From AaronH: Rohan Captains and Royal Guards (155 points)

 This week's entry is Rohan Royal Guards, captains and Eomer. I've had these models bouncing around for about 20 years, so it's good to get them painted and ready to play.

Eomer, banner bearer, outrider and mounted captain.

These are all old metal models. The outrider is no longer useable in the new army lists but I can use him for a regular rider or a captain with a bow.

These all have the generic plastic horses. I hate painting horses.

This army was my first LotR army, back when the Two Towers first came out and the red starter box dropped with it. They were pretty terrible and I never got them painted. I moved on to other armies but continued to buy models for this one. The Rohirrim were my favorite part of the books as a kid so I just kept picking up models any time I could find them.

These horses were painted with Speed paints, or grey primer with a dry brush. Speed paints may be the only way I can get through this army.

Next up are the Royal Guards. I have five mounted guards but eight foot guards. I've picked up odds and sods over the years as I could find the metal versions.

I really love these models. 

Everything about these models is great. The foot versions are even better.

These nine models were easy to paint and it's great to have them ready to go.

Next up is 12 foot models. These are the eight royal guards on foot along with four captains.

These are a mixture of spear and sword armed models.

I really love the capes on these guys. They are a joy to paint with great texture and shapes.

Next up are the two royal guard captains, Hama and Gamling. I've had Gamling for a long time but was finally able to source Hama from a local gamer in 2024.

Hama and Gamling. I don't know why Rohan heroes so rarely have shields.

Again with the big chonky cloaks which are so much fun to paint.

Last up are two captains. The one holding his sword up orginally came with an axe, before Rhys got a hold of him. I replaced his hand with one holding a sword from the War of the Rohirrim boxed set. He's been out of print for at least a decade, but was re-released recently.

The hand might be a little large but overall it works just fine on him.

These cloaks are not nearly as nice to paint as the guards.

The captain on the left is an amazing model and one of the best  of the Rohan metals.

I also love how he is just casually looking around as he strangles an orc with his bare hand.

This is nine mounted models x 10 points each for 90 points

12 food models and about 2/3rd of an orc, so perhaps 63 points

Total = 155 pts

 

Sylvain: For a minion, there are no such options as "2/3 of an orc", so you get full points for the foul creature. The green you use for the cape is so vibrant, I was wondering if you could share your paint recipe. And your bases immediately bring to mind the arid steppes where live the Rohirrim, with scattered bushes. Your paint job really emphasizes light and hope. Excellent!

 

 

 

From QuinnM: Old World Elves (105 points)

 HI again 

This week I have more Elves, 20 of them this time, leaving we with around 45 of my spearman left to paint.  I am now on to panting the elves fresh for the 15-20 year old boxes, so I do have all the parts. I don't have much to say otherwise on them. 

I was also able to paint up one of my trench crusade models, a Sniper priest. This was a fun model to paint as I don't normally paint in a grim dark style so I had to mix black in to my lighter paints to get the look I wanted. 

So for points this week I have:

21x 28 mm footman@5 points = 105 points  

Sylvain: Ah, the charm of large armies! When you are done painting your Old World Elves, you should take a picture in parade, it will look impressive no doubt. Are you just using the standard GW paint scheme from the box art or are you designing your own? As for the Trench Crusade figure, a new incursion in the Grim Dark genre that seems to be getting lots of traction lately, you did a good job at conveying the depressing reality of this new dystopian universe. Well done!

From FrederickC: Warriors of Númenor & 'Limbo' (265 points)

 

The Battle of the Last Alliance at Dagorlad

My fourth submission for AHPC XV is a Númenorian army from the end of the Second Age of Middle Earth. It consists of 49 figures from the Games Workshop Lord of the Rings collection, specifically 12 warriors with bow, 12 warriors with spear and shield, 23 warriors with sword and shield, and 2 banners. The bow and spear figures are metal I bought in 3-figure blister packs, while all the rest are plastic figures from the Warriors of the Last Alliance boxed set. These are all 'eBay rescues' of which most were painted to varying degrees of proficiency. Since the boxed set only contains 8 Númenorians, the 25 figures represent the remains of at least four separate boxes. Two were missing their shields, but I decided to convert these into banner bearers. 

