From EthanM: Handgunners Galore - Part One of Too Many (50 points)

Hello All!

This post brings about the beginning of my Warhammer Fantasy Battles army. Moving from painting Republican Romans and Sertorian Spanish to the late Renaissance-inspired regiments of the Empire of Man is definitely a bit of a change. The Empire of Warhammer's Old World is a fantastical imagining of the Holy Roman Empire of medieval and renaissance Europe, with large contingents of professional soldiers (state troops) often dressed in puffed sleeves and quartered livery, and sworn to fight at the behest of their Elector-Count. Each of the Elector-Counts answers to the Emperor, elected from among their number. However, the Old World mixes in the fractured nature of the loosely-bound principalities with powerful battle mages, massive steam-punk tanks and various pieces of artillery, as well as good-aligned monsters such as griffons. 

Here we have an image of the first ten handgunners to be included in this army. Handgunners are, quite simply, state troops trained in the use of crude black powder weapons (a technology shared by humanity's stalwart ally, the Dwarfs). The fellows are painted in the livery of Averland, an Imperial province in the southern region of the Empire. Averland is ruled by Marius Leitdorf, the Mad Count - at least until the End Times. Averland's sigil is that of a yellow sun on a black field. 

These handgunners will be fielded in regiments of 30 - at present, I have plans for three 30-man regiments of these fine fellows.

Here we have a close-up of the regiment's sergeant, a grizzled veteran, and the regimental piper. 

And finally, a shot of the full regiment in its movement tray. Only 20 more until this unit is finished! Hopefully, they will be completed at a somewhat faster rate.

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"What the hell is this?"

 
"This is the bill that will convert the Averland state hospital for the insane into the William J. Le Petomane memorial handgunner regiment for the insane."

"Gentlemen, this bill will be a giant step forward in the expansion of the army of the insane Marius Leitdorf. Fifty points to Averland!"

From MattK: Squigs and Uruk-Hai (210 points)

This weeks entry marks the real start of my Goblin army as well as a start into my long overdue lord of the rings project

First up I have 10 of the new Squig Hopper Cavalry guys. These were fun to crank out and I got them done on Monday.

 To go with these I finally repainted the old metal squigs and herders I got in a trade from a buddy of mine, back when AOS 2nd edition came out

And to round out these photos heres a shot of all the goblins set up so far in the case at the shop. Along with a neat little flyer I made to promote the shelf.

In addition to these goblins, I finally started my Lord of The Rings project. I'm starting the project out with Uruk-hai and here is 10 test models to get the color down before I open the rest.

By my math
10 28mm Cavalry x 10 = 100pts
22 28mm Infantrry x 5 = 110pts
Thanks

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“Qualifications?”

“Stampeding squigs.”

“That's not much of a crime.”

“Through the Vatican?”

“Kinkyyyy. Sign here for 210 points!"

From TomB: Incoming!!! (28.14 points)

Finally Friday ~ Incoming!!! (22.5 Points?)

Embarrassingly overdue, but I've finally finished my first ever entry to the AHPC! I've been a gamer since I was a little kid.  My parents gave me a copy of Featherstone's Solo Wargaming for my 14th Birthday. I have a huge Collection of unpainted primarily Ral Partha lead and I've always wanted to play Large Army Fantasy Battles. I'll be sixty this Summer . . . Definitely past time to make it happen.

My Dear Wife Pat gave me a dog grooming kit for Christmas. We don't have a dog, so it seemed like a good idea to, um, trim my fur. (The fur mat is unfinished and is not a terrain entry ~ yet. It's a practice piece for a later project.)

Bad color drift, but I hope you all can get an idea of how the base looks. (I haven't painted a landscape in over forty years, but I've been wanting too. So I began this skyscape last night as practice for another later project.)

 Unfortunately I unthinkingly used W&N Galleria Matt Varnish on all of the Officer's armour.

But it is a better view of what my static grass actually looks like. (Now to get my fur mat to match.)

I repainted it, but I'm still not happy with the result. I'll go back and try a satin varnish later.

 Poor photo of the Loader.

You didn't?!? Well, yes I did! 

I've always been kind of bothered by how this thing would work. So I strung it with 28 gauge Sterling Silver wire. I'll satin varnish the strings, when my varnish gets here, so they won't tarnish. In Honor of, and to amuse, our Mighty Friday Minion ~ this obviously has to be some kind of an Italian weapon!

 I've had this classic Tom Meier since the late 70's. He's a simple conversion.

I chopped off his sword and the potion bottle, added a quillon and pommel nut. I made the plume from fine brass sheet, a simple repousse job. I wished I'd curved the edges down more to match the Citadel figures' plumes and I should have made the veining deeper; they looked good in metal but don't show up well once painted.

Oh yeah, the bases. I've been thinking about and tinkering with this project for years. The 1/8" bases I had custom cut were just too thin for me. The 1/4" ones I made were so thick they just didn't look right. I finally found 3/16" white board was perfect for me. I joined our local Senior Center so I could use it's amazing wood shop. I cut a 2' X 4' sheet into lots 6" X 3" bases. Why 6" X 3"? You'll have to wait for another installment!

