From AdamC - 97th New York Volunteers (122 points)

Its been a long road but I think I have the infantry for my Union force for Longstreet complete.   The 97th New York was chosen because of a remarkable coincidence.  The man who got me into war gaming was Robert Burr my college roommate.  It turns out one of his ancestors was surgeon  for this regiment (and he might have some other more distant relatives in the ranks as well) the coincidence is this regiment served next to the 12th Massachusetts Volunteers a regiment commanded by Fletcher Webster  the favored son of Marshfield MA were I grew up(he died at 2nd Manassas and is buried about half a mile from my parents home).  So I had to paint both regiments.

I am really happy with how the officer cam out with his gold buckle and rank flashes on this shoulders.

The flag is not the 97th's but one that looks very close the 5th New York if I can find an authentic 97th flag I will use it.

The men really look like they are hurrying to battle.  I did four men to a stand to give this unit a lot of weight.

There are 40 18mm Blue Moon figures here which should come out to 120 points (Curt you seem to have been giving 3 points per infantry figure at this scale, correct if necessary). So two piles have now been eliminated or greatly reduced the Napoleonic pile (is gone) and the ACW infantry is much reduced and might be completed in the time that remains.

From ClintB - 10mm Samurai (62 Points)

Well as I come to the end of this years Challenge I will have 1 more post after this (I hope), My spaceships. But first I have some 10mm Pendraken Samurai figures that will complete (until I find any more dirt cheap, ) my two Samurai armies.

First up 2 mounted Samurai messengers. No I have yet to settle on rules and while I have tried several not found any I like.

Then we have 5 bases of Samurai cavalry armed with Yari. No not lances as I am not sure lances wound work well with Japanese stirrups (I am sure someone will know and tell me)! 3 figures to a base to match my existing force. I have used DBA basing sizes until I settle on the rules ads I think this will suit most sets of rules and besides I loathe re-basing.

Lastly 7 bases of Samurai Infantry.  In with keeping with the rest of the armies I have settled on the same pose and figure on each base. This is just to make identifying troops easier. 2 of the bases nave naginata, although to me they lack the poles and therefore look more like No Dachi. So I will use them as such. 3 Bases with Katanas, 1 base of Bows and one base of spear (Yari). Each with 4 figures to a base.

I am lacking the sashimono back banners so will need to add some later. But as I currently have none in this scale I will have to pass until I get some. Probably at Salute.

Now I am toying with starting another 10mm Period so if in the comments you let me know which of the following you would prefer I will know what I am supposed to be collecting in the coming year all ready for next years Challenge!

1) WW1 Western Front (French and German)
2) WW1 Middle eastern ( Arab revolt, a friend has Turkish and British but he is not in a rush to paint them! )
3) Boer War (Boers only as I already have the British)
4) North west Frontier (Again I already have the Brits so this would just be the Afghanis)

Anyway any preference just add to the comments or ignore entirely if you choose.  Cheers Clint

From AdamC - Greyhound Recon (8 Points)

I did one of these earlier in the challenge and liked how it look so much I decided to do another.

In Flames of War some Cavalry Recon units have two M8 and sometimes they have only one but you can always pair the second one with two other jeeps for a second patrol. These little guys are fast and pack a decent punch against German recon or even their lighter tanks (OK against tanks you have to get really lucky but you can).

With two men in the turret this fellow should get me another 8 points.

From BurkhardS - Waffen SS (45 Points)

Ok, the end is neigh (regarding the 5th installment of the AHPC) so I felt it was time to get some points added to my tally and fast. So looking through my massive lead pile I found some SS troops that I will need for a demo at a show later this year. That is one thing I like about WWII (compared to Napoleonics or as I had to find out even SciFi minis)... they paint up fast even if wearing camo and even if they have lots of insignia on their uniforms.

Up first are some additions to my infantry. These are not the first SS I have painted, but I had a certain lack (and still do to be honest) with some types of minis. One are normal riflemen without the face late war G43´s or StG-44´s. While most of them are geared towards late war, those weapons still were an exception and not the norm, so here are two soldiers with K-98 carbines (one of them also carrying a magnetic mine). There is also an NCO beefing up the numbers of squad leaders. and last there is one machine gun assistant loaded up with lots of ammo to feed into a a Hitlers buzzsaw (already had that one painted but minus the loader).

