From GillesW - My Last Submission: THE BIG WEDGE! (43 Points)

Hi Everyone,

Here is the last submission of thefrenchjester of the 6th Challenge!

I'm fan of Fish and Marillion hence the title of this post and what you'll see below

A big wedge of byzantine kataphraktoï for my thematic project, the figures are from Essex Miniatures and Alain Touller Figurines byzantine ranges,  as usual I have changed the lead spears for plastic ones, I also added bow cases on the rear rankers.

Here are two more subordinates for my Basileus

When I did the shields on the standard bearers and added some highlights here and there on the banners, I painted a sun on the plain shield of the Basileus base and changed his flag (one tail wasn't complete).

The base below don't count for this batch, it's just there for eye view.

A pic of the full command and that's all for now

Alas, one more time I had the eyes bigger than my stomach and I missed the goal of 1515 points, I'll do better next time coach Curt!

Thanks to all for this 6th challenge, full of nice submissions, entertaining stories, new ideas and advice and of course for your kind comments on my posts, a special thank to Greg (my Friday Minion) who lightened, rectified, corrected, improved,etc... all my messages "un grand merci à toi Greg!";- )

Be seeing you ;-)

What a wonderful way to exit the stage, Gilles. The kataphractoi and these command stands are just gorgeous - real stunners. I love the vibrant colours you've maintained throughout the Challenge for your shields, clothing and banners - your figures have been a treat for the eyes and I'm delighted that you joined us again this year. Here's looking to your return for our seventh edition! 

From GillesW - Far to be Byzance! (60 points)

Hi Everyone! Not so far from my goal of 1515 points after this submission, but I'll still have to paint 300 points in nine nights (ouch!).

This week it was the "great anything". I've been diverted by Rome Total War 2 and only painted a Basileus for my Thematic Byzantine project and few skirmishers. My choice for leader went to Romanos I Lekapenos, a low-born admiral who became emperor circa 920AD. The guy is very classy with his red boots!!

The figure is from Outpost Miniatures Range like the musician, the standard bearer is from Alain Touller Figures' Nikephorian range. The standard is the "Iconic" Lady of Blachernae.

Up next is the small group of Byzantine staff slingers from Essex Miniatures. There's only one pose but they are easy to paint.

I also painted some Isaurian light infantrymen. The figures are actually Dacians from Essex Miniatures with plastic spears, but they 'll do the business and work just fine at this scale.

Now the countdown is beginning!

Salut Gilles - the countdown is indeed on, and if anyone in the group is going to blast out 300 points in the remaining days of the Challenge, I expect many out there will join me in assuming The French Jester will be more than up to the task.  Another batch of wonderful ancients for us to enjoy, touching on a period of special interest to me - the Byzantines! Red boots for the boss are cool indeed, and that command stand is particularly nice.  I love that banner too - the look of Byzantine art, paintings and imagery just mezmerize me for some reason.  The Basileus will have a great time on the gaming table, I'm sure.

Great work all around, et une autre 60 point pour vous! A la prochaine!

From GillesW - Welcome back to the Circus! 15mm Carthaginian Elephants (67 Points)

Hello everyone.  In my last submission, some of you spoke  about carthaginian elephants on the comments.  I'm weak and very easy to influence, so I went in my Circus ( the Lead pile ) and I prepped, converted, undercoated some beast for the parade of this Friday.

The figures are from a variety of ranges, such as Old Glory, Covus Belli and Essex.  I have tried to note the ranges where I can.  I changed the heads of the Corvus Belli figures because I don't like the heads with separate ears.

I hope you will like them.

The "circus" on the move - are those Romans up there?

This figures is from Corvus Belli, but the head is Essex miniatures

An Old Glory figure

This features another combo of Corvus Belli and Essex head.  The archer is also from Essex, and the man with javelin is from Old Glory.

An Essex Miniatures elephant converted - the back has been filed to fir the howda

The elephant is from Alain Touller figures - the fellow with the javelin is from Corvus Belli, and he is joined by a lybio-phoenician from Essex

A good circus always need to have some clowns, I have painted few staff slingers for a side project and some Sardinian archers for my "second life" project to do the task of amusing the crowd.

stay tuned, more will come soon....

Eléphants - la terreur de l' ancien champ de bataille! Bien fait encore Mr. Gilles! Another very cool ancients submission.  I'm mostly a sci-fi and modern geek, but I envy you guys and girls doing ancients because the stuff looks so cool, and you obviously know your history! I can picture those elephants running down some hapless Roman soldiers, or perhaps simply running amok among their own forces - either way, a lot of fun on the gaming table.

Another great entry Gilles.  I'm sympathetic to anyone who will go convert and paint a bunch of stuff on the whim of some comments (I know what you mean!) and the work going into these elephants, with the wide array of figures and good conversions, is very impressive - and that's before the brush work! Since elephants seemed to be the tanks of the ancient world, we'll score them as vehicles, and I will include a few extra points for the conversion work - for 67 points all together.  Looking forward to next week's submission!

From GillesW - They are back on the field - 15mm Carthaginians (172 points)

Here is my submission for this week. This year I am painting, or I should I say "repainting", the early Carthaginian army I had for the DBM rules, and the new model army for Field of Glory ruleset.

I will explain why and what I do on the figures on my blog to update them.  Here are the commanders:

Here are some  lybio-phoneician hoplites:

The figures are a mix of different ranges from the various 15mm manufacturers noted in the labels below. The Schythian figures are  from Xyston Miniatures, I also have a project for them this year.

This submission is a total of 73 footmen, 5 horsemen, 1 chariot with 3 crew.

Be seeing you;-)

Gilles - bon travail! These are wonderful figures.  I would love to see some more closeups of those hoplites - they definitely look the business! The detail on the horsemen and chariots is also impressive.  I'm a pretty rusty fellow when it comes to ancients, but I expect the Romans would be a little nervous to come up against this lot on the battlefield - well done!  And I'm sure the many Challengers who game ancients will chime in with some more useful feedback that I can offer..

Not only do these looks great, they net you 172 points for the Challenge - great work!