From ScottM: Early War German Ordinance (105 points)

My contribution this week is a group of early-World War 2 German guns and mortar. All figures are 28mm metal and are from Warlord Games. First up is the leFH18 105mm medium artillery piece.

Next up is the sIG33 150mm howitzer.

Next is the 75mm leIG18 light artillery piece.

And finally is a medium mortar team.

So that should be 3 guns = 30 points and 15 crew = 75 points for a total of 105 points.
Next week hopefully some tanks.

That's some very nice artillery pieces there. I particularly like how you have subtly dirtied them up so they're more interesting than just dark grey. Looking forwards to some early Panzers!

Barks

From Mike W: 28mm and 20mm Various Figures and Vehicles (109 Points)

Well I hang my head in shame again, I missed Week 5 deadline, no excuses - I just didn't get enough done in time and I allowed my self to get distracted by other projects and life in general!

However for my post this week I will cover the mix of one-off figures and challenge eligible items that I did get done, hopefully by Sunday, I will have completed my main,current task of painting 28 x 28mm Saxon Infantry Men for the Siege of Vienna collection, in which case look out for a second post.

Converted Arab Artillery Crew

 So first off on this post we have two 28mm Arab artillerymen converted from Gripping Beasts's plastic Arab Infantry set and mashed-up with artillery arms from the Warlord Games, Marlbourian Artillery set. Very simple conversions here and a paint job applied,! These guys will be used as part of the Ottoman army besieging Vienna.

Gun & Crew

For anyone who's interested I have previously posted on 'Who Cares Who Wins' blog conversions of the Arab infantry to musket armed Azabs in Ottoman service.

To go with the artillerymen I've done a Light Gun and Limber. The Gun carriage & limber, some readers, may recognise these models as being from the old Games Workshop Empire Galloper Gun, this set has been kicking around my spares box for years, after loosing the horse and barrel for the gun!

I added a barrel from the Warlord Games 17th Marlburian Artillery plastic set and a Carthorse I also found in my spares box. The slightly old fashioned style of the carriage and limber gives the model a slightly Ottoman feel - I think!

Bases have been suitably modeled, using fine sand scatted and electrostatic grass with appropriate grass tufts added. Didn't know how to score the limber but went for a '5', hope that OK.

Limber & Horse,with Gun attached

Points Calculation: 2 x 28mm figures @ 5 points ea= 10 points.
                                  1 x 28mm Artillery piece @10 Points ea =10 points
                                  1 x 28mm Limber @5 Points ea =5 points
                                  1 x 28mm Carthorse @5 Points ea =5 points
                                  TOTAL = 30 Points

Plastic Confederate

Next is an other experiment, this time with a 28mm Perry Miniatures a Confederate infantryman. The experiment here being to see if I could get away with leaving the grey plastic unpainted, concentrating on the detail on the equipment. it seems to have worked pretty well, once the detail had been painted on, to my eye the end result is pretty good.

Key here was to apply the matte varnish before applying a Dark tone wash, allowing the wash something to 'key' on to over the previously unpainted grey plastic,.Without the varnish the wash pools unrealistically and the results are poor.

Points Calculation: 1 x 28mm figures @ 5 points ea= 5 points.

28mm Dutch NCO

Next up is a 28mm Front Rank, late 17th century  infantry NCO. I have him painted up as part of a Dutch regiment and on a single base (UK 2 pence piece) to be used as a marker for 'enthusiastic' regiments under the rules that I use....

Painting was quite straight forward, in the way that I have previously described.

Points Calculation: 1 x 28mm figures @ 5 points ea= 5 points.

Not the greatest picture! Two fallen Norman Knights

Two fallen Norman Knights, from the Conquest Games plastic boxed set. for another of my 'wish list' projects,this time a re-fight of the Battle of Hastings, using the SAGA rules set! I found these chaps in my spare box, just shouting out to be painted, again this was straight forward, in my usual manner.

Believe I read somewhere that prone figures count half as there is not so much to paint! So points as follows...

Points Calculation: 2 x 28mm prone cavalry figures @ 5 points ea= 10 points.

Raw Frames

Next a change of scale, and a move to a potential VBCW (Very British Civil War) game that I'm tinkering with! I won't go into the whole VBCW ethos - it can be found elsewhere on the web, but in my view of the forces involved we will be having late WWI equipment and troop types with a few inter-war and early war vehicle types. Basically an excuse to re-purpose old models in new scenarios!

