From GrahameH: Another Army Finished (468 Points)

Not these (although can't see what else to add to them) British Home Guard (Peter Pig)

The Home Guard

A closer look at a unit

Modern Transport - the bicycle. Painted some discarded bikes just behind so I can have this unit dismounted (need to buy another three of the mounted ones I feel)

Not sure why I have these. Peter Pigs WW2 British Police and Air Wardens. Also painted 2 as Fire Brigade.

Total for "Dad's Army"

30 Soldiers on foot - 4 on bicycles and 5 unmanned bicycles with Pvt Goddfrey in the rear. 8 Emergency Services (4 Police, 2 Wardens and 2 Fire Brigade)

I did enjoy painting these, but back to the Russians.

Soviet Naval Infantry (and more flamming head swaps)

Finished this army now. Mainly Battlefront Figures with some Peter Pig (heads also Peter Pig - their head range I have found very useful)

Soviet Naval Infantry (total Below)

A Section, Platoon or Company depending on what rules I am using

82mm Mortar (and yet more head swaps as no one makes any support weapons or transport for Naval Infantry in 15mm - well not that I could find)

2 X AT Guns and Limbers

AA Truck (Truck Battlefront - gun and crew Peter Pig)

I know its a French car but couldn't find a Russian one in 15mm (Peter Pig)

Supply Wagon (Battlefront)

 

2 X 76.2 Infantry Gun ( I've done Limbers for these but they're not in the photo)

 

Grand Total 2 X AT Guns with 3 Crew, 2 X Infantry Guns with 3 Crew, 4 Limbers, 1 Car, 1 AA Truck, 1 Supply Wagon, 1 Truck, 3 X MMG with 3 Crew, 3 X 82mm Mortar with 3 Crew, 2 x 120mm Mortars with 3 Crew, 3x 50mm Mortars with 2 crew, 4 AT Rifles with 2 crew, 2 wagons for the mortars and 70 infantry.

And just because I had them 2 X ZIS 30s (Battlefront)

ZIS-30s

And the last cossack (honest) had some heads and dancers left over (Peter Pig)

Oh gosh Grahame you are a painting machine at these 15mms. Those black-tunic'd naval infantry look excellent, seems that's every WWII wargamer's favourite Russian force, and deservedly so, as they stand out in the sea of khaki, green and feldgrau. You've done a smashing job on them, and it's great to see them so well supported with AT guns and a bit of AA! The pair of Zis-30s are cute, and who doesn't love a dancing cossack (though I'm sure you declared that army finished the other week). But you've made the home guard look like vaguely effective fighting machines, which isn't on, really. 

You always flummox me when it comes to calculating your tallies. *maths hat on, ritual of summoning for Miles* 

42 Home guard foot (counting the discarded bicycles), four bicycle-mounted 'cavalry'. Plus 118 Soviet infantrymen including crew and the dancing cossacks, fifteen crewed guns (not counting the AT rifles as they're too small for me) and twelve misc vehicles/wagons/limbers. 

=a whopping four hundred and sixty-eight points Boom - points bomb! 
Now Miles, come along and correct my calculation. 

Phil

From KeithS: A Morass of Monsters (142 points)

This past week was about anticipating and filling some near future gaming needs, as well as continuing to clean out my piles of old lead.

First up are two very big Minotaurs from Grenadier and...something else.  The former go with the ones I painted a few weeks back.  Somehow they got dropped into a box marked "demons and devils" and forgotten until I did some cleaning the other day.  I could not let them go unpainted when their pals were done.  The guy on the right was in the same box and I pulled it out too as it looked like another minotaur, albeit of different design.  I'm pretty sure it's legitimately a devil of some sort.

From the back.  I like these sculpts.  They have plenty of personality and look good painted up.

Since I've been running Keep on the Borderlands for some friends on a periodic basis, I knew I was going to need Gnolls at some point.  Happily, Iron Wind is producing old Ral Partha figures and I was able to procure a Gnoll Starter Army of a dozen pups.  There are five pairs with various weapons, plus a larger commander and a single archer.

I kept their shields fairly simple, though how a mangy guy got a nice colorful shield is anybody's guess.

It wouldn't be a Gnoll army without some flails.  But, all of the weapons were pretty nice.