I wanted a distinct late war look. So they are wearing Erbsenmuster camo clothing. Now to enhance the rag tag looks many German units had to take on in 1944 and 1945 they are wearing a mix of both mint and faded clothing as well as a mix of camo clothing and field grey clothing.

Another area where I have a distinct lack of minis are gun crews, so I painted up a gun team for a PaK or other light field piece.

Again they are wearing a mix of camo clothing in various states of fading and field grey uniforms. This team will eventually see more men in Eichenlaub smocks added to the team (not sure if that will happen during the challenge though). This will add yet more variety to their looks and enable me to field them as a large team.  Even though we are using 28mm we play the Battlegroup set of rules which work out really fine at larger scales as well. In Battlegroup a large crew for a gun gives you a chance for an extra shot per round, so that is a nice option to have.

All the minis in this post are from Victory Force and scaled at 28mm.

From AlanD - More Sub-Post-Roman, Late-Antique-Arthurian-Romano-Britons (84 Points)

Real life is rubbish. It took me two weeks to get these chaps painted. Still, here they are. Another unit of Romano-Britons based for Impetus and Dux Bellorum. Fourteen figures should give me a base of 70 points. 

Figures are a mix of Westwind, Artizan, Crusader (I think?) and Gripping Beast. Hand painted shields, natch. Using shield decals is exactly the kind of thing that brought about the collapse of Roman authority in Britain in the first place. I'm usually a big fan of Westwind Arthurians, but I was a bit underwhelmed by the 'Spearmen at Rest' pack.

The next unit I do is going to be more active. But first! Curtgeld.... 

BrendonW - Mongols on Foot and on Horses (75 Points)

28mm Fire Forge Game plastics. No Red & Black this week instead these nice dynamic looking Mongols. 9 x Infantry from the Steppe Warriors box and 3 x Riders from the Mongol Cavalry box.

The Mongol bodies come as two halves that attach at the belt. Allows for the upper body twist on the Cavalry legs. The parts to make the rider are exactly the same as the infantry with exception of the legs. I really like the Mane on these mounts flowing in the wind. Lends to the dynamic feel.

Fun Facts. The Mongol horse was bred 100% for endurance.
The Mongols used captured infantry as a flesh shield to absorb enemy arrows.

Hope everyone has some juice left in the tank for getting stuff done in the last days of the Challenge. It's been a blast and thanks to Curt for hours of blog organising and emails and...

From AdamC - Austrian and D'Argent Artillery (46 Points)

My collection has lots of British, Prussian and French guns but my Austrian Artillery Park is a bit thin so this seemed like a good time to expand it.   So I painted up 4 guns for my Austrian Army and 2 for D'Argent (who also lacked artillery.

These guys might need an extra coat on the paint now that I see them close up. but the gunners came out well.

 Another angle of the Austrian guns.

 For D'Argent I did the same carriage types but when with gray and orange for the gunners.

I think gray provides a great counter point the bright orange. D'Argent has only a small artillery corps a total of 4 guns these two and two others I painted earlier.  The above is their first howitzer though most of the time the type of gun is irrelevant in the rule sets I play. (Maurice and Black Powder)

Another angle for the Austrians this time showing off their red turn backs.  Brown is such a practical uniform color I am always a bit surprised it wasn't';t used more, maybe because it was such a common civilian color.

There are a total of 6 guns for 24 points and 11 gunners for another 22 points netting me a nice set of 46 points.

AaronH - Twenty four 28mm Celts (132 Points)

This entry is twenty four Celtic infantry as a four element warband for Hail Caesar.  These 28mm figures are a mix of Black Tree, Warlord and Wargames Factory.

24 Celtic warriors with spears.

These are mounted on 60mm x 60mm bases from Litko.  There are six warriors per base.  I wanted a deeper, more chaotic looking formation than my Romans.

The shields are geometric shapes but no fancy free hand.

The front rank are, mostly, Black Tree designs Celts.  These were a gift from fellow blogger Jonathan from Palouse Wargaming Journal.  Please check out his blog.  He has eclectic tastes and great painting.  I always find inspiration on his site.

The Command stand.

I received the BTD Celts just before their Christmas 50% off sale ended.  I took one look and put in an order for more of them.  They are very handsome fellows with a load of character.

The one on the right with the green and white shield is my favorite.

