From DaveD - Thundering Hooves.. (402 points)

Its been a week of horseflesh and riders (well the horses were done 3 weeks ago with oils) to complete the FINAL (honest....) unit for the Mahdist forces. This is 39 Baggara cavalry and a mounted commander to add to the existing 32 - so a total of 72 cavalry.

they are all Perry miniatures. Each of the spear carriers has had a flattened sharpened short spear soldered in the riders hand to make them more durable as the supplied spear is way too bendy and thick. So these lads have a tendency to "bite" you - or get stuck up your finger nail if you don't treat them with respect!

I decided to do some more colourful and detail work on the commnader figure with a bit of an intricate design on the horses barding.

So added to the exisitng force of 32 - it takes me to 72 Baggara cavalry - and with the 82 Camels and riders take me over the initial project aim of 150 mounted for the army.

The full horse mounted cavalry forces

and the whole army completed over the various challenges all laid out...

with a short video review too

...and yes I now might as well have shares in the Really Useful Box company, Having just packed them all away it takes the following

2 x 11 litre deep boxes for the mounted
8 x 7 litre for the foot
1 x 4 litre for comman and guns

MilesR: Give me a minute while I pick my jaw up off the floor..... What a huge mounted points bomb and the assembled army is really an amazing accomplishment.  I tip both my hat and tropical drink to you, Sir!  I added a few points for the banners

"Is That All There Is?" - MartinC (120 Points)

Miles has a grueling work session and so we have to post a day early. Capitalism is hard. That coupled with a week of  casting and making my own figs, and an 8 hour gaming session in the wargames dungeon today (the best game I've ever played, and probably the biggest) - pop over to my site in the next couple of days or to Matt's for the Sealion write up.
With the excuses sorted on to the figs. I've "completed " my Mahdist forces with these 24 Perry figs

Such a small post (120 pts)  warrants a small post and a suitable (and very very banned) song.

More next time and some hand made figures

MilesR: Who doesn't love a submission with Perry figures - and these are painted up so nicely

AdamC- Frosgrave Gnolls and Vikings (155 Points)

 Here we have the balance of the Frostgrave Gnolls box.  I did them all up as hand to hand fighter there are 14 in total(20 Per box)

 First up we have 5 armed with some sort of hand weapon and shield.  I went with a plain wood color for the shields and then did patterns of random red lines and shapes on them.  I wanted to suggest they meant something to the Gnolls with out going for anything that looked to human.

 The box set has a variety of weapons from a scimitar like sword, two different hand axes and war clubs.

 Here are seven more Gnolls all armed with either two weapons or with two handed weapons.  Again we have a great variety form two handed axes and swords to a spear weapon that looks a bit like a shortened glave.

 I tried to vary the colors of their clothing to give them a colorful appearance. For basing I've gain gone with something that might suggest subterranean ground with some sort of moss or mold growing on it. I plan to combine these twelve figures into a single unit of offencive Heavy Foot for Dragon Rampant or a I could make them two units of Elite Infantry.

The officers.  I intend to use these two with their two handed swords as a command unit in Dragon Rampant. I'll use the Elite infantry template.  Having two figures is handy as it means I can remove one to indicate the unit is below half strength.

The rear view of the figures.  For this shield I wanted to indicate that he had pick it up from some human soldier and then decorated it in Gnoll fashion.  So that 14 figures in the 25mm scale for 70 points and possibly a few extra points the shields if the beneficent Monday Minion is so inclined.

 Next up are a new bunch of Vikings that I picked up last year a Huzzah.

 I'm not sure who made these but they are (excepting a few awkward poses) very nice figures.

 I plan to use these guys for Saga and this fellow will be be a banner man with a unit of Hearthguard or Warriors.  The Flag is one of the many excellent examples provided by Ray on his excellent blog.

 Basicly you give up one fighter for the ability to recover more quickly from fatigue.

 The guy on he left is one of those awkward poses... I'm not sure what he is doing with his weapons but at least he's heading at the enemy.

 One of the issues I had painting is the copious amounts of chainmail, there is only so much you can do with bare metal.

 Everyone always talks about how much fun raiding is.. no one ever talks about the hard work of carrying off the loot

 This is a great figure who will be useful in games were carrying off loot is important

 Front and back of two warriors with spears and an extra weapon

 Hand Painted shields

 Sword armed warriors.  I really like the fellow with the fur lined vest.

 The guy on the left with the hat is also nice break ups the sameness of the outfits.  Again these are hand painted shields.

Last up is my great hand painted shield "failure"  I was going for a running horse but it came out looking more like a rabbit so I have embraced it with a little Monty Python homage. This is a very dangerous man as indicated by his killer bunny shield.

