From ByronM: 28mm Great War Highlanders & Challenge Desperado (80 points)

From Byron:

Here are two more submissions for the challenge, first up is another unit of Canadians for my Great War project.  

This unit is made up of a rifle section of 10 brave men from the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) 16th Battalion along with their leader.  Also included here is the big man that I am using to lead the 16th Battalion in games, a level III big man, who very appropriately can be called the man with the plan, since the model actually has an attack plan on it.

The figures are a mix of the Great War and Musketeer lines as they fit together size wise wonderfully.

It still bugs me that I can not paint the kilts on these guys though as they are almost entirely covered by the kilt aprons that they wore into battle.  I did paint the tiny little patches that peak through as the 3rd of the 4 different regiments that went into making up the 16th Battalion.  This tartan is of theThe 72nd Seaforth Highlanders of Canada and is a dark blue and green tartan with white and red striping through it.  

The Seaforths provided almost 1/2 of the men that went into making up the 16th CEF Battalion, and as members of the 16th were part of almost all of the bloodiest battles in the war, including Ypres, the Somme, Vimy Ridge, and Passchendaele.  This holds true for all of the component parts of the 16th though, and is the reason that I chose to represent them as one of the Battalions in my CEF force.

The second submission included here is the miniature being used as my entrance requirement for the challenge.  It is a Foundry wild west figure that I felt had a very similar look and feel as the crazy old coot played by Edmond O’Brien in the 'Wild Bunch'. 

I know that the figure has an eye patch and that Edmond didn’t in the movie, but I still felt the figure worked and didn’t want to try and carve it off and try to sculpt an eye. I tried to keep the colours close to seen in the movie and from the side where you don’t see the eye patch, I think it looks pretty damn close.

I muddied him up a bit with pigments mixed with alcohol which provides a cool effect in person, but doesn’t show up well in a photo.  I was told about using them wet to get mud effects and they work pretty well, the only issue being that they go on wet and pretty much invisible….  hence using alcohol instead of water so that it dries faster so that you can tell where you applied it about 20 seconds later rather than a minute later.  I figured the alcohol suited the crazy old coot better anyway.

Hope you like him Curt.

Another excellent unit of Highlanders to add to your burgeoning force of Canadians - great job. Just as the others, these are wonderfully painted (very nice work on the Glengarry caps), though I feel your pain for not being able to paint the tartan on the kilts (I had the same reaction when I discovered that they almost always had them covered with the khaki apron). I really like the Jock officer with the iPad. 'How do we break through the Hun trenches? Hmm, I think there's an app for that...'

And Edmond is fabulous with his hoary grey beard and single mad, mad eye (even though the eyepatch is an indulgence he's definitely rockin' it). He will be a great addition to the 'Wild Bunch' that is gathering strength in my display cabinet.

These Highlanders along with 'Edmond The One-Eyed Coot' will give Byron 80 points, enough for him to meet his Challenge target of 1000 points. Well done and Congratulations Byron!! 

Do you have a new target for our last three weeks? 

From ByronM: 28mm Great War Canadian Highlanders (55 points)

Byron returns from his recent foray of the grim 41st Millennia to the warm, homey trenches of the Great War.

From Byron: 

Here is another unit for my Canadian WW1 force.  This is a section of Canadian Highlanders from the 16th Battalion, and more specifically a section that was amalgamated into the 16th from the The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada from Hamilton Ontario. While the other 3 regiments than went into making up the 16th Battalion were all from the Prairies, there was this one regiment from Ontario amalgamated in. 

The miniatures are mainly Great War figures, however I have a big man from Musketeer Miniatures in command of them. Again, as with the German submission earlier in the week, the Great War figures are great, lots of detail, good proportions, low flash, however have horrid facial details.  If I didn’t know better, a few of them, I would have sworn were cat people from a sic-fi game…  They really need to do something about that.  I guess, since the figures are so cheap, I really shouldn’t complain, but it does bug me that the faces wreck otherwise beautiful miniatures.

I continued this section in much the same colour scheme as my first section of highlanders, other than changing up the pompom on the top of the Glengarry to the red that the regiment used.  I also of course changed the tartan over the the Black Watch tartan, which is probably Curt's favourite since it is very close to the Campbell tartan. These figures have very little of the kilt peeking out from under the apron though so it does not show up that well.

Also included is a “beaver free” activation card.

I dunno, now I'm kinda missing the plucky little buck-toothed guy...

Beautiful work Byron. I continue to be amazed with your brush control. This is especially shown with your subtle work with the Argyll tartan (and it IS a lovely tartan - dark like by cold, cold heart. ;-> ). Wonderful stuff.

