From HarryV 28mm AWI Riflemen, Militia, and Hessians (150 pts)

 Hi all, something slightly different from me this week. But don't worry, there will be more Carthage coming next week!

For this entry I have 

12 American Riflemen 60 pts (Brigade games)

2 Riflemen Officers 10 pts (Brigade games)

6 Hessians  30 pts (Brigade games)

10 American Militia 50 pts (Brigade games + Black Hussar Miniatures) 

For a total of 150 points. 

 Sorry no nice background today, and the work desk is horrendously messy, so the window with natural light if going to have to do for pictures today. 

The American War of Independence/ American Revolution is probably the area of US history that holds the most interest for me overall. And in particular the years of '75-'78. 

My main goal is to do a slow grow for the battles of Hubbardton and Bennington (long live the Green Mountain Boys!), which are my particular fascination, but the battle of Long Island also holds a big interest for me, along with the other battles of '76. 

Now the danger with the slow grow is that the grow is too slow and the forces fails to grow at all, while being a distraction of time and capital from other projects. However, I am pretty committed to this, and my goal is to only order new elements once all the previous troops or terrain have been completed. 

First unit completed are 6 Hessian (or Brunswick for the Saratoga campaign of '77) Jaegers with "Amusettes" from Brigade Games. I mainly did these troops up as they were sitting in the stockpile for some reason (no idea what possessed me to buy these a few years ago) while I await the arrival of the main crown forces in the post. The Amusettes are somewhere between a large rifle and a small cannon, weighting in at around 50lbs. No idea how these will be used on the tabletop or what rules to use for these, or even how they will be deployed. But they were decent painting practice for the rifle armed Jaegers arriving in coming order. 

Next the riflemen - all from Brigade Games

Here we have a rifleman officer, probably my favorite figure from this batch that I painted. This fellow would be one of Daniel Morgan's troopers, drawn from the backwoods and frontierlands of Maryland, Virginia, or Pennsylvania. I loved the elaborate linen hunting shirt on this figure - obviously the more fringe the higher the rank among the rifle corps. 

This gentleman would be a Level I leader in "Sharp Practice", is perhaps a Captain, and would lead a company of riflemen. 

The officer's 6 riflemen. I color coded his command with the yellow flower tufts. My goal is to perhaps use an adaption of "Sharp Practice" for this force, but also in my mind is adapting Simon Miller's "For King and Parliament" or his new up coming "Lust for Glory" ruleset

A second rifleman officer. 

My original intent with these was to base them in a more forest floor like environment but I couldn't quite pull it off, so I just reverted to your classic field type terrain. I do want to try again with some forest floor basing on some of my coming units. 

This force was color coded with each other and the officer with the white flower tufts. 

Last, but not least, my militia force, from Black Hussar Miniatures and Brigade Games

Now there are 20 of these based up here, but only 10 were painted during this challenge. The other 10 I had painted a number of years ago. Originally I had bought these to serve as New Hampshire provincials during the French Indian War battles around Ticonderoga/Fort Carillon, who lacked uniforms during that conflict. However, painting French white uniforms at that time mentally broke me and I abandoned the project.  

They were initially singly based but I have based them up into these mass bases. I was going to paint a commander to go with these, but realized I lacked a figure currently of significant enough gravitas to serve as a colonel of militia. 

My idea for this project is that each base is a  unit from "Sharp Practice" and in real life terms would be a company. 

The officer bases would mainly represent  Colonels or Majors, with the officer level represented by the number of figures on the command base.

 Most of the actions that I am interested in do not have enough battalions for a "big battle game", but have too many troops from skirmish. 

Anyways, if you are looking for some inspiration, I loved this YouTube documentary which I watched while painting these up:

What a great selection of AWI types Harry.  I really like those Jaegers with their Amussettes.  I remember that WRG has a very light gun category to cover these, plus swivel guns and Indian jingals.  Some really fine detailed work on those 'Murcan riflemen too.  I have spent time In New York and Vermont around Lake Placid and Lake Champlain and I understand your interest in the Saratoga campaign.  Great work all around. 

From ChrisW: More of this and that (280 points)

 * BREAKING NEWS DISASTER STRIKES *

MINIS AND PAINT POT DROP TOGETHER!

When I was nearing the end of painting 33 Pulp Figures American marines I accidently nudged the tray on which the figures sat (including the open container of paint) and down went all together.

Some were worse off than others, but still 24 figures were impacted

Even the 9 that avoided the black paint did not escape damage

I could not face them, so, I put those miniatures aside and started to work on some other figures. When I am in the AHPC I always have a few groups of figures on the go, a production line. I find I am not very patient and dislike waiting for miniatures to dry, so while something is drying I start working on the next group. It does mean that I have a lot of trays of figures stacked around my hobby room in various stages of completion, so it was easy to move on to another group.

Trotsky's Train Guards [10x 28mm 50 points]

These are Brigade Games figures that I bought only two years ago! I used GW contrast paint as the base for these figures. I then followed up with Vallejo shade paint then a highlighting of P3 Khaldor red. The leather was just a mid tone brown with a Vallejo brown wash. The badges on them are a mess, I tried but they just do not stand up to a close look, maybe okay on the battlefield.

Lady Zorr, her swamp mate & her brood of Zorrlings [Alien invaders 10x 28mm 50 points]

I got these from Alternative armies. They are of various sizes. The smaller ones are metal while the large ones are made from paint repelling resin. 

