From MarkG: Russian Civil War - Kornilov's Shock Regiment (50 points)

Saturday, and here’s my first entry to the challenge. 28mm figures from Copplestone Castings, painted as Kornilov’s Shock Regiment, one of the most famous “Coloured” regiments in the White Army, and probably their only truly disciplined unit. Many Czechs also fought in this Regiment (apart from those in the famous Czechoslovak Legion). Appealing to myself as the Czech Republic is my adopted home.

These were done with some Back of Beyond wargaming in mind. I played around with the Moss and Drab paint triads from Foundry to try and achieve the faded khaki look that most of these units had. I hope to follow these up with some other Officers’ regiments, such Markov’s, Drzdovsky’s and Alekseev’s. We’ll see how it goes, and if time permits, even some Russian Civil War hardware (armoured cars etc.).

The figures were a pleasure to paint, with almost no flash or rough surfaces; so very easy on the brushes. Onwards and upwards.

The points summary:

10 x 5 = 50 points for 10 28mm foot miniatures.

Welcome Mark and what a great first entry this is! A well painted and colourful, in many ways, Back and Beyond unit. I like the level of detail you have managed to put into painting these nice figures, can't wait to see more of your work soon!

 

Cheers Sander 

From TeemuL: More Brits in Peninsula (20 points)

Okey, nothing special here, just four more Brits to fight in the Peninsula War. This post almost didn't made it, I was too busy to paint two days in a row and they I got a flu. Paracematol doesn't do wonders, but it helps a bit and combined with proper timing I was able finish this lot and claim 20 points. More importantly, I was able to keep my streak alive (posting something everyweek since AHPC VI or something).

These are the same Victrix minis I painted last month, again gathering everything from the bottom of the box, so all kinds of poses, heads and arms combined to a 4 man stand. I could try to say, that I aimed for a campainged look of seasoned veterans, but really it is just what I had.

The story behind is that I bought two partially used boxes of these and was just able to create two 24 man units - but it meant I couldn't assemble them as I wanted, but what I had. There are random number of drummers, standard bearers and commanders in both units, but I can live it that  - the unit is not 24 strong in the real history either. :)

Still troubled by the flu, so no long posts and basically there is nothing new. Something different next time and more Napoleonics in the near future. So 20 points please.

 Well Teemu, that's one nice little entry indeed great work on the dynamic posing! Sad to hear you are still suffering from the flu, get well soon we want to see more of those excellent Napoleonics!

 Cheers Sander  

From Curt - 17th Century Heroes for 'Devilry Afoot' (25 Points)

Hi All!

As a few of you know (or I'm sure can commiserate) I'm a little, um, 'diverse' in my hobby interests. Italian Wars to Forbidden Psalm, Napoleonics to Turnip28, WWII to Burrows & Badgers, I like to cast my net wide and far. The same goes for rules and ideas for games: my mind (and library) are bursting with them, often to the detriment of forgetting other, perhaps more important things.

So in this vein, one new set of rules that has piqued my interest lately is Nic Wright's 'Devilry Afoot'.

This is a very nice, compact set of gothic horror skirmish rules set in the much-troubled 17th century. Similar to 'Hametsu', I really like that it's cooperative and requires a very modest figure count. Each player typically has one Hero and perhaps one or two followers. In 'Devilry Afoot', players are set against classic horrors of the period such as witches, werewolves, vampires, etc. I've not rolled it out to our gaming group yet as I wanted to have a few heroes 'oven ready' for the guys to choose from - and so here we are.

The rule book itself is a wonderful 128 page hardback which contains the rules,  character/beastie profiles and about a dozen scenarios for players to have fun with. I believe these are self-published but I found my copy on Amazon (boo!) and a PDF version is available through DriveThruRPG. Highly recommended.

Here are the first five heroes (all 28mm) I've painted-up for 'Devilry Afoot'. Four of the five models are from Bloody Miniatures. Several worthy Challengers have already featured these figures in their excellent posts, and so here are my efforts.

A cavalry trooper cheering his mates on.

A calm squire, smoking his pipe and waiting with his blunderbuss.

I really enjoyed working on these figures as they have great character and just enough detail not to get you into trouble. I also appreciate that they are cast in metal which appeals to my small, lizard brain on these heady matters.

A soldier from the Continent prepared with his long arm.

A lightly wounded gentleman with his dragoon pistol at the ready.

One of the five figures originates from today's most excellent minion, Sander. Sarah and I met up with Sander and Arthur in Antwerp a year or so ago, and during lunch he gifted me this wonderful figure of a rat catcher that he thought I could make good use of. 

It was a very apropos gift, as rat catchers spark some nostalgia for me. I had just turned 20 when we received Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay at our game store in Winnipeg. At that time (I think around1986), I was very used to fantasy RPGs having the typical wizards, fighters, thieves, etc., but then WFRP introduced totally new characters such as Troll Slayers, Agitators and... Rat Catchers. Mind. Blown. I absolutely loved it, and my first character was a poxed rat catcher with a peg leg, hemp bag and a spade as a weapon. It was brilliant.

