From BenitoV: More Dark Age Warriors ... and the Casting to Choose their Leader (65 points)

Another Tuesday, another submission. I continued this week nurturing  my Dark Ages warband, adding a second unit of warriors.

As in my post last week, these can fit in several of the Dark Ages Saga lists: Viking or Saxons or even acting as lightly armed troops in an El Cid/Reconquista film fighting the invading Moors.

 

The models are from the Gripping Beast plastics Dark Age Warriors box, straight from the sprues without any transformations or combination of pieces from other thematic boxes of the same range. The shields are transfers provided by Little Big Men Studios (I don't have the ability as other Challenge participants to hand paint shields, sorry).

My Saga warband is now half way through. I have a Levy archer unit (12 models = 1 Saga point) and 2 warrior units (8 models each = 2 Saga points). I'll now only need to paint a Guards unit (4 models = 1 point) to complete an starter 4 point warband, which hopefully will be finished for the next week's submission.

Ah! ... but I hear you saying: "not only the Guards unit is missing. You'll also need a leader"... No worry! ... this is in the second part of the submission today! 

I am actually organizing a casting in the Casting Couch Studio for that matter ... and ladies and gntlemen let me introduce the first candidate to become the warband's CEO

The model is from the Gripping Beast Saxon Thengs box. Another excellent value for money acquisition: for 25€ you get 44 warriors in chain mail with a dozen alternative heads  and potential to be  armed with swords, lances or axes.

 

The base is scratch built using a large flat stone I found in the garden of my apartments building and modelled (á la old school) with paper soaked in water and white glue.

 

With today's post I'll be adding 65 points to my Challenge score:

8 x 25 mm Dark Age Warriors @5 points each = 40 points

1 x 25 mm Saxon Thegn Leader @ 5 points = 5 points

Bonus Casting Coach Studio = 20 points 

Total = 65 points 

 

 

Another smashing batch of dark age warriors from you, Benito! 

Tamsin

  

From MikeP: Ancient Germanic Warband 2 (190 points)

 On the heels of my first instalment here from January 18, I am happy to present the rest of my Victrix 28mm ancient German war band.  The 38 figures complete the bag of 60 and allow me to take part in my local gaming group's new obsession, Clash of Spears.   When in Rome, fight the Romans, or something like that, as Wayne and Shuster once said

First up, six elite warriors, in either captured Roman gear or Germanic auxiliaries who have had enough of stupid Roman discipline and who miss beer gardens.

Next are 6 javelin armed skirmishers.   I've played COS a few times now and have learned to fear Roman light troops, so I need some fast movers with missile capability to go in, try to win the firefight, and clear my flanks.

As you can see, pants, shirts, and shoes are optional in the javelin corps.  I'm pretty sure the guy with the cloak is happiest on a cold night, maybe the rest just do a puppy pile.  As usual when doing photography, a few errors jump out like pimples on prom night.

Next up are 16 fellows with pointy sticks.  A few of them will supplement the javelin groups on the tabletop to give me two missile groups of 7 each.  The rest will take their place in the mob of battle.

Ten likely lads with choppers, just itching to get close and personal with some lucky legionnaire.

Here are the 38 figures in today's entry:

And here's the whole war band.  At 60 figures, this is the largest 28mm batch job I've ever done, and it's taken my pretty much all of January, but it was a very rewarding project and I'm looking forward to taking this lot to a gaming night soon.

It's a bad day for a Roman when he sees this coming at him.

I can't think of any way to use this entry for a planetary visit, as I used the first lot of 22 to visit Klendathu (invasion gone bad, see Varrus, Quintus), so I'll just claim 38 x 28mm figures at 5 each for a total of 190 points and leave it at that.   Next Tuesday I hope to visit Skaro, if all goes well in the secret laboratory!

Cheers,  MikeP

Good to see this warband completed, Padre! I was going to suggest that some of the javelinmen might also be waving their choppers threateningly at Romans, but a quick scroll back through the photos showed that they all have loincloths at least!

