From TeemuL: Rest of the British Napoleonics (40 points)

I promised last month to finish the British unit for Peninsular War this month and here they are, although almost on the last minute. I've been hunting squirrels and skulls, no time for these kinds of projects. A Shako Duel on the next AHPC, perhaps?

Nothing new with these guys, the same old Victrix plastics, four on the 40x40 base. These are meant for front row of the unit, kneeling soldiers allowing the back row shoot (or just look around). As I said earlier, this unit was assembled of the minis I had left from three different Victrix boxes and I had to use every single body to make a complete 24 strong unit. That's why the unit as whole might send mixed signals, if you are looking at it like a vignette. But on the table they will be in different formations anyway, so they will look funny at some point.

These are painted as 24th Warwick, as at least as my research on the box covers says. Mixed Contrast paints and traditional acrylics to get them done in reasonable time. Some time spent on regluing the broken bayonets...

At this point of the project and challenge, I guess a photo of the whole unit painted during this challenge is in order. Here they are accompanied with a commander stand painted in December. The commander is Uxbridge, thank you Curt for correcting that detail.

And below is the whole British Army at my disposal at the moment. The plan is to have two playable forces when I retire in about 15 years. Two units in a year should do it!

Not much more to say, 8 painted minis for 40 points. And I hope to finish an entry or two before the Challenge ends!

***

________________________________

Lovely work Teemu! These new additions look great and I'm sure welcome recruits to your growing force of British Napoleonics. Remind me next time and we'll get a 'Shako Duel' on the books. I'm sure there are more than a few of us that would pick up the gauntlet.  :)

- Curt

From MattW - Napoleonic, ACW, Roman’s and Aliens oh my! (140 points)

 Napoleonic, ACW, Roman’s and Aliens 

Finally back from our 10 week vacation in Australia, I was keen to hit the painting desk and have been really productive over the last 14 days getting a lot painted. I missed last Friday’s  deadline as I went to wargames and forgot to take photos…..

First up eight Perry Plastic dismounted Dragoons, these have been in my stash for over 10 years now, great to finally get them completed. 

8 Napoleonic figures @ 5 points = 40 points 

I also painted some  ACW bits, a Confederate band and a farrier from Dixon minatures range. 

9 ACW figures @5 points  = 45

Back to my neglected Roman’s for my Gangs of Rome project, I still have a lot more to do with this collection, including buildings. The figure will be able to be a civilian, slaver or a gang member, and two camels. 

Three 28mm figures @ 5 points = 15 poinrs

Finally for Christmas I received the Aliens another glorious day for the corps board-game, I decided to paint the Xenomorph’s first, I elected for a green blue colour on my first batch, quite happy with the result. 

8 x 28mm figures  @ 5 points = 40 points

Totals 

Twenty eight 28mm foot figures @5 points  = 140 points 

Squirrel 4 points 

Napoleonic 

ACW

Roman’s 

Aliens 

Cheers

MattW

From Millsy:

In a rush with real life so I don't have the time to say something pertinent I'm afraid! Nice work mate, especially the dismounted dragoons.

Cheers,

Millsy

From TeemuL: Arabian Nights Dogfights (60 points)

My Peninsular War project is going well, here are the next two stands for my British Army. The last two to finish the six stand squad will be painted and posted in March. Nothing special with these, except that this time there are some commander miniatures, squad leader, standard bearer (without the flag) and two drummers. I'm quite sure that some of those should have reverse colours or something else special, but I was too far with my painting process when I remembered that.

And now we get to the title, Arabian Nights Dogfights. I know a gamer from Yarkshire who is crazy about all the historical missmatch games like Trench Crusade and others. These two minis are partly inspired by his enthuasism to all wild things that could be. :) Partly inspired the minis I happened to have, but mostly inspired by a post in an earlier AHPC, which I was not able to find nor remember the author/painter. That post had couple of magic carper riders and I decided to follow that lead.

The minis are Afghans by Perry Miniatures and the magic carpet is just a plain Renendra base from one of the Perry boxes. I first built the unarmed one and while I was cutting the sword from his hand I thought why he wouldn't have a sword? So the second one got a sword, he might have a upper hand in this dogfight. Colours were picked purely by rule of cool and I tried to create convincing looking patterns for the carpets. The carpets are bit flat, but I can live with that.

Naturally I don't have any rules for these minis, but Arabian Nights Dogfights sounds so cool, I'm sure someone will create rules in no time at all. Once the rules are ready, I'm ready, too.

Scoring is quite simple, the Napoleonics are easy: 8 minis for total of 40 points, but magic carpet riders are bit trickier. Two 28mm minis for ten points, but are they mounted? 10 points each? Or are the carpets just bases... I'll leave that to my Minion, but I'm happy for total of 50 points.

