From Kerry T: A final post -Do you hear that thunder? (405 points)

 Morning, afternoon & evening all....

"Hey Luigi, isa gonna raina - I can heara thunder ana I feel it ina my bones".....

"Heya, Marco, look there - thata noisa is nota thunda".......

With apologies to my Italian friends!

Flags by Pete's flags and Maverick Models

Wargames Foundry Gendarmes

Casting Room Gendarmes/Knights

Not as gaudy as their French counterparts

They are on opposing sides as it happens

Based in 3s on 60x60mm on 2mm warbases

I hadn't originally planned to add these to my challenge entries but they somehow leap frogged others in the painting queue. I can't in all conscience take part in the AHPC and not enter some gendarmes.

I do have a few more and had decided on a bigger entry but I ran out of steam and couldn't face painting more! After a while it gets hard not to repeat colour combinations. I've half completed a pile of Perry plastic knights that will eventually bulk up my Italian Wars cavalry. They took the place of a planned entry of First Corps knights and Claymore castings & Antediluvian Scots for 100YW.

Quite a few planned entries didn't make the cut this year, probably because I didn't allow for a realistic painting time allocation for my entries and decided that this year I'd try and complete units and not chase squirrels.

One plan was to paint up quite a few female figures but that fell by the wayside in the end. Having bought a selection of females from the Burrows & Badgers range for the joy of painting I confess I have most left

This leaves me then with my final figure  the Cat Huntress

So in summary then

36 x 28mm cavalry at 10 points = 360 points

1 x 30mm figure @ 5 points

Lady Sarah's library cart @ 20 points

I'm going to claim a Literature bonus from the Rotunda as you can't get anything more "snooty and high brow" than French gendarmes - 20 points

Total 405 points

Finally a big thank you especially to Curt and Sarah for hosting the challenge and allowing me to take part. Taking part in the challenge is the highlight of my painting year. Enormous thanks to all the minions, especially Millsy for the time you all spend toiling on our behalf. Last but not least a heartfelt thank you to my fellow challengers whose own entries are inspirational and whose kindness, encouragement and support makes taking part so much fun.

Thank you

Kerry

Out with a bang, as they say. I can definitely hear that thunder, what a great cavalcade to end your Challenge, Kerry. Fabulous work, I really like how you achieve such variety while somehow still binding these units together. They look absolutely resplendent with their flags and banners flying high, surely a grace for any wargames army. As such, well I am not going to begrudge you your Literature bonus, French gendarmes are indeed pretty high brow. The cat hunter is an amazing figure, you managed to capture the cat face really well. Is it just my imagination or is she seriously staring down on us mere humans? Anyway, she is a very fine figure to conclude your Challenge with. Thanks for all your great contributions and see you again in XV!

Martijn

From KerryT: Italian Wars Gendarmes (165 points & 1 squirrel)

 Morning, afternoon & evening all

I hadn't expected to be posting anything this week as we were meant to be off to the beach to stay. Unfortunately the place where we were meant to be staying is still inaccessible after the cyclone and we had to cancel. I admired the optimism of the agent who was hoping we'd still get there - this little Bach (holiday home/rental) is right on the beachfront and a gentle 20 metre walk from the sea - we stayed there last year -its a bit more difficult now with sand obviously having been washed away - she said "I've put down a ladder so you can access the beach easily!"

Its my birthday today and I decided to still have my week off but we'll visit the local beach later and go out for lunch. Before I go I'll have to finish some basing and take some pictures though.

This is later!

Once more I've painted up a female figure so I can hitch a ride from Lady Sarah and plan on visiting the Arthouse studio my 3rd Blue studio

My ride is courtesy of Lady Diana Mosley a ferocious looking woman from Footsore's VBCW range

God I can't paint feminine faces, she looks like she's got a 'tash!

I'm going to suggest I can claim the Arthouse bonus with these French Gendarmes from the Wargames Foundry Italian Wars range. 

(Studio Quote -From miniatures created out of bottle-tops, to hair-roller armies. Everything artistic is welcome here - whether the art is visual, or just a pose. Want to paint a miniature in just pink paint? Obsessed with Carroburg Crimson ink? This is the Studio for you! Welcome to the location for the quirky, arty and the downright strange. )

They may not be all in pink but like all Gendarmes they are self important, certainly a bit gaudy and arty-farty I think and there's another thing -another arty farty word - "avante-garde"

I hadn't intended to group the colours together when basing

Why are they avante-garde? Why early camouflage of course. Despite being bright and colourful they could still remain hidden and jump out in ambush

I can unequivocally reinforce this claim by proving evidence of early camouflage techniques. Where do you think German WWII Pea-dot camouflage designs originated? I take it you've all head of Leonardo de Vinci, Michelangelo , Raphael and Botticelli....

Well I tell you it was in the Renaissance era and the pioneering work of Leonardo de Jardiniere (otherwise known as Bayleaf the Gardner)

I'm showing my age now

Here is evidence of early Renaissance camouflage  that allowed these elite horsemen to stay hidden in shrubberies

Pete's flag is a dead give away though, they need to roll that up when trying to hide

Now shut your eyes, block out the flag in your mind and open them again and hey presto ...

