Thursday 17 January 2019

Thursday - DaveS - Made it (120 points)

So, this is the second post today.  I managed to get the Billmen based just in time (I hope) and so without much fiddling, I present a further 24 infantry for my WoTR army, which should be 120 points if my maths is good (see, no claiming extra models because I'm half asleep this time)

The front stand of these has a banner bearer and Man at Arms leading the retinue troops.  I know that Swordpoint (my chosen system) says that if a Captain is going to be permanently attached to a unit then you can model the base this way.  And that is why I've done it.  Definitely not because I was 2 Billmen short to finish the unit.  Honest.





                                 


What a lovely block of billmen! They look great,I look forward to seeing them with flags! Seriously nice work and basing and well done on getting another post in today, nothing wrong with your maths this time that's 120 points towards your total!

All the best Iain

For Thursday From PeterD - 28mm SYW French (60points)




No posts last week, but two in for this week.  Wife's away looking after her mum following surgery so production will be up for the next couple of weeks I hope.

Curt says he enjoys gamer bios, so here goes.  It all stated in a 5000 watt radio station... (two brownie points if you get the reference).  I started gaming as a teenage about 1975,  with Airfix Waterloo kits badly painted in Humbrols.  I paint almost exclusively historical stuff, but will play Fantasy of SciFi when someone else puts on a game.  A big part of the attraction is the research aspect of the hobby - I like ferreting out info on uniforms, OOBs and tactics from bygone ages.  Even if I was attracted to non-historical figures, picking up a "Codex" over history books would be a deal killer for me.

I grew up in Halifax NS and was a long time gaming partner of RossM of Battle Game of the Month who is likely known to many Challenge participants.  I relocated out west to Regina about 20 years ago and for a long time was a solo gamer due to lack of opponents.     Back in 2011 I followed Ross' lead and ventured into the Blogosphere with the Single Handed Admiral, a reference to the fact that I was going solo, planned to due naval gaming and that Nelson had only one hand.  Blogging got me in touch with gamers around the world, and then a year later with gamers 2kms from my doorstep as Sylvain reached out via Curt's blog having noted my email address.  The naval projects turned out to be a dead end and have been put on hold, but I've enjoyed working on Italian Wars and Seven Years Wars projects over the last few challenges.

Over the years it been a bumpy ride but I'm mostly in a good place now and enjoying my time at the painting table and on the Challenge.  I've adopted the simple philosophy voiced below.

Grenadiers in front of the structures from my first post.


OK off with the blather and on with the painting.  I've got 8 French Infantry from the Grenadiers de France from the SYW.  Figures are 28mm Front Rank and are very nice. This is the initial set of 8 from a planned battalion of 24 so I'll natter on more about the unit on later posts.





I also have a French command stand of two figures, general and trumpeter.  The general is  Casting Room figure on a Front Rank horse.  The rider had me perplexed as to his provenance for a while but then I worked out that I an extra dragoon officer (with no horse) in my Casting Room order.  Luckily, SYW uniforms are more flexible than for later periods and panting him in a blue coat laced with gold did the trick.  His trumpeter is a Front Rank figure as is his horse.  I painted him as coming from one of the myriad of cavalry regiments using the King's livery,



For the tally man, these are 8 28mm figures on foot plus two cavalry nets me 60 points on the scoreboard and on the Black Powder Challenge.
    
                                                                      

I really like your grenadiers and your command unit looks splendid with particularly nice basing. They also look great in front of your brand new black powder terrain!
60 more points to your total, lovely work!

All the best Iain

Thursday - DaveS - Bring Out The Big Guns (30 points)

Today's post is a smaller one than I had originally planned.  I have been working away on the unit of Billmen for my army, but I finally gave up at around midnight on Wednesday, and they are still not based.  If I get them finished quickly enough to count as "Thursday", then I might make a second submission.  As it is, I have also been treating myself, and have painted up my first cannon, to give me something different to work on.  And by different, I mean, painted in exactly the same colour scheme as the Billmen that I have been working on.  Crew served weapon with 4 crew, ready for scoring (and I don't know if I get points for Cannon plus 4 crew, or just points for crew served weapon for the whole lot.....)




