From PeterD - 28mm French SYW Infantry 40pts

Again there are supposedly 4 different figures here, but I have trouble seeing the differences

So, with a very busy winter semester I am continuing with my one foot at a time approach to the Challenge.  I've low balled my target and am using my painting time as relaxing down time rather than rushing to meet a goal.

I've left a flat strip along the back of each base to add unit labels at a later time

My ongoing project is two battalions of French infantry in 28mm using Crusader figures.  The first set of 8 from Touraine Regiment was posted last week, and his lot of 8 is from the Swiss Diesbach Regiment.  There is a reason for my choice of units, which I'll reveal further into the Challenge.   The figures are the same as the first lot, but in Swiss red with blue facing and laced waistcoat - a very natty combination if you ask me. 

Again I really like the back view

The Swiss regiments in French service date back to the Italian wars of the early 16th century (at least) and lasted into the Napoleonic age (at least).  They gave excellent service being steady under fire.

To add variety I staggered figures on the bases a bit

The original plan here was for my second set of French infantry to be from Touraine again including command figures.  However, I found the Crusader command dull so ordered in some additional officers and NCOs from Front Rank.  In the interim I kept the ball moving with 8 fusiliers from Diesbach.  My Front Rank package arrived last Monday after a lightening fast week long hop from Blighty.  Hopefully, we'll see some of the Front Rankers next week.

NCO on the left with gold braid on his cuffs

These next figures won't count for points as they were all but the basing finished before the challenge started.  Last year my SYW work included the British 15th Light Dragoons on horseback.  These are 12 dragoons on foot so that the regiment can dismount and skirmish.  The figures are Perry's from their excellent AWI range - two packs of the British infantry in Saratoga uniforms with short coats and helmets.  I did some conversion to make them look more cavalry like.  For instance I lopped off the bayonets and ends of the muskets to give the appearance of carbines.  The cross belts and cartridge boxes are wrong, but I figured that doesn't really stand out and anyway I can argue that they "acquired" appropriate equipment for dismounted work.

Not my best photo but it works.  Love the Perry's variety of poses

Most importantly the figures came in a mix 1/2 in stiff gaiters and 1/2 in trouser gaiters, where they should be in boots.  X-acto knife work stripped off the buttons and trimmed the tops of the stiff gaiters back to resemble worn riding boots.  For the other 6, I trimmed off the buttons and added boot tops from green stuff.  It was my first time using green stuff and I'm quite chuffed with the results.  I wanted to have these for this challenge, but they got impatient and painted them early.

I didn't do a dismounted officer - I figured the mounted ones could do double duty, plus I didn't want to get a pack of 6 command figs to get one officer.

So excluding the light dragoons, that's 8 28mm foot figures at 5 points a pop for another 40 points.  That edges me to within 5 points of my goal for the challenge.

I haven't posted a song link this year so I will post one that's been popping up on my iPod a lot recently.  I know there's an official Challenges tunes image, but I refuse to post anything to do with Kiss - I thought that they were the dumbest thing imaginable in 1975 and the intervening years have not improved my opinion.  I have instead substituted a more appropriate photo from my listening in the late 1970s.

Song "The Foggy Dew"
Artist: Sinead O'Connor and the Chieftains
Album: The Long Black Veil

I'm 100% pure Sassenach but I married an Irish gal and Celtic music is a love of mine.  This is most definitely NOT the Foggy Dew I sang at bonfires with my family as a kid.

From Ray

Great work Peter, this is a very diverse uniform in the French army, there were several units which used this form, so with a different flag you could have a different look.
I do like your basing style as well Peter, keep up the great work!

40 points!

From DaveD - P3 -Sudan - 79th Queens Own Cameron Highlanders & Camels 275 points - ish!!

I am at last back to full production and have a few posts for today . I started this unit on the very first day of the challenge because I knew it was going to be a time soak due to sheer complexity - please someone invent tartan paint.  Cameron tartan is a complete swine to paint - more than the others due to the various colours - with 8 different colour operations just for the kilt (that's one more than a whole Mahdist warband takes for goodness sake) . So you could say I am glad to have them done!

