From MartijnN: Württembergers, Saracens and Lannisters (140 points)

I have been far less productive than I would have liked this Challenge. However, I have not been completely idle. I finally had the opportunity to finish some models and, equally importantly, take some photographs.

First up are some Saracen infantry. These are from a Saga Warband set from Gripping Beast. They are metal, and the only infantry unit in the warband. I have had these for ages, and finally prepped them for this Challenge.

They came out okay, although they will not win any prizes. I used Quickshade Darktone on them, and as a result they are a bit... well, dark. But they will do. I will probably give them another coat of varnish when the weather improves, because the matt varnish I used (AK ultra matt) is very matt indeed (duh), and for these troops I am not too fond of that. Most of the shields are LBM transfers, but I didn't have enough of those so I painted some by hand. I am sure you won't be able to tell the difference. The rest of the warband are all cavalry, I will try to finish some of those before the end of the Challenge.

Next, the final company of my Württemberg infantry regiment for Sharp Practice. I have put off painting these for a long time, and I am glad they are done. Actually, they are rather a joy to paint. I mostly used contrast paints, like on their comrades done earlier. They are Piano Wargames miniatures that I 3d printed myself, and they are lovely sculpts. I think I have overcured them though, for they are rather brittle. And of course, when I took one of the NCOs off off the painting handle when it was completely finished, I broke off the bayonet...  It went flying through the room and for the life of me I could not find it. By now, it will have vanished into the vacuum cleaner I presume. I may try to replace it with another bayonet, but that is a very fiddly process. At least it broke off rather cleanly, so with a little imagination he is now simply carrying his musket without the bayonet. But a frustrating experience it was!

Finally, I have a regiment of Lannister Guardsmen from the A Song of Ice and Fire starter set. These are rather nice figures. I kept the uniforms "traditional", with lots of red and gold. I spent a little more time on these, using coloured washes and some drybrushing and minor highlighting over mostly contrast paints again, and I am fairly happy with these. 

I have prepared more ASOIAF figures, most of the remainder of the starter set, so I hope to get some of those done as well. We'll see how it goes.

So there we are. Scoring is simple:

28x 28mm foot @5 = 140 points

And 3 squirrels, if I remember to fill out the form!

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Martijn you may have been taking your time but you've done a fabulous job on all three of these sets. Your Saracens look the business (and who doesn't love good old metal minis) - I especially appreciate your freehand work on the shields. I'm often lazy and resort to decals so I applaud your great job! The Wurttembergers are very fine as well and I'm sure a welcome addition to your Sharpe Practice force. The fellow who is sans bayonette is simply a little slow in getting his extracted from his rusted scabbard, nothing to note here, carry on! :) Finally, those nasty Lannisters look wonderfully ostentatious in their red and gold livery. The extra time you put into them really has paid off I think. Very well done my friend!

- Curt & Huck

From BruceR: 12 Polish Voltigeurs 28mm, Overdues and Returns (80 pts)

I've headed into the stacks of the Overdues and Returns of the library.  In the past I painted some Napoleonic Polish infantry from Muraski   miniatures.  I'd ordered a unit special and when received there were no Voltigeurs.  Of course it took some time to finish the troops and when done I decided to place an order for those Voltiguers and I did.  Months passed and I can only imagine they needed to be remolded and were not coming.  Not being a patient person I ordered some Front Rank figures with Colpacks (very cool) and painted those (last years Challenge).  After many months the Voltigeurs did show and as I had painted the others in a box they went. 

This challenge, I did pledge (to myself) to paint some of the languishing figures I had collected and these would add more lights to my French forces scouring the hills for Spanish guerrillas.  

The figures are slim and the rifles slight in comparison to the North Star Spanish I first submitted.  The figures are full of character.  I love troops reaching for cartridges and some of the figures have bandages as well. I also like the side burns and mustaches giving them the veteran look. 

Weather in the plains has been crazily mild until Christmas night when we paid for the nice weather with rain or as the weather folk call it frizzle.  Rain and cold a bad mix.  The roads were shear ice and no travel, with work closed.  So, to the painting desk and here they are somewhat earlier than I expected.  I hope you enjoy.

