From BrianB - All Quiet British Infantry (28 Points)

These are 7 All Quiet on the Martian Front British Expeditionary Force Infantry. A bit of a mouthful. I actually completed the full 10 man unit but I had started painting 3 of them before the Challenge started so they have been left out.

Like all of the All Quiet figures they are big, hefty 18mm figs. The British in the game are a bit more advanced at Martian fighting having the benefit of recovering technology from the previous invasion. They are therefore equipped with body armor and some snazzy gas helmets as well as one trooper with a coil gun which I gather is basically a rail gun.

In order to differentiate them from my regular British I painted their helmets and body armor in a light grey. I also based them all individually for skirmish games since I only have the one squad. If I want to use them on the All Quiet bases I guess I'll have to figure out some kind of sabot base system for them.

Aside from the regular rifleman there is also a squad leader/officer and a Coil Gunner. The officer is in a rather awkward pose half way between just getting shot in the chest and heroically leading his troops forward. Or perhaps he's looking back over his shoulder to make sure someone is actually following him into the Martian heat gun blasts. The Coil gunner on the other hand is my favorite of the group and I would have loved to have a whole unit of him instead.

From ClintB (Paint Monkey): 28mm 1882 Egyptians (120 Points)

Yes I missed the deadline last week, let's just say computer problems, camera problems and a bit of apathy. I would like to say it's all fixed now but it's not, but at least I can post again. First off we have some Perry miniatures 28mm Egyptians. a total of 24. 2 Officers in dark blue, 2 musicians, 2 standard bearers and 18 rankers marching.

It is easy to think that all the rankers are the same. They are not. There are minor differences, some have moustaches others are clean shaven, also some of the tassels are in different places. Yes hey are minor differences but ones I did relish while I was painting them all.

The standard bearer below has a chip on his base which is now painted over. I was so keen not to miss another deadline. Oh well.

The flags are simple paper affairs purchased by Matt for whom these are painted. Truth to admit I don't even know if they are the right way up. I suspect they are though. The observant among you will note that the red flag waves backward and the green forward. Yes I admit it I made a mistake while applying them, still accidents happen and maybe it's just a gusty day.

From AdamC- 15mm 18th Century Civilians (40 points)

These fellow are a mix of Bluemoon and Old Glory miniatures that will act as militia for skirmish games.

 

The fellows with the slung muskets are all the same figure form the Old Glory 7 Years War French Infantry set.  I would love these if the left hand were at the side I am not sure what he is doing.  Waving? Saluting? Shouting?  That combined with the fact that every other figure in the set is marching with shoulder arms meant I had no idea what to do with them... but with their bayonets trimmed off they look good as hunters or militia out looking for some one.

The other figures are from Bluemoon's French and Indian War Civilian set the help break up the single pose in this militia collection

 I plan to use these in skirmish games or as markers for skirmish troops with formed units in larger battles they came out well with a nice mix of colors.

Four Sailors from the Bluemoon pirate civilian set as are the remainder of this set.

These guys have various burdens a chest, 2 barrels and a sack.  Good for helping represent a column moving with supplies.  I tried to give the sailor with the sack a checked shirt under his blue jacket, not sure the effect came off, I will try to get a better picture. 

Another civilian with a shovel and a very unusual beard for an 18th century man. 

 

 He may well be used as an engineer marker if I need on in a game.

 The night watchman.  From the same pirate set I really like this guy he seems both determined an a little concerned. He could be confronting anything form a drunken sailor to an angry mob or some terror the lrks at night.

I love most of Bluemoon's sculpts but very once and awhile you get one like this he's not bad but his body seems a bit large for his head and hands.

This is really to bad because I really liked the look even if it is more 17th than 18th century I like the stance i think he is calling some one out though if he means to deal with him using his fists or his rapier I couldn't say.

Finally we have a man at a desk no idea what I would use him for in a game but I like the look of him and the desk was a cool piece.  I love that blue moon coats have lase sculpted on to them it makes them so much easier to paint.

All together we have 17 figures all 18mm (which I am counting as 15mm, let me know if that is worth Curt) so that should be another 34 points and bunch of new civilians to help add color to my 18th century tables.

From AaronH - 28mm Dwarfs (140 Points)

This next entry is 28 28mm Dwarfs from Games Workshop for Lord of the Rings; that being the unofficial theme of this year's challenge apparently.

Gimli leading a bunch of short and nasty Dwarfs.

The local shop has a Lord of the Rings tournament every year, Mayhem in the Mountains. Folks fly in from all over the country, including some of the best players.  In an effort to have good local representation the shop is running some primers to help people build up new armies and learn to play well.

Gimli and a Dwarf captain.

