From RichardM: Start of my Peninsular 6mm Napoleonic Forces - Portuguese Cacadores and Line Infantry (216 points)

After having so much fun and getting so much work done last year, I am back again in 2026 - again tackling something small scale.  

This year I am going to work my way through a range of units for my Peninsular Napoleonic armies.

The figures I am posting will be exclusively from Adler Miniatures.  While they are labelled as 6mm, they are much closer to 8mm and much larger than the grandfather of 6mm armies - Heroic & Ros.

I am starting with the Portuguese and will continue with them for a few weeks / posts.  Following (in an undecided and probably haphazard order) will be Spanish, some British, Swiss and the German Allied Divisions that fought for France.  Having looked at the photos below I will also do a few small pieces of terrain to accompany them and make the photos a bit more atmospheric.

The first units are eight battalions of Cacadores - specifically the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 10th.  

You may ask where are the 8th and 9th battalions?  So am I!!   I am pretty sure I painted them two weeks ago and now cannot find them to include.  I'm sure they will turn up at some stage.  

I have painted them in the 1811 uniform which used a Stovepipe shako and hence I am using advancing British Stovepipe infantry figures for them.

I also know that they were not allocated colours and certainly did not carry any into the field.  But I have nearly always provided a colour to all of my 6mm Napoleonic units to assist in identification on the table and because they look good on a table full of little figures.   

All eight Cacadores Battalions

A Cacadore Battalion from the flank

Two Cacadore Battalions in line

Then we have 10 Line Infantry Battalions.  These are organised and painted as two battalion regiments - so we have the 3rd, 8th, 12th, 15th and the 16th regiments.  The identification of individual regiments is important so I can paint the correct collar, cuffs and turnback colours and assign the correct regimental flags.  I took a few more close up and individual photos - but they are blurier than my eyes after celebrating the Australian Ashes victory :)

(PS: Anyone with advice on how to improve photography of 6mm miniatures will be welcomed)

Points:

Cacadores - eight battalions of 24 figures each @ 0.5 points per figure = 96

Line Battalions - 10 battalions of 24 figures each @ 0.5 points per figure = 120

Total: 216 points

From Millsy:

Seems like the man who loves the wee men is at it again! I absolutely love your small scale stuff Richard and I never cease to be amazed at how much you can knock out in one go without sacrificing the quality.

These are all lovely but I think the pick of the bunch for me are the Cacadores, for the flags alone if nothing else. The Portuguese certainly knew what a good colour looked like.

Great stuff mate and 216 well earned points added to your tally for the year.

Cheers,
Millsy

From Kerry T - "Bear with me" - Highlands Miniatures heavy dwarf cavalry - (120 points)

Morning, afternoon and evening all

I think I'm turning into a zoo keeper or something as I had camels in my first round and goblins riding wolves in the second. Well this time its bears

Highlands Miniatures Dwarf Heavy Cavalry

Fantasy purists will be having apoplexy I know, yes Dwarves are not meant to ever be mounted but the temptation to send dwarves into battle riding on the back of something is just too great in my view. C'mon, I'm short and anytime I can stand on something and so look down on somebody else is an opportunity that I'm not going to overlook

Yes far too tempting, even if they do run away!

I love the look of Highlands Miniatures and at their last Black Friday sale waded in and bought some STLs. The lighter cavalry riding rams are likely to be next

I just love these figures and had great fun painting them up but they did take a lot more time than I had anticipated. I decided on a blue and yellow colour scheme for no good reason.

I'll have you know that I consulted my many historical uniform books and could not find any reference as to how Dwarven cavalry should be attired. I wanted to give them a uniform look but with some variation and decided that with the exception of the musician they should wear identical coats. 

Now I'm not sure if they were around in Napoleonic days but if they were I'm sure they would have adopted the convention of displaying the drummer in reverse colours. I also assumed that each trooper caring for his horse err I mean bear might take a bit of artistic license and decide to give his mount an individual looking coat

 

I mean bears aren't exactly docile so being able to pick yours out by the colour of his coat by not getting too close to others seems a sensible idea and probably has an historical basis.

Similarly having a white bear for the officer is also likely historically authentic

Polar Bear leads the charge

Charging in echelon

Painting the cheque was my idea of fun, yeah right

So in summary

12 Mounted figures @ 10 points each = 120 points

1 bear err I mean squirrel

Many thanks

Best wishes 

Valleboy

From Millsy:

Dwarf heavy cavalry on armoured bears! What's not to like? These are absolutely smashing mate, in every sense of the word.

The blue and yellow is a perfect counterpoint for all the steel and grey/brown coats of the bears. And the beards are properly oversized to the point of being a real risk to your ability to fight. Love em!

120 smashing points!

Cheers,
Millsy

From StuartL - Smoke Jaguars - 55 Points

Hi again,

    The second batch of figures off my painting desk this week are some mechs for Battletech. These are some figures from the recent-ish Battletech Kickstarter. I bought a fair number of new models for my collection, so there may be some more of these coming at some point in the future. 

