From Curt - 3mm Napoleonic Portuguese Infantry and French Light Cavalry (40 Points)

Well, since I've been riffing on Napoleonics this weekend, I thought I'd just switch scales and keep on rolling. 
 
Here are six mixed stands of figures for use in Sam Mustafa's Napoleonic rules, 'Blucher'.

First up are three stands of Napoleonic Portuguese infantry - the 'fighting cocks' of Wellington's Peninsular army.

I've given them each a screen of brown-uniformed Cacadores and a light gun. They are led by a red-coated British officer.

The colured hash-marks on their front edge are to indicate both their nationality and to aid in gameplay (line-of-sight, movement, etc.). I think I just need four more bases of these and I'll have enough for their entire force during the period.

Next are three stands of French light cavalry. Two stands of Chasseurs a Cheval and one of Line Lancers. 

I organize my light cavalry in two lines, the mediums are in three and my heavies are packed-in with four lines. As an example, below is a base of cuirassiers leading in the center with light cavalry on its flanks and rear (note: the cuirassiers were painted pre-Challenge).

 

In the rules each of these stands roughly represent a brigade. They all have a 2 inch frontage (the cavalry and artillery have a slightly larger depth). At this scale a square foot on the tabletop is equivalent to a square mile in game terms. This allows us to have very large engagements on a reasonable sized tabletop. If you're interested in reading more on the topic, I continue to prattle on the subject here.

The first and last shots are of the stands in and around my 6mm Mediterranean hill town from Total Battle Scenics. Even though the scale is off between the two, the figures and the terrain actually work quite well together. The pen in the picture above gives you an idea to the size of the figures and bases.

As for points, I'd suggest 1 point for a strip of ten infantry, and 1 point for every five cavalry. This should fit in fairly well with our current scoring matrix. Hmm, maybe it's a bit light, but let's run with that for now. So, with this being the case each of these bases comes in at about 6-7 points - let's settle on 40 points total? Does that sound okay?

Thanks for dropping by and I hope you all have a great day!

Great stuff Curt, I look forward to Blustering away with these teeny tiny lads.  Far be it for me to argue points with the Snowlord so 40pts it is.  I've seen similar bases of Curt's up close and they look just as good in person as they do in the pictures.  

From AdamC - 3 Frosgrave Crossbowmen (15 Points)

 My last entry for the day three kitbashed crossbowmen for Frosgrave.  They have Wargames factory bodies, arms and crossbows form the Cultist box from Frosgrave.  The Center has a Frosgrave head the the others have heads from Wargames facttory

 The extras, quiver, bags and daggers are from the Frograve soldier spruce or Cultist spruce.

 Here is the group shot that was requested its hard to get them all in frame...

 So here are two closer in photos...

Enjoy and I will do another full group shot at the end of the challenge. This is three more 25mm figures for another 15 points.

Great job kit bashing these three Adam, the pieces go together nicely.  And I do like the Family reunion style photos in the end.  The big blue spider is perfect as the centrepiece.

From EdwinK - Nosferatu (15 points)

Nosferatu can be best described as NOT-Dracula.  When the film was made (1921) a few details were changed to make it different from Bram Stoker's story - not enough though!  In a very early example of intellectual property rights being applied to the cinema, Stoker's estate sued.  The studio went bankrupt and all prints of the film were ordered to be destroyed.   Fortunately some survived, and the film is now recognised as a masterpiece of German Expressionism as well as having provided some genre-defining images.

Max Schreck, 1921

Kinski, 1979

The film was remade by Werner Herzog in 1979 as Nosferatu the Vampyre, with Klaus Kinksi in the title role and there was even a very funny 'making-of' film Shadow of the Vampire made in 2000, featuring Jonn Makovich, Willem Dafoe and Eddie Izzard.

Defoe, 2000

These three films are among my wife's favourites, so when I spotted a pack of Nosferatu at a recent show I snapped it up.  They're 28mm from West Wind and come as a pack of four (I've just realised that, and need to find the fourth!).

So, in true genre fashion, I've left the big reveal until quite late...

Bonus Edwin, we get minis and film history.  I'll have to check out the Dafoe/Izzard film.  Those are some creepy looking Nosferatus (Nosferatii?) but nothing is as creepy as the first still that you posted.  

I always look forward to your posts, they are so varied and interesting.  Well done with these fellas and I like the use of sepia tones.