Early stages

 

Group shot

Ready to invade

The squared shakos

Close up of cartridge grabber, forage cap (touqe up North) and head bandage

I did my standard black undercoat and proceeded to give the faces a dark brown coat.  I work my way out on the miniatures and when complete a wash.  Some highlights and a brush varnish.  Ready for battle.  I and some local friends enjoy Sharp Practice and these will fit in nicely.  Having a counter to the nasty 95th rifles I have will be a welcome option for the French player. 

Points:

12 28mm @5             =     60 pts

Overdues and Returns =   20 pts

Total                                   80 pts

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These Voltigeurs look excellent, Bruce! I like the bright colours, but you've still given them a weathered, old-campaigners look about them. I'm also quite admiring the arid groundwork you've given them - it definitely evokes those battlefields in Portugal and Spain. Well done!

- Curt

From: AngusW - 28mm The Preacher Man - Shrine - 25pts

Moving from the Orc's Pit I enter the Shine with The Preacher Man. Yet another lovely figure from the Foundry's Prussian Camp Followers pack.

Not sure where this will get used. I keep meaning to buy a town cross as a piece of tabletop clutter, he'd fit well with that for Sharp Practice.

I was heading to the Adventurers Landing, but I now realise I can already have painted something for the Oubliette so I may change direction.

The Preacher Man (5pts) + Shrine (20pts)

From: AngusW - 28mm 'Hello ladies!' - Sarah the Sorceress - 25pts

We have here Helga, a 28mm Prussian camp follower from Foundry. Ever since playing Sharp Practice I've wanted to paint some female figures, so when I get to roll on the 'Random Things Happen' table and get 'Hello ladies! 1D3 men are convinced that a nearby building is home to some rather beautiful ladies' I can actually put some ladies on the table.

Currently I'm in 'larder', having entered the dungeon via the Aquifer. I now find that I can complete the Hall of Traps though I need to get there, so I invoke 'Sarah the Sorceress' to transport me there skipping 'Golem Haunt' and 'The Pit of the Pendulum'

Helga (5pts) + Sarah the Sorceress (20pts)

From PaulSS: [Hall of Traps] Major Hogan (35pts)

 

Hall of Traps: A figure or unit which is trapped, stuck in a trap, snared, or lying in wait. Watch your step, Challengers!

Major Michael Hogan is a little early for my Hundred Days forces, Bernard Cornwell had killed him off in the Peninsular, but I thought Wellingtons trusted Exploring Office would be good as both a trapper and trappee.

Major Hogan has to both counter the machinations of Pierre Ducos and at the same time attempt to snare the French army at a disadvantage, whether it is gathering intelligence or liaising with Spanish guerillas. 

Maj. Michael Hogan: "It ain't justice, Richard, but politics, and like all politics it ain't pretty, but well done it can work wonders."

This is a lovely model sculpted by Paul Hicks for Brigade Games and really captures Major Hogan as played by actor Brian Cox in the Sharpe TV series.

One foot and one mounted figure with the location bonus should snare me 35 points.

28mm Napoleonics Duel Totalizer: 4 mounted, 3 foot

From AlexK: More peninsular war goodies (145 points)

So its final push time, time to tie up the loose ends and get the final points to finish without the horrible feeling of failure hanging over me for the next nine months (too dramatic!??). Now I have quite a gap between posts, but for once this doesn't mean I haven't been painting rather that due to scenario specific terrain items, I've been scratch building terrain and sticking my fingers to everything in sight whilst doing so. Now I should have another post later in the week with those terrain pieces, but I come before you with what was my main aim for this challenge in this post and that's a whole bunch of British Peninsular Napoleonic's.

So first up we have 8 Light Dragoons and wow!, were these time consuming. They are 28mm Perry's plastic and are really nice, well sculpted and now they are finished I won't be painting anymore anytime soon. The problem stems from the  fact that every time you think your done, you notice that they've sculpted another little detail on and you need to go round and paint it. There were 3 separate occasions when I thought I was done, first I forgot to finish the carbines (so my fault really), secondly I had to go back and do the regimental piping on the the saddle roll and then finally I had to go round putting the metal studs on the Tarleton (best hat ever), but now they're are done I really like them and I'm pretty sure they're going to be my favourite unit.

