From RossM 15mm Romans and 28mm Wars of the Roses 31Points

Third post from my myself this Challenge and moving forward at a glacial pace.  First up are three figures from Perry Miniatures Wars of the Roses range.

These are part of a Lancastrian retinue for Lion Rampant and the centre figure is in the colours of Lord Roos and  will probably be a leader type when the retinue is completed.   

After watching Medieval the other week there will be some darker armours coming through for that more lived in feel. Can't help thinking that living in all that metal would have been hell though. 

Z

There are another three figures for this part of the retinue that are 75% completed and they will follow up in the coming weeks. 

The second part of this week's entry is the start of Early Imperial Roman figures from the Plastic Soldier company and others. 

The first picture shows a legion command stand and only the rear rankers have been painted for this years challenge. 

The shield transfers are from Little Big Man and have been interesting to apply. All the fiddling and swearing is worth it in the end as they set the figures off excellently. 

The supporting archers are from Essex Miniatures and fit in well with their chunkier plastic legionnaires. Not sure if  this option will be used in ADLG but always better to have than not I think. 

So in finishing this week's post the tally moves forward to include

3 x 28mm figures at 15 points

8 x 15mm figures at 16 points for  a total of 31 points (6.2 % with a running total of 45 or 9%) Best get the brushes out a spread some paint around. 

Cheers for now

Nice work on these Historicals Ross.  I’m a big fan of the Perry WotR range and you’ve done this trio of tin can wearers proud.  Looking forward to seeing the next lot.

I’ve not seen the PSC ancients before, but yours have come up nicely.  I applaud your diligence in getting the shield transfers on, that’s well beyond the capacity of my patience.

From SylvainR: Tray 8 - French 1939-40 Regimental and Divisional Assets (36 points)

 

Another week, another tray. Although this one should have had a few more elements. On December 12th, I sent an order to Heroics and Ros for French artillery pieces and a few other things, but Putin chose that moment to take revenge on England. I have not received yet my package and have been in touch with Andy at H&R who has been very helpful. Anyway, I am presenting to you an incomplete tray.
 

First, the Company Commander.

 

Two batteries of "soixante-quinze" (75mm Modèle 1897), the French gun made famous during the First World War. I tried to sculpt 4 of the bases as if the crew hastily dug in some kind of entrenched position.

A close-up on one of the guns. Note the 2 crew members squeezed close to the gun. I did not paint any of these, just made the bases.

A company of 25mm SA-34 anti-tank guns.

Here is a close up with a model from Heroics & Ros on the left and a model from CinC on the right. I painted only 4 of the guns and crews.

 

A company of 47mm SA-37 anti-tank guns.

 

 

A close up on one of the guns. I painted all the guns and crews.

 

A platoon of 20mm Modèle 1939 anti-aircraft gun (or DCA = Défense Contre Aviation).

 

 

A close up on one of the guns. I painted them all.

 

Before signing off, here are two pictures of a game of O'Group we played on Friday (Feb. 3rd). A D.A.K. Grenadier Battalion (Curt & Jeremy) was trying to take a foothold in the small town of Siwa, in Egypt, fiercely defended by a Battalion of British infantry (Stacy). The top picture shows the initial deployment of the company commanders. So not much miniatures on the table yet.

 

In this picture, the troops commanded by Curt are trying to outflank the British from the North. Unfortunately, they faced a ferociously tenacious British Combat Patrol (the green marker) that was able to delay their advance for at least two turns.

It was a nice "test drive" of the rules as we familiarized ourselves with the intricacies of the system. Hopefully we will be able to play more games in the next few months.

 

 

As for points, I painted the following:

16 support weapons = 16 points

40 figures = 20 points

Total = 36 points

Thank you for reading!

Your wee French kit looks great Sylvain.  Really like the basing.  My only suggestion would be to downsize the rocks from kitty litter to model railway ballast as your artillery looks like it is deployed where the glaciers left rather sizeable debris.  

