From PaulOG: Russians of the Crimean War! (345 points)

Presenting my first two Russian battalions for my 28mm Crimean War project. While the Russian Army of the time was renowned for having largest cavalry contingent on the continent, Infantry still made up the bulk of the Army. These are typical Line Infantry battalions of a Regiment, each of which fielded 4.

Two Battalions with Regimental officers advancing in Attack columns 

I used different shades across the greatcoats to show varying wear and quality in pre dye-fast colours, and gave the units some identity with one unit sporting a mix of helmets and forage caps (mutzes) which became more common as the war progressed, and another with more strict NCOs ensuring all the troops wear their issued helmets! 

1st Battalion - all in helmets

I enjoyed a good dose of the inevitable "basing dilemma", badly overthinking it before deciding to go with groups of poorly drilled troops with intermingled casualties, representing both bad training and a stoic intent to get to grips with the invaders regardless of cost! Groups of 8 figs make a line unit in Sharp Practice and I figured that four units per Battalion would give some good 'visual heft' as the attack columns advance.

2nd Battalion with mixed helmets and forage caps

Figures are mostly plastic Warlord figs with some metal models by Great War Miniatures mixed in. The former are relatively monopose, but the seperate heads let you impart some great character with modest turns. The latter are wonderful sculpts and mixing them in gives a more dynamic look. Colours by Battle-Flag.com

Normally I hate doing faces but these were very satisfying to do

This project was to be a full Regiment of 4 Battalions plus an artillery battery and a troop of Cossack cavalry...but when real life got in the way I opted to not sacrifice quality just to 'get it done'. I really enjoyed building them and the rest will follow post Challenge. Pity I have no nice mat or terrain in this country to pose them on!

The army grows: this submission plus the skirmishers from Bonus round 3

These units and the two Regimental Officers tally 67 x 28mm foot plus 1 mounted, totalling 345 points: my biggest submission of this Challenge to take me across my 500 point target line. Just in time!

Now feverishly working on a last minute 'something else'...

From Millsy:

I'm pinching this from fellow minion Sylvain so I apologise in advance mate!
We've been talking about these on and off at out paint and chat sessions so I couldn't resist when I saw the title of the post.

I have to say I am NOT disappointed and I 100% endorse your decision to stick with the quality vs. quantity approach Paul. You've done a smashing job and the mix of bulk plastic miniatures with metal command and casualties mixed in really looks the business.

Cracking work buddy and a stonking 345 points added to your tally.

Cheers,
Millsy

From JohnS - Late Romans and Late Halflings (140 points)

 Life continues throwing curveballs but I managed to get some Late Roman Cavalry finished.

 These are Gripping [Beast? Minion Dallas] Late Roman Cavalry. The sculpting is a little stiff but they do the job.  

I decided to give them a variety of shield designs, just for the cool factor.

They are based as 2 (of 3) elements of a To The Strongest unit, with the Hero on the oval base.

What you probably don't want to know is that I dropped the middle of these three elements just after this photo and snapped the lance and popped off the shield...

I have also been working my way through Mantic's Halfling Muster Battlegroup.

These are LARGE halflings, taller than GW dwarfs!

They have a cool "early 19th century English villagers" vibe to them.

They look like the local squire has called out the muster and they have answered.

Armed with their fowling pieces, they are ready to repel the louts disturbing their idyll.

The melee troops are armed with mallets, ready to tenderize.

As soon as I saw these figures I was reminded of a bronze faced maul my coachbuilder grandfather had, so bronze they are!

Once again I made the shield faces quite plain as these are not warlike people, they are armed with what is needed to do the job.

These smaller halflings (more GW/LOTR size) are a Paul Hicks sculpt.

Now available from Footsore, I purchased these in a Kickstarter many moons ago.

I have painted these as members of my ever increasing Halfling Empire Army for Old World or Warhammer Fantasy Battle. 

That's my lot for today. Apologies for the awful photos. One of this week's surprises was a need to temporarily move out of my office which means my photography set-up is adhoc.

5 x 28mm Cavalry @ 10 pts  = 50

16 x 28mm Infantry @ 5 pts = 80

2 x 20mm 28mm Infantry @ 4 5pts = 8 10 [these are 28mm halflings so I'm awarding 5 each]

Total 140 points.

Nice production this week John, and you're right - the halflings give a nice "green and pleasant land" kind of vibe, which I think was always Tolkien's idea. Their rural attire is also really good and you've done a nice job with them. The Late Romans are pretty cool too. 

Happy to confirm 140 points for this lot!

Dallas 

From AaronP: Back home means I have basing material, another ECW project is done (400 pts)

 Hello again,

So one of the projects I was working on while I was away was an ECW (WTK) project for a game called ADLG-R. Its one of those fast play historical games like DBA or MEG (I am sure that comment will upset someone).

Anyway, I was waiting to post these until I sorted out their bases and I was going to wait till I had all the banners done, but I waited too long to order the banners. So I got impatient and here they are.

So first up are the armies commanders. Up the top you have Prince Rupert of the Rhine. I have been reading a lot about him and he is such an interesting dude. I highly recommend a book you can get for free online from the 19th Century called Rupert of the Rhine; A Biographical sketch of the life of Prince Rupert, Prince Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland ETC. It is so incredibly embellished it reads like the Grandpa from The Princess Bride is reciting it to you. So much of it is clearly made up, but man is it an entertaining read.

For prince Rupert I painted him up as he is depicted in a lot of contemporary paintings and of course is his dog boye. 