Some more.  For the skin, the description Gygax wrote was grey-green, so that is what they got.  however, for the fur I went with a nice golden brown in honor of my Golden Retriever who kept interrupting me while I painted.

Also for the Keep, I'm going to need more zombies than the few I have, so I picked up a four pack with the Gnolls from Ral Partha (they're left).  The rightmost two were from the pile I got from my college roommate.  The thing second from left isn't really a zombie - in fact, I have no idea what it is, but it looks enough like a zombie for me.

From the back.  Nice, serviceable figures that will help fill out the ranks of a zombie horde.

Next up are three mismatched monsters, a medusa, djinn, and a cockatrice.  The Medusa will go with the Silent Sister project (and hence the reason they have no eyes; I painted four other Medusae last summer so I have an army of them now).  The Djinn was just because - he looks a lot like Captain Jean Luc Picard to me.  Last, the cockatrice also goes with the Silent Sisters project (as does a pair of Gorgons and other "turn you to stone" nasties).

They were a fun lot to paint, something a little bit different.

I like to paint in even numbers and, with only three monsters, I needed some filler -- I like to move around to different figures constantly to let paint dry but stay busy.  I went with these three lasses, two are from the same group I painted earlier.  The one on the right was, I thought at first, another medusa.  But, when I started painting her, realized she  just had big hair.  Thus, she is just a civilian, albeit nicely dressed.

Last up, and finished up in just a few hours work, were four goblins.  I didn't need them, and they don't match my other stuff.  However, I wanted something quick and easy to fill some time yesterday, and they fit the bill.  They're oldies, all from my old roommate's collection.

From the back.  They are pretty rudimentary in some ways (just look at the glob of a shield, which I should've filed flat and painted from scratch).  As I'm sure most people agree, it's harder to paint a poorly sculpted figure.

That's all for now.  I wanted to have some others done, but real life always gets in the way!  I am still procrastinating on my Scottish army for Saga while dithering with monsters, but at least I am making progress in clearing out the old lead.  Happily, I have today off, so more time to paint (until the missus finds things for me to do!).

Oh Keith, that's a motley collection of denizens. Impressive lead-pile clearing, how many miniatures is that so far? I like the skin tone on those gnolls, didn't realise that is the classic authentic colour. Really nice grey skin tone on the zombies too - what's the base for that? My favourite of the bunch is that cockatrice - super cute! I'd take one of those as a rather flamboyant pet.

28 figures that look to average out to 28mm across the lot, so a total of 140, plus a couple bonus for the colourful gnoll shields. Brings your tally over 1300 - amazing ! 

Phil

From KenR: 15mm SYW British Royal Horse Guards (73 Points)

This week sees me return to my SYW 15mm Minden Project and the completion of this unit of 18 British Horse Guards.

The figures are from a US company called Blue Moon and are available in the UK from Old Glory. I did a review on them a while back on my Yarkshire Gamer blog and was generally positive about the figures. I still have a few quibbles regarding the definition of detail on some of the casts but I was happy enough with them to commit to buying all my British Regiments (six) from them.

Apologies for the dark photos, I just haven't had chance to get any photos of these done in natural light.

With this unit done I just have one left to complete the British contingent, that unit is ready primed and the horses are done so I hope to have them done before challenge end.

Although not officially part of the Guard,  this unit was the senior Cavalry Regiment in the British Army and was particularly unusual as it had a blue coat rather than the traditional British Red.

The Regiment was also slightly larger than most other British ones of the time with three rather than the usual two Squadrons.  Traditionally the Horse Guards rode black horses however I am representing the unit after a good time on Campaign when good remounts would be at a premium, regardless of colour.

So at 4 points a pop that's 72 points plus a cheeky one for the tiny flag ! It will also go know my SYW Side challenge total to make my defeat look slightly less embarrassing.

I'm currently working on my TV show bonus round which is proving slow but fun. My next entry after the bonus will either be the last unit of Cavalry or another unit of SCW Moroccan Regulares, not decided yet.

Ah these look great Ken, a proper decent sized unit of cavalrymen, looking resplendent in their blue coats and jaunty tricornes.

You have the total right, so that's 73 points for your tally! The side challenge aside, you've smashed your original target of 750, but as we approach the closing weeks of the challenge, you could potentially double it?