From AdamC- Green and White Knights (93 points)

 These are Mounted Sergeants from Fireforge Games.  A friend of mine and I split them as part of a trade.  He only need three so I got nine or them.

 I gave each of these guys a different cloak. They could make one large unit or three units of three figures each. I have them based with six on two horse bases and three on single bases for easy of marking casualties

 I did the shields in green and white with gold to tie them together as a unit and with the rest of the army that I am building for Dragon Rampant.

 I made most of the horses dapple gray to indicate the guys in charge of this unit tried for uniformity.. but we have a few alternative colouring horses to simulate remounts

 This group of three has all hand weapons, you can see the flail and Sword you get lots of weapon option for your sergeants and to restock your bits box with this set.  Looks like I need to touch up that bridal. (opus)

 The third fellow has a mace.

 The command group lances including one with the unit banner a gold St. Andrews cross with white "stars" in the quarters and white lace on the edges

 Our commander with his Mace held high to encourage the troops or to bring it down on a foe.

The figures have great facial details my limited skill doesn't show what you could to with them.  There was a circlet around his head that I made into a bit of crown, the sort a prince of the blood might wear to highlight his importance. 28mm horsemen are 10 points there 9 hear so that's 90 points the hand painted banner and shields have traditionally been an extra point each (at the judges discretion) for a total of 100 points.  Editor's note:   You're a bit to hasty on this one Adam!  My understandings is 1 point for a flag and a few bonus bonus points for shields as a whole.  Consider than Ian just dropped 48 Hoplites with hand painted shields!

Great unit of Horsemen Adam.  I've not had hands-on experience with the Fireforge plastics but I like what I see.  I do have a hard time with anyone using a two headed morning star flail on horseback, it sounds like a receipt for disaster.  It is great that you can trade figures and share box sets with a fellow gamer, Curt and I have been trading shields, figures and various body parts with our Italian Wars projects.  Your idea of the unit favouring a certain colour of horse certainly has historical precedents in the Horse and Musket era so why not in the Medieval era!  

Nice work of the shields and basing.  And I beg to differ on the facial close up, I  think that's one of your best faces - you've captured the shading and beard nicely.

So points wise I make it 90 for the figures, 1 for the flag and 2 for the shields for the unit. 

From MilesR: Fallschirmjager Heavy Mortars in 15mm Scale (70 Points)

 Another quick unit as I only had a few hours to paint on Saturday.  A German Fallschirmjager heavy mortar unit plus a Panzer IV/70 tank.  All of the miniatures are from Battlefront and are 15mm scale metals.

 This pretty much clears out the 15mm German FOW lead pile save for a few vehicles.  I really like to use mortars in FOW of games - very accurate and can switch from indirect to direct firing.

The Panzer IV/70 is a lone model that I can't even remember picking up.  I'll need to add at least two more before being able to field the tank but it was fun and easy to paint up.

Lets see there are 24 crew/command figures for 48 points plus 4 guns for 16 and the tank for 6 which yields a total of 70 points

I leave tomorrow morning for my companies annual offsite and will not be back until late Thursday night - so not a lot of painting this week either.

I'd feel sorry for you Miles, except that your slow weeks out do my good weeks. Anyway a solid FoW entry.  Good work on the basing and the camo on the vehicle.  Speaking of the vehicle, can I get a price check on this one?  It looks to me to be a Panzerjager or similar tank destroyer, not a turreted Panzer IV.  But my late war armour can be sketchy, and it's hard to tell from the photo.  And I say no need to wait to get 2 more of them, that's army list rules lawyer talk Miles.  Eff the lists and go with what feels right, and to me late war Germans should be able to dole out their limited armour support as they like, and a singleton AFV supporting infantry works for me.

Diversion from PeterD

IanW had me going back to my college days with his lovely hoplite unit.  He reminded me of this link which I thought I would share.  The Linothorax project was the brainchild of some Classicists who wanted to test the effectiveness of ancient linen armour.  They did this by recreated the armour, and shooting arrows at each other while wearing the armour.

Academic research at its best.  This also illustrates the correct way to treat one's grad students!

We saw the book from this in a bookstore a few years back and I still kick myself for not buying it at the time.  My wife is a quilter and I think I could convince her to make me one!

From IanW 6mm Hoplites To Peninsular Brits 71 Points

I have leapt back into 6mm for this weeks post and will probably continue as I have received 700 more 6mm figures from Baccus, mostly Persians.

