From AndrewB: A couple interesting characters! (Swords and Sandals)(32pts)

 A couple extra figures this week that I got fussy and got a little extra on, but that’s alright! First, we have another off-brand Jedi, who we’ll know by his call-sign, Red-Green Leader, from Battle Valor Miniatures! Secondly, we have Hercules, another addition to the cast of characters for my Jason and the Argonauts games, from Footsore. We’ve both got swords, and Hercules is another in a long list of sandal-wearing miniatures for me so far!  Sword and Sandals!

My attempts at a plaid flannel shirt is less than my favorite, but between a Labatt Blue lightsaber, his old-school duck hunter camouflage, and empty beer cans on his base, there’s enough character there for a fun game or ten!  Red Green leader had to take his vehicle down from where he resides, in colder climes approximately 69 beer stores north of Darth Brooks’ place.   

Second comes the truly large Hercules from Footsore!  This guy was a delight to pain, and gets me one step closer to my goal of having Jason and his buddies fighting Aeetes and his skeletons, among others. There’s two swords on his back, but the club is so much cooler!  Bigger than reality for sure, I really enjoyed painting this mythic hero.  

These are both metal figures, which I have really missed painting since I’ve been hammering through so many 3D printed ones   The deep, more pronounced detail is refreshing and easy to paint.  

These fellas should get me to 10 points for the figures and 20 for the studio!  Just wait, more are coming from both of these projects!  With that, my updated map!  

From TeemuL: And a hat-trick by Andrew, last week it was Geoffrey, who will it be next week? As a keen hobbyist I'm interested in the (empty) beer cans at the base of Red-Green Leader. Are they scratch built or something easier and fancier?

Swords, sandals and sand, perfect fit for this location, not too many left. I like the swords, sandals and sand of course, and beer cans, too. The club and the lion-helm. In fact, the lion-helm Hercules looks so big, I'll score him as a 40mm infantry and 7 points.

From AndrewB: More corny Star Wars! (Western)(70pts)

More of the goofy Star Wars this week!   In the same vein as my previously semi-absurd Star Wars posts, with Darth Brooks and his pair of speeders, I have more reasons why the story is set in a galaxy ‘far, far away’.  These guys are in a sort of ‘Space Western’ setting, but instead of an Ennio Morricone 1870s western feel, it’s a George Straight 1990s feel.  

First, we have a pair of delightful named characters!  On the left, we have Darth Brooks’ ace speeder pilot buddy Day’el ‘The Intimidator’ whose black number 3 speeder is routinely seen zipping around the surface.  On the right, we have Keni Rojas(weird pronunciation), Brooks’ perpetual Gambler friend. His wisdom and decision making prowess is legendary, he always knows when to walk away!

Next up, a rival speeder pilot, yet unnamed(pun block, I suppose), who represents a huge chemical conglomerate, and his lackies.  He’s constantly proving a rival and damn heroes competitor to Day’el, and his garish choice in costuming and speeder color leads the common folk to either love or despise him. 

I’m not sure what sort of species his lackies are designed to be, but I painted their odd facial structure like fu Manchus, so they fit the theme pretty well.  I’m not sure if I’m entirely happy with the colors, but they’ll hopefully grow on me once I have a speeder painted for them.  

Next up, a fireteam of ‘shore troopers’ on their well-earned leisure time!  These guys are just goofy and fun to paint, so enjoy!  

I have no recollection of where I found these .STLs, but would be tickled pink if there were more floating around somewhere.  Their APC will be coming soon, in a truly Western US fashion, so stay tuned! 

These fellows should get 50pts for 10 28mm miniatures, as well as 20pts for the challenge room.  A total of 70!

Lastly, a group photo! And my challenge progress!  

From TeemuL: Ah, the shore troopers, the latest fan favourites, I guess. Who needs any vegetable warriors from Turnips, when there are some serious wargaming minis available? The lackies sure are colourful, which might make them hard to enjoy at the beginning, but I'm sure you get used to them. The two named characters are great, is the background somehow official or have just generated it by yourself?