The tournament requires one good and one evil army.  This primer was just one 650 point army with one painted army.  I recently got a great deal on a ton of Dwarfs so this was the perfect chance to get some of them painted.  This list was made up of what I had that was primed, so not exactly ideal.

A dwarf king as a captain and Gimli.

A warband is between 1 and 13 models, but Dwarf heroes are expensive so my list will be three 13 dwarf units; 1 hero and 12 warriors.  The first decision was whether to go with a uniform look or not. I decided that I wanted these to have a very strong uniform appearance, and that Gimli would match.  I have another of this model so I'll paint that one to match the movie.

These are metal models, very nice detail and fun to paint.

The first unit I knew I had to have were the Iron Guard.  These are my favorite troop type in the Dwarf army.  Very high armor, two attacks and throwing weapons.  They are a viable threat to any other troop type in the game.

There are only a few different poses.

These guys are a type of super ranger.  They served me very well in the tournament and will remain in the army.

The next unit included were Khazad Guard.  These are the bodyguards of the king.  They are also well armored but have a two handed weapon instead.  This can be a real liability and twelve of these is too much for this army.

Khazad Guard.  Metal miniatures.

These are great models.  They were fun to paint and have fantastic detail.

The other poses.

The next unit is Dwarf Warriors.  These have a better than average stat line and a great armor save.  They also did the majority of the dying in all three games.  Weird.  I had intended to have some archers in this warband but when I opened my box of Dwarf Warriors the sprues were actually Rangers.  GW made good and sent me out 24 Dwarf warriors, but they didn't arrive until Friday and it was just too late to deal with them.

The four poses of Dwarf warrior.  

These models are nice enough filler but they suffer from the usual GW LotR plastic problem of soft detail in spots.

Closer shot to show the soft faces.

These are very solid rank and file troopers and the models are good enough.  I won't be carrying all twelve of these into the final army though.

Rear shot.

We had some 70 degree weather this week so I was able to get some more models primed, including the rest of the models for these warbands.  I'm looking forward to getting more of this army painted and to playing some more games with it.  I've fought dwarfs for the last four years, so now I get to figure out how to make them work, instead of how to take them apart.


From Curt:

Wow! I love the blue you used for the tunics and shields on these dwarves - it's such a nice diversion from the typical dour colours that are so common in other armies (i.e. mine). Your King and Gimli look suitably regal and hard-as-nails.

On an aside, I like that your upcoming tournament has participating players bring both a good and evil army. That way the tables make sense aesthetically. I always grimace when I see tournaments that commonly see 'civil wars' between allied forces - it just looks so ridiculous (but I'm a git that way).

Good luck on the upcoming tourney Aaron!

From AlanD - Post-Romano-Sub-Arthurian-British Infantry (168 Points)

It has been quite a while since I painted any multi-figure bases, and I already have a number of sub-Roman British figures painted up that are individually based. However, I've been wanting to put together some larger armies for Impetus and Dux Bellorum, and wanted some bases that looked a bit more realistically packed with spearmen than is possible with movement trays.

School started back this week, but I wanted to make a last push to reach my 1500 point total before work inevitably cuts too deeply into hobby time. The figures are a real grab bag of whatever spearmen at rest I could find in the lead pile, so I think there are Westwind, a couple of Black Tree Design, Musketeer and Crusader figures. I painted most of them to look somewhat Romanised, and a few with decorated tunics and Late Roman helmets that they no doubt bought from an army surplus shop in Silchester before heading off to fight the Saxons. Shields are hand painted, natch.

28 figures gives me 140 points. Along with the 65 points that my entry to the Myth Bonus Round will get me, this means I've reached my 1500 point total, and also smashed my total for the whole of last year's challenge (1349 points). I'm feeling pretty happy as a result. I leave it up to Curt to judge whether I should now claim victory in my side bet with Tamsin :).

From Curt:

Beautiful work Alan! I love these closely-packed units as they really give the sense of how these formations must have looked.  As usual, your shields are gorgeously painted and give the whole unit a wonderful, bespoke quality about it. 

This past weekend Tamsin, Alan and I discussed their 1500 point duel, as their relative scores were so close, and Tamsin has graciously conceded the contest. Congratulations go to Alan for the win, but also to Tamsin for keeping us all (especially Alan) at the edge of our seats with her flurry of entries. It was a wonderful match to see played out. I tip my hat to you both - thank you!

From Curt - (Proof of Concept) 3mm ACW Regiments at 1:1 Scale (84 Points)

Okay folks, welcome to a wee bit of madness from me.

Ever since I was a kid I’ve been fascinated by miniatures and their relative scale. I frequently packed my Airfix plastics out into the garden and placed them at distances relative to their size (or the best I could determine as math has never been my strong suit). So when the British were deployed amongst the peas and potatoes and the Germans settled amongst the corn and cabbage they all somehow related to one another and therefore seemed more real to me. 

