From ChrisP: 'One For Fran' 28mm Dark Age Irish Warband (240 points)

Chris sends pics of his wonderful Dark Age Irish warband for use with SAGA.


I'll let Chris describe his entries:

'Since it was St Paddy's day on Saturday, I thought I would finish off my SAGA Dark Ages Irish! They were all finished up on St Paddy's day, but due to having a Stag party at a brewery, photos were a long time coming!'

'First up is the warlord, Cu Eion with his two retainers. The miniatures are from Crusader, and I think they look lovely! The poor dead Saxon is a plastic from Gripping Beast, tragically he seems to have lost his head in the excitement. The flag is also from Gripping Beast, I think it suits him nicely. I made the decision early on that nobility would have tartan patterns (and was angry at myself ever since), but here it looks pretty sharp I think.'

Next up, is two units of four Irish Nobles from Crusader Miniatures. Now, each model has his own tartan, being nobles they would have their own individual patterns which were representative of their household. The designs themselves came from a google search into Irish tartans, so each tartan pattern is historic. These guys were exceptionally fun to paint, I did them in batches of two, otherwise I would have lost it while painting the tartan! I also had to ban myself from painting them after 8pm at night, any later and the lines started to get wonky.....

'Then comes my first and second unit of Warriors. These guys are again Crusader, with a few weapon swaps from Gripping Beast plastics. They all share the same colour palatte, just to keep them looking a bit more "peasanty" compared to the bright and colourful nobles. The key colour obviously being Irish Green! There are two warrior units, the first is "Shirts" and the second is "Skins" so I can tell them apart!'

'Next is my third unit of warriors- what Irish army would be complete without Irish Wolfhounds? These dogs are reputed to ALWAYS follow Irish armies into battle, in fact the title of the warlord "Cu" means dog, and is a term of honour. These pups are more Crusader miniatures, and will be split between the two Warrior units to make them into units of 12.' 

'Then it is my last point of my warband, the levies. I decided to have my levy as the usual hangers on of an army, in this case, the women and children! The models come from Crusader and Warlord Games, and they are some of my favourites of the whole army! Which is why I have given you about 5 photos of them. My favourites are the small kids throwing rocks, the woman with her baby (take your child to work day), then of course the mandatory "woman with severed head"! Tim already did a wonderful job on tartan for her, so I kept her in keeping with the rest of the unit of levy, opting for lots of browns with very few greens opting usually to have their hair as the contrasting colour- fiery Irish red for a few! These fierce Gaelic ladies are also my only entry for Sarah's Choice, so hopefully there is one in there that she really likes! I know I am really happy with them. Ironically, these ladies are the only people in the entire army to actually be wearing shoes....'

Beautiful work, Chris!  I especially like the hounds and the villagers (I bet you that they will turn out to be the nasty ones in your games).  This very characterful warband will give Chris 240 points. Great work!

Note: Chris also sent a few pictures of the Viking he painted up for me. I've decided not to show it here, favouring instead to feature a collective blog-post on all the vikings done for me in a week or so. This being said, all of the Challengers will see that I've added additional points to your standing scores to reflect my Viking 'levy'. Thanks again to you all!

From DaveD: 'Do Carry On With Your Mud Pies...' Lt. Gonville Bromhead and Pat Garrett (10 points)

Dave slips in these two character figures for your viewing enjoyment. The first is Gonville Bromhead, one of the two officers commanding the storied defence of Rorke's Drift.

The other figure with the fancy pin-striped trousers and hand cannon depicts the chequered lawman, Pat Garrett, the man who killed Billy the Kid.

Both of these 28mm figures are from Black Scorpion Miniatures.

These two characters will give Dave 10 points, chipping him ever-closer to the 2K mark. Lovely work, Dave.

From IanW: 15mm Renaissance Camp Followers, Ancients Base Camp and 6mm Wagons

Ian, showing he's been cracking these past few day, shows us a great medley of figures as we near the end of the Challenge.

From Ian:

I supply a stand of 3 figures, 15mm Fri Korps Camp Followers from forever ago. Bought them and part painted them 20+ years ago. Took them back down to metal and painted them up in about two hours, will be part of my FoG Ren camp when I get the rules. This is for the lady contest, she brought her kids for support.

Next is two wagons in 6mm I bought off e-bay in October or November, they are H&R

'Talking of camps, my ancients 15mm FoG camp finally got this painted up so will not have to field a sheet of plastic for Lee to sack. All figures are Magister, can you see the rude boy? The chickens should really all be one colour but I could not resist painting my chickens and as we have three different breeds well... I hope you can see that the camp is pulling away from one side as a scratch guard (and rude boy) try to delay the attack. Had a great deal of fun putting this together.'

'Last up is the German Sniper markers. These 11 add to the 4 Germans already done. All 28mm and all but the P'Shreck and Flamethrower are Artizan, the others are Bolt Action.'

I think the flame effect on the flame thrower is excellent.

Excellent work, Ian! I really like your theme of a camp in the midst  of 'bugging out' - nice job. This group will give Ian 117 points, enough to pip me back a position! I shake my fist!

From JohnM: 28mm Prussian Napoleonic Infantry (120 points)

John sends in this great Prussian Napoleonic unit depicting the 1st Battalion of the 1st Regiment of Landwehr of the Elbe.

These 28mm figures are from the excellent Calpe range. Flag is by Flag Dude.

I've always liked the soft caps that many of the Landwehr units wore. I think they look very smart with the large Maltese cross and piping on the crown.

I've always liked the soft caps that many of the Landwehr units wore. I think they look very smart with the large Maltese cross and piping.

This unit will give John 120 points. Very well done!

From ChristopherS: 15mm Mameluks (100 points)

Here is a beautiful group of Mameluks sent in from Christopher.

'My latest entry into the competition is the Mamluks and are the elite of my 15mm Ayyubid army for Impetus. They began as slave soldiers before eventually taking Nobles into their ranks were some even became Sultan! They were not just deadly archers, but were equally hard in close quarter fighting and in a large part defeated both the Crusaders and Mongols to give some perspective of their qualities for those perhaps not familiar with them.'

'Once again Legio Heroica figures painted up using Foundry paints. The Banner is from LBM with some small added trimming by myself.'

I'm hoping I can add one more unit before the competition ends, but that's probably a long shot!

C'mon Christopher, dig deep! I really like how colourful and bright these cavalry are - they just 'pop' against Christopher's arid groundwork. Very nice. These will give him a base of 90 points, but I'm adding a 10 more for nice detailing in the horse tack and shields.