These are all 25 mm. The One True Scale. So I figure split the difference between 20 and 28 mils? So 3 foot figures at 4.5 plus an artillery piece at 9? Plus whatever else our Worthy Friday Minion things warranted.

Hope you all enjoy! ~ Tom B

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A bolt-thrower! But elven repeater bolt throwers are the last thing I want. Wait a minute . . . maybe I could turn this thing into my advantage. If I could find a weapon who so offends the fantasy players that its very appearance would drive them mad.

But where would I find such a bolt-thrower?

Why am I asking you?
 

Perhaps by awarding it π additional points for conversion work? Genius!

From AdamC: Norman Knights (90 points)

Finished off the last of my Conquest Games Norman Knights this week. I'll be using them for Saga and "Lion/Dragon Rampant" games.

First up is the "Warlord"  his sword dramatically raised.

I tried a modification to the helmet that broke while painting.  So instead of having cools wings the helmet looks battered I'm calling it a happy accident.

 The remaining eight figures will make two points of Heartgard for Saga or a second unit of Mounted Men at Arms completing my Lion Rampant army.

The banner is hand painted the design came mostly out of my head.

obviously I drew on many similar pennants and flags. Still I think this one isn't a duplication.

 The guys who are not in armor have the same livery and the colors of the shields should tie the whole force together.  All the shields are hand painted.

I added the war hammer its slightly anachronistic but I wanted to add in some weapons that where not spears or swords.  I didn't have any maces that were to scale but that war hammer came out of a warlords game box and looked right.

Army Group Shot  Two Units of Men At Arms (12 Points) 12 Crossbowmen with Pavaise (6 points) and 12 Foot Sargent with "expert" up grade (6 points).   That Completes my Army for the Rampant innovation Challenge.

These Nine mounted 25/28mm soldiers should be good for 90 points.

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"Unfortunately there is one thing standing between me and that property: the rightful owners."

“What do you want me to do, sir?”

“I want you to round up every vicious criminal and knifeweilder in the west. Take this down.

“I want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Huns, puns, bandits, brigands, Viking bezergers, Frenchmen, Frenchwomen, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, wagon robbers, crossers, double-crossers, triple-crossers, traders, betrayers, pillagers and ardent Christians.”

“Could you repeat that, sir?”
 

"Get me 90 points of Normans, Taggart."

From GregB: Prussian Artillery for Franco-Prussian War (30 points)

Prussian artillery from 1870, 28mm figures from Wargames Foundry.

 Not a lot to share this week, but progress is progress and I'm pleased to be making more, even if it is just a bit.  This is a Prussian artillery piece from 1870 for my ongoing Franco-Prussian War project. The figures are all 28mm from the Wargames Foundry range.

Artillery was THE decisive arm for the Prussians in the war against France in 1870-71. In terms of small-arms, the French Chassepot rifle was the class of the period.  But the French artillery enjoyed no such advantage. The French artillery was obsolescent and plagued by things like dud fuses. On the other hand, while the Prussian infantry rifles were greatly out-classed by their French opponents, the Prussian artillery arm was kitted out with the latest-and-greatest of the era - steel breech-loading rifled artillery.  Manufactured by Krupp, the Prussian guns of 1870 were far more deadly and useful than the pieces of the French Imperial Army, and the Prussian army made full use of this advantage during the invasion of France.

While painting artillery is far from my favourite activity, I do love the 28mm figures from Wargames Foundry.

 Once in place, Prussian guns could easily wipe out the French batteries with fast and accurate counter-battery fire.  The gunners could then turn their attention to the main French lines, and blast whole regiments into dust. It was all rather dreadful for the French, who would slow and halt Prussian attacks with their magnificent Chassepot rifles, only to see a key artillery bombardment open a critical hole in their lines that aggressive Prussians would exploit. A devastating artillery bombardment helped the Prussians to win the battle at Gravelotte-St. Privat, shattering the French right and turning what had been, up to that point, a rather harsh and failed day for the Prussians.

Bit of a stretch to have these on a table in 28mm, but whatever - they will look cool, that is what counts.

These guns so greatly outperform the cannons of the "Black Powder" era that having them on the table as models at all is a bit of a bodge, particularly with 28mm-sized castings. But it is a bodge I am prepared to make just so we can have a more complete, all-arms game of some sort of the table. The gun & crew will represent a battery of Krupp guns.  The Prussian side of my collection now has two of these, an ominous sign for anyone wishing to play the French when the time comes...

Excellent animation in the castings.

"French sighted - fire!"

For scoring, we have four crew and one weapon in 28mm, which should work out to 30 points for this week.  Not a whole lot, but as I said, progress is progress, and I am very much hoping to keep making progress on this project.  As Curt and others noted before, I really dislike painting artillery, so it is great that I am getting these things finished and out of the way, bringing a first game that much closer!