The white stuff around the wheels is some still drying Vallejo water effects, hoping to make the grooves and pit that the cannon recoil has caused look as if they are collecting water.  When it dries, we shall see.

Finally, Iain had asked for a shot of the whole army so far, so I had to oblige.  The big gap in the middle should be for the next unit of Billmen, which might get finished in time for another submission today, but I make no promises.


                                                                        

Well that's a solid army rapidly built! Contrasting blocks of red and green,you could do with some banners to fly over your force, doesn't Henry VII's banner come with the Perry plastic set? If not there is a fair bit on the web for free in this period. 
Nice work on your wrought iron artillery piece,it's quite nice to put together don't you think?
 Thanks once again for the army shot, so for 4x28mm figures we get 20 points and for a 28mm crew served artillery piece we get 10points , giving us a grand total of 30points!

All the best Iain

THURS - From NickJ - It's a Kind of Magic (5 points)

Once Upon a Queen Song that's now stuck in your head... there can be only One!

Just a small post this Thursday as that annoying Real Life (tm) doohickey got involved this last week and decided to rain all over my painting plans! And next week work have determined that I need to be in Belgium and British Airways really don't seem happy about the idea of me taking hobby materials with me.

Right. On with the post!

For the first Bonus Round I presented my Purple Crows which is an Endless Spell in the world of Age of Sigmar. Now in order to cast an Endless Spell you need someone who likes playing with fire. For the Beasts of Chaos this is a Bray-Shaman.

So here then is the first of my Magic Wielders for the Beasts
 

He's basically the same colour scheme of Purple, Grey and Blue as all my other Beasts, however, I decided that as a Leader he would have a couple of different colours to signify his status - or to warn other Beasts to stand clear.

His cloak is a mix of earthy colours with Brown for the hood and Green for the main cloak.
 

Since he has a patchwork effect on the cloak I opted for a couple of blue panels just to add a little panache.


I'm sure you might have noticed the glowy stick? This is born from a desire to try out the new GW "ghost" paints and to show that he is channeling something through the stick that glows in the dark.

I wanted to show the glow spreading as he builds the power hence why the noose and skulls are only partly painted as it travels down the staff. I'll call it a staff now as he gets upset when I call it a stick!

That's a nice 5 points banked hopefully. Take that Evil Empire Duelists! :-)

Nick

                                                      

Lovely beast man with a shiny stick! I like his cloak and the fact you haven't made all the (sorry!) Staff (much better!) Shiny!
You are of course quite correct 5 points it is!
All the best Iain

For Thursday From PeterD 28mm Buildings (20 points)


For the first post from me this week I have two 28mm buildings, MDF kits from Sarissa.  I have a number of the Sarissa kits and I'm very happy with them.  They go together nicely (other than the odd user error), look the part and paint up nicely.  A pleasant evening building these and another pleasant evening painting them up.
I didn't show it, but the roof lifts off and there is a removable upper floor.

First up is a farmhouse from their English Timber Framed range.  I figure that similar buildings existed in Hesse and Westphalia in the mid 18th century.  I built the kit straight out of the box, as there was enough detail that no add on bits were required, the only change I made was to add black yardstick behind the windows to hide what lies within. 
I do like the  details like the brick work.

I hemmed and hawed on priming, and went unprimed in the end which I think was the right choice.  The details are lightly etched and I didn't want to fill them in with primer (I can have a heavy hand with the spray bomb).  Paint wise I found that a light touch and various degrees of thinning with water did the trick.  It's all one coat, except for a wash over the brickwork, and only four colours - red oxide, unbleached titanium, carbon black and raw umber.   
This is a very tall piece but can be dissembled for storage or transport.  The blades come off, and the building lifts off the pedestal (and swivels on this).  The main structure has two stories plus a roof that lifts off.

