From Kerry T - Not little Gingerbread men and a bunch of guys all called Norman (420 points)

Morning, afternoon and evening all

With apologies to Miles Millsy! [Whilst Miles is a decent enough chap his Aussie "accent" is truly horrible] for my late post I have once again reminded myself that I have not learned from last year's challenge - again I've left it until the last minute to finish an entry, thinking I had sufficient time to complete this a few days ago only to re-discover that the finishing touches take much more time than I normally allocate. Maybe next week I'll bite off less and finish an entry in good time.

This is my second entry  so I've tried to keep it simple (my minion after all is an Aussie so I better had 😁- couldn't resist - wonder how many points he'll knock off for that😟!)

Below the belt eh? Yep and so are these...

Dwarves - Dwarf slayers from Avatars of War to be precise

See yoo Jimmy, you may be made of metal and GW but I'm bigger than yooo

The Dwarf Slayer Regiment

I rediscovered my old GW Dwarves last year and have been rebasing and tidying them up and decided I needed some more slayers and because of the unavailability or prohibitive costs of the old GW sculpts from the 90s looked around for an acceptable and affordable additions. These came in the shape of this Avatars of War plastic regiment which I think are quite affordable at 35Euros for 20 figures (for some reason mine were 4 short but with their GW cousins this will give me a regiment of 24 figures

second from left figure shows some "one upmanship"!

A reasonable match, the middle figure is from GW 

These 16 dwarves make up my Fantasy entry for the library

Next up some unimaginatively named blokes called Norman

These are my new acquisition entry, having  been purchased only recent from Victrix

Plastic Norman Crossbowmen

 

There are 36 figures in the box, 18 armoured and 18 unarmoured giving a reasonable variety of poses that are quick and easy to paint - just as well as you can'y have too many Cross Normans

As usual I can't make up my mind about basing

12 are based singly in case I want to play a skirmish game

Finally the reason the post was late- as usual the cavalry arrive just in the nick of time...

Victrix plastic Norman Cavalry - a pack of 12 figures in a mix of mail and scale armour

Shields from LBSM

These are lovely figures to paint, the horses especially, my only concern is the passible brittle nature of the plastic lances, I broke two while painting. I've held off giving them a standard in case I end up replacing the spears with wire ones.

In Summary

16 x 28mm Dwarf figures @5 points = 80 points

36 x 28mm Norman Crossbowmen @5points = 180 points

12 x 28mm Cavalry figures @ 10 points =120

Fantasy bonus @ 20 points

New Acquisition bonus @ 20 points

Total 420 points

2 squirrels

From Millsy: Sneaking in at the last moment Kerry! Given you must have needed a week to photograph this lot I'll forgive you this time :-P

The Slayers are brilliant and I'd bet on them vs. a bunch of Normans any day, even ones painted as well as these. I think (speaking from experience) that you'll find the lances more robust than you think. I've bounced more than my share of plastic cavalry across the room with little in the way of damage.

This lot bumps you up to second place at least for the time being. Well done!

From AdamC Hurin Book and Dark Age Irish 110 points (1 Squirre)

 So this is very one is very much an interpretation on my part.  I for my book entry I am using the Simarilion and Children of Hurin because I am that sort of Nerd.   

Hurin Thalion (the steadfast or strong) possibly the greatest and most tragic of Tolkien's legendarium.   I used a Wargame's Atlantic Irish figure here.  He has the high crowed helm Tolkien seems to like.  the figue has no armor but we can imagin that tunic is actually a sure coat hiding mail. 

He wields an axe because that is the weapon he used at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the battle of unnumbered tears.  Hurin and his bother Huor an the men of Dor-Lomin formed a rear guard in the Fen of Serech where as the last man alive he discarded his shield and cried: Aurë entuluva! (Day will come agai) as he slew until draged down by overwhelming numbers (after killing at least 70 foes). Things when rapidly down hill from there for our hero as he watched Morgoth play merry hell with his children and allies.

