From KeithS: Monsters...and A Call for Help (69 Points)

First up this week are a small selection of larger monsters.  I'm shifting over to providing some foes to my many adventurers!


The group shot:

The main ones I wanted to do were these two Minotaurs by Grenadier.  Both are around 40mm and well sculpted - lots of personality!  They're fancy chaps, too, with nice armor and weapons.  One might get used for D&D this weekend.

The shield on the right is really nice - a bull that looks like its breathing fire (a D&D Gorgon?).  For the left, I was out of ideas and simply made a spiral to represent a maze.  Meh, but I guess it'll do.

 Another angle.

Also up were this pair of Ogres.  Both are about 35mm high.  Neither are super special, but they fill a need nicely for gaming purposes.

From the back.  I did the right guy with red hair for no special reason, except that I felt like a little variety and all browns was making Keith a dull boy.

The last of my half-dozen was this Ettin (41mm) and...I have no idea what!  The Ettin is straightforward for a guy with two heads.  The right guy though is totally unknown to me.  He looks like a giant Orc (about 34mm tall) but with a Mongol-style moustache.

His shield was interesting and reminded me of something from Minas Morgul, as it was a leering moon face.  So, I did a sickly green color to weird it up a bit.  If anyone knows who made it, or what it is, let me know (I covered up the base markings of course - dummy that I am).

Last and late, I knocked off these two spiders from Ral Partha.  One was mine from their last Kickstarter, the other was my dad's set from the same Kickstarter.  I didn't really need more spiders at the moment, but they were quick and easy.  I have a pile of similar ones that serve as goblin cavalry, which I will be painting at some point (those should be fun).

Last weekend, I got an emergency broadcast from a friend looking for a 28mm scale wagon for a game of Harn (yes, people actually play Harn and don't just write endless essays on the fascinating crop rotation system of Dumdurdum Manor, or the family tree of Clan Umptifratz and its 37 cousins).  Good news, I had a wagon in that scale from Perry, though I'd not got around to finishing it.

Bad news, it needed some work (and there were no instructions on finishing it):





Yeah, it was a real pain, worse than I think it should've been.  However, the end result was most acceptable.

The worst part, by far, was the four oxen.  I glued on their heads, then realized that the yokes did not fit over their heads, so I had to yank the heads off.  Then, I had to paint the heads and bodies separately, paint the yokes, put the yokes in place, then glue the heads on.  Once that was done, I had to fill in the gaps between head an body and do touch up painting -- with the bloody yokes constantly in the way, and the dumb oxen right next to each other.  A serious, serious pain!  It was all I could do to not throw the stupid things across the room!

You'll note there are no bases on the oxen, either.  After doing all this work, I realized my little basing plan did not work with bases on the oxen, so I had to cut the bases off, then repaint and touch them up before gluing to the base I'd made.  Not much fun.  Meanwhile, the drover and family proved to be less troublesome, though with no bases it was annoying to paint them, too.

The wagon is designed to be laden or empty, as desired.

Before finishing the base, I managed to get it far along enough for the game.  Here it is, being escorted by the party and a knight across a desolate forest area.  A stranger knight is approaching.

But, bandits attacked at a ford, leading to an ugly little skirmish for the party (there were a lot more bandits shortly after this pic was taken, though my gal taking up the rear of the convoy took the one bugger visible to the right out after a short scrap).

I defer to the authorities to score this mess, as it is all sorts of stuff I'm not used to!  Overall it fit a bunch of very practical needs for gaming and I am quite pleased with the outcome.  I suspect I will be following up with yet more monsters in the near future...

Hi again Keith! Another motley collection, good to keep up the Friday tradition. That pair of minotaurs are great sculpts and came out great. And that wagon, well it might have been a pain to build, but it looks the business all painted and based up, the perfect objective for your bandits to rob, or to be guarded by your City Watch from a few weeks ago. 

Really nice gaming setup too, great to see that. Are those the BattleFront rivers?  

