From Andrew G: Wars of the Roses Bill & Bow with Men-at-Arms (110pts)

One of my ongoing big army projects is to build a Yorkist and Lancastrian force to fight the various battles that occurred during the Wars of the Roses. Specifically, I’ve chosen the Battle of Northampton (10 July 1460) as my focal point around which to build my first units.

Why this particular battle? A few reasons. First, I didn’t want to snow base my figures for this project and Northampton was one of the few major engagements of the period to have occurred during the summer months. Second, the battle is notable for being the first in which artillery was used in England – though typical British wet weather that day rendered much of it useless during the fighting. Third, the battle had all the good stuff representative of the period – lopsided forces and formations, bad weather, arrow storms, treachery, etc. – making it a great project for wargaming ‘what ifs?’.

I’m currently leaning towards using the Hail Caesar Wars of the Roses ruleset, so I’ve opted to multi-figure base my troops accordingly. This group represents a unit of (William Neville) Baron Fauconberg’s household with the men-at-arms upgrade. The unit includes both bill and bow, with men-at-arms occupying the billmen’s front rank. The miniatures in this unit are all Perry plastic Wars of the Roses Infantry and Men-at-Arms with a few alterations here and there just to create some variety within the ranks.

Once assembled the figures were primed black and then batch painted with various Vallejo and Army Painter colours and washes. I purposely did not paint Fauconberg’s hook symbol on these figures yet as until I have enough troops painted, I may use them to represent generic forces in other battles.

After letting them dry for a few days, I gave them two coats of matt varnish and then positioned them on their bases. I find that typically I can get six billmen comfortably on a base but only five archers, thus my 4-base units tend to consist of 22 figures vice 24. However, since what matters in Hail Caesar is frontage and not figure count, it doesn’t really matter how many figures occupy the unit’s space. Last, I keep the troop types separate for flexibility as some army lists includes units made up of just one type or the other.

I make my own bases on my FDM 3D printer – these ones are printed in olive drab PLA and measure 40x60x2mm. I find anything thicker tends to make the figures look like they’re standing on a platform and takes away from the terrain aesthetic. The base is then covered using Vallejo European Mud (26.807), a mix of Tajima tufts, and some Noch static grass. Done and ready for the table!

Claiming 22x 28mm figures = 110 points

A fine collection of WoR infantry from those excellent Perry box sets.  Love the clean liveries and your basing really works.  I might suggest To The Strongest as an alternative to HC, we've found that it gives a fun and fast game with reasonably plausible results.  I like your choice of Northampton as you battle, my dad was born in Northamptonshire.  Peter

From SylvainR: Tray 02 - 6mm Comet and Churchill Tanks (78 points)

 

 This week, I offer my last tray of late WW2 Canadian/British elements. 

 

First, some Comet tanks. These represented the final development in the series of cruiser tanks. I've put some blurbs of paints in the front and back of the tanks to mimic the unit's insignias and weight limitation warnings. When you keep the miniatures at arm's length, the normal distance on the table, you can't even see them :-). 

 

A side view of the Comet. The squadron triangle on the turret is about 1 millimeter wide. It's amazing what the camera on an i-phone can do nowadays. I remember struggling with taking good photos not so long ago.

 

Next, a squadron of Churchill Mk. II and III modified for the Dieppe raid. A few years ago, Challenger DallasE painted amazingly detailed Churchill tanks for Dieppe which greatly impressed me. My models are nowhere as clean as his, but I'm still happy with the final result.

 

I added the typical exhaust pipes on the rear deck by drilling micro holes in which I inserted bent needles.

 

Again, blurbs of paints suggest tank names and serial numbers. I could have sourced tiny decals for this project, but I just wanted to get them done. Now I just need to find a casino for scenery and I'll be ready to play Dieppe!

 

Finally, a squadron of Churchill AVRE. These will help the Royal Engineers get the "work" done on D-Day.

 

With these units done, I have finally completed my late WW2 Canadian/British army with a total of 11 trays. I worked on this project mostly from June to September of last year, basing already painted miniatures, touching up some others while putting aside the unpainted models for the Challenge.  