These eleven Canadian jocks will give Byron 55 points.

From ByronM: 28mm Great War Canadian Highlanders (50 points)

Byron builds on his Great War theme with this brilliant entry of a section of Canadian Gordon Highlanders in their early war gear.

From Byron:

This is a section of WW1 BEF troops, specifically a rifle section of Canadians from the 16th Battalion. The 16th was made up of four different highlander regiments as the Canadians rushed to the aid of the Empire. 

This section is made up of the Gordons as shown (barely) by the blue green yellow tartan peeking out under the kilt apron and the red white checked hat and blue pom.  While I really wanted to paint them up with complete kilts showing, while discussing the project with Curt earlier, he argued that they really would have gone into battle with the aprons on made me rethink that and so I stayed with the apron being the apron, despite the fact that I really wanted to show of the colours of each of the different regiments that made up the battalion. [I know, I'm such a wet blanket, er, apron. ed]

I believe all of the figures in this section are from Muskateer Miniatures (http://www.musketeer-miniatures.com/index.php) and are great castings!  There may also be a Great War Miniatures casting or two mixed in, but I got the figures, cleaned, primed and based them a while ago and then they sat waiting for this painting event to start. 

Having mainly done Warhammer miniatures in the past (only a small number of FoW WWII stuff and figures for other small skirmish games), I missed out on the event last year and needed a project that would allow me to enter this year, so picked the Great War with a Canadian perspective.  Then of course, Curt goes and changes the rules and allows “any” figure this year to be entered….  Oh well, this gets me doing more historical figures.

Cripes Byron, you make me sound like a real SOB. Oh yes, I forgot, I am!  ;)

Seriously, beautiful work once again. The Musketeer WWI range is excellent and you've done them no shame here! I particularly admire the red/white chequing on the glengarry and of course the (partially visible) tartan.

Love the card as well. It does make me laugh though: Canada is filled to bursting with ferocious and majestic animals, but what critter ALWAYS gets rolled-out as our national symbol: the freakin' beaver. (sigh) I suppose I should take heart in at least this one has a fixed bayonet and claws... 

These nine strapping lads will give Byron a base of 45 points, but I'm rounding it to 50 for his attention to detail on the Highland uniforms. This places Byron neatly into first place, well done!

Entry #8 to the Lead Painters' League: 'Rise Up, Sons of Scotland' - 79th Cameron Highlanders

Here are a few jocks for my 8th submission to the Lead Painters' League - four charging Highlanders from the 79th Regiment with a couple flanking 'shock troops' for added colour.

I decided to try my hand with the Cameron tartan but soon wished I hadn't. I've discovered, the hard way, why most sensible people stick to the Gordons or Black Watch as the 79th tartan is composed of a bewildering collection of nuanced colours and shades. Nonetheless here is my stab at it, to which I cringe as I'm committed to another 40-odd figures to complete the battalion (eek!).

The charging Highlanders are from the Perry range while the two rude lads are from Kawe's Westfalia Miniatures. All great figures, but I must say I preferred the Westfalia castings as they were incredibly crisp and required very little work in preparation for painting.

I particularly like the 'forward facing' lad. The sculptor has done a brilliant job with the expression on his face - you can almost hear a Sid James' patented 'dirty laugh' coming from him.

If you have the time, please check out this week's round over at the LPL to see what the painters have submitted and vote for your favourites.

From SamuliS: 28mm Napoleonic Gordon Highlanders (128 points)

From Samuli:

Time for my last entry. Part of my 92nd Gordon Highlanders for Waterloo rushing towards those dastardly French. The rest are still on the painting table waiting for some more painting. Deciding to start painting the kilts wasn't the best idea points wise. 1000 points was maybe a bit optimistic especially with a long trip in between, but in the end it turned out quite well.

Most of the models are Perry metallic charging highlanders. Great for depicting the 92nd rushing towards the enemy with their friends from the Scots Grays! Terrific detail and really nice poses too. Really need to buy more of these guys for the last highlander unit in my Waterloo project. I also used a couple of Victrix plastic highlanders to fill in the ranks. The two makes actually go together quite nicely with neither standing out too badly.

I think the kilts turned out quite nicely with only a couple of slips of the paint brush which are still evident in the photos. Slightly simplified the Gordon pattern to make it more suitable for the scale. Looks nice, and should stand out on the battlefield. Which is just perfect for Highlanders who have had a pretty nice record in our club games, causing a lot of destruction in the French ranks and always ending up as the target of choice for all their artillery.

All of them painted with Vallejo and finished with Army painter quick shade on select parts. I went through testing a couple of different yellows on these guys, but still haven't found any make that would work. 4-5 layers seems to be the minimum with anything that Vallejo or GW makes.