Scoring-wise: 40mm infantry for the minotaurs, 28mm for the rest, with the spiders scored half points because they're a). simple b). diddy anbd c). lkook like the quivalent of a prone mini. The wagon, I'll score as a 28mm vehicle, plus the three 'crew'. 

*Makes sacrifice to the Deities of Arithmetic* I make that 69 points! 

Phil 

 



From SanderS: Landrover! (15 Points)

Hoi,

Just a short and low points post today, can't let the Friday Minions down eh? I have been busy painting the Theme Round entry lately so only managed to paint up Crooked Dice's very nice little Landrover Defender model. At first I was actually considering to paint it in the more traditional racing green with white roof but in the end went with this more sandy colour.

While I am not entirely happy with the windows, I do like the little car and it should net me a further 15 points. If ever I manage to get round and getting my driver's license I would like to drive one of these.

Cheers Sander 

A small entry but a great little offering, the sandy colour gives the look of an ex-military vehicle. The weathering is excellent and I like the depth you've achieved on the windows. 

I gather these are quite brutish to drive, and come with absolutely no mod cons! A colleague of mine drives one and can seat 10. 

Phil

From VictorK: 28mm Sci-Fi and WWII Germans (100 Points)

Okay, there would be no shields this time (wait for them next week, some Iberian cavalry incoming).

First are some Germans for WWII, nothing really special about them. Warlord minis (really nice, if you ask me), vallejo paints. This isn't an organized group like squad or a team, just a base for a future squad, an officer and a flamethrower carrier.

There is a proverb in our local community: "If you don't know, which colour to use for a miniature, paint it with fieldgray." Tons of sci-fi, fantasy and modern-like infantry were painted with fieldgray in our club - this colour is easy to use and nice-looking on the tabletop.



And the creams (for me) of this post are these guys - more different sci-fi minis from Corvus Belli, Inifinity, to use in our RPG.

And now on the groups. Those in red would be used as space pirates, PMC contractors and well-organized criminals. One of the main sources of military equipment on the Frontier is the "Atlas" corporation, and it uses red and white colours. Lots of  "bad guys" use their armour and guns as they are pretty easy to obtain and very reliable. In rare cases you can even obtain (buy, steal, get by other means) a power armor! And one of this guys managed to do it.

Next are two new operatives for 'Serenity' corporation. One is a common 'security specialist', but the lady is a more sophisticated person - covert operator and assassin (of course she is, everybody knows, that wearing a cloak makes you a steals-master!)

Two guys, which are nothing really specific - criminals, militia, adventurers, PMC-contractors, "hired guns".

And one more "gun specialist", accompanied by a member of "U Zang Wong" corporation.

So there are 20 28-mm minis, which sum up to a total of 100 points exactly.

Great entry again, Victor. Everyone appreciates a bit of Feldgrau in the morning, but those SciFi minis are most excellent. Interesting you're using them for your RPG, but thanks for sharing the background. Are you mixing manufacturers or just choosing from the Infinity range (which must be pretty huge by now)?  

I really like the Sci-fi styled clear bases on your Infinity minis. Partial as I am to the hulking power armour, I think my favourite of the bunch is that gun specialist at the bottom. I was fond of the Infinity system a few years ago, and have rather a lot still in my lead pile, but found the release schedule and power creep of later factions a bit much to keep up with. Still, the core rules are really dynamic and fun. 

100 points for your good self. Looking forward to those Iberian cavalry next week.  

Phil

From KenR: 28mm SCW Moroccan Regulares (141 Points)

This weeks entry was not even on the "might do" schedule at the start of the challenge, as with much of my painting I set about organising a game and then realising that I don't have enough painted figures of one type or another I get some more. The computer gets switched on and ten minutes later the required figures are ordered. These are for an upcoming refight of Jarama in March.

The figures themselves are a mix of Force of Arms and North Star. I generally use Empress Miniatures for SCW but they are not cheap and can be very expensive P and P wise so I opted for these. North Star are generally know as a figure retailer but they have a small range of 28mm SCW figures you can get platoon packs that further reduce the cost (down to £1.25 each, Empress are 1.75)

The command figures are from the old Force of Arms range which I think became Burns Miniatures and are now available from Templar Wargames and Scenery. The flag is hand painted.

