From GregB - Ricco's Republican Guard (120 points)

Ricco's Republican Guard stand ready for contact!

This week another Regiment of Renown takes its place in the line - fantasy warlords with high cash flow rejoice! Ricco's Republican Guard are here to serve your military requirements. These are 28mm figures from GW's long-gone "Dogs of War" collection - beautiful, beautiful metal castings from the late 1990s! This whole project is a mega-nostalgia-trip for me, but this unit really stands out, as my original "Dogs of War" force had this unit as one of its core formations.

Pikes lowered for action!

Hailing from the wealthy Tilean Republic of Remas, the Republican Guard represent the higher-end of the Dogs of War mercenary pike regiments. Whereas the Alcatani Fellowship are kind of a "pike-block-on-a-budget", the Ricco's Republican Guard are the choice of the discerning military commanders of the Old World who have cash to burn. The Republican Guard have higher levels of training and wear heavy armour - and once you factor in the pikes, they make for a terrifying unit on the Warhammer Fantasy Battle gaming table. 

Ricco and his unit got their start in Remas, but ultimately had a falling-out with the ruling council - they tried to have Ricco executed because he would not share his loot with them! His loyal soldiers would have none of that, and so they liberated him from the jail. Now he leads his Republican Guard into battle across the Old Word. Ricco himself still brandishes a bloody rag going into battle, a tribute to their roots in the revolutionary street fighting in Remas.

A view of some of the pikemen.

Love the heavy armour on these guys.

Throughout this project I have been singing the praises of GW's classic Dogs of War figure range - and I will do it again here! Sculpted by the Perry Brothers, these miniatures were an absolute joy to paint. I just love the look of the Italian (Tilean) style heavy plate armour worn by these figures - and then all of the classic Warhammer accents such as the feathers and the varied bags and sacks. They have a uniform look and yet there are many subtle variants to be found among the sculpts. 

"Steady lads!"

Getting these fellows built in such a way they can be packed into ranks took a bit of work, and this was a particularly tricky unit because all of the castings had some variant of a lowered pike pose (as opposed to the other pike units, which have more sculpts where the pikemen are standing at ease). Fortunately I recalled the troubles I had back in the late 90s and planned ahead this time, ensuring a functional mix of front rankers and was able to vary the positions on the bases so they could crowd together in the unit. 

A silver trumpet to inspire the men - and a handy mace to back up any missed musical notes.

Ricco and his bloodied rag are ready to engage.

Standard bearer.

View of the Republican Guard, in formation.

"Liberty! Equity! Liquidity!"

For scoring purposes, these are 28mm figures, and we have 24 of them in the unit, which should be good for another 120 points.

 

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Sylvain: To hear Greg talk about his love for (specific) miniatures is always a moment to which I look forward every week. Wow, what a majestic sight you offer us this time! Rich colors, rich metal, rich mercenaries... what is there not to love? Génial!

 

From ChrisW: Another fine mix I've gotten in to (330 points)

 

VSF armoured vehicles [3x28mm vehicles 60 points]

These are 3d printed Quar tanks now in the service of the Japanese army on Mars. They have been painted to match up with some previously painted Japanese armoured vehicles. The two big ones will be troop transports while the smaller one will be used for close support. 

They were primed black and based with Vallejo German red primer. This was dry brushed with craft paint cinnamon and paprika. The treads were painted with a grey craft paint then GW Contrast Gore- Grunta fur. That was then dry brushed over with P3 metal paint and a craft paint autumn colour. There was also at least one dark wash added  between base and dry brush.

Future passenger, for scale 

Two more tripods    [40 points]

For size comparison & for squirrels

So, the smaller blue one is a grenadier while the other one is an assault tripod, this one referred to as the Red Tripod. The Red tripod has a glitter/laser device on his head and a side carapace mounted speaker. Both are special add ons for this special tripod. I used a dollar store rhinestone 'gem' while the horn/speaker was made from something I had just lying around. (boy I sure hope I don't find out that I needed it for something else) 

The write up on the red tripod suggests that it might be a bit insane, so I added some human skeletons as trophies and used 'blood' to decorate it. On the base you can see some red weed beginning to grow and a splatter of blood.

