From Curt: 10mm Wood Elves (353 Points)

Hi All!

I thought I'd squeeze in a post from myself at the end of the day as I didn't want to make Peter's tomorrow any busier than it needs to be.

I needed a change of pace from the Tomb Kings, so I thought I'd try something a little different by starting a force of 10mm Wood Elves.

These are all 3d prints from Forest Dragon. They're really lovely models and an absolute pleasure to work with.

First up, we have a elven General astride a Forest Dragon. At first I had it simply mounted on a base, but it seemed like it needed something a little more dramatic. So I carved out a piece of blue insulation and modelled it to represent a portion of an escarpment, or perhaps a hilltop. 

I had a bit of fun playing with Colourshift paints from Greenstuff World, especially with its wings.

Next we have a unit of spearmen, all arrayed for battle in their serried ranks. 

Ultimately, I'd like to get a two or three more of these done, along with scads of archers, but that will have to be for another time.

Here is a regiment of wood elf cavalry. 

Not very hard-hitting, but will be good for skirmish tactics and harrying the enemy's flanks.

Another unit of cavalry, but these chaps are mounted on elks (I really enjoyed working on these models).

Here's a moot of Tree Ents striding purposefully into the fray. 

One of the fun things with 3d printing is that you can play with the scale of the models and create mirror images of them. So I varied the size of the Ents to reflect their maturity and age. I also put in a few archers and some Dryads to help provide a sense of scale.

A massed unit of Forest Dryads on a double-depth base, with a few Tree Ents shepherding them along. Think Helm's Deep, or the Birnam Wood at Dunsinane.

I know it's sort of hard to discern which is what in the photos. It makes a bit more sense in person as you can clearly see the Ents keeping everything moving in one direction.

As to points for this mob:

The spearmen are 72 figures strong, giving 72 points;

The horse cavalry is 26 strong for 52 points;

The Elk Cavalry is 24 strong for 48 points;

The Ents have five 30mm tree giants and five 10mm cheerleaders for 30 points;

The mob of Dryads is composed of 126 forest spirits and three Ents for 141 points;

...and the Wood Elf General on the Forest Dragon mount. Hmm, let's say 10 points as it's close to a 28mm cavalry figure in mass.

So, that puts the grand total at 353 points. Wow, okay, that's not bad when it's all tallied up. The other nice thing is that this submission will push me past my 1200 point target. I'm pretty chuffed with that.

These forest elves will give me a Squirrel Point, and will fill-in 'E' for Elves in my Alphabet Soup Chart.

Thanks for dropping in to take a look.

- Curt

From BrettM: Tardis & Iron Grenadiers (50 points)

Moving along the planets we come to Skaro with an odd machine for a Doctor.

Got this from Reaper I believe several years ago.

Not very good on the trying text on each side but not bad if its a quick glance.

Next up is some Iron Grenadiers from GI Joe

Front view 

Pic of the back of the minis

Close up of them. Went with some grey over the black for highlights. 

Scoring wise not sure what the Tardis should be scored at. I assume 28mm fig. So total of 6 figures for 30 points and for landing on planet Skaro is another 20 points. Total entry 50 points I believe.

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Great work Brett! You can't get much more iconic than a Tardis for landing on Skaro. I also quite like the looks of those GI Joe Iron Grenadiers. I'm not familiar with the setting as it came a little after by time, but these fellas look the business. Sharp brushwork on the striped pauldrons, cuffs and their coal scuttle helmets. 

Well done!

- Curt

From GregB - A Heavy Cavalry Hero for Glorantha (30 points)

General de Bonnemains - 28mm figure from Eagles of Empire.

Greetings all! Work has been pretty busy for the past couple of weeks - which is nice, it funds new hobby purchases! But it also slows down the painting pace...that said, I was still determined to come up with some kind of submission this week, and I thought visiting another Challenge Quadrant planet might help. I started on Istvaan V, and looking at my collection and set of projects, an opportunity presented itself to visit the neighbouring world of Glorantha. The theme for this planet calls for "heroes", and with this in mind, I present General de Bonnemains, who led the 2nd Reserve Cavalry Division during the battle of  Froschwiller on August 6, 1870. This is a 28mm metal figure from "Eagles of Empire".

