From: NoelW - 28mm ECW, WW2 and Zulus, (280 pts)

Well, I’m still in the grip of la grippe, but not bad enough to avoid working, so I’ve had less painting time this week. However, I’ve still managed to churn out figures for three different projects: more ECW, a few WW2 Brits and an impetuous impi.

For the ECW, a yellow regiment (18 figs). This is Sir John Talbot’s, one of my favourites, merely because it allows you to have yellow-coated troops. Camouflage? Moi? What’s the point of an ECW army if you can’t field Talbot’s yellow-coats and Newcastle’s whitecoats and Hampden’s greencoats and Brookes’ purple, even if most of the regiments were probably grey or red? I also like the fact that a talbot was a kind of hunting dog, so the regimental ensign is a pun.

Next, six red musketeers and another officer. These will be commanded muskets for the time being, but might become the nub of a red regiment, if that’s what I next paint.

I was disappointed with the way the next batch look in the photos. There’s nine Perry's WW2 Brits, intended for the Western Desert, in battledress trousers. I’ve tried to paint them in colours which would do for the desert, but also might not look too out of place if this squad unexpectedly found itself taking leave in Walmington on Sea. I’m actually quite pleased with them in real life, as it were, but in the photos they seem rather casually painted and slapdash. To be honest, the faces were finished in the near dark – for reasons too complicated to explain – but I still felt they were okay until I saw them here. Probably the photos are simply too close up. Must try harder.

Finally 22 Zulus. There were, in fact, 24 but, ahem, two were trodden on and, being plastic, didn’t put up much of a fight. (The perils of inattention brought on by ‘flu). These, in fact, look surprisingly good in the photos, considering much less care was lavished on them than on the WW2 figs. They’re Warlord, of course, which I was lucky enough to pick up at a bargain price. 40 more wait impi-atiently in the wings.

Because Zulus only ever get used in the mass, I can’t see a great deal of point in giving them too much detail or highlighting etc. It seems like effort wasted. But I’m soon going to completely contradict myself, as Perry's’ plastic Zulus were released today and they look like wonderful figures, as if they'll truly repay careful brushwork. If I’m lucky, I’ll have a couple of boxes of these to work on before the Challenge is over…

Hope there’s something there to appeal to you.   

28mm: 25 x ECW, 9 x WW2, 22 x Zulu = 56 figs @ 5pts = 280 pts 

Oh my Noel you loony! "Less painting time" he says and chucks out 280 points worth of mini's into our Challenge! They all look spiffing, the ECW regiments are very lively coloured and the Impi looks intend on slaughter but the WW2 Brits are my favourites. Right after I read they'd be in Walmington for R&R I noticed the bases would be perfectly resembling dune vegetation. Anyway I am sure that everyone here did indeed find something they like in your eclectic collection here.

Cheers Sander