Sorry I missed the game on Friday, pictures look great and it wonderful to see this stuff getting used, abused and dropped from great heights.

 

(Darrell H) Andalusian Noble Command Vignette Base (15 POINTS)

                                   

This piece was sitting in my undercoated and primed cupboard since 2019 and was just begging to be completed. I have minor wargames butterfly tendencies, nothing compared to years ago, but still find it useful to remain on focus for major projects (Thematic Byzantines for the AHPC this year) by fliting with other periods etc from time to time. 

The vignette is specific to my Spanish 11th CE project and features a Muslim Faris (Furusiyya, "Knighthood" is a martial tradition dating back to pre Islamic times) attacking a downed Frankish/Spanish knight. This piece but could sit easily in Spain or the Middle East during the 11th/12th CE as a command base or just a vignette to keep things interesting away from the main action on the wargames table.

For anyone interested in the origin of the miniatures, the Muslim Faris Mutatawwi'a Warlord on Horse and a miniature from Wargames Foundry's Norman Spearmen Characters from their Matthew Bickley Normans range. 

The shield is hand painted. 

I think I earn a grand total of 15 points for this piece?

What a lovely command vignette Darrell.  You've posed the figures to create a vivid scene and got the best of these fine sculpts.  As always really love the horse and trim.   The shield is wonderful, even the back side of it looks great with the wood grain.

From RichardH: A Bunch of Space Elves & Some Tex Murphy (200 Points)

I've had a busy couple of weeks working away at a not space elrond army, along with starting a few other projects. Missed out on getting the photos done for everything to make this post as I am off to spend far too much money at Vapnartak this weekend (or will have done so by the time this posts). So just a small collection of things ticked off so far.

First up a full squad of foot troopers with a swirly shield thingy artillery unit. I originally painted a couple up with black bases, however they just didn't look right, it came across as this weird mini standing on top of some black lump for no reason. So I gave it a go at instead doing pure white bases to try and blend the entire theme as an alien snow type world. So far the white is looking far better than the black.

Points for these are:

 10 x 28mm foot @ 5pt = 50pts

1 x 28mm artillery @ 10pt = 10pts

Next up some heavy shock troops, I originally started the army with these models as it let me mess about with some blends and the colour scheme. the larger 40mm size of them gave me just enough canvas to experiment without having a mountain of coverage to finish. What I have no discovered is doing gems on these models is right up there with a "Bloody stupid Johnston" machine design, it breaks up the plain nature of the bone armour nicely but takes eons to do when you get to the large models.

Points for these are:

5 x 40mm foot @ 7pt = 35pts

Speaking of large models that have way too many of those stupid gem things, here is one of the big wraithlords. For the most part straight forward, but ye gads there are gems on top of gems on top of gems on these things, this is the first of two with the other going in for next week.

Points for these were tricky to work out, they are around 85mm tall for a model, in addition I am not sure should they be classed as foot troops or are they a vehicle walker? I've based two possible point values by combining the 28mm and 54mm ratings, just depends if this comes in as foot soldier or vehicle/walker?

1 x 80mm foot @ (5+10) 15pt =15pts

1 x 80mm vehicle/walker @ (20+30) = 50pt = 50pts

Minion's verdict - if you count it as a 80mm scale it's a foot figure.  If you count it as a walker it's the 40mm same scale as the foot soldiers.  I am counting it as a 40mm vehicle for 25 points.  It kinda hales the difference and fits the SSOD easily.

Finally as a break from batch painting I took a shot as some monochrome ideas, I had some nice noir style models in the pile and so thought they would make a perfect little diorama. A simple 6" cube sized design, that has some 3d printed parts, some clay molding work and a couple of led lights throw in for measure. It's a nice break from just painting and though I can see clearly a ton of learning needs to be done for the clay work, it is a medium that I can hopefully use more often in future.

