From PeterD 28mm SYW French Dragoons (40 Points)

First post of this year’s challenge for me, I think this makes it 7 for me but my numbers are often wrong.  I am firmly in the by drips and drabs camp and will be bringing units to the table piecemeal, since that’s what works to keep me motivated.  I started work on Boxing Day, and have these four Dragoons complete plus other projects in various stages of completion.  I’ll be focusing on my SYW project, one that started two years ago on the Challenge.  Originally planned as a side project for a Sharp Practice, I found I loved working in the lace wars era and have expanded it to my main horse and musket project.

These are four members of the French Orléans Dragoon Regiment.  The figures are old Foundry ones, sold under their Casting Room line.  I don’t normally spring for Foundry prices but got taken in by a deal.  Even so they’re out of my normal budget when shipping and exchange rates are factored in.  However, the figures have a lot of character and look rough and ready which suits the French Dragoons of the era.

French Dragoons were far more a Dragoony than other nations’, and were expected to fight on horse and foot.  They carry muskets not carbines, wear shoes and gaiters  instead of boots and have axes for  impromptu pioneer work.  The dragoons did were very useful in the Kleine Krieg and also appeared in the bigger battles.

I do like that the Foundry sculpts are carrying full sized muskets.

Dragoon regiments had drummers instead of trumpeters as befit their origins as mounted infantry.  Many regiments also had mounted oboists (hautebois), but sadly no one makes such a figure.  As my daughter both plays oboe and did horse riding, it would be great to have one.  But having seen both oboes and horses close up, I have to say that playing oboe on horseback took balls - it looks like a recipe for having a sharp reed embedded in your upper palette.

I fudged the lace work here to keep myself sane.  The picture of the regiment's lace from kronoskaf (the go-to online SYW site) is shown below.  This appears on a shoulder strap, the saddlecloths and the drummer's coat.

Once the whole regiment is complete, I will add unit labels along the back edge of each base - I've left an un-sculpted strip to hold these tables.  You can see the axes with covers on the horse tack on the right shoulders.

I have two picture references in uniform books showing a shoulder straps with a simplified version with blue and white stripes, which could well be the effect from a distance.  However looking at things again I misinterpreted the direction of the striping and should probably redo it (or not depending).

The drummer figure looks grumpy, I wonder if he's dealing with a sore head after a night carousing!



Well these are tough looking chaps as befits their position between the cavalry and infantry and no doubt very busy stealing, I mean liberating all kinds of kit!
 Admirable dedication to Lace finish, and I particularily like the white socks etc on their mounts.
This gives you your first 40 points of the challenge,well done!

All the best Iain

From BenitoM: British Airborne Section (45 points)

Life is returning to normal after the Christmas period, although here in Spain we still one additional celebration to go through: the epiphany day on January 6^th. This has been (still is) the traditional day to exchange presents; but as many other cultural imports from the United States (Halloween or the Black Friday just to mention the latest two), many Spaniards now has shift their allegiances to the 24-25^th December date, changing the Three Wise Kings for the fat bloke in red.

My first Thursday entry is as usual in this edition of the Challenge, related to the British Airborne project. Having completed the commanders (“Big Men” in the Toofatlardies parlance) and many supports, today I bring my first section into play.

The British Airborne Platoon composition for Chain of Command is made of an HQ section and three rifle sections.  Each rifle section has a rifle team (5 men with Lee Enfields and 1 with a Sten MG) and LMG team (Bren gun with three crew) led by a Sergeant (Superior Junior Leader).

This is the rifle team…

… and this is the LMG team

 

The rifle team is from the Warlord British Airborne plastics box in 28mm. The quality of the sculpting is good, especially the heads and the multi-pose and gear options allow for a wide variety of poses and equipment. The number of parts is significantly smaller than in the first plastic boxes issued by Warlord (for example, the British infantry box) and the sculpting is much better too.

With regards to the LMG team, the two prone models are from Wargames Foundry and the knee-firing model is another Warlord plastic. The foundry models are truly nice. These are  early-design sculpts by the famous Perry Brothers; although somewhat smaller than the Warlords, as I suspected once painted and based, the differences in size are hardly noticeable on a wargaming table.

Therefore I score an additional 45 points with this entry in the Challenge (9 models x 5 points each). 

Gorgeous figures with a  wonderful take on the distinctive para camo! Lovely clean painting on some very characterful sculpts, I'm glad to hear that warlord are reducing the parts in their bolt action boxes as I found them somewhat overwhelming!

45 points it is to you Benito, splendid work!

All the best Iain

 

From NoelW for Thursday: Austrians and Romans (200 points)

Responding to my inner squirrel, I start two new projects here. Well, they're sort of new.

