From GregB: 28mm Colonial Sudan British (160 points)

I was out to Winnipeg for work last week and had the great pleasure to get in a visit with Greg and his lovely wife. We got in a couple fun games but also spent a few nice evenings just sitting at the table painting figures and shooting the breeze. You'll see some new greyscale stuff from me over the next few days (the German Uhlans posted earlier being one), but below is some of the lovely models that spooled off of Greg's side of the dinner table during those few nights.

From Greg:

First component is 28mm British from Perry Miniatures outstanding Sudan collection.  Up to now my British have been concentrated on Graham's force around Suakin that fought at El Teb and Tamai, but I think the real dramatic high point in the campaign has to be the (futile) drive to save General Gordon in Khartoum. The Desert Column - built around the Camel Corps, of volunteers from almost every top unit in the British Army - was the star of the show, and they are my favourite British troops from the period - ammo bandoliers, bonkers swords bayonets, improvised scarfs etc to block off the pounding sun and goggles - I love the look of them. 

The bulk is 24 figures intended to represent the Light Regiment from the Camel Corps. There are a mix of skirmishing troops and firing line troops.

You end up with extras sometimes, so the next batch (six models only) is a start on representing another component from the Camel Corps - the Life Guards.  The Life Guards wore some red cloth twisted around the pugaree on their helmets to set themselves apart a bit. 

Finally a couple of loose extras - one is the guard from the Heliograph set.  Not sure why I didn't paint him when I finished the rest of the team years ago, but here he is. 

And then to switch periods completely there is an Austrian Hussar Sutleress - my attempt for the "Sarah's Choice" category of the competition. The model is from Foundry, part of a vignette set they had done called "Hussars mounting up".  The Sutleress would be among the camp followers accompanying the Austrian empire army to battle.  The figure will be a good vignette piece for the table top. 

Beautiful work Greg! I just love the figures you've done for this period and it's an absolute hoot to play with as well.

These thirty-two figures will give Greg 160 points, enough to pop him back into the Top Ten. Well done my friend!

The Great War in Greyscale: German Uhlan Command (20 points)

Here are two German Uhlan cavalrymen, an officer and his trumpeter, dressed in their dashing early war uniforms, wearing the distinctive flat-topped czapka helmet.

These 28mm castings are from Great War Miniatures. Very nice models to work with and quite elegant poses on the whole.

I made up a signpost for the officer's base, one sign pointing to Ieper (the local spelling of Ypres (thanks Nico!), or as the British called it: 'Wipers') and the other indicating the ultimate prize of the German advance: Paris.

These two cavalrymen will nudge me along with 20 points.

From Tamsin: 15mm Renaissance Swiss Artillery (48 points)

From Tamsin:

Just to keep Ray rattled, here is another entry from me - some artillery for my Swiss. I knocked these out over the weekend while I was waiting for the gesso to cure on the 256 Swiss pikemen I'm about to start work on.

In FoG:AM, the Swiss are only able to field 2 bases of light artillery but you will notice that I have done up 4. I've done this so that I can mix and match as I see fit.

There are two bases with cannon and two with ribaudiquin (organ guns). AS always, I've tried as far as possible to represent the colours of all the cantons, but with only 12 figures some of them are representing more than one canton or aren't present.

Great work Tamsin, these look fabulous! What are the make of the figures BTW? They look like very nice castings.

These four artillery pieces, along with their various bits & bobs, will give Tamsin 48 points to add to her tally. Nice job!

From MikeW: 28mm Parthian Cavarly (950 points)

From MikeW:

Here with submission number N+1 - what am I at now? Four? My entire Parthian army for this weekend's WABGT (http://www.wabgt.co.uk): a batch painting job to wargames standard that took me most of a weekend and a week of evenings once I'd got them assembled.

23 cataphracts, being a mix of Old Glory Parthians and Palmyrans, with some A&A Miniatures Palmyran command figures. (Old Glory UK didn't have enough of the Parthians, and they basically said 'will the Palmyrans do, they're very similar). Horses were undercoated in Army Painter Matt Black, and dry-brushed with Army Painter Plate Mail (or, for the unit leaders, Weapon Bronze). Riders, to provide a slight contrast, were undercoated in Plate Mail spray, faces, hands (AP Tanned Flesh), metal kontos (Vallejo US Field Drab), leather work (Vallejo Red Leather) etc painted, and then washed with AP Strong Tone ink and the faces retouched with AP Human Flesh (a lighter shade).

