From ForestP: 50 15mm Napoleonic Grand Duchy of Warsaw 4th Regiment of Line [Glorantha] (120 points)

Good morning from the cloudy middle of the United States! As I sit here under a Winter Weather Advisory for a paltry 2-4" of snow I find myself not in the slightest bit upset because it gives me a perfect excuse to stay in a paint. Truly the definition of the proverbial silver lining of the clouds above me. 

As the miniatures at hand though, I present to you the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 4th Regiment of Line of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw; or what could also be known as part of the Polish contingent of the Grand Army of France that fought in the Peninsula. They are one of the most heroic of the Polish units in the Napoleonic Wars, and were loyal to Napoleon even after he lost control of Poland. They were a decorated unit both during and after the Napoleonic Wars and so I shall also claim them for Glorantha as Heroes! As will be my style I will talk you all through a bit of my painting process. 

What I painted were 50 15mm figures from the Battle Honors line of Old Glory 15s aka 19th Century miniatures, specifically from the range BPO3 (Line Infantry Regiments 4, 7, or 9). The pack I had was an older one that I purchased from Campaign Game Miniatures during their recent holiday sale that had 50 miniatures in it, versus the new Battle Honors packs that generally have 24 figures. So, if you're trying to recreate this unit as I did, I suggest you order 2 packs of BPO3 from 19th Cent. Minis. As far as references for images I split between those in John R. Elting's Napoleonic Uniforms Vol. 2 (yes, I know they are quite expensive, but highly worth it for the Napoleonic enthusiast; by the way the link is for used copies of the 1993 edition, you can buy the 2007 re-issue here), Napoleon's Polish Troops (MAA45) by Otto von Pivka of Osprey Books, and Uniformology's "Uniforms of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw 1807-1815 Part 3" painted by Jan Chelminski. Since each source showed uniforms a bit differently I amalgamated the sources to create something that I was satisfied with as a compromise. It's not exact, but I'm not a button-counter, so there.

I actually started painting these miniatures last weekend, and were able to finish them up over the course of painting an hour or two per night over the week. First after cleaning flash I mounted the figures to craft sticks using a hot glue gun (my preference because of the ease of popping them off after painting) I primed the figures in ultra flat white (Krylon Colormaster 5131507) to reduce the need to paint white pants (because efficiency or laziness; take your pick). And with that I was done for the first evening.

That's not too many miniatures, sure this can't be too bad...

Night two I decided to knock out quite a bit of the blocking. Most of my paints were Vallejo Acrylics, so I will provide  reference numbers for those. I started with Dark Blue (70.930) as that would be pretty close to the primary jacket color I've found in my research, then Black (70.950 for the shakos and other hats, and Deep Yellow (70.915) for the jacket lapel/vest. I decided I would finish the night by painting poms and plumes (Deep Yellow again for Voltigeurs, Flat Red [70.957] for Grenadiers, Officers, flag bearers and drummers), cuffs (same Deep Yellow for Voltigeurs and Flat Red for everyone else), epaulets (ibid), and rifles and flag poles painted in Leather Brown (70.871).

Starting to look soldiery.

Poms and Plumes really do help make figures pop.

Night three I moved on to details.  I painted the drums with both Flat Red and Deep Yellow, then painted the Eagles, gorgets, and shako plates in Polished Gold (72.055). Backpacks were painted in Leather Brown, smaller pouches were in Flat Earth (70.983), and bedrolls were painted in Neutral Grey (70.992). Lastly I painted skin in a 3:1 mix of Basic Skin Tone (70.815) and Flat Flesh (70.955).

