From MattK - More Carribean Natives and an Elf Banner

This weeks entry is short and sweet. Unfortunately real life got in the way and I got sick right in the middle of my 3-day weekend so this week is just a small submission.

First up is another 4 natives for the Blood and Plunder force. These are called Young Warriors so to keep them easy to identify I left the feathers white instead of the more colorful ones from last week.

I mentioned this in a comment but since people were asking, the skintone is simply Vallejo Beige-Brown with an Army Painter strong tone wash,

Next up I spent the whole of New Years Eve Day building a new Age of Sigmar army and I spent most of New Years Day painting the first piece for it.

Heres a close up of the banner itself and a shot from the back.

Super short submission this week but unfortunately this is all I got finished. I have a ton of stuff in progress but I figured I shouldnt miss a week. This should be:
5 x 28mm infantry at 5 points each for a total of 25

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And folks, we have a late breaking entry moving up on the outside. Very not French, except in a Flintloquian way, where elves are French.

A smashing job on those young warriors! I've often found that a brown or black wash over various dark skintones does a wonder at bringing out the details and facial expressions on figures, and often better than a shadow-main-highlight triad does!

I do like the work you've done on the Elf, especially the banner. White is a hard color to shade, and yet white and blue is classic High Elf. My dwarves may dislike it, being very fond of grey themselves, but you've done a marvelous job. Especially on the banner. I find painting cast on flags, even with (or especially with) the help of decals to be a right royal pain. Yours is splendid.

So 25 points for the five figures, and another five for the banner itself. So posted.

And, as we're closing on 21:31 Pacific Standard Time, that's the end of the first Friday Follies for Challenge IX.

From JohnS: Space Zombies (65 Points)

With the holidays in full swing and our house host to a variety of out of town friends and relatives, it was a challenge to sneak away and get any painting done. With everyone back at work and things falling into their usual routine I managed to polish off a small set of intergalactic undead for the Painting Challenge.

I picked these up from Tim Prow's Diehard Miniatures Kickstarter last year and I've been dying to get some paint on them. Perhaps it was my desire to get them "right", but I wound up repainting them with a few different color schemes before I was happy.

These undead astronauts started unlife in dark blue space suits with orange and white accents, a color palette I stole from the Netflix "Lost in Space" series. Unfortunately, with their bulbous helmets and dark blue colors they looked more like undead deep sea divers than wayward spacefarers. Repainting them in a classic white spacesuit made them seem more prone to wandering a derelict spacecraft or irradiated moonscape than the Marianas Trench.

I decided on an unnatural yellow/green for the flames licking out of these Infernals, and snuck the same hue into the visors of the other star zombies to give the whole gang a unified feel.

I adore these sculpts. Classic, chunky, with plenty of detail but not the baroque monstrosities that seem to be the rage from more recent ranges. They'd be perfectly at home on a Rogue Trader battlefield, but I'll be using these for the homebrew rules I've been noodling on for the last few years.

And with that I should be on the board, only an insurmountable number of points to go!

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And now for something completely different! Unless they're French zombies, in spaaaaaaaaaaaace. I shall defer to the Snow(over)lord for a definitive ruling in the comments.

I'm quite glad John is not in the prettiest undead competition, because these fellows are right smashing. I especially like how you've managed to paint facial expressions on fellows who don't have faces. You've got a great gung ho look on that first infernal, and his made has a decidedly less optimistic mein on his skull. Your flames and visors are quite smashing, and the helmets of the suited zombies are equally nice.

That's 65 points up on the board for you, and a right phantasmical entry for the Friday Follies here at the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, Casino, Bar and Grill. 

From: AdamC Norman/Crusaders and Pulp Minatures (160 points)

First up we have Six Norman Knights from Conquest Games. First time I've used their miniatures they came together nicely.  They aren't as good as the Fireforged knight but probably more accurate for Dark Age or Early knights.

 I decided to mix in some round shields but I used more of the "kite" type normal shields.

 The Sculpts are pretty basic one big difference is the "lances" are held more like spear or javelins.

The Bayeaux Tapestry supports this usage which is one of the reason I went with these rather than the some what better Fireforge mode's.

 As usual I painted the shields myself.  I could have gotten a crisper look with decals but I feel they should be hand painted.  I'm particularly pleased with the one nearest the camera while the one in the middle is probably the one I would like to do over.

