From SidneyR: Regiment de Varennes, Flemish Stragglers and Enfants Perdus, 1688 (140 points)

More French cavalry for this post, this time being the regiment of Varennes.  Again I used 28mm figures from the older Wargames Foundry range.  Each of them comes with a couple of sword arms, allowing you to chose the pose of the arm, hand and sword. I swapped the Officer’s arm for a sword, which always - for French cavalry - seems a bit more formidable than waving a soft-leather gloved hand in the Flemish air.  

I added a fair amount of green-stuff for feathers, knots of ribbons on shoulders, cravats and some extra hat lace.  I've been enjoying doing this for the French cavalry, and foot.  Trying to make the army stand out, by the addition of unique features, is something which is always fun to do. The standard finial is from Bicorne and the lovely flag is from GMB Designs.  I thought that you can get quite a nice effect on the flag by painting the edging along the flag, including making sure the tasseled edge looks the part.

I kept the horses the same as before, with the Regiment de Luxembourg.  I tried an experiment with using inks on the horses, but this didn't really work well.  So I was back to a quick base paint on the horses and two layers of highlighting.  

Then, for my next "destination", I chose Benito's Brook.  Benito had asked for "A figure or vignette related to some brave feat of arms, almost hopeless against impossible odds".  I chose the defiant, but defeated, stragglers from a glorious Flemish defeat for the army of the (fictional) city of Laarden in 1688, trudging along the dusty summer roads of the Spanish Netherlands away from chasing French cavalry, dragoons and hussars.  

I had fun assembling the figures from a variety of manufacturers.  There's a mix of Dixons, Perry Miniatures, Wargames Foundry, and Colonel Bills - a variety of defiant, wounded, straggling and fallen figures.  I made the battle-ragged standard out of some art paper, suitably cut with a scalpel, glued in place with Bostik, and fixed in place with a PVA wash.  A defiant task, taking the regimental flag away to be repaired and re-embroidered by a Laarden seamstress.

I also wanted to enter the stragglers into my very self-indulgent "Characters of Laarden" collection.  Here's their collectible card.

And finally, one of the things I like about the Challenge is the chance to finish off older figures which have been lingering in a box for years.  These figures are from Reiver Castings, and I've wanted to do something with them for some time.  I had the idea of cutting them in half and painting them up as making a river crossing - or, in the case of the Laarden campaign of 1688, wading through a flooded inundation created by the increasingly desperate Laarden high command.

I painted them up as French enfants perdus, leading the line against the obdurate, stubborn Flemish defenders.  The Reiver castings looked slightly rough when I got them out of the packet.  The metal was fairly shiny, and they looked to be overly-lumpy.   However, once undercoated, painted and inked, they started to look hugely better.  Their slightly exaggerated style of casting takes paint very nicely indeed, and they look rather good from a distance, I felt!   They were also very reasonably priced - so a good result all round - perhaps the rest of the 15 figures I bought might find their way into a future Challenge.

But, before anything else, I also created a "Characters of Laarden" card - although identifying them more as a 'Nemesis of Laarden' might be more appropriate.  Here's their collectible card:

So, on to the points. 

= For the Regiment de Varennes, six figures, at 10 points each, adds 60 points to the total.

= For the Flemish Stragglers, six more figures, at 5 points each will add another 30 points, with an additional 30 for the "Benito's Brook" destination - so 60 points to the total.

= And for the Enfants Perdus, I want to request 5 points each - but, hang on Sidney, the guys' legs are missing.  So, perhaps 10 points for the three is reasonable?

And, overall,   (60+60+10) gives another 130 points for my total.

From DaveD -aah young Sid my lad.. thats a fine bit of painters fancy alright..i love the look of whole ensemble - so let call this 140 !