From RayR: Retreat from Moscow - The Stragglers (120 points)

  

The citizens of Moscow had been ordered to evacuate by the Russian troops. All they left behind was a little food, plenty of alcohol, and Moscow in flames. While the French troops pillaged the empty city, Napoleon waited for Alexander I to surrender. Napoleon and his forces waited in Moscow for over a month, but no offer for peace came. By 19th October, the cold had begun to set in, and Napoleon was forced to move from Moscow.

The Grand Army was devastated having to retreat along the invasion route; order broke down, and nearly over half the force that set out from Moscow became stragglers, or those who not only did not keep up with the body of the army, but were not in any shape for combat, these either died from disease, small battles, or being exposed to the harsh Russian winter.

Throughout November the humiliating realities of Napoleon’s losses were exposed to the world. On 5th December, amid rumours of a potential coup, Napoleon left his devastated army. Just over a week later, what was left of Napoleon’s grand army straggled back over the Neman River.

Most of the Straggler figures are from the great range sold by Perry Miniatures.

Packs FN172, FN173 and FN175

This unit is the odd one out, having 2 figures from Perry's pack FN194 Scavengers and 4 Warlord plastic figures, Now of course all these figures in all three units will be interchangeable.

In this post there are 24 x 25mm figures, so that makes a grand total of 120 points, my largest points total for an entry so far this Challenge!!

TeemuL: Ray is warming up, you better be prepared Lee! What a wonderful and wonderfully varied entry again, Ray. Sometimes one might think, that painting unit after unit of Napoleonics might get boring, same uniform with little detail changes one unit after another, but you have lots of variation inside one unit! I guess the basing and frozing effect still tie the units together and they all look like part of the same organization. Well deserved 120 points.

From PaulSS: First batch of Napoleonic French (80 points)

 

With the Prussian production line rolling to an end it's time to make a start on some opponents for them, so this week I've mainly been cleaning up and priming, but still managed to roll out four battalions of French infantry by Baccus 6mm.

The first battalion represents a line battalion in greatcoats and with shako covers, I mainly used Stone Grey for these, but also add in a few coats and covers in Beige Brown, Neutral Grey and Mirage Blue to add a bit of variety.

A second battalion of line, again in greatcoats and shako covers.

The third battalion represent a unit of light infantry in greatcoats, how do you tell the difference? At this scale the lights have blue overall trousers on and the line have white!

And finally another battalion of light infantry in greatcoats.

All rather samey this post, but if I want to put together a French force, I'm going to need to get cracking on with those infantry battalions.

Finally, I was not happy with the way the flesh came out on the Josefina Lacosta that I painted last time, so I touched it up.

Four battalions each of 40 6mm figures will add 80pts to the total.

TeemuL: What a great variety you offer us, Paul! After a few weeks of 6mm Prussians you now give as a delightful change with your 6mm French. And some have white trousers and some have white! That's almost too much, but in the end more is more. :) Thank you for this entry and good to hear that the project is now up and running. I appreciate your touch up of Josefina, too, looks nice.

From MartinC: Just a Little Madness (80 points)

Having finished the Barbarossa stuff I was searching through the lead pile. Having taught my BIL to play Italian Wars last week, it seemed logical to finish the last figures. 

So I have been painting 10mm Landsknechts. The road to insanity

3 units of crossbowmen. Painting these takes ages but there is a method. Pick a bright colour and paint a different limb on each figure. Repeat for all 80 figures. Then get another colour. Repeat for 6 more colours. 

Half a pike block

Love the flags, really adds to the unit

I have one and a half more pike blocks to paint, then all the figures are done and another collection completed.

Scores on the doors

80 x 10mm infantry = 80pts

TeemuL: Very colourful, especially the flags. Your "simple" method sounds a bit familiar, I used a similar way on my Delmonteland natives, but only three or four colours and 28mm minis...

Shall we see this collection done next week with the remaining pike blocks and may be a group shot? Or shall you wander to some other project - not that Thursday Crew is known for that? Anyway, 80 hard earned points for you!

From DaveD: Volksgrenadiers and and Panzerschrek Teams (64 points)

Kicking off my Thursday with more frozen bits with yet another small addition for the Ardennes set up.

3 Panzerschreck teams.

More Volksgrenadier stands and commanders

I have also completed 12 feet of wire fences .. these are from my own design, and made up by the guys at Pendraken. So a bit of PVA for the bases and various uprights followed by a spray in dark grey just left the wire to be added. This is done with thread. Then the winter tufts and snow paste is added.  That’s it for the linear terrain now as I have about 40 feet of it along with the rail fencing and the hedges.