P.S. Quite often I have had a winter holiday this time of year and this year is not an exception. Usually we have been up north in the Lapland, but this time we are home. And when the weather is nice, why leave home? Sky is blue, snow on the ground and I guess it has been over a month below 0 degrees Celcius! Less skiing and less snow shoe walking, but more ice skating and painting, so two entries this week.

 Gosh Teemu, what an eclectic but gorgeous final entry for you today! I do love those flying carpets great work on them. Since they have such intricate patterns handpainted on, I will consider them as 28mm cavalry figures indeed. Enjoy the snow, here it's just raining all day!

 Cheers Sander 

From Curt - Napoleonic French Command Stands (30 Points)

 

Hi Everyone!

Just another small post from me to keep the counter ticking along. First, thanks Dave for allowing me to join in with your Sunday crew, you often do historical-themed stuff, so I thought this entry was apropos under your supervision. 

My 'first love' for historical miniatures was Napoleonics. I often call it 'The Beautiful Game' due to the period's gorgeous uniforms, larger-than-life personalities, and rich history. In addition to collecting it in 2mm, 3mm and 15mm (I know, it's a sickness, really), over the years I've also slowly accrued a reasonable 28mm collection, mainly built around the Peninsular War and Hundred Days Campaign. One gap that has been bothering me (as much as the lack of toy soldiers can bother anyone, but I think I'm safe with this audience) was that I didn't have a French heavy cavalry commander to lead my cuirassiers and carabiniers, and I was also needing another messenger/brigade commander to fill that role. This being the case, I thought this Challenge would be the one where I'd rectify these gross oversights in my collection!

So, here is a two-figure command stand of a French cavalry commander stuffed into a cuirass, along with his gaudy trumpeter to annoy all those near and far. Both models are from Perry Miniatures, with the commander and his mount being metal figures, while the trumpeter and his brave nag are from their plastic range. 

The Imperial orderly is a Perry one-piece metal casting which I quite enjoyed working on, being I didn't have to mess with pinning/gluing him to his mount and he's mostly blue! Several sources state that these fellows, being favourites of Napoleon, often had a bit more latitude for how they uniformed themselves. As such, I've given this chap a pair of brown, leather reinforced trousers with silver detail. Just understated enough not to get called-out for it by the Boss, but enough bling to make other officers roll their eyes. 

These three mounted figures should give me 30 points to add to my tally. They will also provide me with another squirrel for Stuart to pip on my roster.

Thanks for dropping in for a look!

- Curt

From DaveD . Nice to have you pop by on a Sunday . Great to see you deliver a decent bit of history as well. You always need more commanders and it’s nice to have colourful ones as well. Indeed I think a bit of uniform license is allowed , even called for . My personal favourite is the trumpeter here . Good job Snowlord . 30 pts it is . 

From ErikP: Prussian's in Lutzen 1813 - Napoleonic's (42 points)

This is my first Painting Challenge and first entry, 40 foot figures by Warlord Games Epic (13.5mm) scale, painted as Prussia's 11th Regiment (2nd Silesian), 2nd Battalion. 

This is the beginning of a project for a Napoleonic battle at Lutzen 1813 between the French and Prussians. The campaign book I'm working off is by Dave Brown "1813 the Battles for German" written for the rule set General d'Armée. For the unit uniform reference, I used the website Uniforms during the Hundred Days Campaign.  The website is in French, but you can translate it to many languages, if need be.

Back of the line.

I am building these figures to be able to play both General d'Armée (2nd Ed), and Lasalle (2nd Ed) sets of rules.   

These figures come in ten-man strips, for two strips per base, but I cut them in half to make five-man strips for a 10-man base, these bases are 30mmx20mm. I've really enjoyed painting these, but I need to get faster. 

Basing: Also, I off set the two strips of figures on each base.  For me, this gives a nicer look to the closely packed infantry. My first painting of Epic figures was a French Infantry Battalion, and I put them directly behind each other, but to me, it looked a little too perfect.
 

Playing Napoleonic's is how I first started in Miniature Wargaming. At that time, I painted my first Army, 25mm Prussians. Followed up a few years later painting 15mm (Mini Figs) again Prussians. Now decades later, painting Prussian infantry again is like coming home after a long trip.   

This project has been on a back burner since these figures came out, and now it begins.

The points summary:

40 x 10mm foot @ 1 point = 40 points.

Total = 40 points.

Squirrel points = 0, (Prussian Napoleonic)

 

============================

Sylvain: Many "firsts" for you: First Challenge, first submission, new project... These little figurines are very detailed and the basing is excellent. If the rest of the army is like this, you will be hosting fabulous games. I will add 2 points for the flag. Excellent travail!

KenR - 28mm French Napoleonic Command - 50 pts

 

The older I get the less I seem to actually read stuff and make some interesting "mistakes", last year I left a load of painting to the last minute, finished it off and went to post it only to find the Challenge finished the day before !

