From HarryV 28mm AWI Riflemen, Militia, and Hessians (150 pts)

 Hi all, something slightly different from me this week. But don't worry, there will be more Carthage coming next week!

For this entry I have 

12 American Riflemen 60 pts (Brigade games)

2 Riflemen Officers 10 pts (Brigade games)

6 Hessians  30 pts (Brigade games)

10 American Militia 50 pts (Brigade games + Black Hussar Miniatures) 

For a total of 150 points. 

 Sorry no nice background today, and the work desk is horrendously messy, so the window with natural light if going to have to do for pictures today. 

The American War of Independence/ American Revolution is probably the area of US history that holds the most interest for me overall. And in particular the years of '75-'78. 

My main goal is to do a slow grow for the battles of Hubbardton and Bennington (long live the Green Mountain Boys!), which are my particular fascination, but the battle of Long Island also holds a big interest for me, along with the other battles of '76. 

Now the danger with the slow grow is that the grow is too slow and the forces fails to grow at all, while being a distraction of time and capital from other projects. However, I am pretty committed to this, and my goal is to only order new elements once all the previous troops or terrain have been completed. 

First unit completed are 6 Hessian (or Brunswick for the Saratoga campaign of '77) Jaegers with "Amusettes" from Brigade Games. I mainly did these troops up as they were sitting in the stockpile for some reason (no idea what possessed me to buy these a few years ago) while I await the arrival of the main crown forces in the post. The Amusettes are somewhere between a large rifle and a small cannon, weighting in at around 50lbs. No idea how these will be used on the tabletop or what rules to use for these, or even how they will be deployed. But they were decent painting practice for the rifle armed Jaegers arriving in coming order. 

Next the riflemen - all from Brigade Games

Here we have a rifleman officer, probably my favorite figure from this batch that I painted. This fellow would be one of Daniel Morgan's troopers, drawn from the backwoods and frontierlands of Maryland, Virginia, or Pennsylvania. I loved the elaborate linen hunting shirt on this figure - obviously the more fringe the higher the rank among the rifle corps. 

This gentleman would be a Level I leader in "Sharp Practice", is perhaps a Captain, and would lead a company of riflemen. 

The officer's 6 riflemen. I color coded his command with the yellow flower tufts. My goal is to perhaps use an adaption of "Sharp Practice" for this force, but also in my mind is adapting Simon Miller's "For King and Parliament" or his new up coming "Lust for Glory" ruleset

A second rifleman officer. 

My original intent with these was to base them in a more forest floor like environment but I couldn't quite pull it off, so I just reverted to your classic field type terrain. I do want to try again with some forest floor basing on some of my coming units. 

This force was color coded with each other and the officer with the white flower tufts. 

Last, but not least, my militia force, from Black Hussar Miniatures and Brigade Games

Now there are 20 of these based up here, but only 10 were painted during this challenge. The other 10 I had painted a number of years ago. Originally I had bought these to serve as New Hampshire provincials during the French Indian War battles around Ticonderoga/Fort Carillon, who lacked uniforms during that conflict. However, painting French white uniforms at that time mentally broke me and I abandoned the project.  

They were initially singly based but I have based them up into these mass bases. I was going to paint a commander to go with these, but realized I lacked a figure currently of significant enough gravitas to serve as a colonel of militia. 

My idea for this project is that each base is a  unit from "Sharp Practice" and in real life terms would be a company. 

The officer bases would mainly represent  Colonels or Majors, with the officer level represented by the number of figures on the command base.

 Most of the actions that I am interested in do not have enough battalions for a "big battle game", but have too many troops from skirmish. 

Anyways, if you are looking for some inspiration, I loved this YouTube documentary which I watched while painting these up:

What a great selection of AWI types Harry.  I really like those Jaegers with their Amussettes.  I remember that WRG has a very light gun category to cover these, plus swivel guns and Indian jingals.  Some really fine detailed work on those 'Murcan riflemen too.  I have spent time In New York and Vermont around Lake Placid and Lake Champlain and I understand your interest in the Saratoga campaign.  Great work all around. 

From Mike W: More 28mm Crossbowmen, Egyptian & Greek Undead and 15mm Epic AWI Infantry (166 Points)

 Another varied mix of figures and subjects this week, with hopefully 2 more Squirrel points! New to this year's challenge are a group of Warlord Games Epic 15mm AWI Infantry, painted up as a Militia Unit, curently I have only finished two bases of these little guys but I have a few other Epic bases if I get round to them.

40 x American AWI Militiamen

A view of the left flank of these Militiamen

I made use of speed paints to do most of the heavy lifting on these guys, just a varied mix of jacket colours really. The flag was taken form the internet as a generic Militia standard.

And from the right flank whilst in column of march

Next is a return to the Egyptian Undead theme which sees me finally (after maybe about 15 years!) finishing a box of GW Khemri Charriots... 

I have done at least one of the other two in previous challenges, however, as a kitbashing execise, this one has seen me replace one of the crewmen with a spare mummy figure, (leftover after from an earlier post this challenge).

Complted charriot with crewman and a mummy as it's important passenger.
Tw Horse skulls and two human skulls on this model.

