From Kerry T - Sheep, Welshmen with a proper Men of Harlech and a few others - 410 points

Morning afternoon and evening all

Apologies but I missed last week's Friday deadline and I suspect only just made this weeks by the skin of my teeth. Thank you Millsy for your forbearance

Maybe my opening picture leaves me open to some jibes - because its a picture of sheep -yes I know there's no way my Aussie mates are going to miss out on the opportunity to rib somebody living in NZ (and a Welshman at that) when he mentions sheep! But here we go.....

Baa Baa Black sheep have you any wool?

Flocking hell, that's a Baaaahhd joke.........

I'm going to claim this as my children's books entry - its a nursery rhyme after all and how many of us in our early years didn't have a book of nursery rhymes?

Hmm.... how many points do you reckon I can claim for this? If you do a quick Google you'll find that there are apparently 25.14 million sheep in NZ, I reckon at least half are in the picture above...

So who looks after these sheep? I hear you ask...

Well its obvious innnnnnnnit...

Little Bo Peep

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep so now she's gone on a bender...

No idea where this figure came from but if you closely at what you see pouring out from the jug then you wine aficionados will clearly see that is a perfect NZ Pinot Noir colour.. nectar of the gods...

Trust me, I know I've just had a few glasses...

Now talking of gods leads me on to the next subject - yes - gods - otherwise know as Welshmen...

Footsore Miniatures Late Medieval Welsh

Please note these are not running away, they are Welsh, we don't do that, they have just turned  face 

So what's the difference between Plaid and tartan?

Google says.... "

Both plaids and tartans are woven strips that meet at 90 degree angles. Tartans have an identical pattern if stripes rubbing vertically and horizontally. resulting in overlapping square grids. Regular plaids are not necessarily the same in both directions, with variation in colour, size, and /or pattern of stripes"

Don't ask me I just put paint on them

Welsh Knights pack from Footsore

2 packs of Welsh Hearthguard from Footsore

See the man 3rd from right, his bloody sword arm fell off just after I took this photo

Hopefully this lot of handsome valleyboys will count as my local history bonus

Now I'm sure you've all heard Stanley Baker and his mates sing "Men of Harlech"  in the film Zulu...

If you think that gives you goosebumps then the original Welsh version surpasses that by so much and will make your heart stop. I wish I could sing it for you and record it here

"Wele Goelcerth wen yn flamio a thafodau tan yn bloeddio, ar y'r ddewrion ddod i daro'n unwaith eto'n un"

(Behold a bright beacon flaming and tongues of fire shouting for the brave to come fight once again as one....)......

..."Wele faner Gwalia'i fyny....rhyddid aif a hi"

(See the flag of Gwalia on high....freedom she shall have")

Welsh commander, champion and standard bearer

Ye olde Tom Jones and the bishop

Now having posted the Welsh, we'll go down a notch and post some pictures of English 😁

Bloody Miniatures ECW cavalry

Bit of a rush job painted in 3 days

The Lobsters

The Flashing blades

The Moss Troopers

and finally the Troopers

These are such lovely figures and so well advertised by Captain Blood on the Bloody Miniatures site . Its really good to hear that he's expanding the range now to produce units rather than just figures for skirmish sized games, For the moment these cavalry have been based singly but in time I anticipate incorporating and probably re-basing them for cavalry regiments in close order.

Final offering, more Victrix Normans , this time painted up as  Andalusian/Moorish cavalry for the Reconquista. Shields by LBMS transfers - its extraordinary to think that this is the same pack of heavy cavalry painted up in an earlier post, well done Victrix

Thanks as always for your encouragement

In summary

1 Flock of a million NZ lamb shanks - say 15 points?

1 female figure for Lady Sarah's library cart bonus  = 20 points

Children's book bonus = 20 points

18 x 28mm Footsore Welsh Medieval figures @5 points = 90 points

Local history bonus @ 20 points

12 x 28mm Bloody Miniatures ECW cavalry @ 10 points = 120 points

12 x 28mm Victrix Andalusian Cavalry @ 10 points = 120 points

Total 405 points

Squirrel x3 

Many thanks

From Millsy: BOOM! That's quite the points bomb Kerry and contains a boat load of beautifully painted kit. I've been waiting almost a week to see these sheep after our chat for starters. Love the detail on the plaid and the shields especially, and I'm a little gobsmacked at the level of quality here given how fast you churned these out. You neglected the 5 points for Little Bo Peep herself so that lifts you total for the lot to a stonking 410 points! Cracking effort mate. 

From MattW: Sarah Limousine, unfinished business Roman Aux Cavalry, Roman Aux Infantry (215 points)

Unfinished Business 

First off this week a little ride in Sarah’s limousine, from too

As payment for the luxury,  a female miniature from the Warlord Dr Who Range, “ River Song, The impossible Astronaut”. I am quite happy with my denim result, the figure sort of looks like the character but is a little flat in the resin casting. 

River Song, the Impossible Astronaut

I arrive by luxury  limousine to offer my “Under Construction” SHQ Dutch 20mm Marines, these chaps were commenced before I went on holidays in November/December  have been awaiting highlighting and basing ever since. I did not finish the support company off as planned, so it will miss the cut off for today, so more under construction to do before they can be based….! 

Dutch Marines 20mm SHQ

WIP heavy weapons for my Dutch marines

Next up a Ala of Roman cavalry from the Foundry Range, I really love these miniatures and I think they are still the best imperial Roman’s available. 

