From NoelW: A spell of discomfort: Fran’s Fjord (30 points)

Luckily, the rocks we land on are blunter than most. However, I stumble in dismounting from the basket and land on my head, jarring me awkwardly.

Fjordtunately it seems to have no effect. We watch the balloon sail effjordlessly away with Lady Sarah but we can’t affjord to waste time, as we’re anxious to get on our way homewards. We’ve been on this wretched island more than a fjordnight, and despite our best effjords it’s beginning to nibble away our fjorditude.

What do you mean, concussion? I’m perfectly comfjordable. I had an unfjordunate bump but that’s just one of the misfjordunes of balloon travel. Hencefjordth, please mind your own business! Let us hasten from this confusing place to the comfjords of the fjordification on Bromley’s Butte, fjordthwith!

---

Today, to satisfy Fran’s very particular demands, I’ve two submissions: one a 15mm sci-fi and the other for 15mm Imagi-nations.

Firstly, there are 12 more xenomorphs, incipient nasties to join the fully fledged aliens I submitted last time I was here.

Secondly, for my third vignette, I’ve Napoleon on a camel. My current Imagination/alternate history idea is Napoleon’s invasion of India, following on from his invasion of Egypt. There’s a problem with this. In 1798 his troops wore the uniforms of the revolution. In 1801, fighting the British in Egypt, they wore the remarkable uniforms of the Kleber regulations (anyone fancy a Frenchman in a pink uniform?) But what would they be wearing by the time they reached India in, say, 1803 or later?

Moreover, as I want to fight the whole campaign, from 1798 to around 1805, how many different versions of the French army will I need?

I couldn’t make my mind up. I love the Perry figures (28mm) for the 1801 period, but I’ve some 15mm figures (mainly Minifigs) for the revolutionary period, as well as Ottoman and Indian troops in 15mm primarily intended for the SYW. It’s a mess, obviously. Not helped by the fact that I stumbled across Lancashire Games 18mm figures for the period which included this Napoleon. 

I know Napoleon was short of stature, but I’d really love this figure to be at least 28mm. So my current plan is to fight the invasion of Egypt in 15mm, then the 1801 period in 28mm, then assume that the British are defeated in 1801 and the French army is then resupplied from the home country, so I can conduct the invasion of India in 15mm using the revolutionary figures. At which point this model will be at their head.

Scoring: 12 x 15mm aliens, 1 x 15mm arab, 1 x 15mm rider: 30 points



And Noel continues to retrace his steps around Challenge Island in style. Nice work mate!

TamsinP

From Pete F: 15mm (ish) Sci Fi Vehicle for Fran's Fjord (38 points)

The good thing about flying SciFi vehicles is that you can make them work at any scale. At 54mm this could be a bomb disposal drone; at 28mm an Andhak scout; at 15mm a small artillery platform; and at 6mm a mega cannon.

For this submission the floaty thing with a gun is a 15mm artillery platform. It was the only item on my shelf of shame that came close to the requirements of Fran's Fjord. I welcomed the opportunity to paint it.

This is a Path of Imagination colour scheme - it might look a little LA Lakery although that was not the original intent. I wanted to try out colours that might work in my next sci-fi or fantasy army so this floating gun is my test piece.

I'm hoping to have time to visit every location on Challenge Island before time is up - hard to believe that's less than a month away. Schoolwork (I'm retraining for a fifth career) is eating into what might otherwise be painting time but a sprint to the finish is planned. We have some early spring weather here - almost warm enough for priming some more plastic in the garage.

Scoring as a 15mm vehicle for 8 points plus 30 for the new location.

That's a very colourful floaty thing Pete. Well worth the 38 points for submitting it as an entry for Fran's Fjord.

TamsinP

From PaulSS: Hundred Years War French Knights (60 points)

More work on the Hundred Years War French this time with a half dozen mounted men at arms from the Perry Miniatures Agincourt Mounted Knights 1415-29 box.

The figures are a delight to assemble and paint, plus the frame comes with loads of useful extras, so much that you can get an extra sex figures out of the set if you order a couple of these.