Points for this are :

1 x 6" terrain @ 20pt = 20pts

2 x 28mm foot @ 5pt = 10pts

With two bonus studios of Sci-fi and Black and white for 20pts each, this leaves this post total as.

12 x 28mm foot @ 5pt = 60pts

1 x 28mm artillery @ 10pt = 10pts

5 x 40mm foot @ 7pt = 35pts

1 x 4080mm foot @ 15pt = 15pts / Or 1 x 80mm vehicle/walker @ 25 50pt = 25 50pts

1 x 6" terrain @ 20pt = 20pts

Bonus sci-fi 20 pts

Bonus Black & White 20 pts

Total 200 pts

Great stuff here Richard.  You are speaking my language with "swirly shield thingy artillery unit"!  I don't know what it does but it sounds so cool I think that I need one.  And your not space elves warriors are bedazzled up enough to fit right into Mardi Gras in N'awlins with no worries.

Best of all however, is that Western themed diorama.  Great wok and really thematic and atmospheric. I've thrown in some Minion discretionary points for the lighting and coolness.  But next time make sure to include labels with your name, scale, manufacturer, theme, etc.  If  not then Minion's discretion may take points away for making me do work.

Have great fun throwing your shekels away frivolities in York, you'll likely see most of the Monday crew with their wallets out.

PaulSS: WWII US vehicles - 25 points

 

These few vehicles represent (probably) the last of the 12mm WWII Americans that you'll see this challenge.  

First a pair of M5 light tanks, like the earlier stuff the machine-guns and stowage were added to the base Pendraken castings.

These will boost my reconnaissance support and can add their 37mm gun and machine-guns to the firefights. Oddly, even though they are US made vehicles Pendraken have them in the British vehicles range.

A couple of 3/4 ton Dodge trucks to tow the 57mm anti-tank guns that were painted a few posts ago.

Honestly, there are crewmen in there but you cannot see them.

Finally a pair of Jeeps with tilts, these are also from the British range, but after the tilts are fitted you, never know the driver is in a scrim helmet.

Eight six 10mm vehicles with 4 crewmen and a gun adds another 22 points to my total.

Squirrel Duel Tally: 3 (40K Kroot, Gaslands, WW2 US)

Nice collection of useful vehicles Paul.  I’ll take your word on the crew in the prime movers and the helmets in the Jeeps.  

Those M5s look the business, great for sniffing out Germans.  Figure manufacturers don’t always catalogue toys the way we would, but if you were to list the Stuart in only one list you think it would be the US.  At least it comes with a turret, most Brit M5s I’ve seen photos of from this period are the topless Recce version.  I’ve added a few points for the fiddly time spent adding MGs etc.

Monday Minion and a Confession

 

Back in the Frozen North and mostly caught back on sleep after my sojourn to the Big Easy.  We are by my count approximately 1/2 though our Yearly Challenge.  We also seem to hitting a bit of the February doldrums, at least I am.

Also I need to fess up on an error that I made last week.  With Miles apparently sucked into the Vortex of Time and unable to perform Minion Duties on Wednesday, Curt asked me to suit up and fill in.  I am not sure if I actually identified myself in my guest posts, so if you're wondering who to blame it was me.  More importantly JamesM had a truly impressive post with more points than I've racked up this Challenge which I neglected to record in the Spreadsheet of Doom.  This error has been rectified by my superiors and my apologies to James.

So far this week for Monday's offerings we have the following tipples on offer.

• The ever reliable Sylvain brings us a tray of micro-armour amuse-bouches.  If only he was as reliable as an allied commander on tabletop....
• Darrell brings us more early Medieval delights, this time with a Spanish flavour.
• KenR promises us the catch of the day, unless it's the big one that gets away.
• Richard offers some Tex-Mex and more exotic flavours.
• Other chefs promise us exotic flavours from York(?!?) - I can feel my arteries hardening even now.