From Kerry T - P is for Pike & Shotte. (194 points & Squirrel)

 Morning, afternoon and evening all

I assume that introduction or greeting covers all of you worldwide!

P is for Pike and Shotte

Its another lovely Sunday afternoon here in NZ and I'm pleased to say that I've managed to finish another unit this week though it was a bit of a mission having had to paint late into Friday and Saturday evenings to complete things. I wouldn't normally paint on these evenings, though I paint most other evenings and as a consequence rarely watch TV.

Its been really nice to have one of my sons come home to stay for a few days, with the added bonus that he'd agreed to jump on the ride-on today and cut the grass - so this meant that I could get out my pretend grass and so base and finish the Kings Regiment of Foote this morning. So I've finished a unit that I hadn't expected to this week. That's handy because mid week I'm away on a golf trip for a few days and have little hope of painting much in the next few days. To be honest, the break is quite welcome

I think this is the last of my Royalist infantry regiments bringing my total to 10 infantry regiments to date. I say I think its the last - I'll have to take a look at how many of the Royalist standards I bought from Flags or War!

I started collecting ECW figures almost 3 years ago when I knew I just had to have some of those exquisite Empress Miniatures ECW  figures  https://valleyboyinnz.wordpress.com/2019/05/05/oh-look-shiny-yet-another-new-project-and-other-bits/ 

As one might expect, I then discovered other equally nice figures out there and have since added figures from the First Corps, Bicorne Miniatures & Warlord Games. I've generally painted a unit here and there bumping them up or down the painting queue as the mood takes me.

These are Bicorne Miniatures Figures, I generally don't mix figure manufacturers in a unit

As one might expect from a newly painted unit - it will inevitably run away in its first game so here we go...

Flee for your lives

Not exactly a Pike block but at 12 figures I think these look respectable enough  and so have chosen to field all my units with 12 pike. I think this is the minimum I can get away with but on reflection I wonder if 16 would have been better 

Psst Don't tell Ken Reilly there's only 12 of us, so keep shuffling around lads and hopefully the bugger won't notice😄

I like Bicorne's "Musketeer at order" pose and almost wish I'd bought more (but then I suppose I would never have finished the unit in time for today!)

Finally there's the command group with their Flags of War standards https://www.flagsofwar.com/collections/ecw-royalist

I didn't know Marty Feldman fought in the ECW (guy on the right front rank - I never paint eyes but I've only just spotted that and will need to sort it)

In painting these I've tried to go for a bit of a faded red, VJ Cavalry brown, washed with Army Painter Dark Tone, then highlight with a mix of VJ Flat red and Cavalry Brown before the final highlight with added VJ Cork Brown

My plan is to use for King and Parliament Rules by Big Red Bat, with the inspiration from his work here https://forkingandparliament.blogspot.com/

Unfortunately as a solo gamer I need to collect and paint both sides

I'm definitely a fan of lots of big flags 

I like the mixture of headgear in these figures

 Oh what the hell..

Here we go here's what I have to date

So that's 38 figures I think at 5 points for a total of 190 and another Squirrel (err ahem, that's why I'm still at the bar in Sarah's Yacht pretending to eat your share of the nuts but in reality slipping them into my pocket because I should have 4 squirrels to feed by now!) 

Excuse me but would you mind passing the nuts?

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Fabulous looking regiment of pike & shotte, Kerry. Love those final shots of all your collection arrayed for battle. I'm popping in a few extra points for the brave banners. Beautiful.

Enjoy your golf getaway!

- Curt

From PeterD Little Red Riding Hood for Perelandra [34 points]

 

I have a small post for this week as I've been down with COVID.  I woke up Monday feeling absolutely wretched and got my self off to the drive thru testing centre and got my positive result Tuesday evening.  I've been a much bigger than normal waste of space since then but had these minis pretty much done before hand.

One of the tags for Perelandra is temptation and that's what the Big Bad Wolf offered Red traditionally.

My version is a little twisted as Red is another female goblin.  I am not sure i want to know what's in that satchel of goods that she has for Grandma.  She was originally going to feature a drab cloak like the rest of her goblin gang, but I was working on the Winter Wolf at the same time and had a "you know..." moment.

I think in this case that Red is mischievous enough that the danger from temptation might be for the wolf.  A milk bone and a belly rub might be the long slippery evolutionary slope downhill to a Pug that can't get up on the couch without help and gets dressed in a new costume very holiday.

Both figures are 28mm and from Wizkds. Curt has been scoring the goblins as 20mms for 4 points but I don't know how to score the Winter Wolf, who is one big puppy.  Perhaps as a  equivalent to a 28mm cavalryman?  The base points can be added to my FantasySide Duel score.

Finally I thought I'd share a bit of my family lore about protecting your daughters.  In the mid-1950s my grandfather was English Department Head at Dalhousie University with two daughters (my mum and aunt) at home and finishing degrees.  As Head he hosted visiting guest authors and poets, including the likes of Irving Layton and Leonard Cohen (who was just starting out).  The works of these two were considered so scandalous that the two daughters were banished from the house the night that Irving and Leonard came to dinner.   