I decided to do the cloak in dark green but the tunic in a yellow. Most depictions of Hurin seem to favor dark colors (black) but I liked the idea of him in bright colors (a light in darkness as it were) and I couldn't find anything to contradict this idea (someone will now do so I have no doubt 😂)

Next up five Irish warriors from the same set.  4 of them represent up class warriors though perhaps not the top echelon.

The fellow in the center is clearly of a lower order with his small shield and dagger back up weapon.

I'm pleased with the skin tones I got here. Presumably these fellows are going without shirts (or armor) to show off they're fine additions to my dark age Irish warband.

In Saga Wolfhounds are the icon unit for Irish warbands. I have some already but it's nice to add some more since they came in the box.

There are ten dogs in all plus the handler. With a javelin. 

The dogs fur and the handler's skin came out well a point of improvement in my painting (if I may say so)

Points Hurin is a 25 mm figure so 5 points plus another 20 as my book entry.

The Irish are all 25mm figures 10 dogs and 6 men for 80 points assuming the dogs get full points. The Irish should also net me another Squirrel point 

So another 105 points in total. Hopefully I will have an age of sail entry for next week. 

A fine collection of warriors of myth and history Adam.  I recognize those GB Irish warriors as I have a few in my army, although I've yet to paint any hounds.  Nice work on shields and yes the time taken painting these shows.   I am bumping your score up by a few points in recognition.

From BenitoV: Guards Units for a Saga Warband (40 points)

Failed my Tuesday rendez-vous at the Painting Challenge last week due to a spike in my workload, but I'm back on the fray again. This week I bring 8 heavily armoured Dark Age warriors equivalent to two  Guards units of 4-men of a standard Saga Warband order of battle.

 

As you may see the models today are multi-army (or multi warband), generic enough to fill the ranks of any warband that extends between the Late Roman Empire years to  the end of the first millenium. Therefore they'll suit anything termed "Anglo" and/or "Saxon", even Vikings, Danish, Bretons... you choose.

 

 

With these units, I have already completed a typical 4-5 points infantry-based Saga warband made of Levies (usually archers), Warriors (lightly armored), now the Guards, led by the Warband Lord, but all on foot.

 

 

As with the rest of the painted Warband, the models are from the Gripping Beast's plastic range in 28mm, in this case the Saxon Thegns box featuring 44 multipose models with endless combinations of weapons (axes, swords, javelins) and heads. For the shields I used  Little Big Men Studios transfers.

 

With this submission I add 40 points ( 8 x 28mm models @5 points each) to my Challenge scoring. Next in line I'd like to explore some of the Blue Pass Studios, but this will mean distracting for a time of the Saga projects. 

If I have the time, I'll combine these extra submissions with some Dark Age cavalry units, needed to build many of the warbands on the Invasions period (Goths, Franks, Visigoths, etc).

It's definitely a good idea to do the basic troops as generic as possible so that they can be used for multiple warbands. These guards look great, Benito!

Tamsin

From BenitoV: Dark Age Warband... and back to the 80's (67 points)

Two new set of entries this week. Firstly, a new unit of warriors suitable for almost any Saga warband of the Dark Age period. 

This project started as an Anglo-Danish warband for a campaign we played just before Christmas; but frankly speaking, these models can fit nicely in any other warband of the same period, Vikings, Saxon, whatever.

The models are from the Gripping Beast plastic Dark Age Warriors range, in this case just straight from the box, no conversions. The same models were used last week for my Late Roman army levies unit. The shields are transfers from Little Big Men Studio.

For my second entry, I walked my way to the past and visited the 80's studio, using for this purpose a model I found in the deepest layer of my lead pile.

 

Saruman and a glittering ball, not for the NY Studio 54 but for Middle Earth's Isengard. The Palantir was the predecessor of the mobile phone, alas heavier and with less mobility from what I saw in The Two Towers film.  The scene represents Saruman in the act of conjuring Sauron and I'm quite happy with the painting work of the eye in the Palantir (in this case, very much inspired in the Peter Jackson's films).