Tamsin

From Millsy: 28mm Numidians - Altar of the Snowlord (210 points)

Hi All,

This is my final post for this year's Challenge and it fulfils my very own personal assignment set by the Curt for the his Altar in the Chambers of the Challenge.
I had an 80% completed Numidian army which was lacking a couple of core infantry units so I've painted those up (100 + 20 bonus = 120 points), plus thrown in a pair of elephants with escorting skirmishers (2 x 45 = 90 points) as icing on the cake. In theory all that is missing now is some Celtiberian cavalry.

All miniatures are from Victrix with decals from LBM. I had something of a disaster with one of the decal sets (don't ask) so one howdah is a little less ornate than the other but I don't mind the overall finish.

Thanks Bruce for painting such a wonderful miniature for me as a prize, much appreciated mate.

Curt, thanks yet again for your efforts to keep the Challenge going from year to year. Having missed the last one I was doubly keen for this one and have enjoyed it immensely. Sarah, thank you for your efforts in wrangling both Curt when he is most distracted and for Sarah's Choice which is a real treat. Thanks also minions for your efforts yet again, it wouldn't be the same without you. Finally thanks to my fellow challengers for your comments on my own work and more importantly for sharing your own which I find inspiring, diverting and in many cases dangerously seductive and potentially harmful to my credit card balance!

Cheers everyone. I hope you all stay safe, well and are looking forward to a better year than last.

Millsy

From RossM - 28mm Romano Brits (20 points)

This submission returns to a project that was started in last year's AHPC: Romano Brits for SAGA.

The figures are from Gripping Beast's Wolftail warriors; which, granted the tails have been dyed a dark red rather than left grey/brown.

The shield transfers are from Little Big Men.

In game terms, these are worth 1 point; for the challenge 20 points

The points tally so far:

4 x 28mm figures - 20 points

Running total:  268 (53.6%)

Slowly getting there 😎

Cheers for now

Sorry about all the delays with this and the hassle you've had with the disappearing pic bug, but it was (for us) well worth the wait for these lovely Roman-Brits. Cracking work Ross! 

TamsinP

From BenitoM: Imperial Roman Auxilia Command (20 points)

I had a good painting week end and was able to finish the Early Imperial Roman command of my Auxilia unit for Infamy! Infamy!.

These models are a Centurio on foot, a Cornicen or Musician, a Vexillarius or Standard Bearer and an Optio. 

All these models can perform special tasks in the incoming Too Fat Lardies rules, some of them could even be critical for a game. For example, the Optio acting as assistant commander to the Centurio can negate a retreat result in combat and instead force the unit to hold positions.

The Standard Bearer can be used to inspire the men and reinforce the number of dice rolled in a combat. The Cornicem will double the command range of any leader.

These models are all included in the Victrix plastic Auxilia box (or plastic bag, to be more accurate).  As mentioned when I painted the Auxilia unit a few weeks ago, the level of sculpting and details is outstanding, being extremely pleasent to paint. 

The Centurio and the Optio shileds are transfers from Little Big Men

I had some problems to paint the fur of the Cornicen and the Standard Bearer, because I attempted several schemes. 

Finally I decided to replicate a wolf skin, with a brownish colour in the upper part of the animal's back, gradually turning grey and almost white in the lower part of the body.

 

With this post I add another 20 points (4 @28 mm models x 5 points each) to my Challenge scoring. Next model (almost finished) will buy me a ticket in Sarah's balloon.

Those are excellent Early Romans Benito, they should provide plenty of inspiration for your Legions. Wonderful details on the furs, feathers and chain mail.  Love the ribbons on the standard, great colour there.  Four figures nets you 20 points.

From what I've seen the Victoria plastic Romans have great sculpts - how are the figures to fit together?  I'm a bit waffly on the plastic kits - I love the value and have had great fun swapping bits between figures and kits.  But at the same time, I'm not patient about gluing and miss the heft of metals.

From BenitoM: Roman Landing Party at Sander's Sand Dunes (70 points)

This entry marks my landing at Challenge Island. I have sent a party of ferocious and motivated Early Imperial Auxilia as exploratores towards Sander's Sand Dunes... hopefully it will be veni, vidi, vinci allover until the final domination of this mysterious island.

 

The condition to score is something RED, and red are the tunics of my unit. Incidentally this totally historical: when researching the Early Imperial Romans, the general consensus among the historians is that Legionaries tunics may have been red and white mainly; blue was only wore for marines and no way green (sorry, Asterix fans). For those interested, Legions of Rome by Stephen Dando Collins I found particularly useful as a source to research Romans (...and a bargain at US$4.99 in electronic edition).

