From StephenS: The price of entry (25 points)

G'day,

For my gift miniature this year, I have painted up a goblin from Games Workshop's Middle-earth collection. A Goblin King of Moria to be exact.

A 28 mm (mini) miniature, I have textured the base, but left it simple for anyone who might end up with this to change. I am still trying to get the best from a light-box I recently bought, so my apologies if the photos are a bit off.

That should be 25 points including the bonus.

Now to try and find some time to paint something for me.

Cheers,

Steve

Well, someone is going to be the lucky recipient of this cracking Goblin King. Great work Stephen!

Tamsin

From PeteF: Old School Minifigs 2nd 2nd French Line (120 points)

The Quatres Bras project continues with another battalion of line infantry. There were 22 line battalions at the battle. With the 2nd 2nd completed I have two left to paint. 

Although old school miniatures tend to be monopose - Minifigs did make quite a variety of French infantry sculpts, so at least there can be some variety between battalions. This one: covered shakos marching.

I use a website called centjours.com to do uniform research for this period - and found out that the 2nd was the queen's battalion with jackets piped a deeper shade of purply red and fewer (or no) crowned N's on their turnbacks and cartridge cases. I wasn't completely happy with how the white turned out - a final wash with really thinned down Nuln Oil was an improvement - maybe I'll try a softer tone wash on the next batch.

Nearly a third of the way through the challenge I'm falling off the pace a little - so many minis so little time!

24 x 25mm figures for 120 points.

I do enjoy seeing your smashing 25mm Minifigs Napoleonics. Cracking work as always, Pete!

TamsinP

From Dallas: 28mm Ebob Feldgendarmerie in the Guardroom (40 points)

My submission for the Guardroom... a threesome of WW2 German feldgendarmes and a canine companion from Ebob Miniatures, part of their "Great Escape" range of prisoners and guards from Stalag Luft III.

I'm a bit of a sucker for animals, so I enjoyed painting this German Shepherd dog and his human.

The other two feldgendarmes wear the "motorcyclist protective coat" (Schutzmantel fur Kraftradfahrer), commonly referred to as the Kradmantel (motorcyclist coat). This was a very handy garment and as is common among serving military, it found its way into the hands of troops other than those to whom it was to be strictly issued. The coat was made of heavy twill cloth, rubberized on both sides, in a grey colour. The collar of the coat was prescribed by orders over time to be in various coloured cloth, including the standard field-grey (pictured here) after about May 1940. Another neat feature of the coat was the provision to button the coat's skirt around the wearer's legs in trouser-fashion - obviously necessary for its use by motorcycle riders. This feature is demonstrated by the feldgendarme holding the traffic wand. As the feldgendarmes are also wearing goggles it seems clear that these two were motorcycle-mounted in any case.

My main source for info on the Kradmantel is Angolia and Schlicht's Uniforms and Traditions of the German Army 1933-45, Vol. 1 (of three volumes in the set). Good information about everything Wehrmacht-related.

That's it for now - 35 points to add to the total. Stay safe everyone!

Cracking Feldgendarmes and lovely dog (which you forgot to include in your scoring). 40 points for you young man!

Tamsin

Bi-weekly Duel Update - Games Workshop Minis Duel - Update #2

Hello everyone, and welcome to the second update for the GW Minis side duel.

We now have four weeks of painting under our collective belts, so it's time to see where the score stand. After the previous update, we had a couple of people asking if it was possible to join, so I have added their names to the roster. If anyone else would like to take part, please let me know in the comments below. All points will be added up retroactively, so there is no problem about joining late. Likewise, if any of our current duelists would like to amend their entry, again, comment below.

The current list of duelists is:

Barks

Codsticker

DrQ

GregB

Paul O'G

PaulS

Reilly O'G

StuartL

TeemuL

Two weeks ago, some of our duelists were off to a good start while others were letting the rest of us start to get overconfident, just waiting for the moment to pull a Tortoise/Hare switcheroo. Obviously they are still biding their time, assembling their awesome points bombs and getting their sandbags ready. Or not, I don't know, I'm just making this up as I go along. 

Anyway, on with the update and some highlights.

Barks - 15 Points. Finally putting some points onto the board, Barks has done up some lovely bug-like minis for Blackstone Fortress. 

Codsticker - 40 Points. A late entrant, with a set of nice boats and some cool looking cultists earlier on in the challenge. These figures from Blackstone Fortress look pretty intimidating.

DrQ - 260 Points. The good doctor has doubled his points total over the past two weeks, adding a bunch of Orks and some balloon loving dwarves. This beer brewing champion of the skies is a great example of his work.

GregB - 0 Points. Greg asked if it would be possible to join the duel during the last update, but so far has only painted (some frankly amazing, but sadly not GW) Byzantine troops. Hopefully we'll see something GW related soon.

Paul O'G -  102 Points. No change here. PaulO'G seems to have been more focused on Romans and Ninja than on his GW duel. For shame.

PaulS - 147 Points. With some very colourful entries these past couple of weeks, PaulS has definitely proven that the Warhammer universes don't need to be grim and dark. They can be grim and eye-catching as well.

Reilly O'G - 430 Points. Unlike our other O'G duelist, Reilly has been busy, producing yet more fine additions to his quickly growing horde of Spider Kult Goblins.

StuartL - 591 Points. In what is probably going to be called blatant favouritism and preferential treatment by the GW Side Duel Points Committee (headed by StuartL), I have jumped into the lead by painting up an Iron Warriors army for 40K, including this multi-limbed monstrosity.

TeemuL - 152 Points. A unit of Valhallen Guard for 40K and some characters for Lord of the Rings have doubled up Teemu's previous total. Continuing with the Spider theme, here is Teemu's amazing take on the LotR Shelob mini.

