From JohnS - Coming down the final staright, It's Cataphracts Followed by Horse Archers! - 80 points

Scraping in under the wire I have more Late Romans : A Base of Cataphracts (to complete a unit) and 4 bases of Horse Archers

The left figure is Victrix and the right Gripping Beast.

Both miniatures have good detail, the Victrix a bit finer

I enjoyed painting both miniatures and I like the contrast between the two.

Once again the Horse Archers are a mix of Victrix and Gripping Beast.

The more dynamic Victrix were a bit easier to paint (the horses are beautiful)

These guys have gone straight from the last Paint and Chat of this Challenge onto the photography table, hence the wet varnish!

28mm Mounted figures x 8 @ 10 pts = 80 points total to finish.

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Terrific work John! These cataphracts are very impressive and very neatly done, while the horse archers are dynamic and obviously ready to cause no end of headaches for your opponent on the tabletop. Well done!

- Curt

 

From Millsy: Last of the Late Romans - pic heavy (300 points)

G'day All,

Here we are, last stop of the Late Roman line for the year. At times I wasn't sure I'd make it to completion, but things have worked out and I have to say I am overall pretty satisfied with the army as a whole.

Last to be shared are some commanders, the bulk of my cavalry and a manuballista. 27 x cavalry, 4 x infantry and 1 x artillery piece for a total of 300 points. And the money shots...

General and Heroes

These are mix of Gripping Beast spare plastics and some metals (from I cannot remember where). I'm not that fussed with the metals as sculpts to be honest, the horses are more like ponies and they lack the crispness of plastics, but they do paint up well enough and don't look like everything else so all good in the end.

Equites

Two bases of Equites (medium cavalry). All Gripping Beast plastics and Little Big Men shield decals. Probably the most enjoyable of the cavalry to paint and they look the business. I may have to add a couple more stands down the track for larger battles but not without more legionaries first.

Equites Sagittarii and Equites Illyricani

Two bases each of  Equites Sagittarii (light cavalry with javelins) and Equites Illyricani (light horse archers). All Gripping Beast plastics once again. Despite being the same number of miniatures as the medium cavalry they took almost half as long again to paint. I loaded them up with bits and the lack of mail to hide the tunic patterns made for more work too. You might be able to see I ignored the sculpted tunic pattern (which was right pain to paint) and matched them to my infantry instead. I think it works, at least from gaming distance.

Ballistarii

One little Ballistarii (manuballista) which in truth I will likely never field but I bought it so it got painted. I added a couple of spare infantry to fill out the base and get rid of them basically. The manuballista is from Warlord Games and the odds and sods more Gripping Beast.

The Army

And here's everything in one set of pics. They're getting a run out in a week or so and I am keen to see how they perform. AlanD is a tough opponent and they'll likely get a hiding but it'll be great fun whatever the result.

Wrapping up...

Thanks Curt and Sarah for hosting the mayhem once again, my fellow minions for sharing the load and the laughs and my wonderful collection of Antipodean lunatics charges. At times I wish you were less prolific but then I remember we don't do anything by halves down here and paining little men is no different.

Lastly, my donation for the year went to the family of a vet who died suddenly from an undiagnosed condition. Never met the guy, nor his family but that's not the point. Along with a pile of other donations his son will have his college tuition funded so hopefully he'll make a positive difference in the world.

All the best everyone. Til next year, stay safe and may you always roll sixes!

Cheers,
Millsy

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Wow Millsy, my eyes are still lingering on those last few photos of the completed force. That is just amazing!! It all looks so good, man. Well done. These new additions are superb, especially those equites. I hope you and Alan have a terrific time when you roll these guys out.

That donation sounds very worthwhile and immediate. Well chosen, mate. 

Finally, thank you for all your help minioning the Friday crew and with the theme rounds. It was really appreciated. Have a good one!

- Curt

IainW 28mm - Late Roman shieldwall unit (50 points)

 Last Late Roman shieldwall unit, like the other units second hand black tree design figures, nice to paint, although being second hand I now realise upon painting them that there are a couple of later dark age types with longer hair, no belt and a slightly different dress, but with the same shield, spangleheim helmet, mail and spear I think theyll do, no doubt Goths press ganged . Speaking of the hand painted shield, I only realised it was a cavalry design after Id painted it,whoops!

Like the other infantry units,all individualy mounted on 1p pieces and sabot based in a warbases 120mm mdf base, still got to finish an archer unit then this little army is complete.

10  x 5 gives me 50 points

Last post, I'd like to thank Greg , Curt and all the team, its been great fun as always and I forgot to mention the charity I contributed to in December is for Refugees which are no doubt even busier in the eastern Mediterranean now.

All the best 

Iain

From Millsy:

Good to see another Late Roman post in this Challenge. Seeing your work and that of others like JohnS has kept the fire alive for my own efforts, so thanks for that.