The movement trays were a custom order from Warbases and have three 20mm x 45mm cutouts for the bases.

A few close ups of the six individual knights showing some of the poses that can be made from the set,

Six 28mm mounted should add a tidy 60 points to my total.




Excellent! I get to minion some of Paul's lovely 100 Years War figures. Smashing work as ever!

TamsinP

From MartinN: Soviet Infantry Section (45 points)

Some of you might remember I've been slowly, very slowly, building a Soviet platoon. Initially this was for use with the Operation Squad set of rules, later on for Bolt Action. In 2018 it's latest incarnation came in the form of a Tank Rider Platoon for use with Chain of Command. All of these various forces had one in common: They were never really playable. Well, until today! This last section of Tank Riders and accompanying PTRD AT-rifle give me a full Platoon of these hardy veterans.

As of yet I have no plans on expanding this force significantly, but who knows? The Eureka range of Soviet figures looks tasty albeit somewhat expensive. That said I'm not keen on all the figures wearing the "Telogreika" padded jacket. So I'm likely to wait for them to release infantry in summer dress. One thing is rather certain though, I will not continue with those Warlord plastics. First the Soviet Infantry is one of their oldest sets and it shows. Second they're a huge pain in the back to put together. And third they're just a tad too bulky for my liking nowadays.

Eight kneeling and a prone figure should be worth 42.5 points. So how about 43 points for the whole lot?

43 points? For such lovely painting and for bringing yourself up to a full, playable platoon of these chaps I'm going to ignore the proneness of the prone figure!

TamsinP

From JezT: Gothic Wars Part 1 Romans (127 points)

Dear All

Really excited about this post which represents an expansion for me to be able to re-fight battles representing the Justinian Byzantine attempts to regain Ostrogothic Italy and also the recapture of North Africa from Vandals. "Gothic Wars" is a good general description as I am now able to recreate the armies from the Roman defeat by the Goths at the Battle of Adrianopole 378, through the campaigns of Alaric the Goth against the roman warlord Stilicho circa 410, and then the battles of
 Aeitus the Roman, most famously against the Huns, and now through to the battles of Belisarius.

During this period I think the Gothic troop style remains pretty much the same and just the mix of infantry and cavalry changes, but for the Romans the key new troops for these early 6 century campaigns was the rise of the Roman elite  mounted archer. Sounds like the perfect reason to paint up some new figures .....

The overview of the new cavalry are three new bases of mounted figures, based as medium cavalry.

All my existing figures were from Wargames Foundry so I wanted to keep with that manufacturer. Although they dont do a specific figure I found that using the Hun heavy cavalry figures seemed to fit perfectly, especially as they had the bow and quiver case already shown. Otherwise converting the late Roman range I used  Gripping Beast weapon packs to show the bow element. I especially tried to avoid any sculpts that I had  used for Goth cavalry. I wanted the medium cavalry to look menacing - in Impetus rules these elite cavalry have a strong fighting value.

Gave a consistent red shield look with a Chi Rho shield design, the bodyguard unit has the two armoured cavalry figures.

I already had the infantry but wanted to make one small conversion change to add in a new standard bearer with the larger banner. This is the new converted figure and the next picture shows how it looks in the existing unit. The design was copied from an illustration in an old MW magazine. Quite pleased as used miliputty to create the banner - OK left the face details off but on the tabletop it looks fine .....

Altogether that should be 12 cav @120 plus 5 for the banner bearer, so 125 points. Plus a new army for me to try out. Coming soon should be some extra Goths ........

Cheers Jez



A fine body of cavalry there, Jez - lovely stuff. I'm going to add a point for the conversion and another for the handpainted banner.

TamsinP

From MikeW - Various Warhammer Empire Miniatures (260 Points)

Following on from my last post I emptied out my bags of old Warhammer Empire figures on the workbench and was determined to work out how to add these in to my recently expanded Stirland State Army.

Undercoated Empire figures, Eagle-eyed readers will see one of the original figures
I did some 10 years ago being used as a reference!