And that's about it for this update. Hopefully our duelists will continue to produce more fine entries to this side duel over the next couple of weeks. Keep up the painting everyone!

From RossM: The First Post - Early Imperial Romans (52 points)

This is my first post for the AHPC XI and I don't really know where the time has gone. As the saying goes times flies when you are having fun and that's what this is all about; fun hobbies stuff.

This post has a mixture of supporting troop types for an ongoing project in 15mm: Early Imperial Romans. 

Unlike many projects this was initially down to luck. The luck being, getting a PSC Ultra Cast EIR box set off evil Bay at a very reasonable price. Then luck followed luck as a good number of Corvis Belle EIR figures came up on the same again at reasonable prices, allowing the force to be expanded to cover DBA and an ADLG army too, well nearly.

Making a conscious effort with this army to paint it by troop types starting with light infantry, in this case archers, slingers, javelin-men and a pair of scorpions to finish off the shooty death section. So without any more rambling on here are the finished figures:

Eight javelin armed skirmisher from the War and Empire range produced by Forged in Battle. Painted in drab colours to mark their status as lower classed troops. 

The bases are textured using Geek Gaming Scenics Base ready Patch Plains mixed then flocked with 2mm static grass to add colour and interest. This is a new process for 15mm figures and cuts out the need to glue sand, ink wash then dry brush the sand before flocking; its quicker and gives a good finish once over flocked. 

Next are eight slingers that are also from Forged in Battle. Both sets sit well beside the PSC 15mm figures if a little chunkier. 

The first of the PSC Ultra Cast figures with six skirmishing archers covering a scorpion and two crew. 

Once painted and at a distance there is no way of telling if these are metal or not. That is until they are picked up as there is practically no weight to them. That said the figures paint up well and provide a good basis for the core of an Early Imperial Roman army. It's a pity that the infantry and cavalry are only available in the boxed sets. 

Below is a group picture of the army so far with figures painted pre December 21st 2020 including two stands of three archers, three additional stands of skirmishing archers and a second scorpion. These are not included in the points total below.

Both the archers above and the scorpion below have been painted before the start date and are shown pre-black edge painting. 

So, there are a total of twenty four foot figures and 1 crewed weapon in 15mm giving a start to the points total of 52 or 8.67% of the target total of 600 points. Hope that this is correct and now it's time to start prepping the auxilia infantry with 38 figures waiting in the wings. 

Hope that you find these of interest and stay safe!

Cheers for now

Yet more odds and sods for the British Canadian army 1812

With the following completed there are now only 5 units and the generals to go for this army before i actually do something of mine to paint.

So here goes.

First of we have another two gun battery of artillery, these figures are from Warrior Miniatures and represent a 6pdr battery.

so for the points 2 x guns (4pts each) and 6 x 15mm figures ( 2pts each) gives a total of 20pts

Next up are two combined flank Battalions.  In the rules we use in the club infantry bases are all the same size with the number of figures depicting the type of unit.

In mainland Europe we usually have 6 figures per base to represent the massed ranks typical in the armies.  For skirmishing companies it is 2 figures per base.  For this army as it fought mainly in line i decided to go for 5 figures per base.  OK so the real reasons were pack size the figures came in and i did not want to chop the bases of the figures to make them fit. But for the these flank battalions i went for 4 figures, reason being i had enough spare figures for two battalions at 4 figures a base.

First Battalion from left to right each base represents Light and grenadier companies from the following regiments 64th Stafford shire, 70th Glasgow Lowland, 13th Somerset and a mixture of Canadian Militia figures are all Lancashire games except for the second base in blue trousers which a Warrior miniatures.

Second Battalion consists of Dundas and Stormont Militia, bonnets made from green staff, Colonial Marines, Canadian Militia with round hats again made from applying green stuff to a shako to get a brim, 93rd highlanders in trews and green stuff bonnets. Mixed bag of manufactures here with Marines Minifigs, Dundas Minfigs and Warrior, Canadian Militia Lancashire and Warrior and 93rd Warrior.

Each battalion 16 x 15mm figures so 32 figures in total giving 64pts

Nest up are some independent companies and to make them standout from light companies each base is 3 figures.  Eventually there will be 8 of these units of which only 7 will appear here as i painted one before the challenge (Well the army was a Christmas present and was planned to be a painted one to be presented on Christmas day i had to give him some units painted)

Leeds Rifle company, apparently at some point in the campaign they captured a supply of American rifle uniforms and decided to wear them. Figures from Minifigs.

Mohawks again from Minifigs, these figures are really well sculpted and a joy to paint 

Two more units of Indians figures from Lancashire games this time

Canadian Voyageurs figures from Minifigs

So 5 companies of 6 x 15mm figures gives 30 figures for a total of 60pts

So for this post the points are:

Artillery Battery - 20pts

Flank Battalions - 64pts

Independant companies - 60pts

Total 144pts

From BruceR 25mm The Chambers of Challenge, The Armory 25 pts

 Found a bag of ancient miniatures, I'm sure are lead.  This is a Ral Partha figure with ES 43 imprinted on the front.  I searched the net and could not find what he is designated in the old Ral Partha figures.  I'm sure he came in some kind of adventures box set purchased in the beginnings of D&D before we found the secret of painted figures.  He is true 25mm and I figure with all that armor (+5) at least he will lead the party with shield slung to allow the halberd to do it's D10 or D12 damage (memory is a little fuzzy here). 

What better way to search the Chambers than in +5 magical plate armor.  Must be magical as you could not get around in anything else.  

 Tried to put some gold trim on the armor to break it up after two highlights.  The photos do not show.

He will go on the wall of figures for display.

Thanks

BruceR  

25mm 5 pts + Chamber 20 pts = 25 pts.