From LeeH: Don Cossacks and Officer (90 Points)

This week I have a unit of Don Cossacks charging across my desk. It is said that just hearing their cry of “Hurrah” could send entire battalions into retreat. Even Napoleon seemed impressed by these wild undisciplined horsemen, stating “Cossacks are the finest light troops among all that exist. If I had them in my army, I would go through all the world with them."

The Cossacks had a fearsome reputation and formed fast units that could exploit open flanks and harry retreating troops. They were excellent for reconnaissance when they could be bothered to report back on the position of enemy troops rather than chase after them. It was said (mainly by the French) that the easiest way to distract Cossckas was to present them with an unguarded baggage train. This unit is painted as Don Cossacks with a dark blue uniform, red trim, and a broad red stripe down the leg of loose-fitting trousers. They wear various cloaks and many have ill-matching headgear, from tall fur busbies to soft forage-style caps. All bar the officer carries a lance and I can testify to the sharpness of these…they drew blood on several occasions when I let my attention wander while handling them! 

Unlike the regular troops, the officer was cast as a single figure. That said, I decided to assemble all the figures before painting…a practice that doesn’t have universal approval, judging from a very quick search online. I think I prefer this method, and while it makes painting some parts of the model a little more tricky, overall, I found it easier than trying to combine painted figures without destroying the paintwork. 

I’m happy with how these turned out although I think I’ll take a rest before painting more cavalry! 

(Scoring: 9x28mm Mounted =90 Points)

What a fine troop of Cossacks, Lee! As a unit, the effect of all the browns and the blue uniforms is very pleasing to the eye. Beautiful painting. And as always, your basing is very effective, giving these troops a good wintery feel. Well done indeed!

Martijn

From SylvainR: Tray 6 - 6mm WW2 Cossacks (part 3 of 3) (63 points)

 Here are the last units of my battalion of Cossack.

First, a company of tachankas (spelling may vary depending on the source). Basically, it's a "Maxim" heavy machine gun mounted on the back of a horse-pulled cart and set to fire backward. The weapon could also be dismounted. The models are from GHQ and they are very tricky to assemble since the horses have no "pedestal" to be glued on the base. I would love to write a GregB-style rant about it, but I'm just not that kind of wordsmith wizard.

The Company HQ has a few models from Heroics and Ros.

Next are 4 cavalry scout sections for reconnaissance. This picture also clearly shows my philosophy about creating terrain for bases. You can see that I am slightly exaggerating the amount and size of rocks on the base, but to me this seems more natural.

In this composite picture, 2 battalion HQs, one for the Cossacks and one for the Polish cavalry. All the models are from Heroics & Ros, except the cart and horses on Budyonny's base. The coding colors at the back represent the companies they command. For the Polish BHQ, I built some kind of stone circle in the grass, but in retrospect it does not feel purposeful. I also mounted a radio operator on the cart for the Cossack BHQ. I like how, on Budyonny's stand, the orientation of the miniatures somehow creates the illusion of a slow moving group.

Points claimed:

For the sake of simplicity, I would like to count each Tachanka (and each cart on the BHQs) as a vehicle (instead of counting 2 horses + 1 foot + 1 limber, etc).

- 18x 6mm vehicles at 2 points each = 36

- 24x 6mm mounted at 1 point each = 24

- 5 x 6mm foot at 1/2 point each = 2 (let's drop the fraction, it's annoying :-))

Total = 62 points

This will also count towards the "Really Little Guys" duel.

Thanks for reading!

More awesome Cossacks here Sylvain! The tachankas are really cool and it's fine by me to count them as vehicles. The groundwork looks great too. Consider that 62  63 points added!

Dallas

From SylvainR: Tray 5 - 6mm WW2 Cossacks (part 2 of 3) + Dice Tower (129 points)

This entry is basically identical to my post from last week. It's two more company of Cossacks to make up a whole battalion, it's not just the same picture with photo-shopped code marks :-).

So all my comments from last week would still apply here as well.

