From RichardM: 6mm Peninsular Napoleonic British Cavalry, Spanish Infantry and Provincial Grenadiers and the 'Canaries' (224 points)

A bit of a mixture this week - Spanish infantry, British Cavalry and a unit that I have wanted to do for nearly 20 years.

We'll start this week's work with the Spanish Provincial Grenadiers.   

These took some work to gather information on.  I had seen an entry for Provincial Grenadier Regiments / Battalions in a few of the early OOBs.   While all Spanish Infantry Regiments had Grenadier companies (which on occasion seem to have been detached and converged), these were something different.  There were some references in books and online, although they were quite brief and did not provide much uniform information.  Specifically I was looking to see what colours they would have had for their facings and hence their 'flame' bearskin bags.  I had read a brief reference to red facings - but still believed that would have been for just one province.  Then I read elsewhere that as they had been detached from the Provincial Infantry Regiments, their uniforms were simpler and all had red facings.  Searching also took me to this blog where I found all the satisfaction I needed.   So I was off... and four battalions emerged after a day's work. 

I know zooming small figures is not a good idea - but I spent over an hour on these flames and I wanted a record of it.  Unfortunately it is still quite hot here in Sydney so I needed to thin the white quite a bit to keep it mobile enough - hence it is quite faint.

Then a rinse and repeat from an earlier post - four more battalions of later Spanish Line Infantry with the dark blue British supplied uniform.

Next up are some British Cavalry with their uniforms for the Peninsular.  While I will share British line infantry between my Peninsular and 100 Day campaigns with a mixture of stovepipe and Belgic shakos in both, the cavalry did look noticeably different with bicornes and Tarleton helmets - so I decided to do both early and late uniforms.  Here are the 'heavies' - 3rd Royal Dragoons and the 1st and 4th Dragoons with their bicornes. 

They are followed by the 14th and 16th Light Dragoons with their tarleton helmets.

And finally a unit that I have wanted to do for close to 20 years since I saw it in 28mm and was struck by how different it looked.  I later read about it in Guy Dempsey's excellent book Napoleon's Mercenaries.  I will be honest though - it's place in this week's painting was pure greediness.  I looked at how many points I was going to get and thought it would be nice to get over 200 in at least one week of the challenge - so I looked in the boxes for a single battalion and this popped up pretty quickly.

They were called the "Canaries" in reference to their yellow coat colour and with that colour on a French cut uniform they could only be the Bataillon du Prince de Neufchatel.  They were absolutely in the Peninsular but are unlikely to appear on any of the OOBs for actual battles that I will fight.  They spent most of their time in the North of Spain in combat against guerrillas.  However, they were present at Wagram in 1809 (where it is believed they played a small part), in Russia at the Battle of Krasnoi and also in action on the last day of the Battle of Leipzig.  So hopefully they will get into action on my table in an historical refight at some stage. 

Points

Four btns of Provincial Grenadiers each of 24 figures @ 0.5 pts per fig = 48 pts

Four btns of Spanish Line Infantry each of 24 figures @ 0.5 pts per fig = 48 pts

Two regts of British Heavy Dragoons each of 20 figure @ 1 pt per fig - 40 pts

Three regts of British Light Dragoons each of 20 figure @ 1 pt per fig - 60 pts

Bataillon du Prince de Neufchatel of 36 figures @ 0.5 pt per fig - 18 pts

Total = 214 points

From Millsy:

Thanks for taking the time to detail the background for the provincial grenadiers Richard, it was absolutely fascinating and I promptly followed that link and kept reading. I'm unsurprised about where you found the info, that blog is a treasure trove of cool stuff.

I'm still processing the fact you bothered to paint ALL the grenadier bearskin bags. 96 of them! I'm not sure whether to congratulate you or organisation some sort of intervention. Either way it's worth another 10 points for the effort.

Another massive pile of wee men done and your tally boosted by another 224 points. Great work mate.

Cheers,

Millsy

From GeoffT: WW2 British (140 points)

Hello Challengers,

These are WW2 British infantry in 28mm to supplement my existing collection for Chain of Command. The miniatures are a mixture of brands, War games foundry home guard, Crusader miniatures and Slave2gaming Bardia range.  They blend together pretty seamlessly.

There are 26 foot for 130 points, and a HMG for a bonus 10 points.

Kind Regards

Geoff T

From Millsy:

I'm not sure how you managed these alongside your other entry this week Geoff, especially given the high quality and consistency of your brushwork. You've painted them up beautifully and done such a consistent job overall you'd never know there's a mix of sculptors and manufacturers here.

Top work mate. Another 140 points for these stout Tommies! That should push you back above me and into the top 5 on the tally again. Boo!

Cheers,
Millsy

From SteveG: Metal Ancients 28mm (165 points)

Some nice Aventine Carthaginians.  28mm metal 

Aventine Etruscans. 

Now for some of the famous Argyaspides ( Silver Shields) of the army of Alexander The Great 

WiP Games and Miniatures 

WiP Games and Miniatures

kitbashed Silver Shields. 

and finally the terrifying Seleucid Scythed Chariot 

1st Corps. Metal  

so 18x 5  and 8x 5    and  ?  20 points for chariot  =   150 points.

