From BruceR, Once more into the breach, (Pts 15)

I thought I was done.  I found myself with some free time this Thursday and these three Cossacks have been looking at me throughout my 10mm madness.  Oh well, quick session and done.

These characterful figures are from Wargames Foundry and are fabulous.  I believe they were an addon to a purchase our group was making due to the rule of cool. 

I had gifted a friend a Silver Bayonet Russian band I had painted, maybe last AHPC.  I decided they would make a great Cossack/Ukrainian band to fight the evils found in the Silver Bayonet.  My grandfather made his way from Ukraine, through Canada to the States during WW1, so playing some freebooting Cossacks from the steppes would be right up my ancestral alley.    

These three were the last to flush out the band.

The Officer of the band is "Sophat" the Well Dressed.

Next, is Uncle Petro.

Last, is Oleksander One Eye.

The rest of the band completed prior to the challenge.  A young St. Nickoli in the back.

Points:

3 28mm at 5@.                    15 Total

Hope you enjoy.

One more time, thanks for looking, thanks to Curt, Sarah, and the Minions.

Roll well and be well.

Bruce

From Millsy:

These are absolutely glorious mate. The colours are so vibrant and the backstories implied in their names really sets the tone. I love the fact you've picked something based on your family history too, such a cool way to inject a little more of yourself into a project.

Well done on these and the Challenge as a whole. 15 more hryvnia added to your tally!

Cheers,

Millsy

From MartijnN: Silver Bayonets and Bold Action (82 points)

No, that's not a typo. These vehicles are indeed for the game Bolt Action, but I consider myself taking up any 28mm WWII game at all, as quite a bold action, as I have often said that my wargaming interests do not stretch beyond 1918. I have dabbled in 6mm Western Desert, and still have armies for that, but I can't remember when I played my last game with them. Sometime in the last century I think. However, I recently joined a local club (The Tin Soldiers of  Antwerp, known for organizing the Crisis show here in Belgium), which of course I should have done years ago, and Bolt Action is quite popular with them. To keep somewhat in the spirit of my self-imposed time limitation, though, I have opted for an early war French army. These two tanks are the first units of my new army. A Char D-1 infantry tank and a Renault F35/39 light tank. They are the first 28mm vehicles I have ever painted, I believe.

I like the fancy camouflage patterns the French used. Apparently, once the war truly started they switched over to a more practical scheme, as the originals did not do very well what they were designed for (that is, camouflaging). But I just applied the rule of cool. And contrast paints.

Infantry tank Char D-1

Renault F39

Anyway, I am very happy with how they came out. They are Warlord models, which are OK (though not great) but ridiculously overpriced. I did buy a French starter army from them, which provides good value, but I also found some digital sculptors online who produce STL's for some very nice figures, equipment and vehicles, so my printer has been running pretty continuously. I hope to finish some more during the Challenge.

Now, I have been aware of the game The Silver Bayonet for quite some time, but again, that was nothing I thought I could be interested in. Weird sh***, as some would call it. However, once again this is popular at the club, and people are quite obviously having a great time with it. As a warband numbers only eight figures, I thought I'd give it go and bought a unit of North Star Austrians for the game.

I found these a lot of fun to paint, something out of the ordinary and I like how they turned out. I am less enthusiastic about the cuirassier officer, as the right arm came separately and I quite dislike that with metal figures, but he is still OK. I struggle with white uniforms in any case, but I have not found a way yet to do them satisfyingly with speedpaints, so I had to fall back on acrylics. It did not turn out completely like I was hoping for, but let's say he is acceptable.

 

Cuirassier and Hussar

 

Coachman and Highwayman (Think I would rather not let either of them drive my coach)

 

Doctor ("trust me, I'm the doctor") and Tactician

 

Irregular and Woodsman

So there you have it, two new projects (as if I needed those). 8.5 28mm figures for 42 points (let's not go down the .5 route, and the tank commander is not only half a figure but a very simple one too), and two 28mm vehicles for 40 points. And two squirrels!

8.4 28mm foot @5 = 42

2x 28mm vehicles @20 = 40

Two squirrels

Total 82 points

Oh boy Martijn, those are a lot of "first times" for you here! Great work all round, I specially the FT's since they are your very first 28mm vehices and still have turned out gorgeous! Painting white is one of those old problems we painters face but we should meet up one time and we could exchange tips and perhaps the good people here can help you? 

From JezT: Silver Bayonet Part 2 - Assorted 28mm (22 points)

Dear All, 

Its a Thursday so must be time for some more snow bases and Silver Bayonet figures? This is my second batch and just four figures for 20 points. Pleased with these as they mean I can now field a squad and hopefully shortly play my first game. All were painted with Games Workshop paints. 

The basing style came about by chance when I was doing Part 1 as I started using some clear bases and initially just placed some snow basing on the metal part of the figure; I liked the way it looked as the terrain sheet will show through the base on the table and I am only planning to use these as individual skirmish figures. 

