From EdwardG: Corps de Chariot, a mad man, and a trip to Solaris (97points)

Bonjour tout le monde!

For the 12th Challenge, I have decided to organise myself slightly differently compared to last year. Towards the end of the 11th Challenge I dropped a large points bomb, that was my  28mm DBA Sub-Romano British DBA army. This year one of the, if not the main, projects for my challenge painting time is again a DBA army this time of the Gallic variety. I have decided to do the honorable thing and post up the elements as they are completed. 

The first elements completed (and possibly a motivational mistake on my part) are the Corps de Chariot. These chaps are all Victirx figures from their nice Gallic range. I must admit I have a few gripes about this set. Firstly, when supplying a pack of 3 chariots, I am at a loss as to why they only supplied 2 variants. I understand the prices of tooling etc. But it seems it would have been a much better move to scrap the Budicca figure, and allow for a third driver. The number of heads supplied is nice, but I am finding not a fan of the heads and faces of the Victirx figures. I am finding that the sculpturing is far too fine and detailed. It does not really suit my style of painting. I prefer to be able to have a little bit more freedom when painting faces. But, apart from this, I do like the minis. The plastics are very easy to put together and there is a reasonable amount of variability.

 

The chariot with the cloaked rider will be my General's element. I decided against a large banner or anything like that this time. I found that the banners I did last year were a pain that I did not wish to repeat! That said my attempt to paint plaid material isn't the best, and was so frustrating that I have decided to only go as far as stripes for the rest of the army! :D 

This next figure was a little bit of a disappointment in the way he came out, but as I painted him, I felt it would be a waste to not base and present him to the CurtGod for a few unashamedly needed points. 

He is from the Victrix chariots pack, and originally he was intended to be my General figure. The idea was that he would strike fear into the tribal opponents, by displaying the heads of their relatives on the way into battle. I had originally planned to paint the majority of this army with Contrast paints and that is how I began this figure. But as I progressed, I became less excited by the figure. I am not sure if it the colour scheme I ended up with, or the rather (in hindsight) ridiculousness of the figure itself. But which ever it was, I ended up building a new General figure, with cape, as seen above to replace him. 

After the annoyance of the figure above, I decided that the contrast paints are best suited to smaller miniatures. This lead me on to the next figures on my painting desk. The furry friends of Boris, who was recently posted. These small fiends are my submission to Solaris...as I can think of nothing less deceptive as a small fluffy bunny, with large POINTY TEETH! I managed to paint all three of them, and I am quite pleased with the outcome. I hope that they do well in their first game of Moonstone, which will be this Sunday coming!  

This trip to Solaris ticks off the third of my planetary visits. I now just need to think of some figures that might suit Vulcan!?!

 As for scoring, I am taking the chariots as 28mm vehicles (after all they have wheels!) and the bunnies as 15mm mounted figures as they are about the same size despite being 28mm scale. I calculate the following: 

3 x Chariots = 3 x 20points = 60points

1 x Madman with a poor choice of fashion = 1 x 5points = 5points

3 x Bunnies with POINTY TEETH! =  3 x 4 points = 12points

Visit to Solaris = 20points

Total = 97points

For those of you who are interested, below is a picture of the bundle of fluff which has (along with a busy job) been the largest factor distracting me from my painting table! His name is Squirrel (Yep, for real, he is the same colour as the red squirrels here), and he likes shoes, and shoe laces, and most things that he can chew. But he is a very Good Boy! 

Hope to catch you next week!  

Cheers,
Ed

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Hi Ed - very nice work on these chariots. They seem like finickity kits, but you should be pleased with the results. They look great, and I can picture the rumble and hear the shouts of joy as they charge into battle against the Romans! As for your adventures with your general, I would say you adjusted nicely - and who wouldn't want a mad man - either in charge, or just handy - with their army on the table?

And you are correct - bunnies with sharp teeth are just evil! Call in the flame throwers...

GregB