From ClintB -15mm Apache Indians. (48 Points)

I gad a spare day yesterday so I managed to take some figures from an old project that had stalled and once undercoated managed to get 24 Apache Indians in 15mm finished. They had been on my to do list for about 2 years and the project had stalled so it feels a great relief to have gotten them done boxed up and put away.

When I started  this project I was going to use the "Hey you in the Jail!" rules by Peter Pig, but I may now use "Blackpowder" instead or more likely I will forget the figures and return to them in a year or two from now. The figures are "Freikorp15" figures available from "QRF" in the UK as lets be honest 15mm Wild West figures are not so very popular with 28mm gunfight figures taking the title for this period.

Sometimes the desire to fight colonial wargames means we need exotic adversaries from India, Africa or the Far East. But not all countries travelled to far flung corners of the world' for some  they only had to go out into their back yard! Please forgive the inaccuracy of the chief wearing a feathered headdress as this is not authentic as far as I can see within the Apache nations but is instead a sculptors whim. I have included him for game purposes rather than historical accuracy as it allows me to build a force 3 figures to a base.

I have kept the Peter Pig basing convention of 3 figures to a 30mm x 30mm square base. Due to the filmic nature of the force and terrain, little rocks (little pieces of cork) and static grass have been added to the bases. It just helps to break them up and make them look more like broken ground. After all we have all seen enough films where they hide in rocky out crops and fight the Yankie boys in blue. But then again films are not always historically accurate are they?


From Curt:

Ha! These look great! I've not seen Apaches in 15mm before and I think you've done a bang-up job on them Clint. I love the guy in the headdress - right out of Central Casting - wonderful.

From AaronH - 28mm ECW, Raisuli and Boromir (195 Points)

This week's entry is a little bit of everything.  The first entry is an ECW Pike and Shotte regiment.  These are 36 28mm plastic models from Warlord Games.

The blue coat regiment

I want my ECW regiments to have a block of 12 pike plus command, flanked by eight shotte on each side.  This left me with a problem, based on the Warlord kit.  There are not enough vertical pikes and I don't like the horizontal ones since they are always getting in the way.  There are also too many shotte.

One sleeve of shotte.

I painted up all of the shotte but left off the horizontal and all but two of the angled pikes.  This means I'm four pikes short of a full regiment.

Command and pikes.

This is the first regiment I've ever done on multi bases.  Prior to this all of my models have been one per base.

The other sleeve of shotte.

The Warlord models are very nice, other than the unfortunate sprue contents.  The faces have a one of character.  The details look good and they go together well, with lots of options.

Rear Shot.

I didn't enjoy painting these.  It's a couple of things, neither of which is the fault of the models, really.  First off, I went for the whole bunch in one go.  That's 36 models in a week. For me that is a record.  The result was that I felt rushed to get them done.

Another rear shotte.  (see what I did there?)

As I was painting I'd think, "only one more bit to do and I'm done".  Then I'd finish that bit and see two more unpainted parts.  "Where did that come from?  I don't even know what that is.  How am I supposed to paint it?"  I'd head off to the references and, as often as not, find nothing.  I muddled through it all, but it was frustrating.

The flag that came with the set.

I was feeling that way right until I washed them.  All of a sudden they came alive and I was enchanted.  The character and detail that were painful to paint looked great.  I wish I had a use for them.  I bought them when I was going to play some ECW with one of the guys at the club.  He then dropped off the face of the earth and these sat on the shelf for a year.

A stand of shotte.

While I was painting I calculated what I would need to get a minimum playable army. Another box of these plastics, some standing pike (metal) and a few command models, plus one box of cav and one cannon.  It's a little insane really.  All of that for an army I have no intention of playing any time soon.  More of a "just in case" army.

The green shotte.

I even have 25% of a second regiment ready to go.  Happily a moment of sanity prevailed and I'll not be adding to this army until I have a likely opponent, or the ECW bug bites a lot harder than it has so far.

Side shot.

For now these lads will find a home on a shelf.  It's sad but those are the breaks when you're a model.

The other flag from the box.

The next entry was supposed to be for the Victorian themed round.  My son's birthday party was that Saturday and after three hours of wrangling kids around the pool I sat down to base this model.  Two hours later I woke up and it was way too late to get him based and have the sand/glue dry.

The Raisuli

This is a 28mm metal model from Gringo 40.  It's the Raisuli from "The Wind and the Lion".   I love this movie, mostly because the Marines land and fight just about everyone from the locals to the Germans and French.  There's some other stuff but, whatever.

The horse was last seen next to a Celtic nag.

This is a very fine model.  Loads of detail, sharp with little casting.  The sculptor captured Sean Connery's face very well.

Sean Connery.

Better late then never.  This model will lead a company for In Her Majesty's Name.  Now I just need to source the right Berber models to fill it out.