Auxilia wore chain mail and oblong flat shield, instead of the well-known lorica segmentata and rectangular curved shield of the mainstream legionaries in the Early Imperial era. 

This unit is the first of my Auxilia Cohors Peditata for the incoming (April 2020?)  Infamy! Infamy! rules by TooFatLardies. Each unit is made of 8 models and 4 units conform a "formation", led by a Centurio and an Optio.

 

The models here presented are the Victrix Early Imperial Roman Auxilia plastic. Although they need a little bit of assembly and gluing (something bothering to some people), the superb sculpting and the variation provided (see photo of the sprue) I really believe offset any inconvenience. The poses chosen are attacking with the gladius, the next units will feature javelins and pilums.

I have based individually in 20 x 20 mm squares and then use a movement tray adapted to the rules. The idea is that if we use some other set of rules, avoid rebasing (the wargamer's curse) and instead acquire other suitable movement tray. Bases and movement ray are from Warbases.

In these models I'm also using for the first time the Scale Color metals ranges, both for the chain mail and the helmet. Scale Color are absolutely superior to the Vallejo's mainstream metals (which will probably end in the dustbin). I can't recommend more this range, stunning finish. Now, the only problem is that you can't varnish the model, otherwise the "wow!-effect" is lost. 

Finally, for the shileds I use the Little Big Men Studios transfers created specifically for the Victrix Auxilia (also used for the Roman Cavalry) 

As noted in a previous post, these are very tall figures, close to 30mm rather than 25/28mm and don't mix well with other manufacturers ranges, specially Wargames Foundry. Having said that, we have been testing the rules opposing Warlord/Victrix Romans with Foundry's Celts/Gauls and I can assure that nobody really notices once on the table.

With this entry I will add 70 points to my challenge:

8 models (28 mm)  @ 5 points: 40 points

Sander's Sand Dunes: 30 points

With the beach head secured, now it's time to move inland. Next stop at Millsy's Millpond.

"They've all got in in for me!" That's a lovely octet of Roman auxiliaries, Benito.  And just enough red to qualify for this island location.
I can't fault your maths - 70 points it is!

TamsinP

From NoelW for Thursday: The antic tumble to the finish post 3: (225 points)

Close to the start of the Challenge, I began posts for the army which I’d thought was going to be my main thrust (Oooh, missus!) for the Challenge, namely Carthaginian opponents for the Romans. As it turns out (a) this has not quite happened all that much and (b) the Roman army I’ve been concentrating on would’ve had relatively little difficulty with a Punic opponent, seeing as everyone in Carthage was dead by the time they veni-d and vici-d.

Anyway, returning to that original impetus (yes, I do know some big words – I just use them incorrectly – should be “impulse”, really, but tell that to my spellchecker) I decided to complete a squabble of Celts (that’s the correct collective noun, as far as I’m aware) and a punitive Punic – er – punnet of solid, down to earth warriors from the land of Dido and Slim Shady.

Here's the Carthaginians: 

The figures are Victrix. They're nice figures, though slim (i.e. anatomically pretty accurate) which makes them a little fiddly to put together. Well worth the effort, however.

But what really makes these figures (apart from the quite superb quality of painting, of course) is the Little Big Men decals for the shields. Again, they're slightly fiddly to apply but if you follow their instructions with a little care the results are wonderful. These decals are really little works of art, turning a reasonably painted unit into something special. I shall be turning to LBM again. Indeed, I might even create a couple of units just so I can use more of their decals.

As I've said, part of that Punic army will be Celtic allies, so here’s another batch of Celts. I think these are rather more effective than my previous batch - the skin tones in particular seem to have come out well, though that's perhaps not very visible in the photos.

With luck, I'll manage one more post today - though time may be tight, so I hope Iain will be able to fit it in.

21 Carthaginians and 24 Celts = 45 figures: 225 points

 Well these are lovely  Carthaginians ,great sculpts excellently painted and I agree the transfers work really well. The raucous rabble of Celts are super, their shields are also excellent, and the juggernaut of Noel's posts continues! 225 points it is!

All the best Iain