From RayR: 15mm F&IW Canadiens & Generals (106 points)

Ray is trying to go for my heartstrings with this submission of a unit of Canadien cavalry that were formed during the French and Indian Wars along with some flash-in-the-pans types by the name of Washington and Wolfe.

From Ray:

'That's it I give up!!! If I painted and based for the rest of the day and night I'd have an extra 400+ points, but I'll just have to settle for these guys as my last post. Quite apt really as the last post are a small force of Canadians.'

'Here are 10 men of the short-lived Corps de Cavalrie, a light cavalry unit for the FIW consisting of 200 Canadian volunteers and 5 French officers, then we have the same unit but dismounted.'

'The Corps de Cavalrie are all from Essex minis, but I did a little conversion work on the riders, Essex don't sell mounted cavalry in bearskins with this uniform, so I bought normal French Dragoons and chopped off their heads and replaced them with French Grenadier heads, the bearskin is not exactly as it should be but hey they 15mm!!!'

'Lastly there are two famous General's from the war, Gen Wolfe and Gen Washington. They are both from Frei Corps.'

A supreme effort, Ray - bravo! These lads will give you a base of  96 points, but I'm awarding another 10 for the conversion work and the fact that they are Canadien. So even with an updated total of 4508 points that still places Ray a little behind Kent in the point standings. Nonetheless, well done!! Thanks Ray for keeping us on the edge of our seats these past few days! It certainly made the Challenge that much more enjoyable.

From IanW: 28mm Sniper Markers & 15mm Ancients (224 points)

From Ian:

'I must say the temptation to stop once I was on the devils number was there a little, so it was a good thing I was already well on my way to painting this lot. Not a small selection of figures as I had set myself a target that I thought was not possible. I was so pleased that I managed it. I had based up the figures with the brown pebbles before going to bed last night and flocked them on getting back from walking the kids to school.

So I give you 16 British 28mm Sniper reminders. These need the tufts adding when they finally arrive. I needed to order via Germany as no UK stockist had the big sheets of them. I was fairly concerned that the uniform brown would not come out well but after lifting it before wash it seems to be fine.'

'Now down a scale all below are 15mm. First are 12 Cataphracts, these are part of the Seleucid army a mate gave me, it's almost a complete army to the FoG lists about 400 figures so it was a big deal that he gave them to me. I want to get it going and these are a short cut to being able to play with some of it combined with my own already painted units. Essex miniatures with horrid small bases.'

'Command stand of 4 figures for this army. These will go with the other command I have already painted. Just like the cataphracts the mix of metal paints make the unit interesting. Magister minatures and not as big as the Essex and to be honest not a great figure, some of their worst.'

'... and last and possibly least 16 Cretan javelin armed infantry, these boys are poor quality on the field so I don't expect much from them but really liked the figures when I first saw them and just bought them hoping I could work them in some how. More Magister but obviously ones I like!!!'

Excellent stuff, Ian. This group will give you a very respectable 224 points!  I'm very happy you exceeded your personal target for the Challenge - you certainly embraced the spirit of the whole thing - bravo!

From TimB: 28mm Russian Infantry, Officers, Partisans & Casualties (128 points)

Tim sends us a fine collection of Russian WWI figures as we enter the final hours of the Challenge.

From Tim:

'The first are ostensibly WW2 Russian Partisans from Black Tree Design - but they'll see action all over the early 20th century... The guy with the pistol, camera and book looks perfect for some Cthulhuesque Pulp Adventure Action...'

'Next, three Imperial Russian Officer from Brigade Games (I think...)'

'Then  we have fourteen Imperial Russian Soldiers - modeled and mould by John Bertolini - cast and painted by myself.'

'Finally (but not really... there will be more in a couple hours...) Five dead and dying Imperial Russians from Battle Honors.  The latter three, more or less, finishes off an Imperial Russian/Tsarist force that could see action anywhere from 1914 to the end of the Russian Civil War...'

Lovely work as usual, Tim. I especially like seeing more of John B's stuff out and about. These lads will give Tim 128 points.

From JohnM: 28mm Napoleonics - The French Command (45 points)

Johns sends in these beautiful Napoleonic French command stands for you to enjoy. 

Overview of my French command stands. The 40x40 are Gen de Brigade, from Front Rank and Perry.

From John:

'Here is my next submission. I have been doing some work on my command stands, making them uniform with the Prussian stands I submitted earlier. Most of the figures predate the challenge, but they were all extensively touched up and rebased over the last week. I like out the terraining came out, I use a burnt sienna as the base color for my French bases (use a raw umber for Prussian). They were then dry brushed with a buff. The texture is provided by a Golden coarse pumice gel. I then applied a dark brown liquitex ink. Let dry and then glued on various grasses.'

'The figures on the Napoleon stand was painted in the past week though, and are a collection of Elite and Perry. It should be obvious whats what. The Perry's are from the "Hangers On" pack as well as Gen de Div Quiot. Certainly the Elites are odd especially the horses, sort of look flattened, but they have an attraction.'

Divisional Cavalry command stand, all Front Rank, I believe, aside from the standing dragoon from Perry.

French Marshall (Corps), the Marshall and the ADC are from Redoubt, the rest from Front Rank.

Infantry Division Corps command stand, same mixture as above.

Again, beautiful work John. The command stand featuring 'The Man' will give you 45 points. 


John tells me he's going to try to get something for the midnight deadline so check back later for that.

From FranL: 15mm Fanonian National Guard (FNG) (180 points)

Fran returns to us with his final 'Cafeteria Platter Specials'! He gives us more modern mayhem to enjoy (I can say this as it is only in 15mm). Again, we are treated to the protagonists/antagonists from those diametrically opposed states: Franonia and Rayonia.

Elements of the Franonian National Guard. Models are 15mm Peter Pig.

These Bulldog anti-mine vehicles serve as personnel carriers for the FNG (the acronym makes me laugh). Note: one of these broke in assembly and Fran made it into a wreck - nice!

National Guard casualties - poor chaps.

Looters, probably those reprobates from the Rayonian Republic... (figures by Peter Pig)

And finally some grisly body bags, figures from The Scene.

All told, this collection will give Fran 180 points to add to his tally. This will place him firmly in the 2K zone - Well done!