From Kerry T - "All over the place" - World Cinema or High Adventure? ( 505 points)

 Morning, afternoon & evening all

After a slow start thankfully I've managed to get the paintbrush moving at speed but as you'll see below I'm a little all over the place.

 As I've probably said before one "single period enthusiast" wargamer of some renown once described my collection of figures as "all over the place". I think this was said with just a little disdain but I decided that I would take it as a compliment. The happy consequence of a having a Butterfly tendency is that I seem to have a lot of periods to choose from.

This in itself is quite a handy thing when it comes to chasing squirrels. Thus with last years Squirrel Challenge title in my grasp I feel the only honourable thing is to try and defend that title. I promise to be on my best behaviour and not to bite, scram or spit at my fellow challengers 😀 but at the moment I've been left trailing  in their wake. So this is an attempt to not let them get too far ahead. The only problem is that I also want to finish of some decent size units as well as five figure ones so here we go....

Fist up- Colonel John Lamplugh's Regiment of Foote

First Corps ECW figures

I thought I'd completed all my Royalist foot regiments last year but found a lone set of flags for this regiment (Flags of War) that I'd overlooked. Initially earmarked for Parliamentarian troops these First Corps figures now find themselves as another white coated regiment on the side of the King

Yesterday morning there was a moment when there was the very tiniest possibility that they could have been morphed into one of those turnipy units so beloved it seems of a few lunatics that seem to be around here!

A mad rush to finish basing and blutack "piking" to get them ready for today

Thankfully common sense prevailed and no tufts were stuck to the bluetack either deliberately or by accident

At 37 figures this is one bloody big squirrel!

Thy aren't about to have an easy passage over that bridge though....

Sir Arthur Hessilrigge's Regiment of Horse, unhorsed

Bloody Parliamentarians always seem to block any progress!

Bloody Miniatures, a real joy to paint

I have all the BM releases bar the Scots but these are the first I've painted

Sticking with the First Corps theme, some Dark Age carts

Ye olde trafficke jam

Now the same sleepy village a few hundred years in the future..

My First BUF figures

Footsore Miniatures BUF infantry

Its always good to see Fascists running away

I have  a VBCW collection that started when good mate Giles Allison painted some figures and gave them to me when he called to see me in NZ. 

My VBCW backstory is here https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/vbcf/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=3402&p=31799#p31799. Its the story of the mysterious half-twins Verdun and Ypres born in a mining village of South Wales (its long mind yew and something of a tall tale!)

That's it for the verdant green of England and I'm now butterflying off to the heat of the desert and some plastic Griping Beast Arab Heavy Cavalry - half a box, I would like to have completed the box of 12 but had to settle for 6 as I need squirrels

Thank god for LBMS shield transfers

Half a box of Gripping Beast Plastic Arab heavy Cavalry

Finally with the desert theme I'm finishing off with Artizan Designs Arab Sharifan WW1 infantry. The aim was to shoot another squirrel and I painted 5 initially but eventually added the remaining 7 later to finish off all I have. I still have some of the irregular infantry I painted at the end of last year's challenge to finish

These are regular troops with a standard uniform

Not sure if its reasonably authentic but it will do

 That arid grass is an horrid colour, I wanted it to be more pale

Apologies for such a long post but I had a busy painting week as there was no golf and the weather was too wet to get in the garden. I'm not sure if I want it to rain again this week so I have an excuse to spend a lot of time painting!

As far as bonus points go I'm not sure what to claim - while these Arabs are intended to accompany Lawrence in wrecking Ottoman trains in the desert, he was painted years ago so it might not quite qualify as High Adventure.