Many of these figures are from the 'Classic Empire' era, but the rest are '2nd Edition'  Empire figures albeit with many of them missing arms and heads!

I spent some time building a number of new troop types, utilising parts from the spares box to achieve the results I was looking for.

First I'll cover the standard types that came to hand, there are 6 x 'Classic' Spearmen, converted to Halbardiers, as per the bulk of the figures I did in the last post, these all needed to have the halbard heads re-fixed to their poles, or new ones found.

'Classic' Empire troops with Spears replaced by Halbards, Billhooks
and sundry other unpleasant weapons!

Next are 13 x '2nd Edition' Halbardiers, from a Games Workshop boxed set that never got completed, today they are! Nothing special with these little guys, painted in Green and Yellow as per other Stirland Regiments. As previously stated I still prefer the Classic' figures, even though these came in a limited number of poses.

'2nd Edition' Halbardiers, almost straight form the box,
albeit 10-15 years late!

Returning to 'Classic' figures there are 5 x Spearmen straight out the box. You'll have noticed by now, that I do not use the shields on my Empire Figures, no real reason other than I like them better without shields.

'Classic' Empire Spearmen

Now on to the new troop types I have created - first 6 x Pikemen, built from the torso and heads form '2nd Edition' figures but with arms supplied from the recent Warlord Games Landsknecht boxed set. I purchased the Warlord set last year but floundered badly when trying to paint 'real' Landsknecht figures! However I really like the way these figures have turned out...

'2nd Edition' Pikemen, I have loads of pike arms in the spare box now
and no torsos to join them to, I feel an eBay trip coming on!

Next are 8 x Crossbowmen, five of which are built using '2nd Edition' torsos and the other three with torsos from the Warlord Games set - these are a little small and slender compared to their Games Workshop counterparts but not so bad to be a problem, especially if placed in back ranks. To each of these torsos were added crossbow arms from my spares box, these originated from an old Empire Militia boxed set or the '2nd Edition' boxed set.

Crossbowmen - it's pretty easy to spot the Warlord Games figures

There were two random Musketeers - one 'Classic' and one built in a similar manner to the Crossbowmen but using the musketeer arms from the Warlord Games set, on a '2nd Edition' torso.

'Classic' left and '2nd Edition' with Warlord arms right.

Here are 3 x Archers, one a classic figure that was missing a spear, - so bow and arrow hands were added from the Empire Militia box. The other two are in very similar poses both have Empire Militia Bow and Arrow arms - one has a '2nd Edition' torso the other has a Militia torso.

Archers - Militia figure left, '2nd Edition' right and 'Classic' in centre.

Finally on the infantry side are three special figures, all converted from 'Classic' models with missing arms and weapons - an Officer, Drummer and Great Sword.

Converted 'Classic' Spaerman - Officer with Pistol

Converted 'Classic' Musketeer- Drummer

Converted 'Classic' Spearman - Great sword man

The Officer has a pistol hand from the Militia box and a random spare left hand grafted on. The Drummer has a drum and drumstick hands from the Warlord Games set and the detail of the powder charges on the shoulder belt has been cut off, a couple of pouches and a dagger were added. Then the Great Sword has a weapon from the Militia box and another random left hand substituted for the originals - the Great Sword has had the second hand carved away.

Sneaking in at the end are three Empire Mounted Knights, these are all on barded horses and the knights are all in plate armour with a random selection of heads added to the figures. A Yellow and green pennant ties them together as Stirland Knights and one guy carries a Yellow and Green Banner.

Three Stirland Knights

So that's pretty much it on the Stirland front, I have an Army Commander in progress - so hopefully he'll see the light of day as a completed model, now that he's been brought in form the cold, dark garage!

Only danger now is I'll go and buy more figures to make more pikemen....

