Tuesday 13 March 2018

(ReadyFrom: KentG - AWI Infantry plus Mercurian Maculators (pts 215)

 First up 3x60mm figures
these figures are from Probos games Mutant Chronicles Warzone they a a pleasure to paint









These guys were given to me By Victor Cina who is also in this competition.
He sent me a box of figures to paint and give away, I decided to paint these guys
and send them back to him as a gift, the reason I haven't done the basing more is they will
need to travel and I don't want them to get broken.hope you like them Victor

so 37 x 5 is 185 point plus
3 x 60mm I think is 30 points
total 215

Well Kent, this is the last time I get to say this but: Dang, man you are a painting machine. I struggle to get 20 measly little 28mm figures done in 2 weeks and look what you have churned out! Those troll-types really look smashing, wouldn't everyone like to get figures painted as well as these? The poses are great too and you have enhanced that by very good basing. Now those Continentals look very good as well. Is this going to be your new "Napoleonic" project? Come on folks let's start another bet: how many AWI troops will Kent be able to finish before the Challenge ends? Anyway, I am honoured to have been allowed to minion for you and proud to have someone in the Tuesday Crew standing on the first place of the Score Standings well done Kent! 

From: MartinC - More Randomised Figure Colouring In (165 points)

As the end approaches i'm getting towards the end of my Lead Mountain. Scary I know and there are probably 450 figures still in it. You know the ones that are poor quality, hard to paint or the ones you just aren't interested in at the moment. I still have a Norman army to paint and I may start that but we will see.
In the meantime I've been painting stuff that takes my fancy. It's another hotch potch of stuff.

1st up some 1930s - 40s civilians. These will double for VBCW and some possible gangster future games. These are mainly from the defenders of the realm set from Warlord.

Some rural and worker types. I swapped out a lot of the improvised weapons for rifles

A couple more Gorillas for Mr Lee - Cheers Kyle. These are very nice figures,  harder to give good hair tones to than their King but they look very mean





3 ancient Greeks, no idea where I got these from


Warbases Tachanka (or something like that) Looks great from afar but close up the crew and horses are not very well modelled



That is

15 infantry - 75pts
3 cavalry - 30 pts
2 40mm gorillas 14pts
Tachanka == 3 horses, 3 crew, maxim gun and cart = 45ish

Total is 165 or something like that.
Finally thank you Sander for being my minion. The kind words are much appreciated, sorry about the maths

Deary me Martin, I was just joking about the math, no harm done ;-) Ow wow, this is a truly nice mix of subjects. I just cannot choose what I like best but the Gorillas are really awesome. Those civvies will come in handy in a lot of different styled games indeed whether it be gangsters, VBCW or even something Pulpy, do you game that to? ;-) The Russian machine gun on cart is a great model and you have done it proud. 
The pleasure, as they say, has been all mine Martin I do hope to see some more of your work next week before Challenge's End and perhaps next year?! 

Cheers Sander

From: Brettm - Riflemen and Artillery (226 points)

Finished up some more Flames of war stuff. First up is the remaining Russian riflemen and MG teams.

 The rest of them all lined up

 A close up on the command units

 Some MG's on wheels in the back. Didn't count these as any points but are about the size of a 15mm guy. Easy to paint though.

Think I'm covered on the Soviet infantry. Just need some Artillery and ready to hit the field

Here are some 105mm Artillery. Have a decent amount of USA 15mm put together. However finally got some artillery now to add.

 All lined up

Side shot of them. All of them had the same figures so tried to switch it up on how they were placed on the base.

Not to much to do with the guns. Put some highlights on them and painted some wood logs on the sides.

Now to get to shelling the enemy!
All together I have the Soviets clocked in at 84 Soviets, 20 USA Artillerymen, 4 Guns. I count it at 208 points for the 15mm men and 18 pts for the guns. Total of 226 points.

Hoi there Brett, what a great entry of WW2 Allies today! While I am partial to the Western Allies these Soviets really are very good, great job on them. You got the uniforms spot on and I like the way you've mixed the figures on all the bases (including the Artillery) to get more diversity. Pointswise You have 104 x 2 = 208 points for the foot figures and 4 x 4 = 16 for the guns, that said you did leave out the HMG's when counting so I'll give you another 2 points and hey presto you get 226 points ;-)

Brett, it has been a real pleasure to be your minion this Challenge, you have brought as a very good mix of subjects in an awesome finish! Thanks heaps and hope to see you next year! 

From: EricM- Austrian Aide de Camp and French Cuirassier (116 points)

Our local group is taking the plunge into new Napoleonic rules set General d' Armee so I used last week to prepare for our first game.

The order system of General d' Armee calls for a quite a few more Aide de Camp than I had.  I painted 5-15mm Austrian Aide d Camp.  They are from Battle Honors.  I really enjoyed painting the figures. For older sculpts they nicely detailed.

Here are the 5 Aide de Camp


I decided to add some punch to my my French forces so I painted up two units of Cuirassier.  The figures are from AB, which is in my book the best 15/18mm figures you can find.   To top it off if you are in the US you get to buy them from Eureka Miniatures USA  which is run by Rob Walter, on of the nicest guys in the hobby.   Amazing figures and outstanding service, what more could you ask for.  (I may be a little biased)

I painted the 3rd Cuirassier which were in Nanouty's division at Wagram.


