From JohnB: 40mm Old School Toy Soldiers - 1850s 'Great European War' (234 points)

Ok, here is a treat for you this New Years Eve. Another resident of Saskatchewan, actually a shifty import from Wisconsin, gives you a dose of Old School Toy Solder goodness. John, sculpts and casts his own soldiers (I sent one to my nephew for Christmas) which sort of puts him in a class of his own.

From John:

Here is my first entry into the Painting Challenge. 36 40mm foot and 1 mounted officer. 

These are my own 40mm sculpts and casts inspired by Holger Ericsson and Aly Morrison. They are painted in toy soldier style with simple bases and glossy finish. 

They are part of my Great European War of 1850 project. Submitted are the 3rd and 4th battalions of the Hoch und Deutschmeister Regiment (#3) and their beloved Oberst. (Has there ever been a beloved Oberst...is that even allowed in the German speaking world?) There are 36 foot and 1 mounted. 

My Russian and Austrian armies are almost complete and will be campaigning against each other this winter. 

At present I am casting Danes, Prussians, French, Bavarians and Saxons...and inspired by "Lincoln" and a reread of Shelby Foote, my first ACW infantry. I really enjoy this scale and style and period of figures...if only I could recruit some of my buddies....

While a fairly good sort for a Cheesehead, John is a bit of a whiner as we game with his stuff all the time (we even let him win once in a while).

The base points for these boys are 197, but since John does the sculpting and casting I'm going to add a point each, so 234. Not a bad debut, eh?

From JamesB: 28mm French & Indian Wars Infantry and Civilians & Seven Years War Cavalry (235 points)

Ok, someone has been a busy lad, apparently eating turkey with one hand while painting with the other. James sends in this amazing entry composing of a F&IW Indians, Civilians, Scots AND a full unit of SYW Prussian Hussars!

From James:

My next offering is more FIW stuff, we have 3 Indian Chiefs from Perry miniatures along with 6 civilians from the Redoubt miniatures. 

It made me giggle that you have the Women protecting the children one is carrying a baby while another shields a young girl, while the  single man has picked up his pet dog and legged it. 

Next I have 2 squads of 42nd Highlanders (The Black Watch) also the Officer and Sgt, these are again from Redoubt and are some of the best sculpts I have seen from them.

Lastly I have a unit of Prussian Hussars from Foundry Miniatures you will be seeing alot of these as I bought 8 units to paint up for all the variuos forces involved in the SYW.

Wow. That is an impressive amount of work - Bravo James! This reminds me of the stuff Kent was blasting out last year. Awesome. 

This group of figures will give James a very impressive 235 points.

From GregB: 28mm Downed Soviet Pilots & Mujahideen with Stinger Missile (15 points)

From Greg:

Just a small submission to try and keep the momentum up. Not many points, but these have been in my pending pile since the summer and I want to get them moved off. This is a pair or downed Russian chopper pilots, 28mm scale from Mongrel Miniatures.  They will make excellent objectives for Afghanistan games pitting the Mujahideen against the Soviet army. 

The Mogrel sculpts are fantastic to work with - their modern range is one of the best.  These pilots capture the character present in much of the range - the one fellow looks to have a separated shoulder, and both look wary of their circumstances...

Lastly, a 28mm Afghan guerilla from Eureka armed with a stinger missile.  He completes the downed Soviet helo pilots - mujahideen armed with stingers became a factor late in the USSRs ill-fated occupation of Afghanistan. 

This guy will be a nice addition to my large assortment of mujahideen from Mongrel miniatures.

Very characterful models and you've done a fabulous job with them, Greg. 

These three figures will give Greg 15 point to add to his total.

From DaveD: 28mm Napoleonic 95th Rifles (60 points)

Continuing on with the blessed Napoleonics, Dave sends us the following: 

So it's my first Napoleonics of the challenge - completed these in between work on the next entry - these lads will do for their skirmishers.

So here we have 12 Rifleman from the ubiquitous 95th. They are they Front Rank figures - some of thier best I think too. Top notch on the castings with very litle clean up required, just slap a bit of paint on em bish bosh.

A beautiful example of the 95th Rifle 'Corps'. Funny, I heard that there was these units in the Napoleonic British army that wore, wait for it, RED uniforms - I know, that's crazytalk... ;) 

Seriously, lovely work Dave. I particularly like the chaps wearing the soft foraging cap.

These dozen Greenjackets will give Dave 60 points.  

From SylvainR: 1:2400 WWII Kriegsmarine Cruisers (22 points)

Sylvain, the 'Lion of Hillsdale' sends us some more microscale German ships for us to marvel at.

From Sylvain:

Here is my new batch of German ships. There are 11 cruiser size ships.

First, 6 light cruisers.

Top: Emden (first German modern light cruiser, totally undergunned), Nurnberg and Leipzig.

Bottom: Köln, Königsberg and Karlsruhe (the "K" class)

3 heavy cruisers.

Top: Blücher on her way to invade Oslo and impress the fortress garrison with her 8" guns and Admiral Hipper, with her signature camouflage.

Bottom: Prinz Eugen in one of her many attire. She's like a princess with so many

dresses. I chose the camouflage of early 1941, similar to how the Bismarck was painted on her last voyage.

Note now colourful the ships are with their turrets featuring air recognition colours.

They almost rival the Italians.

Now, Top: The Altmark, cruising under the sun with the Graf Spee in the background (previously painted).

Bottom: the Scheswig-Holstein, a pre-dreadnought battleship known for firing the very first shots of WW2.

Next up: German capital ships.

Lovely work Sylvain (though likening the Prinz Eugen to a 'princess' made me tilt my head a bit) . These eleven will give you 22 points. Well done!