POINTS
6 x Pikemen @ 5 Points ea = 30 Points
3 x Archers @ 5 Points ea = 15 Points
2 x Musketeers @ 5 Points ea = 10 Points
8 x Crossbows @ 5 Points ea = 40 Points
5 x Spearmen @ 5 Points ea = 25 Points
19 x Halbardiers @ 5 Points ea = 95 Points
3 x Special Figures @ 5 Points ea = 15 Points
3 x Mounted Knights @ 10 Points ea = 30 Points
TOTAL POINTS 30 + 15 +10 + 40 +25 + 95 +15 + 30 = 260 Points



Another good-sized post today - maybe I should be more optimistic about us achieving our target altitude after all. Nice work on these Empire troops Mike!

TamsinP

From GrahameH - Pipers Peak - Gebirgsjager - German Mountain Troops (230 points)

Pipers Peak - something to do with mountains. Resisting the urge to to paint ski troops in white camouflage displayed on a white sheet, I painted some German Gebirgsjager in colours that might show up better. However, I  have started Curtis idea for a 54mm Klingon Bird of Prey with it cloaking device switched on😊

These are all 15mm, mainly Battlefront, with a few Peter Pig . I already had two battalions of these, painted for “Rapid Fire” and I needed a third battalion. However, the Battlefront figures varied so much in scale to each other I lost the will. However, given that I had to find something to do with mountains it was a bit of a no brainier. I don’t think Battlefront make these anymore so I was a few figures short especially in respect of the crewed weapons. So Peter Pig models with drafted in with a few head swaps.

A Battalion of  37 Mountain  Infantry (74pts)

Gun Company. AT Gun, Mortar, IG Gun, and some Transport ( 18 x 2 including  cart, mortar  & mules 36pts and 10 pts for the guns) total 46pts

The MG Company. Two MGs and a Mortar (9 men with weapons) 18 pts

Then I went back and started filling in the gaps from the previous two battalions.

The IG Guns and MGs (  the MGs and one of the guns doesn’t count as it is in the other Photos (6 figures 2 guns 22 pts)

Two more MGs. These the Peter Pig head swaps (12pts)

More transport, and AT element ( total 10 figures including cart 20pts)

RHQ and a sniper team. I may have to add a few figures the this HQ (8 pts]

Think that brings my total to 200 pts for this entry plus 30 for the island challenge.

I fancy a trip by balloon next but the only female figure I have unpainted is Joan of Arc being burnt at the stake. Not very PC. Better  buy another figure.



Wahey! I get to minion a post for my own island location! I must say I approve of these mountain troops - very fitting to the location's theme. And thoroughly deserving of the 230 points.

TamsinP

Battle of Shrewsbury 1069: Norman Outer Wall II (20 points)

Darrell H

20 Points 6" terrain piece

The tension mounts as yet another terrain piece is finished and ready to be put into the field! This time it is yet another part of what will represent the Motte and Bailey outer wall at the Battle of Shrewsbury 1069.

Again, the large part of the painting was  done with hobby paints from a craft store as they are decent enough if you give the terrain a gloss then matt varnish is stops the paint from shipping about 99% of the time. From the dark craft paint, which I described last time as like Vallejo model Colour German Black Grey, when I meant to say German Cammo Black Brown! If you're painting up terrain for the fist time (you might be; there's a first time for everything) then please don't waste your money and paint on using paints that you would use on your miniatures unless you cannot get the paint you want and you really have to. The browns were painted and dry brushed up using various light creams and light greys to hopefully achieve the effect of weathered wood and a grey-ish soil. I have put some static grass on the models and I will be adding some grass tufts but that will have to wait as I'm saving all that I now possess for the bases of the miniatures.

Yet again, I got a little carried away with adding the fine details. The crossbow, quiver and shield could easily have been dry brushed a brown with a little colour added to the shield perhaps but I think that it's the details on a wargames table that make all the difference. Or at least I am trying to convince myself that this is so!

I'm currently working on a corner piece for Shrewsburys walls and I have a few buildings that I bought and one that I scratch built a while back that a mate cast in resin for me. I still have the original which is nice!

Another fine and well detailed section of wall Darrell - I'm sure there will be many more posts like this over the coming days/weeks.

TamsinP