From SidneyR: The Count of Bucquoy's Horse, and field gun, 1688 (98 points)

My sixth submission for the challenge is the second half of the Flemish regiment of Horse of the Count of Bucquoy. They follow hard on the hooves and spurs of the first half of the regiment which I submitted two weeks ago (with apologies for missing a submission last week). They will be joining my Flemish, Spanish and German army from 1688, focused around the fictional town of Laarden in the Spanish Netherlands, but leaning on history for the uniform and flags of the units concerned.

The figures in this submission are all 25mm Wargames Foundry from their Marlburian range, including the horses. They’re painted in Vallejo and the bases are by Warbases (in 3mm laser cut MDF). To save a little time, I added the flag from "Flags of War", and the finial is from Bicorne Miniatures. There’s very little conversion work on these cavalry, although the feathers are almost all added with green-stuff.

I've shown the new cavalry together with their front rank comrades in arms, below, ready to take the field with the Lorrainer and German Horse (up next on the painting table).

The Flemish Horse are joined by a large field artillery piece from the small but potent arsenal of the Citadel of Laarden. The figures were intended to be part of a 'BFG' themed round submission, but sadly real-life intervened and I didn't come close to finishing it in time (well done and huge respect to everyone who entered, and again to the winners!). Yes, fellow Challengers, there is a lesson here. I should make my themed round submissions a bit more personally manageable!!

The figures around the Wargames Foundry cannon are from Dixon's 'Grand Alliance' range, with Wargames Foundry matross helping out. I’ve been experimenting with a slightly lighter tone shade for the ground base (inspired by fellow Challenger, Benito - Anibal Invictus, from his blog). For years, I've simply painted the ground work (a mixture of 'Polyfilla' filler, gravel and sand) with a very flat matt Humbrol Black (33). 

This time, I’ve used Flat matt Humbrol Brown (110) and shaded up from there using Vallejo Beige Brown, Vallejo Khaki and Vallejo Stone Grey. I think this produces a brighter base tone which I think works with the gun carriage and figures. The tufts are from WWS and Warbases, inspired by the great figure bases created by another of our fellow Challengers, ChristopherS (Axebreaker). Huge thanks to both Benito and Christopher for their inspiration and encouragement over the years!

I’ve also tried painting the artillery base in a variety of very Flemish and Spanish browns, beige and buff. The inspiration behind this has been the wonderful book "Painting Wargame Figures" by Javier Gomez ("El Mercenario"). Javier dedicates a chapter in his book to the colour brown. This does not sound exciting, but honestly, it really is! Brown is one of those paint colours which can be really varied, and which is perfect or adding colour and tone in a 17th century army. Javier's painting was very much the inspiration behind what I was trying to do here.  Thanks, Javier!

I like the contrast in the browns and their tones, which I think are brought out by a lighter base, and which I am hoping should look good against the more grey-themed French on the field of battle. I'm hoping to try and replicate this is some future submissions. The main colours used were Vallejo Beige Brown, Flat Brown, Light Brown, Burnt Umber, Chocolate Brown, Khaki, Stone Grey, Orange and Deck Tan - all from around the same place on a colour wheel.

As to points, there are 6 new Flemish Horse (60 points), and the cannon and crew should add another 35 points (5 crew at 5 points, and the gun at 10 points).  

_____________________________________________

Another beautiful addition to the Laarden collection, Sidney. I always enjoy your posts as it's clearly evident that each of your units is carefully considered and finely crafted.  The second half of your Flemish horse regiment is a excellent as the first and that artillery piece is wonderful. I think your new basing recipe is a winner, with it setting a stage for the miniatures without being too overpowering. (Note to self: I really need to get a copy of 'El Mercenario's' book.)

With a little extra for the banner, basing and feathers, here are 98 well-earned points for you sir. Thank you for treating us to another colourful chapter in your Laarden adventure Sidney!

_______________________________________________

From PaulS: Brimstone showdown (30 Points)

It has been a few weeks since I had a chance to paint anything, thanks to being away with work so much, so it was nice to get back home and have a chance to put paint to model for once. I also need to get back into the swing of things as I appear to have dropped from the top ten to 25th!! I'd considered taking some away with me, but b&b rooms tend not to be the best for setting up a painting table :/

These two are from the Shadows of Brimstone kickstarter that arrived just before I went away and are a lot better than those in the first figures delivered. The robot is called the Guardian and comes from the ancient city on the Targa Plateau. Quite a surprise for the characters you start with, who are cowboys.