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Good work Peter, love The Big Bad Wolf and the flame effect on the goblinette's torch. I hope you feel better soon. It's a pity your mom missed out on meeting Leonard. 

- Curt

From SimonG: HYW Casualties & Carrion Crows for Glorantha (76 points)

My two sisters have dropped us off from Lady Sarah's Star Yacht at Glorantha where we are fated to come across the scene of a Hundred Year War battle and the unfortunate victims.

Woe is me! Yummy carrion!

Pecking amongst the slain are sixteen carrion crows -- Odin's messengers hence the link to runes and matters nordic! OK so this was a little bit of a stretch but I did need some way of working in twelve casualty markers for my 28mm Impetus HYW project.

These turned out to be surprisingly fiddly to work with (I'm not used to prone figures) and all my paint work was nearly messed up at the end when they got covered with base material dust as I bedded them into the wet base-work (again a figure on a base isn't subject to this issue.

Anyway these are all 28mm Perry metals and the ravens are from Eureka Miniatures. I do like painting feathers although at this size not too much comes out.

Anyway hopefully it will all look good on the table, I should perhaps have chosen slightly larger bases at it was hard to fit everything in.

Points wise I think that's 73.5 - 9 prone figures is 22.5 and 3 standing adds another 15, plus 16 ravens at 1 point each and the 20 point challenge bonus. Next stop Glorantha and back to my Jewish wars project with the invading Romans!

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Great work Simon. These bases really add to the atmosphere of the tabletop especially with your addition of the ravens. I've rounded things up a bit for points. Well done!

- Curt

From TamsinP - 15mm Ancient Germans (278 points)

 

The Adventures Of Oscar: Time Traveller, Slayer of Squirrels and Very, Very Good Boy

Chapter 2

In which our hero escapes from the jungle but not back to home...

Row! This isn't Daddy-Curt's hobby room, but it isn't the jungle. Now let's see where we are. It's a bit cold, but not as cold as home. There are trees that look like home. Hmmm, maybe there will be squirrels here for me to slay?

Row-ray! There are! At least I think they are squirrels - hiding up trees - check!; look a bit like a fat rat - check!; bushy tail - check!; grey-brown fur - not check, they're more of a reddish-brown. Are all squirrels grey? They are at home, but maybe not in other places. I think they must be squirrels.

Row-row-row! Row-row-row! Row-row-row! Row-row-row!

Row-ray! That's four squirrels slayed!  Not bad going. Felix will be jealous of me! Now, let's explore and see if we can find some more. Maybe there'll be some over this ridge. Hmmm, a clearing - not likely to be squirrels here...but there are lots of men. With beards! Daddy-Curt has a beard - maybe he's time traveled and is with them? Oh, probably not - I have Tamsin's box so he can't be.

Oooh! They have sticks and are throwing them. Daddy-Curt throws sticks for me - I like the "fetch" game. I wonder if these men will play fetch with me?

Row-row row-row-row-row!

Errmm, they don't seem happy to see me. Some of them are running at me screaming and shouting! I think I'd better scarper, quick-smart! Great - a bush, I think I'll just hide in here and press a button on the box to get me out of here - maybe I'll get back home this time.

Ruh-roh - looks like I'm back in the jungle again...

Back in 2020 I bought "Infamy, Infamy!" from the Too Fat Lardies and planned to do it in 15mm using multi-figure bases so that I could also use the armies for Art de la Guerre. Towards the end of the year I had painted up enough Imperial Romans and Germans to field most options for Infamy, but the forces were too small for ADLG. I ordered extra figures at the start of 2021, which then sat in a box until November when I began prepping them, my plan being to upgrade both armies to ADLG size during the Challenge.

Having finished the first batch of WW2 Japanese last week, on Monday I started work on the 15mm ancient Germans. As I wanted to ensure variation of clothing, shield and hair colours I decided the best approach would be to paint everything at once. The only hitch with that plan was the number of figures - 139 of them. But I cracked on regardless. 

While I was waiting for a wash to dry, I discovered another potential hitch - I was all out of the 30mm x 40mm pre-magnetised bases I'd need for a lot of them (and also for other batches of figures due to appear later in the Challenge). As Tony from Tiny tin troops has stopped selling the bases, I needed to place an order with Warbases. To my horror, I also found that I was out of self-adhesive magnetic sheet and had to order some of that as well. The magnetic sheet arrived on Wednesday, but I was worried that the bases wouldn't arrive in time - luckily they arrived on Friday and I could get them ready for basing the figures.

Light Foot Javelinmen

These four bases take me up to the maximum of six.

Heavy Swordsmen

These take me up to 18 bases - the maximum allowed is 24, but taking that many wouldn't leave points for much else.

Medium Swordsmen

Five of the bases have six figures, the other three have seven figures. Ideally, they'd all have had seven or eight figures, but I didn't have enough (too many broken ankles, spears and swords during shipping and prep - they have very weak joints).

