From GrahamB - Loads more Ancients (555 points)

More IT problems have delayed me posting these. I can’t find the settings on my iPad to enable me to upload photos to blogger so I have resorted to uploading photos from my telephone.

Anyway, in the meantime I have still been painting more ancients for my classical army’s for the Mithradatic wars and other Successor army’s. Firstly here is a unit of Successor Agema heavy cavalry. They can also serve as Cataphracts.  I don’t know the manufacturer as they were bought 2nd hand and given long spears from Aventine Miniatures and a spare Victrix Greek standard.

Secondly I have completed a small unit of 4 Scythian horse archers who will see service with various armies. I think they are A &A miniatures. The riders have separate legs and torsos allowing multiple poses.

Next are two Caesarian Roman units from Wargames Factory so have been in the plastic pile for years. I have enough Caesarian Romans already mainly in Red, so these have yellow and white tunics as well as a variation in shields to represent either Pompeys troops or imitation Legionaries or even Italian allies of the Romans or Successors.

Next up are a unit of 16 Greek Hoplites from Victrix Miniatures. They paint up and rank up very easily.

I have added three units of 6 generic ancient skirmishers, a mix of spare metal figures and cobbled together plastics giving one unit of bows, one old slingers and one unit of javelin men. 

Finally I have completed a unit of 16 Theurokitai from Aventine Miniatures for service with my Successors. They could also double up as imitation Legionaries.

So 16 x 28mm cavalry @ 10 pts = 120 points and 79 foot 28mm figures @ 5 points each = 395 points giving a total of 555points.

***

That is...a lot of horses, a lot of riders, and a lot of guys...for a lot of points...

555 points it is!

GregB

From TomL: Clearing the Desk (220 points)

The AHPC challenge of trying to post something weekly coupled with the wonderfully addictive nature of the Library theme generator really pushed my output and cleared out some boxes of unpainted figures.  

Thanks again to Curt, Sarah, Millsy and all of the minions for all the time & effort it takes to put on the AHPC.  While painting was a lot of fun, looking at all the other entries in the morning is something I am going to miss quite a lot. Hope to join again next year.  

Starting off this post is another lady adventurer. The last Pulp Adventuress on the painting table is Mrs. Mallowan from Bob Murch’s Daughters of the Empire set.  Painted with Foundry and Two Thin Coat paints.

Wandering in from the Congo box after he missed the last call for the Nature entry is a Wargames Foundry gorilla.

These are Wargame Factory Zombie survivors picked up at a GenCon in 2013. They were assembled in a week or two by my friend's young son, I painted a few and the rest sat on a shelf until I bought contrast paints. Painted in spurts over the last few years I decided to finish these last 10 so they can join the other 50 painted survivors.  They are a weirdly sculpted set in that all the heavyset figures clothes fit horribly - social statement? 

The final group is my Skaven.  Still have a few leaders & random old metal blisters but this unit of 24 completes my rank & file clanrats. These were painted with contrast, Foundry acrylics and Vallejo Metal color paints and dirtied up with Vallejo Game wash.

Two heavy weapon teams of death and destruction. Sometimes they even hit the enemy.

I believe points for this post would be 220.
36 28mm figures * 5 points = 180
2 28mm weapons with 4 crew for 40 points.  Assuming the weapon is 10 plus 5 per crew - correct as needed.

A great way to clean your desk Tom! Mrs. Mallowan looks very spiffy, I like the way you painted her skirt. Not a lady to mess with I think. The gorilla and the zombie survivors all look great, but I find your clanrats the true pièce de résistance of this contribution. The varied colours look great, and you have applied just the correct amount of wash to bind them all together while preserving some of the vibrancy of the colours. Very nice! Those weapon teams of death look horrifying, one wonders whose death we are talking about here. But they look terrifying  terrific, a fine job. Your calculations are correct I think, so 220 points added to your tally!

Martijn

From PaulOG: Caesarian Light Troops and a Hero (110 points)

Lower output recently with work travel taking a toll, so its good to be back at the brushes! Those on our antipodean paint and chat know that Cavalry is my hobby kryptonite, and the lads there have been demanding encouraging me to man up and get some done!  So here are my first: 2 units of Roman light cavalry to skirmish ahead of my Caesarian army.

