From NoelW: The Last Post: 321 points

And so we face the final curtain. I’ve been tidying up the painting desk. Look how clean and pristine it is, with no more than 2 or 300 half painted figures scattered around. So much better than 3 months ago.

So I’ve four final offerings.

Firstly, 15 Byzantine infantry by Fireforge. I bought these on a whim, thinking they’d give me another infantry unit for Oathmark. But, not knowing anything about Byzantine warfare, I’m now thinking abut building a Byzantine army starting here – so, any tips would be more than welcome.

I've painted the shields white because I don't know any better, and I'm hoping to be able to source decals which will fit these shields, but so far no luck.

Next, 12 Late Roman cavalry by Gripping Beast. I’m not clear if “Late Roman” and Byzantine are in any sense connected – does Late Roman immediately precede “Byzantine”, for example? Or could both units be used in the same army?

My aim with these figs was to add a cavalry contingent to a handful of Wargames Foundry Arthurian foot which I bought second hand and am slowly repainting. Again, these figures will firstly be used within Oathmark, but gradually built up into a (small) army of the period. I like the idea of being able to fight hordes of huns, though my collection currently contains only 3 (unpainted) huns. I’ll probably end up squinting at a Mongol horde and calling it “hunnic”.

Shields and standard (which I fear is almost invisible) are by Little Big Man.

Third up: 6 more cavalry. These are all Perry plastics, consisting of one more Agincourt French knight (Jean, Baron of Ligne – I quite like the fact that his escutcheon consists of a “line”, but I guess French nobility maybe did not think of it like that) and 5 mounted archers. The archers are, of course, later in period than Agincourt, suitable for the Italian wars, which is where they’ll end up but they may also occupy a place in an Oathmark force for a while.

And finally Esther (reference only to be understood by UK citizens of a certain age): 13 Perry Afghans, a mix of metal and plastic. As usual with Perry figures, it’s quite difficult to tell plastic from metal, which is always a sign of decent castings. One or two of the poses I’ve created are a little melodramatic, because I intend some of these figures at least to serve in fantasy pirate games as well as the NW Frontier. I’ve tried to paint them in relatively subdued colours, as seems to be most accurate, but my brush continually strays towards the vivid and bright, so it’s been difficult to make them both interesting and reasonably realistic.

And that's my lot for Challenge XI. I wonder where we'll find ourselves in Challenge XII. Wandering a Victorian mansion where weird Chthuluesque creatures award bonus points in the basement? Trapped in a mad time machine that demands we interdimensional palettes? My bet is we'll be heading out among the stars to visit unexpected planets where paintbrushes grow on trees, volcanoes spew out Contrast colours and the only communication is through puns.

I can't wait.

Scoring: that’s 18 x 28mm cavalry: 180 points

28 x 28mm infantry: 140 points

1 flag: 1 point

TOTAL: 321 points

I’d like to thank Curt for keeping this crazy challenge going despite the obvious impact on his sanity; Lady Sarah, of course, for keeping the crazy Snowlord going despite the almost inevitable impact on her sanity; the many manic minions for their administrative brilliance (cough), irrespective of their sanity; everyone who has taken a couple of minutes to wade through my verbiage or to comment on my posts; my wife for not complaining about the paint that somehow found its way onto the living room curtains; my son for barely mentioning the bristling fragment of sprue embedded in his cushion when he sat down to watch evening TV; our cat for recovering from what seemed to me a terminal illness halfway through the Challenge; my agent; all of the production crew; JRR Tolkien; my friend Napoleon; Mr Harrap, my history teacher, for illustrating how badly a man could shave when he should have been telling us about Saratoga; all of history for just being there when it was needed….a white van has just drawn up….there are men in white coats getting out….one of them appears to have a taser….interesting…

  

From NoelW: A Knight to remember: Knights Solar (161 points)

They descend a winding tunnel. Every time Elfbow taps his spear against the floor or an adjacent halfling, magical golden sparks shoot over into the air like inebriated fireflies.