The mummy can be seen better from this angle, I'm out of suitable grass tufts
for a desert so these will be added at a later date when I restock!

I have adjusted this mummy figure by replacing the head with a GW Tomb King's head and adding a rather large spear, again from the GW kit. Painting is basis the same procedures that I have previously detailed.

Close-up of eth crew compartment

And a departing rear shot

By way of a departure on the Undead front I am looking to put together an 'allied' unit of Greek Undead skeletons, armed with spears, the classic round hoplite shields and typical ancient Greek helmets with flamboyant crests.

Completed 5 x Greek Undead Infantry,
I'm cheekily claiming 5 Skull points for these guys, although the
skulls are completly enclosed by their Attic Helmets

Another angle, sorry the auto-focus on camera is messed up by the long spears!

I'm also looking to paint these as specifically Undead Spartans, so the colour theme for the unit will be Red & bone! The figures are Wargames Atlantic Skeleton Infantry  and shields, swords and helmets are 'liberated' from a Warlord Games box of Ancient Spartans.

Again the bases will be improved when I get more grass tufts

Size wise, these two figure sets are a good fit together, a little thinner and shorter than GW Tomb Kings, painting wise it is a similar recipe to the Egyptians above. Cream undercoat, GW Skeleton Horde speedpaint, dry-brushed a bone colour when dry and highlighted with near white.

A Close-up on two of the Greek Undead

Clothes (well rags),  Helmet crests are red, to fit in with the Spartan vibe, with black spear poles and  Brass spear blades, helmets & shields with a red 'V' transfers were used to finish them off.

The other three Greek Undead

Next is another 8 x 28mm Renaissance Crossbowmen, again I won't repeat my painting method as it is the same as noted last week!

Close-up of four of this week's completed batch.

Close up of the other 4 guys

Finally the whole of this week's batch!

---

SKULL POINTS

+9 Skulls Egypian & Greek Undead

SQUIRREL POINTS

+2 15mm AWI Infantry, 28mm Greek Undead

POINTS

40 x 15mm AWI Infantry @ 2Pts ea                                80 Points

1 x 28mm Egypian Undead Charriot @ 20 Pts                20 Points

5 x 28mm Greek Undead Infantry @ 5 Pts ea                 25 Points

8 x 28mm Renaissance Crossbowmen @ 5Pts ea            40 Points

TOTAL                                                                            165 Points

 ===============================

SylvainR for DaveD: I admire the squirrel in you, hoping from one project to the next with equal grace and talent. I especially like the Spartan hoplites. The interwoven references to history and horror culture are quite unique. Oh, and I will add 1 point for the flag. Great job!

From Mike W: 15mm Warlord Epic Carthaginians, 28mm Arthurian Cavalry and AWI American Militia (330 Points)

A bit a a scrambled post this week as time has just flown by and getting this batch of little guys ready has been a challenge!

Lybian Heavy Infantry unit, 3 bases each of 20 figures.

Closer view of the Lybians

First up are two units of 15mm Warlord Games Epic Carthaginians,  ech unit of 60 figures. I have completed a unit of Lybian Heavy Infantry and a unit of Scutari.

And the other end of their line

The Lybians are Armoured in chainmail, with helmets, spears and shield. I painted them much the same way as the Romans in my recent post, however  I have given them a range of colours for their shields ( with free hand symbols on some of these) and given them either purple or blue tunics.

Rear view of the Lybians

The Scutari are spear and sword armed, with helmets and shields, their painting is simplified as they all wear cloaks. Again, I gave these guys a range of shield colours, but tried to keep the red, white and black theme going that I had with the Lydia's, albeit that these guys had some blue instead of purple shields and the Lybians had a number of brass shields.

Close up of the Scuari, with a variety of shield designs, all painted free hand

Another shot of the Scutari

And from the rear, note that a number of these guys have what appear to be covers to their helmets, much like teh 19th Century Havlocks, to protect the wearers nect from excessive sun.

Hopefully another two units for next week....

Next I present the overdue Arthurian Cavalry, 6 x Mounted guys, originally due last week, each wears mail and is armed with spear and shield on an Armoured horse. Again I have looked for a unit cohesion by using white & red shields to re-enforce  their identity.

Six Arthurian Heavy Cavaly with armoured horses.

Another shot of these fearsome guys

And a shot to get a better view of the shield designs - all white and red to give unit cohesion

Close up of two of the little guys

Another two horsemen

And the final two mounted guys

Finally, thanks to fellow club member Nigel, for gifting me a frame of Warlord Games 28mm American AWI plastic figures.

Completed group of five militiamen

I have taken five guys from this frame and painted up as Buckskin clad militia, armed with rifles. As with all of these ex Wargames Foundry kits, I find their assembly a bit fiddly but the resulting figures are OK.

Another angle

These figures were undercoated in a cream colour and then painted in a variety of browns to represent their buckskin dress. Skin was done in my usual manner and details of bags, guns, straps etc was added.

Look out for 5 x Continental Infantymen in the near future.

Next Week? Hopefully more 15mm Carthaginians, a small group of 28mm Landsknechts that I didn't finish this week and more Arthurian Infantry....