This is (or was !) my Empire Bonus Round which I was convinced ended on the 21st January but in fact had passed last week 😆 

These are for my Plancenoit Project and are part of Lobaus French Corps, normally I complete a project and realise I haven't done any Command Stand and this time I was determined not to be caught out, so I've started with them.

Here is the first base, 3 28mm mounted figures on a 80mm round base, all the figs are from the Perry Miniatures French Napoleonic Range and this is the make up for my Division Commanders, there is a General de Division accompanied by an Infantry Colonel and an Adjutant. 

The second base is a Brigade Command and consists of 2 mounted (ish) figures, an Infantry Colonel and another Adjutant. I love this figure and it's one of my favourite in the range, the Adjutant has dismounted and is using the horse as a place to rest his telescope (great pose but not convinced it would be that steady)

So that's 5 28mm mounted figures at 10 points each for another 50 points, half the amount they would have been if I read to the end of the sentence 😆

Fine print?  Who's got time for that nonsense.  I missed the empire round altogether.  Well I am sorry not to see these fine command stands in the Empire theme round, I am quite happy to minion them here.  I also really like the guy with the telescope, but share your doubts as to the steadiness of the rest.

From TeemuL: More Brits in Peninsula (20 points)

Okey, nothing special here, just four more Brits to fight in the Peninsula War. This post almost didn't made it, I was too busy to paint two days in a row and they I got a flu. Paracematol doesn't do wonders, but it helps a bit and combined with proper timing I was able finish this lot and claim 20 points. More importantly, I was able to keep my streak alive (posting something everyweek since AHPC VI or something).

These are the same Victrix minis I painted last month, again gathering everything from the bottom of the box, so all kinds of poses, heads and arms combined to a 4 man stand. I could try to say, that I aimed for a campainged look of seasoned veterans, but really it is just what I had.

The story behind is that I bought two partially used boxes of these and was just able to create two 24 man units - but it meant I couldn't assemble them as I wanted, but what I had. There are random number of drummers, standard bearers and commanders in both units, but I can live it that  - the unit is not 24 strong in the real history either. :)

Still troubled by the flu, so no long posts and basically there is nothing new. Something different next time and more Napoleonics in the near future. So 20 points please.

 Well Teemu, that's one nice little entry indeed great work on the dynamic posing! Sad to hear you are still suffering from the flu, get well soon we want to see more of those excellent Napoleonics!

 Cheers Sander  

From SamuliS: Saxon Cavalry ready to defect from the First French Empire (104 points)

Finally kicking off this painting challenge from my side as well! Back after a few years hiatus to what I think is my 11th challenge after first participating in 2013! And the first entry now is actually part of a project that I started in the 2015-16 challenge so more or less a ten year anniversary for this!

Starting off the challenge this year is a selection of Napoleonics to wrap up my Saxon army for the 1813 campaign. We were originally planning to play the campaign starting around 2016-17, but after years of heavy Napoleonics gaming we started to move to other interests and the army newer saw the gaming table and some units were left unpainted. Moving forward quite a few years there has now been a renewed interest in Napoleonics at the club with a lot of fresh faces so I decided to dig up the remaining miniatures and paint up a few additional units. Nice change of pace as well to return to 18mm scale as I haven't painted smaller scale in several years despite it once being my main scale with Napoleonics, Flames of War and Team Yankee making up much of my gaming. Miniatures are mostly AB Figures 15/18mm Napoleonics and I suspect at least some of the command figures are Campaign Game Miniatures.

Fitting nicely with the Empire theme as the First French Empire was really on it's last legs in 1813 and throughout the campaigns the disillusioned Saxons (as well as some other French allies) started defecting to the Allies speeding up the crumbling of Napoleons forces. The Leib Kürassiere painted here were the last Saxons to desert Napoleon after the Battle of Leipzig signaling the end of Saxonys alliance with France.

 

 

Unit sizes are quite small as with the ruleset we are now using the units are smaller than we used to play with. Personally I'm not the biggest fan as I like the spectacle of massive amounts of minis on the table when playing big battles with larger units, but it has definitely helped get a lot of newer players into Napoleonics as you don't need to paint hundreds of minis to field a Division of your own. And for me of course it helped speed up the process of painting the missing cavalry units into the army. I'll get around to bringing the unit sizes up to the same as the rest of my collection at some point, but for now I'm all set for 1813. 

 Leib Kürassiere

Prinz Clemens Regiment

 

 Hussars

 

16 cavalry figures in 18mm scale coming in at around 64 points  with another 50 added for the Empire theme.

Next up some Fantasy minis with a return to The Old World! 

 It is great to have you back with us Samuli and with such nice and crisply painted Saxons indeed. These do look the part and I really like your colourchoices. Do have a great Challenge and can't wait to see those Fantasy miniatures!

 

Cheers Sander