I should mention I love playing cavalry but hate painting horses. I think part of it is that having been around real horses I think we sculpt them(and lots of other animals) wrong.  They have fur all over but we sculpt their bodies smooth. I don't have any suggestions but I'm always dissatisfied with how my horses look.  The fault is probably in the painter not the sculptor.  These will make a nice unit of men at arms for Lion Rampant (6 Points) or a point and half of Heartgards for Saga (I've got more in the Queue) 

 Next we have 12 Cross bow men and 2 Spear men(representing a Pavises upgrade in Lion Rampant)

I opted to do a desert type basing on these figures, I like how it came out though I feel it give the army a very specific regional look and flexibility is my normal mantra when it comes to miniatures.  I've I already decided not to use this look on my cavalry but might use it on other infantry.

  The Livery is inspired by that used in the movie Kingdom of Heaven but with out the crusader crosses.  Fire Forge has some of the best plastic in this scale.  I added some secondary weapons and belt pouches to these guys since this is the one area the Fireforge sergeants box is lacking in.

This makes a 6 point unit of Crossbowmen for Lion Rampant (4 for the crossbowmen +2 for the Pavises upgrade).  It will also make a nice unit for Saga wither warriors or Levies depending on the army and situation.  

We'll now shift gears and centuries with 6 Pulp Miniatures from the Reaper Bones line (Kick Starter 3 specifically)  I had wanted to practice painting African skin tones which was the motivation for the race assigned to the first three miniatures. 

 First up we have this very interesting fellow.  Clearly a modern "magic user"  of some sort though one can't quite be sure if the magic is slight of hand, some odd tech or something form a darker source.

 I love the figure because he just seems to ooze a combination of refinement and menace. You'll be so charmed you'll never notice the poison in the cup of tea (a dagger would be too crude)

 The Tech man of the group with is large gun... is it a ray gun? a flame thrower or just something lights up and goes "PEW" I'm not sure.  This fellow would make a fine Technomance for the old White Wolf Game "Mage" that I played in college.

 I love this guys jacket and think it came out really well. There are some great details on the gun and its power pack, fuel pod too.

 The Gun man.  Clearly some sort of detective or maybe a hit man.  He has a "badge" on his lapel but hat could be a secret society pin rather than an agency badge.

 The trench coat came our well but the guns need another layer of wash or something. They don't have a lot of detail.  Bones miniatures can be really uneven some times they have very sharp details but other times the details are very soft hard to pick out..

 Another Private Eye type with his 38 special snub nose gun.  The last time I painted this fellow he was in metal.  He translated pretty well to Bones and I'm pleased with the out come.

 Reaper call him a "paranormal investigator" so the book must be one of arcane lore or even spells.

 Our Femme fatale . . . every pulp adventure needs one right. I got to play with some color here though I didn't go crazy, I considered blue and white in homage to Tamsin's stewardess "Minion" image, but opted for jewel tone green.

 Clearly she's in charge of the situation and any man who says other wise will probably get a bullet or a stiletto heal in the eye.

 Unlike the rest of the bunch this man has no obvious weapon (mundane or magical) I suspect he's the hand to hand specialist of the bunch.  He doesn't look especially strong but maybe he's a skilled martial artist.  He could also be a scientist and not a fighter at all.  I really like how his clothing came out in any event he looks well dressed but a bit dirty like he got caught up in an adventure when he thought he was heading out to meet his girl.

OK its time to figure out points. 

6 Norman Knights =60 Points

14 Crossbowmen =70 points

6 Pulp heroes (or villains)= 30 points

Total point would be 160 Points. 

I should have 12 points toward my 24 Point war band in the Rampant Duel. 

I should also have two "Squirrel" points for Dark Ages and Pulp for that duel. 

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And yes, more French! Normans are French, yes? And Outremer, definitely French.  I am detecting a bit of a theme here on the Friday Follies, despite our avowed squirreldom.

And no, I am not sure that giving flight attendants handguns is a good idea. Though I do wonder if that might speed up disembarkation and result in fewer people with rollaboards. And I'm getting a distinct Newt Scamander vibe with that last fellow there.

Ah, yes, the soft plastic of Reaper Bones. Ever so fun.

And you're up, with 160 points and notations in the Duels Book for Lion Rampant and SQVIRREL!

From GregB: Franco-Prussian War, French Command in 28mm (44 points)

Assorted French command bases in 28mm for the Franco-Prussian War. All figures from Wargames Foundry.

Happy New Year to all Challenge participants! With the initial flurry of entries now behind us, it is time to settle in for some more "regular" posting.  It's great to be part of the Friday crew. For my first scheduled post my brushes return again to a familiar theme and setting - the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.  These are 28mm figures from Wargames Foundry, mounted to represent commanders in games such as "Black Powder".