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"Ahh, Lili. Lili, Lili, Lili, guns, Lili, Lili... I cannot finds the words to truly express my joy at the rekindling of our association!"

"Come on, Lamarr, let's get down to bwass tacks. What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to destroy the French in St. Privat. You think you can do it?"

"Is Bismark a hewwing? Vhy don't you admit it, Franzy? Krupp's too much of artillery for you. I know. You're going to need an army to beat him! You're finished. Fertig! Verfallen! Verlumpt! Verblunget! Verkackt!" 

While the products of the fertile . . . furnaces . . . of Messers Krupp are often given sole credit for the Franco-Prussian War, I suspect it was less the technology and more the tactics. The French were not overmatched that much in artillery (with twelve batteries and two Mitrailleuses to twelve batteries at the Corps level), but the Corps artillery was not used with the same aggression as German. And so the Chassepot became the counterbattery weapon of choice. I would certainly suggest they belong on the table.

Vill you care for another thirty points?

From PaulSS: 100 Years War English (60 points)

Back at work full time after the festive break so not quite so many opportunities to get the brushes out this week so only a dozen figures completed. The previous output on this Hundred Years War project for the painting challenge has all been Frenchmen, but this week my English contingent get some attention.

As mentioned on some of the earlier posts the Perry Miniatures French and English boxes are very interchangeable with the English archers being typically much less armoured than the French infantry.

With this batch of archers I did a lot of mixing up of French bodies and heads with the archer arms and a lot more armour is included on these. Some are still made up of only the English bodies and arms but this batch should give you an idea of the possibilities with mash-ups between the sets.

The figures are painted with a black and gold theme, again, not maintaining a specific livery but a common limited palette to bind the figures into a unit but not to have them overly uniform.

The figures are based on standard 20mm Renedra rounds and mounted in the Warbases custom trays that I ordered - I'll be needing another order of these soon..

In this group of four the second figure in is a heavily armoured French body with both a mail coif and plate armour for his legs. The third, lightly armed, figure with the dagger is entirely from the French set apart from his sheath of arrows and small shield.

The figure on the left is another use of the heavily armoured French body while the shield on the third bowman is from the French set. The final figure is a French body and head with English arms, a good dynamic pose that is not available in the English set, he also has metal greaves.

The first three members of this group are made from French heads and bodies with English bowman arms. The final figure is an English body with a French head. The option to have additional choices of bodies and helmets does get a lot of extra value out of these two sets.

As ever with the Perry plastics they go together very well and need very little cleaning up and filler in preparation and paint up easily. I'm working on another dozen English bowmen already.

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"Twelve English bowmen? Twelve English bowmen? What'll it cost, man, what'll it cost?"

"A box of these, sir."

"Are you crazy? They'll never go for it. And then again they might. Those little minions . . . they love toys!"

Clearly, your mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.  The cross of St. George on the livery of one archer is really the only bit to distinguish them from the French, so you've got the option of expanding the army to boot.

Give the poster 60 points!

From PeteF: Shieldmaidens Part 2: Warriors with Spears (22 points)

Sheildmaiden Warriors with Spears

Since I painted no female minis at all in Challenge 8 I'm doing some Bad Squiddo shieldmaidens this time round. These are from a Kickstarter and will eventually be part of an all girl Viking warband for SAGA.

Annie Norman (Bad Squiddo) has made some great sculpts - they are expressive and great fun to paint. I had a lot of fun with these and feel that my Dark Ages painting is getting a little better each time I put some effort in. I was especially happy with how the yellow-ochre turned out since the Vallejo paint I use for this colour has being giving me trouble - greasy with a tendency to dry with an unwanted shine. The fix turned out to be thinning, lots of layers, shaking the bottle a lot and mixing with other colours.

Bad Squiddo provide the shields separately with lumps on the figures' hands that ensure they fit well (unlike the Old Glory shields I did last week). These shields had textured wood surfaces which made painting the designs a little more challenging than on a smooth surface.

They don't provide spears - so I ended up using some plastic spears left over from some Warlord Celts which have a nice variety of pointy ends. This warband is getting autumnal colours with a fair amount of red and yellow. Also working on leather effects using dotting with an old scraggly brush - I like how this is turning out.

Leather coat using dotting

Four shieldmaidens at 5 points each for 20 points - enough to give me more than 25 points in the Viking category for one more Squirrel! entry.

Please also enter these in female figure category for Lady Sarah's consideration.

Gripping Beast Shield Design in the middle

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Well now, an historic figure. Maybe even a cabinet post! They are aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor of invention! 

They do look quite autumnal, and the faces are quite expressive. The ocher in particular looks quite well, especially on the lady in the middle. She reminds me of the beloved schoolmarm in Rock Ridge. The shield patterns are certainly an inspired choice. 

Taggart, take this down: "For the shields and scrollwork, I award an additional ten percent of points." If you will just sign this, Governor. Right here.