These are to go against my Macedonian army and originally the Hoplites below were for them but I will have them defect over to the Persians, well they are mercenaries. 

I painted the one base in last years Challenge so I finally finish off the pack. These are Baccus and needed little work to get them ready for painting,  The rear shields are a sod to get at as they are on strips four deep. The pack I received for the Persians are the more traditional four wide making the shields easy to get at.

As with my ancients it's a basic paint job with the mass effect being the main effect. What detail painting there is I did as simple as possible so it would not become a time sucker.

I went with brown leather armour and this makes them look quite a bit darker than I originally had in mind but the end result works for me so no complaints.

Three Battalions of Peninsular British for my sons army, again these came out darker as I was aiming for faded uniforms, I will have to go a few shades lighter next time. This gives him five British line infantry battalions and two rifle battalions. He gets to pick what's painted next for these guys.

We have the 9th East Norfolk, the 10th North Lincolnshire and 11th North Devonshire the first battalion of each regiment. Next time I do some of his infantry I will go deeper into the list to spread them out a bit. The flags should have been Baccus but I have used up two flag sheets worth of the light yellow ones so have had to use some of a bunch I got off e-bay way back. They are very nice but a little bit bigger than the Baccus ones.

I like to have my flags look like they have a bit of wind in them so tweezers in hand they get a bit of a wave thing going on. It's a bit fiddly but once you have done a few it gets a lot easier. I am no fan of the bed sheet look that others favour. Last thing to do is to paint the edges of the flags to cover up the white edges, oh I am so glad I have the Union flag to edge, what fun.

So 48 hoplites and 84 scum of the earth earns me a respectable 66 points, with 44 going to the Ancients side challenge and the lot to our 6mm challenge, I bet Tamsin responds double quick ;-)

Wow Ian, you've done it again.  My first army was that of the Spartan King Agesilaus and I'm a sucker for rows of bronze hoplons and crested Corinthian helmets.    And these lads look like they are all set to loot the cities of Ionia!  I agree that the brown armour might be a little dark but the end effect works well. next time why not try the brilliant white linothorax to see how that works.  

I am afraid that I am going to be the annoying War-games Fashion Police and point out a problem with your planned use of these figures.  The Lambda shield   blazon (which you've aced) was the state symbol for Sparta and thus wouldn't be worn by a unit of mercenaries unless serving in a Spartan army.  So I suggest that you build a Spartan army that can fight either your Persians or your Macedonians, and then build units of Hoplites with varied shield designs who can serve under any of the three armies.  Honest it's a win-win situation, at least for those of us fortunate to watch it unfold!

And those Redcoats are wonderful I do hope that your son appreciates them.  The way you turn the bases into battalion sized vignettes really sells me on 6mm as a scale.  I've added 5 points to your score for the hand painted shields on the hoplites and the basing on the whole bunch

Ian mentions the 6mm Side Duel, and it's a three way battle between Ian, Tamsin and MarkO with 34 points between them at start of play today. 

From AdamC 4 Barrow-wights/Frostwraiths Frosgrave (20 Points)

 These Four came from the same box as Tom and Goldbrerry

 They are truly scary and cool looking Wights in antique armour.  They will make great  Frotswraiths for litch king scenarios in Frostgrave.

 I think that they have the great detail we expect from Games Workshop and these weren't as pricey as some.

There are enough hear that I can get double use out of them in Dragon Rampant as a unit of undead.

It wouldn't be a Monday without a Frostgrave post from AdamC, and it's a damn fine one to start Monday.  There is some very good movement on these figures which you've nicely captured Adam.  And I like the way that the bronze scale armour came out.   

I've been looking at the Side Duel scores and there is a terrific scrap going on between Adam and PaulS with less than 50 points between them at daybreak, now just shy of 70pts.    Something tells me that Adam's not done for the day either.

Monday Morning

Well it's Monday morning after the bonus theme round, and we're in the mid-Challenge doldrums.  I am certainly suffered from this syndrome.  I didn't have a regular post set to go for Saturday and I've had two epic failures in a row on the bonus themes.  I got the wrong type of foam for the Rock of Gibraltar (Defensive Terrain) and had a primer fail on my Mouslings (L'amour).

Fortunately we have some good stuff in this week's instalments from Team Monday as shown below.

My iPod gets in themes at times, and lately its been on a bit of an Alt-Country roll. So we'll end off with this bit of Can-Con from Kathleen Edwards.