Anyway, I found an old set of Hat 20mm WW1 US Artillery,
 seems they used French 75mm Field Guns and the uniform style was at the time reminiscent of the British style. so in a VBCW scenario - they can be used quite nicely. The set is really nice as the plastic is not too soft,it takes superglue, and allows the guns and a nice caisson model,to be made up.

Limber and caisson, built but waiting paint job

I crewed the gun with 7 figures, plus an eighth injured comrade resting behind the caisson, I like adding little vignette scenes like this to wargames bases where possible...

Finished Gun Crew

I have not painted up these figures to represent any particular VBCW faction,with the view that they can be used where-ever needed in any faction's army list. Figures were painted British khaki, webbing, puttees and helmets picked out in appropriate colours and a wash of Nuln Oil applied to all over.

Injured crewman resting behind caisson

Gun and caisson were painted in an olive drab, with shell casings picked out in brass and wheel rims in steel with Nuln Oil applied again to add shading before matte varnish being applied. Didn't know how to score the caisson so went for a '5', as per limber above,  feel free to change if that inappropriate!









Points Calculation: 8 x 20mm figures @ 4 points ea= 32 points.
                                  1 x 20mm Gun @ 8 Points ea = 8 Points
                                  1 x 20mm Caisson @ 4 Points ea = 4 Points
                                  TOTAL = 44 Points

HAT Renault FT Tank

Finally  a 20mm Renault FT tank,painted up again for the VBCW game. The model is a Hat hard plastic model, I bough a couple years ago and used one model as part of my WW2 Polish army..

It is painted in pretty drab standard colours, with Markings for the 'Liverpool Worker's Council' added.



Points Calculation: 1 x 20mm vehicle @ 15 points ea= 15 points.

We may have missed you the other week, but you've more than made up for it! I particularly like your VBCW stuff. I'm not entirely comfortable with leaving the bare plastic for the wash on the confederate infantryman- how do you get the other colours to stick?! A good prime is a thing of joy. I've run your calculations through the machine, and it concurs 109 points.

Barks

Monday's Children show no sign of flagging

It is mid-Challenge, and about this time the fatigue and lactic acid build-up sets in. Monday's Children are an inspiration, with a mighty seven posts to show that forwards motion to our targets is still possible.

It is by will alone we set our brushes in motion.

Who is this Will Alone bloke?

There's a bit of a Euro-tour today, taking in Germany, France, Venice, Vienna, the low Countries, Britain, Yugoslavia and Russia, with a side tour to Afghanistan, the American South, and the Warhammer Old World.

Barks

The 'Mercenary' Theme Results are In!

Hi All!

The votes are in for our 'Mercenary' bonus round! We were treated to all manner of  avaricious freebooters and colourful dogs of war. Thank you to all the participants for their creative entries.

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First up, for our Honorary Mentions, we have:

Michael's 'The Doctor Will See You Now'

Barks' 'I am Kroot'

KenR's 'Italian Wars Artillery'

BooYaa! Great work fellas!

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In Third position, for 25 bonus points, we have:

Franjo's wonderfully colourful 'Grenadiers from the Hibernia Irish Regiment'

In Second place for 50 bonus points:

Millsy's brutish yet, oh so stylish 'Sgt. Keppler's Mercenary Ogre Band'

And, in First Place, for 75 bonus points and a gift certificate from BigRedBat Ventures, we have Byron's streetwise 'Souxsie and Diesel'

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Congratulations guys and a big THANK YOU to all our participants for making this Bonus Round a success! Well done Team AHPC!

If you're interested in seeing the voting results they can be found here.

Now, get back to work on your submissions for our next theme round, 'Water Feature'. All entires are due by midnight this Saturday - I will have the gallery up on Sunday.

Cheers!

Curt

Assorted Miniatures for 'Dark Heresy' (48 Points)

Hi All,

Last week our gaming group started up our second campaign of 'Dark Heresy'.  For those not familiar, 'Dark Heresy' is a role-playing game set within the 40K universe.  The game was originally produced by Fantasy Flight Games which, sadly, lost the licence a few years ago. This is regrettable as the overall production quality of the rules and supplements was superb and the game had a loyal (if sometimes OCD) following. Being a shameless opportunist, I picked up most of the books at fire-sale prices and we've been enjoying the system undeterred.

