From Millsy: Back in Black... More 28mm Arabs (90 points)

G'day All,

Apparently a week off from painting black was enough and I'm back with more Arabs. This time it's another ten infantry (Gripping Beast with Fireforge Games upgrades), two cavalry (again Gripping Beast with Fireforge Games upgrades) and the last four miniatures from the Reaper Miniatures Legends of the Sands box set.

A mate pointed out if you are doing Mutatawwi'a for SAGA you are better off leaning hard into either mounted or foot troops so I added another unit to the foot collection. Simple enough to assemble, paint and base, and although they are different style minis they mix well enough with the upgrades.

The two mounted miniatures upgrade one of my earlier units to five miniatures, plus add a mounted warlord for SAGA that'll do nicely until I either buy something fancier or just stop caring this isn't a fancier figure and forget all about it.

Finally, there's four more cracking character Reaper sculpts... two rather flexible ladies (I mean they are limber, NOT from a morals POV!), a wizardy vizier type and his lovely apprentice. The latter two will also do very nicely for Frostgrave which is a nice unexpected bonus.

Points wise...

• 14 x 28mm infantry = 70 points
• 2  x 28mm cavalry = 20 points

Total: 90 points

Next up, yet more Kruleboyz. Thanks for looking!

Artist: Adani & Wolf

Album: The Irresistible Dust on the Floor

Artist: Overcoats

Album: The Fight

Artist: The Mission UK

Album: Carved in Sand

Cheers,

Millsy

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Wonderful work on these black-clad Mutatawwi'a. The little punch of colour really adds the chef's kiss to these guys, especially the shields on the mounted fellas. Your stuff really makes me want to get back to my Siege of Malta project. Inspiring stuff! I also really like your 'local colour' with the Reaper models. The vizier and the red-robed dancer are my personal faves. Well done Mr. Mills!

- Curt & Huck

From GregB - Hospitaller Banner Bearers & Infantry (44 points)

Some 28mm Hospitaller knights - figures from Footsore, sculpted by Paul Hicks.

For my first submission today I have some figures which have been sitting in the queue for over a year...here we have some members of the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem - the Hospitaller Knights. These are 28mm metal castings from Footsore Miniatures, received from a Kickstarter I backed a few years ago. The figures were sculpted by the amazing Paul Hicks, and the flags are from Little Big Man Studios (now available through Victrix). 

Banner man and fellow warrior - I particularly enjoy the Knights who have some mix of cloth in their headgear...really sets the "period" for me. 

The Crusades are a period of history that has fascinated me for years. I love reading about this era of history, and as you might expect this interest has naturally merged with my hobby mania such that I am keen to run games set during the period. So you would think I probably have a well-organized collection for the setting, right? LOL. 

"Prepare to believe!"

My intense interest in the Crusades has often floundered on the kinds of mental rocks that often wreak havoc and limit or stop any useful progress among wargamers. Mostly I have waffled between hoping to play skirmish games like "Saga" and then suddenly wanting to do larger games like "Hail Caesar", and then struggling with how to base the figures...inducing paralysis via analysis and causing me to go paint some more 30k stuff instead :) Over the years I have managed to paint what amounts to a pair of large war bands that would work for "Saga" - not nothing, but hardly great progress.

More awesome poses from Paul Hicks...man I love his stuff...

These Footsore figures were meant to jolt me out of this stasis, but instead have been a prime example of this unfortunate tendency...at first I was using the round bases to paint them - you can see some of the initial figures back in Challenge XIII. Since that time, I have come to my senses and re-based those original figures on more traditional square bases to allow for their deployment in a game like "Warhammer Ancient Battles" or "Hail Caesar". Moving houses last year didn't help with progress on this effort, but in the summer I did get a second bunch of Hospitallers based up and primed and...well, you know how the rest goes...

Love how his hood hangs over his brow...adds to a menacing air...

Another view of the mounted banner man.

But here we are in AHPC XV, and I can make a bit more progress again! These sculpts are just amazing to paint - beautiful, proper metal sculpts created by the talented hand of Paul Hicks...what else could a hobby squirrel want?? The colour palette for these warriors is fairly basic and muted, but still fun to work with. The shields are hand-painted, not my preference, but it didn't turn out too badly. 

For scoring purposes we have six 28mm foot figures and a single mounted 28mm figure, which should account for 40 points. Hopefully some more Crusades-era figures will join this lot on the painted shelves before this edition of the Challenge concludes. 

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One of my favourite periods also Greg, and lovely Hospitallers they are too! If you want to play some smaller scale games with them, check out the rules "Outremer" in the Osprey Blue Book series. Lots of fun, RPGlite skirmish level gaming fun to be had, and you've got all you need already painted in this submission. Take a few bonus points for the banners too :-)

- Paul

From Millsy: 28mm Arab Horsey Boys (160 points)

G'day All,

I'm back for a third time with another lot of 28mm Arabs for my SAGA / Oathmark project. This time it's fourteen cavalry, kitbashed from the Gripping Beast Arab Heavy Cavalry and Fireforge Games Black Guard / Berber Infantry kits.

