From Kerry T: King Charles doesn't make the cut & Rupert's not a bear (550points)

 Morning, afternoon and evening all

I didn't manage an entry last week as I bit off more than I could chew (well more than I could base actually). 

Being a slow learner I nearly did the same this week and am posting now instead of doing the paperwork I planned to do this afternoon. Pictures  and post first, paperwork later, you see I do have my priorities correct.

In the past 2 weeks I've continued to paint ECW cavalry and things were going well until I decided to add more yesterday. That's why old King Charles didn't make the cut..

Here he is with Astley (Jacob, not Rick) still on the workbench

I'd managed to finish the Queen's Lifeguard and the Queen's Regiment of Horse last week(or at least they're the flags I've given them) but didn't have enough time to base them

Bicorne miniatures armed with swords

That's fine I thought, I'll add another regiment in the week and base them both up for this week, saving a little time and mess on the basing part 

Bicorne Miniatures with pistols

Then however, not satisfied with my haul of 48 horse I had a bright idea late on Saturday lunchtime to add some command, so I did! After all its a long holiday weekend here in NZ so with Monday off I'd easily get all my remaining Empress Miniatures Command figures done. What could go wrong...

Empress Miniatures commanding Bicorne Horse

I've neglected the garden again in the past few weeks but I felt guilty and did a touch of weeding yesterday and some fruit picking today

Hey Ken look what I've got

These took an age to pick- I should have been painting

Unfortunately the task I set myself of another 9 mounted figures was too onerous and going out to a party yesterday afternoon thinking I could finish painting them after so many glasses of grape juice on my return was a non starter. Coming home late last night I hurriedly stuck several unfinished command figures onto a multibase and applied the grit. That's when Charlie and Astley got the chop and consequently today I've spent most of the day trying to highlight figures and made a start on Prince Rupert and his horse while he was attached to a large command base. It finally dawned on me that  there was no way I'd get to the other two figures.

Prince Rupert and hangers on

Do you think I could find my remaining ECW flags this afternoon? 

These were originally intended to accompany the King and Astley 

Empress Miniatures assorted command

So the King will have to wait a while I think but that's not a bad thing in retrospect because I'll now have a chance to add a different mix of figures for his command base and get some new flags.

Thankfully, late this afternoon, despite the added hassle of painting some flags the whole parade has managed to get to town

Showjumping ECW style

and again

What's that creeping around the corner of that house?

The whole shibang, all the ECW cavalry I've painted in the challenge to date

That's enough ECW cavalry I think for this AHPC, I need a change

I have  another 48 more ECW cavalry figures to paint, including those by Bloody Miniatures but this will do for now I think as I can't face painting any more buff and need a change from painting horseflesh.

So in summary

2 x 24 units of 28mm ECW cavalry  @ 10 points = 480 points

7 assorted mounted 28mm ECW command figures @ 70 points = 550 in total

No Squirrels

Side challenge

21 of the cavalry have a cuirass so another 105 can opener points

Many thanks and best wishes

Valleyboy

From Millsy:

Another cracking cavalry entry Kerry! Beautifully painted as always and looking the absolute business on your amazing table.

I'm particularly impressed by your command stands which have a load of dynamism to them. The composition is great and the large bases give them a real diorama feel. Lovely work all round!

PS. When can I pop over and pick some fruit? That lot looks delicious!

Cheers,

Millsy

From RichardM: Sudan resting camels and British 10th Hussars (162 points)

This is a shortened week as I need to leave Friday morning for a game, dinner and overnight at a mate’s house and then we are all going onto Cancon on Saturday morning.  Cancon is Australia’s largest wargames event and is held over the Australia Day weekend in Canberra which is about a three hours drive south of Sydney.

The offerings this week are some resting camels and the British 10th Hussar regiment for the Sudan. 

The camels will be for the centre of the square formed by the dismounted Camel Regiments when they go into action.

Again the figures are 10mm Pendraken.  I have changed the dry brush colour used on the bases and while I don’t think it is apparent in photos, I am much happier that it gives a good compromise between the cloth I will be using (the third photo below is the closest representation) and the greyer colour that I have seen of the land in photos.  I am also forming the view that I need to look for some dry bush tufts while at Cancon to give a bit of a lift to my basing for the project.