The Battle of Froschwiller was a major engagement that occurred early in the Franco-Prussian War. The Prussian coalition was advancing across the border, and Marshal MacMahon, commander of the Army of Alsace, was preparing for a defensive battle, having found an ideal position along the Sauer river. Orders to concentrate had been issued - the 1st Corps was already in place, and he was waiting for 5th and 7th Corps to join them. The Prussian side had similar notions, their III Army also planning to gather its strength before commencing a grand battle. Two armies faced each other warily across the Sauer valley, near the towns of Froschwiller and Worth. 

The plan was to wait until ready. But plans often don't work - and for the French in 1870 they, like, never worked. On August 6th, the pickets on both sides started to engage. Escalation followed. Artillery was committed. Troops were sent forward to deal with that. Maybe best to secure a town, you know, just to be sure? Can't allow that, right? 

Before long, the elements of the Prussian III Army were getting stuck in. The Bavarians led the way on the right flank, and the Prussians committed to follow their allies. Through the day, the French fought valiantly - 1st Corps containing some of the very top units in the French Army. MacMahon waited for help to arrive, but it never showed. As his lines buckled, he needed to buy time...and he bought that time with the lives of the reserve cavalry. General de Bonnemains led the charge, four regiments of Cuirassiers, the cream of the Second Empire's heavy cavalry. The odds were long, but the safety and glory of France were at stake. 

A very dramatic pose by the sculptor, perfect for the subject.

It was not to be...the rock-paper-scissors era of infantry lines and squares holding against the heavy cavalry were gone. The French Cuirassiers went forward, and were shot to pieces by the Prussians, armed with breech-loading rifles, backed by steel-breech-loading artillery, these glorious French cavalrymen never had a hope. In particularly tragic sequence, 700 Cuirassiers were caught in the village of Morsbronn and massacred in a matter of minutes.

The sacrifice of the heavy cavalry bought time for Marshal MacMahon to pull his shattered forces from the battlefield and fall back - many of these troops would meet their ultimate fate at Sedan some weeks later.

A white horse, perfect to lead a glorious charge!

I have not been able to track down whether General de Bonnemains survived this battle or whether he was one of the casualties of the fighting that day - apologies for the sloppy research! But I had purchased this character figure from "Eagles of Empire" - purveyors of beautiful 28mm metal figures for the period, and a quite interesting set of skirmish-type rules for the setting. He had been sitting, primed, for months, since he had arrived in the summer...a perfect target for an Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge submission! I thought he would make a fine submission for "Glorantha".

The "Eagles of Empire" sculpts are tall, lean and lovely - with one challenge in this case. The sword was bent during shipping, and I could not, no matter what I tried, get it sorted. It is tragic for this figure to defend the honour of France with a bent sword...but hey, things went really bad in 1870 for them, right?

So, for points, we have a mounted 28mm figure, and a planet bonus - should net 30 points. Thanks for reading, and I hope to have more to share next week!

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What a fabulous figure for Glorantha, Greg. There is something terribly tragic, yet somehow romantic about the French series catastrophes of the Franco-Prussian War. They tried so valiantly, but they experienced such incredible hubris during those campaigns that is makes your eyes water, especially when one realizes that the FPW largely paved the way to the rise of Prussian/German militarism and creates an inexorable path to the First World War. In this light, the bent sword is somehow perfect for this figure. Well done dude.

- Curt

From KerryT : P is for Perry Miniatures (plus a few hangers on with a missing Cuirassier) (74 points and 1 if not 3 squirrels)

 Morning, Afternoon and Evening all

As highlighted in my first post of today I missed out on completing and posting a unit last week because a cyclone knocked out the power.

Somehow I've managed to catch up with a second offering this week but there aren't too many figures so its not been too onerous.

This time P is for Perry Miniatures

This will be my 8th entry leaving P is for Plastic, Personality, Pagan and Posh to come.