This unit is another large British unit for the collection in the traditional red tunic - the 79th fought at the battle of Ginnis in red , the last battle where it was worn- well who doesn't like a big unit of highlanders in red - unless you are on the receiving end I guess. The unit is 48 foot figures and and mounted officer - all Perry 28mm metals. I still need to do a skirmish company for them , and will pick the figures up shortly.

Steady lads - has anyone seen the latrine wallah Millsy? 

They complete the final Highland unit for the campaign - I already have the Black Watch and Gordons completed. 

Phew - 250 points base - there must be a bonus for tartan right..." HHMMM!...."

I have noticed a distinct lack of camels around these parts - so time to start rectifying that. 

For Xmas my good friends Ian and Kay decided to surprise me with some figures - they chose a camel baggage train from Castaway Arts - a fine choice as I continue to build up the main baggage  train toward 50 camels... 

So 25 points of camel goodness... - so it begins...back to more dusty stuff I go 

Oh and 3 posts should have Miles twiddling his spreadsheet o'doom.. he he...

From Ray

Good grief, he's back with vengeance!!!!

Comrade Dave will soon be Challenging you top 10 Boys and Girls for a place on the podium, I feel it in my bones!

Expert painting Dave, I'm all one for historical accuracy but 8 colours per figure for just the tartan, "Are you Mad?!?"

I'd like to see a close up of one of the kilts if we can please? Did I ask if you were mad?

Talking of mad I thought I read a 50 camel Baggage train is on the cards? Can't be? Surly not?

49 foot figures = 245

3 Camels = 25 inc rider

5 bonus Tartan points

Total 275 Points

From EdwinK: Terminator Crawlers (13 points)

A very quick and small submission today, but - hey! - they all count.

These Endoskeleton 'crawlers' are from the Warlord Games/River Horse Terminator Genysis miniatures game - the same set as the chaps I submitted for the BFG Bonus Round.  As with those, these'll serve me as generic killer robots.

I'm not sure I've done enough to distinguish them from the blasted post-apoc terrain on their bases, but let's pretend that I intend them to be sneaky types who grab your ankles when you can't see them ...

This completes the usable Terminator figures from the second-hand box I had.  I've also got a batch of Future Ressistance fighters, but I'm not sure that they'll appear during the Challenge.

Not sure on the scoring of these.  They're half 28mm figures, so is that 2.5 point each?  But there're also prone, so is there another 'penalty' for that?  Well this kind of hard decision is why Curt pays the Minions big money - over to you Ray!

5 (torso-only, prone) 28mm Terminators from Warlord Games -

From Ray

Great to have your first appearance proper into the Challenge, minus the Bonus rounds of course Edwin. I liked your Terminators in your previous post and these crawlers compliment them perfectly.
You said "I'm not sure I've done enough to distinguish them from the blasted post-apoc terrain on their bases". But if they been blown in half like these poor Arnies I suspect they'd get a bit grubby. So all in all some pretty clever and cool camo!

Your 2.5 points per figures sounds about right, but then you'd be on 12.5 points and that plays havoc with my mind let alone Miles' stats/excel/thingy files! So 13 points it is!

From JamesM (Part 2): 15mm Battlefront Wespe's (33 Points)

Hi folks,

this weeks entry was supposed to be a quick win, but ended up having a bit more work done to them.

I went from bare hulls, to hulls with stowage and camo netting, to adding foliage... radios, etc.

These are SdKfz 124 'Wespes'. Self propelled artillery mounting 10.5cm guns on a Panzer II chassis. These will form part of  1/Panzerartillerieregiment 12, part of the 12th SS Panzer Division (Hitlerjugend). I'm in no way a 'fan' of the SS (quite the opposite in fact), and a lot of people were surprised to find I was planning on doing SS models as part of my project. However, 12th SS did form a part of the German defences during Operation Totalize, and if I'm trying to represent all the formations that took part in the battle, I should include them. If only to highlight the achievements of the allied formations that managed to push 9 miles (14 km) into German lines during this operation. While 12th SS were a substantially reduced force, they still packed a punch at this time, although it was the beginning of the end for the division in Normandy. In a few weeks the division would be effectively wiped out.

The battery is three guns - in the old v3 FoW rules I'd also need a spotter team and various HQ element. Thankfully for v4 FoW I just need the guns (although I have the other bits and bobs, which I will no doubt paint in the future).

