From TeemuL: All the rest Circles [The Contemplatives] [The Fixed Stars of Faith, Hope and Love] (100 points)

Here I am again with my dictionary, it might be complicated when English is not the first language, but on the other hand it opens the door of possible misunderstandings - accidental or not. :) The Contemplatives - probably a word I have never heard or at least used - means "the reasonable thinking person" in the Challenge description.

I'll quote Wikipedia page of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington:

"In late 1814, the Prime Minister wanted him to take command in Canada with the assignment of winning the War of 1812 against the United States. Wellesley replied that he would go to America, but he believed that he was needed more in Europe. He stated:

I think you have no right, from the state of war, to demand any concession of territory from America... You have not been able to carry it into the enemy's territory, notwithstanding your military success, and now undoubted military superiority, and have not even cleared your own territory on the point of attack. You cannot on any principle of equality in negotiation claim a cession of territory except in exchange for other advantages which you have in your power... Then if this reasoning be true, why stipulate for the uti possidetis? You can get no territory: indeed, the state of your military operations, however creditable, does not entitle you to demand any."

Sounds like a reasonable thinker to me, some might agree even without that quote. For my slow growing Peninsular War project I needed some commanders and Perry Miniatures have a set with couple of persons involved there, one being Duke of Wellington. I guess I'm not able to use him in the "real historical games", since the mini is from Waterloo era and most likely very different to what Wellington was like in Peninsular War, but at least it gives me a possibility to practice. He is on a round base with two Victrix plastic minis.

He is accompanied by Earl of Uxbridge, Henry William Paget, from the same Perry set. Unfortunately I have mounted him on Picton's horse, which has a tiger pelt... More historical errors from me. :) Picton didn't participate in Peninsular campaign, but was part of Waterloo. I guess I'll paint him a bit later and use as a nameless commander. I don't know about the story of tiger pelt or the umbrella, but I guess I'll find some information later on, when I research more. Uxbridge is on oval base with one Victrix officer.

After all these historical errors I can't declare myself as a contemplative, but I claim the bonus points from Duke Wellington. And yes, the Victrix minis on these command stands are painted to match my existing units for British. But no flags yet.

That was fifth Circle in Paradise and enough to complete the Theme Challenge, but since I happened to have this Pawnee set from Black Sheep Miniatures by Warbases, I painted them and move to the next Circle, "The Fixed Stars of Faith, Hope and Love." I'm not sure if Pawnees really had any hope, but that was all they had and they did fight for that. I believe my claim is valid.

I painted them with old "Tanned Flesh" paint from Coat d'Arms which I found quite nice. The leather parts are Flames of War Khaki 988 and then all over Reikland Flesh Shade. Mohawks are black Contrast paints. I guess I'm used to using mixed supply of paints? :)

These 5 Native Americans will meet the previously painted 7th Cavalry in several skirmish games - I hope, may be Sarah the Shootist will appear with other gunslingers, too. I think I need some pioneers, gold diggers and wagons. And those tumbleweed balls going here and there with the wind!

And the points then. All minis are 28mm, 2 mounted and 8 on foot, that is a total of 60 points. Two locations for additional 40 points and we have another 100 points. I wish I had this productive days and weeks in December, January and February...

 

 

Sylvain: I hear your pain when it comes to express yourself in a second (or third) language. But even if it's "imperfect", the act of communicating is always beautiful and worthy. Your (last?) entries are very colorful, literally and figuratively. And congratulations on completing so many levels in both the abyss and paradise! 

AdamC: Iroquois Warriors Western (62 Points)

 

These guys have sat in my pile of shame for a few years now.  Needing a Western entry I figured it was time to paint them. 

Mind you they are from a period where "the West" was located in the Hudson River valley, not Dodge City.  

I think they are Essex miniatures there are a total of 21 mounted on 11 bases 10 with two and a command stand with one. They will make a nice little command for French and Indian War or AWI games. 

21 15mm figures is 42 points and another 20 for the Western Studio.  I hope to have more the weekend is getting away from me so we'll see.

You said that this was a small post Adam, 60 points is my normal points per post!   

The beauty of living on a spherical globe is that everywhere is West of somewhere else.  And I’ve certainly read enough histories where Ohio was the Wild West.  It’s great that you got these guys out of the pile of shame and ready to raid.

A very useful set of Woodland tribes suitable for FIW, AWI or 1812.  

It’s been great to have you part of Team Monday again Adam.  I know that having a second kid has slowed down your work a bit this year, but you’ve had some good results.