A close up on the 4th company ("teal"). Models are a mix of GHQ and Heroics and Ros.

A closer look at the riders. Same painting techniques, same basing techniques. 6mm armies could be boring, but for me there is something zen in doing many of the same.

Points claimed:

18 foot troops at 1/2 point each = 9

120 mounted at 1 points each = 120 points

Total = 129 points

This will also count towards the "Really Little Guys" duel.

I also want to share we the Challengers the concept of a device I had to create this week.

You see, my son got interest in D&D two weeks ago and he just loves the fact that the result of rolling the dice has a direct impact what is happening on the table. Since his gross motor skills are limited, we would put the dice on top of a small cardboard box that he would then knock off to "roll the dice". However, sometimes the dice would just roll 90o onto their next side, which was absolutely unsatisfactory. And there was not much noise generated, so not much fun. So I designed a dice tower (I know there are many on the market, but none has a lid at the top) that I will be calling the "randomizer" until I find a sexier name. Yes, a bottle of Irish Cream Liqueur was badly hurt in the process... But sometimes you have to make that kind of sacrifice...

So dice are put in the small holder (red arrow) inside the lid of the metal container. Exhaustive testing demonstrated that up to 9 dice could be stacked in there.

Then my son pushes the lid with his dominant left hand (top red arrow), the dice fall, get "randomized" with a very satisfactory tossing noise, then are spitted at the bottom (bottom red arrow) to reveal the result. Another requirement for this device was a heavy base, to avoid the whole thing toppling on its side if the tower itself is accidentally pushed instead of the lid. The whole construct is quite sturdy actually, as proven by initial trials.

Below, a view of the internal mechanism, showing two of the four tossing palettes. I added a little bump at the end of each to maximize the "randomization process" (tm) as well as the "noise making capacity" (tm).

I did not show this little project for points, it's not even scenery. I just wanted to share this idea in case some of the Challengers had an opportunity to include dice-rolling-challenged gamers in their group.

Thanks for reading!

The Cossacks are very nice of course Sylvain but I am really impressed with your dice tower. It's great that your boy is getting into gaming and I totally feel the thrill he must get when rolling that natural 20! That's a cool setup you've got there and I know you guys will have lots of fun with it. 129 points for your Really Little Guys and my admiration for your dice tower project and spending quality time with your son.

Dallas

From SylvainR: Tray 4 - 6mm WW2 Cossacks (part 1 of 3) (129 points)

Why am I painting 6mm WW2 Cossacks?  There are 2 reasons.

I am currently working on the early allies armies of WW2: Norwegian, Dutch, Greek, Belgian and Polish. My plan was to use the French army as proxy and then add whatever heavy weapons and vehicles would be needed. Of course, no Polish army would be complete without cavalry, but it's a lot of work to paint a whole battalion, even (especially?) in 6mm. To save me some work, I decided that I would create only one cavalry battalion for the Axis (coming later in 2024) and only one cavalry battalion for the allies, and the one allies cavalry unit that is most commonly known to operate during WW2 would be the Cossacks. Thus, I am painting this soviet unit now so I can use it as a proxy for Polish Cavalry.

The second reason is because among the 6mm armies I have to paint, there was already a good amount of unpainted Cossacks, and this happened to be a project I abandoned about 40 years ago. Let me explain. In the mid 80s, I was introduced to a group of people who were playing 6mm WW2 "micro-armor" as we used to call it. My friend MarcV and I paired up to build a Soviet army and we shared the cost and the painting. After a few years, the group started to play 6mm Modern, and we started new armies. Since we were not playing WW2 "anymore", MarcV and I gifted our Soviet army to RobertR. The last project I was working on, before giving away that army, was a company of Cossacks. A couple of years ago, RobertR, who still had my Soviet army, offered to give me all his 6mm WW2 miniatures and scenery, among which I found my Cossacks, still unpainted after nearly 40 years. Talk about an overdue project!