It's, a bug hunt!        [11x 28mm bugs 55 points]

These are from Pulp Figures although I could not find a current listing. The big one is a resin cast with metal  'arms', while the brood are one piece metal. It took a while for me to figure out what colours to use and I made a few attempts before settling in on what I used. I figure the big one is the colour that the little ones will eventually change into. Most likely I will use these in some Pulp Alley games, but for now they will be added to my ever growing alien creature collection.

Evil deep sea diver minions  [12x 28mm deep sea diver minions 60 points]

These minis are from Recreational Conflict and have only been in my possession for a couple of years. 

They were primed with a khaki primer, washed with a brown/black wash the some P3 jack bone highlights over a khaki base. 

The sea shells were bought years ago just because I thought they might come in handy some day, they did. 

Devilry afoot Puritans                  [6x 28mm Puritans 30 points]

Explorers of Egypt            [6x 28mm  30 points] 

Some Blue moon, Brigade and Pulp Figures miniatures. Being in Egypt I went with a typical mix of Khaki colours for most of them. The lady in the blue skirt does stand out a bit with her shadowed lines courtesy of contrast painted jacket and touched up contrast blue skirt.

Jungle explorers                        [6x 28mm 30 points]

A mix of figures, Pulp Figures. Copplestone, Crooked Dice and maybe a Brigade miniatures. I apologize for the rather gauche neon yellow/green figure, just looking for different colours to use for my pulp adventurers.

I painted this figure with only contrast paints, except for the teeth. While I often use the various contrast/speed/express paints to put down a base coat then follow up with more traditional paints, this time around I wanted to see if I could tolerate the results without the additional touch up. Well, he is serviceable (and looks better in person) but I am not really sold on the end result. I will check in on him from time to time, but I suspect I will be doing some highlights.

Back of Beyond Chinese Mortar        [25 points]

Some more Copplestone miniatures BoB. These have been mostly completed for a few weeks, just the basing and a few touch ups being required. I kind of rushed the basing and picture taking such that you can still ee the undried white glue, whoops.

Points this time

• 60  points for 3x 28mm VSF armoured vehicles
• 55  points for 11x 28mm bugs
• 40  points for 2x Tripods
• 60  points for 12x 28mm Minion divers
• 30  points for 6x 28mm Puritans
• 30  points for 6x 28mm Egyptian explorers
• 30  points for 6x 28mm Jungle explorers
• 25  points for 3 crew served mortar

330 Points Total

Squirrels

7 more squirrels for a total of 16

1. Gladiators
2. Epic Orcs
3. Epic Imperial
4. Warlord Chinese
5. Red Russians RCW Back of Beyond
6. Alien Invaders
7. Pulp US Marines
8. Urban Cultists
9. Egyptian cultists
10. VSF Japanese armoured vehicles
11. Tripods
12. Bugs!
13. Evil minion deep sea divers
14. Puritans
15. Explorers of Egypt
16. Jungle explorers

Lady Sarah

Big Stompy robot of death [2 more for a total of 3]

 

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Sylvain: As I was going through your post, I just saw more and more pictures of miniatures... like there was no ending to it! You are a master not only in quantity but also in quality. I would love to be your neighbor and play a different game every week with a whole new set of minis! I'm sure I will be impressed again next week. Génial!

 

From AdamC: More Japanese ships (10 Points)

 

Here we have 5 more Japanese's ships 4 Asashio class Destroyers and the Cruiser Mogami in her late war configuration with a flight deck of all things. 

The Mogami was badly damaged off Midway in 1942 and was rebuilt with a flight deck to carry sea planes to boost the recon assets available to the fleet.

Here you can see a photo of the sea planes , They are a handy assets but you might want your 4 8 inch guns back.  Hybrid Cruiser carriers were an idea that got tossed around a lot in the 1920, very few were made Japan did it here to save time an money rebuilding the aft turrets or so I believe. 

This one was printed for me by accident I wanted some early war versions of these but it could be useful later. 

The Asashio Class were a design of the late 30s Japan's first design of greater than 2000 tons Displacement.  They were fast, 35 knots, with 6 five in guns and a pair of 4 torpedo launchers (with reloads). They were also the First Japanese destroyer equipped with Sonar 

The Asashio were considered a very useful design and became the basis for both the Kagero and Yugumo class which were basically larger versions of the same design. 

We have 5 ships of 1/2400 Scale for another 10 points

 

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Sylvain: Great little squadron! Your Japanese fleet seems to be coming along quite nicely. Génial!