Each Wespe has a crew of two - major mistake here as I should have attempted some 'Pea Dot' camo on these crew members, but forgot as I was painting them along with my other gun crews. As such they have a bit of a 'Heer' look rather than SS.

Camo on the vehicles came about via a 'Ammo Mig' book, "Waffen SS Colours". Specifically an image they had of a 12th SS Wespe. Although it seems that in many of the vehicles within the same company had different camo schemes!

Total points for this entry would be 3 x 15mm vehicle = 18 points, and 6 x 15mm Crew = 12 points. So a whole 30 points!

From Ray

James' second entry of the day and I gotta say this is my favourite entry of the day so far. I mean what's not to like or admire about these 3 x Wespe's???

Top marks of the day James! 30 points plus and extra 3 points, because I can!!!

From JohnM: 6mm US Armour in Africa (84 points)

Not a whole lot of painting done this week but I did get some more US models done for Rommel. I am hoping to put on a Rommel game this weekend, this will be our first mid-war battle so I needed some US forces. First up in the Tunisian campaign will be an encounter during the battle for the Kasserine Pass. I hate painting infantry so I will substitute in some British for the 9 bases of US motorised infantry I need. Did need some tanks and armoured infantry so here we go. All these models are from PFC CinC and are quite nice.

6 bases of Armoured Infantry in M3 Halftracks

3 bases of M3 tank Hunters equipped with 75mm guns 

A Base of Shermans and one of Stuarts

105mm Howitzer Base

And finally some Italian Tanks

M14/41 Tanks

I think we have 40 Vehicles and 2 guns. I have done well over 100 bases for Rommel now so have built up a bit of a collection. I really need to stop and polyurethane these models and bases. Once this is done I plan to attach some scrub brush to dress up the bases.......well that is the plan anyway!

From Ray

Well I've counted several times and made it 41 vehicles and the 2 guns which should make 84 well earned points!
Some great painting here John, and i like the simple but very effective basing style as well. 

From DaveD - P2 - VBCW - The Telegram Boys - 70 points

Another left field entry for for this challenge for you . Last year MartinC put on a large Very British Civil War game - "The Battle for Scruton" - which featured the village hall  and pub where we meet up with a bunch of guys. It made me want to complete my own unit for it. While shopping around for some stuff for Millsy's Boxer project I found Ironclad Miniatures who do an interesting range of items - one of them being the Telegram boys - perfect for me as I work for  the company that is the direct descendant of telecoms part of the General Post Office. So these sort of fell in my cart..

So 14 x 28mm figures..

Nice and simple uncomplicated sculpts - a range of weapons including Lee Enfield's, a Thompson , a Lewis Gun - and communications section with pigeon!

From Ray

Post No 2 from Comrade Dave this fine day. I do like these Dave, especially the Pigeon & pet handler. They do look very smart and clean figures and will make a great addition to anyone's collection. I'm sure these young chaps will perform well on the field of battle.

The Pigeon and pals will earn you 70 points!

From AdamC - Brian Boru and more 52 pts

So I have had this vignette in my head since I saw the Boru figures from Footsore.  I'm very happy it came out as well as it did.

Brian Boru was High king of Ireland who stopped the advancing tide or Vikings/Norse-Gaules but died in the attempted.  He's a hero of the Viking Age in Saga but one who is pretty long in the tooth so he doesn't really fight like most warlords.  Rather he finds a good safe place to sit and give you certain bonuses while someone else acts as the Warlord.

Since He tends to find a piece of "difficult terrain" and just sit there I figures I should build a full terrain piece to go with him.  Thus I built this hill.  In this vignette the Irish Chieftain (who I sort of painted as a more athletic, long haired version of myself) is getting the battle plan he will have to execute on the field while Boru's Banner man and bodyguard looks on in the back ground.

 The hill has magnets to I can can remove the figures and replace them with rocks or trees as I wish.  Pretty clever if I do say so myself.  I did paint the rock but the trees are out of the box.

