Sarah’s Last Post … Jongleurs

A jongleur was very similar to a medieval minstrel or troubadour. While minstrels were commonly employed as household servants by wealthy families,

Jongleurs were itinerant entertainers who could be hired to sing, recite verses, do magic tricks, or juggle for an evening's entertainment. Jongleurs were also criticized by the Church as being “agents of the devil” because of their association to profane language and fart jokes!

Please meet Tomi & Timi - two very sturdy acrobat/jongleurs who’ve come to Venice to be part of Carnivale.

I really enjoyed painting these two 3D prints found on MyMiniFactory.

I particularly enjoyed this blue/yellow colour palette! Truthfully.

I was a quite daunted of the flaming torch. I asked Curt for a quick tutorial, promptly disregarded his painstaking explanation of the ‘flame formula”, made a complete mess of it and then asked Curt for help with completion.

Yay! Curt ❤️

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As my last post of the Challenge, I’ll take this opportunity to thank the Sunday Team for ‘showing up’ and ‘showing off’ their wonderfully varied and fabulously painted toy soldiers. Well done sirs! I also want to thank Greg for minioning my posts - thank you so much!

Personally, this Challenge has not been as I had hoped. I was planning to explore more of the Dante theme as well as paint more of my Carnival Project … and maybe, just maybe achieve my target. Nonetheless, there’s always next year … right?

Be Kind, Be Safe

Sarah

PS: Tuesday, March 18, 7:39am

Early morning walk with Huckleberry in the park & stopped to admire the rime frost on the trees - Magical

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What a treat that I get to Minion your last post Sarah!

Tomi & Timi seem like a high energy pair. I can see them being somewhat amusing at the start of the evening, wearing thin at the end of the banquet, and positively irritating when suffering a hangover the next day! You've a done job with their bright attire...which would also be annoying 'the morning after'. I agree, the pastels work really well broken up with the bone/ivory/white like that

Its been wonderful to watch your Challenge progress and if you find that you've painted totally different things at the end to what you planned at the start...you're doing it just like everyone else! And if you had fun along the way anyway, then you're doing it right :-) I hope you'll be back again next year!

PS Hucklebury looks rather unimpressed with all that snow! 'Can we go home now Mum?' You've had your walk

- Paul

from RayR - Retreat from Moscow - French Limbers and Wagons (62pts)

 

Last week I posted up two artillery pieces, this week its their limbers.

The models are a bit of a mix? The limbers are MDF and from Warbases, while the horses are from Redoubt Miniatures.

I wanted the bases to mimic the pill bases that myself and Lee used for our cavalry, so I ordered some in from Warbases once again.

The guns in the pics don't count,  they're just for show, so its 20 pts for the 4 horses at 5pts each 

and whatever Curt or the Minion in charge wants to give me for the 2 limbers. I'd say 5 for each??

Next up, we have two abandoned wagons.

This one is a 3D print that I bought from a model shop in Dartford.

And I've no clue where this one comes from?

Its metal and pretty heavy, it may be an old Minifigs model, but I'm not sure?

I plan to do loads of these type of abandoned wagons for the Retreat, but only managed these two and of course the one dead horse.

I'll claim 10 points each for the wagons and 3 for half a horse??

Talking of horses, here are another 3 dead ones.

They're all from Tiger Miniatures, that me and Lee picked up at Warfare last year.

Again I'll claim 3 pts each for them. So in total

30pts for limbers and teams.

23 for the wagons and horse &

9 for the dead horses

Making a grand total of 62pts

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I feel chilly just looking at these Ray! Since moving to Hawaii I haven't even considered putting on a jumper never mind jacket or scarf :-)

I've really enjoyed watching you and Lee building your project together over this challenge, and hope it delivers you both much fun on the tabletop when you finally get it there

- Paul

MikeF - Some Big Guns! - 45 points

This will be my last post for the challenge. I managed to complete two more vehicles for my Imperial Guard army. Both of these kits are from the new Solar Auxilia line and consist of a Medusa and Malcador battle tank. The Medusa for the Solar Auxilia, is a large siege tank built on the Leman Russ chassis. For imperial guard, it was built on a Chimera, which could be given an armoured crew compartment. I think the new kit represents that pretty well.

The Malcador is a great kit when compared to the old forge world one (I own two). It comes with a few weapon options, but I wanted a tank killer, so I went with the Vanquisher. This vehicle is actually for my 30k Imperial Militia force which I collect parallel to my guard. I’ve added a few eye of Horus insignia on it to signify that it is loyal to Horus and therefore part of the traitor faction. Greg would say they’ve merely seen the light and want to help make the imperium great again. They certainly won’t be used as cannon fodder! 