Next is Lord John Byron, who will be leading the horse. I also used some paintings of him to base his colour scheme.

Finally is Henry Tiller, who from memory I couldn't find much about so painted him how I wanted.

 Next is Prince Rupert's Blewcoats. I read that sometimes a group of musketeers would operate separately as a Forlorn Hope, so I included a seperate unit to represent that.

Three random units, two pike and shotte and one musket. These are not based on any unit in particular. I picked the flags cause I liked them.

Some Dragoons and a large gun.

Medium cav, with Prince Rupert's Regiment at the front, and then some heavy cav with the prince's Lifeguard there in red.

Overall I am really happy with the outcome. I am keen to get some banners on the cav and Prince Rupert himself. 

OK so in terms of points. I am not sure how this will work. These are all Warlords Epic scale ECW which Google tells me are 13.5mm. I am not sure how you will want to point this. Here are the figure counts.

Infantry: 119

Cavalry: 37

Horse: 2

Dog: 1

Cannon: 1

Thanks and thanks

P.S please forgive the chaos that is my painting desk

From Millsy:

Any post that contains Prince Rupert and Boye gets my seal of approval right off the bat! Good to see a fellow loyal subject of the rightful King keeping the fight alive.

Lovely work with the brush mate. I have Talbot's and Rupert's regiments in my collection too and you have pulled off the look and feel of a worn but experienced body of troops really well.

These are scored as 15mm based on previous posts so it'll add a very tidy 400 points to you tally. Nice work.

Cheers,
Millsy

From AdamW. A last huzzah! (272 PTS)

 I'm pleased to squeeze these in before the end of the challenge.  After doubling my original goal, I gave myself the luxury of prepping some figures, so didn't think I'd get these finished, so a nice little bonus.

My last entry is some 15mm American Civil War Cavalry, mounted and dismounted.  

I already have a pile of these on bases that just need flocking, and these lot needed painting up to join them.

There are four units of mounted and four dismounted in this batch, with a mixture of figures. There are minifigs,  a load of Essex, a couple of Peter pig and a load I don't recognise at all.

It does add another Squirrel, although my first attempt at Squirreling is poor.  That is also a good thing as I remained focused and painted what I needed to paint, rather than paint a whole load of odd bits just to increase my count of the fluffy tailed chaps.

My second AHPC and another successful one.  Having a dedicated painting station makes life so much easier, meaning I can dip in for the odd five minutes while the kettle is boiling.

Hope to see you all again next year, where I will either be deep in the middle of my first proper 25mm project, or knocking out some old 15mm bits to have a break. Thanks to the Overlord and all the minions for their hard work.

Four of the mounted cavalry where old, bashed about but painted, so just needed touching up, so I haven't counted them in my points total.

15mm Cavalry x 44 @4pts = 176

15mm foot       x 48 @2pts = 96

========================

Total                                      272 pts  + 1 Squirrel

From DaveD . Well done Adam thatsa lot of blue! Great to see them both mounted and dismounted too. Is there a Custer in there somewhere? This takes you over 2500 points a fine tally indeed well done.

From Curt - Sci-Fi Rogues (25 Points)

Hi All!

I stutter-steped with these guys at the beginning of the Challenge, and they've been waiting on their paint holders, half done, balefully staring at me, willing me to pick them up to get them across the line. So, I finally relented, and here they are, done.

These rogues can fit in for a multitude of sci-fi skirmish games (Five Parsecs from Home, Kill Sample Process, Galactic Heroes, etc.). A cast of characters from Sci-Fi Central Casting.

This yellow-spotted green alien dude is from Knucklebone Miniatures. 

The sculpt is great (love the re-breather and chunky blaster), but I found that my initial colour blocking really sucked. Nonetheless, the vibe finally hit and after a few washes, blends and highlights he staggered into his own. I quite like him now. 

The beastman is another great sculpt (From Imitation of Life). He looks a very capable and no-nonsense kind of fella. Very much the veteran mercenary. 

If I were to do him again, I'd snap off one of his horns midway to give him a more hard-bitten, down-on-his-luck look. 

'Don' and 'Sancho' were must haves for me when I first saw them. Thes are prints from Imitation of Life as well. 

The Quixote figure has this terrific disheveled-but-oddly-regal beard, like much of the art depicting him. I thought I'd make his armour a multicoloured hodgepodge to reflect his somewhat hapless background. I made his visor rose-tinted, which I think is suitable for this particular romantic knight.

I added a power-feed to his rifle as it seemed the thing to do.

As to poor Sancho, I especially like his lugubrious face, seen here faithfully schlepping Quixote's kit without complaint, his BAR rifle as the ready to support his slightly crazed master when needed. 

His pasta strainer helmet and oxygen tank cracks me up.

The gunslinger, also a 3d print from Imitation of Life, is a bit soft in some of his detail, but I think his pose is spot-on.

I think of him as a young desperado, constantly getting into scrapes, eager to make his mark. 

So there you are, five more rogues ready for high-jinx and adventure in the far-off starlanes. 

These should give me 25 points and a squirrel for my tally.

Thanks for dropping by!

- Curt

Fantastic looking models as always Mr Curt. The sheer variety of these is great and they will will doubtless come in very handy in various Rogue-Trader-like roleplaying-adjacent miniatures games. The details on these models crack me up too - loving that colander helmet on Sancho as well. It's amazing how far 3D printing has come isn't it!

Twenty-five for your tally.

Dallas