From: NoelW - More ECW and SYW (498 points)

More of the same this week, I fear. The continuing story of my SYW in 15mm and ECW in 28mm. Even similar colours for some of the troops.

First is a mix of French and Austrians in 15mm. I've been lucky enough to acquire good British and Prussian armies, but have minimal troops for them to fight, so so I'm developing these two opponents for them in parallel. Fortunately, as the infantry in both cases mainly dressed in white or grey-white, using figures from one as proxies for the other can be reasonably convincing - and there are some battles where both nations fought in alliance, such as Rossbach.

Here's the mass of this week's contribution to these armies: 

There are 45 French infantry. Here's some of them:

plus 12 Austrian grenzers, 12 Austrian hussars and three French guns:

The figures are Eureka "Fighting 15s" and Old Glory. 

For the ECW, I worked up 6 more dragoons, in green this time to distinguish them from the others, and a large red regiment. These will initially be the King's Lifeguard, but may at some point change sides, too, and become the cadre from which I hope to field a version of the New Model Army for Naseby. To this end, I'm painting more models in red uniforms than in any of the other colours.

Here's the dragoons:

I've continued building the cavalry, too, as I like the idea of being able to fight decent versions of the cavalry-heavy battles. I'm hoping that the final push of the Challenge will enable me to produce quite a few more of these. But having to assemble the models from the Warlord sprues takes a fair bit of time, so I may decide that the final days should be devoted to painting rather than assembly.

There are six more "lobsters" and two bases of cavalry command figures. The latter will join existing units. I like these three-quarter armed troopers, the so-called "lobsters" though they don't feature strongly in the Civil Wars, so I've painted these with half an eye to the Thirty Years War, and called them "foreign mercenaries" - hence the yellow sashes, meaning they could readily be used by either side.

Finally, four generals. Two are Scots and two English, though I've painted one of the English so it could readily be used as a Scot, too. 

Of these figures, my favourite is this:

I think it may be intended as Prince Rupert, but I'm going to call him "Prince Maurice", as I also have a Rupert on the painting table, the beautiful Trent Miniatures' figure, though it's unfortunately rather similar in pose to this one, so they're unlikely to meet on the wargames table. The ECW figures are all Perrys' or Warlord.

In summary, that's:

15mm: 69 foot (138 points), 12 mounted (24 pts), 3 guns (12 pts) = 198 pts
28mm: 32 foot (160 pts), 14 mounted (140 pts) = 300 pts
Total for the week : 474 points


It's getting old but:KAAABOOOM! yet another pointsbomb dropped by the Tuesday crew. More of the same he fears, well fear not because it's all very nice to look at Noel. Your figures are true eye-candy whatever subject they may be. Getting armies to fight the ones you already have, is a familiar issue for me as well, you have done very well with these. I particularly like the grey/ white French infantry, they sure look great all ranked up like that.
Your ECW figures remain a joy to behold, I concur on Maurice being the favourite of the bunch, truly characterful. There's one more Tuesday and the open-entry days awaiting you in the tale of the Challenge so get those brushes going Noel!

From: KentG - Napoleonic 28mm French skirmishers & Old Guard (625pts)

First up this week we have all the skirmishers from the nine boxes of infantry that I've been working through, strange thing is I've never done skirmishers before which is a bit weird 

so for a bit of a laugh I've done them three different ways.

 There are Front Rank, Warlord Games, Perry miniatures as well as Victrix in this post.

 First up 4 larger stands, I just like the idea of these larger groupings.

 Always loved the look of French light infantry but man, did I have to work hard 

to get all that piping done!  It just seemed  to take forever, but it is really worth the extra time and effort.

 Then 6 bases with two minis per stand.

 Then just a heap of singles.

 Then, on Thursday, I decided I needed to have more figures done so I started

the box of old guard that I had on the shelf. At first I thought: ok I'll just wack a few coats on

and they will be right, but as per normal once started I couldn't help myself

and found in the end I've  added all the extra highlights.