SQUIRREL                                                                +2 Carthaginians & AWI Infantry

POINTS

120 X 15mm Carthaginian Infantry    @ 2 Pts ea     240 Points

6 x 28mm Arthurian Cavalry    @ 10 Pts ea               60 Points

5 x 28mm AWI American Militia  @ 5 Pts ea             25 Points

TOTAL                                                                      325 Points

A nice varied submission, Mike! The epic figures are really nice, and you have done a great effective paint job on them. It is very impressive to see them drawn up in their serried ranks, ready to teach those pesky Romans a lesson or two. The armoured cavalry are looking good too. I don't know if they really were a feature of Arthurian armies, if such a thing existed, but who cares? They look as if they mean business, and will be a great addition to your army. Finally, I like the militiamen too, the colour combinations work really well and adding a colourful detail here and there brings them to life. Your calculations work out perfefcty, but I'll throw in a couple of bonus points for the hand-painted shields. 330 points added to your tally.

Martijn

From MartinC: AWI Continental Army [History] (80pts)

At the Battleground Show in Stockton on Tees, one of my local shows and a cracker, I bought a 2nd hand painted AWI 10mm army. It needed rebasing and some of figures had the foggy varnish issue. So I have spend the last 3 days rebasing, touching up the cloudy figures and painting the figures I needed to complete the units. It was a ball ache.

The whole army - 28 battalions (1 base = 1 battalion), 3 cannon and a couple of small units of milita cavalry). Somewhere in this are 15 musicians and standard bearers that I painted up.

The only full units I actually painted were the 2 militia cavalry units, from Pendraken (who also run the Battleground Show).

These will get action as both AWI Continentals and in my ImagiNation campaign as settlers / revolutionaries.

Scores on the doors

15 x 10mm cavalry = 45

15 x 10mm musicians and standard bearers = 15

Historical library section (Dewey Decimal code 970) = 20

total =80pts

TeemuL: Whole army in one post. :) Yes, not everything was painted for this Challenge or by Martin, but a nice entry still. It is not nice to use the Challenge hobby time to rebasing, but sometimes it is needed. What is also needed are the labels on the post (which I added), but I let it go this time. I am sure this project was painful, but at least it is now finished - or is it?

From PhilH: Historical Drama feat. 'Slapchop' (100 Points)

 Well, what's more historical drama than 'the shot heard around the world', and all the kerfuffle that followed? Plucky settlers taking up arms against the 'tyranny' of their King and heavens forbid, taxes to of course replace it with republican  Democracy and....taxes. Alas, American Revolution movies seem to be lacking in bringing this fascinating era to the silver screen: looking at you, Mel Gibson and The Patriot. 

One of my aims this challenge was to try some new approaches to paint quicker, and thus get more done. Especially after last challenge, which was a bit of a damp squib in terms of output. One of those I wanted to try was 'slapchop', the stupid name for a drybrushed variant of the old masters' 'grisaille' method of underpainting, then highly pigmented washes to try to skip time-consuming highlighting. Dreamed up with catchy slogans like 'slay the grey', and the subject of many excitable/raging YouTube videos late last year, debating whether its the best thing since sliced bread, or a load of old cobblers. 

Anyway, because I'm a hobby madlad at times, here's me seeing if it works on historicals: in this case Perry Continental plastics. These are two groups for Sharp Practice of the brown coated, red faced 4th Connecticut regiment (or Pennsylvania Associators/12th Mass. at a stretch). Why this regiment? Errrr, I fancied some brown-coated continentals, I already had Wyldwood and Blood Angels Red Contrast paints, red facings are natty and I'd stuck these together with round hats rather than tricornes. Squinting at the ever-useful Perry uniform guide from that opening position, 4th Connecticut it is. 

These aren't true Slapchop, there's a fair bit of traditional method on them after the Contrast were applied: faces, turnbacks, stockings, a highlight on the muskets, metallics, piping on the hats etc.

Is this the method for me to cruise though the pile of potential? Mmmmmm, I’m not convinced, while the test mini went well and was finished in an evening, with this a sizeable batch, I rapidly came to dislike the process. So much so that I started them on 21 December, parked them in mid-January completely, before the end of the Challenge became pressing enough for me to dig them out to finish off. 

Alas, I've a firmly established method, where I lay down basecoats, then tidy up the mess I make as I highlight them up. Making a mess with Contrast puts me in a right pickle. I feel my work on the WWII French - also rapid, using drybrushing to save work and time - was much more enjoyable approach, and came out with a better finish (though in fairness, a much simpler colour scheme)

Don't get me wrong, it's horses for courses and if approaches like Slap-chopping help hobbyists get stuff on their paint desk, that's awesome in my book. For me, Contrast paints still have their uses, like picking out little details that would be barely noticed, like boots.

Sixteen 28mm miniatures, as the leader was the test model and painted before the Challenge. 20 points for the Studio bonus is another 100 for my tally (two 100-pointers in one Challenge, look at me go!) Over 600 now and cruising towards what I suspect might be an all-time high score for me.

So this is weird, I've posted this and then it reverted to draft. Will try again. Love the figures by the way