From JezT - Final Sign Off - Renaissance Townsfolk - 28mm (10 points)

 Dear All 

Cant believe where the time went on this Challenge! I lost focus in the last month and spent quite a bit of time on a re-basing project. Still one upshot was that found some great character figures on the Warbases site - I didn't know they did some figures as well.

Best keep up-wind of the Plague Doctor

I think the figures are very good value in the pack and still got a couple of others to paint up! I wanted to give a more Renaissance rather than Medieval look and really like the Plague Doctor figure. 

Just a measly 10 points BUT pushes me over the 200 mark! 

Thanks to everyone - was another brilliant Challenge and saw lots to inspire me. Special thanks to Curt and also Teemu for looking after everyone in the Thursday group. Now will be able to use my newly painted Silver Bayonet figures out and got a couple more options to play in my Basic Impetus army options. 

All the best, Jez.

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I agree Jez, that plague doctor is an ace model and your brushwork does him great justice. I didn't realize that Warbases had these kinds of figures so I'm going to have to check them out.

Congratulations on hitting your target this year Jez, and thank you for joining in again for this bit of hobby madness. Until next year!

- Curt

From JezT: Mixed Crossbow - 28mm (35 points)

Hi All 

Small post from me resulting from a "stock check" of my Crossbow figures. I usually play Basic Impetus Bolt Action but for some armies I have based using sabot bases so I can play smaller skirmish games such as Saga using the figures individually. For my Late Crusader army and Normans I was cross mixing using the same figures - I could get away with it although the bases were different. 

Anyway now solved this problem! Firstly found a few old Gripping Beast figures which I painted up for the Late Crusaders - 

Painted to represent City of Jerusalem

Painted as Knights Hospitallers

Next is a pack of Footsore Crossbow painted up to use in the Norman army. These Footsore have a bit more dynamic poses and will match in as I have the Footsore Norman archers and spearmen. 

One was promoted to a Spearman - or is that demoted?

So just a simple 7 foot figures for 35 points this week. 

Cheers Jez

TeemuL: Simple 35 points, but very good brushwork and nice to hear your plans to use these models in your various games. I love the light blue colours on the first one.

From JezT: Arthurian Mixed Bag - 28mm (53 points)

Dear All 

Happy Thursday all and late post this morning UK time so hope came be posted today. 

Last Challenge painted some Arthurian infantry on round sabot bases and the idea was to mix these with my Saxon Levy spearmen and make a new Arthurian Post Romano-British option. For the cavalry my idea was always to use my existing Goth cavalry bases. However when I set up the army the two parts did not gel and lacked impact. Basically I was missing the signature "White Chi-Rho" shields carried through on the cavalry. 

My solution has been to touch up the Goth cavalry shields with a more general white and red design and select some for sabot basing, to this I would add in some purely Arthurian characters. 

The one newly painted figure being presented is this Arthurian standard bearer painted using some unused Foundry left-overs I had. 

I am adding a few pictures just to show how he fits on the sabot base as part of the unit. I had to have an Arthur so just painted up the shield on an existing Goth captain, 

Also I realised if I followed the same idea I could "convert" my Welsh Dark Ages army into a Pict army as opponents for the Arthurian army - my brother will eventually finish off his Early Saxon army for the classic battle match up. 

So these are the new Pict character figures painted up - again these will fit on sabot bases for the Basic Impetus units. 

These are new Figures from Footsore the light cavalry part of the Welsh range:

Finally a couple of odd foot that painted up and gave square shields to give some Pict character.

Altogether is 3 x cavalry and 4 x foot 28mm so should be a simple 50 points for me and looking forward to trying these out in a game shortly. 

All the best Jez

TeemuL: Fine additions to your projects, Jez! And don't worry, as you can see, your post is in good hands. There were 2 entries ready yesterday, couple of more came during the night, so this is a quiet day (for a Thursday). I'll give you couple of bonus points for the handpainted shields and banners.