Next up is the post windmill, which seem to have appeared all over Western Europe in the black powder years.  IIIRC, having a windmill in your village tended to put you on the map back in the day.  Ligny and Valmy had prominent windmills on the battlefields.  This kit was actually built last spring (it appears in my challenge 8 wind up photo), but it took me until now to get the bottle up to paint it.  I used only three colours for the actual windmill - raw umber and carbon black, with only a touch of unbleached titanium to lighten the woodwork on doors etc.  
The base has stayed in the same place but I rotated the windmill.  I like the stairway and the crane.

Point wise, i used the rough dimensions on Sarissa's site, converted mm to medieval king's body parts and came up with figures that the farmhouse is 49% of a 6" cube and the windmill is 46% of the same cube. if the minion's feeling generous he can round this to 20 points for a full cube, if not then it'll be 19 points.

These will be used for Black Powder wargaming (and yes Ray unlike yours my figures actually appears on table).  We didn't define whether terrain counts for the BP side duel, so I'll ask for my fellow duellists call on that one.  Not that it'll matter as both Ray and Alex have paint bombed me into submission this week.

                                                                       

Lovely pair of buildings, the windmill is particularly impressive and I think you definitely went the right way with washes so that you didn't lose the details. 20 points for this post!
All the best Iain




Thursday NoelW : A squirrelicious post (415 points)


Bit of a long post this one, but hopefully you'll find something to enjoy in it.

My plan for this week was to soldier on with the 15mm Austrians, And that’s what I began. Here’s three more 20 figure battalions, 60 Minifigs.




That’s 60 x 15mm foot = 120 points.

But for your sake and mine, I thought it was time for a little variety. I’m always more motivated when I’ve several projects on the go, so I can switch to a new one when the first becomes dull. Of course, this means I’ve many unfinished projects (dozens, really) but it also means I’ve always plenty of alternatives to inspire me.

And, of course, I’ve always half an eye on those desirable Squirrel points.

One project that’s been going for years is Wars of the Roses, which I’ve always been keen on. Since the advent of the Perry plastics, this has been a wonderful period to explore, especially as it shades at the edges into other possibilities, such as the Burgundian and the Italian Wars (both of which I also fancy, but haven’t yet thought much about).

You don’t need many cavalry for WOTR, but for the side projects they’re more desirable. And it’s always nice to see clouds of horses storming across the battlefield, even if they prove peripheral to the main action. So here are 18 generic WOTR cavalry.


Men at arms in the mid to late C15th don’t wear much in the way of decoration or adornment, as they no longer carry shields or wear distinctive arms, and their horses are not caparisoned. Their gear would probably be pretty dull as a rule, too. But I’ve aimed for something a bit more colourful – always my desire in wargames figures, wherever I can get away with it. 


There’s a handful of blue and white figures amongst them, which could be extracted for a potential Burgundian army.



So that’s 18x10 28mm cavalry = 180 points. And Squirrel +1.

Next up is a bit of a squirrel problem for Paul. Here’s the start of an army of Celts.

These form part of my current Ancients plan. Previous posts have offered the first figs for my Carthaginian army, and for the Roman. The Celts will provide another opponent. Problem is, they can also be allies. So, are they a different project for squirrelated purposes, or not?



These 12 figures are all Warlord. Individually they’re attractive:



but their promise turns out to be a little disappointing. Despite being multi-pose, the range of possible combinations is, in practice, rather limited. 


And there are some lovely shield decals included, but several of them are duplicated. So, at first I was thinking of a fantastic mass army with every figure different, and bought 120 of them, but assembly showed a high degree of repetition. So now I’m looking for ways that a little more variety might be incorporated.

One way to do this, of course, is to paint my own shields freehand. However, Celtic designs are full of beautiful, clever curves, which are not the easiest thing to achieve on a 28mm shield freehand. I’ve included my initial experimental example.


12 x 28mm foot = 60 points. Squirrel?