From PeterD Late Roman Limitanei (60 points)

 

I've got 12 Late Roman infantry from a Limitanei cohort of Tungri. Figures are Victrix plastics, which went together well and painted up nicely. The units designated Limitanei were essentially garrison troops and typically not as well equipped, trained or led as the Comitatenses in the field army. However, quality likely carried considerably between units from part-time militias of farmers who showed up to drill on occasion, to full time regular troops. Some of the later got drafted in the Field Armies as pseudocomitatenses.  Benito recently posted a very fine looking unit of the part timers, while I am envisioning my Tungri as more regular.  

There were two similar named units in Britain in the late 4th Century. The Cohors I Tungrorum was based at Borcovicio (the Housesteads fort in Northumberland). A second unit under the officer Praepositus militum Tungrecanorum were at Dubris (Dover).   That means that  can comfortably field my Tungri against Scots-Irish, Pict and Saxon raider alike. The cohort names indicate that the units were likely originally recruited from Tungri tribesmen in Northern Gaul.  However over time they morphed into locally recruited units of Romano-Britons.

While I did want this unit to be reasonably well equipped, I didn't want them to look as turned out as my veterans from the Field Army of the Comes Britanniae.  Only one officer has metal armour with a couple of sets of leather army and I tried to make them look less look as tightly drilled. I modelled severall figures with outstretched left hands and this gave me troubles keeping some of their shields glued on. Based on an illustration from Simon MacDowell's book on late Roman Infantry I went for blue tunic decorations instead of my usual red one. It took several tubes of blue before I found a colour that I liked and I think that I'll be going back to red in the future.

According to some source the static Limitanei troops typically had more uniform equipment as they drew on local suppliers and arsenals where the Field Armies ranged over large territories and therefore picked stuff up as needed from where ever was local at the time. That might have been true for the units Juilan took from Germany for his disastrous Persian campaign, but my I figure that the Comes Britanniae had a much more limited range and therefore drew from the same armouries.

Reformatting the photos, I noticed that there is stray hair that needs to trimmed from one figure.

I again free hand painted the shields. They look like the work of a 5 year with lacking any artistic talent up close, but ok from a distance. The Notitia Dignitatum doesn't show shield patterns for Limitanei troops so I opted for a variation on the "Head on a Stick" design shown for several Auxiliary Palatina infantry units. I used a crimson vexillum with an impression of a winged victory (or angel) design held by the rather stout and self important fellow in the leather armour.

Twelve 28mm foot figures should be another 60 points, which will also count against the Carausius Emperor of Britain and SPQR side duels.

From TeemuL: Good looking infantry, I like the cloak and everything. The bases are great, too. I'll use my minion superpowers to grant you 10 bonus points for the shields and the banner.

From AndrewB: More 1/600 Pre-Dreadnaughts! (30pts)

More pre-dreadnaughts for the big game I’m putting on in March! This pair of ships were 3D printed, and came out pretty passably.  I’ve been having some slight troubles with a couple of my printers recently, but I’m hoping that’s mainly due to the cold we’re experiencing here in the American Midwest. Without further ado, the pair! 

First up is the American Monitor USS Arkansas, BM-7, which mounts a powerful pair of 12” guns. Not particularly well armored or fast, but those guns are serious business! I’ve painted my American ships in a scheme reminiscent of the Great White Fleet, as they just look really distinct.  

The second ship is a Chinese protected cruiser I found on thingiverse. Being a Chinese ship, it was naturally built in a British yard. Given the British tendency to assume command of any ships in British yards in time of conflict, I’ve painted her in a RN scheme of the era, and decided to name her the HMS Goodenough. She mounts three 8” guns and a variety of smaller armaments, and will operate with another sister vessel(yet to be painted).  

I believe we scored the last 1/600 ship I painted along the lines of Black Seas ships at 15pts apiece, which should net me a lean 30pts for these! More coming soon! Reminder to anyone in the Midwest at the end of March- March to Victory will be in Kansas City, come on out and get a play in with these beauties!  