Holy Haggis McBaggis Batman those Jocks are the t*ts! Your work on the tartans and bonnets is incredibly clean - wonderful. I have a schwack of these to do for my own collection and you've certainly given me some food for thought. Again, excellent stuff.

This storm of Highland laddies will give Samuli a base of 90 points but I'm adding another 38 for the tartans and excellent work on the banners. Well done and thank you for participating!

The Great War in Greyscale: Early War Highland Infantry & HMG Team (85 points)

Here is another unit of greyscale troops I managed to get done while I was away. This time it's the Jocks.

The battle of Mons is relatively well known in the english histories of the Great War but few realize that there was another fierce engagement fought only a few days later, on the 26 August, near the small town of Le Cateau. The British II Corps, under the irascible Horace Smith-Dorrien, decided to halt its retreat and give battle to the oncoming German tide. 

The British fought tenaciously, and inflicted serious casualties amongst the attacking Germans, but at a fearsome cost. Many of the Corps' artillery pieces were lost and most of its units were badly mauled. The most notable losses were amongst the 1st Bn Gordon Highlanders who, for a variety of tragic reasons, did not begin their withdrawal until very late in the day. They bravely covered the retreat of their brigade but were subsequently overrun, fighting on until it was useless to continue and so were forced to surrender.

These excellent 28mm sculpts are from the Great War Miniatures range. They depict the Highlanders in their early-war uniform which was quite smart, though a little impractical.

Similar to my previous work on this project I've differentiated the NCO by painting his glengarry in colour and mounting him on a hex base. He seems to stand out quite well with his cap's red-and-white dicing and distinctive red toorie.

The HMG team was a lot of fun to work on even though the gun itself was a bit fiddly. I added a couple twigs sourced from our garden to serve as a shattered tree and a fallen timber dragged in front for makeshift cover.

This passel of wee laddies will provide me with 85 points towards the final run-in.

From RayR: 15mm Flodden Scottish Highlanders (188 points)

Ray makes his dash into the top ten points standings with this horde of hairy scotsmen.

From Ray:

I thought I'd take a break from the NYW and get some of my Flodden figures painted up. These  MY (Mick Yarrow) Highlander figures have been sitting unloved in my goodie draw for far too many of years!!! The figures are not the best but at the time of buying them they were the best specific range for Flodden I could find. So these 7 units of 12 figures kickstart my Scots army. All the flags were made by myself and the bases are from QRF for a change, I found a stack of the bases at the same time as I dug out the Highlanders!

That is a passel of jocks to be sure! It's great that you've dug up these old castings so they can enjoy some attention.

These lads will give a base of 168 points but I'm adding another 20 for the banners and the fact that one of the units (the one full of guys with weak chins and bad teeth) is Clan Campbell (Booyah!)

From GregB: 28mm Colonial Gordon Highlanders (36 points)

Greg sends in a wonderful detachment of 28mm Gordon Highlanders to add to his Colonial collection.

From Greg:

This submission is six 28mm Highlanders from the Perry's Sudan collection.  These models are meant to represent the Gordon Highlanders.  Painting six Highlanders is just enough to make you insane, with the tartan, the sporran and the hose. 

I did my best to approximate the plaid on the kilt.  I do love that they are present in the Sudan campaigns, however, despite the frustrations in painting them.  The bonkers outfits are highly evocative of colonial battles to my mind, and they are a favourite to have on the table! 

You did a beautiful job on these Jocks, Greg. I agree, the kilt can be a real bear, but when they're done right they look superb, which your's certainly do. I'm going to give an extra point for each model due to the work put into those 'man skirts', so 36 points total.

28mm ECW Covenanters & Highlanders

Here are a few more photos of some of my older ECW figures. First up are a group of dour Scottish Covenanters manfully manning a frame gun (probably a fire-sale Swedish import from the German Wars). As opposed to the typical Covenanters (you know, the ones 'who don't like sex as it may lead to dancing') - I like to think that my Covenanters represent that small partying faction that we don't often hear about. Anyway, here are some blue-bonneted blokes ready to bang away with a frame gun which was probably more a threat to them as it was to the enemy. Old skool 25mm Foundry castings which are pretty small by today's standards (actually, they sorta look like Hobbits, don't they). 

Next are some charging Highlanders from Redoubt Miniatures. I find the animation on this series of castings is great. Again, pretty large models here - probably close to 35mm in size. I have more of these lads in storage but this gives you a impression of how they look massed up in an irregular formation. 

Many in this series are multi-part models, often with separate heads and torsos so they can provide some variation in their poses.