 

 

The model belongs to the older Middle Earth/Mithril range of models (produced when Peter Jackson was a very young man) and I found it at home packed in the original blister, after close to 40 years since buying it. I collected the whole Fellowship of the Ring at that time to be used with the LoTR RPG game; unfortunately the project never took off, as my gaming group's interests shifted to Warhammer Fantasy Battles.

I estimate 67 points for this entry, including  a couple of points (?) for the Palantir:

8 x 28mm warband models @5 points = 40 points

1 x 28mm Saruman @ 5 points  + 2 points for the Palantir = 7

Bonus 1980s Studio = 20 points

Subtotal = 67 points  

Nice generic dark age warriors and that's a great old school Saruman! With four Green zone studios under your belt, will you now be moving into the Blue zone? Straight to Superheroes or will you hop along the yellow-brick road or take a limo ride?

Tamsin

From PeterD Built Like A Hick Brit's House (20 points)

 

A terrain post for me in the form of three British Roundhouses.  This is a set of three houses sold by Sarissa as Irish houses but would work for many Celtic and similar Northern Europeans in the Ancient and Early medieval period.  They will also fit well in a TTG in my Beowulf DnD Campaign. 

The larger decogonal house.

One of the smaller octagonal houses.  I didn't paint the interiors except to blacken the floor her the door.

With the roofs removed, keen eyes will see that the houses are in fact not round but actually polygonal.  The two small ones are Octagonal and the larger Chief's house is a decagon.  Sarissa may have found that the regular polygons were easier to design and construct or they may have been attempting to estimate Pi by the Ancient technique of inscribing polygonal within a circle.

I had a hard time photographing these buildings and they look much less crappy in person.  I do need to give the roofs a trim obviously

As with all Sarissa kits, they went together easily and painted up nicely.  I added a bit of groundwork, Faux Fur thatching (narrowly avoiding having my wife add googly eyes to the unpainted fur) and smoke.  

According to the formula in text I am using for my MATH110 class they take up about a single terrain cube.  Math is as follows

I painted them in a variety of colours based on the photos from the Butser Hill Experimental Farm.  I have actually been to Butser Hill but it was long enough ago that it was showing off current technology.  I varried the terrascaping a bit for each house.  I figured that the head man's larger hut might be better tended and without weeds around it.

I realize that the attempted play on words may be lost on those who are not survivors of the 1970s.  However, in 1970s teenage lad speak the term "built like a brick sh*t house" was used to describe the figure of a young lady whose curves you admired.  Doesn't make much sense but neither do teenage lads or the 1970s for that matter.  The term hit its Cultural Zenith in giving the Commodores the inspiration for this classic bit of over top top 70s funk (note Lionel Ritchie sporting the Fro and blowing Sax in the horn line).  This video may give rise to many questions (particularly after the 3:00 mark), for which the universal answer is that it was 1978.

Link here in case Blogger doesn't like my insert.

No side duels or Theme Bonus on this, just 20 points straight up.

From TeemuL: Some fine houses here, Peter. I guess they are suitable for different battlefields. May be even something for those Lanciarii? Since I don't know the measurements of those buildings, I'm going to blindly approve your math, the results sounds about right, so I'll take it. "Build like a brick sh*t house" doesn't ring a bell, I was born 1978, so it might explain. I'm glad you explained it, since in my first Minion email I made it very clear, that when you native English speakers start to talk about "taking a butcher's knive" and "big girl's blouse", I'll be lost and confused. That bullet was dodged, thank you very much. :)

From BenitoV: Moor Archers Levy (25 points)

My parting opening shot for this year's Challenge is a first group of Moor archers for a 4-points Saga warband that I'm about to complete now. The unit can be used either as part of an Iberian Peninsula Reconquista game (either in a taifa kingdom army or as a mercenary contingent in a Christian warband) or in a wider Arab invasion campaign.