Phil

From SanderS: Bantha Pudu! (20 Points)

Hoi,

Only a small entry today, but one I like a lot. Last Challenge I have entered quite some West End Games Star Wars miniatures, this year the only figure of that line I intend to list is this Bantha with rider. It is one of the Holy Grails of the line, now they are OOP, and I am glad to have acquired one. As the dumbo that I am, I managed to loose one of his horns and solved that with some greenstuff, it sure makes him stand out from other versions.

Anyhow, here he is:

Now, I can hear Phil asking me if I can feel the grind of the Challenge since I only list this one figure. The answer to that Phil darling, is no, I have finished my part of the Curtgeld entry this week and shipped it out, I have also been beavering away at my entry for the bonus round for the 5th. So on the contrary I feel quite on a roll at the moment, while I guess I will not reach the 1500 points target I set for myself, I hope to get as far as 1000 points.

So Phil, what amount of points would you grant this model? :-P
Cheers Sander

Hah, cheeky Sander. As Friday Minion, I have a mandate from the great Snowlord to 'encourage' the Friday crew to maximise their paint output. But, as it is a theme week, I will be gracious, and spare the whip.    

This is a very fine bantha and tusken rider. He looks like a particularly mean specimen, with his missing horn. I like how you respond to the rarity of the piece not by leaving it pristine in it's packaging, but by losing some bits and  painting him up for your collection ;-)

I reckon this beast is equivalent to a 28mm vehicle, and I'll award the rider too for 20 points in total. Inching closer to your 1000.

Phil

Friday Minion Returns

Happy Friday, Paint-Flingers! Friday Minion Phil is back, and raring to go. Fist off, my thanks to Sylvain for looking after y'all, and for his fascinating French Friday fact about the origin of mignon.

This is definitely not why Sylvain was covering for me last week:

It's looking like a quiet week, I see just three entries lines up so far. Which is not entirely bad thing, as that would release me back to my theme round entry. So we have a Star Wars rarity from Sander, 15mm SYW from Ken and Grahame is finishing off another army, funnily enough enough.

Onwards and upwards, eh?

From AaronH - 1 1/2 RPG figures from Reaper(8 points)

This is a small entry. One full size figure and a cat.

This is Sybil, Templar-Cleric of Rosmerta. Rosmerta is a peaceful goddess, hearth and home sort of thing. There are very few Templars in the church and they are looked down on by the majority of the more peaceful priests. They are extremely valued by the church hierarchy however.

Sybil is a young priestess and is bothered by both the disdain of her co-religionists and the things she has seen and done in the service of her goddess. She is fearless and skilled in battle and her party members value the hell out of her.

Sybil is a Bones model. The face detail, as usual, is non-freaking-existent. Seriously. Everything you see there is paint. The rest of the model is very nice though. The armor especially has some really nice details in it.

I settled on the Carthaginian symbol for Rosmerta as it seemed appropriate, and is easy to paint.

It's a cat. One of the players just got a familiar.






Perhaps that little cough was the sputtering of  Aarons B-17's...not a huge carpet bombing, but a tidy eclectic one! Maybe if we chant for a moment Aaron can kick them out for a final mission of the day! ;)
I do have a love/hate relationship with the Bones line. I love the price and variety, but do dislike the soft spots and fighting the inital color layers! The cleric is probably the most undervalued party member and Paladins are often overlooked as mere tanks. Both are capable fighters, incredible foes of undead, and capable healers the later which every party needs! ;)
The colors you've chosen are very fine for this servant of  Rosmerta. I really like the yellow cloak The addition of her god's symbol on her shield should put those liches on notice too!
The little familar is very deftly done and is a great little model. It will be interesting to see how the party uses it.
Although her features are soft, you did a nice job of  painting the templar up. She is very  eligable for Lady Sarah's coveted award so I put the tag up so your templar won't escape notice! Very fine work,Aaron!
since I'm infantry and  I still own all my toes and fingers, I'm calling this 8 points....fractions are only good for eating pies anyway! ;)

From AaronH, 6mm Sci-Fi(25 points)

I recently decided to try out 6mm Sci-Fi. I got some deals on eBay for some epic 40k models, but didn't care all that much for the rules. I threw together some two page Battletech light rules that my son and I can play together and off we went.

This batch is ten space Marine models of various sorts. Or perhaps eight SM models and two of another provenance.

