From SamuliS: Zastrow Kürassiere (67 points)

Back from the holidays and some more Saxons, this time in the form of the Zastrow Kürassiere Regiment forming the second unit of heavy cavalry in addition to the Garde du Corps. Again 18mm minis from AB that were really a joy to paint as the details are very brisk and quite easy to pick out. A simple paint job with block painted colours and a black wash followed by a highlight.

Quite a fast project to paint as they were done in just a couple of short evening painting sessions. However they took quite long to finish up as hobby time was quite limited during the holidays as we were visiting quite a few relatives, going out hunting for a few days and watching the Ice Hockey U-20 World Championships that were played in my home town here in Finland. Still I guess it was time well spent as we shot a couple of moose down and Finland ended up winning the world championships after a thriller game against Russia!

Even with the temperature dropping to roughly minus 25 degrees Celsius it didn't stop us Finns from celebrating the victory in traditional way by going for a swim in a fountain in the city center. Though swimming was a bit harder this year around... I guess it goes without saying that we can get a bit crazy over hockey (though I guess we are still pretty far behind Canada in our obsession)

Swimming in the fountain can be a bit tricky in the time of victory

With the temperatures bordering on the classic frozen hell levels it's finally time to get back to painting in earnest. I'm not looking forward to hanging outside more than needed so it's a great excuse to finally put some hours in with the brushes!

Oh wow - this post is a real laugher, and painful all at once! We'll start with the cavalry - they look fabulous, and your brushwork does those marvellous AB castings justice.  As I mentioned in Alex's post earlier today, heavy cavalry is the belle of any tabletop ball, and these fellows look the part.  Great work.  

And on to the hockey - while in Canada we like to assume we are the only ones who are bonkers about it, the passion is in fact shared widely around the world, as you so amply demonstrate in this post.   

Let's see now...Finland knocked out the Canadian juniors, during which you painted some great cavalry figures, then you shot a moose (another facet of our state-endorsed Canadian identity), and then ran around outside in the buff because you beat Russia in a gold medal game (something we in Canada wish we were doing ourselves)...did you happen to burn down a maple syrup factory while you were at it? This would hurt, if that last celebratory photo was not so hilarious. I will rate that a few extra points, although hopefully we are not starting a new Challenge "scoring trend" (ahem)...35 points and great job! And Suomi for the gold!! We'll be out for revenge next year... 

Edit by Minion Tamsin - points adjusted as AB figures are being scored as 20mm