The metal figures had their mold lines cleaned off and then were mounted on their bases. I added a layer of fine sand to the base with PVA glue. The plastic figures got a soak in isopropyl alcohol followed by a scrub with a stiff toothbrush to remove as much of the old paint as possible. The alcohol bath didn't seem to affect the ground work that had been glued on, but those figures with an excessive amount had some of it removed with an X-acto knife, especially around the feet and the bottoms of the cloaks. Three warriors had the position of their sword arm changed to distinguish them from the rest as I was going to used them as captains. The warriors missing shields had the recess where the shield attached carved away, and a pole added using florist wire.

Once everything was assembled, they were primed black with a rattle can. It would have been easier for painting if the shields had not been glued in place, but they were all solidly affixed in position, so areas where I couldn't get a brush in behind the shield were left black. All the figures were then painted using Vallejo acrylics. As these are fantasy figures I won't bore you with a paint list, but I used a lot of shades of grey to differentiate between the surcoat, shield, trim, and cloak. For those that I modified to be captains, I used either silver or gold to trim their shields and surcoats to make them more readily identifiable. 

The Númenorian Host with Isildur and Elendil at their head

 

 

The First Company

 

The Second Company

Close up of the First Company

 

Númenorian Spearmen

Númenorian Bowmen

Númenorian Captains and Banners

These were originally prepped for AHPC XIII, but I only got as far as doing the faces and some of the armour before time ran out. They have lanquished in 'Limbo' since then, so I will add that circle of Hell to my points claim. The figures of Elendil and Isildur that appear in the group photo are not being claimed for points as I did them over four years ago. 

 

The points being claimed are as follows:

 

49 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points each = 245 points

 

Circle of Hell - Limbo = 20 points

Thanks for stopping by.

Sylvain: You are providing us with very nice family pictures of your outstanding work. I like how you subtly used variations of grey (I'm trying not to say "shades of grey") to help clearly distinguish the various parts of your minis. The story of the box set is interesting. I recognize Games Workshop's greed in providing only 8 figurines per box. I see in the background that you have a castle ready to become the scene of epic battles. Great work this week again, and congratulations on another points bomb!

LES COPAINS DU SAMEDI AU CAFÉ CANADIEN-FRANÇAIS

La Bolduc

So far, at the café, we have heard songs from the voyageurs and from the soirées canadiennes. If you would have asked these people, in their days, what constitutes the essence of French-Canadian identity, they would have said: #1 is to be catholic, #2 is to live in the countryside and #3 is to speak French. Language was not seen as the most important aspect of one’s identity, but that was about to change.

In the 1930s, many things were happening that would have a significant impact on French Canadian songs. Of course, there was the Great Depression, which caused many people to migrate from rural areas to big cities in order to find jobs. Thus the centuries-long isolation came to a brutal end. For all the industrial jobs available, the work language was English, and workers had to learn the vocabulary of the boss while speaking French at home. This new amalgamation of French inherited from the 18th century and English was known as “joual” (this is how “cheval” was pronounced by the working class) and was considered an inferior form of language by the French-Canadian elite (clergy, doctors, lawyers, politicians).

In the same period, women’s right had gain momentum thanks to the right to vote (1916 in Canada, but not until 1940 in Québec). It meant that it was acceptable for women to do what only men could do.

Another important change worth mentioning was the increasing availability of radio sets (first broadcasts were in the early 1920s). In the 1930s, families at home were now listening to all kinds of radio broadcasts, including the news, all kinds of music and praying the rosary a few times a day. This new technology initiated two big social changes. Instead of singing all together with their neighbors, families would now listen to music in their living room, slowly eroding the old value of community at large. Instead of only listening to the traditional songs, French-Canadians were now exposed to a wide variety of musical genres, especially from the United States. In parallel, vinyl records, that started to supersede the phonograph cylinders in the 1910s, were becoming increasingly more diverse and more available. This would help fuel a demand for “professional performances” as opposed to amateurish singing, typical during the “soirées canadiennes”.