Two missile launchers. The missiles are actually olive drab. Its a sunny day and the light is less than optimal.

Side views. I have six more of these to repaint.

Predator. this is a very busy model and did not photograph well at all. So basically a toddler.

Last up is six rhinos.

Rhys likes the game and the models, and the price is right, so this one is a win.






The drone of miniature B-17's continues.... Nice work on these, Aaron. The photography has altered the colors a bit, but I can easily see your paints were kept thin enough to not obscure the details on these tiny tanks. Epic is a very fun game and I only regret I did not pick up or complete any force. The models GW made for the game were packed with detail and the vehicles most of all were superior sculpts to their 28mm counterparts. I also like these were grabbed for a homebrew game with your son. I snatched a score of super hero models to game with my kids and I regret none of it at all as those silly superhero games were all the better for who I was spending time with. 10 small tanks fetch 20 points in the challenge, but the Minion of Thursday is a softie so I'll pip it up to a quarter as these are for dad and son time! ;)

From PeterD 28mm SYW French Pioneers (30 points)

Taking a break after hard labour - David I bet you can recognize some of these poses!

Just one small post for me this week as I continue to stumble along to not making my Challenge goal!  This week it is a group of 6 French pioneers for my ongoing Sharp Practice project on the  Seven Years' War in Western Germany. 

The figures are from the Perry's AWI range and are sold as British Dragrope men, hired (or "volunteered") help for manhandling artillery pieces around.  As with the rest of this range they are lovely figures with lots of character and very nice to paint.  I had previously painted up the Continental Dragrope men as Hanoverian Pontooniers.  I've been focusing on the Anglo-Allied side of the equation for the most part during the challenge but these figures seemed better suited to their French opponents. 

Side view

While dedicated corps of Sappers and Miners exist in most armies, they were small and kept to fortress duty.  Therefore in the field the job of digging and other engineering labour went to ordinary infantrymen detailed in work parties.  If they were lucky there was an Engineer officer to tell them what to do properly, if not they'd make due with an Infantry or Artillery officer who had some idea of siege work or the like.  In this case I have "volunteered" a group from the Royal Baviere Regiment, one of the German Regiments in French service.  They served in the western theatre and were at several of the major actions, getting quite roughed up at Emsdorf in 1760.  The Regiment was named for the Count de Baviere a bastard son of the King of Bavaria.  It was a different age....

Rear view

The is one of those cases where the figures were bought before I figured what I was going to do wit them.  I liked the poses and they looked like they could be morphed into SYW pioneers or sappers with a bit of work.   I have painted them as if they had taken off their uniform coats and are dressed in their sleeved waistcoats, which are left open for comfort to show the white shirt underneath.  In addition they have taken off their gaiters and swapped the tricorn for forage caps made from last years uniform coat.


If the War-games Fashion Police are watching I am in big trouble here.  The figures were cast to represent British Infantry in the AWI with their long coats cut down.  Originally I had some idea to trim down the lace etc to make them fit better but then realized that Swiss and German regiments in French service had laced waistcoats and an easier plan fell into place.  Also it meant that I didn't have to take an Xacto to these lovely figures.  So if anyone from the WFPD is watching I confess to the following.

• The"waistcoats" should close but in this case won't close - the figures are wearing (in cut down form) the AWI coat with lapels cut in the Prussian style (like early French Nappy Infantry).
• The "waistcoats" have inappropriate cuffs and collars if you look closely enough.
• The "shirts" are actually the original waistcoats, there's a pair of pockets placed like suit jacket pockets visible in several figures

I especially like the figure squatted on his haunches and the fellow offering help to his comrade who is obviously in some distress. 

However, if one is prepared to not look too carefully, I think that these guys work nicely as a work detail.




I like these fellows quite a bit, Peter! I am no WGFP, so I will not make any comment on the uniforms save that these miniatures do play the intended role really well. They are only missing a base with stacked firelocks! ;) I think the French may have adopted the horizon Bleu from the Bavier lads as they do look mighty fie in the colors. I keep finding the modified caps in my studies, my favorites being the stocking caps the troops made from sleeves of old coats in North America. Probably they went with stocking caps over forage caps because it does get cold near the Great Lakes and further North! ;)
And yes, I can commiserate with the unwell fellow too, He must've done a barrel roll with his LeSabre too! ;)