    These models are all painted to represent mechs from Clan Smoke Jaguar, one of the factions in the Battletech setting. In Battletech, factions are divided into two loose groups. On one side you have the Inner Sphere, a set of feudal empires with vast hordes of giant stompy robots, and the Clans, a warrior cult with slightly smaller, but more elite hordes of giant stompy robots. In the setting, Clan Smoke Jaguar is infamous as being the worst group of sociopaths in a setting where committing war crimes is commonplace. They were so reviled that the Inner Sphere forces put aside centuries of infighting and launched an all out attack to annihilate them while the rest of the (supposedly allied) Clan forces cheered them on from the sidelines. 

    Now, I did not actually know any of that when I started collecting them, I just thought that the paint scheme looked easy to copy. And it was, so I still play them. I also have the advantage, that if I lose, it is entirely in fitting with the lore of the faction. 

    Some of these mechs might look familiar to Inner Sphere players too. As part of the Kickstarter, a bunch of clan variants of Inner Sphere mechs was released. As with all clan mechs, they are just that little bit better than the IS versions. 

   

    One of Battletech's charms is its mad mech designs. Take the one above, the designer thought that some sort of chicken-fighter jet combo would make for a fun mech to pilot. He even gave it little arms for punching things, should the need arise. What a visionary.

    In total there are 11 minis in this entry, while Battletech's scale is something like 6-8mm, each of these figures stands at 30mm or more in height, so I am uncertain exactly how to score them. I think they usually just get counted as 28mm infantry, so assuming that to be the case, that should be 55 points, though the final decision lies with my most wonderful of minions. 

    This lot should also net me another Squirrel and some points for the Big Stompy Robots of Death side duel.

My ongoing duels information:
Skulls - 141 (+0)
BSRoD - 16 (+11)
Squirrels - 8 (+1) - D&D Animals, 30K Militia, Plague Clowns, Afghans, Robots, Anglo-Saxons, Medieval Polish, Clan Smoke Jaguar

From Millsy:

These are really cool Stuart. Grey, especially lots of it, can be really dull (I'm looking at YOU modern car colours) but the flashes of red and the clean blacklining has really made them pop. They look like they would have been a load of fun to paint too.

I think you assessment of scale and points is spot on, so that's 55 points for your total. Nice one!

Cheers,

Millsy

From GeoffT: Germans in triplicate (235 points)

 Hello Challengers,

In this post I have batch painted a big pile of Germans.  They are from three eras, there is some WWI trench raiders and special weapons, some WWII Germans on bikes, and some undead Germans, one vampire and three zombies.  The WWI figs are from great war miniatures, and very nice miniatures they are indeed.   The other stuff is second hand and I do not know the providence.  The bikes seemed a bargain until I discovered they had been assembled incorrectly, and also assembled with two part epoxy resin.  Therefore they took some effort in chipping away the glue and reassembling.  Unfortunately one sidecar was not repairable.

In total there are:

15 x 28 mm full figures on foot = 75 points

10 x full figures riding the bikes = 50 points

4 x half figures in side cars = 10 points

5 x 28mm vehicles = 100 points.

Total is 235 points.  Seems like a lot, hopefully have calculated to correct protocol.

Kind Regards

Geoff.

From Millsy:

These are excellent work Geoff. The uniform colour has so much depth and the skins tones, especially on the vampire, are spot on. Great War make some amazing sculpts and you've certainly done them justice.

The motorcycle and sidecar combos are my favourite and immediately made me think of Where Eagles Dare. Is there a reason you have five? Sounds like there were a bargain, at least in theory, but wondered if you had a specific scenario in mind.

Cheers,
Millsy

From GeoffT: Ahoy, me hearties ! (65 points)

 Hello Challengers,

Earlier this year I pickup up a second hand mountain of 100 pirate miniatures in 28mm scale.  They were in quite variable condition, some unpainted, some base coated or primed and heavily chipped. Some were clearly not pirates.  They were in a range of brands, from very nice modern miniatures and some outdated simple models.  I’ve been working through them to add to my existing small collection.

Above we have images of the latest batch of 13 and an image of the newly painted minis blending into the accumulated collection.  There is quite a bunch still to do.

Points, 13 x 28mm infantry = 65 points.

Kind Regards

Geoff T

From Millsy:

I love a good job lot of second hand minis and this one is a corker!

You've done a brilliant job with the brush to bring them to life and give them a second chance on the table. The striped trews, vibrant blues and reds and mix of skin tones really sells the theme of a collection of rough and tumble pirates.

Do you have rules for these? I've got Blood & Plunder and really enjoy them. Great for both land and sea actions and with some really entertaining and well thought out card mechanics.

65 gold doubloons for you sir!

Cheers,
Millsy

From JohnS - Late Romans and Dwarves (or is that Dwarfs?) - 115 points

It's so good to be Challenging again! I committed to sticking with two historical armies in the Challenge this year. Carthaginians and Carolingians. Therefore my first entries are Late Romans and Dwarves. Mistakes have already been made!

