incorporated Militia Battalion of Upper Canada. However, only 8 count towards the challenge as I had painted the original 16 last year. The unit is mostly made up of Perry plastics with with a few exceptions as follows (all in the 8 new additions): The two kneeling figures are Victrix plastics, but with Perry packs so as to have the same kit as the rest of the unit; the officer with the round hat is from Brigade (ex Victrix) and comes in a pack with 3 metal command figures and 30 heads to turn Victrix British infantry into Royal Marines. Apparently round hats were all the rage among the young Canadian officer corps during the war.

My old gaming buddy Ross had noted that my American infantry regiments gave the look of individual figures firing at will. With this unit I tried to get the impression of platoon fire by completing the new 8 figures in firing poses and basing them together. The remaining 4 bases hold figures in the process of reloading and readying to fire.

The Incorporated Militia Battalion was formed as a permanent standing force from men in the existing militia units of Upper Canada (now Ontario). They were well trained and pretty much as good as regulars and fought well during the War of 1812. Members of the unit served all along the frontier and fought in many of the battles.

The original plan was for red uniforms, but supply issues led to them getting green faced red for a time. This makes a nice contrast in the thin red line. 

Officers apparently got scarlet coats faced blue, and darned if I can find any reference to the musicians. In the end I decided that they got the regular green faced red with extra lace.

Great work Peter! I really like the variations in kit, colour and uniform that you've added to reinforce these as bodged together Canadian militia, especially that posh round hat for the officer - very nice. 

These eight fellow (doing great credit to the rest of their battalion) will give Peter 40 points. Well done!

New Challenge Prize Sponsor: Diplomatist Books

I am delighted to announce that EdwinK has kindly offered prize support for the Challenge through his online book store, 'Diplomatist Books'.

Thank you very much Edwin. I know I'll be able to find a worthy recipient for your generosity.