From Dallas: Simon de Montfort in the Knights Solar (30 points)

OK! On to Level 3 of the Dungeon and into the Knights Solar with a 28mm knight from Curteys Miniatures...

This model is the first in my long-collected but not-yet-started Second Barons' War project. I have literally hundreds of unpainted models in a drawer for this one - mounted knights, dismounted knights, armed foot, and archers... from Curteys, Black Tree, and many many many from the Wargames Foundry.

I wanted to start with a "hero knight" on the project and who better than Simon de Montfort, the leader of the Barons' faction. Born in 1205, the sixth Earl of Leicester was a religious and principled man and a talented and experienced military leader. His opposition to the Henry III's weak leadership and corruption was made all the more difficult by the fact that Simon was the King's brother-in-law, being married to Henry's sister Eleanor.

I love the history of the Second Barons' War and the battles of Lewes (1264) and Evesham (1265), two of the only pitched battles to take place between knights in England in the 13th Century. My interest was really ramped up on our trip to the UK in 2019 when Pam and I visited Lewes. The castle is really cool and it's a nice walk from there to the ruins of the Priory and the Montfortian memorial. The ancient parts of the town really give you an idea of how cramped the quarters were for the battle.

So that's the start of this project and there's plenty more models to paint. I think next I'll paint Henry's son Prince Edward (later King Edward I), a man as devious and ruthless as his father was guileless and weak-willed. I have a few more of these nice Curteys castings for some noble hangers-on as well.

Ten points for a mounted 28mm model plus 20 for the room bonus makes 30 total... I'll try to keep the posts coming this week as I have a backlog of painted Chamber-fodder to get up there.

Stay safe all! 

From NickJ: Beastmen Underworlds Warband (30 Pts)

Once Upon a return to Chaos.

Yes it's true. Last time I actually painted something that wasn't part of the myriad Chaos factions within the realms of Age of Sigmar.

And now I need to set the Universe back on course with some Chaos Beastmen. This is another of the Warbands available for Underworlds; these are part of Season 3 - Beastgrave.

This particular warband is called Grashrak's Despoilers and here they are packed tightly together for the inaugural group shot.

So let's meet the individuals and I can't promise you any improvements on the naming front, but let's see...

First we have Grashrak Fellhoof himself. This chap is a Shaman who likes skulls. And I mean really, really likes skulls. The bases are pre-moulded by GW for Underworlds and frankly his has a ridiculous number of skulls.

The green on his staff is to signify that something magical is happening... probably involving skulls...

And next up is the enforcer for the warband: Draknar. He's not so worried about skulls and instead carries around an Elf head. As you do. He's also very photogenic knowing just how to strike a pose when there's a handy log lying around.

Now to the Ungors - the lowest of the castes within Beastmen society. Runts of the litter as it were. Those sent out first in battle to test the waters.

On the left, currently scarring himself across his chest to prove that he does indeed bleed, is Murghoth Half-Horn. 

On the right, and bringing half a tree with him, is Korsh "The Sneak". He's a hunter apparently. Hopefully he doesn't drag that log around with him...

And the final two are the Rangers of the gang.

On the left we have Gnarl. No fancy add-ons to his name.

On the right we have Ushkor. Hmm no fancy add-ons either.

Painted them in the same colours as my main Beastmen army as I can use these in Age of Sigmar games as a kind of special unit. Are they any good? Absolutely no idea. They look cool though!

Points wise we're looking at 6 x 28mm figures so I make that 30 points.

From MilesR: Chambers Catch Up Submission (359 Points)

 

I've been a little remiss in wandering through the Chambers of Challenge - having posted only a measly 2 chambers to date.  Well this weekend was a catch up weekend for me and now I've got 6 additional rooms to report.

So sit back and prepared to be bored as you follow me on my tortuous logic for meeting the the stated themes of the Challenge.  Where I could, I tried to keep things related to my Stalingrad project.  