 I was introduced to To The Strongest by my AHPC and Odinian mates a year or so ago and I love it. So much so that I have decided to build several armies to play. AlanD already has 4th Century Romans (among others) so it made sense to do an opposing force.

 I bought a painted army as the core but it was legionary heavy so needs Lights and Cavalry to round it out. I chose to use a mix of Gripping Beast and Victrix miniatures.

 

  

 

 

My mat has 150mm boxes so Standard Units are on 135x60mm bases and Lights as here are on 125x50mm. They are actually based in smaller groups to allow use with other rules but saboted to those sizes.

 My catephractii are the first two test figures for this unit (ok, I haven't bought the rest yet but I know a guy..) and I am quite pleased how they are coming together. Gripping Beast figures.

 

 

 

As these will be one third of a Standard cavalry unit they are on a 60x45 base (or sub-base if you will)

Right, now I get to blame Millsy for the next lot of figures. Late last year we played a game of Oathmark. I have had a copy of the rules since they were released some years ago but not gotten around to them.

They are cracking good fun and scratch the "rank and flank" fantasy itch without being too complicated or hide-bound in lore. I saw an opportunity to use some of my many, many dwarves that are not quite right for WHFB or Old World.

 

 

 

 

I dug through my stash mountain and found some old Kev Adams, Marauder and Citadel dwarves plus a couple of newer plastics. I love the idea of Militia units. Ordinary folks called upon to defend their homes, armed with what ever comes to hand.

I present to you two groups The Smashers and The Slashers, Dwarf Militia. 

The Smashers 

The Slashers

 

The dwarfs are based on 25mm rounds (except for two on 20mm square which will be used for a WHFB army) as they will be used with a sabot tray and be available for Dragon Rampant and other fantasy skirmish games too.

Thanks to the Antipodean crew for helping me get this far. Our paint and chats gave me a chance to relax during the hectic Christmas/NY period.


From Millsy:

LOL. Fair call. If I had a dollar for every sentence I've seen that started with"I blame Millsy..." I'd rarely have to fund my habit myself! Given how well the dwarves performed for both of us when we played I can see why you'd want to paint more. You've done a lovely job on them and they have a proper old skool feel John.

Seems like it is the season for Late Romans too. In some sort of weird tit for tat I am blaming you and Alan for getting me painting mine, although you've managed to beat me to the punch with getting some finished. I particularly like you variation of the helmet colours. I should have thought of that myself and will have to sneak that into my force later on.

Well done all round mate. I look forward to facing these sooner rather than later. 115 points it is to get you started.

Cheers,
Millsy

From Barks: Space cops (35 points)

One of my main goals this Challenge is to paint some figures for Guards of Traitors Toll... in space! I've been inspired by GoTT, which has you play as City Guards in a fantasy town- very Ankh-Morpork Night Watch. You need a good amount of town scenery, scatter, and citizens- not to mention some watchmen.

Anyway, I thought I'd give it the lightest of re-skins so I can play it in a Necromunda-type setting. I made my own Enforcers mostly using Stargrave Troopers. One of the first challenges is to port across the weapons- ranged weapons are rare, and empty hands are useful. Not to mention spears, swords, billhooks etc. Despite having a plethora of bits, the Stargrave sprues rarely have exactly what you need in the pose you want, so there's a lot of green stuff going on.

I like this guy's thumping arm, from the Automatons kit. I went for a black beret, I think it suits the paramilitary look.

I used a blue wash (Army Painter Magic Blue) over the shock mauls for that electric look.

I think this hand was reloading a grenade launcher, but it looks like she's using her wrist comms. I should paint her amazing eyebrows.

A few scratches really help add subtle texture and interest to the plain armour plates.

I'll make another shotgunner (I'll use the crossbow rules from GoTT).

I was pleased with this torch- it's a big RPG rocket with the nose cone cut off.

This shield is Imperial Roman, with a transfer. Are chequers used for police in many jurisdictions? I'd like to do a second one, but will need to kitbash a different right arm as that's the only pose holding a maul.

I've got a few more figures I'd like to build for this watch house, but this first bunch were a good test of concept. They're lacking in the grimdark gothic over-the-top-ness I enjoy (not to mention the absence of skullz), but I like the blue and black scheme. It's fun to try and make them all have character, despite wearing identical black uniforms, helmets, and glasses. I know gloves would make more sense, but it adds a bit of visual interest.

7x 28mm

From Millsy:

Dang! I've been tempted by GoTT and this is an angle I'd not considered. I can feel my limited resistance crumbling by the minute, thanks in part to this wonderful lot.

The way you've edge highlighted the armour, and used a blue tint across the minis to accentuate the cool black/grey is some amazing brushwork mate. And the stubble effect! Very cool indeed.

35 moving violations added to your total Barks.

Cheers,
Millsy