This collection represents a company in our home brew rules, a command of 4 Figs with a flag and 3 platoons of 8 figs (including a LMG and Sgt) for a total of 28 Figs or 140 points plus the flag.

I have another unit of these ready to go but will probably leave them for a week or two. I have a test platoon of WW1 Highlanders for Mesopotamia on the table now along with my "signature dish" of some 1/2400 Naval. See you all soon.

Ah fantastic, glad you found the impetus to get these on order and painted Ken. The Snowlord is a SCW nut, with a gorgeous collection, I'm partial to the funky uniforms (and flags!) of the period, and I know theres a good handful of other Challenges with collections. I know what you mean about Empress vs the competition, those Empress sculpts are lovely, but on the 'less budget' end of the spectrum. But these FoA / North Star minis certainly look tidy and unmistakable enough for the job. And very finely painted, particularly the excellent flag. I really like the flag-bearing officer sculpt too, waving his pistol around uselessly. 

Hope you enjoy the Jarama scenario in a few weeks time, but I'd be rooting for the steadfast Internationales myself. 140 points plus a Flaggy Bonus. 

Phil

From IanW: Macedonian Pike in 6mm (200 points)

First of all sorry for not commenting of late on others work. Having to share a computer sucks big time. However it has freed me up some to paint.

I finished last weeks entry by early Thursday, this being my day off meant I had the time to sink my teeth into something a little meatier. So out came the last of the Baccus 6mm phalanx figures. 384 of them to be precise, though these are a little different from the last blocks I have painted up as all ranks have pikes in the up position. Belatedly I decided I wanted to have some units like this to break the blocks up a bit. 

The main advantage is that it is easier to work on the shields as the figures are based side by side rather than in rows like the slopped pike figures are. This speeds up the process nicely.

The dice cells are for marking casualties and possible status. I did think about adding it to the back of the unit but this would have pushed the figures forward and that was not a fair trade off. 

384 pikes to glue in was  atrial of patience with it being completed over three sessions, each block was about 40-50 minutes so could have been done in one go but I struggled a bit this time.

So these four get added to the four I painted up earlier in the challenge. Indeed most of the blocks have been painted during one challenge or another over the last three years.

This is what 18 blocks look like, that's over 1730 figures as a few blocks have extra figures on the bases as commanders and wounded etc. My plan has been to paint up 20 in total but I am not committing to that being the end of them. That depends on exactly what we decide to do for next years Joy of Six so it could be expanded a little. I have spent £118.80 just for the figures for these 18 blocks, best not let the wife know.

This is the army to this point, still need to add a fair bit more cavalry and some allied infantry. As it stands I have a bunch of light infantry both skirmish and larger bodies but I can also use four units of Hoplites that are also serving my Persians.

So 384 figures at half a point each gives me 192 points, none to shabby. Next week will see me move away from the SYW for a bit of a break so as not to go off it. Should be back to them the following week as they are on my prep list.

384? 384 of the teensiest miniatures?! Wow, that's an impressive feat in just a week. All those shields to paint, and pike to individually stick on - I really don't know how you face it. But the result is worth it, all those phalanxes lined up look immense. Thanks for the whole army shot too. 

 
I'll round up to 200 for the awesome. And the shields. No flags though. Needs more flags.  

Phil

Happy Friday from Friday Minion

Yes, Friday Minion has to work this week, so no more loafing about, tea in hand, idly popping posts up on the blog when the mood takes me.

Still, I take great cheer from the delights the Friday Crew has for you all today:

• Monsters from KeithS
• Some wheels from SanderS
• A bunch of SCW Moroccans from KenR (with a flag! Woo!)
• VictorK working in 28mm, with historicals and SciFi,
• A 6mm battlehost from IanW
• A few more FIW miniatures from JamesP

Phil

From IainW: Italian Wars Stradiot (80 points)

Hi there, I don't know if this makes it for this Thursday or next but here are eight 28mm stradiot by Perry Miniatures , well mostly. I wanted two units of eight and bought six Perry figures and ten Old Glory figures but I couldn't combine the two, the Perry figures were way too big so I've got two warlord games ECW figures on Perry horses with cut down shields, I think they'll do.