 The hill is about 6.5 inches by 7 inches in its base dimensions...

and about 1.5 inches at its highest point (very rough estimate not well shown by the picture.) Doing some math 6.5"x7"x1.5"= 68.25 cubic inches (being quite generous as moss of the hill is lower than 1.5").., Divide that by 216 Cubic inches (6x6x6)  and you get .315 (ish) x20 = 6.3 points and possibly an explanation of why I was a history major in college. I'll call it 6 Points... (assuming my math is right which it may not be!)  This cheeky fellow throws it to Ray to judge and hopes he'll be generous. (and not make too much fun of my math if I botched it completely)

 Boru is in creamy white robe with purple fringe is out fit is pretty unpretentious for a king, but creamy white cloth is actually pretty hard to make and purple is an expensive dye that would have had to be imported to Ireland.

I'm pleased with the look of the fur cape Boru has against the cold.

 The Chieftain is a special footsore miniature figure of the month I as I mentioned above I sort of did him up to look a bit like I imagine my Irish ancestors might have looked.

 I kept his colors relatively muted but green dyes (mixes of yellow and blue) were fairly expensive and a fur lined cloak and jacket of mail mark him as a high noble. I feel there must be someone off stage holding his shield and helmet.

The banner man is dressed in gray but his cloak is green and his robe has a little purple fringe at the bottom. 

 This as well as the gold on his helm, belt and sword mark him as high born even if he doesn't have shoes.

The banner is one I found on line on the O'Brian Clan Society website ... I don't know if its historically accurate (I may also have made it too big) but I am going rule of cool here.  So there is the "command team" of my Irish Saga army.  On to Norse-Gales!

 Another Footsore figure this is Brodir another hero of the Viking age "the man steel cannot bite." supposedly he had a magic hauberk that made him invulnerable. I'm disappointed in the shield.  I did hand paint it but its not what I set out to do... sometimes you just have to fall back on simple designs.

While not part of the Irish Army Brodir could fit in with its palate. Brodir is said to have killed Brian Boru and then was killed (rather gruesomely) by Ulf. Footsore has the details if you want them.

 Next we have what Footsore calls a Irish hero but I'm using him as a Norse-Gale. Clearly this fellow has just pulled off a successful "who's next!" challenge (for those familiar with this faction in Saga) and is waiting to see if someone else steps forward.

 I'm not a big fan of the guy holding a head figures because when you have too many of them it looks like you have a "head collectors convention" rather than a battle going in. I'm very pleased with how his mail and his wolf hide cape came out.

Next we have a trio of miniatures I call the casual Ax brothers.  I think are all based on the same core figure and and then dressed in a different fashion (I'm positive this is the case with the two on the right)

 This another special figure of the month form Footsore I plan to use him as my Norse-Gales Warlord because hey his stance and gear just sort of shout "boss."  Footsore calls him Arnvid Ale Sinker.

I did his cloak in purple because clearly he at least aspires to royalty which is why he's in Ireland not back home in Scandinavia.

 These other two are from the Footsore Irish line.  The one on the left is part of the same hero pack with the guy holding a head.  The one on the right is form the Brian Boru set.

Again I probably use these mostly with my Norse Gales but they could see play with the Irish and parts of the Irish army will certainly see play with the Norse-Gales. This is why these fellows have the purple flowers on their base to tied them in with Boru and his crew.

 One last figure my BFG (acutely my second BFG the first is primed but unpainted at this time) I had stared him just because he was in with the other were beast. I didn't get him done due to family obligations so I present him here. My Big Freaking Gorilla.  I think a "weregorilla" is a rather odd concept so I will just call him a Gorillas.  One that knows how to use stone tools which many not be such a big stretch. 

I tried to get the silver back look right... I'm close but not there. This is another Bones figure about 40mm.  So we have 8 28mm figures for 40 points (unless Boru counts less being seated) One 40mm Figure for 7 points.  So that's 47 point for the figure... I think the hill comes out to 6 points (though I don't really trust my math here).  I'll simply ask Ray to score the hill at what ever he thinks is fair.

From Ray

Brian Boru is indeed a cult figure in Irish history and you've done him proud Adam. Who knows what his banner would look like so this is as good representation as any. As for your hill, this terrain business is as confusing as hell, I've worked it out as 5 points, so add that to the 40 points for the 8 28's and 7 for the 40mm Silver back and your grand total is 52 points!