From DavidB: Potpourri and Lady Sarah (215 points)

 

Janes Addiction -Mountain Song

My desk this very morning! I have been away from home for a few weeks doing training with Search and Rescue and other Great Lakes first responders. Very fun training even if I was mostly running a TOC, but I did get some opportunities for helicopter rides with partner agencies and Canadians and US Coastguard are always fun men and women to hang out with especially when they are showing off training and their taxpayer funded toys. Being National Guard, missions like these are fun for me as they highlight the 1st Responder mission of the NG. It is a reminder to for the public that men and women in uniform are not just thumping eyeballs and kicking in doors with guns out; we are also there for disasters and emergency providing security and medical services including search and rescue.

But enough waffle of Adrenalin junkie looking for justification of kicking in doors and doing cool guy stuff! :)

These two ladies wrangled the limo from Lady Sarah so I could arrive to the far side of the green zone. Historical Drama.

A reaper miniature in metal not bones of a US Cavalry trooper. He was in my mountain of neglect for awhile, but is now ready to join the rest of my western figures. Since he was solo, I decided to redden his skin and make him a cavalry scout. A misconception is the fate of the native scouts used by the US Army in the Plains Wars. Apache, Navajo, Pawnee, Cheyenne, and many other tribes provided scouts for the US Army. Some Apache scouts were disarmed and sent to the reservation when Geronimo was finally captured, The neglected bit from that action is the fact that those scouts were also Apaches from Geronimo's tribe and Geronimo was himself once a scout in US Army service. Since background investigations were not very good then, I can easily understand how loyalty was in question for those scouts. Racist? yes...but I can also see how the unilateral decision was made. Now you folk know the other side of that tale. The 9th and 10th soldiers also known as the Buffalo Soldiers were used in the later years of the Plains Wars and also in the Spanish-American War. from Cuba to the Philippines the 10th Cavalry had a section of Apache Scouts. Those scouts continued to serve even after Geronimo's capture and were from a different Apache Tribe.

The Native Scouts were officially disbanded in 1947 with 4-5 Apache Scouts still serving at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. They continued to live in retirement at the fort with their families and served as tour guides. By this time many First Nation had already served in many capacities within American armed forces in various ranks and capacities besides the famous Navajo Code Talkers. Many still served as scouts with combat units, but with white counterparts who were also equally qualified for that mission.

Red skin and black hair, hopefully his saber is the heavier civil war saber and not the cheap plains war metal! ;)

Amazingly, I do paint stuff other than 40k, My group mainly plays 40k, so maybe I can entice them with Silver Bayonet. This is the French faction and one of three I purchased at Adepticon last year. I plan on acquiring more and doing custom minis with Victrix and Perry for more options.

These minis were among the ones I painted at the hotel with a wet pallet and limited colors as I couldn't pack all my miniatures and paint in my duffle.

The "civilians"  of the group.

These are the two miniatures that sold me to this set.

Now I can have my own" Brotherhood of the Wolf"

Warlord Games made Mythic America which while excited for it, My enthusiasm has been diminished by the cost of the miniatures and the quality as they are soft on detail and more like Hollywood did the designs. After I decided to ignore the clumpy, lumpy, detail like hands and the Hollywood take of 1st Nation...I had lots of fun with them.

A Chief guarded by Mohawks, but he is more Cheyenne.( just go with it)

A very animated group of elite Mohawks....cuz they have magnificent mohawks of course!

I used black and red inks for warpaint as it lets the skin tones shine through and I feel it looks more natural. Ash, charcoal, and blood were common for warpaint ingredients especially befor European contact. I stippled red, blue, white, and red on pouches in impressionistic bead work. some of their torques have blue and green for turquoise and other semi precious stones and gold was used for copper accents.

The Seneca provide range fire since Mohawks must not know how that works and are smaller because you need a big mohawk to be elite and big! ;)

They look fine from a distance, but they suffered more from soft spots and sculpt issues

Proportions are all over the place, but then I admit I like the difference in size like real people and the do look very good when bulking out my forces of other First Nation warriors. Not too terrible, but should definitely be better for the price paid. There are big native monsters and spirits in the range but are resin and very expensive. I wouldn't mind getting them, but I fear the sculpts may not be worth the price.

A wizkids owlbear! This is fun as it is the first owlbear I've ever seen in miniature and very cheap too!

I went brown bear with snowy owl, but decided a fantasy critter could have blue for sheer rule of cool.

He will be off to my son's D&D collection, but I think he may be a fun encounter for Silver Bayonet!

A very old samurai from games workshop and the venerable Talisman Game. 