These are OOP plastic Roman Cavalry by Wargames Factory; rather average models TBH but good enough for support troops. I did some head swaps and changed the shields - hand painted of course! - to give them a more dynamic look, which has helped a lot overall.

Overall they are ok, very useful on the tabletop, and have nudged me onto doing my Cavalry units. I did enjoy doing the casualty, complete with javelin in his back, and Alan even painted up a shield to match his own army. Thanks mate!

"Caesar Aeternum!" (Caesar Forever!) and take that you traitorous son of Sassanid!

Continuing the light troops theme, a unit of Numidian foot skirmishers to precede the Legionary heavy infantry. These are also OOP Wargames Factory figs, kindly donated by Alan to fill this gap in my army. 

Again, nothing special about these figs but they are fine for their role and painted accordingly.

And lastly onto this lovely Aventine miniature - so wonderfully evocative I felt compelled to make him a standalone Hero; battered, bloodied and undaunted in the face of the enemy.

Gaul blood stains on your tunic are hard to clean... 

Wounded and sans armour post medicae treatment, he has discharged himself from the hospice tent to fight with his Comrades for his beloved legion and Caesar. "Greater Love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends". How noble, even Romantic, one might say with a more Victorian era interpretation of nationalism and brotherly love.

Vulneratus non Victus! (in fact, this is my traditional family motto!)

6 x mounted 28mm Figs (60 points), 6 x infantry models (30) and I would like to claim the Romance bonus for this admittedly non traditional interpretation: after all, "Legio patria nostra"!

From Millsy: Great work on these horsey chaps Paul. I nearly bought WF Numidians a couple of times but they proved too awkward for me to pull the trigger so I can understand how you were reluctant to paint these Romans. Having said that I love what you've done with them but maybe I'm just an old romantic? (see what I did there???). Five extra shekels for the hand painted shields brings you up to 115 points for this entry. Well done mate!

From AlanD - Gallic Cavalry (55 points)

Pompey's army for To the Strongest! continues to grow this week with a unit of Gallic cavalry.

Figures are from Wargames Factory (donated by Paul OG - thanks!) They aren't too bad, although the detail is very soft in places.

Shields are hand painted, which was fun, but did not make me want to paint a whole army of Gauls!

From Millsy: Absolutely wonderful brushwork mate! There's so much to like about these, especially the plaid and the basing but the shields are the real show stopper. I've painted enough checks myself over the years to know how frustrating it can be but the results speak for themselves. Bloody beautiful and worth another point apiece I reckon.

From Paul O'G More Caesarians! (145 points)

Building on last week's expansion of my Caesarian Roman force, this week I am adding another 2 units, and a Commander.

The Command stand is a great Aventine sculpt - a Legate focused on Crushing His Enemies and Seeing them Driven before Him, for the Glory of Caesar!

These two units (with 11 figs each) were prepared similarly to my submission last week - veterans with some mismatched gear and dynamically based on 120mm frontage. They are a mix of Warlord and Wargames Factory Romans (OOP) - the latter aren't nearly as nice but do the job for troop bases like these.

Our weekly Antipodean paint and chats have been great to build some momentum and catch up with a bunch of Aussie and Kiwi challengers, and see friends old and new. However, Kent was even more helpful this week - while I was looking for tips for  the leopard skin pelt on the standard bearer, I stumbled cross his tutorial at his YouTube channel- thanks mate! Here is the full 30min video it is for those who seek to emulate him better than me!

I hope I haven't embarrassed your tutorial Kent!

Added to last week's output my veteran Legionaries look thus

And all my Legionaries massed up are starting to look rather imposing (I hope!)

Points Wise that is 25 x 28mm figs @ 5 points each for a total of 125 points. No bonuses for hand painted shields last week so I didn't bother with any this week!!!  :-)  but I was quite happy with how the vexillum came out.

I've done the History section so am looking to file this in the Children's section because Wikipedia says: 

"The Eagle of the Ninth is a historical adventure novel for children written by Rosemary Sutcliff"

Maybe its a bit of a stretch but Alan's logic for his bonus was far weaker so I reckon its a fair cop! :-)

From Millsy: More wonderful Romans to expand your army Paul! The leopard skin has come out really well and you've certainly not embarrassed Kent with your efforts. A book about Romans written for kids seems a legit argument for the Children's section so no problem with the bonus from my POV.