If not then maybe I could claim World Cinema for the ECW as I no longer live in the UK. I would be grateful to Tamsin if she would advise

In Summary -

37 Royalist foot @ 5 points = 185

5 Dismounted Parliamentarian Horse @ 5 points = 25 

3 Dark Age carts @ 10 points (they are more like artillery than vehicles I think) = 30 points

10 Dark age civilians and bullocks @ 5 points = 50 points

6 Arab Crusades mounted figures @ 10 points = 60

5 VBCW foot 2 5 points = 25

12 Arab WW1 infantry at 5 points = 60

? Bonus for World Cinema or High Adventure @ 20 points

Grand Total 450 points

(Oooh a points bomb! )

Maybe most importantly a Scurry of  6 Squirrels thereby bringing my total so far to 7

Wow! What a mixed-bag points bomb this post is. Carts are vehicles, so that's how I'm scoring them - they're at least as big as a jeep which scores 20 points! I'm happy to count the WW1 Arab "regulars" as High Adventure, and the Arabs for World Cinema. 

Tamsin

From PeteF: Minifigs! French Line Infantry for Historical Drama (140 points)

If you've read my previous Minifigs posts - apologies if there's some repetition here!  This battalion of fine French fellows is one of the last units I need to complete my Quatres Bras project.  It has been a journey - one started by my Dad in the 1980s when he embarked on a project to paint Wellington's 100 Days army on a ratio of 25:1.  I haven't yet counted all of them but I think it's around 3 thousand meticulously painted Anglo Allied Minifigs.

He also painted  few French for me when I was a kid - these joined my Airfix on the wargaming "table" - a whole lot of big boards balanced together in the dining room - sometimes for a couple of days, which mum didn't love.  

My brother introduced me to wargaming - and he inherited the Minifigs army, adding French units to try and achieve some balance with Wellington's masses.  He even repatriated some of the soldiers I brought across the Atlantic.  Sadly he passed away in 2016 before we could play Waterloo in his English garage and all the Minifigs came to me here in the States - it took several trips.

The Waterloo French army seems a bit of a stretch - the 100 Days even more so - but Quatres Bras is within reach at this scale: 33 battalions and around 10 cavalry regiments.  I did a bunch two Challenges ago but in the interim have been distracted by other projects.  With this battalion I'm nearly there - 2 more infantry units, 1 big cavalry unit, completing 2 other halfway finished cavalry units, plus some command and work on the bases.

Then I'll have to see if any of my friends want to come and play! These Minifigs will represent the 3rd battalion of the 1st Light Infantry.  I always enjoy painting Minifigs with their distinctive chunky sculpts.  It takes me back to wargames of yore.  Good times. 

24x25mm figures plus a studio for a total of 140 points.

 

It's a treat to see more of this ongoing project of yours, Pete. Those French chaps look great. Just a reminder - if you are doing the studio tour, please include a progress map in your posts (see my admin post from yesterday).

Tamsin

Tamsin's Tuesday Tintinnabulations

 

"Good morning Ladies, Gentlemen...and Ray! Well, I must say that things seem to be hotting up here at AHPC Studios GmbH. Another 17 apprentice Directors and Producers have had their first releases in the last week, bringing us up to 66 working apprentices. For the 17 who haven't had a release yet, just a gentle reminder that you must have released at least one film before 20 January - failure to do so will see you booted off the studio lot."

"In the past week, an there have been 62 new releases, grossing $6,346 million on release; that takes our total gross to $12,763 million from 165 films."

"We have a very full day of releases lined up for you:

• PeteF has a Busby Berkely-esque musical featuring Napoleonic French line dancing
• KerryT has been making good use of the same English village set for films set in various eras
• BenitoV has a historical/SciFi mash up involving a tall, black-clad wizard wielding a magical sword (seriously guys? How did this one get past the studio lawyers? Beware the litigious Mouse!)
• MartinC has films about the Swamp Queen leading her horde of hairy highlanders to battle
• IanS shows off his "Xenobia, Warrior Queen"
• DaveD continues his Kubrick/Stone eulogy with a pair of 'Nam films
• AlanD brings us a tale of armed vehicle combat 
• SimonG has a weird fantasy film involving a dwarf, a giant and a priest
• MattW shows his love of Carry On films with a comedy drama called Infamy, Infamy!