As mentioned previously the Gripping Beast Arab Heavy Cavalry horses were a real PITA with the neck joints being very poorly aligned. Despite my best efforts to fill and hide the issues I am still unhappy with them. They'll do I guess, if I squint and kinda look at them out of the corner of my eye...

The riders on the other hand, I am very happy with. The banner bearers were all upgraded to give them longer poles and flags made from heavy art paper to match the infantry. I've also swapped all the heads (which required some careful shaving), the arms (which were an easy like-for-like swap) and some of the shields.

I'll need one more to fill out three units of five so will try and pick up a sprue at CANCON on the weekend. The amazing KerryT also sent me a care package of 10 camelry and another 5 cavalry which he'd 3D printed so I hope to have those painted sometime soon as well. 

Scoring:

14 x 28mm cavalry = 140 points

1 x cheeky "money for jam" bonus for the Seventh Circle: Violence = 20 points

Total = 160 points

Artist: Agnes Obel

Album: Citizens of Glass

Artist: The Offspring

Album: Americana

Artist: Massive Attack

Album: Mezzanine

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Millsy

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Hi Millsy

Great musical selections .. I'm particularly keen on  Massive Attack and Mezzanine is classic :)

Well, these 'horsey boys' look super, I really like your customization of the banners and the head/arm swaps. To my (very) untrained eye, the horses themselves look  great.  Can't wait to see all the Arabs in a group shot!

140 points for the figures and 20 for the Location bonus points

Looking forward to your next post

- Sarah

From Millsy: More 28mm Arabs (60 points)

G'day All,

It's been an odd couple of weeks with a lot of stop-start stuff going on. Back to work after a month off meant the backlog was bigger than normal, and then there was commission work to knock off also taking up free time.

That meant I started but didn't finish several things. This was compounded by having real issues with a box of Gripping Beast Arab Heavy Cavalry which were really poorly made. I think the die is getting old and tired as it's the only thing that would explain the amount of flash, misfits and gaps in this kit. I've built several before and never had so much trouble with it.

First world problems aside, today I present...

Reaper Miniatures - Legends of the Sands

The Reaper Miniatures' Legends of the Sands box set is something I bought a looong time ago with this project in mind and its great to finally be getting some paint on the minis. In total there are 12 in the set and I've painted 2/3 of them for this submission.

Leading my force on foot is Sultan Suleimillsy the Ambivalent, who judging by the rather camp nature of the sculpt has more interest in things artistic than militaristic. At least he has nice threads. Stylin!

Each to their own as they say and he has plenty of well oiled muscle to do the rough stuff on his behalf, plus an evil wizard/vizier type for the ad hoc genie summoning and general magical misbehaviour.

Finally, there's a "hashashin" assassin who does the dirty work behind closed doors and stands for the Ninth Circle: Treachery bonus.

Total: 8 x 28mm minis + bonus = 60 points.

Artist: The Presets
Album: Apocalyso

Artist: Lichtmond

Album: The Journey

Artist: Sunlounger

Album: Armada Collected: Roger Shah presents...

Thanks everyone for looking and Sarah for minioning my stuff!

Cheers,

Millsy

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Hi Millsy .. or rather Suliemillsy :)

I am unfamiliar with your musical selections, but I will definitly fall down that rabbit hole tomorrow!

These Arabs are great, the colours super vibrant, especially the purple and that floral pattern has a certain whimsy which is appealing.

I can envision these characters in many game settings, from pulp to historical.

 Using the Hashashin to reach the 9th circle Treachery bonus is a great interpretation. 

Another 60 points to your score, Well done Sir!

Sarah 

From Millsy: 28mm Arab Infantry (341 points)

G'day All!

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope you've been well and had a great break over Christmas!

I've used my break to plough through a fair chunk of a new project - an Arab force for SAGA and Oathmark. These are primarily Fireforge Games Black Guard and Berber Infantry kits, with the ogres by Shieldwolf Miniatures.  For SAGA I'll be fielding them as Mutatawii'a (minus the ogres) and for Oathmark as standard humans plus allies.

From a total of 60 human miniatures I have 2 x 10 man units of archers, 2 x 10 man units of swordsmen and 1 x 20 man unit of spearmen. For SAGA I'll drop a couple of men from each unit and use as warriors, or divide in two for hearth guards. For Oathmark they'll be fielded as is.

The Black Guard look is amazing and I've wanted a force of them for a long time (here's the lust angle). I've tried to keep the colour palette really tight and highlighted them hard to give them a bold look. 

The ogres are resin miniatures are an absolute joy to assemble and paint. Really clean sculpts with loads of weapon options and the price is great to boot. Sheildwolf Miniatures are highly recommended! There's a definite "similar to but legally distinguishable from" Warhammer Ogor Martribes vibe but I'm fine with that.

The nearly 40 shields took nearly 2 hours alone to paint with all the fine lines in multiple layers for a scuffed look. Happy with the outcome but it did try my patience towards the end. I've used Gripping Beast shields for the non spear units here as I'm not a fan of the Fireforge Games round ones.