From JezT: Silver Bayonet Part 2 - Assorted 28mm (22 points)

Dear All, 

Its a Thursday so must be time for some more snow bases and Silver Bayonet figures? This is my second batch and just four figures for 20 points. Pleased with these as they mean I can now field a squad and hopefully shortly play my first game. All were painted with Games Workshop paints. 

The basing style came about by chance when I was doing Part 1 as I started using some clear bases and initially just placed some snow basing on the metal part of the figure; I liked the way it looked as the terrain sheet will show through the base on the table and I am only planning to use these as individual skirmish figures. 

In more detail - first up we have the squad leader. The leader is Marshall Ney from Giants in Miniature to which I made a few conversions. I beefed up the musket as the original was a bit skimpy, I especially wanted a cartridge box and added this and a backpack. Originally I tried to sculpt a cartridge belt with Milliput, but the result was a bit clunky, so I pragmatically decided to paint it as a blanket role.   

As I am using a French squad option I really wanted to include a Vivandiere. I am not sure of the maker origin of the female figure and don't think it was a Napoleonic figure; I added in the wine bottle as her sustenance for the squad (not sure if that will go very far). 

The next two are North Star figures and painted them to fit in with the French squad. I like the sculpting of both of these and the male figure can take on a variety of squad roles - Junior Officer, Veteran Hunter and so on. 

So four figures and just a simple 20 points for me.

Cheers Jez

TeemuL: You are absolutely right, snow bases, Silver Bayonet and Napoleonics are exactly what the world is expecting from Thursdays and that is exactly what Thursdays are delivering! Nice addition to your squad and good luck with your games. Interesting to hear your story about the discovery of the basing style, sometimes accidents are great innovations. As it seems to be a tradition of today, I'll give you two bonus points for conversion work and telling the story of the bases. :)

From JezT: The Silver Bayonet Skirmish Characters Part 1 - 28mm (60 points)

Dear All 

A new project this challenge is to paint up some skirmish figures for "The Silver Bayonet". You may have already seen some of my brother Matt's Silver Bayonet Zombie figure posts and we are basing the game in the Russian 1812 Winter campaign - I am taking on the French faction. 

Not sure what it is with the Thursday crew and more snow based figures - must be having TeemuL as our minion.  

Anyway here are the first 4 French characters. These are from the Perry Retreat from Moscow Cavalry pack. 

Love the Dragoon with the Musket and converted the Polish figure to have a musket rather than carbine

Next up are some Revenants from North Star.

I also have some North Star individual figures - very handy as I especially want figures in winter uniforms. Am French so must have a Guard character option. 

Two against One isn't fair ...

Finally got the North Star pack of Hounds. 

Altogether 12 figures for 60 points - fingers crossed will be Part 2 coming up with my Officer character. 

Cheers Jez 

TeemuL: Excellent Jez, something new! :) Well, good old Retreat from Russia and snow bases, but from different contributor. I'm glad to have any changes. You have an interesting take to bases, clear bases, but still some basing material glued on. It might be the best of both worlds, clear base area, but it is not that visible. Great idea! In general I like your brushwork and the bases look very real. Good luck with your brotherly project! That starts to sound quite familiar, two particants working on a same project, where I have heard that before...

From JezT: 25 mm Footsore Dark Age Archers and Crusader (25 points)

Hi all 

Jez here and great to be participating again in this years challenge and part of the Thursday crew!

I remember my first ever post to the Challenge a few years ago now was some Goth archers and this first post for this year is again some archers. These are part of the Footsore Welsh range and are very dynamic, I already had some javelin men and wanted to match in the archers. I will use them in several generic Dark Age armies for my preferred Basic Impetus army games using sabot basing. This gives me the option to also use them in skirmish games.

I haven't painted much since the last Challenge so this was a nice group to get back into the flow with. 

Next I also completed another Footsore medieval Bishop Knight character that I painted up as a Teutonic Crusader. This was an odd figure left over from a past project but especially wanted to finish so I have a mounted and unmounted combination.

The mounted figure is from Gripping Beast and aimed to copy uniform

So in all just 5 foot figures to start - 25 points. 