Rather than the massed combat of 40K, 'Dark Heresy' instead sets its eye upon the gritty underbelly of the Imperium, with players taking on the role of 'throne agents of the Inquisition'. The overall look and feel of the game draws heavily upon Dan Abnett's excellent 'Eisenhorn' and 'Ravenor' series of novels. It's a setting where the main focus is upon the investigation, pursuit and foiling of the nefarious plans of Mankind's myriad enemies.  Think of it as a mashup of Call of Cthulhu, Terry Gilliam's 'Brazil' and Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner'. Operatic + dystopian + grim-dark = super fun times.

Anyway, the campaign we've recently started is based on one of the module series called 'The Apostasy Gambit'. Not being able to leave well enough alone, I've worked under the hood to fix some inconsistencies and suit to taste.  

In the opening chapter the players are tasked to bring down a debauched aristocrat who has delved into heretical artefacts, proscribed texts and has neglected to file form R451138 within his Imperial Tax Levy (in of itself a crime punishable by inquisitorial torture). 

Being an unrepentant nerd, I like using lots of play aids in my games to help make the imagined environment a little more real. Sketches, maps, manipulated photos of NPCs and drawings of the whacky settings, and of course lots of miniatures! For the debut chapter I wanted to have an 'open sandbox' and encourage the players to plan their own assault of the target mansion. As part of the preparation I gave them a 3D print of the mansion's grounds and three wee 6mm Valkyrie gunship models (of course, full to the gunnels with Inquisitorial Stormtroopers) to help the plotting and discussion of the mission. 

5 easy bonus points for the first person to guess where this mansion's design is from. :)

The players' opponents were a large and very well equipped personal security force serving the debauched aristo. For these I used the Elucidian Starstriders from the newish Rogue Trader boxed set. 

Red trousers and mustard coats chased in white. Whew, that is a bit loud! I had a lot of fun painting these in the garish family livery of their patron. 

The security detail was also reinforced by a heavy gun servitor. I used this excellent figure from Wargames Exclusive. Yes, he's quite the brute!

The player's will conclude their adventure by travelling to a long-abandoned cathedral which hides a HUGE secret to its origin.  In fact, the cathedral itself is just the tip of the mystery... quite literally. :)

The ancient Cathedral, overgrown by nature over the past thousand years...

Here's a couple visual hints. 

Yes, it's rather, um, 'Epic'.

Sorry to have geeked you out on this little indulgence, but it was great fun to work on. 

As to points. Let's see: 25 for the guards, 7 for the Gun Servitor, say 5 each for the two structures and 6 for the Valkyrie gunships. 

Thanks for dropping in folks! Next I'll be tabulating the voting results of the 'Mercenary' theme round. 

Stay tuned!

Curt

From IainW: Romagnol Pike Block (184 Points)

Here is a unit of Romagnol pike, the best native pike of the Italian wars.

They were prominent in the armies of both the Papacy and Venice, I've shown them with Papal flags but I can easily swap those out for Venetian if needed. These are a mix of mainly Perry plastic mercenaries and the Pro Gloria/Warlord plastics,I wasn't that keen on the plastic landsknechts to start with but I really like the kit now, its given me a nice mix for an early 16th century unit. There are also some Foundry landsknechts and conquistadors mixed into the unit. There's also a few Artizan dopplesoldiers.

They've been great fun to paint (in the colours of my football team, Arsenal) and even though they're late, they were meant for the mercenary bonus round, I'm glad to have them. Thirty six 28mm figures and four flags and yes looking at the photos I realise I need to touch up the edges of the flags!

All the best Iain

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Wow! Fabulous work Iain and a bit of a points bomb to boot! This year's Challenge has certainly been rocking the Italian Wars - lots of character, colour and fashion faux pas - all wonderful things. The unit's red and white livery is very eye catching, the papal banners are glorious and the mix of manufacturers' sculpts really brings the entire unit to life. Bravo!

Now, seeing your sterling efforts, I think I need to shamelessly plagiarise your work and try my hand with that great colour combination (Go Arsenal!). 

184 well-earned points for you, Mr. W!