In theory the list allows for 24 of these bases (assuming no heavy foot are taken), but in reality these eight bases will probably be all that I ever need.

All the figures are 15mm from Lancashire Games.

For Scoring:

139 x 15mm foot @ 2 = 278 points

Total = 278 points

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Well, I'm happy that Oscar managed to get himself out of the way from these wild Germanic fellows. What an absolute horde! I'm glad you managed to get your basing logistics sorted-out as they look superb all mobbed-up, charging forward. I especially like all the varied colours and the irregular positioning of them on their bases - it really reinforces their undisciplined but individualistic character. Bravo!

- Curt

From GregB - 40k Raven Guard Outriders (45 points)

Space Marine Outriders move out for the gaming table.

More Raven Guard? Sure - more Raven Guard! Here we have a unit of Outriders - Space Marines riding cool motorbikes. Motorbikes with guns! And great big exhaust pipes! And they still have chainswords, because of course they would still have chainswords! And still have heavy pistols too! Because war everywhere! Right?

There are twin bolt rifles mounted on the bike, but of course it is more fun to hit people with your chainsword, right?

These are multipart plastic models from GW's "Indomitus" box set, the introductory 40k set for the 9th edition that issued a couple years ago. Or maybe a year ago? Who can tell. Whatever. Anyway, these were slightly tricky to assemble. In theory, these are push-fit kits, which should not require glue. But of course we all know "push-fit" stuff is mostly a fantasy, and it in fact the push-fit aspects made the kits harder to assemble, not easier.

These big, chunky bikes are fitting rides for the large Primaris-sized marines.

But whatever the trouble with the assembly, I love the look of these models. In fact, I have really enjoyed  all of the Marines from the "Indomitus" box. These bikers continue the theme and feel of just-the-right-amount over-the-top look for the new "Primaris" marines. Look at these bikes! The huge tyres! The massive exhaust! Not just one gun, but two - PLUS the weapons the Marine himself still carries!

Officer with a "beakie" helmet, as always...although his original helmet is clipped to his belt - there was no way to remove it. So he is all about safety!

As always, there was one Marine without a helmet, and as always, I hate that, so I swapped it out for a helmet. Of course, he still has his OTHER helmet pinned to his belt. So the guy has two helmets - one on his head, and a spare. Safety first, right?

For scoring, I am hoping we can score them as "mounted" Primaris-scale figures, at 14 15 points each? If so, this would be 42 points...but as ever I defer to the wisdom of my minion - the points shall be whatever they shall be! Cheers everyone. 

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All I can say from seeing Greg's posts this past month is that you get a LOT of fun out of this Indomitus box set. Great work dude! I love these bikes and I continue to be impressed with your choice of armour colour for your Raven Guard - it's such a refreshing change from basic black you usually see. Now, you just need a Death Guard marine helmet mounted on the front fender of one of these hogs to set it off nicely...

- Curt

From Millsy: 28mm Oathmark Revenant Undead (195 points)

G'day All!

I'm back with some more undead to follow on from my ghouls last week. These fine reanimated fellows are the (mostly plastic) Oathmark Revenants from North Star Military Figures and they are simply a joy to assemble and paint.

They are pretty much OOTB with only one head swap on the metal hero with the two handed mace. I gave him a plastic head as the metal one looked weedy even for an emaciated animated corpse. It's hard to inspire terror when it looks like you had a run in with a head-shrinking pygmy shaman on the way to war.

I wanted 40 miniatures in total so I needed the equivalent of another 4 infantry model as I only bought 36 (one box of plastics and 6 metal characters). I'm currently kitbashing Revenant spares with the Fireforge Games Living Dead Knights to make some Revenant heavy cavalry and that kit comes with a couple of undead hounds which conveniently fill up the remaining spaces. Winner!

The paint scheme is a more complex attempt at Kev Dalliamore's efforts from the North Star Magazine. I love all Kev's work but in this instance I wanted a bit more variation in shades to I've mixed in some browns and greens, plus highlighted a lot more, especially the faces.

Finally, the banners are handcrafted from a light, open weave fabric kindly sourced by Mrs Millsy. At scale it would be ridiculously rough, and is probably what Necromancer jocks are made from which would explain the constant rage and wish to destroy everything.

All up we have the equivalent of 38 x 28mm infantry models = 190 points, plus whatever Curt deems  to be appropriate for flags made from recycled underpants. That should take me past the halfway mark to my 1,500 point goal and that's with less than a month of the Challenge gone. Happy Days!

Up next, skeleton undead and Revenant heavy cavalry or maybe more Death Guard, plus a few diversions I reckon.

Cheers,
Millsy

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Oooh, these are quite fabulous, Millsy. From their wonderfully nasty skin tone (and I say that in a good way), to the aged patina on their armour and shields, they very much look the part of a hardass undead unit. Good call on using the pooches to fill the rinks! I also really like the fallow groundwork, and that fell banner should rightfully instills fear, especially to those who know where its fabric was sourced.

Brilliant work Mr. Mills! 

- Curt