 The second figure is a Terralisk, a sand burrowing creature from the Blasted Wastes. As the name implies, the landscape is a barren wasteland world full of all sorts of alien gribblies. There are some smaller ones with legs still sat in the drawer of sprues.

The interesting thing to note is that these are... quite large. The 28mm priest is just for scale, he was completed just before the challenge started.

but these are only classed as XL monsters. There are XXL monsters still to come ;)

Points wise, I'm not sure... probably small vehicles?

____________________________

Great to have you back Paul! These two beasties are very imposing and you've done a terrific job on them. I like how you put a bit of rust and corrosion on the robot's carapace-like shoulders suggesting he's been sitting dormant in the sand until recently disturbed. I also think you've done a great effect with the eyes and toungue of the sandworm. I can't imagine facing off against these two with only six-shooters in hand, but I guess that's why they call them heroes in the game!

As you suggest, we'll count these as 28mm vehicles for points. So, 30 more pips for you to start your climb back up the roster. 

________________________________

From RayR - This little piggy went to market (27 Points)

I've been wanting to paint these little piggies for a while now, so last week i took the

plunge and put paint to brush. These are a pack from Ristul's Extraordinary Market, sold 

by Bad Squibbo Games in the UK for just £10.50.

The set includes 10 Pigs of various sizes. 1 large, 4 medium & 5 Piglets

Also included are 6 pieces of resin Farmyard terrain. 

I've based all the terrain on various sized MDF bases from Warbases

My fav......rolling in the mud

In reality the pigs are Fantasy based, but I've based the paint scheme on Berkshire pigs. 

one of the oldest breeds in England.

So that's 10 x 25mm Pigs 

& 6 pieces of terrain

I haven't a clue what they're worth.............Curt?

_______________________

Berkshire pigs. A very rare breed of pig originating from, (snaps fingers) you guessed it, Berkshire. Wow, you learn something new everyday. Sometimes whether you want to or not. Nice job on these Ray.  Nonetheless, you realize you can only use these for modern games as Wikipedia tells me that the original Berkshire pig breed was sandy brown. So, no using these oinkers for Donnybrook I'm afraid, unless you want to be terribly embarrassed by the snout-counting, porcine experts in the crowd. 

27 points for you Mr. Rousell.

________________________

From DaveX: Frostgrave Cultists Range Support (10 Points)

I have painted up a couple more Frostgrave Cultists, this time they will be providing Ranged support.  I am sticking to using bright contrasting colours with no real uniformity for them.  I assembled these lads ages ago and have used the Painting Challenge as an excuse to finally commit paint to brush.

I now nearly have a warband ready to go.

10 points FTW!

________________________

'I now nearly have a warband ready to go.' Now, that is absolute music to my ears and precisely what the Challenge is all about. Great to hear and wonderful work Dave. I like the colourful approach you've taken for your cultists.  These guys are so often depicted as being a rather dour lot that it's a very refreshing change to see them decked out in such splendorous colour. 

Now, if only someone would speak to their tailor about those conspicuous pointy hats and masks they always seem wear... 

10 points for you sir, lovely work!

__________________________

February's First Friday Woo!!

Hello!

January is finally behind us and the work week is drawing to a close, so let's sit back and celebrate with some wonderful eye candy from the Friday Follies. I see from a quick look into the staging area that we already have half a dozen entries waiting to be released upon the unsuspecting world, so let's enjoy the day and get to it shall we.

But before we continue, here is an announcement from the very prolific (and generous) KentG:

______________________

Hi everyone this isn't an entry, it's an invite to pop on over to my Youtube channel for the chance to win my Flames of War entries in this Challenge as pictured below.

About 4 months ago I invited my youtube subscribers to be apart of my channel by donating to me the figures they had in their cupboard that they would never use (not the crappy stuff) and I would paint them up along with my own miniatures and give them away these figures were one of the parcels that turned up in my post box a few weeks later. I have figures From Victor C who is painting in this challenge. so click this link to be apart of my fourth give away https://youtu.be/yXH3cUTNQV8

I am intending on giving away four othe entries that i have submitted including a french line infantry reg and a cav as well as the Grey knight Nemisis and the 40k Libarian and maybe the mexicans when completed.