Next are two sets of fantasy figures. Now, these pose another problem. Both sets of five are intended for the Frostgrave universe, so are effectively the same project.

One set consists of five female adventurers, from the newest plastic set, Soldiers 2. These are really good figures, configurable in several ways (despite being limited to only five basic poses), dressed in the furs one would expect in a frozen city. They will paint up nicely in the greys and browns one might expect of winter attire, but my feeling is that this is a fantasy world, so furs could be just about any colour, and adventurers might garb themselves in any fashion they fancied. This is also my first stab at Sarah's Choice.

Here's the lot:


And here are the individuals:






I really like these figures, and look forward to seeing what else can be done with them.

The other set comes from a single sprue of the earlier release of the Ghost Archipelago Crewmen. Whilst they’re still in the Frostgrave universe, chances are that, sailing the many straits and islands of the Archipelago, they will never encounter the women who wander the frozen city. So, same system, different games. Squirrel, or NoSquirrel?

These I think of as essentially piratical, though oddly equipped for the fifteenth rather than the eighteenth century. 

The group:


And the individuals:








(The fuzziness around the trouser area is not a Frostgrave spell, but a depth of field problem. I'm still learning how to use my new camera.)

I’m quite pleased with these, too, so will probably invest in more somewhere along the way.

10 x 28mm foot = 50 points. Squirrel +1 or maybe 2.

I've no idea which of these I'll be working on next week.

Total: 120 + 180 + 60 + 50 = 410 points


                                                                      


Well that's a nice big range of figures,I'm glad that squirrel isn't my shout!
The Austrians are lovely the Celts look useful,and I like both types of Frostgrave figures but your Men at Arms are splendid!
I really like this Perry range and you've done a super job on these chaps and by all means come and join us in the Great Italian wars!
I think you're right on your points but I feel I should add a few for your teeny tiny flags so let's say 415?

All the best Iain



Thursday RossM First entry with 15mm Undead (24 points)

As the first month of this year's challenge draws to an end there are no points on the board from myself; until now that is.

A small offering, however an offering all the same with twelve 15mm undead archers from 15mm.co.uk.


There are two elements of skirmishers and two of missile armed troops: one with bows and the other with crossbows.


Good figures that paint well and look the part both close up and at a distance.


With each entry to this year's challenge will be posting a collage pic as the last picture of the post. On this occassion the same pictures have been used, this will change on future posts.


There will be a few more from this range this year as hopefully another stalled project is completed in 2019.

In terms of points from my reckoning this equals:

12 infantry in 15mm: 24 points

That's just under 5% of this years total, best get painting!

Cheers for now


                                              

Super looking undead,I like the helmets and remnants of peasants clothes, you've done a very nice job with these and good luck kick starting your stalled project, your quite right that 12 15mm figures will net you 24 points and well done getting them in before the cut off!

All the best Iain

Good morning Thursday!

Shaping up to be a quiet Thursday at the moment but as the man said "anything can happen in the next twenty four hours!"

I was struck by James M's ships gun crew the other day and was reminded of a story my dad told me of his time on Landing Ship Tanks in the Mediterranean during WWII.
I think it was around the time of the Anzio landing and the ship was in the open sea, there were other British ships around and in the distance aircraft that might have been enemy planes but were too far away to possibly be a threat .The captain let the front doors of the ship( the LST is the ancestor of the roll on roll off ferry and was designed to be ocean going but be flat bottomed to enable it to drive up a beach and allow tanks to unload) and let everyone have a swim,while they were in the sea there was an explosion on the nearby British capital ship, everyone piled back onboard to man the guns,every one naked except for their tin hats!( Perhaps a project for Ray?) It was the first use of remote control bombs,drones I guess?
That's my dad on the right, frankly they look like different scales! Uniform was also somewhat relaxed on these small ships, unlike the aircraft carriers he served on after his commission.
Anyway I hope you will excuse this little interlude and stand ready for undead, Austrians,Celts,Men at Arms and more!
All the best Iain