In more detail - first up we have the squad leader. The leader is Marshall Ney from Giants in Miniature to which I made a few conversions. I beefed up the musket as the original was a bit skimpy, I especially wanted a cartridge box and added this and a backpack. Originally I tried to sculpt a cartridge belt with Milliput, but the result was a bit clunky, so I pragmatically decided to paint it as a blanket role.   

As I am using a French squad option I really wanted to include a Vivandiere. I am not sure of the maker origin of the female figure and don't think it was a Napoleonic figure; I added in the wine bottle as her sustenance for the squad (not sure if that will go very far). 

The next two are North Star figures and painted them to fit in with the French squad. I like the sculpting of both of these and the male figure can take on a variety of squad roles - Junior Officer, Veteran Hunter and so on. 

So four figures and just a simple 20 points for me.

Cheers Jez

TeemuL: You are absolutely right, snow bases, Silver Bayonet and Napoleonics are exactly what the world is expecting from Thursdays and that is exactly what Thursdays are delivering! Nice addition to your squad and good luck with your games. Interesting to hear your story about the discovery of the basing style, sometimes accidents are great innovations. As it seems to be a tradition of today, I'll give you two bonus points for conversion work and telling the story of the bases. :)

From JezT: The Silver Bayonet Skirmish Characters Part 1 - 28mm (60 points)

Dear All 

A new project this challenge is to paint up some skirmish figures for "The Silver Bayonet". You may have already seen some of my brother Matt's Silver Bayonet Zombie figure posts and we are basing the game in the Russian 1812 Winter campaign - I am taking on the French faction. 

Not sure what it is with the Thursday crew and more snow based figures - must be having TeemuL as our minion.  

Anyway here are the first 4 French characters. These are from the Perry Retreat from Moscow Cavalry pack. 

Love the Dragoon with the Musket and converted the Polish figure to have a musket rather than carbine

Next up are some Revenants from North Star.

I also have some North Star individual figures - very handy as I especially want figures in winter uniforms. Am French so must have a Guard character option. 

Two against One isn't fair ...

Finally got the North Star pack of Hounds. 

Altogether 12 figures for 60 points - fingers crossed will be Part 2 coming up with my Officer character. 

Cheers Jez 

TeemuL: Excellent Jez, something new! :) Well, good old Retreat from Russia and snow bases, but from different contributor. I'm glad to have any changes. You have an interesting take to bases, clear bases, but still some basing material glued on. It might be the best of both worlds, clear base area, but it is not that visible. Great idea! In general I like your brushwork and the bases look very real. Good luck with your brotherly project! That starts to sound quite familiar, two particants working on a same project, where I have heard that before...

From MattT - A horde of zombies, that's just my style Sir. ( 50 points)

One of the gaming plans I have with my brother for next year is to start playing The Silver Bayonet. I know we are a bit behind the curve but it does look fun. We have decided to set it in Russia as we already had a few minis and my brother liked the Perry's, Retreat from Moscow minis. I think he will be posting some of them this challenge. I had painted up my Russian warband before the challenge so have decided to focus on a few baddies.

I think I have managed to create some pretty good-looking Napoleonic zombies by bashing together some plastic Napoleonic's with some zombie bits and filling in the gaps with green stuff. The good news about converting zombies is the worse your sculpting is the better they look. I had created 6 before the challenge started, which is probably all I will ever need.  However looking at them 6 zombies didn't feel like much of a horde so I created 10 more.

Group shot of them all together

As I sit here looking at them I think I need an eagle. Might have to see what I can come up with.

10 x 25mm Zombies = 50 points

_____________________________________

I love these! They are so creative and unique. Really wonderful stuff Matt. I also like the idea of an eagle bearer who still has some vestigial sense that he should be carrying it long after death. Creepy AF. Love the snow too. Brilliant work.

- Curt

From BruceR - Epic Iron Brigade, Zombie Camels, Chaos Warriors, Limbo, (117 pts)

It’s great to be back for Challenge XV and all the positivity associated with the hobby we share.  

As we all do, I have a number of different ways to go this year and was sitting reading Curt’s first post and I was drawn to a couple of primed epic ACW infantry stands that simply sat on my painting area.  I’d continued from the Challenge last year and completed the Guts and Glory box of epic ACW and the crew here played a couple of Black Powder games with the newly finished forces.  One of our crew had moved away a number of years ago, but manages to return once or twice a year to game.  He played ACW this summer and started painting the Army of North Virginia.  This got my juices going so why not paint the Iron Brigade (Midwest toughs) for the Union.  We, like many others, we have  paired down the number of stands in a regiment to 3 from the Warlord 5.  I was able to find a box on ebay and was surprised when they arrived in this wee box.  20 strips of Iron Brigade ready for the brush.  I had to create a command stand as only 2 are in the box.  I cut up a strip and placed some 10mm Kallistra ACW metals in to make it happen.  The buddy returned two weekends past and we put his new force and my additional troops on the table for a battle.  A long story as to why there were 3 stands sitting unloved.  They were not used or needed and so I return to the Iron Brigade.  Perfect for the first level of hell “Limbo”, returning to a project.  I whipped them out and with only 3 strips I had to dig in the bits box and decided to add some Kallistra officers and a standard to create another base.  So another 2 bases of Iron Brigade lads to the collection. 