Here are figures you could win just by subscribing and commenting on the post, it's that easy

Kent

_____________________


Wow, what a wonderful give away Kent!

I've watched several of Kent's YouTube videos and they are great fun, giving both an insight to his madness and many insightful tips and tricks to our hobby. So, if you have the time, please drop over and have a look.

And finally, remember that this Saturday at midnight is the deadline for the 'Musician' theme round, so get those entries into me soon so they can be viewed in all their splendour on Sunday.

Curt / Out

From GregB: Cold War Canadian Infantry - and Bonus Leopard C1 (64 points)

More Cold War Canadian troops in 15mm!

Hello to all of the Thursday viewers of the AHPC! I'm actually on vacation this week, and while the weather in my locale is fortunately stunning, it is a little bit unsettling to not have picked up a paint brush in just about a week...seems wrong.  To help me cope, I managed to finished a few more Cold War 15mm figures last Friday, so I would at least have something to share this week! And so here is an infantry platoon of Cold War-era Canadian troops in 15mm, with a bonus additional Leopard C1 tank.

Platoon command stand - officer pointing, radio operator beside him

Tanks are a tonne of fun, of course - in the case of the Leopard C1, about 40 tonnes or so of fun! But it is the hard-slogging, ground-pounding, digging in-and-assaulting-and-hunkering down infantry that take the ground and hold it at the end of the day.  The Canadian Battlegroups of the 1980s would be counting on their Leopard C1s, but the mechanized infantry were the heart of the effort - troops from the Royal Canadian Regiment and the Vandoos.  So I wanted to add some infantry - plus they paint super-fast so I could finish them before we were out of town...

Here is a bit of a retro item - a .30cal MMG in support of the platoon

The infantry figures are from "Armies Army" (now part of the excellent Plastic Soldier Company).  And they are a treat! Just wonderful castings, made from metal, as all proper wargames figures should be.  They are sporting Canadian infantry weapons from the 1980s cold-war era - FN rifles, Carl Gustav anti-tank weapons, and support from a .30 cal MMG and a 60mm.  The latter two elements are sort of retro-classic weapons, but it seems the Canadian Forces tended to make use of older weapons for quite a while longer than some other NATO armies.

Three sections of infantry - and the 60mm mortar is on the right at the front - poor chap, has to carry it by himself it appears :)

As appropriate for Canadians, the infantry are sporting colder-weather jackets - an excellent touch, in my opinion! I can't say enough good things about these castings.  I purchased an entire companies' worth of the troops, and look forward to painting them all up.  Huge kudos to Keith at Army's Army for making these a reality - for a nerd like me, it is exciting to have the chance to collect these lads and game with them.

View showing some of the webbing - note the Carl Gustav AT weapon on the one base in the foreground

Of course, these chaps will need some M113s to ride around in - those will hopefully appear later in the Challenge.

Another Leopard C1 - this one from the Plastic Soldier Company

The tank model is a 1/100 plastic Leopard C1 from Plastic Soldier Company, with an FN MAG from Peter Pig swapped into the cupola MG.   This gives me 10 Leopard C1s...on my way to having a whole squadron for the gaming table. These fellows have already seen action on the gaming table (with many of the recently-painted tanks suffering the fate of all newly-painted models - it was a rough "win" for the Royal Canadian Dragoons)

More Canucks ready to chip in for NATO

Points-wise this is...well, that's what a minion is for!!! There are 29 different 15mm infantry and one 15mm tank, so that should get me maybe 64 points? Jamie will sort it out...

I'll leave you with a photo from Palm Desert, California, USA - we did a six-mile hike in Joshua Tree National Park yesterday! The landscape was beautiful and surreal...so glad to have a chance to visit...

The Palm Oasis in Joshua Tree National Park, California, USA

Next week will be rough painting-wise (why won't work just pay me to paint figures?) but hopefully will have something new to share next Thursday - even just one figure...Cheers for now!

Not painting for a week and you still have something to show us?  I'll just be over here in the corner with my shame if anyone needs me...!