Boromir.

This last model was not part of the plan for the Challenge.  Rhys has been using Gondor models to play Lion Rampant and wanted a new hero for his army.  Boromir and Aragorn vie for first place in his affections.

The Captain of Gondor.

When Rhys asked me to paint this model up for him; well, I just couldn't say no to that, could I?  This is a really nice model.  Great detail, very sharp casting.  He looks just like Sean Bean.  (Hmm, perhaps I should call this the Sean round).

The rear of the model.

Rhys is happy with him, so I'll count this one a win.  That's 37 28mm foot models and one 28mm mounted model.  Not bad for one week's work.  I think I'll slow it down for next week though.


From Curt:

Holy smokes! What is it with you Monday people?! Everyone who's posted today has been painting like maniacs - it's awesome!

Your ECW unit turned out brilliantly Aaron. I enjoyed reading your thought progression as you moved through the week as it reflects many a night at the hobby desk where I've wondered, 'Why am I doing this again?' Nonetheless, as you say, there is a great feeling of satisfaction when you get a unit done. It's just too bad there is nobody in your area that plays the period as I know how difficult it can be when you're holding the torch alone. 

Boromir is great model to be sure but I have to say I really liked seeing this Raisuli figure as I've always wanted to get one myself. He does look to be marvellous casting and you've done an excellent job on him. It makes me want to see the movie again...

Welcome to the top 10 Aaron - well done!

From BrendonW - 28mm WotR Fighting for Beer & Bacon (175 Points)

I have had an excellent painting week since my last submission. So as a part of the awesome Monday Club I present lots of plastic and only plastic....

35 Miniatures...Wahoo!

The first Pike recruits. Includes a Drummer and a fully armoured leader pointing type dude. One of these Pike fellas uses a Foot Knight body. See if you can spot him.

Next is Shooters. Three Crossbows to get my previously submitted unit up to 12 and 8 dudes with primitive black powder guns.

Last is some men with Bills. Twelve dudes ready to hook, stab and chop.....nasty!  All figures here are  from the Perry Miniatures War of the Roses sets.

Finally here is some extras roped in to show you my custom made unit bases from one of our excellent sponsors...Warbases. I got these a while back and I can not say enough good things about Warbases. Excellent service and great product.

I am extremely unlikely to exceed this amount of miniatures painted in a week. It just happened to be a good week for painting (and gluing them together). Not at work this week and a nice heavy dose of Monsoonal rain made for good painting days. Unlike Northern Hemisphere with Snow and unlike Southern parts of Australia that are crispy dry, here in Darwin, Northern Territory, it's the Wet Season. Always the potential for a Cyclone but it's super green here at the moment.....and sweaty.

From Curt:

Wow, that is a BIG schwack of armoured guys with nasty pointed sticks - well done Brendon! 

As with your other troops from this project these look fantastic (obviously beer and bacon favours these fellows). Those movement trays are pretty swish as well. I especially like the one to the far right that has the most irregular spaced sockets - the troops in that tray have a more varied, natural stance to their formation. Very cool.

Excellent work Brendon. Keep it up and keep dry! :)

From AdamC - 28mm Napoleonic French Infantry (155 Points)

After doing the Guard D'Argent earlier I decided I would finish up the French I got form John.  I believe  these are all Perry figures. While very nice figures they have reminded me why I don't like 28mm scale for full size units in the Napoleonic period.  Its just too much fiddly detail no one will see on the table but every one will pick up on in the grab a model.  Love this scale for skirmish games and Dark Ages but I find it frustrating to paint for this period. Any way I won't be stumbling on them each time I go into the dead lead box so that feels good.

So I present to you what I intend to be the final two units of Napoleonic French I plan on doing in this scale. Note I had no Porte Drapeua figures so I had to modify two musketeers to carry the Eagles and colors.

I must confess I cheated a bit using army painters Ultramarine Blue primmer to prep the figures.

Thanks to this I only had to deal with picking out the details and the part of the uniform that are not dark blue

 I varied the trouser colors, brown, gray (I was going for untreated linen) and off-white

 I also had two men firing who will join small cloud of skirmish troops.

All in all I have one unit with 15 figures, one unit with 14 figures and 2 skirmishers.  Since I was using up what was left I wound up with some odd numbers in the unit bu all and all that is 31 figures all 28mm so that 155 Points. Not exactly a point bomb but a nice total when combined with the 33 from the 15mm vehicles. 

From Curt:

Excellent work Adam! Interesting call on using a blue spray as a primer. There is still a lot of white on these figures so I'm not sure if would be a real shortcut for me. I'm thinking the blue primer would work really well on French legere infantry or Portugues line which also had blue trousers to match their jackets. Hmm. I'll have to give it a go myself to see. Nonetheless, they look grand and ready to march to the 'Pas de Charge'.