On night four I wanted to finish up the primary coloring on the figures before moving on to a wash. I mixed up a 3:2 of Gunmetal Grey (70.863) and Chainmail Silver (72.053) for bayonets and rifle barrels and slapped that all over. Swords were painted in pure Chainmail Silver, with officers' sword hilts painted in 1:1 of Tinny Tin (72.060) and Old Gold (70.878), and any other sword hilts in just Tinny Tin. Sheathes were painted in 1:1 Bright Bronze (72.057) and Tinny Tin or Chainmail Silver. Drum heads were painted in thinned Honeycomb (942) from Folk Art paints (a crafting quality paint). I completely forgot that my Voltigeurs needed some green in the plumes and epaulets so I painted on some Flat Green (70.968) appropriately. Lastly I painted crossbelts and other straps in White (70.951), and for some reason I'd totally forgotten to paint hair so I used a 10/0 brush to add a little thinned out Apple Barrel (another crafting-quality paint) Brown Oxide (20511) knowing full well that my wash will ensure any gaps would be covered.

Decent little command element.

They don't look too terrible, right?

On night five I took my wife out to a concert at the symphony, so the only thing I had time to do after we got home was splash on a wash and call it a night. I used Flesh Wash (73.204) all over knowing full well that I would be touching up the figures in the morning to bring out the brighter colors. Also, I didn't mind the fact that the figures overall would look a little "grimier" as I'm of the mind that soldiers get dirty and sweaty (can confirm: I'm a soldier). Uniforms aren't perfectly pressed and cleaned in war. That being said because I was finishing up the wash later into the evening I didn't take any photos. Oh well.

The following day I was (as I am typing this, still am) stuck in a two day-long Zoom training where I don't have to talk much, and don't need to be on camera. So naturally this gave me the opportunity to finish up the figures. So, next I touched up the whites, yellows, metallics, and some areas of black. I also realized I'd forgotten to paint up the drum sticks, so I mixed up a 1:1:1 mix of Folk Art Honey Comb with Apple Barrel Brown Oxide and some water using leftover paint on my wet pallet. My next steps were basing the figures up on Wargames Accessories #10 Metal Base Stands (3/4" x 1") and one Litko 1.25" x 1.25" plywood base for the command stand (these had previously been spray painted green with Design Master Basil [676]).

The next step was putting down some flocking. So I mixed up some PVA glue with Apple Barrel English Ivy Green 20756 in order to cover up the white leftover on the individual figure bases, and slapped it on.

Not pretty, but it does the job.

After that it was swishing the figures around in a BTC Open Flock Mix created by my good friend Doug Kline at Battlefield Terrain Concepts.

This stuff is so nice it almost feels like cheating. Almost...

Et voila, we have two battalions and a command stand!

Regimental command stand.

Close up of 1st Batallion.

The Regiment thus far.

My paint job is what I would describe as just slight better than tabletop quality (meant to be seen from 3' or more away). I'm not very good. More often than not, to be honest, I actually pay someone else to paint my minis nowadays. However, I'm starting to enjoy the process again, even if my miniatures are a bit rough-and-ready, and wouldn't win any contests. I did order some wonderful fabric flags for them from Maverick Models, but they have not arrived. Please accept my humble apologies for sending forward units sans flags.

Anyhow, this is my entry for the week. Not too shabby I hope. In summation, my points are calculated as follows:

50 x 15mm foot @ 2 = 100 points

Glorantha (Outer Ring) bonus = 20 points

Total = 120 points

Until next time where I think I may try for diving headfirst into the Warp Maelstrom that I skirted to travel from Istvaan V to Glorantha. Millsy, what challenge do you lay before me?

Forest

From Millsy:

You're a man after my own heart Forest. I love 15mm Naps and I love the French and their allies even more!

I'm not sure what is more impressive in this post, the miniatures themselves or the depth of detail you put into the words wrapped around them. Either way, its a cracking entry and well worth the 120 points. I've not painted any Battle Honours stuff myself but they look pretty good and your paint job is better than you seem to think yourself. I'd be happy to have them grace my table any day!

From MikeD - Breaking the ice with some Norman knights (120 pts)

The goal for my Challenge this year is to make some headway into building up my historical wargaming armies. During the past couple of years I think most of what I've painted have been skirmish and board game figures. A lot of GW and painting-for-its-own-sake projects. Probably because the possibilities for putting big armies on the table has been so limited. Anyhow, this past November I went to my first Historicon since the pandemic started, and it lit my fire for getting back to my hobby roots. It's been a minute that I took on a big army project. 