Cracking submission, I'm also a big fan of infantry and I do like them at 15mm scale as you can really get a feeling of volume without them being too small to see.  I most enjoyed FoW when there were sizeable infantry contingents on the table and these are just the ticket.  Lovely job on the camo, the helmets are especially striking.  I'll take your word for it on the weaponry as without a bolt gun in sight I'll admit to being a bit lost when it comes to small arms!

My semi-magical-semi-mystical Calcutronalator tells me that 64 points is absolutely spot on so I'll put you down for that.

From KenR - 28mm WW1 Highlanders (140 points)

This week we are back to the WW1 Mesopotamia Collection with this collection of 28mm Highlanders, those if you with very good memories will recall I did 9 of these for last years challenge, here is the rest of the Battalion, minus a bloke with a bagpipe who has been held back for the next bonus round.

There are a mix of manufactures here, the bulk from a very small 28mm range from Minifigs, the Lewis Gun Teams and command, including the lovely figure with the stretcher on his shoulder are from the Empress Miniatures Jazz Imperialism range.

The HMG is from Great War Miniatures as neither Empress or Minifigs did them, so that's 3 x 8 Fig companies plus a 3 fig MG with a half crew mounted weapon for a net 28 figures worth or 140 points.

This unit was inspired by the book "With a Highland Regiment in Mesopotamia" which is available HERE, however you can find it on some of the free book sites due to its age.

It's a really good personal account from the Black Watch battalion that arrived in the area after the initial push and was involved in the attempts to relieve the Siege of Kut. The volume of casualties they take is horrendous, dropping from a full battalion to 200 or so men on a regular basis.

It also contains some great snippets of info, for example the units would march to and from the front line in kilts (as painted) with bagpipe playing, before changing into shorts and shirts in the trenches.

I am away to Italy on a badly timed (for the Challenge) holiday so nothing from me next week, but when I do return it will be back to WW2 Desert vehicles and my first German Armour.

These are absolutely brilliant.  I'm not a historical gamer, but I do find myself fascinated by these little pockets of somewhat unusual battle attire, although I suspect the kilts were probably rather good in this type of theatre!

They look like a wonderfully coherent bunch and the basing sets them off excellently - 140 points to you it is!

From StephenS - Balearic Slingers - 40 points

My first Thursday post and it’s only a small one, but you know, life and all that...

I present two stands of Balearic slingers, based for use in the game Impetus. These eight models are 28 mm metal sculpts from Warlord Games and were very easy to paint up, being mostly cloak or tunic. Though there are only three poses to select from to make the units.

They will see service in my Carthaginian army. I foolishly thought I’d finished the army a while back, but the release of the second edition rules saw several new units added to the army list that now needed to be painted up. Fortunately, nothing was taken away, so there’s a silver lining I guess. For those not familiar with Basic Impetus, lists for the different armies are fixed. Since its’s not a points based system, it’s a matter of painting up the units or fielding an under strength force. So hopefully you will see a few more units hit the blog soon, and my army will be finished, again...

Cheers,

Steve

Welcome the Thursday! These chaps certainly look mighty fine, although what is this “finished” of which you speak? Is it related other incomprehensible words such as  “willpower” and “enough”?

Top notch basing and they certainly look like they’re ready to poke the unwary in the eye!

40 points for these chaps.

Anthony O - Skeleton Regiment - 95 Points

I promised myself I would have at least something each week for submission and so far so good. This week it is a regiment of Skeleton warriors for my Empire of Dust army for Kings of War.

These skeletons are from the Games Workshop Tomb Kings plastic collection and are pretty nice and easy to put together and paint. I have continued with the teal green colour (seriously I don't even now what to call it) to unify the army and create a contrast to the bonewhite of the ahhh bones.

So it is back to back skeletons with more on the horizon with some cavalry and another regiment of warriors hopefully due next week.

All up there is 19 28mm skeletons so I make it 95 points.

And Mr Reliable comes through again!  I'm envious of anyone who actually gets a post in every week as I always tell myself I'll definitely do that..... only to fail by week 2!

The colour mix really works on these (like the chariots) and I do like the streaky effect on the shields as it helps to age them.  Being buried underground for who knows how long plays havoc on leather one would think...

I like the way you've picked out the alternative heads that GW did to "Ancient Egypt" the skellies up and grouped them at the front - very effective and helps take them out of the Old World to the Dusty World instead.

95 points it is!