Wow, this has been a very productive week for you as well. Between your two entries today I think you've shot up five positions in the points standings - well done!

From ClintB - 28mm Harpies (25 Points)

Yes I know, full and partial nudity. No, I was not painting in the nod! Well not this time! I do of course refer to the figures and being honest I don't think much of these Foundry sculpts. I am not saying I could do better, I KNOW I could not. But I am saying these do not seem up to their normal standard. Still enough whining and on to the figures.

5 28mm Harpy figures from Foundy's Greek Myth range. When I checked their range I noticed that they make both feathered wings and more bat like wings. I was not aware of that when I got this pack on eBay but I do now. Not that it would stop me I think I would have gotten the bat wings for choice.

Anatomically they are not like most Greek ladies most noticeable in the legs which definitely have a more avian feel to them. The first 3 are all the same species of Harpies. While the last two are somewhat different. I went for blond hair as they are mythical creatures and gives a good contrast to the purple of the wings.

As you can see the last two are different from the other Harpies. One has human legs (but a contorted face as "She" is eating some flesh. While the last one has "her" wings attached to her arms. In all the other sculpts the wings and the arms are separate, yet all are single piece castings.

While these are done well enough for a game they are only done to a wargames standard. But they are now ready for some "7th Voyage" or "Songs of Blades and Heroes" action, which is something I want a go at this year..... Greek myth wargaming.

From Curt:

You know, I actually quite like them Clint. They are perhaps a bit rough and brutal looking but it seems to fit well for the subject matter. The choice of going with blonde/golden hair was a great one. I also like the background you used in your photos Clint - very 'epic'.

...and what was that witty harpie joke you had? Oh, I can't remember... :)

From BrianB - Dagon and Deep Ones (25 points)

These are the rest of the Khurasan Deep Ones to go with the three that I submitted earlier in the Challenge. There were actually nine more as the it was a pack of twelve not the ten that I had convinced myself. I painted them up pretty much the same as the first with some changes in the green to give them some variety.

To go along with them I also painted up a 28mm Reaper Bones Tiik Champion figure to use as a giant monster fish-man or as a stand in for Dagon, the Deep Ones deity in many of the Mythos stories. Part of the reason I decided to use 15mm figures for my Cthulhu/ VSF collection is that it allows me to use 28mm scaled figures as giant monsters. I thought this Reaper figure would look great with them with his armored head and body reminiscent of a Dunkleosteus.

Since most of my giant monsters are influenced by my misspent youth endlessly re-watching Godzilla movies I tend to paint them to match. In this case I kept close to the colors of the rest of the Deep Ones with the addition of some contrast from the armor plates. I also tried to add some watery glistening across parts of their bases with some gloss varnish , although I'm not sure how well it comes across in the photos.

Cthulhu Fhtagn!


From Curt

Oh wow, these are great! I like your approach of using 15mm as a base scale and going with 28mm for the beasties. Trouble is there is sooo much stuff out in 28mm that I don't think I could keep my resolve to a smaller scale - I tip my hat to you!

That Father Dagon is just brilliant. I love the way you've painted him, especially with the purple and yellow accents. I have to pick one of those up for my collection.

Finally, I like how you photographed this entry. The town setting definitely has that 'Innsmouth Look'. :)

Ok, nine 15mm figures is 18 points, and I'll put Father Dagon at 7 points, who looks to be around 40mm, so 25 points total.

Wonderful work!

From AlanD - 28mm Dark Age Seljuk Cavalry (100 Points)

This week I've added some Seljuk ghulams to my growing Saracen force. The figures are from Perry, and they are what you would expect: stunningly detailed little sculptures that are very realistically proportioned, and thus look a little slight compared to some other ranges.

I managed to get these done during breaks from painting the lounge room and ripping up the carpet. I don't remember ever feeling so totally knackered. It has been a good 10 days of solid graft, made possible by loud music and heroic quantities of beer.

The shields are all hand painted, as is the standard. The inscription on the standard is in kufic text, and is copied from the inscription on an Umayyad coin. I tried to make the flag look a bit tattered, but I'm not sure it worked too well. While we are on the topic, I have found coins and Persian carpets to be particularly good sources of text and designs when painting my Saracens. I have tried to make the Arabic inscriptions at least appear plausible, rather than just painting on a squiggle. If you are doing a squiggle, remember that Arabic is written right to left!

That's 9 mounted 28mm figures, giving me a base of 90 points.

From Curt:

Lovely work Alan. Again, you've done a masterful job on their tunics, shields and horse furniture. The flag is particularly brilliant. Great tip on using Persian carpets and coins as inspiration for their shields and banners (and on the right-to-left squiggling...). 

This entry will allow you to just pip past Tamsin again in your points race. Well done.