Over last summer I read a couple of books about the Normans in Italy that really got my imagination working on getting an army together I could use for Italo-Norman and Kingdom of Sicily. ('Normans in the South and Kingdom in the Sun, both by John Julius Norwich). After shopping through all the figures on sale at the show (Conquest, Vitrix, Gripping Beast) I decided I didn't love any of them and I wound up ordering Perry Crusaders by overseas mail, because you know, wargamer.

So here is the first batch of what should be several entries of Normans over the next couple of months. (By this point I feel that there are certain ranges that have appeared in the Challenge over the years that they 'Need No Introduction') And that's just from me; I've seen at least one set of Norman knights already in this years edition.

Also, let me say how happy I am to back in the Challenge. I believe this is my sixth year. This past year the profile of the Challenge seems to have increased, and I've heard a lot of my favorite podcasters and bloggers talking about their participation. It's just increased the connection  I feel with so many talented people who share love for their hobby.

So the math should be pretty straightforward here:

12 28mm mounted @10 pts each = 120 pts.

From Millsy:

Lovely brushwork Mike. There's something properly menacing about ranks of Norman cavalry. I should know, I have some too and coincidentally used Perry Crusaders as well. Yours really look the part. That diamond blue and white shield is a corker and really makes your commander pop. The basing is spot on too.

It's great to hear you getting the same sort of buzz from participating mate. That's just what the Challenge is all about. Keep it coming!

From TeemuL: Imperial Imperial Fists [Coruscant] (45 points)

After keeping the distance on Perelandra, it seemed like a nice idea to continue with that habit. Imperial world of Coruscant seems nice and easy, but there seems to be a war nevertheless. Imperial Imperial Fists, half a company in fact, seem to preparing for a battle on the green fields. Nothing says Imperial better than Imperial, doesn't it? May be Imperial Fists says it even better, with a little punch, eh? I know, Imperial Stout would be the ultimate victor, but let's not drink and space drive.

Imperial Fists are one of the original 20 legions created by the Emperor thousands and thousands years ago (the current time is about 40 000 AD) and they wore the bright yellow colors. They were known for their specialization in the siege warfare and carefully created and executed plans. Later on they were splitted in several Chapters, but one of the Chapters carried on with the old name. They still stick to plans and formalities, they follow the Codex Astartes closely, so you can see that all of these are members of the 3rd company (red trims on shoulder pads), each unit is 10 men strong (can be divided in two 5 man combat squads if needed) and led by a sergeant (red helmet) or veteran sergeant (red helmet with with stripe) while his second in command is a veteran (white helmet) leading the another combat squad, if needed. You can also see the chapter icon on the left shoulder pad (inadequate xenos intelligence most likely sees just a tiny black spot on a white spot before being terminated by overwhelming firepower) and the squad type and number on the right shoulder pad (this might seem as a tiny white spot on a black spot to an untrained eye). They carry flags with them, so that the high command can follow their actions in an old fashioned way in case the high tech equipment fails due the the warp storm, magnetic fields, radiation or other malfunctions. In the flags you get a better look on the squad numbers, the red stripe on the flag identies the sergeant. Flags are made of that very useful metal thing you can find on some wine bottles.

There seems to be some chaos there, since some of the second squads seem to have disoriented space marines, which is quite unlikely to happen on the parade field. May be they are expecting an assault and survey the environment closely, who knows? All of these were already glued on the bases by the previous owner and I didn't want to try to detach them, I only noticed the strange facings after priming them and starting to paint them yellow... All the disoriented fellows went to the 2nd squads, they can train there with the veteran. I know some people now use round bases for these, but since these were already glued to the square bases, it wasn't actually an option for me.

Chapter icons visible on the left, squad icons on the right

The bases represent the ever green fields of the grim and dark future, where all the battles were fought about the 20 years ago or so. There is green sand (or something similar) glued to them and small tufts, which in this scale look like bushes. I sprinkled some red sand there as well to break the green fields, there are flowers and other non-green vegetation on Coruscant - most likely very poisonous.