Of course, like a dullard, I threw out the figure's packaging before noting the sculptor/manufacture, so if anyone (Sander?) knows the provenance of this mini let me know in the comments. Anyway, its a terrific model with loads of detail (rats galore, as you can imagine) and I had a terrific time painting him up. He'll be a worthy character in our games such as 'Devilry Afoot'. Thank you again, Sander!

These five sturdy adventurers will give me 15 points and another squirrel!

Thanks for dropping in!

- Curt

Curt, we all have those enticing little side projects we love to do and this is one such project. As with all your projects this one is extremely well executed. Your painting and choice of colours are top notch, the basing really fits the secene. The rat catcher is from the same range of figures designed by the Owlhammer Mordheim group. I will check with them who the sculptor is. Monday I will post some figures of that range myself. 

Arthur and myself have really enjoyed our get together in Antwerp and would really love to do this again sometime.  

For now I am very curious as to where this project will take you, thanks for dropping in!     

Cheers Sander 

From ChristopherS: Successor Thureophoroi (90Pts.)

 

My first entry this season and pretty close to the cut off.These are some Pyrrhic/Successor Thureophoroi for my slowing growing collection. Adding to my Pyrrhic collection will be my primary focus this year which will include both the Pyrrhic and Republic roman forces as I go along. I'm curious how far I'll manage to complete this goal.

The miniatures themselves are Aventine miniatures which I find to be fantastic and will make up a large share of my collection along with some Wargames Foundry. I would say Aventine miniatures rank among some of my favorite miniatures on the market. 

Painting the figures was a lot of fun with some parts going pretty quick(for me) and other parts slowing me down quite a bit depending on the requirements. The colors I used were my usual Foundry and Vallejo, but also a little P3 and Mig pigment mixes for some weathering. 

Thureophoroi provided a light infantry role on the battlefield and were flexible enough to both skirmish with javelins and form up in a phalanx with long spears making them very useful troops indeed. 

That's 18 x 28mm miniatures for a total of 90pts.

Welcome to the Challenge Christopher and with such a whopper of an entry! Your paintstyle is awesome as well, I do love the level of saturation and crispness. A colourful bunch to start off the Challenge indeed, good to have you with us.

 

Cheers Sander  

EdwardG - First post 4 Scots in a field (20pts)

Hej everybody,

I've been very slow off the ground this year. It's been a busy time at home and the painting mojo is low.

I've managed to get 4 minis painted!! They're the start of my Scots army for SAGA. 

The minis are from Antediluvian Miniatures. They're excellent to paint and wonderfully full of character. Sadly, my painting is rather rushed and needs a bit more to get the most out of these minis. But still, hopefully have made it before the cut off! 

Points:

4x 28mm foot = 4x5pts =20pts

Hope to catch you all soon! 

Best,

Ed

Hoi there Ed, well we all have experienced our Mojo being affected by all kinds of daily troubles... so how incredibly good to see you join us nevertheless with such excellently painted Scots. The pikes seem especially menacing and I for one would not like to have to face them. 

Enjoy the Challenge, cheers Sander  

From JP: The Germanic Hordes grow (50 points)

I am plowing through my lovely Foundry figures, it is not a chore but a labour of love. Now I need an opportunity this year to field them as opponents are sparse - so many periods, scales and interests abound now days that I literally miss the days of WRG rules dominating all gaming periods!

That's 10 x 28mm = 50 points.

Thanks for looking!

JP

The fact that your current project is one of Love not Labour can be clearly seen JP, wath dedication you show in all these individual and unique schemes for shields and cloths of these ancient Germans is brilliant! 

Cheers Sander  

From SamuliS: Triad of Doom (15 points)

After a brief Napoleonic interlude I'm back to what I've mostly been painting for the last few years and that being Games Workshop minis and for the last couple of years stuff for The Old World. Like probably most I've originally  got into miniature games through Games Workshop and especially Fantasy Battle starting from the 5th edition. Over the years I moved to mainly historical gaming with some Oldhammer and Bloodbowl thrown in, but in the last maybe three years I've really gotten back into Games Workshop games having painted armies for Horus Heresy, 40k (90s rulesets mind you!) and The Old World. And especially The Old World has really been a big hit for me and also in the gaming scene here in Finland.

Since The Old World came out I've already painted several armies worth of Chaos from both Undivided and some of the gods, but felt like I need something from the good guys side as well and with a completely different playstyle. When the Empire got their own Arcane Journal it wasn't too difficult of a choice and I immediately bought a bunch of them and decided on a Nuln & Wissenland themed army to really focus on the shooting compared to getting into combat as soon as possible like you tend to do with Chaos.

 

Now you might wonder what have a bunch of slayers to do with Nuln, but there is a logical explanation! I've always been a big fan of Slayers in Warhammer, but never really got around to painting them as I always found Dwarves a dull army. Luckily for me by picking a Nuln list I can take Doomseekers into my army and giving me a perfect opportunity to paint a couple of Dwarves that are crazy even by Slayer standards! Three slayers to form the perfect Triad of Doom to go after any monsters that my opponent might want to field!

 

 Slayers in their natural habitat. About to die gloriously while taking down an impossibly large foe!