72 (yes, really) horse archers, being 6 complete boxes of Wargames Factory Persian cavalry. Horses were undercoated in AP Matt Black, then given assorted shades of brown (AP Oak, Monster, Fur Browns, Vallejo Flat Earth). I went with the 'mostly bay or black' approach for what's probably a set of fairly inbred mounts, though there are half a dozen pale enough to be duns or roans - see  here for what I mean. Saddle blankets in Vallejo Khaki, and one of AP Red, Ultramarine Blue or Angel Green detailing, and then harness in Vallejo Red Leather.

The riders were undercoated in batches of twelve in AP Daemonic Yellow, Desert Yellow, Bleached Bone, Uniform Green, Ultramarine Blue and Necrotic Flesh. After that, I snapped them on the mounts (they're a tight enough fit not to need glue, actually!), did faces/hands (AP Tanned Flesh), headgear (AP White, which covers *superbly* well), leggings (AP Leather Brown) and leatherwork (Vallejo Red Leather), and bows (Vallejo US Field Drab). Final stage was a wash of AP Soft Tone ink which dragged back and evened out the overall 'look' of the different colours.

Basing was Tamiya textured 'Desert Sand' and then dipped straight into Javis Desert Sand mix: left to dry, a few dabs of PVA and a sprinkle of AP Winter static grass. Varnished with AP Anti-Shine, and bob's your uncle. Done with most of an evening to spare! The pile of dead plastic sprues was *impressive*.

Pictures are taken from the WABGT (handily I was on a desert table for my last two games). Oh, and for the record? I came last :D

Woah! That is a heap of Parthians! Incredibly impressive work Mike and they look very, very good. Sorry that they did not come through for you during the tournament but that always seems the case with new recruits... 

This horde of horsesoldiers will give Mike a staggering 950 points! So in one entry he's achieved his 1K target and also rides into the top 10 - Well done! 

Nonetheless Mike, I do remember a niggling detail regarding a Ronin AND a Viking...

From Millsy: 10mm War of the Spanish Succession Infantry (136 points)

From Millsy:

This is the start of my Franco-Bavarian army for the War of the Spanish Succession. I’m intending to do a fair chunk of the Blenheim order of battle over time, starting with Prince d'Isenghein's Brigade in Marquis de Rosel's Corps. This formed part of the centre of the line of battle around Oberglauheim.

These are all Old Glory 10mm figures which I nabbed off eBay some time ago. Unfortunately I ran out with one battalion to paint in order to complete the brigade. Being me there will always be more orders for more tin so no real drama although it would have been nice to do the lot in one go. These come in strips of five, so I had to cut a single figure off each strip to fit in two rows of eight on a 25mm square base. This gives me good sized units for Maurice at 32 figures each. When battles get really large we’ll use something simple rules-wise I think.

I painted these using the same method I use for 15mm figures and in truth there is next to nothing different in terms of effort required. Over a black undercoat I have two shades of grey for the coats and other bits, followed by another 8-10 colours depending on complexity of the uniform. I initially thought they would be quicker and was berating myself for mucking about but then IanW replied to my comment on his 6mm stuff saying the same thing – 10mm takes as much effort as 15mm for him too.

So to close a quick summary of regiments: 1st Poitou (red and blue colour), 1st Guyenne (pink and green colour) and 2 battalions of Regiment de Beauferme (red and gold colour). The second battalion doesn’t carry the white colonel’s colour I believe, hence the double up on the red and gold. Regiment d'Isenghein will be added in due course.

Next up for me is more 10mm WSS, starting with 10 squadrons on horse forming the first and second cavalry lines of Marquis du Bourg's Corps.

I love the look of these units! 10mm is such a great scale as it provides the sense of mass but one can also see the uniform detail (which I realize is a doube-edged sword for the painter). I have the 10mm equivalents of these for ECW which I'll have to dig up and try out...

These four fine regiments of foot with their brave banners will give Millsy 136 points. Well done!