I was looking back through my previous post and discovered that I shorted myself five points early in the challenge. I completed a set of 11 droid warriors for my Exploit Zero project, but I listed it as only 50 points when it should’ve been 55 points. I’ve included the photo of one of the models that I completed and included additional five points to this post. 

I managed to move past my goal for this year‘s challenge and completed an entire project. Hopefully I maintain this momentum until next year‘s challenge!

2 x 28mm vehicles and 1 28mm figure for 45 points.

Thanks for visiting!

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Cracking additions to your force Mike - thats quite the armoured column you've build yourself over the challenge and I'm looking forward to seeing them all together. 

Again your splashes of colour and lovely blue lens effects really break all that Soviet-esque green and bring them to life. Good stuff!

- Paul 

From RossM: 15mm Romano Brits and a 25mm Fantasy Dwarf (30 points)

 The last day of this year's AHPC is here and I have a final offering for you. As the title suggests it has two different themes in two different scales. 

Firstly, here are the Romano Brits from Forged in Battle miniatures and these are the start of an ADLG army for this period. 

A simple start with a command stand consisting of a general and Christian priest. Don't worry there is a Pagan stand planned for balance. 

Whilst there will be colour across the army I will be using a lot of muted colours for a Dark Age feel and the general's cloak will carry across some cavalry stands in the future. At my current pace of painting this may well be in next year's AHPC. 

Next up are the only light cavalry in the army, all two stands of them; unlike the hedge of spearmen that makes the army's backbone. 

The muted colours making another appearance here along with a simple hand painted shield design across the units. It's just enough to catch the eye on the table.  

Now the last figure from me for AHPC XV, a retro Citadel Dwarf from the haydays of the early 1980's. Still on his original pre-slotta base: 

This figure has been stripped down and painted for the last time, roughly forty years after first buying him in my FLGS (now long gone).

Opting for a simple colour scheme to let the armour do its job of impressing everyone around it. Not to mention the longsword.,, 

Started as a central figure for a regiment of Shieldbreakers in Kings of War that sadly has stalled for now. 

So, there ends AHPC for this year a few things moved on, a few things stalled and a few that just didn't start for varying. 

The points for these few figures tally as:

15mm cavalry x 5 @ 4 points each = 20

15mm infantry x 1 @ 2 points each = 2 

25mm infantry x 1 @ 5 points = 5 

Totalling 27 points. 

Looking forward to seeing the last entries over the next day or so and seeing you all again in the darker nights. 

A huge thank you to the Snowlord for organising this again and to everyone who helped as a minion and as a participant. A great body of work you have all contributed!

Cheers for now!

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Love the 15mm Dark Ages stuff Ross - its a great scale for getting a good feel of massed forces, and your muted colours give them an appropriately dreary pre-colourfast dye look to them :-) I hope we get to see more next Challenge.

The Dwarf is a true relic - great sculpt full of nostalgic goodness! What a cracking fellow to close out on.  Congratulations for completing your Challenge this year - go celebrate with a couple of bonus points for resurrecting a figure you've had for 40 years!

- Paul

From JohnS: At the Sharpe End (40 points)

Continuing in my random historicals Stretch Goal today I am visiting the Peninsular War.

Anyone familiar with the Sharpe TV series of the 1990s-2000s will recognise a few of these Riflemen and their trusty Spanish allies.

SB himself is not among this lot. He is with another group that is partially painted so not Challenge material. These five include two officers (Sweet William and Lord John) and three Riflemen including a Chosen Man.

These miniatures are from Brigade Games and are very finely sculpted and were quite a pleasure to paint.

Accompanying our Rifle heroes are three unnamed Spanish Militia. Bad Things always seem to happen to these poor chaps so it is best if we just refer to them as Brave Spanish Martyrs 1, 2 and 3.

The Spanish are from Perry Miniatures.

These eight figures will be added to my large Peninsular War collection of British, French and Spanish (plus a few Portuguese) that started as a couple of Sharp Practice armies and have grown considerably over the years.

8 x 28mm Infantry @ 5 = 40 points

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How wonderful that at last I get to minion one of your posts John! Great to see you expanding your retinue to fight that despot "El Guapo", who has plagued so many of our tabletop adventures!

A doubty looking bunch of riflemen able to swat a gnat at 300 yards no doubt, but my favourite is Sweet William, who I always found to be a rather engaging character in the books. His appearance in the TV Show also reminds me of a tabletop opponent you and I regularly see across the table John! (sans eyepatch of course)

Well done - that puts you ahead of a certain other challenger at this late stage of the game... 

Can Mssr Alan pull one of of ze bag or have you got him pipped at ze post????