I also painted the 12th Cuirassier from Nansouty's division. I really like the yellow collars and appointments,


Here picture of the full group


In total I was able to complete 29-15mm Cavalry for a total of 116 points.  Which I believe will just make my challenge goal of 2500 points.  Whew, that was a close one.


Congratulations Eric on gaining your target! Great to see you get to grips with these 15mm Napoleonics. You have done just as good a job on these as with all of the miniatures I was allowed to show the good folks over here. Your overall level of painting is very high and it is showing here too. Those Cuirassiers really look amazing and the ADC's are a fun addition as well. I can only say the pleasure was all mine and I do hope to see you pinch in something next week for the Snowlord to judge. Cheers and thanks heaps Sander

From: NoelW - Another miscellany (410 points)

I started the Challenge thinking it would get my ECW armies started, perhaps three or four units, perhaps a little more, if I was lucky. In fact, this week I've finished the last of my infantry, apart from a few command figures I'd begun before the Challenge started. (They've been staring at me for the last twelve weeks wondering when I'd manage to get back to them as unit after unit jumps the queue). In fact, I think I've completed 12 units now.

Most of my ECW are Warlord plastics, and their sprues are designed with very little variety or options in mind (basically, you are limited almost entirely to building the handful of poses that Warlord designed - 7 or 8 poses, and that's it). So when I got to the end of the sprues, I discovered there are spare bodies without suitable arms. I don't like waste, so I've built a few models in rather un-ECW poses, mainly by adding spare arms from the Firelock sprue to spare bodies intended as pikemen (there aren't enough pike arms for the number of pike bodies, meaning you'll always have one left over). 

Firstly, here's a unit of 8 grey firelocks. I'm using the firelocks as dragoons. The front figure here is in a dramatic, but very unlikely (and, I'm sure, completely a-historical) pose, but I quite like it. I imagine him as a gung-ho sure-shot, showing off and anxious to get that first shot fired.



Next is another red unit. In the long term, I want enough red units to put together to make a plausible New Model Army, so spare figures will always be used in this way. It's an odd unit of 17 figures, but will be regularised when I've completed a few command figures. There's another odd pose here, leading the unit, but I rather like this forceful pose.




And also another blue unit. I've chosen a different blue from my previous blue unit, so the two won't be confused on the field. This sky blue is one of my favourites, though it's probably not very historical (but when has a wargamer decided that history should prevent him having pretty toys?) These will probably become Rupert's bluecoats.




Although I've now painted all the infantry, there's a fair number of cavalry outstanding. Here are 8 more of them. Standard fare.




In truth, I'm getting a little tired of ECW figures, though, especially the same Warlord models over and over again, so I decided to introduce a few oddments for variety. I find that varying painting tasks helps me keep at it - oddly, by not painting ECW, in the long term I actually get more done. In previous weeks, I've veered into 15mm SYW. This week I painted three lions. 

Yes, three lions. I can't remember why I bought them. Possibly for Congo (a game I'm yet to play), possibly for Frostgrave. Or possibly because I simply liked the models. They're Wargames Foundry and I'm rather pleased with the way they look.




And finally I returned to my main love, Napoleonics. No matter where else my butterfly interests flit to, I always return to Napoleonics. I was going to paint something else for the Peninsular, but almost by accident found myself working on British in the Belgic shako, intended for the 100 Days. (I guess they could be fielded for Vittoria, though). These will be the 32nd (Cornwall) Regiment, though I won't produce a command stand for them until I've sourced their flags.




These are Warlord figures again - easy to assemble, easy to paint. I prefer the aesthetic of the Perry plastics, but these are a good way to expand forces without too much effort and at a rather lower cost.

So, heading down the final straight, this isn't a bad haul, but I think productivity is falling off a little as energy begins to flag:

43 ECW foot: 215 points
8 ECW horse: 80 points
3 lions: 15 points
20 Napoleonic British: 100 points 

Total of 410 points.

Before I comment on your post Noel, let me state that it has been a dream catering for you on Tuesday. You are always very polite and bang on time with all your communications and your posts are brilliant to boot. Thank you very much indeed! It's great to see how you've all but finished the ECW kits. Using the leftover bits like that is very smart and the figures look very good indeed, I found myself liking the Grey regiment very well, which is kinda odd seeing it's not the most lush colour. Anyway the lions and British Napoleonics are a very well painted lot as well. I would love to see those lions eat somebody in a game of Congo. I do hope you will be able to get another post in next week but if not: the pleasure was all mine.

It's the final Tuesday, tananaaaaa tanananananaaaaa

Good Morning to you all Fellow Challengers!

As Sidney so aptly described yesterday, you are almost freed from our continuous badgering and caterwauling and Curt will start to organise things the way they should be. I for one would like this opportunity, it being my last day to present the Tuesday Crew to you all, to thank all of them for their superb entries over the last weeks.
I thoroughly enjoyed being your minion even if the feeling is not mutual ;-)

There's  a few good post still awaiting you all on this rainy day so sit back and relax.
Kent, Martin, Noel, Eric and Brett all have posts ready to dazzle you, so stay tuned!








Oh who am I kidding? Relax? No, get those brushes out and let Curt work for his Curtgeld those last days get your paintfaces on and show him what we all are made of, be it White Metal, leadfree mind you, Resin, Plastic or Gods forbid, Gummycast.

Cheers Sander