Before I present the tray, I want to say a few words about the scale. For that purpose, I chose cavalry models at 3 different scales but mounted on bases of the exact same size. Below, you have a stand of WW2 Cossacks at 6mm in front of "massive" 15mm riders, WW2 Cossacks as well. You can see there is still room for good details at 15mm, like the red line on the blue pants, or the cross on top the Ushanka hats. At 6mm, I don't have the patience to do that, so I paint more in an "impressionist" manner. Here's a spot of blue, that's for the pants. Here's some beige for the hands, etc. You can see that the 6mm minis look a bit fuzzier while the 15mm ones look a lot crispier.

In the picture below, 6mm horses are trying to keep up with a colossal 28mm destrier. This is to show that, to me, there is a lot more "room" on the base to be filled at 6mm, to make it look a bit realistic. Since the area covered in real life would be a lot bigger with the 6mm, I try to make the terrain more varied with different sizes of rocks, different colors of grass and a variety of bushes. For the Cossacks, I tried to reproduce grassland/steppe type of terrain with mostly dried grass. I also want the base to look interesting and varied between squads, so I apply the patches of grasses as if it was a camo pattern. It's fun and I'm very happy with the result.

Now on to tray number 4! Below, you can see 2 companies of Cossacks. There will be more in the next 2 weeks, since this is part 1 of 3.

First, a family picture of one of the 2 companies. For 6mm WW2 foot infantry, I usually put 9 men per base, but here I decided to use only 7 horses. Even if the base is twice as big, I wanted to leave enough room between the riders to give the feeling that they are galloping (toward victory, for sure). I also wanted to test what "double flocking" the base would look like, as I explained earlier. The miniatures are a mix of models from H&R WW2 Russian cavalry, H&R WW2 Cossack cavalry and GHQ WW2 Cossack cavalry. Each pack has only one pose, but mixing them works great for variety. GHQ's horses are slightly smaller, but not by that much and the difference is hardly noticeable. As usual, the details on GHQ's miniatures details are better defined and easier to paint. Each pack came with pack horses and I mixed them with the cavalrymen for more variety.

In this close up, you can see that I used two different kinds of material on the bases: burnt grass fine turf and harvest gold static grass flock, both products from Woodland Scenics. When I was working on my French army bases, I mixed turf and flock together, but it did not look anything special. This time, I decided to apply each one at a time and I'm very happy with the result. It looks more natural. I also make sure to let some small rocks and dirt peak through the grass.

Here is a close up on a company HQ with a pack horse. The captain is showing the direction with his saber. Even if there are fewer miniatures on the base, I opted for a large one, for consistency.

Each company of Cossacks would have a detachment of anti-tank rifles. Here they are in action, hiding in tall grass, forgetting that their supply horse is a deadly give-away.

Points claimed:

18 foot troops at 1/2 point each = 9

120 mounted at 1 points each = 120 points

Total = 129 points

This will also count towards the "Really Little Guys" duel.

Thanks for reading!

Cracking work here on your little guys, Sylvain! I like the groundwork. Woodland Scenics products have always been good to me as well. Kudos to you for getting back at this project after literally decades. Great production and looking forward to more!

129 points for you!

Dallas

 

From Mike W - 40k Orks, 28mm Renaissance Scots, Modern Infantry plus Cossacks & More (370 Points)

Let me take you on a journey...

Studios visited previously, plus this week's drop-ins

... a journey around part of the Studio Lot!

At the start of this challenge, I visited the Sci-Fi Lot and grabbed a quick bonus for my first pair of 40k Orks, today I'm moving on from there by using Lady Sarah's Limo service and as such I am submitting the figure below as the fare. This is a 28mm, Warlord Games, Female survivor, clearly a young girl sporting some kind of laser sight enhanced revolver!

This sweet little girl packs quite a punch

I dressed this figure in a cute, pink party dress with red shoes and hair ribbon, white socks and gave her blond, almost yellow hair, to emphasise her youth, the pink dress was given more depth by applying a red ink wash over the base pink, this helped pick out the details as well. The base has been made to represent concrete paving with debris across the surface.

