From IainW: 28mm EIR Auxilia for Hawkins Hill (90 points )

Here we have a unit of auxiliary infantry from Newline,  like my previous post they came from an I'll considered bid on Ebay, coupled with a desire to get a bargain! I largely avoid Ebay now but with my need to mobilise a Roman army these lead reservists have been called up.

I didn't think I'd had them that long but I now realise I've moved house twice since I got them plus my daughter was in primary school and I am now taking her to look at universities as she is doing her A levels,so I think they qualify for this location!

Newline  figures seem a little simple and plain in their unpainted state but I think come up quite nicely with the application of paint,certainly enough detail and frankly not too much!

They was something of a throwback to the past as these chaps were bought primed in white and I've had to adapt,  I know with contrast paints white primer is making a comeback but it's still a little weird to me!

Plain shields on these, maybe the next unit will get a bit of decoration.

12 x 28mm infantry is 60 points plus 30 for the location gives me a  further 90 points, I certainly hope to add more than 66 points next week to do my bit in heading to our collective target .

This also means I have completed five locations which is the end of my challenge island tour although I hope to have a further post this week!

All the best
Iain


Another great unit to add to your growing collection of Romans. 90 points it is!

TamsinP

From IainW: 28mm Cooke's Crevasse (New Army) Early Imperial Roman Onager (52 points)

Last September I went to my first tournament, knightsfever in North London to play To the strongest! With my Italian wars figures as Venetian condatta as the armies had to be medieval (mine were pretty late medieval!) I have to say I really enjoyed it, it was a great learning experience and I managed to not lose every game!
 I wanted to have another go this year,the only slight  problem being that the theme is Rome and its enemies and I have neither, plus the tournament is in June, so three months earlier!
As I didn't have a Roman army I thought I'd better get some, I picked up an army box of warlord plastics in their post Christmas sale and then remembered that some years ago I picked up a couple of DBA armies back when I bought things on Ebay, put in a low bid and if no one else bids you get a bargain that you don't really need!

Well now was the moment I needed them, here is a newline Numidian onager ,I've painted the crew as Roman's in tunics with their shields and helmets stacked against their pila ( those bits came from the warlord plastics sprue)
The PVA is still wet but it's going to do!
So the onager or wild ass is a stone thrower,  I guess limestone? Which fulfills the location for  30 points, 2 x 28mm figures 10 points and a crew served weapon at 10  points giving a total of 50 points. Hawkins hill next as I desperately try and scramble up the mountain in time!
All the best
Iain


That's a nice stone-thrower Iain. I'm going to add a couple of points for the separate scutae and pila.

TamsinP

from RayR - 10mm Trojan Chariots - For Joshua 60 pts

I picked these figures up at Warfare in Reading from Newline Designs. These Trojan Chariots

will be posted on to James at Mad Tin Hatter Blog, to add to his For Joshua project. They will make up part of the Human army in his epic Fantasy v Human project. They are not painted up historically and I chose to make them quite colourful unlike the usual cow hide chariots.

And no Dave, they're not on giant bases either!
I've left them unbased as per James' request. Yes they were a bugger to set up, as they're not glued down, my fat sausage fingers kept knocking them over time and time again!!!!

I'm not actually sure of their points value I think its......
8 Chariots, = 24 points
16 Horses = 16 points
16 riders - 16 points

So that should be 56 points......i think?

From DaveD . Thats great Ray . They will be a great addition to the force ? We hope to have these alk out at the Hammerhead show in March. I think the basing is getting even thicker! - a tally of 60 points for you !

From MartinC Some Picts What I Did (300 Points)

Back at work, spent today teaching 8 year olds geology which was fun but very, very noisy. They went out for play time and all came back with loads of stones from the grounds.

So my painting will slow down now to normal pace and will focus on 10mm and 15mm so this could be my last paint bomb for a while, unless Miles and Noel go mental.

I have a very large Pict army for KoW, one of my favourite sets of rules and these will pretty much finish off, obviously like my 28mm ACW i will continue to grow it with 2nd hand stuff but approx 300 figs is about enough.

These were picked (picted!) up from the Battlefront show and are a mix of Newland (not great figs but very cheap and good for bulking out) and 2nd hand Black Tree and Gripping Beast.