Where are they? Bet you can't see them now, see what I mean😀

Seriously though, I found these figures quite hard work to complete in the end and have only managed to complete 12 of the remaining 21 that I have. I do wonder if the multicoloured spiraled lances so beloved of wargamers were ever used in the field of battle as opposed to plain wooden lances. Painting those in a single colour or base wood would have saved a lot of time

One would expect these to be single one off weapons that would splinter in in the charge,. Still I suppose there seems to be a plethora of painters in this era and they couldn't all have been employed painting ceilings!

Talking of camouflage this is my final entry, these are my15mm WWII desert armies..... 

That Cammo is just so realistic

... and also my WWII Allied Normandy Armada 

Look at that fleet, more ships than Ken has painted and the Cammo is sublime

As you might be able to see if you squint really hard there are farsands of them but the cammo is so good you're going to have to take my word for it. So that will be another few thousand points please in addition to...

Lady Diana Mosley and Lady Sarah's Limousine - 25 points

12 Mounted Italian Wars French Gendarmes - 120 points for a total of 145

1 Squirrel

Codpiece & Ostrich feathers 120 points

Best wishes

Lovely painting and with such a bravado masterclass in shoehorning, you deserve the Arthouse bonus points, damn you!

Tamsin

From Kerry T - P is for Polished - Steel Fist Gendarmes (120 points and Squirrel no 7)

  Morning, Afternoon & Evening all

I don't quite remember when it started but I've just found some early pictures - what I'm of course talking about are the early pictures of Italian Wars figures that I found so enthralling in the early editions of Miniature Wargames magazine in the early 1980s. 

I think this may have been 1983 and the magazine cost 85 pence!

This was a period of history  that I new nothing about  but was something to be admired from afar as pictures just kept popping up in the magazine of Peter Gilder's Italian Wars figures. I knew then that someday it would be something that I wanted to do, its just a period so full of colour.

Thus a wargaming seed was planted but that early seed remained dormant for many years I'm afraid.

The seed began to germinate a few years later when I bought a Gladiator Games 15mm Italian Wars army - this was more than 20 years ago but really sprang to life around 10 years ago when I saw pictures of Artizan Design's Landsknecht figures somewhere on the net and I began to acquire units gradually. It sprouted further when I discovered James Roach's blog http://olicanalad.blogspot.com/ around the same time and this coupled with a visit to Eureka Miniatures in Melbourne where I bought some Gendarmes gave it further impetus.

These days I paint maybe a few units a year, it really is a very slow burn project. More recently Ken Reilly (of this parish!) and his blog https://yarkshiregamer.blogspot.com/ deserves credit for his resuscitation efforts in breathing life into the project once again! Cheers Ken

So to date I think I have about 2 shelves worth of troops but I have promised myself that late 2022 is the year that I intend to make it the main focus of my collecting and painting.

So where does this take me up to?

I said it was a slow burn project didn't I? Quite true but I have never before attempted to finish a unit by candlelight!

What happened?  

I've been guilty of posting lovely pictures of the NZ sunshine here down under to you who are up over while you suffer in snow haven't I?

I reckon some of you have been getting your own back and casting spells or some other voodoo practice or something -the end result was that we had a cyclone rip through here on the weekend. (Nothing serious I would add and nothing anywhere near as bad as many of you elsewhere are used to coping with!)

It was however enough to knock out the power so I could't quite finish my basing or take pictures of my 7th Project P entry and was absent from last Sunday's postings. The picture above is a testament to my effort to finish the basing as the light faded! In the end it failed as the power never returned in time for me to upload pictures anyway 

Having proffered my excuse for my absence last weekend I'll now get on with it ! This is my 7th unit and so P is for Polished  - When I chose Polished I thought I was being clever and keeping my options open -as this would give me the choice of painting up some 15mm Napoleonic French Cuirassiers or alternative some gleaming Italian Wars Gendarmes

I'm pleased to say the Steelfist Gendarmes got ahead in the painting queue 

They actually took more time to paint that I'd anticipated as I ended up painting more horse armour than just leaving them as polished steel

Lovely to paint, but somewhat fiddly for my hamfisted fingers to put together - the heads, plumes, weapon arm and scabbards need attaching.

A couple more views

They are a little on the expensive side but well worth it I think and there is quite a variation in the figures

I've used a few transfers here

The standard is from Flags of War - 100YW range

This one from Pete's Flags available on eBay

This is my favourite horse armour model

By my reckoning that's 120 points and my 7th unit and Squirrel,  and I promise I'll not be so long winded in my next post.

____________________________________

Beautiful work Kerry. I started my long road on an Italian Wars collection a few years ago, and agree with you that is it as much a labour of love as it is sheer blood, sweat and tears. So much puff-and-slash, so many plumes and painted frippery. Nonetheless, it's all worth it as we can clearly see here. I have a bunch of Steel Fist gendarmes waiting on my desk, and, like you, I've been daunted by all the possible options for assembly. Nonetheless, your work has inspired me to get them assembled and moved higher up the queue. Thank you!  I particularly like that you've eschewed just making them plain steel and have pulled out the stops with painting pretty much all the armour - they look absolutely superb because of it.

Again, stunning work.

- Curt