From BenF - Russians in God's Own Scale (33 points)

This entry is my first steps towards a Blucher army in 6mm. I've painted up loads of 6mm Cold War before, but the prospect of a Napoleonic army was quite daunting. Reading a few tutorials online, and taking onboard some advice from my mate Steve to 'paint the unit, not the figure', I actually managed to paint this lot up in a relatively speedy manner. I've played a few games of Blucher, and love the grand scale it gives, along with the usual innovative mechainics we've come to expect from Sam Mustafa's rulesets.

This is the first base of my Russian Army for 1805-1808. I decided to paint up Russians as I like the look of this early period army, with the grenadiers in large busch plumes, brightly coloured flags, and these guys, the Jagers, in their light green uniforms with 'top hats'. I'm building up a force aligning with the rules, but have based it on the Advance Guard of General Pytor Bagration, which faced off in the North of Austerlitz fighting bravely while the southern flank of the army was decimated by Napoleon's 'Sun of Austerlitz'.

So, this is the 6th Jager Regiment, under command of Colonel Ivan Petrovich Belokopytov. The relatively subdued Jager uniform and lack of any battalion flags is set off by the orange and black national cockade and the regimental distinctives, namely 'flame' coloured collars and cuffs.The Jagers were light infantry, and so I've based some skirmishing troops as a visual reminder. I'm also trying to replicate the historical strength of Bagration's component regiments by varying the troops on each base. The 6th Jager totaled 922 men, so I went for two battalions of 28 men - there is a logic to this, , e.g. the weaker 5th Jager will have 24 figure battalions. I hope the effect will be to give a visual representation of Bagration's command as it was on the morning of 2nd December 1805, before disaster struck.

I love the massed look of a 6mm Napoleonic game, along with the large Blucher bases with give you an opportunity to make what amount to small dioramas. I kept it simple with this base, as it was really a bit of a test - just a road and a few shrubs.

These are the lovely Adler figures, and anyone who is skeptical of 6mm should have a look at the animation and detail in these little works of art. I currently have the 6th's 'sister' regiment, the 5th Jager with their rather fancy turquoise facings, along with a foot artillery battery, next in my Blucher painting queue, though i'm not sure that i'll get to them this challenge.

By my reckoning, that's 62 foot and 2 mounted figures, so should net me another 33 points towards my goal.

Next up it will be back to WW2 and 20mm, with some German armour and panzer crewmen.

***
Stunning work here Ben!  While I have the lack of detail on 6mm and the lack of painting opportunity they provide, there really is  no downside when they are all ranked up like this.  While individually they don't compare to 28mm, when ranked up 6mm looks stunning, especially when done well like these are.  

Your basing also adds a ton to these and is wonderful!  I really hope to see more in the near future.

-ByronM

From DaveS - Bringing out the big guns (40 Points)

So, my progress on the challenge has been much slower than I planned, with an ambitious target that I am coming nowhere near reaching.  Despite this, I have made some more progress with my American Civil War forces of the Union.
I have now completed my first artillery piece.  This includes a crew, and, since it is planned for use in Sharp Practice, one of the gunners will be the NCO that counts as an officer.

This is 6 28mm models, plus the field gun, for 30 points plus whatever the gun counts as.

Coming up next, some models from the Judge Dredd game by warlord games.

***
Good work Dave, everything here looks great.  The civil war is one period I have always looked at doing, but have not yet gotten into.  I always liked the nice clean look of the dual blues on the soldiers, and these look perfect.  I like my guns based, but to each their own.  I just find they get beat up more if not protected a little by a base on them.

-ByronM

From JohnP - 28mm Burch's Bluff Legio Custodes Caladius (50 pts)

It's been quite a while since my last post. My apologies. I recently completed a commission for a good friend of mine. We're heading to Adepticon in a little less than a month, and I've got to get another one of these painted up for him as a commission! Yikes! Commission work pretty much sank my ability to focus on AHPC, unfortunately, but I've learned a great deal from the experience. Hopefully I can get a few more things in before the competition concludes. Comments and criticisms are welcome.

I'd like to saunter over to Burch's Bluff, because this here Caladius Tank is the workhorse of the Legio Custodes vanguard armies. It served admirably when the Wolf King and his sons scoured Prospero with the aid of the silent sisters and the Legio Custodes. It continues to earn glorious reputation in battle some 10,000 years later.