Secondly I have a level 1 leader, which is just the sergeant from the line infantry box, but after the cavalry he was a welcome distraction.

Finally from the Napoleonic's side we have another 8 more line infantry again from Perry's, these will give me a good solid base for my 'Sharp's Practice' force. I might possibly get another 8 done before the close of play, but I'm not holding my breath.

Talking of scenario specific painting my final piece for this post is a 0.30 cal machine gun team with a couple of extra crew. The terrain and troops are for playing through the TooFatLardies Pint Size Campaign "Let's go 29". The standard U.S platoon is a bit light on fire power so a 0.30 cal should add a bit of beef to the line up.....hopefully.

Points wise I think it is,

8 x 10 for the Dragoons = 80

11 x 5 for the line infantry, sergeant and 2 U.S troops = 55

1 x 10 for the 0.30 cal = 10

so a 145 all told.

From DaveD - phew its been a day of days in the day job!  Nice job Alex - i do like to see the cavalry with fancy hats!

from JohnS - A Bad Scrabble Hand H,J,M & P (75 points)

As we scrabble towards the end of the Challenge I present 4 different letters for my ABC Challenge.
First up is H is for Hammerers. I recently played my first game of Warhammer Fantasy Battle 8th edition. While I have enjoyed many games of 6th and 7th, I had never played 8th. (Don't mention AoS, you will make too many old gits like me upset.) A friend really wanted to play so I put together a little 4000 point Dwarf force. The larger units encouraged by 8th were a bit of a strain to assemble, especially the elite units. Plus we only ever table painted figures. Imagine my horror finding I only had 25 Hammerers.

Fortunately I possess a well supplied unpainted auxiliary force (that's fancy speak for a stonkin' great leadpile) that I was able to draw reinforcements from for training. And painting. I must say that I was quite surprised to find these, they were hiding under a couple of thousand plastic Warriors.

They were painted to match the existing unit and I am happy that I got pretty close as I purchased the balance of the unit pre-painted. I actually like copying good paint jobs, I find it very satisfying when old and new figures will mix seamlessly.

After the Dwarves it is time to return to Spain with J is for Jefe. I decided that it was time that my varied irregular Spanish units received an officer cadre. Well two chaps with fancy uniforms who liked to be called "Jefe" anyway.

I am always interested to read that officers in most Napoleonic armies had the ability to liberally interpret the uniform codes. It was a case of off to the tailor and muttering something along the lines of "Make me something that reflects my nobility and courage. With lots of gold braid. And shiny buttons." 

After all, if one is to be impotent, one must look impotent. Besides, shiny gold stuff makes sure you stand out on the field of battle. We all want that, right?

Next up is M for Militia. You couldn't find a more diverse lot of uniforms and equipment than among this lot of barrel scrapings, sorry, I mean fine militia recruits.

Ready to do their bit to throw out the filthy foreigners (well they are now that they have been impressed into service after being dragged from under beds and down from attics) you couldn't find a finer body of men. Unless you opened your eyes and looked for some of course.

They even have a drummer to keep the beat while they march in time. Like a herd of cats.

Lastly, where would we be in the great war against the French devils without the support of the church? P is for Padre has a local member of the clergy blessing the troops and getting ready to pitch in himself.

I believe the saying goes "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition" Although I don't remember priests carrying muskets whenever I have wandered close to a church.

This Padre seems more of an Old Testament kind of preacher, ready to do a bit of smiting.

That concludes this weeks entry. I will try and get one or two more in tomorrow or Thursday but if not, this 75 points will put me over the line to achieve my points goal for the first time ever in the AHPC. I am well chuffed.

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By Paul:

What a wonderfully diverse entry John! From stout angry chaps with big smashy hammers, to shmancy 'Orficer types, militia that even the press gangs left behind (and thats saying something!), and the Priest with the unenviable task of ministering to that motley flock (the musket is to butt stroke the unrepentant at mass you know). I've really enjoyed watching your A to Z of entries this year.

Congratulations on making your challenge target for the first time matey. That special feeling in the cockles of your heart (maybe below the cockles, maybe in the sub-cockle area) will warm your hobby heart until the next AHPC Season. Your shout for the beers then!