From NoelW: 28mm ECW, Zulus, some boxes and a Russian (408 Points, perhaps)

Well, I seem to have banished the ‘flu bug, but instead I’m suffering the Annual Painting Challenge Bug which, it seems, is highly contagious and quite virulent. I’m enjoying the business of painting for points so much that I’m spending every spare minute painting figures or terrain, and I’ve a long list of figures I want to have a go at before March 20^th. As I’ve already exceeded my initial target of 500 points, and now just passed 1000, I think I’ll revise the target up to 2000, and maybe even see if I could hit the hugely ambitious 2500. After all, who needs sleep?

I’ve done well towards that total this week, with, I think, a submission of just over 400 points. Admittedly, these are not the most beautiful figures in the world, but that’s not the point for me with these armies – I want to get them on the tabletop as quickly as possible, and that means compromises in painting style.

Firstly, though, a figure that’s a little better quality than the rest. This is another EMP figure, painted for Wargames Emporium’s display. It’s a Russian officer from the Boxer rebellion. I couldn’t find a perfect source for the uniform, so took a uniform from the Russo-Japanese war instead. I do have quite a decent library of uniform information, but it’s pretty feeble after 1890 (mainly because my only interest after this date is WW2) and I've found it quite hard to locate decent uniform info on the Boxer rebellions online, strangely enough.

Next are more figures for the continuing ECW saga: 18 cavalry this time. There are 6 “lobsters”, the early war cuirassiers who may, in fact, never have taken the field, but who make a cool variation on the tabletop. The remainder are the usual lobster pots and soft hats. All Warlord figures, I’ve a sort of love-hate relationship with them. They’re cheap (and can be even cheaper, with shopping around) which means a reasonable army can be built quite quickly, but they style is sometimes a little awkward, and the apparent variation you think you might be getting with plastic figures turns out to be quite limited in practice. For the infantry, there are three pike poses and four musket poses, and attempting variation upon them largely results in unrealistic poses. I may have a go at converting a few figures later on, simply to add a little more variety to the setup.

Next, 42 zulus. This is pretty much the remainder of my unpainted Zulus. I wanted to get them done before buying the new Perry figures, which I’m certain I’ll be doing as soon as possible, perhaps even at Vapnartak in the coming weekend. Again, I’ve taken the simplest possible approach to painting them: block painting, Warlord’s dark shade, then a little highlighting of key areas. In the mass, I think they look fine. Close up, I keep thinking “I should just touch that bit up, just highlight that feather). 

There's a couple of close up photos to show how reasonable a basic painting approach can be (though you can also see the downsides, too!)

Finally, a little terrain: the mealie bag and ammo box defences of Rorke’s Drift for the Zulus to hurl themselves against. These are nice models to paint up, mainly through washes and dry brushing and I’m quite pleased with the final result. 

Not sure how to score it, though: there’s the wagon piece, plus 8 strips of about 5.5 inches long with a cross section of about 1.5” square. A stack of  the 8 strips would thus fill roughly half a six inch cube, so perhaps 10 points? Plus the wagon at, maybe 3? Making 13?

Pointswise: 1 x 28mm Russian = 5 pts + 18 28mm cav @ 10 pts = 180 pts + 42 zulus @ 5 pts =  210 pts, plus terrain at 13 pts: Total: 408 pts

Noel, you have done a sterling job yet again! That bug is one I would like to get, because I am not as productive as you have been this week. What's not to like about your entry? There's a beautiful Russian officer: that blue is really well done, ECW cavalry which is always nice specially when you're a Rupert and your Zulu's are ace too, even if there are no thousands off 'em sar! The terrain does remain a conundrum every time, but let's be honest 408 is an ugly number. I'll let you have an extra 2 points for the wagon and give you 410 points.