La Bolduc (1894-1941) is a singer that embodies all the above social transformations. Mary Rose-Anne Bolduc, born Travers, was a fearless woman who played the violin and composed her own songs. The spelling of her first name is English, since it was common for French Canadians to adopt English first names (like “Wilfrid Laurier”) in those days. La Bolduc would create a band and tour the province. She would find inspiration in traditional Irish songs for her own songs. More importantly, she would sing with the words of the working class, which the critics would qualify as “vulgar”. She would be one of the first artists heard on the radio and she launched a few records. Her most popular song is “La Bastringue” (the word refers to a type of danse), which is, in my opinion, very close to the traditional songs. She also wrote a song about beating up Hitler. Since I can choose only one song, I would like you to listen to “Ça va venir découragez-vous pas” (it will come, don’t loose hope), a song about the hardship endured during the Great Depression.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dI-DdTZJyo

Next week: French Canadian singers going to France

From IanS: 15mm Japanese Infantry 1943 (38 points)

Dear All,

This is my first post for this years Challenge, and it has been delayed as the orginal set of figures is still being based. So the Japanese have got in first. These figures are from Eureka and they are lovely sculpts that take paint well. The figures are to be used for the new Far East version of the Chain of Command rules from Two Fat Lardies.  First up is a section of infantry for the 1943 Platoon orbat. This section has a squad leader and to identify him for the games all my squad leaders will have rifle flags. In addition this squad has two teams. The first team is all rifles with nine figures and the second team is the LMG team with a Type 96 lmg and three riflemen.

Next up are two snipers, not sure I am happy with these but I have based them, so no going back.

Then we have a flame thrower team of three figures.

The basing style is a new one for me and consists of army painter swamp tufts and dried thyme. The thyme idea for jungle litter came from a recommendation from the Storm of Steel blog. Although the wife has insisted I have my own jar when she saw me putting in spare thyme from the bases back in the jar she uses for cooking (Bad me). 

 So pointswise: 19 x 15mm foot figures at 2 pts each - 38pts.

Welcome aboard, Ian! Glad you have managed to avoid the cut. Some nice Japanese you are showing us, I think the basing looks good and I really like the little rifle flag. Perhaps you would be well advised, however, to get your own thyme jar, depending on the planned sizes of your new jungle armies. Anyway, it is good to see you kick off with 38 points!

As a side note, please remember to resize your photos and add your labels...

Martijn

From AdamW: Get orf My Laaaand (15mm Boers) (Violence) (432pts)

My third and final entry for this week has taken me all week and the paint is barely dry :)

As Curt has said the Violence circle of hell is perfect for wargamers.  I have chosen a project I planned to get done for the challenge, rather than being taken off track by some new fun figures.

My take on the violence theme is farmers taking to arms to defend their lands.

These 15mm Boers were part of a job lot of figures I bought at a bargain price on ebay a while ago. They are to bolster the number of Boers we have in our group already, and will probably double as ACW confederates at some point.

As they were from a bulk purchase they are not a  balanced force, with more dismounted than mounted.  It also contains some prone chaps, which I have learned is not so good for the points score!

I have made up some horse holders with some odd altered figures and a load of horses that are a bit small and thin. Surprisingly those horses are actually nicely detailed.

I also have a few wagons, but they will have to wait for another time before they join the army.

The majority of models are old minifigs with a few odd figures from unknown manufacturers thrown in. I was pleasantly surprised how nicely the minifigs turned out with their limited poses in an irregular army.