Spearmen, the mainstay of any Pict army - Pict shield designs are impossible and so when I painted these they came out like dazzle camouflage. Which is interesting

Naked berserkers. These are supposed to have spears but I ran out of spears so they have axes. Picts don't really have berserkers but KoW is very flexible. As they are Picts tey must be tatooed but I find this difficult at 28mm scale - I find difficult at human scale - so it's mainly simple shapes and swirls

Slingers - again supposed to have spears but ran out so slings from bits box

Javelin men - Picts advance under a hail of javelins and i have lots of these

Finally nobles, standard and cow horn blowers

Overall it is 56 28mm figures = 280 pts plus any super generous bonus for standard and hand painted shields. That will bust my target so lets have a new one of 3000pts

Right off to find very tiny things to paint

__________________________

Wowzers, great entry Martin! These picts, like their shields, look absolutely dazzling (ahem)! 300 28mm figures is an impressive sized collection no matter what the period or rules. I especially like that great mob of spearmen, thought I imagine keeping them all ranked up might be a bit of a challenge. I've still not yet tried Kings of War, but really want to. How big is a standard sized unit in the game? Do you use sabots for movement? Is there model removal or can you use roster sheets? Questions, questions.

  

Hmm, I can just imagine those well-dressed nobles berating the naked berserkers, 'Hey you loons get some clothes on, or hit the woad.'

Mic drop.

Great work Professor Cooke!

-Curt

From MartinC: Christmas Bomb (230 Points)

So the 3rd day of the challenge is upon us and it's time for a bomb. I have quite a large Pict army and these figures were waiting to complete it. They are a mix of Gripping Beast, Foundry and I think Newline, I picked them all but in bargain bins in a show or 2.

9 javelin armed skirmishers (there are really 10 of these but I photobombed the wrong regiment

There should be tattoos (they are the painted ones) but I can't do them at all well and they make the figures look worse.

14 (13) spearmen. Although Scots tartan was yet to be invented (thank God for that) and there are no bagpipes (thank every God that was ever worshiped for that). They were partial to a large plaid pattern so most of them are have this pattern

Mix of square and round shields, the round shields will double as Saxons.

10 Pict nobles, the only guys in the whole army with armour 

These Gripping Beast death pairs are unbelievably good, the most dynamic sculpts I think I've ever seen. I expect they are supposed to by casualty markers but I'll just mix them in with my units.

I kept the blood out of the paint jobs, even though 1/2 of them are fully skewered

Standard bearer, I copied the design from a 1st Corps image.

The maths is a little tricky for these.

34 single figures = 170pts

5 double figures = 10x5 = 50

1 guy lying down = 2.5

I standard bearer  with home made standard = 5+

So that's about 227.5+

Not the biggest bomb in the world but a nice early marker. Also my 2nd entry for the SQUIRREL.

__________________________________

Jeez, we're on Day 3 and we have our first Paint Bomb already - bravo Martin!

I like your large, uniform plaid approach to your Scots. If only the hoary gits kept to that for the rest of their sartorial history we wouldn't be pulling our hair out today trying to paint them.

I agree with you, those 'death pairs' are brutally dynamic - great looking minis. I also really like your hand-painted woad banner. The fellow bearing it seems to be saying, 'Look! Look what I did in craft class today!'

Again, well done on the bomb, Martin. I'm going to round your estimate up to 230 points as I like the groovy banner so much.

BOOM!

From: MartinC - Loads of ACW and Other Stuff (475 points)

I'm playing ACW in 28mm shortly so I needed to paint up by remaining figures. I have tried with a couple of regiments but they are awful figs and a bugger to paint so I stopped them and may return to them later. I did have loads of others though

These are a mix of Perry plastics and Dixons that I bought in a junk shop for about 25p each. 

There are 3 full regiments and 1 regiment missing a command stand - 76 figures

Next up another of the Hasslefree hot chicks in fur figures

The ice is a sheet of mica and nearly works

Finally some Picts. These are Newline, cheap but basic.

The command figures are better

Damage done

83 28mm infantry - 415 pts

6 28mm cavalry - 60 pts

That's 475 pts. Off to paint some more ACW

Hoi Martin, what a fabulous collection of figures! All equally brilliant, if I was asked to name a favourite it would be the ACW figures. You have really managed to capture the atmosphere of the conflict with these figures. Using mica as ice-sheeting is an inspired trick I have not heard of before and I will look into for sure. The lady does look the part on it if a tad cold with just that fur-coat to protect her from the elements. The Picts are great with some nice plaids to finish this post. All in all some brilliant stuff!

Zulus (Again) ClintB (82 points)

Yes I know more Zulus. This time no not hundreds, only 82. This is I hope enough to play the game I have planned (along with the ones painted previously in the challenge AND the ones done BEFORE the challenge even started.