A laser sighted handgun

This young girl will take me to the Historical Drama lot, where I present a number of Scots Renaissance figures for my Marian Wars project. AKA as the 'Marian Civil War', running form 1568 - 1573, this is the struggle lead by Mary Queen of Scots to impose her authority on her rebellious Presbyterian Nobles and to assert her independence from Elizabeth I's England to the south. (See details of the film - Mary Queen of Scots <here>).

The finished lot of Scots 

What we have here is a group of sixteen 'test' figures that I have created based upon the Wargames Atlantic Conquistador figure set, with some Warlord Games ECW body parts thrown in. There are 5 x swordsmen, 1 x Two Handed swordsmen, 4 x Handgunners, 1 x Crossbowmen, 3 x Pike men, 1 x Standard Bearer and 1 x Halberdiers.

One of the two, Two-handed swordsmen,
I'm really pleased how these turned out

The figures have all be undercoated in white and then dressed loosely basis illustrations in the Osprey Men-at-Arms book covering Scots Renaissances Armies (See <here>). Much of the protective clothing was quilted wool jackets, often with sewn in metal plates of chains to parry sword or pike blows. This I have represented with a light cream colour.

Crossbowman and a Standard Bearer.
The Standard is speculative, based upon Mary's status as a former French
Queen and her Scottish royal claim

Five Swordsmen, each with different levels of protection,
from wool jacks to plate armour, according to wealth and rank.
Extreme left is a guy sporting the Lennox family crest on his shield.

Other muted colours have generally been used with splash of brighter colours for those figures that seem to display men that were either wealthier or have more extravagant personalities. Armour was Oily Steel with a dark tone wash.

Four Handgunners,
second left is a guy whose torso is from a Warlord Games ECW figure,
with Wargames Atlantic handgunner arms added

Another view of the Handgunners

My plans are to build up a couple of pike blocks for this army, The Wargames Atlantic sets come with a multitude of spare parts and I'm thinking I can quickly build more figures by mashing these up with spare Warlord Games ECW figures to give a representation of the poorer, Scots 'Humbly' troops in the pike schiltrons, maybe some of these next week.

Three Pikemen plus one Halberdiers,
guy on the right has Warlord Games Pike and arms to give a figure with levelled pike.

Moving on from Historical Drama, we utilise a second trip on Lady Sarah's Limo to travel to the world Cinema lot. This time the fare is a rather fierce lady who is again form the Warlord Survivors set, this time the figure is running forwards in a frenzy, carrying a pair of Uzis. Effective no doubt but in the Zombicide world they are bound to make such a noise that every zombie within two miles will be attracted towards the source of such a racket.

This woman is in a red vest with jeans and sturdy knee length boots, she carries a water bottle and a belt pouch and in the best movie fashion no clear means to reload her weapons that will continue to fire until her scene is completed.

I'm pleased with the appearance of this figure's jeans,
a watered down ultramarine blue, over a white undercoat.

Boots are Shakebite Leather contrast colour.
Uzis have a watered down black coat with a gunmetal drybrush finish

These Cossack figures are 28mm 3D prints, sourced from eBAY. heir poses grabbed my attention and I though that they would make an interesting unit in a number of scenarios. As a film reference I used the 1960s (hardly a classic) Taras Bulba (See <here>), starring Tony Curtis ad Yul Brinner - for some reason it sticks in my mind despite being a truly woeful film!

These figures were supplied in clear resin and like other sets I have received through the post, they suffered some damage in transit. A spot of superglue here an there fixed most issues, I then undercoated white and dressed the figures accordingly.

Next I have a set of 8 Modern Eastern European soldiers, maybe Polish or Estonians - who knows. They have a mix of classic Soviet weapons (RPG7s) plus a smattering of modern western weapons as well. The aim is that these will be a 'no specific' intervention force or use in Apocalypse / Zombie survivor scenarios. 

The figures are again form Warlord Games and they go together pretty well, with these I experimented with some Contrast Colour paints from Citadel. After building the figures, I undercoated them white before using 'Military Green' to paint their overalls. I used Snakebite Leather to do their boots and the Officer's pistol holster and then painted in their flesh and webbing / knee pads using regular paints.