Now for something very different Regiment Von Shepard.  Readers of my blog may have some familiarity with my Imagi-nation The Grand Duchy of D'Argent.  Well I decided some time ago it was time to create an enemy for them.  Thus the Draconian Empire was born.  I'm populating this a fictional Holly Roman Empire with regiments commanded by gaming opponents of mine and they are getting input into their uniforms.

 My friend Frank Sheppard wanted his unit to look like the 60th foot/Royal Americans.  I was happy to oblige his anglophilia and even borrowed some Early 18th Century English flags for the regiment.

 The Figures are Old Glory15s Hanoverians very nice sculpts that paint up quite well.

 I took the flags from War Flag my go to source for inexpensive (free) flags.

I've got several additional Draconian units coming up as I really need to get cracking on 15mm Seven Years War side challenge.  This first 32 points volley for 16 figures gets me on the board but I am way behind

Points 25mm figures
14 Gnolls = 70 point
10 Vikings = 50 points
120 points in total plus a few possible extras for the hand painted shields if the beneficent Monday Minion is so inclined.

Points 15mm figures
16 infantry = 32 points


MilesR: Nicely varied entry - I really like painting up the plastic Gnolls for Frostgrave.  I threw in an extra point for the shield and 2 for the flags, bringing your net to 135!

From LeeH - Tarantine Light Cavalry (18 points)

As the name suggests the Tarantine Light Cavalry originally referred to cavalry of the army of the Greek city of Tarantas (Tarentum) in Magna Graecia (Southern Italy), This was the only cavalry of the Graeco-Roman world to employ pure, advanced skirmishing tactics. These troops were generally unarmored and normally equipped with a large round shield and javelins.

Later in the Hellenistic period 'Tarantines' no longer bore a geographical significance and was used purely as a tactical term. Instead it had become a collective name used to describe almost any lightly armed cavalry units, similarly armed and employed in a skirmish role.

Once again I have referenced an illustration from an Osprey guide (of course!) and given these guys red tunics and large bronze shields with an assortment of nautical designs on them.

Eighteen cavalry will net me a modest 18 points but I have more cavalry on the way which should be finished for next week.

MilesR: Your army continues to grow!

Star Wars Armada Z-95s and Havoc by JohnSe (7 points)

Despite painting furiously over the last week, I still have lots of figures that aren't quite ready to be posted. I did manage to finish off some more itty bitty spaceships for Star Wars Armada. While meager in points, I'm excited to get these finished ships onto the table.

The Z-95 Headhunter was created for the Star Wars RPG back in the 80's. I believe it incorporates rejected design elements for the film's X-Wings, and while it's undeniably an X-Wing knock off, I've always liked the design. The Z-95 has shown up in a number of games (tabletop, RPG and video) as either a second line Rebel ship or in the service of various planetary defense forces, pirates or other malcontents. With a wide variety of organizations flying them each sporting their own custom paint jobs, there's a wide variety of color schemes to choose from or plenty of room to make up your own. After a cursory search I picked a style that would help distinguish these Z-95s from my Red Squadron X-wings, but wouldn't look too out of place in service to the Rebel Alliance.

The Havoc, a heavier fighter bomber available to the Rebels in Armada belongs to Nym, some sort of tentacle headed alien I'd never heard of. Nym appears in some old Clone Wars era comics and video games, and in the extended Star Wars fiction has apparently stuck around until the Rebellion era.

Being unfamiliar with the ship, and unwilling to do TOO much research, I picked a bright orange and white color scheme that showed up in Nym's Wookipedia entry. It's a tasty little ship on the table, and I'm pretty happy that I can field it in a flashy paint job.

All told, it's a tiny entry of 7 ships but every bit counts towards that point goal, right?

MilesR: Great looking Paint job! and such tiny ships

Happy Monday from the Turks!

Welcome to Monday, broadcasting live from the serene Turks and Caicos Islands.  Yes we've taken Monday on the road this week because it's earned a little bit of a walk about.

Now I'm here for an arduous work related set of meetings where we think big thoughts and try desperately not to fall asleep during our long term planning meetings.  It's tougher than you think what with the rhythmic crashing of the waves and the warm caresses of the tropical breezes.  Yes, it's a very difficult environment.

Despite the difficulties of the local, Monday still comes storming in with more than 700 points of painting goodness.  And horses, lots and lots of horses......

Settle into you beach chairs and lather on a bit more suntan oil - 'cause Monday's coming at ya like a Force 5 Hurricane.

I think I'll mosey up to the bar for another gin fizzy whilst I gaze at all this painting gold.

Side Duels and Challenges Updated

Hi All,

Another points update for the Side Duels and Challenges has been posted.

Please check and confirm I have things right!

Cheers,
Millsy the Duels Wallah