“Do stop doing that, Elfbow.”

“I can’t. It’s fun!”

“That’s absolutely no way to treat a magic – a perfectly ordinary, rather cumbersome and inconveniently dazzling spear,” says Merlissa.

“Oh why don’t you stick your crystal ball up your – “

“Woof!” says Scruff.

“Why, yes, that is a doorway, Scruff. Shall we perchance have a dekko at what obtains beyond?”

But Getrude, Clerihew and Titchy are already through the door and striding down a long hall (yes, they’re all in the adventure for the long hall) at whose far end can be dimly perceived (as you might have guessed) six shiny equestrian statues.

“Wow!” says Elfbow. “They look like solid silver. Real treasure at last!”

“But is it the Greatest Treasure the World Has Never Seen?” asks Titchy.

“Never mind that. Look out behind us.”

Glancing over their shoulders they see a horde of dungeon invaders, a brown-suited regiment, busily unshouldering their nasty little banging sticks.

“They’re going to shoot at us! Do something!”

Clerihew flaps his arms and waddles.

“There's no point ducking. They’ll just aim low. Quick, hide behind the statues!”

As one (one coward, that is) they all scarper behind the row of statues.

“It’s no use. They’re marching round the sides. They’re on both of our flanks. We’re enfiladed.”

“You speak for yourself…”

“Do some magic, Merlissa.”

“I've got nothing. I can only glance into my crystal ball, where I see things that were, things that are, and some things that have not yet come to pass.”

“Well, that’s a fat lot of use.”

"It's great as a plot device for creating jeaopardy."

“Let me borrow your completely unmagical stick, Elfbow.”

“Oh no you don’t. I’m going to need that to fight my way out of here.”

Merlissa scowls.

“I – er – let’s see. Time for a quick scrye after all. Ah, yes, amongst those things that have not yet come to pass, I might’ve seen a little something. Maybe that sparkly stick of yours (to coin a phrase) is not quite as unmagical as we might have thought.”

Bang!

A volley of bullets fly past them. Fortunately Titchy does not understand their peril. It’s all over his head.

“Lower your muskets, fools,” comes the command.

“Hit the statue with your big stick, Elf!”

“This is no time for sparkly games!”

“Now, whilst they reload. Just do it.”

Surprisingly Elfbow does as he’s told. He strikes the rump of the nearest mounted warrior with a firm rap (see Chapter 1). The statue creaks, groans, then whinnies and roars, and the lance armed warrior leaps into life.

“Now the other ones! Quickly!”

As if playing a xylophone made of silver equine rumps, Elfbow runs along the row of statues, so their behinds explode with sparks. As if by magic (coincidentally) six armoured warriors burst into song – no – I mean, burst into life, that’s it – and lunge headlong into the very surprised and not quite fast enough regiment of brown-coated and now brown-trousered warriors.

“Woof!” says Scruff.

“You’re right, Scruff. We need to make like a wolf with a speech impediment counting little pigs. Flee! Let’s get out of here!”

***

Two offerings in this post, both the excellent Perrys' plastics: 6 Agincourt Knights and 16 AWI, so two projects developing at the same time.

Agincourt is a project I’ve been pursuing for years, a few figures at a time. My image of the battle is closer to Olivier’s Hollywood version in Henry V than the reality, so I’m aiming to be as decorative as I can, although I still want to be reasonably realistic. To this end, I’ll probably have more cavalry than current research suggests was the case and they’ll probably be a little more decorated than might actually have been the case. So I’m painting up a number of actual coats of arms from the French knights that fought, with the idea of a glorious, if not entirely accurate, charge. It’d be nice if horses were caparisoned, too, but there’s no real evidence for this at Agincourt, so I’ll have to go back to Crecy if I want that (and the Perrys haven’t produced figures for this period, yet. What's keeping them?)