Veteran sergeant on the left of the left squad, veteran on the left of the right squad

There is a warp maelstrom next to Coruscant and Vlogsphere doesn't sound that welcoming, so let's jump in to the Warp Maelstrom and see what happens (I expect to apper somewhere along the Middle Ring)!

There are 50 Space Marine, each 6mm tall and worth half a point, so 25 points in total. That makes a Squirrel as well (who would have thought?) and the 20 points for the Coruscant planet.

My personal Squirrel count: 7

- 20mm Napoleonic

- 28mm Sludge

- 28mm Pulp

- 28mm Warhammer 40000 Xenos

- 28mm General (including Gloranthan) Fantasy

- 1:300 Cruel Seas

- 6mm Epic Imperial Fists

From Millsy:

Lovely little yellow fellas you have here Teemu. This is about the only scale I enjoy painting yellow! Good to see the old square bases in use too mate. Another 45 points on your tally. Nice work!

From PeterB: An Iron Snakes Space Marine [Istvaan V] (75 points)

Greetings all from Istvaan V. For those of you not familiar with this planet, I believe it was the site of one of the early battles in the betrayal of the Warmaster Horus when he betrayed his father the Emperor and turned to Chaos. If you would like to know more, I believe there are a large number of education volumes available from your local Games Workshop under the umbrella title, The Horus Heresy.

For Christmas Mrs B was kind enough to buy me a paint your own, articulated, Primaris Space Marine, from McFarlane Toys. Obviously this wasn't part of my original plan for the painting challenge, but as she gave me the gift Mrs B did wonder how many points it would be worth, due to the fact it is 180mm tall!

Not being a 40K player anymore (I still do own a company of Space Marines, but they just slumber peacefully in their foam trays in storage) I am however a big fan of one Black Library author, Mr Dan Abnett. For those who don't know his work, most of his GW titles are about a chap called Gaunt (think Sharpe in space) or an Inquisitor called Eisenhorn. He has also written Dr Who, 2000AD and even Mr Men, but I digress. Mr Abnett does have one title about an Ultramarine successor chapter called the Iron Snakes, so it was really the only choice for colour scheme. Therefore being another chapter from the Black Library, I believe that qualifies me for the points for visiting this planet.

Ultramarine shown for scale

He is armed with a Hellblaster gun and is technically known as an "artist proof" so is fully articulated and therefore also comes apart to make painting easier.

The undercoating stage

The only issue I really had painting it, was there isn't really any option for a model grip, you just have to hold it to paint it and then wait for parts to dry!

As it did come apart, the shoulder pads were the one part I painted fully before putting back together, which definitely helped with the detail.

The Hellblaster is technically loose, but as his trigger hand isn't really flexible (he isn't Action Man, or GI Joe to those across the Atlantic!) once he has hold of the gun, unless you want paint to start coming off, it is not going anywhere.

It comes with a stand that plugs into either of the feet, but to be honest, it can stand by itself as well.

Finally here it is with a ruler to show scale.

So to the points. Well, I don't know. I am sure of 20 points for the planet. Then 20 points for the Space Marine? I'll leave it to Millsy to decide.

From Millsy:

Crikey, he's massive! I hope you didn't need a second mortgage for the paint Peter. Seriously though, what an absolutely cracking model and what a wonderful job you've done too. The shoulder pads are just spectacular and the smooth finish on his armour can't have been easy with a metallic on something this size either. Well done mate!

As to points? I can't score by height or weight unfortunately or you'd break the Miles' spreadsheet and we can't have him in tears this early in the Challenge. Let's call him 50 points for scale and another 5 for the shoulder pads. Plus the quarant bonus that's 75 points all up.

Amazing. I'm gobsmacked.

 

From ByronM - Death Guard Traitors for Istvaan V (45 points)

In typical fashion, I had grand visions of planning out my challenge painting projects ahead of time, and in typical fashion, never did...  So after finishing last weeks submission I madly looked at the star map to try to figure out where to go next and what to paint (which is a lovely and cool map by the way, I just never had any real chance to look at it and pre-plan!), and saw that the next stop on my path was:

Istvaan V: Betrayal; Heretical/Heretics or Loyalty/Loyalists

Well, that's lucky, as I have a pile of Warhammer 30k Death Guard models from Forge World and have been meaning to get around to paint some more specialty weapons!