Also, I’ve remembered my map this time for the challenge!

From TeemuL: Thanks for the weekly ships, Andrew! They look goodenough... :) The Chinese ship is more to my liking, all the colours etc, but I guess if a warship is eye catching, then there is something wrong. They kinda need to look boring and uninterested, right? Nevertheless, good job paiting these ships, Andrew!

From MikeW: Tales from the Construction Site plus other stuff [Under construction][Limo](365 Points)

As with the last submission, I will start with a ride in Lady Sarah's Limo, this time taking me to the Under Construction Site. For my Limo fare I present a 28mm Female Apocalypse Survivor figure, this woman being painted to represent a member of the Highway Patrol or maybe a State Trooper.

This Female State Trooper or Highway Patrol
will escort Lady Sarah's Limo!

I've gone for a Blue uniform, with dark blue trousers with a light blue shirt, timings on both shirt and trousers being reversed. She has a light blue helmet and black boots and night stick, whilst she also carries a M16 rifle and nightstick. Her dress is somewhat relaxed, likely the stress of here survivor status meaning that usual uniform care is no longer possible!

I made an attempt at Police Badges on each shoulder

Again the base is make to look like an urban wasteland...

Final shot

The figures I have worked on this week for the Under Construction are a batch of forty, 28mm Vikings. These figures were acquired some time ago from eBAY and are a mixture of Gripping Beast and Victrix plastics, now the reason that these are an 'Under Construction Lot' is because the original owner had partially painted them and affixed them to square Games Workshop bases for use in a Lord of the Rings setting, the standard bearer even came with an 'evil' icon and three skulls hanging form it.

A 'large' project lot arrived from eBAY,
I put it off as there was a lot of re-construction work to do...

(I did momentarily consider leaving this in place to increase my Side Duel Skullz score - but no, historical accuracy won out! )

First job was to rebase the figures,
removing the old square bases and affixing to nice round bases

Second Left was the Standard Bearer as delivered,
I removed the skull laden icon and will replace with a nice flag

I have put off doing anything with these figures as there seemed to be quite some work to be done to get the ready for a reasonable paint job.

As expected there was quite some construction work just to get these figures ready to paint! - A number of the figures (5) has broken spears and or arms that needed replacing. Two heads needed to be refitted and several arms needed to be reset to make them serviceable to my eyes. Finally all the square bases needed to be removed and then replaced with round MDF bases to fit in with my basing standards for the period. Not a quick job, especially as I ran out of bases and had to resort to the good old 2p piece standby for a handful of these figures!

Typical figure and painting standard as supplied,
they need quite a lot of work!

Test figures, with base colours blocked in,
note - I ran out of MDF bases so had to finish batch with 2p pieces!

Final state of the 'test' figures, I was pleased with the transformation

The figures had been sprayed with a rattle can to give them a silver finish and then many had had a gloss brown paint applied to cloth and leather areas. In general I thought that I could salvage the silver figures and apply inks to make the chainmail work whilst I'd need to redo the leather, clothing, skin and shields on all the figures.

A group view of the final figures, all forty of them.

And possibly a better view of the finished figures in video format

So not all my own work but I think that I have stamped my vision of the Dark Ages on these little guys. By way of showing the process I have a snap of a figure prior to my first painting steps, using him as a test for the rest of the batch.

The command group, Leader, Standard Bearer and Musician

I added belts, repainted wooden spear shafts and shields, dressed them in browns and greys before redoing their skin and hair. I liked how it was going so two more test figures joined the original to have Dark Tone ink applied to the chainmail and then Agrax Earthshade added to the clothing. Skin, unsurprisingly had Flesh Tone applied and the spear shafts and shields had Light Tone applied to give a shaded appearance.

First of a series of close-ups of the figures, most figures came with Gripping Beast shields, smallish with leather bindings. Some came with larger shields with steel rims. Again, rather embarrassingly I did not have transfers the right size for these shields - so they have been painted plain colours.