From Millsy:

Super brushwork on these ancient fellows as always Steve!

When the Challenge is over it'd be great to see everything you have painted together, it's a sizable collection of beautifully painted stuff already and there's still a month to go.

The chariot is my pick of the crop it was a very hard decision. I've scored it as a vehicle but awarded 10 extra points for the additional horses and the reins, plus added the 5 points you missed for the driver. That brings your total up to 165 points this week.

Cracking work mate. Can't wait for the next installment of ancient goodness!

Cheers,
Millsy

From KerryT - A walk down a country lane (270 points)

Morning afternoon & evening all

I seem to have moved away from 3d prints for now and have painted some metals instead. Both units were prepped for last years challenge but never made it to the painting table.

Both sets of figures  find themselves walking down a country lane a few hundred years apart

The first unit to take the walk or ride are a unit of Footsore Arthurian or Romano- British cavalry. They've just crossed the river at a ford and are now on the lookout for an ambush

There doesn't seem to be anyone at home

I came, I saw, I had a look and now I'm going home

Milling around

Ready to charge

The banner is from LBMS but the shields are hand painted but only because I must have previously used the decals that I had. I copied to designs from the LBSM sheet

A few close ups 

I like the flying slug

Arthur Pendragon

I wasn't entirely sure how to base these as my Romano Briton army is based in singles (though I only have foot) but I figure that I'm likely to use these with Midguard or Lion Rampant and figured  multibases would be best, though I wish I'd had another figure that I could have added to Arthur's command stand.

Now imagine that you've somehow fallen asleep under a hedge in that lane for a couple of hundred years and you've just been woken up my the stomp of marching feet. You now find yourself in the 1930's and are watching the dreaded BUF take a stroll down that country lane

The lane has changed a little with a bridge over the ford and now a small village

They're on the lookout for trouble

My VBCW collection started more that 10 years ago when my good mate Giles Allison was visiting NZ and had kindly gave me some figures he had painted for myself and another friend. I added to the collection, basing my back story on the exploits of a pair of twins who I imagined had grown up in my valley back home in Wales. My VBCW back story if you are interested is here https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/vbcf/viewtopic.php?p=31839#p31839

I've played a few games and added quite a bit of WW1 figures to act as opposition to the valley forces but I've since added some BUF figures using the Footsore range and some additional figures from Empress Miniature Spanish civil war range

These guys are attired in blue rather than the traditional black of the BUF

Anyone coming down the lane is going to get shot up

The Empress figures are in shirts

The figures were painted with Vallejo Dark Blue Grey for tunics with trousers in Black Gray, washed and then highlighted. Those in shirtsleeves were given a highlight to the VJ Field Blue

All together say cheese

Once again, thank you for looking and your previous encouragement

In summary

14 x 28mm Mounted figures @ 10 points = 140

25 x 28mm Foot @ 5 points = 125

Total 265 points

2 Squirrels =- Romano-British cavalry & VCBW BUF

(previous Squirrels - Berber Cavalry, Goblin wolf riders, Dwarf cavalry, Spanish Military order knights. Scottish archers, 15mm Napoleonic British, 15mm Napoleonic Naval, 15mm Napoleonic French, 15mm Napoleonic Spanish,100YW French Pavisiers) 

Many thanks and best wishes Valleyboy

From Millsy:

Oh wow! These are spectacular mate. I spent the first 5 minutes distracted by looking at your amazing terrain and then the figures finally broke through my distraction.

The vibrance of the blues and reds on your Roman Brits is wonderful and the hand painted shields are so crisp! I've added 5 points bonus for those because I can only imagine how long that took to complete.

Good to see I am not the only person with a solid BUF force for VBCW. The Empress figs are almost perfect Blackshirts and I have a bunch in my collection too. I assume you have seen Outrageous on the goggle box? It captures the craziness of the times so well and I can't wait for season two.

Wonderful stuff everywhere Kerry. 270 more points added to your tally which kicks you up to first spot in considerable style as well as bringing you within sight of you target with a month yet to go.

Cheers,
Millsy

From GeoffT: More fantasy miniatures (68 points)

Hello Challengers,

Here are some more fantasy miniatures, and one historical one.

We have a French looking napoleonic officer, three ‘hue-eaters’ by grenadier miniatures and six harpies by reaper bones black.  The hue eaters and harpies are closer to 40mm than 28mm to the eyeball, so will round up in scale.  I got the harpies for ‘cathaka’ or buzzard men in ghost archipelago, but they really don’t look quite right for the role, so I had not painted them earlier.  However, they will be perfect as harpies for the impending game Warriors of Athena.  The hue eaters and harpies all had integral bases which I made bigger with milliput so they would be steadier in game.

Nine x 40mm figures at 7 points each and one 28mm figure for 5 points brings the total to 68 points.

Kind Regards

Geoff

From Millsy:

More lovely fantasy goodness from you Geoff!

I'm really impressed by the vibrance of your paintwork, in this instance the hue-eaters. It's giving me a great deal of pleasure getting to see plenty of old lead getting some love and such wonderful work it is too. Those harpies really look the business and would be right at home in any Old School Renaissance dungeon.

Cracking stuff mate. 68 beautiful points added to your tally.

Cheers,
Millsy