Iron Brigade

Continuing Frenzy:

Zombie Camels

Yesterday, the gang came over for the last game of the year as I’m traveling for the holidays.  We have enjoyed The Silver Bayonet, and I had set up the 2^nd scenario from the Egypt book.  We had a blast and when finished one of the boys passed out little Xmas packets to the 3 of us.  These were resin printed “Zombie Camels”.  I had used some nurgle troops to represent them previously as I did  not have Camels of any sort.  So, while the war department watched the Kennedy Center production Sunday night, I painted Zombie Camels.  I kept to the nurgle theme as, well they are zombies.  Used speed paints for most of the work and I actually like how they turned out.  We will have to replay scenario one to get the zombie camels back  on the board. 

Gift Painting:

Chaos Warriors

While putting some gifts together of miniatures for the gaming crew I noticed two original metal chaos warriors/champions sitting on a figure shelf.  Probably been there for 15+ years (actually I have no idea where I would have obtained them from) Perfect, one of the group has an  old chaos warrior army and I had nothing for him.  Well get the brush going and two old school chaos warriors ready for Xmas giving and Mordheim, WHFB, WtOW etc… 

Good to be back

______________________________________________

Welcome back to the Challenge, Bruce! I've always really liked your 12mm ACW efforts and these do not disappoint. Love the undead camels; a terrific addition to your Silver Bayonet collection and definitely a good reason to revisit a scenario. This all being said, I have to admit that my favorites of the crowd are the two Chaos Warriors. Love these guys. They have that wonderful old-school wide-stance look about them. What an awesome gift. Well done!

- Curt 

From Millsy: Silver Bayonet 28mm Napoleonics (255 points)

G'day All,

Having decided I needed a rest from painting a pile of individual character-type figures with my Star Wars: Legion stuff I moved on and painted... ummm... a pile of individual character-type figures for Silver Bayonet. The less said about my thought processes there the better I think.

These are a mix of branded Silver Bayonet miniatures from North Star topped up with some Front Rank stuff to bulk out the troop types and a few hangers on from elsewhere. The Silver Bayonet faction sets are great they lack enough basic line troops to get you to a full 8-man roster within a typical points limit. Front Rank stuff can be purchased individually and are a good match from a size and style perspective.

Spanish Faction

Others

Challenge Library - Some Goblins for the Fantasy section.

Deserters and bandits.

Challenge Library - Lady Sarah's Library Cart - Spanish Guerrilla

A rather disgruntled lady guerrilla who looks like my request to ride Lady Sarah's Library Cart across to the Blue Room might be the final straw!

Challenge Library - Famous Person - General Tadeusz Kościuszko

General Tadeusz Kościuszko is a Giant in Miniature from Wargames Illustrated and quite appropriate for "Australia" as a famous person given we named our only proper mountain after him. Not sure about the marble effect on the homemade plinth but I can always revisit in the future (yeah right).

Challenge Library - Romance - "Date Night"

No idea of the provenance of this miniature. It was gifted to me by a mate and had been lurking in the lead pile for years. Quite what happened to lead up to this moment isn't clear. At least she looks relaxed which has to be a good thing right?

Challenge Library - Local History - NSW Corps

The NSW Corps were the first organised military in "Australia", taking over from the marines of the First Fleet. Also known as the Rum Corps for their poor behaviour and trade in illegal rum. Here we see Private G. Burch, terrified half out of his mind at the thought that anything and everything might kill him (it can!). His trusty gazetteer describes his new workplace as terror australis and he's inclined to agree!

All up this is...

• 31 x infantry 28mm miniatures =155 points
• Library (Fantasy) = 20 points
• Library (Lady Sarah's Library Cart) = 20 points
• Library (Famous Person) = 20 points
• Library (Romance) = 20 points
• Library (Local History) = 20 points

Total 255 points.

Not sure what's next. I need a break from individual character-type figures ;-P

Album: Elsiane 

Artist: Elsiane

Album: With Orchestra Live

Artist: Hooverphonic

Album: The Great Unknown

Artist: Woodes

Cheers,

Millsy

 

***

 

Bless you Millsy, for keeping things unusual - and for a top-of-the-line music selection! I love Elsiane, and I had no idea to even search for Hooverphonic with an orchestra. I'm all over that. 

 

So, your submission - awesome painting as always, and as usual, a cool "hook" in terms of a project. 

 

UPDATE - apologies to Millsy, I had not counted things here properly, and he was short some points - this lovely work rings in at 255 points! Well done Millsy, and thanks for your patience!

 

GregB