Phew! That's a busy day for me then, sorting out all these releases!"

Toodle-pip!

Tamsin

From DarrelH: Arthurian Welsh (70 points)

Hi all,

OK, my first choice of posts went belly up last evening when I dropped a couple of bases of 28mm  Thematic Byzantine Kavallaroi an inch or so onto my workbench and pinged out three kontos (Kontoses? Kontos'? Whatever is plural for Kontos!)) ! Not exactly a great start! Dark images of the Great Varnishing Late Roman Disaster from last year started to intrude upon my thoughts but my Arthurian Welsh came to the rescue! I've been asked to take part in the play testing of some new rules which seem to work well for the 11th CE. so going on the assumption that jumping back a few centuries ought to work just as well I have dug out a few armies that surely qualify as being a part of a pile of shame as they were bought in 2007 and have not seen daylight since! "Shame and eternal shame, nothing but shame!

Those Thematic Byzzies will be rescued by this time next week. In the meantime, please let me introduce a less effective troop type than the Thematic Byzantine Kavallaroi, the Welsh Skirmishers for my Arthurian British and Welsh Kingdom's army, erm.... gang..... erm belligerent group of..... meh, whatever.....

So, according to my mid life grey matter that is 14 28mm miniatures at 5 points a model which I believe is the grand total of 70 points(?).

I feel your Kontos pain Darrel - Ouch!  It is great to have you back with us this year and I look forward to seeing those cataphracts next week.  It is never too late for a post from you.

Find work on these belligerent Welshmen - some exceptional shading on those cloaks and a fine moustache collection. 

Iain W 28mm Napoleonic casualty markers 40 points

 For my first post I have managed to finish 16 x 28mm Napoleonic casualty markers, mainly French line, they're all Perry and most of them are the plastic French casualty figure you get in the French heavy cavalry plastic sprue. Then there are three metal figures from the retreat from Moscow donkey cart, I bought donkey cart as dressing for my Russian village, so these chaps were surplus and I figured waste not, want not!

We have six French line infantry figures, three more painted as Italian line infantry ( a little clue as to what else I might be doing later in the Challenge?) Two for my Nassau battalions and one each for the Anhalt and Shwarzbug Sanderhausen, first, second, fifth and sixth confederation of the Rhine regiments that were painted up before Christmas during my ill advised attempt to paint 250 28mm Napoleonic figures in a month for our family Christmas war game we played in Loire  ( first picture), I wasn't too far off although basing is more this years work!

So that's 16 prone 28mm figures, 8 x 5 , 40 points to my total, I'm still working on the mounted element of the Imperial guard, plus Austrians, Italians and of course some dark age figures at some point I hope!

All the best 

Iain 

Bring out your dead (and wounded)!  Great stuff Iain really fine little casualty stand.   I am looking forward to seeing the upright versions of these fine Napoleonic figures - especially the Italians.  You got me head scratching to figure out which campaign Italians, Nassuers and Confederation troops served together - any hints? Spain?  Russia?

Christmas in the Loire and playing with your fine Napoleonic - where do I sign up!

Just a reminded to add tables to your post - I've added a few but you may want to check if I've missed any.

From AdamC Ships Small and Smaller 14 points.

 Some more 1/2400 scale ships from GHQ.

First up some Leone class Italian destroyers (they were first classified as "Scout Cruisers" when built).

They supported Italian Operations against Ethiopia then served in the Mediterranean the class was well armed a mix of 4.7 inch guns, torpedoes AA weapons and depth charges.  Editorial Note:  Wikipedia has them being sunk in Eritrea during WW2 - FYI the Red Sea flotilla gives a nice small campaign option.