My first six knights have been chosen because their arms are relatively simple to paint. They are:

Jean, Senechal of Eu

Baudouin, Lord of Epagny

Pons de Saluces, Lord of Chateauneuf (who, interestingly, seems to have the same arms as Robert de Gamaches, Lord of Chauvincourt, which I thought was not meant to happen)

Euguerrand de la Riviere, Lord of Perchin

Hugues d’Auteux

Philipe de Wissocq. Lord of Gapennes

 The American Revolutionary unit is painted as the 3^rd Pennsylvania Association, of around 1776. I’ve not chosen them for an particular battle, but simply because I like the uniform, and I wanted a slightly irregular look so they could be used as militia when needed. I’ve not been able to discover anything about a likely flag, so I’ve simply taken one from the very useful guide in the Perry box, which properly belongs to the 2^nd Pennsylvania. The flag is blown up before printing as I prefer oversized flags.

Scoring:

6 x 28mm cavalry: 60 pts

16 x 28mm infantry: 80 pts

Solar: 20 pts

Flag: 1 pt

Total: 161 points

Plus 1 Squirrel point for the knights

From SimonG: Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more - Curtgeld (45 Points)

Which seems an apposite quotation for my Curtgeld -- the Perry Henry V from the Agincourt English leadership metal set. As my main project for the year has been a late 1420s HYW French and English army for Impetus I don't have any need for good old Henry!

I'm at the tail end of this now with just the English leaders and men at arms to finish -- as you can see below. So expect lots more plate and heraldry. 

My Workspace (or the kitchen table!)

The first of my leader bases is John Falstof (who we know better as Falstaff) here with his standard and a musician. This is a light adjustment of one of the Perry Agincourt French leadership figures - I kind of hate this relief heraldry as it an absolute bear to remove -- free hand all the way for me. 

Sir John Falstof

The standards are home printed and inspiration for the characters is drawn from this invaluable resource.

Anyway first time for me on the AHPC having enjoyed the quarantine challenge earlier this year. I'm newly back into the hobby after 40 years away -- got started again this time last year and the HYW has been my main project since then. 

For the rest of this challenge I'll be finishing this up along with something quite different at 10mm plus a selection of fantasy figures from a source I suspect no one else is using -- these should help me explore some of the Chambers of Challenge!

For today that's three 28mm foot for 15 points plus another 10 for the mounted making 25 points and 3% of the way to my target!

From StefanK: The penultimate post - Cry God for England, Harry and Saint George! (12 Points)

So it's the final days of the challenge and two entries to go for me. Here's one that is very near and dear to me:

King Henry V

of England

Actually this figure has been lying on my lead pile for ages. I've bought it a while ago when I saw that wonderful sculpt by Alan Perry but I didn't find the time to paint it. But since Henry V by Kenneth Branagh is one of my - if not just my - favourite movie I always regretted not paying attention to it.

Now after our ACW project came to a temporary end I took the time to splash some paint onto Harry. The figure is part of Perry Miniatures' AO01 set from their Agincourt range. He's a mounted 28mm figures of two parts: Horse and Harry. Since I didn't like the original horse delivered with my set I changed it to a more 'royal' breed with nicer horse tack.

Focussing on the single miniature was pure joy again. The sculpt is tremendously detailed and Alan even managed to work out an indication of Harry's coat of arms. Thus it was difficult but at least possible to paint his surcoat properly. I hope you like my humble piece of work.

Last but not least let me deliver the two scenes I watched / listened to over and over while painting this figure:

That's it for now. Tomorrow I'll have my final entry ready with the 'Curtgeld' and two other figures, Until then ...

...cry...

God for England, Harry and Saint George !!

___________________________________

Wow, terrific work Stefan! I love the attention to detail you lavished on Henry, especially on his armour, harness and especially his coat of arms. That there is some pretty fine brushwork my friend. Bravo!

I think in light of the extra effort on the niggling details Henry is up for 12 points. Well done Stefan.

- Curt