Anyway, when I started getting into historical wargaming in my teens I understood the need to abstract scales in order to fit scenarios onto tabletops, but I still held a desire to see these historical formations in their true form, at distances that reflected how the men of the various periods gathered, moved and fought.

Don Troiani's work seems to capture what it must have been like to live within the chaos of black powder battles...

These 3mm (1:600 scale) ACW figures (yes, they are very, very wee) are from Pico Armor. I picked these up a few years ago in a fit of madness knowing I could finally indulge my fascination with 1:1 scale and formations. I started working on a few bases but got distracted by other projects (I know, how typical). Nonetheless, I found them tucked away in a drawer the other week, so pulled them out, the spark took light once again and so here we are.

What you see here is two American Civil War Confederate regiments. The one regiment on the left is made up of close to 500 figures while the other is about 340. These numbers align roughly to the historical strengths of average, campaign-strength ACW formations.

Each regiment is made up of 10 bases, with each base being a complete infantry company at 1:1 scale.

Below is a great educational photo. You can clearly see the incredible length of a mid-sized regiment drawn up into line (with another regiment in the distance). When I see this I’m immediately struck by what must have been a huge challenge of command-and-control for officer to exert their will over such a strung-out formation. I look at this and understand that having a good cadre of experienced NCO’s and junior officers was an absolute necessity for having any kind of battlefield effectiveness. 

Both regiments drawn up in line.

When you see the same regiments drawn up in open and closed columns it illustrates why so many generals (certainly in the Napoleonic period) liked to keep their soldiers in more compact formations as it enabled them to be better controlled and also it had a morale effect as they typically gained confidence by the closeness of their comrades. 

Column of divisions, two companies wide at full intervals.

Close column, two companies wide. Highly inefficient for combat but much easier to control.

Column, one company wide and at full intervals for ease of maneuver.

The 3mm farmhouse is from Pico as well. I’ve placed it on a pill-shaped base and made a snake-rail fence out of cut card ('Nells' the workhorse is in the paddock). 

Painting in such a tiny scale required me to rethink how I approached the whole process. The sculpting detail is surprisingly clear so it would be easy to go down the rabbit hole and attempt to paint these figures as individual models. But that way madness lies. Instead you have to think of these strips of figures merely as components of a mass and not get drawn into details that nobody will ever see. So with this in mind I primed them black, drybrushed them light grey, thin coat of brown wash, popped in three blobs of flesh for their faces and hands, brown for the musket stocks, bright silver for the bayonets and then put in some varied colours for blanket-rolls and hats. That’s it. Done. 

My first base. I has the Regimental Colours as part of a company (which is incorrect).

To me, the trick to doing microscale figures often comes down to the basing. It has to be minimalist enough for the figures to be clearly identified, but not so stark as to leave them looking simply like little nubs on strips. These come in strips of eight figures, so I mounted them in two ranks, but situated them off center on the base so players have a better sense to place facing the same direction (more on this in a moment). Then I used a smooth gel medium to build-up the base roughly to the edge of their bases so they are better masked. Once the gel medium cures I then drybrushed them shades of light brown and then use a green semi-opaque emulsion to infer grass. The only basing material I’ve used with these is a few traces of clump foliage to mimic bush and brush.

When I first started basing these I quickly realized that players needed some sort of visual queue to which way the units were supposed to be facing. So with this in mind I decided to design a special base for the colour party. As you see here it’s shaped roughly like an arrow with a rectangular tab at the rear in order to place unit identification (thanks to Martin at Warbases for manufacturing these for me). As an experiment I’ve tarted up one of these bases with a small piece of L-shaped plasticard and rare earth magnets so nameplates can be easily ‘clicked’ into place but otherwise be stored separately.

The Colour Party with arrowhead front and rear tab.

Magnetized rear 'L' tab.

I’ll be up-front right now in saying that this project is largely just a silly aesthetic and intellectual proof-of-concept, but who knows, if I get enough stuff accumulated I may try using something like ‘Black Powder’ to do a clash of brigade-sized forces in 1:1. Otherwise I think I may use four of these bases along with a colour party base to serve as a regiment in ‘normal sized’ games like Longstreet’. 

I have an artillery battery that I’m working on but more on that later. I’m not really sure if I’ll expand on this collection as what I’m really keen to do is Napoleonics in this scale. I have a suspicion that massed cavalry formations would look amazing done at 1:1 scale…

Alright, with around nine hundred 3mm figures what do we do about points? Hmm… Right now we give half a point for a 6mm figure but simply going to a point for evey four seems too generous as they are very easy to do. Okay, what I’ll do is award myself one point for every strip of 8 figures. As I had four bases done prior to the Challenge this will give me 84 points. Done! 

Thanks very much for sticking with me through this overly long post!