As with my Prussian command bases, there are two different levels of command represented here.  The bases with two figures will represent "brigade" commanders (again, "brigade" used in the sense of the Black Powder rules, as opposed to commanders of a specific actual brigade), officers with a sub-command of several units, while the base with three figures will represent an overall command for the whole French force on the table.

French officers on foot ponder developments on the battlefield...

There is a bit more variability to the French officer figures in the Foundry Franco-Prussian War collection - some senior commanders on foot, and one courier-type mounted, and one large selection of different poses in the senior command vignette.  This Challenge submission gives a flavour of all of these options.

Without mounted commanders, there was a lot of extra room on the base, so I went nuts filling it up with grass tufts from Tajima - I love those things...

One "brigade" command features two senior officers on foot - while the regalia of the French senior command from the period was quite flashy, I mostly just bodged it so it looked good from a foot or so away on the table.

"Take this message to the Marshal!"

The second "brigade" command features a pair of flashy Hussars in their sexy bearskin shakos. They are a set, with the fellow on foot handing a note off to the ADC on the horse.  They were a little tricky to line up on the round base, so the hand-off looks a little awkward. But when it comes to this period, however, I kind of like that these French command figures give an aura of unease...

The message says "Why the f*** are we just standing here while the Prussians march all around us?"

That is because the performance of the French senior command during the Franco-Prussian War was utterly abysmal, hapless at best and incompetent at worst.  The French soldiers fought bravely. But through poor communication, indecision, indolence, and astonishing idiocy, the senior command group of the French managed to seize defeat from the jaws of victory on a number of key occasions. More than any other factor (and there were many), the performance of the French senior officers led to the envelopment and destruction of the French Imperial Army at the hands of the Prussians in the summer of 1870.

"J'ai aucune idee..." the command mantra for the French in 1870. 

And this is why I find the third portion of this entry, the French senior command base, to be so fun, because the sculpting (by the amazing Perry brothers, of course) is just brilliant.  There is a French Marshal, sitting to the corner of a bench, rubbing his forehead in confusion. A second ADC has no idea what to make of things either, while a third ADC just leans on the table and wonders how the first two ever got promoted...

Simply marvellous sculpting from the Perrys as usual - so much character in these figures, really amazing. 

Everyone is stumped by developments on the battlefield...

I continue to really enjoy painting this period, scale and setting.  Hopefully this edition of the Painting Challenge will bring me closer to my goals on this project - it's been great so far.  While the number of figures isn't large, things like command bases or (ugh) artillery are the things that are important to round out collections for games like "Black Powder" - but these are things I often find I never get around to.  So it's great that I now have a useful number of command sets for both sides.

Scoring-wise, with this entry we have six 28mm foot figures, one 28mm mounted figure, and a table & bench. I'll leave tables and benches to the minions, but that should be about 40 points for the figures, a respectable, if small, start to the weekly entries. Cheers!
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Ah, yes, for our next entry in the Friday Follies, we have . . . more French! Frenchier French, even. Perhaps the Frenchiest French, for “le pantalon rouge, c'est la France!" Or maybe that was the next war . . .

Another one of my  favorite periods, the Franco-Prussian War pits sartorial elegance, handsome moustaches and readiness down to the last gaiter button of buttonless gaiters against the severity of spiked helmets, bushy whiskers, and armor-clad Chancellors. I do look forward to seeing this project take shape, especially if you branch out into the Republican period of the war, where the French took a more bawdy and burlesque taste to their headquarters environs.

Now, after ample inspection of the kepi, and the maps, and the shading on the woodgrain of the table, by the power vested in me by the Snowlord, I award the munificent sum of a tenth the submission value, for a nice round total of 44! Perhaps, in honor, we shall see the 44^e régiment d'infanterie? 

But, until then . . . En avant! 

From BillA - Bidowers and SKELETOR! (35 points)

I am going to be all over the place with this year's Challenge, but one thing I am focused on accomplishing is painting up a retinue for Osprey's medieval small-battle/skirmish game, Lion Rampant.  Moving the focus from big battles like Agincourt or Hastings to "Baron A has accused Baron B of stealing a pig from his land.  A scuffle ensued" allows for a game to be enjoyed with fewer figures on the table, and Lion Rampant's design, focused on categorizing troops by how they work rather than nationality or anything like that, means a simple unit profile can cover a wide variety of similar soldiers.