Firstly the beginning of a long stretch of 15mm Austrians. I've an extensive collection of 10mm Napoleonics for mass battles, and a lovely collection of 28mm Naps that I don't have a table large enough to play with. But I'm finding 10mm almost impossible to paint these days as my eyes deteriorate, and it's getting harder to identify units on the table, so I'm going to have to move them on (any interested takers out there?) I'd love to be able to field mass battles in 28mm, but my table is only 4 feet deep, so whilst Waterloo looks good as a diorama, it's pretty much unplayable.

Having taken a step into 15mm in the SYW this time last year, and finding a fair number of Naps among the collection I bought, I decided I'd see whether 15mm gives me a decent compromise. With failing eyesight, and a desire for mass armies, I'm not going to spend a great deal of time on each 15mm figure - I want them to be clean enough to look good in the aggregate, but there's not going to be much in the way of sophistication in how I paint individual figures. Which means my15mm contributions to the Challenge are not going to offer much in the way of eye candy. Apologies for that.

I finished the first three battalions of German troops, 20 figs per battalion. They're waiting for their flags, but otherwise complete:

28mm remains my favoured scale (I know it's not a scale!) As mentioned in a previous post, I've acquired a motley collection of 28mm Romans, from at least three periods, and I'm hoping to get a fair number of them completed during the challenge. First up are Caesareans, of which 16 are now ready to take the field. Being my only painted Romans, these will face off against the Carthaginian army I've also begun, though I think strictly speaking that'll be anachronistic.

I like the plain red shields, so will probably not invest in decals for them, though the shading I've used seems to be a little too subtle to appear in the photographs unfortunately. Will continue to experiment with that. Future units probably will get some decalic decoration to distinguish them, I guess.

So that's 60 x 15mm @ 2 pts = 120

And 16 x 28mm @ 5 pts = 80

A total of 200 pts. And 2 more squirrel points, I think.

Lots more of both armies to follow. Please keep your excitement within reasonable bounds - I've quite a few other projects, too, to give a little variety.

Well I think your Austrians look splendid! From what I understand of painting smaller scales(which is admittedly little!) it is necessary to reign back the detail and go for overall effect which you have achieved admirably! I like your Romans ready to fight for Caesar,Scipio, Sulla or Marius and if mixed in with lighter armoured fellows would be perfect for fighting Carthage!

200 well earned points in different scales and periods, squirrels we salute you!

All the best Iain

(Thursday) From MarkB: 15mm WW2 German Panzer II Tanks. (16 Points)

I hope all is well and you are getting ready to celebrate the New Year.

Today I had some time to work on some Early WW2 tanks that can be used for several different game systems and theater of operations. I am a big fan of What a Tanker and these might find their way to the battlefield soon.

These are two 15mm Zvezda tank models. They are easy to assemble, and they look pretty good for their size once they are painted up.  I added some green canvas that is polled up on the backs of both tanks to add some flavor to the tanks. These should get me 16 points to add to my tally.

Have a good day and I will see you all in the new year!

Skål!

A lovely pair of early war German armour with some nice additional stowage and great weathering!
As you say this will add 16 points towards your total,very nice!

All the best Iain

From DaveS - Anyone else bored of Archers yet?(180 Points)

It's my first Thursday, and that means it's the first of my scheduled posting days.  It's been a challenge getting these models finished in time, but I'm determined that I am going to get something posted on each day.
Thus I present 46(36?) War of the Roses Archers.  12 of them will join the previously posted ones as a second rank, while the rest will form another unit.

As a side note, I've finally got my Henry's straight, (I think).  I've bought the appropriate Perry models, and a later part of this challenge will probably feature me painting them up.

This shot exists to provide evidence they are actually Green and White

Hopefully, and if allowed, I might add some photos of the whole army so far when I get back from work.  I think this is 180 points....

Lovely work on these Perry plastic bowmen, the white is much more in evidence and has come out really well and the basing works really well too. To come over lightly officious I caould only count 36 figures which tallies with your total of 180 well earned points!

All the best Iain 

Thursday's Child has far to go, Minion reporting for duty!

Pencils sharpened a new notepad I'm all ready for Thursday! Thursday, gateway to the weekend!

 We already have splendid Austrians, Romans,German Armour and the British paratroopers standing by and who knows what else will arrive as the day wears on?

I've been painting little men since the late 1970's, first for Dungeons and Dragons, then Advanced D&D, Runequest and the like followed by my first go at historical wargaming which no one else was interested in at the time that I knew. This was then followed by a fallow time while I went to Art College in Nottingham ,while I was there GW released Rogue Trader and I couldn't help myself collecting and painting various armies over the years for myself and my nephews who are now all grown up and we play pretty much just historical stuff now.

So relax safe in the knowledge that a ham fisted Luddite will take his hammer to Miles's spreadsheaf number machine, Ah, what could possibly go wrong? Abby? Abynormal? Anyway I'd better go and paint something so that I'm not culled on the 20th of this month!

All the best Iain