So, here is a small squad of 5 Death Guard Heretics with meltaguns suitable for clearing out the loyalist scum that worship the false emperor.

These are done in a very grimy style similar to how I did the core of my force a few years ago.  They are painted a bone colour as a base, then washed with a mix of weathering powders in IPA so that it flows well through the recesses, and then wiped off the higher areas with a Q-tip with IPA on it.  I then go back and paint all the details and they are done.  Overall a simple fast and effective method to get these guys looking like they just lived through the bombing and exterminatus protocol that happened on Istvaan V. 

Being a small squad of 5 28mm models this should net me 5 points each (25 points total) plus 20 points for the Istvaan V bonus for 45 total points.  Oh and as my 3rd different themed entry they also net me one additional squirrel point to bring my total there to 3.

From Millsy:

Someone else painting Death Guard! What a great bunch these are Byron, the 30K vibe is such a different look from the stuff I am painting and so very tempting too. The weathering powders mixed with pale ale is something I'd never have considered but it works very well indeed :-P

More please! 

From ScottM: Vulcan, Solaris & Arda (111 Points)

Our tour of the Outer Ring continues with our arrival at Vulcan (something logical). For this I went with some computers and miscellaneous objective tokens for Stargrave (Stargrave fig for size comparison). If I remember correctly, all the markers in pic 1 and 2 were 3D printed by a friend of mine. The ones in pic 3 are metal and I think they are actual Stargrave objective tokens.

Next up is Solaris (deception/illusion). For this world, I went with a 28mm metal Stargrave Mystic from North Star Military Figures' Stargrave line.

I'm really enjoying painting the metal Stargrave sculpts as the figures are nice, clean, characterful figures and they've all been great casts.

And finally we have Arda (fantasy). For this I went with the remainder of my Frostgrave Gnolls. These 28mm figs are all from the plastic Gnoll box set.

So that should be:

10 - 28mm foot figs = 50 points

bunch of markers = 1 point

3 locations (Vulcan, Solaris, Arda) = 60 points

Total = 111 points

From Millsy:

Those are some wonderful objective markers Scott! I'm trying to stay clear of Stargrave but I can feel myself spiralling into the black hole ever more when I see posts like this. I love all the little things like this that really bring a table to life instead of simple card or plastic tokens.

I like your gnolls too. I really didn't enjoy painting mine. Maybe I should have used some more colour variation like you have, yours are certainly more pleasing to the eye than mine.

Three quadrant visits in one post is quite something. Well done!

From PaulOG: Chaos Hellbrute and Razormouth (Skaro)(53 points)

My next quadrant stop is Skaro, planet of Strange Doctors and Weird Robots. Ironically it is here, and not Istvaan V, that we find my next submission - a Chaos Hellbrute/Dreadnought. Basically, this is a hulking murder obsessed robot named KILLFRENZY who is controlled by an insane, blood craving heretic. Good times!

For the 40k affectionados this is a converted Blood Angels Death Company Dreadnought fitted with a pair of nasty looking Blood Talon close combat weapons, heavy flamer and storm bolter.  Lost in battle when its former pilot succumbed to wounds, the happy-go-lucky World Eaters salvaged it and interred their own ill-mannered psychopath who rather enjoys his new toy and its plush (if somewhat blood spattered) upholstery.

I enjoyed sculpting the battle damage and trying to get a more dynamic feel to what is a rather static and boxy sculpt, even trying some OSL and 3d printed effects (Translation - yes, I again made the classic Challenge error in being completely obsessed with minor detail on a single model). I also used some new techniques with oil washes over acrylic base coats.; it certainly takes a lot longer to dry and I haven't got it quite right yet, but I got the grungier look I wanted.  I'm trying to improve my basing game too and did more in that regard with a slain foe who, quite coincidentally, looks remarkably just like the new Thousand Sons force that Reilly is painting... 