From a gameplay point of view they are quite interesting as if they manage to get themselves killed during the game your opponent gets 0 points, while if they stay alive they get 100% of the slayers point value. So a perfect speedbump to slow down the enemy and buy time for all the guns in the army to do their work!

 For the next few weeks I'll probably be going back to painting Chaos as we have a large tournament coming at the end of February and I wanted to bring a few new units to play with so need to start working on them soon! 

 Wow these are some excellent Doomseekers indeed Samuli! Those tattoos are something I am quite envious of: they look awesome. As to the lore of Dwarves in a Nuln army: plenty of Dwarves live in that great Empire city due to their affinity with black powder weapons and engineering both which prevail in amongst the forges and arsenals in Nuln. My Dwarf Blood Bowl team isn't called "The Nuln Arsenal Collective" for nothing ;-) 

 I am looking forward to your Chaotic painting next we meet! 

 

From KristoferD: Armoured Mercenary Reiters (72 points)

It's Saturday and that means another post on the 17th century political mess that is depicted in By Fire and Sword. Has it been a month already? It sure doesn't feel like it.

This week I completed a medium unit of Armoured Mercenary Reiters from the Swedish upgrade set. That's 18 tiny horsemen.

Initially, I wanted to leave the helmets blackened as I imagine that would have been common in the armies of the day. But my middle-aged vision had too hard a time to make out the difference of these armoured guys compared to the hat wearing regular reiters across a table, so I drybrushed som Army Painter Plate Mail Metal unto the helmets. I still left the chest plates rather dark though.

I once again used different colours on the sleeves to indicate the mercenary character of the unit. Also, I tend to stay away from actual black and white with these and use Vallejo Model Colour German Grey and Deck Tan respectively instead.

We're on to the home stretch as regards to cavalry for this project now. All that's left are the national units, made up of actual Swedes (and Finns). But I think I'll take a little break from pure cavalry units next week to add in some stuff I need for a game at the end of the month. That's right, if everything goes to plan I should have a completed playable task force before February. But don't worry about me dropping out, I still want to paint up some options, likely going over my target if I can keep this level of progress up. And then there's also the expansion on the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648 coming out soon demanding that I paint up at least a few Cossacks to add to my first By Fire and Sword army.

The points summary is easy this time:
18 x 4 = 72 points for 18 15mm mounted miniatures.

Thanks for looking! 

 

Time indeed goes fast and you have been steadily working on your forces indeed. The ever growing results of your hard labour are incredible, these too are very well painted and very much in key with your other  forces. Top points for consistency in quality of painting and overall look! Can't wait to see more of your work Kristoffer 

From MarkE: 28mm Bloodbowl Balls (4pts)

 Here's my kickoff attempt for the challenge.  Finally on the board!  

A set of 4 balls for Bloodbowl. Hoped to have a team to go with these but that will have to wait until next week, I needed to get something on the board before the deadline, so I thought I'd give these a quick boot and put a (very) few points up.

 I'll be working on the challenge with only stuff in my "lead" mountain.  I've got (like most gamers) a pile of projects that got purchased and have sat, patiently waiting the tender caress of a brush for years to um, err, well decades.  I don't know how long a Bloodbowl box set has been around in the stack but its been dusted off and gets first attention.  I anticipate that all the Bloodbowl mini's are going to be painted with the  Army Painter Speedpaint line.  I'm interested in giving it a try out and see if I like it as a "get it on table" for line troops and similar models where quantity is greater than quality.

 

                4 x 28mm Bloodbowl balls @ 1 pt = 4 points 

                (I each one is roughly the size of a 10mm fig)

                Total = 4 points

                Cheers!  

                    MarkE

 

Hoi Mark, this might be a bit of an open door (as we say in Dutch) but the most important part in any ballgame is of course ... the ball itself! You have done an amazing job on the leather-effects of these. The Challenge is thé place to be in order to get rid of the lead-pile of shame and  with these  you have made  a great kick-off in joining the Challenge, welcome indeed!

 

Cheers Sander  

From the Saturday Minion: An Epic start to the Weekend!

 Hoi there!

 

As Saturday has yet again come round this week we have a truly epic start of the weekend for you all. Not only do we have some excellent entries from the Saturday Scoundrel Regulars, but his Coolness the Snowlord himself graces us with his presence! 

So what exactly has been scheduled at the moment?

 - MarkE kicks the day off with some Blood Bowl shenanigans!

- Kristoffers has some more of those brilliant Reiter in store for us to gaze at.

- Samuli is on his way to a certain Doooooom...

 

 - JP sees his Germanic Hordes grow to Epic proportions

- EdwardG Has some Scots in a field...

- ChristopherS shows us some Thureophoroi. 

- And there's some Devilry Afoot with the Snowlord joining us indeed! 

More might be coming along somewhere along the day so keep your eyes  on this spot!

 

As we are talking about an Epic start to the weekend, yesterday evening I had the incredible luck to be able to attend a concert from the truly amazing Dutch metal formation Epica in Köln. I couldn't wish for a better start so I thought I'd share some of that with you guys.

 

Have a good one!