From PeterD - 28mm Swiss Pikemen (85 points)

Hard on the heels of Curt's Gendarmes, I have a more much more modest post for our 'Renaissance Men' duel.  These are 16 Perry miniatures painted as Swiss Pikemen from the Zurich Canton.

These were a while in completion.  The first 8 were ready to go on the 12th but I decided to wait a week to get the whole unit a once, since the next 8 were in progress already. However primer failures and a stomach issue left me 98% ready with the unit last week end.  Given how I felt I waited another week to make sure I was happy with the results. And while not up to Curt's standard (Pah! -ed), I am quite happy with the results.

The mix of figures is 7 metal figures with pikes leveled and at 45 degree angles, 1 metal Swiss horn player bartered from Curt (thanks bud), 1 plastic command figure with standard from the Mercenaries boxed set, 1 plastic foot knight with pikemen's arms, and the rest European Mercenary plastics with pike and halberd arms (the latter from the bill and bow set).  The heads from a variety of plastic boxes plus some metal Swiss heads.  The metal pikemen come with pollards so the pikes are brass rod.  The flag is paper printed at home based on a Zurich flag from the Burgundian wars.

I am continuing to work on my basing.  Here again it is the Perry plastic bases topped with an acrylic gel/paint  mix and with ballast rocks and GW tufts.  Comments, feedback and suggestions for improvement are appreciated.

Well, I had a points lead for at least a few hours... :0P

These are great Pete! Pikemen are the meat and potatoes of the late medieval period, so it's wonderful to see more fine examples here. I like that you've done-up this unit with the front ranks charging their pikes, going in for the attack. I know they can be a bit fiddly to use on the tabletop, but the sense of movement they give just can't be beat.

I like where you're going with your new basework Peter. The texture gel and tufts look great. My only suggestion would be to mix in a few shades and lengths of tufts to provide more depth to the foliage/texture. Also, I recommend both painting and drybrushing the tallus. It will help integrate them with your existing basework colour scheme and the paint gives an added benefit of binding them to the base for longevity. 

I'm going to give a few more points for the brass rod pike swaps and the canton's brave banner. Now, I just need to convince you to add a couple more bases to beef them up to full meglomaniac level. ;)

I look forward to impaling my new gendarmes on these guys in an upcoming game! :)

From GregB - The Fall of The West - 15mm Soviets for Team Yankee (260 points)

The west will fall...

Well, I'm back from my vacation in California, and I've been burning up the painting table this past week.  Today's submission is a big sucker, and I'm pretty psyched to have it finished - it includes two companies of 15mm Soviets for Battlefront's new game "Team Yankee" - a T-72 tank company and a motor rifle company mounted in BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles.  There are two Mi-24 Hind gunships for support, and a lone BRDM recon car.  

Group photo of the whole lot - two companies of stuff, plus supports, in 15mm

The vehicles are new plastic multi-part kits from Battlefront, with a lone exception - the BRDM is a metal kit from QRF.  The infantry are 15mm modern Russians/Soviets from Eureka. The Team Yankee infantry from Battlefront, although "released" a month ago, are still nowhere to be found, and overall the Eureka stuff is nicer, even if the kit they are sporting is a little more early 90s than the late 80s look from "Team Yankee". I got sick of waiting for BF, so I went with these Eureka fellows for my first Soviet infantry unit. All of the bases come from Warbases.

Tank commander in Soviet T-72A

Soviet Motor Rifle Battalion commander and his BMP-2 - the BMP models from Battlefront are great

Motor Rifle Company leader - I have used flowers to mark out the command bases for quick reference on the table

There are a bunch of propaganda photos to share, so I'll stow the ranting about multi-part plastic miniatures, sh!tty plastic that breaks on the sprues, and how the unditching beams on the Soviet tanks don't actually assemble as advertised, to focus instead on how nice the BMP models are, and how cool it is in general to have some Hind gunships for the table.  On to more photos!

Motor rifle troops - love these Eureka sculpts

PKM MG bases for the motor rifles

BRDM recon car from QRF - lightly armed and armoured, this thing has one job - burn brightly to mark the location of NATO resistance for advancing Soviet columns

Mi-24 gunships - a pain in the ass to assemble and paint.  I spent a lot of time on them (for me), and I'm still not totally happy with them, but overall I'm really jazzed to have these iconic Cold War beasts ready for the table

You can model them with the landing gear up or down (whatever I think of plastic kits, you have to credit Battlefront for swinging for the fences on these).  I opted for  the gear to be down as I intend to use these to land troops on the table as well as shoot up NATO tanks

T-72As...not an inspiring choice of Soviet tank IMO (the T-80s and T-64s are so much nicer, especially with the Kontakt explosive armour), but it is consistent with the "Team Yankee"  novel...

You get all sorts of tank commanders to use on the models - nice bonus

There are mine plows for all of the tanks if you want them - another very nice touch

I overdo the lense effects a fair bit, but I like the tank to look "alive" and menacing on the table - IRL the lenses are not nearly so visible...