Chamber of Darkness:

The first submission is a greyscale version of a ruin for the Stalingrad project.  Now the base isn't fully greyscale as it couldn't use it in the game, but the building is completely greyscale .

The base of the building is a MDF kit from a Polish company called Terrains4Games and I highly recommend them -shipping can take a few weeks but the product is very affordable and of superb quality.  You've seen other versions of this same building and I've got 2 more to build.

It has a dark grey base color and medium grey highlighting for the exterior.  I started with some black paint and just kept adding white to lighten it up as the painting progressed.

The floor is a lighter grey and the ways a white-grey.  Some black and grey weathering powders were added at the end and voila a greyscale building.

The building is a little over 4 inches high so lets go with 10 points plus 20 for the room.

Larder:

Next up is a stroll through the Larder.  Submitted for this room are 2 Soviet Supply Dumps that will be used during the Stalingrad game.  The Soviets were forced to keep stockpiles of ammunition and other supplies along the Volga river banks and these would occasionally blow up due a stray German artillery round - sometimes in spectacular fashion.  The supply dumps are resin casts from JR Miniatures that have been in my lead pile for over 10 years.  These are nice but simple terrain pieces so how about 5 points for the two supply dumps along with the 20 point room bonus.

Hatchery: 

Ok this one is a bit of a stretch - Aviary is pretty close to aviation and these to HS-129's are definitely birds of prey.  These were specialized ground attack aircraft that saw extensive use on the Eastern front.  The model on the right is armed with a 30mm cannon while the one on the left has a 75mm PAK gun.

These models are from Battlefront and, like the supply dumps above, have been in the leadpile for about 10 years.

Technically the one with the 75mm gun was not available until after the Battle of Stalingrad but it was just too cool looking not to build.

Lets score these as 15mm vehicles so 8 points each along with the room bonus.

The Armory:

How about a bunch of 15mm Soviet tanks and rocket truck?  All of the models are from Battlefront

First up 5 KV'1's - these are my favorite tanks from WW2 and I can't wait to see them rumbling through the streets of Stalingrad

4 T-34's to reinforce the 5 I already have painted (pre-Challenge).  These are later model turrest (I messed up) but still will work for the game

4 T-70 light tanks.  Not the most effective of vehicles but they will be useful for searching out spot in the fascist lines.

Lastly 3 BA-10 armored cars and 2 Stalins Organs.

That's a total of 18 Soviet vehicles for the Armory and at 8 points each gets nets 144 points along with the 20 for the room.

Gallery of Ancestors:

How about a break from Stalingrad?  This gallery of ancients submission consists of 14 15mm US Infantry form Vietnam.  My father served in the war along with most of my male relatives of his age.  None of them had a lot of good memories from that conflict and would rarely speak of it.  My father passed at a relatively young age (56) and I always regret not fully understanding what he went through.

It was nice to do something that had a lot of green in the basing.  These miniatures were given to me by Ed from the club and I hope to get them on the table for one of his games soon.  

The Guardroom:

The last stop on my chambers walkabout is the Guardroom and (surprise!) we're going back to Stalingrad with another platoon from the 13th Guards Division.

The basing was done to match the terrain table and I like how it came out.

There are a lot more Soviets to paint up but I could get these 18 chaps done today.  At 2 points each thats 26 points plus another 20 for the room.

Well there you have it.  To help the minions enter all this into the spreadsheet of doom, a summary table of the points is provided below:

Total Number of Chambers: 6 for 120 points

Terrain "Cubes": 0.75 for 15 points

15mm Infantry figures: 32 for 64 points

15mm Vehicles: 20 for 160 points

Total Points: 359

From Jez Todd: Week 6 - AVBCW Character (5 points)

 Hi Everyone, 

So far managing to keep to my own personal challenge of posting once a week with something. This week only a single 5 pointer figure though.