 

And here is the table set up taken this week. A first game is getting within reach .

I am on with more of the terrain as well this week . Leaving it set up while I build it is helping me think if yet more items that I want to add. It’s certainly keeping me busy .

Points wise that 32 15mm figures = 64 points . 

TeemuL: If there are some sharp-eyed participants thinking they have seen this before, they might be right. Apparently for some reason this post was published yesterday without any minion comments or actions (from me, at least). One might think there has been a human error from a participant... Either that or a bug in the system, make your choice.

Nevertheless you know what you are doing (at least on the painting desk) and these look great. Your winter table looks stunning, too! I guess your idea to keep the table setup really helps to see what is needed and gives inspiration. If I only had space...

From SimonG: Wrathful Roman War Machines [Wrath] (125 points)

So, it's been several weeks since my last post. But I am back with a return to one of my ongoing projects -- the first century Jewish Rebellion in 28mm and based for Impetus.

In part this delay has been down to the complexity of what I chose to paint this time, but more importantly, the need to take time out to deal with the sudden death of my father. In fact I would like to dedicate this posting in his memory as it was a trip we made to Israel in 1973 while he was on sabbatical from his university lectureship, that stimulated my interest in military history and in particular the Jewish rebellion. Visiting Masada at the age of 8 (back in the day when you still had to hike all the way up) kind of does that to you(1).

My Scrapbook of Masada (1973, age 8)

The figures this time are all Victrix early imperial Romans -- a stand of legionaries defending their signum. These are on large (120x60) diorama like bases for Impetus. As always these are great sculpts with loads and loads of detail which I cannot help but fill out (even the hands holding shields have painted nails!). Every time I do a Roman suit of armour I discover more leather straps that should be picked out, and once you've seen them my anal retentiveness says I need to do them!

The other two stands for this week are each bolt throwers -- machinery is another level of fiddlyness and I couldn't help but bind up the dragons teeth with thread -- something has to hold them together after all! These are on super big 120x80 stands and altogether look quite impressive.

So much as I enjoy the result the time taken is considerable -- anyway here's hoping you appreciate it -- some close ups so you can get to know the characters. 

The paint is mostly Citadel, with some Army Painter. 95% of the work is in the base coat which takes me about 1-1.5 hours per figure -- washes, highlighting and dry-brushing then flies by. The key is close inspection at the end under a 2.75X Optivisor. It's easy to correct all the little defects at this point. One quirk I have is that I always do a flesh tone first, there's no colour logic to this (it will need loads of touch ups as other colours spill on to it), but for me it makes the figures come alive! Eyes are a straightforward five step pricess: black eye socket outline, white eye within the socket, reikland fleshshade wash over the face which dulls the white of the eye, black eyeball (option for colour at larger scales or with larger animal eyes), gloss finish.

Photography under artificial light tends to make the finish seem glossier than it is and masks some of the dry brushing, so please fill in a requisite overall level of grime and dustiness! Also be assured that all toenails are present and correct, I just didn't trouble you with any close ups this time around 🤪

Blowing his own horn?

Bearskins in Judea! No way!

Studying what brown bears look like!

So thats what they look like under their helmets!

This should also count as a Inferno stop off for Wrath -- my Dante inspired piece of literature this time is Gary Panter's "Jimbo's Inferno"(2), a loose reimagining of the Divine Comedy set in "Focky Bocky", an alternative Los Angeles shopping mall!

Watch out guys!

Points wise that should be 120 (16 28mm figures = 80, plus two crew served weapons for 20 more and the 20 point Inferno bonus) --- a major haul by my standards but not really helping me achieve my target.

Not sure what to do next but I think I need to start on my early Medieval British special musical project so looking forward to sharing that with you in a couple of weeks.

(1) And my interest in modern miltary history as we lived through the Yom Kippur war as well, I still don't know why my mother let him take us on sabbatical again after we'd been in Nigeria for the Biafra conflict in 1967 as well!

(2) Full size hardcover limited edition, Fantagraphics, March 2006. Mine is copy 30/150. Gary advises "Don't try to pass a pop quiz on Dante's hell based on a reading of this comic: it won't work."

TeemuL: Very sorry to hear about your father, especially when he seems to have been a very influential person both to you and most likely to his numerous students.

Thank you for an excellent entry, lots of beautiful photos, historical and personal background, theme entry and the minis itself are very nicely painted. I especially like the photos, where most of us are happy with the mandatory three photos (or less), you are giving as several ones from different angles. They are like action shots. I like them very much! And not to mention the groundwork you have done on those large bases, they look great. Have your 120 points and 5 bonus points, too!