There are few figures on show I'm afraid - only 4 Perry figures as my original intention was to paint up some Stradiots for the Italian wars. These however arrived only a few days ago and have still not been cleaned and undercoated as they're still in the package. They are after all a birthday present as well and that's not until Monday! So even though I bought them for myself from my wife, I haven't been given them yet

The figures are from their "secure the colour" set - its meant to depict Corporal Stiles of the 1st Dragoons capturing the eagle of the 108th Ligne at Waterloo

Flag by GMB Designs

I have no idea why I bought these figures as I do not have a 28mm British Napoleonic army, just French, Duchy of Warsaw and Russians. I think I just wanted something to put on the shelf

This left me with a little spare time in the week and because one of the underpinning ideas behind the AHPC seems to be to encourage one to get some old unpainted lead on the table I decided to tackle some AB miniatures vignettes

I have very large 15mm Napoleonic armies and couldn't resist buying some these AB vignettes when I visited Eureka Miniatures in Melbourne probably more than 5 years ago https://abfigures.com/110-vignettes

The 8th Cuirassiers  take a colour of the 69th Foot at Quatre Bras

Spotted an error - there's a Cuirassier from the original set missing!

This is where I have to confess my error, the actual colour captured was the King's Colour and not the Regimental colour as I have erroneously depicted above! You can read an account here:-

https://ageofrevolution.org/200-object/standard-of-the-69th-regiment-of-foot/

My decision in the end to add in some ABs backfired a little as they took me much longer to paint than I had anticipated.

The second set is the AB equivalent of the Perry Vignette though again in 15mm where the 1st Dragoons capture the Eagle of the 105th Ligne

As I said I completed them in a bit of a rush- and can spot a second omission- I took the pictures yesterday and have since left for a weekend trip away! I can see that I haven't highlighted the flesh and it looks a bit dark!

So by my reckoning that's

Vignette 1: 4 x 28mm figures (2 foot and 2 mounted) = 30 points

Vignette 2: 7 x 15mm figures (3 mounted and 4 foot) = 20 points

Vignette 3: 8 x 15mm figures (4 foot and 4 mounted )= 24 points

A total of 74 points

I'm not sure how many Squirrels I can claim for this 

There's at least 1 ? possibly 3. If so that will help my count

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These vignettes are fabulous Kerry. It's also great to see some more figures for Napoleonics in the Challenge. As I like to call it, Napoleonics is 'The Beautiful Game'. The Perry's stuff is always solid, but I have to say I'm always taken by the somewhat smaller efforts of Anthony Barton. They have such great character and wonderful detail packed into their small format - really wonderful stuff, especially when they are painted with a talented brush-jockey such as yourself. Beautiful work Terry!

- Curt

From TamsinP: Even More 28mm WW2 Japanese (265 points)

 The Adventures of Oscar: Time Traveler, Slayer of Squirrels and Very, Very Good Boy

Chapter 8

In which our hero rails at hitting *button 5* to escape those nasty shells...

Ruh-roh! Why, oh why, oh why did I hit *that* button? OK, so I was in a rush to get away from the nasty explosions, but I could have chosen some other button to press, surely? Every time I end up in this jungle, I seem to run into those horrible Japanese men who stop me from finding food! Oh, well, maybe there won't be any in this direction.

Hmmm! Very big grass. I doubt there'll be any jungle squirrels in there, but you never know. Let's explore...

Looks like a clearing up ahead, better be careful - there always seem to be Japanese men in those...

Ruh-roh! There are, and they have a tank! Better go back and try another path...

Looks like another clearing this way - best be careful and take a sneaky look...

Drat! Japanese this way too, and no other paths. I'd best beat a hasty retreat...

Wowser! I really don't like this jungle. No food and no sign of jungle squirrels...wait, what's that up there? Something up a tree and it has a tail! OK, the tail's not bushy, but maybe jungle squirrels' tails aren't bushy? Let's just say it is a jungle squirrel...

Row-row-row-row!