Once dry I put on the shield transfers before applying matt varnish and allowing to dry overnight before completing the bases in my usual manner. Overall a pleasing result in these three little guys. I just had to repeat the process 36 more time!

Five more Vikings, I'll let you determine which are Victrix and which are Gripping Beast

When people ask me how I can paint so many figures my usual answer is determination and a steady hand, what I should also add is a high pain threshold and shear 'bloody mindedness'! Anyway I got all 36 figures done, eventually!

Almost all figures originally came with Spears, any non command figures with a sword or axe have been subject to repairs in their 'Under Construction' Film Set.

Another five guys, most came wearing chainmail,
some wore leather and a few were unarmoured.

The Victrix and Gripping Beast figures go pretty well together,
although the differences in the sculpts are clear, height is about the same.

And still they come, I made extensive use of ink washes over simple base colours on these figures

And the final four, with pesky large shields!

Before I stop move on - just a comment about Dark Age shield types and the debate as to if they were steel rimmed or bound in leather - both are depicted here. I always assumed that they would all be the former but a few years back I was talking to a Viking Re-enactor in Largs, Scotland who made the comment that steel rimmed shields would be stronger but much harder to repair when on campaign.

After a battle the shields would not surprisingly be in bad shape, if it has a steel rim the warrior would need a blacksmith with a forge to repair it, taking time and money as dozens or even hundreds of warriors would all want their shield fixed at the same time.

Binding shields with stretched, wet leather would likely be quicker and easier in the field to get a warrior's kit repaired. Each warrior would soak leather strips and stretch around the edge of their shields and then these would be dried by a fire. As the wet leather dries it shrinks and hardens, creating a tough binding.

It should also be noted that shield designs form damaged shields would often be cut off and then attached to new or captured shields, reusing existing artwork where possible and again held in place by leather bindings.

I assume the re-enactor knew what he was talking about - it seemed logical to me

Thank goodness I also had a fun batch of Grechin to get completed this week!

So I've been banging on about the Great Gobbo Rebellion under the leadership of the much forgotten 'Red Gobbo', to date, however, I have not really done many Grechin to populate the ranks of the GLA (Grechin Liberation Army) or is it the UGF (United Grechin Front), who knows - and it'll likely change every time the force is fielded. Anyway here are a group of 28 Rebellious Grechin.

The Grechin Mega Mob, 28 little guys

They have been painted in the same manner as earlier posts, with the skin highlighted in a lighter colour than their bigger, uglier cousins - the Orks. These figures are all plastics, collected form a number of eBAY lots that I have obtained in the last few months. Many have had the 'Red Star' on their arm bands or elsewhere about their persons.

In groups of four...

Most of these guys have 'Red Star' armbands

A couple have looted imperial Guard equipment, namely a Laser Pistol and a Grenade Gun, the res have the usual miscellany of pistols and out of date 'Sluggas'.

Another four

A fun group with Grechin Boss left, middle
two ammo carriers and right a guy with a looted grenade launcher.

So what else am I working on? Well there are more Marian Scots Pikemen edging towards the workbench, along with some Late 17th Century French Militia (which have been on the workbench for almost a year now, in a plastic bag) and even more Ork happiness...

There's more...

... and more...

... and finally the last four!

.. Until next time! Oh and here's my map from the film sets

POINTS
Lady Sarah Figure 5 Points
Lady Sarah Bonus 20 Points
40 x 28mm Viking Foot @ 5Pts ea 200 Points
28 x 40K Grechin @ 5 Pts ea 140 Points
TOTAL 365 Points

SIDE DUAL POINTS
Squirrel Points +1 (Vikings)

From TeemuL: You forgot to include the 20 points for Under Constructions, but I kindly added them to you and added the labels etc, you know all the manual work, which Minions are not supposed to do, but which they nevertheless do. :) I like the state trooper and gretchin are always nice. There is nothing wrong with the vikings, either. Good and varied entry again!

We will have a small break now, waiting for the New World to wake up and be ready for the last posts of the day.