Resting Camels

British 10th Hussars

Points:

Hussars.             24 * 10mm mounted = 72

Camels.              45 * 10mm mounted (but without a rider) = 90*

Total: 162 points

* instead of 3 for a mounted 10mm I have subtracted 1 for the rider figure that is missing

From Millsy:

More beautifully painted colonial stuff is always welcome Richard. This project is causing me all sorts of issues with willpower I'm happy to admit.

Painting something well at this scale is hard enough but to then do it consistently for large units is another level mate. Just brilliant!

162 points for your tally. What's next?

Cheers,
Millsy

From AlanD: WWII Romanian Cavalry (120 points)

Truly, wargames projects are never finished.

A couple of years ago I 'finished' a large force of WWII Romanians in winter gear. Since then, they have given me great enjoyment in a series of games of Battlegroup, mostly against my friend Marty's Hungarians and Germans.

So, when Great Escape Games added to their already lovely range of Romanians with a couple of packs of cavalry, I obviously needed to add them to my army. These came out just around Christmas, following their summer cavalry packs from a year ago. I have been eagerly awaiting these, and now my force gains a squad of cavalry to add to their recce assets.

As much as I like these figures, it's worth mentioning that they were absolute swine to prepare. I have never encountered mounted figures where the riders were more incompatible with their horses. To get them to actually sit on their mounts, I had to spend an inordinate amount of time carving bits off their greatcoats, saddle blankets and packs, and then using greenstuff to cover the gaps. This is a bit poor, and I think reflects the hasty use of the horses from the summer cavalry packs without taking the care to see how the new riders would sit.

Anyway, I'm pleased with the result, and can now definitively call my Romanians done (!)

12 figures for 120 points please Millsy!

From Millsy:

Never a truer word was spoken than your first point about things being finished. I'm equally guilty as you'll see next week.

Cracking brushwork on these horsey boys mate. The uniforms are both appropriately drab without losing visual interest and the mix of skin tones on the horse flesh really lifts them up a notch or three.

Very nicely staged and photographed too and the mono pic at the end is a great touch.

120 points it is Alan. Can't wait to see what's added to the project next :-P

Cheers,
Millsy

From KentG: 28mm Crusades, Baron's Wars & French foot knights (405 pts)

So it’s taken me a couple of weeks to get some figures out

 I made the mistake of doing two many in one go but that does mean the rest of the figures 

Won’t take as long to do, and then of course life got busy. 

First up I have some Perry metal crusades figures

These will be part of my new project where I’ll paint both sides to play Lion

Really happy with the shields, 

they are all hand painted, took a bit longer than I thought 

But worth the extra effort, the banners are of the photo copier at work 

then hand painted over top

The black shield with orange serpent is my favourite 

Spent to long adding more details 

The priest will be fun to use in some of the senecios I have a couple of other

 figures to paint but some need fixing as they broke in transit 

Next up are 8 Perry plastics which a customer wanted added on to a job

They are for his ever growing French army, a quick fun job to do

The figures below are from the footsore miniatures 

Baron's Wars range they were donated by Footsore to me to paint and sell 

As part of the Ukraine project I’m running to build tiny homes 

 It was very generous of them and the money raised from selling them will go to

 Changing lives, I love the idea that our hobby can give hope to someone 

Who has lost their home in a war, and in 8 weeks enough has been raised to build 

the first two.

The figures are great and a real joy to paint

Well that’s it another week down

Points wise

81 X 28mm foot @5pts each = 220

Total 405

From Millsy:

Another wonderfully painted points bomb Kent! I'm struggling to pick a favourite from this submission so I've settled on three...

1. The Footsore religions minis because you've nailed the robes and kudos to Footsore for being so generous!

2. The Perry plastics because your colours are glorious and bring so much interest to what might have been another batch of beige/brown padded jacks.

3. And finally priest simply because you've really made him pop and he's such a cool sculpt anyway.

Brilliant stuff and another 405 Challenge shekels which takes your tally to an impressive 1350, just 150 shy of your initial total and we're still in January!

Cheers,
Millsy