I displayed some of the miniatures that were painted at the time in the officer's mess of the Regina Armoury on November 11th, Remembrance Day in Canada. It was an homage to the 1st Canadian Division who fought mostly in Italy and I was showcasing the military organization of infantry regiments, showing also some support vehicles, etc. It was well received. Note the magnifying glass at the disposal of aging eyes. A Canadian veteran (not from WW2) took a look, immediately pointed at the weapon company and said: "This is me!" He then explained he was on a mortar team during his service. We then compared for a few minutes the effectiveness of the 2", 3" and 4.2" mortars. It was great to connect with the veterans. 

Please, allow me one more photo to show you the little dioramas I made for the battalion HQs. The Canadian commanders are identified by little flags while the British commanders have none, so I can make the troops either Canadian or British. When naming commanders, I like to honor people I know. Challengers might be able to identify Mudry, Ewen, Burch and Violago. And maybe Rheault? :-)

 

Here is the updated to-do list of my WW2-6mm project, something I started in 2021 after a friend of mine decided to retire from wargaming and gave me his collection, a treasure he accumulated over 40 years. His miniatures were in serious need of TLC and I decided to give them a new life by putting everything on bases (ha ha, silly younger me). I remember back then naively ordering 500 bases from Warbases, fearing that it would be too much and that I would be stuck with surplus for the rest of my life... As of today, I have finished well over 4,000 elements, and I have not yet started working on US and Soviet armies. At the core of each army I have completed so far is an infantry battalion. I now have 9 such battalions, which is the equivalent of an infantry division where each tiny 6mm figurine represents a soldier in real life. A division... My insanity is factual... 

Points claimed: 

39x 6mm vehicles at 2 point each = 78 points

Total = 78 points

Thanks for reading! 

On Comet, on Churchill, on,,,oh wrong Comets.  Love to see the Comets in play instead of the all too prevalent Shermans Sylvain.  Your painting at this fine scale is amazing, and I don't want to think about adding the exhaust pipes to those Churchills.  And everything is wonderfully based to your normal standard.  Thanks for sharing your photos from the local Remembrance Day event, great stories there.

And no need to worry, none of us doubt your sanity..Peter

 

KenR - 28mm Swiss Italian Wars Pike (Basel) 170 pts

 

This is my main focus for this years Challenge, an expansion of my Swiss for the Italian Wars hopefully adding another 2 x 128 figure units during the 3 months, and as every journey starts with a single step, every Pike Block begins with a 32 figure "column"

These figures carry the flags of Basel and always I have simply taken the colours of the flags as the Palette for the figures. I will produce 4 such "columns" each from a different Canton or City for each block so the units will be 4 bases wide by 4 bases deep or a Pike Square.

The figures are 28mm Perry (both metal and plastic) with a couple of Steelfist Miniatures in the front Rank. They are slightly larger than the Perrys but you can't really tell in the unit as a whole. Figs are 8 figs per base on a 60 x 50 with the front base (with lowered Pike 110 x 60) to protect people's fingers from the sharp Pikes.

So points wise there are 32 x 28mm foot at 5 points a piece plus 3 flags at 1 each, giving a total of 163 points. The flags are from Flags of War.

The 2nd unit of Spanish Heavies is nearly done after which I have some French Napoleonic Generals (for the Empire Bonus Round) then Spanish Heavies 3 before I return to the next Pike Column. So I should have some Cavalry for you next week.

It wouldn't be a Tuesday without a paints bomb from ken, and what a wonderful one this is.  Lovely work all around, the figure selection and posing, the basin, and painting and the flags. I am rounding this up to 170 points and then getting out of the way so that others can drool.

 

Peter

From MartinC Norse and Wood Elf Bloodbowl teams (90pts)

 My current insanity to build an entire bloodbowl league on my own continues. I now have 6 complete teams, with 3 more to paint.

Next up are the Norse. Once again this is a resin print via Etsy. The Norse are a hard tackling team with the key characteristics being frenzy and being drunk. They are nearly all drunk, which may or not help.

It's a big team with 17 players, too many for a team but some will die. I played on Friday and on the 1st roll one of my Skaven fell over and broke his neck

The team has beer boars, they can't have the ball but a useful tackling assist and good for throwing at the opposition 

The big guy is a Yeti, ultra violent and scary

2 berserker, ultra violent and drunk

Ulfwerenar, ultra violent

Valkyries,  the only players that appear to want to play. For Ray think Archie Gemmil whereas the rest are all Norman "bites your legs" Hunter (Leeds players from the 1970s)

The linemen, the backbone of the team. All drunk

Can't wait to get these on the field, but playing too many actual wargames this week to get them on the field.