There, I've slayed a jungle squirrel! That'll make Felix totally jealous! Ooops, my squirrel-slaying seems to have alerted the Japanese - time I got out of here. Now which button to press? 2 is nasty, nasty desert; 3 is the place with nice men and nasty explosions; 5 is here; 1 is those wild, hairy men who charged at me; 4 is the far future...I wonder where this green button will take me...

That's enough silliness for now - on with the important part of the post!

My original plan for this week was to paint up one Japanese squad and some supports, but as I had been able to get an early start on them I decided to power through and paint up all the remaining Japanese figures.

"Oh, she's found time to make some small terrain pieces too!"

Ha! Fooled you! 

Grenade Discharger Squad

Depending on the date, this squad is either nine or thirteen men strong.

"Hang on, I count fourteen figures"

Well spotted! There's a simple reason for that. Early in the war, the squad comprises a Go-cho (Corporal) and three four-man teams:

...but later in the war it comprised a Go-cho and four two-man teams:

And that squad sees my core platoon complete.

Extra Rifle Squad

In Chain of Command, an extra rifle squad is always a useful support option to take.

Go-cho and LMG team

Rifle team

Just as a note, in Chain of Command all the Japanese squads are "single-team", which has advantages (1 support point of entrenchments does the whole squad; other nations have to pay for entrenchments for each team, so two points for a squad) and disadvantages (you can't shoot with one team while the other moves).

Type 97 Chi-Ha Tank

I realised after taking the photos that I hadn't quite finished painting and weathering this tank, but it's just a couple of small details missing that aren't important.

I decided to try the oil dot filter weathering technique on this. It's worked quite well, but I think I used too many dots of darker colours. I might repeat it without them when I go back to paint the missing details.

The Chi-Ha tank is armed with a low velocity 57 mm anti-tank gun. This proved ineffective against American Sherman and Grant tanks and Australian Matilda IIs. An upgraded version, the Shinhoto Chi-Ha/Chi-Ha Kai was fitted with a different turret carrying a high velocity 47mm anti-tank gun which was much more effective.

The tank is a plastic kit from Warlord Games.

Anti-Tank Elements

AT Rifle Team

AT "Suicide" Teams

Type 1 47mm Anti-Tank Gun

Dug In Shinhoto Chi-Ha

The Warlord kit for the Chi-Ha tank allows you to make both variants. Rather than waste the top deck and turret parts, I decided to put them to use as a dug-in version (a common practice in the later years of the war as the tank's armour was vulnerable to the guns of American and Australian tanks).

If I'd been using my brain, I would have made a press mold of the cupola and used it to make one for this turret.

MMG Team

For some scenarios where the Japanese are defending, it could be useful to have a second MMG. Well, that's my excuse anyway!

The gun and figures are from Warlord Games.

Flamethrower Teams

I doubt that I'd ever take two flamethrowers as support options and had only ordered one from Eureka. The second was from a pack sent in error by Warlord which they told me to keep.

I ended up with a couple of "spare" figures due to pack contents, and decided to paint them up as well.

LMG Gunners

If I ever decide to expand my Japanese force to two platoons, these might get used. 

Officers

These two came with the infantry gun and 47mm anti-tank gun, but as Japanese NCOs don't have swords in Chain of Command I decided to use them as extra/alternative officers.

<<<<INTERMISSION>>>>

Extract from the Journal of TamsinP: Time Traveler, Society Girl and Adventuress

Having made myself a stimulating cup of coffee, I enter my study and switch my computer on. "Chat Request from DaveD - They're Ready!". I check for other messages, then open up the video chat.

"Hi Dave, they're ready?"

"They are indeed. Whether the modified device will work is another matter, but there's no reason it shouldn't."

"I guess we'll just have to cross our fingers and hope it does. And the basic device?"

"Oh yes, that's fine and dandy. I tested it out and ended up in the middle of a Napoleonic battle."

"Well, you made it back intact, so that shows it works. Lovely stuff! So, what's the modified device got?"

"The time-travel part obviously, a GPS locator, a homing device which should be tuned to fix on your old device, and a link to a geo-chronometer. It definitely needs to go in a vehicle, there's no way anyone can carry it."