I never did get my own copy of the game, but had lots of fun with it. Now I have an excuse to get a samurai game though!

....and he has a skull too....didn't even notice till I began to paint his helmet!

Now off to Averland of the Old World and some Halberdiers from Blackfire Pass

Two metal minis and three plastic(one a conversion from the empire artillery crew)

The two metal minis will be official Blackfire Pass veterans while the other three will be a fighter group of hopefuls.

Some more fighters with swords and a few pistols

Black and Yellow for Averland, but most are poor so lots of tans and browns till they save up for new duds.

My Averland warband is going to be gun heavy including these two averland gunners.

The designated leader and champion models.

They have been boxed up for such a long time that I can no longer remember the roster build other than blackpowder and halberds.

I do remember that they would also serve as milita to guard my big blocks of pike or missle troops though!

So these all have been bounced around in my rucksack while I was away, They survived rough handling well and were kept safe in a small foam case in traveling with minimal damage except for paint rub on the big purple feathers of the Averland troops which was easily fixed.

1 Apache Scout- 5 points plus 20 for historical drama

8 Napoleonics for 40 points and 1 skull

13 first nation troops - 65 points

1 owlbear- 5 points

1 samurai- 5 points and 1 skull

14 Mordenheim- 70 points and 33 skulls

total in post-1

210 points 

35 skulls

I am also using the Vivandierrie and medicine woman for a future ride in Lady Sarah's limo

Friday Minion: Hi again David, I've missed Minioning your grab-bag of projects and impressive output. Great to hear about your training, and thank you for your service in the NG. And this is an ace collection to start us off this Friday, the Silver Bayonet stuff is fantastic, and nice to see some of the Mythic Americas stuff and read your feedback on the quality. And we have quite a bit of purple featuring again, hurrah! 

My favourite of the lot is that very fierce Owlbear though, what a top model. I'll score that as a 28mm cavalry figure, and add the bonus for your Limo ride now, giving you a total of 215 Points for this post. 

I doubt the Lady Sarah is big on pot pourri, though. 

From PeteF: Woodland Indians - First, it's the Mohicans - Istvaan V (60 points)

Istvaan V is Betrayal; Heretical/Heretics or Loyalty/Loyalists and this group of Woodland Indians fits all of these, depending on where you stand. They are Revolutionary War era Native Americans - but could be used for French and Indian War skirmishes too. Most remained loyal to the Crown, likely calculating it was in their interests as they were promised protection of their land and trade.  Most of the Eastern Woodland Indians were forced off their land and resettled in faraway Oklahoma.  Even  the Oneida "Stockbridge Indians" who sided with the revolutionaries had most of their land illegally taken from them by the early twentieth century.

The figures are from Warlord Games "Liberty of Death!" box of plastic AWI goodness - a few years ago I got this box for a steal on EBay (a theme in my over zealous collecting of many more miniatures than I can paint) and then added to the AWI pile with a rash purchase of almost a whole 'nother Liberty or Death from someone on The Miniatures Page. They are the old Wargames Factory sculpts - from the 90s? - not really the best - Wargames Factory was very keen on lots of straps and crinkles (advantage of crinkles - they take a wash). You can have fun with the variety of poses and weapon options.

If they ever see the gaming table it will probably be for Rebels and Patriots - it's been a while since I played any AWI - other periods/shiny objects have supplanted it over the last year or two. They were assembled and primed two (three?) challenges ago and completing them has renewed my interest in a Revolutionary War game.

These were quite challenging to paint - the skin tone took many attempts and is probably still a little too much on the dark side. I've had to buy a nail varnish shaker as many of my paints have settled and separated. My eyesight isn't what it was - even a year ago - so I'll need to up the strength of my readers before Challenge 12 is out!  

The Shelf of Hope

Looking a bit lonely

Eight 28m figures.

8x5= 40 points  + 20 points for my first outer ring planet = 60 points. 

Squirrel Points: 1 (Total: 1)

Skulls: 0 (Total:0)

__________________________________

Great work Pete, on these, 'the first patriots'. These figures seem to be pretty good models from the somewhat chequered Wargames Factory stable.  I like the poses you've assembled them in, and your excellent paintwork really does them proud.  I also really like your 'Shelf of Hope' - great motivation that. Funny enough, yesterday I cleared off a space on our fireplace mantle for both Sarah and my efforts this year. We'll see how it goes.

So, back to the Minifig Napoleonics, Pete? I'm looking forward to seeing some of those units this season.

Welcome back to the Challenge!

- Curt