I am claiming the following points:

30 x mounted 15mm @ 4pts = 120pts

12 x horse holders 15mm@ 2 pts = 24pts

24 x horses 15mm @ 2pts = 48pts

20 x prone 15mm@ 1pt = 20pts

100 x foot 15mm@2pts = 200pts

Violence bonus = 20pts

Total = 432pts.

Not only three posts today from you, but a veritable points bomb at the very end! If you had given me notice beforehand, I would have brought the sandbags out! It is good to see, however, that your quality does not suffer from your quantity. These Boers look the part, and I can see how they might double up as Confederates too. The horse holders are a nice touch. I like Minifigs, they have a distinct quality of their own, and though they might be rather simple figures, in large numbers they are very effective. Well done Adam, 432 points added to your score!

Martijn

From EdwardG: More Swiss than you can shake a chocolate stick at (100 points)

Hej all, 

As of the posting of this entry, I'm now officially one week away from leaving for the SAGA tournament where I will be playing my Swiss force for the first time :S

Luckily, as the supplement was shipped only a few days ago, I'm going with the hope that no one else has managed to practice with their warbands. So it's hopefully going to be a level playing field on that basis at least 8)

But being only 1 week from getting on the plane does mean that I'm very tight for the minis that I can get finished. 

So far this week I've managed 12 crossbow armed Levies, and artillery piece, and two flag holders!

All are Perry Miniatures, with minor conversions as before. I'm hoping I can get a final picture of the force before I pack everyone up. If not it'll be action shots from the day ;)

Points:

12 x 28mm Crossbowmen = 60pts

2 x 28mm flag holders = 10pts

1 x artillery piece = 10pts

4 x artillery crew = 20pts

Total = 100pts! 

Hope to see you all next week with my final last minute (I mean perfectly punctual) Swiss!!

TTFN :D 

Ed

Some goodlooking Swiss, Ed! I hope you will do well in your tournament, and I'd love to see some photos of your complete force. 100 points added to your total.

From LeeH: Russian 12pdr Gun & Crew (50 Points)

I have been looking forward to starting this piece since I bought it at Partizan last year. This is a Perry miniature and comes with four crewmen. But only last week did I realise that Sharp Practice guns have five crewmen…so I found an extra figure from another set to make up the numbers. I’ll worry about replacing the crew from the other gun later. The sculpts on these are outstanding and the crewmen all look suitably cold, especially the guy hugging his hands in his greatcoat. He looks thoroughly miserable and makes you realise that while the French army had a terrible time in Russia, the Russian troops weren’t much better off. There’s a good reason why campaigning in winter is a silly idea, even if it is your homeland and you are used to the weather. When the temperature drops to -20℃ everyone suffers. 

The 12pdr was the standard heavy artillery piece of the Russian army in 1812 and their crews have been described as highly professional and very well trained. At the Battle of Boridino, General Kutuzov ordered the artillery to hold their ground to the last possible moment and then fire at the enemy with canister. When artillery is about to be overrun it takes a significant amount of training and discipline to follow such orders. 

I also wanted to get a few more officers painted so here are three, including one who seems to be overcoming the cold from the bottom of a bottle. All three officers are from Wargames Foundry and are beautiful minis with plenty of character. 

 

Already on the workbench are the next unit, a fearsome looking unit of Don Cossacks. Once again, I should stress that I haven’t painted multi-part 28mm cavalry in decades so I am approaching this unit with some trepidation. However, now that I have got started I am enjoying it. Whether they are finished by the next submission day remains to be seen. I’d rather take my time than rush these… especially with their sharp lances. I’ve drawn blood already and I’m not even half done. 

(Scoring: 8x28mm Foot = 40 points + 1x28mm Gun = 10 points : Total 50 points)

More great Russians, Lee, excellent! The figures are full of character, and your painting is crisp and clean as ever. I like the snowy effect on the greatcoats. And yes, they show why war is not really an activity for winter. Nor for spring or autumn with their pouring rain, nor for summer with its sweltering heat... Let's keep it to our wargaming tables, and yours will be graced by these lovely figures. 50 points then.

Martijn