Comments and feedback are always welcome. Thanks for looking!

***

Awesome looking tank here!  The model is great and has a very sci-fi almost Buck Rodgers pulp look to me.  I also love the effective use of the unit colours in the front panels against the gold of the rest of the model.  Also the gun heat effects at the end of the barrel are top notch.  I wish you guys luck at Adepticon!

-ByronM

From NoelW: The Strawberry Has Flown: Sander’s Sand Dunes (65 points)

To cheer you up on this dismal Friday (or it may be Saturday where you are, which is never dismal, of course), here’s a joke from my schooldays (yes, I did go to school. Sometimes two or three times a week).

(1)

What’s the difference between an elephant and a strawberry?

I don’t know. What is the difference between an elephant and a strawberry?

Elephants are grey and strawberries are red.

(2)

What did Scipio say when he saw the elephants coming over the hill?

I don’t know.

“Here come the elephants over the hill.”

(3)

What did Hannibal say when he saw the elephants coming over the hill?

Er – “here come the elephants over the hill”?

No. “Here come the strawberries over the hill”.

He was colour blind.

---

As we spit sand from our mouths, and drag marram grass from various intimate declivities of our persons, Lady Sarah busies herself rounding up errant geese before the red-garbed soldiers wandering here experiment with goose a l’orange. They seem to be searching the dunes for something. Goose feathers are everywhere.

A bearded soldier approaches me, a puzzled look on his face.

“You’ve not seen my strawberry wandering around here, have you?” he asks.

“Strawberry?”

“Grey* thing. Tail at each end. Ears the size of a carpark. Likes peanuts.”

“I’ve just fallen out of a balloon. I’ve just had an argument with a goose. I’ve just flown a million kilometres in precisely the opposite direction to the one I want to go. I’ve neither time nor inclination to identify wandering fruit.”

“Goosefeathers! The sky! Of course. I’m such a dumbo.”

“ I wasn’t going to say anything.”

“It’s well known that feathers are magical, isn’t it?”

I give him the look I've recently learned from Lady Sarah.

“Oh, yes, I’m sure that’s what some people believe.”

“If my strawberry has got hold of one of those feathers, he could’ve flown away. He could be anywhere.“

“Well, I think I’ve seen about everything if I’ve seen a strawberry fly.” This is getting me nowhere. “I tell you what – why don’t you have a quiet word with that nice lady over there. Maybe in her balloon she’ll help you pursue your missing – er – strawberry.”

“Excellent idea!” He waves his arms excitedly. “Men! Assemble in the basket over there. The beast has flown. We’ll follow in the balloon, catch him and soon we’ll have a basket full of strawberry. Remind me to send you a punnet of elephants when I get home.”

“Yes, of course. But I move around a lot. A great deal, actually. I'm all over the place, in fact. Maybe you should just send me the address of your sanitorium and I’ll be sure to forget all about it.”

[*Or, for our US audience, “Gray”.]

---

So my "something red" vignette is Hannibal, to lead my developing Carthaginian army.

I began this army during the Challenge IX, but have not painted a single figure for it since! So I’m hoping that I might finish a few more this time round, perhaps enough to give me a decent fighting force.

The Hannibal figure was the freebie show figure at Salute many years ago. His standard is a Victrix spare, carried by a figure of yet another unknown manufacturer. Supporting him are 11 more of these figures, who’ll be Hannibal’s Companions, his Guard.

I’m not sure whether to leave the shields plain red – I think it will make the unit quite distinctive in the Punic army, but my Roman troopers currently have red shields, too, so this may lead to some confusion on the battlefield. However, I hope to finish a few more figures for both sides before the Challenge is over, so this may change matters overall.

***
Well, these figures may have had to wait a while to get painted, but the wait was worth it.  Cracking job on these Noel.  As for the shields being red, that is entirely your call, but I would maybe try to find something to make them completely separate from your Roman force.  Adding a design may or may not do that though, it may make them blend even more, so up to you.  They look great as is though.

-ByronM

From SanderS and ArthurS - Helo to Snowlord's Peak! (120 pts)

Hoi,

"What have I gotten myself into?"I think as I let the Lad drag me up the side of the mountain. Perspiration thick on my brow and breath coming in rasps with each step, "I am getting too old for this nonsense for sure..." When we're halfway up the slope I spy something strange from the corner of my eye: a huge pink shape, topped with a floppy yellow hat and wearing something that for all the world looks like far too small budgiesmugglers, comes stumbling down at a full gallop while mumbling something about "Me playing an actual game? ME a game? PLAYING a game? A GAME?!".