Since the end of the summer, I have been mainly playing Saga games. Not exactly the most "historical" set of rules, but easy, fast, bloody and perfect for a Sunday morning game at the club. I wrote a few days ago a post in my blog explaining in detail the pros and cons of Saga if you are interested. 

These are 28 mm plastic models produced by Gripping Beast, owner of the Saga franchise. Here I have combined parts from two different sets: the Dark Age Archers and the Arab Spearmen and Archers boxes to get a wider variety of poses and models.

The Gripping Beast plastic boxes are one of the best value for money offering currently in the market if you are in the late Roman Empire to the El Cid/Normans period. Good level of sculpting and 30 to 40 multipart and multipose models in the infantry boxes and 12 models for horse mounted boxes for a price below €30. 

Parts are also interchangeable between boxes; this combined with lack of uniformity in the period, means that you have an almost infinite variation potential for your armies with 3 or 4 boxes. 

 

Scoring: 5 x 28mm model @5 points each = 25 points.

I also score 1 point in the Squirrel Duel Challenge.

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Lovely work Benito. Your efforts here offer a great testimony to Gripping Beasts plastic sets. I love the variation of both the poses and clothing on these fellows. Great brushwork! I'm definitely going to check out your blogpost as I've a real soft spot for SAGA, and I'm thinking our group should bring it out again for a revisit.

Welcome back to the Challenge!

- Curt

From KerryT : "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he is worthy, shall possess the power of Thor!"- (85 points and 1 squirrel)

 Morning. afternoon & evening all

You know when you start painting an army you are meant to start with the basic troops, paint them up and then move on to the Guard or elite  and then commanders etc, well sometimes its more fun to do it the other way round.

Having said that my original and unrealistic intention  had been to present a whole viking force of about 60 figures in P is for Pagan, my 11th entry

These are Vikings from a Footsore Miniatures army that I bought about 18 months ago. However I'm afraid to say that the Bondi are still at the beach (see what I did there!- at least you Aussies will get it!) and the Hearthguard are still warming around the fire. (OK I'll get my coat). Short of catching Covid, and having some time away from work for a week, and also being well enough to paint then there was no way this was going to happen. Hence I've made a start on the top end troops

Look Dolly, Baaaaaa'd men are coming.....

Pieces of eight, pieces of eight......oops sorry wrong period

This is the Footsore Model of Odin, the Allfather, I must say the picture of him on the website up to his knees in snow is sublime.

What is nice in this range are the Valkyrie and Shield Maidens, too often female warriors are depicted in figures sculpted somewhat err.... disproportionately - not this time, these are slim and slender easy to tell apart from their male counterparts

No, they're not running away, they're just going to put the kettle on...

In a way its a shame there are only 6 figures, I must get a Lagertha from somewhere

Talking of Lagertha...

Ragnar Lodbrook flanked by Harald Hadrada and....

 Arnvid Ale Sinker (with his axe glued on the wrong way)

Honestly it would never have looked like that in the Sagas!

The Berserkers like the ladies are depicted with their clothes on - this is another nice set

Rolf the Jolly

Gunnolf Wofban

Sigurd of the Bridge

Magnus Grimface - "its only a fleshwound"

Alas poor Yoric I knew him well......

Warlord and Standard Bearer

And finally, what could be more Pagan than a Viking Shaman

Gudbrand Soultaker

Well that leaves me with just one P left to Finish next week - when P will be for Posh

That leaves me with 17 figures at 5 points and 1 Squirrel I think

Oh an addit - Shield transfers by LBMS

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Kerry, you had me at Lagertha...

Lovely work, my man! What a wonderful assortment of hard-bitten Vikings. I especially like Sigurd of the Bridge, the Shaman and of course, Odin. I also appreciate seeing them in a nicely terrained setting. Wonderful stuff!

- Curt