So between the Old Guard  and skirmishers we have 125 x 28mm figures

for a total of 625 points

I won't say it I'll let the GIF speak for itself. Your Napoleonic escapades are a true inspiration Kent, I am still gobsmacked at your pace and output. These light infantry of yours are just awesome, I love the way you have played with the grouping/ basing of them. I can't wait to see what you come up with for the remaining days of the Challenge. Great work mate!



From: EricM - The Potpourri Post (332 points)

The last week has been a real challenge to stay focused.  I have been all over the place painting a little of this and a little of that.

I tried to stay focused and finish off my WWII project.  I got a pretty good start working on the last of my Americans.  I painted 20 28mm Americans with winter equipment from Warlord Games.   I really liked the figures but the castings are a bit brittle and had excess flash.  When unpacking them I had three rifle barrels that were bent and covered in heavy casting residue.  I managed to break the barrels while cleaning and straightening them.   I know Warlord has fantastic customer service but running short on time I didn't want to wait for the replacement so I repaired the figures.

Here are the two squads of American infantry in winter gear.

I used  the snow texture paint from Games Workshop called Valhallan Blizzard. It was really easy to work with and looked pretty good as I got the hang of it.  I may go back and add a bit more of the texture at a later point.  My advice is put on more than you think you need it seems to shrink as it dries.  On the whole I think it gave a nice snowy look.

Here is the group together.

After finishing off the first group of WWII Americans I hit a bit of a block.   So I jumped back to a little side project I have been working on occasionally.  I painted a 24 figure unit of British infantry for the War of Spanish Succession.

The figures are all 28 mm Front Rank.  I think Front Rank make some of the nicest figures around.  The figures are a bit exaggerated which works well with my painting style. They are on the well fed side of 28mm so they don't always mix well with other manufactures.  The unit they are supposed to represent is the Welsh Fusiliers.   The flags are speculative as I was unable to find good documentation.

The last bit of painting I was able to complete was to finish out some troops needed for an upcoming game of General d Armee.   My  Austrian cavalry was under strength  so I added some Dragoons and Cuirassier.  All the figures are 15mm and from Battle Honors. 

Here are the two squadrons of Dragoons

And the two squadrons of Cuirassier

The full group

All total for the week (and change) I was able to paint 44-28mm infantry and 28-15mm cavalry

BANG! Eric drops a pointsbomb dear Challengers, great stuff Eric! Without trying to fall into clichés here: just every part of your entry is superbly executed. I really dig the GI's in wintergear, they just ooze Band of Brothers Battle of the Bulge atmosphere. The 15mm cavalry are brilliant in all their splendid colours and ranking up troops is always impressive. That said, I must admit to being particularly fond of those WSS Welshmen, that red just sparkles off the screen, I also concur tghat Front Rank figures are top notch so yeah love them! Pointswise the 44 28mm figures will net you 220 points and the 15mm cavalry is good for 112 points, therefore 332 points will be added tonight.

From: BrettM - UK 15mm Troops (74 points)

UK Motor Rifle Platoon

First attempt at painting UK troops for Flames of War. I think they came out pretty good.

Need to hit these guys with anti shine still a tad to glossy for my taste. A bit to cold to attempt that outside yet. Never have much luck with the Spray cans when temp is off. This was the final guys left from Monty's Hounds set back before Flames went to the new edition.

Trying for a close up here. I did use a Army Painter flesh wash on all the flesh parts. Added a bit more depth to the faces without having to highlight. Think I'll start doing this from now on.

Point wise we are at 37 figures at 15mm for a total of  74 points.

Hoi there Brett, great entry today mate! It surely is a very good first venture into 15mm Flames of War, you've done them up a treat. Not only did you get the English uniform colour spot on, your grouping of the figures on the bases and the basework itself is very nice as well.

Great stuff, I can't wait to see the rest of your FoW project, come on there's still 11 days of Challenge time you can use to wow us.