- Paul

From JezT - Final Sign Off - Renaissance Townsfolk - 28mm (10 points)

 Dear All 

Cant believe where the time went on this Challenge! I lost focus in the last month and spent quite a bit of time on a re-basing project. Still one upshot was that found some great character figures on the Warbases site - I didn't know they did some figures as well.

Best keep up-wind of the Plague Doctor

I think the figures are very good value in the pack and still got a couple of others to paint up! I wanted to give a more Renaissance rather than Medieval look and really like the Plague Doctor figure. 

Just a measly 10 points BUT pushes me over the 200 mark! 

Thanks to everyone - was another brilliant Challenge and saw lots to inspire me. Special thanks to Curt and also Teemu for looking after everyone in the Thursday group. Now will be able to use my newly painted Silver Bayonet figures out and got a couple more options to play in my Basic Impetus army options. 

All the best, Jez.

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I agree Jez, that plague doctor is an ace model and your brushwork does him great justice. I didn't realize that Warbases had these kinds of figures so I'm going to have to check them out.

Congratulations on hitting your target this year Jez, and thank you for joining in again for this bit of hobby madness. Until next year!

- Curt

From LeeH: Russian Carabineers for the Retreat from Moscow (85 Points)

For my hopefully penultimate entry to Challenge XV I wanted some more infantry. I have done regular line Musketeers, Jágers and even some Grenadiers, but this time I wanted to paint Carabineers. The greatcoat covers most of their uniform, so aside from the black belts of the Jager Battlions the only distinguishing element of their uniform is the tall thin plume of their newly issued Kiwer shako’s. 

Russian Carabineers were the Elite Companies of the Jager regiments, equivalent to Grenadier companies in regular line infantry regiments. These models by Front Rank and unlike most of my other infantry figures these guys have the 1812 Kiwer with the new thinner plume denoting their status. Each Jager battalion had 4 companies, 3 of Jagers and one elite company of Carabiniers who would normally be situated on the right flank when deployed in line. Each company nominally had 141 privates plus assorted other ranks, however, Russian infantry units were notorious for being understrength, especially at the end of this campaign. 

I’m glad I left these towards the end as I have enjoyed painting them, despite already painting a lot of infantry in Greatcoats. I want to end by giving a shout-out to the Blunders on the Danube https://blundersonthedanube.blogspot.com/ blog with its wealth of useful information, painting guides and history. I’ve found myself returning to it several times during this project and once again it helped me get the markings correct on these Carabineers when I was about to make my own blunder with their headgear and shoulder straps. 

I have just one more group of figures to paint and hopefully I will have then ready before the challenge concludes. 

Scoring: 17x28mm Foot = 85 Points

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Beautiful work Lee. These Carabineers really look the business in their greatcoats and tall-plumed shakos. I remember when I did my Great Retreat project a few years ago being absolutely flumoxed by the bewildering mishmash of Russian troop types and uniform details. Still, the research was great fun all on its own. I very much look forward to your final Challenge entry but moreso your wrap-up at the end of the event. 

- Curt

ColeF - Greed Of The Dwarf King (100 points)

    My main goal for this event was to finish up an entire box set of Reaper Minis I've had burning a hole in my pile of shame, and I thought some classic long beard dwarves would be perfect for the Greed circle of this challenge.

    I stole the colour scheme for the dwarves from someone on Reddit, who did a much better job of painting them than me. Usually don't go with such bright colours, and was my first time trying to push the contrast of bright colours so high.

Green, Red and Blue Dwarf

 

Red, Purple, and Yellow Dwarf

 

    Had some fun with these zombies, trying 3 different skin colours and playing around with the ghost mini's transparency to make it look ethereal as well as physically present. 

Evil Dwarf Grandparents

 

    Did a bit of a glowing effect for all of the scenery for the set, and think overall, this was one of my favourite projects top to bottom. 

Sarcophagus, Archway, Book, and Statue

Even though I didn't hit my 300 points I pledged, I still put a solid dent in my shelf of shame. Thanks again to all of the minions and for our hosts for this incredible event, as well as all the painters for keeping me entertained with your entries at work!

 

 

10x 28mm foot @ 5 points = 50
Large Statue, Book, and, Grave, and Entrance (54mm?) @ 10 Points = 40

Greed Theme Bonus = 20 Points
Total Submission 110

Event Total 210 Points.

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These look great Cole - you may not have met your target but you can rightly be proud of this little collection! What wonderfully characterful sculpts these are and you've done them proud

No points for terrain or scatter bits this year, but lets call it a round 100 points for the submission to end on a high - congrats on your participation!

- Paul