From GregB - 28mm Afghan Regulars (60 points)

Afghan Regulars in 28mm for the Second Anglo-Afghan War; 28mm figures from Perry Miniatures.

This week we swing back to a historical subject - more troops for my Second Anglo-Afghan War project. Here we have a unit of Afghan Regulars for the period. These are 28mm metal figures from Perry Miniatures. They will join with the Tribal warriors painted earlier in this edition of the Challenge to represent an infantry unit for the Osprey game "The Men Who Would Be Kings". 

Making ready for a firefight!

Information about the uniforms of Afghan regulars in this period is kind of spotty, and to the extent it is available, the consistent theme is a certain inconsistency in the reports...so I took some basics and just sort of improvised. I thought the red coats with yellow facings would make for a nice splash of colour, and an ideal combo to engage with the troops of the British Empire.

Officer and musician...had no idea what colours to use for the drum, so I just improvised with some green!

As always, the Perry Miniatures sculpts are top shelf, and it is a joy to paint proper metal figures. Trimming the flash is always a chore, and can be a particular issue with these Perry castings, but in general these are just a treat to work with.

The count down is upon us, and this edition of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is nearly closed. I hope to get one more unit finished for this project before the deadline arrives, but, as ever, I have five projects "on the go" at once, so we'll see :) 

These fellows are ready to skirmish!

For scoring purposes we have 12 figures in 28mm size, which should be good for 60 points. That's all for this week! Looking forward to sharing more as the final few days approach.

A very fine last regular Tuesday contribution, Greg! As usual you have done a great job on them, and it is always nice when you get to choose how to paint as there is little information available. The red coats and the yellow facings work very well . Hmm, they almost remind me of a lot of sons.... I am very exited though to see you tackling this colonial project, and I hope we will get to see more of them in the future! 60 points added, well done indeed!

Martijn

From BruceR: Zulu (88 points)

Greetings on Thorsday, kept in line by Teemu and his delightful culinary Finnish descriptions. 

I find myself done with my FIW project, due to starting some units prior to the challenge, and not being prepared for the next. Oh well, always plenty of opportunity in the game cave.

I started a Zulu themed project two challenges ago and decided to grab them up again.  We intend to try The Men Who Would be Kings for this project and see how it goes. From the previous start I have 18 Zulus and 12 Brit’s. A friend has the bulk of the forces and is a long way back in the painting line for him. I’ll have to get enough done to try out some games. 

I pulled a bag of what I believe are married warriors from their hair. They are 15mm and from Old Glory 15’s. The first hurdle is the shields, not attached and getting them on is a slight chore. As I’m using sabo bases we are basing the figures individually. I’m used to painting 28mm and usually like to do 8-10 figures to be able to accomplish little victories. I decided to paint the 39 figures together and it went pretty smoothly. I base coated them in ebony flesh with the airbrush. I than blocked in the colors, gave them a wash of Riekland flesh, highlighted skin and shields, done (with some basing work). 

Overhead of the whole group

half the group

backsides

how they look on the bases

Points:

39 15mm foot @ 2 =  78 points

Total 78 points

A new and strange phenomenon.  I primed outside yesterday.  What you say?  The northern prairie saw above 50 (F) degrees.  Doggo got a walk as well.  Be well.

Bruce

TeemuL: 39 minis in batch is worthfile task, even in 15mm world. So you had 18 before and now have 39 more? What size is the individual base? Nevertheless, they look great on sabot bases, not too tight or not too spread out. I'll give you ten extra points for the hand painted shields, that seem appropiate regarding the size of them. You seem to be quite close to your points target, but don't let that stop you! I haven't primed outside yet, but luckily I have a corner in a semi-warm garage, where I can prime and varnish.

From PeterB: 28mm Zulu war (500 points)

When I first signed up to the challenge I had a great plan. My painting tray has been since the beginning of lockdown, been covered with a large pile of plastics. Built and undercoated, but not painted. Staring at me for the entire of lockdown. Constantly mocking me for not painting them. I refused to pack them away as then they would never be painted. I love painting fantasy and sci fi and I really want to paint historical, but I end up getting intimidated by the need to be accurate. (I know, I don't actually have to be accurate, people like Daniel Mersey have encouraged us now that we just need to do our own thing.) So when the challenge started I decided they would definitely get painted, they would be done. Then I got carried away with the challenge planets and had a whale of a time painting all the fantasy and sci fi. It was Tom G who asked in the Facebook who asked if anyone else had gone off course from their original painting plan. My reply?

"My project has been tossed aside like Superted before Spotty came and rescued him and took him to a magic cloud."

Well, challenge planets completed, I had no more excuse, I had to paint them. So, for the historical grognards (I'm looking at you Ray) I tried my best to do them justice. Then, you know what, I really enjoyed painting them.

Fire at will!

"You mean your only plan is to stand behind a few feet of mealie bags and wait for the attack?"

Thousands of em!

"Can you move your leg?" "If you want me to dance..."

I have worked out by making half size units as per the rules, two boxes from Perry miniatures and a couple of free sprues of Zulus and Brits from the cover of Wargames Illustrated (see if you can spot the odd ones out) you can play a game of The men who would be Kings. I love the blue book rule sets from Osprey and the fact that you can set up a game with pretty much just two boxes of plastic really appeals.

The Zulu's were easier to paint, but the Brits I actually used 15 different paint colours (although the photo's don't show seem to show this) but once I got on a roll painting them in batches of about 12 at a time I really enjoyed it.

So points wise:

• 48 Zulu's in 28mm scale, 48 x 5 = 240
• 51 Brits in 28mm scale (There are 52 pictured but I actually painted one as a tester before the challenge) 51 x 5 = 255
• Millsy: Anything this epic needs rounding up to 500 for cool factor along

Total points = 500

From Millsy:

I love a good points bomb and this one is a corker! Congrats Peter on smashing through your Challenge prep backlog and in some style too. For me this is exactly what modern plastics are all about, the ability to bring hordes of miniatures to the table at a bearable cost but without sacrificing the quality of the end result.

The entire submission is mind blowing but the thing that stands out for me is the balance between variety of shield designs and poses amongst the Zulus. There's a huge temptation when diving into something like this to get a bit lazy and just "get it done" but that's certainly not the case here.

A mahoosive 500 points for your totle. Cracking effort!