Still haven't decided on the banners. I'm tempted to leave them blank to reinforce the starkness but they would look neat with some script on them. For now that's a Future Millsy problem.

One of the things that attracted me to the Fireforge Games kit is the bamboo spears. With the large shields it's a really iconic look and I love it.

And finally some glamour shots of the command stands...

Now do the math please Millsy...

60 x 28mm infantry = 300 points

3 x 40mm infantry = 21 points

Dante's Divine Comedy - Second Circle: Lust = 20 points

Total: 341 points

There are camel and horse cavalry coming later in the Challenge along with a pile of characters from Reaper Miniatures amongst others. For now this is a solid chunk of points to kick me off and I can switch to something else for a while. Thanks for looking!

Artist: Portishead

Album: Dummy, Roseland NYC Live

Artist: Schiller

Album: Illuminate

Artist: Faithless

Album: Forever Faithless (Greatest Hits)

Artist: Thievery Corporation

Album: Saudade

Cheers,

Millsy

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Hello Millsy!

Great musical selections. I think I'll listen to some Thievery Corp too!

Wow, thats quite the variety of minis .. and awesome work on the shields ... I'm sure such detail was frustrating but worth the results. I like the pops of colour .. turquoise, purples, blues and reds on the infantry - really effective!

341points for you!

- Sarah

From GregB - Hospitaller Knights for Barons War: Outremer (81 points)

Figures for "Barons War: Outremer" - 28mm castings sculpted by the incredible Paul Hicks.

Once again, the brushes turn away from the 30th millenium and on to some historical subjects for today's second submission. Here we have a group of Knights from the Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem - the Hospitallers. They are accompanied by a priest and a Turcopole scout. These 28mm metal figures were sculpted by the incredible and prolific Paul Hicks, and were released via the "Barons War: Outremer" Kickstarter run by Hicks and Andy Hobday.

Mounted Hospitaller Master, accompanied by two Knights.

I wish I ordered more mounted figures. Or, just, more of everything, from this Kickstarter.

For 98.8% of hobby participants, the arrival of figures from a Kickstarter is hardly remarkable. However, my close friends will surely laugh, having endured endless rants over many years about how much I hate Kickstarter. With this in mind, let us imagine this group of figures represents a patrol on the highway to Damascus, escorting a Priest on his way to oversee a conversion...

Another amazing sculpt. A veteran commander - wise, and dangerous...

The prospect of acquiring figures for the Crusades sculpted by Paul Hicks was enough make my concerns over Kickstarter participation evaporate faster than Tony Blair's ethics around a 20 pound note. While the process certainly took a while, I can report that Andy and Paul ran a solid process. I did start to wonder a little bit as time went on whether the figures would ever arrive, but Paul and Andy kept in touch with the backers, and delivered 100% in the end. I also have to thank Byron for entertaining my multiple stupid questions regarding the general Kickstarter process throughout.

A look at some of the foot knights...great sculpting!!

When the box arrived, I handled it with my usual 10-year-old-on-Christmas-morning approach and was soon bothering Curt, Dallas, Byron and Jamie with pictures of this latest batch of toys. While my views of Kickstarter remain largely unchanged, the fact is that my only regret is that I did not order more stuff - or score one of the models of the Hospital in Jerusalem that were available to early backers! I invite all here to point, laugh, and take the piss at your leisure in the comments below.

You would need faith to fight in the heat wearing this get-up!

The sculpting of the figures is just...awesome. I love Paul Hicks' work, and wow did he deliver here! I thought I would start simple, working on some of the Hospitallers first, before moving on to the Saracen figures later on. I paused a little while to consider how I would base these, but in the end opted for the round bases for the foot models and pill-shaped bases for the cavalry. They came with the figures anyway, after all, and I have been inspired to at least give Andy Hobday's "Barons War" rules a shot using these figures, and those rules seem to work better with these bases.

Armed to the teeth and ready for battle in the Holy Land.

Painting was a lot of fun - sure, black is tricky, but the fact is that these figures are just SO nice, they are a joy to paint. Fortunately the symbols of the Hospitallers is pretty straightforward (although that did not always translate into "straight lines" on the shields...oh well) so all of the shields could be hand-painted with minimal trouble. 

Priest and Turcopole guide.

Tried to be a bit fancier with his shield.

The priest and turcopole guide offered a chance to use some different colours, and it was fun to have a go at a fancier design for the shield the guide has strapped to his back. That said, the search will be on for decals that work on the shields of the Saracen warriors to come...

Onward along the road to Damascus...

So we have a total of 10 foot figures and three mounted figures, all 28mm size. This should be good for 80 points - which, in turn, should put me past my target of 800 points - yay! Happy Saturday everyone, and I hope you are all excited for the manic final run of AHPC XIII. 

Say, it seems Paul Hicks has another Kickstarter brewing...hmmm...

Those are some really nice minis, I regret not backing that Kickstarter, I will have to look at that link you posted. You've done a great job getting these fine pilgrims ready for their journey. I have thrown in a bonus point for the hand painted shields. Well done on hitting your target.