No flag as I'm a bit pushed for time, I've got to pack all my figures and move them to a shed I've just built, I've got to get out of the basement the builders start in March, what fun!

I'm pretty happy with how these have turned out.Got to get finish the baggage train for them to pillage!

All the best

Iain

These are splendid Iain! Not only are they moving with a purpose, but they are a true riot of color as well! The colors are really wonderful on them. I also like the basework. It looks precisely like the ground Clint Eastwood will film Westerns over in a few hundred years! ;)

Although they lack the impact of a gendarme, They certainly don't lack in style!

From JamesM: 15mm FoW British Command (96 points)

Hi folks,

Long time no entry, but I have been busy!

Over the last few weeks I have been prepping and painting various elements for this entry. I've still more to do, but the back of the infantry painting has been broken!

This entry consists of:

3 x Jeeps
3 x Observation Team Universal Carriers
2 x 'Staff' teams (for directing artillery batteries)
5 x 'Command' teams
2 x Observation teams

These are support teams for a variety of forces - mainly my 1st Polish Armoured, 4 AGRA and 128th Field Regiment (of the Highland Division).

A very tidy entry, James! I really like the vicks as both the carriers and the jeeps look rough and well used. The teams are very well worked too, my favorites being the observation teams. Only two men and a radio needed to complete mission! ;)

I'm still a big fan of that groundwork too.  I also like the vignettes of the commands including the courier bike. Real top shelf stuff!

From PeterD Freytag's Jaegers (30 points)

As with the whole Perry AWI range the poses and sculpts are very nice.  I especially like the kneeling poses and that the two who are fine have wrapped their rifle slings around their wrists for support.

Another week in February, another small batch of 28mm SYW figures from me.  This time around it is 6 members of Freytag's Jaegers who served in the Hanoverian army.  The Anglo Allies raised Jaeger Corps from 4 different German state - Hanover, Hessen-Kassel, Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Schaumburg-Lippe (a variable meet up of Imagination bloggers).

I had a set of 6 Hessian Jaegers plus officer and hornist plus a few left overs , the result of changing rules unit sizes to fit rule systems!  As leftovers had been previously painted as Freytag's corps, I ordered another pack of Jaegers from Messrs Perry and Perry to serve as a group of Freytag's Jaegers for my SYW Sharp Practice project.  The figures are from the AWI range, sold as Hessian Jaegers but work equally well in the SYW as Hanoverians.

Uniforms are very basic as fits a Jaeger unit - green jacket and waistcoat with green facings, white breeches and grey gaiters.

Here's the requisite Folky arty print for historical reference.

Darn I missed the flower pot mounted in the tricorne!

The Backside view shows the nice details in these sculpts.  They are packing a hide knack sack, canvas haversack and metal canteen plus cartridge box.

Front side view with the 6 new lads flanked by the officer and hornist on un-tufted bases.

By my count that is 6 28mm figures for a whopping 30 points.  Don't count the two pre-existing Jaegers.

Grand job, Peter! Jaeger and light infantry are two of my favorite terms in refernence to war besides ranger!  It is a common missnomer on the term "light infantry" as these fellows do show that meaning is never in reference to pack size and weight! I actually just spied the Freytags Jaeger print on Pinterest over the weekend. I am working on a project where I am shoehorning on hand models into unit/units. Your method of finding a unit THEN finding the models seems to be a lot more practical! ;)
The green suits them very well and seems very close to the shade featured. Although I've seen evidence for black and grey gaiters during campaign and later years of the 7YW, these are the first fellows I've seen painted up with grey gaiters. Kudos to you for bucking popular wargaming trend and painting grey ones instead of the goto white or popular black. You may be setting a trend! ;)
I'm thinking you may need another unit or two of 'hunters" !