"That's fine, I've got Byron sorting that out - I figured as we don't know if it will work it would be best to ship the device over to Canada for him to install in a vehicle."

"No problemo! And send the shipping invoice to Curt?"

"Of course! His dog, he can pay!" I chuckle. "Can you ship the basic device direct to me though?"

"Of course. I'll get onto that later this afternoon."

I notice a flashing message on my computer "Chat request from Curt".

"Curt wants to chat - do you want to hang around and join us?"

"Best not, after going MIA the last two Fridays. Byee!"

"Toodles! I'll let you know when it arrives."

I close the chat with Dave, and open one with Curt.

"Good morning my dear! How are things going with rescuing my poor, missing hound?"

"Good afternoon, Curt! Things are progressing quite well. I've just got off a chat with Dave..."

"Has he been able to make a device that will find Oscar? I do hope so, as I'm missing him awfully, dontchaknow?"

"Well...he hasn't been able to test it, but he thinks it will work. But he's also made me a copy of the original - if the worst comes to the worst, we can use that and just keep hitting "random" until we find your doggo."

"Errmmm, what's this "we"?"

"Curt, he's your dog, and it's your fault for not putting my device somewhere safe that is to blame for him going missing. Ergo, you will have to go with me on the rescue mission."

"Ahhh, I see. I was kind of hoping that you could do it all yourself..."

"No, no, no. You're coming with me. If you recall my previous time-travel exploits, you'll know that it changes your outfit to match them time and place - we might even appear as Polish lancers..."

"Oooh! Oooh! Yes! With czapkas! OK, I'm convinced, I'll go along with you,"

I cross my fingers and hope we don't end up anywhere near a French Napoleonic cavalry corps, but it seems the prospect of potential czapka-wearing has done the trick.

"Very good. Glad to have you aboard. Now, the modified device is quite large and needs to go in a vehicle. As it might not work, I thought it best to get Dave to ship it over to Canada; Byron is sorting out a vehicle for it to go in."

"Ahhh! That explains why he wouldn't let me anywhere near his garage. Has he said anything to you about what it is?"

"As it happens, yes. He said it's like the KLF's and would be prefect for - I quote - "a pair of anarcho-leftist-mystic-hippy ravers like you two"."

"The KLF's vehicle? Ford Timelord? That's amazing!"

"Yes, well, if the device does to cars what it does to clothes, we'll only be in it at the start and end of the trip but, yes, it will be pretty darned cool!"

"Right, so when shall we set off?"

"How about two weeks from now, 6pm on the 6th of March?"

"Excellent! I'll see you then. Meet me at my secret lair. Ciao!"

"Toodles!"

I exit the chat and breathe deeply. Two weeks should be time enough to make the final preparations...

OK, back to the seriousness.

All the figures in this submission are 28mm from The Assault Group, Eureka and Warlord Games.

For Scoring

39* x 28mm foot @ 5 = 195 points

9 x prone/half 28mm foot @ 2.5 = 22.5 points

2 x 28mm crew-served weapon** @ 10 = 20 points

1 x 28mm vehicle @ 20 = 20 points

Total = 257.5 Points*

* counting the MMG as a foot figure as per my earlier submission

** counting the dug-in tank as a crew-served weapon.

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Oh my, things are really ramping up for the rescue of Oscar, our time-travelling super-mutt. What shall I pack? Which hat should I take? Mmm, would a bicorne be too much, you think?

Amazing work Tamsin. You've been VERY industrious these past few weeks! You must have a very well-optioned Japanese force now. The Chi-Ha tank is quite fabulous, especially with it's grimy jungle weathering. I also think that dug-in version is a clever bit of modelling, though I expect the crew will need to keep up trimming the verge so the gun can properly traverse. :)

Finally, and I know it's a small thing, but I really like the small organic scatter you use on your jungle bases. What is that? It's absolutely perfect for the setting.

Now, let's see if we can find that wayward pooch, can we?

- Curt

* I'm giving a few extra bonus points for the clever dug-in Chi-Ha, and to round out your numbers.