PaulS: Underworlds Skeletons (35 points)

I was part way through painting these when the Icelord threw down the Necromunda challenge, so I needed to finish these first before putting brush to the gangs. 

These are the Underworlds skeleton set and are some of the most characterful skeletons I'd seen, until the reveal last week of the new Warhammer Quest... now that is an immediate purchase to add to these guys for dungeon crawlers.

There are 7 skeletons here for 35 points.

They are all GW figures, so they can go towards that side challenge... and there are 10 skulls in here if you include those on shields and the gravestone

From PeterD Freccia Class DDs (10 points)

AdamC noted that my shipyards seemed quiet of late, but there has been some work going on.  Here are four more WW2 destroyers in 1/2400 scale.  All  models are CinC.

The three ships with the candy stripe foredecks are Italian Freccia class destroyers.  There were four of this class and four more in the similar Folgore class plus modified ships sold for export to Greece and Turkey.  The Italian ships fought hard and all of them were lost during the war.  The stripes were for aircraft recognition, added after the Regia Aeronautica bombed the Regia Marina early in the war.

The final ship is another Paynes' Greyscale unidentified bogey for for of war purposes.  She is sold by CinC as a British L class destroyer (but isn't... that story with my next post).

That is 4 hulls at 2 points each for a grand total of 8 points.  These points count against my total in the Naval Side duel, but I'm long since left in the other's wake on that front.

AdamC: Three French Men of War (45 Points)

 

Three more French warships from the French Fleet box the ship of the line is the Bucentaure famous as the French Flag ship at the Battle of the Trafalgar.  War lord gives her some fancy stats and special ablities her ability the +1 on skill test is great thought he ability to make an extar turn in any part of her move is of limited utility for a ship of the line. The Frigates are Comete and Themis  both large frigates of 40 guns. 

The Comet was the more heavly armed of the two with 16 8-pounders and 24 24-pounders.  The Themis by contrast had 28 12-pounders and 12 8-Poundrs. Showing how differnt the combat power of two ships that are nominaly the same "rate" can be.   

The Bacentarure has a very ostinstatious stern the Themis is prety fancy as well I personly like the all simple lines of the Comete best.  Eeach ship is 15 points giving me another 45 points plus any additionla bonsu points the Minios may wish to give me for sails, rigging, flags and so forth. 

From PeterD Adventuress' Landing (25 points)

 

The chamber says Adventurer's Landing and the Blurb references boats but I'm pushing the boundaries on both fronts.  This is a Bad Squiddo figure of a member of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), female pilots who performed ferry duties bringing warbirds from factory to airfield, who's just come in for a landing.

As with all of the Bad Squiddo Women of WW2 figures its a terrific sculpt and painted up very nicely, even for someone like me with limited knowledge of WW2 flight gear.  The pose is taken from a wartime photo of the famous aviator  Maureen Dunlop.

I did a bit of research on the ATA, and it turns out that one of their bases was in Hamble-le-Rice Hampshire which is very close to my dad's place.  Dad passed away of COVID in the fall but we plan on seeing the family this summer (travel restrictions flowing) and the short ferry ride across the Hamble to the memorial will be on my to do list.

The ATA is a great story- see the links above or watch the Midsomer episode.  I make the points tally 5 for the flyer and 20 for the Chamber.

Iain W 28mm Steelfist gendarmes and plastic pound shop gendarmes (240 points)

 Twenty four more gendarmes, eight from Steel fist, expensive (£6 each!)but exquisite, they almost painted themselves the detail is so well done ,they're pretty much bang on identical in size with Perry figures which is also helpful. I reverted to my previous technique of prime black,dry brush white to highlight and then paint in washes . They have been finished as French gendarmes as they were the most exuberant in  terms of clothing and accoutrements, my wife and daughter took to referring to all the figures in this  post( I  paint on my lap in the living room while everyone watches TV) as entrants in Rupaul's drag race and I can see their point, they are somewhat over the top, I can see them bursting into " I am what I am" or something similar!

The other sixteen  are based around some boxes of reinforcements for the game Battle Masters that GW did the design for and I think was based in their Old world milieu. I didn't have the game but came across them in a clearance pop up store,some time ago and paid £2 a  box for two boxes of the empire version which contained a mounted general, three knights,  10 archers,five halbardiers, five crossbow men and a cannon with two crew. I  later picked up the chaos box, two mounted chaos knights, two ogres and twenty beastmen for a pound. Luckily, as a bonus, there was an additional sprue of three caparisoned horses in one of the boxes,and there,or in the loft they stayed for 30 years!

 I'd cut the knights lances off to make Scottish Lancers but eventually decided I should try and make something work out of what's left. With the addition of a couple of Essex later medieval knights I picked up with something I actually wanted off of Ebay I was now up to twelve figures and I just needed to scrape together four more figures to  give me two more units for pike and shot, or combined with the Steelfist figures four units for To the strongest!

 I had two Perry plastic knights left over from the last post and then added in a couple of spare warlord pike and shot troopers with headswaps and the addition of trumpets on Perry medieval horses. I also replaced the lost lances with Perry plastic lances. The Battle Masters  figures are a bit smaller than GW warhammer figures, they're more like chunky 28mm which means they mix in pretty well I think,I did have to carve the shields off of them and carve arms ,of course on the chaos warriors, I had to remove the distinctive headgear and add the front face of a  Perry helm and  feathers but I think I've got away with it!

 I have ,because of the preponderance of caparisoned horses ,had to spend a bit more time painting them as they are a bit more toy like I guess and have used Maximilian's triumph prints as reference , strippy lances et all, they've been great fun to paint and they are finished off with a mix of blown up Perry flags or Foundry free download flags,all French.

The plastic figures are on chunkier bases because I had to use some slotta bases,which the horse almost fit, cut down and glued to Perry 45mm x 60mm bases and then fill the gaps with foamboard 

Twenty four x ten is 240 points, which means I'm about right I think for this stage of the competition. 

All the best Iain