All the best Jez

From TeemuL: Feeling a bit nostalgic, Jez? :) And why not, Challenge is a great way to look back, do some retrospective work and find inspiration for painting and modelling. I have always liked your colour choices, and here again they are very natural and fitting. Let's see what you shall paint next.

From JezT - Lady Sarah's Cart and "Odd's and Sod's" (75 points)

Hi All 

Thanks to everyone for another great challenge. With this post counted I will have made a personal best and made over 600 points for the first time. I have enjoyed being part of the Library Challenge and have one final post for this. 

So far I completed 4 rooms in the entrance block, then used Lady Sarah's cart to enter the back room and completed two rooms there - to finish will drop by the Cafe and Gift Shop with a final Lady Sarah's cart to move from the Biography room to the Gift Shop. 

This entry adds to my Edwardian figures from Ironclad Miniatures - the armed flower seller!

Next have some "odds and sods" that nicely finishes some of the projects I did this challenge. I started with some Gripping Beast Arthurian figures but as I changed my mind on the basing style after purchase had an odd pack unpainted. Glad to get these painted up ....

Four new figures ....

On impetus bases with earlier figures behind ..

Also finished off the Gripping Beast pack of disorder marker wounded figures with two models painted but will count as just 5 points.

New figures in front with earlier posted behind ..

Next switching to Footsore Miniatures and have a pack of 3 Priests painted up. Here painted one for my Crusader army with desert basing and the other two for my Dark age Anglo Saxon / Welsh armies. 

And a final two more character figures from Footsore as Dark Age archers - will most likely use these in the Later Welsh army.

Points wise should be 75 in total. 25 for Lady Sarah figure and bonus, 25 for the 5 Gripping Beast and 25 for the 5 Footsore Miniatures. 

Great being part of the Challenge again - take care everyone, until next year!

Cheers Jez

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Fabulous work on this wide selection of minis, Jez! It was great to have you with us again for this year's Challenge and I'm delighted to hear that this was a personal best for output - Bravo! Of this assortment, I have to say my favourite is the Edwardian flower seller. Not a lass you want to shortchange for a rose. Formidable!

Thanks again and hopefully we'll catch up next winter!

- Curt

JezT - Dark Age Footsore Miniatures Welsh - 28mm (90 points)

Hi All 

I wonder how many challengers have ended up painting some figures from a range and been so impressed they expanded to create a new army! This is the situation I faced and really pleased to do this post and showcase some Footsore miniatures figures that allow me to field a new Welsh army option playing my preferred Basic Impetus games. 

These are the skirmish javelin figures pack that started it all off - I really liked these and immediately decided to paint them up as generic type skirmishers that I could use in Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Dane and Norman, well for any army really. 

Very action packed poses .....

I know these figures have already featured in a few posts already this challenge. I like these so much I started to think about a Welsh army but was initially put off as I did not want to paint so many basic light spearmen needed. However could not resist buying more and decided if I blend some Welsh characters in with my existing Saxon Fyrd Levy figures I would get the overall look and allow me to play an interesting Norman v Welsh battle.  

I ended up buying some Welsh Knifemen, and made some small conversions to change to javelin, spear and bow armed ....

Next a pack of Picts but thought would work well as Welsh ...

Showing how look on Impetus style bases - foot light spear and skirmish base

Also wanted a new Welsh mounted Commander .. these come in pack of two mounted.

One painted as Norman (loud booing)

Finally added in some spiritual help - this is one of the Footsore Anglo Saxon range character figures that thought would fit in well.

I can use the Priest to add into a spear block or use in a command base. There are two new disorder counter "dead" models as well (these are from Gripping Beast and counting as one figure 5 points).

 

Points wise that is 3 packs of 4 foot figures for 60 points, plus a pack of 2 Mounted for 20 points, and then the Character Priest - 5 points and disorder markers - 5 points so total of 90.

Looking forward to getting these into action shortly ..........

Cheers Jez 

Congrats Jez! I think you have been upgraded in your hobby status by starting a new army off of a great feeling from painting a model! Great work all around here, and hoping that the Priest can help conjure some good foes for you to tackle with this growing Welsh army!

90 pts for you
Kyle