Next up the Wood Elves. I already had 10 wardancers, resin prints, that had actual ballet poses. I love them but 10 wood elves are enough so I bought an GW Ent from my local toy store, being within walking distance of a wargames store is very bad.

It's an ok model, but like all the other photos all the shading has pretty much vanished.

The full team

I think they are really cool.

Scores on the doors

17 x 28 70 mm inf = 85 119

1x ent = 5 25 pts

Total 144

Really not sure how to score these guys as they are big, 35mm on average and the Ent is 60mm. Advice from the wise minion would help.

Really Martin, I am an old man with a soft brain - no fair making me think!  I will, treat this as 40mm figures and the ent as a 40 mm vehicle.  I was tempted to tell you to take the Ent to Byron as terrain, but reckoned that was not kosher at it is sentient.  

With the hard part out of the way, let's get to the easy part which is enjoying g the figures.  Love the drink Norse and their beer boars (I feel I've met a few of these in various pubs and saying clubs).  I really like the metallic sun glasses on the Berserkers.  The ent looks great and fits in nicely with the war dancers.  Life is tough when you have a FLGS within walking distance....Peter

   

From SylvainR: D&D DEI Heroes (35 points)

Here is a party of heroes for D&D. When my daughter asked me to teach her friends and her how to play D&D a couple of years ago, she made sure I would use the proper pronouns when addressing some of the players. I am of the opinion that DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) measures are good tools to address some obvious inequities in society but I am not here to debate, I just needed to give some context about this batch of miniatures. My goal was to have in my D&D collection 4 different heroes per class, so 4x paladins, 4x rangers, 4x barbarians, etc. and to have diversity in mind, so eventual players could find a character that suits them. Let's see how things went.

 

Here are two paladins, one is queer. I opted for purple as the distinctive color of the paladin class, so I can more easily identify the characters on the playing surface.

 

Two female rangers (dark green), one Elf and one Halfling. This brings gender and body type diversity to the class. In each class, half the heroes are women. I still feel very amateur at painting faces

 

Two female rogues (grey). The newer editions of D&D propose a race called "tiefling", which is basically a half-demon, half-human creature. Crusty me thinks this goes totally against the canon established by the Lord of the Rings and the original version of D&D, but young players just love these new options. My daughter's character was a humanoid mushroom eating fermented barley...

 

Lastly, a female barbarian (brown), to even up the male/female distribution in this class. Considering the rear view of the mini, I must admit that some green putty could have been added...

Points claimed:

7 x 28mm foot figurines at 5 points each = 35 points

Total = 35 points

Thanks for reading!

 Cue the DEI debate in the comments in 3, 2, 1....

Love the female adventurers Sylvain, lots of character (and booty in one case) showing.  I think the halfling ranger is my fave.  Very nice basing too.  Peter

From BrianC: Can you smell what Rumbleslam is cooking! (31pts)

Another paint challenge! Hello to all! Well, the first entry for the challenge is small. But, it's a start! All miniatures are from the Rumbleslam Tabletop Miniature game. I truly enjoy painting these miniatures, so much fun to paint and jump back in time as a kid watching the WWF, yes the WWF! A couple of these minis you may recognize. Well, here we go!

I give you... Ronnie Salvage, Henchilada, Gun, and Troll!

I used only Army Painter Speedpaints. Yup. not much of a miniature painter, but they are painted and ready to go!

"Gun" aka Hulk Hogan

Henchilada

"Ronnie Salvage" aka Randy Macho Man Savage

Troll

This one I used old citadel Space Wolves Grey for base. The other colors are from Army Painter Speedpaints. I tried to use Army Painter Blue Wash and I almost ruined the work. I was able to reapply the Space Wolves Grey and I'm leaving it alone!

Well, Like I said, a very small turn in. 

POINTS

1 X 50mm = 10pts.

3 X 40mm = 21pts.

TOTAL = 31pts.

WooHoo! Ha Ha! 

Welcome back Brian, sorry that I missed this post last week.  these guys certainly look ready to rumble!   Gotta say the not Macho Man is my fave, big beer belly and Zulu like leg decorations plus a very active pose.  31 points it is. Peter