The Votes are in for 'West'

 Hello All,

As the title says, we have the results for our 'West' theme. It was another great round with a host of wonderful interpretations of the theme: 'West'. Many stuck to the compass' meaning while a few used its possibility as a surname as an inspiration.  If you've not managed to take a look at the entries yet, I really suggest you head over and enjoy the gallery.

The runners-up are:

MartinN's 'Western Roman Cataphractarii'

PhilH's Cdr Hector West, Naval Officer (ret), Adventurer (and the lovely Camila)

Curt's 'Herbert West - Reanimator'

ChristopherS' 'Abraham Lincoln Brigade'

For our podium finishers, we have:

3rd Place: SanderS' '80s Pulp Revealed Part I'

Sanders' entertaining trip down memory lane will also give him 25 Bonus Points. Great work Sander!

2nd Place: ByronM's 'Chinese Rail Workers'

Byron's terrific Malifaux Chinese Rail Crew will give him 50 bonus points. Lovely work Byron.

and in 1st: DaveD's 'Viva Zapata!'

This fabulous 'Bad Hombre' will give Dave 75 Bonus Points PLUS a set of Western-themed buildings from Byron's SG2 Creations. Wonderful work Dave, and congratulations!!

A big thank you to all the participants for their great work this round!


...and a snapshot of the theme's stats

 
Next week is our final theme for this year's edition of the Painting Challenge. It's theme is: 'Character(s) and/or Scene from a Movie, TV Program, Book or Piece of Music'.

I'm looking forward to seeing many interesting and creative visions in our last theme round.

Have a great week everyone!

From Curt: Italian Wars Spanish Rodeleros (80 Points)

Thirteen entries! Well, that turned out to be quite a good day after all.  Great work Team Saturday!

Before I toddle off for bed, I'll close off the day with an entry of my own. 

I've been working on these figures off-and-on since the start of the Challenge. I was hoping to get them in on Friday for the anniversary of the Battle of Pavia, but it just wasn't in the cards.  Nonetheless, I'm still happy to see them off the table and awaiting orders in the display cabinet.

These are Spanish 'Rodeleros', translated as 'shield bearers', or known simply as shield-and-buckler men. They were an interesting troop type, which saw brief prominence during the early 16th century. 

The rodeleros usefulness was being able to break the deadlock between contesting blocks of pike (and in this way they were very similar to the Landsknetches and Swiss halberdiers). Once the rodeleros maneuvered past the hedge of pikes, and got in tight with their foes, their half-plate armour, long swords and small shields made them superior to the lightly protected pikemen.

Nevertheless, the rodeleros, like most classes of infantry, were particularly vulnerable to cavalry, especially eastern light cavalry such as the stradiots, and so had to be cautiously employed and judiciously commanded. 

Though they had a short time of glory in Italy, Cortes' campaigns in the New World was largely made possible by having a host of rodeleros at his back.

This unit is made up of an assortment of 28mm figures from The Assault Group (TAG), Foundry and Eureka Miniatures. I really like the Spanish/Portugues conquistadors from Eureka. They have a great sense of spirit and animation - the commander exhorting his men, seen below in the center, is from the Eureka range. 

The TAG castings were somewhat smaller than the rest, so I made a small rise for them running along the center of the base to serve as a crest, to help mask their slight statures.

I often try to put a boulder or stump at the rear of my large bases so players have something to grip on to when moving them on the table. For this base I've used a 3D printed stump that I scaled to a useful size (this same design was used for my Francis command stand).

Historically, these bravos probably wouldn't be carrying their own banner, but I like my units to have flags, so they've been gifted one from Pete's Flags to hoist in the breeze.

These sixteen swordsmen should give me 80 points for the slow climb out of the doldrums. Eaaaxcellent.

Okay, tomorrow, after a bit of a sleep-in and a bit of brunch, I'll announce the results of our 'West' theme.  See you soon!

From Paul OG: Indian Canoe and Villagers (60 Points)

Please excuse a second post for the week but I only got these finished with an hour to spare!

First up is a native Canoe being portaged - I will be using this as a movable deployment marker in Sharp Practice 2, but have left the canoe separate so I can instead add a ladder or other ancillary equipment instead if required.

And 8 villagers of various ages - some lovely stuff from Aged woman and girl holding hands, Woman milling corn, swaddled infants and quietly smoking pipes.  They will inhabit the longhouse and village that I have planned (for after AHPC finishes).

Figures sponsored by Marlboro!  

All figures are 28mm Redoubt Enterprises.  9 figures and the canoe. I'll leave it to our SnowLord to determine the points value of canoe decoration and kids in papooses :-)

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Lovely work Paul. I've always liked these civilian scenes, no matter what the period. The portage set brings back good memories of going canoeing up north. Our canoe was pretty lame, made of fibreglass, but I've seen many authentic birch bark ones like this. One thing about canoe decoration is that it was typically achieved by scraping the bark to give varying shades of tan, brown and black. Paint was rarely used as it was hard to come by and dyes wouldn't last in the water. Obviously this one belonged to a family that did very well in trading with either the North West Company or the Hudson's Bay Company. :) The family taking their leisure, enjoying the day is brilliant - great job on their buckskins. Now you just need a tipi to complete the scene!

This group of Native Americans, including the little bairn, camp bits and their canoe will give you 60 points. Nicely done Paul.