From StefanK: 28mm Napoleonic French Infantry from the 1812 Retreat (40 points)

Stefan and I are obviously channeling the same winter theme with these amazing Perry miniatures.

From Stefan:

Retreat from Moscow 1812:

After he found Moscow burning Napoleon had to abort his campaign in Russia in 1812. He wanted to return to safer countries as Poland or Prussia and wanted to spend winter there to undertake another try in 1813. But he hesitated too long and his Grande Armée was assailed by the relentless frost of the Russian winter.

The eight miniatures I happily present here are from Perry Miniatures's excellent Napoleonic range. They represent a couple of French and Allied soldiers fighting for their bare survival. They collected winter gear wherever they found it and are wearing a mix of military and civilian clothing. The miniatures are extremely detailed and very well painted. Especially the faces are crisp and clear and great joy to paint. They are full of expression and make it easy even for a mediocre painter like me to work it out. As usual I painted the miniatures with Vallejo Model Colour and Army painter Quickshade. As snow I used corundum sand. It is bright white, durable and has a nice sparkle in it. The tufts of grass are by Mini Natur and -to my mind- complete the bases nicely.

Hmm, I dunno, there's nothing mediocre at all about your work Stefan - these miniatures are excellent. I really like the detail you've pulled from their faces, and you've really done a wonderful job with the basework - I would have never guessed you could get that nice of a snow effect from sand. I learn something new every day (and I need to get some of those great looking winter tufts instead of continually puzzling through my handmade ones).

These eight freezing Frenchmen will give Stefan 40 points. Beautiful work!

From RayR: Challenge Desperado, NYW French Cavalry & Two Wizards (105 points)

Here is my entry fee, a Foundry Cowboy, to join the Wild Bunch. I had a few to chose from, this one seemed to fit in better with the stills I found of the film online.

My next entry's a bit of a mixed bag, as some of you may be aware I bought a part painted French NYW army from Reject Richard. To save time and money, Richard only included 1 command stand per 2 squadrons of Cavalry. I decided to add the 2nd command stand, so they matched in with my English, Dutch and Jacobites. So the next entry is a group of newly painted Horse and Dragoon command stands.

Lastly 2 figures dug out from the deepest depths of my lead pile, infact I don't even remember buying them??? I came out in a bit of a rash painting these non-historical figures....shudderrrr!!!! They're from the evil empire that is, Games Workshop and represent the 2 famous Wizards in the first Lord of the Rings film. Gandalf the Grey and Sauramon the White.

Thanks so much for the great cowboy Ray - he's quite spiffing! The French cavalry look superb (the colours on these fellows really seem to pop), though with all those banners flying who actually fought in these units? Also, I know that fantasy and sci-fi are not your cuppa but I must say you do such a nice job on these sword & sorcery fellows (your Sauron for the Villains round was fabulous).

This wide assortment of miniatures will give Ray 105 points, nudging him further up the points ladder.

AndyM: 28mm SYW Limbered Artillery (90 Points)

First, my apologies for those in the queue waiting for their entries to be posted. For some reason Blogger is being very obstinate for me these past few days. I'm getting odd errors which are taking an inordinate amount of time to work through and is causing delays in getting pages posted. Please bear with me...

From Andy:

These are the limbers and bits I needed to add to a collection of beautiful figures give to me last November. I'll be posting them on my blog soon. To supplement them I wanted to do limbers for the guns and a colonel. The entry for the challenge just consists of the limbers themselves and the Master of Artillery. The limbers and horse are Irregular, the drivers are Minden (lovely figures) and the Master is Irregular. He is much bigger then the others but I have a backstory to explain his giant size!

I've attached pics of the full battery 'in transit'. I THINK the guns are Foundry but not sure. The guards are Huzzah Miniatures from Fighting 15s. You can also see the Minden colonel I painted as commander of this new contingent.

The 'guard' bases have a curved front to allow the gun to 'bend' when in column of march. An idea shamelessly stolen from my mate Essex Boy!

Not a huge entry but it gets me in double figures and clears the decks for the main effort...

More coming soon!

Lovely work Andy those Huzzah figures are gorgeous and the Minden stuff is superb as well. I also quite like that curved base idea (I'll be stealing that, thank you!).  So, what is the backstory for the difference in scale with the Master? 

This excellent battery of guns will give Andy 90 points. Well done!

From TamsinP: 15mm Pirates (48 points)

'Avast! Strike your colours and be silent know before I make ye settle your abaft on a knobbly belaying pin and I send ye all yelping to Davy Jones' Locker with a stove-in dungbie. Savy?'

Ok, that's all the rude Pirate Speak I've got...

From Tamsin:

Aaaaarrrggghhhh! My pirate, errmmm, buccaneer army is off the marks with this entry.

The main troops of the buaccaneer army in FoG:R are "other buccaneers" (Musket*, Impact Foot, Average, Warriors), "ordinary buccaneers" (Musket, Sword, Average, Medium Foot) and "veteran buccaneers" (Musket, Sword, Superior, Medium Foot). These 24 figures are clearly very, very veteran. In fact, they are so veteran that they are skeletons! To distinguish between the different types I've decided that the "other" will be 3 to a bse with 1 firearm and 2 melee weapons, "ordinary" will be 3 per base with 2 firearms and 1 melee weapon, leaving the "veteran" which I'm doing as 4 per base.

The figures are 15mm from Rebel Minis and were great fun to paint. I started from a white primer washed with warm grey ink to help show the details, then shaded the clothing using acrylic inks. After sealing the inks with a spray of matt varnish to prevent them bleeding, the belts, scabbards, wood and basecoats for metals were painted, followed by another wash with warm grey ink. The metals were then painted and the bones highlighted.

With hindsight the second ink wash should have been brown or sepia and the highlighting of the bone should have been a more yellow-white. However, as they are in the sun soaked Spanish Main, the bones would be somewhat bleached, wouldn't they?

I'm pleased with how the inks have worked for the clothing - they've given a nice faded look, with the warm grey wash giving a grubby "out of the grave" appearance.

Tamsin, that is a very cool unit of ragged & bony-assed troops. I love the various muted colours and I particularly like the fellow who has his head firmly tucked under his arm - very sensible, I think.

These 24 sea dogs will give Tamsin 48 points. 

'Yo Ho Ho!'

(Um, that last bit is meant to be 18th century speak, not 21st century...)

From KentG: 28mm WWI German Stormtroopers (25 points)

Okay! Lets get the show back on the road! I've adjusted everyone's points totals to reflect the recent bonus round and we've had a bit of a shakeup amongst the top ranks, with Andrew taking the lead once again. Not to be deterred Kent submits this excellent group of Great War German trench raiders to close the gap.

From Kent:

We have 5 28mm German storm troopers manufacture unknown. sadly when I'd finished these guys i found one more which now i must paint the same which is all good except the helmets which because there was so few I just made up on the spot. 

I'm busy working away at 7 different lots to try and keep the wheels of war rolling. but thought  hey lets pop these fellas out at the end of a 4 hour session.

Great job Kent. I really like the splinter camo on the helmets and the dull steel of the one fellow's breastplate.

These five stormtroopers will give Kent 25 points. Nice job!