From: Jez Todd - Early Samurai - TAG 25mm (20 points)

Hi All

Just a small 4 figure 25mm entry from me this week. These figures are from The Assault Group and really like the style and design. Last year built up an Impetus Ikko Ikki peasant league army and this has the option to field a Foot Light Samurai unit with longbow. Quite a powerful unit to have. The Ikko Ikki's most notable battles were in the sixteenth century and these based on the armour style these figures are really for earlier period Samurai, but I think they can fit in. When playing Impetus will use them on a light foot sabot base.

This is about at the limit of my painting skills but appreciate that, with the samurai armour, there's still plenty of scope for extra detail. So just 20 points - but pleased to get these finished.

Cheers Jez

Jezz, there's nothing wrong with just 4 figures as entry nor with your painting mate. These chaps are pretty good imho! Samurai armour is not the easiest armour to paint what with all those little frills and thingamabops everywhere so there! Your terrain is very good as well, I really appreciate it when people take time to make photos of their figures set in good terrain. 20 points will be added to your score this evening Jezz!

From: MartinC - Sorry Sander but you will need your Maths Head on (460pts)

I am now off strike - parties are talking, the management, not my University who have been honourable but others, tried to be hard assed and got called out for it. Like most public service bodies, education, health etc. the organisation runs on staff goodwill  to go above and beyond their contracted duties and their desire to meet the demands of the users. Mess with this and the whole thing falls apart very quickly. Both sides are talking, all that you can ever ask.
So 3 days on strike this week,and yes I did some work from home whilst on strike (see above)  but I did do  a lot of painting. So Sander you will need to check the maths.

This is my 1st ever Napoleonic unit, in any scale. We have been thinking about the Peninsular War and these are the 12th Portuguese Line Infantry. Warlord Plastics and nice to paint. Flags come with the kit

Every army needs baggage and this mule train is from Westfalia, I picked it up as part of my Challenge prize a couple of years ago

I found these in the wrong box, couple of Trojan types and a Cretan archer (I've been looking for him for ages) Northstar and Warlord

These are the fur clad female warriors form the Hasslefree kickstarter. Great to paint and will form a nice force for Blood Eagle or frostgrave

Couple  of the women are more suited to hot climes and the white hunter is from the Northstar DITDC safari set.

Last week I posted the WW2 British Para company from Plastic Soldier company. So this week are the support forces

Pioneer platoon and command stand - spares from the infantry box

3 PIAT sections. These are adapted by replacing the rifle with the head of a nail. Rough and ready but OK from far away

6lb AT guns and command

3" mortars plus command and observer

4.2" mortars plus command and observer. Not in the Flames of War lists but rules are meant to be bent

Vickers MGs plus command

I have now finished my Para forces except for a couple of 17lb AT guns and a handful of  jeeps and transports. Off to the Albanich show next week to play a Barbarosa demo game. It's a tiny show but always fun. Will pick up some gliders from Warbases - not very good models and more like markers but only £2.50 each compared to £30 for an actual model. In reality the gliders will only work as markers

And now for the maths

42x28mm infantry and pack mules = 210pts

Paras = 16 crew served guns plus 1 platoon plus etc

           = 64 pts for guns

           = 186 for infantry

           = 250pts

Total = 460pts

Knackered now

Martin, who spilled the beans and told you how much I HATE doing math? Was it Miles? Ray? Anyway, after a literally mind boggling math-marathon, getting the 15mm  figures right was a special pain, my conclusion just has to be that you got it right in one go. On to the entry itself, that's mind boggling as well. I wish my unpainted lead pile includes so many beautiful figures as yours because there's something for everyone here. While I guess the Portuguese are not the logical starting point into Napoleonics you sure nailed the Fighting Cocks of Wellington's army with these, a stunning unit for sure! The Trojan figures really look tough too, great sculpts, oh and those ladies are not to be forgotten either, great painting on them there Martin. 460 points will be added tonight mate.