The battalion captures an imperialist town in these propaganda photos

Gunships cover the column - I have to say the look of the static rotors is not that pleasing - a clear acrylic disc giving an impression of the blades turning would look a LOT cooler

The major tries to direct traffic

Motor rifle dismounts take up position

The town centre is swept for resistance and undesirables

PKM teams take up defensive positions

Air landing troops dismount from a Hind

Marksman keeps an eye out for Yankee Imperialists in the distance...

T-72s on the move

So this submission includes a total of 59 infantry and 23 vehicles, all in 15mm, which I think should get me 256 points. Wow - that's nearly a Tamsin-style points bomb! Of course, there can only be one Tamsin, but it's fun to imagine!

My commie overlords make plans for the fall of NATO

I have to say I'm super keen to get this stuff out for a spin on the table sometime soon, although I still need infantry and APCs for the NATO side.  Stay tuned for more on that! Now to try and get something "nautical" painted up for tonight...

Wow. Just wow. Greg, your brushes must be absolutely smoking after this effort.

Point bomb aside, this is a such a great submission. You've become such a master of working in the 15mm scale Greg, that even though I have a dim opinion on the whole 'Team Yankee' hype-fest, when I see stuff like this from you, my resolve begins to crumble. 

While the plastics make you crazy (which I always take great pleasure in reading), you've done a fabulous job on them. I always struggle with painting vehicles, but you make it seem all so easy. The weathering a basework is spot-on and I always like your inclusion of lens reflections on the optics. It literally adds that bit of sparkle to the vehicles.

I completely agree with you regarding those Eureka Soviet infantry - they are gorgeous castings. In fact they look better than most 28s. If you dedicate the time to navigate Eureka's Dantean website it's amazing the number of gems one can find buried amongst their ranges.

Of course, what completely seals it for me is the Hind helicopters. Those things are the absolute t!ts! I love the camo and I agree they'll have better utility with the landing gear down for use in deploying infantry, or as airbase 'chrome'. They are just so nasty and menacing looking - just imagining those things coming over the horizon gives me the shivers.

I'm going to top you off to 260 points for the extra time and effort you spent on these vehicles - they look brilliant. Well done Greg! I definitely look forward to rolling out with these guys the next time we game.

From TamsinP - The Rest Of My 6mm Rebs (150 Points)

I did consider spreading this lot over several posts, but decided that that wouldn't be fair on our (Snow)Lord and Master so they're all presented in this one  - pic-heavy - post.

A few weeks ago I submitted 22 bases of Reb infantry and the artillery. This week you get the rest of the army - some Zouaves, the cavalry and the commanders. Here's a pic of everything in this submission to start you drooling.

*bing-bong*
"Good morning ladies and gentlemen. The flight attendants will now be distributing tissues for you to wipe up your saliva with"

Let us start with the cavalry:

All very nice, but has she been psycho-OCD enough to paint the buff collars?

Cripes! She has!
Well, not on all of them. Some of the troopers in grey jackets I decided not to paint the buff collars and cuffs. I'm not totally mad!

Of course, you have to have some dismounted cavalry as well:

And no ACW army is complete without some flamboyant and glamorous Zouaves in colourful uniforms:

Getting in close:

These are meant to represent the Maryland Guard Zouaves and the Louisiana Zouaves (not to be confused with their state compatriots, the Louisiana Tiger Zouaves). I didn't do all of the red trim on their jackets (or any of the black trim on the baggy trousers). Even I'm not crazy enough to do that in this scale.


An army also needs commanders:

I'll see your skewbalds...

...and raise you a piebald!

As with my Union army, I had a few spare cavalry figures which I've mounted singly to use as "PIP" markers, messengers or lower level commanders,:

Edit: forgot some pics!:

Now, working it out for points:
Mounted cavalry - 56 figures = 56 points
Dismounted cavalry - 28 foot and 12 horses = 20 points
Zouaves - 64 figures = 32 points
Commanders - 18 figures = 18 points
"PIP" markers - 7 figures = 7 points
Total = 133 points

As before, all figures are Baccus 6mm, who also supplied the flags on the commanders and Zouave bases.

I did mention that this completed my army (for now - I am a wargamer after all. And a megalomaniac to boot), so it would be remiss of me not to leave you with pics of the whole army together:

Not bad when you think these were all painted and based in a total of about 4 weeks.

*Wibble, wibble*

Ah, I was beginning to fret that we wouldn't see a proper point bomb from Tamsin before the end of the Challenge, but here she is with flags waving, literally. 

Jeez Louise, fantastic stuff Tamsin.

I've always admired your 6mm work and these don't disappoint. There is so much to like here. My particular favourites are the ragged lines of dismounted cavalry with their attendant groups of horse-holders and, of course, the colourful zouaves with their distinctive red kepis and baggy trousers. Absolutely wonderful paintwork - so very neat and clean. 

This submission has a base of 133 points but I'm going to top it up to 150 due to the attention to detail with the uniform facings, banners and the fiddly Zouaves.

Stonking work Ms. P!!