The figure is part of the Wargames Illustrated "Giants in Miniature" range and is the Adrian Carton De Wiart figure that I bought for myself as a Christmas present! Apparently only 500 of these are made and according to the card I got mine was number 247/500. Please check out the website for the figure background as he has a fascinating history - a Belgian aristocrat who fought in WW1 and II. The figure was perfect for me as a character for my AVBCW campaign troops. 

                                        In front of Stratford Upon Avon Town Hall 

I am building up government forces for a game using Bolt Action rules but set in the mythical campaign of a 1930's British Civil War. Rather than a  squad member I thought I would use the figure as a spy character for some scenarios and added an armband with the British Union Of Fascists symbol. With his eye patch and one arm I think he looks the part!

AVBCW is mythical but if you are interested here's a link from a more academic historical magazine West Midlands History which has some interesting background and gives the BUF insignia. 

West Midlands History Article BUF  

So just a 5 points for me this week ..... have a great week ahead everyone! 

Cheers Jez

From Mike W - Warhammer Beastmen Herd (100 Points)

So after completing work on the Lizardmen and Skeletons in my last posts, I fully intended to return to something more historical. How wrong I was!

Figures waiting to be painted, can you see the red one?

Work turned out to be much busier than expected and so I reached out for a bunch of pre-primed Beastmen figures that were lurking in the same box and the Lizardmen I'd just completed.

Finished figures 

I'd put these to one side as they were primed in black with an over spray of grey, not my current preference but when I finally had time to devote to some painting the chore of cleaning up flash and priming 20-30 figures wasn't very appealing...

Unit from their Right Flank

Thus, I decided to work with the Beastmen, despite the fact that, many years ago,  I'd for some reason painted one of them red, my guess is that they were going to be some sort of Chaos Beastmen horde but this time round I decided to go for some more 'natural' colours.

And the same unit form the Left Flank

Not knowing what the natural colour of a Beastman was, I opted for the obvious, Army Painter Monster Brown!

Monster Brown is a fairly light coloured brown so I also used a bark brown to do all the Beastman fur  and hair. I drybrushed the monster brown with bronzed flesh to give the creatures a kind of semi-human effect,

The eight smaller, thrusting spear armed Beastmen

I opted for a dull red colour for all weapon handles, with steel blades and a brighter red loincloth on each figure.

Some of the larger 'Front Rank' Beastmen

Other details were added as required before using a flesh was on body parts, strong wash on fur and wood etc and dark wash on the weapons.

Close-up of Musician and a couple of the larger Beastmen

The banner was done to represent a Beastman hide with a red logo added. Shields were painted on the sprue and then superglued into place before matt varnishing all.

Command Figures (L to R), Standard Bearer and Champion, plus one other

By wat of change I pre-mixed some fine sand, electrostatic grass, died sawdust ad sponge fragments to apply to the figure bases.

Oddly the set seems to have been marketed as a Beastmen Horde / Herd, this seems t explain why 8 of the 20 figures are significantly smaller than the others. I took this to imply they were 'youths' and I have placed them in the back ranks of the unit armed with small shields and long thrusting spears, so they can join in the fighting from a distance whilst the big guys get in close with two hand weapons each.

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it...

POINTS

20 x 28mm Figures @5Pts ea.   =  100 Points

From BruceR 12 Queens Rangers AWI (5 x 12 = 60 pts)

 Did I say I love Sharp Practice SP2?  The locals and I do FIW and now have branched into AWI so being of British ancestry it never bothers to paint and play the Brits.  Most of the gang prefer the colonists.  

I had a section of lights and six grenadiers and need to flesh them out, so Perry Miniatures command section and another group of grenadiers.  This will give me a unit of lights and two of grenadiers with a couple of figures for leaders/big men.  

These Perry figures are wonderful and being a metal lover I enjoy painting them.  

Maj. French

Lt Simco

The lights command (flags on order)

Grenadiers

I do have a section of regular lights and the order from Perry's was Hessians, because why not.   We shall see if I can get to them during the AHPC.  It was below zero the past couple of days.......Great painting weather.

Stay well all.