Anyway they are a mix of New Line Designs and Pendraken miniatures, but mostly New Line Designs. They are all 10mm or 1/200th scale and should bring the force up to critical mass sufficient to play a game or two. Well that is the plan.

I have kept with my convention of mostly brown and white shields as they did make up the bulk of the tribe that did attack Rorkes Drift Station. But there are 5 small stands with all brown shields to represent the rifle armed Zulus,  1 stand (6 figures of white shield Zulus to finish of the unit shown earlier in the challenge and one small stand of Black shield and headdress Zulus to finish of that unit as well.

Yes Before anyone asks I do have more to paint, but I think not for a while as other projects are getting neglected. So my remaining Zulus will be left for now and I will get on with some more interesting projects. I am not saying I will not come back to these but rather that for now I have finished.

82 in all. at 10mm should be an additional 82 points. Nothing fancy just nearly 3 packs of Zulus finished based and ready to be put away.

MilesR: One of 2 posts from Clint today - another giant passel of Zulu's - really nicely done

From SanderS - BOOOOM! Part 1 (372points)

Hoi,

Well I have announced elsewhere that I was preparing a sort of a Point-Bomb, I would like to explain a bit more as to the how and why. Last year's Challenge was my first and it was absolute big fun from start till end, but I went about it all wrong for my doing. Somehow I had convinced myself I positively had to enter all theme rounds and that put the pressure up. Besides that I was aiming for a humble 500 points and reached that pretty easy, but then I went and upped that amount twice and in the end didn't achieve the target and that bugged me no end. The "Femme Fatale" side challenge was great fun but added to the pressure as well. In short when the Challenge was finished I had completely run out of steam and fell into a huge painters-block. So much so in fact that I totally missed I had, mysteriously, won one of the targets and gained a giftcard, yup I missed out on that but that didn't matter since I gained quite a lot of new friends and experience. The AHPC FB page people were actually mostly the ones that got the juices flowing again due to their warm comments and support.

Anyway, this year I decided to take a more relaxed approach and so have only entered those Theme Rounds I had a clear plan for in mind, ignored the side challenges for this year, and took last years amount of points as target which I hope to reach today with these posts.

To do this I will be posting two separate entries in order to gain the remaining points needed and since I have found my mojo and do not want to loose it, I am NOT upping the stakes this time round. I'll stop entering stuff for the Challenge but will stick around to see you great folks end it all.

First part of the point-bomb will be a Napoleonic bomb the other one...well we'll see about that later.

The units shown below are all part of the 1:72 plastic figures I really wanted to paint during this Challenge. First up is a French HQ stand for the Old Guard infantry. The grenadiers and dismounted officer are Zvezda figures, the mounted officer (actually a Marshall but will function as Generale de Division) is an Art Miniaturen white metal figure.

Next up is an HäT Bavarian Line infantry regiment.

 

The next 3 regiments are Portuguese regiments of the Peninsular War. The blue coated line infantry are New Line Design white metals. The officer is actually a Belgian Line infantry officer in white metal from Art miniaturen and the drummer boy is an ESCI conversion.

Both the cacadores regiments are basically Revells British Rifles. These were part of a second-hand swap. One of my friends had switched from 1:72 plastics to 28mm and so I got these based and primed ready. 

This line infantry regiment depicts the 21st regiment of the Portuguese brigade which was part of Picton's Fighting 3rd Division.

The larger  Cacadores Regiment depicts the 12th, also part of the 3rd Division

This smaller regiment is painted as the 9th Cacadores Regiment, I am still thinking about adding a command stand.

To finish it all a group photograph:

These 91 figures should be worth 364 points, I do hope you like them. Now what would be up for the last installment?

A Napoleonic points bomb in 1/72 - lovely! Napoleonics are a wonderful subject, but I particularly enjoy these submissions of 1/72 figures as I can just see Curt looking at all of this and deciding to start this period in yet another scale :)  

And what an assortment of nations and figure sources - I had no idea there was such diversity to be found in 1/72 Napoleonic figures.  From France to Bavaria to Portugal, and three different manufacturers, the discerning 1/72 Napoleonic gamer is clearly not lacking for choice.  Excellent work on these fellow Sander - great painting.

This is indeed a healthy-sized points bomb - and, apparently, only "part one" at that, so obviously Sander has some further shock and awe in store for later today.  Your preliminary calculations are correct, but I think you missed the one mounted fellow and the extra horse, so to my eyes this earns you 372 points.  Ka-BOOM...lets see what the Sander Air Force has in store for us later today...