My clog snatches a loose boulder and it's all I can do in catching Arthur's arm to prevent me getting an impromptu paragliding lesson without the most essential equipment. What folly is this of the Lad? Climbing this hellish Peak for treasure? Huh, he'll be in for it when we get home for sure.

At the top of the Peak, the Lad breaks loose from my grip and saunters up to a large blue monstrosity... The beast scares the becheesus out of me, but of course Arthur walks up to it undaunted and starts babbling at it as if he's feeding the ducks at the park. "You don't look thát mean. Why are you blue? Where's the treasure? Come on fess up Cookie-monster!"

Before the Lad can say some even dumber things I walk up and try to quieten things down. What happens next passes like if in a dream (well a nightmare tell the truth) but I end up walking back down the mountain in a daze with the dim notion of doing something GI Joe related in order to get at the good stuff. Almost at the foot of the slope the large pink man in floppy hat is squatting on some sort of sandbag in the shade of a large boulder stroking, I kid you not, a large badger! Arthur is all plans and rattling about doing some more cars and really getting on my nerves. They are frayed enough as it is.

<FLASH>

Somewhere in downtown Springfield the WHOP-WHOP-WHOP of a heavy chopper can be heard. The wind created by its blades blows newspapers down along as it sets down, the pilot gets out and walks up the road.

The chopper is clearly the Tomahawk, the GI Joe workhorse heavy lifter. Its pilot appears to be "Lift Ticket" in his recognisable red and green flightsuit. 

But appearances can deceive! It's not Lift Ticket! It's Zartan, the master of disguise! 

 Zartan is quickly followed by two of his Dreadnok companions Buzzer and Torch.

 

Torch

Buzzer

"Oi you lot, you can come out as well!" Zartan yells.

Out of the Chopper come two more Cobra specialists. The first, carrying a large red banner featuring the arms of Destro, is an Iron Grenadier officer. He's closely followed by a female officer of the Crimson Guard, Cobra commander's elite bodyguards.

 The Dreadnoks disappear only to re-emerge with a hot set of wheels, a true Roadster Battlecar in traditional Dreadnok colours of blue and burgundy as well as...

..their own trusty hogs.

Amidst a huge amount of thrown up dust and roaring of engines, pushed to the limits, they set off to do Cobra Commander's hideous work!

Well that was fun! Thanks Curt, I had some nice 80's Pulp stuff lying around needing an excuse to get painted. Specially the Tomahawk, who's a 3D print and has been on the workbench for nigh on 2 years now. The car is a toy car I let Arthur pimp up with some left over 40k parts. I bought him quite a lot of different coloured paints, but he keeps sticking to his trusted blue/ purple and red. The figures are a mixed lot. The foot figures of Zartan, Buzzer and Torch are resin figures done as part of a private initiative, I bought two sets since I knew I wanted to paint a bike-mounted version as well. The bikers are the Crooked Dice bikers with torso's from a second Dreadnok Set as well as Warlord Games Zombie game arms. The Iron Grenadier is from the stash of GI Joe specific figures I obtained long ago and the Crimson Guardswoman is really another Crooked Dice figure (Famke Janssen/ 007 anyone?) with an appropriate headswap.

If I did my maths correct that should amount to 40 pts for the 2 vehicles, 20 for the 2 mounted figures, 30 for the 6 foot figures and another 30 for Snowlords Peak.

Well dear Snowlord, does this qualify for passage over the Peak?  P.S. in a homage to the Great Blue one:

Sincere Regards Arthur and his way too Old Dad.

_________________________________

Sander and Arthur, this is just fabulous and exactly the thing we all wanted to see for your Peak challenge. I really enjoyed reading your descriptions of the various models and appreciate all the effort you went through to recreate these characters and vehicles from Cobra. The chopper is an impressive piece of kit, and Arthur, that modified Roadster Battlecar is the absolute bomb, well done both of you!

As to your reward I think it would be churlish to award you only one prize, especially as this was a family team effort. So I'm delighted to give you Iannick's wonderful 'Halfling Mage Apprentice' AND Rob's charmingly whimsical 'Leprechaun'. 

Bravo to you both and many thanks for showing us all this wonderful GI Joe goodness (or badness as the case may be).

-Curt