Lady Zorr

Family portrait

Brain power

These were done mostly with contrast paints. The brains were highlighted with a GW pink and the lips were highlighted with a P3 orange. Once I painted them I kind of realized that it looks like i painted interstellar pumpkins. These will be added to my existing collection of 28mm Pulp aliens/monsters.

Halfling mage for a slow growing Fantastic Battles Halfling army [1x 28mm 5 points]

So, she may actually not be a Halfling figure but she is the right size and her dress does hide her feet. She is an RPG figure but I cannot remember who makes her. Like some of the other figures in this post, I used contrast for her. Her face did not work out that well as there is not that much defined detail to it. Even a light wash of Guillman flesh obscured the detail so I had to do some highlighting but the end result is more abstract than detailed.

I do kind of like the spell effect, I think it came out fairly well. 

American marines 1 crew served MG with three crew + 30 marines. [175 points]

So, I managed to get back to those marines and finish them off just in time for Wednesday's posting.

The figures are from Pulp Figures and the colours used were from Mark Hargreaves painting guide for the Back of beyond. 

My colours did not come out like the pictures in the book, but it will do for now. I might do a final wash to bring down the brightness of the green pants, something to make them a little more worn looking. I also tried to emulate his  painting style but with only limited success. Still all in all it is nice to have these done. Maybe this will inspire me to tackle my American naval figures.

A mix of mostly riflemen, with some shotguns, tommy guns, a couple of BARS & 3 Lewis guns and one Browning.

 

Points this time

• 150  points for 30x 28mm Pulp Marines
•   25  points for crew served weapon and 3 crew members
•   50  points for 10x 28mm RCW/Back of Beyond
•   50  points for 10x 28mm Alien Invaders
•     5  points for   1x 28mm Halfling

280 Points Total

Oh and I am now two disks into season 4 of Babylon 5(my way of tracking how much time I have spent painting stuff)

Squirrels

Three more squirrels for a total of 7

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

Lady Sarah

1 Halfling mage & Lady Zorr.

 

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Sylvain: Despite your disaster, your production is on high octane! All your figurines are lovely, but Lady Zorr and her "family really cracks me up! You also do an very neat job on those bases. All in all, for this and that, 280 well deserved points. Excellent travail! 

From JohnS: More Spanish Heroes (50 points)

As the closing time looms I have managed to complete ten more Spanish for my Peninsular War army.

 

 

A mix of Perry and Brigade Games (with perhaps an Offensive Miniatures officer on the right) these ten militia were actually a lot of fun to paint.

I like my armies to consist of individuals, not all the same figure in the same pose. Militia units give me a chance to scratch that itch.

Every figure is dressed differently, with a range of equipment but I have tried to tie them all together with pops of the Spanish national colours of red and yellow. I can just imagine these two officers walking into a cantina and saying "Hey you, you're in the army now. Do you want the hat or the sash?"

I must mention the basing. Our regular gaming buddy Gavin is a big fan of Peninsular War games and has created an enormous batch of Gav's Special Spanish Basing, made up of a host of "secret" ingredients. He has gifted us regulars with a 2 litre bottle of each. It may take some time to use up!

Thanks to the regular chats with the other Challengers (organised by the Magnificent Millsy) I have achieved a Personal Best this Challenge. They don't call me Slowpainter for nothing!

10 x 28mm Infantry @ 5 ea = 50 points to finish

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These Spanish militia look magnificent John. I really like how you've made each unique yet managed to maintain a consistency so the look like a unit when brought together. That secret mix of Gavin's looks the business and with two litres you'll have a lot of arid basing ahead of you.

Finally, congratulations on achieving a personal Challenge Best this year. I'm delighted that it provided you with good impetus for getting models off the paint desk and on the game table. Bravo!

- Curt

From JohnS: At the Sharpe End (40 points)

Continuing in my random historicals Stretch Goal today I am visiting the Peninsular War.

Anyone familiar with the Sharpe TV series of the 1990s-2000s will recognise a few of these Riflemen and their trusty Spanish allies.

SB himself is not among this lot. He is with another group that is partially painted so not Challenge material. These five include two officers (Sweet William and Lord John) and three Riflemen including a Chosen Man.

These miniatures are from Brigade Games and are very finely sculpted and were quite a pleasure to paint.

Accompanying our Rifle heroes are three unnamed Spanish Militia. Bad Things always seem to happen to these poor chaps so it is best if we just refer to them as Brave Spanish Martyrs 1, 2 and 3.

The Spanish are from Perry Miniatures.

These eight figures will be added to my large Peninsular War collection of British, French and Spanish (plus a few Portuguese) that started as a couple of Sharp Practice armies and have grown considerably over the years.

8 x 28mm Infantry @ 5 = 40 points

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How wonderful that at last I get to minion one of your posts John! Great to see you expanding your retinue to fight that despot "El Guapo", who has plagued so many of our tabletop adventures!

A doubty looking bunch of riflemen able to swat a gnat at 300 yards no doubt, but my favourite is Sweet William, who I always found to be a rather engaging character in the books. His appearance in the TV Show also reminds me of a tabletop opponent you and I regularly see across the table John! (sans eyepatch of course)

Well done - that puts you ahead of a certain other challenger at this late stage of the game... 

Can Mssr Alan pull one of of ze bag or have you got him pipped at ze post????

- Paul