Finally a unit of Auxiliary infantry, again Foundry Miniatures with Warlord Command, and First Corps miniatures.  

Roman Auxiliary III Augusta Thracium

Final points tally 

Lady Sarah limousine  ride                                     20 points 

28mm Dr Who miniature                                          5 points

Under Construction                                                 20 points

Roman Auxiliary Cavalry                                        80 points

Roman Auxiliary infantry                                        90 points

Total                                                                       215 points

(Side duel Roman 170 points)

Cheers

Matt

Wow! What an entry - Dr Who, Dutch marines (hmmm - given that almost all of the Netherlands is below sea level, doesn't that imply that all Dutch soldiers are marines?) and Romans. What's not to love about this post?

Tamsin

From Kerry T - "All over the place" - World Cinema or High Adventure? ( 505 points)

 Morning, afternoon & evening all

After a slow start thankfully I've managed to get the paintbrush moving at speed but as you'll see below I'm a little all over the place.

 As I've probably said before one "single period enthusiast" wargamer of some renown once described my collection of figures as "all over the place". I think this was said with just a little disdain but I decided that I would take it as a compliment. The happy consequence of a having a Butterfly tendency is that I seem to have a lot of periods to choose from.

This in itself is quite a handy thing when it comes to chasing squirrels. Thus with last years Squirrel Challenge title in my grasp I feel the only honourable thing is to try and defend that title. I promise to be on my best behaviour and not to bite, scram or spit at my fellow challengers 😀 but at the moment I've been left trailing  in their wake. So this is an attempt to not let them get too far ahead. The only problem is that I also want to finish of some decent size units as well as five figure ones so here we go....

Fist up- Colonel John Lamplugh's Regiment of Foote

First Corps ECW figures

I thought I'd completed all my Royalist foot regiments last year but found a lone set of flags for this regiment (Flags of War) that I'd overlooked. Initially earmarked for Parliamentarian troops these First Corps figures now find themselves as another white coated regiment on the side of the King

Yesterday morning there was a moment when there was the very tiniest possibility that they could have been morphed into one of those turnipy units so beloved it seems of a few lunatics that seem to be around here!

A mad rush to finish basing and blutack "piking" to get them ready for today

Thankfully common sense prevailed and no tufts were stuck to the bluetack either deliberately or by accident

At 37 figures this is one bloody big squirrel!

Thy aren't about to have an easy passage over that bridge though....

Sir Arthur Hessilrigge's Regiment of Horse, unhorsed

Bloody Parliamentarians always seem to block any progress!

Bloody Miniatures, a real joy to paint

I have all the BM releases bar the Scots but these are the first I've painted

Sticking with the First Corps theme, some Dark Age carts

Ye olde trafficke jam

Now the same sleepy village a few hundred years in the future..

My First BUF figures

Footsore Miniatures BUF infantry

Its always good to see Fascists running away

I have  a VBCW collection that started when good mate Giles Allison painted some figures and gave them to me when he called to see me in NZ. 

My VBCW backstory is here https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/vbcf/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=3402&p=31799#p31799. Its the story of the mysterious half-twins Verdun and Ypres born in a mining village of South Wales (its long mind yew and something of a tall tale!)

That's it for the verdant green of England and I'm now butterflying off to the heat of the desert and some plastic Griping Beast Arab Heavy Cavalry - half a box, I would like to have completed the box of 12 but had to settle for 6 as I need squirrels

Thank god for LBMS shield transfers

Half a box of Gripping Beast Plastic Arab heavy Cavalry

Finally with the desert theme I'm finishing off with Artizan Designs Arab Sharifan WW1 infantry. The aim was to shoot another squirrel and I painted 5 initially but eventually added the remaining 7 later to finish off all I have. I still have some of the irregular infantry I painted at the end of last year's challenge to finish

These are regular troops with a standard uniform

Not sure if its reasonably authentic but it will do

 That arid grass is an horrid colour, I wanted it to be more pale

Apologies for such a long post but I had a busy painting week as there was no golf and the weather was too wet to get in the garden. I'm not sure if I want it to rain again this week so I have an excuse to spend a lot of time painting!

As far as bonus points go I'm not sure what to claim - while these Arabs are intended to accompany Lawrence in wrecking Ottoman trains in the desert, he was painted years ago so it might not quite qualify as High Adventure.

If not then maybe I could claim World Cinema for the ECW as I no longer live in the UK. I would be grateful to Tamsin if she would advise

In Summary -

37 Royalist foot @ 5 points = 185

5 Dismounted Parliamentarian Horse @ 5 points = 25 

3 Dark Age carts @ 10 points (they are more like artillery than vehicles I think) = 30 points

10 Dark age civilians and bullocks @ 5 points = 50 points

6 Arab Crusades mounted figures @ 10 points = 60

5 VBCW foot 2 5 points = 25

12 Arab WW1 infantry at 5 points = 60

? Bonus for World Cinema or High Adventure @ 20 points

Grand Total 450 points

(Oooh a points bomb! )

Maybe most importantly a Scurry of  6 Squirrels thereby bringing my total so far to 7

Wow! What a mixed-bag points bomb this post is. Carts are vehicles, so that's how I'm scoring them - they're at least as big as a jeep which scores 20 points! I'm happy to count the WW1 Arab "regulars" as High Adventure, and the Arabs for World Cinema. 

Tamsin