The red and white aerial recognition paint at bow and stern are iconic for the Italian Navy... A force that apparently feared their own sides aircraft more than the enemies (they were allied to the Nazis so I can't really blame them) 

Here we have an old American Dreadnaught the USS Wyoming.  

She's a 3D print and fairly basic but looks good enough for the table. She has a formidable main battery of twelve 12" guns in six turrets.

No idea what I am going to use her for but since I was using gray paint anyway it made sense to get her done. She was a training ship in the World War II period with the cool if sarcastic nickname of "The Chesapeake Raider."

Next up I have two Japanese Destroyers. Kagero and Shimakaze

The Kagero class where the 1st class workhorse Destroyers of the Japanese Navy. They had six guns in three turrets as well as 8 torpedoes. 

They also carried anti-submarine weapons... All but one of this class was sunk by the end of the war.

Shimakaze was an specialized destroyer something of an experiment. She was fast and very deadly.

She could fire 15 Long Lance in a single broadside... I certainly wouldn't want to be in a ship down range. She also carried a battery of guns similar to the Kagero. She was intended to be the basis for a new class but war production limitations prevented this. 

Finally two big Allied Battleships a King George V and a South Dakota class.

I've run a number of games involving German raiding of the Murmansk Convoys. It will be nice to have an English BB to run in these games. The King George V were a good Battle ship design though I have never liked the 4-gun turrets and I understand they had some technical issues. 

I attempted a dazzle camouflage that I think works though it could be better. 

The South Dakota Class is a personal favorite of mine probably because the USS Massachusetts was the First Battleship I ever visited. 

This one will probably do double duty as the South Dakota in company with the USS Washington (already in my collection) and as the USS Massachusetts as I have been toying with a naval battle of Casablanca game.

There are 7 ships of 1/2400 scale so would get 14 more points for the pile. I have been battling COVID this past week so hopefully I will have more productivity next Monday. 

Bad luck with getting COVID Adam, hope you're feeling better soon and you that you manage to keep the family healthy.

Great to see these GHQ ships Adam, they've come out nicely.  The barber stripes on the Italians are a bit of a Challenge but yours look great.  You seem to be building all the fleets at once and darned if I can see any rhyme nor reason to the choices that you've made.  Care to enlighten us or is the classic - they're what my FLGS had in stock!

If I may pick a couple of slight nits.  Maybe red through your posts as I had to clean up a couple of sentences and hope I got the gist of what intended (although to be fair this may be COVID brain).  Also your ships would look much better if you photographed them on a sea mat instead of your work bench.

Admin Post - Studio Tours

Hi all, a quick request on behalf of the Minion Team for those taking part in the fun and games of the Studio Tour.

There have been a couple of changes since it was originally published (Westerns moved to blue pass zone, Gift Shop added, one or two extra connections between studios).

Please, please, please...

• Download a copy of the studio map above (right click and select "save image as")
• When you are doing a studio location edit the map to show your progress - a number or tick for the studios you've visited would be perfect
• Include the updated progress map in your posts

There is a very good reason for this - without the map in your post, your minion won't know where you have already been!

Thanks, and Toodle-pip!

Tamsin

From PaulSS: Black & White - Sci-fi supplies (35pts)

Mrs Scrivs purchased me from Etsy three pieces of 3D printed Sci-fi terrain that we can use for Star Wars: Legion or Warhammer 40K gaming.

I decided that these could be painted using about every shade of grey I have for my Black and White entry for  AHPC Studios

Each piece represents a pallet of supplies, one drums of fuel, another is ammo boxes and the third draped in a tarpaulin is more discreet.

I think that at about 3" high each is work 5pts with the  location bonus should be 35 points towards my total, but not enough for a squirrel point!

Squirrel Duel Tally: 2 (40K Kroot, Gaslands)

They look great, but not a whole bunch to say about these Paul.  They are greyscale, SciFi and will be useful on table top as objective markers.  Also you can make cool pew pew noises while blowing them up.