You've done a smashing job on these, particularly the lorica sclamata which I have a hankering to add some of myself. I'm tempted by the BTD stuff and might dip my toe in there. If they come out as well as yours have it'll be worth the effort.

50 more points racked up. Great choice of charity too BTW. Nice one mate.

Cheers,
Millsy

From JohnS - Late Roman Equites Honoriani iuniores Cavalry (40 pts)

These chaps have been cantering around on my painting table for a couple of weeks, time to get them across the line. 

To be used as Equites Alares in To The Strongest, they are carrying shields indicating they are members of  Equites Honoriani iuniores, as described in the Notitia Dignitatum. (I just like the design)

The miniatures are from Victrix and were easy to build, following the instruction sheet (what madness). They were a pleasure to paint with lots of fine raised detail.

 

 

I like the fact that the cavalrymen are all wearing different armour. Too many wargames armies look like they were supplied by a modern supply chain, everyone in the same gear, made in a giant factory.

 

I hope to get a few more cavalry on the scorecard by tomorrow night. This little lot -

28mm Cavalry x 4 @ 10 pts = 40 points

From Millsy:

The internet is an amazing place. Five minutes ago you mentioned there's a lot of us doing Late Romans, John, and at the time I was working on my own ones. Now I am minioning yours while we talk.

These are brilliant. I particularly like the horse tack which is much nicer than the ones I've been working on and there's more variation in armour too. Looking forward to seeing them in the flesh at some point.

40 more points added to your tally mate. Nice work.

Cheers,
Millsy

From JohnS - Late Romans and Late Halflings (140 points)

 Life continues throwing curveballs but I managed to get some Late Roman Cavalry finished.

 These are Gripping [Beast? Minion Dallas] Late Roman Cavalry. The sculpting is a little stiff but they do the job.  

I decided to give them a variety of shield designs, just for the cool factor.

They are based as 2 (of 3) elements of a To The Strongest unit, with the Hero on the oval base.

What you probably don't want to know is that I dropped the middle of these three elements just after this photo and snapped the lance and popped off the shield...

I have also been working my way through Mantic's Halfling Muster Battlegroup.

These are LARGE halflings, taller than GW dwarfs!

They have a cool "early 19th century English villagers" vibe to them.

They look like the local squire has called out the muster and they have answered.

Armed with their fowling pieces, they are ready to repel the louts disturbing their idyll.

The melee troops are armed with mallets, ready to tenderize.

As soon as I saw these figures I was reminded of a bronze faced maul my coachbuilder grandfather had, so bronze they are!

Once again I made the shield faces quite plain as these are not warlike people, they are armed with what is needed to do the job.

These smaller halflings (more GW/LOTR size) are a Paul Hicks sculpt.

Now available from Footsore, I purchased these in a Kickstarter many moons ago.

I have painted these as members of my ever increasing Halfling Empire Army for Old World or Warhammer Fantasy Battle. 

That's my lot for today. Apologies for the awful photos. One of this week's surprises was a need to temporarily move out of my office which means my photography set-up is adhoc.

5 x 28mm Cavalry @ 10 pts  = 50

16 x 28mm Infantry @ 5 pts = 80

2 x 20mm 28mm Infantry @ 4 5pts = 8 10 [these are 28mm halflings so I'm awarding 5 each]

Total 140 points.

Nice production this week John, and you're right - the halflings give a nice "green and pleasant land" kind of vibe, which I think was always Tolkien's idea. Their rural attire is also really good and you've done a nice job with them. The Late Romans are pretty cool too. 

Happy to confirm 140 points for this lot!

Dallas 

From Millsy: Late Roman skirmishing archers (100 points)

G'day All,

The weather has improved, the annual audit is done at work and life is good from a hobby POV. Things are moving along nicely once again in the Late Roman department now that varnishing can happen. Consequently I've got a bunch of skirmishing bowmen to share this week.

These are leftovers from both the Gripping Beast Late Roman and Dark Age infantry sets which I didn't want hanging about so painting them up for To the Strongest! made the most sense. They're sufficiently generic they could pass for any number of protagonists for the period I think which is always useful.

20 x 28mm infantry = 100 points

Next week will see the last of the Late Romans - a pile of cavalry, a little artillery and some command. I'm super excited to have them all done as I have a series of games on the horizon. Let's not think about how freshly painted troops typically perform eh?

Thanks for looking!

Cheers,
Millsy

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Great to see some more Romans rolling in Millsy. I have really enjoyed following this project during this edition of the Painting Challenge, and it has been great fun to have you as part of the Thursday crew!

As for the performance of freshly painted figures...well...I hope the dice gods will reward your efforts with favour and good luck! But in the event you end up marching off into miniature Adrianople, at least they'll be nice an varnished as they go down...

Another 100 points for you - thanks so much!

GregB