The BTD and Warlord models were fun to paint.  Good detail and character.  The Wargames Factory were a mixed bag, as usual.  Some are great and some are horrible.  Ranked up like this the ugly ducklings are less visible behind their more handsome leaders.

This stand is all Warlord or Wargames Factory.

The Warlord transfers were worse than usual this time.  Every single one of them tore while I was removing it from the transfer paper.  I was going to be hand painting many of these shields anyway but that just pushed me to do them all.  I just didn't feel up to free handing Celtic designs though.

Celts from the rear.  A not uncommon sight on gaming tables the world over.

I really like the look of the element bases.  They are a pain to do the base work on but the end result is well worth the effort.  I'll do a few more warbands like this as well as more single based for skirmish.

Close up of the command stand.

I am still enjoying these models so they will get some more brush action after the challenge.  I need a few more warbands if I'm going to be able to match the Romans.

BTD Celts in the front.  Handsome devils.

I believe I've got enough models for three more of these warbands as well as both sling and javelin armed skirmishers.

Warlord plastics.  Still great looking models.

These twenty four models should put me over my second goal.  I'm going to sit on 1500 for the remainder.  I may get a few more models done but work has kicked up a notch and I'm just done by the time I get home.

From Curt:

I'm coming up for air to congratulate you on reaching your Challenge target - well done young man!! 

AND brilliant job on these Celts - I'm going to keep an eye out for BTD when I tackle this army as they look very fine here.

Again, well done! 

From TamsinP - Korean "Soldiers" and Archers (144 Points)

"Soldiers" flanked by archers

And now my third and final entry of the week (no. 21 of this Challenge. Bleedin' 'eck, I have been productive).

Looking at what I had ready to go and what would be good to get painted up I decided that the Mongol cavalry would be too much work and I didn't fancy painting up more 6mm Union infantry. I knew that in the prepped pile I had a bunch of Korean infantry and realised they'd be something I could paint up in time.

So, in between putting the finishing touches to the 30YW regiment, I glued the figures onto their bases and added medium ballast for basing texture. Why did I do them that way? For the simple reason that that is how I've done the rest of the army, even though it does make them more fiddly to paint.

They were then primed white by airbrush. I found this provided a much better surface then brushing it on by hand.

"Soldiers"

During the Choson era, there were several reforms of the Korean military. Under the Koryo dynasty, there existed a number of special units - the To Bang and Tae Gak guards and the private armies of various lords. These were outlawed between 1457-1464 and replaced with a smaller elite infantry force of "soldiers" who fought with spears, polearms and tridents as well as bows and long swords. In FoG:AM they are classed as Superior Drilled Protected Medium Foot, Bow*, Light Spear/Sword and you can take up to 16 bases of them, so that is what I have painted up.

Each base has either 2 archers and 1 "spearman" or 1 archer and 2 "spearmen".


Archers

I also had some regular archers in the prepped pile. These were sent out in error - I'd actually ordered levy archers but decided to keep them. There was a reason for that - two of my painted regiments only had crossbow or firearm supporting rank options, but in FoG:R they only have the option of firearms or bows. the two regiments lacking bows were the Orange and Yellow, so I painted them up for those two.

In reality, the hat plumes should all be red. I used different colours to allow easy identification of units on the tabletop as they may be of different quality levels.

The figures are all Old Glory 15s.

A few folks from the club (myself included) will be re-fighting the battle of Byeokjegwan (1593) on the 22nd. Or it might be somewhere entirely different. You see, after the success of our Talas re-fight where we played a pre-game by email we have extended that and are playing out the pre-battle manouevres. I am playing the Reverend Yu Jeong (also known as Song-Un), commander of the Righteous Army of Sangha. I'm having great fun doing that, but writing missives in-character to the player who is the Chinese general Li RuSong does take a while. The game itself will be a very welcome break to celebrate the end of the Challenge.

Totting Up Time:

72 15mm foot figures @ 2 points = 144 points

That completes my entries for this week and leaves me within spitting distance of my revised target of 2500 points.

Other than my Curtgeld figure, I haven't decided yet what to paint up over the remainder of the Challenge. There may be some more spaceships if I have time, but I'm now torn between doing the Mongol cavalry, finishing the ACW Union infantry or putting together and painting some more WotR stuff. I guess you'll just have to wait and see.