"All is Dust..."

While I'm here I'll also post this strange little fellow whom I found lurking in my stash: a Razormouth from the Reaper Black Bones series. I built him as a beastie for Silver Bayonet, but he will be equally at home in the Necromunda Underhive or similar.

Overall I would like to claim a combined 25 points for the large Dreadnought model and his fallen adversary, 5 more for the Razormouth and a 20 planetary bonus for a total of 50 points (and 10 skullz for anyone counting). 

That completes my 4 outer sphere planets (Istvaan V, Glorantha, Klenadathu and Skaro) and so I now transit via the adjacent Great Abyssal to start the challenge of the middle ring...

From Millsy:

I see I'm not the only one being suckered into fiddling with detail! Well worth the effort though Paul, that Hellbrute is an absolute beast and looks amazing! I'd love to see WIP pictures if you have them. I had a good laugh at the 1000 Sons corpse on the base.

Good to see I'm not the only Chaos afficionado tweaking the nose of the loyalists with cheeky basing elements. I really like what you achieved here making it look like he's be chopped into pieces and sand/dust is leaking out (is that right?).

Cracking stuff all round and certainly worth a few extra points for the custom work and the basing. Nice one mare!

From TeemuL: Oceanic Motor Torpedo Boats [Perelandra] (35 points)

We dive to the Middle Ring, and find a tempting planet called Perelandra and we take a closer look at this oceanic planet. And what we find from this place, G-5 MTBs (they are not mountain bikes and I'm not a naval expert by any means) going full speed and guns ready. G-5 class of Motor Torpedo Boat was a Soviet design before and during WW2. Three of them were captured by Finnish forces (hooray!), but only two saw action under Finnish flag before they were returned to Soviet Union after Armistice. Well, here we have four boats, so this is not the Finnish navy. :) They have white flags with red star, so they are clearly Soviets.

The white spots in front are intentional

I don't know much about naval warfare or ships (or boats), but a lot can be learned from Wikipedia, like most of the stuff in the first chapter. I got these from a Warlord Games mystery box (hinted by someone during previous Challenge (or a Challenge before that)) among other things. Like I said, naval battles are a mystery to me, but they are a great fit for the Perelandra planet - I knew they would be useful. I basically followed the cover art on these little boats, painted the windows, spotlights, crew members, coated everything with grey Contrast before using brighter colors to pick up the details - for example the crew members have dark blue uniform, rather pale skin and green helmets.

Since I don't play with these things, basing was a bit difficult. Should I base them or not, and if yes, what bases to use. Without bases they get easily broken in the storage box sitting calmly on a shelf for half a century, I decided to base them. And base them like a small diorama (vignette? dioramette?), which should protect them from wear and tear and also look rather pretty on the shelf by themselves. The base is mdf base from Warbases (terrain base, maybe) and I glued the boats on it in a nice formation. I wanted to create some wave effects, but decided to do it in 2D. I could have looked at reference pictures, but that would have given me pressure, so I ignored it and just painted dark blue first and then gradually lighter tones until fine white lines and spots here and there. It was quite fun, also painting these small boats was fun, but I have no reason to buy more of these, right?

I looked at the posts from previous Challenge, and these 1:300 Cruel Seas ships have been scored as 15mm vehicles for 8 points a piece. And there has been points given for small crew members as well. 8 points for this vehicle is a bit too much in my opinion, but I'll take it. And 1:300 scale is pretty much same as the 6mm scale, so half a point for full figure is reasonable. There are 8 more or less half crew members, so that's 2 points for the crew and 32 points for the boats, total 34 points and a squirrel.

Closeup

My personal Squirrel count: 6

- 20mm Napoleonic

- 28mm Sludge

- 28mm Pulp

- 28mm Warhammer 40000 Xenos

- 28mm General (including Gloranthan) Fantasy

- 1:300 Cruel Seas

From Millsy:

Super stuff Teemu! There's not a lot to work with in terms of colour with these guys so the effort you've put into the water effect really lifts them up. The high contrast styles is really convincing and gives a real sense of speed. Have an extra point for the flags mate.