I then shaded the flesh with - not surprisingly - Flesh Wash, before using 'Skeleton Horde' to wash the webbing. Weapons were all painted with a watered down black before dry brushing with Gun metal. THe RPG7 and portable missile tube had additional detail added and all figures were given red sunglasses.

Overall the effect is quite reasonable.

The whole squad, in an urban terrain setting

Another view

I'm no expert on modern military weapons but they have a mix of firepower options!

More weapon options and my favourite - RP7 - on the left, officer is second from right.

Next this week we have a set of 10 Medieval Archers. When I bought these from eBAY, they were advertised as Dark Ages Archers, it was not until I started painting them that my suspicions were aroused and to me it was clear that their dress was maybe more akin to the Medieval Period. Never mind!

Ten Archers

I'll determine how best to use them later on!

Another view, with figures mixed up

Again these figures were undercoated in white and then dressed with appropriate colours, flesh was washed with Sepia Ink and the rest was washed in a watered down dark tone ink. Basing was my usual method.

Rear rank from first photo, moved forwards for a better view
hat on figure second from right a bit odd to my eyes.

Finally no post would be complete without a batch of 40K Orks & Grechin, today is no exception! Here we have 16 figures and an experiment for folks to comment on!

This week's 40k Ork Batch

Only two Grechin this week but I have a huge batch of these little guys on the go for next week - if timings work out! One figure is a former Fantasy Goblin but converted to 40k world by adding some grenades ad replacing his wooden club with a looted Imperia Guard Chainsaw.

The two Grechin, on the right the figure came with a severed Ork hand grasping a Choppa,
to the right this little guy carried a looted Imperial Guard Chainsword

Old and New, left a current Ork StormBoy and right an older version
of the same - shows the GW scale creep quite clearly.
The newer guy will be the unit's Boss figure!

Figures were all painted as previously described in an ongoing batch process, I took a little extra time on the Painboy model as this was fun to do. Hopefully I managed to do all the syringes justice, each with a different chemical content. I painted these white and then washed with blue ink to give a glass effect then added coloured band to represent the various contents

Ork Painboy, this was a fun figure to paint with so much detail.

An Ork Boss figure with this week's skull attached to his helmet

So my 'big' experiment was to add exhaust / smoke coming form the engines on chainswords and from Rocket packs on the Stormboyz. I think its quite effective but wondering what others think? If I go down this route then I'll have to go back and retro fit the same to figures that I have already completed!

Three more Boy, left with heavy weapon, centre with 3rd party head
and right with smoke added to the exhaust of the power sword

Another Stormboy, with exhaust / smoke coming from his jetpack.
Just noticed I forgot to do this guy's eyes!

Another view of the same

Last two! Left a Burna and the guy is in his 'Red Star' hat and right a Boy with a Blasta

After what I called a points bomb last week, I seem to have racked up more points this week!

POINTS

2 x Lady Sarah Bonuses @ 20 Pts ea                      40 Points

16 x 28mm Scots Renaissance Foot @ 5 Pts ea      80 Points

Historical Film Bonus                                               20 Points

10 x 28 Cossack Foot @ 5 Pts ea                              50 Points

Foreign Film Bonus                                                   20 Points

8 x 28mm Modern Soldiers @ 5 Pts ea                    40 Points

10 x 28mm Medieval Archers @ 5 Pts ea                50 Points

12 x 40k Orks & Grechin @5 Pts ea                        60 Points

TOTAL                                                                      360 Points

SIDE DUELS

Codpiece & Feathers                                                  80 Points  (Scots)

Squirrel Points                                                            +3  (Scots, Cossacks & Modern)

Skull Points                                                                 +1

From TeemuL: There's a lot again, and I'm getting speechless. But I did notice, that you have not counted those 2 ladies in your calculations! You did claim the bonuses, but not the actual minis, so I'll give you 10 more points. The smoke from jetback is a great addition!