One of the smaller and cheaper in-game units is called "Bidowers," consisting of light missile troops that function as scouts or harriers.  A unit of Bidowers in heavy terrain can annoy a unit of mounted knights into charging them, bogging the knights down in terrain that really hampers them.  I've seen Bidowers modeled as everything from peasant archers to Renaissance handgunners.

I picked up a pack of Bidowers from Crusader Miniatures, selecting six figures to represent my own peasant archers.  I've got them on magnetic bases (I'll mount them on steel movement trays to simplify moving them until combat starts) and played around a bit with GF9 "Autumn Flock" on the bases for a change of pace.  I think for the remainder of the retinue I'll go my usual route of applying a first layer of Army Painter brown basing grit, and then apply the Autumn Flock over top of that.

I'm still getting the hang of doing highlights without just drybrushing; up close the tunics and hoods look like bold strokes of paint but on the table the result works out pretty well.  A lot like an Impressionist painting, I suppose.

Next up is a Reaper...undead? Demon? I'm not entirely sure, actually.  Reaper #02218 "Abraxus, Dire-Dead," appears to be a muscular fellow with a tail, clawed feet and a horned skull helmet encasing his head.  Sculpted by Bob Ridolfi in the late 1990s, he was too cool not to buy when I was gathering some older undead from Reaper back in October.  The juxtaposition of skull face, muscular torso and cape gave me no choice but to paint him as the supreme villain of my childhood cartoon-time: Skeletor, archenemy of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

I think the blue skin came out really well, and I played around with a new method for painting gold on his helmet and chest-piece that I think looks fantastic.  The highlights on the folds of the cloak aren't showing up as well in the photo as they do in person, and I think I might need to go back and bring them up a little higher.

So with seven 28mm figures, this update should net me 35 points.  As Bidowers are a 2 point unit in Lion Rampant, that puts me on the board for the Lion Rampant side duel with 2 points towards me 24 point retinue.

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But wait, there's more . . . . not French. Unless the bidowers are French? Could they be French? Eh, I guess the French would hire anybody so, for the purposes of posting and theme here at the Friday Follies, I deem them French! After all, why not go mad with power, now that the Snowlord has handed me the demesne of Friday as his vassal?

And hey, who would not go mad with power when we have SKELETOR in our midst? It's almost obligatory! 

And a right chuffed and smashing example of supervillainy he is. Cuts quite a dashing figure, does he not, with the highlights to his blue skin and his purple cape? You've done a smashing job, Bill!

So, 35 points go on the board for you, I have marked you down in the super secret Stats-wallah double bookkeeping, and I expect to see the rest of your retinue ere long.

From PaulSS - Hundred Years War French Infantry (120 points)

Over the New Year break I've been working on some French infantry for the Hundred Years War project that shall hopefully feature heavily in my challenge entries.

All the figures are from a Perry Miniatures Agincourt French Infantry 1415-29 set that my mother in law bought me for Christmas. This is my first box of this set and already another is on order as I've cracked on so well with this one.

The first unit is a dozen crossbow-men in a blue and white livery that I have tried to vary through the unit. Several are sporting the cross of St. Denis, a typical French field sign during the era, much like the English use of the cross of St. George.

Like the earlier mounted men at arms, the figures are individually based then mounted six to a tray in the custom trays that I ordered from Warbases  meaning I can use them as single figures for Lion Rampant etc. or as units for Hail Caesar or To The Strongest!

The second unit is a dozen spearmen in a burgundy and black livery scheme, again, I've tried to vary the application of the livery through the unit. These are a mixed bag of fellows, some are very well armed and armoured while some appear to have been given an helmet and a pointy stick and shoved in the direction of the English.

A few close-up shots of some individuals.

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Our first contestant on the first Friday Folly is none other than long-time watcher, first-time challenger, Contestant #60, PaulSS!

The sky blue and white livery is one I've always been fond of, and did for my own French noble, the Count of Tunis, AKA Constable of France, AKA King of France, and his retinue of rapscallions, cuttthroats, ne'er-do-wells, ex-Crusaders and other usurpers. 

Naturally, these folks are fine outstanding examples of French manhood. You've also painted a rather nice example of English basehood, with the bases fitting quite seemlessly into the movement trays, they really do look like a multi-figure base in that first photo.

En Avant!

Now, by my maths, arithmetic being a bit much for a statistician, two dozen crossbowmen in 28mm, by five points a figure, carry the one, add a brace of champagne (French, naturally), and I come up with, in round figures, 120 points. Which puts you at a grand total of 321, or nearly halfway to your 750 points goal.